The Ville to Ville Coastal Relay is a “one-day relay” road race that covers roughly 70 miles, incorporating quaint southern towns and the beautiful scenery of the Lowcountry in 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 Summerville, SC. Over the next few hours, additional teams will depart on their journey through the Lowcountry. Ville to Ville teams will arrive in Mount Pleasant, SC, between 3:00 and 7:00 pm for a finish line celebration, which will include music, food, and, of course, craft brews.

Teams collectively cover the 70-mile course by rotating through a total of 12 legs, with 11 transition points along the way.  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 hand off at Transition #1 to Runner #2. Runner #2 will run Leg #2 and hand off 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 reaches the finish line!  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 arrives at the race start, drops off Runner #1, and then drives ahead to Transition #1, parking 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 completed their two legs and you reach 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, minibuses, or limousines (it sounds cool, but trust us, it is a bad idea, and some parking lots are not designed for very long vehicles).  

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 Coastal 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 pace 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 here to answer your questions. Please email us at info@villetovillerelay.com, and we will respond shortly.