The two athletes in seventh this year both became the first to do something, which makes for pretty stunning performances. One athlete became the first woman to finish one of the hardest “100-mile” races in the world, while the other was the first American man to win something a little more fast and furious. In both cases they blew us all away with their 2024 performances – and if you need a catch-up on TROY thus far you can find them here: eighth, ninth, and tenth.
In seventh position this year we have The Green Runners’ Jasmin Paris and adidas TERREX’s Eli Hemming.
When you’re the first woman to finish the “race that eats its young” the trail world is absolutely okay if you take the rest of the year off of racing. In April of 2024 the veterinarian and mom of two, Jasmin Paris, became the first-ever woman to finish The Barkley Marathons. Part of this is a very conscious decision on Jasmin’s part, as one of the co-founders of The Green Runners – a community-based running group focused on making the sport of running more environmentally sustainable – minimizing her carbon footprint is important to her. In 2022 where she was part of the elite race at UTMB for the series finals, Jasmin utilized the train system to travel from her home in the United Kingdom to Chamonix.
When Jasmin lined up at The Barkley Marathons this past spring she did so confidently, already having two “fun runs” (completing 3 of the 5 loops) under her belt. Anyone who finishes Barkley needs a near-perfect day to make it happen, good legs, good navigation, and good weather. Before this year, in the race’s 37-year history, there have only been 21 finishes by 17 different runners, all men. The stars aligned this year and a historic five runners made it to the fifth loop and finished the event, including Jasmin. Getting back to the yellow gate was not a gimme, and there was a moment with just minutes to go when we were all pretty certain that it would be at least another year before we saw a woman finish the race. To get an official finish runners must make it back to the finish before the 60 hours are up, with minutes to spare Jasmin came charging up the final uphill towards the yellow gate. A mad dash that saw Jasmin collapsing at the gate, 59:88:21, finishing with 99 seconds to spare. A finish we won’t soon forget. While historic, in a post-race interview Jasmin said, “I’m really delighted about the thing of a woman having finished it, but really, I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it … And I’ve never felt that being a woman was a barrier to that.” We couldn’t agree more.
We’re not sure exactly which start lines we’ll see Jasmin on in 2025, but one things for certain, if she’s traveling there it’ll be something worth the challenge.
A very literal life long endurance athlete, Eli is a crossover athlete who came into trail running after a long stint in Olympic Triathlon. (Thank you triathlon, we will continue to take your tributes.) It was only a few years ago when Eli Hemming was our Freetrail Rookie of The Year as he showed up on the Golden Trail World Series (GTWS) to rub elbows with the more established trail atheltes. While the Hemmings now rep the adidas TERREX orange we all fondly remember the American Flag x Eagle mashup singlet that we watched light up courses. After two seasons of steadily moving up the GTWS ranks, Eli took a big swing in 2024 moving back up to the ultra distances taking home a historic win in the process.
In August of 2024 we watched as Eli battled to take home the win at OCC 55km at the UTMB World Series Finals, making him the first American man to win OCC in the race’s history. But it wasn’t just this one win that made Eli Hemming’s 2024 so good; of the eight races he ran over ten months he won five of them including the Black Canyon 60km, the Big Alta 50km, the Desert Rats by UTMB 21km, and the Canyons by UTMB 50km. In addition to that Eli placed fifth in the Broken Arrow Skyrace VK, second in the Broken Arrow Skyrace 23km, and fifth at the JFK 50 mile. Over the course of the year Eli has hinted at “racing longer” in the future, based on ultrasignup and the fates allow it looks like we’ll be keeping our eye on him at Black Canyon 100km come Feburary. Get your popcorn ready.
We asked Eli what the highlight of his 2024 season was, and his answer might not surprise you as he continues to keep it simple, “Traveling and running around the world with my red hot smoking wife.” While we can’t predict the future, we anticipate both Hemmings will have a red hot 2025.
Congratulations to both runners, your firsts have made us lifetime fans. Check back here tomorrow morning to see which two runners made their way to number six.