Running News Daily

The Strange Saga of Ultrarunner Camille Herron and Wikipedia

The husband of runner Camille Herron admitted to having altered the Wikipedia biographies of prominent ultrarunners. The revelation came after a Canadian journalist launched an investigation.

On September 24, Conor Holt, the husband and coach of American ultrarunner Camille Herron, admitted to altering the biographies of Herron, Courtney Dauwalter, Kilian Jornet, and other prominent runners on the website Wikipedia. Holt’s edits boosted his wife’s accolades but also downgraded those of the other prominent ultrarunners.

“Camille had nothing to do with this,” Holt wrote in an email sent to Outside and several running media websites. “I’m 100 percent responsible and apologize [to] any athletes affected by this and the wrong I did.”

The confession brought some clarity to an Internet mystery that embroiled the running community for several days and sparked a flurry of chatter on social media and running forums. Herron, 42, is one of the most visible ultrarunners in the sport, and over the years she has won South Africa’s Comrades Marathon and also held world records in several different events, including the 48-hour and six-day durations. But the Wikipedia controversy led to swift consequences for Herron—her major sponsor, Lululemon, parted ways with her on Thursday morning.

The entire ordeal sprung from an investigation led by a Canadian journalist who spent more than a week following digital breadcrumbs on dark corners of

Marley Dickinson, a reporter for the website Canadian Running, began looking into the Wikipedia controversy in mid-September after receiving a tip from someone in the running community. The tipster told Dickinson, 29, that someone was attempting to delete important data from the Wikipedia entry for “Ultramarathon.”

The person had erased the accomplishments of a Danish runner named Stine Rex, who in 2024 broke two long-distance running records—the six-day and 48-hour marks—which were previously held by Herron. At the time, the sport’s governing body, the International Association of Ultrarunners, was deciding whether or not to honor Rex’s six-day record of 567 miles.

“The person making the edits said the IAU had made a decision on the record, even though they hadn’t yet,” Dickinson told me. “Whoever was doing it really wanted to get Rex’s run off of Wikipedia.”

Wikipedia allows anonymous users to edit entries, but it logs these changes in a public forum and shows which user accounts made them. After an edit is made, a team of volunteer moderators, known as Wikipedians, examines the changes and then decides whether or not to publish them. The site requires content to be verifiable through published and reliable sources, and it asks that information be presented in a neutral manner, without opinion or bias. The site can warn or even suspend a user for making edits that do not adhere to these standards.

Dickinson, who worked in database marketing at Thomson Reuters before joining Canadian Running, was intrigued by the bizarre edits. “I’ve always been into looking at the backend of websites,” he told me. “There’s usually a way you can tie an account back to a person.”

The editor in question used the name “Rundbowie,” and Dickinson saw that the account had also made numerous changes to Herron’s biography. Most of these edits were to insert glowing comments into the text. “I thought whoever this person is, they are a big fan of Camille Herron,” Dickinson said.

Rundbowie was prolific on Wikipedia, and made frequent tweaks and updates to other biographies. The account had removed language from the pages of Jornet and Dauwalter—specifically deleting the text “widely regarded as one of the greatest ultramarathon runners of all time.” Rundbowie had then attempted to add this exact language to Herron’s page. Both attempts were eventually denied by Wikipedians.

After examining the edits, Dickinson began to suspect that Rundbowie was operated by either Herron or Holt. Further digital sleuthing bolstered this opinion. He saw that the Rundbowie account, which made almost daily edits between February and April, abruptly went silent between March 6-12. Those dates corresponded with Herron’s world-record run in a six-day race put on by Lululemon in California.

But Dickinson wasn’t done with his detective work. He saw that in March, Wikipedia had warned Rundbowie on its public Incident Report page. The reason

A final Internet deep dive convinced Dickinson that he was on the right track. The IP address—a string of characters associated with a given computer—placed Temporun73 in Oklahoma, which is where Herron and Holt live. Then, on a forum page for Oregon State University, which is where Herron attended graduate school, Dickinson found an old Yahoo email address used by Herron. The email name: Temporun73.

“To me, this was a clear sign that it was either Conor or Camille” Dickinson said.

Dickinson published his story to Canadian Running on Monday, September 23. The piece included screenshots of Wikipedia edits as well as Dickinson’s trail to Herron and Holt. It started off a flurry of online reactions.

A thread on the running forum LetsRun generated 360 comments, and several hundred more appeared on the Reddit communities for trail running and ultrarunning. Film My Run, a British YouTube site, uploaded an immediate reaction video the following day. Within 12 hours, more than a hundred people shared their thoughts in the comments section.

It’s understandable why. Lauded for her accolades in ultra-distance races, Herron is also one of the most visible ultrarunners on the planet. She gives frequent interviews, and has been an outspoken advocate for the anti-doping movement, for smart and responsible training habits, and for the advancement of women runners.

“I think we’re going to continue to see barriers being broken and bars raised. I want to see how close I can get to the men’s world records, or even exceed a men’s world record,” she told Outside Run in 2023.

Herron has also spoken and written about her own mental health. Earlier this year, she began writing and giving interviews about her recent diagnosis with Autism and ADHD.

“Although I knew little about autism before seeking out a diagnosis, my husband, who observed my daily quirks and often reminded me to eat, drink, and go to bed, would jokingly speculate that I might be autistic,” she told writer Sandra Rose Salathe on the website FloSpace in July.

Dickinson told me he had a very positive image of Herron from his short time at Canadian Running. He joined the website in 2021.

“She’s always been super nice and welcoming,” Dickinson said.

Dickinson says he reached out to Herron and Holt via email and social media, but did not receive a reply. On Monday afternoon, a user on the social media platform X asked Herron about the story. “It’s made up,” Herron’s account replied. “Someone has an ax to grind and is bullying and harassing me.”

Herron’s social media accounts were deactivated shortly afterward—Holt later said he took them down.

Some online commenters questioned if the story was legitimate—something I did too, initially. Following Dickinson’s arcane trail through Wikipedia’s backend required a careful read, and a strong knowledge of the encyclopedia’s rules and regulations.

After speaking to Dickinson, I sent my notes to a Wikipedia expert named Rhiannon Ruff, who operates a digital consulting firm called Lumino that helps clients navigate the online encyclopedia. Ruff examined the story as well as the Wikipedia histories of Rundbowie and Temporun 73, and said that the evidence strongly suggested that both accounts were operated by the same person. But, since Wikipedia allows for anonymity, you cannot make the connection with 100 percent certainty.

Ruff pointed out that Wikipedia’s internal editors strongly believed the two accounts had a biased with Herron, because the accounts had attempted to write in the same sentence. “Both tried to add details about her crediting the influence of her father and grandfather, and how she runs with a smile,” Ruff said.

Ruff also pointed me to the prolific editing history of Temporun73. Started in 2016, the account had made approximately 250 edits to

“I never got a chance to say anything to the Canadian Running website before they published it,” Holt wrote.

Holt admitted that he was the operator of the Temporun73 and Rundbowie accounts. But he said his Wikipedia editing was aimed at combating online bullies who had removed biographical details from Herron’s Wikipedia page in the past.

“I kept adding back in the details, and then they blocked my account in early February of this year,” Holt wrote. “Nothing was out of line with what other athletes have on their pages. Wikipedia allows the creation of another account, so I created a new account Rundbowie. I was going off what other athletes had on their pages using the username Rundbowie and copying/pasting this info.”

“I was only trying to protect Camille from the constant bullying, harassment and accusations she has endured in her running career, which has severely impacted her mental health,” he added. “So much to the point that she has sought professional mental health help.”

Outside asked Holt via email to provide further details, but we did not receive a response. In an email to Canadian Running, Holt said he was focused on Herron’s upcoming race, and would not be conducting interviews.

But the fallout from the admission came quickly. On Thursday morning Dickinson broke more news: apparel brand Lululemon, which has backed Herron since 2023, had ended its partnership. In a statement provided to several outlets, the brand said it was dedicated “to equitable competition in sport for all,” and that it sought

(09/28/2024) Views: 274 ⚡AMP
by Outside Online