While this event has the potential to produce some epic results, it is sadly too much a product of Lululemon's marketing department.

It is an all-women event, but is restricted to those sponsored by Lululemon. While they have some talented ultra runners among the 10 starters, throwing most of them into the brutality of a 6 Day race is cruel and exploitative. Tears, pain and injury are inevitable for most.

Lululemon could've attracted top athletes from all over the world. There aren't too many opportunities to race a 6 Day ultra, and an all-women's race is a unique opportunity to assemble so much talent on a single start line.

Other than Camille, the two runners to watch:

Leah Yingling. Western States 6th and 9th place finishes, UTMB 8th.

Devon Yanko: Plenty of experience and former US 100km team member with a PB of 7:46 for 100km, and a 14 hour 100 mile.

Unfortunately, Steph Flippin who also has a 14 hour 100 mile to her credit, looks to have pulled after a pedestrian start and a couple of hours. Either she other racing priorities, is injured or she's merely there for her Lululemon pay cheque.

Montana Farrah-Seaton went out hard at the beginning. A quick search yields nothing more promising than a 1:23 half marathon for her, so at 12 hours in, I think she's discovering this is a totally different game. Admittedly, she may have run further under a maiden name, but I'd guess she'll be tucking into a comfy bed tonight and walking like a cripple tomorrow. Credit to her if I'm incorrect.

Of the rest, two are BOP plodders/walkers with limited ultra resumes and four of them appear to have no ultra experience whatsoever. I have an impression that instagram may be a higher priority in their lives than running ultras.

It appears I'm the only one on ST excited by this, but I'll post anyway.

65 hours in, Camille Herron has run 512km / 318 miles.

She is not even halfway through the 6 days. This is crazy. Epic may prove to be a massive understatement.

Keep posting updates, many thanks!

I’m right there with you! I’ve been following closely since the start — amazing seeing her shatter records all along the way.

What is the typical breakdown for these 6 day ultras? Do they run for 18-30 hours then sleep or try and stay up for a few days at a time?

Thanks! I’m following….so epic! Hard to think I’m even of the same species Asher!

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Randy Christofferson(http://www.rcmioga.blogspot.com

Insert Doubt. Erase Hope. Crush Dreams.

I don't think we are, actually

She seems to subsist on a diet of only beer and tacos

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Scheduling sleep is up to individual. It varies depending on how competitive a runner may be, or preferences for running through cooler night temperatures and resting during the day.

It's relatively common for runners to push through the first night and bank some miles while they're relatively fresh. Also running through the final night can make sense (as much as anything does after 5.5 days of sleep deprivation), when the finish is "only" 8 hours away.

I noticed Camille had a break of about 3 hours from about the 15 hour mark, then resumed when Devon and Leah had closed to within a lap or two. Most likely that was a scheduled break for her after an aggressive start to the race and the proximity of the other runners was purely coincidental.

Camille also had a similar length break from about the 65 hour mark, so I suspect that's her nightly routine.

This race is held on a 4km / 2.5 mile loop. That's long for these races. For those running slowly or walking, that can be a stretch between support from one's crew.

Also it looks it's longer than the standard 6 days (144 hours), with the race clock indicating 160 hours. Not sure of the logic of an additional 16 hours.

Meanwhile, they're less than hour from completing 72 hours, what would be the midpoint of a standard 6 Day race.

Camille has amassed 545km / 338 miles. I'm still struggling to get my head around that.

Leah has an admirable 401 km / 249 miles so far. No idea what her goals are but if she can run a consistent second half, something over 760 km / 475 miles in the 6 days wouldn't be a shabby result for her first multi-day. She has plenty of ultra experience over shorter distances to draw upon.

Devon pulled the plug sometime prior to 48 hours, running 254 km /157 miles. I suspect she and Leah may have been running together for much of those first two days.

Herron seems to be right on a 640-650 mile pace for 6 days (close to all-time record of 644)….hard to imagine she can hold it for 2+ more days…but I can’t even imagine what she’s done so far, so who knows?

I for one, would love to see it

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Randy Christofferson(http://www.rcmioga.blogspot.com

Insert Doubt. Erase Hope. Crush Dreams.

Likewise, I'd love to see Herron pip Kouros' record (reminder 1036km/ 644 miles), but I think we're starting to see the first cracks appear.

Camille had reached about 662km at the end of the fourth day, marginally behind an evenly paced 1000km, but some slow down is inevitable. Even if she pushes through to the 144 hours, I think something above 950km or maybe even 600 miles is a more likely outcome.

Barring injury, Sandra Barwick's women's record (883km / 549 miles) looks certain to fall.

ETA: Should have been 692km at the end day 4, which is still just in front of even splits for >1000km but it still feels like a bridge too far.

Giving context to my comment about the relative "softness" of Kouros 6 Day WR, nothing in 6 Day racing is soft.......except perhaps baby food. That stuff goes down a treat.

But I digress....

Five of Kouros' contemporaries ran over 1000km in 6 Days, pretty close to Kouros' 1036 km. With Kouros' Spartathlon course record, his 24 and 48 Hour WR, and many other performances, no one was anywhere near close to his marks. But not so with 6 days on the track.

Jean-Gilles Boussiquet had actually broken Kouros' previous WR, but when Kouros regained the record he did so by adding just 2.6km to the Frenchman's mark. Just enough to give Kouros a buffer of 6 laps of the 400 metre track, handy should any discrepancies be later discovered in the lap scoring.

If we look at Kouros' five wins in the Sydney to Melbourne race, which was run over varied but substantially more challenging routes than the flat grass track where he set the current 6 Day WR, we get a better indication of his capabilities. All are superior performances to his 6 Day WR.

1985 Syd-Melb: Distance 960 km. Approx time 5 days + 5 hours. Ran only 76 km less than 6 Day WR, but a whopping 19 hours inside of 6 days.

1987 Syd-Melb: Distance 1060 km. Approx time 5 days + 14 hours. Ran 24 km further than 6 Day WR with over 9 hours to spare.

1988 Syd-Melb: Distance 1016 km. Approx time 5 days + 19 hours. Ran only 20 km less than 6 Day WR, but still with more than 4 hours under 6 days.

1989 Syd-Melb: Distance 1011 km. Approx time 5 days + 2 hours. Ran only 25 km less than 6 Day WR with almost a full day to spare. Certainly his best and possibly indicative of the capability of 1200 km track performance.

1990 Syd-Melb: Distance 1006 km. Approx time 5 days + 23 hours + 55 minutes. Ran 30 km less than 6 Day WR finishing marginally inside 6 days. But this one is the kicker. I'm almost certain this was the year Kouros went on strike.

With the race now handicapped and Kouros starting up to 24 hours after the other runners, the race organisers were offering daily bonuses for the "race leader on the road". As Kouros neared the outskirts of Melbourne with a characteristically unassailable lead, it was apparent Kouros would win in well under 6 days yet again. As the finish line crowds grew (Melbourne being home to particularly large Greek community) and with the media and dignitaries assembled, Kouros simply stopped running and sat by his support vehicles. Not wanting to forego the pay bonus for being the day 6 race leader, Kouros refused to finish the race until the race management guaranteed him the bonus irrespective of his finish time. After protracted negotiations and growing discontent among the increasing numbers being kept waiting at the finish, management inevitably relented to Kouros' demands.

It wasn't the first or last time Kouros held race organisers over a barrel. He had a certain reputation among race directors.

4.5 days or 108 hours, so 75% of the way to 6 days.

Camille on 746 km / 463 miles.

Both the 1000 km and 600 mile marks are still in play.

It took 5 days, but the race results board has finally corrected the duration of the event.

They are racing a standard 6 Days or 144 hours, not 160 hours as has the countdown clock previously indicated.

So how's Camille doing.

With 14 hours to go, she has run about 844km or 524 miles. So she has slowed a bit, but is still running about 8km/hour or 5 mph.

Provided she keeps running through the final night, she'll be around 960 km/ 600 miles. I can't see her getting that if she has sleep, which she has appeared to do each night so far. 600 miles in 6 days seems an obvious target at this point, so I hope she decides to give it a push.

Meanwhile, Camille has less than 40km/ 25 miles to run before she eclipses Sandra Barwick's 6 Day world record.

This is batshit insane to me. In 2022 I completed my first marathon and also completed a 70.3 at the end of the year and my total running distance for the year was 1005km (624mi). The fact that she will basically run this distance in 6 days boggles the mind.

Well, it appears Camille is (mostly) human as she's slowing down.

In the last 4 hours, she's covered about 17km / 10.5 miles.

It's impossible to know whats happening purely from the score board updates, especially with it only registering a live update every 4km / 2.5 miles.

I'm not sure if she's just had time off the course (sleep, physio, massage, etc?), or is walking (exhaustion or injury?), or what's happening.

ETA: We can put a red line through 600 miles now. That's not in her plans for the final 10 hours.

Camille is only 6km off Sandra Barwick's WR of 883 km / 549 miles.

Camille's last 8km / 5 miles took 70 minutes.

Over 136 hours down, 7:40 still to go. Camille will have over 6 hours to add some miles to the new mark.

Another lap down for Camille and now only 2.3 km from the world record.

There will marker on this lap for her at the 883.631 km point. And no doubt a cheering crowd as well.

And done.

Every step Camille now takes adds to the women's 6 Day world record.

Sandra Barwick's world mark was set in 1990. It's been a while waiting for it to go. Given the progress women have made at the 24 Hour, it was inevitable.

Hopefully this generates more interest in the 6 Day. From its origins in the 1875, to becoming a genuine professional sport in the following decades, then with a resurgence during the 1980/early '90s, the classic 6 Day race is due for another renaissance.

It's brutal. It's ugly. But to anyone who's run one and loves the history of the sport, the 6 Day is something special.

Thanks for your updates. This race has been fun to "watch" online.

Cheers, Alan

Thanks for all the updates, I believe a lot of us were quietly following this here. One thing I did not know until it was too late was that this was done in La Quinta CA. I was there this past weekend and would have loved to stop over and watch a bit. It was a longer course so probably not on a track??

Can't wait for the play by play, but seems like she just went for it from the gun(like Koros used to do) and let the last days chips fall however. Got enough in the bank for a new record, which was probably their 1st goal, but pretty much have to be satisfied with that for now. Back to the drawing board and figure out what paces and nutrition get to that next goal, 1000k's I would presume...

Let's see ... over the week, she set new Women's records for

48 hr (American Road Record)
300 Mile (World Record, as are all of the following)
500K
72 hr
600K
400 Mile
96 hr
700K
800K
500 Mile
120 hr
144 hr
900K

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Yes. No. Perhaps.

There's a bit of hype going on here, which is a shame, because the calibre of Camille's performance stands without it.

World records are recognised at particular distances, and in the case of ultras also particular durations.

So while Camille has become the fastest woman to run 900km, it doesn't make it WR. Sure, we know for certain she's the first woman to run 900km in under 6 days, and the organisers may have even measured where the 900km point was on the loop course and taken her time as she ran by, but it's not a WR as such.

It's like saying Kiptum holds the WR for 40km because we had a timing mat at that point of the marathon. Or saying he holds the 2 Hour WR of 41.756 km, because that's where he was at that point in time when he ran the marathon WR.

As for an American road record at 48 hours. Since the IAU merged its road, track and indoor ranking lists in 2015, there is only a single record for each distance or duration, regardless of the surface. Provided it was run on a certified course.

For ultras, "Road records" and "track records" no longer exist. Barwick doesn't get credit for still holding the 6 Day track WR record, just like Camille hasn't run an American 48 Hour road record.

Yes, there is that, I guess?

Another aspect of Camille's capacity for endurance - have you ever listened to her on a podcast? The girl just goes on & on!!! A two-hour episode with her would be considered "a quick chat!!" LOL

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin