Round Britain Relay Run
Highly influenced by Eddie Izzard’s fantastic feat of 43 marathons in 52 days, and one man’s innate desire to ‘do something a bit different’, an idea was conceived. “Would it be possible to run a relay around the Coast of Great Britain?“
Dave Bleazard is co-ordinating runners for the legs through Argyll.
See the timetable of events below…
Wed 26th
Paul, Lynne and Dave are on the 12:30 ferry to Lochranza to meet the runner coming over from Brodick at 13:30 at Lochranza Pier. Lunch at the distillery then back across to run 12 miles of the Kintyre Way into Corranbuie.Deliver the baton to Suse Coons at Corranbuie.
Thurs 27th
Suse and Tarbert ladies take the baton for a wee run
Fri 28th
Suse meets Alister ( and Susannah ) ? at Kennacraig to take Barry to Jura.
Lizzie runs from the ferry port to Craighouse
Sat 29th
Susannah takes the baton round the paps
Sun 30th
Baton returned to Tayvallich and handed to John A
Mon 31st
John Anderson Tayvallich to Crinan
Bill Halliday Crinan to Kilmartin
Tues 1st
John and Bill Kilmartin to Creagantairbh Mhor
Wed 2nd
John and Bill Creagantairbh Mhor to Ford
Dave B, Andy Ward, Leigh Murray and Martin Hadlington Ford to Kilchrenan
Baton handed to Lizzie
Thurs 3rd
Lizzie and Phillip run Barry into Oban
Hand baton over to Duncan
Fr 4th
Duncan takes the baton round Kerrera
Baton handed onto Alister or driven to Mull by speedboat.
About ‘Barry the Baton’
After months of dedication and hard work, the dream is finally coming true, and the running world has come together to create the Round Britain Coastal Relay.
The idea was originally floated amongst like-minded people on the Runners World internet forum and immediately gained momentum as interest soared, very quickly the idea became a plan, and the Great UK Coastal Relay was born.
The general idea being to keep the concept as simple and as inclusive as possible, and just do what it says on the tin, namely run a relay around the coastline (or as close to as safety will allow) of the United Kingdom, starting and ultimately finishing at the same point on the map.
In 1986, a lady called Helen Krasner walked a similar coastal route that covered an approximate 5,000 miles, and it was felt that by splitting this in to chunks of approx. 200 - 300 miles the co-ordination of such an event would become manageable to the extent that the idea would indeed become a reality.
Each area would then be responsible for recruiting runners, mapping routes for their locale and ultimately managing changeovers between legs to ensure the relay passes through without incident. A dedicated hit squad of ‘floaters’ is also being put in place to cover any areas where local numbers aren’t sufficient to cover the route.
And so it is, that on Sunday May 9th, at approx. 11 am, ‘Barry the Baton’ will leave from Blackpool tower on the start of his round Britain odyssey.
Runners of all ages, and abilities are encouraged to sign up to take part in this potentially historic event.
http://www.coastersgb.co.uk/
In early June Barry will be coming off the Arran ferry at Claonaig and heading up through Tarbert and Lochgilphead to Oban. Dave Bleazard is co-ordinating runners for the legs through Argyll so if you want to take part contact him at
or 01631 566617.
Once in Oban the baton will head over to Mull and northwards across Mallaig and up to Ullapool.
Can you spread the word as wide as possible to encourage runners to help.
Dave Bleazard
Outside Edge
Posted on 27th May 10
by Paul Frost - Website, Membership, Publicity
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