Jasmin Paris is not built like ordinary mortals. Last month she won a moment of fame after completing the Barkley Marathons, a race so brutal that only 19 men have managed to finish in the past 35 years. Paris is the first woman to complete the race. It is not Paris’s first brush with greatness. Five years ago, she won the Spine Race: 268 miles along the Pennine Way in January, when it is dark 16 hours a day, cold enough to be covered in snow but warm enough for the rain to soak through everything, and where every snatched minute of sleep is a minute conceded to one’s rivals. As the mother of a breastfeeding daughter, Paris had the additional disadvantage of having to express milk at rest stops, but she nevertheless beat both the Spine Race record and the men trying to keep pace with her. Her nearest challenger, Eugeni Roselló Solé, had to be rescued four miles from the finish line after he became dangerously cold and disoriented. The eventual winner of the men’s race, Eoin Keith, was about 50 miles behind Paris when she crossed the finish line.
Paris recently told the BBC she wanted to inspire people, particularly women. I suspect most people feel more awestruck than inspired; Superman does not inspire me to try flying.
The agony involved in these endurance races defies belief. I think not just of the winners, but competitors such as Roselló Solé, who spectacularly dropped out of the Barkley Marathons in 2019. A former winner of the event, he had to quit part way through in 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. And yet he keeps returning.