The following newsletter went out to all 2018 Cotswold113 competitors today:
Just over a month to go 🙂
Good afternoon all, I hope this email finds you all out enjoying the sunshine now the Summer’s finally decided to turn up ?
We’re just over a month away from this year’s Cotswold113, so I wanted to drop you all an email and bring you up to speed on the race.
As you will have got used to from me, I can waffle on a fair bit, and this one’s going to be a double long one, but there’s some important info in it. With that in mind, please get yourself somewhere comfortable to sit and a strong coffee before going through it all.
In this email I’m going to cover the following :
Race Information Pack
Race Conditions update
Tri shop at the race
Available transfers to the August race
Marshals requests
Waves and numbers
Local Accommodation
Getting your bike dialled in before the race day
Race information pack
You can find the 2018 race information pack here:
https://www.113events.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/1132018-–-Race-Information-Sheet.docx
Please can I ask that you take the time to read this, as this contains everything you could need to know about the race weekend, from when we rack bikes to where to park, and where spectators can watch from etc. This is your info pack on the race weekend, so if you feel there’s anything missing from it, just let me know and we’ll update it.
Race conditions update
Although we’ve had a pretty rubbish spring in terms of Sunshine, the lake water temperature has now picked up to around 17-18deg. I fully expect the water temperature to be around 19-21deg on race day, which puts us firmly in the ‘Wetsuit Optional’ category. For those of you unsure as to what this means, it basically means everyone will wear a wetsuit bar maybe 1 or 2 nutters that prefer to Swim without. I can’t see this drastically changing between now and the race, but of course, I’ll keep everyone updated if we suddenly get 3 weeks of 40deg heat wave or another round of snow.
The run course is around 50% tarmac and 50% hard packed lakeside paths with a  couple of hundred meters of grass. The lakeside paths handle rubbish weather pretty well, so unless we get heavy rain for a few days before the race day, I’d suggest you wear road shoes all day long. Again, I’ll keep everyone updated on this, just in case.
Tri Shop at the race
As some of you might already know, the Triathlon shop in Bristol, who’ve attending our races for the last few years, unfortunately, have appeared to have gone kaput in the last few days. This leaves us without a Triathlon shop to attend our race weekend and show off all their goodies, and sell to you guys all the last minute bits and bobs that people generally forgot to bring, or didn’t even know they needed.
Therefore, if any of you have any contacts in any triathlon shops that would be interested in setting up stall at our races this year (June 9/10th and August 4/5th), then please can you ask them to get in touch.
We don’t ask for anything from the shop to set up shop a the race, and I feel it’s a great thing to have for you all to be able to buy last minute bits or plan your next expensive carbon purchase.
They won’t need to do any mechanical support, as we already have that covered.
Transfers to the August race
We’ve had a pretty reasonable take up of the free transfers over to the August race for those of you that have just not been ready in the last couple of months to race in June.
However, I’m afraid that although transfers are still (just about possible), we can no longer do it for free.
The fairest way that we can do it for those of you that do actually still need a couple more months, is to establish a fee that basically covers the value of the items that are not interchangeable between the two races now that we’ve fixed the June 10th race, and can’t now change names or draft in from the waiting list.
If you are still thinking of requesting a move, we can still do it as there’s still around 60 of the 1000 slots left for that race, but we would now have to ask that you pay for the none exchangeable elements, which is around ÂŁ40.
The August 5th Cotswold Classic Middle Distance tri is identical to the June 113 in every way bar name and shirt/medal colour. It’s on exactly the same course with the same team running it, just two months later.
Marshal request
We have around 200 paid marshals positions on the course for this year’s race, and we’re still to fill a few
If you have anyone coming down with you on race weekend, or anyone that would like to be involved, we’d welcome them to the team.
We pay our marshals too, and they’ve get paid either ÂŁ20 cash or a ÂŁ40 113 Events voucher (that you can use if you wish), and all our marshals get an event shirt and we keep them in hot food, drinks and ice creams all day.
They don’t need any experience at all, and we’ll provide them with everything they need and take them through a full briefing
We can’t, unfortunately, pay under 16’s, but they’re welcome to come along and help an adult marshal if you’re supplying one, and still get an event shirt and free ice creams
Anyone that’s ever been involved in organising races will know that getting marshals is one of the hardest bits of setting up the races, so any help you can give us by press ganging people in would be greatly appreciated
Please email graeme@113events.com
Waves and Numbers
For those of you that have raced with us before will know, you now have a window to request (if you want) a specific wave and/or a specific race number (or a group of numbers to be racked with your mates)
Just to front load any requests we might get: The race will start at 06:00 and go off in 8 waves at 10 minute intervals, and the racking layout is not set until race weekend, so I’m afraid I can’t give people special numbers to be on the end of a row of racking (as we just don’t know which numbers are at the end yet until we set it out). All the positions in transition are roughly equidistant from Swim in to Bike out and Bike in to run out as we enter and exit our transition at opposite corners each time, so no positions get an advantage over any other positions.
If you wish, you can choose any wave between 1 and 8 and we have race numbers available from 10-1000inclusive (relays can select a wave, but not a number as they’re racked separately). If you choose not to select a wave and/or number, you’ll be allocated a number at random as per any other race, and the remainder of competitors that have not chosen a wave, will be filtered to be youngest off first, and oldest off last, and it’s not gender specific as male/female/undisclosed are mixed together.
Note: If you have entered through the Police (PSUK) entries, you will automatically be in wave number 3 and in a preset group of numbers so you’re racked together in transition. I have also grouped in a few other  (8 in total) entries that have listed Police teams against their tri club but didn’t enter through the PSUK route, but if you’re one of these and not happy with going off with the PSUK race, please just give me a shout.
In order to make your decision a little easier, I thought I’d give you a few examples and some facts on the race, to help you choose why you might want to choose a specific wave or number
1) If you feel you’re at the slower end of the field, and want more time on the course with other people around you, you might want an earlier wave
2) Wave number 1 will include many of the very fast swimmers who want clear water ahead of them, but they will only account for about 10-15% of the wave, and the waves average swim time will be similar to the other waves, as it will also include many of the much slower swimmers that want to get the swim over and done with – All the other waves are roughly the same as each other in terms of pace
3) The race has been won not only by competitors in wave 1, but previously competitors from wave 2,4 and 7 also.
4) You might want to be finished early so you can get back in time for Songs of Praise on a Sunday afternoon, so would want an earlier wave
5) You may not want to be get up at silly o’clock and fancy a relative lie in, so might want a later wave
6) You may like to watch other waves come out the water and go through transition before you swim yourself to get an idea of how it all works, so might want a later wave.
7) You might want to have your club or friends all grouped together in transition and in the same wave, so we can arrange sequential numbers so you’re next to each other, and you can have that smug smile when you get out of the water and all their bikes are still there 🙂
Of the 1000 competitors we have at our races, I get around 8-900 requests for waves and/or numbers, and as you might imagine, this is a massively time consuming job for me to try and accommodate all the requests ( I literally block out about 4 whole days, so about 48 hours, to sit at my laptop and do this), so please can I ask that you make my life a little bit easier and follow the guidelines for requests below :
1) Some of the numbers will go very quickly, so please put a 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc option in to avoid disappointment. The year’s of birth (typically 60-90) and double/triple numbers (22, 444 etc) go the quickest, as do numbers 13 and 69
2) If you’re asking for a group of mates to be together and don’t want specific numbers, don’t ask for specifics as I can just find you a group of numbers somewhere random where you’ll all be racked together, as often the group will ask for, for example, 450-490, but 473 will have already been taken
3) When asking for groups of people, please can you follow these guidelines:
– Please give me each persons full name, registered email or DOB so I can ensure you don’t get racked next to the wrong Andy Brown or Julie Smith. Even the most seemingly unique names can have duplicates at our races, so let me have a bit more info on that person so I can find the right one, and you’re not racked next to a confused person with the same name as your club mate.
– Please use their proper name rather than nick names as I will have no idea who ‘Chalkie’ or ‘Chugger’ is
– Please clarify it with them first before coming to me with the requests,as most of my time doing this is correcting people who’ve been grouped with a bunch of mates, who it later turns out they want to be as far away from as possible, or have just been grouped with another bunch of mates or team previously . There’s no immediate rush on day one to mail me to get the whole group together, and I can sort that later this week if you spend the time to clear it with everyone first please
– Please don’t CC everyone in your group into the email to me, as invariably someone hits reply to all to start a conversation not related to the race, and as much as I’m intrigued by where you’re going on holiday, or why your wife has suddenly started wearing perfume to work and spends more time with her boss (this was an actual email conversation I got stuck into last year for one of the races), it just means I have more emails to pick through that aren’t relevant to me
– It’ll be easier to place you if you just ask for an earlier, middle or later wave rather than specifics (ie we want wave 4). I can get you all in the same wave, but if it’s a massive group, it’s sometimes hard to accommodate a specific wave, and typically not possible to get big groups into wave 1
To make your request, please email me at graeme@113events.com and use the email title ‘Waves/Numbers’
The deadline for requesting waves and/or numbers is end of play Friday the 11th May
I won’t be able to reply to confirm every email, so please be patient as I’ll publish the start list on Saturday/Sunday this coming weekend
Local AccommodationÂ
For those of you that have not yet booked your accommodation, and fancy a lakeside house for the weekend to make a Cotswold Break of it, there is the Lower Mills estate based around 750m from the start of the race, and on the side of the run course. They’ve come up with a promotion for our competitors and their families, which you can read about here:
Where to stay when you visit
Habitat Escapes https://www.habitatescapes.com
Located only a short distance from the start of the race, Lower Mill Estate, a stunning space that celebrates unspoilt nature, offers superbly appointed self-catering accommodation with access to its exclusive award winning spa.
Book a stay using the voucher code 113JUN and receive a complimentary Luxury hamper full of locally sourced goodies.
Getting your bike dialled in before the race day
We will have our friend Joe from VeloWorks at the lake on Saturday during registration and first thing Sunday morning during the race doing last minute bike repairs and servicing/Tuneups.
Joe is an incredible bike mechanic, and it’s well worth getting your bike booked in for Saturday to make sure it’s in top shape for the race on Sunday. Joe will also be based at the Aid station on the bike course during the race in case anything needs sorting during the race.
You can see the services Joe offers, and more about Veloworks here http://veloworks.co.uk
Right, that’s it from me today, so I hope that I haven’t sent you all into a boredom induced mid afternoon sleep, and you’re still alive and kicking ?
The next email from me will be in a couple of weeks, where I’ll go through some hints and tips for the race weekend, and get out any further info on the race as it becomes available.
We’re here to help, so if there’s anything we can do for you all in the run  up to the race, please just get in touch
Thanks and happy training
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
07595 591612
graeme@113events.com