There is a certain logic, in a race where this term – like the organizations – is put to the test, to see Paris and 2024 forever associated. However, we couldn’t be further from the Olympic Games (OG) than the Barkley marathon, a legendary ultra-endurance event taking place each year in the Brushy Mountains, a small wooded massif in Tennessee (United States). Here, there are no medals or big live televised routs; even if, in a way, the important thing is to participate.
The Briton Jasmin Paris became, on Friday March 22, the first woman to complete the terrible race on time, stretching – theoretically – over 160 kilometers, with 20,000 meters of elevation gain, to be covered in less than sixty hours. At 40, this ultimate endurance specialist adds a 20e name to the short list of “finishers”, those who finished this unique event founded in 1986.
“I now understand why the Barkley becomes an obsession; in fact, I suspect I’m already firmly in its grip. » These are the words of Jasmin Paris in 2022, after a first unsuccessful attempt to complete the five loops of one of the toughest races in the world. The athlete who lives in Scotland reported them a year later, at the end of March 2023, in a long blog post dedicated to Barkleya few days after failing to complete the fourth loop within the allotted time.
During this 2023 edition, the Frenchman Aurélien Sanchez had just joined the closed circle of winners of this race, by touching the yellow barrier lost deep in the woods of Tennessee for the fifth time in less than sixty hours (with two other finishers).
Jasmin Paris had already won the Spine Race
“When I reached the barrier, Laz looked at me quizzically and asked if I still thought I could do five loopscontinues Jasmin Paris on the blog. I looked at him and answered honestly that I thought I could do it. He smiled. » “Laz”, for “Lazarus Lake”, the nickname of Gary Cantrell, the emblematic father of the Barkley who has been tracing an increasingly steep, unmarked and off-trail route since 1986, is only revealed to participants a few hours before the kick-off of the race – marked by the lighting of his cigarette, at any time he wants.
A year later, the Scottish ultra-trail runner, veterinarian and mother of two children, proved right the bearded man from Frozen Head (the massif of Tennessee where the race takes place), who augured in 2019 that Jasmin Paris “had all the different things you need” to finish the Barkley – and therefore become the first woman to win her race.
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