The following post race mail went out to all Cotswold226 2017 Competitors today

Cotswold226 2017

Good afternoon all, I hope everyone’s starting to recover from Sunday’s race
The experts will have you believe that the best form of recovery is to drink lots of water, ice/compression, take regular gentle exercise and to keep the protein intake up. However, I prefer Guinness and pizza in the bath and like to think that many of you are doing, or have been doing, the same ?

We had a cracking race on Sunday, and despite the rain and wind coming in at a couple of points whilst most of you were out on the bike course, at least the sun made a couple of appearances and the lake temperature dropped in the days running up to the race.

I just wanted to drop you all out a final email on the race to let get you out links to the most important parts of the post event process – How fast you went and how you looked doing it :

Full race results are available here:
http://dbmaxresults.co.uk/results.aspx?CId=16421&RId=152

Race photos are available here
https://www.charleswhittonphotography.com/cotswold-226-weekend-25617

We’ve prepaid for the first few low resolution downloads, and Charles has many other higher resolution pics available on the site too

Also, we still have half a dozen or so medals here from the race, and I’m conscious that many of you would want one for your kids or family as they’re as much a part of the journey as you guys are yourself. If any of you finishers want one, drop me a mail with your address and I’ll get one out in the post to you this week

On a slightly more sombre note, and as some of you will already know, this was the last year that we’ll be running the 226Tri and we hope that we sent it out with a bang on Sunday.
We’ve run the event for 4 years, and we’ve seen some amazing performances on the long distance course over the last 4 years, but its time has come to an end, and both companies need to move on to focus back on their other events.
113 Events and DBMax, who run the 226 as a partnership, will of course continue with their other races, and both DBMax and 113 Events would love to see you back racing with us again.

Thanks and happy recovery

Graeme, James, Will and the 226 tri team
graeme@113events.com
James@dbmax.co.uk

The following email went out to all 2017 Cotswold Classic Competitors today

113 Cotswold Classic 2017 – June Newsletter

Good morning all, I hope everyone’s well on this Sunny Monday morning ?
We’re just a month and a half away from this year’s Cotswold Classic Tri on August 13th, so I wanted to drop you all out an email to bring you up to speed on the race, and to get some info out to you all.
As those of you that have raced with us before will know, I can waffle on for England in my mails, and this is going to be a long one. With this in mind, and seeing as it’s a Monday morning, I’d suggest you pour yourself a large coffee before reading all this as there’s a lot to go through, and falling asleep at your desk at work whilst reading something non work related instead of actually working tends to be seen in a dim light by your boss 🙂

In this email I’ll cover the following :

Race Info Pack
June race video
Race Numbers and waves
Marshal Request
Familiarisation day
Sponsorship opportunity
Saturday Briefing

Race Info Pack
You can find the race info pack here – https://www.113events.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/CC2017–Race-Information-Sheet.pdf
This info pack contains everything you could possibly need to know on race weekend and more.
It’s important that you take the time to read this, so please print a copy of and digest it.
Personally, I find the best place to read in my house is on the toilet, as it’s the only peace and quiet I seem to get, so print a copy off and put it next to the toilet, and read it at your leisure.
This is your info pack, and although we hope that we’ve covered everything in there, please let me know if there’s anything else that we can add in for you.
There’ll likely be a change to Sunday parking to that listed in the pack, as we’re working on the farmer to allow us to use a field 200m from the lake instead of the beach and country park area, so I’ll keep you updated on that nearer the time.

June race Video
The June 113 and August 113 Cotswold Classic are effectively identical races, and the only differences are the name and the shirt colour. Therefore, if you wanted a good idea of what we have in store for you on August 13th, please see the video we had made of the June 113 three weeks ago.
https://youtu.be/QJO_kFb-KZs

Race Numbers and waves
In around 2 weeks time, when the start list for the Classic race is fixed and Frozen, and I have it in an Excel format rather than it being live document online list that I can’t manipulate, I’ll send an email out to you all asking you if you want to choose a specific wave and/or a race number which is special to you – Or a group of numbers so that you and your mates can be racked together in transition.
Please can I ask that you await this email to make your requests as I can’t do anything until the start list is frozen, and race numbers/waves are on a first come first served basis following that email.
For info, the number 69 seems to be the most commonly requested number at our races. No idea why 😉

Marshal Request
We pride ourselves on our races having the best and most enthusiastic marshals in the sport, and we have around 200 paid positions for marshals at the Classic Race.
We have a pool of around 100-130 local marshals and regulars, and tend to find the other 70-100 from friends and family of competitors. We always need more marshals, so if you have anyone coming down with you for the day that fancies getting involved, we’d welcome them to the team.
They don’t need any experience at all, and we’ll take them through a full briefing and get them kitted up and provide everything they could need.
We pay our marshals too, and we offer either £20 cash or a £40 113 Events Voucher
We’ll give them an event technical shirt and keep them going with hot food, chocolate, hot/cold drinks and free ice creams all day.
We can’t, unfortunately, employ under 16’s, but if you have a family coming down that want to get involved, the kids can assist the Adults in Marshalling, and we have events team shirts down to a 4year old’s size, and of course the kids can take advantage of the free burgers and ice creams
We have a variety of roles from early guidance, transition area, swim exit (if you don’t mind getting wet) and of course bike and run courses, right through to tear down post race.
Please email me at graeme@113events.com and we’d love to hear from you

Familiarisation day
This coming Sunday (2nd July), we’ll be holding our Classic Familiarisation day, which is a free of charge chance to come and have a guided lap of the courses you’ll be racing on on August 13th.
The bike and the run are totally free, but if you wanted to Swim in the lake beforehand, the lake owners will ask for a £5 day membership fee payable on the gate.
The idea of the Familiarisation day is that it’s a leisurely paced guided lap of the each parts of the course, with a strong emphasis on ‘Leisurely’ – Think 14-16mph average on the bike, and 9-10min miles on the run.
We’ll cover a single lap of each of the Swim, Bike and Run (race day is 1 lap Swim, 2 laps Bike and 3 Laps run)
The guys from Sailfish wetsuits will be there also with a number of Demo suits that can try in the water too
It’s a great chance to meet the team, meet other competitors’, and it’s also great for us to meet you all in a more relaxed environment than race day as you all tend to have your race faces on on race weekend, and we get barely a grunt out of you rather than a decent conversation 🙂
There’ll be ample chance to ask as many questions as you like, and we’ll be stopping along on the way on each of the bike and run courses to regroup and point out spots like aid stations and good spectator spots etc.
The Swim will commence with toes in the water at 08:00, and will be guided round by our residend Swim coach – Jason Tait of Southwest Swim. He’ll be on hand to answer any questions you might have about swimming, and he’s a specialist open water Swimming coach and a previous 113 Competitor, so knows the swim side of the race inside out.
The bike will kick off at 10am from the lakeside cafe, and the 28mile lap generally takes around 2hrs 20mins.
From there we’ll have a 15-20min break to get everyone changed before heading out on the run course.
You can do just the bike and the run or mix and match as you see fit, and we welcome down non competitors to come along too so they can see what the race is all about.
In order to get a track of numbers, we need you to book in please, and this also gives us a way to communicate directly with you should we need to as a group before Sunday.
You don’t need to pay us anything when you book, as our time is free, but you will need to pay the lake owners £5 on the gate should your wish to Swim.
The booking link is https://www.entrycentral.com/113events
If you can’t make the familiarisation day, but still want to see the bike or run courses, it’s not the end of the world. I live local to the lake and work from home on my day job, so welcome the chance to skive away from my desk for a few hours one morning to go for a ride and/or a run.
My weekend’s are generally tied up with either helping out at events, my kids activities or my other hobbies, but I’m largely available week day mornings to show people around if you can’t make the familiarisation day. My racing days are over, so as long as you don’t mind my slow pace, I’ll happily come and show you the bike and run courses – Just ask

Sponsorship opportunity
Unfortunately, we’ve just had our shirt sponsor just pull out on us. This means we have a spot for a company that wants to promote itself with some exposure through our event by having it’s logo on the back of our shirt.
We’re not a corporate style event that just takes on any sponsors, so we’re looking for a company that has similar values to us in that they provide friendly, flexible and an approachable team and service.
If any of you have a company that are interested in being involved, please drop me a line at graeme@113events.com

Saturday Briefing
Everyone will get a compulsory 3 min briefing in their wave before they get in the water, but I’m conscious that no one listens to me beyond saying good morning, and I tend to be talking to the side of a bunch of swim hats who are staring at the lake wanting me to hurry up and shut up so they can get on with racing.
On the Saturday, we will have a non compulsory full briefing where we will talk through the race step by step in detail whilst stood next to the swim exit and transition, so everyone can understand everything about the race and ask any questions.
You don’t have to come to this, but if you want to understand all the little bits and details that you might not have considered etc, this is a good chance to hear it from us, and to ask any questions you might have on the day.
We’ll run these on Saturday the 12th, and to spread it out a bit to suit everyone’s day planning and run it three times, so they’ll be at
12:30
15:00
17:00
Registration on the Saturday afternoon will be 12:00-17:00

Right, that’s it from me. Hopefully, you’re all still awake and no one’s snoring away at their computer ?

We’re here to help, so if you need anything from us in the run up to race day, or there’s anything we can talk you through or help you with to make your race more enjoyable, please just ask
I’ll send the race numbers and waves email out in a couple of weeks, so please keep your eyes open for that one as you’ll only get a short window to apply within.

Thanks and happy training

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

Cotswold226 2017

Good afternoon all, I hope everyone’s feeling ready for racing this weekend ?
As promised in my last email, I just wanted to drop everyone a quick update on the race, and more specifically, the water temperature.

Firstly, I hope by now you’ve all downloaded and digested your race info pack.
If not, then you can find it here – https://www.113events.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2262017-Competitor-Info-Pack.pdf

Water Temperature
As you would’ve all undoubtable seen and felt, it’s been blimmin warm for the last couple of weeks, and coupled with a hot early June, has meant that the lake temperature has risen this week to the hottest it’s been for 20years since the current lake owners had taken over.
Yesterday, the lake measured in at nearly 28deg.
As many of you will know, the BTF rules that we’re governed by, say that anything over 24deg is a non wetsuit swim.
We’ve found the coolest place in the lake to measure from today, but even so, that’s nearly 25deg, and the rest of the lake is much warmer.
We will officially call the temperature Sunday morning before the race starts, but given it’s warmth currently, it’s safe to assume that we are very likely to have a non wetsuit swim on Sunday.
With this in mind, I thought it was a good time to explain some of the more pertinent rules of non wetsuit swims as our BTF referee is sharp on these, so I don’t want anyone getting DQ’d before they even start :
– Trisuits may be worn, but must not include any buoyant material (i.e. no buoyancy shorts)
– No floatation devices are allowed in any form
– Tri suits cannot extend past the elbow on your arms or knee on your leg, so this would mean you cannot wear calf guards in the swim
– Tri tops must be worn for men, and ladies can wear a swim suit, but in both cases, your top halves must be covered

If it helps put peoples minds at rest, there’s a few spots in the lake where you can stand and take a break, and if you’re struggling anywhere else, we have arrange with the water safety guys that if you signal them, they will allow you to grab onto their canoe to take a quick breather (although please grab the front or back tip as grabbing the side would mean they’ll be in the water with you)

The BTF referee will make an official judgement on the water temperature on the weekend, but realistically, the chance of it being a wetsuit optional swim are very slim indeed. Bring it with you just in case though as you never know what this country’s weather can throw at us, and it may end up snowing or a couple of cold nights coulee help bring it down.

Pre race tips
Our pre race toilets are a 250meter walk from the swim start, and the path they’re on has stones in it. You can walk it barefooted, but I wouldn’t recommend it. If you have some old flip flops, or trainers, wear them before you start and leave them by the swim start, which is next to where the race finishes, so you can grab them again at the end

Live results and tracker
You can find the live results and athlete tracker here – https://www.113events.com/cotswold-226/results/

Sorry to bring you bad news (or good news for the stronger swimmers amongst you), but I wanted everyone to understand the situation and prepare accordingly

On a separate note, we still need a handful more marshals for the bike course, so if anyone has anyone coming down with them that fancies getting involved and earning a few quid, please get in touch – james@dbmax.co.uk

If you have any questions or concerns, please give me a ring or drop me a mail

See you all Saturday for registration

Graeme, James and the Cotswold226 Team
graeme@113events.com
james@dbmax.co.uk

Cotswold226 2017 – Pre race mail

Good afternoon all, I hope you’re all well and ready for next weekend’s Cotswold226 race ?
We’re just over a week away now, so I wanted to get you all out a bit of final info for the race, and run through a few points for race weekend.

In this mail, I’ll cover the following:

Race info Pack
Start list
Slight change to run course
Briefing
Spectator Parking on the day
Water temperature
Athlete tracker

Race info pack
In case you didn’t find this find this from my previous email, you can find the race info pack here:
https://www.113events.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2262017-Competitor-Info-Pack.pdf
This contains everything you need to know about the race, so please take the time to print it off and have a good read through.
If there’s anything you’re unsure about, please just ask

Start List
You can find the start list for the race here
https://www.113events.com/cotswold-226/start-list/

Run course
We’ve made a slight change to the run course for this year, which I think you’ll find is for the better.
As you would’ve seen from the previous run map. we had a small dogleg section on the northeast side of the course that was used to make the distance up. We’ve now moved that out and back section to the north wet corner of the course as we think that will work better, and being tarmac, will be a better all weather surface to run on
You can see a rough outline map of the new course here
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/1630623823

Briefing 
Although everything you could possibly need for race day is in the info pack, we wanted to run an informal briefing on Saturday to talk through the race bit by bit and answer any questions you might have.
It’s not compulsory, as you’ll het your 5 min compulsory briefing just before you all get in the water Sunday morning, but it’s a nice chance to meet myself and the team and go through every aspect of the race so there’s no surprises on Sunday morning
Registration is on Saturday between 12 & 17:00, so we’ll run the briefing by the registration tent on Saturday afternoon at 14:00

Spectator Parking on the day
Ignore what it says in the race info pack about paying £5 to park. For the 226, we can squeeze all the competitor cars into the carpark at the race start, and a number of competitors, which you won’t have to pay for.
Once all the competitors are in and parked, there’s still space for a few spectators cars.
However, if your spectators come along later and this car park is full, they’re going to need to park elsewhere.
You can park in the waterpark itself any time from 10am when it opens, but this is expensive at £14/car (their standard entry fee). Your family do, however, then get full use of their beach, waterpark and various other bits, that our run course goes right by.
However, if they don’t mind a 15minute walk back to the finish area, they can park in Neighbridge Country park (on the run course) for £4 all day at the pay and display machine. Neighbridge is the nicer of the three lakes in my opinion, and they’ll see runners got past their twice on each lap.
I have to be very strict on this, but please make sure no-one parks in Somerford Keynes village, as this is a residential area, and they get very upset with people parking in their streets.
We have a good relationship with the residents of SK as our middle distances races run right through their, but we cannot accept anyone parking in there for the 226, and you’ll be jeopardising all our races in the future if you do.
Please let your supporters know this, and if they get stuck for somewhere to park, get them to call me 07595 591612

Water Temperature
The water temperature is currently around 20deg, and I can’t see this getting much warmer between now and next Sunday.
I’ll update the Facebook page over the week if anything changes, but I fully expect the race to be Wetsuit Optional

Athlete tracker
For those pf you that have loved ones wanting to keep an eye on your progress during the race, we’ll put the link to the athlete tracker up on the results page of our website later next week:
https://www.113events.com/cotswold-226/results/

Right, that’s it from me
We’re here to help, so if you get any questions, please just get in contact with myself or James Higgs (James@dbmax.co.uk)

Thanks and see you all next weekend

Graeme, James and the 226 team
www.113events.com
www.dbmax.co.uk

The following email went out to all 226Wknd competitors tonight :

226Wknd 2017

Good evening all, I hope everyone’s well, and enjoying the summer now that it seems to have finally arrived ?
We’re only a week and a half away from this year’s 226Wknd Events, so I wanted to drop you all a quick pre event email, and bring you up to speed on what’s happening at the event.

In this mail, I’ll cover the following

Event info pack
Water temperature
Marshal Request

Event Info pack
Please find a link to the event info pack HERE
This pack contains everything you need to know about the weekends events, with times of registration and start times etc.
If there’s anything else you think should be in the pack, please just ask and we’ll add it in

Water temperature
Although we did go up above 24deg just a couple of weeks ago, mother nature has delivered us a load of rain in the last 10 days, so the water temperature is now hovering around the 18-19deg mark, which is pretty much perfect for swimming 1.9 or 3.8km.
Wetsuits are entirely optional for the event, but if you’re doing the longer 3.8km Swim, and feel like you’re getting a bit toasty in your suit, you’re welcome to come out the ramp at the end of lap 1, and strip your suit off (3.8km Swimmers do 2 laps, and 1.9km swimmers do only 1) and jump back in for lap 2

Marshal Request
We’re very keen to get more marshals for Sunday’s Cotswold 226 Tri, which includes the 226Wknd Sportive, so if you have poeple coming down with you that fancy getting involved, please give them a nudge and see if they fancy being part of the team for the day.
Our marshals all get paid too, and the pay for the 226 is either £20 cash or a £50 DBMax/113 Events Voucher
We have a number of shifts available, which are:
Bike 05:45-15:30 Variable depending own position
Run Shift 1 10:15-17:30
Run Shift 2 16:30 – 22:30 very latest

We’ll get them everything they need, an event shirt, and take them through a full briefing as well as bringing hot food and drink out to their posts to keep them going
We don’t ask for any experience at all, just that they preferably know their left from their right and are enthusiastic
We can’t, unfortunately, pay under 16’s or have them as official marshals, but if you have kids with an adult that want to help out, we can get them event shirts, and they can take advantage of the free food, drink and ice creams , and of course, we’ll get them on the run course no where near a road
Please get in touch at graeme@113events.com or james@dbmax.co.uk

Right, that’s it from me.
We look forward to seeing you all next weekend, and please get in touch if you get any quetions

Cheers

Graeme, James, Will, Nicci and the 226 Team
Graeme@113events.com
James@dbmax.co.uk
www.113events.com
www.dbmax.co.uk
07595 591612

The following email went out to all Cotswold113 2017 Competitors tonight

Cotswold 113 Post race mail

Hi All
I hope everyone’s starting their recovery from yesterday’s race ?.
The sports scientists will have you believe that Protein and Carbs at regular intervals with lots of water are the best forms of recovery along with regular mild exercise and compression. However, I like Beer, Pizza and a hot Bath (Sometimes all at the same time), so I hope you’re all doing the same
Firstly, and most importantly, thank you all very much for choosing to race with us Yesterday.
I’m sure you’re all bored of reading my long emails, so I’ll keep this one quite brief. In this mail, I’ll cover the following:

How fast you went and how you looked doing it (results and photo’s)
Racecheck reviews
Honest Appraisal of the race from us/you
Marshalling with us
Our other races

How fast you went and how you looked doing it (results and photo’s)

I know this is probably the only thing you’re all interested in, so here’s the results from yesterday:
http://dbmaxresults.co.uk/results.aspx?CId=16421&RId=2174&EId=1&st=GhDdJIIPDEQnoqPyObrw%2bw%3d%3d

You can find the photo’s here (as they’re being uploaded today/tomorrow):
https://www.charleswhittonphotography.com/cotswold-113-tri-4617
We pay for your first couple of downloads from the site, and Charles then puts the remaining photo’s up that you can purchase as either a download, printed onto a cup or I think you can even have them printed onto a pillow nowadays if you fancied cuddling up to yourself at night 🙂
If anyone has a worse photo than the one of me when I had a meltdown at IM Switzerland a couple of miles before the end of the run a few years ago, I’ll buy you a pint after the next race 🙂 Mouthful of puke Photo HERE

Racecheck reviews
Many of you will already use racecheck.com for race reviews, and we’d love to have you review yesterday’s race on there for us. Also, Racecheck will pick one Cotswold113 2017 review at random for us, and we’ll give the winner a free entry to next year’s 113 Race
You can review our race here – https://www.racecheck.com/races/cotswold-113-1

Honest Appraisal of the race from us/you
As hopefully you’ll have seen, we’re committed to make this the race for the competitors, and we’re constantly looking for ways we can either improve, or just to offer those little things that make all the difference.
We see the race from one perspective, but it’s totally different to the angle you all see it from, and we’d love to hear from you and what you think worked, and what you think didn’t
We’re having a team debrief in a couple of days, where we sit down as the 12 of us who make up the main team, and we literally go through every single thing to do with the race right through from Wednesday when build starts, through to Sunday Night tear down and Monday/Tuesday counting and storing of all the kit with all the race details in-between.
Anything you can all send me on your thoughts of the race will go into that debrief and we’ll see what we can either do more of that you like, or change that you don’t, or just tweak where you feel a tweak is required.
We love criticism as it’s the only way we can improve and if we don’t know that something didn’t perhaps work quite as well as we’d hoped, we can’t try to fix it, so please nit pick and be critical as that’s the only way we can learn.

From our side, the race went ok without too many hitches. It’s never a smooth process, and if it was, I’d be very worried.
The parking was a big issue, and I can only apologise for that, but I hope that being open and honest with you before the event went some way to prepare you for it and I thank everyone that made an effort to lift share or get dropped off.
PSL, who own the area we park in, have just taken lease of the land behind the main lake, which, when prepared in a few weeks, will take 1,800-2,000 cars, so things will be all back to better than normal by our August race and parking should return to £5/car.
The other apology I have to make is that the numbers on the racking were, in a few cases, out of sequence. The person labelling the racking up might have had a rather long pub stop waiting for us to build the transition, and a few (around 20) of the numbers were not in the right order that we didn’t find until people were racking Sunday, so apologies to anyone that went to the effort to ask to be racked next to their mate, and ended up next to a stranger as the racking numbers were mixed up.
We have a constant dialogue with the council about pot holes, and despite us getting at them constantly, they don’t get fixed, but we do keep pestering them and one day they’ll get around to doing something. I hope us circling them in paint before Sunday went some way to help you avoid the few that are on the course ?
In terms of numbers, we’ve had similar numbers at the June race for a couple of years now, and although moving the 2017 race to 8 waves helped some of the congestion on the run course or at the unavoidable bike/run crossover junction, it still wasn’t enough in my eyes. Next year, we’ll reduce the numbers of the race down slightly to see if that sorts it. The race has grown into a bit of a monster now, and we’d rather offer a really quality experience for a few than a slightly hectic one for a lot. What that number is yet, I don’t know, but realistically, we’ll probably cap it at 900ish for 2018 instead of the 1,100 we’ve had for the last two years and see how that goes.

Marshalling with us
We had a really great team of marshals at the event yesterday, but we always need more for other events. If you fancy seeing any of our races from the other side, then we would love to have you along on the marshalling team for either the Cotswold226 on June 25th or the Cotswold Classic on August 13th – You could earn either cash in your pocket, or a decent discount on next year’s race too.

Our other races
Our August 13th Cotswold Classic (which is identical to yesterday’s Cotswold113 in every way but name and medal/shirt colour) still has around 80 slots remaining if anyone fancies another 10 weeks to train before having a crack at beating yesterdays time ? Individual and relay Entries are at www.113events.com

Right, that’s it from me. Thanks again for choosing to race with us, and we hope to see many of you racing with us again soon.
I have a small box of medals left over from yesterday too, so if you have kids that want one (After-all, they’re as much a part of your journey to the race as you are) or you just fancy another to hang on your desk, drop me a mail and I’ll post one out to you

Cheers and happy recovery

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

The following email went out to all Cotswold113 2017 Competitors tonight:

It’s very nearly race weekend 🙂

Hi All
Sorry to keep bombarding you with emails, but I just wanted to bring you all up to speed on the race this weekend to save any confusion or questions, as we’re flat out for the next couple of days, so can’t always get time to pick through all the emails.
I’ll also cover a couple of other important bits of advice that you might not have considered so please take a couple of mins to read through this properly.

I’ll try and keep it as brief as possible, as I suspect you’re all currently pulling your hair out rummaging through kit bags to try and find that race belt you ‘had somewhere’ or working out whether to use a standard or an 80mm wheel (For what it’s worth, it’s a full aero bike course all day long)

In this email, I’ll go through the following :

Starts lists & live trackers
Lake Temperature
Parking reminder
Pre race advice
Registration requirements
Compulsory briefing main points

Start lists and tracker links
If you’ve not found them already, the links to the start lists which show your waves and race numbers are here:

Start List

The live tracker and results can be found here, and this also has a smartphone compatible version for people who are at the site on their phones checking:

Results

Lake Temperature
After Monday’s heavy rain, the lake dropped down to below 20deg, and the forecast for this week was overcast. However, it’s been blimmin hot down there this week, and the temperature is now hovering around the 22 Mark. The forecast for tomorrow and Saturday is also very good, so I think there’s a chance we may be up above the Wetsuit cut off temp when we measure officially for the race.
We’ll take a measurement Saturday morning, and post an update on our Facebook page on whether you’ll be able to race in wetsuits or not, and we’ll also have this displayed at registration Saturday afternoon.
I’m sorry, this is out of my control, and we have to follow the BTF rules on this.
I won’t be measuring and publishing it tomorrow, as this would be little misleading and don’t want to commit to anything before the official measurement Saturday morning, sorry
Just to quickly run through the main rules of a non wetsuit swim just in case the worse happens (or the best in some peoples eyes): Tri suits cannot have arms or legs that extend past the elbow or knee, and must not be made of any form of buoyant material (that means you can’t wear buoyancy shorts, as I’ve had perhaps 50-60 emails this week asking just that)
Compression socks / shin guards cannot be worn in the swim as they’re considered part of the tri suit that passes your knee

Parking reminder
As per my previous mail – https://www.113events.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1489&action=edit ,
car parking on race day will be £10, and you’ll need this in cash on the gate to the car park owners when you arrive.
Please can I ask that you reduce the amount of cars parked as much as possible, so please get a lift or lift share if you can, and we have a drop off point just by the swim start too.
If you have family coming down later to spectate, and they want to avoid the high parking charge, Neighbridge Country park lake charges £4 all day, is on the run course where we have an aid station, and is around a 15minute walk to the start/finish area. They can then use the pick up/drop off point to collect you after the race if needs be too assuming the bike course isn’t still in full swing.

Pre race advice
Although the rule has been in place for 18months or so now, please can I just remind you all very quickly that the BTF do not allow plastic boxes in transition at all, and you can only use a soft bag.
As much as I don’t normally, I can agree with the BTF this time, as before the ruling came in, we’ve seen people turn up with plastic transition boxes that you could literally get a bike in if you took a wheel off, and they just become an obstacle for everyone else.
Our transition is on grass, so if it looks like it might rain, a plastic bag would keep your stuff nice and dry, as I know from experience that pulling on a pair of soaking wet run shoes is not much fun at all when you have 13miles to squelch your way through.
The pre race toilets are located on the other side of the swim start from transition (about a 300m walk), and the path they’re on is quite gravelly. It’s walkable in bear feet just about, but if you have some old flip flops, trainers or slippers that you want to bring and not need during the race, just leave them by the swim start, and collect them again after the race. It saves having that ‘walking on hot coals’ look to your pre race walk to the bogs to sort your power to weight ratio out.
We don’t put the toilets nearer to the swim start/race finish, as after 1000 triathletes have been for their pre race rituals, they’re not the nicest smelling, and we don’t want them too close to where everyone stands to watch their loved ones finish.
The same goes for it you’re in a later wave, and don’t want to have to stand around in a wetsuit for an hour after transition shuts. If you want to bring a coat to keep you warm, you can tuck it into the front of the massage tent near the race start, and gather it up again after the race.
We always get a massive pile of rather smelly footwear after the race has finished and everyone’s gone home. We’ll leave them there until Monday PM for you to collect, and after that they’ll go into the skip
I’m afraid that unless you’ve emailed me today before this mail has come out, there’s no more opportunity transfer to the August race, sorry

Registration Requirements 
Just to remind you all, that when you come to register on Saturday afternoon between 12:00 & 17:00, you will need your valid 2017 BTF photo card ID, or if you’re not a BTF member or do not have your card with you, you’ll need another form of photo ID (passport or driving license are perfect) and £5 cash for a BTF day membership. We cannot accept the old £5 notes as these ceased to be legal tender on 5th May, and if we send these off the BTF, they’ll reject them back to us.
If you’re getting someone to register for you on Saturday, which is perfectly fine, they’ll need a photocopy of your photo ID (must be a photocopy or a printed copy, not the actual form of ID as we have to hang onto it) with a note on it from you saying it’s ok for them to sign on your behalf and your signature. If your photo ID is not a 2017 BTF photo card, then they’ll also need £5 cash for a day license.
It needs to be a photocopy or print of the photo ID, as we have to give these to the BTF ref on the day with the race number written on it so he can make spot checks during the race that the person registered is the person racing.

Compulsory briefing main points
You will all get a 3minute compulsory briefing just before you get in the water to warm up before the race starts. However, I’m conscious that no one actually listens to it, and you all stare blankly at the lake wishing i’d hurry up and finish so you can get into the lake 🙂
Therefore, I wanted to just quickly go through the main points of the briefing here in a little more detail so you can digest them before the race starts.
Drafting – This is a non drafting race and the BTF rules for middle distance racing is a gap of 12m from the bike in front of you with a 25second allowance to pass. I know our race is busy at times, so the Moto referees will give you some flexibility as long as you’re not looking like you’re trying to gain an advantage from drafting or bunching up unnecessarily and riding in groups
Road etiquette – The roads we use for the bike course are largely very quiet and you’ll see virtually no cars on there at all other than on the main spine road that leads into the lake. However, any cars you do come across need to be treated with respect as they have as much right to use the roads as we do. Last year, we had complaints to the Police officers on the course that cyclists were undertaking cars that were going the same pace as the bike in front, and it spooked a rather nervous old lady, who was driving at the time.
Also, there’s a couple of 90deg turns on the course, and one cyclist nearly went onto the bonnet of a local vicar as the cyclist was cutting the corner.
With these points in mind, please, please, please, be considerate to other road users and stay on your own side of the ride as maintaining local resident relationships is key to the future of this race. The locals love the race, and I’d really like to keep it that way please.
Any form of dangerous riding, abusing other road/path users or just general non consideration will be in an Instant DQ without exception
Littering – We’re very lucky to be able to race in such a beautiful part of the country, but littering is a high profile issue around here. All our bike/run marshals have a bin bag, and there’s various bins around the course, so please hang onto your gel wrappers, banana skins and bottles etc, and throw it at the feet of the marshal whilst passing or somewhere at least near a bin so we can pick it up later. Like above, littering is an instant DQ without exception.
Sorry to sound like I’m ranting here with the last two points, but it’s important you understand these rules, as competitors breaking them jeopardises our races for the future.

Right, that’s it from me, so I’ll leave you all to getting ready for the weekend.
If anyone has any questions or concerns, please just call me – 07595 591612

Thanks and see you all this weekend

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

 

 

The following pre race email went out to all 2017 Cotswold 113 Competitors tonight:

Cotswold113 2017 – Pre race email Vs2.01

Hi All, I hope everyone’s feeling nice and ready for next weekends race ?
We’re just over a week out from the race, so I wanted to get some important info out to you all.
This email could well end up being a long one, but contains some important info, so please grab yourself a coffee and a comfy seat and read though it all.

In this email I’ll cover the following:
New Lake Owners and changes
Transfers to August
Water temperature
Marshal requests
Race briefing 

New lake owners and changes
For those of you that know the area and the way the lake ownership works, you’ll know that the area we park in on the Sunday, hold transition and take part of our run course through is run by a separate company to the one we hire the lake from and have our finish in.
For those of you that don’t, the far end of the lake (Ashton Keynes beach and country park) has just been taken over by a new company in the last couple of weeks.
Before anyone starts to worry, I’ve met with them and they’re a good bunch and have no problem with the racing we organise there
However, they have taken it over with literally a few days before the summer has kicked off, and as their business is 100% seasonal, they’re understandably very concerned about how much of their car park we take up on race day, and the loss of revenue they’ll see with us parking 6-700 cars in there and maxing out their capacity (not to mention the car parking our transition takes up)
Therefore, the changes are two fold for the race.
1) They are going to charge £10 a car to park on race morning, which is still cheaper than the standard car parking day fee applied there of £14, but more expensive than the £5 we have listed in our race pack.
2) You could all really help our relationship with them by not coming all individually in cars on race day and getting together with your mates and lift sharing so we take up as little space as possible, or getting a lift down in the morning and being dropped off instead of having a car at all.
I appreciate this is late notice for the change, but the new tenants are a good bunch, and have a brand new business to protect on what’s one of their first open weekends of the year, and we’re obviously very keen to keep a good relationship with them if we’re to keep racing there for years to come.
There are other parking options available to us with farmers fields etc nearby, but although we’re working on it, it’s very unlikely any of them can be ready in time for next weekend, but will be sorted for our following races this year.
For spectators coming later, there’s a good chance they won’t get in at all, so I’d recommend Neighbridge Country park (on the run course), which is a 10min walk to the race start/finish, and actually only £3 to park all day
Apologies for this, and please be assured that we’ve done everything we can to find a work around, but it’s just not possible in time for next weekend, but we’ll have something more robust ready in time for the August race.

Transfers to August
Looking back over the last few competitor newsletters, I think I’ve given you all 4 opportunities to transfer to the August 13th Cotswold Classic for free, but I’m still getting requests now that the free window has been closed a few weeks.
I’m conscious that people do pick up injuries, and that races do sneak up on you, so what we’ve agreed to a couple of people already, and to save me getting more requests, is that we can still do it, but I’m afraid there’s now a cost to it.
The two races are largely interchangeable as they’re on the same course and they have the same goodie bag contents. However, there’s a few things like insurances, shirts etc etc that just aren’t interchangeable, and as we’re now very close to the June race we can’t backfill your slots with another paying competitor.
Therefore, what we’ve offered is that if anyone still wants to swap to the August 13th Race, if they’re happy to pay the cost of the parts of the race that aren’t interchangeable (£40), we can still move entries over whilst there’s still a few slots remaining.
If you want to swap over, please let me know in the next few days and we can still try and sort something

Water Temperatures
There’s good news and bad news in this one depending on your take on it.
The good news is that the summer’s finally arrived (it’s been 28deg down there today whilst we’ve been building the registration marquee, and the colour of my forehead will attest to this).
However, as it’s been really quite hot for the last week or so, the water temperature is now getting dangerously close to the Wetsuit cut off of 24deg. Last night, it was measured at 21deg, which is a near perfect temperature for swimming with or without a wetsuit. However, due to the sheer power of the sun today, it’s very close now to the 24deg cut off when wetsuits become banned in line with the BTF regulations. The forecast for the next week, although cooling after the weekend, is largely quite hot and dry, and it’s rain that brings the temperature down.
We’ve run the middle distance races 12 times now, and we’ve not yet had to ban wetsuits, but I’m afraid the chances that the June 4th 113 are going to be a non wetsuit swim are looking very strong indeed as it stands currently.
We, of course, won’t make a decision with the BTF ref until race weekend, and I’ll be keeping the Facebook/twitter pages updated as the days roll on, so please keep an eye out for this.
Banning wetsuits will not be something we do lightly, and we work entirely in accordance with the BTF rules, but swimming and overheating in a wetsuit is potentially just as dangerous to your health as swimming without one.
We do have a few positives for the lake though in this scenario, and that’s that there are a couple of spots that you can stand up in to take a break, and I’ve also spoken with the water safety co-ordinator, and we’ve agreed that should you be running out of puff, that you can signal the canoeist, who’ll hold their canoe still for a few mins to you can grab on a take a break. Obviously, you need to let them know and not have them drag you around the course, but the chance for a break is there if you need it.
We don’t have a specific swim cut off, and the water safety crew will allow you as long as you need as long as they don’t consider you a danger to yourself or others around you, and you are occasionally making reasonable forward motion and not just floating on your back in one place admiring the clouds.

Marshal Request.
We’re still after a few more marshals, and as well as Bike/Run course teams, we need a few strong bods to help with water exit and the transition/sismount line.
If you have anyone coming along, that fancies being part of the team, please drop me a line at graeme@113events.com
We also have 4 vacant roles in the Disassembly team at the end of the race, which is a good chance to double up on marshal pay if you have people already covering a bike or run shift and fancy sticking around a bit later for a second shift.
Maybe, yourself as a competitor fancy earning a few quid off next year’s races, and wants to help marshal at our June 25th Cotswold 226 race. Marshals for that race can earn a £50 113 or DBMax 2018 voucher

Race Briefing
We’re well aware that doing a middle distance race is a daunting prospect and full of unknowns, and although the race pack tells you pretty much everything, sometimes you want someone to explain it to you and hear it from the horses mouth so to speak.
At last year’s race, we trialled running a Saturday briefing, which isn’t compulsory (your compulsory 3min briefing is on Sunday morning ten minutes before you get into the water), which takes around 60mins and we talk you through the race bit by bit and segment by segment. It was so popular last year, that we’ve decided to run it twice this year so that it covers a wider amount of the registration timing to suit everyone.
It’s very informal, and a great chance to ask any questions you might have.
On Saturday the 4th, we’ll run the full briefing on the grass bank next to the Swim exit at both 13:00 and 15:30

Right, that’s it for my waffling today.
We’re here to make sure you all have the best day possible, and race in the fastest and safest manner, so please get in contact with me if you have any concerns on the above, or just want to chat triathlon

Cheers

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

The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold226 2017 Competitors tonight:

Cotswold226 – May Newsletter

Good evening all, I hope this email finds you all well and either starting, or getting ready to start, on your tapers.
I know just how irritable a tapering triathlete can be, so I’ll keep this email short.
We’re a little over 4 weeks out from this year’s race, so I wanted to drop you all out a quick email on a few points about the race:

Race info pack
Number requests
Marshal Requests
Briefing

Race info pack
If you’ve not found it already from our previous mail, you can find the race info pack HERE
This contains everything you could possibly need to know about the race weekend, and is well worth taking the time to read through. We’ve put it online rather than sending it out in the post, so at least you can read it at your desk and pretend you’re actually doing some work too. Failing that, print it off and read it at home.
This is your info pack, so if there’s anything else you guys want to see in it, let me know and we’ll add it in

Number requests
Today is the start of your 5 day window to request a specific race number or a group of numbers so that you can be racked next to you in transition.
We have 125 competitors racing, so you can choose any specific number between number 001 and number 125.
The race will start in a single wave, so you can’t choose a specific wave as you would with our Middle Distance races.
Numbers are first come first served, and the deadline for requests is 5pm on Tuesday the 30th May.
Please email me at graeme@113events.com

Marshal Request
We’re desperate for more marshals for the race, so if you have people coming down with you that fancy being on our team, we’d love to have them along for either the bike or run course teams.
We pay all our marshals too, and they can choose from either £20 cash or a £50 113/DBmax voucher that you can use next year with us too.
They don’t need any experience at all, and we’ll provide them with everything they need, take them through a full briefing, and get them out to their post if needs be.
We’ll also bring them out hot food, drink and ice creams

Briefing
We’re conscious that racing long distance can be a daunting day out, and to help get you through the race and the million different bits about racing that people are just not sure about, we’re going to have a full race run through on the Saturday afternoon that you’re all welcome to attend.
This isn’t your compulsory briefing, as you’ll get that Sunday morning before you get in the water. This is just a 60-90min run through of the race, where we’ll talk you through everything from where you need to park on the Sunday morning, right through to what you need to do to collect your bike Sunday night, with aid station, and swim lap info etc in between.
We’ll have a few of us from our team there, and we’ll be fielding any questions you might have.
This will be Saturday afternoon at 14:00 next to the Swim exit point, and we’d love to see you all there.

Right, that’s it for my waffle today, so I’ll leave you all to your growling and general tetchiness that comes from a normal tapering triathlete 🙂

We’re here to help and to make racing easier, less stressful and smoother, so please get in touch if you need anything from us, or just want to talk triathlon over a cup of tea

Cheers

Graeme, Nicci, Will, James and the rest of the 226 team
07595 591612
www.113events.com
graeme@113events