Good afternoon all, I hope everyone’s feeling well and ready for next Month’s Cotswold 113 on June 7th ?
It was lovely to meet a good chunk of you all on Sunday at our Course Familiarisation day, and I hope everyone has recovered from the cold, as it was blimmin’ freezing on Sunday (although typically, lovely on Saturday and yesterday too)
As we’re less than a month until the race, you’ll start to get more and more emails from me. I’ll promise to keep them as brief as possible, and try and drip feed in info as a when it’s required. This one will be a long one though, so if you’re feeling like you might need a coffee, now’s the time.
Hopefully, you all have now seen Competitor newsletters 1 & 2, as these have lots of info on the race, local accommodation etc.
If you haven’t seen these, these are available here; Newsletter 1 Newsletter 2
In this newsletter, I’ll cover the following: Lake Temperature and Swimming
Last minute Panics and Changes
Checking your info
Race Info pack
Are you bring people along that fancy being part of the team ?
Swim Starts, Waves and Numbers
What’s coming up next in the run up to race day
Lake Temperature and Swimming
The good news is that the summer appears to have finally arrived. The Lake temp yesterday was 16.3, and that’s likely to climb over the next few weeks, so I would expect race day water temperature to be around 19-20deg, which puts us firmly in the Wetsuit Optional Range.
I’m very aware that we get far more people who are nervous about the swim over completing the Bike and the run, and we very much recognise that. Here’s a few things about the swim that might help settle your nerves :
1) The lake is pretty shallow and very clear – it’s around 6-7ft deep for 90% of the loop, and there’s a couple of spots that are around 4foot deep that you are more than welcome to stand up in and take a breather if you need
2) We have over 50 canoeists and water safety team on powered craft, and those guys are super experienced in covering Swimming Events, so will ensure you get around safely
3) If you’re thinking about breast-stroking your way around the whole course, you won’t be alone and we often get people who do just that, and have no problem with it
4) If you’re super nervous and are now going into Panic mode, we have a handful of what we call for want of a better description “Nervous Swimmer Hats’ which are a different colour to the normal Orange Swim hat, and will mean that the Water Safety Team will keep an extra good eye on you throughout and help you get around the course.
5) Later in this email you’ll get a chance to choose a wave type too, so the choice of wave time and type is entirely yours
If you fancied heading down to Lake 32 and having a swim in there over the next three weeks, they have a pay as you go swim booking 7 days a week, and I would thoroughly recommend having a dip there beforehand to settle your nerves, especially if you’re pretty new to Open Water Swimming LAKE32
If you’re really worried, and fancy a session with a local open water swim coach, drop me an email and I can put you in contact with one who works with new swimmers a lot and is a decent chap
We will also have a swim available on the Saturday 6th at Registration, and I’ll get more info on that out nearer the time
Last minute Panics and Changes
Although I’m afraid we’re now well beyond the point where we can offer free year on year deferrals anymore, as we’ve had to commit to numbers etc for the race, there’s still an option for a limited number of competitors that don’t think they’re going to be ready in 3 and bit weeks time, to move back to the July 12th Cotswold Classic Middle Distance race we hold at the same location.
As I’m sure you can all imagine, we have to buy lots of stuff for the races, but there’s a chunk of it that’s largely interchangeable between them (obviously, not medals and shirts etc). Therefore, if you’re currently not sure you’re going to be ready to race in 25 days time, now is your chance to move your entry back another 5 weeks to July 12th. We can’t, for obvious reasons, move the entire entry field back, but we do have a limited number of places we can move to the Classic, but would need to know in the next 3-4 days please and these movable slots will be first come, first served.
Although, as said above, our cut off for the free year on year deferral has now gone, I hope that, if people really are unable to race this year, the fairest way we can still accommodate them is that we ask that you share some of the financial implication we’ve incurred for your slot in a few weeks that we now can’t backfill.
If you really do need the yearly option, please get in touch with me as soon as possible and we’ll see if we can come up with something.
It’s worth pointing out though that the closer we get to the race, the more we have had to commit against you entry, so the longer you leave it, the less likely (or more expensive) it will be to be possible if it’s possible at all
Rather than just applying a blanket ‘No’, i really hope this is the fairest way that we can still accommodate people and not to leave too many people disappointed.
Checking your info
When you entered the race, you will have received an email entry confirmation from the entry system. That email will have come from ecmailer@entrycentral.com
On that email, it will have your name, date of birth etc along with all your other info.
Please can I ask that you now check that email that your name is correct, as your christian name will be displayed on your race bib.
The reason I am reminding you of this, is that people’s spell check often corrects names to other words whilst they’re typing in their entry, and I’d hate for you to have the wrong name displayed on your bib
This happens far more than you might imagine, and although you might end up with a seemingly ok word instead of your name (ie your name is ‘Rich’ and the autocorrect changed it to ‘Risk’), I’m going to roll out my very favourite example from a few years ago where a lady who raced with us called ‘Virginia’ had autocorrected her own name to a word that sounds and looks very similar, but is somewhat unsuitable to be displayed on a race bib (this was picked up by the printers, who contacted me to check that it was actually someone’s name or not)
You may have also changed clubs, or have a different telephone/emergency contact name/number.
If you have something that needs correcting, please can you let me know this week before everything goes to printing/publishing this weekend.
Race Info pack
Hopefully, by now, you will have read Newsletters 1/2 and have downloaded the race info pack, but just as a reminder, you can find it HERE
I can’t emphasise enough how important it is that you please read and digest this pack, and as surprising as it is to all of us, people every year do genuinely turn up on the wrong day to race, or do something that is obvious to everyone else, but is just a case of them not reading the pre race info and preparing correctly.
I’ve tried to make it as concise as possible, and even made it into a format that doesn’t look much like a Triathlon pack, so you can read it at work without getting caught by your boss, but please please please do read it so you know what to expect and when.
Sorry, rant over 🙂
We’re here to help though, so if there’s anything you need to know that isn’t covered in the pack, please feel free to email or phone me any time.
Are you bring people along that fancy being part of the team ?
As anyone that has organised races will tell you, getting marshal numbers is generuinly one of the hardest bits of organising races
We have around 180 Paid Positions on race weekend at 113 Events, and although around 60% are regulars, the rest are made up from friends and relatives of competitors
It’s a fun role too, and we’ll really look after them to ensure they enjoy their part of the race. A happy marshal is a great marshal, so we keep them in hot food, coffees, ice creams and kit them up in an event shirt, take them through a briefing and provide them with everything they need.
All our marshals get paid too, and they can choose from either £20 cash or a £50 113 Voucher, and they have the best free parking and camping spot at the lake around 100m from the race start/finish.
We have two basic shifts we need people for :
Bike Team – 05:45 briefing, finish 11:45ish latest depending on location
Run Team – 07:45 briefing, finish 14:30ish
They don’t need any experience at all, and just need to be enthusiastic, over 16 and know their left from their right. We’ll partner them up too, so they’re not on their own for a few hours, and can take them out and back to their location if they don’t have their own transport
If you have someone coming along with kids, although we can’t pay/employ under 16’s, they can have an event shirt and take advantage of the free ice creams.
It also mean there if you’re coming along with a marshal in the same motorhome or car, you can park/camp for free right near the start line too
Drop me an email at graeme@113events.com
Swim Starts, Waves and Race numbers Please can I ask that you read all the following section before you get your request in :
You will now get the chance to choose which wave you’d like, and/or if you’d like a special number or a range of numbers to be racked with your mates, you can do that now also
By default, anyone not requesting a wave will be sorted youngest to oldest in rolling start waves 1 – 6 regardless of gender
All waves get a competitive race time regardless of type, and your race start time will commence at the point you cross the mat to get into the water for a rolling start, or on the buzzer for the mass start – Previously, the fastest time of the day hasn’t always come from the Mass start (they actually won from wave 3 and 5 previously), but some people like a mass start with their mates to they can measure exactly their time against them when out on the course, whereas others like a more leisurely and spacious start on their own in the rolling start waves
In the rolling starts, you can start as a small group together if you like, otherwise you’ll be set off individually at 4-5 second intervals from the chute.
For reference, the average swim time in each wave is pretty much the same, and only the mass start wave tends to have a slightly faster average swim time
Some things to consider if you’d like to choose a wave.
– You might want to watch a few waves go off before you or don’t want to rush, so could ask for a middle or later wave
– You might want to get home in time for a Sunday afternoon BBQ or to watch Antiques Roadshow, so would want an earlier wave
– You might want to get going straight away and not hang around, so would like an early wave
– You might be a slower overall triathlete, and don’t want to be the last person on the run course, so would want an earlier wave to give you best part of an hour over those in the last wave – Our Swim course is very wide and has very few pinch points, so don’t worry about being swum over by faster swimmers if you’re in an earlier wave, but are a steadier swimmer
We do have some flexibility on waves on the day too, so don’t worry if you’re in wave 6 (for example) and want to go off in wave 3, we can slot you in if you come and see us on race morning
You don’t need to choose a wave or a number, but if you do, they’ll be on first come first served basis once the window opens
If you have entered as part of one of our many group/club entries (ie, you paid a club and they paid us, and you entered through the entry system with a free entry code), please can you ask the person who co-ordinated your group and sent me the spreadsheet/payment to get in touch with which wave you’d like. I will automatically put you all together in transition in a spare sequence of numbers, so if you contact me directly and ask for a certain lucky number, I can normally sort it, but will mean you’re not racked with the rest of your group in transition and may not be in the same wave
If you would like a lucky number, you can choose any number between 5 and 950. These are normally really popular, especially the low numbers (and randomly, number 69), so please put a 2nd, 3rd and maybe even 4th choice down as there’s a good chance that unless you email me within the next 2 minutes, your 1st choice number will have already gone.
When requesting a specific number, please include your full name, Date of Birth and registered email address
All number requests are first come first served based on the time I receive the email request.
As I am going to get around 8-900 email requests for waves and numbers in the next few days, please understand that I can’t reply to all of them to say that you’ve been successful in getting your number, and you’ll need to await the start list coming out next week.
If you would like to request a group of numbers in sequence to be with your mates, please can you read the following guidelines for this :
– Please speak with your group first and get their agreement, as in the past, a good chunk of the requests would come in for a group only to find that Joe Blogs or Sarah Smith doesn’t want to be with that group, and has already requested a wave and number
– If you’re sending a list of names, I will need their name, Date of Birth and registered email address please as we tend to get duplicates of seemingly unusual names, not just John Browns and Anne Smiths, and people are often referred to by their friends by names that they’ve not registered with – Ie I won’t know who ‘Bomber Harris’ or ‘Fast Tracey’ is
– Please check they’ve actually entered as I often end up spending an hour scratching my head trying to find someone in your group, only to later discover they either didn’t enter, or have swapped their name to someone else racing in their place, or two months ago deferred their entry to next year
– Please get the above right first time as once you’ve created a group to be racked together, I will allocate them a sequence of spare numbers, and the next sequence of numbers will be allocated to another group, so I can’t then add the next number to your group if you miss someone first time out (this happens an awful lot)
I love being able to offer this service, but this is a really time consuming job for me to do (it literally takes 3-4 days solid), so please make my life easier by getting it right first time and not chopping and changing as we can’t add people in later, and it’s a pain trying to group a bunch of people only for half of them to come in with different requests.
Relays have a separate pen, so although they can go off in, and request, any wave, they cannot choose a number I’m afraid as they work on a different number sequence to individual entries and have their own area in transition.
Aquabike entries will be mixed in with the solo’s, so can choose a number/wave
BikeRun entries can choose a number, but as they’re obviously not Swimming, won’t need a choose a wave
In order to get your request in, the Window opens now and closes at mid-day on Friday the 15th May
To request a wave and/or number, please email graeme@113events.com using ‘Waves and Numbers’ as a title
In summary ;
You can choose any wave from mass start to rolling wave 6
You can choose any individual number for yourself between 5-950 – Please also include 2nd/3rd/4th choices if you have them
Please check with your mates that they want to be racked with you and in the same wave before requesting it
If you are part of a club entry, please get the co-ordinating person to contact me with which wave you’d like, and I’ll do your numbers together in transition anyway
If you don’t choose a specific number or wave, you’ll be allocated a number at random, and the waves are sorted youngest first / oldest last
If you later get allocated a wave that you’re not happy with, speak with the team in registration on Saturday the 6th, and we can swap you around, but I’m afraid we can’t later reallocate numbers as the bibs are printed with names etc, and numbers are registered with the BTF, medical team, timers, insurers etc.
What’s coming up next in the run up to race day
Over the next three weeks, you’ll likely get another 3 or 4 emails from me right up to race weekend.
The next email you will get from me will be some point later next week with the Start list, which will also have the BTF Racepass check on it, and details on how to sort a race pass if you were, for example, a BTF member when you signed up, but have since let your membership expire.
After that, you will get more info on the race, a link to the video briefing, info on spectator spots and parking etc, and I’ll keep everyone updated on course conditions etc too
Right, that really is is for me for today
I’m here to help, so if you have any questions at all, or there’s anything I can help with, you can drop me an email or give me a call anytime
Hope you all enjoy the last few bits of training before the taper starts, and we’ll look forward to seeing you all in a little over 3 weeks
Cheers
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events Team
graeme@113events.com
07595 591612
