The following email went out to all 2017 Cotswold Classic Competitors today
113 Cotswold Classic 2017 – June Newsletter
Good morning all, I hope everyone’s well on this Sunny Monday morning ?
We’re just a month and a half away from this year’s Cotswold Classic Tri on August 13th, so I wanted to drop you all out an email to bring you up to speed on the race, and to get some info out to you all.
As those of you that have raced with us before will know, I can waffle on for England in my mails, and this is going to be a long one. With this in mind, and seeing as it’s a Monday morning, I’d suggest you pour yourself a large coffee before reading all this as there’s a lot to go through, and falling asleep at your desk at work whilst reading something non work related instead of actually working tends to be seen in a dim light by your boss 🙂
In this email I’ll cover the following :
Race Info Pack
June race video
Race Numbers and waves
Marshal Request
Familiarisation day
Sponsorship opportunity
Saturday Briefing
Race Info Pack
You can find the race info pack here – https://www.113events.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/CC2017–Race-Information-Sheet.pdf
This info pack contains everything you could possibly need to know on race weekend and more.
It’s important that you take the time to read this, so please print a copy of and digest it.
Personally, I find the best place to read in my house is on the toilet, as it’s the only peace and quiet I seem to get, so print a copy off and put it next to the toilet, and read it at your leisure.
This is your info pack, and although we hope that we’ve covered everything in there, please let me know if there’s anything else that we can add in for you.
There’ll likely be a change to Sunday parking to that listed in the pack, as we’re working on the farmer to allow us to use a field 200m from the lake instead of the beach and country park area, so I’ll keep you updated on that nearer the time.
June race Video
The June 113 and August 113 Cotswold Classic are effectively identical races, and the only differences are the name and the shirt colour. Therefore, if you wanted a good idea of what we have in store for you on August 13th, please see the video we had made of the June 113 three weeks ago.
https://youtu.be/QJO_kFb-KZs
Race Numbers and waves
In around 2 weeks time, when the start list for the Classic race is fixed and Frozen, and I have it in an Excel format rather than it being live document online list that I can’t manipulate, I’ll send an email out to you all asking you if you want to choose a specific wave and/or a race number which is special to you – Or a group of numbers so that you and your mates can be racked together in transition.
Please can I ask that you await this email to make your requests as I can’t do anything until the start list is frozen, and race numbers/waves are on a first come first served basis following that email.
For info, the number 69 seems to be the most commonly requested number at our races. No idea why 😉
Marshal Request
We pride ourselves on our races having the best and most enthusiastic marshals in the sport, and we have around 200 paid positions for marshals at the Classic Race.
We have a pool of around 100-130 local marshals and regulars, and tend to find the other 70-100 from friends and family of competitors. We always need more marshals, so if you have anyone coming down with you for the day that fancies getting involved, we’d welcome them to the team.
They don’t need any experience at all, and we’ll take them through a full briefing and get them kitted up and provide everything they could need.
We pay our marshals too, and we offer either £20 cash or a £40 113 Events Voucher
We’ll give them an event technical shirt and keep them going with hot food, chocolate, hot/cold drinks and free ice creams all day.
We can’t, unfortunately, employ under 16’s, but if you have a family coming down that want to get involved, the kids can assist the Adults in Marshalling, and we have events team shirts down to a 4year old’s size, and of course the kids can take advantage of the free burgers and ice creams
We have a variety of roles from early guidance, transition area, swim exit (if you don’t mind getting wet) and of course bike and run courses, right through to tear down post race.
Please email me at graeme@113events.com and we’d love to hear from you
Familiarisation day
This coming Sunday (2nd July), we’ll be holding our Classic Familiarisation day, which is a free of charge chance to come and have a guided lap of the courses you’ll be racing on on August 13th.
The bike and the run are totally free, but if you wanted to Swim in the lake beforehand, the lake owners will ask for a £5 day membership fee payable on the gate.
The idea of the Familiarisation day is that it’s a leisurely paced guided lap of the each parts of the course, with a strong emphasis on ‘Leisurely’ – Think 14-16mph average on the bike, and 9-10min miles on the run.
We’ll cover a single lap of each of the Swim, Bike and Run (race day is 1 lap Swim, 2 laps Bike and 3 Laps run)
The guys from Sailfish wetsuits will be there also with a number of Demo suits that can try in the water too
It’s a great chance to meet the team, meet other competitors’, and it’s also great for us to meet you all in a more relaxed environment than race day as you all tend to have your race faces on on race weekend, and we get barely a grunt out of you rather than a decent conversation 🙂
There’ll be ample chance to ask as many questions as you like, and we’ll be stopping along on the way on each of the bike and run courses to regroup and point out spots like aid stations and good spectator spots etc.
The Swim will commence with toes in the water at 08:00, and will be guided round by our residend Swim coach – Jason Tait of Southwest Swim. He’ll be on hand to answer any questions you might have about swimming, and he’s a specialist open water Swimming coach and a previous 113 Competitor, so knows the swim side of the race inside out.
The bike will kick off at 10am from the lakeside cafe, and the 28mile lap generally takes around 2hrs 20mins.
From there we’ll have a 15-20min break to get everyone changed before heading out on the run course.
You can do just the bike and the run or mix and match as you see fit, and we welcome down non competitors to come along too so they can see what the race is all about.
In order to get a track of numbers, we need you to book in please, and this also gives us a way to communicate directly with you should we need to as a group before Sunday.
You don’t need to pay us anything when you book, as our time is free, but you will need to pay the lake owners £5 on the gate should your wish to Swim.
The booking link is https://www.entrycentral.com/113events
If you can’t make the familiarisation day, but still want to see the bike or run courses, it’s not the end of the world. I live local to the lake and work from home on my day job, so welcome the chance to skive away from my desk for a few hours one morning to go for a ride and/or a run.
My weekend’s are generally tied up with either helping out at events, my kids activities or my other hobbies, but I’m largely available week day mornings to show people around if you can’t make the familiarisation day. My racing days are over, so as long as you don’t mind my slow pace, I’ll happily come and show you the bike and run courses – Just ask
Sponsorship opportunity
Unfortunately, we’ve just had our shirt sponsor just pull out on us. This means we have a spot for a company that wants to promote itself with some exposure through our event by having it’s logo on the back of our shirt.
We’re not a corporate style event that just takes on any sponsors, so we’re looking for a company that has similar values to us in that they provide friendly, flexible and an approachable team and service.
If any of you have a company that are interested in being involved, please drop me a line at graeme@113events.com
Saturday Briefing
Everyone will get a compulsory 3 min briefing in their wave before they get in the water, but I’m conscious that no one listens to me beyond saying good morning, and I tend to be talking to the side of a bunch of swim hats who are staring at the lake wanting me to hurry up and shut up so they can get on with racing.
On the Saturday, we will have a non compulsory full briefing where we will talk through the race step by step in detail whilst stood next to the swim exit and transition, so everyone can understand everything about the race and ask any questions.
You don’t have to come to this, but if you want to understand all the little bits and details that you might not have considered etc, this is a good chance to hear it from us, and to ask any questions you might have on the day.
We’ll run these on Saturday the 12th, and to spread it out a bit to suit everyone’s day planning and run it three times, so they’ll be at
12:30
15:00
17:00
Registration on the Saturday afternoon will be 12:00-17:00
Right, that’s it from me. Hopefully, you’re all still awake and no one’s snoring away at their computer ?
We’re here to help, so if you need anything from us in the run up to race day, or there’s anything we can talk you through or help you with to make your race more enjoyable, please just ask
I’ll send the race numbers and waves email out in a couple of weeks, so please keep your eyes open for that one as you’ll only get a short window to apply within.
Thanks and happy training
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
graeme@113events.com
07595 591612