Runner Jasmin Paris on Friday became the first woman to complete the Barkley Marathons, an extreme hiking race that requires participants in rural Tennessee to navigate 100 miles of rugged terrain in no more than 60 hours.
Paris, 40, from Midlothian, Scotland, finished the race with one minute and 39 seconds to go, making her one of just 20 people to complete the Barkley since it expanded to 100 miles in 1989. She was one of the five who finished this year, out of 40 entrants.
At the end of the course, Paris sank to the ground in front of a yellow gate that marks the start and finish of the race, which consists of five approximately 20-mile laps.
“The last few minutes were so intense, after all that effort it came down to an uphill sprint, with every fiber in my body screaming at me to stop,” Paris said in an email.
Her legs were covered in cuts and scrapes by the time she reached the end of the race, which was the subject of a 2014 documentary, “The Race That Eats Its Young.”
“I didn’t even know if I had made it when I touched the gate,” he added. “I gave everything to get there and then I collapsed, gasping for air.”
She attempted the race in 2022 and 2023 and became the first woman to reach the fourth round since 2001. Although she did not finish the race in those years, she said she felt more confident and experienced going into the race on Friday.
In 2019, Ms Parris, an ultrarunner and vet, became the first woman to win the Montane Spine Race, a 268-mile ultramarathon in the UK. She broke the previous course record by 12 hours, despite stopping at checkpoints to pump breast milk for her newborn.
Barkley began in 1986 after its founder, Gary Cantrell, learned of the prison escape of James Earl Ray, the man who assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Ray ran eight miles in 54 hours through the Tennessee desert. Cantrell thought he could do better and began mapping out routes inside Frozen Head State Park.
The prison was located along the course of the race, which can change every year and requires athletes to often run through rough terrain.
The rules for entering the race are cryptic. Barkley does not advertise. It asks applicants to submit an essay explaining why they wish to compete, in addition to a $1.60 entry fee.
“There is no website and I don’t post the date of the race or explain how to join,” Mr. Cantrell said in a 2013 interview with the New York Times.
“Anything that makes it more mentally stressful for runners is good,” he added.
Nothing about the marathon, which also boasts the equivalent of 60,000 feet of ascent and descent, roughly twice the elevation of Mount Everest, is easy.
The night before the race, runners must remain alert for the sound of a shell that signals one hour until the start of the race. When they take their cues, Cantrell signals the start of the match by lighting a ceremonial cigarette.
As the race progresses, runners must find books scattered along the course and remove a page corresponding to their assigned number to prove their progress.
They hand the page from each book to Mr. Cantrell as they complete each round. There are no route markers and runners must memorize the route before starting.
“If there’s one thing I learned from Barclay,” said Ms. Paris, “it’s that you never know what you’re capable of until you try.”
