Climb South West organises rock climbing courses in Devon, Dorset, and Cornwall. The survival and mountaineering skills imparted by the professional mountaineering instructors come in handy when taking part in any one of the dozen Ultra Trail events the Climb South West team also promotes. 

One of the best known and toughest is the Jurassic Coast 100 Ultra and Jurassic Extinction 120 Ultra that took place over the hottest weekend of the year so far – Saturday 24th to Sunday 25th June 2023 – in temperatures that reached 30C. 

There are four start points according to the size of the challenge facing competitors: Beer, Lyme Regis, Weymouth, and Poole but just one finish line on Exmouth seafront in Devon. Start at Beer for the 30K; Lyme Regis to Exmouth is 50K and includes 1,730m of height gain; step back to Nothe Fort, Weymouth for the 100K (3,310m gain); but the full monte starts at South Haven Point, Poole for a choice of 105 miles (4,740m gain) or for the real Spartans add a loop of the Isle of Portland for the Jurassic Extinction Ultra 120 miles and 5,520m of climbing!

The Jurassic Coast is a World Heritage site that spans from Old Harry Rocks, near Studland to Orcombe Point at Exmouth. The Climb South West website invites runners to: "Join us on a journey through 185 million years of history and 120 miles of incredible coastline."

Despite what must have felt like running in a furnace, Daryl Smith completed the Jurassic Extinction Ultra 120 miles in a course record 30:27:29. Only three finished the 120 miles and the runners-up were Mark Thompson (32:01:27) and Jonathan Burnhams (32:18:46) – all well inside the 38 hours time limit.

The Jurassic Coast 100 mile winners were Dinarte Jesus from Madeira (27:15:44) and Sarah Adams (30:42:59) who was third overall. In the Jurassic Coast 100K from Weymouth to Exmouth the champion was Polish athlete Michal Lesniak (10:47:51) from Tiverton with a record time and Alice Kelly (12:33:05) took the women's title with a new female course record in fourth overall. 

The full results can be viewed via the runABC South race listing here.

Photo of the Jurassic Coast from Climb South West on Facebook