The Red Bulletin September 2020 (UK)

Jasmin Paris
Tough mother
The British ultrarunning champion on how
having a child gave her the motivation to win
Words FLORIAN OBKIRCHER
of mud; you see animals like foxes
and birds, too. I really like running
up a hill with the challenge of
reaching the top, the feeling of
acceleration, of running along
a ridge and it stretching in all
directions. And then there’s the
sunrise. I find it hard to imagine
a situation better than that.
In January last year, British runner
Jasmin Paris became the first
woman to win the Spine Race, a
gruelling 431km ultramarathon
along the Pennine Way – crossing
the hills known as “the backbone of
England” – from the Peak District
to just inside the Scottish border.
She completed the course in 83
hours and 12 minutes, smashing the
previous men’s record by more than
12 hours and beating her nearest
male rival by 15 hours. It was one
of the best moments of her life, but
not the greatest – that would be
giving birth to her daughter, Rowan,
just over a year earlier. Paris spent
her rest stops at aid stations along
the route, expressing milk for her
then 13-month-old child.
Amazingly, the 36-year-old
doesn’t consider herself a
professional athlete, despite having
achieved a number of race records
in her career, winning the British
Fell Running Championship in 2015
and 2018, and taking the crown
in the Sky Extreme category of
the 2016 Skyrunner World Series.
“I have a talent for endurance and
long-distance running, but I’m a
normal person with a full-time job,”
says Paris, who works as a vet at the
University of Edinburgh. “I just do
the thing I love, alongside work,
and with a child running around.
I eat normal food, and I drink
alcohol when I’m not pregnant.”
To compete in the Spine Race,
she had to take a week off from her
PhD in veterinary science. And yet,
it’s the narrative of Paris as a new
mother besting men at their own
game that grabbed the headlines.
Her victory in the Spine Race came
in a year that saw a number of
women triumph in previously
male-dominated ultra-disciplines
– among them, German cyclist
Fiona Kolbinger, who won the
Transcontinental Race through
Europe (4,000km in just over
10 days), and US swimmer Sarah
Thomas, who became the first
person to swim the English Channel
four times non-stop (215km in
around 54 hours).
Paris has plenty to say on why
women are more than capable of
beating men in sport, and how
her motherhood may even be an
advantage. As for her position as
a role model for sporting mothers,
she’s unfazed by it all. “I’m not
bothered about being a celebrity,
but people find it helpful,” she says.
“Running just makes me happy, and
having that time for myself makes
it easier to cope with the challenges
of work and having a small child.”
the red bulletin: When did your
passion for running begin?
jasmin paris: I’ve always been into
hill walking, and the differences
between that and trail running
aren’t huge. I discovered it when
I was working in Glossop in the
Peak District [in 2008] as a way
of getting onto the hills quicker.
Within an hour, I could be on the
hill and back again before breakfast.
That’s pretty special. Ultrarunning
was a natural progression, but trail
running is what I love.
What is it about the hills that
draws you to them?
Mountains give me a sense of
perspective – there’s a timelessness
that makes all the things we worry
about seem irrelevant. You’re
running in your own world, with the
smell of rain, the mist, the sloshing
Did starting a family change all
of that for you?
I competed in a hill race 10 days
before the birth, and I ran the park
run three days before. I ran the day
I went into labour, too. It’s my way
of life and it makes me feel good
about myself. It was just natural
that I came back to running
afterwards. The post-birth recovery
was fairly quick, then I was back
into it. I started gently jogging four
weeks after Rowan was born.
You’ve said it’s important to
have something else in your life
besides being a parent…
Being a mum is the best thing that’s
ever happened to me, but having
something I’m passionate about
makes me a better mum. Sometimes
I look at the way our society works,
with parents spending their whole
life driving their kids from one place
to the next. That’s great, because
they’re encouraging the child, but
I’m not sure it’s the best example for
the child to feel that’s the way the
world works – that everything just
revolves around them. It’s good for
them to see their parents enjoying
their own lives, because that’s what
you want for them, too – to grow up
being passionate about something
they want to be.
What was the toughest moment
of the Spine Race for you?
My main worry on the start line
wasn’t my physical fitness, or breast
milk, it was leaving my daughter for
that length of time. The first night
was the hardest, because I already
felt tired and still had more than
200 miles [320km] to run to see
Rowan. You’d think you’d get more
and more tired, but on the last day
I knew I was leading the race and
I’d see my daughter that evening. It
was actually an advantage, because
it kept me moving.
SKYLINE SCOTLAND/NO LIMITS PHOTOGRAPHY
26 THE RED BULLETIN