Jasmin Paris smashes outright record to win 268-mile Spine Race
Posted by Athletics Weekly | Jan 16, 2019 |
Ultra runner completes the brutal non-stop race along the full Pennine Way in 83 hours, improving the previous best by more than 12 hours
British ultra runner Jasmin Paris has smashed the outright Montane Spine Race record by more than 12 hours, covering the 268-mile route along the full Pennine Way in 83 hours, 12 minutes and 23 seconds.
That time improves the previous best of 95:17:00 set by Eoin Keith in 2016, with Paris becoming the first female to win the race outright. The previous women’s race record was 109:54:00 set by Carol Morgan in 2017.
Paris is no stranger to rewriting the record books – she did so at the Bob Graham Round, Ramsay Round and Paddy Buckley Round in 2016 (the same year she finished sixth at the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc) and told AW about it here.
But the 35-year-old’s latest feat is something else. The Spine Race, which first took place in 2012, is a non-stop challenge from Edale in Derbyshire to Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish Borders, along the full Pennine Way through the Peak District, Yorkshire Dales, North Pennines and over Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland to the Cheviots.
Held when the winter weather can be brutal, runners carry their own kit throughout and rest only if and when they wish.
Starting the race on Sunday morning, Spain’s Eugeni Roselló Solé, Paris and Keith had been the early leaders before Solé and Paris broke away.
Paris started to create a gap on Solé on Tuesday evening, around 194 miles into the race, and stretched it through Wednesday before crossing the finish line just after 7pm on Wednesday evening, almost 10 miles ahead of Solé.
There she was reunited with her 14-month-old daughter, who she had reportedly been expressing breast milk for at race checkpoints.
Out on the course Paris, who lives in Edinburgh and is a small animal vet, explained her motivation to take on the 268-mile challenge and said: “Everything is starting to hurt now but it’s not that far any more … once I get to the finish, I’ll have my little girl there.”