There are a number of interviews with entrants of the 100 at https://www.julianwhite.uk/ldwa-100/ with more coming, but I thought that I’d summarise some of the interviews that have been received so far. And add my own commentary of my 100 in 2021 which I of course hardly mention….. This is the second summary of the interviews, with the first here.
Hundred miles, many sandwiches and the quiet heroism behind the Hunnypot 100
The LDWA 100 is, on paper, a walking event. In practice it is also a test of sleep deprivation, footcare, navigation, catering, human kindness and the ability to make sensible decisions after the point at which most people would have taken a taxi, booked a hotel and reassessed their life choices. The interviews with Helen Strong, Guy Evans, Anne Wade and Annette Merchant show the 2026 Hunnypot Hundred not just as a long-distance challenge, but as a huge collective effort by walkers, organisers and marshals.
Helen Strong, LDWA General Secretary and a Kent Group committee member, has been closely involved with the organisation of this year’s event, including as Entries Secretary. She described a year of work involving qualifying event records, SiEntries pages, cancellations, the waiting list, tally cards, trackers, joining instructions and registration volunteers. It is a reminder that a 100 begins long before anyone reaches the start line, although naturally some entrants may assume it has all emerged by magic, perhaps from a spreadsheet-bearing woodland creature. In reality, the application to hold this 100 was received by the LDWA’s NEC in 2019, so this event has been seven years in the planning. Helen said the organiser’s side had shown her that “there are many elements that need to be perfect, but a few elements which do not”, adding that while many entrants had been appreciative, some messages had come from people with “absolutely no idea what is involved”.
That unseen work is a theme picked up strongly by Anne Wade, the LDWA 100s Coordinator on the NEC, who has herself completed 22 hundreds. She said that local groups face major challenges in finding a suitable HQ, parking, catering facilities, changing rooms, volunteers and the long lead-in time needed to make the event happen. For entrants, she said, the two most important things are “the route and the food”, which is perhaps the most LDWA sentence ever constructed. The route needs to be scenic, interesting and maybe not too cruel in the final quarter, while the food needs to be plentiful, varied and available at exactly the moment a walker begins to view custard as a major philosophical necessity.
Anne and Helen both walked the marshals’ event, and their comments suggest that the Hunnypot route will be beautiful, varied and rather more demanding than anyone hoping for a gentle wander through Kent might have wished. Anne praised the “views and variety”, including fields, forest, heath and down, but also remembered the night section when rain and fog made route-finding harder and the descent to Kemsing followed by the climb back up felt especially challenging. Helen was even more direct, warning that the Kent landscape is “hilly – both slow climbs and steep ones”, with the Greensand Ridge and North Downs combining to produce a final section she described in one word, namely “Brutal.”
Guy Evans brings the perspective of an experienced entrant who has already completed four LDWA 100s and still, with an admirable lack of self-preservation, wants to keep coming back. He described the event as “iconic” and praised its “understated, unpretentious, laid-back, friendly atmosphere”, saying it has a very different feel from other ultra events. His journey into the 100 also carries the familiar LDWA logic of escalation: family walks led to long-distance events, then 50s, then the thought that he would do just one 100 because “only mad people walk a 100 miles”. He now wonders whether a 100 is enough, which suggests the madness has settled in nicely and should no longer be disturbed.
For Guy, one of the secrets is not thinking about the full distance. He said the lesson from his first 100 was simply to think about getting to the next checkpoint, adding that “a very large part of finishing is mental not physical”. His advice to first-timers is rooted in that same approach which is namely do not overthink it, know your reason for doing it, remember that lows pass and smile even when you do not feel like it. There is a lovely understatement in his description of the later stages, where the event is 70 or 80 per cent complete, the walker is tired and the end still feels distant. His wife might call what keeps him going stubbornness although he prefers determination, which is the same thing with better publicity.
Annette Merchant offers another essential perspective, having been involved with the hundred since the 1994 Dartmoor event and describing Hunnypot as her 30th hundred. She first became involved because her husband Les was entering the events, but over the years the annual gathering of walkers and marshals became something she wanted to keep returning to, even after Les died in 2020. She said she realised early on that a checkpoint could “really make a difference”, especially for mid-paced and slower walkers trying to complete the event. That is the practical heart of the 100 which is tired people arriving at a hall, sometimes in the small hours, needing food, reassurance, sympathy and possibly to be protected from their own rash decision to sit down for too long.
Annette’s view of checkpoints is refreshingly practical. The hall needs space, the kitchen needs the right equipment, the food needs to match the facilities and walkers should not have to queue when what they really need is to change socks, sort gear and be gently encouraged back into functioning humanity. She said marshals need to understand how walkers feel, be “prepared to have a joke” and be sympathetic when people are nauseous or fatigued. She is also careful about retirements, saying that a potential retiree’s tally is not taken until they have stopped, eaten, drunk, rested and still decided to retire. No point rushing these decisions….
Food, inevitably, runs through all four interviews with the emotional force normally reserved for major family events. Anne says LDWA walkers are “powered by tea and fuelled by cake” and Helen says food is critical, though on the marshals’ event she relied heavily on her own sweet snacks, savoury food at checkpoints and an uncharacteristic fondness for full-fat Coke. Annette argues for a good mix of sweet and savoury, not too much in any one portion and enough variety to suit people arriving at very different times of day. In the civilised world this is called catering; on a 100 it is morale, medicine and emotional support in edible form.
Taken together, the four interviews present the Hunnypot 100 as something much richer than a long walk. It is a demanding route through Kent and Sussex, a logistical exercise, a community reunion, a test of personal resolve and a tribute to the volunteers who keep smiling even when they have had very little sleep. Helen is looking forward to visiting the checkpoints by car after completing the marshals’ event, which may be the most sensible aspiration expressed in the entire set of interviews and might be something that Richard and I do this weekend.
Guy remembers the moment around mile 90 when a walker knows they are going to finish. Anne reminds entrants to eat from the first checkpoint because they cannot run on empty. Annette says marshalling should be treated as “a social event, a weekend away with friends and like-minded people, helping colleagues to succeed in a significant challenge”. That may be the best summary of the LDWA 100, an unreasonable distance made possible by very reasonable people.