Arc of Attrition 100 2027

20-24 weeks is the realistic window for a first 107.5-mile ultra, assuming you already have a marathon's worth of base behind you. The block that matters is back-to-back long weekends — a long run on Saturday followed by a second, slower one on Sunday — which builds time on feet and teaches you to run on tired legs without the recovery cost of one enormous day. Practise your race-day nutrition on every one of them; at this distance the stomach fails before the legs do.

This is a largely flat course, so most of your long runs can mirror that — flat and steady, building time on feet rather than hill strength.

Drop volume hard across the final three to four weeks — further out and steeper than a marathon taper, because a 30-mile training day costs weeks of recovery, not days. Keep some easy running and a little terrain-specific work in, but the goal is to reach Coverack, on the Lizard peninsula, Cornwall with fresh feet and a rested gut rather than one more long run in the bank.

Lock in your target pace using the interactive splits calculator below — no official pacers are confirmed for this event, so a pace band on your watch is the more reliable option.

Test your race-day fuel and hydration plan on your long training runs, not for the first time on race day — check the Race Day Checklist below for what's actually on this course.

Eat normally and increase carbohydrate modestly across the last two or three days. Sleep matters more than nutrition here: a 13:00 Friday start means your first night of running follows a full day awake.

A 13:00 start is unusual — treat it as a normal breakfast plus a proper lunch two to three hours before, rather than a pre-dawn race-morning routine.

Winter, wet and cold suppress appetite badly, and the Arc has a reputation for people stopping because they stopped eating. Plan to take on real food at every checkpoint, carry things you can eat cold with numb fingers, and put a hot drink at the centre of every checkpoint stop.

Warmth first, food second. Get dry and warm, then eat and keep eating. Recovery from a winter hundred takes weeks.

Porthtowan / St Agnes

Penzance

Helston / the Lizard

Penzance and Truro are the nearest mainline stations, both on the Great Western line from London Paddington. Neither is close to Coverack — a taxi or a lift is required for the last stretch to the start.

No public Park & Ride. Because it is point-to-point across the far west of Cornwall, most runners arrange crew transport or use the organiser's own transfer arrangements — check the official site for what is offered in 2027.

None — the route is entirely on the South West Coast Path and other rights of way.

Checkpoint villages along the coast path are the practical viewing points, and Porthtowan at the finish is where the atmosphere is. Land's End and Porthcurno are the scenic ones if you want to see runners on the most dramatic ground.

Difficult by design. The coast path is a long way from the road for much of the route, the roads that do reach it are single-track Cornish lanes, and much of the race happens in the dark. Pick two or three access points rather than trying to follow the whole thing.

Live tracking is provided through the UTMB World Series platform, as it is at every UTMB event. Runners carry a tracker issued at registration.