The perfect way to experience swimrun for the first time.
Our 8.7km route is a lovely mixture of paved and trail running, with 4 runs and 3 swims.
You’ll set off from The Discovery Centre at Knoll Beach, taking The Sand Dunes Trail to the sea for just over 1/2km. Then a 600m swim along Studland Beach to the water-sports centre. After a 500m run to Middle Beach, you then swim 640m jaunt through the marine conservation zone with the potential to swim with seahorses, round to South Beach.
From Joe’s Cafe, you run up the path to meet the road, turn left onto the Old Harry path, filling up with hydration or nutrition from Hydration Station 1 if you need to. Having soaked up the incredible views across Bournemouth Bay as you approach Old Harry Rocks, turn uphill for 100m before entering a woodland trail which twists and turns it’s way back to the coastpath you just came up. Turn left to run back towards The Bankes Arms, round the path past Fort Henry, where Churchill and Eisenhower oversaw the preparations for D-Day. In the water again at Middle Beach for a long, final 800m swim, finished off with a 200m dash to the finish through the sand.
All the swim entries and exits are on sandy beaches. There are no rocks or difficult terrain.
This swimrun is run under our standard swimrun rules
