Centurions1911

There is only one 100 mile/24 hour race held in England each year. This is usually the RWA Long Distance Championship and organised by a local race walking club on an alternate year basis. In recent years it has been down to race walking clubs London Vidarians and Surrey Walking Club to do the honours. (London Vidarians has now officially closed down)

The 100 mile race has to satisfy the RWA condiitions for a championship race and it has also to be"fit for purpose" for those who are attempting a 100 miles in 24 hours to qualify for entry into the Brotherhood of Centurions. No matter who organises the 100, if the Centurions believe the course, facilities, etc, are not up to scratch, then the event will not be a Centurions qualifier.

There are a lot of walks of various distances which can be used as training walks for a 100 miles/24 hour race. These events are usually non - competitive and are organised by the Long Distance Walkers Association (LDWA), the International Marching League (IML) and the IVV, amongst others.
Many Centurions take part in these walks - even if they are not intending to compete in the next "100". They are all enjoyable events in their own right. See the LINKS page.

There are many 24 hour race walks in France, usually held as qualifying races for the prestigious Paris-Colmar race. Race walkers from around Europe enter these races whether they wish to qualify for the P-C or not. Over the last few years, these race have incorporated relay races, a 2 day 6hour stage race and/or a 12 hour race into the main event. On top of this it may be staged with a running 24hour event. This clearly is the way to go and it does open up a lot of races at the longer distances- something which we obvisously lack in the UK just one 100 mile race and one 50km race in the calendar for 2011.

The Dutch also hold an annual 24 hour race and this is combined with separate 100 miles, 100km, 50 miles and 50km races. The venue for this event alternates each year between Weert (in eastern Netherlands) and Schiedam - a suburb of Rotterdam. This has been a successful model for many years. The Dutch also hold races at various long distances.