Ville to Ville Relay

The Ville to Ville Relay is a “one day relay” road race that covers roughly 72 miles, incorporating quaint southern towns and the beautiful scenery of Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina.  

Teams will consist of three to six runners who will split 12 legs ranging from 3-9 miles. The first flight of teams will start the relay around 5:00 am in Asheville, NC. Over the next few hours, additional teams will depart on their journey through the Carolinas. Ville to Ville teams will arrive in Greenville, SC between 3:00-8:00 pm for a finish line celebration, which will include music, food, and, of course, craft brews.

Teams collectively cover the 72-mile course by rotating through a total of 12 legs with a total of 11 transition points.  Transition points are the set locations where one runner passes the team’s wristband to the next runner. Example for a 6-person team: Runner #1 will run Leg #1 and handoff at Transition #1 to Runner #2. Runner #2 will run Leg #2 and handoff to Runner #3 at Transition #2, and so on.  When Runner #6 finishes Leg #6, the wristband is handed off to Runner #1 at Transition #6 to start Leg #7 - for Runner #1’s second leg of the day.  This continues until each runner has run twice and the finish line is reached!  The transition points are the same for all teams and are staffed by race officials and volunteers.  While not running, the team members are in the team’s vehicle.  Team vehicle?

Team Vehicle

What about the team members who are not running?  Where are they and how do they get from place to place?  Easy – you have a team vehicle (that you provide).  Wait…all 6 runners sharing the same vehicle?  Yes - Trust us, it’s one of the coolest things about a relay!  

Here is how it works: Your team vehicle comes to the race start and drops off Runner #1; drives ahead to Transition#1 and parks in the designated area so Runner #2 can warm up. After Runner #1 hands off the wristband to Runner #2, Runner #1 cools down and climbs in the vehicle so it can dash ahead to Transition #2 where Runner #3 warms up while waiting for Runner #2. This continues until all runners have run their two legs and you are at the finish line! 

Teams are limited to one vehicle on the route. Having run our share of relays, we strongly urge using large SUVs or passenger vans. For safety reasons, we must prohibit all RVs, minibusses, or limos (it sounds cool, but trust us, it is a bad idea.)  

Due to the nature of the event, teams are largely self-supporting.  This means your team provides its own food, water, sports drinks, and support items.  While the primary function of your vehicle is transportation, with little time for lingering at the transition areas, your support vehicle is typically the best place to refuel and re-hydrate. 

Team Captain

Each team must have a designated captain. When you register for the Ville to Ville Relay, you are entering as a team. Initially, the Captain is only required to register (all runners will eventually need to sign up).  The captain is the team’s primary point of contact for receiving updates and instructions from our staff team.  It is critical for the captain to share pertinent information with team members.  

Relays are complex events.  The team captain ensures the roster is complete, estimated times are submitted, and fees are paid. Remember that the Ville to Ville registration fee is for the whole team.  All team communication will go through the captains until approximately three months before the event. After that, all registered team members will receive event updates.

We hope that helps a little! As always, we are available to answer questions! Just email us at info@villetovillerelay.com, and we will reply shortly!