The British ultrarunner Jasmin Paris is celebrating after becoming the first woman to win the gruelling 268-mile Montane Spine Race along the Pennine Way. What made the performance even more extraordinary was that she shattered the course record by 12 hours – while also expressing breast milk for her baby at aid stations along the route.
Paris, a 35-year-old vet who works at the University of Edinburgh studying acute myeloid leukaemia, is well known in British endurance running circles having won the British women’s fell running championships last year as well as a series of leading ultraraces. However, her performance at the Montane Spine race was undoubtedly the best in her career as she beat all her male and female rivals in completing the course from the Edale in the Peak District to the Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish borders in 83 hours, 12 minutes and 23 seconds.
That time shattered the previous best of 95hrs 17mins set by Eoin Keith in 2016 as Paris became the first woman to win the race outright. The previous female race record was 109hr 54min set by Carol Morgan in 2017.
After the race, in which runners carry their own kit throughout and rest only when essential, Paris admitted to having hallucinations in the later stages.
“It is really tough,” said Paris after running along the full Pennine Way through the Peak District, Yorkshire Dales, North Pennines and over Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland to the Cheviots. “Two thirds of the time it is dark and it is completely different from any race I’ve run before because it is non-stop. You have the whole challenge of when to sleep and that becomes very tactical, and then you’re sleep-deprived.
“When I was on the final section I kept seeing animals appearing out of every rock and kept forgetting what I was doing – hallucinations. Every so often I’d come to with a start. On top of that it’s very cold and I was wearing all of my clothes by the time I finished.”
Paris’s performance was hailed by Jo Pavey and the British 2016 and 2017 marathon champion Aly Dixon, who tweeted: “I don’t understand why anyone would want to race 268 miles across the Pennine Way, in the winter. But I do know how enormous a woman winning the Spine Race overall and SMASHING the outright record is. It’s HUGE!!!”