Camille Herron Shifts Focus to 48 Hour World Record Attempt at 3 Days at the Fair

by Chase Parnell — September 27, 2020 — 📸: Rafa Romero

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Many of you might remember our article previewing Camille Herron’s 6-day world record attempt at EMU in Hungary. Apparently the world doesn’t revolve around running after all, because the powers at be in Hungary decided to tighten their Covid-19 travel restrictions just days before Camille was set to leave for Europe! I can’t imagine the let-down she must have experienced after having EMU as her driving focus for so long.

But pretty quickly thereafter, resilient Camille was on the socials, polling what everyone thought she should do instead. The consensus she arrived at was another timed event, specifically the 48 hour race at 3 Days at the Fair in Augusta, New Jersey. If there’s anything we’re all getting good at in 2020, it’s forming backup plans!

Honestly, my first reaction to this change of events was that maybe it was a blessing in disguise. To date, the longest timed event Camille had ran was 24 hours. Now sure, she did set the women’s world record at the 24 hour event, but I have to say that I had my reservations about jumping all the way up to the 6-day extravaganza. After doing the research for my prior article, the logistics and complexities in the race reports I read of renowned 6-day runners were overwhelming. You have to be ready for everything; it’s hard to gut out a 6-day race if an issue arises on, say, day two! We’ll never know how things would’ve shaken out at EMU, but I’m viewing this new 48 hour world record objective as a nice stepping stone towards the more storied 6-day.

Training for a 48 Hour World Record

I followed up with Camille to see how training has gone since she had to adjust her racing timelines. She’s still planning on racing the JFK 50 miler in November, so it’s been important for her to maintain a good diversity of road, trail, and speedwork that would equip her for both races.

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Feeling that pop in my step, like my body knows it’s about to race 🔥💃! • #AirCamille #48Hrs #3DaysAtTheFair #Tapering #NikeTrail #Nikerunning #JustDoIt

A post shared by Camille Herron (@runcamille) on Sep 22, 2020 at 1:28pm PDT

It sounds like the build-up has gone well, but Camille did note, “I would normally race something low key a few weeks out [from the race], but we decided to limit our travel/racing right now.” She’s been plugging away, getting in a lot of high elevation training out of her home base of Alamosa, Colorado; running twice a day, keeping her easy runs easy, mixing up the terrain, and throwing in some good hard workouts to sharpen the knife.

I received some good intel with respect to her current fitness that should stir some excitement. Apparently, Camille has a testpiece workout that she did last year just before she won the 24 hour World Championship in Albi, France (and set the world record): a long progression effort at 11,500 feet of elevation on rolling terrain. Just a few days ago, she drove out to the exact route she did last year and absolutely nailed it, averaging 20 seconds per mile faster than than she did last year. So yeah, Camille is FIT!

Of course, on balance, it’s not all about physical fitness. She’s entering unchartered waters with a 48 hour affair; the mental toll could be similar to her prior 24 hour performances, or it could totally bury her. Nobody will know how she’ll respond until we’re watching it all unfold.

The 3 Days at the Fair Race Course

The shape of the one mile “loop course” looks like a sideways Darth Vader mask with a string of drool dribbling off his face. Or maybe a dead jellyfish? Fallen muffin top? Not important? Okay regardless, the course is strange. Two unique features: it has a slight hill and a 180 degree u-turn.

When describing the hill in a 2016 Ultrarunning Mag article, Eva Basehart wrote, “this thing grows exponentially from barely noticeable to OMG!” Eva also coined the following terms for other landmarks Camille will encounter: Tent City, the Out and Back, the Downhill Slide, Right at the Fence, Ouch, Round the Bend, Quiet Zone, Grass/Gravel Straightaway, Back to Gravel, and the Heavenly Left. With Camille potentially running 250+ laps, she’ll have plenty of time to fully understand the relevance and implication of each of these feature names.

Apparently Joe Fejes, current American Record holder in the 6-day run, told Camille that he estimates the course runs “slow” by 4-8 miles versus a 48 hour track race. Camille said, “Conor [Camille’s husband, coach, and a 2:18 marathoner himself] reminded me about how crazy the 24 hour World Championship course was, weaving around people and turns. I don’t need things to be perfect to put up something big.”

I like it!

The 48 Hour Records In Play

First and foremost, I think Camille will be really happy to take down the women’s world record. The IAU lists Sumie Inagaki as the record holder with 246.75 miles, while Ultrarunning Mag lists Patrycja Bereznowska with 249.17 miles. There are many news articles out there that give the record to each woman so I’m guessing Patrycja’s wasn’t completed on an IAU sanctioned course. If you bow to the authority that is the IAU, then feel free to give the nod to Inagaki. Either way, no woman has ever surpassed the 250 mile mark, which would require averaging 11 minutes and 31 seconds per mile for 48 hours straight. Camille may be the first.

📸: Tarawera Ultramarathon

So what about overall records? Here’s what Camille had to say, “I’m eyeing Olivier’s American Record [262.18 miles] and Yiannis’s road best of 269 miles [Yiannis Kouros ran 294.2 miles in a 48 hour event on the track]. I’ve done stats on the average percentages by the top 48 hour runners on each day and know the mileage/effort I need to go at for the first 24 hours. I’m going to focus on 65% of max HR effort, which is my easy run pace, and then working through all the challenges,” she said. “I try to break it down into hitting certain milestones. It’s going to be so cool to reach 24 hours, keep going, hit 200 miles, and stay inspired to reach any records!” Excited yet? If all goes well, records are going to be dropping like flies in the final few hours of her run. It’s just a matter of how many! 

Overall, I like Camille’s chances. It would be nice if there were a few more high-caliber competitors out there to push her and make things interesting, but I have no doubt she can do this thing on her own. Bob Hearn, multiday extraordinaire, with a 48 hour personal best of 232 miles, will be racing with Camille and will, as far as I can tell, be the only other real contender for the overall win. And actually, Bob has become a bit of a rabbit’s foot for Camille. She said, “I’ve set a World Record in every race I’ve been in with Bob, so I joked he’s my lucky charm!”

In addition to having her coach and husband Conor there with her, Canadian multiday and mega-distance legend, Trishul Cherns, will be on Camille’s crew. He may prove to be invaluable as giver of any sage wisdom and advice Camille might need, but also as a professional massage therapist, keeping Camille going, further than she’s ever gone before.

Racing in Honor of the Late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Last week, Camille announced she would be dedicating this world record attempt to Justice Ginsburg. When I asked if she will do anything tangible on race day, like write RBG on her shoes or something, Camille said, “I have a USATF wings pin I always put on my singlet to remind myself who I’m dedicating the race to! It gives me something to think about while continuing to be inspired and run strong! This one is for Ruth!”

I absolutely love this; so in addition to world record splits, monitoring her body, and finding the will and desire to achieve something nobody else in history has done, she’ll be taking little moments to orient her mind towards a woman that knew a thing or two about how to fight; another true frontrunner in every sense of the word.

Camille’s race goes off Friday morning, October 2nd at 9am (EST). *There’s a chance she’ll start on another day if the weather doesn’t cooperate. I’ll update this article with links to any form of live tracking available, so be sure to check back! GO CAMILLE!

10/01/2020 UPDATE: Live tracking is available HERE.

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