Hey All, I hope everyone’s well and survived the first part of this heatwave ?
We’re under 2 weeks from race day now, so it’s about the time we start getting more info out on the race, and also give some update on the weather situation.
I’m very conscious that many of you have some concerns about the weather, and the amount of emails I’ve been getting has confirmed this, so I’ll cover that bit first.
In this email, I’ll cover the following:
Weather Update – Water Temperature and other implications
Race Info pack
Start list / Registration requirements New (and Old) BTF Rules
Car Parking
Being part of the 113 team
What’s coming next
Weather Update – Water Temperature and other implications
Unless you’ve been lucky enough to be in the North Pole for the last few weeks, you’ll be very aware that it’s been unusually blimmin’ hot recently. That, in itself, wouldn’t be a problem as the forecast showed that about now, it was due to cool right off to a more normal late June/Early July 20-25deg.
However, as many of you will have seen, it’s due to get hot again.
I’ve become obsessed with Weather forecasting, and regularly check 4-5 different ones (which, unsurprisingly, all all very different), and although Race day does fluctuate by forecaster, they all unanimously agree that the next ten days are going to be toasty.
What this means is that the lake temperature is likely to increase again quite dramatically, and there’s now a very real possibility that we will have a Non Wetsuit swim on July 12th
We work in line with the BTF regulations on Wetsuits, which, at this end of the scale, reads as anything below 24.6deg is Wetsuit Optional, and anything over 24.6 deg is a Wetsuit Ban. This is measured 1 hour before the start of the race, and the call is then made
Last Friday, the water temp was over 28 deg, which in the 20years+ I’ve been swimming at that place, is the highest I’ve ever seen it.
The weekend was somewhat cooler with air temps of around 20 and overcast for most of the time, and today was around mid 23’s this morning, and nearly 25 this afternoon.
With such variability in the different Weather forecasts, I’d be very reluctant to say either way, but would suggest that the chances of it being a non wetsuit swim are 50/50 at best
Just to avoid any confusion at all, a link to the BTF rules on what you can and can’t wear should it be a Non Wetsuit Swim are in the link below : https://www.britishtriathlon.org/britain/documents/events/competition-rules/2026-british-triathlon-competition-rules-feb-2026.pdf
*Please note that should it be a non Wetsuit swim, that Buoyancy shorts are not allowed within the rules.
I’m very conscious that this is now going to create significant uncertainly amongst the many of you that really wanted this to be a wetsuit swim, so please let me try and alleviate some of those fears for you.
Firstly, and most importantly, please don’t worry – You got this !
I would strongly advise that, if you can, you go and have a swim at an open water facility before the race without a wetsuit.
In the 15 years and 30x Middle Distance races we’ve now organised at Lake 32, we’ve only once had a non Wetsuit swim, and the general feedback from the more nervous swimmers was that is was way easier than they expected, and actually quite a nice experience.
Lake 32 has a couple of spots on our loop that you can stand up in, and you’re more than welcome to use them to recompose yourself before continuing. The lake is reasonably shallow for most of the loop, and very clear so you can see the bottom.
We also have no specific swim cut off, so if you want to breast-stroke the whole 1,900m with your head out of the water chatting to your mates, and take over an hour, you really can.
We have around 55-60 Canoeists and Water safety team/craft on the Water, which is significantly higher than most other races. These guys are all super experienced, and will keep an exceptional eye on you at all times to ensure you get around safely.
We also have, what we call a ‘Nervous Swimmer’ hat, which is a different colour to the normal race swim cap we issue you all, and if you wear one of these, they’ll keep an even better eye on you – These are available at the Swim start on race morning should you want one.
I will, of course, keep everyone updated next week as to how it’s looking, as this being the UK, the forecast could easily change and we could get either 30 deg, Snow storms or both.
Other implications to the day – This may come as good news to some of you :
There has been some pipe laying work on the bike course around 2miles into the loop, and the heat of the last ten days has now put that significantly behind schedule, so is looking potentially unlikely to be complete by race day. This would result in 4 way traffic lights on the course, which normally isn’t a big issue as we can turn them off and control them with TM Contractors. However, these are on an A road, so doing so is not either easy or safe. Subsequently, we have agreed to a small change to the bike course should they not be done, which will take you right out of the lake, and straight up towards Ewan. This avoids possibly the worst sections of Tarmac on our course, which is great, but also means that the loop does become about a Mile shorter (which may be great news for some of you given how hot it potentially will be on the day)
This does still keeps our bike course distance within the BTF allowed tolerance.
Like the water temp, we will keep everyone posted on this as there’s also a few other issues on other bits of the course as a result of the heat, and will issue an updated .gpx file should we need to change the course nearer to race day.
On a final note regarding weather, there’s no avoiding that it’s looking like it’s going to be a toasty one.
A good chunk of our run course is well shaded, and we will put out extra water, as well as fine mist sprays. Last July at the 2025 Classic, we had a 35 deg air temp by mid afternoon, but was much cooler for most of the morning.
Should it be extra warm, and not a wetsuit swim, If people are worried about running in the heat or swimming without a wetsuit, on race weekend, you can see the team in registration on the 11th, and we will allow people that don’t want to swim to swap to the BikeRun class, or those that don’t want to run in the heat to the Aquabike Class. Either way, we’ll make sure you get the best out of the day and finish with a medal
Race Info pack
If you haven’t already had a read of the race info pack, please can you now head to the following link and download it: RACE INFO PACK Start list / Registration requirements Registration requirements
We have our registration on Saturday July 11th between 12:00 and 17:30.
Also on the Saturday afternoon, we will have two separate Briefings at 13:00 and 16:00 by the Swim exit/transition area.
These are not compulsory, as your compulsory briefing will come out by video link early next week, but each of these Saturday briefings will take about 45mins, and we’ll talk through the race in some details and offer up some last minute advice and help. It’ll be myself, Dave and the BTF referee for the weekend who present the briefings, and although we’re 100% not a comedy act, we will try and make it at least a little bit entertaining to keep you all awake. It’s an outside area, so if it looks like it might rain (we wish), please bring a waterproof or an umbrella.
A couple of year’s back, the BTF introduced their new Racepass system, which is what most of know as a ‘Day license” for non BTF members – membership or a race pass are compulsory within the BTF rules, and provide the competitor with personal liability insurance for the duration of the race.
Once the start list was finalised last weekend, I sent it off to the BTF for them to go through and validate either your race pass purchase when you signed up through the entry system, or your valid BTF membership for 2026.
On the start list, which I’ll link in a moment, you will see each name now has either an ‘M’, ‘RP’ in Green or an X and highlighted Red
If you have an ‘M’ next to your name, it means the BTF have confirmed your valid membership for the race date
if you have an ‘RP’ against your name, they have confirmed that you bought a Racepass from them directly through the entry system when you signed up
If you have a Red X against your name, it means you now need sort a race pass, or verify your membership
it’s very possible that if you are a member, and it’s showing as an X, that they’ve just not found it, or you’ve input your membership number incorrectly, and we can sort that, and I’ll cover more on that in a bit.
If you’re not a member, and need to buy a race pass, I’ll also explain in a minute how you can do this
If you have an RP or an M against your name, all you will need for registration is a photo ID (ie, driving license, passport, NHS card etc)
There’ll be a few of you that can’t get there on the Saturday, so will want someone to register for you and that’s totally fine.
In order for someone to register on your behalf, they will need a printed version of your photoID with a note on it to say it’s fine for them to register on your behalf. This needs to be a printed version rather than the original, as we have to retain that in line with the BTF rules, and then our ref will make checks at transition check in Sunday AM to to ensure the person registered is the person racing. We will, of course, dispose of these properly by having them shredded post race
For relay teams, all competing members will need to be either BTF members, or have bought a race pass.
As relay teams are not showing an M, RP or X, we will need to check BTF membership cards, or race pass purchases for all members of the team. One person can register for the full team, but will need photocopies of the others members ID/Racepass proof, or BTF photo card (i’m conscious not everyone has a photo on their online BTF portal card, so a pic of that, and a photo ID of another format is totally fine)
If you now need to purchase a Racepass from the BTF, you can do so at the following link HERE
You will then need to bring with you a screenshot of your race pass purchase confirmation email (showing that on your phone is fine) along with PhotoID.
I’ll pre-warn you that phone signal on some providers isn’t amazing at the lake, so might be worth taking a screenshot on your phone so you can show a pic of the confirmation rather than trying to get your emails to load
If you don’t get a chance to purchase one before the day, don’t worry, and we can sell you one on behalf the BTF on the day for the same cost of £8. It will need to be cash though please, as we don’t have facility to take card payments (please see previous note on phone signal)
If you’re not sure on any of the above, and I’d totally understand as it’s unnecessarily complicated, please just email or phone me – 07595 591612
Last week, you had a window to request Waves and/or Numbers, and we had around 600 requests from the 740 competitors. I genuinely believe that I managed to accommodate 99% of them.
You can find the start list with Waves / Numbers / BTF status HERE
Anyone that had seen this already this week, and emailed me with updates etc, please don’t worry that they’re not yet showing as the start list will not be updated with a later revision until closer to race day.
Although I’m afraid we now can’t do anything with the numbers as they are now fixed and have gone off to print, if you now decide that you want a different wave, please see the team at registration on the Saturday, and they will accommodate you where possible
New (and Old) BTF Rules
Our race works in accordance with the BTF competition rules, and it’s well worth familiarising yourself with these in advance of the day so you don’t get stopped from starting, or a penalty/DQ during the race. I did link them earlier in this mail, but you can find the full rules HERE
Although I do strongly suggest you have a good read of these, I wanted to summarise the main parts that are either new or very pertinent to our events :
1) Towels in transition
Over the last few years, it’s become quite common for people to mark their transition space with brightly coloured towels. This, (and I go to an awful lot of races, and see this first hand), appears to have gotten a little out of hand over the last few seasons and people are starting to overflow into the space next to them, and having towels so big you’d think they were setting out on the beach for a family of 8.
Subsequently, the BTF have now banned them in an update last month (Which is typically ironic as you’ll all be getting a nice 113 towel in your goody bags at registration)
I’m very conscious that people do like to dry themselves etc, so the rules basically state that you can not have a towel in transition that is not stored within a bag other than a flannel sized (12″x12″) towel that then has to be rolled up and tucked into a shoe. You can, of course, have a towel in transition, but it must be in a bag under your space in the racking, and put back in there when you’ve used it. If you’re not sure, we’ll cover a bit more on this in the Saturday briefings
The BTF are like a kid with a new toy when new rules get rolled out, and they’ll be very sharp on this over this summer, including our races.
2) Getting changed in transition
We will put out a couple of changing tents at the Bike exit end of transition. One for Males and one for Females. However, if you want to get changed by your bike, you’re more than welcome to do so. The rules say you cannot get naked in transition, which is sensible as we have kids and families etc watching. However, and I’m going to try my best not to dig my self a ‘Pervert image’ hole here in how I describe this, we apply this rule with an amount of common sense. If you are getting changed under your towel and you inadvertently flash something you didn’t intend to, you won’t get penalised. If you do fully Naked lunges next to the racking, or stand naked and do a big back/forth sawing motion undercarriage drying move with a towel (I’ve seen both at our races, and neither were pretty), you will be in trouble with the Ref. Hope that makes sense ?
3) Drafting
Our race is strictly none drafting, therefore if you get caught drafting, you will be penalised or DQ’d
The drafting distance is 12m, and although I’m very conscious that this can be a difficult distance to try and calculate in your head, please just allow enough space as if a car was going to overtake you safely and have enough space to drop in between you and the bike in front. Use this as a rule of thumb, and you won’t be far wrong.
If you are overtaking or being overtaken, you have 25 seconds to get back outside of the drafting distance.
How our Moto Ref’s and Moto Support team will apply this rule is that if you appear to be trying to gain an advantage, you will be penalised. If you are just pulling off a junction and the bike is in front of you because you’ve both slowed down, you’ll be given a grace period to drop back. We have seen in the past, especially with multiples from a single club, that thy try and ride like a TDF peloton, and this will be seen and penalised now. You will not know you have received a draft penalty until after the race when the time penalty is applied to your race time, as they do not have to notify you on course. If you have multiple offences, you will not know until you get the end of the bike section and are not allowed to continue on the run as you have been DQ’d
Please take this warning on board, and do not draft
4) Earphones on the courses are not allowed in any way shape or form within the rules, even bone conduction ear phones. We have to be very strict on this, and the reason for this, is that our run course has a couple of points where you need to cross the bike course, so you will need to have your full attention available please to hear marshal instruction.
Car Parking
We have an event carpark around a 5min walk from transition, registration etc (if you click the above map image, it’ll take you to the W3W location.
This field is owned by a farmer, who knows full well that it’s currently the only place to park on race weekend, and like most farmers, likes to make a few quid, so absolutely has our arm off over the pricing with us for it
Subsequently, the car parking is £10 per day per car, although he does donate some of the cash to charity ( it was Wilts Air Ambulance last time)
It is only payable in cash, so please ensure you have the correct change. This carpark will hold all competitors and a handful of spectators, and only competitors will be able to buy a Sunday car park pass in advance on the Saturday at registration. In order to avoid congestion and ensure all competitors get parked up ok, Spectators will not be able to access this carpark until 06:00 on the Sunday morning unless, of course, they are in a vehicle with a competitor.
In order to speed up Sunday parking, competitors only can buy Sunday’s car parking pass on Saturday from registration. If you don’t get a pass on Saturday, but are racing on Sunday and want to park, please ensure you have the correct change Sunday AM.
The carpark is a field, and although it’s pretty flat, it is still a field, so if you have the luxury of owning a very low sports car, I’d suggest you think of coming in something else on race weekend.
If you can lift share, even better, as it saves you a few quid, and leaves us more space.
If you have spectators that are planning on coming along earlier than that, I’d suggest they park in Neighbridge Country park car park, which although is a 10min walk away, is only about £3 for the day, and actually where we have our main run course aid station. The what3words location for that carpark is ///angle.sublet.chatters
If you have just spotted that we have race camping on the map above, the details of how to book that, or other accommodation options are all covered in Newsletter #1 HERE
If you have spectators that are coming after 10am, and want the best possible spot (they can literally park up against transition) and also use of all the Beach and Country park facilities, they can book into there (they open at 10am, not earlier, just to pre-warn you)
It is well worth booking though, as they will almost certainly be fully booked a week out with the good forecast.
You can book the Beach and Country park HERE
Fancy camping and parking right next to the start/finish area for free ? Please read the next section and bring a marshal
Bring someone who can be part of the 113 team
We still need a handful more marshals to completely fill our roster for the race day, so are appealing for your help
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 :
Transition/Swim exit team – 04:30 start, finish around 11:45
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, and we’ll keep them in hot food, drinks and ice creams
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
What’s coming next
I will, of course, keep everyone as updated as I can about temperatures, but it’s pointless trying to update you all every day for the next week, as forecasts change. I will put out some updates towards the end of next week as we get closer to the race day
The next you will likely hear from me is early next week with a link to the video briefing, and then later during next week we’ll send what will be the last email with a link to Results/Live Tracking and any other last minute info for race weekend
We really are here to help, so if there’s anything we can help with at all, you’re worried and just want a chat, or need any more info from me, please just get in touch
You can email me at graeme@113events.com or call me any time on 07595 591612
