A Female Ultrarunner Finishes Grueling Event for First Time

For the first time, a woman has completed the notorious Barkley Marathons in Tennessee, one of the most difficult such events in the world. Britain's Jasmin Paris fell to the ground with exhaustion after finishing Friday 1 minute, 39 seconds before the 60-hour cutoff, the BBC reports. Four other ultrarunners, all men, completed the race, which consists of five 20-mile loops around Frozen Head State Park. The route through the Tennessee woods changes each year but is designed to have about 54,000 feet of both vertical climb and descent, per the Guardian.

Paris, 40, works as a veterinarian and research scientist in Edinburgh, Scotland. She has two children. Her first Barkley Marathons was in 2022, when she did three loops. Last year, she increased that to four but not within the time limit. The race also is designed to be nearly impossible; runners keep going through three sleepless days and nights without the support of aid stations, per CNN. In the event's almost four-decade history, no one has successfully finished more than half the time, per ESPN. This year's winner was Ihor Very, who posted a time of 58 hours, 44 minutes, 59 seconds. (The race was inspired by the escape of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassin.)