The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold113 2017 Competitors today

Cotswold113 2017 – January Newsletter

Good morning all, and a happy new year (is it now past the stage where we can still say that?)
We hope this email finds you all well, and now the winter is starting to slowly disappear, that everyone’s out training on those rare sunny days we get this time of year.
We’re approaching race season now, so I wanted to drop everyone an email to bring you up to speed on the race for this year, and get some dates out for our Familiarisation days too.
As many of our previous competitors will know, I can rattle on a bit in emails, so now’s a good chance to grab yourself a coffee and a comfortable seat before you start reading 🙂

In this email, I’ll cover the following

• Familiarisation day
• Race transfers
• Lake Swimming
• Numbers and waves
• Race Information
• Anything you want to see at the race
• Entry Updates

Familiarisation day – 30th April 2017
On 30th April we’ll be holding our free of charge Course Familiarisation day down at the lake.
This is basically a day for yourselves as competitors, and friends and family if they wish, to come down to the lake and have a guided lap of the Swim, Bike and Run courses.
It’s a great chance for you all to come down and see the courses away from race weekend in a more relaxed environment, and a nice chance to meet the team to ask questions and meet other competitors too.
The emphasis on the day is leisurely paced, so it’s suitable for absolutely all athletes and the pace is very gentle so that no one gets left behind (We tend to average around 14-15mph on the bike and 9-10min miles on the run)
The morning starts off with a guided lap of the Swim Course by our resident Swim Coach Jason Tait from South West Swim at 08:30, who’ll be there to also field any questions people might have about open water Swimming as well as taking everyone around the lap. This is done in sections and everyone has a chance to catch up. We’ll provide the water safety cover too, so there’ll be kayakers incase anyone needs them.
After the swim, we’ll meet up at 10am, where we’ll form into equal paced groups before heading out on the bike. Like the Swim, we’ll have a few regrouping stops to point out where the Aid stations are etc.
Once all the groups are back in from the bike, we’ll have a 20-30min break to answer any questions and for everyone to get changed before heading out for a lap of the run course.
On race day, the Swim will be a single lap, the Bike is 2 laps and the run course is 3, but we’ll only cover a single lap of each on the familiarisation day (so 1.2m Swim, 28mile Bike and 4.3 Mile run)
It’s always a nice fun day, and from our side, it’s a great chance to meet some of the new competitors outside of the craziness of race weekend when everyone invariably has their race faces on.
The Bike, and run are completely free of charge, but if you wanted to swim too, the lake guys will ask for £5 day membership that you can pay on the gate. Parking is free all day there for everyone regardless of whether you’re swimming or not, so you could always hang around and see what else is in the area once you’re done Swimming, Cycling and Running
Within the next couple of months, we’ll send out a link to an online booking form to get signed up. It sounds very formal, but in reality, it’s just so we can get a handle of numbers and keep direct communication with those that we know are coming.

Race transfers
It’s approaching that time of year where many of our competitors start to realise that June isn’t actually that far away, and their training isn’t perhaps where they wanted it to be, or have picked up and injury.
Within the current part of the year, it’s very easy for us to transfer your June entry to the August 13th Cotswold Classic Middle Distance tri, which is identical to the June 113 in everything but name and shirt colour (same course, same team etc)
If you wanted to transfer for free to this race, we can easily sort that before around mid march, but after that, it becomes more difficult as we have to commit to certain numbers for the June race, so transfers start to incur costs.
Every year, we get requests near to the June race to move to the August race where people had wished they’d asked earlier. Think of this window between now and March as an amnesty and we don’t need to know why you want to move, but we can do it free of charge and very easily around now just by email.
Over the year’s, we’ve had competitors partners book them into things on race date they didn’t know about, people forget weddings they’re invited to and can’t race (although not their own, to my knowledge:)) or the very male thing of forgetting it’s their own kids birthday or their own wedding anniversary.
If you wanted to change to the August race, drop me a mail and we can sort it whilst there’s still spaces in that race
Alternately, you might just want to go longer this year instead, in which case we can move your entry to our June 25th Cotswold226 Race where you’d only pay the difference.
Either way, let me know as we’re here to help and it’s easy enough for us to be move you around at this time of year before either the August Classic or June 226 become full, or later in the start of the season when it starts to incur costs to move competitors if there’s still spaces available.

Lake Swimming
In my mind, you’d have to be an absolute nutter to want to swim in the lake this time of year, but people regularly do, and the Cotswold OW swimming group are down there most days swimming, some without wetsuits, even when they have to break the ice to get in !
Waterland Outdoor Pursuits (lake32), where we hold our races, have all year round swimming, so if you wanted to come down and swim in the lake we race in, you can join up for the year as a member and swim everyday before 10am and a couple of evenings (it’s a boating lake outside those times) or they have a day membership of £5 payable on the gate.
The lake is pretty shallow, so the temperature does warm up from the current icy conditions pretty quickly, so if you’re interested, please visit http://www.ukwatersports.co.uk/triathlon_training.htm for more info

Race Numbers and waves
Around 5 weeks out from the race, when the final entry list is fixed and frozen, we’ll send an email out to all competitors asking them if they want to choose a specific wave to go off in and/or race number.
Please can I ask that you wait until this time and this mail comes out to make these requests, as it’s nigh on impossible for us to be able to remember all the requests we get this early before we have the download from the entry system in an Excel format that we can then manipulate when it’s fixed and frozen.
We can generally accommodate 99% of wave requests, and the numbers are on a first come first served basis, so it’s only fair to all to not be able to reserve them until that point 5-6weeks out from the race.

Race Information
Within the next couple of months, we’ll send out the full race info pack to all of you as competitors of the race. This pack contains absolutely everything you’ll need from Aid Station menu’s, right up to Spectator guidelines.
In the meantime, please see a link to the 2016 race info pack, which will largely be the same again for 2017
The only changes we know of currently, are we are going to run an extra wave to spread the race out slightly more this year to try and help with the drafting issue. You can find the 2016 Race pack for your info here

Anything else you want to see at the race
This is a race for you guys, the competitors, so if there’s anything you like us to provide that perhaps we haven’t in previous years, or things you think would make a big difference to your day, now is the time to ask or suggest.
We’re early enough in the planning stages to still be able to add things in, so please just ask or suggest if you think there’s anything at all that would make your day better, or the day of your supporters better.

Entry Updates
As of today, the Cotswold113 is pretty much full. We have a number of slots reserved for groups and team entries, but by the end of play today, the general entries will be closed and the waiting list opened.

Right, that’s it from me for today’s rambling on. Hopefully, you’re all still awake, and none of you are now snoring away at your desks at work and getting in trouble with the boss
We’re here to help, so if you need anything from us, please just ask.

Cheers and happy training

Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
Tel 07595 591612
Email [email protected]
@113events
facebook.com/113events
#113events