On a route heading out from Corfe Castle and over to the coast, taking in wonderous views from Old Harry Rocks, the Maverick Jurassic Coast ‘Long’ race was really quite something to behold. Traversing along the ridges of the Purbeck Way, it goes right down to the tip of the Purbecks, past Winspit Quarry and onto the infamous steps at St Aldhelms Head. It’s then a descent down Knowle Hill leading back to Corfe Castle.

To say it’s a challenging route would be putting a mildly, as some of the climbs are long and super tough, with the elevation gain reaching 1,200m. That was what Ben Arnold was facing when he signed up for 54km race.

Up until this year, Ben was a sprinter, doing 100m races in 11 seconds and 200m in 22 seconds. At the beginning of last year, he was clocking times of 7.28 seconds for the 60m sprint. This year he’d decided to embark upon a very different path, venturing into longer distance events and road running.

Starting with parkruns and 10ks, he was running times of around 18:20 at Poole parkrun and was over 40 minutes for 10k at Round the Lakes. That was back in April. Since then he’d progressed to 17:47 for 5k at the Boscombe Seafront race and 38:21 in the September edition of Round the Lakes.

Running a 54km ultra over that type of terrain was a very different kettle of fish though. That was a huge step up in distance and demand, but Ben was determined to get through it.

Starting off at around 8:15 sort of pace, for the first couple of miles, the opening 10k of the route wasn’t really all that tough. Ben was doing around 8:30 to 9 minute mile pace for most of those miles. The first big climb started after that though and went up to 8.6 miles. It was super steep but Ben powered up it at around 10:30 sort of pace.

Then it was a steep descent down before embarking on the next big climb. The one put Ben down to 12:20 pace before he then started the long descent down from the 12th mile. That enabled him to get back to 8:50 pace before reaching the bottom of the descent on the 14th mile.

It was then back up a slightly shorter but just as steep incline which he then came partially down and then back up again before another descent down on the 17th mile. The next big slope to tackle was on the 19th mile and that proved a tough one to get up, knocking him back to 14:18 pace.

Then it was back down the other side, taking him to the end of the 20th mile. There was then a really long climb which took him to the highest point of the race at 687ft. He’d now down 23.8 miles.

The next descent down took him to 25.6 miles before he then began the last of the really big hills. That was a steep one, with over 200ft of elevation in one mile, putting him back to 14 minute mile pace. The last long descent started at 27.5 miles and led all way down to the 29 mile point.

The hard was done by that point in terms of elevation and was a relatively flattish last 4.5 miles to the finish. No doubt everything would have been hurting by that point but Ben kept going all the way to the finish.

Reaching the line in a time of 6 hours 11 minutes 26 seconds, Ben had done it. He’d made it all way and it was quite an achievement. Coming 132nd out of 447 it was a stellar effort from Ben. 17 of the participants started the 54k race but didn’t manage to make it to the end, emphasising how tough it was.

The winner of the race was Mark Jenkin and he got round in a time of 4 hours 7 minutes and 41 seconds. Alex Leighton was second in 4:34:41, with Daniel Mann taking third in 4:34:49.

Sarah Page was first female and 6th overall in 4:49:22, with Elizabeth Joyce coming in as second female and 7th overall in 4:50:57. Gem Carter was third female and 30th overall in 5:19:14.

Racking up an elevation gain of 4,200ft, Ben had covered 33.5 miles in total and come away with an average pace of 10:32. It was a great performance from him on such a difficult route and he’d successfully accomplished something that was totally out of his comfort zone. It was certainly a far cry from a 100m race on the track.

Amazingly, the 54km race wasn’t the longest distance on offer at the Maverick Jurassic Coast. That was the 102km ‘Ultra’ which started on the South West Coast Path over near Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove.

Kevin Meynard-Krause won that one in 8 hours 41 minutes and 48 seconds, with Austin Segard taking second place in 9:47:46 and Mike Wright getting third in 10:12:54.

Natalie Taylor was first female and 5th overall in 10:21:13, with Naomi Benson coming in second lady in 11:33:40. She finished 11th overall, with Vicki Balfour taking the third female spot and coming in 13th with a time of 12:03:45.

140 athletes completed the full 102km, with 26 of the original participants failing to make it to the end. That sort of sums the running world up. No matter how tough and long an event is, there is always a next level up. For now though, what Ben managed to get through was more than enough.