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RelayJoe
Formats

Every relay is legs, exchanges, and a rotation.

Loops out of a base camp or two vans crossing a state — the vocabulary changes and the underlying shape does not. RelayJoe models the shape, so adding a race is course data rather than a new app.

Trail format · shipping first

Ragnar Trail Relays

State parks, US-wide

Team
8 runners · 4 for ultra
Legs
24 legs
Distance
~120 mi

Three colour-coded loops out of one base camp

Everyone runs green, yellow, and red once, in a rotation that gives each runner a different order. One tent village, one start/finish arch, and 30 hours of people trying to sleep between loops. Loop difficulty is a property of the course, so every observed loop time sharpens the projection for every runner who has not run it yet.

Road format · in build

River to River Relay

Southern Illinois

Team
8 runners
Legs
24 legs
Distance
~80 mi

Point to point across the Shawnee hills

Eight runners, three legs each, one long April day from the Ohio River to the Mississippi. Short legs and fast turnarounds mean the useful question is rarely “when do we finish” and almost always “how many minutes until I am up again.”

Road format · in build

Hood to Coast

Oregon

Team
12 runners · 2 vans
Legs
36 legs
Distance
199 mi

Mt. Hood to the Pacific, overnight

Two vans leapfrogging from a glacier to Seaside, one of them always asleep or trying to be. The coordination problem is not the schedule, it is that Van 1 and Van 2 are rarely in the same place, on the same information, or on the same cell tower.

Road format · in build

Ragnar Road Series

Point-to-point, US-wide

Team
12 runners · 6 for ultra
Legs
36 legs
Distance
~200 mi

Two vans, three legs each, one night

The full van format: staggered start waves, major exchanges where the vans trade off, and pace projections that have to survive a team getting held at a cutoff. The data model already handles it; the van-specific screens are what comes after trail.

Team sizes, leg counts and distances are the common configuration for each series and vary by venue and year. RelayJoe reads the actual course you select rather than assuming any of the figures above. RelayJoe is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any of these events or their organisers.

Where it is

Trail is shipping. Road is the harder half.

The data model already handles both — a leg is a leg whether it ends at a tent village or a high school parking lot. What road relays need on top is coordination between two vans that are almost never in the same place, and that is what is being built now.

Available now

Trail relays

Colour-coded loops from a single base camp, rotations that put every runner on every loop, and one start arch that everything passes through. Ragnar Trail is the first race RelayJoe runs.

In build

Road relays

Point-to-point courses, two vans leapfrogging, major exchanges where they trade off, and the perennial question of where Van 2 currently is. Projections and the offline model already work; the van-specific screens are what is left.

Not listed

Running something else?

If your relay divides into legs and hands off at exchanges, it fits the model. Tell us the race and we will look at the course data.

Local 24-hour relays, club road relays, ultra teams running a course meant for twice as many people — the shape is the same. What we need from you is which race, what year, and how your team is structured.