Hi, my name is Harry. Most of you don’t know me because I can never get to track, summer league, or cross country. But I never miss the most important race on the club’s calendar, the Green Belt Relay. 

In every GBR this club has entered, I ran with you, side by side, helping pace many QPH legends to stage wins and keeping you on course (with a few mistakes here and there) through some of the more challenging relay legs. There are so many moments I want to share with you. This competitive race is full of drama, data and joy. The honour of writing a race report is usually bestowed upon a GBR first-timer, and though this year’s race was certainly not my first time, I looked back and found inspiration from race reports by Green Belt

Relay veterans Catherine Walker (Stages 6, 11, 13, 20) and Saikat “The Terminator”

Chatterjee (Stages 1 ,6, 14, 22). Then I dove into the data because I wanted to highlight our history at the Green Belt Relay and highlight memorable moments and performances at some of the event’s most iconic stages. I knew the data would help demystify some of the lore around the event, and separate fact from fiction. Because of the nature of the event, you may have heard a tale or two that have mythical qualities with truthfulness ratings from 1 to 10. But whatever you may have heard, this event has something for everyone including some of the best racing in London. The competition is fierce but the vibe is friendly. QPH wants to make 2027’s race our best ever.

At this year’s race, held on May 16-17, a small but mighty team of Hoops competed in the club’s 8th Green Belt Relay. We have competed every year since 2017. The race was cancelled due to COVID in 2020 and 2021. Over the years, the club has run 242 stages, about 2,420 miles. Our club president, Gildas “The Distance” Braine, completed two stages (Stages 9, 19) and another four as a guide for Martin “Bandeoke” Sigsworth (Stages 3, 9, 19, 22). Though we are a relatively small club competing against major clubs including the Thames Hound & Hares and the Serpantine, we have a presence there and a rich history.  We have won 11 stages in those years; six by men and five by women. One of those wins was this year. A normal race report would name our 2026 stage winner immediately and our team’s overall standing, including common race data points such as time, pace, and maybe the nearest competitors. But, this is no normal race and — I think this perennial stage winner and the rest of the 2026 team would agree — given the enormity of what happens every third weekend of May at the Green Belt Relay, it’s really just one great moment among many.  

If you run with this club, you have been asked, or will eventually be asked to write a race report to summarise the results, recount the feel of the race, and inform the club with some “what to expects” to help members decide if they would like to give it a try. Writing this up after a normal race is relatively easy. Get a few paragraphs together, ask around for some photos, and send it to the newsletter/web team. Job done, or Bob’s your uncle, or whatever. Our website has dozens, if not hundreds, of race reports that help inform new and veteran club members. 

But, until you have been asked to “write up” a race report for the Green Belt Relay, you will never know true despair, or be so precisely confronted by your own creative inadequacies, or be visited so often by the ghosts of Green Belt Relays past.

In the 34 hours and 12 minutes between the 8:30 am race start on Saturday at Hampton Court Palace and the 6:42 pm finish at Bushy Park on Sunday, time is compressed and, well, a lot of stuff happens. But only half of what happens to the team during Hurricane Green Belt happens in front of you. The other half of what happens can only be experienced by your sleep deprived teammates, who are many miles away. Your race is not their race. And, when you next see them at the final stage or when they somehow appear in your van out of nowhere, boasting about how many Eagles they slayed and muttering about forgetting a shirt to change into, they will be nothing more than a bunch of babbling idiots — beautiful, endorphin-saturated beaming idiots, no more capable of putting a sentence together than a Serpie after a restful night’s sleep. If you’re lucky, they may be able to remember the stage they ran. But, provide any detail to help you write a race report? Good luck. Ask them again in the days after the race? No chance. They’re even more useless. They have undoubtedly succumbed to the NHS-recognised Post Green Belt Relay Blues. They just want to put on their race kit, cover themselves with multiple mismatching layers and get back in the van, the one place in the world where they are free to snack all day, eat sweets with abandon, and clap for passing strangers.

It’s a race, to be sure, well, in fact, it’s 22 races in less than 35 hours, but your part in this event is but a fraction. Most race throughout the year for themselves, but at the GBR you race and problem solve throughout the day for your team. No stage is the same, no year is the same. Even our more experienced Green Belters still have many miles of country lanes ahead, fields to stomp through, and stage starts and finishes to cheer. If you are lucky enough to get a place on the QPH team next year, you must be prepared to race at a moment’s notice when time conspires against you, but you must also accept that we’re all on a spinning planet, revolving around a star, among billions of other stars, in a galaxy among billions of galaxies.

Only then can you — GET IN THE VAN! If you are one of the lucky ones chosen to compete, you will undoubtedly hear this call to arms shouted by Green Belt Relay legend and two-time team captain Tim “Timmy Two Pints” Lewin (Stages 2 x 2, 5, 11, 16 x 3 18 and 20) who participated as an alternate/driver this year.

“It sounds like an order or a command, or a battle cry,” Lewin said. “But it’s not. It’s a mantra, a coping mechanism. Only when you let go and accept that dozens of secret spreadsheets, alchemy, karma, physics, the weather, piles of sawdust, and motorway traffic are in charge, can you ‘have a good race.’” he said, emphasising the point with finger quotes. “Letting go is the only thing that can get you and your teammates to the finish line.”

The 22 stages, 11 on Saturday and 11 on Sunday, each start at a set time and each runner must run one leg on Saturday and one leg on Sunday. Stage distances average about 10 miles and are rated based on navigation, elevation and distance factors, and all factors deviate widely. This is where team captains work tirelessly in the leadup to the event to assess each runner’s strengths and assign stages to get the team around the course in good time while also strategically deploying our faster runners for performance while considering the toll of two consecutive days of racing. Runners must navigate the course themselves, with watches, maps and phones, constantly on the lookout for clues such as piles of sawdust and sporadic marshalling points. In practice this is easier than it sounds because captains and experienced Green Belters work together to help you understand your stage and the race organisation and technology gets better each year. 

“I was slightly nervous about navigating Stage 18, having only done properly marshalled races before, but Tim’s handy Strava maps, the stage videos, and collaborating with other slightly confused runners ensured I didn’t get lost in the North Downs wilderness. Don’t let the navigation put you off,” said GBR first-timer Bridget “SatNav” Wickett (Stages 8, 18).

On Strava, you can see Bridget’s perfect navigation on Stage 18, the iconic course that goes up and down the infamous Box Hill:

https://www.strava.com/activities/18543873695

This course is a club and GBR favourite. Though hilly, it’s a wild and fast trail race with stunning views. 

Who wants to take a shot at dethroning our King and Queen of the Mountain on this stage (Nicholas Stallman, 2017, time, 01:08:32; Harriet Preedy, 2022, time, 01:16:22)?

Following in the footsteps of QPH legends. Stage 18 (the Box Hill one) over the years

You work simultaneously with and against competitors. You need them to help navigate and for pacing and stage knowledge but you also look to exploit weaknesses in them so you can beat them at the line. Experienced Green Belters know that rivalries are born and thrive at each GBR and see familiar faces in subsequent races and catch up with former QPH members with new clubs.

Course elevation profiles range from canal towpath-flat to Box Hill-steep. At the start of each stage, a travelling circus of hi-viz race marshals and timekeepers, along with team supporters, drivers, and runners assemble to cheer people off and then, turn around to cheer people as they finish the previous stage. Then everyone gets in their vans or other vehicles and moves to the next stop leaving cricketers, dog walkers, shopkeepers, biker gangs and birdwatchers in disbelief.  The “route” or “routes” work around London’s Green Belt Way in a clockwise motion. Each day starts and is punctuated throughout by moments of calm, but excitement gradually increases until we can all relax over a meal on Saturday night and over a pizza at the famous finish line in Bushy Park on Sunday, where the 60 teams in this year’s race finally gathered to collectively breathe a sigh of relief as they cheered on their anchor leg finishers. For QPH in 2026, that honour went to GBR regular Tom “Glory Legs” Seddon (Stages 1, 4, 7, 13, 14, 22). He also started our race on Stage 1 on Saturday. Throughout both days, runners and drivers pore over course maps and post codes, learning names of places like Amersham, Dobbs Weir, Toot Hill and Tatsfield, and repeat them to strangers and teammates alike, hoping for flickers of recognition, but more often are met only with blank stares.

Runners tuck into their vans for a moment of quiet to watch and rewatch course videos to help avoid wrong turns, which humble many every year. Experienced Green Belters know, the faster you run, the wronger the missed turn. Just ask Sam “Wrong Way” Sutherland (Stages 8, 10, 11, 16, 19, 22). 

https://www.strava.com/activities/2380127769/overview

Can you spot the mistake?

Locals will pass by and ask questions like “Is this a Parkrun?, How many miles is this race? How many people are running?” You will fight the urge to grab them by the shoulders and tell them EVERYTHING! IT’S 220 MILES! IT’S A 22-STAGE RELAY OVER TWO DAYS!! WE’RE COMPETING FOR GLORY AND A TOILET SEAT!!! You’ll want to shake them until they understand. But they never will. There is not enough time.

In the van, some will gaze at the passing countryside, zoning out after completing their stage while others get their race face on and crank up the music before their stage. Snacks and sweets are in constant motion, just like the vans. Adrenaline keeps the drivers and navigators on course. No one makes judgements about sweet choices or music choices. And there will be singing. Lots of singing.

“As a first timer I just loved how chaotic it was but how everyone was always positive,” said Green Belt rookie and new QPH club member Charlie “Charles The Younger” Sewell. “I loved dashing between stages and going on side missions to collect marshalls and driving head on into runners (Editor’s note: no one was injured) or basically into the bushes at the side of the road. The camaraderie and enjoyment shown by not just our club but all clubs was nice to see and I would love to do it again.”

Race reports should inform potential runners about what to expect. When the GBR Blues fog finally started to lift, this year’s teammates, led by two-time team captain and GBR veteran Luc Dinh (Stages 5, 16), were asked to provide a line of advice to future Green Belters. Though they were walking around like zombies in the days and weeks since, and muttering incoherently, some managed to respond anonymously wanting to let you know that if you are among the chosen ones in 2027 you will: 

• Steal something from the hotel (Editor’s note: the club does not endorse theft)

• Eat something you normally wouldn’t.

• Go to the toilet in an unusual place. 

• Participate in spirited debates about the hardest route (Editor’s note: it’s stage 5 on day 1 and stage 16 on day 2, hands down)

• Buy something at a petrol station and say it’s delicious.  

• Say or hear something like “I think I’ve been here before” (and then realise that every stage, country lane and pub blends together).

• Be in a van that gets stuck and has to reverse up a country lane.  

• See your fellow teammates for who they are, rather than just for how fast they run. 

• See someone race above your expectations.

• See a teammate do something hilarious.

• See a teammate do something kind or inspired. 

• Hear music you never wanted to and like it.

• Question your sense of direction and your relationship to time. 

• Remember what it’s like to be on a team. 

• Cheer as if your life depended on it for a runner you only just met.

• Say and/or hear something like “Why on earth does the race start (or end) there?”

• Ask the same person multiple times: “What stages are you doing?”

• Say or hear something like “oh, this is lovely”. 

• Debate about strategic parking positions.

• Want to come back next year.

Charlie Sewell wanted to let you know you will:

• Get told off by marshalls: “NO HOOTING!” Apparently in some places the locals don’t like our air horn.

• Always have something you need in the other van. 

• Miss one of your team at the finish line because you’re sat in a pub. 

Charles “Mr Green Belt” Tatham wanted to let you know you will:

• Hunt down and pass members of one of our rival clubs, the Ealing Eagles.

• Accept sweets from a competitor, essentially a stranger, as you work together to navigate a stage.

• Chat with Hoopsters you have not met.

• Chill out in the sun watching village cricket to calm any pre-race nerves.

• Get whisked away by a van only seconds after you finish your stage and get snacking.

• Be rescued by The Stragglers Running Club or race marshalls if your club abandons you on the side of the road. (Editor’s note: the club works very hard to make sure this doesn’t happen, again.)

• Spend a night somewhere in deepest, darkest Essex.

• Support at a water station at the top of a hill on the “Hell Yeah” Stage 16.

• Enjoy glorious views from the North Downs, forgetting that you are actually gasping for air!

• Run with a map that is reduced to pulp by the end of your stage. (Editor’s note, in the past, runners were required to run with an actual paper map, but most now run with a phone or have the route in their GPS tracking device. Charles still likes to run with a paper map.)

“As a first timer, the Green Belt Relay revealed itself to be one of the strangest and best weekends in the running calendar: exhausting, confusing, and ultimate bragging rights to colleagues on Monday morning,” said Ed Upson (Stages 10, 16).

But, of course, we enter races to compete. So race reports must also give us a sense of accomplishment and measure our performance. And the 2026 QPH GBR team did not disappoint. Our one, rag-tag team in the “mixed” category placed 15th out of 35, well ahead of both Eagles teams and one of three Serpantine teams. We finished 7 hours, 45 minutes and 5 seconds behind the overall winner and “mixed” category winner, the Thames Hound & Hares. That’s our 4th best finish in club history. Overall, our team finished in 31st place out of 60 teams.

The four women on our mixed team this year had particularly strong results. Harriet Preedy won Stage 11, the final leg on day 1, giving the team a buzz that carried into the pub dinner. This was her 4th stage win in 5 years. Harriet (Stages 8, 9, 10, 11 x 2, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21) has also captained the team three times. Kudos (Editor’s note: Susan, this means: “thumbs up” or “well done” or “bravo”) for another great race, Harriet. Green Belt first timers Bridget Wickett (Stages 8, 18), and Eleanor Heathcott (Stages 2, 14) and Green Belt faithful Catherine Walker also kept the team up the leaderboard.

“Getting up at 5:30 am on both Saturday and Sunday to run between 6 and over 13 miles each day may not sound like the most appealing way to spend a weekend, but it’s definitely the most fun running experience I’ve had so far,” Wickett said. “Getting to know fellow QPH members better has definitely been the highlight for me: sharing snacks, sun cream, stage advice, previous Green Belt stories, and jackets when you leave your layers in the wrong van… I also got to run through some of the most beautiful areas around the London perimeter, like the view at the top of Box Hill on stage 18, which almost makes the horrendous, steep, gravelly climb worth it. Plus, there are lots of conveniently placed pubs at the start/end of stages. Some even serve free tea! If the Hackney Half and Green Belt Relay are on the same weekend again next year, there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind which I’d choose.”

2026 QPH GBR Women pushing the pace

The men on this year’s team, a mix of rookies and veterans, also pushed the pace. 

Tom, on London Marathon training-hardened legs kicked the race off on Stage 1 and got the team pumped up at Hampton Court Palace on Saturday morning. He finished in 5th place all time for QPH, just a few seconds ahead of Victor Tsui (Stages 1, 5, 10, 15, 17, 21) in 2019 and only a few seconds behind Fawad Karim (Stages 1, 3, 12 x 2) in 2023.

QPH speedster Matt Kitching (Stages 1, 11, 14, 15, 17) won this flat and fast towpath course in 2019. Who among us will dethrone Kitching in 2027?

GBR 2019: Stage 01 | Matt Kitching 

https://www.strava.com/activities/18609363610 

Tom’s place among the QPH greats on Stage 1

By chance, QPH veteran Brian Smyth (Stages 4, 7, 9, 12, 17, 20) and former QPH Member/Green Belter and now Maidenhead AC runner George “Dead to Us” Hicks were both assigned the same stages this year on both days.  After moving from the neighbourhood a couple of years back, George, a very smooth, almost frictionless runner, quickly slipped into Maidenhead AC. 

The battle on stages 4 and 20 did not disappoint. When Brian emerged first from the forest and to the finish on the challenging Stage 4, followed MUCH later by George, the team went nuts. George got him back on Stage 20 on Sunday, but only by a few seconds. 

Shortly after Bryan destroyed George on Stage 4, Luke “Dr. K” Kretschmer set a QPH record on Stage 5, considered by many to be the hardest stage. The effort resulted in 7th place among the Senior Men.

QPH Results on the treacherous Stage 5

Charles “Mr. Green Belt” Tatham completed his 22nd stage this year. His first GBR was in 2002 with the West 4 Harriers. He ran again with West 4 in 2005 and 2006 and has since run in all eight QPH Green Belt Relays. Because he has run a couple of stages more than once, Charles has completed 18 stages of the 22 GBR stages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. To complete the whole GBR course, Charles needs to run stages: 11, 12, 16, 17.

QPH runners in the record books: Our stage winners over the years

Small but mighty: QPH team results

If you are on the fence about signing up next year, give the recent race reports (links below) a look. And spend some time on the race’s socials and look at some of the course results. The event has something for everyone. Course records and team records are up for grabs for the faster runners and it’s a great way to connect with club members if you are new. 

If I don’t get a chance to see you at normal events this year, I hope to see you in the van in 2027 and you can find me on Strava.

Sincerely, 

Harry Hooper

Race reports past