The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold Classic 2019 Competitors today:
113 Cotswold Classic – 4th August
Good morning all, I hope everyone’s well ?
It’s been a while since I’ve put a Cotswold Classic competitor newsletter out, so I wanted to bring everyone up to speed with what’s been going on here at 113, and to give you some info on this year’s Classic race on August 4th.
I can waffle for England in my mails, and this might be a long one, so please get yourself a strong coffee and sit down 🙂
In this email, I’ll cover the following :
Race Information pack
What to expect and a few bits and bobs
Familiarisation day
Being part of our team
Confirming your details
Race information pack
Firstly, apologies for the delay in getting this out to you. The more eagled eyed amongst you will have seen that we have had a minor issue with a small section of the bike course, and wanted to make sure it was going to be repaired and running by August before sending out course maps ( https://www.113events.com/cotswold113-bike-course-update/)
The good news is that we’re confident this bit of road will be done by July, so we’re good to go on our traditional course for the August Classic
You can find the race information pack for the August Classic here : https://www.113events.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/CC2019-–-Race-Information-Sheet.docx
This should tell you pretty much everything you need to plan your weekend, both as a competitor and a spectator, so please take the time to read this.
There’s some important info in here, so if you’re anything like me, and don’t get any peace and quiet, print it off and put it somewhere where you can take the time to go through the details (next to the toilet works best)
This is your info pack, so if you think there’s anything else we need to cover in it, please let us know and we’ll update it.
You’re going to get tired of me going on about this, but please please please take the time to read it.
What to expect and a few bits and bobs
Most of this info is summarised in the race info pack, but to give you an outline idea: Our race weekend starts with registration on the Saturday 3rd August in the afternoon and we do all our bike racking on the Sunday morning. During the Saturday registration we’ll be running a couple of briefings to take you through how the race works for start to finish. These take about an hour, and although they’re not compulsory, I’d strongly advise that if you’ve not raced with us before, that you come along. We’ll publish the times of these nearer the race day, but typically, they’re around 13:00 and 16:00.
In these briefings, you’ll have a chance to ask any last minute questions, and we’ll try and make them fairly interesting as last year, out BTF referee fell asleep and I’ve been getting grief from my team for being Boring, so we’ll put some jokes in there to keep you all awake.
Every competitor will get a compulsory briefing 10mins before they get in the water Sunday morning, so the Saturday briefings are far more detailed.
In terms of cut offs, we’re pretty relaxed
Although we have to publish an official cut off of 7.5hours from the start of the last wave, in reality, we don’t really stick to it and within reason, we’ll keep the finish line open for as long as it takes assuming you’ve not stopped for a 2hour roast dinner out on the bike course at one of the many pubs it passes.
We don’t have specific Swim or bike cut offs, and the water safety crew will allow you as long as it takes as long as they don’t consider that you’re a danger to yourself, and you’re making some form of forward motion (ie not lying on your back floating and daydreaming whilst starting the sky and hoping the wind will drag you around the course with a picnic on your tummy)
Around the end of June, once the start list is fixed and finalised, you’ll get an email from me with the chance to choose a specific wave and/or race number, or you might want a group of sequential race numbers so that you and your mates/club etc can be racked together and in the same wave.
Please can I ask that you await this email at the end of June before getting your waves and numbers requests in as they’re strictly first come first served past that point in the interest of fairness to other competitors that have not yet entered, so will not get this mail.
The race will start at 06:00 and will go off in 6 waves at 10 minute intervals.
We work in line with the BTF guidelines for water temperature, and over 8 years and 15 races, we’ve always been in the ‘Wetsuit optional’ range. We will, of course, keep everyone posted about water temperature, but typically, it’s around 18-22 on race day.
Our 3 lap run course has a couple of sections on roads, and the lakeside paths could have other users, so in line with the BTF guidelines, you will not be allowed to wear headphones.
Within the race info pack is a full menu of what to expect at the aid stations, but in advance of you reading that, we buy High5 products for our events in the form of High Citrus Energy drink and High5 Aqua Gels (Previously known as ISOGels)
I often get questions relating to bringing loved ones into the finish chute with competitors to cross the line with them, and this is totally fine with us. The only thing we ask is that you please have some consideration for other competitors who are also finishing at that time and might be sprinting to beat a friend or a PB, and you don’t risk endangering the kids/loved ones you have finishing with you (i.e. we’ve seen some people carry young kids when their own legs are barely carrying their own weight at that point)
Other than that, we have no issue with it all, and actually love to see it as your family are as much a part of your journey, as you, the competitor are.
Familiarisation day 7th July
For those of ups that have recently signed up to the race, and missed our last competitor newsletter ( https://www.113events.com/cotswold-classic-march-19-newsletter/ ), we are holding our free of charge familiarisation day on July 7th, and you can still book onto that at www.entrycentral.com/113events and look for ‘Fam Day – Classic’
Information on the day is available on the above linked previous newsletter.
Depending on the state of the Kempsford to Hannington road by then, we may need to adjust the bike familiarisation slightly, but we’ll make sure you see 99.9% of the course you’ll be racing on the day
Being part of our team
We’re very proud of the fact that our races have built up a great reputation of having some of the best marshals in the sport of Triathlon. However, as anyone that’s every organised races will know just how hard it is to get the number of marshals you require. We have around 190 paid marshal posts at our races, and we could do with some more people to come along. Traditionally, we get about 60% of our marshals from our main pool of repeat offenders, and the remainder come as friends, family or club mates from our competitors, so please can I ask that if you have anyone coming along that could be involved in the making of the race, that they drop me an email at graeme@113events.com
All our marshals get paid too, and they can choose from either £20 cash or a £40 113 events voucher.
All marshals get a free technical team shirt and we’ll keep them in free ice creams, burgers and hot and cold drinks throughout the day.
We quickly learnt that happy marshals are good marshals, so we’ll ensure they have a fun day
They don’t need any experience at all, and we’ll take them through a full briefing and provide them with everything they need. All we ask is that they’re over 16, reasonably enthusiastic and know their left from their right. We’ll pair marshals up too, so they won’t be stuck on their own.
If you have anyone you can pressgang into this, please drop me a mail at graeme@113events.com and we’ll welcome them to the team
Alternatively, you, yourself, might want to see how the race works from the other side, and we’d welcome you along on our team on June 9th for our Cotswold 113, which is identical to the August classic is every way but name
Confirming your information
We won’t publish a start list until early July, but in the meantime, you can check the information we have for you is correct either by having a look at your entry central email you received when you signed up, or by checking the entry list at https://www.entrycentral.com/festival/244 (head to the bottom of the page and look for ‘List’
We often get people that have input the wrong gender, or misspelled a christian name that later gets printed on your race number, so please can you just check that the info we have for you is right as it’s easy to change now before things start to get printed.
If you do need to make any changes, please just drop me a mail
Right, that’s it for my waffling for today. I hope everyone’s awake and no one’s getting in trouble for snoring at their desks at work ?
We’ll keep everyone updated with newsletters over the next three months, but in the meantime, if there’s anything you need to know or anything we can help with, please just get in touch as that’s what we’re here for
Thanks and happy training
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
graeme@113events.com
07595 591612