Acclaimed Ultrarunner Embroiled in Bizarre Wikipedia Editing Controversy

One of America’s most acclaimed ultrarunners has found herself at the center of a Wikipedia-related controversy, Running Magazine reported.

Camille Herron, who holds more than 12 ultrarunning world records, has been accused of editing the Wiki pages of fellow ultrarunners to remove and denigrate their accomplishments while adding embellishments to her own page. The edits have reportedly been traced back to Herron’s email address and an IP address belonging to her fiancé, Conor Holt.

According to the outlet, Herron and Holt operated two separate Wikipedia user profiles between 2017 and 2024. In February, their first profile, “Temporun73,” was blocked from editing due to “outdated and abusive talk,” in addition to “edit warring” on Herron’s own page. Edit warring is when multiple contributors disagree on the contents of a given page, continually overriding one another with additions and deletions.

Just a few hours after Temporun73 was banned, a profile under the name “Rundbowie” was created and began making edits to Herron’s page and those of runners Courtney Dauwalter and Killian Jornet. Temprun73 removed statements along the lines of “widely regarded as one of the best trail runners ever” from both runners’ Wiki entries under the auspices of “removing puffery,” yet added similar statements to Herron’s page.

On February 28, multiple revisions were made to Courtney Dauwalter’s Wikipedia entry. The original entry read as follows: “Courtney Dauwalter (born February 13, 1985) is an American ultramarathon runner and former teacher. Widely regarded as one of the world’s best female trailrunners [sic], Dauwalter became in 2023 the first person ever to win Western States 100, Hardrock 100, and the UTMB, three iconic 100 mile races, in the same year.” After Temporun73’s edits, the page read: “Courtney Dauwalter (born February 13, 1985) is an American ultramarathon runner and former teacher.”

In fact, Running Magazine found that since 2017, the two accounts associated with Herron and Holt have contributed to over 300 Wikipedia edits. More than half of those are additions to Herron’s page. In addition to the edits made to Dauwalter and Jornet’s pages, there were other “notable deletions of positive content” on pages belonging to 2018 Boston Marathon champion Des Linden, Danish ultrarunner Stine Rex, and legendary Greek ultrarunner Yiannis Kouros. On March 22, Wikipedia deduced that Rundbowie was simply an extension of the Temporun73 account, as both were registered to an email address Herron had used since 2007.

Trishul Cherns, president of the Global Organization of Multi-day Marathoners (GOMU), said that she was “appalled” by the allegations against Herron and Holt, part of what Cherns called “a pattern of interference.”

“In my 46 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,” Churns said. “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 behavior is bullying and mean-spirited and has no place in the larger ultrarunning community.”

Running Magazine reported that Herron did not respond to request for comment on its story. Men's Journal has separately reached out to Herron, who was not immediately available for comment.