12/08/2026
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For 38 years, the Barkley Marathons broke every woman who tried it. In 2024, one didn't break.
100 miles through Frozen Head State Park, Tennessee. Runners get a map and a compass, no GPS. They tear pages from hidden books along the course to prove they found each one. The elevation gain is roughly two Everests. The cutoff is 60 hours. In the race's first 37 years, only 17 people ever finished it, and every one of them was a man.
Jasmin Paris, a British runner and mother, had tried twice before. In 2022 and 2023 she made it through three loops. In 2023 she became just the second woman in the event's history to start a fourth loop, but ran out of time.
In 2024 she went back for a third attempt. She built a lead on the early loops, then set out on her fifth and final one with about 13 hours left. As the hours ticked down, she was hallucinating, seeing lions and pigs among the broken trees.
With less than two minutes left on the clock, Paris staggered to the yellow gate that marks the finish and collapsed over it. Her official time: 59 hours, 58 minutes, 21 seconds. 99 seconds to spare.
She was one of five finishers that year, a record for the race, but the first woman to ever get it done.