The following email went out to all Cotswold 113 2021 Competitors today

Cotswold 113 – June 6th 2021 Good afternoon all, I hope everyone’s feeling ready for racing in a little over 2 weeks ? Things are shaping up nicely for the race on June 6th, so in this email I’ll bring you all up to speed in a few bits and bobs and go through some of the last bits of info in the run up to the race This is going to be a good length email, so I’d grab a strong coffee and a seat if I were you 🙂 In this email, I’ll cover the following : – Covid19 regulations at the race – Race info Pack – Start list with waves and numbers – Lake temp – Behaviour out on the bike and run courses – What else is coming from us before race day Covid19 regulations at the race As you might imagine, there’s going to be some rules around Covid19 at our event in order to make it possible to go ahead, and to ensure you can all turn up to the safest race possible in a couple of weeks. The safety of all of you, your families, our team, the marshals and anyone else that’s even remotely involved in the race is of the upmost importance to us, and although some of you might think our approach to be a little OTT, it’s important that we make sure we absolutely minimise the spread of what’s still about and any new variants that might or might not be present over race weekend. It’s important to appreciate that in our experience of dealing with you all over the last few months, that there’s a real mix of people that are either still very scared of mixing in public at this stage, right through to others who are really quite over it and are trying to go about their daily lives again without restriction. Therefore, I’d really like to ask that the people that fall within the latter position, when coming along to our race, to try and respect the position of those of you that are in the former and aren’t yet ready to go back to getting up close in transition, hugging, licking each others faces and all the other things we probably did at triathlons in the pre Covid times. We are going to take a belt and braces approach to Social Distancing and the reduction of Covid Spread on June 6th, and some of the measures we are going to implement are as follows : 1) Each competitor will be temperature checked by our medical team on arrival on site, and anyone displaying a temperature higher than the government guidelines, or any of the other recognised symptoms, will be turned away (if you have a genuine medical condition that gives a high temp as normal, you will need a Doctors note) 2) I request that each of you, during race week, to head to https://www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests and order yourselves a free pack of Covid19 Rapid Flow tests. This takes 2 mins to order, they come in a couple of days and take 5 mins to do. If you can then take your test on Saturday the 5th June please, this will then provide our competitors and teams another level of protection from any spread should any of you have Covid and be asymptomatic. We don’t need to know that you’ve done it, and we trust that you will do it yourselves, and if it came back positive, that you obviously wouldn’t turn up on Sunday 6th. I really do appreciate that this is an OTT belt and braces approach to racing and I recognise the increased hassle we’re causing you all, but in these strange times, it’s super important that 113 Events are showing that we really are being careful and that are races are being ran in the safest possible manner for everyone involved. 3) When you arrive in transition in the morning on the Sunday, you will be asked to wear a face mask in transition during the time you are racking your bike. You won’t need to wear it when racing, but for first thing in the morning before the race starts, a mask is compulsory in transition. There’s a few other tweaks that you will see in the race info pack later in this email, but other than that, we are going to make the day as fun as possible and hope that it provides a little chunk of some kind of normality in these strange times. Triathlon has always been a very individual sport, so social distancing on the course is second nature to you all anyway, and other than needing to keep 2m apart where possible on the run, this is pretty much a normal race. Race info Pack We have put together the race info pack for the 2021 Cotswold 113 that you can download here: https://www.113events.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/1132021-–-Race-Information-Sheet.pdf This is your information on everything that happens on race day, and it’s definitely worth taking the time to read through it in full please The maps for Bike and run are quite small in the PDF pack, but I’ve added links to both in the doc, and from there you can head to MMR and zoom in on the maps and download .gpx files if you wanted to then upload them to your Garmin or similar devices I’d also like to draw your attention to the Aid station detail in the pack, as we’re not allowed now to have the full spread we do normally as this presents an increased ‘Touch risk’ I find the place I do my best reading is on the toilet, so feel free to print it off and leave it next to your throne for maximum, uninterrupted, reading time It’s your pack for you, so if you think there’s anything missing that you’d like to see included, please just ask and we’ll update it Start list with waves and numbers The start lists with your wave times and race numbers have been up on our site for a few weeks now, but if you’ve not found them already, you can see them here : https://www.113events.com/cotswold-113/start-list/ I have tried to accommodate 99.9% of requests for waves that were submitted within the window before the start list was fixed, and hope that you’re all happy with your allocating. I’m afraid this can now not be changed Lake temp Unless you’ve not been outside for the last month, you will have noticed that no one’s bothered to invite the summer along yet and it’s been blimmin freezing cold and wet. Unfortunately, this means that the lake we use for racing is pretty chilly still at the moment, and yesterday was measuring in around 14-15deg, which is a tad fresh for anyone but the hardened bunch of swimmers that swim OW all year around. However, lake 32 is pretty shallow at around 6-7foot for most of the way around, so by virtue of the really high surface area to volume ratio this gives, it does change temperature pretty quickly and a couple of weeks without too much rain and a small amount of sunshine, and that can easily pick up 3-4deg With this in mind, I wanted to draw your attention to the BTF’s Wetsuit regulations, whereby the Wetsuit Optional Range is 15-23deg. I am fully expecting it to be within that range on race day, so this will please that very small minority of swimmers that we have that like to swim without a wetsuit. It will mean that for the rest of us ‘normal people’ it’s gonna be chilly meaning we’ll need our precious wetsuits, so I wanted to let you all have a link to the BTF’s rules on Swimming and what you can and can’t use in Section 4 here :  https://www.britishtriathlon.org/britain/documents/events/competition-rules/british-triathlon-competition-rules-2020.pdf I’m very conscious that many of you will have lost a good chunk of your planned swim training in the early part of this year where pools had to close, and that swimming 1.9km is a tough target for some even with a structured training program. Therefore, just to reiterate my previous mails, we’re going to offer a couple of alternative options on race day or either a 400m Swim or to start on the bike and miss the swim completely. The 1,900m course, will of course, still be available for most of you, and everyone will still get to cross the finish line on the red carpet and collect your medal and goody bag. We will have timing mats at the start of each option, and will pick up on the day which start you’ve taken, and produce separate sets of results accordingly. You don’t need to tell us in advance, and can make your mind up on race morning Behaviour out on the bike and run courses Over the last ten year’s, we’ve run this race 19 times, and up to Sept 2020, the standard of riding on public roads has been, in 99.9% of competitors, exemplary. Last year, we eventually ran two races in August and Sept. For the August race, the standard of riding out on the bike course was amazing, and by far the best we’ve seen to date However, in Sept, it was shocking in some cases, and really dangerous in others. The roads we use for both the bike and run courses are largely still open, and although there’s really very little traffic on the roads we use at that time of the morning, you will still encounter other cars and road users, and must still ride within the rules of the road set out by the Highway code. Residential relationships are absolutely key to us for the future of the race, and in Sept last year, we had more complaints from local residents than all of the 18 previous races put together. As you might imagine, this is not great for the race, and I had to go and visit several parish council meetings for a grilling and basically a series of bollockings. Luckily, we have such a good record previously, that all these various stakeholders could be convinced that this was a just a blip and that we’ll return back to totally safe racing in 2021. Therefore, this year’s races, and races going forward will be under a high level of scrutiny and the riding out on the course must be of the highest standards again please. Keeping the residents happy is super important to me, and although I appreciate there’s a trend where other races don’t seem to care about these relationships out on their bike and run course, I really do and to me having the race completely embraced by the residents local to the lake is very important indeed. I don’t like taking the hard line approach to competitors on issues like these, and I’m well aware that it was just a very small minority that tarnished the image of the majority, but from now on any dangerous or discourteous riding will be treated like we do for intentional littering, and it will result in an instant DQ from the race and you will not be allowed to continue in the event at all. It’s entirely possible that you might come across a little old lady (or gentleman) on their way to church in the morning, and if they want to drive along at 10 mph, that’s their prerogative to do so. What we saw in Sept last year was a case not dissimilar to this where the driver received abuse from a cyclist (potentially a cyclist not involved in our race, but a cyclist none the less), and in other cases where cars were undertaken or groups of cyclists thinking it’s ok to overtake 3 abreast and be on the wrong side of the road I specifically want to draw your attention to the area of Latton which is around 20 miles into the course, and you will pass through the village in both directions. We will have ‘Respect the Area’ signs up here, and would ask that you’re all extra courteous through this area, although I would hope that you all will be exercising the same standard of riding throughout the entire course. In Latton, and a couple of other areas of the course that I’m not going to list, we’ll also be posting Trusted marshals from our own team who’s job it will be to look out for any sub standard riding and issuing DQ’s accordingly. As I said before, I hate having to apply a hard line on this sort of thing, and I really do appreciate that the issues we had were caused by a very small minority and that the rest of you are all amazing, but we absolutely have to stamp this out as much like Drafting in Modern Triathlon, it can easily become a problem so needs to be nipped off early. Right, rant over !! What else is coming from us before race day Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be sending out a link to the race briefing video. We generally send this out during race week as it’s important that it’s all fresh in your minds come race day. I will also keep you all updated on course conditions, what to expect on race morning and giving out a few little reminders of what to bring for registration and parking If anyone has any questions, or there’s anything we can help with in the run up to June 6th, please just ask as it’s what I’m here for Cheers and happy training Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team graeme@113events.com 07595 591612

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

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

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

Sunday’s water temp

Good morning all
Just to let you all know that this morning we’ve measured the lake at 06:30, and the water temperature is 21.6 – Due to today’s cloudy forecast, this is unlikely to change for tomorrow
This puts us firmly within the Wetsuit Optional range, so you may wear your wetsuit if you wish
We’re looking forward to welcoming you all along tomorrow morning
I will be at the lake today, and will have very limited access to the emails, so if you do need me, please call – 07595 591612

See you all bright and early tomorrow

Cheers

Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team

The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold Classic 2020 competitors today

Cotswold Classic Middle Distance Tri – Aug 2nd 2020

Good afternoon all, I hope everyone’s well and ready for next weekend
It’s been a somewhat stressful last few months, but we’re now getting closer to the date and everything (fingers crossed) is looking good
The BTF have now agreed to permit* our event, and we are going to be the first UK BTF triathlon to take place post lockdown, so there’s lots of eyes on us, and we’re very confident that we can deliver the day in a totally safe manner for everyone involved.
*The BTF have the right to withdraw the permit should there be a sudden outbreak and local lockdown in the area like we’ve seen recently in Leicester – Although the area of the race has a very low infection rate, so we’re not expecting this to happen

For those of you that have raced with us before, it’s not going to be like a normal 113 event, and there’s some substantial changes on how the day will work, but you will still get to compete over the full distance, and we’re going to try and make it as fun as is possible in order to bring some normality back to these strange times.
How the guys at the BTF have sold this to the government in order to get agreement for our sport to recommence is not as a mass participation event, but individuals coming along to the venue and being timed for swimming, biking and running, in a social bubble of one. Middle Distance Triathlon has always been an individual sport, but for the purpose of this year’s event, it’s going to be even more so.
In the interest of reflecting our sport in a positive light, it’s important that we all stick to this as we want the Sport of Triathlon to come away from our day with the broader audience believing it’s not jeopardising the health of our Nation through the spread of Covid19, and in some measure, the future of Triathlon in the UK in 2020 is in our hands.

If you’ve not seen the start list from the previous newsletter, you can find it here : https://www.113events.com/cotswold-classic/cotswold-classic-start-list/
Here you can find all your race numbers, waves and wave times
I’m afraid the race is totally fixed and frozen now, so we cannot make any changes, deferrals or swaps to any entries at this stage, sorry

As I mentioned above, there’s some fairly big changes to how this day will run compared to our normal Triathlons, and you can find all the info on the day here : https://www.113events.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/CC2020-–-Race-Information-Sheet.docx

Please, please, please, take your time to read the above linked race info pack in full

The main changes for the day are as follows :

• There is no Saturday registration and you will all get your race bibs and bike stickers in the post
• Every single competitor, marshal and team member will be temp checked by our medical team on arrival, and anyone showing above the Governments guideline temperature will be turned away
• You absolutely must not attend if you have displayed symptoms* in the last 14 days or have been in contact with anyone that has
• We are allowing no spectators on site (we will have live tracking and finish line live video link running)
• You will be required to wear a mask when you rack your bike in transition in the morning
• When you arrive at Transition Sunday morning, your Swim cap and timing chip/strap will be in your numbered spot
• In order to reduce the rush in transition between Swim/Bike and Bike/Run where social distancing can be difficult, transition times will be neutralised in the results up to 10 minutes for T1 and 5 minutes for T2. This will allow you all to take your time in Transition and not jeopardise someone else bubble
• You must maintain at least 2m during swimming, overtaking on the bike and running and the BTF’s 12m Draft rule applies on the bike and will be enforced.
• We will pull competitors from the event if they are found to be breaking social distancing rules
• There will be hand gel all around the course, and you should be using it regularly before and after anything you might have contact with
• We will have a rolling start and competitors will start within their wave window at 10 second intervals into the water
• There will be two swim distances that you can choose on the morning of 300m and the traditional 1,900m
• You can also start directly on the bike if you do not wish to Swim at all.
• You will need to be self sufficient for Aid on the Bike Course
• We are using our alternative bike course*** that we previously used in June 19 to remove narrow sections (And also the hill that many of you will be glad to avoid)
• The Run course will have two Aid stations that will have Cupped Water and High5 Iso gels. You must help yourself from the tables set out, and follow direction into the ‘Two Chute system’
• Your race bib has your shirt size on it, and you will be given your Medal, a Bottle of Water, Shirt and Goody bag at the finish line.

* Full info on symptoms can be found here : https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
**This will mean that your timed results will exclude any transition time, so there is no urgent rush to get changed next to your bike and potentially infringe someone else 2m space.
*** Yesterday, I went out and rode a lap of the Alternative bike course to make final checks on conditions etc, and have uploaded it to Strava if any of you want to check the Map, Elevation profiles or download it as a GPX file : https://strava.app.link/kaZ5KOMAk8

Mid next week, we will publish a video briefing of the main points relating to Covid19, and it’s very important that you all take the time to watch it. It’ll be myself and Noisy Dave, and although I get that we have faces for Radio and shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the business end of a camera, what we’ll be going through is important for all of us

I fully appreciate this all sounds very strict, and we will, of course, still try and make the day as fun as possible so that we can feel like we have a snippet of normality back in our lives.
This is uncharted territory for us, much like it is for you all, so please understand that we have to be super strict on everything next Sunday and we will have many eyes on us to ensure that we run the day in a totally safe manner.

Right, that’s it for me for today
I will be back in touch with a final email next week with the last bits of info running up to the day
If you have any questions, or there’s anything we can help with, please just ask

Thanks and happy tapering

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

The following email went out to all Cotswold Classic 2020 entrants today

Cotswold Classic August 2nd – Covid19 Update #5

Good afternoon all, I hope everyone’s well ?
As we’re a little under 3 weeks now until the August 2nd’s Cotswold Classic Middle Distance Tri, I wanted to drop out one of our last instalments to bring you all up to speed during the run up to the big day.
I don’t want to jinx it, but things appear to all be pointing in the right direction in terms of the Country and the governments latest developments on Sports and recreation starting again on July 24th, so we’re still planning around everything being good to go.

Over the last couple of days, some of you will have started to receive your race number and bike sticker in the post. These are going out in Batches over the next 10 days, so don’t worry if you’ve not had yours already.
For our seven relay teams, I’m aware now that you’ve only had one number bib in the post, but you will get a second in the post before race day as you will need one each for the Biker and the Runner (The swimmer doesn’t need to wear one)

Our time plan for the Race info pack and online briefing are that you will get an email early next week with a link to Download your race info pack, and early during race week, you will get another with a link to watch the online briefing for the day. The reason the info pack is not quite available yet is that we’re still working on getting agreement from various stakeholders on what we can and can’t do on the day, and these little tweaks will be key to certain parts of the info pack instruction (don’t worry, you’ll still be able to do the full distances if you choose)

The online video brief will come out during race week, as it will contain some important info, so we want to make sure it’s fresh in everyone’s mind and not watched weeks before the day and then subsequently forgotten.

The race info pack will contain absolutely everything you could possibly need to know on the day from where the car parking and pre race (And during) toilets are (there’s lots as we have to have 1 toilet for every 8 competitors), where the aid stations are and how they will work, what’s on the aid stations, drafting and covid specific rules (ie keeping a safe distance on the run as well as the bike) right through to how you cross the line, getting your medal at the finish line along with your goody bag etc.

The Rough outline of how the day will go is as follows (there is no Saturday registration or any activity for competitors on site until Sunday)

August 2nd
04:30 – Car Park opens
04:30-07:00 Transition is open for bike racking and ID/License checks along with Temperature checking
06:30-08:00 the race starts in 6 waves of 15minute windows for rolling starts

Each competitor will be allocated a 15minute rolling start window based on their race number, and each competitor will start at a 10second interval to the person in front (if two competitors are in the same wave and live in the same household, they may also start together). You can choose at this point if you want to complete the full 1,900m course, or the shorter circa 350m swim course – there’s two entrances to the water and each has a timing mat, so we’ll register which you’ve chosen to show on the results) You can also start from transition straight onto the bike if you didn’t want to swim at all.
The line up area for the Swim will have many reminders to keep 2m apart, so please follow these.
When you arrive into transition on race morning, you will find your number on the rack, and placed under this will be your Timing Chip and coloured swim cap that relates to your wave start.

We will have 2 x Aid stations on the run course each lap (Approx every 2miles as the 13.1mile course is 3 laps) and these will have cupped Water and High5 Iso Gels. These will work in two chutes, and you will need to collect your own cup of water and gels from the table from one Chute whilst the team there fill the other Chute. Once one chute starts to run low, you will be guided to Chute number 2, and the aid team will move over to Chute 1 and Clean, disinfect and restock that side, and vice versa. You will be asked to be self sufficient on the bike, but we will have an emergency aid station of Bike Bottles of Water and High5 Iso Gels in case you lose a bottle or it’s extremely hot. This Aid station will have bike racking, and you will be required to stop, rack your bike, walk over to a series of tables to collect what you need, walk back to your bike and continue. Initially, we were told that we would not be allowed a bike aid station, but this was the compromise and is available only if you really need it please. We will have a toilet at this aid station too, and a plentiful supply of Hand gel, wipes etc to ensure that you can enter and leave the toilet cleanly without any spread of infection.

We thought long and hard about the fairest way to set the start times for everyone, and the fairest way we decided was to filter the start list alphabetically A-Z and chop it into 6 even chunks with the relays in the last wave
You can find the start list with all names, numbers and waves HERE
I appreciate that we traditionally allow competitors the chance to choose a specific wave and/or race number, but given the situation this year, I’m afraid that simply was not possible. We also wanted to, where possible, put people from the same household together in waves to assist in travel logistics, and by determining by surname was the easiest way for us to do this.

We are still very much working on our negotiations with various bodies about whether we’re going to be allowing any spectators on site at all, and this is an ongoing process that we will keep you all updated on as things evolve. However, right now, you’ll need to assume that the race will be ‘behind closed doors’ and that spectators will not be allowed on site.
Although this sounds terrible, in actual fact, the bike course is two 28mile laps of public road and around 60% of the run is out in the public area, and you can spectate all around here, just likely not within the lake complex itself.
I appreciate this isn’t ideal, but as the sport of Triathlon is only just starting to get going again, we will have lots of eyes on us, and it’s important that we deliver an entirely safe and sterile event, and not risk spreading this awful disease around further. Competitors on site, we can control, spectators on site (as we’ve found out the hard way in previous years) we simply cannot.

We will still have a great finish line and your friends racing and club mates that have already finished and all our team, photographers and announcer will still make the finish great for you all, and we’ll be running a live webcam so your supporters can see you cross the finish line online. The tracker will be up and running and live also on our results page.
We will overload the finish chute with our team and marshals, so there will still be a great atmosphere.

Speaking of Marshals, we still need around 20 more for the Bike and Run courses, so if you have anyone that would want to get involved, we’d welcome them along – Just drop me an email
Run course Marshals will be allowed on site to see the Swim start, and bike course marshals will be allowed on site to see the finish once the bike course is finished.

Right, that’s it for me for today
We’re here to help, so if you have any questions or concerns, please just give me a call or drop me an email – 07595 591612 / graeme@113events.com

Thanks

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

The following email went out to all Cotswold Classic 2020 competitors tonight:

Cotswold Classic – Covid19 Update #4

Good evening all, I hope everyone’s well ?
We’re a little over a month now from the August 2nd event, so I wanted to bring you all up to speed on what’s been going on here and to bring you some more info on the race. Thing still appear to be improving largely, and we are still very much planning on holding the event on August 2nd. If you missed our last newsletter with an update on how the day might look, you can find that HERE
I’ll keep this email relatively short, and will cover the following;

– Last chance to Swap to virtual 113 or make changes to your entry
– Camping and Accommodation update
– Race info pack ETA and info for on the day

Last chance to Swap to virtual 113 or make changes to your entry 
As we have to fix all the start lists 4 weeks out from the race, if you would still like to Swap to the Virtual version fo the race for an £80 discount to use with us next year, or to make any other changes to your entry, we will need to have that done this week please (ie before Midnight on Saturday 4th July)
The uptake for the Virtual 113 has been pretty good and we’re now over 100 of you that have chosen to race that way this year. We’ve had a few last minute name changes, and we’ve waived the normal admin fee for that this year, so if you still want to make name changes etc, that also has the same deadline please.
This also applies to our offer to refund or defer any NHS staff, and this offer of course still stands until Saturday
After Saturday, we have to fix the start list with insurers, get numbers etc printed as these all have to be posted out to you, so we can’t easily make changes to entries from that point onwards without incurring more costs.

Camping and accommodation update
As I’m sure many of you will have seen, the UK Gov have allowed accommodation and camping to restart again on July 4th. Assuming this decision doesn’t get reversed, that means overnight stays on the night of August 1st are ok again.
Bev at the Campsite next to our race site dropped me a mail this week and asked me to update you all on their Covid-19 rules for their site. You can see those HERE
If you have a booking, or want to make a booking, you can contact them directly at http://www.go-by-cycle.co.uk/camping.htm
If you’re looking for alternative accommodation in the area, the postcode for the race location is GL76DF

Race info pack ETA and info for on the day 
Over the last few weeks, we have had numerous Zoom/Skype conferences with the BTF and all the other stakeholders in the event to go through our proposal of how we feel we can run the race in a way that both ensures complete social distancing and the highest level of hygiene, and the proposals have all been met positively so far and everyone is happy with how we are planning to go ahead.
It may feel like we’re being a bit belts and braces with our approach, but as this is unchartered territory, not just for us at 113, but for the sport and the world as a whole, we want to be 110% sure that both you guys, our team, and anybody else even remotely involved in the event is completely safe and we’re not putting them in the line of any unnecessary spread of the virus. We’re also very conscious that we want to leave a positive shadow on the area in the good name of Triathlon as a sport.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will finalise all our discussions with the various stakeholders and permission granters to complete our plans of what you can expect on the day, but please be rest assured that should you want to do a fully timed 1,900m Swim, a 56mile bike and a half marathon and then cross the finish line to a medal and a goody bag, that will still be completely possible and that we’re not detracting from the sport of Triathlon. We will, as outlined in our previous mail (linked above), also have an option to instead start on the bike, or complete a shorter alternative Swim course if you feel this suits you better due to the lack of Swimming many of you will have done until recently when Open Water Swimming lakes reopened. Both of these alternative options will still get an official finish time and medal etc, they will just have separate results. You don’t need to make your mind up on these options until race morning, so there’s no immediate rush to decide.

As this review process goes on, there will of course be tweaks and minor changes, and once these are all finalised (these are not big changes for you all, and are mainly things that happen behind the scenes that you’d be otherwise oblivious to on race day), we will put together the final race information pack and email it out to you all. Realistically, I expect to have this done at the latest in two weeks time. At around 1 week out from the race, we will put together a video version of the briefing, and I would like you all to take the time to watch it in full as it will explain everything that you will need to do both in advance of August 2nd and on the day itself.
It’s going to be strange not having you all there on the Saturday, where you can typically familiarise yourself with your settings and getting your bearings for Sunday morning, but the briefing will explain all of this, and we would ask that everyone does take the time to read it as Sunday morning will be a little hectic as we’re going to be temperature checking everyone on arrival, and we don’t want any unnecessary delays on top of that.

We will, as always, just be on the end of a phone if anyone gets any questions, and we relish the chance to interact with competitors in the run up to the race too, so don’t ever feel that you can’t just give me a call.

Right, that’s it for this update, so I’ll leave you all to get on with your Wednesday evenings.
If any of you have any questions, concerns, need help with anything or just want some advice, please just give me a ring – 07595 591612

Thanks and happy training

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