Hello Serpies - You're invited to indicate your interest in these two summer relays, both on participating in the races themselves, or even better for the club, on being part of the Serpie organising teams.

If you indicate your interest in participating in these races, we will contact you when entries are open.

If you show interest in helping the teams' organisation, I will contact you soon regarding what needs to be done. Don't worry if you haven't been a team organiser before - there will be some work to be done before and during the race weekends, but it makes it easy if more people are involved. As you probably know, we can't field teams in these relays without volunteers to organise the teams, so if you're willing to help please let me know. I would ideally like to have at least 3 organisers for each relay.

Brief descriptions of races:

- Green Belt Relay (14-15 May 2022) - The race will be over 2 days, each day with 11 stages.  Each runner will run both Saturday and Sunday, on average about 10 miles each (totalling about 20 miles a weekend). The route is about 220 miles around the 'Green Belt' of London, i.e. Starting in Hampton Court, it goes through Surrey, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent and back to Kingston. There will be one away night (typically Basildon, Essex).  Entry fees are to be confirmed - this will include race entry, transport, official race T-shirts etc, and excludes accommodation. We normally field 4 teams (i.e. 44 runners), with the fastest men and women having their own teams, there will also be a veteran's team and a mixed team - so basically being fast is a bonus (our men's and women's teams are normally competitive and challenging for titles), but you don't need to be fast - you can join us if you can run 10 min/mile.

https://www.serpentine.org.uk/pages/race_greenbelt.html
http://www.greenbeltrelay.org.uk/

- Welsh Castles Relay (11-12 June 2022) - The race will also be over 2 days, each day with 10 stages (20 stages in total). Each runner only runs one stage over the weekend - stages range from 8 to 13 miles.  The route starts in Caernarfon in North Wales and finishes in Cardiff Castle. There will be two away nights, one in Caernarfon, and the other in mid-Wales. Entry fees are also to be confirmed, this includes race entry, transport, official race T-shirts etc, and excludes accommodation.  We normally field 2 teams, in both the Ladies and the Open categories (i.e. 40 runners altogether).  

https://www.serpentine.org.uk/pages/race_welsh_castles.html
http://www.lescroupiersrunningclub.org.uk/welsh-castles-relay-2016/

Finally - we need drivers for both relays, with 4 No. 14-seaters required for Green Belt, and similarly for Welsh Castles (although one or two of the vehicles might be a smaller 9-seater).  We will need at least 8 drivers for each relay race, so if you can drive a van please let us know.  In the past we offer free accommodation to drivers and we endeavour to offer the same in 2022 as well.

Thanks - look forward to hearing from you!

Hans Ho
Serpentine RC Participation Rep