100 miles in 60 hours . . . as mum-of-two lecturer becomes first woman to finish world’s toughest race, no wonder she’s out of puff!
IT’S the toughest race in the world, with a 100-mile course that includes 60,000ft of gradients – double the height of Everest – and must be completed in 60 hours.
So it’s unsurprising British ultra-runner and mother-of-two Jasmin Paris collapsed after finishing the race with just 99 seconds to spare.
The 40-year-old Edinburgh University lecturer said she was ‘overjoyed’ to become the first woman to complete the Barkley Marathons in Tennessee within the time limit. The former vet’s time of 59:58.21 makes her one of only 20 people to have managed the feat since the US course was extended to 100 miles in 1989 – five of whom achieved it this year.
Dr Paris, originally from Derbyshire but who now lives in Midlothian, arrived at the finish line on Friday with her legs scratched from pushing through sharp bush and scrub in dense forest on the unmarked course, which is inspired by a famous prison escape. Competitors must memorise the route beforehand.
Dr Paris, who has represented Scotland at hill running, was so exhausted, she lost her voice and she was able to communicate only via text message, telling the BBC: ‘It still hasn’t really sunk in that I’ve finally done it. This year, I had a strong feeling in the months of training and run-up to the race that I could do it.
‘Those final moments have redefined for me what I am capable of.’ In an email to reporters, she wrote: ‘The final minutes were so intense. After all that effort it came down to a sprint uphill, with every fibre of my body screaming at me to stop.
‘I didn’t even know if I’d made it when I touched the gate.
‘I just gave it everything to get there and then collapsed, gasping for air.’
Photographer David Miller, who captured the moment, called it the ‘greatest ultra-marathon achievement of all time’.
He said: ‘There was a lot of anticipation at the finish line and three minutes before the 60-hour cut-off, we heard shouting and a roar and it was people cheering Jasmin on. She was sprinting and giving it her all as there was no room for error because otherwise she would not have made the cut-off. She touched the gate and collapsed in exhaustion.
‘It was the best thing I have ever seen. It was unbelievable.’ The race was inspired by the escape of Martin Luther King Jr’s assassin James Earl Ray from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in 1977. He evaded helicopter searches by running in the woods for 58 hours before being captured.
Only 35 runners are allowed to participate each year. The race has a constantly changing course involving five loops of 20 miles, which must be run alternately clockwise and anti-clockwise. The direction of the last loop is decided by the first finisher of the fourth loop.
Its odd traditions include entrants having to write an essay entitled ‘Why I should be allowed to run in the Barkley’ and pay a $1.60 (£1.27) entrance fee.
Entrants are also required to bring along an additional ‘fee’ if they are a non-finisher, which could be socks or a car registration plate.
‘The final minutes were so intense’