The River Relay

Thanks to all 2009 runners and organisers.  Results are here

Summary

What? The River Relay is a baton relay run over six stages from Virginia Water to Kingston-upon-Thames, finishing at the Hawker Centre.

When? The 2009 River Relay took place on Sunday 13th September starting at 9am.  2010 date to be confirmed.

Who? Mixed teams of 6 people.  You need at least one woman, the rest can be juniors (under 16) or Veterans (over 40) but not more than 3 Senior Men.

Where? The stages range from 3.8 to 7.5 miles over friendly terrain (a total of 31.4 miles) so this is an excellent introduction to relay racing and runners of all standards are welcome.

Why? All proceeds from the race (after expenses) go to charity – please see here

Results from all previous races are here.

History of the race is here, with a roll of honour of previous winners here.

Stage 1 - Virginia Water

The Route

The race starts at 9:00 AM from Virginia Water, adjacent to the Wheatsheaf Hotel car park, Windsor Great Park, on the A30. It finishes at the Hawker Centre, Lower Ham Road, Kingston. This distance is approximately 31.4 miles.

The stages are as follows: 

Stage 2 – Bishop’s Gate, Windsor Great Park

Entries

You can register your interest in entering a team in the relay now! Just send an e-mail to riverrelay@wickroad.freeserve.co.uk

You can also download an entry form here

At the start of July an invitation to participate is sent to clubs. Those confirming that they want to enter teams are then sent a race entry form. (This bit of bureaucracy helps us as organisers know how many teams to expect and team captains to get their teams selected).

The closing date for payment for entries is the 30th August. Final team declarations however are not required till just before the start of the race. Any entries accepted after 30th August are at the organiser's discretion.

Stage 3 - Staines

Charities and Prizes

Before the race each team is required to nominate a medical or handicap charity. The proceeds raised by the event are divided between the charities nominated by the first three teams. In addition there is a prize for the team most closely predicting their finishing time and two Tombola prizes drawn at random from those teams not winning one of the other prizes.

Stage 4 – Walton Bridge

Route Finding & Time Keeping

Each team will be responsible for route finding, getting their runners to and from stages and recording their running times. Running times must be submitted to the Race Director at the end of the race.

Each runner will be given a description of the route and a map. There will be MINIMAL marshalling en-route with the exception of changeover points. There will be random marshalling en-route to ensure fair play.

Each team will be responsible for getting their runners to and from the changeover points. Route guides for drivers will be supplied. All the race details including route descriptions, maps and team declaration forms will be sent out following the closing date.  

Stage 5 – Hurst Park

 Team make up and declarations

Each team should be made up as follows: Maximum of 3 men aged between 16 and 40 plus at least one woman. The balance of runners can be from the following categories. Male vets (over 40 years); Women; Juniors (under 16)

The final order of the runners must be stated on the Team Declaration. This will be sent with the race details. Final declarations must be made by 8:30 AM on the day of the race. The declaration should include the team's predicted finishing time which will be used for the sweepstake prize. Unaccompanied Juniors can only run on the stages that do not include public roads (Stages 1 and 4). No runner may run two stages for the same team. (Runners can run a separate leg for another team.)

In 2005 there were 37 teams from 18 clubs in the competition and we encourage entries form corporate teams or just groups of friends! The fastest time was 2hrs 58mins 04secs. The slowest time was over 4hrs 30mis.

 Stage 6 - Ham

After the Race

The race finishes at the Straggler’s base at Hawker Leisure in Kingston. As more and more teams enter the final stage of the race the changeover gets really busy and there’s quite a buzz. Hawker Leisure has a bar and restaurant to keep you refreshed until the prize giving.

Post-race barbecue and prizegiving

The 2009 winners, Sandhurst Joggers A