Acclaimed American ultrarunner Camille Herron, who has more than 12 ultrarunning world records to her name, along with her coach and husband, Conor Holt, have found themselves at the centre of a Wikipedia controversy. It stems from several edits to the Wikipedia pages of ultrarunners Kilian Jornet and Courtney Dauwalter, which degraded their accomplishments, while also adding accolades to Herron’s own page. The edits have been traced back to Herron’s email and Holt’s IP address.
The couple has allegedly been operating under the username “Rundbowie” since February 2024, after their previous Wikipedia account, “Temporun73,” was temporarily banned for violating Wikipedia’s conflict of interest policies for the edits to Herron’s page. Just hours after Temporun73 was banned, a new account under the name “Rundbowie” was created and resumed activity, making edits to Herron’s page and to those of other athletes.
One of the most contentious actions involved repeatedly removing statements like “widely regarded as one of the best trail runners ever” from Jornet and Dauwalter’s pages, with the justification of “removing puffery.” However, Herron simultaneously added a similar statement to her own page, describing herself as “widely regarded as one of the greatest ultramarathon runners of all time.”
Since 2017, Herron’s two accounts have made more than 300 contributions to pages on Wikipedia, of which more than half are entirely embellishments to Herron’s page, but there are notable deletions of positive content on the pages of Dauwalter, 2018 Boston Marathon champion Des Linden and Greek ultrarunning legend Yiannis Kouros.
In addition to these changes, in June 2024 and September 2024, Herron altered the “Ultramarathon” Wikipedia page to remove references to Danish ultrarunner Stine Rex’s 48-hour and six-day world records. (Although Rex’s performance bettered Herron’s record, the event was not ratified by the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU), meaning Herron’s record remains officially recognized.)
Ongoing issues and bans
The accusations against Herron and Holt did not come out of nowhere. For years, the Temporun73 account had been flagged by Wikipedia for making overly self-promotional edits to Herron’s page. Wikipedia administrators sent messages insisting the account adhere to the site’s policies on tone neutrality and conflict of interest. The warning messages were deleted by Herron’s account, referring to them as “abusive talk.”
One warning from Wikipedia administrators in January 2024 read: “Using language like ‘legendary’, ‘prestigious’, and ‘steely toughness’ is not the kind of neutral tone that is allowed in writing here. Wikipedia is a factual source of content, not a promotional platform for athletes.”
The Rundbowie account was very active on Wikipedia between February and April, but was quiet during Herron’s 6-day world record attempt with Lululemon between March 6 and March 12. (It was actually absent from Wikipedia between March 2 and March 19, with the first edits back being the removal of “widely regarded as one of the world’s best trail runners” from Jornet’s and Dauwalter’s pages within minutes of one another on March 19.)
On March 22, administrators filed another incident report, concluding that Rundbowie was indeed a continuation of the banned Temporun73 account. The email address found linked to Temporun73 matched a former email address of Herron’s that she had used since 2007, while studying for her master’s degree at Oregon State University. A Google search of the email and IP address from the blocked account is listed under Holt’s name and a phone number from the Oklahoma City area (in which Herron and Holt reside.)
Reaction
The Global Organization of Multi-day Marathoners (GOMU) president Trishul Cherns said he was appalled by the situation. “In my forty-six years of ultrarunning, I’ve never seen anyone as talented as Camille, who is so dedicated to creating division and animosity within the ultrarunning community. Unfortunately, the Wikipedia story is part of a pattern of interference. This couple has a history of trying to disrupt athletes, their reputations, races, and performances by citing World Athletics rules that do not apply to ultrarunning and multi-day running. I was appalled by Camille’s criticism directed at athletes challenging “her” records and her efforts to discredit them. This unsportsmanlike behaviour is bullying and mean-spirited and has no place in the larger ultrarunning community.”
Herron’s storied career
Herron, 42, holds 12 ultramarathon world records and remains the only athlete to win all the IAU World Championships distances (50K, 100K and 24 hours). In April 2022, at age 40, she became the youngest woman to reach 100,000 lifetime running miles.
We reached out to Herron via email and social media for comments, but she did not respond.
