The following email went out to all Cotswold113 2018 Competitors today;
Cotswold113 Middle Distance Triathlon – June 10th
Good afternoon all, I hope this email finds you all well, and a happy new year also
We’re around 5 months away from the race now, and as the race is now full up, I wanted to send you all out a quick email to bring you up to speed with the event, and a few things that are happening in the run up.
Those of you that have raced with us before will know I tend to waffle on a bit in my emails, so I’d suggest you grab yourself a large coffee and a comfortable seat before continuing 🙂
There’s some important information in here, so please take a few minutes to have a read.
In this email I’ll cover the following :
Familiarisation day
What to expect on race weekend, and the run up to the race
Transfer window
Marshals
Sponsorship opportunities
Familiarisation day
For those of you that haven’t raced with us before, or just those that want a reminder of the course, we will be running a free of charge familiarisation day before the race.
In the next couple of weeks, we’ll have the date set for this (we have to work around any other events that the lake might run), but the Familiarisation days are generally 4-6 weeks before the race day itself.
These are a great chance for any of you to come down and we’ll take you on a guided lap of the Swim course, the Bike course and the run course (On race day, it’s 1 swim lap, 2 bike laps and 3 run laps).
The emphasis on these days is leisurely paced, and we’ll go at the pace where you can see the courses and have various things pointed out to you, so no one gets left behind.
Also, this is a nice chance for me and the 113 team to meet some of you guys before race weekend, as generally race weekend is a tense time for you all, and we barely get a grunt out of anyone, let alone a decent conversation.
We’ll all be there to answer any questions you might have too
There’s no charge at all for the bike or run, but if you want to Swim a lap first, the lake guys will ask you for a £5 day membership on the gate. The swim course will be lead by our Open Water Swim coach Jason Tait too, so he’ll be around to ask any questions you may have
Once we have a date set in the next few weeks, I’ll drop you all out an email, and we hope to see many of you there.
What to expect on race weekend, and things you’ll receive in the run up to the race.
A visual is possibly the easiest way to see the race, so please take a couple of minutes to watch an aerial video we had made of the Cotswold113 2017: https://youtu.be/QJO_kFb-KZs
Our race is on June 10th, and we do all our racking in transition on the Sunday morning.
Registration will be on Saturday the 9th between 12:00 and 17:00, and during this time we’ll run a couple of briefings, which are not compulsory to attend, but take around an hour and we’ll talk you through the whole race bit by bit. Each wave will have a compulsory briefing before they get in the water on Sunday morning, and this will take around 3 mins and cover the various safety aspects of the race.
If you can’t get to registration on the Saturday, don’t worry. Nearer the time we’ll put out the information on how you can get someone else to register for you, or you can even come to our house and grab your packs in the days before the race.
The postal system uses magnets which play havoc with the chips, so we can’t post any packs out Im afraid.
The race will start at 06:00 on the Sunday morning and go off in 8 waves at ten minute intervals. Around 5 weeks out from the race, once the final start list is fixed, I’ll send an email out to you all asking if you want to choose a specific wave and/or race number, or a group of sequential race numbers so that you’re racked with your mates in transition. We cannot accept requests earlier than that, so please wait for that email a month or so out from the race before asking for a certain wave or number and they’ll then be strictly first come first served.
You will get a race information pack by email around 3 months out from the race. This contains everything you could possibly need to know about the race for both yourself and your spectators/ fan clubs
For you advanced info, you can find last year’s race info pack here – https://www.113events.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/1132017-–-Race-Information-Sheet.pdf
Transfer Window
I’m conscious that many of you would’ve entered the June race on Sept 1st when the race first opened, and now that you’re 5 months away from the event, you’re starting to wonder what you let yourself in for.
We get loads of emails nearer the race time asking if you can defer your entry to the August 5th Cotswold Classic Middle Distance race that we also run (which is identical to the June 113 in every way other than finishers Shirt Colour, Medal and date). When the August race becomes full, which it generally does around end of March, these requests are impossible to do as there simply isn’t space in that event to move people over to it.
If you are currently feeling like you need another 10weeks to train, or you (like me) ate way too much over Christmas and haven’t quite got around to starting your training, you’re better off biting the bullet and asking for the transfer sooner rather than later, as that race is filling up quickly, and once it’s full, there isn’t going to be a chance a transfer.
Think of this current window as an amnesty, and we won’t ask any questions why you want to transfer, but you can if you wish. We often get people who were so wrapped up in entering a race, they forgot June the 10th is actually their wedding anniversary, or you may just have found your partner has booked you a holiday in early June. Either way, please just ask now if you want to swap races rather than waiting until later and risking disappointment.
You can find the start lists for the race by clicking on the ‘sign up’ tab here : https://www.entrycentral.com/cotswold113
It’ worth taking a couple of minutes to check you’ve spelt your name right on here, as the Christian name you’ve registered will be the name that is printed on your race number. In a previous race, we had a lady by the name of Virginia who entered her name (either by spell check or miss typing) as a very specific Medical female term. It was only when our printer was proofing the race numbers that it got picked up, so please double check to save yourself the embarrassment of racing under a misspelt version of your own name 🙂
Marshals
We have around 190 paid marshal positions on race day, and we’re always looking to expand our team. If you have friends, family, team mates or just about anyone else that’s coming along and wants to be part of the team, we’ll welcome them onboard.
Our marshals all get paid too, and you can choose from either £20 cash or a £40 113 Events voucher to use with us, and we’ll give everyone a free event team shirt and keep you in hot food and drink during the race too.
We genuinely really look after our team, and having an enthusiastic and well briefed team is a big part of what makes our events so good.
You don’t need any experience at all, and all we ask is that they’re 16 or over, know their left from their right and are enthusiastic. We will take them through a full briefing beforehand and provide them with everything they need.
We have loads of jobs from early morning car parking/Swim Start guidance, right through the helping with the course tear down once the race has finished, with every Swim, Bike and Run course role in-between.
Please get in touch at graeme@113events.com
Sponsorship opportunity
We have the opportunity for a company to be involved in sponsoring our event or events. You’d get the rear of the shirt for your logo, info in the goody bags, a presence on our website, and space on our finish line for your branding and space for a stand if you wished. You’d also get a few free spaces that we have reserved to this sell out event.
If you’re interested in being part of the race, please drop me a mail at graeme@113events.com
Right, that’s it from me. Hopefully, I’ve not put you all to sleep with my rambling, and no one’s snoring away at their desks when they should be working ?
Over the next few months, I’ll be sending out more info on the race as it becomes available, along with the dates and details for our familiarisation day
We’re here to help, so if you need anything from us in the run up to the race, please just ask
Cheers and happy training
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
07595 591612
www.113events.com