Race to the King training: the 100K figure-of-eight from West Dean

Race to the King isn't the race many people remember. The old route, about 53 miles point to point along the South Downs Way to Winchester Cathedral, hasn't run since 2021. The organiser said it could no longer use the cathedral as the finish. Since 2022 the race has been a figure-of-eight in West Sussex, based at Goodwood Racecourse for two years and at West Dean Gardens since 2024. The main distance is now the 100K: 103 km with 1,510 metres of climbing. The 2027 race is on Saturday 19 June.

Reports from before 2022 describe a different course. Read them for the feel of the Downs and ignore their pacing.

Halfway, you're back at base

The 100K goes to the coast first, by Chichester Harbour, Bosham and Kingley Vale, and returns to West Dean. Then it goes out again to Arundel Castle and along the South Downs Way over Bignor Hill. The 2026 table put basecamp at 50.1 km. I treat that return as the biggest decision point on the course. You've done 50 km, you're back at the race base, and the hillier half is still ahead.

So we rehearse it. On long training runs I have athletes loop past the house or the car at halfway and keep going. The basecamp plan is written before race day: how long you stop, what you eat, what you change. The 80K is a fair choice too. It's the Coastal 50K plus the 30K Monarch's Loop, with 1,065 metres of climbing. For a runner whose longest race is a marathon, I'd look at it before the 100K.

The hillier loop comes second

On the published figures the Coastal 50K climbs 460 metres and the Castle 50K climbs 1,040. If the 100K follows the same pattern, its second half carries more than twice the climbing of its first, on tired legs. Runner reviews say the Castle loop is not to be underestimated in the dark, and some describe long grass and brambles that forced careful walking. So the pacing is lopsided on purpose. The coast half should feel too easy. The climbs after West Dean are walked hard, and the descents off the Downs are where the quads get tested. The legs note explains why that late fade happens even when fitness is fine.

Nineteen kilometres in the small hours

The 2026 table had seven pit stops on the 100K. The longest gap is the 19 km from pit stop 6, at 73.4 km, to pit stop 7, at 92.4 km. In 2026 those closed at 02:30 and 07:15 on the Sunday, so for runners near the back, that stretch falls in the night. The 17 km from the first pit stop to the second is the other long one, early in the day and easy to underestimate.

I want athletes leaving pit stop 6 with food and water for the full 19 km at their slowest pace, a torch they've already used and a warm layer. The organiser points to almost 16 hours of daylight in mid-June. A 100K that takes longer still ends in the dark. It's one short night for most, so the priority from the night note is eating on schedule when the gut goes quiet.

The limit needs checking. The routes page says 24+ hours and the event page says 25+. The 2026 table closed the finish at 10:00 on the Sunday but didn't state the 100K start time. I plan to 24 hours until Threshold confirms.

What the second loop shows

A figure-of-eight gives me a built-in comparison: the second half against the first, from the same base. I set up long runs the same way. Easy flat miles first, then the climbing in hours four and five. I compare heart rate on those late climbs with the same climbs run fresh. On a hill, heart rate is only a proxy for effort, and heat and fatigue both move it, so I read the trend across weeks rather than any single run. If the late climbs keep getting dearer, I change the plan: more strength, a shorter long run, or more rest.

A spring build for a back-loaded 100K

A June race means a spring build. Two strength sessions a week, using the strength note, because the climbing and descending come late. Long runs that finish hilly rather than start hilly. Back-to-back weekends with chalk climbs on the second day. One long run that carries on into the evening, past the time you'd normally stop. Fuelling drilled at the rate in the carbs note, with a long carry rehearsed for the 19 km gap. Then a two-week taper. If you want the whole South Downs Way, the South Downs Way 100 is the race for that.

For Race to the King, I watch

• Heart rate on climbs placed in hours four and five of a long run, against the same climbs fresh.
• Whether the athlete runs past the car at halfway on a looped long run, and how the second half goes.
• Food and water carried and eaten across a 19 km stretch at slow pace.
• Quad soreness after long runs that finish with chalk descents.
• How easy the first half of a long run really was, from heart rate rather than feel.

Facts checked October 2026 against thresholdtrailseries.com (the Race to the King event and routes pages, the 2026 event booklet, and the organiser's posts on the 2021 route change, the 2024 move to West Dean Gardens and the new 30K and 80K distances): the figure-of-eight format from West Dean, 103 km and 1,510 m for the 100K and the ascent for each route above, the 80K as the Coastal 50K plus the Monarch's Loop, the 2026 pit-stop distances and closing times, full signposting, almost 16 hours of daylight, the 19 June 2027 date and the 2027 fees. The organiser's pages give the 100K limit as both 24+ and 25+ hours, and the distance as both 103 km and 102.7 km. The split of the climbing between the two halves of the 100K is my reading of the two 50K routes, not an organiser figure. Descent, high point and the 2027 pit-stop table weren't published when I checked. The Castle loop at night and the long grass come from runner reviews. Evidence level: the fuelling and strength advice matches the field notes; the lopsided pacing is coaching practice.