Camille Herron obliterates Spartathlon course record by more than two hours
Herron finished third overall, and is the first woman to have ever completed the race under 24 hours
Photo by:
Sparta Photography Club
American ultrarunner Camille Herron has demolished yet another record, this time in Greece at the 40th edition of the iconic Spartathlon event. Herron finished third overall on the 153-mile course, besting the course record (24:48:18 set by Patrycja Bereznowska in 2018) by more than two hours to finish in 22 hours, 35 minutes and 30 seconds.
Herron, who was third overall, was followed by Finnish runnerĀ Noora HonkalaĀ in 23:23:02. Satu LipiƤinen, also of Finland, rounded out the podium, finishing in 23:48:36.
2023 Spartathlon Champion and new course record of 22:35:30 for 153 miles! Previous womenās record was 24:48:18 by Patrycja Bereznowska in 2017. pic.twitter.com/csw2qowGUC
— Camille Herron š¦øāāļø (@runcamille) October 1, 2023
Spartathlon was created to follow the ancient journey of Pheidippides, a courier said to have run the distance between Athens and Sparta to seek reinforcements during a battle.Ā The course traverses roads and trails, with 3,201 metres elevation gain.
This year’s race also saw a course record on the men’s side, with Fotis Zisimopoulos winning in 19:55:09āthe first person to complete the race under 20 hours. Zisimopoulos beat ultrarunning great Yiannis Kouros‘s longstanding record of 20:25:00, set in 1984. Zisimopoulous win was his third consecutive, and he was followed by Norway’s Simen HolvikĀ in 22:17:23 and Uruguay’s Fernando Andres Roman Martinez in 23:32:59.
Fotis Zisimopoulos of Greece #spartathlon for the third year in a row. He finished in about 19:54:29, which broke the course record set in 1984 by Yiannis Kouros of 20:25:00 pic.twitter.com/84Mq8Hg1oq
— UltraRunningHistory (@UltraRunningHis) October 1, 2023
Herron adds this achievement to her considerable ultrarunning accomplishments and world records, and earlier in 2023 set multiple masters world records and American records at the Raven 24-Hour race in South Carolina, running 150.43K in 12 hours, and then crossing the 100-mile mark in 12:52:50. She followed that performance by smashing the world 48-hour record in March, running a mind-boggling 435.336K at the Sri Chinmoy 48-Hour Festival in Canberra, Australia.
“An epic journey in the footsteps of Pheidippides,” Herron captioned a post of her race data on X. At 41, Herron is the youngest woman to be inducted into the 100,000 Lifetime Miles Club (which she was in 2022). The prolific runner has now surpassed 107,000 miles.
For complete results of the 2023 Spartathlon, head here.
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