British ultrarunner Jasmin Paris became the first woman to complete the Barkley Marathons 100-mile race, finishing with 99 seconds to spare in the 60-hour time limit. Paris was one of five ultrarunners to complete the annual event in Frozen Head State Park, Tennessee, which has not had a finisher in more than half of its nearly four-decade history.
Paris finished the event in 59:58:21, having previously completed the 60-mile “fun run” version in 2022.
The 40-year-old ultrarunner, a veterinarian scientist in Edinburgh and mother of two, smashed the course record for the Montane Spine Race in Northern England by 12 hours in 2019.
The Barkley Marathons, founded in 1986 by Gary Cantrell and Karl Henn, were inspired by the escape of James Earl Ray, Martin Luther King’s killer, who ran around 12 miles in 54.5 hours from a nearby prison in 1977.