Luis Núñez-Villavearán
Updated Thursday, March 28, 2024-9:32 p.m.
"In the last kilometer I was desperate to stop and walk, but I knew I couldn't do it or I wouldn't make it." That phrase from
Jasmin Paris
, a 40-year-old ultra runner who has made history at the
Barkley Marathon
, perfectly defines the mental and physical challenge of this ultra trail test.
Paris managed to complete this race in
59 hours, 58 minutes and 21 seconds
. The first woman to break the 60-hour limit, the only obsession of whoever takes the exit. Reaching the goal, until then only within the reach of 19 men, was her feat. Her 99 seconds later and she wouldn't have made it. That thought of hers made him continue so he wouldn't have to "start all over again."
"The last 100 meters I couldn't see anything, it was all blurry," says the British woman, a resident of Midlothian (Scotland), who had to cover five laps of 32 kilometers with a gradient of about 18,000 meters, a distance similar to climbing twice. Everest
from sea level
.
The race takes place in
Frozen Head State Park
in the state of Tennessee, with a course that changes each year.
In fact, participants must find between nine and 14 books throughout the itinerary from which they tear off a page to demonstrate that they have completed all parts of it. They do it through an inhospitable terrain of brambles and mountains. The British woman's arms, completely covered in scratches, are a good example of this. "It's like you're being cut in a
loop
over the same scars," she told BBC News. To top it off, there are only two hydration points along the route.
Cantrell's occurrence
Jasmin Paris
had been trying for three years to finish a race in which only 35 runners participate a year and in which getting a place is a true coincidence of fate. You should be lucky enough to have them respond with some sort of condolences to your
registration
. In fact, to continue with that uncertainty encouraged by one of its creators
Gary
Lazarus Lake
Cantrell
, the exact starting time is not even known, but rather the race begins when Cantrell lights up his famous cigarette, an hour after a touch of cornet. Crazy.
A moment from Paris in the race.MARK.
The idea for this event came from Cantrell and his partner
Karl Henn
following the escape of
James Earl Ray
, the assassin of
Martin Luther King Jr
, from the
Brushy Mountain
State Penitentiary in 1977. The inmate managed to elude Justice for 55 hours in which he traveled about 20 kilometers from the prison. Cantrell once said, quite sarcastically, that he could have covered 100 miles (160 kilometers) in that time. And that's where everything was born.
Jasmin took a little longer, but she achieved a personal goal both for herself and for "all the women in the world", as she admitted, and not just the runners. She says this can help any woman who wants to accomplish something and doesn't find the confidence to do it. "The idea of inspiring them to believe in themselves is huge, especially the younger ones, for whom it is difficult to get them interested in sports," she confessed.
Paris is also the mother of two children, and raising one of them was another of the events that made her enter the history books. In 2019, the British woman broke the record of the
Montane Spine Race
, another of the toughest races in the world, after taking advantage of the supply breaks to express milk to feed Rowan
,
her 14-month-old baby. She covered 430 kilometers in 83 hours, 12 minutes and 23 seconds, reducing the previous record by 12 hours.
Paris, exhausted after making history.MARK
The history book of this veterinarian and researcher at the University of Edinburgh remains open. Her idea is to continue with challenges such as the race through the peaks of the Scottish islands in May (160 miles by sea and 60 by mountains) or the
Tor des Géants
(330 kilometers in 150 hours) in Italy in September. Until then she is content with picking up her children from daycare and resting.