Who is Jasmin Paris ? The first woman to complete the Barkley Marathons

Jasmin Paris is certainly no stranger to historic performances, but last week’s feat of becoming the first woman and one of only 20 runners to complete the Barkley Marathons since 1989 may just be her greatest achievement to date. 

The Barkley Marathons is widely considered to be the most challenging ultra-race in the world, with a 99% failure rate. We take a look at the buildup and aftermath of her legendary performance.

Paris is a British ultrarunner and currently resides in Edinburgh with her husband and two children. She works as a vet and a senior lecturer in the Royal School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Paris started running in 2008 and rose to notoriety in 2015 with wins in the Fellsman and the Dragon’s Back Race. She made headlines in 2019 when she won the 268-mile (431.3 km) Spine Race outright, demolishing the previous course record by over 12 hours.

The Barkley course takes place in Frozen Head State Park and was created by Gary "Lazarus Lake" Cantrell and Karl Henn after they heard about a famous escape from the nearby Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary. The annual race includes five loops of roughly 20 miles (32 km), with 60,000 feet (18,000 m) of ascents and descents, which comes to twice the height of Mount Everest from sea level. Runners have to self-navigate through the wilderness, collecting pages from books placed at various points around the course. The event is shrouded in mystery, with a secretive selection process, yearly changes to the course, and an undefined start time. Race coverage is limited to elusive updates from Keith Dunn, the official reporter, via X. 

Jasmin Paris : Barkley Marathons Success

This year’s success for Jasmin Paris was preceded by two previous attempts in 2022 and 2023. In 2022, Paris became the fourth woman to complete a "Fun Run" of three loops, and in 2023, she was the second woman to ever attempt a fourth loop.

In the 2024 edition, Paris went down in history for becoming the first woman to complete the five laps. Thousands of fans were on tenterhooks as they followed live updates as Paris steadily worked around the course. All hope seemed to be lost for Jasmin as the clock ticked closer to the 60-hour cut-off time.  With under two minutes left, she was seen to emerge from the forest, powering to the finish and arriving just 99 seconds inside the limit. Photos of her arrival show Paris slumped exhausted over the finishing gate, surrounded by visibly moved fellow finishers and a delighted Lazarus Lake. 

This is a race definitely not for the faint-hearted, and Paris says that it was the toughest thing she’s ever done. Speaking after returning to Scotland, Paris expanded on the difficulties of the terrain, stating that at some points the climbs were so steep and technical that runners had to scramble up on their bellies. She also talked about hallucinating due to lack of sleep, believing that she was surrounded by people in black macintoshes. 

Paris prepared for the race by running up to 90 miles (145 km) a week, supplemented by strength training and working on her navigation skills. She managed to fit this in before work, getting up at 5 a.m. every morning.

What’s next for Jasmin Paris?

With her history-making race completed, Jasmin’s recovery is already well underway. Her next challenge is the Scottish Islands Peaks Race, a fell running and sailing race in May. She will also be on the start line of the Tor des Géants in Italy in September.

Jasmin Paris’ unprecedented performance in this year’s Barkley Marathons will be talked about for years to come. Alongside other top names in the sport, she is paving the way for a bright future in women’s ultra-running. With participation rates rising dramatically over the past few years, we’re excited to see even more progress over the coming years!

Fun Barkley Facts

• The full, five-loop race has been completed within the time limit 26 times by 20 different runners.
• The longest stretches with no finishers were six years, between 1995 and 2001 and 2017 and 2023.
• The 2024 Barkley Marathons were unprecedented in more ways than one, with a record-breaking five finishers: Ihor Verys, John Kelly (third finish), Jared Campbell (fourth finish), Greig Hamilton, and Jasmin Paris.
• The current course record stands at 52:03:08 and was set by Brett Maune in 2012 on his second successful participation in the race.
• In 1995, Mark Williams, of the United Kingdom, became the first to finish the full, longer version of the Barkley Marathons with a time of 59:28:48.
• In 2017, the American Gary Robbins reached the finishing gate six seconds after the 60-hour cut-off, almost becoming the 16th runner ever to complete the Barkley. However, it later transpired that he had taken a wrong turn in the final stages of the race, thus cutting two miles off the course. He would have been disqualified, even if he had been faster.

Is it time to do away with gender categories?

Recent performances by athletes such as Jasmin Paris, Courtney Dauwalter, Camille Herron, and Ruth Croft seem to defy our preconceptions of gender differences and have led to speculation that men and women are on a level playing field when it comes to ultra-running.

A study in 2020 by RunRepeat stated that as race distance increases, disparity between male and female runners decreases, with female runners only 0.25% slower at 100 miles and 0.6% faster at distances over 200 miles. However, as pointed out by Sophie Power, ultrarunner and founder of SheRACES, a campaign geared towards improving racing conditions for women, this conclusion is flawed: “Women are often put off by cutoffs and in their ability to finish a race, and therefore won’t sign up unless they have a high confidence of success. Women on the starting line of these races are relatively better athletes the than men.” This skews the results in favour of women’s performances, when in actuality the physiological gap remains the same across all distances. 

So, should we be shouting from the rooftops about Jasmin Paris’ awe-inspiring performance in the Barkley Marathons? Of course we should! But we need to celebrate women’s achievements for what they are without systematically referring back to performances by men.