Camille Herron’s ‘second chance’ at life and running

(Camille Herron, followed by Courtney Dauwalter, competes in the 2018 Desert Solstice, where she set multiple records. Photo by Chris Worden)

Camille Herron is making the most of her second chance.

Recently, we caught up to talk about all the highs and lows she has experienced since we last chatted about 18 months earlier. In that time, Herron has set world records, taken significant time off to heal injuries and survived a traumatic car crash.

“Every year, I've had quite the extreme highs and quite the extreme lows,” she says. “I had to spend the whole year just recovering from all the crazy stuff I had been through. It was the first time that I've had a really extended break since I was 19. It was kinda like an accumulation of all the traumatic things I've been through, freak accidents and injuries. It was just like my body just said, ‘OK, you need to take a break and recharge the battery.’"

In fact, she may have emerged even stronger than before her car — and life — were turned upside down.

‘Those were the scariest seconds of my life’

In time the physical and emotion scars have begun to heal.

“Oh, holy cow,” she says as I ask her to tell me about the crash that occurred in late January. “I've talked a lot about it the last couple months. It's gotten a little bit easier for me to talk about over time.”

It was a fairly typical day for Herron, commuting to work.

Suddenly a car accelerated and pulled out in front of her from a side street. The car struck Herron’s vehicle on the passenger side, flipping it over and pushing it into the median. “My windshield blew out,” she recalls. “All this glass came at me. I'm upside down in my car and my airbags deployed.”

Herron remembers feeling intense heat in the car. Thinking it was on fire, she tried to figure out an escape. “Those were the scariest seconds of my life,” she says. “I had to think really quickly, ‘OK, I'm alive. How do I get out of my car?’”

A passerby opened the passenger door, allowing Herron to escape. “I got out of the car, started feeling my body, did an air squat, and thought, ‘I think my legs are OK.’”

She knows she was blessed to escape with some neck and back pain. The emotional toll, however, took a longer recovery time.

“I almost just died,” she says, understandably breaking from her normal jovial tone. “It’s really helped me appreciate the world around me and appreciate what my body can do, what I do as an athlete. It's actually made me reassess my life.”

Herron has taken a leave from her day job to focus on her running and recovery.

“I feel like I've been given a second chance. I just have to make the most of that.”

Trying to build back up

Long before the car crash, Herron was rehabbing injuries associated with running. She committed to Desert Solstice last July. The plan was to build back her strength with an FKT attempt at the Grand Canyon and then the North Face Endurance Challenge Series 50-miler in San Francisco.

During her October attempt at the Grand Canyon, she got lost. Still, she took away the positives from the experience. “It didn't quite work out. But, at the same time, I got a good workout and got to see the Grand Canyon and had a good time out there.”

Due to the wildfires, the North Face race had to be cancelled.

“It seemed like the whole year was just one thing after another just not going right,” Herron laments. “I was left with Desert Solstice. I just wanted to redeem myself for all the things I've been through for the year. I felt like I had a lot of good momentum going. I'd had a really good training period and good build up last fall.”

(Herron runs the Desert Solstice track at night. Photo by Kevin McGinnis.)

While she was not able to set the FKT or compete in the elite 50-mile race, Herron focused on the successes she had in building back up.

“I had to find joy in every day and the progress that I was making on a daily basis,” she says, crediting her husband, Conor, for his support. “I can remember back to the first time I tried to run after my injury. I could only go three to four minutes. It's hard to wrap my head around running, being able to run only three to four minutes when I'm trying to progress up to running for 24 hours.”

Herron recognized that she needed time to rebuild her mileage and speed to return to her elite status. As an example of a turning point, she reflects back to a training run about 10 weeks after she resumed training on Mount Scott in Oklahoma just prior to her FKT attempt.

“This is where I can judge how my fitness compares to past times I've been down there," she says. “I just crushed all of my PRs. And that was when we decided that I was going to the Grand Canyon and try to go for the FKT there. There were definitely some turning points between that hill session and then just adding speed work. My legs just kept improving. It was like my body said, ‘Whoa, I remember this.’"

Every time Herron added strides or did other speedwork, she discovered that her fitness returned quickly. Steadily she bumped up her fitness and made sure her body handled it, then progressed toward her 24-hour attempt at Desert Solstice.

“Everybody thinks, ‘24 hours, oh that's just slogging it out for 24 hours,’” she surmises. “But, for me, I feel the best when my fitness is well rounded and I've trained my body in a lot of ways. I went into Desert Solstice feeling fit and well — mentally, physically, everything. I feel like I'm ready for this."

Was she ever. On Dec. 8 at Desert Solstice, Herron ran 162.9 miles in 24 hours around a track — an average of an 8:40 pace. That set world records for running 100 miles on a track (13:25) and 24 hours.

(After Desert Solstice. Photo by Conor Holt, Camille's husband.)

Not slowing down

After chiseling her name in the records books once again, Herron is looking ahead to more challenges.

“I've gotten so many of my big goals out of the way already,” she says. “So, what are the next big goals? As far as for the rest of this year, I'm training for Comrades and Western States to try and win both of those this year. Three weeks apart.”

This year, Comrades is an uphill race. In 2017, Herron won the historic ultra marathon in that direction.

“I really like to climb,” she says. “In fact, I would say I've always felt I was a stronger climber. But the past couple of years, I've also been working my downhill running, preparing for Western States because there's so much downhill running there.”

And if that challenge wasn’t enough, Herron is running the Leadville 100 in August (“I'm pretty darn excited about that one,” and then she heads to the 24-hour world championship in October.

Eyes on Comrades

(Photo courtesy of Jetline Action Photo)

Among those races Comrades has a special place in Herron’s heart.

“It's kind of like the Boston Marathon of ultras,” she says, noting the media attention and crowd support. “It's just got so much history behind it. It's the most competitive. It's the largest ultra in the world. It feels like the entire country comes behind that race. When you're there, it's so electric. You just feel the energy and everybody's talking about it. There’s this momentum and energy that's helping to propel you.”

Herron says that Comrades is like running Boston twice, and then adding a few more miles. Still, she recommends that if runners only do one ultra, it should be Comrades for the experience.

“It's just incredible to see a country that is so behind ultra running,” she gushes. “You feel that when you're over there that they live for this race. There's people who are running this race as something to put on their resume. It's one of those things where people really respect you if you run Comrades, let alone for me to have won it. I go over there and I'm like a rock star.”

Comrades is a point to point course between Durban and Pietermaritzburg. “There's something like a million people along the course,” she says. “The energy is insane. It's just so crazy. Everybody comes out and they're cheering for you. There are parts that are a little bit more remote where you're climbing up through the mountains. There are parts that are kinda quiet, ghostly quiet. But then you go through these villages along the course and it's amazing.”

Comrades has a green number, which designates runners who have either won the race three times, placed top 10 five times, or have finished it 10 times. “I'm determined to get my green number.”

‘Before finding joy’

In speaking with Herron it’s clear that the crash did not rob her of her bubbly personality. She is engaged. She laughs easily. She exudes positivity.

In a recent tweet, she referenced someone referring to her as having a glow now.

“There's so many things that could've gone differently about it,” she says of the wreck. “As far as just where my car landed, in the median. I landed between an oil rig and a concrete wall. When I felt my car start to flip, it was like my survival instinct kicked in and I actually bent my body over sideways. I felt the top of my car caving in on me. So I protected my neck and my head from getting injured. There are things like I was driving a Subaru and I had Starlink on my car, so it called the emergency. There were so many things that went right that I'm like, ‘Oh my gosh, so many things could've gone wrong and I probably wouldn't be here. I could be injured.’"

Just two weeks later, Herron raced the Tarawera Ultramarathon 100-miler in Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, setting a new course record of 17:20:52.

“It's amazing,” she recalls. “At that point, it hadn't really sunken in, what I had just been through. I was very traumatized from having been in my car accident and then going over and running a 100-miler.”

When she returned, that’s when reality finally took over. She began to feel the emotional toll and took a step back. “I finally realized I should take a break from my day job just to focus on my running right now.”

Getting older, wiser

As runners age, there is some joy in being the youngest in an age group. But for elite athletes, there also comes the realization that at some point everyone slows down. PRs won’t come as easily. Recovery takes longer. Younger runners gain ground.

It creates a sense of urgency for Herron and other elites.

“I felt that clock ticking two years ago when I tore my MCL 10 weeks before Comrades,” she says. “When I think of an MCL, I think of a basketball player with a potential career ending injury. So, for me, in that moment, it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this could end my career.’"

Still she rebounded, pulled off the victory at Comrades. Then she began to think bigger.

“That's what propelled me to go for all these world records,” says Herron, an athlete for Coros, the best watches I have ever tried. “Just knowing that this window is now. I'm not gonna be fast forever. I hope I can, even if I do get another crazy injury that I can bounce back from it. But this speed that I have, I gotta make the most of it. The 100K American record is still one that I want to get.”

Perhaps more than most of us, Herron knows that our time is limited. We have to make the most of second chances.

“When I go into Desert Solstice or go for a world record, part of what's propelling me is knowing that I have to succeed,” she says. “There may not be another moment for me to go for that. Even running Comrades two years ago, I had this feeling of I have to win. I actually like that kind of pressure on me. That feeling of I have to do this now. I may not get tomorrow. I may get injured. You never know what might happen.”