Fancy coming racing with us next Summer ?

Hey everyone,

I hope you’re all doing well!

Just a quick heads-up that entries for our 2027 races open at midnight tonight, and we’d absolutely love to see you on our start lines next year.

As in previous years, the two races each feature their own unique bike course, while sharing the same friendly, welcoming atmosphere that we’re proud to be known for. Our amazing team of volunteers and staff work hard to make every athlete feel at home, whether it’s your first middle-distance event or your fiftieth.

For 2027, we’ve made the decision to reduce the maximum number of solo entries from 1,000 to 900. This allows us to maintain the personal touch that makes our events special and ensure everyone enjoys the perfect day of swimming, cycling and running in the beautiful Cotswolds.

We’ve also partnered with a new online entry system, giving you an even smoother booking experience. As part of this, we’re now able to offer improved injury, and illness protection, along with flexible payment plan options over the next 6–8 months.
We do, of course, still retain our industry leading no quibble pregnancy and standard free deferral options.

The two dates for 2027 are :

Sunday 6th June – Cotswold 113 Middle Distance TriathlonNow in its 16th year, the Cotswold 113 is renowned for its fast, almost pancake-flat course. It’s ideal for experienced athletes chasing a PB, while also providing a supportive and relaxed environment for anyone taking on their first middle-distance triathlon.

For 2027, we’ve introduced a new bike course that flows even better and benefits from an improved road surface, while remaining just as flat and fast.

Categories: Solo, Relay, Aquabike and BikeRun.

Sunday 11th July – Cotswold Classic V2 Middle Distance Triathlon

The July event uses the same swim and run courses but features a completely different bike course.

We’d describe the Classic course as gently rolling compared with the pancake-flat June route. While it has a few more undulations, it’s still a very fast course and typically produces bike split times similar to the June race. Those gentle climbs simply give you the chance to get out of the saddle, stretch the legs, and enjoy a little more variety along the way.

Categories: Solo, Relay, Aquabike and BikeRun.

Both races offer two Early Bird pricing tiers:

• The first 150 entries receive our lowest price.
• The next 150 entries receive a second discounted price before standard entry fees apply.

Based on previous years, these places don’t tend to last long!

Entries for both races will be available from midnight tonight at www.113events.com.

We hope to see lots of familiar faces—and plenty of new ones—on the start line in 2027.

Cheers,

Graeme, Nicci & the 113 Events Team

Cotswold Classic – Post race email

Firstly, and by far the most importantly, thank you all for coming racing with us today, and for choosing 113 Events races for your Middle Distance Triathlon experience.
From rough straw poles we did in the briefings on Saturday, it was very clear that we had lots of first timers to the distance, and to triathlon itself, so the fact that you have entrusted us with your first Middle Distance race, or first ever race, means a massive amount to me, and I truly hope that we lived up to all your expectations.
It was a hot one today, so hopefully you’re not all sitting right now with a forehead as red as mine. We’ve run our Middle Distance races 31 times now, and that was one of the toughest ones we’ve had. Sure, we had it hotter last July, but it didn’t have wind to contend with, and all the challenges that brings with it out on the bike course for you all.
The reputable sports scientists of this world will all tell you that the best form of recovery is fluids, protein and gentle exercise, but my preferred route is Pizza and a beer of glass of red wine, so I’m hoping that’s exactly what you’re all doing right now – We’ve just had our post race beer and Pizza, as per above Pic.

Anyway, I’m sure you’re all pretty bored of my emails now, so I’ll try and keep this one reasonably short – Largely, as I started at 2am today, and am shattered
In this email, I will cover the following :

Going fast / Looking fast
Feedback request
What’s happening next year with 113 Events
Lost property at the lake
Tell your mates

Going fast / Looking fast
I’ll get this bit in first as it’s probably the only bit you’re interested in

You can find the official results from today at https://dbmaxresults.co.uk/Results.aspx?CId=16421&RId=30477&EId=1

The official photos will be up sometime tomorrow at https://charleswhittonphotography.photohawk.com/galleries/cotswold-classic-113-tri-12726

Feedback request 
Today was our 31st Middle Distance race at lake 32 over the last 16 years, and was our 15th Cotswold Classic. However, we are always trying to evolve and improve it and make our races exactly the sort of races that people love and want to keep coming back for.
As you’ve hopefully noticed, I’m super anal about all the little details that hopefully make you guys and girls enjoy the day more, and to get you all around safely and get the most out of your weekend.
However, as much as I try and see as much of the race as I can through my own eyes and the eyes of everyone on the team, it’s you all, the competitors that see it from the most important end of the delivery, and what you all thought of this weekend’s race is super important to me
Please, if you can spend a few minutes to email me back and let me know what you thought worked well, and anything that you thought didn’t work, I would love to see it
We have a team debrief later this week, where we pick through the race in detail and talk through everything we saw worked and what tweaks and changes we need to make for next year. Your feedback for this would be very welcome indeed, and is super important to me, as I can feed it into the core team of around 15 of us, and we can discuss it properly as a group to see how we can incorporate those changes going forwards.

We’ve made a few steps this year to try and bring the race up to a higher standard, largely better shirts, medals and Bags and Swim Buoys that you can pretty much see from the Moon, so please let me know if there’s anything you think we can adjust in the races, pre race info/communication, and all the other touchy feely stuff going forwards that would make your experience just outright better, or anything you just think didn’t work.

My favourite pic sent to me today 🙂

What’s happening next year with 113 Events
Planning for 2027 has been well underway for a good few months now, and there’s going to be some small and large changes to our races. Largely, we have an almost completely new bike course for the June 113, which we actually had ready for this year, and then the USAF’s use of Fairford as a operating base put an end to that happening this year due to the proximity of the course to the base Main gates, and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
The dates for the two races are 99.9% fixed as June 6th and July 11th too, and these will be firmed up on the next couple of weeks, and online entry opening very soon after towards the end of this month, or start of August.
The Classic will remain largely unchanged, but the 113 will be slightly smaller in terms of competitor numbers
Although we historically used to run the June 113 with around 1200 entries, it was reduced down to 1050 Post Covid, and it’s likely that we’ll reduce it again down to 900 or so next year, as dealing with 1050 competitor emails etc has consumed most of my life in the week’s running up to the event, and as we’re a small team, I just want to bring it a more manageable level, which will enable us to remain more personal for everyone that comes through our gate on race weekend Also, the beach and country park is changing owners early next year, and it’s entirely realistic that they won’t want our run course to go through their facility any more for what’s the first 1.8miles of the current loop,  so we have a plan B in place (and always have) for that eventuality

Lost property at the lake 
We actually had a record low amount of lost property left at the lake today, but we do have some.
We are back down there for most of the day tomorrow on the clean up operation and to get everything cleaned, checked and back into storage, so if you are still in the area, have left something at the lake and want to pop by to collect, you can drive straight into lake 32 and find us
If you’re not still in the area, and are missing something, please can you send me a google images pic of what you’re missing, and I’ll have a rummage through the pile to see if it’s there.

Tell your mates 
In this sport, word of mouth is by far the most powerful form of Marketing .
So, if you enjoyed this weekend, and I truly do hope you did, please tell all your mates on internet forums, facebook groups or club changing rooms etc about the race, and that will undoubtably help us get the Classic back to something more like capacity

Right, that really is it for me for this year’s pre and post race communications. It’s abolsutely been our pleasure to have you all along, so we wish you the best of luck for any other racing you have planned this year, and may every wind, be a strong tailwind on your bikes.
We hope to see you all back on our start lines next year, and thank you again for choosing 113 Events.

Cheers,

Graeme, Nicci, Shouty Dave and the 113 Events Team
graeme@113events.com
07595 591612

Cotswold Classic – Weather Update

Hey all, I hope everyone’s managed to keep cool. and are feeling ready for racing this weekend ?
As promised, I wanted to get an update out to you all about the weather, and how this will affect this Sunday’s race.
In this email I will cover the following :

Bike Course update:
Water temperature
Preparing for the race 

Bike course update 
As expected, the resurfacing works on the Ewan Road have not been completed due to the heat.
This means that we will now adjust our bike course around this.
It’s not a massive change, and just means that when you get on your bike at the Mount point, you will now head North from the lake instead of south, and rejoin the existing course about a mile up the road.
You will also pass the mount/dismount point at the end of lap 1 before starting on lap 2
It does make the course around 1.2miles per lap shorter, but well within the BTF tolerances, and probably quite a welcome change given how hot it’s going to be
As an added bonus, it also removes by far the two worst sections of tarmac, so now 99% of the course is really quite nice and smooth.
It will all be very obvious on Sunday morning, but basically, we are removing the red bit in the picture below

Water temperature 
There’s no sugar coating this, and this recent hot weather has now meant that the water temperature is like a bath.
Today, I measured the course at 27.6 deg taken as an average at 3 points roughly equidistant around the loop and at 60cm depth.
It is very unlikely that this is going to drop below the cut off of 24.6deg before Sunday am, so please expect the race to be Non Wetsuit.
We are going to remeasure it tomorrow morning with the BTF race official, using his equipment, but I am not expecting it to change unless the lake’s thermometers are miles out (which is unlikely)
I swam most of the lap today too in just swim shorts, and it is toasty, and would not be safe to swim in a wetsuit as you’d simply overheat.
We will be making the official judgement at early o’clock tomorrow, and will let people know final ruling at the registration and briefings tomorrow, but I would suggest it’s going to be at least 99% certain to be non wetsuit.
If you are unsure on what the rules around non wetsuit swims entail in terms of what you can and can’t wear, you can find those HERE
Please take a few minutes to familiarise yourself with these, as not everything is super obvious, but these are the main highlights:
– You cannot wear buoyancy shorts
– You cannot wear calf or arm guards
– Swim Skins are allowed, but must be 100% textile

I appreciate this is now creating some very nervous swimmers, but please be rest assured that you will be exceptionally well looked after in the swim and you can take as long as you like*
There are a couple of spots in the lake where you can stand, and you’re more than welcome to do so if you need a quick 2 minute breather or to clear the water from your goggles etc.
* We have no specific swim cut off, as long as the water safety crew do not consider you a danger to yourself and you’re making some kind of regular forward motion (ie, you’re not lying on your back for 45mins and just staring at the sky)
We have nervous swimmer hats for those that feel like they need them, and more info on those is in the briefing video, and I will cover these in the briefings tomorrow too

If you really are worried still, and really don’t feel like you can swim without a wetsuit, if you see the team in registration tomorrow, they can just simply swap you over to the Bike/Run Category.
Also, if you don’t fancy running in the afternoon heat, they can also move you to the Aquabike Category (swim and Bike only)
In both cases, it’ll mean you’re racing in a tri bib (tri bibs are white, aquabike have a red stripe and BikeRun have a blue stripe), and you won’t probably get the correct medal as these are ordered for the people that entered those categories (medals are all the same, but the ribbons for each category are different), but will still mean you can finish the race and get something out the day

Preparing for the race 
Us brits are not built for this type of heat, and the colour of my forehead from a week down at the lake getting everything set is perfect testament to that.
It is going to be very hot, there’s no getting away from that, but I wanted to give you all a few good tips for racing in the heat that might help make Sunday’s race experience a little more comfortable for you:
– Make sure your bike has enough fluids and energy products on it to get you to the Aid station. This is 30mins in for the faster guys/girls, and maybe an hour for some of the others. You will have just completed the swim also, so your body will be in need a hydration to get to this point.
Our course is really quite flat, so don’t worry about having to pull yourself over tour de France style high mountains, and the extra weight of a couple of bottles of drink will really not effect you much at all, but will keep you well hydrated.
– Enjoy the swim and don’t fear it. Last July was the first non wetsuit swim we’d had in the 15 years of running this race (as well as our June113) at lake 32, and like many of you, we had lots of very nervous swimmers beforehand worried about not being able to complete the distance without your prized wetsuit. You can do it, and it’s actually a really ok experience. Feedback after the race from the more nervous swimmers was that they actually enjoyed it far more than they expected and were surprised at how achievable it was. You got this !!
– Get yourself some sun cream. The run has lots of sheltered bits, but the bike doesn’t. Even at 7:30am, the sun can still be quite strong, and this is only amplified by a layer of sweat. We can help you apply your own sunscreen throughout the day, but because of some strange insurance and rule stipulation, we cannot provide it (probably as if we do and you still get burnt, the rules are scared of legal cases)
Wearing a running hat also provides a load of face shade, and can also be dunked in water for a cool water effect for a few minutes until it dries.
– We will be giving you all a small turbo trainer / work out towel in registration tomorrow as part of your goody bag. These are super absorbent and also about the perfect size to hang over your shoulders on the run course. There are a couple of spots on each lap with hose sprinklers, so drenching one of these at each opportunity and then having the cooling effect of it dripping down your back and chest is a really good way of cooling off.
– The run course has around 45% of that’s reasonably well shaded in the lakeside paths, so get your mindset into running from one bit of shade to the next
– Manage your pace. As much as some athletes can run just fine when it’s really hot, for the other 99% of us, we sometimes have to just manage our expectations and get to the finish.
– Keep hydrated, and then more hydrated – This goes without saying, but get your hydration levels really good well before the race starts, and you’ll set yourself up for a much better day than if you are dehydrated before you even start

We’re looking forward to seeing you all at registration tomorrow, so enjoy your Friday nights and we’ll look forward to welcoming you all along to lake 32 this weekend

If you haven’t already read it, please see the race info pack HERE which has everything you need to know about the race, and also registration requirements for tomorrow

Cheers

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

Cotswold Classic – July 12th

Hey All, I hope everyone’s managing in the heat ok and feeling ready for this weekend ?
We’re just 5 sleeps from race weekend now, so in what will be one of the last pre race emails, I’m going to cover the following

Weather / Preparation
Compulsory Briefing / Race info pack
Does your bike need some lovin’ or any kit you need
Results / Tracker
Prize Giving
Beach and Country park access on both days
Parking on both days
Swimming on Saturday, or any day this week before the race

Weather / Preparation
There’s really no sugar coating it, it’s been very hot for the last few days, and all the forecasts I look at agree that it’s going to stay like it for the next week or so.
The only saving grace in this version of the heatwave compared to a couple of weeks ago, is that it’s much cooler at night and in the morning. Still, it’s going to be hot on race day, and think it’s now wise for any of you that haven’t yet prepared for it to do so.
Water temperature :
Today, the water temperature was over 25, and this is only going to get warmer as the week goes by.
I will, of course, keep everyone updated towards the end of this week, but I think it’s realistic to now assume that we will be having a non wetsuit swim on Sunday.
We have to make an official call at 05:20 on Sunday morning by measuring 3 points around the lap, and the Cut off for Wetsuits is 24.6deg.
I covered a fair amount about the rules of what you can and can’t wear in newsletter #4, so if any of you have not seen that, you can find that HERE
I also cover a bit about the weather, what we do to prepare for it, and also some other options you may find useful in the video briefing in the next Section, so please do give that a watch.

Note : I’ve had a fair few emails in the last few days asking us to find some cooler points in the lake to make wetsuits optional, so I just wanted to cover the bones of why this isn’t possible here :
In the past, I have both competed and helped at races (not ours) in both the UK and Europe where they’ve lied about the water temperature in order to appease those that wanted a wetsuit, but it brings other, fairly significant, dangers
Heat exhaustion/heat stroke is no joke, and for 95% of people, swimming 1,900m or more in a wetsuit at >25deg water temps can results in just that.
If you get too hot in the water before you even get out on the bike, you’re on a dwindling spiral, and races I’ve seen where people have just gotten too hot in the swim have resulted in a large number of bike accidents where people are still dizzy, confused, nauseous and their bodies are still trying to shed some of the excess heat, which is very hard to do, and sometimes impossible to do whilst active, so presents significant risk to your health.
I would love for the water temperature to be a nice steady 21deg, but I just don’t think it will be, so I have to be very strict on how we apply a wetsuit ban if we need, and it’s not a decision we make lightly.
Everyone that comes through our gate on race morning to get to our start line  is our responsibly, and we cannot and will not endanger you by lying about water temps, or measuring at known cooler spots. I know that other organisers do, but I just wanted to explain why we can’t, and won’t.
I’m sorry to have to rant on this, but your safety is our number one priority, so I just wanted to explain our position, and hope that you all respect that.

Last July, we ran the Classic in much hotter conditions than the forecast is giving us for this weekend, and we will, like we did last July, put out extra water and some sprinklers to help keep you cool. The run course offers a good amount of shade too, although there are some exposed bits.
I even spoke to a lot of people after that race that were worried about a non wetsuit swim, and all agreed that it was actually a pretty nice experience.

The main point worth making is that the bike course aid station is around 10 miles into the lap. Assuming some of you will take an hour in the swim, and that first 10 miles of the bike course could take 45mins, please ensure you have enough drink and food on your bike to get you to that point.
Even in a non wetsuit swim, 25-26deg water temperature is hot, and there’s a good chance you could dehydrate yourself before you even look at your bike, so make sure you’re not chewing on air for the first ten miles, and have lots of water loaded up and ready to go please

The forecast, is of course, like all weather forecasts, still changing on a daily basis

Briefing / Race info pack
Although we have 2x longer non compulsory briefings on Saturday at 13:00 and 16:00, there is a compulsory video briefing where you get to see mine and Dave’s faces for radio talk you through the key safety points for the race and also discuss weather planning and options (including nervous swimmer hats etc),  Please can you all make time to watch that before the weekend, and that can be found by clicking the below image:

Hopefully, by now you’ve all downloaded and read through the race info pack, if not, you can find it HERE

Does your bike need some lovin’ or any last minute kit you need 
Tim Lewington of Speedbub triathlon store will have a shop at the race this weekend, so if you need some last minute kit (ie a race belt, as people often forget to bring those for their race numbers)
I wouldn’t suggest ordering a brand new fancy bike to race on this weekend, but if you wanted one, they can sort it. They’ll also be taking bookings for pre race check overs to your bike
These checks will cost £10 and will be done in 15 minute slots so please email or call the shop to arrange

If you wanted to book your bike in with them for a check over, or order any parts for them to bring with them on Saturday, please drop Tim an email at speedhubuk@icloud.com

Results / Tracker
DBmax, who take care of all the timing at our races, have a live timing page set up and ready to use.
This will update almost immediately as you start the race or cross any of the timing mats on the course, so is a great way for your fiends and family to check on your progress
The link for that is HERE

Prize Giving 
I think it’s important to explain why we don’t have a prize giving ceremony at our race first.
Our race, as I hope you’ve felt already, is aimed at everyone. `Also, there isn’t anywhere at the lake enough away from the finish line that we can hold it, and it’s super important to us that anyone still racing out there towards the later stages of the race doesn’t feel like the race has finished without them and that they’re an inconvenience or burden to the rest of us, as they’re really not
Subsequently, we don’t want people out on the run course on their, potentially first lap, and us looking like we’re wrapping up by having a prize giving. The alternative is that we hold the prize giving at 3pm, but as we found out when we did this before, most people don’t stick around for it which I completely understand, as the fastest athletes on the day had finished around 10:30, and it’s not fair to expect them to hang around for that long.
Therefore, although we do have some pretty cool trophies for our age group 1/2/3 and for Aquabike, Relay and Bike/Run. we ask that if you have finished in a position to earn one of these, you come to the race HQ tent after the race and we can present them to you there and we’ll get a picture of you looking proud with it. They’re nice trophies, so worth coming along for after your race has finished
If you’re not sure if you’ve won one, speak to the timing guys at the finish line and they can double check.

Beach and Country park access
The guys that run the Cotswold Beach and Country park, are kind enough to let our spectators/competitors walk through the beach and country park area to get to lake 32 on both Saturday and Sunday, which saves a walk down the side of a road.
However, it’s super important that anyone walking through does not try and use their facilities, largely the beach or the kids paddling area. The reason for this is that they have very strict health and safety regulations, and are only allowed a certain amount of paying customers that they will provide life guard and safety cover for. If our competitors or spectators try and use these areas, they will quickly go over their quota, and they (and subsequently me) will be a whole heap of trouble.
When you park in our car park, you will get a Blue wrist band from us that will allow you access through their gate, and to turn right and walk through their car park to Lake 32 where our Registration, Race Start and Finish is.
On Sunday, spectators will be allowed to spectate from alongside the run course that goes through the beach and country park, but must not under any circumstances go near their beach or kids play/paddling area please

If you are coming along as a family on Saturday, or you have spectators that are arriving after 10am (when the B&CP opens) it’s, of course, ok to book into their as a customer through their website and they can use all the facilities they want. It’s a cool place, and will also mean that your spectators can park literally right against our transition area. They charge around £20 for a car
It’s very much worth booking now with them as I believe they only have a handful of slots left given the forecast, and if they’re not already, will be full in the next couple of days.
Their website is https://www.cotswoldcountryparkandbeach.com/

Parking reminder 
Please be reminded that you will need to bring £10 cash for parking each day. We rent this field from a farmer, and he has our arm off for the use of it, so I’m afraid the parking cost is outside of our control.
To speed things up on Sunday AM, competitors can buy Sunday’s carpark pass from Registration.
It has to be cash I’m afraid, as A) the farmer wants paying in cash, and B) the phone signal at the lake is pretty rubbish, so our card machine doesn’t generally work.
Saturday’s car parking is payable on the gate, and Sunday’s passes are available at registration on the Saturday, or payable on the Gate Sunday AM if you don’t get one on Saturday
The carpark is a field though, and has a single gate to access it, so if you’re planning on arriving between about 05:15 and 06:00 when it will be very busy, please base your arrival time on there being a 10-20min queue to get into the carpark please.

On the Sunday, the carpark will be open from 04:30-06:00. After 06:00, spectators can also park in there. If you’re competing, and have your spectators in your car with you, it’s of course ok for them to use the carpark, just for clarification.
If you have spectators that are coming earlier than 06:00 in their own car (ie not with you) the best local place to park is Neighbridge Country park, which is a 10-15min walk and on the run course where the main aid station is located. It’s pay and display, and is about £3 for the day
The What3Words for neigh bridge is ///angle.sublet.chatters
Please ask them not to park in the residential area of Somerfork Keynes, as the locals don’t want their street clogged up with cars from the event, or blocking their driveways. We have a great relationship with SK residents, and we want to keep it that way please

Swimming on Saturday, or any day this week before the race
The lake we rent for our races have their own open water swimming every day, so if you fancied coming down this week and having a dip, you can book that at https://lake32.co.uk/product/payg-swimming/
It’s worth also noting that their pay as you go swimming booking on Saturday is actually cheaper than the race carpark, so if you book for a swim on Saturday afternoon, you save a couple of pounds, and also get to swim before you register as their swim booking includes parking

Final Words
As much as us Brits really do like a moan about the weather, at least it’s not hammering it down, 40 mph winds or just freezing cold. It’s going to be a hot one, so please prepare your kit and nutrition plans accordingly. We will do everything we can to make sure you all have a great day and get around safely, but need you all to take some precautions too please.

If you’ve missed any of our previous newsletters, you can find them at www.113events.com/news

We really are here to help, so please just drop me an email or give me a call if there’s anything I can help with at all. I’ll be at the lake most of this week, so won’t have a lot of access to my emails during the day, but my phone is on and I’ll be picking up my emails in the evening.

See you all in a few days

Cheers

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

Cotswold Classic – 12th July 2026

Hey All, I hope everyone’s well and survived the first part of this heatwave ?
We’re under 2 weeks from race day now, so it’s about the time we start getting more info out on the race, and also give some update on the weather situation.
I’m very conscious that many of you have some concerns about the weather, and the amount of emails I’ve been getting has confirmed this, so I’ll cover that bit first.

In this email, I’ll cover the following:

Weather Update – Water Temperature and other implications
Race Info pack
Start list / Registration requirements
New (and Old) BTF Rules
Car Parking
Being part of the 113 team
What’s coming next

Weather Update – Water Temperature and other implications 
Unless you’ve been lucky enough to be in the North Pole for the last few weeks, you’ll be very aware that it’s been unusually blimmin’ hot recently. That, in itself, wouldn’t be a problem as the forecast showed that about now, it was due to cool right off to a more normal late June/Early July 20-25deg.
However, as many of you will have seen, it’s due to get hot again.
I’ve become obsessed with Weather forecasting, and regularly check 4-5 different ones (which, unsurprisingly, all all very different), and although Race day does fluctuate by forecaster, they all unanimously agree that the next ten days are going to be toasty.
What this means is that the lake temperature is likely to increase again quite dramatically, and there’s now a very real possibility that we will have a  Non Wetsuit swim on July 12th
We work in line with the BTF regulations on Wetsuits, which, at this end of the scale, reads as anything below 24.6deg is Wetsuit Optional, and anything over 24.6 deg is a Wetsuit Ban. This is measured 1 hour before the start of the race, and the call is then made
Last Friday, the water temp was over 28 deg, which in the 20years+ I’ve been swimming at that place, is the highest I’ve ever seen it.
The weekend was somewhat cooler with air temps of around 20 and overcast for most of the time, and today was around mid 23’s this morning, and nearly 25 this afternoon.
With such variability in the different Weather forecasts, I’d be very reluctant to say either way, but would suggest that the chances of it being a non wetsuit swim are 50/50 at best
Just to avoid any confusion at all, a link to the BTF rules on what you can and can’t wear should it be a Non Wetsuit Swim are in the link below :
https://www.britishtriathlon.org/britain/documents/events/competition-rules/2026-british-triathlon-competition-rules-feb-2026.pdf
*Please note that should it be a non Wetsuit swim, that Buoyancy shorts are not allowed within the rules.

I’m very conscious that this is now going to create significant uncertainly amongst the many of you that really wanted this to be a wetsuit swim, so please let me try and alleviate some of those fears for you.
Firstly, and most importantly, please don’t worry –  You got this !
I would strongly advise that, if you can, you go and have a swim at an open water facility before the race without a wetsuit.
In the 15 years and 30x Middle Distance races we’ve now organised at Lake 32, we’ve only once had a non Wetsuit swim, and the general feedback from the more nervous swimmers was that is was way easier than they expected, and actually quite a nice experience.
Lake 32 has a couple of spots on our loop that you can stand up in, and you’re more than welcome to use them to recompose yourself before continuing. The lake is reasonably shallow for most of the loop, and very clear so you can see the bottom.
We also have no specific swim cut off, so if you want to breast-stroke the whole 1,900m with your head out of the water chatting to your mates, and take over an hour, you really can.
We have around 55-60 Canoeists and Water safety team/craft on the Water, which is significantly higher than most other races. These guys are all super experienced, and will keep an exceptional eye on you at all times to ensure you get around safely.
We also have, what we call a ‘Nervous Swimmer’ hat, which is a different colour to the normal race swim cap we issue you all, and if you wear one of these, they’ll keep an even better eye on you – These are available at the Swim start on race morning should you want one.
I will, of course, keep everyone updated next week as to how it’s looking, as this being the UK, the forecast could easily change and we could get either 30 deg, Snow storms or both.

Other implications to the day – This may come as good news to some of you :
There has been some pipe laying work on the bike course around 2miles into the loop, and the heat of the last ten days has now put that significantly behind schedule, so is looking potentially unlikely to be complete by race day. This would result in 4 way traffic lights on the course, which normally isn’t a big issue as we can turn them off and control them with TM Contractors. However, these are on an A road, so doing so is not either easy or safe. Subsequently, we have agreed to a small change to the bike course should they not be done, which will take you right out of the lake, and straight up towards Ewan. This avoids possibly the worst sections of Tarmac on our course, which is great, but also means that the loop does become about a Mile shorter (which may be great news for some of you given how hot it potentially will be on the day)
This does still keeps our bike course distance within the BTF allowed tolerance.
Like the water temp, we will keep everyone posted on this as there’s also a few other issues on other bits of the course as a result of the heat, and will issue an updated .gpx file should we need to change the course nearer to race day.

On a final note regarding weather, there’s no avoiding that it’s looking like it’s going to be a toasty one.
A good chunk of our run course is well shaded, and we will put out extra water, as well as fine mist sprays. Last July at the 2025 Classic, we had a 35 deg air temp by mid afternoon, but was much cooler for most of the morning.
Should it be extra warm, and not a wetsuit swim, If people are worried about running in the heat or swimming without a wetsuit, on race weekend, you can see the team in registration on the 11th, and we will allow people that don’t want to swim to swap to the BikeRun class, or those that don’t want to run in the heat to the Aquabike Class. Either way, we’ll make sure you get the best out of the day and finish with a medal

Race Info pack
If you haven’t already had a read of the race info pack, please can you now head to the following link and download it:
RACE INFO PACK
Start list / Registration requirements Registration requirements 
We have our registration on Saturday July 11th between 12:00 and 17:30.
Also on the Saturday afternoon, we will have two separate Briefings at 13:00 and 16:00 by the Swim exit/transition area.
These are not compulsory, as your compulsory briefing will come out by video link early next week, but each of these Saturday briefings will take about 45mins, and we’ll talk through the race in some details and offer up some last minute advice and help. It’ll be myself, Dave and the BTF referee for the weekend who present the briefings, and although we’re 100% not a comedy act, we will try and make it at least a little bit entertaining to keep you all awake. It’s an outside area, so if it looks like it might rain (we wish), please bring a waterproof or an umbrella.

A couple of year’s back, the BTF introduced their new Racepass system, which is what most of know as a ‘Day license” for non BTF members – membership or a race pass are compulsory within the BTF rules, and provide the competitor with personal liability insurance for the duration of the race.
Once the start list was finalised last weekend, I sent it off to the BTF for them to go through and validate either your race pass purchase when you signed up through the entry system, or your valid BTF membership for 2026.
On the start list, which I’ll link in a moment, you will see each name now has either an ‘M’, ‘RP’ in Green or an X and highlighted Red
If you have an ‘M’ next to your name, it means the BTF have confirmed your valid membership for the race date
if you have an ‘RP’ against your name, they have confirmed that you bought a Racepass from them directly through the entry system when you signed up
If you have a Red X against your name, it means you now need sort a race pass, or verify your membership
it’s very possible that if you are a member, and it’s showing as an X, that they’ve just not found it, or you’ve input your membership number incorrectly, and we can sort that, and I’ll cover more on that in a bit.
If you’re not a member, and need to buy a race pass, I’ll also explain in a minute how you can do this

If you have an RP or an M against your name, all you will need for registration is a photo ID (ie, driving license, passport, NHS card etc)
There’ll be a few of you that can’t get there on the Saturday, so will want someone to register for you and that’s totally fine.
In order for someone to register on your behalf, they will need a printed version of your photoID with a note on it to say it’s fine for them to register on your behalf. This needs to be a printed version rather than the original, as we have to retain that in line with the BTF rules, and then our ref will make checks at transition check in Sunday AM to to ensure the person registered is the person racing. We will, of course, dispose of these properly by having them shredded post race
For relay teams, all competing members will need to be either BTF members, or have bought a race pass.
As relay teams are not showing an M, RP or X, we will need to check BTF membership cards, or race pass purchases for all members of the team. One person can register for the full team, but will need photocopies of the others members ID/Racepass proof, or BTF photo card (i’m conscious not everyone has a photo on their online BTF portal card, so a pic of that, and a photo ID of another format is totally fine)

If you now need to purchase a Racepass from the BTF, you can do so at the following link HERE
You will then need to bring with you a screenshot of your race pass purchase confirmation email (showing that on your phone is fine) along with PhotoID.
I’ll pre-warn you that phone signal on some providers isn’t amazing at the lake, so might be worth taking a screenshot on your phone so you can show a pic of the confirmation rather than trying to get your emails to load
If you don’t get a chance to purchase one before the day, don’t worry, and we can sell you one on behalf the BTF on the day for the same cost of £8. It will need to be cash though please, as we don’t have facility to take card payments (please see previous note on phone signal)

If you’re not sure on any of the above, and I’d totally understand as it’s unnecessarily complicated, please just email or phone me – 07595 591612

Last week, you had a window to request Waves and/or Numbers, and we had around 600 requests from the 740 competitors. I genuinely believe that I managed to accommodate 99% of them.
You can find the start list with Waves / Numbers / BTF status HERE
Anyone that had seen this already this week, and emailed me with updates etc, please don’t worry that they’re not yet showing as the start list will not be updated with a later revision until closer to race day.

Although I’m afraid we now can’t do anything with the numbers as they are now fixed and have gone off to print, if you now decide that you want a different wave, please see the team at registration on the Saturday, and they will accommodate you where possible

New (and Old) BTF Rules
Our race works in accordance with the BTF competition rules, and it’s well worth familiarising yourself with these in advance of the day so you don’t get stopped from starting, or a penalty/DQ during the race. I did link them earlier in this mail, but you can find the full rules HERE
Although I do strongly suggest you have a good read of these, I wanted to summarise the main parts that are either new or very pertinent to our events :
1) Towels in transition
Over the last few years, it’s become quite common for people to mark their transition space with brightly coloured towels. This, (and I go to an awful lot of races, and see this first hand), appears to have gotten a little out of hand over the last few seasons and people are starting to overflow into the space next to them, and having towels so big you’d think they were setting out on the beach for a family of 8.
Subsequently, the BTF have now banned them in an update last month (Which is typically ironic as you’ll all be getting a nice 113 towel in your goody bags at registration)
I’m very conscious that people do like to dry themselves etc, so the rules basically state that you can not have a towel in transition that is not stored within a bag other than a flannel sized (12″x12″) towel that then has to be rolled up and tucked into a shoe. You can, of course, have a towel in transition, but it must be in a bag under your space in the racking, and put back in there when you’ve used it. If you’re not sure, we’ll cover a bit more on this in the Saturday briefings
The BTF are like a kid with a new toy when new rules get rolled out, and they’ll be very sharp on this over this summer, including our races.
2) Getting changed in transition
We will put out a couple of changing tents at the Bike exit end of transition. One for Males and one for Females. However, if you want to get changed by your bike, you’re more than welcome to do so. The rules say you cannot get naked in transition, which is sensible as we have kids and families etc watching. However, and I’m going to try my best not to dig my self a ‘Pervert image’ hole here in how I describe this, we apply this rule with an amount of common sense. If you are getting changed under your towel and you inadvertently flash something you didn’t intend to, you won’t get penalised. If you do fully Naked lunges next to the racking, or stand naked and do a big back/forth sawing motion undercarriage drying move with a towel (I’ve seen both at our races, and neither were pretty), you will be in trouble with the Ref.  Hope that makes sense ?
3) Drafting
Our race is strictly none drafting, therefore if you get caught drafting, you will be penalised or DQ’d
The drafting distance is 12m, and although I’m very conscious that this can be a difficult distance to try and calculate in your head, please just allow enough space as if a car was going to overtake you safely and have enough space to drop in between you and the bike in front. Use this as a rule of thumb, and you won’t be far wrong.
If you are overtaking or being overtaken, you have 25 seconds to get back outside of the drafting distance.
How our Moto Ref’s and Moto Support team will apply this rule is that if you appear to be trying to gain an advantage, you will be penalised. If you are just pulling off a junction and the bike is in front of you because you’ve both slowed down, you’ll be given a grace period to drop back. We have seen in the past, especially with multiples from a single club, that thy try and ride like a TDF peloton, and this will be seen and penalised now. You will not know you have received a draft penalty until after the race when the time penalty is applied to your race time, as they do not have to notify you on course. If you have multiple offences, you will not know until you get the end of the bike section and are not allowed to continue on the run as you have been DQ’d
Please take this warning on board, and do not draft
4) Earphones on the courses are not allowed in any way shape or form within the rules, even bone conduction ear phones. We have to be very strict on this, and the reason for this, is that our run course has a couple of points where you need to cross the bike course, so you will need to have your full attention available please to hear marshal instruction.

Car Parking

We have an event carpark around a 5min walk from transition, registration etc (if you click the above map image, it’ll take you to the W3W location.
This field is owned by a farmer, who knows full well that it’s currently the only place to park on race weekend, and like most farmers, likes to make a few quid, so absolutely has our arm off over the pricing with us for it
Subsequently, the car parking is £10 per day per car, although he does donate some of the cash to charity ( it was Wilts Air Ambulance last time)
It is only payable in cash, so please ensure you have the correct change. This carpark will hold all competitors and a handful of spectators, and only competitors will be able to buy a Sunday car park pass in advance on the Saturday at registration. In order to avoid congestion and ensure all competitors get parked up ok, Spectators will not be able to access this carpark until 06:00 on the Sunday morning unless, of course, they are in a vehicle with a competitor.
In order to speed up Sunday parking, competitors only can buy Sunday’s car parking pass on Saturday from registration. If you don’t get a pass on Saturday, but are racing on Sunday and want to park, please ensure you have the correct change Sunday AM.
The carpark is a field, and although it’s pretty flat, it is still a field, so if you have the luxury of owning a very low sports car, I’d suggest you think of coming in something else on race weekend.
If you can lift share, even better, as it saves you a few quid, and leaves us more space.
If you have spectators that are planning on coming along earlier than that, I’d suggest they park in Neighbridge Country park car park, which although is a 10min walk away, is only about £3 for the day, and actually where we have our main run course aid station. The what3words location for that carpark is ///angle.sublet.chatters

If you have just spotted that we have race camping on the map above, the details of how to book that, or other accommodation options are all covered in Newsletter #1 HERE
If you have spectators that are coming after 10am, and want the best possible spot (they can literally park up against transition) and also use of all the Beach and Country park facilities, they can book into there (they open at 10am, not earlier, just to pre-warn you)
It is well worth booking though, as they will almost certainly be fully booked a week out with the good forecast.
You can book the Beach and Country park HERE

Fancy camping and parking right next to the start/finish area for free ? Please read the next section and bring a marshal

Bring someone who can be part of the 113 team
We still need a handful more marshals to completely fill our roster for the race day, so are appealing for your help
All our marshals get paid too, and they can choose from either £20 cash or a £50 113 Voucher, and they have the best free parking and camping spot at the lake around 100m from the race start/finish.
We have two basic shifts we need people for :
Transition/Swim exit team – 04:30 start, finish around 11:45
Bike Team – 05:45 briefing, finish 11:45ish latest depending on location
Run Team – 07:45 briefing, finish 14:30ish

They don’t need any experience at all, and just need to be enthusiastic, over 16 and know their left from their right. We’ll partner them up too, so they’re not on their own for a few hours, and can take them out and back to their location if they don’t have their own transport, and we’ll keep them in hot food, drinks and ice creams
If you have someone coming along with kids, although we can’t pay/employ under 16’s, they can have an event shirt and take advantage of the free ice creams.
It also mean there if you’re coming along with a marshal in the same motorhome or car, you can park/camp for free right near the start line too
Drop me an email at graeme@113events.com

What’s coming next 
I will, of course, keep everyone as updated as I can about temperatures, but it’s pointless trying to update you all every day for the next week, as forecasts change. I will put out some updates towards the end of next week as we get closer to the race day
The next you will likely hear from me is early next week with a link to the video briefing, and then later during next week we’ll send what will be the last email with a link to Results/Live Tracking and any other last minute info for race weekend

We really are here to help, so if there’s anything we can help with at all, you’re worried and just want a chat, or need any more info from me, please just get in touch
You can email me at graeme@113events.com or call me any time on 07595 591612

Cheers and happy tapering

Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events Team

Cotswold Classic 12th July

Morning all, I hope everyone’s enjoying this current run of good weather ?
We’re a little under 3 weeks away from race day now, so it’s now about the time I’ll start ramping up the newsletter emails with all the important information in the run up to race day

In this newsletter, I’ll cover the following :

Catch up on any info missed and Race info pack
Getting your friends and families involved
Last Minute Changes
Race start waves and numbers
Swimming on the Saturday
What’s coming between now and race day

Catch up on any info missed and Race info pack 
I’m aware that a good few of you have only recently signed up to the race, so will have missed the previous newsletters on the race with all the info
In the last newsletter (#2) I covered the link to the race info pack, as well as info on what kit to bring and what to expect over race weekend
You can find newsletter #2 HERE
You can find the race info Pack HERE
Please take a few minutes to download and read through the race info pack, as that contains pretty much everything you need to know about race weekend
This is your info pack though, so if you think we’ve missed anything, please let me know and I’ll add it in

Getting your friends and families involved – And enjoy free camping and parking near the start line
On race day, we have around 150 paid marshals positions across the race location, and out on the bike and run courses
We still need to fill around 30 of these across the bike and run course teams
If you have anyone coming along with you that would like to get involved, we’d welcome them in with open arms, and make sure they have a great day enjoying the race from the more fun side of the fence
They’ll get free parking and camping right by the start location (this of course, is available for you too, if you’re bringing a marshal with you in your car on the day, or are staying with them overnight on the Saturday in the same camper/tent) and we pay all our marshals too
The marshals package is free food, drink and ice creams, as well as £20 Cash or a £50 113 Events Voucher, and all marshals will get an event team shirt to keep and we’ll take them through a full briefing
We have two shifts if they have a preference, and these are :
Bike Team – 05:45 briefing, finish 10:30-11:30 depending on location
Run Team – 07:45 briefing, finish around 14:30
We can get people to and from their spots if needs be, and will partner everyone up where possible with someone more experienced if required
Just drop me an email at graeme@113events.com and we’ll welcome them into our team
They also get an invite to the post race beer with our team, which is normally fun for about 30mins, and then most of us are falling asleep into our beers and we’ve been awake since 2am 🙂

Last Minute changes
Always around this sort of time in the run up to a race, we seem to get inundated with panicked requests where people have suddenly picked up and injury, remembered it was their Wedding anniversary on race day and don’t fancy the doghouse, or are just not ready to complete a full middle Distance tri in 3 weeks time
Whilst we’re now well beyond the 8 week deadline for free year on year deferrals, I hope that the fairest way we can still try and accommodate people rather than just applying a blanket ‘No’ is that if you really need to defer to next year, we’d ask that you help contribute some costs towards the cost of your entry in three weeks that we now can’t backfill. Get in touch with me, and we can discuss that. Obviously, that will go up the closer we get to the race, as the more we have to spend against each entry.
Whilst we’re still filling places in our team, we’ll also happily exchange deferral for marshalling for us on the day if you fancied doing it that way, but that would need to be arranged in the next 3-4 days please 
Also, if you wanted to move your solo entry to an Aquabike or BikeRun category, we can sort very easily now if you can let me know in the next couple of days please.
The same goes if you are currently in either of the above Categories, but now fancy taking on the whole thing, or even doing it as a relay.
Hopefully, that’ll give any of you that are unsure or unable to compete a full race some options in the fairest way possible, so please just get in touch

Race Start Waves and Numbers
Please can I ask that you read all the following before you get your request in :
You will now get the chance to choose which wave you’d like, and/or if you’d like a special number or a range of numbers to be racked with your mates, you can do that also

We have effectively 7 waves:

Mass Start – 06:25
Rolling start window waves:
Wave 1 06:30-06:40
Wave 2 06:40-06:50
Wave 3 06:50-07:00
Wave 4 07:00-07:10
Wave 5 07:10-07:20
Wave 6 07:20-07:30

By default, anyone not requesting a wave will be sorted youngest to oldest in rolling start waves 1 – 6 regardless of gender
All waves get a race time regardless of type, and your race start time will commence at the point you cross the mat to get into the water for a rolling start, or on the buzzer for the mass start – Previously, the fastest time of the day hasn’t always come from the Mass start (they actually won from wave 3 and 5 previously), but some people like a mass start with their mates to they can measure exactly their time against them when out on the course, whereas others like a more leisurely and spacious start on their own in the rolling start waves
In the rolling starts, you can start as a small group together if you like, otherwise you’ll be set off individually at 4-5 second intervals from the chute.
For reference, the average swim time in each wave is pretty much the same, and only the mass start waves tends to have a slightly faster average swim time

Some things to consider if you’d like to choose a wave.
– You might be a steadier paced overall triathlete, and don’t want to be the last person on the run course, so would want an earlier wave to give you best part of an hour over those in the last wave – Our Swim course is very wide and has very few pinch points, so don’t worry about being swum over by faster swimmers if you’re in an earlier wave
– You might want to watch a few waves go off before you or don’t want to rush, so could ask for a middle or later wave
– You might want to get home in time for a Sunday afternoon BBQ or to watch Antiques Roadshow, so would want an earlier wave
– You might want to get going straight away and not hang around, so would like an early wave

We do have some flexibility on waves on the day too, so don’t worry if you’re in wave 6 (for example) and want to go off in wave 3, we can slot you in if you come and see us on race morning

You don’t need to choose a wave or a number, but if you do, they’ll be on first come first served basis once the window opens

If you have entered as part of one of our many group/club entries (ie, you paid a club and they paid us, and you entered through the entry system with a free entry code), please can you ask the person who co-ordinated your group and sent me the spreadsheet/payment to get in touch with which wave you’d like. I will put you all together in transition in a spare sequence of numbers, so if you contact me directly and ask for a certain lucky number, I can normally sort it, but will mean you’re not racked with the rest of your group in transition and may not be in the same wave

If you would like a lucky number, you can choose any number between 10 and 600. These are normally really popular, especially the low numbers (and randomly, number 69), so please put a 2nd, 3rd and maybe even 4th choice down as there’s a good chance that unless you email me within the next 2 minutes, your 1st choice number will have already gone.
When requesting a specific number, please include your full name, Date of Birth and registed email address
All number requests are first come first served based on the time I receive the email request.

As I am going to get around 5-600 email requests for waves and numbers in the next few days, please understand that I can’t reply to all of them to say that you’ve been successful in getting your number, and you’ll need to await the start list coming out next week.

If you would like to request a group of numbers in sequence to be with your mates, please can you read the following guidelines for this:
– Please speak with your group first and get their agreement, as in the past, a good chunk of the requests would come in for a group only to find that Joe Blogs or Sarah Smith doesn’t want to be with that group, and has already requested a wave and number
– If you’re sending a list of names, I will need their full name, Date of Birth and registered email address please as we tend to get duplicates of seemingly unusual names, not just John Browns and Anne Harris’s, and people are often referred to by their friends by names that they’ve not registered with – Ie I won’t know who ‘Speedy Harris’ or ‘Brummy Tracey’ is
– Please check they’ve actually entered as I don’t want to spend an hour scratching my head trying to find someone in your group, only to later discover they either didn’t enter, or have swapped their name to someone else racing in their place, or two months ago deferred their entry to next year
– Please get the above right first time as once you’ve created a group to be racked together, I will allocate them a sequence of spare numbers, and the next sequence of numbers will be allocated to another group, so I can’t then add the next number to your group if you miss someone first time out (this happens an awful lot)

I love being able to offer this service, but this is a really time consuming job for me to do (it literally takes 3-4 days solid),  so please make my life easier by getting it right first time and not chopping and changing as we can’t add people in later, and it’s a pain trying to group a bunch of people only for half of them to come in with different requests.

Relays have a separate pen, so although they can go off in, and request, any wave, they cannot choose a number I’m afraid as they work on a different number sequence to individual entries.
Aquabike entries will be mixed in with the solo’s, so can choose a number
BikeRun entries can choose a number, but as they’re obviously not Swimming, won’t need a choose a wave

In order to get your request in, the Window opens now and closes at mid-day on Thursday the 25th June
To request a wave and/or number, please email graeme@113events.com using ‘Waves and Numbers’ as a title

In summary ;
You can choose any wave from mass start to rolling wave 6
You can choose any individual number for yourself between 010-600 – Please also include 2nd/3rd/4th choices if you have them
Please check with your mates that they want to be racked with you and in the same wave before requesting it
If you are part of a club entry, please get the co-ordinating person to contact me with which wave you’d like, and I’ll do your numbers together in transition anyway
If you don’t choose a specific number or wave, you’ll be allocated a number at random, and the waves are sorted youngest first / oldest last

Swimming on the Saturday 
Many of you have asked if it’s possible to have a Swim on the Saturday (or Any other time outside of race day) and the answer is yes.
We don’t get control of the lake on the Saturday, but the Lake32 team do have their own Pay-As-You-Go swimming slots that you can book online 7 days out from when you want to book.
Although on race day, you obviously won’t need [or be allowed one], the lake have a Mandatory Towfloat rule for their PAYG swimming slots, so just be aware of that if you wanted to swim on Saturday you will have to use one (they do rent them if you don’t have one, but there is zero exceptions to that rule, so please can I ask that you respect it if you did want to swim outside of race day)
They are also very strict on their time slots as they have to control the safety team with expected swim numbers
You can book their PAYG swimming a rolling 7 days out at https://lake32.co.uk/product/payg-swimming/

What’s coming between now and race day
Over the next three weeks, I’ll be drip feeding in info as it becomes available
The next you’ll hear from me will be around a week’s time, when the start list is published and finalised, and we also send that off to the BTF, who do a further verification check against everyone’s race pass purchases or BTF membership statuses.
That email will also have all the info on what you need to bring to registration on race weekend, as well as info on how you can get your friends to register for you etc, if you can’t get there yourself on Saturday the 11th.
After that, I’ll send an email out with the video briefing for the race where you can get to see my face for radio talk through everything about the race for 20mins, and there’ll be an opportunity to book in for a bike service or check up on the Saturday too with the shop that we have at our races over the weekend
Other than that, I’ll keep you all posted on course conditions, updates, advice for race weekend etc.

Right, that really is it for that monster of an email, and I hope you’ve managed to stay away until this point 🙂
We’re here to help, so if you get any questions, or there’s anything at all we can help with, please just ask
You can send me an email, or feel free to give me a call any time – 07595 591612

Please enjoy the your last little block of training in this Sunshine we now have, and we’ll look forward to seeing you all in a few weeks

Cheers

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

Update Email – This Sunday’s race

Hi All
I appreciate in the last newsletter, I said it’d be the last one, but I wanted to get out a quick update on the weekend

The weather at the lake this week has been pretty rubbish, as it has across most of the uk, so there’s a couple of things I wanted to get out to you all in advance of the weekend as the forecast for the weekend is not looking amazing either. I’ve had a lot of concerned emails, so I thought it best to get a quick email out to everyone now before the weekend

In this email, I’ll cover the following :

Water temp update
Advice on what to bring and how to prep
Possible weekend changes / updates

Water temp update
The water temp today was around mid 19’s, and that’s after a good few days of really quite heavy rain.
If you have been checking the lake 32 website, which from the many worried emails I’ve been getting, a fair few of you have, you will have seen a really low number which is a direct result of their lake thermometer stopping working a few weeks ago, and it’s not now updated properly since then or thrown out some really random numbers, so please don’t fret.

We’re due a not too bad day tomorrow, and then a fair amount more rain on Saturday, so I don’t expect that temperature to change much between now and Sunday, potentially it’ll drop maybe 1deg at most.
We will still very much be in the wetsuit optional range
The only change you might see to the swim, and this will only effect those that follow our social media, is that our Huge new Swim Buoys, or rather their anchorage, may not be totally wind proof for the amount of wind we’re due on Saturday night, so as much as it pains me as I’ve been very proud of our new purchase, we might have to roll out our previous ones for this race to give us time to source an anchor suitable to moor a small house sized inflatable or 6.

Advice on what to bring and how to prep
Most of us think of triathlon as racing in the Sunshine, but this being British Summertime means that it’s often not
Many of the more experience racers will have raced in wet or windy conditions beforehand, and most of us have spent many hours training in them.
However, there’s often a few that haven’t, and as we have lots of first timers, which is great, this is more aimed at those of you

Firstly, it’s looking like it might be occasionally wet and not super warm on Sunday. With that in mind, please ensure you have enough clothing on during the bike section to keep you warm and dry. I am always amazed at the amount off people that set off in a tri suit and find themselves shivering 4 miles later and need recovering in one of our vans.
As I’ve touched in previous stuff, the BTF rules say you have to finish the bike leg with the clothing you started in. However, due to the number of first timers we get at our races, we have an agreed exemption to this rule, and you are more then welcome to shed a layer and leave it with a marshal or a friend/family out on the course
We would much rather see people with way too much kit on, and having to shed it, than seeing people shiver themselves around our courses and feel terrible in doing so, and have that ruin their day.
It’s amazing the difference even a light rain jacket can make on the bike, and they’re light and easy enough to stash in a pocket or to give to someone on the course if you’re starting to cook.

Please also prepare to make puncture repairs incase the worse happens and you need to make a roadside repair. It’s always worth carrying a tube, tools and a pump/gas canister, and knowing how to use them.
As with all road courses, the rain can wash thorns and flint into the road, and it also hides surface imperfections, which although we go to great lengths to paint and are easy to spot in the dry, are much harder to spot in the wet, especially if you have wet or steamed up cycling glasses, and can sometimes results in pinch flats.
We will try and sweep the course as much as possible Saturday night/Sunday AM, but completely clearing 28miles of tarmac is largely impossible.
We have 4x moto support riders who are there to help, but if it’s wet, they will be exceptionally busy and may take a long time to get to you
Ultimately, you as a competitor, are responsible for your own bike, and our guys are really only there to help out if you’ve come completely unstuck and to get you out of a pickle when they can.

The run course has dealt with the rain pretty well over the last few days, and although there is now a couple of pretty muddy isolated spots, on the whole it’s really not too bad. If you’re unsure on shoe choice, I’d suggest you have a walk around parts of it on Saturday. The most effected parts are in Neighbridge Country park at around mile 3 of the lap, and it’s a ten minute job to have a quick walk on the Saturday to make a decision. It’s still well over 50% tarmac, and 90% of the lakeside paths are still solid and good.
If you’re unsure, come and see me or the team on Saturday and we can offer what advice we can

Possible weekend changes / updates
We’ve been spoilt for the last 4-5 years with some really good weather conditions at our Cotswold 113 and Classic races, but we have had some shockers in the past and have quite a lot of experience around this area.
With that in mind, if the rain is very heavy on the Saturday, the two briefings which happen at 13:00 and 16:00 normally by the Swim exit, we will move over the headland by the swim start, where there is a canopy area. It’s not massive, but should just about accommodate the amount of people that normally attend our Saturday briefings, but will be cosy and largely out of the rain if it’s as heavy as the forecasts are telling us.
Typically, the heavy rain, as it has been this week, necessitates a number or emergency utility infrastructure repairs, which result in road works and the dreaded traffic lights.
We work very closely with Wiltshire and Gloucester Highways departments, and those guys are great with ensuring the road network is clear of planned works during our races, or in the case of the current temporary traffic lights at around mile 2 of our bike course, they have them manned and turned off during the race, and returned to traffic chaos and frustration on Monday morning 🙂
However, emergency works are by their very nature, unavoidable, and we do plan around pretty much every eventuality.
Therefore, please accept that if we have to make a diversion or tweak to the bike course at every late notice, it’ll be unavoidable and our plans B,C,D,E,F etc etc are all thought out by our team in advance. I’m hoping/Expecting that there’s going to be none, but I wanted to warn you all in advance just in case we do. We will, of course, notify everyone as soon as we know, and it’ll be correctly signed and manned with both marshals and TM Contractors.

This sounds all doom and gloom and the forecast for Sunday currently looks much better than Saturday, but in the interest of total transparency, which is what you all deserve, I wanted to keep you all in the loop of what poor weather on Saturday could result in for the race on Sunday.

Final Point
Our marshals are the beating heart of our races, and without those guys and girls out there cheering you on and looking after you, the race simply could not happen at all.
Please can I ask, if you can, that you all take them time to say thank you to a few of them on the way around as it’s a thankless task and times, and I’m sure they’ll appreciate it

The forecast for Sunday is (fingers crossed) not too bad after a rubbish Saturday, but I wanted to get you all prepared for the worst conditions, and enjoy any improvement over that on the day

Anyway, us Brits love a good challenging weather day, and it won’t damper our spirits, so we’ll look forward to seeing you all this weekend

Cheers

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

Cotswold 113 2026 – 7th June

Hey all, I hope everyone’s all ready for racing this weekend ?
We’re just 5 sleeps now from seeing you all in registration on Saturday, so unless anything drastically changes or requires an update, this is most likely the last pre race email you’re going to get from me
In this email, I’ll cover the following :

Weather / clothing
Compulsory Briefing / Race info pack
Does your bike need some lovin’ or any kit you need
Results / Tracker
Prize Giving
Beach and Country park access on both days
Parking on both days

Weather / Clothing 
Whilst we’ve been in a bit of a heatwave for the last couple of weeks, anyone that’s been outside today will have seen that it’s long gone and is feeling back like normal English Summertime again (ie it’s lashing it down)
The forecast for this week is more rain for the next few days, with, at least, a glimmer of hope for Sunday
However, as you all well know, British Weather forecasting is as accurate as a Government promise, so this could change and be either 40deg or Snowing
This is the forecast as of Tonight

It’s likely to be pretty chilly first thing, so I would still recommend to people to bring a layer or a pair of arm warmers to put on when you first start on the bike, and you can always take it off and leave it with a marshal or a spectator if you get too hot later on. We have an exemption on the rule for this, and I cover this in the video briefing, which is linked later in this email.
It could well still rain too, so have that in mind when packing kit. You’re always better to be looking at stuff you don’t need, than looking for stuff you wish you’d brought.
Most of our bike course recoveries outside of mechanical issues, are generally where someone has just got too cold in the first few miles, and was lulled into a false sense of warmth when swimming in a nice insulated wetsuit in a warmish lake looking up at a clear sky.
The Lake temp is currently around 22deg, and is likely to drop a deg or two in the next few days with the rain forecasted

Also, between transition and the swim start, the walk is around 150m and is on Gravel. You may have super hardened feet to this, and it won’t be a problem. However, if you don’t fancy walking bare footed from the transition to the swim start chutes over quite course gravel, please feel free to bring an old pair of trainers, slippers, sliders etc, and leave them by the waters edge at the Swim start, and you can either grab these again after you finish the race, or leave them there and we’ll dispose of them at the end of the day for you.

We will spend the next few days cutting back the run course, and have already been marking any serious potholes (or sketchy repairs) on the bike course.
Most of the bike course is in largely decent condition, but there’s a couple of bits (mainly at around 1 mile into the loop for a couple of hundred meters, and around 18 miles into the loop, that have a few pot holes or repairs. They’re all really easy to avoid if you use your eyes, and we’ve painted the worst of them.

With the rain forecasted this week, I don’t think it’s going to be bad enough to have a really negative effect on most of the run course, and would suggest it’s still a road shoe course for 98% of people. It’s your choice though, but I would wear road shoes still if I was racing.
Briefing / Race info pack
Although we have 2x non compulsory briefings on Saturday at 13:00 and 16:00, there is a compulsory video briefing where you get to see mine and Dave’s faces for radio talk you through the key safety points for the race,  Please can you all make time to watch that before the weekend, and the link to that is by clicking the below image:

Hopefully, by now you’ve all downloaded and read through the race info pack, which you can find HERE

Does your bike need some lovin’ or any last minute kit you need 
Tim Lewington of Speedbub triathlon store will have a shop at the race this weekend, so if you need some last minute kit (ie a race belt, as people often forget to bring those for their race numbers)
I wouldn’t suggest ordering a brand new fancy bike to race on this weekend, but if you wanted one, they can sort it. They’ll also be taking bookings for pre race check overs to your bike
These checks will cost £10 and will be done in 15 minute slots so please email or call the shop to arrange

If you wanted to book your bike in with them for a check over, or order any parts for them to bring with them on Saturday, please drop Tim an email at speedhubuk@icloud.com

Results / Tracker
DBmax, who take care of all the timing at our races, have a live timing page set up and ready to use.
This will update almost immediately as you start the race or cross any of the timing mats on the course, so is a great way for your fiends and family to check on your progress
The link for that is HERE

Prize Giving 
I think it’s important to explain why we don’t have a prize giving ceremony at our race first.
Our race, as I hope you’ve felt already, is aimed at everyone. `Also, there isn’t anywhere at the lake enough away from the finish line that we can hold it, and it’s super important to us that anyone still racing out there towards the later stages of the race doesn’t feel like the race has finished without them and that they’re an inconvenience or burden to the rest of us, as they’re really not
Subsequently, we don’t want people out on the run course on their, potentially first lap, and us looking like we’re wrapping up by having a prize giving. The alternative is that we hold the prize giving at 3pm, but as we found out when we did this before, most people don’t stick around for it, as the fastest athletes on the day had finished around 10:30, and it’s not fair to expect them to hang around for that long.
Therefore, although we do have some pretty cool trophies for our age group 1/2/3 and for Aquabike, Relay and Bike/Run. we ask that if you have finished in a position to earn one of these, you come to the race HQ tent after the race and we can present them to you there. Don’t worry if not, as I will post them out in the next week or so
If you’re not sure if you’ve won one, speak to the timing guys at the finish line and they can double check.

Beach and Country park access
The guys that run the Cotswold Beach and Country park, are kind enough to let our spectators/competitors walk through the beach and country park area to get to lake 32 on both Saturday and Sunday, which saves a walk down the side of a road.
However, it’s super important that anyone walking through does not try and use their facilities, largely the beach or the kids paddling area. The reason for this is that they have very strict health and safety regulations, and are only allowed a certain amount of paying customers that they will provide life guard and safety cover for. If our competitors or spectators try and use these areas, they will quickly go over their quota, and they (and subsequently me) will be a whole heap of trouble.
When you park in our car park, you will get a Red wrist band from us that will allow you access through their gate, and to turn right and walk through their car park to Lake 32 where our Registration, Race Start and Finish is.
On Sunday, spectators will be allowed to spectate from alongside the run course that goes through the beach and country park, but must not under any circumstances go near their beach or kids play/paddling area please

If you are coming along as a family on Saturday, or you have spectators that are arriving after 10am (when the B&CP opens) it’s, of course, ok to book into their as a customer through their website and they can use all the facilities they want. It’s a cool place, and will also mean that your spectators can park literally right against our transition area. They charge around £20 for a car
It’s very much worth booking in advance with them as even when it’s not 30deg, they book up quickly
Their website is https://www.cotswoldcountryparkandbeach.com/

Parking reminder 
Please be reminded that you will need to bring £10 cash for parking each day. We rent this field from a farmer, and he has our arm off for the use of it, so I’m afraid the parking cost is outside of our control.
To speed things up on Sunday AM, competitors can buy Sunday’s carpark pass from Registration.
It has to be cash I’m afraid, as A) the farmer wants paying in cash, and B) the phone signal at the lake is pretty rubbish, so our card machine doesn’t generally work.
Saturday’s car parking is payable on the gate, and Sunday’s passes are available at registration on the Saturday, or payable on the Gate Sunday AM if you don’t get one on Saturday
The carpark is a field though, and has a single gate to access it, so if you’re planning on arriving between about 05:15 and 06:00, please base your arrival time on there being a 10-20min queue to get into the carpark.

On the Sunday, the carpark will be open to Competitors only to park from 04:30-06:00. After 06:00, spectators can also park in there. If you’re competing, and have your spectators in your car with you, it’s of course ok for them to use the carpark, just for clarification.
If you have spectators that are coming earlier than 06:00 in their own car (ie not with you) the best local place to park is Neighbridge Country park, which is a 10-15min walk and on the run course where the main aid station is located. It’s pay and display, and is about £3 for the day
The What3Words for neigh bridge is ///angle.sublet.chatters
Please ask them not to park in the residential area of Somerfork Keynes, as the locals don’t want their street clogged up with cars from the event, or blocking their driveways. We have a great relationship with SK residents, and we want to keep it that way please

Right, that’s it from me for pre race amble. We’re all super excited to see you all this coming weekend, so hopefully you all have a great last few days of your Tapers and kit prep.
If you’ve missed any of our previous newsletters, you can find them at www.113events.com/news

We really are here to help, so please just drop me an email or give me a call if there’s anything I can help with at all. I’ll be at the lake most of this week, so won’t have a lot of access to my emails during the day, but my phone is on and I’ll be picking up my emails in the evening.

See you all in a few days

Cheers

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

Cotswold 113 26 – Competitor newsletter #4

Good morning all
It’s just over 2 weeks to race day now, and it looks like the summer has finally bothered to turn up
Hopefully, by now, you’ve all read the previous newsletters with all the info on the race – If you’ve joined us late, or missed those, you can find them at www.113events.com/news

In this email, I’ll cover the following :
Race Info pack
Start list / Registration requirements
Swimming on the Saturday
New (and Old) BTF Rules
Car Parking
Being part of the 113 team
What’s coming next 

Race info pack
This is your bible, and tells you everything you need to know about the race weekend. Please can you all take a few minutes to download it and have a read through, as you’d be absolutely amazed with how often people turn up to race on the wrong day, try and rack their bikes on the wrong day, turn up to registration with the wrong stuff etc etc.
You can download the info pack HERE

Start list / Registration requirements Registration requirements 
We have our registration on Saturday June 6th between 12:00 and 17:30.
Also on the Saturday afternoon, we will have two separate Briefings at 13:00 and 16:00 by the Swim exit/transition area.
These are not compulsory, as your compulsory briefing will come out by video link early during race week, but each of these will take about 45mins, and we’ll talk through the race in some details and offer up some last minute advice and help. It’ll be myself, Dave and the BTF referee for the weekend who present the briefings, and although we’re 100% not a comedy act, we will try and make it at least a little bit entertaining to keep you all awake. It’s an outside area, so if it looks like it might rain, please bring a waterproof or an umbrella.

A couple of year’s back, the BTF introduced their new Racepass system, which is what most of know as a ‘Day license” for non BTF members – membership or a race pass are compulsory within the BTF rules, and provide the competitor with personal liability insurance for the duration of the race.
Once the start list was finalised last weekend, I sent it off to the BTF for them to go through and validate either your race pass purchase when you signed up through the entry system, or your valid BTF membership for 2026.
On the start list, which I’ll link in a moment, you will see each name now has either an ‘M’, ‘RP’ in Green or an X and highlighted Red
If you have an ‘M’ next to your name, it means the BTF have confirmed your valid membership for the race date
if you have an ‘RP’ against your name, they have confirmed that you bought a Racepass from them directly through the entry system when you signed up
If you have a Red X against your name, it means you now need sort a race pass, or verify your membership
it’s very possible that if you are a member, and it’s showing as an X, that they’ve just not found it, or you’ve input your membership number incorrectly, and we can sort that, and I’ll cover more on that in a bit.
If you’re not a member, and need to buy a race pass, I’ll also explain in a minute how you can do this

If you have an RP or an M against your name, all you will need for registration is a photo ID (ie, driving license, passport, NHS card etc)
There’ll be a few of you that can’t get there on the Saturday, so will want someone to register for you and that’s totally fine.
In order for someone to register on your behalf, they will need a printed version of your photoID with a note on it to say it’s fine for them to register on your behalf. This needs to be a printed version rather than the original, as we have to retain that in line with the BTF rules, and then our ref will make checks at transition check in Sunday AM to to ensure the person registered is the person racing. We will, of course, dispose of these properly by having them shredded post race
For relay teams, all competing members will need to be either BTF members, or have bought a race pass.
As relay teams are not showing an M, RP or X, we will need to check BTF membership cards, or race pass purchases for all members of the team. One person can register for the full team, but will need photocopies of the others members ID/Racepass proof, or BTF photo card (i’m conscious not everyone has a photo on their online BTF portal card, so a pic of that, and a photo ID of another format is totally fine)

If you now need to purchase a Racepass from the BTF, you can do so at the following link HERE
You will then need to bring with you a screenshot of your race pass purchase confirmation email (showing that on your phone is fine) along with PhotoID.
I’ll pre-warn you that phone signal on some providers isn’t amazing at the lake, so might be worth taking a screenshot on your phone so you can show a pic of the confirmation rather than trying to get your emails to load
If you don’t get a chance to purchase one before the day, don’t worry, and we can sell you one on behalf the BTF on the day for the same cost of £8. It will need to be cash though please, as we don’t have facility to take card payments (please see previous note on phone signal)

If you’re not sure on any of the above, and I’d totally understand as it’s unnecessarily complicated, please just ask by email or phone

Last week, you had a window to request Waves and/or Numbers, and we had around 800 requests from the 1,000 competitors. I genuinely believe that I managed to accommodate 99.9% of them.
You can find the start list with Waves / Numbers / BTF status HERE
Anyone that had seen this already this week, and emailed me with updates etc, please don’t worry that they’re not yet showing as the start list will not be updated until close to race day.

Although I’m afraid we now can’t do anything with the numbers as they are now fixed and have gone off to print, if you now decide that you want a different wave, please see the team at registration on Saturday, and they will accommodate you where possible

Swimming on the Saturday
I’m sure many of you will want to have a swim on the Saturday during registration, and this is totally fine
As we don’t rent the actual body of water until the Sunday, the lake owners themselves have their own Pay-As-You-Go swimming that you can book 7 days out (next Sunday)
The link to do so is HERE
Please note though, that the lake’s own swim bookings on Saturday the 6th will require you to wear a tow float when swimming. Obviously, this isn’t our rule during Sunday’s race, but it is mandatory within their rules for their PAYG days. If you don’t have a tow float, the lake guys can rent you one. Our course will not be marked out, as we do that Saturday night along with building transition, but their own 1,500m course is broadly similar to ours without the dogleg we use to make up the distance.

New (and Old) BTF Rules
Our race works in accordance with the BTF competition rules, and it’s well worth familiarising yourself with these in advance of the day so you don’t get stopped from starting, or a penalty/DQ during the race. You can find the full rules HERE
Although I do strongly suggest you have a good read of these, I wanted to summarise the main parts that are either new or very pertinent to our events :
1) Towels in transition
Over the last few years, it’s become quite common for people to mark their transition space with brightly coloured towels. This, (and I go to an awful lot of races, and see this first hand), appears to have gotten a little out of hand over the last few seasons and people are starting to overflow into the space next to them, and having towels so big you’d think they were setting out on the beach for a family of 8.
Subsequently, the BTF have now banned them in an update last month (Which is typically ironic as you’ll all be getting a nice 113 towel in your goody bags at registration)
I’m very conscious that people do like to dry themselves etc, so the rules basically state that you can not have a towel in transition that is not stored within a bag other than a flannel sized (12″x12″) towel that then has to be rolled up and tucked into a shoe. You can, of course, have a towel in transition, but it must be in a bag under your space in the racking, and put back in there when you’ve used it. If you’re not sure, we’ll cover a bit more on this in the Saturday briefings
The BTF are like a kid with a new toy when new rules get rolled out, and they’ll be very sharp on this over this summer, including our races.
2) Water temperature and wetsuits.
The rules say that below 15deg water temp, that Wetsuits are mandatory, and above 24.6deg they are not allowed. The lake is currently around 15 point something, and given how good the forecast is over the next week or so, will be around 18-20 by race weekend. I am very confident that this will put us firmly in the ‘Wetsuit Optional’ range on June 7th
3) Can I wear Swim socks or Gloves.
I’m afraid the answer to that is No unless you have a medical exemption, and this must be presented to the BTF referee on race weekend.
You are welcome to wear a neoprene hat underneath your race issued hat, but the race issued hat must be worn on top and at all times
4) Getting changed in transition
We will put out a couple of changing tents at the Bike exit end of transition. One for Males and one for females. However, if you want to get changed by your bike, you’re more than welcome to do so. The rules say you cannot get naked in transition, which is sensible as we have kids and families etc watching. However, and I’m going to try my best not to dig my self a ‘Pervert image’ hole here in how I describe this, we apply this rule with an amount of common sense. If you are getting changed under your towel and you inadvertently flash something you didn’t intend to, you won’t get penalised. If you do fully Naked lunges next to the racking, or stand naked and do a big back/forth sawing motion undercarriage drying move with a towel (I’ve seen both at our races, and neither were pretty), you will be in trouble with the Ref.  Hope that makes sense ?
5) Drafting
Our race is strictly none drafting, therefore if you get caught drafting, you will be penalised or DQ’d
The drafting distance is 12m, and although I’m very conscious that this can be a difficult distance to try and calculate in your head, please just allow enough space as if a car was going to overtake you safely and have enough space to drop in between you and the bike in front. Use this as a rule of thumb, and you won’t be far wrong.
If you are overtaking or being overtaken, you have 25 seconds to get back outside of the drafting distance.
How our Moto Ref’s and Moto Support team will apply this rule is that if you appear to be trying to gain an advantage, you will be penalised. If you are just pulling off a junction and the bike is in front of you because you’ve both slowed down, you’ll be given a grace period to drop back. We have seen in the past, especially with multiples from a single club, that thy try and ride like a TDF peloton, and this will be seen and penalised now. You will not know you have received a draft penalty until after the race when the time penalty is applied to your race time, as they do not have to notify you on course. If you have multiple offences, you will not know until you get the end of the bike section and are not allowed to continue on the run as you have been DQ’d
Please take this warning on board, and do not draft
6) Earphones on the courses are not allowed in any way shape or form within the rules, even bone conduction ear phones. We have to be very strict on this, and he reason for this, is that our run course has a couple of points where you need to cross the bike course, so you will need to have your full attention available please to hear marshal instruction.

Car Parking

We have an event carpark around a 5min walk from transition, registration etc.
This field is owned by a farmer, who knows full well that it’s the only place to park on race weekend, and like most farmers, likes to make a few quid, so absolutely has our arm off over the pricing with us for it
Subsequently, the car parking is £10 per day per car, although he does donate some of the cash to charity ( it was Wilts Air Ambulance last time)
It is only payable in cash, so please ensure you have the correct change. This carpark will hold all competitors and a handful of spectators, and only competitors will be able to buy a Sunday car park pass in advance on the Saturday at registration. In order to avoid congestion and ensure all competitors get parked up ok, Spectators will not be able to access this carpark until 06:00 on the Sunday morning unless, of course, they are in a vehicle with a competitor.
In order to speed up Sunday parking, competitors only can buy Sunday’s car parking pass on Saturday from registration. If you don’t get a pass on Saturday, but are racing on Sunday and want to park, please ensure you have the correct change Sunday AM.
The carpark is a field, and although it’s pretty flat, it is still a field, so if you have the luxury of owning a very low sports car, I’d suggest you think of coming in something else on race weekend.
If you can lift share, even better, as it saves you a few quid, and leaves us more space.
If you have spectators that are planning on coming along earlier than that, I’d suggest they park in Neighbridge Country park car park, which although is a 10min walk away, is only about £3 for the day, and actually where we have our main run course aid station. The what3words location for that carpark is ///angle.sublet.chatters

If you have just spotted that we have race camping on the map above, the details of how to book that, or other accommodation options are all covered in Newsletter #1 HERE
Fancy camping and parking right next to the start/finish area for free ? Please read the next section and bring a marshal
Bring someone who can be part of the 113 team
We still need a handful more marshals to completely fill our roster for the race day, so are appealing for your help
All our marshals get paid too, and they can choose from either £20 cash or a £50 113 Voucher, and they have the best free parking and camping spot at the lake around 100m from the race start/finish.
We have two basic shifts we need people for :
Transition/Swim exit team – 04:30 start, finish around 11:45
Bike Team – 05:45 briefing, finish 11:45ish latest depending on location
Run Team – 07:45 briefing, finish 14:30ish

They don’t need any experience at all, and just need to be enthusiastic, over 16 and know their left from their right. We’ll partner them up too, so they’re not on their own for a few hours, and can take them out and back to their location if they don’t have their own transport, and we’ll keep them in hot food, drinks and ice creams
If you have someone coming along with kids, although we can’t pay/employ under 16’s, they can have an event shirt and take advantage of the free ice creams.
It also mean there if you’re coming along with a marshal in the same motorhome or car, you can park/camp for free right near the start line too
Drop me an email at graeme@113events.com
What’s coming next 
As much as you’re probably tired of my mails by now, there’s still a couple more to come
During the next 10 days, we’ll send out a mail with a link to the compulsory video briefing, and then later during race week, we’ll put out some final bits in prep for the race like results/tracker info etc, and reminders/updates on conditions.

I appreciate this has probably been a lot to take in, so If you get any questions, or there’s anything else we can help with, please just ask
You can reply to this email to reach me, or please feel free to give me a ring any time – 07595 591612

Enjoy the rest of you taper, and we’ll see you all in 15 days time

Cheers

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