Pre-race Interview with Camille Herron,

before the Taiwan 48-hour race.

I was lucky enough to catch up with Camille Herron for a few minutes chat last weekend. She was getting over jet lag after travelling to Taiwan for this weekend’s Taipei 48-Hour race.

2024 was somewhat of a roller coaster for Camille, but she ended the year with an impressive 263.004 Kilometres/163.423 Miles at the  Taipei 24 hour race on 1st  December. Just under 3 months later, she is back in Tawan to take on the 48-hour distance, and is hoping to start the year the way she left off the last one.

AS. Looking ahead to next week’s race, do you have any special targets, or are you just happy to let the race unfold?

 Camille. Yes. I’m getting back to racing now. I am very anxiously waiting to kick off my year for 2025 and hopefully kick it off in a really big way.

 Obviously, I want to break my 48-hour world record. One of my friends keeps telling me that he thought it was so cool that I am now starting to chase my records. I’m trying to level up my own records. I set my first 24-hour world record at Phoenix in 2018. Then, the second time I broke it at Albi in 2019, I felt so much better than the first time.

 I’m hoping to have the same sort of impact on my 48-hour world record and try to improve it in a significant way. It’sbeen two years since I ran 48 hours. I’ve learned a lot since then. I just want to put what I’ve learned into practice and try and let the magic come out.

 AS. It sounds like a cliche, but people talk about having to learn the marathon as an event, and you certainly have to learn100km and 24 hours as events. Do you think 48 hours is also a distance that through experience, you learn how to race better? If you look at the history of people like Yiannis Kouros, the current 48-hour record holder for men and  Patrycja Beresknowska, the previous record holder for women. They seem to improve over 48 hours with experience.

 Camille. Oh Definitely 

 I had a couple of attempts a few years ago that didn’t go too well. I didn’t go the full 48 hours, so I had to step away from 48 hours for a couple of years to get my body stronger and healthy before trying it again. I Finally nailed it the first time, completing the full 48 hours in Australia at the Sri Chinmoy track event. So, I definitely think that there’s a learning curve to it, and my husband Connor and I joke that now that I’ve gone six days,  I’m stepping back down in distance to a faster event

 and it doesn’t feel quite as intimidating as it was two years ago. I mean, it’s still going to be a grind. 

I was looking at the pace I ran two years ago, and I had about four hours of stop time for the 48-hour event. That’s a lot of stop-time off the track. My actual moving pace, cutting out all that time was something like 9 mins 45 per mile for 48 hours.  That’s crazy fast. I just have to appreciate and respect that it went so well two years ago. It’s still a relatively fast event, but I’m hoping to improve and cut down on all that stop time that I had in Australia. I have a number in my head of what I think is possible, so we’ll just see if I can reach that.

 AS. Looking at your approach to the pacing. You mentioned in the Sri Chinmoy 48-hour track race, where you set the current record, you seemed to top load the race and ran quite a fast first 100K, I think it was about 8 hours 50 Minutes, or thereabouts. Then you slowed quite a bit while still maintaining a relatively good pace. Do you think a key to running further is to maybe make that slightly more even?

Camille. Yes. Absolutely. It was a traumatic day one, two years ago. I think what I’ve learned from that is by going at that slower pace, I don’t need to be pushing as much carbohydrate each hour. I think I was fueling much more than I needed for the demands of the event, being at a slower pace. When I ran Spartathlon, in the fall of that year, I cut back my carbohydrate intake to about 50 to 55 grams per hour.

 I had already figured that out a bit when I did the 48-hour event, I cut back my intake on day two and I felt so much better. I ended up having a really steady day two of my 48-hour record. So, I think that there’s this learning curve that I just had to figure out how to change my nutrition strategy. Running that longer distance at a slower pace doesn’t need as many carbohydrates, for me at any rate.

 AS. Sports science has developed so much even in the last five years, let alone the last 10 years. With increased research, people are coming out with an optimal amount of carbs you need per hour. Do you feel that for 48 hours and multi-days, it is such an individual thing because the intensity isn’t there like a marathon, 100 K or even 100 miles, meaning there is leeway for having less input?

 Camille. Most definitely. Even just being a female, I found that getting older, I mean I am 43 now, and I actually feel like my nutrition needs have shifted a bit in the past 10 years. I felt like when I was younger and doing shorter events, I needed more carbohydrates,

 I could handle what is recommended. I think it’s like 60 to 90 grams per hour. I’m feeling like as I get older, and being a female, being in perimenopause right now, I feel like I need more protein and more fat. I don’t know, but I feel this kind of metabolic shift happening.  I actually consulted with my dietician, Jackie, leading up to this race, and we talked about trying to practice to train my gut to get used to new things.

On my training runs, I’ve been taking bits of protein. Things like cheese, meat sticks and cheese on crackers and trying to take in a little bit of protein and fat to train my gut. I am going out for a run and getting used to that feeling, with a little bit of protein and fat in my diet. We definitely have some new strategy happening, and we will put it to the test this weekend.

 AS. In Canberra, you’ve alluded to the fact you had a few periods of sleep, involving time off the track. We all know in any race of fixed time, like a 24 or 48-hour, If you stop or take time off the track, the mileometer also stops till you get going again. Are you planning more micro sleep stops or are you confident you can go straight through 48 hours without micro sleeps as an essential factor in maintaining speed and focus in the second 24 hours?

 Camille. It’s fascinating now because since I ran the six-day race, I have been working a lot with my body. Theinteresting thing that I’ve learned, even since my six-day race last March, is I am autistic and have ADHD, and I have a different brain.

I have the ability to hyper-focus for long periods of time and to push through sleep deprivation.  I’ve been this way since I was a kid. I used to play video games all night. In college, I would pull all-nighters in finals week.

 I had no problem with sleep deprivation. It’s just the way my brain is wired. I guess you could say that is one of my talents. Being able to do multi-days, I have a different brain and can hyper-focus. When I ran the 48 hours, I found was Iwas taking a lot of microsleeps. It was kind of funny that you could do like eight minutes of a power nap, get off the table and get back out there. I felt like when I did the 48-hour two years ago, on night two, I kept getting little bits of microsleep for some time. 

 It felt like I was able to push through the final 11 hours like I was a metronome. It’s very interesting as I feel like it’s not something that I can plan. It feels more like working with the flow of my body because I have such a different brain to begin with.

 We’ll see how it unfolds, but I’m not as scared or intimidated as I was two years ago. I kind of know what’s going to happen and feel more able to go with the flow pretty much.

 AS. The Taipei race is well-established. The Taipei team have put on well-established  24-hour and  48-hour races. TheIAU 24-Hour World Championships were held there in 2023. It is one of a handful of events with a Gold IAU label, so the organization is top-notch. It has a history, especially in the women’s races where I think both Patryca Bereznowska and Joe Zakzrewski achieved Second and third-best times on the ratified records listing, with both having set World record distances before you. Are you expecting distances next weekend from other girls and certainly from the men who look to have an incredibly strong field? 

 Camille. My gosh, I’m so stoked. You mentioned Joe and Patrycja. I mean, Jo set her record two years ago, and Patryca set, I think, an age group record last year. They definitely proved that this is a fast course and have paved the way for us to set records.  I’m super stoked. It’s going to be an incredible field. We’ve got Matthieu and several other men and womentoo.

Note: Matthieu is Mathieu Bonne, who set a new 6-day record last year.

I think we’re just going to push each other to go as far as we can. It’d be very interesting to see if the weather affects things as well because I think they are predicting some rain.

 It rained during my 48-hour at the Sri Chinmoy race. We had two storms that flooded the track, and my feet got saturated. I had to change my shoes and socks.  So we’ll see what the weather gives us.

For me, it’s going to be fun to have those men in the race.

I think we all have similar PRs, some of those men, I think, are around 430 plus kilometres plus, for 48 hours, so it’sgonna be super fun. 

 AS. You share something in common with Yiannis both of you, maybe not simultaneously, but you’ve both held the World 24-hour, the 48-hour and the six-day records. I think possibly only Eleanor, going back several years, was the only other person to have held all three, and maybe not at the same time. I would need to check the stats on that. 

There has been much talk about Yianis’s long-standing 48-hour record being challenged., Do you feel someone like Matthieu could challenge that, and in doing so, inspire you and the other men to big distances?

Camille. Oh my gosh, I’m pumped up. I mean, I’m just as much of a fan as I am a runner. I’m going to be just as much of a fangirl out there trying to cheer him on to push his human limits. But, at the same time, I feel like we’re going to be feeding off of each other, with me trying to break the women’s record and him trying to break the men’s. That excitement,of just thinking he could potentially chase it. I mean, that’s contagious to have that kind of race and that energy.

 AS. As we said, he’s still learning the event, so it will be interesting to see.

 I have one geeky question that a lot of people ask. What shoes will you be wearing? 

Camille. That’s an interesting question. I actually prefer to wear non-carbon-plated shoes. I have two shoe choices that I  have brought with me from two different brands. When I did the 48-hour two years ago, I changed my shoes a couple times. What I found was the further you go, the more you want softness. That was a track race.

Taiwan is a road course, and you spend so much time on your feet, on hard concrete. It feels better to have a shoe that issoft and more flexible because you’re  sitting back more on your heels, and you’re not putting a lot of forward force into the shoe.

 I’ve found that for me, beyond a certain pace point, I prefer not to be in a carbon plate shoe. I think it might be between 100 miles and a 24-hour pace, which is a kind of turning point. I feel very confident that it’s really about comfort and finding the right shoe to be able to sustain yourself and be healthy. Softness definitely matters. We’ll see how it works out, but I feel pretty good about my shoe choices.

 Okay, on that note, I think we’ll leave it there. I will leave you to get on getting over your jet lag.

Camille. Thanks for reaching out. I’ve been feeling good vibes since I got here. I feel like it’s my destiny.

Camille has posted on her social media that she dedicates all her big races to somebody. The Taiwan 48-hour she is appropriately dedicating  to the current 48 hour mens record holder and multi-day legend, Yiannis Kouros.

You can read our men’s and women’s previews of the Taiwan 48-hour HERE

You can read

Live results updates from Taiwan will be HERE after the race starts.

News Updates from the Taiwan 48-Hour can be found HERE

You can read about Camile reflecting on her world record run at Canberra in March 2023 HERE

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Adrian Tarit Stott.

The author is a former GB 24-hour ultra international with over 100 ultra race completions.  He has also been involved in organising ultra-distance races for over 30 years.  Still an active recreational runner, he is currently a member of UKA’s Ultra Running Advisory Group (URAG) and the Mountain and Trail Advisory Group. He also contributes as part of the selection and team management for both Scottish and GB ultra teams. A freelance writer in his spare time, he contributes articles and reports to several websites and magazines including Athletics Weekly and Irunfar.