Twelve months on from making global headlines at the infamous Barkley Marathons, ultrarunning legend Jasmin Paris was busy making lots of new friends at a different type of endurance event – the Haworth Hobble.
A challenging 32-mile UK ultramarathon on Brontë country moors in and around Haworth in Yorkshire, the route packs in over 4,000 feet of climbing.
This year was the 44th edition of what is an incredibly popular – it sells out virtually straight away – and inclusive event which is open to walkers as well as runners.
International Women’s Day
But the star attraction on International Women’s Day was the appearance of Paris, the first female finisher of the Barkley Marathons at Frozen Head State Park in rural East Tennessee last March.
She was in Haworth, famous for being the home of the Brontë sisters, to support husband Konrad Rawlik in the race as well as do a presentation and Q&A session afterwards about her Barkley exploits, which have done so much to inspire women and girls especially.
And judging by the amount of selfies on Strava and social media, she must have spent a large proportion of her day chatting to runners, helpers and supporters who were thrilled to have bumped into a real-life running legend.
She had waved the flag to start the race and ran some of the route too from checkpoint 2 onwards alongside her dog, which is where she met many of the runners.
Later on in the day she rounded off her presentation with some final thoughts, which clearly chime with her Barkley heroics but which will also resonate with so many others:
- Do what you are passionate about
- Bad patches do pass
- Success is built on failure
- Your support team is everything
Top-ten finish for Konrad
In the race itself, Rawlik came joint ninth out of over 600 finishers in a time of four hours, 39 minutes and 58 seconds as the event took place in near-perfect sunny conditions, with the UK basking in unseasonably warm temperatures.
The Haworth Hobble has been one of the leading races from a sustainability perspective over the years, something Paris is passionate about having been one of the co-founders of The Green Runners.
One of the first pillars of that organisation is looking at how runners travel to races so it was appropriate that Paris drew the prize-winning registration number for those who turned up with four or more competitors in the same car.
Attention is swiftly starting to turn to the 2025 edition of the Barkley Marathons.
As ever – and despite the surge in interest last year – that race is still shrouded in mystery and we are yet to find out when it begins or who is taking part. But check out our guide here for all that we do know so far.
