How a Marathon Relay Works on Race Day

Only one runner on a Colfax Marathon relay team starts with the marathon field in Denver's City Park. The other four make their own way to exchange zones along the course. Each one waits beside a blue sign marked with a range of bib numbers, such as 9401-9500. The race's instructions tell them to learn what their teammates look like, and to "have them text a photo!"

That is how a marathon relay works almost everywhere. A team divides the course into legs, and each runner covers one. At each exchange zone the incoming runner hands something to the next. Usually it is a baton, a bracelet or a sash. The first runner starts with the marathon, and at some races only the last one crosses the finish line. The rest changes from race to race. A team can be two people or ten. Some organizers bus runners to their exchanges, while others leave them to find their way on public transport.

Teams of two, four, five or ten

In Japan the usual format is the pair relay, where two people split a big-city marathon. The Yokohama Marathon calls it an event "in which two people pass a sash to each other and run the 42.195km full marathon course." The exchange is in front of the Yokohama Isogo Sports Center. The Nara Marathon puts its relay point at 25.7 km, which leaves the second runner 16.5 km. Kitakyushu splits its course close to evenly.

Two-person relays elsewhere split at halfway. The Lübeck, Nice-Cannes and Waterford duos in Europe each give both runners a half marathon. So does the two-person relay at Vermont City in the US.

The Björn Borg Helsinki Marathon, held in August, uses four even legs of 10.55 km. Listings for Spain's Maratón Imperial de Toledo show a four-person relay of about 10.5 km a leg. The Helsinki City Marathon in May also takes teams of four. Its legs are uneven, from about 8 km to about 14 km.

American relays tend to use four or five legs of different lengths. That lets a team put its fittest runner on a long leg and a partner who has never raced on a short one. In 2024 Detroit's longest leg was 8.75 miles and its shortest 2.85. Akron's run from 7.2 miles down to 4.4.

At the far end, the Lübeck Marathon in Germany runs a ten-person relay of 4.2 km legs. Bergen in Norway also has a ten-leg relay, although it covers only a half marathon. Its shortest leg is 1,025 metres. A Bergen team needs at least seven people, and some of them can run more than one leg.

Getting to an exchange zone you've never seen

Every runner after the first has to reach a point on the course they may never have seen, and be there before their teammate is.

Many American races run buses. In 2024 Detroit's buses to Exchanges 2 to 4 left as soon as they were full. "Once on the bus, you may not get off until you get to the exchange," the instructions said. Exchange 1 had no bus at all. At the Flying Pig, runners for legs 2 to 4 board shuttles 1.5 miles from the marathon start. The Akron Marathon runs buses from downtown to legs 4 and 5. They go out to one leg and back, with "no shuttle transport from relay leg 4 to relay leg 5."

Races in Ireland and Germany run relay buses too. In 2026 Belfast ran relay transport from Dunnes Stores on the Annadale Embankment between 8 and 10 am. At Waterford the second runner of a pair takes the Viking Bus from outside the church on Parnell Street to the Ballyduff underpass. Lübeck's Duo runners reach their changeover at Travemünde on a vintage bus that leaves the Markt at 9:45.

At both Helsinki races and at Yokohama, runners use public transport. The Björn Borg Helsinki Marathon says plainly that "the organizer does not provide transportation." Its first exchange is reached by ferry 17 from Meritullintori. The second is close to a local train station, the metro and the number 15 light rail. At Yokohama, second runners "must make their own way to the relay area." After the handover, the first runner takes public transport to the finish at Pacifico Yokohama. The organizer carries each runner's bag to wherever that runner finishes. The Nice-Cannes Duo bib works as a ticket on TER regional trains between Nice and Cannes for the whole race day.

Colfax provides no relay buses at all. Its instructions offer four plans. One person can act as team driver, or each runner can park separately. Runners can also swap car keys before race day and share cars. The fourth plan is to drive to the start of a leg and ride back to the car on the free RTD transit tab printed on the bib. The instructions warn the team driver that there may be no time to "hang out" at the exchange zones.

Colfax asks legs 2 to 5 to be at their exchange 45 minutes before the previous runner is due. Akron prints arrival times by team pace, set 30 minutes before the previous leg should finish. A team averaging 9 minutes per mile should have its leg-4 runner at mile 17.3 by 9:00 am.

Akron arrival time	7 min/mi	9 min/mi	11 min/mi	13 min/mi	15 min/mi
Leg 2 (mile 7.2)	7:20 am	7:35 am	7:50 am	8:05 am	8:20 am
Leg 3 (mile 12.7)	8:00 am	8:25 am	8:50 am	9:15 am	9:45 am
Leg 4 (mile 17.3)	8:30 am	9:00 am	9:45 am	10:15 am	10:45 am

A team needs each runner's likely pace before it can use a chart like this. The pace calculator turns a pace into a time for each leg.

Most exchanges also have no bag drop. Akron's 2026 guide says gear check "will NOT be available." It suggests giving a clothing item to the next runner or leaving a change of clothes in a car. Detroit's 2024 instructions admitted that "there’s not a great gear check solution for relay participants, since you are not starting and finishing at the same location." The Björn Borg Helsinki Marathon allows small items to be brought to the exchanges for the runners changing over there.

What gets handed from runner to runner

Akron's teams pass a slap bracelet. "No relay member can leave for their relay leg without wearing the slap bracelet," the guide says. Each runner's bib also has its own timing chip. The last runner has to wear the bracelet across the finish for the team to qualify for team awards. Vermont City uses a chipped snap bracelet, and it "must cross all locations to receive an official time."

Colfax and both Helsinki races use a baton. At Colfax the timing chip sits inside it, and a team is disqualified if the baton is passed before the Exchange Zone Arch. The Björn Borg Helsinki Marathon gives each team a chipped baton on top of the individual bibs, and the final runner must finish with it. The Helsinki City Marathon uses a single-use baton with a chip attached. In 2024 Bergen packed its baton in the race envelope with the bibs, for the team to assemble.

In 2024 Detroit handed its first runners a white team bib on a belt instead. The bib held the team's chip and was meant to be easy to take off and pass along.

The Yokohama and Kitakyushu pair relays use a sash, the tasuki of ekiden racing. Yokohama's organizer provides the sash at the relay area, to be handed to the second runner. Both runners wear timing tags on their shoes.

Waterford's two-person relay passes nothing at all. "Once the high five is exchanged, Runner B takes on the second half of the journey," the race says.

Waiting in the exchange zone

At Akron a waiting runner moves to a numbered staging area when their teammate is about 10 minutes out. Every member of a team shares one bib number. Spotters call out its last three digits as the incoming runner approaches.

Detroit's 2024 instructions called no numbers. "Due to the volume of teams, it is impossible for us to call out each number," they said. Each team had to predict when its runner would arrive. If a runner never turned up, the next one could still run their leg, but the team would get no official time.

Yokohama's second runners wait in a tent until they are called. In 2024 Bergen put up signs on the course reading "200 meter til veksling" (200 metres to exchange). It marked each exchange with a 20-metre red mat in the roadway. Belfast warns that each of its changeover points "could stretch over 0.5 miles."

Do relay runners start in the marathon corrals?

The first runner does. Akron seeds that runner into a wave by the team's projected finish time, collected at registration, and Detroit did the same in 2024. At Colfax, "ONLY ONE PERSON, the Leg 1 runner," starts with the full marathon. The Flying Pig's leg 1 also starts with the marathon.

Yokohama sends its first runners from the very back block of the start. They generally cross the line 20 to 30 minutes after the gun. At Nice-Cannes, duo runners may only use waves 3, 4 and 5. A duo runner who enters any other corral disqualifies both themselves and their partner.

Lübeck gives its relays their own start times. The Duo goes at 9:30 am and the ten-person relay at 11:00.

Changing who runs which leg

Akron and Colfax don't need to know who runs which leg. Akron lets teams switch "at any time without notifying race officials." One runner can take two or more consecutive legs, but the team has to pay for every leg.

Detroit's first leg has been the exception. It runs across the border into Canada, so in 2024 that runner had to collect their bib in person with a passport, an enhanced driver's licence or a NEXUS card. The runner had to carry those documents on the run, because the rules count running across the border as crossing it. By the time the 2024 instructions went out, the deadline to change the Leg 1 runner had passed.

Yokohama lets a pair change its running order between 20 September and 4 October. If one runner cannot start, the other may still run, but the pair is not counted as finishing. One person cannot run both legs.

What happens to a slow team

Relays set cut-offs of their own along the course. Yokohama has a final handover time at the relay area. If the sash has not been passed by then, the second runner is disqualified. That runner still starts, wearing a replacement sash. Nara's relay point at 25.7 km closes at 12:35, and if either runner fails to finish, the pair gets no certificate. Akron requires relay teams to reach the full and half marathon split at mile 12.5 by 10:15 am to carry on along the full course.

The marathon's own pace limits apply as well. Akron's course closes behind a continuous pace of 15:00 per mile. The Flying Pig asks everyone on the marathon course to hold 16 minutes per mile.

Who crosses the finish line and gets a medal

In Detroit in 2024, "only Leg 5 runners wearing the purple color bib may cross the finish line." A team that ran in together would be disqualified. The leg-5 runner collected the medals for the whole team. Colfax works the same way. Its leg-5 runner finishes in City Park, takes all five medals and hands back the baton.

Akron gives each runner a medal at their own exchange zone. Only athletes are allowed on the course, so there is no family run-in. Akron also lists several team members crossing together as a cause of timing errors, and says it "is discouraged."

In Yokohama the second runner receives two finisher medals at the finish, one of them for the partner. At Nara each runner who completes their section gets a medal and a finisher towel, even if the other runner does not finish.

Other races want the whole team at the line. At the Helsinki City Marathon, "all team members can run together through the marathon port and cross the finish line together." Each one receives a medal in the Olympic Stadium finish area. Waterford aims to bring its first runner back on the Viking Bus to meet their partner at the entrance to the Glen on Bridge Street. The two then run the last stretch together. The Björn Borg Helsinki Marathon, the Flying Pig and Lübeck give a medal to every relay runner.