River Relay
Summary
What? The River Relay is a baton relay run over five stages from Boveney to Kingston-upon-Thames, finishing at the Hawker Centre.
When? Sunday 4th September 2022 starting at 9:00am
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 26.5 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 £50 for a team of attached runners, (£60 unattached).
Results from previous races can be found here.
The River Relay is run under licence from The Trail Running Association, permit number TBC. The permit can be viewed at TBC
The Route
The race starts at 9:00 AM from the Chapel of St Mary Magdalene on Lock Path at Boveney. It finishes at the Hawker Centre, Lower Ham Road, Kingston. This distance is approximately 26.5 miles - just over a full marathon!
A detailed PDF with maps annotated with route instructions for each stage is available at River Relay Maps 2022 and a YouTube video of the route being run-through is available at River Relay Course Run-Through
The stages are summarised as follows:
| Stage |
Start |
End |
Distance |
Start postcode (approx) |
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 runs 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 |
Hawker Centre |
5.2 |
KT8 1SU |
Start is on the towpath by a car park. This stage follows the river the whole way, although crosses the river at Hampton Court – take care and use the crossings – and then back over at Kingston Bridge. |
|
(finish) |
Hawker Centre |
26.7 |
KT2 5BH |
Finish is at the Hawker Centre, plentiful parking and refreshments. |
Instructions
A number of documents are available that provide instructions for both runners and marshals:
Instructions for changeover/finish marshals 2022
Entries
You can register your interest in entering a team in the relay now! For Stragglers entries please contact Andy Howarth and for teams from other clubs River Relay
At the start of June 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 28th August. Final team declarations however are not required till just before the start of the race. Any entries accepted after 28th August are at the organiser's discretion.
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.
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
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); four 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.
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.
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 woman. You can have as many women and vets as you like (so a team of all senior women, for example). All team members must be at least 18 years of age.
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.)
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 4 hours 30 minutes..
After the Race
The race finishes at the Hawker Centre 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.
