Entry forms for the 2026 Great Knaresborough Bed Race are to be available from the start of January on the event website, www.bedrace.co.uk. All relevant details, including team name and history, entry costs, and information on runners and riders will be on the forms.
The entry period will run until the end of February 2025, when the forms and fees have to be submitted to the organisers of Bed Race, the Knaresborough Lions Club.
If as happens most years there are more entries than the maximum field of 90 teams, there will be a lottery held in March to decide the final line-up. All teams will be invited to this lottery. Fees for any team that does not get through will be returned to them.
The 2026 Bed Race will mark 60 years since the event was first held in 1966. Since then, it has hardly changed; the main one being an alteration of route from Waterbag Bank to the High Street and Bond End.
Bed Race is in two-parts: the race itself which is a time trial over a 2.4 miles course, which takes teams alongside the River Nidd; up the steep climb to the centre of town; around ancient cobbles and down fast roads and through parkland. The final act is to swim – runners and beds alike – across the river.
The second part is the spectacular display of decorated beds and runners, based on the theme of the year. The 2026 theme is ‘the Swinging Sixties’ and the date of the race is 13 June, as always, the second Saturday in the month.
