Hey all
We’re almost at race weekend now, so in this last instalment of our competitor newsletters, I wanted to bring you the final few points and a link to the briefing before we see you all in a few days :
I’ll keep this one brief as I’m sure you’re all pretty tired of my mails by now.
In this email, I’ll cover the following :
1) Video Briefing
2) Course conditions and weather
3) Swimming on Saturday
4) Live results on the day
5) FAQ’s
Video Briefing
As you’ll see, my face for radio looks pretty tired, but hopefully the content of this video comes through ok.
Unfortunately, there’s no Noisy Dave in the the briefing video, or will there be this weekend, as he’s flying off to Germany on Friday on Family duties. I do get the pleasure of him with me tomorrow though as we get more of the course built and ready – And I’m sure he’ll be there in Spirit on Sunday (or constantly on the phone to me to check how it’s all going)
You can find the link to the Compulsory briefing video HERE
Course Conditions and Weather
The water temperature today was 20deg, and I don’t expect the to change much between now and Sunday, so this puts us firmly within the Wetsuit optional range.
We’ve been out today and painted any potholes or surface imperfections, and other than around mile 1 and mile 3, it’s all actually pretty decent.
I’ve painted stripes in front of the problem bits, and all of them are really easy to avoid -For example at mile1, the highways guys have repaired a cable trench that’s about a foot and a half wide and goes for about 100m. It’s completely on the left side of the lane, so really easy to avoid, but pretty horrid if you ride through it (it’s like they’ve filled it with chewing gum instead of tarmac)
You’ll see a few more of these stripes on the course, so just keep your eyes open and avoid them
The run course is now all mowed and cut back and ready for you, and the 50% or so which isn’t tarmac is in good condition. It handles any rain really well, and unless we get 4 solid days of downpours, will be a road shoe course all day long.
The Weather forecast for the weekend looks reasonably ok, but there’s a good chance we might get some rain on Sunday at some point, hopefully later in the afternoon. With this in mind, please make sure you pack reasonable kit for the bike, as whenever we get wet races, we do always pull a lot of people off the bike course 5-10 miles in where they’ve just got too cold and don’t want to carry on.
We’re totally fine with you leaving a jersey or arm warmers with a marshal if you later get too warm, but you’re better off to be wearing more kit than you need, than need more kit than you’re wearing.
We might be ok and it stays dry, but you never know, and this being the UK forecasting, it could be either 30deg or snowing
In terms of kit prep, I’ll remind you all again that the bike course aid station is a fair way into the bike lap, so please ensure, if you’re planning on using the aid station, that you have enough drinks, bars, gels, burgers or cake to get you to that point.
Swimming on the Saturday
If any of you are coming down for registration and fancy a dip in the lake at the same time, the lake guys have their booking system open.
It won’t be on our course, as ours isn’t marked out until later in the evening, but it’s a good chance to get a taste of the water. I’ll pre-warn you though, as this is the lakes own session, they have mandatory tow floats for Swimmers (they obviously don’t on Sunday as we have water safety crew etc)
You can book through them at https://lake32.co.uk/product/payg-swimming/
Live results on the day
We will have the results up live HERE
It’s kind of like a tracker in that it will show instantly the moment you get into the water, out of the water, onto the bike course, each bike lap, and then start the run course and each lap before showing your final finish time
FAQ’s
I’ve had a few emails over the last few days with questions, and there’s becoming a theme, so I’ll try and answer these now incase any of you were wondering the same thing : Can I wear headphones on the bike and run ? – No, they’re against the rules and a rule we have to be strict with as you need to be alert on the bike to other cyclists and road users as well as marshals, and the same for the run, especially, as you cross the road a few times and need to be aware of instruction, so sorry, no headphones, not even bone conducting ones. Can my kids cross the finish line with me ? – Absolutely, yes. You can bring your grandma and your dog too if you like, but please be mindful of other people finishing the race and don’t impede their finish line sprint Can my spectators bring a dog on site ? – Yes. All we ask is they’re kept on a lead around the finish area as often dogs do chase competitors down the finish chute or run out in front of runners on the course My Partner wants to drop me off for the swim, and then go back to bed and head back in later, can they still park up ? Yes, but they’ll need to be mindful that the’ll be driving in later through a live bike course. if they’re dropping you first thing, don’t go into the car park as it’s one gate in/out and they won’t get out for some time until maybe after 6:30 when everyone else has arrived. They can drop you by the entrance to lake 32 or the entrance to the beach and country park
Right, that’s it from me for pre race emails. You might get another from me later this week if anything changes and it’s urgent to update, but other than that, we’ll look forward to seeing you all Saturday for registration and at either of the two (non compulsory) briefings at 13:00 and 16:00 – Saturday does look like their might be some rain, and the briefings are outside, so bring a coat or a brolly
Cheers and happy tapering
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
Graeme@113events.com
07595 591612