Cotswold Classic July newsletter – Edition 2

Good morning all, I hope everyone’s well ?
We’re under a month to race day on August 5th, so as promised in my previous mail, here’s edition 2 of 4 of the July Cotswold Classic newsletter.
I appreciate you all get bored of going through my rather long mails, so this is a way of drip feeding it out to you in more manageable chunks and not putting anyone to sleep at their desks on a Monday morning.

I’ll try to keep this one pretty brief, and cover the following :

Competitor info pack
Marshal request
Finalised start list
Water Temperature

Competitor info pack
Please can you all take a few minutes to read through the competitor info pack at the following link :

Downloads

This contains everything you need to know about the race weekend, and much more.
I know I go on about this in my emails, but you’d be surprised how many email questions I’ve had in the last week alone on things that are in the pack in the first couple of pages.
Each race, we get someone that turns up on late on race morning and didn’t realise they had to register the day before and thought the race started at 9am, or we get numerous people that turn up each registration day and didn’t realise they needed photo ID.
In a later edition of the July newsletter, I’ll run through the bullet points for registration and race day, but please take a couple of minutes to print off the info pack and digest it.

Marshal request
We’re very proud that we have built a great reputation for having some of the best marshals in the sport, and I’m always looking for more. We have around 180 paid marshal positions on race day, and I still need to fill around 15 more of these.
If you have someone coming along with you that fancies being involved, then please get in touch at graeme@113events.com
They don’t need any experience at all, and all we ask is that they’re over 16 and know their left from their right and are enthusiastic (or can at least pretend to be enthusiastic for a few hours).
We’ll partner them up, take them through a full briefing and provide them with everything they need for the day as well as cover their drinks, burgers and ice creams for the shift.
The two shifts are;
Bike 05:45-11:45ish
Run 08:00-14:45ish
Both shifts start at the lake with a marshal team briefing at the above listed start time
We pay all our marshals too, and they can choose from either £20 cash or a £40 113 Events voucher to use with us on a future race (or you can use it if they’re not a triathlete) and all marshals get a technical fabric Red Team shirt to keep.
Please get in touch at graeme@113events.com

Finalised start list
The window for requesting numbers and waves has now closed, and we’ve had an unprecedented amount of requests from you all – Something like 930 of you have requested either a specific wave or race number by email – it’s been a busy week for me
I’m pretty sure I’ve managed to accommodate at least 99.99% of the requests, and you can find the final published start list here ; https://www.113events.com/cotswold-classic/cotswold-classic-start-list/
Please note that now the race is fixed and frozen, we can no longer change waves and race numbers, and all names against each entry can also no longer be changed.

Water Temperature
Before anyone starts panicking, I’m fully expecting the race to be ‘Wetsuit Optional’, and in 17 races we’ve now run at that lake over the last 8 summers, we’ve never had to ban wetsuits yet.
However, I’m conscious that this summer has perhaps been exceptional so far, and that many large UK races are touch and go whether Wetsuits are going to be allowed or not. Therefore, in the interest of transparency, I just wanted to let you all know how the rules work, and how we apply them for our races whilst keeping in line with the BTF regulations.

The regulations basically say that above a water temperature of 24deg results in a ban of wetsuits (Between 16-24 they’re optional – Although nearly everybody wears one generally)
The lake was measured by the shore yesterday at 25.1deg, which is exceedingly high for that lake, and is a result of the last 4 weeks of sunshine and near 30deg temperatures.
We have a couple of work arounds for this, which are that we can always find a slightly cooler spot in the lake to ‘officially’ measure on race weekend, and that we also get allowed a certain amount of compensation for morning Air temperatures.
With this in mind, and the fact that this is England, by August it could well be back down to 12deg and rain or snowing, I’m fully expecting the race to be ‘Wetsuit Optional’
However, if for some reason, the water temperature continues to climb, it’s in the interest of safety for you all not to wear wetsuits as you’ll simply cook yourselves and set yourselves up for a rather unpleasant day.

If, in the unlikely circumstances, that we do have to make it a non wetsuit swim, I want to let you all know how it’ll work.
Firstly, for those of you that are worried about completing the distance without a Wetsuit, there’s a few things to consider:
1) There’s spots on the swim course where you can stand up and take a break
2) If you need a break away from those spots, we arrange with the water safety crew (70ish canoeists) that you can signal to them that you need a break and they’ll paddle over for you to hold their canoe for a couple of minutes and have a breather – This will obviously be whilst they’re not moving as you can’t hitch a lift for the rest of the swim, and please grab the canoe at either the front or rear tips, as if you grab the side, the canoeist will be swimming next to you and probably not overly happy.
3) We have no Swim cut off, and you’ll be allowed as long as you like as long as you’re occasionally making reasonable progress and the water safety crew don’t feel you’re a danger to yourself or anyone around you. – We often have people swim the whole 1.9km doing breastroke with their head out the water having a good chat with a canoeist

The banning of wetsuits means you need to swim in either a one of two piece tri suit or swimming shorts/trunks for the boys or a costume/two piece for the ladies (although in the interest of gender fairness, men can also swim in a bikini if they so choose!).
Tri suits cannot extend past your elbows or knees, and any neoprene (ie swim buoyancy shorts or sleeveless and short leg wetsuits) are not allowed.
You would not be allowed to wear calf guards during the swim if it’s a non wetsuit swim as these are seen as Hydrodynamic aid in the eyes of the rules, and you’re not allowed tow floats of anything else that could be deemed as a floatation device.

In saying all this, I’m very confident we won’t have to ban wetsuits, but I just wanted to keep transparency in the process so that no-one feels unsure about what’s happening.
I’ll update on water temperature in our next few pre-race newsletters and also on our facebook page.
I swam a lap of the lake with and without a wetsuit last week, and whilst it was a little toasty in my wetsuit, it was bearable, and it was a really nice temperature to swim without one too.

Right, that’s it from me for this week
My next email will come out early next week, which will include some info and stats on the race, and also some info on how you can book your bike in for a pre-race tuneup and how to book into the pre-race massage we’ll have by registration on the Saturday.
In the meantime, we’re here to help, so if anyone gets any questions, please just call or email me, it’s what I’m here for !

Thanks and happy training

Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
graeme@113events.com
07595 591612

The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold Classic 2018 Competitors today:

Cotswold Classic Tri – 5th August 2018

Good afternoon all, I hope this email finds you all well and as excited for race weekend as we are ?
We’re just over a month to go to the race, so I wanted to drop you all out a few mails over the coming weeks with info on the race
I’m conscious that many of you don’t actually make it to the end of my waffling emails before you’re asleep or your attention has drifted back to the TV, so I’m going to send you out regular mails in the run up to the race to cover a load of different things, all of which are important so require some attention.

Before I get started, I just want to say a quick thank you to everyone that came along to yesterday’s course familiarisation day. With around 150 people turning up, we had a cracking day of Sunshine, and I hope that everyone found seeing the course (And Dave Falling off the paddle Board into the lake !) useful (and funny) ?

In this, the first of my race month emails, I’ll cover the following :

Race Info Pack
Start list
Waves and Bib Numbers

Race info pack
Hopefully, by now you’ve all downloaded and digested the race info pack. If you haven’t, then please take the time to read it as it contains everything you need to know about the race weekend, and what to expect, what to do, and where you need to be at certain times etc.
You can download the pack at https://www.113events.com/cotswold-classic/downloads/

Start list
The race entry list is now fixed and frozen, so you can find the start list of all competitors here https://www.113events.com/cotswold-classic/cotswold-classic-start-list/
Please can I ask that you take a couple of mins to find yourself on there and to make sure your name etc is spelt correctly.
A few races ago, we had a lady enter by the name of Virginia, and when she had entered the race online her spell check had changed her name to something sounding very similar that was more related to a very personal lady part. Luckily, it was picked up before it ever got printed onto her race bib, so it’s worth taking a couple of mins just to make sure you’ve actually entered with your own name correctly spelt before you spend 113km with something else written on your bib 🙂

As the race is now fixed and finalised, we now cannot make any changes to competitors (ie swap your name for someone else racing in your place), and as we now cannot backfill your slot, we’re now past the stage where we can offer any deferrals or refunds (Unless you took out the 3rd party refund insurance at sign up), sorry

Waves and Bib Numbers
The race on August 5th will start in 8 waves going off at 10 Minute intervals from 06:30.
By default, these waves are decided by youngest going off first, and oldest going off last and the start list is filtered by age and chopped into 8 equal numbers. Relay teams and males/females are mixed together, so the waves are not gender or entry type specific.
Most waves have around the same average swim time, and the race has been won in the past from waves 2, 4 and 6 rather than only wave 1 as you might expect.
As those of you that have raced with us before will know, you can now have the chance to choose a specific wave and/or race number if you wish.
In terms of the waves, I appreciate it’s not an easy task to think which you might want to be in, so I’ll give you a few examples of why you might want to choose a specific wave if you want to do so;

1) You feel like you’re going to take a while to complete the course and don’t want to be the last person on the run course, so you might want to choose an earlier wave to have more time on the run with others around you.
2) You might have missed the olympic swim squad selection by 0:0001 Seconds, and want clear water in front of you, so would likely want wave 1
3) You might be a more nervous swimmer, and don’t want subsequent waves catching up with you in the water, so would want the last or a later wave
4) You might want to be home in time for Songs of Praise, or have a dog grooming appointment mid afternoon, so need an earlier wave to give you time to get finished and home.
5) You might just want to see a few waves go off before you start to see how it all works, so might want a wave in the middle

As well as a wave, you can also choose a specific race number or a group of race numbers so that you and your club mates can go off together and be racked next to each other in transition (Our racking works numerically). If you’re not fussed about the specific numbers, I can find you a set of random sequential numbers grouped together so you’re all next to each other.
If you are asking for a specific number, these are first come first served, so please also list a few alternatives in case the number you are asking for has already been snapped up.
You can select any number between 10 and 900inc, and the numbers that relate to years of birth (ie 74, 82etc) are very popular and go very quickly, as do 111,222,333 etc, so please give me a 2nd/3rd/4th preference

If you are asking for a group of numbers for other people, please can I ask that you work to the following rules:
1) Please ask your club/mates first. I regularly get emails asking for a group of people to race together, and two of the people actually want to race with other people, or have already selected a wave and number themselves.
2) Please check the start list to see if anyone in your group has actually not entered, and that’ll save me spending ages scratching my head to find someone that actually didn’t get around to entering the race (this happens a lot – Maybe 5-10 email requests per race)
3) Please list the persons name, DOB and email as you’d be surprised how many duplicates of seemingly unique names we have racing, not just your John Browns, or Sue Smiths. Also make sure you use the name that they have registered with as I won’t know who ‘Chalky Brown’ or ‘Speedy Jones’ is if they’ve not registered with that name
4) Please don’t CC your entire group into the email to me as normally someone clicks reply to all to start an ordinary conversation, and as interested as I might be about your loft conversion, or your new promotion at work, it distracts me from putting in race numbers and waves 🙂
5) Please get your request right the first time, and don’t start adding names in at a later date as this is not always possible. Take your time to actually think who you might want to race with, check with them and then submit your request

Typically, if a race has 1100 competitors as next month’s Cotswold Classic does, I will get around 900-1000 requests for waves and numbers in the next 6 days. As you can appreciate, this is massively time consuming for me, so I literally block out 4 full days at 48hours this week to pick through all the emails in front of an excel chart. I love that we can offer this for you guys, but please make my life easier by getting your requests right first time and not keep coming back to me to change or add names into your group, as often this is not possible.

The window for requesting waves is open now by return email to me using the title ‘CC18 Waves and Numbers’ and you have until Midnight on Sunday the 8th July to get your requests in.
Sometime next week, I will publish the start list where you can find your waves and numbers allocated, so please accept that I physically cannot respond to all request emails.
After Midnight on Sunday the 8th July, I cannot then move people around waves or change people’s numbers, so please make sure you get your request in this week !
All waves and numbers are first come first served, and once a number is gone, it’s gone, and once a wave is full, I’ll put you in the nearest one I can.

Right, that’s it from me for this week. I’ll send out another email early next week which will include the start list with all waves and numbers, and the next instalment of info on the race

We’re here to help, so if anyone needs anything from us in the run up to the race, please just ask

Thanks and happy training

Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
graeme@113events.com
07595 591612

The following email went out to all Cotswold Classic Familiarisation day entrants today:

Cotswold Classic Familiarisation day – July 1st 18

Good afternoon all, I hope everyone’s well and has been out enjoying training in the sunshine ?

Our Cotswold Classic familiarisation day is this Sunday, and as you’ve all signed up to attend, I wanted to drop you all out a quick mail with some info on the weekend.

The day will be held at Waterland Outdoor Pursuits, which is Spratsgate Lane, Ashton Keynes, Glos, GL76DF.

We will have Jason Tait (http://southwestswim.co.uk) leading a guided lap of the Swim course starting at 08:00, but you don’t need to attend this if you don’t want to, and there’s also 400m, 750m and 1500m courses laid out in the lake if you just wanted to get in to get a taste for the lake (Not literally).
The guided Swim will start at 08:00, and will be at a nice leisurely pace with several regrouping stops.
The lake water is currently measuring in at around 22deg, which is pretty warm, so whether you choose to wear a wetsuit is entirely up to you, especially as the forecast for this weekend is very hot, so could be even warmer by then.
These last couple of weeks have been unusually warm, and to date, we’ve run 17 races from the lake over the summer and have not had to ban wetsuits yet where it’s gone over 24deg, so this is unusually warm for the lake.
The familiarisation day with us is completely free of charge, but as the lake guys need memberships to swim, if you wanted to get in the water before the bike and run, they’ll charge you £5 day membership on the gate.

The bike will be a single lap (28miles as it’s two laps on race day), and will head off from the lakeside Cafe (Next to where you’d have started/finished the swim) at 10am.
As we’re around 90 signed up, we’ll head out in a single or maybe 2 groups, and like the swim, we’ll have a few regrouping stops. As we don’t have police and marshals out on the bike course, this is a lead group ride and everyone will be expected to ride in a courteous manner and to give other road users plenty of space
This is the UK, so there’s a number of potholes on the course. On race day you, obviously, won’t be riding in a pack, so they’re easy to spot and avoid, but please be mindful to call them out when riding in a group.
You can of course ride on a TT bike, but when riding in a group, please don’t sit on your aero bars as group rides and aero bars are not a great combination, and I’ve seen a fair few accidents over the years where a group has stopped and someone on Aero bars can’t get to the brakes in time. If you want to ride on your aero bars, please hang back and ride off the rear of the group with a decent gap to the rider in front.
For the bike route, we’ll aim to average around 15mph

Once we get back in from the bike, we’ll have a 15-20min break to ask any questions and get your run kit on, and we’ll then head out on a single lap of the run course (4.3 miles – 3 laps on race day) at around 12:30 ish. This will be one group, and is a great chance to see the course. Like the bike course, this is a lead group run, so there’ll be sections that aren’t fenced off as they will be on race day, so there might be areas we need to walk through as a group so as not to bump into people having BBQ’s etc as the Waterpark gets mega busy on a sunny day.
We’ll have plenty of stops to regroup on the run course to point out where aid stations and various other bits of the race will be
For the run course, we’ll aim to average around 10min miles.

Race support & pre race tune-ups
For this year’s triathlons, we have Joe from VeloWorks offering pre-race servicing and providing our on-course mechanical race support. Joe will be on site during the Familirisation day on 1st July in case anyone needs any last minute adjustments ahead of setting off on the bike lap.

During race weekend itself, VeloWorks are offering a pre race tune-up service throughout Saturdays registration period for £20 that can be booked in 30min slots by visiting their website www.veloworks.co.uk. On race morning, they will be located near transition to provide any last minute support before heading out onto the bike course in case anyone needs mechanical assistance to get back into T2.

Finally for those of you local to the area, if you need any help with your bike between now and August’s race, check out the VeloWorks website to see the full range of services offered to ensure your bike is race-ready.

If anyone gets any questions or queries, please feel free to get in touch with me.
I’m going to be away for three days on my day job this week Tues-Thursday, so give me a call if it’s urgent as I’ll only be picking my mails up in the evening (07595 591612)

Look forward to seeing you all on Sunday, and please bring plenty of water and sunscreen as it’s looking to be a hot one.

Thanks

Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events Team
Tel 07595 591612
Email graeme@113events.com

The following email went out to all Cotswold113 2018 Competitors today:

I hope everyone now has their feet up ? Good evening all, I hope that everyone enjoyed today’s Cotswold113 ? Firstly, thank you all very much for choosing to race with us, and we sincerely hoped that everyone enjoyed the day. It was a tough start this morning, and I can only apologise that we had to delay the kick off and hope that everyone understands that your safety is a priority to me and the team, and it simply wasn’t safe to send you out in the water until the fog had lifted and our water safety crew could see you enough to ensure you all got around safely (and you all actually be able to see where you were swimming) I sit here now, absolutely beat, but wanted to drop you all a quick email (Well, quick by my normal standards anyway), whilst I’m still awake and everything’s still fresh in my mind. I’ll try not to waffle on too long, so in this mail, I’ll cover the following How fast you went and how good you looked doing it Summary of the day, and feedback request Fancy racing with us again this year Don’t fancy racing again, but wouldn’t mind being part of our team Next year’s event How fast you went and how good you looked doing it I know this is the only bit of this email that any of you are actually interested, so I’ll get it out the way first : The main results sheet is here: http://dbmaxresults.co.uk/results.aspx?CId=16421&RId=2218 Event Photo’s will be here by Monday night-ish https://www.charleswhittonphotography.com/cotswold-113-tri-10618 We pay for the first couple of downloads, and Charlie will then have another few available to purchase on his site if you so choose Summary of the day, and feedback request As you unfortunately saw this morning, we had to delay the start of the race today by 90mins due to the fog. This lead to a few problems later on in the day, largely that by starting just 90mins later, meant that the bike course was still in full swing when the traffic started to build up on the roads around the course, and some cyclists encountered more cars on the road or congestion in junctions than I would perhaps have liked, so please accept my apologies for this if you were expecting largely traffic clear laps, and you did happen to get stuck behind a caravan or a random slow Sunday driver. Nearly all of the behaviour on course towards other road users was impeccable from yourselves, so thank you very much to all of you for that. As I explained in the briefing, maintaining local relationships in the area we race in is super important to me, as I want this race to carry on being the race all the local residents love, so a big thanks from me and the team for being so well behaved considering we had you all standing around for 90mins getting cold, when all you all wanted to do was go out and race I love your feedback too, so please take a couple of minutes to write down your thoughts or come and see me and let me know what you felt about the day. I’m conscious there’s a few bits we can’t change (largely the overlap of the run and the bike at Spratsgate), and that I was so boring in the Saturday briefing’s that Mike (our BTF referee) actually fell asleep on the grass next to me in the 2nd one :), but there’s lot of little bits of the race that you guys see that I simply don’t, and that’s the feedback I relish as you all see the race with a completely different set of eyes to me and the core 113 team. Anyway, I truly hope that every single person that started the race today had a great time, but please let me know what you liked and what you think can be improved on. What do you think of my style of mails and communication and that I try and being very hands on with everything. I have thought about it all being more formal, but in reality, that’s just not and the way I deal with people in life and just not very me or 113, so if I tried to become all formal on race emails, it’d come across as a bit fake. I’m keen to know what you think As a team, we’ll all meet back up again later this week and debrief on every race we do from start to finish in minute detail, and it’s that debrief that forms any changes or tweaks we make in time for August 5th, when we effectively re run exactly the same race again, so let me have your thoughts in time for that and I’ll bring it all up in the discussion. Although I’m having to go back to my normal day job on Tuesday and probably Wednesday this week (boo), I’ll be back down the lake all day tomorrow clearing up if anyone needs to come and collect something or just wants a coffee, and again later in the week on Thursday and Friday to finish up cleaning up all the kit, counting it all in and getting it back in Storage. We’ll undoubtably have a load of lost property too, so let me know if you’re missing anything once you’ve found the energy to unpack your kit bags, and I’ll see if we have it and get it posted off. Fancy racing with us again this year  If you fancy having another go at today’s race (although I’d imagine that’s the last thing on your mind right now), we still have around 25 slots of the 1000 available in our August 5th Cotswold Classic Middle Distance, which is basically identical to todays race in every way but name, shirt colour and medal design. Details are at https://www.113events.com/cotswold-classic/ Alternatively, if you fancy a nice flat, closed roads Half Marathon on Sept 9th, our 113 team are involved in the organisation and running of the New Swindon Half Marathon starting and finishing in Swindon’s town centre – www.newswindonhalf.co.uk Don’t fancy racing again, but wouldn’t mind being part of our team Alternatively, you may well have enjoyed our marshals on the course today, and fancied having a go at that yourself ? If so, then we’re always after new marshals and we’d love to have you on the team for the August 5th race. Hopefully this reflected in how our marshal team was today, but we always try and make sure the marshals with us have fun, and we try and look after them as well as we can so they enjoy their day, as a happy marshal team makes for a great race for you guys. You’d get paid too, and you can choose from either £20 cash or a £40 113 Events voucher to use with us next year Next year’s Cotswold 113 We haven’t fixed the date for Cotswold113 2019, but it’s not likely to change much from this year’s race date (ie 2nd Sunday in June), and entries are planned to open on Sept 1st. As soon as dates are fixed, we’ll post them up on facebook, twitter and our website, and we really hope to see lots of you back racing with us again Right, anyway, that’s it from me. I had less than 2 hours sleep last night, and I’m battered, so I won’t ramble on much longer as I really need a hot bath and my bed (probably just like you all do too) Thanks again for choosing to race with us, and we hope that everyone enjoyed the day, achieved what they wanted, and got home safely after the race. We’re always here to help, so if there’s anything you want from us, please just ask and we look forward to welcoming many of you back to our start line again another time Cheers and happy recovery Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team Tel 07595 591612 Graeme@113events.com

The following email went out to all Cotswold Classic 2018 Competitors today:

Cotswold Classic Middle Distance tri – 5th August 2018 Good afternoon all, I hope this email finds you all out training well and getting ready for August 5th Cotswold Classic As we’re a couple of months out from the race now,  I wanted to drop you all out a quick email with a few bits of info on the race, and to bring you all up to speed with things we have coming up. Those of you that have read my emails in the past will know I can waffle on for England, so grab yourself a strong cup of coffee and a comfy chair before you get into this one as I’ve got quite a few bits to cover. In this email, I’ll cover the following Lake update Race information pack Familiarisation day How the race weekend will run Marshal request Local Accommodation Lake Update I had a swim in the lake last night, and it’s currently at a pretty perfect 19deg. Although the lake is quite shallow, so changes temperature fairly quickly, I don’t see that we’ve been forecasted 2 months of 30deg summer sun yet, so it shouldn’t change much between now and August. We work in accordance to the BTF rules, so 19 Deg will put us firmly in the Wetsuit Optional range of 14-24deg. Race information pack You can download the 2018 Competitor Info pack here – https://www.113events.com/cotswold-classic/downloads/ Please can I ask that you all take the time to read this, as this contains everything you need to know about the race and more. This is your info pack, so if you think it needs anything else to go into it, please just ask and we’ll update it with any additions. I’ve purposely not made it look all corporate with pictures of triathletes in it so you can at least read it at your desk without your boss thinking you’re skiving off 😉 But please do read it ! Familiarisation day On July the 1st, we’re holding our free of charge Cotswold Classic Course Familiarisation day for you all to come along and see what you’ll be racing on on August 5th The day is a great chance for you guys to see a guided lap of our courses, where the start and finish are and to meet up with other competitors and our team. We love these days, as it’s a great chance for me and the 113 team to meet competitors in a much more relaxed environment than race weekend is. We will provide the guys to show you around the Bike and run course completely free, but if you wanted to Swim a lap of the course, or just have a general swim around the lakes marked out 400/750/1500m courses, then the lake guys will ask you for a £5 day membership. The emphasis on these days is leisurely, and this is more of a chance to see the course than get a hard day’s training in. For the June race Familiarisation day we did a few weeks back, we averaged around 15mph on the bike and ran the lap at around 10min miles with plenty go regrouping stops. If you want a guided Swim, our friendly local open water coach – Jason tait – Will take the group for a lap of the swim course with toes in the water for 8am, and will be on hand before and afterwards to answer any questions you might have on open water swimming. We will meet up at the lakeside cafe to head out on the bike at 10am, and then we’ll have a 15-20minute break between the bike and run to get changed etc, and head out on the run at around 12:30-45ish. This is a great chance for you all to meet other competitors and our team, and to ask any questions you might have in the run up to the day In order to get a gauge of numbers, we ask you to book on, and this also allows us to email you all separately nearer the time with final instructions etc. You can book on at www.entrycentral.com/113events and look for “Fam Day Classic” You are, of course, welcome to bring along non competitors or your supporters so they can see the course you’ll be racing on too Myself and the team hope to see lots of you there If you can’t make the July 1st date, but still want to see the course and can get down here midweek one morning, then I live close by the lake and welcome the chance to skive away from my desk for my day job for a few hours one morning to have a ride and run around, so just ask. I’m generally tied up weekends on my kids stuff etc, but I’m around working from home 2-3 days a week midweek – You’lll need to put up with my somewhat slow pace now days though as my triathlon racing days are long gone Here’s a pic from the Cotswold113 Familiarisation day earlier this year during a regrouping stop on the bike. How the race weekend will run To Summarise what is shown in the race info pack, our race weekend works roughly as follows : Saturday: Registration 12:00-17:00 Briefings* 13:00 and 15:30 * The Saturday briefings are not compulsory, but is a good chance to hear how the race works from start to finish in details. They take around an hour, and there’s loads of chances to ask questions too and we’ll try to make them quite light hearted so you don’t all get bored or bombarded with too much info at once. Sunday Car Park opens 04:30 Transition opens 04:30* Wave 1 start 06:30 (Followed by a further 7 waves at ten minute intervals) * We do all our racking on the Sunday morning, as the transition cannot be built until Saturday night In around 3-4 weeks, once the race entries are fixed and Frozen and I have the start list in an excel format, I will send an email out to you all asking if you want to choose a specific wave and/or race number. Please don’t try and request this before this email comes out later this month, as it’s based on first come first served, and is not fair on everyone if I grant peoples requests now. You might also want to have a group of numbers so that you and your club or mates can be racked together in transition and go off in the same wave, so it’s worth starting to think about now and checking with your club which wave you might want. Realistically, this window to request waves/numbers will start with my email around the 28th or 29th June and you’ll have a week to respond, but please check your emails around this date Marshal request We have around 150 paid general marshal positions at our races, and we could always do with more people to help out and join our team. If you have friends, family, enemies, club mates or a fan club that fancy getting involved and being part of our team on the day, please get in touch. They don’t need any experience at all, and all we ask is that they know their left from right, and enthusiastic and are over 16. We have a load of jobs from Swim exit, bike course, run course, right through to Saturday help and Sunday tear down. We’ll take them through a full briefing and provide them with everything they need and pair them up with someone, plus an event team shirt and free hot food, drinks and ice creams all day They get paid too, and choose from either £20 cash or a £40 113 events voucher to use in 2019 We rely on marshals to make our races great, so please help us if you have anyone that could get involved Please get in touch at graeme@113events.com Local Accommodation  For those of you that have not yet booked your accommodation, and fancy a lakeside house for the weekend to make a Cotswold Break of it, there is the rather nice Lower Mills estate based around 750m from the start of the race, and on the side of the run course. They’ve come up with a promotion for our competitors and their families, which you can read about here: Where to stay when you visit Habitat Escapes https://www.habitatescapes.com Located only a short distance from the start of the race, Lower Mill Estate, a stunning space that celebrates unspoilt nature, offers superbly appointed self-catering accommodation with access to its exclusive award winning spa. Book a stay using the voucher code 113AUG and receive a complimentary Luxury hamper full of locally sourced goodies. Right, that’s it from me now. Hopefully, you’re all still awake and non of you have ended up snoring into your computer after my long email 🙂 We’re here to help, so if any of you get any questions, or there’s anything well do to help in the run up to the race, please just ask We look forward to seeing many of you on the July 1st Familiarisation day Cheers and happy training Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team 07595 591612 graeme@113events.com

The following email went out to all Cotswold113 Competitors this morning

This time next week, you’ll all be racing

Good morning all, I hope this email finds you all well, and feeling ready, with just a week to go ?

Seeing as we’re close to race day now, I thought I’d drop you all a quick mail to go through the last few points before we race
I’ll try and keep this email brief as I’m conscious you’re probably all bored of my waffling on, and just want to get ready to race.
In this email I’ll cover the following:

Race info Pack
Start list
Results and Tracker
Pre race info
Parking
Registration
Briefings

Race Info pack
I hope that you’ve all downloaded the race info pack now. If not, you can find it here : https://www.113events.com/cotswold-113/downloads/
Please please please can you take a few mins to read through this, as this contains pretty much everything you need to know about the weekend, and going by the amount of downloads it’s had so far, I reckon about 35% of you haven’t yet !

Start list
You can find the 2018 Start list here : https://www.113events.com/cotswold-113/start-list/
We’ve managed to accommodate 99.9% of the requests for numbers and waves this year, but I’m afraid that now everything is printed and fixed, we can no longer make any changes to this if you now decide you actually wanted an earlier or later wave, or have made a new friend you want to be racked next to, sorry

Results and Tracker
Your friends, loved ones and overly competitive club mates can track your splits and results on the day here : https://www.113events.com/cotswold-113/results/
There’a a couple of links: one for people checking on a computer at home, and another for smart phones. If you’ve got friends at the lake, there’s generally good 4g signal there too

Pre race info
There’s a few things with our race that if you’ve not raced with us before, or in many cases, have never done a triathlon before, you might want to know/consider.
1) The pre race toilets are around a 300meter walk from transition, and still a good 150m away from the start line.
The path they’re on is hard pack stone/gravel, and although possible, isn’t the most comfortable to walk on bare footed. If you have delicate feet and don’t fancy looking like the guy that does the walk on hot coals, it’s worth bringing an old pair of flip flops, trainers or the slippers from your hotel to wear between transition, toilet and race start. You can line these up by the swim start, and grab them again after the race if you want them back, or leave them there if you want us to bin them. The reason we don’t put the toilets near the start/finish or transition is that they’re also the run course toilets, and on a hot day, they’re pretty fruity smelling as you might imagine , so we try and keep them a good distance from where people congregate for the sake of people’s noses.
We’ll put baby wipes in the toilets after the race starts too, as these make for a more refreshing mid race spruce up on the run course than some sandpaper like toilet roll should you need it.
Also, if you’re in a later wave and think you might get cold waiting to get started, feel free to bring jumper or a coat, and you can dump it just inside the massage tent by the start/finish and grab it after the race. Anything left near the start is, obviously, left entirely at your own risk, but it’s reasonable safe in there.
2) The BTF has banned all plastic boxes in transition. If you’re wondering what to do with your transition space, then it’s worth using a bin bag or a large carrier bag to put your stuff on/in. Our transition is on grass, and if there’s been rain it could still be wet, it’s not much fun putting on wet run socks when you have 13.1 miles to complete. Bring a large plastic bag, and you can either put your stuff on top of it, or in it if it looks like it might rain, and this will keep you kit nice and dry.
If you do have a plastic box to bring all your stuff into transition with, then although you can’t put it by your bike, our transition guys will find someone to stash it for you so you can grab it after the race.
Our transition space is quite tight, and I can understand why the BTF banned plastic boxes as they were starting to get massive (we had someone turn up with what was literally the size of a medium coffin on wheels a couple of years ago, and it was just dangerously in peoples way)
3) If you have something special you like to eat/drink on the bike or run courses that we don’t have on our aid stations, please feel free to bring it along to registration in a bag with your race number on it and clearly marked which aid station you want it at, and we’ll get it out there for you.
4) Swimming on Saturday. The lake will have standard pay as you go swimming on Saturday morning before 10am if you’re down for the weekend and want to have a swim the day before the race. They’ll charge you £5 on the gate and you can swim from 07:30 to 10:00. I can’t promise our course will be marked out by then, but it’ll give you a good feel for the water.
5) I had a swim in the lake yesterday, and the water temperature is a near perfect 18.6 degrees. This puts us firmly in the ‘Wetsuit optional’ range, and I can’t see this changing between now and next Sunday

Parking
We’ve made an arrangement with a local farmer to use his field for parking, which is around 200meters from the lake and marked ‘Event Parking’.
As with all farmers, nothing comes free, so there’s a charge to park there. We’ve agreed with him that Saturday parking will be £2 and Sunday parking will be £5. Both payable in cash on the gate, so please have the right change ready when you arrive.
It’s a field, so if you were thinking of coming down in your Ferrari, you might want to reconsider, but it’s generally ok for all normal cars. On the Saturday, you can also buy your Sunday parking pass on the gate, which will save time at 4am when you’re hunting for change in the dark.
The carpark will easily take all competitors and a handful of spectators, but the waterpark area fills up very quickly on a warm day, so if you have family coming down after the start, they’d be wise to be there earlier rather than later.
Please ask your friends/family not to try and park in the local villages on the run course as they get very upset with this, and keeping them on our side is a massive part of our races having a future. They love our races currently, but if we start parking spectators in residential areas, they’ll soon go off the idea.

Registration
Our registration is on Saturday the 9th between 12:00 and 17:00
To register, you will need photo ID or a 2018 BTF card, and if you’re not a BTF member, you will need £5 cash for a BTF day license. I’m afraid we can’t accept card payments, so licenses are cash only.
You can get someone else to register for you, but they will need a photocopy of your photo ID or BTF card with a note on it to say it’s fine for them to register on your behalf, and again, if you’re not a 2018 BTF member, they’ll need £5 cash.
Relay teams can be registered by a single person (the lead registered name), but you will need photocopies of the other members ID, and all three members will either need to be BTF members or purchase a BTF day license each.
The reason we need photocopies of ID rather than originals is that we have to hang onto it, and pass it to the BTF ref, who will make spot checks in transition that people are who they say they are, and not trying to race under someone else’s number. This is a BTF rule, and something we have to be strict on please.
Although the ‘official’ time for registration is 12:00 to 17:00, in reality, we’ll be there a little later than that, so if you’re running late, just give me a ring – 07595 591612
Alternatively, we’ll have the packs finished at our house by around Wednesday night, so if you’re passing Swindon on the M4 before next weekend (We live about 2 minutes from M4 Junction16), you’re welcome to come to our house and register. We always have the kettle on, and if you’re lucky, there might be some biscuits left too if Nicci and our kids haven’t eaten them all.

Briefings  
Every competitor will have a compulsory 3 minute briefing just before you get in the water, but we are having non compulsory full briefings on the Saturday during registration. The will be held at 13:30 and 16:00 by the Swim exit.
They’ll take about 45mins to an hour each, and myself and ‘Noisy’ Dave will go through the whole race bit by bit and answer any questions you might have. It’s a good chance for you all to understand how our races work, and we’ll literally cover everything. These are not compulsory, but worth attending if you’re new to racing with us or just want to understand from the horses mouth how everything works on race day.

Right, that’s it from me.
I’ll be picking up emails early mornings and in the evenings this coming week, as largely I’ll be at the lake getting the site ready for race weekend during the day, so if you need anything from me, please drop me a mail, or give me a ring – 07595 591612

We look forward to welcoming you all along next weekend

Thanks

Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
07595 591612
Graeme@113events.com

The following newsletter went out to all 2018 Cotswold113 competitors today:

Just over a month to go 🙂

Good afternoon all, I hope this email finds you all out enjoying the sunshine now the Summer’s finally decided to turn up ?
We’re just over a month away from this year’s Cotswold113, so I wanted to drop you all an email and bring you up to speed on the race.
As you will have got used to from me, I can waffle on a fair bit, and this one’s going to be a double long one, but there’s some important info in it. With that in mind, please get yourself somewhere comfortable to sit and a strong coffee before going through it all.

In this email I’m going to cover the following :

Race Information Pack
Race Conditions update
Tri shop at the race
Available transfers to the August race
Marshals requests
Waves and numbers
Local Accommodation
Getting your bike dialled in before the race day

Race information pack
You can find the 2018 race information pack here:
https://www.113events.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/1132018-–-Race-Information-Sheet.docx
Please can I ask that you take the time to read this, as this contains everything you could need to know about the race weekend, from when we rack bikes to where to park, and where spectators can watch from etc. This is your info pack on the race weekend, so if you feel there’s anything missing from it, just let me know and we’ll update it.

Race conditions update
Although we’ve had a pretty rubbish spring in terms of Sunshine, the lake water temperature has now picked up to around 17-18deg. I fully expect the water temperature to be around 19-21deg on race day, which puts us firmly in the ‘Wetsuit Optional’ category. For those of you unsure as to what this means, it basically means everyone will wear a wetsuit bar maybe 1 or 2 nutters that prefer to Swim without. I can’t see this drastically changing between now and the race, but of course, I’ll keep everyone updated if we suddenly get 3 weeks of 40deg heat wave or another round of snow.
The run course is around 50% tarmac and 50% hard packed lakeside paths with a  couple of hundred meters of grass. The lakeside paths handle rubbish weather pretty well, so unless we get heavy rain for a few days before the race day, I’d suggest you wear road shoes all day long. Again, I’ll keep everyone updated on this, just in case.

Tri Shop at the race
As some of you might already know, the Triathlon shop in Bristol, who’ve attending our races for the last few years, unfortunately, have appeared to have gone kaput in the last few days. This leaves us without a Triathlon shop to attend our race weekend and show off all their goodies, and sell to you guys all the last minute bits and bobs that people generally forgot to bring, or didn’t even know they needed.
Therefore, if any of you have any contacts in any triathlon shops that would be interested in setting up stall at our races this year (June 9/10th and August 4/5th), then please can you ask them to get in touch.
We don’t ask for anything from the shop to set up shop a the race, and I feel it’s a great thing to have for you all to be able to buy last minute bits or plan your next expensive carbon purchase.
They won’t need to do any mechanical support, as we already have that covered.

Transfers to the August race
We’ve had a pretty reasonable take up of the free transfers over to the August race for those of you that have just not been ready in the last couple of months to race in June.
However, I’m afraid that although transfers are still (just about possible), we can no longer do it for free.
The fairest way that we can do it for those of you that do actually still need a couple more months, is to establish a fee that basically covers the value of the items that are not interchangeable between the two races now that we’ve fixed the June 10th race, and can’t now change names or draft in from the waiting list.
If you are still thinking of requesting a move, we can still do it as there’s still around 60 of the 1000 slots left for that race, but we would now have to ask that you pay for the none exchangeable elements, which is around £40.
The August 5th Cotswold Classic Middle Distance tri is identical to the June 113 in every way bar name and shirt/medal colour. It’s on exactly the same course with the same team running it, just two months later.

Marshal request
We have around 200 paid marshals positions on the course for this year’s race, and we’re still to fill a few
If you have anyone coming down with you on race weekend, or anyone that would like to be involved, we’d welcome them to the team.
We pay our marshals too, and they’ve get paid either £20 cash or a £40 113 Events voucher (that you can use if you wish), and all our marshals get an event shirt and we keep them in hot food, drinks and ice creams all day.
They don’t need any experience at all, and we’ll provide them with everything they need and take them through a full briefing
We can’t, unfortunately, pay under 16’s, but they’re welcome to come along and help an adult marshal if you’re supplying one, and still get an event shirt and free ice creams
Anyone that’s ever been involved in organising races will know that getting marshals is one of the hardest bits of setting up the races, so any help you can give us by press ganging people in would be greatly appreciated
Please email graeme@113events.com

Waves and Numbers
For those of you that have raced with us before will know, you now have a window to request (if you want) a specific wave and/or a specific race number (or a group of numbers to be racked with your mates)
Just to front load any requests we might get: The race will start at 06:00 and go off in 8 waves at 10 minute intervals, and the racking layout is not set until race weekend, so I’m afraid I can’t give people special numbers to be on the end of a row of racking (as we just don’t know which numbers are at the end yet until we set it out). All the positions in transition are roughly equidistant from Swim in to Bike out and Bike in to run out as we enter and exit our transition at opposite corners each time, so no positions get an advantage over any other positions.

If you wish, you can choose any wave between 1 and 8 and we have race numbers available from 10-1000inclusive (relays can select a wave, but not a number as they’re racked separately). If you choose not to select a wave and/or number, you’ll be allocated a number at random as per any other race, and the remainder of competitors that have not chosen a wave, will be filtered to be youngest off first, and oldest off last, and it’s not gender specific as male/female/undisclosed are mixed together.
Note: If you have entered through the Police (PSUK) entries, you will automatically be in wave number 3 and in a preset group of numbers so you’re racked together in transition. I have also grouped in a few other  (8 in total) entries that have listed Police teams against their tri club but didn’t enter through the PSUK route, but if you’re one of these and not happy with going off with the PSUK race, please just give me a shout.

In order to make your decision a little easier, I thought I’d give you a few examples and some facts on the race, to help you choose why you might want to choose a specific wave or number
1) If you feel you’re at the slower end of the field, and want more time on the course with other people around you, you might want an earlier wave
2) Wave number 1 will include many of the very fast swimmers who want clear water ahead of them, but they will only account for about 10-15% of the wave, and the waves average swim time will be similar to the other waves, as it will also include many of the much slower swimmers that want to get the swim over and done with – All the other waves are roughly the same as each other in terms of pace
3) The race has been won not only by competitors in wave 1, but previously competitors from wave 2,4 and 7 also.
4) You might want to be finished early so you can get back in time for Songs of Praise on a Sunday afternoon, so would want an earlier wave
5) You may not want to be get up at silly o’clock and fancy a relative lie in, so might want a later wave
6) You may like to watch other waves come out the water and go through transition before you swim yourself to get an idea of how it all works, so might want a later wave.
7) You might want to have your club or friends all grouped together in transition and in the same wave, so we can arrange sequential numbers so you’re next to each other, and you can have that smug smile when you get out of the water and all their bikes are still there 🙂

Of the 1000 competitors we have at our races, I get around 8-900 requests for waves and/or numbers, and as you might imagine, this is a massively time consuming job for me to try and accommodate all the requests ( I literally block out about 4 whole days, so about 48 hours, to sit at my laptop and do this), so please can I ask that you make my life a little bit easier and follow the guidelines for requests below :

1) Some of the numbers will go very quickly, so please put a 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc option in to avoid disappointment. The year’s of birth (typically 60-90) and double/triple numbers (22, 444 etc) go the quickest, as do numbers 13 and 69

2) If you’re asking for a group of mates to be together and don’t want specific numbers, don’t ask for specifics as I can just find you a group of numbers somewhere random where you’ll all be racked together, as often the group will ask for, for example, 450-490, but 473 will have already been taken

3) When asking for groups of people, please can you follow these guidelines:

– Please give me each persons full name, registered email or DOB so I can ensure you don’t get racked next to the wrong Andy Brown or Julie Smith. Even the most seemingly unique names can have duplicates at our races, so let me have a bit more info on that person so I can find the right one, and you’re not racked next to a confused person with the same name as your club mate.
– Please use their proper name rather than nick names as I will have no idea who ‘Chalkie’ or ‘Chugger’ is
– Please clarify it with them first before coming to me with the requests,as most of my time doing this is correcting people who’ve been grouped with a bunch of mates, who it later turns out they want to be as far away from as possible, or have just been grouped with another bunch of mates or team previously . There’s no immediate rush on day one to mail me to get the whole group together, and I can sort that later this week if you spend the time to clear it with everyone first please
– Please don’t CC everyone in your group into the email to me, as invariably someone hits reply to all to start a conversation not related to the race, and as much as I’m intrigued by where you’re going on holiday, or why your wife has suddenly started wearing perfume to work and spends more time with her boss (this was an actual email conversation I got stuck into last year for one of the races), it just means I have more emails to pick through that aren’t relevant to me
– It’ll be easier to place you if you just ask for an earlier, middle or later wave rather than specifics (ie we want wave 4). I can get you all in the same wave, but if it’s a massive group, it’s sometimes hard to accommodate a specific wave, and typically not possible to get big groups into wave 1

To make your request, please email me at graeme@113events.com and use the email title ‘Waves/Numbers’
The deadline for requesting waves and/or numbers is end of play Friday the 11th May
I won’t be able to reply to confirm every email, so please be patient as I’ll publish the start list on Saturday/Sunday this coming weekend

Local Accommodation 
For those of you that have not yet booked your accommodation, and fancy a lakeside house for the weekend to make a Cotswold Break of it, there is the Lower Mills estate based around 750m from the start of the race, and on the side of the run course. They’ve come up with a promotion for our competitors and their families, which you can read about here:
Where to stay when you visit
Habitat Escapes https://www.habitatescapes.com
Located only a short distance from the start of the race, Lower Mill Estate, a stunning space that celebrates unspoilt nature, offers superbly appointed self-catering accommodation with access to its exclusive award winning spa.

Book a stay using the voucher code 113JUN and receive a complimentary Luxury hamper full of locally sourced goodies.

Getting your bike dialled in before the race day
We will have our friend Joe from VeloWorks at the lake on Saturday during registration and first thing Sunday morning during the race doing last minute bike repairs and servicing/Tuneups.
Joe is an incredible bike mechanic, and it’s well worth getting your bike booked in for Saturday to make sure it’s in top shape for the race on Sunday. Joe will also be based at the Aid station on the bike course during the race in case anything needs sorting during the race.
You can see the services Joe offers, and more about Veloworks here http://veloworks.co.uk

Right, that’s it from me today, so I hope that I haven’t sent you all into a boredom induced mid afternoon sleep, and you’re still alive and kicking ?

The next email from me will be in a couple of weeks, where I’ll go through some hints and tips for the race weekend, and get out any further info on the race as it becomes available.

We’re here to help, so if there’s anything we can do for you all in the run  up to the race, please just get in touch

Thanks and happy training

Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
07595 591612
graeme@113events.com

The following email went out to all those that have signed up to our Cotswold 113 Course Familiarisation day:

Cotswold113 Familiarisation day on April 22nd

Good afternoon all, I hope everyone is well ?
We’re fast approaching our first Familiarisation day of the year on April 22nd, and I wanted to thank you all for signing up to it, and to get some information out about the day.

The familiarisation day is held at the lake we use for the races, which is at the following address:
Waterland Outdoor Pursuits
Spratsgate Lane
Ashton Keynes
Glos
GL76DF

You will find the lake as the 2nd gate on the right on spratsgate lane if approaching from the South on the Spine road, and I’ll put some Red 113 Events Flags up on the gate so it’s easy to spot on the day.
Parking will be through the main gate and out onto the grass parking area they have there.

Due to the somewhat rubbish spring weather we’ve been having, we’ve felt it was safer for all to change the guided lap of the Swim course to an open Swim in the lake. The water temperature is currently at around 10deg, which although perfectly fine for a normal swim, is blimming cold if you have a big group of swimmers regularly stopping in the water to regroup and waiting around rather than keeping warm constantly swimming. We hope you all understand, and we’ll still have Jason Tait, who’s our resident OW swim coach on hand to answer any questions you might have about open water swimming and race starts.
The lake guys have 400meter and 750meter loops marked out, and you’ll be free to do any many or as little laps as you like.
We’ll be on hand also to describe how the single 1,900m lap works on the day.
The lake is very shallow, and as a result of this is quite a small body of water compared to it’s surface area, so will warm up very quickly when the Spring/Summer does finally arrive. With this in mind, I still fully expect the lake temperature to be around 15-19 deg by race day.
We were planning on starting the guided lap at 08:00, but as this is now going to be a free swim in the lake with the swim meters, you are free to start and finish anytime you like before 10am, when we kick off the lap of the bike course.
If you did want to swim, as with the guided lap there’s a £5 guest membership charge applied by the lake guys, and this is payable on the gate in cash.
The bike and run are ran by us and are, of course, completely free of charge.

If you’re not swimming, the please allow yourself time to get parked up and on your bike ready to head out at 10am. We will group together by the cafe at the lake (opposite the gate as you come in) and will head off a few minutes after 10am.
As it’s a group ride, we would ask that you don’t ride on your aero bars, although you’re more than welcome to come along on your TT bike or road bike with Aero bars and ride somewhere behind the group.
We will have a few regrouping stops on the bike to explain how the police closed crossings on the day, and where the aid stations are etc, and we generally average about 14-15mph.
The bike will take around 2hours, and once we’re back at the lake, we’ll have around 15-20minute break to get into our run kit and head out for a lap of the run course, which will be around 12:30. Like the bike course, we’ll have a few regrouping stops, and will run around 10min mile average pace.
A single lap of the bike course is 28miles, and a single lap of the run course is 4.3miles
Myself and the team will lead the bike and run course laps, and will be hand the whole time to answer any questions you might have.
Hopefully, by the some of the Spring will have arrived, and we won’t all be shivering our way around in full winter kit

We will have Joe Wood of Veloworks there on the day doing any repairs of servicing you need for your bikes. Joe is a superb bike mechanic, so please get in touch with him if you need anything done to your bike on the day or in advance of the day.
www.veloworks.co.uk

If anyone has any questions, or needs anything from us before, please don’t hesitate to get in touch
We look forward to seeing you all on April 22nd

Thanks

Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team.
Tel 07595 591612

The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold113 2018 Competitors today

Cotswold 113 – March newsletter

Hi all, I hope this email finds everyone well ?
Not that you’d know it looking outside your front doors today, but the race season is just around the corner and the spring is officially here.

I’ll try and keep this one brief as I’m conscious that many of you are trying to find your ways to the gym to do your run workouts on the dreadmill, and I’d guess that most of you are tired of the sight of your turbo trainers too.
If any of you are brave enough to be training outdoors, then hats off to you as I had to fight my way past a polar bear and three penguins just to get to my garage earlier.

Anyway, the things I’ll cover in this email are :

Familiarisation day – April 22nd
Race info Pack
Transfers to the August Classic
Recruiting marshals

Familiarisation day – April 22nd
Our free of charge familiarisation day that we’ll be holding on April 22nd is now open to book up online
You can book that up at www.entrycentral.com/113events under 113 fam day
The emphasis on the day is very much leisurely and social, so if you’re one of the faster guys/girls, you might want to schedule this in as a recovery day rather than a training day as we’re going to keep the pace nice and low and make sure that everyone is comfortable going around (think 15-16mph av on the bike and 9-10min miles on the run)
On both the run and the bike, we’ll cover just a single lap on the day (it’s 2 for the bike and 3 for the run on race day) and we’ll have regular regrouping stops and a few stops to point out where the aid stations are etc.
This is a great chance to meet the 113 events team and many other competitors, and of course, we’ll be on hand to answer any questions you might have. It’s also a great chance to us to meet you guys as invariably everyone has their race faces on over race weekend, and we’re lucky to get more than a grunt out of any of you lot.
The bike and the run are completely free, but if you wanted to Swim a lap of the course lead by our Swim Coach Jason Tait, the lake guys will ask you for £5 for a day membership on the gate. You don’t need to swim a whole lap if you don’t want (the swim is a single 1.9km lap), and they have 400 and 1500m laps marked out on the day too, and this will give you a chance to get a taste for the water – Although not literally, I hope.
Jason’s a great OW swim coach too, and he’ll be on hand to answer any questions you might if you’re new to OW swimming or just have somethings you’ve always wanted to know.
The Swim will kick off with toes in the water at 08:00, the bike will head off at 10:00 and the run generally starts around 12:30. You can, of course, do all or any of the three disciplines, and you’re free to dip in and out as you see fit.
We only ask that you book on so as to get some idea of numbers on the day, and so that we can keep in touch with you nearer the time with final instructions etc by email.
The familiarisation days are always a lot of fun, and they’re a great chance to meet some other competitors and to ask any questions you might have about the races.
If you have friends or club mates that want to come along, and are not signed up to the race, they’re more than welcome to join in too.
We hope to see lots of you on April 22nd, and it might have even stopped snowing by then with a bit of luck 🙂
If you do want to see the bike and run courses, and can’t make the 22nd, I live pretty local to the lake and work from home on my day job, so I welcome the chance to skive off for a couple of hours and show people around. I’m generally not available on weekends as I have various other family things and kids that do a million sports, but can generally be free on a weekday morning if you fancy a trip to the lake. You will need to put up with my slow pace though as my racing days are long gone now, and I’m more your tortoise than your hare, so don’t expect a 300w average bike or 6 min miles, and don’t expect much chatting on the go as I’ll probably be blowing out my backside trying to keep up with you 🙂

Race info pack
You can download the race info pack here – https://www.113events.com/11318-competitor-pack/
Please take the time to read this as it contains important information about the race weekend.
I’ve purposely not made it too colourful, so you can read it at your desk and pretend you’re working if your boss walks past, or perhaps you can print it off and put it next to the toilet at home so you can read it in some peace and quiet.
Anyway, this is your info pack and we’ve tried to include everything you could possibly need. If there’s anything we’ve not covered in this, please just let me know and we’ll add it in.
I’m going to email you this link at least 50 times between now and race day, and it’s genuinely important that you read it please 🙂

Transfers to the August 5th Cotswold Classic
Our other Triathlon is identical to the June 113 in every way bar name, shirt colour and medal.
I know I harped on about this in my last newsletter, but I get so many emails a few weeks out from the June race asking if they can possibly move to the August race instead. This race normally sells out around April/May, and once it’s full, we just can’t swap entries over I’m afraid.
With that in mind, if you are having any doubts that you may be fit enough to race in time for June, or you’ve forgotten it’s your Daughters graduation on that day, or far any other reason that we don’t even need to know about, please ask now as once that race is full, we can’t then transfer you over. It’s completely free to swap over, but a limited time offer until that race is full up.

Recruiting marshals
Anyone that has raced with us before, knows we have a really good reputation for having some of the best, most numerous and most enthusiastic marshals in the sport, and we’re very proud of that, so really look after anyone that helps out on the day.
We always need more marshals on the race weekend (or on August 5th if you fancied doing it yourself), so if you have any friends, enemies, crazy fan club members, or just passers by that you can press gang into helping out on the day, we’d welcome them to the team.
Our marshals get paid too, and you can choose from either £20 in cold hard cash or a £40 113 Events voucher, and all marshals get an event team shirt and we’ll keep you in food, drink and ice creams all day.
All we ask is that you’re over 16, know your left from your right and are enthusiastic, and we’ll give you everything you need, a lift out to your spot if required and take you through a full briefing. We partner up our marshals too, so there’s very few spots where you’d be on your own.
We have a load of roles from early morning guiding, transition, bike and run courses
You don’t need any marshalling or triathlon experience at all, and our course managers will brief you fully on what you need to be doing on the day.
Please get in touch at graeme@113events.com

Right, that’s it from me. This has been the shortest newsletter email I’ve sent so far, so i can’t promise the next one isn’t comparable to war and peace
I’ll email out again in around 6 weeks, but in the meantime, if there’s anything you need from us, we’re here to help so please just get in touch

We hope to see many of you on April 22nd at the Familiarisation day

Thanks and please enjoy the snow in safety this weekend if you are braving some outdoor training

Cheers

Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
07595 591612
graeme@113events.com
@113events
facebook.com/113events
#113events