As the 2025 ultrarunning campaign gets into gear, the impact of what Jasmin Paris accomplished at the Barkley Marathons last year could hardly be clearer.
Not long after the Barkleys she was starting off the women elites at the London Marathon and being awarded an MBE and judging by a recent article on the BBC her achievement went way beyond the world of ultrarunning – and even sport.
Her feat of becoming the first woman to finish the infamous race featured in year-end highlight reels across the sporting spectrum.
And now the BBC, the world’s leading public service broadcaster, has published a list of the most-read stories on the BBC Scotland News website – and Paris’ achievement features prominently.
Inspiring women worldwide
The ultraunning world was gripped back in March when Paris rewrote the record books – and re-defined what is possible – with her performance at Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee.
She had 60 hours to try and complete five brutal laps through incredibly challenging terrain and with the equivalent elevation gain of climbing Mount Everest twice.
But she did so with just 99 seconds to spare to become only the 20th person – and the first female – to complete the challenge in the event’s history.
It would make the primetime BBC News and looking through that most-read stories list, it’s the only one with a sporting focus.
The sudden death of Scotland’s former first minister Alex Salmond was the most read and the resignation of Humza Yousaf next but also in that top five was Paris, not only the fact she finished but that she said she did it for “women worldwide”.
‘It’s a bit of a weird concept’
And recently Paris has been chatting to fellow ultrarunner Adrian Stott about her reflections on the Barkleys – and what challenges are likely to inspire her in the future.
The full interview is here but in terms of new targets, it sounds like another Laz Lake-inspired invention is top of the list!
She told Stott: “The thing is, Barkley is quite unique, isn’t it? There are a lot of races out there that I’m kind of interested in doing, but there aren’t that many races that I can think of that are unique in a way that Barkley is.
“I think there are races that I want to do. I’d like to run Hardrock one year.
“At some point, just for the kind of interest of it, I’ll probably want to run a Backyard Ultra. It’s a bit of a weird concept, where you run around loops as long as you can, but I’ve always found it fairly interesting, and the challenge of how far you can go is intriguing. There’s a lot of mind stuff going on in a race like that where it comes down to you versus the last man standing. I find that side of things quite fascinating.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of what happens when you put yourself at the limit of what you can do and how far your mind can take you. Finding a fairly unique challenge in the sense that I don’t think until you do it, you have any idea really how you’re going to respond to that situation.
“So, I think, at some point, I’ll do one just because I’m intrigued about what it would be like.”
Watch this space!
