Woman breaks record and survives extreme "race that eats its young": "It was unbelievable"
Frozen Head State Park, Tennessee - An athlete has achieved a new record by becoming the first woman ever to finish the extreme Barkley Marathons in the allotted time.
Jasmin Paris from Midlothian, Scotland completed the Barkley Marathons in Tennessee on Friday with just two minutes to spare from the race's 60-hour cut-off.
Only 20 people have ever made it to the end of the 100-mile challenge.
The 40-year-old collapsed of exhaustion at the finish line.
Held at Frozen Head State Park, the course includes a 60,000-foot climb and descent - about twice the height of the Mount Everest. The path changes every year, is unmarked, and changes direction, so the route must be memorized by participants who collect "book pages" as they go. It is inspired by the famous nearby prison escape of Martin Luther King Jr's assassin, according to the BBC, and is dubbed "The race that eats its young."
The course is partly unpaved and participants run at night through the dark, making the Barkley Marathons one of the toughest sporting events in the world.
Jasmin Paris survives the Barkley Marathons
Paris had completed a portion of the race in 2022 and 2023.
After finishing on Friday, she told BBC Breakfast she was "overjoyed" to have completed it.
"It still hasn't really sunk in that I've finally done it," Paris said. "This year I had a strong feeling in the months of training and run up to the race that I could do it.
"Those final moments have redefined for me what I am capable of."
Photographer David Miller reported on the atmosphere at the finish line just before Paris completed the feat,
"There was a lot of anticipation at the finish line and three minutes before the 60-hour cut-off we heard shouting and a roar and it was people cheering Jasmin on.
"She was sprinting and giving it her all as there was no room for error because otherwise she would not have made the cut off.
"It was the best thing I have ever seen, it was unbelievable... It was such an emotional moment."
He called the accomplishment the "greatest ultramarathon achievement of all time."
Cover photo: Collage: Screenshot/Facebook/Jasmin Paris