The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold Classic 2022 Competitors today :
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Triathlons based in the Cotswolds
The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold Classic 2022 Competitors today :
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The following email went out to all Cotswold 113 2022 Competitors tonight :
Good evening all, I hope everyone’s well ?
We’re getting closer and closer to race day on June 5th now, so I’m going to start sending you more and more info on the race weekend over the next 6 weeks. This is email is likely to be quite a long one too, and I can waffle a bit, so I’d suggest you take a seat and get a strong coffee on the go before getting started 🙂
In this newsletter, I’ll cover the following :
Competitor info
Postal Registration
Race Information Pack
Mass starts and Rolling starts
Marshals
Competitor Info
As of last weekend, the race start list is now fixed and frozen, and your names etc submitted to insurers etc, so we can no longer make any name changes* or deferrals.
However, I’m conscious that as we’re posting race packs out, some of you might have moved house since you entered, and we need to catch up on any of these that we’ve not been notified of to date
On your entry confirmation email, will be your postal address. If you’ve moved house since then, please can you drop me an email with your new address please and I’ll update those on our master list so the packs get posted to the right place.
For anyone with a non UK address, we’ll have your packs waiting for you at registration on race morning.
*We can still change names on relay team members, as they’re insured slightly differently.
Postal Registration
As mentioned above, we’ll be posting out race Bibs this year, and they’ll be landing on your door mat in the last week to 10 days running up to race day. In the envelope, you will get your race bib with your name and number on it, and a bike sticker. It’s covered in the race info pack below, but please can I use this as a first reminder that you need to stick your bike sticker on your bike before coming to transition to register on race morning. It doesn’t matter where on your bike you stick it, as we only use the race number sticker to match the bike up to the owner after the race against your race bib.
Nearer race day, we’ll send out an email address for anyone to contact for missing or lost numbers.
Traditionally, pre Covid, we used to hold registration for all competitors on the Saturday, but it seemed to be very popular to do this by post over the last couple of years, so we’ll stick with that this year to see how it works in more normal times. Don’t worry though, if you’re one of the people that still like to come along on the Saturday to get an idea of how it all works, we’ll still have stuff on for you to come and see/do.
I’ll get details out in a later newsletter, but we’ll have a couple of non compulsory briefings at the lake on the Saturday where we’ll take you through everything you will need to know and consider for the following day (We’ll do the compulsory briefing by youtube link, so you can watch our faces for radio go through the race safety points in your own leisure)
We’ll also have an opportunity to book a slot to swim our course throughout the day as I know that many of you like to get in the lake and get a taste for the water (not literally, I hope) the day before racing.
More info on the briefings and swim slots will come out around 2-3weeks before the race, so mid May ish.
Race information pack
Below is a link to download the race info pack :
https://www.113events.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/1132022-–-Race-Information-Sheet.pdf
We’ve included everything we can think of that you’ll need to know in this pack, but if you have any suggestions of anything else that we ought to cover, please just ask and we’ll update it.
It’s really important that you take the time to read through this please, and I’ve tried to make it as ‘reading at your desk at work’ friendly with few pictures so you don’t get in trouble for not actually working. I’ve found printing things off and putting them by the toilet at home helps too, as it’s about the only peace and quiet I get during the day at mine and Nicci’s house.
If you get any questions or need anything clarifying, please don’t hesitate to ask though, it’s what I’m here for
Mass starts and Rolling starts (plus race numbers)
Because of Covid regulations, for the last couple of years, we’ve moved from multiple mass starts, to a rolling start format. There’s been a growing trend in triathlon for a rolling start at races too, and it’s something that appears to have been very popular with our competitors over the last couple of years, so it’s something we’ll carry on with this year. However, I’m still aware that there’s a minority that want a mass style start so they can tell who they’re racing against when out on the courses, or groups of friends or a club that want a mass start so that they can all outsprint against each other at the finish line.
With this in mind, we’re going to trial a limited number (50 competitors) mass start wave to get the race started, and the following 6 waves will all be rolling starts within a 10 minute window.
Race morning start procedure will now look like this:
05:55 – Limited number Mass start from the shallow water at the lake entrance
06:00-06:10 Wave 1 Rolling Start
06:10-06:20 Wave 2 Rolling Start
06:20-06:30 Wave 3 Rolling Start
06:30-06:40 Wave 4 Rolling Start
06:40-06:50 Wave 5 Rolling Start
06:50-07:00 Wave 6 Rolling Start
In terms of starting off as small groups (4-5max) in a mass start, you can still cross the rolling start line together from a later wave if you so choose.
By Default, Waves 1-6 will be sorted by youngest First, Oldest Last respective of Gender.
However, if you like, now’s your chance to choose a specific wave and or race number, which I’ll now explain as follows:
Please can I ask that you read the following properly before getting your email in to request a wave and/or number.
Your window for requesting waves or numbers runs from now until May the 4th.
I’m going to get around 8-900 requests over the next 10 days, and as you can imagine, it’s pretty time consuming for me (I block book literally 50 hours/4days to sort this), so please can you read the following before making your request to make my life a little easier and reduce my level of headache and hairloss.
You can request any wave from 1-6 or the mass start wave*
*In terms of positions in the race and prize giving, it doesn’t matter if you’re in the mass start wave or not, and the fastest times of the day are regularly from a later wave.
You can only request any number from 10-900inc.
Relay teams can request a specific wave, but I’m afraid, cannot request a number as they’re racked separately to the solo entries so have a different number sequence
The mass start wave at 05:55 will be limited to 50 people only
You can request a group or block of sequential numbers so that you’re racked with your mates and in the same wave as them
If you’re requesting a group, please can I ask that you send me the following for each competitor within your group, as even the most seemingly unique names often have duplicates, not just your John Smith’s or Sarah Browns :
– Full Name
– Date of Birth
– Registered email address
Our racking runs numerically, so I will allocate a random block of sequential numbers so you’re racked next to each other.
Also, please can you make sure that everyone in the group that you’re requesting is on board with your idea, as we often get groups of names submitted, only to find out in a later request that some of the members want to request a different wave or number with other friends or simply don’t want to be racked with their group as they want to concentrate on their own race (This actually happens an awful lot)
You have 10 days, so no immediate rush to get your request in which gives you lots of time to clear it with everyone else, so please get it right first time, rather than emailing again and again with extra names, as once a group is blocked into numbers, I cannot always add more as the next group of numbers will run sequentially from your block
If you wanted to get yourself a specific lucky number (10-900inc), these are on first come first served basis, and tend to be really popular in the lower numbers, so when getting your request in, it’s worth listing a 2nd, 3rd and maybe even a 4th choice (number 69 seems to be very popular, as do the obvious year’s of birth etc – ie 72 or 91)
In terms of the numbers and waves, you don’t obviously have to pick a specific one, but in order to assist any decision, I’ll give you some examples of why you might want to choose a specific wave:
1) You might be the next Michael Phelps, and want clear water in front of you in the swim for your 50sec/100m pace, so want an early wave or the mass start
2) You might fancy a relative lie in, so want a later wave
3) You might want to be home in time for songs of praise, so want an earlier wave
4) You might be at the slower end of the race field, so want an earlier wave in order to not be the last person on the course during the run.
5) You might be a younger guy, and just want a later wave (or vice versa)
You can request your wave and/or numbers by email to graeme@113events.com using ‘Waves and Numbers’ as the subject line.
I’m afraid with the sheer volume of emails, I won’t be able to reply to them, and the start list with all the waves and numbers listed will be on our website in around 2 weeks so you will just have to wait until that comes out
Marshals
Maybe it’s something to do with the Jubilee weekend, but it’s proving harder than normal to get marshals this year for the races. We have around 200 Paid roles on the day, and we still need to fill around 30 of them.
Therefore, if you have friends, family, club mates that are coming down, or you can bring someone along, we’d welcome them to our Red team of 113 marshals on the day
They get paid too, and can choose from either £20 cash or a £40 113 Events voucher, and we’ll kit them up in a team shirt to keep, and keep them in burgers, ice creams and coffees during the day.
You don’t need any experience at all, and we’ll take them through a full briefing on the morning and partner them up with someone more experienced if required. Marshalling is good fun too, and we’ll make sure they have good time as a happy marshal is great for the race and they really help feed off the competitors.
We have two basic shifts where we still need to fill places:
Bike team 05:15 briefing to around 11:45am finish
Run team 07:15 Briefing to around a 14:00 finish
All we ask is that they’re over 16 and know their left from their right please
Drop me an email at graeme@113events.com please
You may even fancy seeing the races from the other side yourself, and we have our other middle distance race at the same location on July 10th which we’d welcome more marshals for please
Right, if you’ve survived this whole email without falling asleep on a Friday night, then hats off to you and thanks for taking the time read through my waffle
We’re here to help, so if you get any questions or there’s anything we can help you with in the run up to the race, please just get in touch
Cheers and happy training
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
graeme@113events.com
07595 591612
The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold 113 2022 Competitors today
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The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold 113 and Cotswold Classic 2022 competitors today
Good afternoon all
I hope everyone’s recovered from the Christmas break and are firmly into the new year’s training now
Firstly, thank you very much for entering one of the 113 Events 2022 Triathlons.
Race season is soon going to be upon us, so I wanted to get in touch with you all to bring you up to speed on what’s planned for this season’s races and get you all out some info so you can get your preparations underway
This newsletter is going out to all June 5th Cotswold 113 and July 10th Cotswold Classic competitors as the general info covers both races, but from now on, it’ll be specific 113 or Classic mails just for the guys and girls entered into either race.
You’re going to get bombarded with info from me over the next few months for each race, so I’ll try and keep this email relatively brief, but it’s still going to be a long one, so I’d suggest a comfy chair and a strong coffee as I have a habit of waffling on a bit.
In this email, I’ll cover the following:
1) What to expect on race weekend / race format
2) Covid and our races
3) Camping and accommodation
4) Familiarisation days
5) Checking your details
6) Swapping between races / deferring
7) Getting involved and being a marshal
1) What to expect on race weekend / race format
For those of you that haven’t raced with us before, we always do all our racking on the Sunday morning
Pre Covid, we used to hold registration on the Saturday afternoon, but Covid forced us to rethink that, and for the last two years, we’ve posted out race bibs and competitors have collected their chips and done a quick registration process on the way into transition on the Sunday morning. This has been pretty popular, as I’m conscious that not everyone wants to make a weekend of it, so we’ll have a similar format this year.
However, we will still have some stuff on during the day on Saturday, but this will be up to you if you wanted to attend or not.
Traditionally (pre Covid), we held general (Non compulsory) briefings on the Saturday but we will now do the formal briefing via youtube link. However, we will still have a couple of available briefing’s on the Saturday at the lake for anyone that wants to come along and hear it from us in person rather than watch mine and Dave’s faces for Radio blabber on in a video.
We get a lot of first timers to the distance or to triathlon generally at our races too, so we’ll aim the in person Briefings to be more towards that end of the field. They’ll be about an hour and a bit long each, and we’ll try and talk you through everything to do with the race and answer any questions you might have.
Also, on the Saturday, we’ll have our swim course marked out, so they’ll be a chance to book in with the lake and come and have a swim of the course beforehand, or even just a dip in the water for a shorter distance to get yourself ready and acclimatised for the Sunday morning start.
Both races will start at around 6am, and will go off in a series of waves.
For the last couple of year’s, we moved away from several mass starts for each eave to a rolling start format.
This was very popular with the majority, but there still was a minority that wanted to do a mass start so they could tell exactly who they were racing against, and not wonder if the person in front of them on the run course was actually 5 mins behind them etc.
In order to try and cater for both sides of the argument, what we’re going to trial in June is as follows :
Wave 1 – Mass start with limited numbers
Waves 2 Onwards will be rolling starts whereby you get a 10minute window in which you can start, and your start time will be at the point in which you cross the timing mat into the lake.
About 5-6 weeks out from each race, you will get a chance to choose a specific wave and/or a specific race number (or group of numbers so you can rack with your mates). Please don’t try and request these beforehand, as in the interest of fairness to everyone, waves and numbers will be first come/first served from the point of that email onwards.
Both races will start in 7-8 waves, and the waves will be 10mins apart.
The race format is as follows :
Swim – 1 Single lap of a 1,900m course
Bike – 2 Laps of a 28mile loop (Total 56miles)
Run – 3 laps of a 4.34 mile loop (Total 13.1miles)
The routes are 99.9% Fixed for this year, and you can find there here
Bike – https://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/4257970519
Run – https://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/797773233
We don’t have specific Swim, Bike or Run Cutoffs, and although we’re forced to publish an ‘Official’ cut off of 7.5hours from the start of the last wave, in reality, we’re really relaxed with it. Our take is that if you’ve been soldiering on, and haven’t stopped for a 2 hour roast Sunday lunch in a pub out on the bike course, we’ll keep the finish open for as long as it takes within reason.
Aid stations and nutrition: I’m sure a lot of you will want to start training and practicing with what’s available on the course, so as a heads up, we buy High5 products
We have a single Aid station on the bike course lap (2 laps, so 2 aid opportunities)
This will have 750 Bike bottles of Water, 750ml bike bottles of High5, High5 ISO Gels and half cut bananas
The run course has 3 aid stations per lap (3 laps, so 9 aid opportunities)
2 have Cupped Water and High 5 ISO Gels
The 3rd has as follows :
Cupped Water
Cupped Flat Coke
Cupped High5
High5 ISO Gels
Half Cut Bananas
Jamaican Ginger Cake / Golden Syrup cake
Jelly Babies/Beans
Salted Peanuts (these are kept away from the other stuff for anyone with a peanut allergy)
Salty Crisps (The saltiest we can get in the cash and carry, so normally Pringles or Discos)
Chocolate chip Cookies
Fig Rolls
The three aid stations are pretty much equidistant around the run lap.
In a couple of months, we will send out a full competitor information pack by email, and this will have everything finalised in it, and all the maps for courses, parking, spectating etc.
2) Covid and our races
I’m afraid that no matter how many tea leaves I read and Crystal balls I rub, I can’t predict what’s going to be happening this summer in terms of Covid, but we do have plans in place for most eventualities.
What I can say is that Triathlon’s quite unique in terms of how the DCMS (Gov Department of Culture, Media and Sport) look at it and permit it to run as an outdoor event. In the worst case scenario of 2020 Summer, we ran the first triathlon in the UK with government backing, as it’s sold to the government as competitors turning up and competing in a bubble of 1. We are always slightly over the top on measures like Gels and hygiene, but this is only a good thing and something we’ll continue with regardless.
In reality, if the summer of 2022 is anything like the summer of 21, we’ll run the races back as normal and with a full crowd of spectators. It may be that the government will ask everyone to have Lateral Flow test or Vaccine passports, but in whichever case, we’ll work on a seamless process that keeps you safe, but also ensure we can run a fun day.
We will follow the guidelines from the Government closely, and keep you all posted, but here’s hoping for a slightly more normal 2022 (Fingers crossed)
3) Camping and accommodation
One of the unfortunate casualties of Covid lockdown of 2020 was, I’m afraid, the campsite right next to the lake we race at 🙁
The Cotswold Waterpark area gets pretty busy in the summer, so it’s worth getting things booked up fairly quickly if you’re planning on staying down for the weekend, or making a longer break of it.
We are working on a local farmer to try and get some field space for camping next to the lake, but it’s not proving as easy as I’d hope. We’ll persevere, but with that in mind, I wanted to offer up some alternatives :
For campsites, there’s a couple within a 10 min drive of the start/finish that I know are well thought of by previous competitors :
Mayfield Camping – https://www.mayfieldpark.co.uk
The T Barn Camping – https://www.tbarn.co.uk
By far the closest and best Hotel is the Devere Cotswolds waterpark hotel. It’s about 3 miles from the race start/finish and is on the bike course. I know from previous years that they’ll put on an early breakfast on request from competitors, and have a safe room you can leave your bike (or you can sneak it up to your room if you’re quick:) )
https://www.devere.co.uk/cotswold-water-park-hotel/
If not, there’s lots of hotels, holiday home lettings, a Hoburne Holiday camp and lodges within a couple miles of the race site in the area.
The Postcode for the race site is GL76DF
4) Familiarisation days
About 3-6 weeks before each race, we will hold course familiarisation days where competitors can come down and see the swim, bike and run courses with guided laps from me and the team from 113.
The emphasis on these days is ‘Leisurely’ and they’ll suit all abilities. On the day, we cover a single swim lap (1.9km), a single bike lap (28 miles) and a single run lap (4.3miles) There’ll be several stops to show aid stations etc. and regroup and they’ll suit all abilities.
We have to fit these in around other events the lake guys book, but they’re typically a sunday 3-6 weeks out from the race, and we’ll get the dates fixed and published in the next month or so.
The Bike and run are totally free of charge, but you will need to pay the lake guys a day membership if you want to swim, and that’s normally about £7.
As soon as we can fix dates, I’ll get these published in the next competitor newsletter
We’ll also be working with our local friendly swim coach this year on some courses for open water swimmers of all levels, and he’ll be running some clinics on the familiarisation day too, and we’ll get those updated as soon as they’re fixed
Jason’s a good guy and has been involved in 113 for quite a few year’s now, so knows what it takes to swim at our races https://southwestswim.co.uk
5) Checking your details
Over the next few weeks, before we start to really fix things, please can I ask that you all take 2 mins to either check your confirmation email from when you entered or head to the online start lists to ensure your name is spelt correctly.
Cotswold 113 – Entrycentral.com/cotswold113
Cotswold Classic – Entrycentral.com/cotswoldclassic
We print your names on your bibs from the name on your entry, and we often get names spelt incorrectly, or surnames / Christian names the wrong way around etc.
I’ll give you one of my favourite examples, where a lady by the name of Virginia had her autocorrect change her name to a lady body part, and this was only later picked up by the printers when they went to provide her race bib. Subsequently, this was changed in a rush.
Anyway, we often get misspellings on entry forms, and they’re not easy to change once the bibs are printed, so can you take 2 mins just to check please
6) Swapping between races / deferring to 23
I’m very conscious that for many people race days sneak up on your and you might not perhaps be as far into your training as you like, or you’ve picked up an injury or forgotten it’s your wedding anniversary (this seems to happen a lot, mainly with men)
Anyway, if you wanted to defer to either 2023 or from the June to July race, this is much easier to do earlier rather than later, especially as there’s still some spaces in the July race I can move June competitors into
There’s no costs involved for this, and at this stage, it’s really easy for me to move you to a different race whilst there’s still spaces
We tend to get lots of requests in the weeks running up close to the races, and it’s not normally possible that close up as we have to commit to insurances, printers etc from a few weeks out, so this is just a heads up if it’s something that you might already be thinking about.
7) Getting involved and being a marshal
If you have anyone coming along with you that fancies being part of the 113 team on race day, we’re always after more marshals. We have around 200 paid positions on race weekend, and we’re very proud that our races have built up a great reputation for having some of the best marshals in the sport.
We’ll take them through a full briefing and partner them up with someone else so they’re not stuck on their own, and all we ask is that they’re enthusiastic, know their left from their right and are over 16.
We pay all our marshals too, and they can choose from either £20 cash or a £40 113 Events Voucher, and we’ll provide them with everything they need on the day, a team 113 Shirt and we’ll keep them in free burgers, coffee and ice creams all day.
If you have anyone that could be part of the team, please drop me an email at graeme@113events.com
Right, that’s it for todays rather lengthy email. Hopefully, you’re all still awake and I’ve not put you all to sleep
We’re here to help, so if you get any questions, there’s anything we can help with, or you just want to talk triathlons, please feel free to give me a call on 07595 591612 or drop me a mail at graeme@113events.com
The next email you’ll all be getting from me will be specific to your races rather than a general one, and we’re looking forward to welcoming you all along to our start lines this summer
Thanks and happy training
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
graeme@113events.com
07595 591612
The following email went out to all 113 Events newsletter subscribers tonight
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The following post race email went out to all Cotswold Classic 2021 competitors this morning
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The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold Classic 2021 competitors today :
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The following mail went out to all registered Marshals for this year’s Cotswold Classic on July 11th
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The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold Classic 2021 Competitors today:
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The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold Classic 2021 competitors tonight
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