Essex Way Relay – 06 September 2026

20 July 2026 - By Jodee Mayer

Essex Way Relay will be on Sunday 06th September – put it in your diaries!

The EWR is a “relay” from Epping to Harwich crossing our lovely countryside made up of 10 stages of various distances – see further below.

The race is run as a relay but there is no handover to the next runner and scores are done on finishing places so there is no pressure to get to the finish before a set time. The Essex Way is a fantastic scenic route and follows fairly well defined paths. The course is not marshalled but instructions are available from the Essex Way website. A recce of the route is recommended.

Volunteering

We also manage leg 5 of the EWR, which starts in Cressing and ends in Great Tey.

Steven Alder is again our Leg Manager, and he will need some volunteers to assist before and on the day to:

1. recce the leg and cut back any overgrowth – an ideal job for our Leg 5 runners!
2. to set up the start and record the runners in Cressing
3. to set up the finish, record the runners when they arrive in Great Tey, and to hand out water to the runners
4. marshal a couple of places out on the course.

If you can help with any of these jobs, please sign up below putting your preferred role after your name (champs point available!) by 21 August 2026.

• Karen Flowers
• Jodee Mayer
• David Jobling
• James Montgomery
• Andrew Read
• Angela Read

Running

It would be great to get a few WRC teams out to run what is a beautiful scenic route through Essex.

The legs start and finish, approximate distance, and approximate start times (noting you need to arrive at least 15 minutes before the below time, and the start time may change on the day!) are below:

More details can be found on the Essex Way website, including precise start locations and pdfs of the route.

There is also a handy page here where someone has created GPX files of all the routes as a guide.

Please sign up below including your leg preference (if you have one) by 21 August 2025.

Legs will be allocated on a first come first served basis – but please do have some flexibility if possible as I may need to move people around for certain teams (I will message first!).

Please note that the organisers have implemented a “cut off” this year for how long the leg organisers have to wait at the finish of their leg – this is based on 13mins/mile which we think is reasonable and is not a cut off for finishing the leg in any event – if you finish after the leg organisers have left, you simply text the leg organisers (or me/Steven to pass on) to confirm you’ve finished. If anyone has any concerns about this, please let me know.

• Terry Alabaster – STAGE 7 WEST BERGHOLT – DEDHAM (11.2 miles)
• Jodee Mayer – STAGE 10 RAMSAY – HARWICH LIGHTHOUSE (5.5 miles)
• Karen Flowers – STAGE 1 EPPING – CHIPPING ONGAR (7.5 miles)
• Dawn Shilling – STAGE 10 RAMSAY – HARWICH LIGHTHOUSE (5.5 miles)
• Claudia Baba – STAGE 7 WEST BERGHOLT – DEDHAM (11.2 miles)
• Rachel Sharp – STAGE 8 DEDHAM – BRADFIELD (8.0 miles)
• Lisa Leader – STAGE 8 DEDHAM – BRADFIELD (8.0 miles)
• David Jobling – STAGE 5 CRESSING – GREAT TEY (9.4 miles)
• Clare Boston – STAGE 5 CRESSING – GREAT TEY (9.4 miles)
• James Montgomery – STAGE 9 BRADFIELD – RAMSAY (5.3 miles)
• Annalise Etherington – STAGE 9 BRADFIELD – RAMSAY (5.3 miles)
• Steven Wherrett – STAGE 7 WEST BERGHOLT – DEDHAM (11.2 miles)
• Chris Pugh – STAGE 6 GREAT TEY – WEST BERGHOLT (5.7 miles)
• Celine Elson – STAGE 1 EPPING – CHIPPING ONGAR (7.5 miles)
• Liz Stuckey – STAGE 6 GREAT TEY – WEST BERGHOLT (5.7 miles)
• Sarah Naughton – STAGE 10 RAMSAY – HARWICH LIGHTHOUSE (5.5 miles)
• James Attenborough – STAGE 4 LITTLE LEIGHS – CRESSING (10.1 miles)
• Liz Atkinson – STAGE 4 LITTLE LEIGHS – CRESSING (10.1 miles)

Thanks,

Jodee