The following newsletter went out to all 2017 Cotswold 113 Competitors tonight
Cotswold113 – March Newsletter
Good evening all, I hope this email finds you all well and starting to ramp up your training for this year’s Cotswold113 on June 4th.
Although it still feels like the winter outside, we’re actually only 11 weeks out from the race now.
The good news is, that the lake’s warming up to around 11-12deg currently, so I fully expect it to be comfortably within the ‘Wetsuit Optional’ range the BTF use of 13-24 by race day. In fact, the lake’s pretty shallow, so given the body of water is smaller compared to many of the really deep lakes, it’ll warm up nicely by race day.
I just wanted to go through a few little bits with you all to bring you up to date, so in this mail, I’ll cover the following :
Familiarisation day
Transfers & Changes
Marshals
Goody bags
Familiarisation day – 30th April
As per our previous Cotswold113 Newsletter (read HERE) our familiarisation day is going to be held on April the 30th for the June 113.
This is a leisurely paced day, so no one will get left behind and we’ll have loads of stops and regroups, so don’t worry if you feel your pace isn’t quite there yet. Think of it more as a group ride or run with slow friends, and you won’t go far wrong.
Everyone’s welcome, and we’re happy that you bring friends and family on the day too, but you will all need to book on to the day so we can get a handle of numbers (that includes non competitors coming along).
I think we look forward to these days as much as we hope you all do, as it’s a nice chance for our team to meet with you guys on a day where you’re not wearing your serious race faces.
There’s loads of chances to ask as many questions as you like about the race too, and we’ll have most of our team there on the day.
You can book yourself onto the day HERE
Also, our races this year are going to be supported by Sailfish, the wetsuit brand, so we’re hoping to be able to organise a wetsuit demo day to run in conjunction with the Familiarisation day, but I’ll keep you posted as that gets confirmed.
If you can’t make the familiarisation day, but really want to see the course, I live local to the lake, and work from home, so welcome a break from staring at a laptop for my day job to skive off for a couple of hours to ride and/or run around the courses. It’ll be at a very slow pace (my only pace now) and during the week as my weekends are full of supporting other events or various sports my kids do, but the offer’s there
Transfers and changes
We’re fast approaching the time where accommodating free transfers to the August race stops becoming possible (around the 2nd week of April)
Every year we get lots of requests close to race time for people to defer their entries to the August 13th Cotswold Classic (identical to the June 113 in every way other than name), and after mid April, it’s just not possible, or incurs a cost to yourselves for doing so.
Therefore, if you do have niggling doubts that you’ll be ready for June 4th and want another 10 weeks to get race fit, then now’s the time to ask as we can swap you over for free at a touch of a button.
We don’t ask why, so don’t worry if you’re embarrassed that your xmas eating carried on into March and you’d forgotten to start training, or it’d slipped your mind that it was your wedding anniversary on June 4th, just ask for the change and we’ll sort it.
If you ask us after mid April, then the chances are that that race might be full by then, so we can’t make the changes, or we’ve committed names and details to Insurers etc, so any transfers will carry a cost.
Think of it as a transfer amnesty 😉
Marshal Request
As anyone who organises events will know only too well, getting marshals for races is one of the hardest part of organising, and without them, the race simply cannot happen. We’ve been lucky enough to build up a good reputation for our races having some of the best and most enthusiastic marshals in the sport, as well as having more marshals than any comparable events to make sure the racers and spectators have a great and safe time.
We always need more marshals, and we tend to get around 30% of our race day marshals come along as supporters of competitors.
If you have any friends, family, enemies or club mates coming down with you that fancy getting paid for being part of the team, please give them a nudge and see if they can help. Being a marshal is good fun, and we look after them very well, so they won’t be stuck out in the middle of nowhere on their own bored.
Our marshal pay for this year’s race is as follows:
£20 cash or a £40 113 Events Voucher
An event technical team Shirt
As much hot food and drink as you could possibly consume, plus free ice creams and cold drinks
You don’t need any experience at all, and our team will provide them everything they need and take them through a full briefing.
All we ask is that they’re over 16 and that they know their left from their right and are enthusiastic, or at least loud 🙂
If they have kids with them, then although we can’t pay or employ under 16’s, we do have marshal shirts down to a 5year old’s size, and they can, of course, take advantage of the free ice creams (we would, of course, not put anyone with kids anywhere near a road either)
We have a variety of jobs from Saturday build and bottle fillers, Sunday morning guidance, swim exit, bike or run courses, right through to post race tear down team
Please drop us a line at graeme@113events.com
Perhaps if you know people that want to be involved, but aren’t free on June 4th, then we always need people on the 25th for the Cotswold226 or August 13th for the Cotswold Classic too
Goody Bags
Now we’ve got our numbers reasonable fixed for this year’s races, we’re starting to look at goody bag contents.
This is yours, the competitors, race, so let us know what you’d like to see in the goody bag or perhaps what you wouldn’t want to see.
We typically, try and do something a bit different each year, and make it something that you’ll either wear or at least use with pride.
In the past, we’ve had branded Coffee Flasks, wooly hats, arms warmer/head buff sets, T-Cups, towels and a few other bits.
If there was something you’ve had before, that you fancy again, or something completely new. Please just ask.
We don’t rely on sponsors for these things and buy them ourselves, so we aim to provide what the competitor wants.
Right, that’s it for my rambling today
We’re here to help, so if you have any questions, or need anything from us, please just ask
Cheers
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
Tel 07595 591612
graeme@113events.com
113events.com