Self-Confidence: An Interview with Jasmin Paris About Her 2024 Barkley Marathons Finish

Jasmin Paris (U.K.) made history on March 22 in the waning minutes of the 2024 Barkley Marathons, when she came around the final corner of the finishing road. No woman had ever finished four laps of five-lap race before, let alone the whole thing. After two previous attempts at the event in 2022 and 2023, Paris put in a final, determined sprint to the sound of everyone in the area providing every ounce of encouragement they could. She arrived at the yellow gate start/finish line in a time of 59 hours, 58 minutes, and 21 seconds, with just 99 seconds left before the 60-hour cutoff.

In this deep-dive interview, Paris talks about how her lead-up to this year’s Barkley paralleled that of the 2019 Spine Race, injury and chronic fatigue, the self-belief that got her through when many others would have quit, and the final hours and then minutes of the race.

Learn more about this year’s Barkley Marathons in our results article.

Jasmin Paris - 2024 Barkley Marathons winner - running

Jasmin Paris on her way to becoming the first woman to finish the Barkley Marathons at the 2024 edition. Photo: David Miller

Editor’s Note: The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

iRunFar: A huge congratulations to you, I hope you are so proud. How are you feeling?

Paris: I’m feeling pretty good. The swollen legs are still there, but they’re getting better. I’ve got a bit of tendinitis. It’s funny, the various injuries you pick up along the course. They hurt for a certain period, and then the next injury supersedes them. Then, when you’re recovering, those injuries that you’ve forgotten about because there was something more painful come back because they were still there underneath it, but they were just being overshadowed by something else.

iRunFar: You can only feel one at a time when you’re moving, but when you stop you feel all of them.

Paris: Exactly. So, I’ve got a bit of tendinitis. I bashed my knee at one point pretty hard. And obviously, the scratches, which are just itchy now. They look quite dramatic, but when they’re compared with everything else, they’re pretty superficial.

iRunFar: They do look gnarly. That’s the Barkley glow, isn’t it?

Paris: I took some photos of my legs at the end. I wore shorts for the first two or three loops, and then three-quarter lengths. But they’re pretty scratched up because briars are getting caught, and you push forward, because you can’t stop and remove each one when you get them. You just keep going until they get stuck, basically.

iRunFar: If you stop for each one, you’d never make it around a loop.

Paris: No, you wouldn’t. You have to stop for just the ones that are threatening to cut your throat.

iRunFar: Thanks for taking the time to do this. You have a full-time job. You are a full-time mom. And I bet your media requests are crazy right now.

Paris: Yeah, it’s insane. From all over the world. Canada and TV in Australia, it’s just bizarre.

iRunFar: But very cool, though. If I had to choose a representative for trail running and ultrarunning to speak with the masses and share the story of the sport, I couldn’t pick a better person.

Paris: That’s really kind of you to say.