Jasmin Paris First Woman to Ever Finish Grueling Barkley Marathons

just being like this can't happen again I can't be here for for this to happen again and then Carson Kelly John's son was the first person I heard scream that you were you were there and it was I think we had three and a half on the clock and it was like holy shit this is GNA happen so I mean I was born in England so okay yeah kind of brought up between the the England and the Czech Republic and now I've lived in Scotland for now like 14 years or something so quite a long time Scotland has your heart yeah Scotland has my heart now yeah yeah hopefully sorry if I like went on a bit it's very difficult to kind of keep things focused and you get bit I no you were I I in the seven minutes in between I ran upstairs to my wife and I'm like this is going so well I can't wait to get back to it right now I'm so happy with how this is going hello hello Jasmine how's it going good thanks yeah I'm good awesome thanks for taking the time to do this no you're very welcome very welcome oh thanks very much about Jasmine Paris 20 24 Barkley marathon's finisher first ever woman to accomplish it what does that sound like to you just over a week later yeah that sounds that sounds pretty exciting yeah still sounds pretty ex uh true or false your 20124 Barkley attempt nearly ended prematurely due to a graphic goat carding accident on the Kelly Farm yeah that is true that is true yeah and I might just be looking at the driver of that said go-kart right I always gotten a little too excited on small engines I got rid of my motorcycles many years ago and I made a calculated error and uh came close to colliding with you while you were doing your ShakeOut run so I am very thankful that I didn't collide with you and that you went on to have such success um as an introvert what has been more challenging for you getting through lap five at the Barkley or getting through the post Barkley media scrum I mean I think lat five was more my normal I guess more more My Kind of natural setting than the the post Barkley media scrum um yeah yeah pretty comparable in terms of kind of challenge but yeah no the lap five was harder but this has definitely been a bit um it's been a bit of a whirlwind the last week very nice to see everybody's messages it's very inspiring um but yeah it's been it's nice now to kind of settle down into a bit more normal life um with the kids again and back at work I I bet yeah you've been very gracious with your time um did you know and expect this to be as big a deal as it turned out to be just from the media side of things is that is that kind of in line with what you expected I think it's it's been bigger than I expected but um I thought it might might make some waves if I managed to pull it off I think maybe the dramatic ending kind of added to it and which definitely wasn't planned but um I think that kind of added to the you know the excitement I think I think if you were for people that were following it um yeah that was kind of an added an added kind of twist to the tail I got goosebumps just uh just hearing you say that and then reliving it we both have plenty of experience with dramatic finishes at the Barkley yeah um the um talk about um I'm gonna go away from Barkley real quick because I was fascinated by this we got to hang out and have breakfast post Barkley this this I don't know if it's the exact next race on your calendar but this very unique race that you're going to be partaking in here soon I want you to talk about that because I just was fascinated that it's even a thing you mean the Scottish islands Peaks race yeah yeah yeah so this is I mean this is wonderful race um and um yeah so it's it's kind of um very lowkey um in fact there's I don't know any sponsors of this race um it's basically a race where you you do it in teams of five there's three Sailors two Runners you're on a Sailing Boat you're not allowed to use any kind of engine power it's just wind power and you set off from Oben and you sail over um you actually do a little bit of a run first a little bit of a race and the two Runners and then they you jump onto your dingy you row out to your your Sailing Boat and they sort of almost pull you on as they're already setting off because they're trying to get a kind of a head start um and then they you sail over to mull you run up um the runners run up a mountain on MK or Ben Moore then you sail over to Jor and you run the PPS of J and then you sail over to Aaron these are all islands off the west coast of Scotland and you and you run over up a mountain there goat fell and then you sail back to tr which is the kind of final Harbor um and it's really exciting it's a wonderful race it has a fantastic atmosphere um and it kind of the challenges of it are that um there's a kind of big big big tides in between these islands so you at certain points you'll just get stopped if you if you kind of missed the tide Gap and so all the boat boats kind of I guess pile up um um if they've missed the tide Gap so this it ends creating these big gaps of maybe like 6 hours between sets of boats that finish um so you can be like 10 minutes later than the the runners in front of you and that'll be the difference between making the tide Gap and not making the tide Gap um yeah it's just really exciting fun race and it has very much that kind of fell run a feel to it of kind of being lowkey being sort of wild um it's just everything I love about fell running really friendly um but yeah great time out in the mountains and to clarify there is a sailing crew and a running through you're not doing both yourself correct yeah you can run in an all-arounders team where everybody does a has to do a little bit of running and I did that one year actually I did that when I was 13 weeks pregnant with my my daughter and S know at that point my the my friend knew um but nobody else new so we actually had an extra person on each Mountain on our team um but yeah um I've the other years I've done it as a on a on a kind of Runner sailor team so you can do either combination really um your touchdown it there is something I wanted to talk about uh fell running and your your training grounds and uh where you harden your craft talk a little bit about um what your training grounds are like and how they can prepare you for races as big and nasty as the Barkley yes I mean I don't for for those that don't kind of really know what fell racing is or hill racing as we call it in Scotland I mean I think we have the kind of Ideal Hills for in the UK because we don't have that much forest and we don't have that many kind of spiky mountains that are easy to fall off um so it's kind of RAC in the Hills yeah because the Alps it wouldn't work so well but um that's immediately where my mind went yeah yeah exactly so it's kind of just racing um a lot of the traditional kind of fail races are basically you know actually we from kind of Village fairs um and you sort of run up the local Hill and back again but the longer races will be kind of some will be point to point or or a big circle but just across the mountains really but usually off they'll just be between certain points and you'd navigate Your Own Way um so it it's you know really comes down to kind navigation and um and and you know people that are local will have wrecked the route and got all these fantastic lines and um but you can easily Lo lose the you know you might be following a local Runner and lose them in the mist and then you're kind of stuck on the on the fell so fell Runners generally have pretty good navigational skills um and just kind of understanding I guess of the landscape and the kind of um terrain that they're running across because it it's often as I say not on paths so that's kind of I think pretty good training for Barkley in terms of navigation but in also in terms of that kind of rough terrain so you know very typically fell Runner would just run straight up something um pretty steep not no switchbacks or anything because you just go in the most direct line and similarly down you'll take the most direct line regardless of whether it's through um you know it's a pretty steep steep slope or maybe through kind of bracken and and and Heather and rocks and things like that so pretty good training I think for Barkley in terms of terrain so what was your childhood like just in terms of where you grew up and and what your family life was like and and what were the activities that you kind of partook in as a family when you were younger yeah so I did um so firstly I'm I'm half check so my childhood is kind of spent mostly in the UK but um kind of summer holidays and Christmas usually in the winter we actually went there for like a couple of months and went to school there um so between the two places and we've got a house in the Hills there and the kind of the mountains um we actually had to hike hike back you know to and from school there um right up the hill to our cat Cottage so basically I spent a lot of time outside um as a child my parents especially my mom um just liked us to be out we were always outside with with her and kind of rain or shine um yeah I always in fact I still feel sort of guilty if I'm out inside and it's Sunshine because it seems like one should be outside if the weather's nice um and so and especially some holidays kind of Barefoot in the woods like gone from you know early morning till lunchtime then came back to eat and then gone again type thing things so very kind of wild free childhood and then did a lot of hiking with my parents like quite young like six or seven kind of hiking with Rook Sachs of our own um wild camping out beside Rivers um under the stars that sort of thing in Scotland that's sometimes a bit um risky in terms of midges so there were some definitely bad kind of mid explain I know explain what a mid is just for those that might not understand the term yeah mid these like little Scottish flies like B um and in in in isolation one midg is not too bad but the problem is they sort of like cover you they can literally like cover your I remember like a very kind of vivid memory from childhood he's lying in a bivy bag and it wouldn't have it didn't have a zip it was just one of these kind of roll up ones and I remember lying like holding it shut like this and watching the midges like all on my arm biting me and we I mean yes this is the one of the worst memories of kind of wild camping and I remember getting up at like 400 a.m. something and setting off hiking and then we finally sort of found some Lake to lie down beside at lunchtime and slept for like 3 hours or something so the next night we slept on top of a summit so that it was Breezy we didn't get midges but yeah so that's kind of like my background and as a child and then when we were older I think me and my brother just we just had this love then of hiking and once we could do it ourselves we went away to we'd kind of go away to bigger mountains and we were sort of in different places in the in the world and kind of doing different things but it was really nice actually that we came kind of together at least once a year and did these kind of big trips and generally hiking in Europe like places like Romania and we just go um you know we actually often took a sleeper train ac across kind of from the C Republic for example where we were and we'd um yeah just go camping for kind of 10 days seven to 10 days carry a big Rook sack take everything with us so that when you set off it was like really heavy heavy Rook sack but it got lighter as you ate your way through the week and the aim was kind of generally not to see anybody so you might see a few Shepherds and that would be it and you know you'd kind of walk these fantastic hike these fantastic places and U yeah just sleep under the stars see the sunrise sunsets and I guess those are kind of Adventures like you'd be stuck in a storm or something somewhere high and I don't know it's just kind of I think that's kind of all that mountain craft that you learn and sort of that those kind of skills but also that love of those places and those Adventures you know that's definitely still what I love that's kind of what brings me like great happiness being in the hills and get going like being fell Runner just takes me into the hills every day and gives me that kind of little bit of a taste of it but I do sometimes long for those big mountains and have Nostalgia for those kind of trips where you you know you were free to go for like for that period of time and just get lost in big big mountains yeah well it's very obvious I mean you're just glowing by even telling these stories and I'm glad I asked the question there because I was speaking with Jared a couple of days ago uh on an interview as well and he posed the question I said if you had a question for Jasmine what would it be and he raising two daughters nine and seven was very curious as to your your own upbringing because he aspires to raise um powerful women in the world similar to yourself so I thought it was a really good thing for us to touch on um speaking of which I think you're taking off on a camping trip shortly uh to escape everything next week maybe is that right yeah yeah so it's it's the Easter Easter holiday right now so um yeah we're lucky my mom's still around helping out with the kids but this week but next week we're going away yeah going to go camping and I'm going to leave all the all the kind of par tell us exactly where you'll be going so we can all uh all descend on you and continue to to bug you here know it's still it's still open it's still open but basically probably somewhere probably somewhere in the Lake District or p district but somewhere where we can kind of hike from the from the tent and and because the kids are getting pretty good now kind of hiking up mountains and it's just nice to spend time outside in the Hills together yeah yeah that's exactly what we uh we pursue as a family as well it's really fun to hear that um was there was there much of a reception when you arrived back into UK here um how how was it uh yeah I mean it was yeah it was it was so so nice getting home um I mean my dad met me at the airport there was some us at the airport comrad as well comad kind of quickly avoids any kind of Media stuff but um my dad was yeah he he just like walked straight through in fact I think they didn't realize he was actually on holiday with me they thought he'd been waiting at the airport they didn't even notic him but comrad yeah but my dad my dad was um yeah very up for an interview which was lovely and he got all choked up when he was talking about the Finish um and then my mom was kindly collecting the kids from school at the same time as as we just arrived back so that's why that she wasn't there um and then yeah it's been lovely coming back to work I do kind of a mixture of research and clinical work and in I got a big cake in both places so there's been a lot of cake eating um and it's just very excited every yeah everybody's been very excited and very kind um yeah and it's sort of I feel a lot of embarrassed really um about all the attention but um yeah it's been very nice yeah know and all more than welld deserved um I have a workmate in my office space here one of our two cats that likes to kind of claw me so she wants to say hi to the veteranarian that I'm talking to right now um the um laz's words um a woman will never finish the Barkley marathons when did you first hear those words and how did those influence your own personal Barkley journey I feel like I heard those even before I heard that LZ at some point I basically heard that LZ was keen on me going to try Barkley or had said that he'd be in Keen to see me attempt Barkley um but I was aware I think that he of him saying those words even even before that um I think I still I still needed to wait for me to want to do it before I went um I think it was it was after the spine race in 2019 I heard that he' sort of said this and and initially I thought you know like similarly to the spine I thought um what it sounds a bit why would you want to put yourself through that sorry um and then it sort of grew on me the way that spine grew on me and suddenly I just wanted to do it I was super excited by it um but the fact that Lazard said that just was kind of an added an added kind of um Temptation making me want to run it I guess because um anytime that I'm told that I can't do something it's sort of immediately to me I want to prove that I can you know if it's if it's that sort of situation yeah um especially yeah especially if it's something where I'm told as a woman that would not be able to do it so um yeah and I think glass I don't I think LZ was actually just saying that because he wanted to kind of I guess Kickstart that instinct of of someone wanting to prove prove him wrong so I think I think he you know I think it was kind of calculated I think I think he wanted a woman to finish so um I think he was a little bit kind of um yeah kind of try to get someone to to to take on the challenge yeah I did also always consider it to be more of a challenge to the people that would be able to step up um and to really incite a little bit of fire in in those that might have a chance uh and certainly what I saw at the finish and I think you experienced was he was as excited or more for your finish than anybody else's so um I I think he's incredibly thankful that he he got to see a woman finish the Barkley Marathon in his lifetime um and you gave all of us a very special experience there um let's talk about your your journey into the Barkley Marathon so when did you first learn of it and as you said you know you had to accept that maybe this was something why would you bother well you had to to find a way or or come to terms with the fact you were going to kind of dedicate time to this knowing it would be a long-term Pursuit um when did that kind of shift for you and how did the what was your takeaway after your first go at the Barkley where you got a fun run so yeah as I say I sort of learned about it I I knew about it um uh some time ago so you yeah you're still there the picture disappear I'm sorry my cat asked to be let out yeah C again yeah no yeah I I I've known about the Barkley for years um I guess once people started mentioning to me after the spine that Laz um kind of heard said that he'd be Keen for me to go I guess I started thinking about it at least it was a little voice in my head um and then it just got louder and I think the kind of key thing was that I had my son my second child was born in 2020 in the summer in Co and then it was sort of the next year I don't know spring summertime that I started suddenly I guess I suddenly realized I wanted to do Barkley and it was like and it's the same thing actually that happened with my daughter after I'd had a baby it was like that period when you sort of coming back and it's a difficult period as a woman because you you you might be competing kind of quite high level and feeling really fit and good and then you have a pregnancy and um actually with my daughter I was able to run through that when my son l so cuz I could you know all the kind of various pregnancy things and I was it was harder to run and then um and then you obviously then you're breastfeeding a baby and you're trying to get a fit again and you for me having the spine after my daughter and then having Barkley was just was just like the perfect thing to kind of get me back into it it was just I needed something to be excited again about like something to be a real challenge but I I want to interject super quickly here we have one child when our son was born my wife said to me I want to run the fat dog 120 mile next year and this was uh it would be three days before our son turned a year old and internally my mind said what the hell are you thinking and externally all I said was that's wonderful babe let's get you there and she did and she finished so I've lived that on the other side of totally understanding having that big goal to get back at it is really important yeah yeah so you you totally get it so um and I think actually in some ways having a different goal than something that you've done before is a really good thing because then you're not comparing yourself to what you were last time you did it before you had a that kid or whatever and it's just something new and it's a real challenge that you can be excited about and that's just how I felt about Barkley and I knew that I needed to feel like that before I went like because lots of people had said to me about it before and it was something that was there in my mind um and I thought it might happen and then it happened and it was just like a switch and suddenly I was like I'm ready for it I I want to do it and yeah so then I went because you can't go to that race without being like 100% committed to doing it there's no point yeah so otherwise you you just turn around and go home or you just drop out um so there the I went the first time and it was yeah it was quite a kind of eye opening experience I like when I think about how much I kind of I guess on Loop two on that that year kind of lots I did okay on Loop one lots of there were still people around and then that was the year that on Loop 2 it like rained all night and it was super heavy and like most of the field dropped out overnight and several people got sort of pretty hypothermic and um I think lots of people just didn't have enough Gear with them and I was out on the course with Thomas dunderbeck and he I just remember him like we sort of um running together we found each other in and then missed somewhere on kind of um you know Leonard's butt slide and and he had these um gloves these waterproof gloves and every so often he'd pull them off and all this water run out of the waterproof gloves and then he'd stick them back on you know these mitts and it was just a sign of like how much it was raining um then I managed to in the end I managed to come back and just just get a fun running and um I had a similar ending to your ending I think of your kind of fateful fateful finish um but I managed to not come in I I kind of managed to kind of get back on track and get a bit a bit earlier and and come in the right side of the gate but it was um it yeah I mean it was it was also a bit stressful but at that time I I think I finished with maybe like seven minutes or something to spare I had several minutes it wasn't down to 99 seconds but that was the first year but I came away from it thinking yeah I messed a lot of things up but I think I think that if I got it right then I could finish it and I guess that was the start of this kind of love affair with Barkley of three years duration which is kind of The Sweet Spot for the Barkley that I've often said to people is it it does typically take at least 3 years for people to reach their finish line and if you can have that that nice Crescendo through three years it's really rewarding it's challenging if you go beyond that to kind of keep the fire because as you've identified it kind of has to be your everything it is a little bit overwhelming how much of your life becomes about this race so you returned for your second iteration and made it to lap four so what were the learnings that you maybe took away from year two with the Barkley after making it that much further and becoming the first woman this Century to start for yes so I guess second time round I was better prepared I in the terms in the sense that I made fewer nowas I would have to say that I think that navigation on Barkley it's interesting that even the even the kind of people that have finished multiple times like John Kelly let's say Jared it's not like they don't make any mistakes they do still make some mistakes they're just very quick at correcting them and it was really interesting to see this year no fatal mistakes pardon no fatal mistakes exactly no fatal mistakes exactly so you um and I guess what I happened in year the second year was that I I still I still made significant mistakes I didn't make they weren't as bad as the first year certainly on that third loop on the first year um and I just started to feel more comfortable in the forest on my own like it started to feel more familiar um the whole thing so I guess um and the fact that I managed to do four Loops for me it was actually really important to do that I I kind of finished that fourth Loop because it felt to me like you're almost there like doing four the fourth Loop is is kind of almost the hardest one I think at Barkley because um if you go out as I found this year when I went out for the fifth loop at that point adrenaline's carrying you that's all you have to do you know that you just have to do that final final Loop so the fact I'd already done the four Loops the year before was a huge kind of benefit for me going into into this year when I did the five I think one of the things on last year when I just did four Loops was I actually went into it and I I don't I I kind of wasn't that sure about my form beforehand and it wasn't through lack of trying it was just a combination of things including kind of some chronic knee problems um and kind of fatigue as well actually and I think combination of having young children maybe some kind of effects of covid and I sort of trained as much as I could through it and I and I felt better than I had done um you know kind of when I actually got to the race but I was aware that it wasn't the ideal setup and I certainly didn't feel as confident last year as I did this year like this year I was like I thought this was this could really happen whereas last year it was still I'm not surprised that it didn't work out last year did your training more for change alter at all over the three years based on the experiences that you were gleaning from the Park yeah I think I think um I think I basically this year I did more Ascent um like I did I just did more sessions where my long run would be you know find a mountain and like find a Hill and run up and down it um lots and lots of times I think kind of the most memorable kind of um sessions were like one long run where we were on holiday kind of near calendar in kind of um just a bit north of here in Scotland and I just ran up the local kind of big mountain five times one morning and obviously you have all the tourists coming up there and they didn't start coming up till i' sort of was on my third Loop um of of the up and downs but you get some funny looks when you kind of run up that that's a thing people just walk up once not not multiple times so um if you tell them that you've been up five times you get some funny looks but then the kind of the most memorable I think one and training kind of run that I did was um uh one morning here and just on a hill near home um and I actually knew that I wanted to get a kind of nine hourss of of Hill running reps up in roughly and but I wanted to take the kids swimming at 10:30 so went to bed with my son at 8 got up at midnight um and went out sort of into driving rain at at 1:00 a.m. and it was um it was really cold it was about 1 degree and um as I started climbing up I obviously went through the kind of snow line into sleep and then a blizzard and then I would drop down and go back through it all again and you know that's the worst bit when you're in kind of bad weather is is dropping out of the back into the kind of rain again and I was doing this up and down with the poor dog who like he loves running with me but he really doesn't see the point of Hill reps he's always like call we just go up a different Hill instead of going up the same one all these times but then I then I got this fantastic you know um starry night and when it cleared and it was a fantastic snowy morning and then I did take the kids swimming and I just had this like you know this kind of like real inner warmth that you get when you've done something like that because it feels like you've had an adventure um and the rest of the world have just been a bed in bed asleep and it gives you like real self-confidence that you did that and it was it was really miserable to start with but then you got like you kind of got the reward at the end that kind of incredible snowy morning and that Sunrise that other people didn't see and you know you'd been out there through all the all the kind of blizzard and stuff so I think that's the sort of thing that that's the memory that you have that when you go to Barkley and it's those kind of training runs that really stand you in good stad 100% yeah and I've experienced the same thing living at sea level and having thousand meter Peaks to train on going through that zone at that time of year um and I always felt that we those of us that can train in those conditions we're actually setting ourselves up for Success uh at our attempts at the Barkley based on those who might be training in the desert or somewhere that doesn't involve that because as we all know the Barkley can be quite nasty with the with the weather when you get there and if you've experience that already to your point you you have the confidence going into it that you know how to handle it and manage your your body as well um you know confidence is earned and you certainly had every right to be confident going into the race this year did you feel like so you had the confidence at the start this might be the year did you feel like you had to approach it any differently from the start this year than you had previously yeah to be honest like realistically there were a few things I even wrote In My Kind of application essay to last this year something along the lines of um you know year one I did my fun run in 40 hours year two in 36 by that means this year I should be able to do it in 32 which will give me 28 hours last to do the last two Loops which I think would just be just fine um and it's ironic CU well I mean that's basically what happened I guess in my head that I that's what I had like that was the plan you know and and realistically the plan was to try and stick with people more the big Advantage for me was that the first two years I didn't I spent a lot of time running on my own in the first two years I guess I did seven Loops six only counted um but of that I think I calculated the four of them I was pretty much on my own um and that's a big benefit when you go to Barkley because you know CU what I knew you see was that if I could stay with people for more time in the initial Loops when I got to that kind of crucial final Loop when you're on your own I would probably be okay with navigating around it because that's that's the danger isn't it that you if you're with people a lot and in the kind of and you don't learn then it's difficult to find your way around it because it's not straightforward it's not it's not an easy thing to learn if you're just following somebody I think so um and so my aim this year was actually not to worry so much about navigating in the first bit and like to just be with try and be with a group and like obviously contribute but try and stay with a group and ideally my head that was either John Kelly or Jared um if depending on you know like in kind of and I guess I didn't because I knew aelian was going to be back as well so I was kind of anywhere in those kind of people that have done it before and that I know have the kind of capacity to to go the full well hog would be great yeah so I was just aiming to try and stay with people and um and at the start you you yeah gone oh I was um so yeah I mean by all accounts are on the sideline um and hearing accounts from people that were in the race near and around you um you did fall off the pace a couple of times through the first four laps when that is happening are you aware that it's happening and how what's going on internally at that point because what's super impressive is I I know how many times you in five laps at the Barkley had to refuse to quit on yourself and had to tell yourself no no no no now now I just am going to step up and I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to fix this and you never once quit you wouldn't have made the finish line if you did were you aware as early on in the race when you did fall off the pace a little bit that that was a make or break point where you had to change the outcome immediately I guess I mean I'm I think bar Barkley's like a long race you've got time for things to get better again when they're not going so well but I guess what you need to do is keep pushing so the first I guess I can take you through kind of the big moments I think the first loop I was sort of between people a little bit at the fire tower I could see John Kelly and Damen and ehor ahead of me I managed to sort of catch them and was with them for a bit and then and lost them kind of climbing the last summer and and they came into Camp before me and left before me and I was I actually didn't know that I was going to be able to catch them I thought that probably they were gone um and then I just had this fantastic period where I like just came to life and I felt really good I nailed the I nailed the lines and suddenly when I was going back up um towards the to the towards the tower there they were in front of me like just within reaching distance and I just like powered up the climb and caught them so by the time we kind of reached the water station I was with them and that was like a real real plus yeah and like even John sort of said you crushed that climb and I felt really good and I was feeling really glood um and the irony is that we then kind of the minute I was with him and I relaxed we sort of took slightly the wrong line and you know and missed where we were supposed to be going so um but it was still so good to be with them for the rest of that kind of loop two um and then on Loop Three yeah you're right I I kind of I I I felt pretty bad again um struggled to eat and I guess um I just sort of um I I just basically I just really wanted it so much that I I wasn't willing to give up and I remember I came into camp and I and I and I was sort of I thought I think that was almost the hardest bit because I sort of said to comad that was so awful I really don't want to go out and at the same time as I was saying it I knew it wasn't an option you know like I wasn't going to allow myself not to go out and that was the thing like it wasn't an option and I and I think it was that that's what like kind of made me put my head in my hands and because I I knew that I wasn't GNA let myself not go back out so um yeah and then I went and you know so the fourth the fourth inter lupal going out onto five um I was on the sidelines watching that unfold and uh and I saw you getting ready and Jared was coming up and it seemed very obvious that you know clockwise is the preferred Direction that was the way that you wanted to go you weren't quite ready to go Jared asked you if you preferred clockwise do you remember what you said to him um I do I mean I did I say that like whatever you basically said no I'm fine and then immediately I was like Jared Jared Jared come here and I pulled Jared over to the side and said Jared she wants clockwise she's just not going to ask for it and he said okay cool thanks for letting me know and then he stepped back out and he was like hey are you you're about ready to go and you were like yep and Jared wanted to give you clockwise 100% And and right and all of us wanted to make sure that happened but I couldn't believe that I saw a moment where you basically almost gave it away when when Jared really wanted to make that happen and it was so cool to see the the way that the experienced barkers John and Jared were assisting those that were going for their finishes John doing the same thing for ehore and Damen yeah I mean it was it was incredibly kind and yeah I was aware of the kind of interaction with you and like saying to Jared as well cuz he said it first and then and then um I guess yeah it was I was kind of over that was like such a nice thing going out on Salute five actually when I felt so bad was that he'd offered that you know and that he'd said that I could do that because I guess I was also aware that it's you know it's the better Direction and he had been ready to go and I sort of felt like I'd just come in and and even someone standing there even while he was still getting ready someone said if you want to go clockwise Jared's getting ready to go and part of me was thinking well it seems like the wrong thing to do now to like even if I was ready to jump up and go to the gate then it felt like kind of a bit sneaky and wrong to like steal clockwise from in front of his nose so when he came and like offered it and and then especially when he sort of said it again it was it was really nice and it also you know in many ways it saved the whole situation anyway because it made me go there and then cuz otherwise I would might have sat for another two minutes and who knows the rest would have been yeah you had 99 seconds at the end but I I was feeling pretty bad I mean I kind of stood up and tried like threw up my rice pudding wiped it on the side and then went you know so it wasn't yeah it wasn't like it was the best moment of my um you're out on five we get a report you've gone through the tower and it was 337 or 339 that was left on the clock I don't know if you remember off the top of your head the last time you had gone through in the clockwise Direction you were 4 hours from the tower in so the general consensus at Camp was that you know good try but but not quite having been there and gone through a very similar thing myself when I had my Barkley in 2017 I got lost on counterclockwise at the garden spot for at least 45 minutes to an hour and when I finally found the book I looked at my watch and realized had to get from the garden spot to the Finish faster than I had on my previous laps and that's another moment where you have to make the decision of if your race is over or if you're going to fight harder than you ever had before in your life I knew when you went through the Tower with that time on the clock you were going to find a way to make it to the Finish Line what was that like for you internally to know you had to finish that last stretch of the race faster than you had gone in 36 hours yeah I mean I was kind of like running on adrenaline when I kind of when I got to the fire tower and there were people there I guess I didn't I didn't feel like it was all over I felt like it was going to happen like I um like I I guess I was kind of I was I was moving scared like I I was I was aware of how close it was but at the same time I really believed it was going to happen and I was feeling like I guess it was all the adrenaline but I was feeling good like I was feeling like I was running again and I was kind of excited by it like um it felt like I was kind of it was like that Mo the sort of feeling like you could whoop you know as you like going because you were like we're going to do this you know I sort of it was that sort of feeling um so I it it's really good that I didn't know kind of what everybody's thoughts were about that I wasn't going to make it at that point because um I thought that I I could make it like I I was aware that it was close but um I wanted it so much and um like compared ibody I was comparing it with the kind of first Loop you know time wise because I hadn't been measuring each Loop type thing and but the first Loop we went faster than that from the fire tower so my theory was I only need to go I could still go slower than I did on the first Loop and like if I really want it I'm sure I can go you know I I I can do that that's that's I guess was my kind of theory and I and I calculated it down to the minute I guess where I felt I needed to be be on that next Summit and then the one after as well and I yeah so I was pushing all the time like every you could not be pushing you had to be at your absolute threshold every time I was you know every time I felt like I was slowing down on The Descent I was like you need to push you need to push um because it's yeah there was no time to kind of yeah there's no time to switch off like I had to get the best lines and I had to be pushing all the time was there any point from the tower in where you thought you might miss yeah actually and that really only came when I came down towards the camp um I guess when I was descending from chimney top um when I went up to it it just seemed to go on forever and I thought I'd had enough I had enough time um and it wasn't until I kind of crossed the road and got on that last little bit of trail that goes runs alongside the road up to the bridge and then suddenly a it was really quiet in my head I guess I'd imagine there was going to be people still in that car park where they you know where where people kind of um can be can be gathered and around that kind of playground area and things um and there was nobody it was like a it was like desolate it was like a ghost slam and it was almost like suddenly I felt like maybe it's all it almost felt like it's all over already you know it's it's all all done and there was um and I guess it was because everybody was at the gate hoping that I was going to appear any moment and then I was running along that kind of flat trail and I and I and I realized then it I just like expected I guess to have 15 minutes there and I had something like 8 minutes when I started running along it and I and I suddenly was like actually you might not make this and then all those thoughts came through my head of like how awful this is going to be because all that time I'd held on to this hope and suddenly The Hope was like unclear and it was just it was awful it was like gut-wrenching it was um it was all those kind of scenarios but mainly the thought of like just reaching the gate second seconds after um it was too awful really to contemplate after I'd thrown put everything in it and after I believed so hard all that time that I could do it and then suddenly I was like I'm not sure if I can yeah it was awful it was uh it was torture for us on the sidelines just uh you know sitting there with zero control and just hoping it was going to happen good okay so we had to take about a seven minute interlude there while I had to save a file and get back in again and Jasmine commented that that was about the time she had from the storybook Trail into the finish so I was giving her some PTSD so my apology is on that one we left it with basically you getting into the park and it kind of feeling desolate like you had maybe missed um and the just that juxtaposition of emotions from there till 60 seconds later um what do you remember personally from the pavement in the campground from the from the point I hit the kind of Road you mean in the camp from the moment you yeah from the when you cross the bridge Campground I guess from the little playground up what what do you actually remember from that I mean I guess in my head i' said to myself just get to that point and then you're nearly there and then maybe you can walk for a moment before you have to run up that hill and then I got to there and I was trying to look at the watch and I couldn't really see it probably because my watch I couldn't I could only see it in certain lights and certain angles um and I think it was about 56 um and then somebody had kind of a kid appeared on a bike and was sort of shouted you can do this and then somebody else appeared and um started shouting at me pump your arms pump your arms and let me give you some advice and I was like and I tried to look at my watch and each Tri to don't look at your watch just run type thing I don't know we said something like that and it was um and uh yeah and it was almost like I I was it felt in a weird I guess it was almost like kind of out of body like I knew I I was just kind of moving I was going through the motions and when he said pump your arms it actually did help cuz I was just that's what I was doing I was just kind of going through the motions of running but I was so exhausted and so kind of desperate to just walk and breathe um that it was really hard it was really hard to keep moving and I couldn't almost believe that I was still managing to do it at that point because I by this point I was running up the hill um but all my focus is on just keeping going like it was just try to keep going doing what you're doing um and then I guess as I came around the corner I could see the gate which was incredible because there was this sort of big crowd of people around the gate and there it was this thing that I'd aimed for all this time and yet I still didn't know I was going to make it there in time um this this focus and all I could see really was was in you know was the gate and then there were all these you know the people cheering and um the noise and the clapping and the and the whoops and the shouts um but it was all my focus was on the gate and it was just this kind of just keep moving just keep moving and at the same time I had this thing going through my head of like you're going to be seconds over you're going to be seconds over and it's all going to be over and you're going to have to do it again um and that enormity of the idea of doing it again um and it in some ways it was almost like I I sort of said like I'm going to like I guess at that point my body was like I'm G to push or I'm gonna and I'm either going to collapse or I'm going to make it to the gay I'm just going to give it 100% of everything I have and I I found some extra level that I definitely have never tapped into before because I I managed to somehow Sprint so like I actually got faster and it was almost as if my I was saying to my like I can't keep this up anymore I can't do this this pace that I've been doing and this movement that I've been doing this repetitive movement I can't do it anymore so it was almost like we'll go faster then um you know like you're going to give it everything you've got to go faster then and so I actually did something that akin to like a semi Sprint at the end and it was just to get to the gate but it was incredible cuz I'd like lost all control of myself it was all about just getting to the gate so if you look at the video when I I reached the gate I just kind of went right over the top of it and it's cuz I did I lit I didn't have any control anymore it was just about getting to the gate and once I touched it there was a lost control so like I kind of went right over and then slid back slid back down and then all I could just do was breathe but that and and I guess in my head I wasn't even 100% sure I'd made it in time but I'd given everything and that was all I could do at that point and I'd reached the gate so it was over and I could yeah it was just the relief that I was done and I could just lie there and breathe it was amazing it was it was it was one of the greatest sporting um events that I've ever got to witness live and I've actually been to some really cool sporting events live I've been very fortunate I'm I'm a super hockey fan and have gotten to see some epic playoff overtime uh victories and this ranks right up there is one of the greatest things I've ever seen live and in person on the sidelines and you gave all of us something incredibly special that we're all going to take with us for the rest of our lives to to see someone in that space of as you've said you've never been there before and I think that really for the people that have been to the Barkley that to me is the thing that is difficult to explain and that grabs people and that kind of keeps them coming back is that it it dictates it necessitates that you have to extract something from within yourself not even just physically really mentally that that has never been on display before is is talk a little bit about about that and this year in particular just in terms of of that space that you found yourself in and and knowing when you're in it that I've never been here before I'm rewriting my understanding of what I can do right now yeah I mean that's the incredible thing about these things isn't it you redefine what you thought you not just capable of but like he I guess in a way who you are like you redefine kind of all your kind of you have to redraw your limits I guess um for me like I think you kind of touched on it before this this I had so many points in this race where I felt really terrible and like unless I'd and I and I didn't give up you know like I I I I I guess everything look me wanted to stop long before that final Sprint up to the gate I wanted to stop and it's true that at that point I felt like I dip dig into something deeper than I've ever been but even before that I I was con like repeatedly had to kind of go to that place that was far beyond my comfort zone and um and I guess just just just battle through it just just to kind of head down keep going um when it felt really awful I mean like there were like a couple of points where I actually lay down because I felt so terrible um I was struggling with my stomach I couldn't eat um and um I was just like kind of exhausted like you say I I I got dropped by John Kelly's group on on Loop Three I got dropped by Jared and Greg on Lop for um and those times it's like you know all I wanted to do was just stop and lie down and then for it to be over and it was just like just forcing myself to keep moving one fo after the other and just to do something to keep myself going and get back to the camp and then get back out again and and so so many times in that race it was like that and that final bit was just it was almost like it was a culmination of everything and it was so it was like so harsh to have to do that at the end when I'd when I'd already done it so many times and then it was asking me it's not it's un just when just when I thought it was I was going to do it um and then suddenly the whole thing it was just like a typical barkle thing wasn't it it was just because that's what the race is like it it straight as you think that you're okay it just like throws this extra kind of twist at you um and makes you think again I think that's like what it's like and so that final finish in a way it was fitting for Barkley because it was like oh no it's not going to be that easy and we're gonna ask you to we're gonna ask you for one last one last big effort um it was a bit like that so and that is exactly it I mean that that's what I've always believed that that's what makes the event so special um that's what makes this weird race where you're doing five laps in the woods of Tennessee in a park that really doesn't seem that for boting when you're going into it um such an incredible challenge um have you have you watched the footage of yourself coming across the Finish Line much yeah I've I've seen it from lots of different angles um makes me quite emotional as well just makes me it just confirms I guess what I thought about how I was feeling at that moment and how guess semi semi kind of conscious I was um like I I definitely yeah I'm aware that I was just kind of on the on the verge of I guessing I was on the verge of collapsing and it was also the yeah exactly on the verge of it all all being a very different story I saw when I saw you enter the finishing shoot I saw a Primal look on your face it was very uh very basic and animal just Primal Instinct that you know the gate was the prey whatever it took to get to the gate and and you had accomplished your goal um and and that is indicative of what you've just described as being in that space that you never found yourself in before um do you think you'll be able to take that now the that and and apply it to to other things in in life and racing just knowing that there's there's something else in there that you you really never had exposed before yeah I mean I think that's what's making me like want to grin when I kind of think of it you know like it's that that's the warm feeling inside it's that um yeah I mean somebody asked me like do you not get anything at the end of Barkley and the idea is so laughable you know like what could be greater than having done it you know like what could be greater like like a medal is nothing in comparison is it um any sort of priz is is nothing in comparison it's just yeah it's the knowledge of I think it's the knowledge of how hard I had to work for it and and and where it took me I think it will I think that that's it's a really good thing and I I think it's going to it's going to be great for for kind of all the future things that I do um in terms of kind of giving me that confidence and self-belief knowing that there's this extra level there whether I end up going there again um and tapping into that that's that's another question do I want to go there again I don't know um but knowing that it's the fact that you've even mentioned that 10 days out is uh is shocking so there there really is uh as we as we talked about you know there's that the attractant to that very special space that you find yourself in so you could see yourself potentially I mean you haven't written off the idea of maybe even going back there again then oh yeah Al to Barkley and yeah I mean I'm not written it off I think to be honest with the thing with Barkley is um like I I'm already missing the F like the people there I'm already missing the whole scene like it's been a big part of my life for the last three years um but I don't know if I'll go back um like uh for one thing I don't I don't know I'm kind of interested I'm to be honest I'm quite intrigued by John Kelly and Jared how they can keep that motivation up to keep going back and doing it again um because I find that really fascinating like I I know for a fact that if I hadn't had that like burning desire to do it that like massive motivation to do it then I would not have I would definitely not have done it because that's the only thing that carried me through that last loop it's the only thing that kept me going when I was desperate to stop after Loop 3 was the only thing that kept me going when I like curled up in a fetal position on Loop four when Jared and Greg left me in the forest um you know like basically feeling like my my guts were like ready to like fall out of me um that's that's the only thing that made me get back up and and and carry on to the next book and climb over the top and find my way back to the campsite and I don't think that without that desperate desire to finish it again then I could do it um again but who knows um what I will miss if I assuming I don't go back is is the camaraderie and the people at Barkley um and I know that already like I'm already missing them I already feel nostalgic for John Kelly's Farm the day before and and the campground and marking up maps and uh just time on the trail and um the people that cheer you back into the fire tower and the and like and the camp um and afterwards I already feel nostalgic for all of that so um it yeah yeah yeah so whether I go back and you know I just mentioned it briefly but um for me flying over to the US was like quite a big decision in terms of you know trying not to fly too much in terms of um the impact on the climate so and and a kind of co-founder of the green wiers so for me it was actually that was a kind of it was dilemma about flying to Barkley and I and I did it and but to keep going back year after year I think wouldn't be the right thing for me um as in terms of a decision and that makes total sense I actually so I Mis I misconstrued what you were saying there and and thought it was Sparkle specific it wasn't which is actually kind of a relief it was it wasn't yeah you're right but and and so sorry yeah it was but like it is interesting because I I feel that you can you know knowing that that that place is there that you can take yourself to in terms of effort um that you know that can equally apply to a race like the toron which is the next thing I'm I'm doing um but yeah I do have a kind of real soft spot for Barkley now and and for all the reasons I've just mentioned so I defin I'm not going to write it off as never going back um but it's not probably going to be in the next in the near future yeah and that makes total sense and I I I'm I'm happy to hear you say that actually uh and I think to your point I mean the even though JN and Jared have now three and four finishes if just making sure I got the order right I know who has what but John has three Jared has four um even for them to get there they still had to go back into failure again right they weren't able to just kind of Stack finishes on top of finishes um and and I think that Taps into your point of of it needing to be every you're everything right and and and personally you know this was my farewell to to Frozen head I wanted to thank Laz and crew everyone Associated and I wanted to I always wanted to be a part of things from the sidelines crewing for somebody I highly recommend it because I got all the things you just described and I didn't lose any of my toenails I got uh I got regular sleep when I got home and I'm not recovering from anything uh physically so um yeah to your point you know you you can only give so much to that race and and you can't give that much to it every single year it's just uh there's there's other things in life that necessitate your time and energy um I'm going to have two more questions so the first one is um you talk about right there as a co-founder of the green Runners so talk talk us through that one a little bit and uh give a bit of a shout out to what you're doing there great thanks yeah so um a couple of years ago a kind of group of Runners we came together and I guess wanted to kind of start to make a difference in terms of um I guess informing empowering the running Community to make better decisions in in in terms of the climate and Greener decisions in in terms of their running um so we F founded the green Runners which is just like a kind of Club um you can take a make a pledge and and become a member um there's just a small joining fee but it's really about making a pledge and um saying to yourself something that you're going to do to try and minimize um or lessen your impact on the environment in terms of your running and it's based on four main pillars how you move we know that travel to races and events is the biggest by far the biggest kind of um component of the of the carbon footprint of events um how you move how you kit up um how you feel yourself and how you speak out um so um kitp makes sense you don't buy lots of new kit you reuse it you keep it going as long as possible I actually had patched up shoes at Barkley incredibly and they they were did just fine um and a borrowed Ru sack um and so yeah and then how you fuel um generally just kind of more plant-based based diet um and we kind of as a family ad have adopted a more pump-based diet and then just how you speak out to the green winers of doing things like trying to keep out um Big Oil Company kind of sponsorship from running events and that sort of thing you know called on the UTMB to dropped us here as their main sponsor this year um so that's as an event director I have a series Coast Mountain trail running and and agree with the EOS that you're you're promoting there and we try to pick one big thing each calendar year to kind of Target and a couple of years ago the pursuit I said is I wanted us to become a carbon uh neutral uh company and we now plant a tree for every Runner that does our races and we sometimes have agreements with local Planters where we had our our contributions doubled a couple years ago so I we helped plant almost 14,000 Western red seeders right here in my hometown at chillak which was really fun uh we switched all of our generators away from gas generators to battery powered battery generators um and and we have a few other things in there as well not to talk too much about my own but yeah definitely a big respect for what you guys are doing there um the so my final question um what advice would you give to O other women uh I guess it's a twofold question first specific to the Barkley what advice would you give to another woman out there who might be looking to follow in Jasmine paris's footsteps who now is on the sidelines going you know what I don't think the Barkley should have just one female finisher I want to be the next fale finisher I guess I'd have to say so a few things so I'd say I think it's consider it like a longer term project it's probably not going to happen the first year most people need to do it to go a few years so like be prepared to commit a few years to it um and I I think I think it's totally doable I think other women can for sure do it um I think that you need to like essentially involves a lot of climbing you have to be good off Trail um just navigating through kind of wild forest you have to be okay with challenges like you have to be okay with just being able to adapt um kind of take the things that go wrong and just move on through them um and um just I guess enjoy it you have to kind of I think it's not a race for somebody that that is is used to a manicure Trail and well organized events and kind of um kind of support stations every every corner and like it maybe you're that person and you would You' kind of get used to the kind of setting of Barkley but you have to just be prepared that it's not going to be like that it's really like some kind of um uh some experience just sort of fending for yourself and being more self-sufficient in Wild places is like a really good training for Barkley I think so um those would be kind of tips but mainly just like believe in yourself and um and and don't kind of be put off by what what other people might think you can achieve like go out there and try because that's that's the the Mantra I guess I've lived by in terms of running and like even things like the Bob Graham which is like this kind of um kind of challenge in the UK that was the thing when I went to the Bob Graham I didn't really have a kind of idea of what I was going to do I just was like I'll just see what I can do you know um and so that's like I think the best kind of approach to have going into it don't um get too focused on what what what is expected just go there see what you can do and be prepared to go back again um and maybe even again um because it might take a few years to get it right maybe even again um fantastic I I really cannot thank you enough for freeing up the time to do this it's truly a an honor to get to talk to you about all of this and again um such a pleasure to get to witness it all all firsthand at Frozen head Jasmine um congratulations and and thank you from the bottom of my heart uh for everybody that uh what you provided to us and just a real nice glimmer of hope for uh for what we got to saw transpire there just uh last week at Frozen head thank you very much thanks and thanks to everybody for the kind messages like I'm really overwhelmed by them and everybody's far too generous um but yeah thank you it's all well earned enjoy your camping trip thanks um yeah and and you you in a you assisted in giving me closure actually with frozen head um this was my my final trip to Frozen head and I really wanted to to move on from things I've moved on but I wanted to to be there and again thank people but then to see you know ehore finished first John get his third Jared get his fourth Greg I don't know but you know and then and then you it's just like the complete icing on the cake better than anything I could have imagined and I feel like I've gotten to extract so much from Frozen head that's it it there's nothing left for me in that Park and this was such a nice high point to go out on

Channel: Gary Robbins

Views: 18,658

Keywords: Gary Robbins, Salomon, Suunto, Running, Mountain Running, Trail Running, BC, Beautiful BC, Hiking BC, Hiking, Mountains, Squirrels Nut Butter, BM100, Jasmin Paris, Barkley, Barkley Marathons, Laz, Tennessee, Frozen Head

Id: G429r_q7Bgg

Length: 60min 54sec (3654 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 10 2024