The following email went out to all Cotswold113 2022 Competitors tonight
Pre race email #3
Hey all, I hope you’re all nice and ready for Sunday’s race ?
This will be the last you’re likely to hear from me before the weekend, so I wanted to get the last few bits of info from our drip feed out to you just so you can get the final few bits ready to go racing on Sunday.
In this email I’ll cover the following :
What to bring this weekend for just about everything
Live tracker and results link
Rain and morning prep
Queens Jubilee celebrations
Allergy Change
What to bring this weekend for just about everything
I appreciate there’s always a million things on your minds on race morning, and it’s very easy to forget things, so I wanted a get a quick reminder out of what to remember to bring and do on the morning in order that you’ll need them so, hopefully, no one forgets things (I won’t remind you to bring wetsuit, bike and running kit, as if you’re the type of person to forget to bring your bike, I’m not sure an email reminder is going to help you)
Firstly, when you arrive at the car park in the morning, please have cash (Sunday parking is £5) ready to pay as it’ll speed up the process of getting some 700 or so cars parked within a 90 min window through one gate into a field. There’ll be a queue for the carpark, so please also leave plenty of time too.
If you’re coming along on Saturday, you can buy your Sunday parking pass for the main car park then too, which will speed up the Sunday process even more.
Before you leave your car, please ensure you have your race bib to hand and your bike sticker positioned on your bike. When you get to transition, you will need to register. For this, you will need either your 2022 BTF membership card complete with a photo, or another form of official photo ID (Passport, driving license, NHS card etc) and £5 cash for BTF Day license. Without either of these, you will not be allowed to race, and our BTF ref will be keeping a very strict eye on us for this, so we cannot make any exceptions at all. If you are in a relay team, one person can register for all members, but will need all of their BTF cards, or photo ID’s and £5 cash each.
If you don’t want to bring your passport etc with you, a photo on a phone is fine as is a printed off version of a photocopy. Once you have registered, you will be given a wrist band (or multiple wrist bands if you’ve registered for a relay) It’s also worth noting, that you will be checked into transition at this point, so must have your bike sticker on your bike, your race bib showing, and your helmet on your head and fastened. The latter is so that we can check that your helmet does actually fit your head (roughly by eye) and that your chin strap isn’t hanging down by your nipples and will actually keep your helmet on your head if you’re unlucky enough to have a spill) – Like the ID’s, this is a BTF rule and we get watched very carefully that we are checking this.
You will save yourself a lot of time to turn up to check in with your id etc, and your helmet already on your head please
Once you’re in transition, you will find your numbered spot in the racking, and at your spot will be your timing chip and swim hat.
The bike course aid station is at 25ish miles into the course, so have enough aid/drink to get yourself started to that distance. You don’t have to use the aid station if you don’t want, and many don’t, but please be ready for the first 25miles if you’re planning on using it.
The water temp today was a very nice 19deg, so we’re firmly within the wetsuit optional range and this won’t change much by Sunday, maybe 1deg either way at most.
Live tracker and results link
Our timing partners, DBmax have a link up and running for live timing and results
This shows within a couple of seconds when you have started the race, and have either finished a swim, bike or run section, or crossed any of the intermediate timing mats as well as the finish line, so can be used as a tracker too.
The link to this is at https://www.113events.com/cotswold-113/results/
We have two types of race categories, ours and the BTF’s 5yr age slots
We have Trophies and prizes for our age categories (M/F 18-49 & M/F 50+ and Relay) and these are posted out after the race. Historically, we used to hold a prize giving after the race, but I appreciate it’s not much fun for the very fastest guys and girls to have to hang around what might be 4-5 hours after they’ve finished, as I didn’t want to run the prize giving until after the last finisher was in (This was my own rule as I didn’t want people to still be out on the course and see prize giving happening, and feel in any way that the race was finished without that and no one cared about them still being out there)
Rain and Morning Prep
The various UK weather forecasts are now almost all agreeing that it looks like it’s going to rain on Sunday for at least a good chunk of the race, if not all of it. With that in mind, please can I remind you all that transition is on grass, so please bring a large plastic bag to keep all your stuff a) up off wet grass, and b) out of the rain.
Also, with transition shutting for 6am, and many of you not starting until the 06:50 wave, there’s going to be some standing around. If you have a coat with you that you want to wear pre race over your wetsuit, we will have a 3×3 gazebo near to the swim start where you can drop anything you want and collect after the race. it’s going to be unmanned during the day, so you leave anything in there at your own risk, but will be in the finishers area so will only be accessible by competitor.
For other stuff (Car keys etc), you can leave them, if you wish, in transition with your bike, which is far more secure as it’s competitors only and constantly manned.
Also, the walk from transition to the swim start/toilets is on grass and hard packed stone. You can walk on it bare footed, but if you have sensitive feet or just don’t like walking barefooted, please feel free to bring some old flip flops, trainers, hotel slippers etc, and leave them on the shore by the swim start. That’s only 5m from the overall finish line, so you can either grab them after the race, or if you don’t want them back, leave them there and we’ll dump them in the skip on Sunday night.
As I said in the previous email, rain on the bike course does have a habit of washing crap onto the roads, so the chances of getting a puncture are increased somewhat. Please have the necessary tube and kit to repair it yourself on the day, as although we’ll have motorbike support riders on the course as well as the BTF moto Ref’s, the support guys can take a fair while to get to you if they’re very busy, so please don’t just rely on them. There will also be a mechanic with basic tools at the bike course aid station.
Also as previous mentioned, it’s always worth having wet weather kit and not needing it, rather than needing it and not having it.
Pulling on dry socks after the bike to head off on the run is one of Triathlon life’s real pleasures too, so I’d always recommend to people to have some dry socks and run shoes in a bag with a small towel for the end of the bike segment.
Queens Jubilee celebrations
Sunday is the queens Jubilee day, and although it’s caused us no end of headaches in getting this race sorted for the day, it’s also a pretty cool day to celebrate
We will have bunting all around the finish chute, and we even have a ‘Royal Red’ finish line carpet instead of our normal bright 113 Red carpet, so we’ll try and get in the Royal Spirit as much as we can. We will also have spot prizes for the most patriotic competitors and spectators, so don’t forget to try and wear some Red, White and Blue.
Allergy Change
It’s worth mentioning that we have a competitor (Actually 2) who have a very serious Peanut allergies, so we are now withdrawing the Salted Peanuts from the aid station as we just can’t gaurentee eliminating cross contamination for the other stuff on that run station (people tend to grab one thing and then grab something else too, often with then same hand). I’m currently double checking that Jamaican Ginger cake, Bananas, Chocolate chip cookies, Salt and Vinegar Discos, Jelly Babies and all the normal High5 drinks/gels and flat coke don’t have traces, but I’m pretty sure they don’t so we should be able to keep everything else other than the peanuts
Right, I’m pretty sure that’s the last time you’ll have to put up with emails now before race day, but please give me a call if you need anything from me between now and Sunday, and we’ll look forward to seeing many of your smiling faces at the Briefing on Saturday at 15:00 and the rest of you with your race faces at registration on Sunday morning
Cheers
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
Graeme@113events.com
07595 591612