|
||
|
Got a group of mates or club and want discounted entry ?
|
||
|
Cotswold Classic 2021 – Pre race email #1
The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold Classic 2021 competitors tonight
|
||
|
Cotswold 113 2021 – Pre race email #1
The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold 113 2021 competitors today
|
||
|
Cotswold Classic 2021 – May Newsletter
The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold Classic 2021 Competitors today
|
||
|
Cotswold 113 – May competitor newsletter
The following email went out to all Cotswold 113 2021 Competitors today
|
||
|
Cotswold113 – April Competitor newsletter
The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold113 2021 competitors tonight:
Cotswold 113 – 6th June 2021
Good evening all, I hope everyone’s well and enjoying this little taste of summer weather we’ve had over the last few days ?
We’re a little under 7 weeks away from this year’s Cotswold 113, so I wanted to get you all out a little bit more info on the bike course, how the day’s going to work and a couple of other little bits
In this email, I’ll cover the following:
New Bike Course for 2021
How the day will go, and what to expect on the day
Swim options Swim start
Last minute changes
Wave start info
Camping update
Marshal info
New Bike course for 2021
Last year, we made a fairly large change to our bike course. Some of this was driven by a requirement for social distancing around the lake area (The turnaround for lap 2 last year was away from the lake) and some was to get it to flow a little better for the competitors, Traffic Management and Police teams that control some of the junctions. Anyway, lots of it worked really well, but many of you missed the spectacle of coming back past the lake at the end of each lap, so we’ve tweaked things again so that it works as a loop back around the lake before you head out on lap two.
I’ve uploaded a map of the route we’ll be using this year on map my ride, and you can see that here https://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/4257970519
We’ll put a proper map out in the race info pack in a couple of weeks, but on the MMR link above you can see the map with mile markers and direction or download GPX files for any of you that want to come and ride it before the big day.
The kind guys at the council have even resurfaced through South Cerney now too, which makes for a nice smooth section, whereas previously was a little rough in patches.
The route is two laps to make up the 56mile bike section.
It’s pretty much pancake flat too, so if you’re lucky enough to have both a road and TT bike at your disposal, it’s a TT bike course all day long.
How the day will go, and what to expect on the day
As explained in my previous newsletter, due to Covid restrictions we won’t be running any registration and briefings on the Saturday as we do normally, and everything will happen on the Sunday 6th.
We will post out your race bibs around 7-10days before the race, and on race morning, you will register on arrival to transition, and your swim hat and timing chip/strap will be laid out in your spot in the racking ready to go.
We have a carpark that is around 300 meters away from transition too, and this is about a 3 min walk with a bike and a wetsuit etc.
I’ll cover more on what you need to bring on the day for registration in a later email, but for those of you that aren’t BTF members (typically around 30% of our competitors) I’ll also cover in a later mail how we sort day membership for all of you in the morning, but we have that covered.
The transition area will open at 04:00, and the race will start at 06:00 (more on that in the next section of this mail)
As triathlon doesn’t have ‘Spectators’ as such, and 99% of people that come along to our races are a support crew for competitors, everyone will be allowed on site to see the race start and around the finish area. There will be coffee stands and the lake’s cafe open from 04:00, and we will have the guys from Speedhub Triathlon store there with a stand too.
Obviously, social distance rules will still remain in June, and we would ask you all to please remember this on the day.
I’ve covered the bike course above, and I’ll cover the swim later in this mail, so that just leaves the run course, which is 3 laps, and each lap comes back through the lake complex and down past the finish chute and transition.
Like the bike course, the run course is pancake flat, and although is a mixture of tarmac and lakeside hard pack paths, is a road shoe course unless we have a week of rain in the run up to June 6th. Even then, the lakeside paths handle water very well and don’t get too muddy. About 40% of the run course is under the shade of trees too incase anyon’e’s concerned about sunburn on a very hot day. We’ll keep everyone up to date with conditions in the week before the race, but I’d fully expect it to be fine for road shoes for 99% of you all.
I’ll keep you all updated on Water temperature nearer the time, but I’m fully expecting it to be within the ‘Wetsuit optional’ range, which in reality means everyone just wears a wetsuit anyway.
Swim options and swim start
The swim will start at 06:00, and go off in 6 waves which will each be a 10min window for a rolling start running one straight after the other. This will list as waves 1,2,3,4,5 & 6. We will have 3 start chutes marked out on the morning. The first will be for those that want to do a shorter swim at around 400m. The second two will be for the normal 1,900m course. In each chute, we will set a swimmer off at 5 second intervals (ie one swimmer into the water every 2.5 seconds for the main course) The swim entrance is nice and wide and has a shallow ramp into the water so you can wade in and set off rather than some swims were you need to dive straight into cold water.
You don’t need to tell us in advance if you wish to do the 400m/1,900m courses and can make your mind up on the morning. Our timing system will pick up which start you’ve made, and we’ll produce separate results (You can also skip the swim entirely, and start on the bike)
I’m very conscious that the majority of you will have lost a big chunk of swim training at the start of this year with pools and open water venues having to close, and I’d not want anyone who’s not perhaps a seasoned swimming to worry unnecessarily about having to swim 1,900 without the right training, so those other options of a shorter swim, or no swim at all, are for you, and you can still cross the same finish line and get the same medal as you would if you did the full distance. These are truly unusual times, and I hope we can help cater for everyone to get around safely and still really enjoy their day.
I’m also aware that some small groups of you will want to be racing each other, and the social distancing rules at that time (assuming we continue along the Boris Roadmap) allow smaller groups to be together. Therefore, if you all wanted to wait just after the chute, and before you cross the start mat, and cross it together so you have the same start time on the clock, we’re ok with that as long as you’re sensible about it.
The swim will be a single lap of a course around the lake. It’s easy enough to navigate the buoys, and we’ll put a 6 foot swim map at the swim entrance (and in there’ll be a map in the race info pack)
For those of you that are nervous about the swim, but still want to do the full length: Just to reassure you, there’s a couple of points that you can stand up and take a break if needed, and the water safety team will allow you to grab a canoeist and take a couple of mins if you need also. We don’t have a swim cut off, and we’ll allow you to take as long as you like as long as the water safety crew don’t feel you’re a danger to yourself, and are making some form of semi consistent reasonable forward motion.
Last minute changes
From Wednesday this week (21st April), we have to fix the start list with various people such as insurers, governing bodies, timing company etc.
Therefore, if you need to make any last minute changes to your entry at all, please can you take this as 24hours notice until we simply can’t change anything.
For example, you might have got married (or divorced) and changed your surname, you might have joined a tri club, so want a different club listed on the results, you might have moved house and need to change the address we post the pack to, you might have decided you want to identify as a different gender to that which you list when you signed up or really anything else that you want to change on your entry.
After Wednesday morning this week, I can’t make any changes to anything (other than relay team members as they’re run differently to solo entries)
Just drop me an email at graeme@113events.com please and I’ll sort the rest this end.
Wave start info
—–Please read this whole section before emailing me—–
After Wednesday, the race is fixed and the start list is available to me on a massive spreadsheet for me to manipulate and set waves etc.
Typically, we would allow you all, if you wanted, to choose a specific wave and/or race number.
However, unfortunately, this year we can only let you choose a wave 🙁
As you might appreciate, we’ve had to make a number of concessions with various stakeholders to get permission to run the race in this strange time we’re living in. One such concession is for us to take steps to stop people gathering in groups in transition which happens a lot when clubs or groups of mates are racked next to each other in the numerically sequential racking layout. I’m afraid this means that you won’t be able to choose your specific race number this year and they’ll be allocated in a largely alphabetically manner in order to spread groups around, but keep family units together who would largely be travelling down together and within the same ‘Family bubble’ anyway.
Although, you can still choose which wave you want to go off in, and the window for submitting that request by email, if you so choose, is from Wednesday 21st April to Saturday 24th April.
The waves will be
Wave 1 06:00-06:10
Wave 2 06:10-06:20
Wave 3 06:20-06:30
Wave 4 06:30-06:40
Wave 5 06:40-06:50
Wave 6 06:50-07:00
You may also want to ask for a specific wave for your club or group of mates, and here’s how that works :
With a race of this size, we tend to get lots of duplicates of seemingly unique names, not just your Julie Black’s and John Smiths.
Therefore, if you’re asking for a wave for a list of names, please can I ask that you do the following:
1) Check with them first that they actually want to be in that wave, and I’m not going to get a later email from them asking for a totally different wave (This happens a lot)
2) List not just their name, but also their date of birth and registered email address so I can ensure we get the right person
3) If you’re asking for the first or last waves, they’re pretty popular, so please give a second preference too incase that specific wave is all full by the time your request comes in
4) Check with the person you’re asking for that they did actually sign up to the race (This also happens a lot)
To request your preferred wave from this Wednesday, please just drop me an email at graeme@113events.com with ‘Waves’ in the title.
I’ll then spend the weekend getting these all together, and will publish the final start list with waves and numbers early next week.
I’m likely to get 6-700 email requests for waves, so please understand if I don’t email back to all of you straight away, and await the start list coming out next week which will list everyone’s wave and number. We do have a very small amount of wriggle room on waves, so if you later want to swap and you have genuine good reason to have missed the window, please just ask and we’ll see what we can do.
Camping update
As mentioned in the last newsletter, the campsite next to the lake has taken the decision not to open at all this year. We have been trying hard to get an area near to the lake that can be used for camping instead on Saturday the 5th that is within walking distance of the start.
However, I’m afraid we’re making slow progress on this and drawing lots of blanks.
With that in mind, I don’t want anyone pinning their hopes on this being possible (We are still trying, but chances are looking increasingly slim) so would suggest if you are a camping type and want to stay down in the area, to start looking at other options.
There are lots of AirBnB type properties and hotels within a few miles of the lake, and a few campsites within a short drive of the area. The postcode of the race location for your search is GL7 6DF
Marshal request
Do you have anyone coming along with you that fancies being part of our team on the day ?
We still have around 20 marshal positions of our circa 190 that we need to fill if you have anyone that you can bring along pretty please
These are on the bike and run courses, and they don’t need any experience at all, and all we ask is that they’re reasonably enthusiastic, know their left from the their right and are over 16
We’ll give them a full briefing with the course managers first, kit them up with everything they need, pair them up with someone else if they need and really look after them for the day
We pay all our marshals too, and they can choose from either a cold, hard £20 note or a £40 113 Events voucher and we’ll keep them fed and watered throughout their shift too
Anyone that knows events will know that getting marshals is one of the hardest parts of organising a race, so if any of you can bring someone along, it’d be greatly appreciated
Marshals also get to camp on site the night before too and have their own free parking area
Email me at graeme@113events.com
Right, that’s enough of my war and peace length email for tonight.
Hopefully you’ve all managed to read this to the end without nodding off into your phones or laptops
We’re here to help, so if there’s anything we can do for you over the next few weeks, any info we can help with, or you just want to talk triathlon, please don’t hesitate to get in touch by phone or email
Cheers and happy training
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
graeme@113events.com
07595 591612
Cotswold 113 21 – Competitor newsletter #1
The following email went out to all Cotswold 113 Competitors on Sunday March 21st
Cotswold 113 – 6th June 2021
Good morning all, I hope everyone’s well ?
Firstly, let me apologise for not getting an update out sooner. Since Boris’s roadmap was presented a few weeks back, it’s taken quite some time to digest how it all works for Triathlon. As you might imagine, our races have a lot of stakeholders, and as everyone’s interpretation of the rules have been different, it’s taken a bit of time to get some common consensus on what we can and can’t do.
The good news is, we’re planning on going racing, and in this newsletter, I’ll cover just how we’re going to do it.
This will be a pretty lengthy email, so being as it’s a Sunday morning, I’d suggest you make yourself a strong coffee and grab a seat before starting on it.
Over the next couple of months, I’ll be sending out various emails with more info as it becomes fixed, and we have a better idea of how things are panning out in terms of the relaxing of lockdown, so I’ll apologise in advance for bombarding you all with lots of info right now, but think it’s important from our side as an organiser to keep you all in the loop to avoid any unnecessary worry or speculation. I find Transparency to be important in uncertain times, so I’ll make sure to keep everyone up to speed.
Today, I’ll cover the following :
What we can and what we can’t do
Swimming options
What to expect and when
Basic race outline
Marshal recruitment
Camping
What we can and can’t do
In terms of Triathlon and the Boris Roadmap, racing can actually start again from March 29th and this is the date on which the BTF are starting to permit events again from. This is good news for us, as in the current world we live in, we never seem to know just what’s around the corner, so assuming that we can at least meet the stage 1 criteria in a few days, the race can go ahead in June.
The next key stage for the June 113 is the May change, which allows crowds back into outdoor events up to a maximum of 4,000 / 50% capacity.
This is a bit of a grey area for Triathlon, as we’re not actually selling tickets for spectators (like you would at a Football match or Music Concert), and actually, anyone that comes along to spectate at our races are generally family and friends of competitors and this comes more towards the category of ‘Support crew’ of which there aren’t any [clear] restrictions post March 29th. What this means for the race is that ‘spectators’ will be allowed on site, which wasn’t able to be offered for last year’s two races, and is a welcome return.
What it is clear that we won’t be able to do in June is run Registration and briefing’s on the Saturday. The reason for this is that where we hold the briefing’s has limited space, and having 300 people (typical attendance for each briefing) in that space would make any form of social distancing very difficult. Even if we ran twice as many briefings, 150 would be a push. Also, registration is made in a large tent, and having 1000 people queue and come through over a number of hours would put us firmly into ‘Indoor control’ rules, and just not possible to do safely neither for our team or for yourselves.
What this means is that we’ll do postal registration like we did last year. Around 7-10 days out from the race, we will post out everyone’s race bibs to them. You will then come along on race morning with your bib, bike etc, and we’ll have your timing chip and swim hat in your place in Transition ready for you. You’ll then collect your goody bag and medal at the finish line. The briefing will be made available about a week before the race in a video format, and a link sent to all competitors. The reason we don’t send this out earlier is that we would like competitors to watch it as close to the race as possible so that everything’s fresh on race weekend.
We’ve always done all our racking on a Sunday morning anyway, so this isn’t a massive change, but will mean you’ll need to plan a bit more time on Sunday morning as we’ll need to check everyone’s BTF membership or photo ID on arrival to Transition.
It’s looking very unlikely that we’ll be able to do mass starts, so the race will start at 06:00 and go off in 6 waves, which will be in a ‘Rolling start’ format where we set each competitor off at 5 second intervals and competitors for the 1900m will start in two chutes a few meters apart.
More on waves and swimming later in this mail
We will be able to run aid stations etc as normal, but I’m afraid we won’t be able to provide massage in the finish area.
I’m afraid the other sacrifice this year is going to be the familiarisation day for the race as it’s just not going to be possible to take a couple of hundred people out for a ride at once in groups on public roads. However, I live close to the lake, and if anyone wants to come down midweek, I can take you for a spin around a single lap of the bike course and a lap of the run course so you can see the courses before race morning. The lake is open for Swimming each day before 10am too, so if you wanted to swim as well, I can arrange a guest pass booking.
My day’s of being a faster cyclist and runner are long gone though, so as long as you don’t mind ‘leisurely paced’ 🙂
Swimming options
I’m very conscious that many of you have lost a good chunk of Swimming time over the last 2 and a bit months. With this in mind, although we will still run the traditional 1,900m Swim, we will also (like we did last year) offer a 400m Swim option for those that still want to swim but not the full 1,900m, as well as the option to simply skip the swim and start on the bike. You won’t need to make that choice until race morning, and we’ll have timing mats laid out at the start of the two swim options that will let us know which you have started, and we’ll produce separate sets of results for all 3 options. All three options will still, of course, finish on the same finish line and collect their medals and goody bags as normal.
Open water and outdoor swimming is allowed to start again next week, and indoor pool swimming is allowed to start again on April 12th.
We had the same options for last year’s races, and the shorter swim and no swim options were quite popular with around a 10% uptake, although the majority still did the full 1,900m. Like said above, you won’t need to decide which distance you wish to do until race morning, so use the 10weeks of open water swimming, and 8 weeks of indoor swimming to see where you’re at with distances, and then choose on race day.
What to expect and when
You’ll get a number of emails from me over the next couple of months with various bits of info as the roll out of Boris’s map happens, and more info gets fixed on the race. I’ll try not to bombard you, but will send out info as it’s required and try and drip feed it rather than putting loads of info in like in this mail.
In about 3 weeks time, I will send out the race info pack by email, which contains everything you’ll need to know about the courses, aid stations, rules etc
Around 5 weeks out from the race, you will get an email also asking if you would like to choose a specific wave or race number (or group of race numbers if you want to rack with your club or mates). These are on a strict first come/first served basis, so please do not try and request a wave/number before that email comes out as I won’t be able allocate it
Basic race outline
In advance of the race info pack coming out, here’s a rough outline of the race
Swim start, Transition and finish line are all within a hundred or so meters of each other and there’s no split transition
The Swim course is a single 1900m lap, and as mentioned above, we’ll lay out an alternative 400m option too
The water is typically around 5-7 foot deep for 80% of the lap, and there’s a couple of spots where you can stand up and take a break. We don’t have a specific Swim cut off time, and as long as the water safety crew don’t think you’re a danger to yourself or others around you, will allow you as long as it takes as long as you’re making reasonable forward motion between breaks.
Typically in June, the water temperature will be around 18-21deg, which will put us firmly in the ‘Wetsuit Optional’ range.
The transition is on mainly grass, and we’ll carpet the sections that aren’t and also the run from transition to the mount point, which is around a 40m run from transition to the road.
The bike course is two 28mile laps, and is fully signed. It’s not closed roads, but we have Police and Traffic Management contractors stopping traffic at the main junctions to allow you right of way over any traffic (At that time pf the morning there’s very little traffic on the road in the area). The Bike course is not yet finalised to a point where it’s ready to be published, and will be including in the race info pack in 3 weeks time, but for those that have raced with us before, it’s 95% the same as the course we’ve used previously, and is very flat.
We will have 4 moto referees and 4 moto support riders on the course. The support riders will carry basic tools and spare tubes, but ultimately, it’s your responsibly to carry your own tube and kit, and they are there just for emergencies
We have around 90 marshals and 200ish arrows on the bike course, and very few turns, so it’s almost impossible to get lost. We will have a GPX file available nearer the time if you want it though.
The bike Aid station is towards the end of each lap and will have 750ml pre-filled bike bottles of High5 Energy drink and water. We will also have High5 ISOGels. There will be a bottle drop before the aid station to dispose of your old bottle, and you can grab a bottle on the move as you pass through it.
The run course is 3 laps of 4.36 miles and is around 50% tarmac, 45% hard packed lake paths and 5% grass. It’s very flat and has around 3m of elevation change per lap. There will be 3 aid stations roughly equidistance per lap.
Two will have Cupped water and High5 gels. The 3rd will have as follows :
Cupped Water
Cupped High5
Cupped Flat Coke
High5 ISO Gels
Half Cut Bananas
Jelly babies
Salted Crisps
Biscuits
Jamaican Gingercake
Salted Peanuts (In a separate area for nut allergy sufferers)
There are around 70 pre race toilets, which also double up on the run course. Two Toilets in transition which are only open once race has started. Two Toilets at the bike course Aid station, and 3 sets of toilets around the run course.
Competitor Car Parking is in a field around 400m from the start of the race and will be open from 04:00
This is just a basic Outline, and the race info pack and video briefing’s will cover all of this is more detail
Marshal recruitment
We are really proud of our reputation of having some of the best marshals in the sport, and it really is the marshals that make the race on the day and help dig the competitors spirits out of any low points.
We have around 190 paid positions for marshals, and although around 50% of these posts are regulars to our races, we recruit the rest from you guys if you have family, friends or team mates that would like to be involved please
We pay all our marshals too, and they can choose from either £20 cash on the day or a £40 113 Events Voucher to use on our future races
They’ll also get an event team shirt, everything they need, Paired up with someone more experienced if required and we’ll keep them in hot food drink, cold drinks and ice creams all day.
They don’t need any experience at all, and our course managers will take them through a full briefing on race morning. All we ask is that they’re enthusiastic, know their left from their right and are over 16years of age please
As anyone that’s ever worked in events will know, getting marshals is one of the hardest parts of organising racing, so if you have anyone coming along with you, or you could bring, that wants to get involved, please drop me an email at graeme@113events.com
Camping
A couple of weeks ago, we found out that the Campsite next to the lake we race at isn’t opening for business this year (The campsite isn’t anything to do with us, and I’m not totally clear on why they’re not opening, but will, apparently, be back for 2022)
With this in mind, I am currently compiling a list of all local campsites to the area and will list them on our website in the next week or so at https://www.113events.com/cotswold-113/location/
I’m afraid none of these are within walking distance though.
We are also in the process of talking with local farmers and land owners to see if we can set up our own close by camping area, and will get info out ASAP if this is possible.
If you are looking for a hotel, AirBnB or lakeside lodge to stay at (there are loads of lakeside property rentals and AirBnB’s close by in the waterpark), the postcode for the race start/finish is GL76DF
The closest, and by far the best, hotel to the race is the Devere Cotswold Waterpark hotel. It’s around 3miles from the start, on the bike course, and as they get a lot of competitors stay there on race weekend, have in the past put on early race day breakfasts and have been flexible with you keeping your bikes in the hotel.
Right, that’s it from me. Hopefully you’re all still awake and I’ve not put any of you to sleep with my waffle ?
We’re here to help, so if you get any questions or there’s anything we can help with over the next few weeks in the run up to the race, please just ask
Thanks and happy training
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
Graeme@113events.com
07595 591612
Covid update
Covid Update:
Hi All
Following last night’s Boris announcement, we’re hoping to be able to understand our position in the very near future once we have a clear path and understanding from the BTF and the UK Gov DCMS (Department of Culture, Media and Sport).
In summary, it all appears to be really good news for our two races, and I’m hoping that we can now run the June 6th Cotswold 113 in a near to traditional format, and the July 11th Cotswold Classic in basically the same way that we have done for the last 9 years
The two races are still very much planned to go ahead, and we should know very soon just what level (if any) of restrictions will have to have in place for June (Mainly, this will be if we can run registration and briefings on the day before, or if we need to post packs and run video briefings, and whether we need a rolling start etc)
Triathlon is quite a unique sport in terms of how it falls into the various levels of Covid restriction: Last year, when we started to come out of lockdown towards the end of Summer, we managed to run two races in August and Sept, and these were sold to the DCMS as competitors turning up and competing in a ‘bubble of 1’ which in reality, is pretty much what non drafting triathlon is
At this stage, I am not planning on expanding the capacity of the June 113 back to it’s normal level of 12-1300 and will leave it at a reduced start list of 1,000.
However, once we have a better understanding of how this whole process is panning out into the Spring, we will certainly look at increasing the capacity of the July Classic back to its normal level.
Once we know how the rules are going to work for Triathlon in June, I will email all signed up competitors with an update
If anyone is still looking to race with us, the June race has been full for a few months now and is operating an automated waiting list through the entry tabs at 113events.com, but the July race still has around 200 of 1000 slots left
We’re here to help though, so if anyone has any questions, please feel free to email me at graeme@113events.com or give me a call on 07595 591612
Cheers
Graeme , Nicci and the 113 Events team
2021 113/Classic competitor Newsletter #1
The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold 113 and Cotswold Classic 2021 competitors today :
Cotswold 113 & Cotswold Classic 2021 Newsletter
Good afternoon all
Happy new year, and I hope everyone’s well ?
It’s approaching the start of race season now, so in a departure to normal format, I’ve put together an update newsletter for all Cotswold 113 and Cotswold Classic 2021 competitors this year together just to bring you all up to speed on this summer’s events, and what to expect from us over the next few months in the run up to the races.
After this newsletter, we’ll send out 113 and Classic newsletters separately, so this is a generic one for both events.
For those of you that haven’t raced with us before, I tend to waffle on a bit in my emails as you will see as we get closer to the events as I think it’s important to get every bit of info out without leaving any doubts in your mind, but I’ll try and keep this one reasonably short.
Like the rest of you all, we have no idea how this summer is likely to pan out in terms of the impact of Covid. Things appear to be pointing in the right direction in some ways, but I think it’s safe to assume that we won’t be entirely out of the woods by the summer and we’ll have some level of social distancing restrictions in place.
Some of the more eagle eyed amongst you will have seen that for 2021, we have restricted entries to 1000 sign ups for each event, when we typically run with 1,250-1,300.
The reason for this is that, having run two ‘Covid Safe’ races at the end of the summer last year, we are totally confident that we can run it in a completely safe manner with 1000 sign ups, but not with 1,300.
Whilst I appreciate many other races are opening this year based on their traditional entry numbers on the assumption that things will be normal again, we want to be able to provide you all with a completely safe racing environment should we still have some form of restrictions in place, and although it might cost us the shirts off our backs, we want to be able to look back at the end of this pandemic and be able to hold our heads up high knowing that we did the right thing.
If, it looks like the summer might be going back to normal again, we will review whether or not to increase the numbers back to the normal level. I know that many of you have entered the now sold out June 113 and have friends that want to race with you that are now on the waiting list, and please be rest assured, that if we can increase the numbers to accommodate them, we will. However, we will want to be 100% sure that it’s safe to do so before we consider reviewing the entry numbers.
If, however, you want to guarantee you can race with them, the July 11th Cotswold Classic still has around 300 of 1000 slots remaining, and I can transfer you over to that race should the alternative date work for you also.
Course Familiarisation days
Normally, around 3-6weeks out from each race, we hold a free of charge familiarisation day. On these days, all competitors are welcome to come down to the Lake we race in completely free of charge, and we’ll offer a guided lap of the Swim, bike and run courses (They’re 1,2 and 3 laps on race day respectively, so this will not be even close to full distance)
The emphasis on these days are just about seeing and feeling the courses, getting a taste for the lake(not literally I hope) meeting other competitors, and meeting the 113 team so you can ask any questions you might have. They’re a nice sedate pace, and no one gets left behind.
We’re very much hoping we can do these this year, as from a purely selfish point of view, they’re a great chance for us to meet many of you in a relaxed environment as you don’t tend to get much interaction with competitors on race weekend beyond a nervous grunt or nod. The ability to run these days is going to be based purely on what’s happening with Covid restrictions/Group exercising, and we’ll email out as soon as we know what we can and can’t do with them. We don’t tend to fix the dates until nearer the time either as we have to fit around all the other stuff that the lake owners get booked in over the summer, but generally they’re 3-6weeks out from the two race days respectively.
Swimming
We’re very aware that UK pools and open water Swim venues are currently closed.
Hopefully, team Boris will be reviewing things next month, and it will hopefully go back to a situation where pools, gyms and leisure facilities (ie open water Swimming) can happen again. I’m quite conscious that this will mean a reduced Swim block for many of you, and that lots of you are new to Middle Distance racing, so will naturally be quite nervous.
If it looks like Swimming won’t be happening again for some time, we have the option to offer up for everyone the swim options that we did for last August and Sept’s races:
What this means is that you will get an option to either start on the bike, or if you still want to Swim, we’ll put out a shorter (Approx 400m) course alongside the traditional 1,900m course that you can do as an alternative.
We’re very lucky that the lake is also very clear (it’s a Sand Stone quarry pit, which is a natural filter) and that there are a few places around the swim lap where you can actually stand up and take a break, so it suits the less confident swimmer well.
We’ll continue to review the information on pools re-opening, and guidance from the DCMS and decide on whether these options are going to be required, and perhaps put out a straw poll option for you all to get some feedback if it’s needed or not in a couple of months when we know more about how things are panning out.
If it looks like things are going to be normal-ish in the summer, I’ll also email out a questionnaire to you all and give you all the chance to vote on whether you would prefer the rolling start that we did last year where a competitors goes off every X seconds, or the traditional 113 way of 6 waves at 10 minute intervals, so effectively 6 mass starts.
Our races are very much for you guys, so we will try and include you in the decision making processes in these strange times as much as possible.
Waves and race numbers
About 4-6 weeks out from each race, you will get an email from me asking you if you would like to choose a specific race number (or a group of race numbers so you can be racked with your club/mates/family), and also a wave number should we not do a rolling start (see above)
Please can I ask that you await this email before requesting either as in the interest of fairness to everyone, it’ll be first come first served after that email, and until I get the start list completely fixed and frozen as an excel doc on my laptop, I can’t allocate waves or numbers yet anyway, so you’ll need to be patient please
Bike Course
With the reduced numbers that we ran with last summer, we tried an amended version of our bike course which changed around 20% of the loop. Like we do with everything at our races: post event, we debriefed with competitors, our team, councils, Police, BTF officials and local resident committees on how it went for all parties.
Parts of the change worked well, and parts less well.
Subsequently, we will have an adjusted version of this course in place for this year.
This V3.1 course will be available to roll out nearer to the event as there’s bits of road that we need commitment to resurface from the councils and various other stakeholder sign off on, but as soon as it’s fixed, I’ll let you all know and we’ll have maps and .gpx files available
I’ve ridden it a few times recently (the benefit of being local means I can ride there from home as part of my daily allowed exercise – For you Strava users, you won’t find it there as I didn’t upload it, sorry) and it’s decent and flows well.
One thing definitely remains though, and it’s still pancake flat
Right, that’s it for my waffle today.
We’re here to help, so if any of you get any questions or want any advice in the run up to the races, please just ask
The next newsletters that will be coming out will be event specific and in another 6 weeks or so.
In the meantime, please take good care of yourself, your families and see you all soon
Cheers
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
graeme@113events.com
07595 591612
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 8
- Next Page »
