River Relay
Summary
The River Relay is a baton relay run over five stages from Boveney to Bushy Park, finishing at the Bushy Park Sports Club.
When? Sunday 31st August starting at 8.45am.
Who? Mixed teams of 5 people. You need at least one woman, the others can be a woman, a Veteran (over 40) but not more than 3 Senior Men. All team members must be at least 18 years of age.
Where? The stages range from 4.4 to 6.51 miles over friendly terrain (a total of approximately 27.2 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 below
Cost? Just £65 for a team of attached runners, (£75 unattached).
Results from previous races can be found here.
The Route
The race starts at 8.45 AM from the Chapel of St Mary Magdalene on Lock Path at Boveney, SL4 6QQ. It finishes at the Bushy Park Sports Club, Teddington TW11 0EL. This distance is approximately 27.2 miles - just over a full marathon!
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Here is the full River Relay Course Map 2025 in PDF annotated with route instructions for each stage. For further information, view a YouTube video here of the Course Route Run-Through
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The stages are summarised as follows: ​
Stage | Start | End | Distance | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Boveney Church, Windsor | Ham Lane, Old Windsor | 5.6 | SL4 6QQ | Start is close to Boveney Church on Lock Path. There is a car park and the area is just beside the Dorney Lake Rowing complex. |
2 | Ham Lane, Old Windsor | Staines Bridge | 4.4 | SL4 2JY | Start is on the River Path at the crossing with Ham Lane. |
3 | Staines Bridge | Manor Park, Shepperton | 6.5 | TW18 4TA | Start is by the river near Market Square, downstream from Staines Bridge. The course mainly follows the river path heading East, then through Shepperton on some minor roads, finishing at Manor Park on Church Road. |
4 | Manor Park, Shepperton | Hurst Park | 4.9 | TW17 9JS | Start is by the Manor Road car park near Shepperton square (free parking for an hour), then heads over Walton Bridge to re-join the Thames Path |
5 | Hurst Park | Bushy Park Sports Centre | 5.8 | KT8 1SU | Start is on the towpath by a car park. This stage follows the river to Hampton Court Bridge (take care and use the crossings), then along Barge Walk before heading up beside Bushy Park to the Sports Club finish. |
Finish | Bushy Park Sports Club | 27.2 | TW11 0EL | Finish is at the BPSC. Limited parking available on site. Refreshments available. |
Instructions
A number of documents are available that provide instructions for both runners and marshals:
Instructions for runners
Instructions for drivers
Instructions for changeover/finish marshals
The River Relay is run under licence from The Trail Running Association, permit number TBC.
Entries
You can register your interest in entering a team in the relay now!
For Stragglers member entries an online form will be issued shortly, and for teams from other clubs please contact riverrelay@stragglers.org.
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 24th August. Final team declarations however are not required till just before the start of the race. Any entries accepted after 24th August are at the organiser's discretion.
Charities and Prizes
Before the race each team is asked to nominate a 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.
Throughout its history the River Relay has had one aim - to give the profits from the event to charities nominated by the competitors.
Following deductions for the Sweepstake, Tombola and memorial prizes money is allocated as follows:
- Winning Team 50% of prize fund
- Second Team 33%of prize fund
- Third Team 17% of prize fund
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Money is set aside for the Sweepstake Prize (for the club best predicting their finish time - please note this award has become more difficult to judge as the number of race entries has grown and for this reason it will be judged in the week following the event); two Tombola Prizes (drawn at random for teams not winning one of the other prizes) and MacMillan Nurses and Cancer Research. These two charities were selected in perpetuity to receive money from the River Relay following the death of Tim Adam (Stragglers) and Peter Allan (Staines Strollers).
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.
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Each runner should familiarise themselves with the route and 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.
To help the event run more smoothly and in the interests of runners, organisers and marshals, we are introducing release times. When the release time for a stage is reached, any remaining runners at the checkpoint will be released. The release times will be publicised in advance but will be based on runners achieving a pace of 12-minute miles (7.30 minute km’s). No team will be disadvantaged by this change, and we expect it to improve the experience for runners who previously have had to endure a rather lonely later leg!
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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.
Team make up and declarations
Each team should be made up as follows: you must have not more than 3 senior men, and you must have one lady. You can have as many ladies and vets as you like (so a team of all senior ladies, for example). All team members must be at least 18 years of age.
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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. No runner may run two stages for the same team (Runners can run a separate leg for another team).
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Our record entry was in 2017 with 82 teams representing 31 organisations and clubs. We encourage entries from corporate teams or just groups of friends! Team times are likely to range from just under 3 hours to around 5 hours.
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After the Race
The race finishes at the Bushy Park Sports Club in Teddington. As more and more teams enter the final stage of the race the changeover gets really busy and there's quite a buzz.