Firstly, and by far the most importantly, thank you all for coming racing with us today, and for choosing 113 Events races for your Middle Distance Triathlon experience.
From rough straw poles we did in the briefings on Saturday, it was very clear that we had lots of first timers to the distance, and to triathlon itself, so the fact that you have entrusted us with your first Middle Distance race, or first ever race, means a massive amount to me, and I truly hope that we lived up to all your expectations.
It was a hot one today, so hopefully you’re not all sitting right now with a forehead as red as mine. We’ve run our Middle Distance races 31 times now, and that was one of the toughest ones we’ve had. Sure, we had it hotter last July, but it didn’t have wind to contend with, and all the challenges that brings with it out on the bike course for you all.
The reputable sports scientists of this world will all tell you that the best form of recovery is fluids, protein and gentle exercise, but my preferred route is Pizza and a beer of glass of red wine, so I’m hoping that’s exactly what you’re all doing right now – We’ve just had our post race beer and Pizza, as per above Pic.
Anyway, I’m sure you’re all pretty bored of my emails now, so I’ll try and keep this one reasonably short – Largely, as I started at 2am today, and am shattered
In this email, I will cover the following :
Going fast / Looking fast
Feedback request
What’s happening next year with 113 Events
Lost property at the lake
Tell your mates
Going fast / Looking fast
I’ll get this bit in first as it’s probably the only bit you’re interested in
Feedback request
Today was our 31st Middle Distance race at lake 32 over the last 16 years, and was our 15th Cotswold Classic. However, we are always trying to evolve and improve it and make our races exactly the sort of races that people love and want to keep coming back for.
As you’ve hopefully noticed, I’m super anal about all the little details that hopefully make you guys and girls enjoy the day more, and to get you all around safely and get the most out of your weekend.
However, as much as I try and see as much of the race as I can through my own eyes and the eyes of everyone on the team, it’s you all, the competitors that see it from the most important end of the delivery, and what you all thought of this weekend’s race is super important to me
Please, if you can spend a few minutes to email me back and let me know what you thought worked well, and anything that you thought didn’t work, I would love to see it
We have a team debrief later this week, where we pick through the race in detail and talk through everything we saw worked and what tweaks and changes we need to make for next year. Your feedback for this would be very welcome indeed, and is super important to me, as I can feed it into the core team of around 15 of us, and we can discuss it properly as a group to see how we can incorporate those changes going forwards.
We’ve made a few steps this year to try and bring the race up to a higher standard, largely better shirts, medals and Bags and Swim Buoys that you can pretty much see from the Moon, so please let me know if there’s anything you think we can adjust in the races, pre race info/communication, and all the other touchy feely stuff going forwards that would make your experience just outright better, or anything you just think didn’t work.
My favourite pic sent to me today 🙂
What’s happening next year with 113 Events
Planning for 2027 has been well underway for a good few months now, and there’s going to be some small and large changes to our races. Largely, we have an almost completely new bike course for the June 113, which we actually had ready for this year, and then the USAF’s use of Fairford as a operating base put an end to that happening this year due to the proximity of the course to the base Main gates, and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
The dates for the two races are 99.9% fixed as June 6th and July 11th too, and these will be firmed up on the next couple of weeks, and online entry opening very soon after towards the end of this month, or start of August.
The Classic will remain largely unchanged, but the 113 will be slightly smaller in terms of competitor numbers
Although we historically used to run the June 113 with around 1200 entries, it was reduced down to 1050 Post Covid, and it’s likely that we’ll reduce it again down to 900 or so next year, as dealing with 1050 competitor emails etc has consumed most of my life in the week’s running up to the event, and as we’re a small team, I just want to bring it a more manageable level, which will enable us to remain more personal for everyone that comes through our gate on race weekend Also, the beach and country park is changing owners early next year, and it’s entirely realistic that they won’t want our run course to go through their facility any more for what’s the first 1.8miles of the current loop, so we have a plan B in place (and always have) for that eventuality
Lost property at the lake
We actually had a record low amount of lost property left at the lake today, but we do have some.
We are back down there for most of the day tomorrow on the clean up operation and to get everything cleaned, checked and back into storage, so if you are still in the area, have left something at the lake and want to pop by to collect, you can drive straight into lake 32 and find us
If you’re not still in the area, and are missing something, please can you send me a google images pic of what you’re missing, and I’ll have a rummage through the pile to see if it’s there.
Tell your mates
In this sport, word of mouth is by far the most powerful form of Marketing .
So, if you enjoyed this weekend, and I truly do hope you did, please tell all your mates on internet forums, facebook groups or club changing rooms etc about the race, and that will undoubtably help us get the Classic back to something more like capacity
Right, that really is it for me for this year’s pre and post race communications. It’s abolsutely been our pleasure to have you all along, so we wish you the best of luck for any other racing you have planned this year, and may every wind, be a strong tailwind on your bikes.
We hope to see you all back on our start lines next year, and thank you again for choosing 113 Events.
Cheers,
Graeme, Nicci, Shouty Dave and the 113 Events Team
graeme@113events.com
07595 591612
