Cotswold Classic V2 – July 9th 2023

Good afternoon all. I hope everyone’s enjoying the good weather now the summer’s finally decided to start turning up for us ?
We’re just over 2 months away from race day now, so I wanted to get the next instalment out of the newsletter out to bring you all up to speed and ready for July’s racing

In this newsletter, I’ll cover the following:

Getting ready for race day – Race info pack
Kit prep and options
Familiarisation day
Refer a friend scheme – We’ve still got places
Marshal request
Feeling ready earlier than expected 

Getting ready for race day – Race info pack
If you follow the link HERE you will find the full race info pack for the Cotswold Classic V2
This contains pretty much everything you need to know about race weekend, and it’s really important that you have a good read of it please. I’ll send you this a few times before race weekend, as the amount of competitors that turn up on race weekend without the right stuff (or on the wrong day as has happened in the past a few times) seems to be increasing every year
I’ve tried to include everything you might need, but please just ask if you’re not sure or want some advice on anything. We’re here to help, so please email or call me any time – 07595 591612

Kit prep and options
You’re probably now starting to think about what kit to bring and what to pack, so I wanted to give any of you that haven’t raced with us before, a quick guide on what the courses are like etc.
Swim
The swim is a single open water lap of the lake. Right now, as the Spring has been pretty chilly, the water temperature is around 14-15deg. However, as the lake we use is quite shallow (about 7ft deep for most of our lap) it warms up pretty quickly when the weather improves due to the surface area to volume ratio.
Realistically, it’s going to be around 20-22deg on race day, which is what we’ve seen in July for the 11years we’ve run the classic now.
We work in line with the BTF wetsuit rules, where basically, anything between 14-24deg is a ‘Wetsuit optional’ Swim. What this means generally is that 99.9% of you will wear a wetsuit, which is totally fine as I know us Triathletes love a wetsuit
We have partnered up with HUUB this year too, and they have a really cool 40% off offer for our competitors on Wetsuits and tri suits if you were looking for some flash new kit this year
You can find the details on their offer HERE
You won’t need to Bring a Swim hat either, as we’ll supply you one of those in Flouro Orange Silicon Swim when you come and register
If you are one of our more nervous Swimmers (and I appreciate we have many of those), we’ll have a pile of alternatively coloured flouro hats by the Swim start that you can pick up to wear in the Swim. If you wear one of these, the water safety crew will keep an extra eye on you to make sure you get around ok. There’s a couple of points on the lap where you can stand up assuming you’re not less than 4foot tall, and you’re welcome to stop and take a short break if required. There’s no floating Vodka bars there, but if you need a quick break to gather your breath or pull your wetsuit back up over your shoulders, they’re there for you to use without any penalty of problem our end. We want everyone to enjoy the swim, and get around safely, and that’s our priority.
We will operate an initial mass start wave, followed by 6x 10min windows for rolling starts so you can choose either format to suit your preference. About 4 weeks out from the race, all competitors will get an email from me with a chance to select a specific wave (and/or bib number if you have a lucky number or just want to rack with your mates) so keep an eye out for that email Mid June, and I can then put you in whichever start type or time you like so you can get off with your mates etc.
We can’t accept requests before that point please, as I don’t have the start list on a spreadsheet to manipulate until the race is closed and fixed.

Bike
As you will have seen, we have a brand new bike course for the Classic from this year. I’ve been out and ridden it a fair few times, and it’s nice and fast (Not with my legs it’s not, but it will be for many of you)
Although it’s still flat compared to most places this side of Holland, it’s more gently rolling compared to the June 113 course. If you have the luxury of the option of a road or TT bike, it’s a TT bike course 100% all day long, and although it has a small amount of elevation, the quicker competitors will be in the big chainring for the whole 28mile lap (it’s 2 laps on race day)
There’s a link to an interactive Mapmyride map of the course in the race info pack, but for those of you that remember our Cotswold226 race, it’s basically half of that lap and heads West out through Kemble and Malmesbury before coming back into the waterpark through Minety
We have around 200 50cm Flouro Arrows, around 90 marshals as well as Police and Traffic Management out on the course, so you really can’t get lost
Over the last 12years, we’ve had over 25,000 people go through our Middle Distance Bike courses, and to date, we’d only had 1 person get actually lost (He went ‘off piste’ for a number 2 in a field, and got lost finding his way back to the course – We do have toilets on the course BTW, he just had a more urgent requirement I guess)
We will have an aid station on the course for each lap based in Minety at about mile 23 / 51, and there’s more info on what’s there in the info pack. The aid Station is a fair way into the lap through, so it’ll definitely be worth having your bike loaded up with a bottle and some gels etc to get you to that point to start with.
We also have 4 moto support riders who will carry basic tools and spares, and there’s a mechanic at the aid station. However, it’s your responsibility to fix your own punctures, and the moto support guys are really only there for emergencies. Being the UK, there are a few potholes dotted around, but the surfaces are really good for 98% of the lap. We’ll go out the week before and paint mark all the potholes, so they’ll be easy to spot and avoid on race day.

Run Course
The 3 lap course is a mix of about 50% tarmac, 45% hard pack lakeside paths and 5% grass. It handles the rain really well, so is a road shoe course for most conditions / runners. If we do get a week of really heavy rain during race week, I’ll keep you all posted on conditions. We have 3 aid stations per lap, and info on those is in the race info pack also. There’s a fair amount of shade as much of it is under trees, but there is a stretch on the Spine road that’s in the open if it’s a really sunny day. For some weird insurance stipulation, we’re not allowed to provide sun tan lotion, so if it’s warm, it’s worth bringing some along to apply.

Familiarisation day 
On Sunday June 25th, we will be holding our free of charge course familiarisation day where you can come down and have a guided single lap of the Bike and run courses by myself and the team.
These are a really good way to see the course in advance of the day to get an idea of what it’s like, meet other competitors and ask us any questions you might have.
The emphasis on the day is leisurely, so it should be suitable for all abilities (think something like 14mph av on the bike, and 11-12min miles on the run. We’ll have a few regrouping stops too, and we’ll point out where aid stations are etc and everything you need to know about the courses for race day.
We don’t do a guided lap of the swim course as the range of abilities is so broad, but you can book swimming at the lake that day around the bike and run sessions, which will start at 9am – The lake guys will charge you £10 or so for this if you want to do it. We won’t have our course marked out, but it’s broadly similar to their 1,500m course with a dog leg in to make up the extra 400m (I’ll send swim booking info to everyone signed up nearer the time)
As a formality, and to get a handle on numbers, we ask that you book onto the familiarisation day please through the following link HERE

Refer a friend scheme – We’ve still got places
It’s no big secret that it’s a really tough year in the Triathlon industry, and entry numbers are low across all races in the UK right now for tri’s as well as Sportives and running events, even for the big players as well as the little guys like us.
Our race is normally 1,000 slots, and we have around 600 sign ups so far, so 400 slots left and just over 2 months from race day
Therefor, if you have friends that fancy racing with you this year, please point them in our direction
We can rack them next to you in transition and get you off in the same wave if you wanted
Refer a friend, and we’ll give you a £20 discount voucher to use with us next year.
Just get them to add your name in the ‘Referred by’ section on their entry form, and drop me an email
Entry open at www.113events.com

Marshal Request 
We have around 190 paid marshal positions at our races, and we still need a few more heads to fill these rolls. We are very proud that we’ve built up a really good reputation as having some the best marshals in the sport, and we only have that as we really look after them and make sure they have a fun day – A happy marshal is a good marshal
Typically, about 50% of our marshals are regulars, and the rest of friends and family of competitors that want to get involved and see the race from the fun side.
We pay all our marshalls too, and they can choose from either £20 cash or a £50 113 Events Voucher.
We’ll take them through a full briefing, kit them up with whatever they need, give them an event team shirt to keep, and stuff their faces with Hot drinks, burgers and ice creams
All we ask is that they’re over 16 (although adults can brings kids with them to help them marshal, but the kids won’t get paid for insurance purposes), know their left from their right and are pretty enthusiastic
We have two basic shifts:
Bike team – 05:45 briefing – Finished about 11:45 (earlier in many spots)
Run team 07:45 briefing – Finished about 14:30ish (again, earlier in some spots)
Marshals get free camping on site and free parking, and are invited to the post race beer with the team too

Feeling ready earlier than expected 
We always get July competitors who, at the last minute, decide they fancy racing a month earlier at our June 4th Middle Distance race instead. This isn’t always possible as we get closer to the June race, so if you fancied racing on June 4th, please can you email me before that race closes on May 10th, and I can swap you straight over for free. That race has around 800 competitors, so a couple of hundred slots left.
You might also fancy doing both, in which case I can offer the same £40 discount that you’d have got if you entered them both through the combo entry at sign up. If you fancy the June race too, just drop me an email for the discount voucher code.

Right, that’s it from me for this newsletter
If you have any questions at all, or there’s anything we can help with, please just ask
My number’s 07595 591612 and you can call me any time, or drop me an email
We’ll look forward to seeing many of you at the Familiarisation day on June 25th and the rest of you on July 9th

Cheers, and happy training

Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events Team

Only a few weeks to go now…

Good afternoon all, I hope you’re all well and getting ready for this year’s Cotswold 113 on June 4th ?
We’re just a few weeks away now, so this will be the first of a few Cotswold113 competitor newsletters we’ll be sending out in the run up to the race
If you’ve recently signed up, and missed the previous email newsletter, you can find that HERE as it has lots of info on the race as well as some info on camping and accommodation

In this newsletter, I’ll cover the following

Getting ready for race day
Kit prep and options
Familiarisation day
Refer a friend scheme – We’ve still got places
Marshal request
Not quite ready yet ?

Getting ready for race day
Now’s the time that I’m sure you’re all starting to plan ahead for race weekend
As follows is the link that will take you to the race information pack HERE
This pack contains everything you should need to know about the weekend, but should you think there’s anything missing, please just ask and we’ll add it straight in as this is your info pack, and we want to make sure it tells you everything you need to know
I’ll go on about this over the next few emails too, but it’s really important that you have a read through this at some point before race weekend please as it tells you where to be and when and what to bring.
I’ve tried to make it look a bit less like a race info pack so you can read it at work without being accused of skiving off, and if your household is anything like mine, it’s worth printing off and putting by the toilet as that’s the only peace and quiet you get.

Kit prep and options 
In terms of the Swim, we work in line with the BTF rules on Wetsuits, where basically, they’re compulsory below 14deg water temp, optional between 14 – 23, and banned for anything over that.
We’ve ran middle distance races 23 times now down at that lake, and we’ve always been in the Wetsuit Optional range, albeit occasionally towards the upper end of that. What this means is that although they are optional, 99.99% of you will wear one, which i totally understand as us triathletes love the buoyancy of a wetsuit to stop our feet dredging the bottom the lake.
We’ve had a pretty cold spring this year, and the water temp is around 12deg currently, but due to the shallow nature of the lake, it warms up really quickly when the summer does eventually arrive.
For the more nervous swimmers, you’ll be glad to know there’s a couple of spots on our course where you can just about stand up (assuming you’re not 4ft 6″ and take a quick break before carrying on, and that’s totally fine with us.
We’ll provide you with a Silicon Swim hat, so you won’t need to bring your own. If you are allergic to silicon, you’re welcome to bring your own swim hat to wear, but it must be Flouro Orange
We will also have a pile of alternatively Brightly coloured hats by the swim start, which if you’re a more nervous swimmer, you can wear and it just means the water safety crew can keep an extra eye on you to make sure you get around totally safely

If you’re in the lucky position to be able to choose between a road bike and a TT style bike, it’s a TT bike course all day long. The elevation is around 90m total per lap (2 laps on race day) and it’s about as pancake flat as you’ll find this side of Holland. The road surface is decent for about 98% of the course, but this being the Uk, there are a few potholes, which well go out in the days before the race and mark with a brightly coloured paint so you can avoid them easily – There’s no bits of the course where you’d need a mountain bike and you can easily avoid any poor surfaces

In terms of what to carry on the bike, there’s an aid station you can get to on both laps, but it’s a way into the lap (about 23miles in), so worth starting out with your own drinks bottle and the gels or other nutrition you’re going to want to take in during the first few miles. We have a drinks bottle drop area before you go to the aid station to collect a new bottle, and we’ll collect the old ones up and bring them back to the lake for you to collect any you might want to keep if they’re still in one piece as thrown bottles don’t tend to stay in great shape – You’ll need to fight your way through a swarm of wasps though as sticky drinks bottles are like a magnet for those little buggers.
We will have moto marshals who will have a few tubes and basic tools with them for emergencies, but ultimately, it’s the competitors responsibly to be able to fix any punctures themselves with the spares that they’ll carry, and not to rely on the moto guys as it might be a while before they can get to you

The run course is a mix of mainly Tarmac with some hard packed lakeside paths and about 5% grass. For 99% of weather conditions it’s a road shoe course as the lakeside paths deal with rain really well. If, we’re unlucky enough to have a week of heavy rain before the race day, I’ll keep everyone posted on conditions

Familiarisation day
We will hold our Cotswold 113 Familiarisation day on Saturday May 27th.
These are a great way to come and see the course in advance of race weekend, and to get out on the bike and run courses at a really relaxed pace to see what you have in store the week after at the race.
The emphasis on the day is leisurely, so think 13-14mph average speed on the bike, and 10-12min miles on the run. The day will kick off at 09:00 with a guided lap of the bike (28miles – 2 laps on race day) which takes a couple of hours, and then a 30min break before heading out for a lap of the run course (4.3miles – 3 laps on race day) We’ll have plenty of recouping stops as well as pointing out aid stations etc.
There’s no charge at all for the bike and run beyond the small parking fee the lake guys will charge if you come by car, and if you wanted to swim in the lake that day too, you can book that directly with the lake nearer the time – I’ll send out info on both of those things nearer the time to all those signed up.
It’s a great chance to meet other competitors as well as some of us from the team, and a chance to ask as many questions as you like
We ask that anyone wanting to come along please books in so we can get a handle on numbers as well as having a way to communicate with you all directly
Booking for the 113 Familiarisation day is through www.entrycentral.com/113famday
If you can’t make that day, and still fancy seeing the course, I live local to the lake and work from home on race stuff during the week so can nip out for a few hours for a quick bike and run as long as it’s a weekday as my weekends are largely full with family stuff and my son’s racing. My quick days are long gone, so please accept that the pace will be very leisurely, but I’m happy to get out if needed. Drop me an email and we can try and tie a couple of requests together on the same day
If you’re also doing the July Classic on the new bike course, we’ll fix that date for mid June, and get that out in the classic newsletter later this month.

Refer a friend scheme – We’ve still got places
It’s no big secret that it’s a really tough year in the Triathlon industry, and entry numbers are low across all races in the UK right now for tri’s as well as Sportives and running events, even for the big players as well as the little guys like us.
Our race is normally 1,000 slots, and we have around 800 sign up, so 200 slots left less than 2 months from race day
Therefor, if you have friends that fancy racing with you this year, please point them in our direction
We can rack them next to you in transition and get you off in the same wave if you wanted
Refer a friend, and we’ll give you a £20 discount voucher to use with us next year or at the July Classic
Just get them to add your name in the ‘Referred by’ section on their entry form, and drop me an email
Entry open at www.113events.com

Marshal request 
We have around 190 paid marshal positions at our races, and we still need a few more heads to fill these rolls. We are very proud that we’ve built up a really good reputation as having some the best marshals in the sport, and we only have that as we really look after them and make sure they have a fun day – A happy marshal is a good marshal
Typically, about 50% of our marshals are regulars, and the rest of friends and family of competitors that want to get involved and see the race from the fun side.
We pay all our marshalls too, and they can choose from either £20 cash or a £40 113 Events Voucher.
We’ll take them through a full briefing, kit them up with whatever they need, give them an event team shirt to keep, and stuff their faces with Hot drinks, burgers and ice creams
All we ask is that they’re over 16 (although adults can brings kids with them to help them marshal, but the kids won’t get paid for insurance purposes), know their left from their right and are pretty enthusiastic
We have two basic shifts:
Bike team – 05:45 briefing – Finished about 11:45 (earlier in many spots)
Run team 07:45 briefing – Finished about 14:30 latest
Marshals get free camping on site and free parking, and are invited to the post race beer with the team too

If you’ve got anyone that fancies being part of our team on race weekend, drop me an email at graeme@113events.com

Not quite ready yet ?
Now’s about the time that I’m sure many of you are getting a little twitchy about doing a full middle distance race in the next 7 weeks ?
With this in mind, it’s not too late to ask for another 5 weeks and defer to the July 9th Cotswold Classic Middle Distance race. It’s basically the same race in the same location, but with a different bike course, that although flat, is slightly more rolling
If you can let me know in the next week or so, I can move your entry for free to the July race.
We can still sort it after that deadline, but it will start to incur increasing cost the closer you get to race day as we have to start buying in things that are not interchangeable between the two races.
I’m conscious that we always get numerous panicky requests nearer to race day that we can’t always fulfil, so if you are having a slightly wobble about whether you’ve done the training, or have picked up and injury, or remembered it’s your better haves birthday, just ask me now and I can move you back to give you another 5 weeks
Lots of the parts of both races we have to buy up front are interchangeable, so although we’ve had to commit to this year’s number forecast and can’t now offer deferrals to the following year now we’re within 8weeks of the 113, we can move you between the two races as required without hassle

Right, that’s it for me for todays newsletter. This one has been a long one, so I hope you’re all still awake
We’re here to help, so please just ask if we can help with anything, you need any advice or just need your nerves settling.

I’ll get the next newsletter out early next month, and at that point you’ll get a chance to choose a specific wave and/or number too, as well as more info on the race.

Thanks and Happy training

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

Cotswold 113 / Cotswold Classic V2 Competitor newsletter #1

Good morning all, I hope this email finds you all well and getting out training now the summer’s just around the corner (although it doesn’t feel like it today here)
This initial competitor newsletter is to both the June 4th Cotswold 113 and the July 9th Cotswold Classic V2 Competitors. Further newsletters will be individual for both races.
The idea of the newsletters is to bring you all up to speed in readiness for your races this summer.
I can waffle on a bit, but I hope it means you get all the info you need and leaves no questions unanswered. I’d suggest a strong coffee and a seat for this one, as there’s a fair bit to get through.

In this email, I’ll cover the following :
Race weekend outline, and how it works
Swapping between both races
Getting stuck into your training
Got more mates that want to race
Camping and accommodation options
Got friends or family that fancy a paid role on race weekend
Familiarisation days 

Race weekend Outline, and how it works
In the next few weeks, I’ll get a full competitor information pack out by email to all of you which has everything about the race, from aid station menus to registration requirements. In advance, here’s a basic outline of how the weekend will work.
On the Saturday afternoon of race weekend, we’ll hold a registration window and a couple of briefings at the lake. There’ll also be an opportunity to Swim in the lake if you so choose too, and I’ll send some more info out on the swim a few weeks before the race.
Registration will be where you collect your Swim hat, race bib and timing chip, and also a BFT Day license if you’re not a BTF member (more info on how this works will come out nearer the time). We’ll also hold a couple of informal briefings, where we’ll talk through everything about the race from when you first arrive in the morning, to when you leave at the end of the day. The in person briefings will be quite light hearted and we’ll try and give you all as much info on the race as well as some examples of what to do and what not to do. You can ask as many questions as you like, and these briefings tend to make a lot more sense when you’re at the race location and we can point things out.
Don’t worry if you can’t attend the briefings, as we’ll also send out a shorter and more formal video briefing link for you all to watch too.
We do all our bike racking on the Sunday morning. The reason for this is that I find that if you rack on the Saturday, you spend just as long, if not longer, on the Sunday morning checking your bike again, fitting drinks and food and pumping up tyres etc
Transition will open on Sunday AM at 04:30, and the race will start at 06:30.
About 5 weeks out from the race, when the start list is fixed, everyone will get an email with a window where they can choose a wave and/or a race number or series of numbers to be racked with their mates. Please don’t ask before that window as we can’t allocate these until the start list is fixed, and specific numbers are first come first served once that window is open.
Start Wave format – We have an initial mass start wave, followed by a series of rolling start windows and these can be chosen as above a few weeks out from the race. The waves aren’t speed/time based and anyone can chose any wave they like. Some people like a mass start whilst others like a more sedate rolling start, and others like to get going early, whereas others like to watch a few waves head off first before they start their race, it’s all fine by us.
The swim is a single loop of 1.9km, and the bike course for both races are two 45km loops making around 90km total ride (Cotswold113 and Cotswold Classic v2 have two different bike courses)
The run is the same for both events and is 3 laps of 7km, and the race starts and finishes in the same place.
We don’t operate a bag system, and you can leave all your kit with your bike in transition. We do have a shoe and jacket drop area near the start so if you want to wear something over your wetsuit and some shoes/flip flops before your swim after you’ve left transition, you can drop them in an area by a tent by the start and collect them after the race.
We’ll get a lot more info out on the exact times of various things in the next few weeks, but this is just an outline so you can start planning your weekend.

Swapping between both races
I’m conscious that every year we get to this point and many of you will have either forgot to start training, picked up an injury, or have suddenly realised that it’s your wedding anniversary that weekend and can no longer race on the date you’ve booked.
If you come to me much later to move around entries, it’s much harder to do the closer you get and not always possible.
However, if you feel now that you’d like to move your race back 5 weeks from June 4th to July 9th, or vice versa, we still have places free at both races, so I can sort this easily and without cost to yourselves. Just drop me an email and I can get this sorted
Alternatively, you might have entered the June race and fancy doing the July race too, but didn’t enter them both together through the entry system to get the £40 Combo entry discount. if you’ve entered one race, and fancy doing both, drop me an email and I can give you a discount voucher for the other race to match the combo race price.

Getting stuck into your training
Now’s about the right time to really concentrate on training well for the races, so our local Coach and regular competitor at 113 has put together a training plan outline for you if you decide you need it.
It’s totally free, and you can download it HERE
Ollie’s a good guy, and really knows his stuff as well as the intricacies of our races, so if you feel that free plan doesn’t fit you, his contact details are on the plan and he’s always up for a chat.

Got more mates that want to race
Both races still have slots available, so if you have friends that want to race too, please point them our way. We can set you all off in the same wave, and rack you next to each other in transition, so you can make it a mini championship between your group. We can even produce separate results for your group if you like too – Entries open at www.113events.com 

Camping and accommodation options
Now’s about the time that many of you will be thinking about planning your weekend. The area is perfect for family too, and there’s loads of things to do if you were thinking about making a long weekend of it.
If you’re like me, and like a hot shower and a warm bed the night before racing, the nearest and by far the best hotel is the Devere Cotswolds Waterpark hotel. It’s about 3 miles from the race start and on the bike course for the June 113. We tend to pretty much fill it with competitors, so they’re good with putting on an early breakfast and somewhere safe for you to keep your bike overnight rather than leaving it on the rack in the carpark
The link for there is https://www.devere.co.uk/cotswold-water-park-hotel/

Alternatively, we have a new campsite right next to the race location at the Cotswold Lake Brewery (map below) You can book those guys directly at https://cotswoldlakescamping.com/

The location for the race is GL76DF and if neither of the above take your fancy, there’s lots of other campsites and AirBNB’s nearby too

Got Friends and family that fancy a paid role on race weekend ?

As anyone that has every organised races will know this, but getting marshals is one of the hardest parts of the job of a race organiser.
We pay all our marshals at 113 Events, and they can choose from either £20 cash or a £40 113 Events voucher, and we’ll get them an events team shirt and keep them in hot food, drinks and ice creams all day.
They don’t need any experience at all, and we’ll take them through a full briefing and kit them up with up with everything they need for the day as well as partnering them up if required.
All we ask is that they know their left from their right, are over 16 and are enthusiastic. We’re very aware that good marshals make a race, so we’ll ensure they have a good laugh and enjoy the day.
The two basic shifts are Bike course – 05:45-11:45ish and run course 07:45-14:00ish
They even get an invite to the post race team beer at the pub afterwards.
We have around 200 paid roles on race weekend, and we’d love to fill that team with some new faces
If you have friends or family that fancy being involved and see the race from the best seat in the house, please get in touch by email at graeme@113events.com

Free of charge Familiarisation days

For both races, we are planning on running our normal free of charge familiarisation days.
These days are normal 3-6 weeks out from each race, and are a great chance to come down to the lake, meet the team and other competitors, and have a very leisurely paced guided lap of the Bike and run courses. You can also swim on the day, but we don’t guide that as I’m conscious that the variety of paces is quite high, and it’s not sensible to have people either treading water at various stages or others swimming outside of their comfort zone to try and keep up.
They’re super relaxed and informal, and we’ll take groups out around a single lap of the bike course (45km) and single lap of the run course (7km). The pace is super leisurely too, so think something like 12-14mph average on the bike and maybe 10-12min miles on the run. We have loads of stops too so we can point out aid stations and various other things as well as regroup.
These are a great chance to see the courses for the day and meet other competitors as well as our team. For our team, these days are great as it’s a nice chance to meet people in a more relaxed environment as on race weekend everyone has their race faces on and it’s hard to get more than a grunt out of you lot. There’ll be loads of chances to ask questions too, and we’ll make the day fun.
The dates of these are being fixed in the next few weeks, and we’ll get them out in the next event newsletters for each races.

Right, that’s it from me for today.
We’re here to help, so if there’s anything we can do to make your run up the races easier, please just ask – My number’s 07595 591612 and you can call me anytime

The next newsletters for each event will be later this month, and I’ll try not to make it quite so long next time 🙂

Cheers and Happy training

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

Who’s ready for 2023 ?

The 2022 Triathlon season is barely in full swing now, but we’re already getting next year ready and we’ve made some changes to the July Classic to keep things fresh..

2023 Dates

Historically, the 113 and Classic have been identical other than Name and Date. However, in order to differentiate the two races, we have a brand new bike course for the Classic V2.0 from 2023 onwards, as well as some tweaks to the Swim and Run courses.
The Classic V2.0 bike course is still very fast, but is now more ‘Gently Rolling’ than the 113’s Pancake flat course, and heads out West rather than East, to take in some new sights that the Cotswolds are most famous for.
Both races are going through a bit of modernisation for 2023 too, with a posh new Finish Gantry, and some nice new updates to various other bits of the race.
Entry for both races open August 1st at 00:01and there’s a combo entry where you can save £40 by entering both June and July races together.

Gender Balance

Although it’s something we didn’t actively set out to achieve, a really nice side effect of our course, race atmosphere and team is that over the last few year’s, the Female/Male ratio at our races has been getting closer and closer to 50/50, and was 40/60 at this summer’s July Cotswold Classic. While most other medium to large UK middle distance races are more like 15/85 or less, can we get the 113 and Classic to 50/50 ?

Club Entries
Got a club or a group of mates where you can get 10 or more entries together for either race ?
We offer discounts for group entries, will ensure you’re in sequential numbers to be racked together, and can put you all in the same wave so you start together. We can even produce separate results so you can compare your times if you wanted to have our races as your club championship
Bring a club gazebo and set it up near the finish for a focal point, or bring a team of helpers and have an aid station named after your group. The best presented and most vocal club/group Aid station can win a couple of free entries to a future race too, so get out your fancy dress, start up your stereo and cheer on our competitors whilst promoting your club.
For more info email graeme@113events.com

Mass or rolling starts, why choose ?
I’m conscious that although rolling starts are the most popular now days, there’s still a minority that like the buzz of a Mass Start or just like to know that the person they’re racing* against isn’t 10 or 20 seconds ahead or behind them on the clock.
For this reason, we have both at our races, and you can choose to either line up in the Mass start and have a single start time with all the others in that format, or have a more relaxed rolling start where we set competitors off at 3-4 second intervals and your race time starts at the point you cross the start mat into the Water.
*You don’t need to be in the mass start for the race to be competitively timed in your age category, and the results aren’t effected by your start wave choice.

Entries for next year’s races open at 00:01 on 1st August through www.113events.com

We hope you all have a great remainder of 2022, and we’ll look forward to seeing many of you on our start lines next Summer

Cheers

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

Cotswold Classic Post race newsletter

Firstly, and most importantly, thank you all from all of us at 113 for choosing to race with us this year. It was great to have you all along, and we truly hope that you all thoroughly enjoyed today despite it being a little bit on the warm side.
Today was a proper scorcher, so I’d like to think you all have your feet up right now after such a tough day, especially if you’re all as toasted as we were ?
It’s a tough time in the Triathlon industry this year, and there’s way more races around than there are competitors, so we truly appreciate that you entrusted us with your Middle Distance racing in 2022.

We’ve just been for our post race beer, and I’m pretty much ready for bed now 1 beer in, so I won’t make this a long email, and I’m sure you’re all bored to death of reading my ramblings anyway.
In this email I’ll cover the following :

Race results and pics
Shirt swaps and lost property
End of the Cotswold Classic as you know it / 2023 races
Feedback request

Race results and pics
I get that most of you only care about one thing, and that’s how fast you went and how you looked doing it
With that in mind, you can find the results from today on the following link :
RESULTS HERE
Today, although very hot, also made for some very fast racing for those of you that were quick enough to be finished before the sun really heated up, and both Lee Williams and Laura Grey broke our existing male and female course records respectively, so really well done to them, and to everyone else that either smashed a PB or completely their first triathlon at this distance.

The race photo’s will be up on Charles Whitton’s website in a couple of days when he’s had a chance to sort through what will be 20k or so pics.
How it works, is we pay for your first download, which is in a resolution suitable for Facebook, Instagram etc, but if you want more pics and super high resolution pics that you can print onto something like the tea cup or the side of a bus, he has all those available to purchase too
His website is as follows
RACE PICS
We’d also love to see any other of your pics from the day too, so please either tag 113Events on Socials or use the #113events hashtag.

Shirt swaps and lost property 
It’s become pretty regular that people ordered shirts some time ago, and they’ve since changed size or just want an extra one to have at home. We still have loads of shirts left over, and will be at the lake all day tomorrow clearing everything away and getting it all back into storage for next season. If you’re still in the area and want to come and grab anything, please just head back down the lake and come and say hi
We also have a small amount of lost property, loads of left over gels and food from run aid station 2, so if you want to grab some gels, packets of Jamaican ginger cake or chocolate cookies, we have shed loads.
We’ll be down there from around 9am until around 2-3pm, and the kettle will be on

End of the Cotswold Classic as you know it / 2023 races
As many of you know, the Cotswold Classic has always been what is basically a copy/paste repeat of the June Cotswold 113.
However, we’ve decided that we need to try and get some clear differentiation between the two races, so the Cotswold Classic as you know it finished today, and from 2023 onwards, we will have the Cotswold Classic V2.0. – It will eventually get a completely new name, but all the suggestions we’ve made as a team have been a bit crap, so we’re not fixed on one just yet and that bit is still very much work in progress.
It’s not a radical change, but from now on will have a completely different bike course and will head West from the lake rather than East. It will still be pretty fast, but is a lot more “rolling’ than our current course, and although has a greater elevation to what we use currently, we feel will be equally as fast as the new course flows a lot better with no stop start type turns or out and back loops with roundabouts or islands. It’ll still be two laps, and will still come back past the lake each lap, but I think is a bit more scenic (for those of you that previously raced our Cotswold226 back before it finished, will know the course we used for that, and it’s a mini version of that loop)
It’s possible that we will change the run course up too, but that won’t be a radical change as we’re kinda confined by land boundaries and available decent paths and roads.
Both our races for 2023 will go through a bit of modernisation too, and along with a brand new posh finish Gantry as ours is nearly 9 years old now and quite dated compared to other races, there’ll be a few more bits behind the scenes which will change as well as trying to make the whole competitor/spectator experience more enjoyable.
Our 2023 race dates are now fixed as follows, and race entries open online through www.113events.com at 00:01 on August 1st.
Cotswold 113 – June 5th 2023
Cotswold Classic V2.0 – July 9th 2023

Feedback request
We’ve run this Middle distance race 23 times now, and every year we try and tweak little bits here and there to make sure it’s the very best it possibly can be. Without you guys giving us feedback on what you liked or what you feel can be improved, we’ve got no way of knowing all the little details you guys touch and feel in the run up to the race and on race day itself, as our team really only see snippets of the day from your side.
I’d really appreciate if you can take 5 mins to email me some feedback on what you felt about this race please, and anything we can either do more of or less of to make your enjoyment of the day and all the communications pre race better please.
One of the points I’m particularly interested in [but certainly not limited to] is how, for this race, we moved back to giving an early registration window on the Saturday, as this was way more popular than we could’ve expected with nearly 80% of competitors coming along to register on the Saturday. If this is something we’ll stick with from now on, what else would you like to see on the Saturday that could make it more worthwhile coming along the day before or any other feedback from those that did come on Saturday ?

Right, that really is it from me. Thanks again for choosing to race with us, and especially thanks for being such a great bunch of competitors. It’s been our pleasure to have you all on our start line and meeting many of you at our familiarisation days, and I’ve seen some truly inspirational achievements today.
We hope to see many of you back racing, or even marshalling, with us again in 2023

Cheers

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

Cotswold Classic – July 10th 2022

Good evening all
Just a few sleeps to go and we can welcome you to our race weekend.
This will likely be the last you’ll hear from me before the race weekend, so this might be a reasonably long one.

In this email I’ll cover the following :

Registration requirements
Video Briefing
Bike course etiquette
Weather update and preparation
Race morning prep
Parking for competitors and spectators

Registration requirements
There’s often some confusion about what’s needed by you all for registration, so I’ll try and cover the main points as follows
You can register with us either on Saturday afternoon between 2 and 4 by the swim start at our early registration window that we’re trying out for the first time this weekend, or Sunday morning by transition on arrival.
In order to register, you will need either a 2022 BTF Photo card ID, or another form of Photo ID and £5 cash for a BTF day license. If you don’t want to bring the actual ID with you, a photo on your phone or a photocopy is totally fine too.
Our BTF referee is very strict on us checking ID or BTF cards, so please accept that if you cannot provide either a valid 2022 BTF photo card (with a picture on it) or another form of photo ID and £5 cash for a BTF day license, you will not be able to race.
For both Saturday’s early registration window, and Sunday morning’s normal registration, you will need to have your race bib (race number) with you too.
Registration on Sunday morning will end at 06:00 prompt, so you will need to register before that point if you want to race.
When you arrive at transition Sunday morning to register, you will need to show your race bib and be wearing your helmet on your head and fastened so that we can make a quick visual check that it actually fits (you’d be surprised how many people turn up with helmets that either don’t fit on their heads, or the chin strap is loose down by their chest)
You will then be given a wristband to show that you’ve registered, and can then head into transition where you will get issued your swim cap and your timing chip and strap will be at your spot in the racking.

Video Briefing
Please find the link to your video briefing as follows :

Dave is actually really Noisy, as you’ll see on Sunday. However, the poor guy gets really camera shy so literally sits there and says nothing (much to the delight of my ears)

We will have a non compulsory newbies briefing on Saturday afternoon at the lake at around 16:00.
Although it’s called a Newbies briefing, it’s not just for newbies and it’ll cover everything about our race, takes about and hour and is useful for anyone that’s either pretty new to triathlon, or even those that haven’t raced with us before
We’ll try and make it fairly light hearted and try not to bore you all to death with an hour of constant talking.
You can ask any questions you might have too, and it’ll be very informal
This will be by the Swim exit about 100m from the race start/finish.

Bike course etiquette 
I’m going to go into a bit of a rant now, so please accept my apologies in advance as it’s not my preferred style, as I hope you’ve all seen.
Over the last few year’s, I’ve seen some truly shocking behaviour on bike courses at triathlons all around the UK and into Europe (this includes our races too, so I’m not pointing any fingers at other organisers)
Seemingly really nice guys (I’m being gender specific here, as we very rarely get any issues with female competitors) can for some reason, turn into really badly behaved cyclists as soon as they get a race number on and the red mist descends.
This is something we simply cannot tolerate at our races as how other competitors are treated by each other, and how the local area perceive our race is super important to me.
I’ll give you a couple of examples that I’ve seen at our races in the last couple of years :
1) A competitor cuts a right hand corner into the path of an oncoming car. The car jams it’s brakes on, and the cyclists calls the driver a F’ing C*** even though the cyclist was on the wrong side of the road and totally in the wrong.
2) A nervously driven car is on the spine road waiting behind a cyclist to overtake. Another cyclist decides they’d rather undertake the waiting car driven by a nervous 80year old, and then shouts obscenities at the driver when they panic and put the brakes on.

In both these incidences, I got dragged in front of local parish councils for a bollocking, which was not much fun.
We have a really good relationship with the local residents to our two races, and I’m very keen to maintain this please which is why we are being so strict on this.

If.. our team, moto refs, moto support guys or any local residents report any discourteous behaviour out on our bike or run courses, that competitor will be instantly DQ’d, will not get to complete the race and will be banned from 113 Events races for life.
If.. anyone is caught intentionally littering, this will also be an instant DQ as this is a big issue in the area.

I appreciate it’s less than 0.1% of competitors that end up riding or behaving like this, but it spoils it for everyone and seriously jeopardises the future of our races in the area..

I gave a very similar warning to our competitors before the June Cotswold 113 this year, and the standard or riding and behaviour was exemplary so you guys have a high bar to match please

Right, rant over

Weather update and preparation 

The forecast for this weekend is looking to be a scorcher.
With this in mind, please can I remind you all the bike course aid station is not until around 24miles into each lap, so if you are planning on using the bike course Aid station, please remember to have enough drink and gels on your bike to get yourself started. You will see the bike course aid station on the way out on the other side of the road, but you must not cross the road to get to it, and is only available for the return leg of the loop please.

The water temperature today was a little over 20deg, so given how warm it’s going to be for the next few days, I’d expect it to be 21-22 on race day. This is the warmer end of the Wetsuit optional range, and I know that us triathletes love a wetsuit even when the water is perfect for not wearing one, so please be mindful that you’re likely to come out the water really quite warm and will want to drink as soon as you get on the bike.

For the run, we will endeavour to have a hose pipe to spray people down as you come through the lake complex, and often the families in the residential area of Somerford Keynes on the run course will do the same.
Because of some strange insurance / liability rules, we can’t supply sun cream for you, but there are plenty of the team in transition that can help you if you need to apply your own.
The run course is about 30-40% in the shade under trees too, so that should help you keep cool.
This is British weather forecasting though, so it could be 35deg or snowing come Sunday.

Race Morning prep
When you leave transition in the morning, you will need to walk over to the pre race toilets by the swim exit and on to the swim start area (about 100m max total). Although the pre race toilets are on grass, the swim start area is on a stone path.
It’s perfectly ok for most feet barefooted, but if you want to preserve those tootsies for the swim, you’re welcome to bring an old set of slippers (hotel ones are mint for this), sliders, flip flops or trainers etc and leave them by the waters edge as you head off in your wave. The swim start is right by the finish line, so you can grab them after the race, or if you want to just leave them there, we’ll collect them up after the race and put them in the skip for you.
Also, some people like to keep warm before the race whilst they’re waiting to get started, and you’re welcome to put any jumpers, coats etc in the pop up gazebo by the start line and collect after the race. It’s in the finish area, so is competitors only, but you’d obviously leave anything there at your own risk.
Transition area is competitors only, and is reasonably secure, so most people just leave there stuff in their bags with their bikes.
As a side note to this, although it looks like it’s going to be dry, the grass that transition is on can get overnight dew, so it’s worth having a large plastic bag to lay your stuff on top of (or in if it looks like it might rain) in your spot in transition. Bin bags, Ikea bags etc are the most popular. In line with BTF rules, you cannot have a plastic box in transition since about 2017, so anything you want to keep by your bike will need to be in a soft bag please.

Parking for competitors and spectators Sat/Sunday

For those of you coming along on Saturday, only the main Competitor car park will be open from 13:00-18:00.
Saturday parking is £2 cash please, and you can also buy Sunday’s £5 car parking ticket on Saturday to save yourself some time Sunday morning. Car parking tickets are only valid for the Main competitor car park.
When you park in the competitor carpark on Saturday, you will get a green wristband which will allow you to walk into the gate of the beach and country park without being charged walk in rate by those guys. You can walk through the Beach and Country park towards transition area and the start/finish which is where we’ll hold the early registration and briefing outlined above
On Sunday, the main competitor carpark will be open from 04:00 until 06:00 and has enough space to house all competitors and handful of spectators. Car parking for Sunday is £5 cash on arrival, so please have the right note or change if possible as scrabbling for change at 4am is not much fun for anyone. The phone signal at the lake is patchy at best so we cannot take card, only cash please
At the south of the above diagram, you will see the competitor overflow and spectator parking which will also be open from 4am until early afternoon, and is also £5cash payable to the guys that own it on the gate. I’m afraid you cannot buy the tickets for there on Saturday as it’s run independently to our car parking, which is rented to us (for an extortionate fee) by a local farmer for the weekend.
Both carparks are fields, so although perfectly fine for 99% of cars, you might struggle if you have the nice option of turning up in your Lamborghini sports car.
The spectator carpark is right on the bike and run courses, and is just a 3 min walk to the finish line area.
With the weather looking so good this weekend, it’s worth getting your fan club to come earlier rather than later if they’re not planning on being there for the start as it’s possible that the waterpark will get exceptionally busy later in the morning, and the spectator carpark will start to fill up with people that are just looking for a day at the lake rather than just people coming along for the race.

Right, that’s it for my waffle today, and the next time you’ll hear from me is in person over the weekend
Myself, and the 113 team are very much looking forward to welcoming you all along this weekend, but please just get in touch if there’s anything we can help with.
I’m at the lake building etc pretty much solidly between now and Sunday, so you’re better off giving me a call rather than trying to email – 07595 591612

Happy tapering everyone and see you in just 3 sleeps

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

Cotswold Classic July 10th 2022

Good evening all, I hope everyone’s feeling nice and ready for racing next weekend ?
Race weekend is only 7 days away, so hopefully you’ve all taken the time to read through the race info pack :
https://www.113events.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/CC2022-–-Race-Information-Sheet.pdf
If you’ve missed any of our previous newsletters, you can find all of those at www.113events.com/news

In this 2nd instalment of the pre race emails, I’ll cover the following :

Race Weekend Planning / Swimming
Race bibs and bike stickers
Live results
Food and drink on site
Weather and prep

Race Weekend Planning
I know that now we’re a week out from the race, you’ll now be starting to plan your weekend properly, so I wanted to get out some info on what’s on and when.
If you’re either local or down for the weekend, on Saturday, there’ll be a few non compulsory things going on:

You will be able to have a swim* in the lake on their marked 400/750/1500m courses (the 1500m course is basically our course with a small dog leg section we use to make up the distance)
You have to book this directly with the lake guys, which you can do at https://www.lake32.co.uk/product/payg-swimming/
*Please be mindful that the lake owners have a rule where you can only swim (outside of race days) with a Towfloat, so you’ll either need your own or to rent one from them – You won’t need this on race day

We will have a window where you can register early to save you having to do it Sunday morning. This will be by the finish line area, and will be from 14:00 – 16:00

Finally, we will have a briefing on the Saturday at 16:00 next to the Swim exit. This isn’t compulsory, and your compulsory briefing will come out via a youtube link in the next few days in the pre race newsletter #3
I want to call this a newbies briefing, but it’s not just for newbies, it’s for everyone that maybe hasn’t raced with us before, or is new to middle distance triathlon. It’ll take about 45mins to an hour and we’ll go through all the various bits of the race in detail and answer any questions you might have along the way. It’ll be really informal, and we’ll try and make it at least semi entertaining so you’re not all falling asleep. Myself and Dave will host it and the aim is to just go through all the little bits of the race and the where’s and when’s of what to do (or not to do) on race day to make sure you get the most out of your experience

The Main Competitor carpark (Upper one on the pic below) will be open from 13:00 – 18:00 on Saturday the 9th and costs £2 to park on the Saturday, and £5 to park on the Sunday. On the Saturday, you can also buy Sunday’s parking ticket to save yourself a few minutes early Sunday morning too.

So just to summarise those Saturday times :
Main Competitor Car park open 13:00-18:00
Early registration window – 14:00-16:00
Saturday briefing 16:00-17:00ish

Please note that the southern Overflow car park will not be open on Saturday the 9th, only race day.

Race bibs and bike stickers
By now, 99% of you should have received your race bib and bike sticker in an envelope in the post.
If you were one of our late entries, or you have a foreign postal address, your race bibs and bike stickers will be available to collect on either the Saturday early registration Window, or Sunday morning registration by transition.
If your pack has not arrived by this Tuesday, please can you email to Mary@dbmax.co.uk and she will arrange for a replacement to be available to collect as above
Live results
Our timing partner for the event, DBMax, will have a live results page up and running during the race
This will show the moment at which you start, when you finish any of the Swim, bike or run segments of the race, as well as the point you cross various timing mats on the bike and run course as well as the finish
We’ll have a link up during race weekend that your friends and family can track you on here :
https://www.113events.com/cotswold-classic/results/

Food and drink on site
Lots of people having been asking what provisions we have for spectator (and competitor post race) food and drink on site. Around the start finish area, the lake guys have a nice little cafe that does a whole load of healthy (and unhealthy) burgers, jacket potatoes etc as well as some really nice homemade cakes and coffee’s. They will also have a BBQ going beside the cafe and there’s going to be a burger van too and a couple of smaller stalls. If you’re family/freinds are looking for something to do whilst you’re out on the bike course, the Beach and Country park, which houses our transition and you will walk through from the main car park to the start, has another nice Cafe and a pizza place which does stone cooked Pizzas to order and a few other bits and bobs. The run course goes right by their cafe/shop too as the Park contains about 40% of our run course.
They’ve also got a really cool ‘Total Wipeout’ type course in the water if your family wanted something else to do during the day – Info on the Beach and Country park – https://www.cotswoldcountryparkandbeach.com

Weather and prep
If you are to believe the accuracy of Weather forecasting, it looks like we’re going to have a bit of a mini heatwave over the coming week (looking out my office window at the rain right now makes that pretty hard to believe I might add)

The water temperature is around 20deg right now, so a good week fo sunshine would see this up around 22 on race morning. This is Wetsuit optional temperature, and I can’t see that changing by race day.
The lake is little shallow at the moment (short version of the long story is the 70 or so lakes in the Waterpark are mainly interlinked and fresh water fed, and a new quarry next door to a lake upstream from the one we race at, has a blockage currently, so lake 32 is currently a couple of feet shallower than normal). This is good news for the less confident swimmers amongst you as it’ll mean there’s more places you can stand up, although might mean a slight tweak to the course layout, which we’ll keep everyone posted on if required
It’s worth noting that the bike course aid station is around 23miles into the bike lap if you’re planning on using it, so if it’s very warm on race day, you’ll want to ensure you have enough water/gels on your bike at the start of the race to get you to that distance. You have two laps on the bike course, so two stops of aid available.
The run course has 3 aid stations per lap (each lap is 4.3miles) and full info on what’s at each station is in the race info pack.

Right, that’s it from me for tonight. The next you’ll hear from me is early to mid next week with a link to the race info pack as well as some reminders of what to bring on race weekend for registration etc

We’re here to help, so if you get any questions or there’s anything we can help with, please just ask

Cheers and happy tapering, and we’ll look forward to welcoming you all along to our race next weekend

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