Team Relays
Ten to twenty runners, a minibus, and a very long day. The relays are how most people end up knowing the rest of the club.
June · two days · 20 stages
The Welsh Castles Relay
Caernarfon to Cardiff over a weekend in June, twenty stages, and our biggest turnout of the year. Each runner takes a leg — some flat, some emphatically not — and the rest of the team leapfrogs ahead in vans to feed, shout and hand over.
It is two days of Welsh hills, roadside picnics and a great deal of sitting in a minibus, and it is the single fastest way to go from knowing three people at the club to knowing forty.
First Saturday in July · 103 miles
The Cotswold Way Relay
Ten runners, 103 miles of trail from Chipping Campden to Bath, starting at seven in the morning and finishing around six in the evening. It is not a baton relay — ten separate leg races add up to one elapsed time, so every runner gets a proper hundred-person race of their own as well as a share in the team result.
In 2025 we took two teams. The Mixed team won their category, first of thirty-six and tenth overall; the Vets came fourth of fifteen. Twenty runners went, six of them women, aged from early twenties to early seventies — which is rather the point of a relay.
The South Downs Relay
Beachy Head to Winchester in a day — eighteen legs, a hundred miles, fifty-two teams, and the only one of the three that finishes on home ground. Six runners to a team, three legs each across the day and anything from 8 to 18 km a leg — and since it is the South Downs the whole way, not one of them is flat. Drivers leapfrog between handovers to get everyone to their next start.
On our debut our Mixed team came home in 11 hours 20, forty minutes inside their own estimate and second in category by 3 minutes 29 seconds. Our Vets team took the prize the organisers care most about — the most accurate predicted finish time of the day, within four and a half minutes over a hundred miles.
Second in category by 3 minutes and 29 seconds. Over the 100 mile distance that is just 2 seconds a mile.
And the rest
Those three are the big ones. We also enter the Test Way Relay, a shorter local option in August, and club teams in the national and southern road relay championships and the cross-country relays — which are sharper, shorter and rather more serious.
Getting a place
Teams are picked from members who put their names forward, and the club handles the entry. The organisers do a formidable amount of work behind the scenes; the Welsh Castles entry in particular has earned its unofficial description as herding cats. Watch the club WhatsApp group and this page for when entries open.
And if you are not running
Relays need drivers, marshals and people to shout. Plenty of members do a day of that and enjoy it as much as the running.
Fixtures and results
Relay events the club has entered, most recent first.
Fixtures
No fixtures scheduled at the moment.
Results
- Cotswolds Way Relay 20264 Jul 2026Chipping Campden 22 club runners
- South Downs Relay 20266 Jun 2026Beachy Head to Winchester 5 club runners
- Welsh Castles Relay 20266 Jun 2026Wales 10 club runners
- National 12/6 Stage Road Relay Championships11 Apr 2026
- Southern 12/6 Stage Road Relay Championships29 Mar 2026Milton Keynes 6 club runners
- British Masters Cross Country Relay Championship25 Oct 2025West Park, Wilsthorpe Road, Long Eaton, Nottingham, NG10 4AA 3 club runners
- English National 6/4/3 Stage Road Relays4 Oct 2025TBC
- Test Way Relay 202510 Aug 2025Test Way 6 club runners
- Cotswolds Way Relay5 Jul 2025Chipping Campden 9 club runners
- South Downs Relay7 Jun 2025Beachy Head to Winchester 5 club runners
Relay honours
Team results and club relay awards from the annual awards dinner.
2025
Cotswold Way Relay — Mixed team
- 1st of 36 Mixed teams, 10th overall
- Vets team 4th of 15
2024
South Downs Relay — Mixed team
- 2nd in category on our debut, by 3 minutes 29 seconds
- Vets team: most accurate estimated time of the day
2025
Club relay award winners
- Men: Adrian Fautly
- Ladies: Sam Parkinson
2024
Club relay award winners, by event
- South Downs Relay: Magnus Gregory and Alex Lane
- Welsh Castles Relay: Stan Parkinson and Jackie Ducker
- Cotswold Way Relay: Paul Horler and Sam Parkinson
- Road Relays: Adrian Fautly and Lucy Elliott
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- Teams of ten to twenty, all abilities used
- Two-day trips to Wales and the Cotswolds
- The fastest way to get to know the club