Cotswold Classic – 14th July 2024

Afternoon all, I hope everyone’s well ?
We’re just under 3 Months away from race day now, so I wanted to start now getting some information out to you all in advance so you can start planning your race weekend
As some of you will have signed up since the last newsletter which went out in early feb, I’ll quickly recap and post up a link so you can all find it.
That newsletter had a load of info on the how the race weekend works, and outline timing plan, what to expect over the next few months, and also some links for camping and accommodation as well as a link to our training plans.
You can find that newsletter HERE

This newsletter today will be a reasonably long on again, but I’ll try and keep them more brief as we go along, and only get out info as and when it’s required
I’d suggest a strong cup of coffee and a comfy seat for this one :
Planning your kit
Familiarisation day
Refer a friend and earn a few quid
Got Friends who are going to sign up, but want to earn a £50 discount by helping in June
Join our team
Swapping info and between races
Payment plan update
What to expect between now and race weekend

Planning your kit
As triathletes, we all love a bit of kit, so I wanted to give you all some advice on the course, and what sort of kit is best so you can start your planning.
For the Swim, we work with the BTF rules on Wetsuits and Water temperatures. Over the last 25 Middle Distance races we’ve held, we’ve always been within the ‘Wetsuit optional’ range of temperatures for the Lake. What this means, invariably, is that 99.99% of our competitors wear a wetsuit for the Swim. However, if you’re like me, and prefer to swim in just your swim suit, that’s totally fine too. We will provide you with a swim hat, so you don’t need to worry about that.
Our course is a single 1.9km lap, and it has a couple of spots in the lake, where you can stand up and take a break if you need. I’m concious that we also get a few nervous swimmers, and for those guys/girls, there’s an option to collect a ‘Nervous Swimmer’ hat on race morning, which will be a different colour and signify to the water safety crew that they need to keep an extra keen eye on your to ensure you’re getting around safely.
Our swims start in either a single mass start, or a series of rolling start windows, and nearer the time you will get an option to choose which type of wave you’d like, and also what time you wish to start. Both Mass starts and rolling starts are still competitive, and our fastest race times of the day have been set from both start types, so it’s not compulsory that you do either if you think you’re in with a chance of winning
The water temp is pretty low at the moment due to the rubbish spring we’ve had (I believe it’s about 13deg) but due to the nature of the lake (it’s pretty shallow, but has a large surface area) it warms up very quickly, so I expect race day temp to be between 19 and 22deg.

The bike course to most people is very flat, although we describe it as ‘Gently rolling’ compared to our pancake flat course in June.
If you do have the luxury of choosing between a normal road bike and a TT bike, it’s a TT bike/Aero kit course all day long. The road surface is very good for 99.9% of the course, and we will, of course, head out and spray paint any potholes or imperfections during race week, so they’re easily avoided.

The run course is made up of around 50% Tarmac, 5% Grass, and the rest is a hard packed lake path. The lake paths deal with the rain very well, so if you were to choose a show type, it’s a road shoe over a trail shoe course unless we suddenly get 3 weeks of heavy rain in the run up to the event. I’ll keep everyone posted on this nearer the time, but I’m very confident that it’ll be a road running shoe condition on race day, as it nearly always has been in the past.
The run course offers a reasonable amount of shade too, and with it being 3 laps, your friends and family that are supporting you will get lots of opportunities to see you. I’ll get more info out on spectator guides nearer the time, but there’s some great spots where they can see you on both the bike and run courses that are just a 5min walk from the finish line too.

I’ll get more info out on Aid station locations/menus in the next email with the race info pack, but in advance, we have 1 aid station per lap on the bike (2 laps on race day) and 3 aid stations per lap on the run (3 laps on race day)
We use High5 products at the Aid stations, so Gels, and energy drinks (as well as water), plus the main run aid station has loads more things like Flat Coke, Jamaican Ginger cake, Salty Discos etc)

Familiarisation day
On the 9th June, we will hold our free of charge Familiarisation day where you can come along and have a leisurely paced guided lap of the Bike and Run courses (bike lap is 28miles and run lap is 4.3, as they’ll be 2 & 3 laps respecitvely on race day)
These days are super relaxed, and the emphasis is very much on just seeing the courses and asking any questions, so it’ll be at a pace that’s suitable to everyone (think <13-14mph av on the bike and >12min miles on the run) and we’ll have regular regrouping stops along the way to point out things like aid stations etc and answer any questions anyone might have.
These are a great chance to meet myself and some of the team, as well as lots of other competitors, and you’ll have loads of opportunity to ask any questions you might have and get a feel for what the day’s going to be like.
The bike and the run parts are totally free of charge as they’re controlled by 113, but if you wanted to swim during the day too, the lake guys will have a booking system open around a week out from the day, where you can also book to have a swim either before or after the Bike and Run. Our course won’t be marked out, but it’s broadly similar to their 1500m course, and it’s a good chance just to get a taste of the water (not literally, hopefully)
We at 113 love these days as it’s always a nice chance for us to meet you guys in a much more relaxed atmosphere than race weekend, when you all have your race faces on and we barely get a grunt out of any of you.
It sounds all very formal, but if you are planning on coming along, you’ll need to book your place online, so we can both get a handle on numbers, and also have a way of communicating with your nearer the time on how to book swimming, parking etc.
You can book online at www.entrycentral.com/CCfamday
If you have friends and family that might want to come along too, that’s totally fine, but they will also need to book on please
The basic outline of the day will start with a meet up at 10am for a quick briefing and then head out on the bike course for a single lap – This normally takes up to around 12:15. We’ll then have a quick break for around 15mins and head off on the run course for a single lap around 12:30 ish -This will take around an hour, so we should be done by around 13:30 and hopefully we can all sit and have an ice cream in the sunshine
Don’t worry if you can’t make that day, as I live local to the lake, so can be around during the week if anyone wants to come for a lap of the bike and run course with me one morning (note, I generally can’t do weekends because of my son’s racing, and my days of being a 10hr Ironman are long gone now, so it’ll be at a very leisure pace)

Refer a friend and earn a few quid 
It’s no secret that it’s a tough time in the UK Triathlon industry for all events, and we need to come up with new ways to get people to sign up for our races, as neither of ours are full yet (the 113 has around 750 of 950 normal slots taken, and the Classic around 600)
That’s why we’ve come up with the referral scheme, whereby if you, as one of our signed up 2024 entries, refer a friend to race with us this year, we’ll give you 2 x £20 discounts to use with us for future races – If you have a group of 5 or more that want to race, they can still take advantage of our group entry discounts to save even more money – More info on Group entries HERE
All you have to do is get someone to enter a online with us this year at either the June 2nd 113 or the July 14th Cotswold Classic as either a Solo, Relay or Aquabike, and get them to list your name and email in the ‘Referred by’ section of the online entry system and we’ll take care of the rest.
If you can think of other ways of getting people in, we are, of course, all ears.

Got Friends who are going to sign up, but want to earn a £50 discount by being on the June team
If you’ve got any friends that are planning on signing up for the July race, and fancy being part of the marshal team on June 2nd for the Cotswold 113, they can earn a £50 discount from the July race for doing a short shift. They could even bring someone else along with them, and combine the two discounts into a £100 discount, or even three for £150 or 4 for a free entry ?
More info on marshalling is in the next section, but we make sure it’s a fun day, and a really good chance for them to see how the July race will work from the more fun and less tiring side of the race

Join our team
Got friends coming along that fancy being  part of the amazing team that help deliver the event on either race day ?
We still are looking for more Marshalls to join the 180ish paid roles for both June and July races.
We have a series of roles in the marshal team that they can choose from :
Transition team – 04:30 to mid morning
Bike team – 05:45 Briefing, finish around 11:45ish
Run team – 07:45 Briefing, finish around 14:45ish

All our marshals can camp for free on site (that means if you bring a marshal, you can camp for free too – around 100m from the start line) and we pay all our marshals too: either £20 cash or a £50 113 Events Voucher.
Marshalling is good fun too, and we’ll make sure you enjoy your day, give you an event shirt to keep and keep you in hot food, drinks and ice creams all day
All we ask is that you’re over 16 and know your left from your right. If you have under 16’s with you, they can of course, assist a parent or helper who’s marshalling and have an event shirt/ice creams, but due to insurance we can’t officially employ them and pay them
If you’ve got anyone wanting to be involved, just drop me an email at graeme@113events.com and we’ll welcome them in with open arms

Swapping info and between races
We’re 12 and a bit weeks out from the race now and only 7 from the June race, and I’m conscious that we always get late requests for people who had originally entered into the July race, that now want to race in June instead, or swapping their entry from an aquabike to solo, relay to solo etc.
You might also fancy racing in June too, and although you may have entered this Cotswold Classic Race on it’s own, I can still arrange the combo discount (£40) if you now want to also enter the June Cotswold 113 as well – Just get in touch and I’ll sort the discount out
Payment plan update
If you’ve either completed your payment plan, or you entered and paid up in full at the start, you can ignore the next bit
We’ve still got a fairly large number of people that have either only paid the first instalment, or have paid the 2nd but not the final instalment.
The Payment plan system was brand new to us for this year’s races and It’s been a steep learning curve. It wasn’t instantly obvious that payments 2 and 3 were not taken by direct debit and you’d need to go into the entry system and make payments 2 and 3.
We’ve given everyone a couple of months grace period, and sent out quite a few emails to all involved since. We’ve not yet withdrawn anyone that’s not made staged payments, but I’m afraid it’s getting close to that time where we’re not left with any choice, as we now have to start committing to more firm numbers on race day, and have already spent out a fair amount based on numbers of entries
If this is you, please just get in touch and we can try and accommodate your needs.
If you want to head online and make the final payment(s) now please, there’s a unique link on your entry confirmation email or reminder emails that you can follow to make payments against your accounts. if you don’t have this, or it’s since expired, just drop me an email and I’ll regenerate the link for you
I’m here to help, so please just get in touch if you’re unsure

What to expect between now and race weekend
Despite it really not feeling like Summer weather outside right now, we’re getting very close to race season and it will soon be upon us.
I’ll trickle information over to you all over the next few weeks so that you know everything you can possibly need to know in the run up to race weekend
We put some info on the race weekend outline timings and accommodation/camping options in the last mail so if you missed that, you can find that at https://www.113events.com/2024-competitor-newsletter-1/
The next you’ll hear from is in the next few weeks, when I’ll send the full race information pack out
Around 5 weeks out from the race, once the start list is nearly finalised and I can manipulate it on a Spreadsheet, you’ll get an opportunity to choose a race number and/or Wave and start grouping together people. We can’t do any of that just yet, so you’ll need to await the email around the start of June please.
After that, the emails will become almost weekly with updates on the start list, info on course conditions, links to the online briefing, advice, and final details on what to bring/what not to forget

Right, that’s it from me for today.
We hope to see lots of you on June 9th at the Familiarisation day,  but if not, then please don’t forget that we’re here to help, so if you get any questions at all, or want any help or advice with anything, please just email or call me any time, as that’s what I’m here for.

Cheers and Happy training

Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events Team
graeme@113events.com
07595 591612