Camille Herron is attempting to break the women’s 48 hour record this weekend. The multiple World and National ultra distance record breaker will start at 10am to attempt to add another mark to her list when she competes in the Sri Chinmoy 48-hour race this weekend in Canberra, Australia.

The race starts at 10am Friday 24th March which is 11pm Thursday into Friday GMT in the UK.

How to follow the Sri Chinmoy 48 hour race in Canberra

You can follow the race via the Race Results live tracker HERE

In this post I chatted to Camille as she relaxed on the day before her race.

Herron already holds the Women’s 24-hour record. She ran 270.116 km/167.842 Miles at the IAU World 24-Hour Championships in Albi, France, in October 2019 to set that mark.
In addition, she holds the Women’s 100mile record of 12:41:10 set in 2022. She has seven of the ten best women’s 100-mile times.
Until recently, she held the World 12-hour record before the Polish athlete, Dominika Stellmach bettered that mark in January this year.

It will be her first serious attempt at the 48-hour distance. Although having run in previous 48-hour races, she has been happy achieving an intermediate target rather than aiming to run for 48 hours.
Herron is targeting the record recently set by British International, Jo Zakrwzeski, in Taiwan on February 11/12th. Zakrzewski recorded 411.458 Km

Read our post on Jo Zakrzewski’s record HERE
AIS track

The 48-hour is just one race within the Sri Chinmoy 48-hour Track Festival.
The event also includes races at the 24-hour, 12-hour and 6-hour distance, plus a Midnight Marathon. A total of 100 athletes will compete across all distances.
The global Sri Chinmoy Marathon team has organised road and track ultras for over 40 years. Founded by Sri Chinmoy, teacher of meditation and renowned as a writer, poet, composer, painter and athlete who blended spiritual practice with a dynamic outer life. The standards set in their races are well known. Over the last 40 years, numerous World and National records have been set by ultra legends in Sri Chinmoy events. These include Yiannis Kouros, Don Ritchie, Ann Trason and Al Howie.
The team also organise the longest certified multi-day road race in the world. The 3100-mile race is held in Queens, New York, each year.

I chatted to Camille in Canberra, the day before her race.

Adrian
You have had a successful career, with world championship victories and many World and American records. What’s inspiring you to take on doing a 48-hour seriously?

Camille
I’m somebody that trys to master every distance and in ultra-running, you know, every record distance. I had a couple of failures in my first multi-day runs. If you don’t succeed, try, try again.

Adrian
You seem to keep searching out new challenges.
What motivates you to keep seeking out fresh challenges?

Camille.
I think it’s just my stubbornness that I want to become a master at everything. I have focussed most of my running career on ultra-running and trying to master all those distances, but I see the future of my career being more multi-days and trail-running. I started as a track runner
when I was in junior high. I anchored the four by 400 relay team. I am somebody that hopes someday to have PRs from every distance from 400 meters to 3,100 miles.

Adrian. Oh! Interesting. We can come back to the 3100 later.
You have set many World and National records, and run many championships at various distances. You have also won Comrades and continue to set your bar incredibly high. Is it just because you love running? Or do you simply want to bring out the very best in yourself, all the time?

Camille
I met Susan Marshall when I arrived here in Australia. She ran the 3100-mile race last year. I know she is in awe of me, but I’m also in awe of Susan. I’ve been following her for the last year and I’m probably more in awe knowing what she’s done in finishing the 3100.
I was trying to tell her the story of a colony of mice. There’s always that one mouse that likes to get on the wheel and run all the time because it just loves running. So I guess I just like to get on that wheel and run and just feel happy when I run. Even when things aren’t going well.

When I set my 24-hour world record, I had so many challenges during that race that I had to work through. It didn’t stop me from being joyful and happy. No matter what happened to me. I kept getting back out there. I kept pushing myself and I feel I have such a positive spirit when I run.
I like to think that running is a great metaphor for life. The challenges I go through in running, are like the challenges you get through in life.

I’m just a happy person and I like to run. It brings me back to being a kid. I’ve always been competitive. I was competitive with the boys and with everybody really when I was a kid. When I was a kid, we lived out in the country and I would chase the wildlife and constantly like to be outside.
I like how my body feels when I run and how I move. It just feels so natural to me. Discovering ultra-running opened me up to a whole new world and a new set of goals to chase after.

It’s cool for me because I feel like I am able to fulfil my potential through running and that has helped with all the different stages of my life too. I’m going to keep going as long as my body lets me.

Adrian
Well, age is never a barrier, as you know. Our mutual friend Jo Zakrzewski set the current World 48-hour record when she was 47 years young.

Camille.
Yes I think about that. I have been in communication with Jo for years. We got to know each other when we ran the world 100K like eight years ago. We have stayed in touch. It’s so cool to see her taking on 24 hours now. Then her first 48 hours, she knocked it out, and that was amazing.

Adrian.
Going into tomorrow’s 48-hour. Do you have a master plan to pace it well? Or are you just going to let Camille be Camille, and feel your way into the race?

Camille. I have some thoughts about where my mind needs to be.
At every distance that I’ve run, I usually practice with a heart rate monitor. I know when I do a 50 mile or 100K, I want to start at about 80% of max heart rate.
Then when I do 100-miles, it will be about 75%, and at 24-hours it is 70%. So running at 65% of max heart rate for 48 hours will be like an easy run pace.
My mind state will be to start at that pace and hold it as long as I can. From what I’ve read and heard of multi-day running, it seems it takes around a day and a half to find your groove.

So it might be awkward for that first day and a half. I am going to top load the mileage on day one, and then you’re just holding on for dear life on day two.

I have the idea to really focus on that 65% Heart rate which is my typical easy run pace. I need to be mechanically comfortable with the pace that I’m going at, but at some point I know I’m going to be so fatigued. I know what I go through in 24 hours and going another day after that, I have prepared myself for.

I know that when I ran the 24-hour record, I took two power naps, that were magical. I was able to push through the last few hours of that race. I learnt how powerful having those micro-sleeps are. I am comfortable sleeping and lying down when my body feels like it needs to because I know how it helped me in the 24 hours.
I’m hoping to use that experience and the brain knowledge I have from my 24-hour experiences and apply that to 48 hours.

Adrian.
It’s fair to say you have a few lifetime miles in the bank, which will stand you in good stead for the second day.
In any ultra, whatever the distance, you will have a spell where you are not feeling good. Apart from the Micro sleeps, Do you have any special ways of dealing with that?

Camille.
I have to give credit to my husband Conor. It’s not just a journey for me, but it’s going to be a journey for him at the side of the track too. Between him and Susan, they will be supporting me through the race.
I’m sure they will be brainstorming and working to keep me going. I have to be like the energizer bunny and stay inspired and motivated, knowing it will be a long journey.
I feel like there is magic inside me every time I toe the line.
I know that there is the possibility that I am going to do something magical and I have to keep going and persevering and working through all those challenges. I think about everything I went through for 24 hours when I set the record. It was so challenging, but I knew I had some magic inside of me that just kept me going.

My crew will be doing everything they can to keep me going.
My Dad will also be inspiring me. He has a health struggle at the moment and I will be thinking of him a lot and dedicating the race to him.
He is having surgery tomorrow on the day of the race, so I told him I would dedicate the race and hopefully a new world record to him.

Adrian
I’m sure Connor and Susan will be doing all they can. You’ve almost answered the next question I had.
To do the things we do, you have to be fit on the physical level and focus on the outer runner. In ultra events, there is such a mental and almost spiritual battle going on in yourself at times too. How will Camille’s inner runner handle running for 48 hours?

Camille.
Connor, my husband does know how to push my buttons. I feel like I have a cheerleader right by me all the time. I’m a relentlessly positive person. I joke that when I ran my 24-hour world record that I puked like, three or four times but remained positive, The third and last time that I puked, I joked in my head that it was like, “puke and rally’. Just get on with it now.
I was having a tough time but then you just have to put it behind you, rally, and go forward.
It’s an integral part of the experience between my outer and my inner joy, and just knowing that I’m doing what comes naturally to me and I just try to see it through.
So I hope to see it through to a new record and to find out more about what’s possible for women, and what my human limits could be. I tell myself. ” it’s kind of like the movie, “Finding Nemo”, where he keeps swimming. Keeps swimming.

Adrian
I’m sure many will be following it all from afar and hoping you do well. Looking ahead, do you have any concrete plans for the rest of this year or just taking it one race at a time?

Camille,
Originally when I wanted to come here and I wanted to do the 24-hour race to get a qualifier for the US 24-hour team. Then I chatted with my friend Wayne Botha from New Zealand, and he talked about the 48-hour race. And I was like, well, I guess I could qualify for the US 24-hour team en route to the 48-hour distance. So I have to get a pretty good 24-hour time to secure my spot on the US team for the World 24-hour championships in Taipei at the end of the year.

That is my first goal. If I hit a qualifier for the 24-hour team, then I hope I will hang on for the second 24 hours.
Beyond this race, I’m going to do some trail races this summer. I’m all signed up for Western States in June. Then Leadville 100 miles in August. Anne Trayson set an iconic course record there, and I’ve always wanted to go for that.

They are going to be my two major trail races for this summer.
I have to get to at least 220 K in the first 24-hours, hopefully more. I think I can do that. I’m looking at what Jo did in her recent record run. She ran 236km in the first 24 hours and then hung on during the second 24 hours. Jo gives me confidence that I can run a solid first 24 hours and then hang in there on day Two. It is such a great unknown for me.

Adrian.
Briefly, you mentioned the 3,100-mile race. Is that seriously on your radar for one year in the future?

Oh, absolutely. My friend Sanjay talked a lot about that when I met him. (Sanjay Rawal, who produced the film Run and Become 3100)
He was trying to talk me into doing that race sooner rather than later.
I’m looking at doing 48 hours this year to see how I cope with a mini multi-day. Try a Six days next year. Then, whether I need to try a Thousand-Mile race or just jump to the 3100.
I could see myself doing it in the next five years.

Adrian.
It’s there waiting for you.

Camille.
I just feel like I have that spirit to do it. I just like to run and run, even though some people think running any race on a small loop is crazy.
I just get it. I am super meditative and in the flow when I run long races. I just get into my own head space.

Adrian.
We look forward to you breaking even more boundaries. I won’t take up any more of your time. I am well aware that you do need to rest for tomorrow. Let’s hope it all goes well for you.

Camille,
Thanks so much. It’s okay. I have banked plenty of sleep the last few days.

The 48-hour race starts at 10 am in Canberra on Friday, 24th March. Canberra is 11 hours ahead of GMT London
Full details of the 48-hour ultra festival can be found HERE

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