This weekend, Jasmin Paris joined Dame Kelly Holmes as an official starter at the TCS London Marathon 2024. The runners, both described as “iconic” by the event organisers, were invited to start the elite women’s and men’s races respectively.
This is not the sort of running celebrity status that Jasmin could have imagined just a month ago, nor could the still relatively small community of ultra runners have predicted that one of their own would gain such mainstream fame.
Yet, within hours of Jasmin becoming the first woman to complete the ultra-distance Barkley Marathons – a niche and notoriously tough American ultramarathon race – she was a major attraction for mainstream media outlets worldwide.
Newspapers, magazines, TV and radio queued to interview the 40-year-old mum of-two from Midlothian, Scotland, who made history in the 100-mile race that she finished just 39 seconds inside the 60-hour limit.
Since 1995 there have been 15 outings – and 1000 entrants – of the Barkley Marathons, yet the full five laps have been successfully completed just 26 times by 20 runners. It was Jasmin’s third attempt.
As well as the prestigious starter role for the London Marathon, Jasmin, who was born in Derbyshire, was also invited to deliver the match ball for the Guinness Women’s Six Nations 2024 game between Scotland and France earlier this month.
When I was finally able to catch up with Jasmin for an interview, she told me: “I wasn’t quite prepared for the scale of interest in my Barkley finish, although, I guess the fact that it was so close at the end added additional excitement, for those following at home.
“But it has been a crazy time and I have been doing interviews for media all over the world.”
She also said it was an honour and “super exciting” to be invited to start the elite women’s London Marathon race.
Jasmin, who is a veterinarian and research scientist at the University of Edinburgh, continued: “I’m very touched by – and grateful for – all the kind messages I’ve received since I finished the race.
“I am also delighted to hear of others being inspired. That’s certainly a key reason why I’ve engaged with the media requests: To encourage others – especially women – to follow their dreams, nurture their self-belief and find out for themselves what they can achieve.”
In addition, as co-founder of The Green Runners (with Damian Hall), Jasmin has been keen to use her much elevated media platform to raise awareness of the community of runners that aim to reduce their impact on the environment.
What is Barkley Marathons?
The Barkley Marathons is an ultramarathon trail race held in late March or early April in Frozen Head State Park near Wartburg, Tennessee. The aim is to complete five laps of approximately 20 miles each on very rough and inhospitable terrain through open and wooded mountain slopes and valleys. The total ascent of the 100-mile “or so” race is twice the height of Everest.
The time limit to complete is 60 hours, with an average of 12 hours per loop. This also includes any rest time between loops. Each loop starts and finish at a yellow road gate where the supporters’ parked cars stay.
Runners must run through the day and night and navigate each unmarked lap, collecting numbered pages from nine to 15 books along the course (the number of books varies each year).
There are no aid stations, except water at two points along the route. Runners can receive no assistance while out on the course.
The Barkley course was designed by Gary “Lazarus Lake” Cantrell. The story goes that the idea for the race was inspired by the tale of the 1977 escape of James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin Luther King Jr, from nearby Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary.
Ray covered only eight miles after running 55 hours in the woods. Cantrell said to himself: “I could do at least 100 miles in that time”, mocking Ray’s low mileage. And, so, the Barkley Marathons was born.
Cantrell named the race after his neighbour and running companion, Barry Barkley. It was first held in 1986 and has grown to be an iconic yet notoriously tough event. There are only about 30 to 40 places in the race each year.
Read about the 2019 Barkley marathons when no-one finished.
Jasmin’s historic Barkley Marathons finish
Jasmin described the Barkley Marathons as the hardest race she has ever done but she did start the extreme challenge with the confidence that she might finish. The accomplished ultra runner had made two previous attempts.
The first time in 2022, she was was the last woman standing and completed three laps under a cut-off time of 40 hours. This gave her the award of achieving the Barkley “fun run”.
In 2023, she was only the second woman ever to attempt a fourth loop, until this year, and she finished the loop but not within the time limit
She said: “The Barkley Marathons was essentially a three-year project. I think that confidence was a key factor compared to previous years but that’s not something I had control over, as such. I think it was confidence that I had earned thanks to prior experience and training.
“This year, I was in a better place in terms of energy levels and my chronic knee problems had settled down, probably thanks to consistent strength training with weights. I also did more long sessions of hill reps in training than in previous years, as well as double training – second session in the afternoon, usually on the stair-climber in the gym – to increase my weekly ascent.
“In the race, the only reason I managed to finish this time was because I gave it 100 per cent – and more.
“I’ve never had to dig as deep as I did in those final minutes of loop five, sprinting uphill to get back to the gate in time.”
Jasmin’s commitment to training
Jasmin’s training is impressive and needs to fit around work and caring for two young children aged three and six with her husband Konrad Rawlik, who is also a successful runner.
She said: “I do most of my training in the early morning. I typically get up at 5am, have a slice of toast and a cup of tea, then train from 5.30am to around 7.15am.
“I then do a strength class from 7.15am to 7.45am, after which I take my son to nursery on the way to work. If I’m on a research week rather than clinics, I commute into the lab from nursery on my bike, which is about 4.5 miles each way with a hill. At weekends, I still do my training early, in order to have most of the day free for the family.”
Scotland’s frequently inclement weather, especially in winter snow or sleet, provides the perfect environment for training for a challenging race. Jasmin also trained many hours in the dark before sun-rise. On one occasion, she ran the mountain Ben Ledi five times up and down.
Why the Barkley Marathons?
Jasmin was drawn to the Barkley Marathons because “I like the challenge of taking on something almost impossible, but not quite. I find that intriguing: The idea draws me in, to see what I can do.”
Jasmin’s Barkley Marathons 2024
Jasmin described the weather condition as great for this year’s race, although she reveals it was even better in 2023. She said: “This year it was a little too warm for me at times, whereas last year it was really cold and frozen.
“Overall, this year was clear and we had only a tiny bit of rain and no fog, so we were really lucky. In bad weather, the challenge of Barkley can increase significantly. This is speaking from my experience in 2022, when there was heavy rain all night on loop two.”
Navigation is obviously key to success. Another competitor Damian Hall was frustrated when he became disorientated due to fatigue in the final lap of this year’s Barkley and missed the cut-off time.
Jasmin revealed that, for her, the navigational aspect of the race had “definitely improved year by year”. She said: “This year, I was really aware of how much I’d learnt in previous years, having navigated several loops on my own on those occasions.
“I still made mistakes – I think everyone does, even the masters who have finished multiple times – but none were disastrous, largely because I either pre-empted them, or recognised and corrected them quickly.”
Jasmin was also surprised by how she coped with a lack of sleep during the 60-hour challenge. She said: “Interestingly, I was affected much less than on previous occasions at Barkley and even less than in shorter races I’ve done in recent years.
“I think I just had such a strong desire to finish that it kept me focused, especially when the adrenaline kicked in on loop five. I still had some hallucinations on that final day, but far fewer than I might have expected.”
Many ultra-runners suffer with nutritional issues during longer races and while Jasmin is very experienced and knowledgeable about her fuelling needs, the length of the Barkley often affects runners.
At basecamp, she ate pasta, porridge or rice pudding, plus a banana – “those always work for me in long races,” she said – and drank coke, tea and coffee.
On the course, she drank stream water and ate a mixture of frittata (made with potato, peas and cheese), pizza, sandwiches (cheese and pickle, jam, banana and peanut butter), hot cross buns with butter, trail mix, Snickers bars, homemade flapjack, sweets and a few gels.
She said: “I ate pretty well in the first two loops, but then things deteriorated and I really struggled in the last three laps.”
Lap five was, of course, the hardest for Jasmin as it tested her both physically and mentally. She said: “I wasn’t in very good shape when I left camp to start loop five, but I was determined to make it around.
“Then, with roughly six hours to go to the finish cut-off, it became clear to me that the time would be really tight. I started to push and calculate splits for every valley and summit to get myself back [to the yellow gate] in time. Adrenaline kicked in, and a little bit of joy too, as I ticked off the summits for the final time racing for home.
“I pushed myself really hard on the last descent, yet it went on forever, and by the time I reached the final kilometre of flat to mild uphill, it was obvious to me that time was incredibly tight.
“I was suddenly faced with the awful possibility that I might finish a few seconds over time, and I had to push myself to level I wasn’t previously aware I was capable of, to get to the gate in time.”
This year, there were a record number of Barkley Marathons finishers. Jasmin was one of five runners who completed the five laps within 60 hours. For Jared Campbell, it was his fourth Barkley finish, while for John Kelly it was his third finish.
Jasmin said: “I still feel hugely happy about what I achieved. It’s a wonderful thought whenever I chance upon it.
“I’m proud that I had the self-belief to persevere when things were so tough, ultimately answering the big question I’d asked of myself. If I am able to inspire other women to follow their own dreams, I hope that they will feel the same pride and joy when they achieve their goal.
“I do think, on average, that women tend to be better at pacing than men, and often come through in the later stages of long-distance events to start catching men who went off much faster at the start.
“However, I guess there have also been some disadvantages for me racing in the last seven years, which have been associated with pregnancy and breastfeeding. This brings additional challenges in terms of training and racing, particularly for events further afield from Scotland.”
Who is Jasmin Paris?
Jasmin first gained the attention of the mainstream media with her record time and outright victory in the 2019 Montane Spine Race. However, many runners were already familiar with her presence and successes at many hill running and ultra-distance events,
She started focusing more seriously on running almost 15 years ago and has won races such as The Three Peaks Race and the Isle of Jura Race. She won the Scottish Hill Running Championships in 2014 and 2015 and the British Fell Running Championships in 2015 and 2018.
In April 2015, she set a new women’s record in the Fellsman and finished fourth overall. The following month she was the first female finisher and second overall in the five-day Dragon’s Back Race in Wales.
She has previously set record times for all of the UK’s so-called big rounds, the Bob Graham Round, the Ramsay Round and the Paddy Buckley Round.
Jasmin was also victorious in the the Extreme series of the 2016 Skyrunner World Series.
In 2021, Jasmin completed a circuit of a record 29 Munros in 24 hours.
She was sponsored by Inov-8 until 2022, when she opted to run for the Green Runners.