The following newsletter went out to all competitors today
Cotswold Classic – Competitor newsletter #4
Morning All, I hope everyone’s well and out enjoying training in the sun
We’re a little under a month away from the race now on July 14th, so I wanted to start getting more information out to you all on what’s coming up and a few things about race weekend
This could end up quite a long email, so get yourself a cup of coffee and a comfortable seat.
In this instalment, I’ll cover the following
Race info pack
Transition rules and what to expect
Saturday Briefings
Waves and Race numbers
Want to park and camp near the Start/finish line for free
Last chance to make any changes
Race Info Pack
Hopefully everyone that received the last newsletter has had a chance to read through the race info pack
If you haven’t yet, you can find it HERE
This pack contains everything you need to know about the race, but please just ask if you’re not sure of something
Transition rules and what to expect
In the last newsletters (you can find these HERE if you missed them) I covered a fair amount of info on the Swim, Bike and run course conditions, so I now want to get you some more info on the Transition area.
Our transition is on a large grass area adjacent to the lake. it’s about a 60m walk from the swim exit to the transition entrance, which is also on grass.
The BTF rules, have for some years, not allowed the use of Plastic boxes in transition area, so what we suggest is that competitors bring a soft bag to hold their stuff in and leave it with their bikes and run kit when they rack in the morning
A Black Bin bag, Ikea bag etc, seem to be quite popular, as it keeps everything dry if we get rain (or you throw your dripping wetsuit on it) and it also keeps your stuff up off the grass, which could be wet from either rain or morning dew. I know from bitter personal experience that getting in off the bike, and having to pour water out your runs shoes to do 13miles is not a fun experience.
We leave everything by the bikes in transition, and the area is controlled for competitors only, so is as safe as can be.
Many people will wear their tri kit under their wetsuits, so will strip the wetsuit off after the swim, and head straight out on the bike, but others do want to change into cycle kit, and again to run kit. Both ways are totally fine
We don’t have changing tents, but it’s perfectly ok to get changed next to your bike if you want a full kit change for the bike and run, and all we ask is that you use a towel or a dry robe to cover yourself where possible whilst doing so.
The BTF rules do have a nakedness penalty, and we try and take a really common sense approach to it, so if you happen to inadvertently flash your backside whilst getting changed, we have no issue with that. However, if you fancied doing naked lunges up and down the racking, or do a full naked see-saw style towel undercarriage drying manoeuvre, you’re going to get a penalty (I’ve seen both done in transition at our races in the past, and neither left a particularly positive image in my brain)
As with how we apply most of the rules at our race, common sense prevails please
The area between the transition and the mount point to start the bike course is carpeted, so you can run bare footed or in bike shoes with no issues.
We do all our racking on the Sunday morning, and all we ask when you arrive at transition Sunday AM is that you have your race bib visible as you won’t be allowed into transition without it, that you have your bike number sticker (that you’ll collect in your race pack on Saturday) stuck somewhere visible on your bike*, and you have your helmet on your head and fastened as the BTF referee has to give it a quick glance to ensure it fits your head properly and that the chin strap isn’t up by your nose, or down by your chest.
* The bike sticker can go anywhere on your bike, and the reason you have it is that when you finish the race and collect your bike, your bike sticker needs to match your bib so that you don’t walk off with someone else’s bike.
Between transition and the swim start is a gravel path. It’s not impossible to walk on bare footed, but it’s equally not the nicest. We suggest you bring an old set of flip flops, trainers, slippers or something else to wear on your feet here. You can leave them by the swim start, and as this is by the finish area, you can collect them after the race
Any that are not collected (and most people bring a pair that are ready for the bin anyway, so don’t want them back) will get collected up by us Sunday am, and skipped so don’t worry about binning them for us
Saturday Briefings
Alongside registration on Saturday the 13th, we’ll hold a couple of informal briefings. These aren’t compulsory, and will take around 45mins to an hour and I’ll talk you through the whole Sunday experience from arriving first thing, to collecting your bike at the end
It’ll be myself, and likely Shouty Dave, and although we’re no stand up comedians or entertainment act, we’ll try and make it quite light hearted so you don’t all fall asleep, and can answer any last minute questions you might get. The two Briefings will be at 13:00 and 16:00
Also, on Saturday all day, there’ll be a chance to have a swim* if you wish. The lake will take bookings for that, and you’ll be able to book that 7 days out from the day, through their booking system at https://lake32.co.uk/product/payg-swimming/
* Our course won’t be marked out at this stage, as we do that Saturday night, but their 1,500m course roughly follows the same outline without the dog leg section we use to make up the distance. You will also need to have a tow float to Swim on Saturday (they can hire you one) as that’s the lakes rules, although you obviously won’t need one on Sunday to race as we contract in a large water safety team.
Waves and Race numbers
Please can I ask that you read all the following before you get your request in :
You will now get the chance to choose which wave you’d like, and/or if you’d like a special number or a range of numbers to be racked with your mates, you can do that also
By default, anyone not requesting a wave will be sorted youngest to oldest in rolling start waves 1 – 6 regardless of gender
All waves get a race time regardless of type, and your race start time will commence at the point you cross the mat to get into the water for a rolling start, or on the buzzer for the mass start – Previously, the fastest time of the day hasn’t always come from the Mass start (they actually won from wave 3), but some people like a mass start with their mates to they can measure exactly their time against them when out on the course, whereas others like a more leisurely and spacious start on their own in the rolling start waves
In the rolling starts, you can start as a small group together if you like, otherwise you’ll be set off at 2-3 second intervals from the chute.
For reference, the average swim time in each wave is pretty much the same, and only the mass start waves tends to have a slightly faster average swim time
Some things to consider if you’d like to choose a wave.
– You might want to watch a few waves go off before you or don’t want to rush, so could ask for a middle or later wave
– You might want to get home in time for Songs of Praise or a Sunday Roast, so would want an earlier wave
– You might want to get going straight away and not hang around, so would like an early wave
– You might be a slower overall triathlete, and don’t want to be the last person on the run course, so would want an earlier wave to give you best part of an hour over those in the last wave
We do have some flexibility on waves on the day too, so don’t worry if you’re in wave 6 (for example) and want to go off in wave 3, we can slot you in if you come and see us on race morning
You don’t need to choose a wave or a number, but if you do, they’ll be on first come first served basis once the window opens
If you have entered as part of one of our many group/club entries (ie, you paid a club and they paid us, and you entered through the entry system with a free entry code), please can you ask the person who co-ordinated your group and sent me the spreadsheet/payment to get in touch with which wave you’d like. I will put you all together in transition in a spare sequence of numbers, so if you contact me directly and ask for a certain lucky number, I can normally sort it, but will mean you’re not racked with the rest of your group in transition and may not be in the same wave
If you would like a lucky number, you can choose any number between 5 and 600. These are normally really popular, especially the low numbers, so please put a 2nd, 3rd and maybe even 4th choice down as there’s a good chance that unless you email me within the next 5 minutes, your 1st choice number will have already gone.
When requesting a specific number, please include your full name, Date of Birth and registed email address
All individual numbers are first come first served based on the time I receive the email request.
As I am going to get around 600 email requests for waves and numbers in the next few days, please understand that I can’t reply to all of them to say that you’ve been successful in getting your number, and you’ll need to await the start list coming out next week.
If you would like to request a group of numbers in sequence to be with your mates, please can you read the following guidelines for this.
– Please speak with your group first and get their agreement, as in the past, about 30-40% of requests would come in for a group only to find that Joe Blogs or Sarah Smith doesn’t want to be with that group, and has already requested a wave and number
– If you’re sending a list of names, I will need their name, Date of Birth and registered email address please as we tend to get duplicates of seemingly unusual names, not just John Browns and Anne Harris’s, and people are often referred to by their friends by names that they’ve not registered with – Ie I won’t know who ‘Bomber Harris’ or ‘Fast Steve’ is
– Please check they’ve actually entered as I don’t want to spend an hour scratching my head trying to find someone in your group, only to later discover they either didn’t enter, or have swapped their name to someone else racing in their place, or two months ago deferred their entry to next year
– Please get the above right first time as once you’ve created a group to be racked together, I will allocate them a sequence of spare numbers, and the next sequence of numbers will be allocated to another group, so I can’t then add the next number to your group if you miss someone first time out (this happens an awful lot)
I love being able to offer this service, but this is a really time consuming job for me to do (it literally takes 3-4 days solid), so please make my life easier by getting it right first time and not chopping and changing as we can’t add people in later, and it’s a pain trying to group a bunch of people only for half of them to come in with different requests.
Relays have a separate pen, so although they can go off in, and request, any wave, they cannot choose a number I’m afraid as they work on a different number sequence to individual entries.
Aquabike entries will be mixed in with the solo’s, so can choose a number
In order to get your request in, the Window opens now and closes at Mid-day on Thursday the 27th June
To request a wave and/or number, please email graeme@113events.com using ‘Waves and Numbers’ as a title
In summary ;
You can choose any wave from mass start to rolling wave 6
You can choose any individual number for yourself between 005-600
If you are part of a club entry, please get the co-ordinating person to contact me with which wave you’d like, and I’ll do your numbers together in transition anyway
If you don’t choose a specific number or wave, you’ll be allocated a number at random, and the waves are sorted youngest first / oldest last
Want to park and camp by the start for free
If you bring a marshal with you, you can do exactly that as those guys have free camping and parking, so if you’re sharing a tent and/or car with them, you can too
We still really need to fill some marshal slots on the bike and run courses, if you have anyone coming along that fancies being part of the team on the day. Marshals get closer and free parking, and free camping on site around 100m from the race start, and we pay all our marshals either £20 cash or a £50 113 Events Voucher
Marshalling is good fun too, and we’ll make sure you enjoy your day as a happy marshal is a good marshal, and it’s these guys and girls that can really pick the spirits up of any competitors that are starting to flag
If you have anyone that fancies being on the team, just drop me an email at graeme@113events.com
The two basic shifts, if they have a preference, are :
Bike team – 05:45 Briefing, finish around 11:45
Run Team – 07:45 Briefing, finish around 14:45
All marshals, are of course, Fed and watered and we’ll keep you in ice creams
Last chance to make any changes
If you’re possibly now wishing you’d opted to do a relay or an aquabike instead of a solo (or vice versa), now’s your chance to ask, and we can still sort that right up to next Thursday.
However, I’m afraid we can’t now offer deferrals to next year for free as we’ve had to spend and commit on numbers for this race. However, in the interest of fairness, as I’m aware that people get injured or plans change, if you do want to defer to next year, as long as you’re happy to share some of the cost, I’m sure we can come up with something, so just get in touch
Rather than just applying a blanket No, I hope this is the fairest way we can still accommodate late requests
Right, that’s finally it from me for today as my typing fingers are probably as tired as your eyes reading through my waffle.
We’re here to help, so please just get in touch if there’s anything we can do, or you get any questions
Cheers and happy training in the Sun (for the next two days at least)
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events Team
graeme@113events.com
07595 591612
