OT- Jasmin Paris- First female finisher at Barkley Marathon
Just an amazing accomplishment. I know a few incredibly hard core ultrarunners that haven't even completed one lap of Barkley. Kudos to all 5 athletes who finished, and especially Jasmin Paris who becomes the first female finisher of Barkley with less than 90 seconds to spare after almost 60 hours.
Barkley Marathon has almost no budget and who the only real "media" coverage is tweets from Keith and photos from Howie Stern. As someone involved with this niche sport, it's great to see this story hit the national/international media. I had been following on the runners on twitter over their 60 hours and got pretty teary eyed when they announced Jasmin finished (I thought she was going to time out). The physical and mental fortitude is just mind-blowing.
https://www.irunfar.com/2024-barkley-marathons-results
March 23rd, 2024 at 11:52 AM ^
I like the idea of a long distance run on dirt trails - much better than the idea of a marathon pounding your connective tissue on concrete and asphalt - but 5x marathon distance? That’s crazy. Do they sleep?
March 23rd, 2024 at 11:57 AM ^
This is a crazy race and an amazing accomplishment.
March 23rd, 2024 at 12:00 PM ^
5x marathon with each containing 12,000+ of elevation change and every mile off trail. That’s some bad-ass running
That’s a loooong way to run 🏃just to deliver a message. Can’t the just text?
March 23rd, 2024 at 12:35 PM ^
No sleep
At least not until they reach Brooklyn.
The older I get the more my amazement shifts away from the actual event and more toward the preparation required to successfully complete such an event.
although in this case… Holy Crap!!! To both.
The elevation gain/loss is also nuts. The mental fortitude necessary to finish that race is absolutely off the charts. Congrats to all the finishers; truly amazing
March 23rd, 2024 at 11:52 AM ^
I'm gonna be honest I didn't know what this was but after some googling holy shit this seems great. The application fee structure alone is fascinating.
March 23rd, 2024 at 12:27 PM ^
The Barkley Marathon
Completion would be very challenging.
There is an excellent documentary about the Barkley Marathons. I had never heard of it until the doc popped up as a suggestion somewhere, and I was pleasantly surprised by how fascinating it is.
If somebody made a documentary or series for every year, I'd watch it every single time.
Can confirm, this documentary is amazing. The Barkley Marathons is such a fascinating event.
March 23rd, 2024 at 11:53 AM ^
Here’s a good YouTube video for those of you unaware of the Barkley and want to see what insanity these athletes go through.
There used to be a free documentary too about the history of the Barkley on Prime but it’s only available to buy now. It’s amazing to see the difference of people that competed back in the first few years compared to now.
That was truly a ggod watch. I recommend.
March 23rd, 2024 at 11:58 AM ^
Wow!!!! Very impressive. I wish the Barkley got more attention and video coverage. Absolutely insane what they endure in this marathon.
For anyone interested in what this is, there is a documentary on Peacock now called The Barkley Marathons. Well documented and anyone interested in fitness or running is a great watch.
I would watch. At least part of it. Watching 60 hours of it would seem to be… grueling.
March 23rd, 2024 at 12:07 PM ^
Probably not named after Sir Charles. Maybe if they put donuts out on the course instead of pages from books to verify you ran the proper route, the Round Mound of Rebound would be properly motivated.
March 23rd, 2024 at 12:12 PM ^
That's effin' insane!! Wow, 5 marathons back-to-back-to-back. I've never run anything longer than a 10k run in my jogging days, never ridden my bike more than 45 miles at a time since aching joints relegated me to bicycling.
And they're running 130 miles. Holy shit.
March 23rd, 2024 at 12:30 PM ^
it's also a crazy amount of vertical (and descent) per loop, i think 10,000+ ft of each usually, and a lot of annoying route-finding on very little sleep. it seems like a totally bonkers experience.
March 23rd, 2024 at 12:25 PM ^
Seems more masochism than sport.
March 24th, 2024 at 10:29 AM ^
Honestly, I agree. And the amount of stress and adrenaline to complete this task, let alone train for it regularly, just pulling this out of my [redacted] but might actually do more harm than good over the long term.
There is documentary and it is definitely worth checking out regardless of your interest in ultra running or not.
(Watch The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young | Prime Video (amazon.com)
Yeah, well I ran 3.5 miles on the treadmill this morning, so I’m pretty badass too.
Seriously, these races are insane. The physical feat is tremendous, but I can’t even imagine the mental toughness required to keep going.
I've gotten into running more recently and have started running in races (not super seriously). Did my first trail run last fall and I found that to be significantly more difficult than road running. And that was with pretty minimal elevation gains. What these folks are attempting/accomplishing is just a triumph of the human body, perseverance, and something I can't quite even really fathom.
I like how they call completing *only* 3 laps in < 40 hours a "fun run."
March 24th, 2024 at 10:26 AM ^
Trail running is harder in some ways, but especially at first. Once your stabilizer muscles, which aren’t nearly as activated running on a level surface, get stronger then it becomes easier. I switched to trails over street running because I find it’s easier on my knees and ankles, plus the scenery and air quality tend to be nicer, plus plus lots of shade and cool air in the woods.
I prefer trail running for the same reasons. I like that trail running puts a premium on physical and mental toughness, strategy, and focus, rather than natural running ability/speed (which I am not overly blessed with). Also, trail runners are just a little "off", in the best way. They are a very fun crowd to engage with. The difference in atmosphere between a road race to a trail race is night and day.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barkley_Marathons
this is awesome!!
Potential entrants must complete an essay on "Why I Should be Allowed to Run in the Barkley," pay a $1.60 application fee, and complete other requirements subject to change. If accepted, an entrant receives a "letter of condolence."
mad respect for those folks, and especially j. paris.
i have a few friends that do the true ironman tri's, and one of them does (or did, we're all getting old) the ultramarathons. 100 miles and all that vertical. wild.
130 miles, to be exact. Here’s a thought: 63,500 ft of elevation change = 11.93 mi. Divide that by 2, since only half that is uphill. That makes the average uphill grade over the race would be (approximately) 6.0/65.0, since half the race would be uphill and the other half would be downhill. That makes the average grade 8.8%! That seems impossible, so my first thought is what’s wrong with my math?
Well, it’s a loop, so what goes up must come down. So purely from a climbing perspective, not that awful. But everything else about this race IS awful.
I’ve done some mountain racing, and besides the conditioning required to make climbs like that at anything approaching a run, what blew me away was how fast the elite runners were downhill.
Another grueling sport currently underway on ESPNU, the Masskrugstemmen Stein Holding competition. More than just a one-arm bandit, these are the ultimate athletes with willpower unknown to mankind, holding their beer away from their gullets for up to 6 minutes before drinking their winnings/losings.
We were in Germany and I tried doing that. It's painful!
One of the great accomplishments in sport, any sport, is finishing a Barkley.
Laz is a madman.
Yeah, if you think 5 marathons back to back sounds crazy - add the elevation change. And mountain terrain. And mountain weather. Crazy right? Oops, also the course isn’t marked and you can’t use GPS, just map and compass.
if all this sounds crazy, but you haven’t seen the documentary, watch it. It’s worse.
This just sounds like an all around not fun time.
I can only imagine that this takes some time off the end of your life. Why would someone even want to do this? If I actually met someone that did this, I would not be impressed by them or inspired in any way. I would think they are a bit crazy.
I've met several finishers. Trust me, they are deeply inspiring, but also...more down to earth than you would expect.
Very awesome. This race has 22 finishers total in its history. She should be very proud.
March 24th, 2024 at 12:40 PM ^
Pretty awesome they have their first female finisher. I do think they need to figure out how to make it harder though, it was a lot cooler when years would pass without anybody finishing, there have been 8 finishers in the past 2 years, 5 just this year