HEADLINES
The people, campaigns, research and updates making an impact in our running community this month
Headlines
© MONTANE SPINE RACE/MICK KENYON
JASMIN PARIS: A
HERO FOR OUR TIMES
The achievements of the awe-inspiring Jasmin Paris are the stuff of legend. The 35-year-old vet completed the 268-mile Montane Spine Race in a staggering 83 hours, 12 minutes and 23 seconds. Not only was she the outright winner of the race, but in so doing, she broke the course record by more than 12 hours. During the race, she climbed over 43,000 feet, slept for less than three hours, and expressed milk at each checkpoint. Her 14-month-old daughter,
Rowan, was at the finish line to cheer her on.
“Going into the race I knew I’d trained well”, says Jasmin, when we spoke to her 24 hours later. “And I felt quite fit and thought I should be able to compete with the men at the front, but I’d never quite done anything like this. I didn’t know how I would cope with racing non stop with no sleep. There were so many variables.” But Jasmin overcame pretty much everything. Going into the last stage, she realised that she had taken the lead, and by a comfortable margin. “When I left the last checkpoint – I left that one on my own. The person behind me hadn’t quite got there [by the time I’d left], and that was quite a big blow to his morale. I had wanted to stay and sleep, but I left because I knew that was what I needed to do. I’d only slept for two and a quarter hours on the second night, and it was a gamble not to sleep.”