The Strange Saga of Ultrarunner Camille Herron and Wikipedia

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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 different outstanding runners on the web site Wikipedia. Holt’s edits boosted his spouse’s accolades but in addition downgraded these of the opposite outstanding ultrarunners.

“Camille had nothing to do with this,” Holt wrote in an electronic mail despatched to Outdoors and a number of other operating media web sites. “I’m 100% accountable and apologize [to] any athletes affected by this and the flawed I did.”

The confession introduced some readability to an Web thriller that embroiled the operating neighborhood for a number of days and sparked a flurry of chatter on social media and operating boards. Herron, 42, is without doubt one of the most seen ultrarunners within the sport, and over time she has gained South Africa’s Comrades Marathon and likewise held world information in a number of completely different occasions, together with the 48-hour and six-day durations. However the Wikipedia controversy led to swift penalties for Herron—her main sponsor, Lululemon, parted methods along with her on Thursday morning.

All the ordeal sprung from an investigation led by a Canadian journalist who spent greater than per week following digital breadcrumbs on darkish corners of the Web. For individuals who haven’t spent the final week breathlessly refreshing area of interest operating web sites, right here’s how distance operating’s most weird controversy in current reminiscence unfolded.

A Digital Sleuth Digs In

Marley Dickinson, a reporter for the web site Canadian Working, started wanting into the Wikipedia controversy in mid-September after receiving a tip from somebody within the operating neighborhood. The tipster informed Dickinson, 29, that somebody was making an attempt to delete vital information from the Wikipedia entry for “Ultramarathon.”

The particular person had erased the accomplishments of a Danish runner named Stine Rex, who in 2024 broke two long-distance operating information—the six-day and 48-hour marks—which have been beforehand held by Herron. On the time, the game’s governing physique, the Worldwide Affiliation of Ultrarunners, was deciding whether or not or to not honor Rex’s six-day document of 567 miles.

“The particular person making the edits mentioned the IAU had decided on the document, despite the fact that they hadn’t but,” Dickinson informed me. “Whoever was doing it actually wished to get Rex’s run off of Wikipedia.”

Wikipedia permits nameless customers to edit entries, however it logs these modifications in a public discussion board and exhibits which person accounts made them. After an edit is made, a crew of volunteer moderators, often called Wikipedians, examines the modifications after which decides whether or not or to not publish them. The positioning requires content material to be verifiable via revealed and dependable sources, and it asks that info be introduced in a impartial method, with out opinion or bias. The positioning can warn and even droop a person for making edits that don’t adhere to those requirements.

Dickinson, who labored in database advertising at Thomson Reuters earlier than becoming a member of Canadian Working, was intrigued by the weird edits. “I’ve at all times been into wanting on the backend of internet sites,” he informed me. “There’s normally a method you may tie an account again to an individual.”

The editor in query used the title “Rundbowie,” and Dickinson noticed that the account had additionally made quite a few modifications to Herron’s biography. Most of those edits have been to insert glowing feedback into the textual content. “I assumed whoever this particular person is, they’re a giant fan of Camille Herron,” Dickinson mentioned.

Rundbowie was prolific on Wikipedia, and made frequent tweaks and updates to different biographies. The account had eliminated language from the pages of Jornet and Dauwalter—particularly deleting the textual content “broadly considered one of many best ultramarathon runners of all time.” Rundbowie had then tried so as to add this actual language to Herron’s web page. Each makes an attempt have been finally denied by Wikipedians.

After analyzing the edits, Dickinson started to suspect that Rundbowie was operated by both Herron or Holt. Additional digital sleuthing bolstered this opinion. He noticed that the Rundbowie account, which made virtually day by day edits between February and April, abruptly went silent between March 6-12. These dates corresponded with Herron’s world-record run in a six-day race placed on by Lululemon in California.

However Dickinson wasn’t executed along with his detective work. He noticed that in March, Wikipedia had warned Rundbowie on its public Incident Report web page. The rationale? Rundbowie’s exercise was almost an identical to that of a earlier commenter that had been suspended for making repeated edits to Herron’s Wikipedia biography. That account was named Temporun73. Moderators had shut down Temporun73 on February 8, which was the identical day that the Rundbowie account was created.

Moderators had warned Temporun73 in January about its updates to Herron’s web page. A moderator emailed the account saying: “Utilizing language like ‘legendary,’ ‘prestigious,’ and ‘steely toughness’ is just not the type of impartial tone that’s allowed in writing right here. Wikipedia is a factual supply of content material, not a promotional platform for athletes.”

A closing Web deep dive satisfied Dickinson that he was heading in the right direction. The IP deal with—a string of characters related to a given laptop—positioned Temporun73 in Oklahoma, which is the place Herron and Holt reside. Then, on a discussion board web page for Oregon State College, which is the place Herron attended graduate faculty, Dickinson discovered an outdated Yahoo electronic mail deal with utilized by Herron. The e-mail title: Temporun73.

“To me, this was a transparent signal that it was both Conor or Camille” Dickinson mentioned.

The Working Group Reacts

Dickinson revealed his story to Canadian Working on Monday, September 23. The piece included screenshots of Wikipedia edits in addition to Dickinson’s path to Herron and Holt. It began off a flurry of on-line reactions.

A thread on the operating discussion board LetsRun generated 360 feedback, and a number of other hundred extra appeared on the Reddit communities for path operating and ultrarunning. Movie My Run, a British YouTube web site, uploaded a right away response video the next day. Inside 12 hours, greater than 100 individuals shared their ideas within the feedback part.

It’s comprehensible why. Lauded for her accolades in ultra-distance races, Herron can also be one of the seen ultrarunners on the planet. She provides frequent interviews, and has been an outspoken advocate for the anti-doping motion, for sensible and accountable coaching habits, and for the development of ladies runners.

“I feel we’re going to proceed to see obstacles being damaged and bars raised. I need to see how shut I can get to the boys’s world information, and even exceed a males’s world document,” she informed Outdoors Run in 2023.

Herron has additionally spoken and written about her personal psychological well being. Earlier this 12 months, she started writing and giving interviews about her current prognosis with Autism and ADHD.

“Though I knew little about autism earlier than in search of out a prognosis, my husband, who noticed my day by day quirks and sometimes jogged my memory to eat, drink, and go to mattress, would jokingly speculate that I is perhaps autistic,” she informed author Sandra Rose Salathe on the web site FloSpace in July.

Dickinson informed me he had a really optimistic picture of Herron from his quick time at Canadian Working. He joined the web site in 2021.

“She’s at all times been tremendous good and welcoming,” Dickinson mentioned.

Dickinson says he reached out to Herron and Holt through electronic mail and social media, however didn’t obtain a reply. On Monday afternoon, a person on the social media platform X requested Herron concerning the story. “It’s made up,” Herron’s account replied. “Somebody has an ax to grind and is bullying and harassing me.”

Herron’s social media accounts have been deactivated shortly afterward—Holt later mentioned he took them down.

Some on-line commenters questioned if the story was official—one thing I did too, initially. Following Dickinson’s arcane path via Wikipedia’s backend required a cautious learn, and a powerful information of the encyclopedia’s guidelines and rules.

After talking to Dickinson, I despatched my notes to a Wikipedia professional named Rhiannon Ruff, who operates a digital consulting agency known as Lumino that helps purchasers navigate the web encyclopedia. Ruff examined the story in addition to the Wikipedia histories of Rundbowie and Temporun 73, and mentioned that the proof strongly urged that each accounts have been operated by the identical particular person. However, since Wikipedia permits for anonymity, you can’t make the reference to 100% certainty.

Ruff identified that Wikipedia’s inner editors strongly believed the 2 accounts had a biased with Herron, as a result of the accounts had tried to write down in the identical sentence. “Each tried so as to add particulars about her crediting the affect of her father and grandfather, and the way she runs with a smile,” Ruff mentioned.

Ruff additionally pointed me to the prolific modifying historical past of Temporun73. Began in 2016, the account had made roughly 250 edits to numerous Wikipedia biographies. Most have been to Herron’s personal web page, however the account additionally tried to change the pages for all kinds of matters: South Africa’s Comrades Marathon, Kenyan runners Tegla Loroupe and Ruth Chepng’etich, American Jim Walmsley, Greek runner Yiannis Kouros, the town of Alamosa, Colorado (the place Holt and Herron personal a residence), British runner Lizzy Hawker, Lithuanian runner Aleksandr Sorokin, Barkley Marathons founder Lazarus Lake, and the 1999 Oklahoma twister outbreak, amongst others.

The account additionally made a minimum of 5 edits to Dauwalter’s web page.

Conor Holt Responds

Outdoors reached out to Herron through electronic mail, textual content, and cellphone calls shortly after the Canadian Working story revealed. On Tuesday, Holt emailed his mea culpa to Outdoors and 9 different retailers. Canadian Working was not included on the checklist.

In his message, Holt mentioned that he and Herron had been delayed in responding as a result of they have been in Greece to take part within the operating race Spartathlon, which begins on Saturday, September 28. He mentioned that Dickinson’s preliminary outreach had ended up in his electronic mail spam folder, which is why he didn’t reply to the Canadian Working story.

“I by no means obtained an opportunity to say something to the Canadian Working web site earlier than they revealed it,” Holt wrote.

Holt admitted that he was the operator of the Temporun73 and Rundbowie accounts. However he mentioned his Wikipedia modifying was aimed toward combating on-line bullies who had eliminated biographical particulars from Herron’s Wikipedia web page previously.

“I saved including again within the particulars, after which they blocked my account in early February of this 12 months,” Holt wrote. “Nothing was out of line with what different athletes have on their pages. Wikipedia permits the creation of one other account, so I created a brand new account Rundbowie. I used to be going off what different athletes had on their pages utilizing the username Rundbowie and copying/pasting this information.”

“I used to be solely attempting to guard Camille from the fixed bullying, harassment and accusations she has endured in her operating profession, which has severely impacted her psychological well being,” he added. “A lot to the purpose that she has sought skilled psychological well being assist.”

Outdoors requested Holt through electronic mail to supply additional particulars, however we didn’t obtain a response. In an electronic mail to Canadian Working, Holt mentioned he was targeted on Herron’s upcoming race, and wouldn’t be conducting interviews.

However the fallout from the admission got here shortly. On Thursday morning Dickinson broke extra information: attire model Lululemon, which has backed Herron since 2023, had ended its partnership. In an announcement supplied to a number of retailers, the model mentioned it was devoted “to equitable competitors in sport for all,” and that it sought to “deliberately associate with ambassadors who embody these identical values.”

“After cautious consideration and dialog, we’ve got determined to finish our ambassador partnership with Camille,” the assertion mentioned.

The announcement marked a weird bookend to the saga, and penned a bizarre new chapter into the historical past books of American endurance sports activities. In earlier years, endurance athletes have confronted criticism for feedback made in interviews, for dishonest, and for conduct on social media. However an endurance athlete ending up within the crosshairs on account of edits on Wikipedia—that really is a primary.