BEN Abell survived the heat, pain and mayhem of a drama-filled Great Pyramid Race to write his name into the record books as the winner of the 50th-anniversary running of the event.

Abell had spent months planning his assault on Walsh’s Pyramid, but nothing could prepare him for the agony of Saturday’s torture test.

Pictures: Great Pyramid Race 2009

"Running back, that last 3km was by far the hardest running I’ve ever done. It’s a tough race," Abell said as he sucked in some deep breaths at the end of the race.

The 23-year-old’s time of 1hr 23min 12sec was almost six minutes slower than defending champion Neil Labinsky’s race record, but considering the conditions it was an impressive performance.

The Newcastle native is living in Cairns this year while studying at TAFE.

Labinsky had entered the race as the favourite but was unable to finish after falling on the descent.

Abell had saved energy for the second half of the race by walking part of the ascent but still struggled in the final kilometres and almost collapsed after crossing the finish line in Norman St, Gordonvale.

"Those kids run with you from about the train tracks and they kept me going," Abell said.

"I probably would have walked so a wobble at the end was minimal," he said. Many runners struggled with the conditions.

"You know it’s a hot day when old blokes are walking past your car going, ‘It’s the hottest in a while’," Abell said.

Canberra’s John Winsbury finished second in a time of 1:26.17.

Winsbury stayed with Cairns competitor Phil Bradshaw for much of the descent.

"I haven’t done any running over 10 degrees for a good four months so this is extremely bad," Winsbury said.

"When I was about three-quarters of the way up I was like a cooked duck so I just had to settle down.

"I stayed with Phil for a good half of the descent and in the end I surged and tried to surge to the end with what felt like jelly legs so I was pretty happy to get to the end in a respectable time."

Winsbury used the race as preparation for the world short course mountain running championships in Italy next month.

He said the 992m mountain was one of the toughest he had raced.

"In the top section it’s worse than Borneo’s Mt Kinabalu. That’s a 9km descent and goes up 3500m but the technical nature of this one sets it apart. It’s a classic."

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