South Downs Way Relay

Every June teams from running clubs across Sussex, Hampshire, Surrey and beyond assemble at Beachy Head to compete in a 100-mile long relay race. I’ve been lucky enough to run the race twice with my club Arena 80 AC in 2024 and 2025. On the following page I outline everything about the race including the 18 legs, the medal categories, the starting procedure and plenty more.

What is the South Downs Way Relay?

The South Downs Way Relay is a race that takes place on the first Saturday of June every year that is contested by teams of six runners from various different running clubs. To win the race, you have the cover the 100 mile distance in the shortest elapsed time possible.

In all there are four different medal categories that you can compete:

• A – the open category that attracts the highest quality teams. There is no age or gender restriction and to win this you need to be finishing in close to 10 hours, maybe less!
• Womens – another high quality category. Limited to women with no age restriction
• Mixed – an emerging category that is becoming increasingly more competitive. Each team must have an even split of three men and three women. There is no age restriction
• Veterans – teams can be any mix of male and female runners. Men must be 40 or over. Women can be 35 or over.

How can I get involved?

There are many ways to be involved on the day as running is not the only job to do:

• Run – the most obvious way is to be picked for a team and run it. Only certain clubs are invited to enter teams into the relay so you need to join one of those clubs.
• Crew – every team needs a crew to get them from one leg to another. A crew is made up of a driver to drive the mini bus to each stop and a navigator who also doubles up as timekeeper. The navigator has the job of recording the time that the team’s runners start and finish legs. The timesheet is then given to the organisers at the finish line.
• Volunteer – providing volunteers is a vital way that participating clubs support the race and they take responsibility for managing the leg changeovers. The club that I run for, Arena 80 AC, has traditionally been responsible for the changeover between leg 4 and 5. Each changeover point has a lead and co-lead, who provide phone numbers to the organisers. They are also responsible for checking each team in when they arrive at the leg.

How do I learn the different relay legs?

Going out on recce runs before the relay is a great way to not only learn the legs, but also to foster camaraderie with your club mates. There are plenty of different ways to learn and we’ve outlined some of them below:

• Combine multiple legs into one road trip – get in touch with your fellow club mates and arrange a trip that includes multiple legs. You can often do this using two different cars and it makes for a great day out.
• Park at one end and run it both ways – if you want to increase the mileage, you can park at the start or end of a leg and then run it both ways. This is also a good way to learn how to navigate it and is a good way to learn a leg with a club mate who has the same leg but is in a different team.
• Use public transport – plenty of the legs, especially in the first half, can be reached by using public transport. You can find details on how to reach the start or end of each leg on the corresponding page for each leg.

When do teams starts?

In the weeks leading up to the race, each team is required to provide an estimate of the total time it will take to complete all 18 legs. The aim is for each team to arrive at the finish line between 7pm and 8pm. The organisers will then use your time estimate to give you a start time. For example, if your estimate is 12 hours and 35 minutes you’re likely to start at 7:00am with the expectation that you’ll finish at 7:35pm.

The starting procedure

Teams are encouraged to arrive at the start line (Beachy Head) 30 minutes before their scheduled start time. There is then a briefing around 15 minutes before the race starts where the organisers check that each team is present. Following that, the first runner in each team heads over to the start and the race gets underway either on the hour or half hour.

All 18 legs of the South Downs Way Relay

There are 18 different legs that make up the relay and each runner is assigned three legs non-consecutively. The table below shows the different legs with distance and elevation alongside. You can click each leg number to learn even more about each leg.

What happens at each changeover?

When a team has seen a runner off, they then get back into the vehicle and travel to the start of the next leg. There are various points where you can stop to see the runner through and these are covered off in the stopping points section.

After arriving at a changeover, the navigator will go to the person who is in charge of the changeover to check in the team. The runner then waits for the runner of the previous leg to arrive and will start their own leg in one of two ways:

1. Single baton changeover – you are handed the baton by the runner from the previous leg and that is when you start.
2. Double baton changeover – you have a baton in your hand and wait for the other runner to arrive. You can start only when instructed to do so by the marshal.

Double baton changeovers are put in place for safety when there is a busy road crossing at the end of a leg. There are specific rules for each leg and if you disobey, it can result in a disqualification.

Are there any rules?

Yes, there is an extensive set of rules that are updated on a yearly basis. The latest set can be found here.