by “I was so close to dying,” says Jasmin Paris, reliving the moment she became the first woman to finish the race widely regarded as the most devilish, terrifying and difficult of all. . “I felt like I was going to reach the final gate, or fall right in front of it. A tunnel roared on all sides. But I couldn’t focus. It was all a bit blurry.”
Since 1989, more than 1,000 ultramarathoners have attempted the Barkley Marathon at Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee. But only 20 have ever completed the 100-mile course, which includes about 16,500 meters of altitude – the equivalent of climbing Everest twice – within the 60-hour time limit.
On Friday, however, Paris, a 40-year-old senior veterinary lecturer at Edinburgh University, crossed the line in 59 hours, 58 minutes and 21 seconds – 99 seconds inside the cutoff. Before falling in a heap.
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“The problem isn’t the fact that it’s 100 miles – it’s the terrain,” Paris tells the Guardian in her first interview since returning to the UK. “Just after we left we went up a slope so steep that sometimes my foot would slip back down, and I would have to go again. There were a few places where we were climbing on our bellies. And this year, there was also a new section that used to be used for mining on the side of a hill, and it was covered in brambles so we managed to cut our legs to pieces.”
There is no sleep time either – apart from the power nap three minutes before the last of the five loops – which unsurprisingly led to hallucinations. “I saw a lot of people in black macintoshes,” she says. “They were climbing the same hill as me, always a certain distance ahead. And it was strange, they all had a sinister feeling.
“I see animals in races like this all the time too,” she says. “There were trees that looked like mountain lions, or big dogs, or sleeping pigs, until I got closer.”
Paris had attempted the Barkley marathon twice before, but failed to complete all five laps. But this time she was confident throughout, until a wobble just before the end. “When I got about eight minutes out, I suddenly thought I might not make it,” she says. “I had about a kilometer to go but uphill. I was so desperate to stop. But my mind was telling me, ‘if you don’t do this, you’ll have to do it again’.
“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. After that I just fell. I had to breathe hard for five minutes before I recovered because I had never been so deficient in oxygen.”
Along the way she fueled up with pasta, porridge, rice pudding and her secret weapon – bananas. “Bananas are the one thing that really works for me when I’m doing these crazy long things,” she says. “I also tried to keep a mix of savory and sweet, including cheese and pickle sandwiches, pizza, frittata, Snickers and flapjacks. It becomes very difficult to eat, so you have to eat as much as you can.”
Paris’ success was the culmination of months of training every morning from 5am to 7.45am, before her two children were up and she started work. “The most I ran was 90 miles a week, but it was probably more like 120 or 130 miles with the walk,” she says. “In terms of training for the climb, I also did 11-12,000 meters some weeks from hill reps or the stair climber.
“I also did a strength session, which really helped,” she says. “I never had any anterior cruciate ligament in my left knee, because I tore it when I was 17 and never had reconstructive surgery.”
This is the second time Paris has made global headlines, after becoming the first woman to win the grueling 268-mile Spine Montane Race, from Edale in the Peak District to Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish Borders, in 2019. continue to explore the possible limits?
“It’s still very exciting for me to push myself, especially when I don’t know if I can do something,” she says. “It sounds a bit corny, but you also discover more about yourself, when you destroy everything that makes life easier.
“In these races you have to feed yourself, get water, and go through the desert on your own, doing hard climbs and descents. In these situations you form relationships with other people that cannot be done quickly in everyday life.”
Being alone also gives her valuable time to think. “I get a similar, though less extreme, thrill from a week in the mountains,” she says. “It’s that feeling of being in the wilderness, leaving civilization behind, and finding a sense of perspective and calm.”
However Paris is uneasy at the thought of anyone praising her as a superwoman. Instead, she just wants to encourage people to take up things they might have put aside.
“I hope that maybe it will inspire people to have their own hobbies when kids, work and life get on,” she says. “Because it was definitely very good for my mental health.”
Meanwhile Paris reports that she is already recovering from her amazing feat. “It’s amazing what a good night’s sleep can do,” she says. And yes, his next event, the Isle of Scots Peaks race, a running and sailing race in May, is already in the diary.
