pic to come

Born in the Victorian country town of Euroa, Cynthia spent her early life in the tiny “Six Family” town of “Boho South” showing no real sporting prowess of note. Later in life, she was to venture into athletics in 1980 by taking herself down to the Springvale Veterans Athletic Club in suburban Melbourne.  Her most significant memory of that first night was the struggle to complete four laps of the track!

Five years of standard distance running produced a 3:04 marathon best but Cynthia’s niche in the sporting world was to be unearthed in September 1985 when she toed the line at the Coburg 100km track race.  Under the excellent coaching of Dave Herbert, Cynthia recorded a time of 10:00:04.  While missing the 10 hour mark by such a small margin may have been disappointing, it served notice of what was to come.

December 1985 produced a Sydney to Melbourne qualifying performance in the official 207 kilometre Westfield Trial from the Melbourne Suburb of Airport West to Colac via the Great Ocean Road.

In February 1986, the Box Hill 24 Hour Track Race was the scene of a new Australian Record of 191km. The ultra world was now taking ample notice of the coach/athlete combination of Cynthia Cameron and Dave Herbert.

The Cynthia Cameron “team” took on a professional touch as the 1986 Sydney to Melbourne race approached. Masseur, Gary Miritis came on board and ultimately stuck with Cynthia during her career, both at races and during the many arduous hours of training. Gary went on to spend the 90’s touring the world as Cathy Freeman’s full time masseur.

The gruelling 1986 race between Australia’s two major cities proved to be a disappointment when a knee injury resulted in a DNF, ironically at Euroa, Cynthia’s place of birth.

Undeterred, the remainder of 1986 resulted in many highlights. A new Australian 50 mile record in June of 6:52:42 also included a 50km record of 4:13:09.  Australian Records flowed thick and fast.  Returning to the scene of her first ultra, Cynthia’s 9:15:26 for 100km was again a new national mark but it was the month of November that history was made at the Sri Chinmoy 24 Hour event.  A booty of national records tumbled on the old jagged and dusty 440 yard Adelaide Harriers Track as Cynthia charged through 12 hours with a distance of 115.25km, 100 miles in 18:11:37, then 200km with just minutes to spare in 23:56:10 and on to a final distance of 200.615km. Four national track records and a place in the history books as the first woman in the Southern Hemisphere to break 200km in 24 hours rounded off a very fruitful year. The name Cynthia Cameron was now attracting attention internationally. Her name even found its way into the Australian version of the Guinness Book of Records

As with all champions, such performances were not achieved without numerous hours of training. Once each month, a weekend would consist of a 10 hour Saturday run followed by 15 hours on the Sunday. 350 kilometres per week was not uncommon.

A return to the Westfield Sydney to Melbourne race in 1987 proved to be Cynthia’s finest hour.  The nation’s press covered the enthralling and absorbing duel that panned out on the highway between Cynthia and her younger and much more fancied rival from the US, Mary Hanudel.  Constant lead changes had reporters and camera men working overtime. Taking the lead for the last time on the approach to Melbourne, Cynthia was not headed again as she charged through the suburbs of Melbourne to a dramatic victory that featured live on national television. Almost forgotten in the euphoria was a new national road record for 1,000km of 8D 10:55:00, a record that still stands today.

1987 also consisted of a 4:45 performance at the Frankston to Portsea 55km event followed soon after by two 50 mile races on successive days. Those who were around back then would remember the Australian 50 Mile Track Championship being a Saturday event with a road option at Princes Park the following day. Cynthia ran both under eight hours!

Cynthia did not grace another ultra until the 1988 Colac Six Day race by which stage the coach/athlete relationship she had with Dave Herbert had made the transition to husband/wife.  The wedding reflected their enthusiasm for running. Taking off for a run, they met the marriage celebrant at a predetermined corner, donned wedding clothing and made their vows before continuing the run back home!

Having run as Cynthia Cameron throughout her stellar career, she recorded an Australian Six Day record as Cynthia Herbert with a final total of 738km. A 48 hour split of 261.2km was also a new national mark.

Ultimately, Colac became Cynthia’s last race as worsening achilles tendon injuries put paid to future ultras.

“Her real strength was her incredibly high tolerance of pain”, Dave emphasised. “She’d have run just as fast barefoot over broken glass if she had to”

Always humble and unpretentious, Cynthia never thought that she did anything special and couldn’t understand all the fuss that went hand in hand with her prolific record breaking.

“I just ran my own race” was her laid-back reference to that historic and tension filled 1987 Sydney to Melbourne victory. 

Dave related an occurrence from their honeymoon on South Molle Island,
“By chance, we met mountaineer, Tim McCartney-Snape in a coffee shop”.
“Cynthia couldn’t comprehend how anyone could summit Mount Everest”
“Equally, Tim couldn’t get a grasp on Cynthia’s mind boggling achievements”
“They just sat at the table in awe of each other” Laughed Dave.

Life since has been far from sedate. Cynthia and Dave are regular bushwalkers, spend three months a year caravanning, have almost completed canoeing the length of the Murray River in a “Join the Dots” exercise and still manage to find time to cycle 200-300km a week which includes organising a social bike riding group each Wednesday known appropriately as the “Handlebar Harriers”

In a superb career that lasted just three years [1985-88], Cynthia lifted the standard of women’s ultrarunning in Australia by many, many notches. Most remarkable, however, was her versatility, setting national records right across the entire spectrum of ultra distances from 50 kilometres to multi day events. 

The achievements of Cynthia Herbert [Cameron] are glorious chapter in Australian ultrarunning history.

Compiled by Kevin Cassidy from AURA records and information furnished by Cynthia and Dave Herbert