Notorious for its brutal, lung busting climbs, Durlston Country Park is renowned for being the most challenging parkrun in the Dorset area. The Lighthouse Loop is essentially the race version of that, following the very same loop along part of the Durlston Estate and a section of the Jurassic Coastline. The only difference is that it starts and finishes on the grass field at Peveril Point. The route heads out to Anvil Point Lighthouse and back, hence the name being the Lighthouse Loop.

Being a former course record holder at Durlston Country Park, the profile of the race suited Jacek Cieluszecki down to the ground. He’s always at home on the hills of the Purbeck and there a very few athletes out there who can match him on steep slopes of this kind.

One man who would be attempting to do just that in this race was Stu Nicholas. After finishing as runner up in last year’s Purbeck Trail Series, Stu was determined to go one better and take the crown this time round. He outlined that by emerging victorious at the Coombe Keynes 10k which was the first race in the series.

The final placings are decided by a runner’s best three results of the five races. Last year Stu won the Dorset Ooser Half Marathon, finishing 2nd in the Black Hill Run 10k and came 5th in the Beast.

Winning the Purbeck Trail Series in 2022, Jacek was first to the finish in all three of his races that year which guaranteed him the title. Doing four out of the five races that year and all of the races last year, Geoff Newton will likely be an ever present again this year. The rest of courses, he’ll know well, but the Lighthouse Loop was new to the competition. Like he always does though, he would tackle it head on and give it his best shot.

Since he works nightshifts these days, Jacek doesn’t get to do quite as many races as he used to as he’s usually very tired in the mornings. The Lighthouse Loop was on a Wednesday evening though so that suited him better.

With the race starting with quite a steep climb up grass hill, there wasn’t really anyone who could match the pace that Jacek was setting. His strength and speed up a testing ascent is almost unfathomable to most runners. Once he’d got to the top of the hill there was a downhill section for about a third of a mile before another hill came into play.

Clocking a 6:01 for his first mile split, Jacek then moved swiftly onto his second mile. That started with a bit of levelling out before a downhill section where he could pick up speed. Once he got to the bottom of the slope, it levelled out a bit before it was time to embark on the next climb.

Getting through the second mile in 6:16, JC really put the hammer down in the last mile which contained more downhill sections than uphill. For that mile, Jacek registered a 5:37 and that saw him arrive at the finish line in a time of 18:04.8 giving him an average pace of 5:57 per mile. That was mightily impressive given that there was over 500ft of elevation on the route.

Admitting afterwards that he didn’t find it easy at all, JC had given it his very best. He’s not even at his peak when it comes to hitting the hills at the moment as he hasn’t been doing that much of it in training so that goes to show how strong he is in comparison to most other runners.

In spite of the difficult climbs, Stu Nicholas paced his run pretty well, recording a 6:21 for his first mile and then a 6:23 for his second mile. Managing a 6:01 for his final mile split, Stu went over the line in 18:54.8 which was enough to see him seal 2nd place. Although that put him 50 seconds behind JC, it was still an excellent run from Stu.

Barry Miller of Poole AC was the next man to reach the finish, coming in with a time of 19:16.6. Then it was Jack Matthews of Purbeck Runners who clocked a time of 19:23.7 to take 4th place.

Completing the course in a time of 29:56.8, Geoff Newton came 97th overall out of the 178 senior runners who took part. Geoff usually looks to see how high up he can finish in the M70 bracket when he’s racing, although on this occasion they haven’t mentioned categories in the results. Geoff knows he wasn’t first M70 though as that accolade would have gone to Hamish Murray of Purbeck Runners. He got round in 23:13.4 and came 28th overall.

Stu’s wife Anna was competing as well and she completed the course in 27:24.5 which put her in 70th place overall.

There were also 13 Juniors competing as well and they were segregated in the results. Jake Curson of Beacon Hill Striders was the fastest of them, registering a time of 22:12.3. Ben Elliott finished as runner up in the Junior division with a time of 22:48.0.

After the race, Jacek was presented with a massive trophy for winning the race. It was a bit like a placard but it was so heavy, he could hardly hold it up. He was allowed to keep the trophy for a year before returning it the following year. Fortunately though, he wasn’t obligated to take it home with him as that would perhaps have been even more of the challenge than the race itself!

With a win and a 2nd place, Stu Nicholas topped the standings for the Purbeck Trail Series after the first two fixtures, so it was so far so good from his perspective. The next race of the series was The Beast, a race notorious for its brutal climbs and tough terrain.

The course had changed for this year’s edition after a part of the famous mega flight of steps up Hands Tout fell into the sea. Both Stu and Geoff were back in action for one as the series rolled on and for Stu it was another all important one on his quest to series glory.