Determination, Grit and Stamina. Good Traits

It's amazing what people can do when they put their minds and bodies to it.

Have you heard of the Barkley Marathons?

If not, here are a few basic facts:

1. The course, at Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee, changes every year but covers 100 miles involving 60,000 feet of climb and descent - about twice the height of Mount Everest.

2. It is inspired by the 1977 escape of James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin Luther King Jr, from nearby Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary. Ray covered only about 12 miles (19 km) after running more than 50 hours in the woods, hiding from air searches during the day.

3. Participants are called to the starting line by the blowing of a conch shell.

4. The race starts when its co-inventor and proprietor, Laz Lake Cantrell, is seen lighting a cigarette. It ends with Cantrell at the yellow gate made iconic by a 2014 documentary called Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young.

5. Race bib #1 s always given to the person deemed to be the least likely to finish one lap. A "human sacrifice," as Cantrell calls it.

6. Only 20 people have ever made it to the end of the race within the allotted 60 hours since it was extended to 100 miles in 1989.

A British woman made history over the weekend by becoming the first woman to finish it.

This is her at the end:

That is Jasmin Paris from Midlothian in England. At the time of the photograph, she had completed the Barkley Marathons in Tennessee with just one minute and 39 seconds to spare of the 60-hour cut-off. Sixty hours is all you have to navigate a pathless course and complete the race, which is replete with odd touches and requirements.

More on the race and the remarkable Ms. Paris after the break.