After receiving academic and athletic scholarships, Herron attended the University of Tulsa, where she was a Top 10 Senior and earned a bachelor's degree in Exercise and Sports Science in 2005. She began doing scientific research in college to understand why she had stress fractures as a young runner.[1][4]
Herron obtained a masters degree in Exercise and Sports Science from Oregon State University in 2007. Her research focused on identifying the optimal anabolic stimulus for musculoskeletal health, emphasizing the importance of frequent light mechanical stress interspersed with infrequent high-intensity stress.[5][6]
Herron was born with hearing loss and had a near-drowning incident at the age of three.[7] She was later diagnosed with central auditory processing disorder, and says she did not speak much as a child. She began running in seventh grade, the year after Forrest Gump (1994) was released. She recalls relating to Forrest Gump, not just because of the running. Over the years her husband noticed autistic traits, and through talking to a friend in Oklahoma and taking online tests, she pursued testing for autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. In 2024 she was officially diagnosed with both.[8]
Herron's unusual running gait and arm swing are attributed to an extra bone in her foot and twists in her arm and femur.[9][10]
Herron, then age 19, and her family lost their home and possessions during the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. She stated that she found the event to be a turning point and began running longer distances on Sundays to celebrate life.[11]
Career
Herron returned to competitive running as a road racer under the guidance of her husband, Conor Holt, a former elite runner and college coach.[7] She attributes her success in ultrarunning to her scientific knowledge and training approach, which prioritizes short, frequent runs to accumulate high volume consistently.[4]
Herron was partnered with Lululemon Athletica, with whom she collaborated on product development and initiatives such as the launch of a women's trail shoe and the lululemon FURTHER program, which included a six-day ultramarathon for women in March 2024.[13][14][15] On September 26, 2024, Lululemon ended its association with Herron[16] after she and/or her husband were found to be removing positive information about other athletes from Wikipedia while adding positive information about herself.[2][17][18]
Herron and her husband manage an online coaching business.[19]
Notable achievements
Herron is a three-time Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier and a 21-time marathon winner.[20]
She competed on the 2011 US Pan American Team in the marathon, finishing 9th.[21]
Herron set the Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon by a woman in a superhero costume, completing it in 2 hours, 48 minutes, and 51 seconds, dressed as Spiderwoman.[22]
Herron is the only athlete to win all of the IAU Ultra Road World Championships (50 km, 100 km, and 24hrs).[24][25][26][27][citation needed]
Since 2015, she has set numerous Ultramarathon world and American records/bests between 50 miles and 6 days.[28][29][30]
In 2023, she improved the women's 48Hr world record by 14.8 miles to 270.505 miles (435.336 km), the third-best performance in the world behind only two men. She is the first woman to hold an outright American record.[31][32][33][34]
In March 2024, she set records between 48 hours and 6 days, including 12 World Records. She broke the 33-year-old 6-day world record set by Sandy Barwick in 1990.[35][36][37][38][39]
In April 2022, she became the youngest woman to reach 100,000 lifetime running miles.[40][41][42]
In May 2022, she won the Strolling Jim 40 Miler overall, beating the men and setting a new women's course record.[43]
In 2023, Herron became the first woman to break 24 hours at the 153-mile Spartathlon, setting a course record of 22h 35min 31s. She is the first athlete to win both the Comrades Marathon and Spartathlon.[44][45]
Herron has achieved success in trail running as well, with wins at various races including the JFK 50 Mile,[46] Bandera 100 km, Black Canyon 100 km,[47] Tunnel Hill 100 (course record),[48]Tarawera Ultramarathon 100 km and 100 miles (course records at both), and the Javelina Jundred (course record)[49] She won the Tarawera 100 Miler in a new course record of 17:20:52 two weeks after surviving a rollover car accident.[50]
She is a four-time IAU International Ultra Runner of the Year.[51][52][53][54] She is also a six-time honoree of the USA Track & Field Ruth Anderson Ultrarunner of the Year award,[citation needed] eight-time USATF Athlete of the Week honoree,[citation needed] the 2017 Ultrarunning Magazine Female Ultrarunner of the Year,[55] and repeatedly Ultra Performance of the Year.[56][57][58][59][60] In 2022 and 2023, she was voted USATF Master's Runner of the Year and the 2022 RRCA Master's Runner of the Year.[56][61][62]
