RE:RUN 2024 – September

This article is part of Electric Cable Car’s RE:RUN 2024 – The Year in Review. 
This was September 2024 in our world of trail running and mountain culture.

The month of September exists in the afterglow of the massive UTMB week. Everyone is a bit hungover returning home from the Alps and recovering from their massive runs around Mont Blanc. Or they are heads down and are using the last days of summer to jump into a race themselves one more time.

German Katharina Hartmuth is in the latter category. She decides to skip TDS and races Tor des Géants. Wins the women’s race and set a new course record in the process. Afterwards I chat with her on Singletrack about her crazy year of ups and downs and I’m happy for her that she finishes it on a up, a huge, incredible ‘up’.

And speaking of downs: After 20 years Salomon parts way with the Marathon du Mont-Blanc. This is a massive change, which is foreboding to Salomon later on in the year shaking up their Golden Trail Series and dropping several other big events from their race calendar. To make up for all this Salomon gives us a first in footwear: a gravel shoe.

I find myself still on a high from a successful OCC and decide to take advantage of my body still feeling great, the recent course changes at the Whistler race that are now offering 3 Stones for a race with “just” 69KM and 12,600 ft of vert, and the proximity to my hometown. I spontaneously head across the border to get my 3 stones, yeah baby! And I am also up there to report on an event that almost broke then trail running world when it was first announced, but now when it actually happens no one seems to notice – maybe on purpose.

I had mentioned that trail persona non grata Camille Herron would make it back into the news as the year goes on and here in September a report by Marley Dickison for Canadian Running dropped that no one had on their bingo card for the year and yet there were no surprises either when the news was unveiled.

Acclaimed American ultrarunner Camille Herron, who has more than 12 ultrarunning world records to her name, along with her coach and husband, Conor Holt, have found themselves at the centre of a Wikipedia controversy. It stems from several edits to the Wikipedia pages of ultrarunners Kilian Jornet and Courtney Dauwalter, which degraded their accomplishments, while also adding accolades to Herron’s own page. The edits have been traced back to Herron’s email and Holt’s IP address.

The response to all this comes rather swift: The duo deactivate all their social media accounts, haphazard apologize while claiming no real responsibility in all this, and sponsor Lululemon drops Camille unceremoniously and quite immediate. I’m still not sure why the overall response was that decisive. Yes, the reporting was impeccable and Marley brought receipts, that’s for sure, and that might’ve been enough to dispel any doubts, but it’s also worth noting that no one jumped up in support of Camille. Everyone sort of shrugged and said, out loud or to themselves, “yeah, this checks out”. But, as we’ve learned from the last few years, cancelled people never stay cancelled for long, and in December Aravaipa Running posts an episode of Laps & Legends with Scott Traer and Callie Vinson interviewing Camille Herron celebrating her performances on past Desert Solstice events with no mentions of her actions when she’s not wearing a bib.

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This post is part of Electric Cable Car’s RE:RUN 2024 – The Year in Review. I’ll be dropping the October edition in the coming days. To catch up on all of them visit RE:RUN.