Recceing the Arc of Attrition with the routes on this site

The Arc of Attrition is a 100-mile winter race along the South West Coast Path: 173 km from Coverack to Porthtowan, anti-clockwise round the far west of Cornwall, most of it run in January darkness. Its reputation is not marketing. There is no mountain in it — around 5,500 m of climb banked in the coast path's endless small ups and downs, never one sustained ascent, which is exactly how Cornwall stores its climb.

The organiser's page is the source of truth for this year's exact line, checkpoints and cut-offs. What follows breaks the course into four stages by the coast's own landmarks — roughly 27 miles each — and points you at the routes in this directory that sit on each one. Where we have run or mapped a section the climb figures are measured from our own line; where we have not, treat the shape as the coast's, not a promise.

Stage 1 — The Lizard: Coverack to Porthleven

The race starts at Coverack and turns south around the Lizard, the most southerly point of mainland Britain — serpentine country, dark and greasy underfoot, with remote coves and few places to bail once you are committed, on past Kynance and Mullion to the harbour at Porthleven. Our Lizard Point and Kynance Cove loop samples the middle of it at a moderate 19 m per km: not the hardest ground on the course, but it comes first, when the urge to run it hard is strongest and the bill arrives sixty miles later.

Stage 2 — Mount's Bay: Porthleven to Mousehole

From Porthleven the course rounds Mount's Bay: Praa Sands, Perranuthnoe, Marazion under St Michael's Mount, the Penzance promenade, Newlyn and Mousehole. This is the flattest, most runnable ground on the whole route — our Marazion to Perranuthnoe line is the lowest-climb coast route we have measured at 14 m per km, and the Penzance prom to Mousehole miles are tarmac-fast. It is where an over-cooked first quarter shows up, and the one place you can reliably eat at pace. Practise that here; the far west gives you no such chance.

Stage 3 — The Far West: Land's End to St Ives

Past Mousehole and Lamorna the coast turns for Land's End, and the race meets its hardest ground: Sennen, Cape Cornwall, St Just, Pendeen and the boulder field below Zennor — deep into the race and, for most, in the dark. We ran and recorded St Just to St Ives over exactly this section: 882 m of climb in 30 km at 29 m per km, and it holds that rate for thirty unbroken kilometres where the steeper loops elsewhere in our data are a fraction of the length. The second half is bog, granite and rock that does not care about your splits; fresh, in daylight, in summer, it took us over five hours including a pub stop, and the run report has the detail. The Arc crosses it at night, in January. Draw your own conclusions and pack accordingly.

Stage 4 — The North Coast: St Ives to Porthtowan

The last quarter runs the north coast from St Ives past Hayle, Gwithian and Godrevy, along the exposed North Cliffs through Portreath to the finish at Porthtowan — for the leaders a second night out, for most of the field a long grind on emptied legs. Our Godrevy to Portreath line covers the heart of it at 15 m per km: gentle on paper, but there is nothing between you and the Atlantic and the wind sets the pace. Recce it in a gale and you will have trained the thing that actually breaks people here.

Recce rules

• Winter recces of these sections are the real thing: short daylight, greasy granite, full Atlantic exposure. Take the kit list the race mandates and use it.
• Do at least one leg in the dark on tired legs — the boulder field navigates differently by head torch.
• The GPX files here are planning aids from our own lines, not the race course. Course files, checkpoints and cut-offs live with the organiser.

None of this replaces the organiser's information; it is ground truth to train against. The race's own page confirms dates, checkpoints and cut-offs — ours just tells you what the ground underneath them feels like.