The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold113 2020 Competitors today :
Cotswold113 – June 7th 2020
Good morning all, I hope this email finds you all well ?
Firstly, thank you for entering the Cotswold 113 for this year.
Over the next few months, I’ll be sending you various emails with bits of info in the run up to the race, but to get things started, I wanted to send you all a welcome email and let you know what’s going to be coming up in the run up to the big day on June 7th.
Some of my mails can tend to ramble on a bit, so I’ll apologies in advance now, and try and keep this one fairly short and sweet.
In this mail, I’ll cover the following :
Basic race weekend overview
Familiarisation day
Race to Race transfers/deferals policy
Waves and numbers
Interacting with us (me)
Basic Race weekend overview
Our race weekend starts on Saturday the 6th June with registration at the lake between 12:00 and 17:00. We also run a couple of informal briefings on the Saturday afternoon where we go through the race in detail from arriving at the car park to crossing the finish line. Don’t worry if you can’t get to registration on the Saturday, as we can always arrange for someone to register on your behalf, or if you’re passing Swindon on the M4 during race week, we tend to have the packs ready at our house by around Wednesday 3rd PM, so you’re welcome to pop by and register in advance. We don’t always have any biscuits left, but the kettle is always on.
We rent the timing chips in, so don’t have them further in advance of that, and we can’t post them out I’m afraid, as the royal mail uses magnets which play havoc with the chip internals.
At registration you’ll get your timing chip, race number, swim hat, shirt and goody bag.
All our racking is done on the Sunday morning, and transition opens at 04:00.
The race then starts at 06:00 and goes off in 6 waves at 10 minute intervals (more on the waves later)
Although we have to publish an ‘official’ cut off of 7.5hours from the start of the last wave, in actual fact, we’re pretty relaxed with it. Our take is that as long as you’ve not stopped at a pub on the bike course for a 2 hour roast dinner, and are still soldiering on, within reason we’ll keep the finish line open for as long as it takes for you to get there, and you’ll still get an official finish time and medal.
We don’t have specific Swim, bike and run cut offs.
We have car parking at the lake for all competitors and a number of spectators, but please bear in mind that it is a field, so if you happen to be lucky enough to drive a Ferrari, you might want to bring one of your other cars that weekend.
As far as fields go, it’s a pretty decent one, but it is still a field. The car park field is a 5ish minute walk from Transition.
If you like camping before a race, there’s a campsite next door to the lake, and you can book with those guys at http://www.cotswoldlakescamping.co.uk
A full race info pack PDF will be out mid February, and I’ll email a link out to it once it’s done.
To give you an idea of the event, there’s a cool video of the race from a couple of years ago here : https://youtu.be/QJO_kFb-KZs
Familiarisation day
Around 4-6weeks out from the race, we hold a familiarisation day down at the lake, where we can take you for a guided lap of the swim course, and a single lap of the bike and run courses (On race day it’s 1 lap Swim, 2 lap bike and 3 lap run)
The bike and run are completely free of charge, but if you wanted to swim, the lake owners will charge you a £7 guest membership fee on the gate.
Our team will guide the laps, and it’s a great chance to see the course and to meet our guys to ask any questions you might have. It’s also a nice chance for us to meet you all in a more informal environment as over race weekend, we can barely get a grunt from any of you as you’ll all invariably have your race faces on.
The focus on the day will be purely to familiarise yourselves with the course, and the pace will be super leisurely, so it’ll be fine for all abilities.
The date for this day will be fixed in the next few weeks, and I’ll email it out as soon as we have it (We have to wait until the lakes own fixtures for the year are fixed, and work around those)
Race to Race transfers/deferrals
I’m conscious that many of you will have perhaps had a break over Christmas from training, and like me, might have not quite got back to it yet. Also, that some of you might be carrying injuries that you’re hoping will clear up by June, but aren’t 100% sure yet.
We effectively rerun the June 113 on August 2nd under the name Cotswold Classic Middle Distance Tri, and that race is not yet full. Therefore, if you feel like another 8 weeks might help you recover from any injuries, or give you a bit more time to get yourself ready to race, we can transfer you from the June race to the August race for free.
The reason I’m telling you this now, is based on previous year’s experience with our races, people tend to leave it too late to decide they can’t race, and once the August race fills up, it’s not always possible to transfer or try and move things around to get people to race, so now’s your chance for an easy training extension.
The August race tends to fill up much later than the June race, so based on previous years, will probably be full by around May. By that time, we will have had to fix and freeze the June race, so if there are still spaces for the Aug race, swapping your entry to then will, unfortunately, carry some cost implications, so now’s your chance to do it for free if you feel that’d help.
Waves and Numbers
Around 6-7wks prior to the June 113, we fix and freeze the start list. At that point, I will send you all an email asking if you want to choose a specific wave and/or a race number (or group of numbers to be racked with your mates)
Until the race is frozen, I don’t have the start list in a spreadsheet format, so can’t allocate waves and numbers to anyone yet. Plus, in the interest of fairness, it will work on a first come first served basis following the release of that email.
Typically, we can accommodate 99.9% of wave requests, but some of the popular numbers will go quickly, so you’ll need to act fast (numbers 13 and 69 always seem to be the most popular for some reason)
Alternatively, if you just want all your club or mates to be racked together in transition (our racking works numerically) and in the same wave, we can sort that in a series of numbers further up the sequence
Anyway, once it’s fixed Mid April, I’ll email everyone out with full instructions on how to request, but please don’t ask in advance as I won’t be able to allocate any out yet.
Interacting with us
We often get emails starting with ‘this is a really silly question’ or ‘Sorry to trouble you’, but please please don’t ever feel like you’re asking what might seem a stupid question or feel like you’re pestering us, as it’s exactly what I’m here for.
We totally get that many of you will be taking this race on as your first ever attempt at the distance, or in some cases, your first ever triathlon, so please please please, just ask us any questions you might have as Im conscious that it’s a big step up in distance, and triathlon can seem a complicated sport at times.
All of us at 113 have raced at some point or still do, and we’ve all been through the first step into longer distance, so know exactly how daunting it is and confusing all the conflicting info out there can be
You can either reply to this email or give me a call any time on my number at the bottom of this mail
Anyway, that’s it for my rambling for today. I hope you’re all still awake and as keen for the weather to improve as I am.
As mentioned above, we’re here to help, so please ask if you get any questions or there’s anything else we can help with
Cheers and happy training
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
Tel 07595 591612
Email graeme@113events.com