The following email went out to all Cotswold113 2016 Competitors tonight ;
Last few bits and bobs
Hi All
It’s only 3 more sleeps to race day, so I thought I’d send a quick email out to everyone to run through a couple of last minute things
I promise not to ramble on for ages this time, so you’re safe from death by boredom and you can get back to your wheel depth and helmet choice dilemmas (it’s a deep rim or disc course every time by the way)
In this mail, I’ll cover the following ;
- Water temp
- Weather update and path condition
- Saturday briefing/info
- Transfer Offer
- Marshals
- Registration reminder
- Weblinks – Info pack and race tracker/results
Water Temp
The water has measured in at an almost perfect 19.8deg today. I had a swim this morning – One lap in a wetsuit and one without, and it’s a lovely temperature to race in whether you choose to race in a Tri Wetsuit or not. Unless we get a sudden frost and some snow, or two days of 40deg Sunshine, it’ll definitely be well within the Wetsuit Optional Range on Sunday
Weather Update
Although we’re forecasted to get some rain on Sunday, I’m hoping it will be more the occasional shower rather than a full on down poor. Given how poor the UK’s weather forecasting accuracy is, we won’t know until the day (It was supposed to rain today according to Monday’s forecast, and I’ve got a burnt neck from being out cutting back the run course all day)
The lake side paths that account for around 50% of our run course, are baked very hard in really good condition. Unless it rains solidly from tonight right through to Sunday, they’ll largely run the water off them, so I expect the conditions under foot to be more suited to road shoes than off road shoes. I will, of course, update our Facebook and twitter accounts on Saturday if it’s looking worse by then.
If I was racing, I would be packing both road and off road shoes, but fully expecting the off road shoes to stay in the car.
I’ve had possibly 60 emails today asking this question, so I wanted to update everyone to keep people in the know.
Saturday briefing/Info
We hold our compulsory briefing at the race start before each wave on Sunday. However, we’re conscious that some of you are more nervous racers and don’t absorb much of what is said, or you just have your race faces on and don’t listen anyway at this point just before you’re about to start. The compulsory briefing is very short and really covers the main important points for the day and takes around 3mins.
For those of you that want a longer briefing and to go through things in more details, myself and Noisy Dave will hold a more detailed briefing on Saturday afternoon at 15:30 by the swim start. This isn’t compulsory (unlike the Sunday pre race one), but it’s a good chance to hear how the day runs for you guys from start to finish, go through things in more details, and to meet with us and ask us any questions you might have. As long as the weather’s good, we can walk you down to the bike turnaround and show you mount and dismount points as these tend to create some confusion on race day
Transfer offer
For reasons unknown to us, we’ve had an unprecedented amount of requests to transfer to the August race this week as people have picked up injuries, realised they’re not as fit as they hoped, or just fancy a late night and a few beers Saturday to watch England play (The window for free transfers was before May 1st)
Unfortunately, we’re well past the stage where we’ve had to fix details with insurers, services etc as well as print your name on your race numbers, so we now can’t backfill your slots to recover some of your already spent entry fee.
However, what we’ve been offering people this week is that if they pull out of Sunday’s race before end of play Friday night, we can offer a discount on the August 21st Middle Distance race which is on the same course as Sunday’s 113, just under a different name and competitor shirt colour
The value of the things we can carry over from Sunday’s race per competitor to August is around £17.30 (very precise I know, but we have to calculate things to the penny), so we would then match this in goodwill to make the discount available for Augusts race to be £35. We obviously can’t do this for everyone, as we have a limited amount of slots that can move over. So, if you’re thinking you might have an injury that will prevent you from racing Sunday, to save an awkward phone call to me on Saturday where I’ll have to turn you down, you have until 7pm on Friday to pull out of Sunday’s race and get your discount voucher for August. The items we can carry over are largely not person specific, so you can use the voucher for someone else if you need
We’ve had quite a lot of requests this week, so I wanted to put this out there now to save any awkward conversations on Saturday
You’ll need to email me (graeme@113events.com) and it’ll be first come first served for the available moves. Hope this helps some people
Marshals
We always need more marshals too, specifically on the bike course. If you have anyone coming down with you at the weekend that would like to get involved, the bike shift is an 05:45 briefing, and they’ll be finished by around 12 latest.
We pay them too, so they’ll get either £20 cash or a £40 transferable 113 Voucher for future races, and of course a 113 team shirt and we’ll look after them with food and drink
Registration reminder
I know it’s in the info pack and my last mails, so sorry to keep going on, but please remember when you come to register, you’ll need photo ID or a valid 2016 BTF race license. If you don’t have a race license, you’ll need £5 cash to buy a day membership from us.
The nearest cash point is a good 20mins drive away, and unfortunately, we can only take cash payments.
If you’re registering for someone else, you’ll need a paper photocopy of their photo ID or BTF license with a note on it saying it’s ok for you to sign on their behalf and collect their pack.
We have to be strict on this as the BTF ref likes our coffee, so sits in the registration tent most of the day and he’s the guy that enforces the rules.
Weblinks
If you haven’t taken the Info pack to the toilet for a good few mins quite reading, you can download it and print it off from here; https://www.113events.com/cotswold-113/downloads/
it’s well worth reading through this properly as it contains everything you need to know and stuff you probably know already.
On race day, we’ll have live results and a semi active tracker where it’ll update your splits as you go. It’s smartphone friendly, and you can view it here; https://www.113events.com/cotswold-113/results/
Right, that’s it from me tonight
I’ll update our Facebook and twitter pages (links below) if there’s anything I think you all need to know before race day
If not, then we look forward to seeing you all this weekend – Please keep praying to weather gods too 🙂
We’re here to help, so please just give me a ring if you need anything
Cheers
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 team
07595 591612
graeme@113events.com
facebook.com/113events
@cotswold113