Jasmin Paris receives MBE

Glossop ultra-runner Jasmin Paris has been recognised for her record-breaking achievements earlier this year after she was recently made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by the Prince of Wales. 

The senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh was among 57 people to be recognised by Prince William at Windsor Castle earlier this month. 

The 40-year-old captured the imagination of athletes and inspired women across the world after making history back in March, when she became the first female ever to finish the Barkley Marathons, a 100-mile-long ultramarathon in Tennessee. 

The Barkley Marathons is an ultramarathon trail race which takes place each year at Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee. 

The race is made up of five 20-mile loops of the park and requires participants to climb an average of 63,000 feet, which is more than twice the height of Mount Everest. 

Runners also only have 60 hours to complete the race, making it a near-impossible task. 

Since its inaugural race in 1989, only 20 people have ever finished despite over 1000 attempting the feat. 

Despite the odds being very much against her, Paris made her dream a reality, finishing the fifth and final loop with just 99 seconds of the allocated 60 hours remaining, making for a nail-biting end. 

“The last lap was so intense, as I realised it was going to be a very close call,” Paris told the Chronicle back in April. 

“I was so oxygen-deficient that I wasn’t able to even contemplate or comprehend the whole thing until a few moments later when I got my breath back and had some sugar. 

“I really had to dig deep and there were some really low moments, at one point I allowed myself to curl up in the fetal position for about a minute to try and make myself feel better because my stomach was hurting so much. 

“But it was an incredible feeling once I’d had time to let it sink in, I got a real sense of satisfaction from achieving the thing I was aiming towards for three years.” 

Through her achievements, Paris has inspired women across the world and showed that with hard work, anything is possible: 

“I’ve been told by a lot of people that I’ve inspired them, and the idea of inspiring women in particular to follow their dreams and believe in themselves means a huge amount to me,” Paris told the Chronicle. 

“It brings me so much joy to be able to have a positive effect on others. 

“A lot of people have said in the past that it wouldn’t be possible for a woman to finish, and that was just an added incentive for me to come and prove them wrong.” 

Her story is well documented, and for good reason, but a detail you might have missed is that the forty-year-old spent most of her early days in Hadfield, where she grew up. 

It was here that she found her passion for running, when she began to take part in local fell races in and around Glossop after leaving university. 

Paris was working in her local veterinary clinic in Glossop, Victoria Vets, when a colleague suggested she should go along to a local fell race called ‘Wormstones’, which she greatly enjoyed. 

This inspired her to go on to longer and tougher races, which eventually led her to where she finds herself today, as the first and only woman in history to complete what is widely known as one of the toughest races on the planet. 

And the mum of two does not plan to wind down any time soon, as she gears up for the ‘Tor De Geants’, a 205-mile trail race which takes place in Italy this December.