Cotswold 113 – June 1st 2025

Good morning all
I hope everyone’s well into their tapers for this weekend now, and feeling fully ready to race on Sunday ?

Unless anything drastic comes up, this will be the last pre race newsletter you will get from me before the big weekend
There’s a fair bit to cover in this email, so I’d suggest it’s strong coffee and comfy seat time please

In this email, I will cover the following :

Weather / clothing
Start list / BTF reminder
Briefing / Race info pack
Does your bike need some lovin’ or any kit you need
Results / tracker
Prize Giving
Beach and Country park access
Parking / Traffic update 

Weather / clothing / start kit
I’m going to try my hardest not to Jinx it, but the weather forecast for the weekend is looking pretty decent

However, it could still be pretty chilly first thing, especially with the wind the forecast is predicting, so I would still recommend to people to bring a layer or a pair of arm warmers to put on when you first start on the bike, and you can always take it off and leave it with a marshal or a spectator if you get too hot later on. We have an exemption on the rule for this, and I cover this in the video briefing, which is linked later in this email.
Most of our bike course recoveries outside of mechanical issues, are generally where someone has just got too cold in the first few miles, and was lulled into a false sense of warmth when swimming in a nice insulated wetsuit looking up at blue sky.
The Lake temp is currently around 20deg, and is likely to rise by a degree or two before Sunday.

Also, between transition and the swim start, the walk is around 150m and is on Gravel. You may have super hardened feet to this, and it won’t be a problem. However, if you don’t fancy walking bare footed from the transition to the swim start chutes over quite course gravel, please feel free to bring an old pair of trainers, slippers, sliders etc, and leave them by the waters edge at the Swim start, and you can either grab these against after you finish the race, or leave them there and we’ll skip them at the end of the day for you.

We will spend the next three days cutting back the run course, and marking any potholes on the bike course.
Most of the bike course is in decent condition, but there’s a couple of bits (largely at around 1 mile into the loop for a couple of hundred meters, and around 18 miles into the loop, that have a few pot holes. They’re really easy to avoid if you use your eyes, and we’ll head out and paint mark any bad ones like the pic from below from last year.

Start list / BTF reminder
As per our previous newsletter, you can find the start list with your waves and numbers HERE
The column that marks your BTF membership or Racepass status was populated by the BTF/Entry system, and I’m conscious that there’s a few mistakes in there in terms of showing who has and hasn’t bought a race pass.
Therefore, if you are showing as needing to buy a race pass, but you had already bought one through the entry system when you signed up, please just bring a copy of the entry system confirmation email (would’ve come from ecmailer@entrycentral.com) showing your Racepass purchase along with you to registration on Saturday, and the reg team will accept that without issue.
Don’t worry if you’ve not bought one in advance, as we can sell them on behalf of the BTF at registration for £8 cash please
I covered this in some detail, along with registration requirements, in the last newsletter, and if you missed that, you find that HERE

Briefing / Race info pack
Although we have 2x non compulsory briefings on Saturday at 13:00 and 16:00, there is a compulsory video briefing where you get to see my face for radio talk you through the key safety points for the race, along with Mine and Nicci’s dog who makes a couple of appearances. Please can you all make time to watch that before the weekend, and the link to that is HERE

Hopefully, by now you’ve all downloaded and read through the race info pack, which you can find HERE

Does your bike need some lovin’ or any kit you need 
Tim Lewington of Speedbub triathlon store will have a shop at the race this weekend, so if you need some last minute kit (ie a race belt, as people often forget to bring those for their race numbers)
I wouldn’t suggest ordering a brand new fancy TT bike to race on this weekend, but if you wanted one, they can sort it.
Speedhub will be offering last minute bike checkovers on the Saturday at the event cost will be £10, and checks will include:
Brake check: Make sure the brakes are working properly Make sure pads are OK and cables Tension.
Handlebars: Make sure handlebars are tight and safe includes aerobats and extensions and pads
Gears: Make sure gears are working
Tyres: Make sure tyres are safe and tyres pumped up

If you wanted to book your bike in with them for a check over, or order any parts for them to bring with them on Saturday, please drop Tim an email at speedhubuk@icloud.com

Results / tracker
If you have family or freinds that want to track your progress over the weekend, our timing partners (DBMax) will have a live results tracker online on Sunday
Before the weekend, I will upload the link for that HERE

Prize Giving 
I think it’s important to explain why we don’t have a prize giving ceremony at our race first.
Our race, as I hope you’ve felt already, is aimed at everyone. There isn’t anywhere at the lake enough away from the finish line that we can hold it, and it’s super important to us that anyone still racing out there towards the later stages of the race doesn’t feel like the race has finished without them and that they’re an inconvenience or burden to the rest of us, as they’re really not
Subsequently, we don’t want people out on the run course on their, potentially first lap, and us looking like we’re wrapping up by having a prize giving. The alternative is that we hold the prize giving at 3pm, but as we found out when we did this before, most people don’t stick around for it, as the fastest athletes on the day had finished around 10:30, and it’s not fair to expect them to hang around for that long.
Therefore, although we do have some pretty cool trophies for our age group 1/2/3 and for Aquabike, Relay and Bike/Run. we ask that if you have finished in a position to earn one of these, you come to the race HQ tent after the race and we can present them to you there. Don’t worry if not, as I will post them out in the next week or so
If you’re not sure if you’ve won one, speak to the timing guys at the finish line and they can double check.

Beach and Country park access
The guys that run the beach and country park, are kind enough to let our spectators/competitors walk through the beach and country park to get to lake 32, which saves a walk down the side of a road.
However, it’s super important that anyone walking through does not try and use their facilities, largely the beach or the kids paddling area. The reason for this is that they have very strict health and safety regulations, and are only allowed a certain amount of paying customers that they will provide life guard and safety cover for. If our competitors or spectators try and use these areas, they will quickly go over their quota, and they (and subsequently me) will be a whole heap of trouble.
When you park in our car park, you will get a pink wrist band from us that will allow you access through their gate, and to turn right and walk through their car park to lake 32 where our registration, start and finish is.
On Sunday, spectators will be allowed to spectate from alongside the run course that goes through the beach and country park, but must not under any circumstances go near their beach or kids play/paddling area please

If you are coming along as a family on Saturday, or you have spectators that are arriving after 10am (when the B&CP opens) it’s, of course, ok to book into their as a customer through their website and they can use all the facilities they want. It’s a cool place, and will also mean that your spectators can park literally right against our transition area. They charge around £16 for a car
The weather for this weekend looks pretty decent, so it’d be worth booking in advance, and their website is https://www.cotswoldcountryparkandbeach.com/

Parking reminder & Road closure update 
Please be reminded that you will need to bring £5 cash for parking each day. It will make everyone’s life much quicker and easier if you’re able to buy Sunday’s parking pass on Saturday please.

For those of you coming from the North down the M5, please note that there are overnight closures in place on the A419 where they’re putting in the new section over the Air Balloon roundabout.
They will have a diversion in place for you to follow, but please allow extra time in your morning travel plans for this

Right, that’s it from me for pre race emails
I’m going to be at the lake for the rest of this week, so will really only have decent access to my emails in the evening, so if you have any urgent questions, please just give me a call on 07595 591612

Hope everyone enjoys the last few days of their taper, and we’ll look forward to seeing you all at registration on Saturday and on our start line on Sunday morning

Cheers

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

Apex
113 Events have, this year, partnered up with Apex insurance who have enabled us to keep the price of the racing with us competitive despite facing numerous price hikes from Suppliers.
Tim, who runs Apex is a good friend of Nicci and I and is racing the 113 this year, so having them along with us for the 113 was a great fit and I know they offer a great service as we use them ourselves.
Apex offer a wide range of Professional Indemnity and commercial Policies, and if you let them know you came from 113 Events, they’ll do a free policy review with you and offer a 5% discount on commission
Click on the image below for more info, and getting a review costs you nothing, but helps us substantiate their help with keeping your entry fees low, and their help in the race going forwards