Jasmin Paris becomes first female winner of 268-mile ultra marathon

dowie

dowie

dowie

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RSS thread I know, but this is pretty incredible - a friend just shared it on Facebook:

A 35 year old woman (and new mum) just won a 268 mile ultra marathon! Not only did she win but she smashed the previous record by 12 hours... finishing in 83 hours.

She had a total of 7 hours for breaks, which included a little bit of sleep (presumably only very brief power naps), personal admin, eating and...... breast feeding her baby!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/46906115
 
Great achievement!

From my experiences in this type of race (cycling, not running), there isn't a gap between sexes like you'd see in shorter races and, if anything, women are actually better at ultra-endurance racing than men.
 
Crazy stuff, can't say I'm too into these diehard women trying to act like men but crazy distance anyway.

Probably be plagued with arthritis later on in life though.
 
touch said:
Great achievement!

From my experiences in this type of race (cycling, not running), there isn't a gap between sexes like you'd see in shorter races and, if anything, women are actually better at ultra-endurance racing than men.
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A super-fit woman probabally has a rather better power/weight ratio than a super-fit man. "He" might be a lot stronger, but "She" might have better endurance.

(See also better ability at losing heat and keeping cool)
 
touch said:
Great achievement!

From my experiences in this type of race (cycling, not running), there isn't a gap between sexes like you'd see in shorter races and, if anything, women are actually better at ultra-endurance racing than men.
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I read another article a few days ago about a woman ultra-marathoner who had won mixed races and thought it interesting. I'd often wondered if there might be a particular sport where the female body actually had an advantage - had thought for a time that it could be free diving, as the most famous participant was a woman, but it turns out that men do have an advantage.
 
Christ. I'm out of breath after two flights of stairs and this woman's just done that?

That's pretty spectacular, congrats to her!
 
As an ultrarunner myself I have the slightest inkling of what she went through.
That is a massive result for here. She is incredibly talented. Her times on Bob Graham and Ramsy rounds are impressive. Her first attempt at 100miles was the tough UTMB and she cam 6th or 7th if I remember.
 
Zatoichi.uK said:
The advantage women have is due to fat stores I believe. Amazing achivement non the less!
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No, because it is very easy for a man to add fat stores. The reason women do well in endurance races is complex. At the physiological level it is mostly about efficiency and slow-twitch muscle capacity. Absolute VO2max is not important. Women don't differ from men much in this regard. What is really important is race strategy, nutrition, coping with sleep deprivation and mental strength. Women tend to to better than a lot of men.

This is also why older ultra runners also normally do well and are frequent winners. The most frequent age group is something like 40-45, and it is perfectly normal to see a 50-60 year old win an ultra.
 
Well some of the comments on Facebook are along the lines of how a new mum would be awesome at coping with sleep deprivation relative to the rest! It certainly does seem to be a sport where the playing field has been levelled between the sexes if not actually tilted the other way to some extent.

I did see one comment questioning whether oxytocin might have had a beneficial impact here too.
 
Wow - that is all I can say.

Our own Firstborn has completed the Marathon de Sables.

My Mum's oddjob man is 72 and the other day I found out he has completed 467 marathons :eek:
Many times he did a triple in a weekend which took in Snowdon, Dublin (or Belfast) and another one.
 
It's a good achievement but I do wonder how competitive this 268 marathon is given the margin she won by. Even accounting for breaks she was going just above average walking pace, so it seems to be an exercise in sleep management and tenacity rather than athleticism.
 
Chojin said:
It's a good achievement but I do wonder how competitive this 268 marathon is given the margin she won by. Even accounting for breaks she was going just above average walking pace, so it seems to be an exercise in sleep management and tenacity rather than athleticism.
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so run one then
 
Chojin said:
It's a good achievement but I do wonder how competitive this 268 marathon is given the margin she won by. Even accounting for breaks she was going just above average walking pace, so it seems to be an exercise in sleep management and tenacity rather than athleticism.
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It took 17 posts before someone finally ****s all over a great achievement, is OcUK going soft?
 
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