I’ve dusted off my previous page at https://www.julianwhite.uk/ldwa-100/ all about the LDWA 100 to bring it up to date for 2026.
This interview is with Mark Pennington (with his wife Deborah in the above photo) who is looking forward to taking part in his fourth hundred. And I love this answer about what he’s most looking forward to and his answer was “Saturday and Monday” which seems quite realistic!
Q. Could you briefly introduce yourself and say how you first became involved with long-distance walking?
A. I am an accountant from Leeds with no athletic background. Around the age of 50, weight-gain suggested I needed some exercise, and my wife Deborah and I decided to walk a trail as a holiday. I found information on the LDWA website, and selected the Dales Way, which we managed to complete, exhausted, at 12 miles per day. We then joined LDWA and did our first social walk with The Irregulars on my 51st birthday.
Q. You mentioned that this will be your fourth hundred. What do you remember most strongly from the first three?
A. The walk into the unknown on Hundred #1. Everyone has done 50 miles to qualify, but most debutants have no idea what their body and mind will do beyond that point. On reaching Coventry at 70 miles, I was exhausted and ready to stop. Instead I asked for a lie down: while discovering that I couldn’t power-nap, I had to listen to other conversations going on around me about whether to quit. I didn’t think it was justified, so I got up, had some food and drink, set off, and gave myself 10 minutes to decide whether I felt too awful to continue. The lie down had done me some good, as I actually found a burst of respectable speed and started overtaking people. I didn’t look back from there. It was a pivotal moment for me.
Q. Does approaching your fourth 100 feel different from preparing for your first, and are you calmer about the distance now or does it still have a healthy ability to cause concern?
A. I now feel as though I understand the event and how to get myself through it. It’s immensely long and things can go wrong, but so far I have coped and never felt that I wouldn’t finish my subsequent Hundreds.
Q. What made you decide to take on this year’s 100 in Kent?
A. After two I decided I’d had enough and would take a break. This turned out to be 10 months long (!), and I was a late entrant for last year’s event: I missed having a goal in the spring. I think I’m hooked now.
Q. How has your training been going, and have you changed anything based on what you learned from your previous 100s?
A. My approach has been similar and I’ve come through unscathed. I just beat my PB in the Marsden Moors Meander by 19 seconds, so I guess I should tackle the Hundred at my usual pace!
Q. How prepared do you feel at this stage, physically and mentally?
A. Physically I’m okay. Mentally, it’s how you feel on the day: but it’s an inspiring day, so I should be up for it.
Q. Food can become strangely important on a 100-mile event. What do you usually rely on to keep yourself going, and is there anything you absolutely cannot face after enough miles?
A. On approaching a checkpoint I’ve always been ready to eat, and I always know what I want. In the wee small hours, milky foods like cereal and rice pudding go down well. And tea, of course.
Q. Is there a particular point in a 100 where you know from experience that things can become difficult, and how do you usually get through it?
A. As a Monday finisher, Sunday is immensely long and very hard. In particular, 60-80 miles is the hardest, when you’re done-in and there’s a very long way to go. Before 60 I can smell sausages, and after 80 I start to smell success. One thing I’ve learned is that your feelings come in-and-out: you don’t just feel progressively worse all the time.
Q. What would make this year’s 100 feel like a success for you?
A. Any completion is a success. Beating 41 hours would keep up my statistical progress, but I suspect the late hills might challenge this. I won’t worry about it.
