The following email went out to all Cotswold113 Competitors this morning
This time next week, you’ll all be racing
Good morning all, I hope this email finds you all well, and feeling ready, with just a week to go ?
Seeing as we’re close to race day now, I thought I’d drop you all a quick mail to go through the last few points before we race
I’ll try and keep this email brief as I’m conscious you’re probably all bored of my waffling on, and just want to get ready to race.
In this email I’ll cover the following:
Race info Pack
Start list
Results and Tracker
Pre race info
Parking
Registration
Briefings
Race Info pack
I hope that you’ve all downloaded the race info pack now. If not, you can find it here : https://www.113events.com/cotswold-113/downloads/
Please please please can you take a few mins to read through this, as this contains pretty much everything you need to know about the weekend, and going by the amount of downloads it’s had so far, I reckon about 35% of you haven’t yet !
Start list
You can find the 2018 Start list here : https://www.113events.com/cotswold-113/start-list/
We’ve managed to accommodate 99.9% of the requests for numbers and waves this year, but I’m afraid that now everything is printed and fixed, we can no longer make any changes to this if you now decide you actually wanted an earlier or later wave, or have made a new friend you want to be racked next to, sorry
Results and Tracker
Your friends, loved ones and overly competitive club mates can track your splits and results on the day here : https://www.113events.com/cotswold-113/results/
There’a a couple of links: one for people checking on a computer at home, and another for smart phones. If you’ve got friends at the lake, there’s generally good 4g signal there too
Pre race info
There’s a few things with our race that if you’ve not raced with us before, or in many cases, have never done a triathlon before, you might want to know/consider.
1) The pre race toilets are around a 300meter walk from transition, and still a good 150m away from the start line.
The path they’re on is hard pack stone/gravel, and although possible, isn’t the most comfortable to walk on bare footed. If you have delicate feet and don’t fancy looking like the guy that does the walk on hot coals, it’s worth bringing an old pair of flip flops, trainers or the slippers from your hotel to wear between transition, toilet and race start. You can line these up by the swim start, and grab them again after the race if you want them back, or leave them there if you want us to bin them. The reason we don’t put the toilets near the start/finish or transition is that they’re also the run course toilets, and on a hot day, they’re pretty fruity smelling as you might imagine , so we try and keep them a good distance from where people congregate for the sake of people’s noses.
We’ll put baby wipes in the toilets after the race starts too, as these make for a more refreshing mid race spruce up on the run course than some sandpaper like toilet roll should you need it.
Also, if you’re in a later wave and think you might get cold waiting to get started, feel free to bring jumper or a coat, and you can dump it just inside the massage tent by the start/finish and grab it after the race. Anything left near the start is, obviously, left entirely at your own risk, but it’s reasonable safe in there.
2) The BTF has banned all plastic boxes in transition. If you’re wondering what to do with your transition space, then it’s worth using a bin bag or a large carrier bag to put your stuff on/in. Our transition is on grass, and if there’s been rain it could still be wet, it’s not much fun putting on wet run socks when you have 13.1 miles to complete. Bring a large plastic bag, and you can either put your stuff on top of it, or in it if it looks like it might rain, and this will keep you kit nice and dry.
If you do have a plastic box to bring all your stuff into transition with, then although you can’t put it by your bike, our transition guys will find someone to stash it for you so you can grab it after the race.
Our transition space is quite tight, and I can understand why the BTF banned plastic boxes as they were starting to get massive (we had someone turn up with what was literally the size of a medium coffin on wheels a couple of years ago, and it was just dangerously in peoples way)
3) If you have something special you like to eat/drink on the bike or run courses that we don’t have on our aid stations, please feel free to bring it along to registration in a bag with your race number on it and clearly marked which aid station you want it at, and we’ll get it out there for you.
4) Swimming on Saturday. The lake will have standard pay as you go swimming on Saturday morning before 10am if you’re down for the weekend and want to have a swim the day before the race. They’ll charge you £5 on the gate and you can swim from 07:30 to 10:00. I can’t promise our course will be marked out by then, but it’ll give you a good feel for the water.
5) I had a swim in the lake yesterday, and the water temperature is a near perfect 18.6 degrees. This puts us firmly in the ‘Wetsuit optional’ range, and I can’t see this changing between now and next Sunday
Parking
We’ve made an arrangement with a local farmer to use his field for parking, which is around 200meters from the lake and marked ‘Event Parking’.
As with all farmers, nothing comes free, so there’s a charge to park there. We’ve agreed with him that Saturday parking will be £2 and Sunday parking will be £5. Both payable in cash on the gate, so please have the right change ready when you arrive.
It’s a field, so if you were thinking of coming down in your Ferrari, you might want to reconsider, but it’s generally ok for all normal cars. On the Saturday, you can also buy your Sunday parking pass on the gate, which will save time at 4am when you’re hunting for change in the dark.
The carpark will easily take all competitors and a handful of spectators, but the waterpark area fills up very quickly on a warm day, so if you have family coming down after the start, they’d be wise to be there earlier rather than later.
Please ask your friends/family not to try and park in the local villages on the run course as they get very upset with this, and keeping them on our side is a massive part of our races having a future. They love our races currently, but if we start parking spectators in residential areas, they’ll soon go off the idea.
Registration
Our registration is on Saturday the 9th between 12:00 and 17:00
To register, you will need photo ID or a 2018 BTF card, and if you’re not a BTF member, you will need £5 cash for a BTF day license. I’m afraid we can’t accept card payments, so licenses are cash only.
You can get someone else to register for you, but they will need a photocopy of your photo ID or BTF card with a note on it to say it’s fine for them to register on your behalf, and again, if you’re not a 2018 BTF member, they’ll need £5 cash.
Relay teams can be registered by a single person (the lead registered name), but you will need photocopies of the other members ID, and all three members will either need to be BTF members or purchase a BTF day license each.
The reason we need photocopies of ID rather than originals is that we have to hang onto it, and pass it to the BTF ref, who will make spot checks in transition that people are who they say they are, and not trying to race under someone else’s number. This is a BTF rule, and something we have to be strict on please.
Although the ‘official’ time for registration is 12:00 to 17:00, in reality, we’ll be there a little later than that, so if you’re running late, just give me a ring – 07595 591612
Alternatively, we’ll have the packs finished at our house by around Wednesday night, so if you’re passing Swindon on the M4 before next weekend (We live about 2 minutes from M4 Junction16), you’re welcome to come to our house and register. We always have the kettle on, and if you’re lucky, there might be some biscuits left too if Nicci and our kids haven’t eaten them all.
Briefings
Every competitor will have a compulsory 3 minute briefing just before you get in the water, but we are having non compulsory full briefings on the Saturday during registration. The will be held at 13:30 and 16:00 by the Swim exit.
They’ll take about 45mins to an hour each, and myself and ‘Noisy’ Dave will go through the whole race bit by bit and answer any questions you might have. It’s a good chance for you all to understand how our races work, and we’ll literally cover everything. These are not compulsory, but worth attending if you’re new to racing with us or just want to understand from the horses mouth how everything works on race day.
Right, that’s it from me.
I’ll be picking up emails early mornings and in the evenings this coming week, as largely I’ll be at the lake getting the site ready for race weekend during the day, so if you need anything from me, please drop me a mail, or give me a ring – 07595 591612
We look forward to welcoming you all along next weekend
Thanks
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
07595 591612
Graeme@113events.com