The following email went out to all Cotswold 113 2017 Competitors today
Cotswold113 2017 – Pre Race Email
Good afternoon all, I hope this email finds you all well and fully into your peak training blocks before racing ?
We’re just a few weeks out from this year’s Cotswold 113 Middle Distance tri on June 4th, so I wanted to drop you out an email with some more info on the race and a few bits and bobs
This email is going to be a long one, so if you’re tired, grab a coffee, if you have a short attention span like myself, break it down into chunks like you do on a run course, or if you suffer from any form of insomnia save this to re-read over again when you’re trying to get to sleep.
There’s some important info in this mail, so I’m going to apologise for how I waffle on, but please bear with me and read through it all.
In this email I’ll cover the following :
A few stats on this year’s race
Race Info Pack
Last call for transfers to August
Marshal request
Lake Temp and expected temps for race day
Race number and wave requests
A few Stats on this year’s race
We have 1100 starters this year on the list, and that’s been swinging more towards males than females over the last couple of years at 77% Male and 23% Female for 2017
Our closest racer in terms of distance travelled is just 0.5miles from the start and actually lives on the run course, and our furthest registered address for a competitor is from Johannesburg, so spare a thought for them when you’re not happy with loading your bike up with tired legs and driving 60mins back to Birmingham 🙂
The youngest individual competitor is 16yrs old and 8months, and our eldest is going to turn 70yrs young two weeks before the race.
By far the largest club attending the race is the Police force club (PSUK), who have just under 130 competitors, and will have their own wave at the race
We have over 50% of you that we are welcoming in as racing with us for the first time this year, but we also have an individual who raced with us in the 1st year of the 113, and has completed this course now 8 times in both the 113 and Classic races (which are on the same course) and 3 others that have raced 7 times.
For the first time in a fair few races, no one appears to have their birthday on raceday, although one competitor is turning 18 the day before, so keep an eye out for someone with a substantial hangover
We are also welcoming the Military charity group Team True Spirit back this year with 20+ slots, and these guys are a big reason why we do the race. Please go see them on race day, as they’re a great bunch and have some incredible guys and girls racing with them. You’ll probably hear them before you see them too, as they’re a noisy bunch too
Race info Pack
You can find this year’s race info pack HERE
This contains absolutely everything you need to know about race weekend, and is well worth taking the time to read.
Like my waffling emails, there’s a lot to digest, but it’s an important day for yourselves as athletes, so please take the time to read it through, and if you get any questions, please just get in touch
I find printing it off and leaving it next to the toilet is a good reading choice, as if your house is like my house, it’s the only place I actually get any peace and quiet.
We’ve tried to include everything you could possibly need to know about the race weekend, but if you think there’s anything else that needs to go in there, please just let me know and we’ll add it in.
Last call for free transfers to our August 13th Middle distance race
This is genuinely your last chance to get a free transfer to the August race, so if you’ve got a niggle that you feel you might not be able to shake in the next 5 weeks, or you just fancy getting in the lake once the summer has finally arrived to warm it up, now’s your last chance to ask for a free transfer.
The August 13th race still has a few slots remaining, and is identical the June 113 in everything but name and competitor shirt colour
Please email me at graeme@113events.com
Marshal request
We’re alway desperate for more marshals for the race, so if you have anyone coming along with you on race weekend that could get involved, please give them a nudge to see if they want to be part of the team that delivers the event.
We have around 180 paid positions on the day, and these range from early morning guidance, right through to tear down team after the last competitor has crossed the line.
All our marshals get paid too, and they’ll earn either £20 cash or a £40 113 Events voucher that you can use with us later this year or next year, and we’ll make sure we keep them in coffee, ice creams and bacon rolls throughout the day and they’ll get an Events Team technical shirt.
They don’t need any experience at all, and our course managers will provide them with everything they need and a full briefing.
We can’t only pay over 16’s I’m afraid, but if you have a family with you, and the adult wants to get involved, then we can find them a role away from the road, and the kids that support them can of course get an event shirt and take advantage of the free ice creams.
The Marshals are what make our races what they are, and without them, the races simply can’t happen. We have been lucky enough to build a great reputation for our races having some of the best marshals in the sport of triathlon, and we value them greatly, so anyone coming along to help at our races will be really well looked after.
Email graeme@113events.com
Lake temps and expected temps for race day
Unless you’ve been sunning yourself at a Lanzarote training camp for the last few weeks, you’ll have noticed that the summer hasn’t seemed to make an appearance properly yet this year and it’s been flipping cold most days. As such, the lake we use for the race hasn’t had much sun to warm itself up yet, and is currently measuring in at around 15deg.
We are governed by the BTF, who’s rules say that below 13deg wetsuits are compulsory, between 13 and 24 they’re optional and over 24 they’re banned.
As the lake is quite shallow, it’s a relatively small body of water to warm with the sun, so I would fully expect it to be around 18-20deg by race day and will put us firmly in the ‘Wetsuit Optional’ range
We have our familiarisation day there this sunday, but if you wanted to swim in the lake any other time, the lake guys have a pay as you go swimming program, where it’s £5cash on the gate, and you can swim any day before 10am, and Tuesday/Thursday evenings
More info is available here: http://www.ukwatersports.co.uk/triathlon_training.htm
Race Requests
As those of you that have raced with us before will know, we give you the chance from now to choose a specific race number or a group of sequential numbers so that you can be racked with your mates/club/competition in transition, and we also let you choose a specific wave to go off in.
There’s a few things to consider when choosing a wave, and it isn’t just as simple as going off in the first wave because your training this year is making you ready to take on Michael Phelps, or that you want to go in the last wave because you don’t want the faster guys to catch up from later waves in the water.
Our swim works in 8 waves going off at ten minute intervals starting from 06:00, and you can choose any wave you like other than wave 3 as that’s reserved for the PSUK entries
In order to make your decision of which wave could be best for you, let me give you a few examples or considerations:
1) You might be a slower athlete and want more time on the course with other people around you, so you’d want one of the earlier waves so you’re not the last person on the course running. The official cut off is 7.5hrs from the start of the last wave, so this would give you more time to get towards that too, although were very flexible with our overall cut off.
2) You might swim 1,900m in 20mins and feel like there’s no way you want to be overtaking other waves, so you’d want to line up in the first wave.
3) You might fancy a relative lie in on a Sunday morning, so fancy a later wave to get yourself an extra hour in bed so would want a later wave
4) You might desperately want to be home in time for Songs of praise or your mums roast dinner, so you might want an earlier wave, but don’t want to be with the really fast swimmers, so you’d want wave 2 or 4
The race has been won by someone starting in most of the waves now, and although the faster guys will get a clear lap of the swim and bike on lap one, going in the first wave means they start to get behind some of the later waves when they’re out on lap 2 of the bike and the later wave is on lap 1.
Personally, other than having a totally clear swim in front of them at the start, there’s no real benefit to going off in wave 1
Of course you don’t have to choose a wave, and if you don’t, we simply filter and sort the remaining entries by age and put the youngest guys in the water first and the oldest last. The same with numbers, so if you don’t choose a specific number, you’ll just get allocated one at random so don’t feel that you have to choose one
In terms of numbers, then choosing individual numbers is based on first come first served by email only. We typically get around 8-900 requests for numbers/waves and some of them will come in within about 30 seconds on getting this email, so please let me have a 2nd and 3rd choice too if you want a number. The numbers that are typically very popular are 13, 69 (no idea why:)) and the things like 111,222 etc. Also, the years of birth tend to be popular too, so 66, 81 etc. These numbers get snapped up in minutes, so if you left it a couple of days, your chances of getting them are slim I’m afraid.
If you want a group of numbers so that your mates can go off together and be racked together in transition, these are a random block of numbers and there’s not a rush to get your request in on the first day of the window,
If you are asking for a block of numbers, please can I ask that you clear it with the other people in your request group first as we always get requests for a few names, only to find out that 2 of those people have already asked to be grouped with someone else. There’s not a massive rush to get grouping requests in on the first day of this window, so please take your time and get it right first time rather than too’ing and fro’ing back and forth with disgruntled people who don’t want to be grouped with you.
I will need not only the names, but also the dates of birth and registered emails of the people you’re asking to be grouped together with as you’d be surprised how many seemingly unique names have duplicates on our start list, not just your Anne Browns and John Smiths, and unsurprisingly, I have no idea who ‘Chalky’ is, or you mate ‘smithy’ are
I like that we’re able to offer this service completely free of charge, but please make my life easy and get your request right first time rather than constantly back and forth with extra names or changing waves for your group once it’s already been allocated.
This is massively time consuming for me, and I literally block 4 full 10hr days out completely to deal with the 800+ requests we get, so please make sure everyone in your group is happy with your request before you make it, so there’s not lots of chopping and changing.
The PSUK entrants will already have a number and a wave allocated to them, so they fall slightly outside of those request unless any of them specifically have reason to go into another wave, and even then, we can only accommodate a handful of those as the wave sizes are fixed.
Also, when you send your requests, please don’t cc your entire group into the email, as invariably someone starts a conversation with the whole group by clicking reply to all, and as much as I enjoy hearing about how your kitchen extension is coming along, or whether your wife feels like you should take that promotion at work, it’s a distraction from organising the race, so I’d rather not be involved as much as I sometimes find it funny 🙂
The numbers that are available to choose from are 10-900 Inc, and you can choose any of waves 1-8 with the exception of wave 3 as that’s allocated out to the PSUK group
Relay teams can choose specific waves, but as they have an enclosure of their own within transition, I’m afraid they can’t choose specific numbers, sorry
The window to get these requests in is from now until End of play on Monday 1st May. After that, we will have to send off info for printers etc, so can’t make any more changes I’m afraid.
I’m not going to get time to respond to every mail, so please be patient and await the start list which will be published on Tuesday the 2nd
Requests need to be made by email to graeme@113events.com with Numbers/Waves as the title
Right, that’s it from me. I hope you’re all still awake and I haven’t bored you all to sleep
We’re here to help in the run up to the race, so if you get any questions, or need anything from us to help you enjoy the run up and the weekend itself, please just ask
We’re always up for talking triathlon, and if you’re passing Swindon, our kettle is always on
Cheers
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events Team
Graeme@113events.com
07595 591612
www.113events.com