The following newsletter went out to all of 2016’s Cotswold Classic Competitors today;
113 Cotswold Classic – July newsletter
Good evening, I hope this email finds you all well, and actually enjoying what looks like the summer that’s finally starting to arrive this year ?
We’re just 6 weeks out from this year’s 113 Cotswold Classic Middle Distance Tri on August 21st, so I wanted to drop you all out a quick email to go through a few points and bring you up to speed on the race
As many of you will know, I can waffle on in my emails a bit, so if you’re reading this on a Monday morning at work instead of actually doing some work, then I’d get a cup of coffee and a comfortable seat as it’s probably been a long weekend, and falling asleep at your desk, in my experience, doesn’t go down well with the bosses 🙂
In this email, I’ll cover the following ;
Familiarisation day
Revised Bike course for 2016
Entry Update and closing time
Outline Weekend Schedule
Race numbers and waves
Race info pack
Marshal Requests
Water Temperatures
Familiarisation day
For those of you that have entered since our last newsletter (around 200 of you), you might not be aware that we will be holding a free of charge familiarisation day at the lake on July 24th
The idea of the familiarisation day is that it’s a chance to come down to the lake and have a guided tour of the bike and run courses at a leisurely pace, and a great chance for you guys to meet other competitors, us guys from the team and ask any questions you might have
The emphasis on the day is leisurely, so it won’t be a fast paced training day for those who are looking for one, but more a chance to familiarise yourself with the layout of everything before race weekend, and a good chance for us to meet you guys and get to know you before we next see you on race weekend, when everyone has their serious faces on. The paces are typically around 15-16mph average on the bike, and around 9-10min mile pace on the run.
We’ll cover a single lap of each, so 28miles on the bike (2 laps on race day) and 4.3miles on the run (3 laps on race day)
We’ll have a number of regrouping stops, and also stop along the route to point out junctions, aid stations etc.
The bike will start at 10:00 from the cafe at Lake 32, and this normally takes around 2 and bit hours, before we have a 15-20min break to field any questions, and get our run stuff on ready to head out on the course around 12:30ish.
This is totally free of charge, and you can park at the lake free that day also.
If you wanted to swim, the lake is open for swimming before 10am, and the lake guys will charge you a £5 note on the gate for a day membership.
Our swim coach Jason has his wife’s birthday that day, so he won’t be able to lead you around a lap of the swim course, but the lake guys do have a 400m, 750m and 1500m loop marked out that you can swim to get a taste for the lake (not literally though, I hope)
If you wanted to swim, there’s changing room and showers available there, and there’s somewhere you can leave keys etc
We ask that you book onto this day, not for any reason other than we can get a handle on numbers – You can do this here http://www.entrycentral.com/113events
Friends and family etc are, of course, more than welcome to join in too
The address for the lake is Waterland Outdoor Pursuits, Spratsgate Lane, GL76DF
Revised Bike course for 2016
I know that many of you raced with us earlier in the year at the June 113, so will have already seen the new bike course. However, those of you that have raced with us previous years or not raced with us before, will see that we now have a new section of the bike course for 2016 that brings the distance up to a total of 55.92miles. The new section creates a much nicer flow to the course, and now removes the narrow 2way section between Down Ampney and the Kempsford road (this section is now for the way back only). You can see an interactive map here – https://www.113events.com/cotswold-classic/course/
You can also download the .GPX file there too, if you’re a Garmin or other GPS device user
Entry Update and closing time
We are currently up to around 720 of the 850 entries taken so far. Entry closes online on July 21st, so if you have any friends or club mates that wanted to race this year, they still have around a week and a half to do so – Remember, it’s a good chance to rub into them how much faster than them you are, or to show the longer distance guys and girls that you can do it too 🙂
We have both individual and relay entries available, and relays can be made up in any number of combinations of people and disciplines
Outline Weekend Schedule
So that you can get planning your weekend, the outline of the weekend schedule is as follows;
Saturday 20th August
11:30 Car Parking opens
12:00-17:30 Registration
14:30 Detailed briefing*
Don’t worry if you can’t get there for registration on Saturday as we have other options available – 1) you can get someone to register for you. 2) we’ll have the packs ready at our house by around Thursday morning of race week if you’re passing Swindon (we’re 2 mins for the M4 J16)
Sunday 21st August
04:00 Car park opens
04:20 Transition opens
06:30 Transition closes
06:20 Race Briefings commence (each wave has it’s own 2 minute briefing by the start line)
06:30 Race starts in 7 waves at 10 Minute Intervals
15:00 Prize Giving
We do all our racking on the Sunday morning, as I find that when people rack their bikes on Saturday for a Sunday race, they spend even longer in transition on race morning checking tyres and swapping bottles etc, so we removed the risk of anything getting blown over or damaged on the night, and rack everything on race morning.
* Detailed Briefing – This is not compulsory, but is a chance to hear how the race works in detail bit by bit. We’re conscious that many of you don’t bother to read the race pack, and even fewer you listen to a word I say in the pre-race briefing that we give 10minutes before you get into the water, so this is a chance to hear about the whole race start to finish, where you need to be and when, and what to look out for on the course on the day as well as things to remember, location of aid stations etc.
Race numbers and waves
In around 2 weeks, once entries are closed and our final start list is fixed, I’ll send an email out to all competitors asking them if they want to choose a specific wave to go off in and/or choose a specific number or group of numbers so you can be racked next to your mate. These are fist come first served, so please wait until you see that email from me, as I can’t start allocating waves or numbers yet as it’s not fair on everyone if people start trying to jump the gun. Plus, I won’t have the start list in excel available to me then, so I’ll definitely forget if I try and remember now
In that email, there’ll be specific instructions on how to go about getting your number, and what we need from you if a group of mates want to go off in the same wave and in sequential numbers in transition (we rack sequentially)
That mail should come out on or around the 22nd/23rd July
Race info pack
Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll finalise the race info pack for you all to digest. Once it’s completed, you will be able to download it here – https://www.113events.com/cotswold-classic/downloads/
It’s worth printing this off and taking it for a proper read as it will contain absolutely everything you and your supporters will need to know about the race weekend – I find reading on the toilet works best as it’s the only place in my house where I actually get some peace and quite
Marshal Requests
We pride ourselves on having the best and most numerous marshals in racing for an event of our size, and it’s the marshals that can really make the day for you guys the competitors. We always need more marshals, and we have around 155 paid marshal positions on race day.
If you have anyone that is coming along with you on the day that would like to be involved in the team and get paid, please get in touch
You don’t need any experience, and we will take them through a full briefing and get them everything they need on the day
The only thing we ask is that they preferable know their left from their right and are reasonably enthusiastic.
The list of roles is massive – We have stand up jobs, sit down jobs, people pulling competitors out the water, loads of bike and run course marshals, and others who just catch people across the finish line or stick around to help us take everything down afterwards.
It’s great fun being a marshal too, and we’ll promise to look after them and keep them happy with hot food, drinks and ice creams throughout the day
More info on marshalling is available here https://www.113events.com/getting-involved/ or just give me a call 07595 591612
Water Temperatures
The lake is measuring in at a lovely 19deg currently, which puts us well within the BTF guidelines for ‘TriathlonWetsuit Optional’ of 14-24deg
I’ll keep our Facebook and twitter accounts updated if things change dramatically between now and race day, but I’m fully expecting it to stay within that range
Right, that’s it for my ramblings today. I hope you’re all still awake ?
We’ll keep in touch via email between now and race day, but we’re here to help, so if you get any questions or need anything from us, please just give me a call or drop me an email
Cheers and happy training
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
graeme@113events.com
07595 591612
@cotswold113
facebook.com/113events