Camille Herron is an incredibly well-respected runner who has been a great ambassador for the sport as she runs amazing races and stands strong for clean running. Now, the USATF says she actually didn’t set a new world record in a bizarre turn of events.
Camille Herron’s World Record 100 Mile Race Won’t Be Ratified
Edit November 21: The original race director issued a statement – here it is.
Back in February in Henderson, Nevada, the Jackpot Ultra Running Festival 100 miler was run on a loop course. As happens for races that want official certification, the race director had the course measured and certified. It was certified as being at least 100 miles.
However, there apparently was some near collision with a runner and stroller so the course was altered a bit and the race director said he compensated for the slight diversion to ensure that the course was still 100 miles in the shortest areas. So, it was still measured to be a 100 mile course. Keep in mind that this is on a 1.17 mile course made up of 95% concrete/asphalt surfaces and 5% gravel.
After the race, it was re-measured by a Level B measurer with the USATF and found to be longer than 100 miles. The remeasuring occurred due to the slight deviation made and it was confirmed to be longer than the 100 mile distance.
Yes I won, and no it was not short. It was remeasured Feb 27th at 100+ mi.. The article is factually wrong and needs to be corrected.
— Camille Herron (@runcamille) November 17, 2022
But, 8 months later, it was again measured by a Level A measurer for ratification of the final results and the USATF now says that the course was 716 feet short.
The reason that this really matters is because Camille Herron ran a world-record race that day that also earned her first place among all runners beating the second place runner by almost 30 minutes (and that ended up being the first place male). Her time was 12 hours, 41 minutes, and 11 seconds for 100 miles. This equated to a 7 minutes and 37 second per mile pace for 100 miles.
That is incredible and she beat her own world record by over a minute. But, 8 months later, the USATF says that they won’t ratify her world record after they’re remeasuring this past month. This is also after the race director had sold the race and he was not present at the remeasuring which was not a good move for the USATF to not have the race director present.
Remeasuring a course that is run almost 90 times 8 months after the event makes things very complicated since this isn’t a running track but a loop course that may have certain elements that are different now than back in February, especially without the director there to confirm any thing that may have come up.
Paul Fritz did the remeasurement on Feb 27th with the RD present to set it up according to what we ran & measured 100+ mi. This has to be done to validate the distance and performance. I don’t know why they remeasured again 8 months later without the RD present.
— Camille Herron (@runcamille) November 17, 2022
This is a huge shame and terrible that the USATF had waited this long to do all this. Obviously, it is a blow to Camille as well who will be trying again to set a world record at the Desert Solstice race shortly. I am certainly rooting for her to do it and for the USATF to do their job in a more timely fashion this time.
Some serious cheese for sure. As an outsider I have to ask: What is clean running? Besides doping/drugs or tripping a fellow runner during a race I can’t think of what might constitute a dirty runner.
Sorry about that! Yes, it refers to not using performance enhancing drugs. That has become a real problem in some of the upper levels of competitive running and Camille has been a big help in being a top tier runner that speaks out against doping.