Feature Interview: Jasmin Paris
It's probably fair to say that 2019 has been a life changing year for Jasmin Paris. For a girl from the Peak District, who describes her perfect day as "one with a race that finishes with cake and tea", the media frenzy that surrounded her record-breaking victory in the Montane Spine Race was completely unexpected: "I have never had any ambition to be famous and I would be very happy for nobody to know who Jasmin Paris was. However, I do feel like the result has generated a lot of positive discussion and I’ve had so many messages from people saying that I've inspired them”.
Inspiring doesn't really cover it. Jasmin became the first ever woman to win Britain's most brutal race, which takes in the entire Pennine Way from the Peak District to the Scottish Border. The hours she spent resting during the four-day ordeal can be expressed in single figures. Her total rest time, including sleeping, eating and pumping milk for her baby daughter, was just seven hours. "When I started out I thought that I could be competitive in this race and potentially challenge for the lead, but I also knew that this was a race unlike any other. Anything could go wrong I could get tired, develop hypothermia or even just go wrong with my navigation. There were so many unknowns!”
Luckily, almost everything went to plan and Jasmin completed the course in 83 hours and 12 minutes, beating the previous course record by more than 12 hours and the previous female record by more than 26. “I certainly wasn’t making any grand plans about winning and I certainly wasn’t thinking about records at any point, but it did feel pretty great to become a record holder!” Challenge is something that Jasmin seems to crave. Not for the press and fanfare or the reward of a medal, but to maintain a sense of herself: “You can’t beat the feeling of being outdoors. When you’re fit, you feel as if you could run forever. With ultra-racing, which is essentially a longer version of trail running, I love the adrenaline rush of running down hill and losing yourself in the mountains”.
Despite her success in the 2019 race, she admits to having thought the Spine Race "seemed a bit too much like hard work and a bit crazy" in the past, but was intrigued by the challenge. "Part of me wondered whether I could do it, and how well I would be able to do it.” However, it was the birth of her daughter, Rowan, and a motivational slump at the end of the 2018 season that was the catalyst for her entry: "I was finding it hard to get up and train in the morning; it's incredibly difficult to get out of bed and run before work, especially when Rowan wouldn't sleep through the night! I knew I wasn't fully fit so I decided to use the Spine Race as a way to get back into shape. It was the ultimate motivation.”
A gruelling training programme commenced and Jasmin spent every morning in the Edinburgh hills. Running 100 miles a week whilst bringing up a new baby and researching for a PhD in acute myeloid leukaemia might not sound like everyone's idea of fun, but Jasmin isn't everyone: "I like to get my training in early in the morning that way I know it's already done, it's in the bank. My time at university taught me that if I left things to the end of the day, then they just wouldn't happen. Running is a mood booster for me and all the endorphins keep me going throughout the day, even when I'm staying up until lam to finish a chapter of my thesis! "Running is a mood booster for me and all the endorphins keep me going throughout the day, even when I'm staying up until 1am to finish a chapter of my thesis!”
Getting things done and keeping going are mantras that seem to permeate all aspects of Jasmin's life: "If you want to fit it in, then you just become more efficient at work and make it happen". Her time at Manchester High shows that this is a skill that she has always had. Whilst commuting from her family home in Hadfield, near Glossop, to Grangethorpe Road, there was no time to be wasted: "I used to do all my maths and science homework on the school bus (sorry Mrs Lomas!), because I didn't want to be doing it when I got home. I suppose I wanted to use my down time as best as I could. This is definitely a trait that has stuck with me.”
She hails one of the greatest benefits of being a pupil at Manchester High as the swimming pool: "I have such strong memories of going to the pool with Fiona Crook, where we would work on our front crawl. We were late to almost every afternoon registration because we would go for a swim every lunchtime, eat quickly and then rush to lessons! I don't think the teachers minded though, because we were doing something beneficial.”
At the start line of the Spine Race, Jasmin stood alongside men and women who were all about to tackle the same course, in the same conditions. In sport, there is much debate about equality of pay, rights and recognition, but Jasmin believes that ultra-running is an exception to the rule: "It surprises me sometimes when people make a big deal of it, as I don't consider myself any different in terms of what I can achieve than a man. Obviously over short distances there is a physiological difference, but over longer distances the gap between men and women completely closes. Just generally though, being a woman does not strike me as a barrier in any way to what I can achieve. I was lucky to be treated exactly the same as my brothers and I went to a school where I was supported and encouraged to believe that I could do whatever I set out to do."
After such a busy few months, one could forgive her for spending some time away from the mountains. With success comes greater opportunity and Team GB came calling ahead of the Trail World Championships in June: "I'm one of a team of 12 who will compete at Miranda do Corvo in Portugal. It will be my first Team GB vest, so l'm really excited! In August, my husband and I are competing in a non-stop race around Mont Blanc, the PTL (Petite Trotte à Léon). It's a 300km event with 25,000m of ascent across France, Italy and Switzerland. My husband isn't very good without much sleep, so I think it will be a real challenge for him!"
Until then, Jasmin will retreat to her cottage at Gladhouse Reservoir to complete her PhD. She has ambitions to continue her research, but will return to her current career in veterinary practice in April and plans to spend more time with her beloved family.
Her story resonated around the world, but even whilst running high in the Midlothian Mountains this humble superstar keeps her feet firmly on the ground.
This feature was written for Manchester High School for Girls’ alumni publication, High Flyer, in 2019.
