Run Suffolk 2022 & Alton Water Tri will return in 2023

Morning All

We know we are overdue in giving you an update on our plans for the Alton Water Tri.

Westie and I have been working with Anglian Water on how we best move forward given recent events including the loss of the swim leg last year, the decision of the Great East Swim to withdraw from Alton Water, and more positively Anglian Water offering us the chance to host a new run event.

Taking those items together, we would like to build some confidence around a potential future triathlon date before asking you to reach into your pocket for your hard earned entry fees.

So to that end we would ask you to mark two spots in your diaries, June 12th this year, and June 10th/11th 2023.

On June 12th this year we will bring you the first edition of our Run Suffolk event, with 10k, 5k and 2k distances for your enjoyment. The website for Run Suffolk will be up at the start of March when the races will be open for entries.

Across that weekend we will also be checking the water quality in the reservoir and if we have good news on that score then we will pull out all the stops out to bring the Alton Water Triathlon back for your enjoyment on Sunday June 11th 2023.

We also hope that the2023 edition of the Alton Water Triathlon will be part of a wider Suffolk Multisport Festival across the weekend of the 9th-11th June 2023. Our plan is to start with the run on the Friday evening, a Swim & Swim Run event on the Saturday, and the Alton Water Triathlon on the Sunday.

So that is the plan. We hope you are as excited as we are by the prospect of a bigger, bolder event in 2023, and you will help towards that goal by coming for a run with us on June 12th this year.

See you there & thank you for all the support.

Bill & Mark

Race Rules and event changes - A Reminder

Morning all

Obviously yesterday’s announcement was difficult, whilst many of you have offered supportive comments, others are also understandably frustrated and disappointed.

Please remember that when you entered the race you agreed to the rules that have always been herer on the website, and right at the start of those rules it is clearly stated that “The Applicant acknowledges and accepts that circumstances concerning an event may change from time to time for reasons out of the event Organiser's reasonable control or otherwise, without the Organiser incurring any liability and without any rights to withdrawal being accrued by the Applicant.” Clause 12 also clearly reserves the right to run the event as a duathlon.

Obviously it is your decision whether you compete or not, but the race is on and we look forward to seeing you over the weekend.

Bill, Mark & Ruth

Swim leg cancelled - Algae levels are now unsafe

We are crestfallen to have to report that Anglian Water confirmed this afternoon that the most recent water quality tests from Tuesday at Alton Water have shown algae levels high enough to make it unsafe to allow swimming this weekend.

As per our briefings to you the triathlon will become a run-bike-run, with all triathlon competitors doing one lap of the super sprint course before heading out on your bike leg, when you return to transition off your bike, you will then head out and do the run course you have entered for. 

Aquabike competitors will be asked to do a 1.5k run loop at your own preferred pace before doing your bike leg and returning to finish (this is to keep the multisport nature of the Aquabike event and maintain the BTF insurance in place for you). Relay teams, your swimmer will have to do the same 1.5k loop at their own preferred pace before handing over to the bike.

Registration and start timings remain as per your briefings.  We will start the first run at 7:45, setting people off in groups of 6, 20 seconds apart.

Whilst we appreciate you will be as disappointed as we are that we are unable to swim, we look forward to seeing you all over the weekend and enjoying the fabulous weather forecast and having some fun together.

Bill, Mark & Ruth

The Alton Water Triathlon Team

Fitness to compete links - MUST COMPLETE

All

Please make sure you have completed your fitness to compete form before you attend this weekend.

Saturday Competitors –

https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=19593253&appointmentType=23371503

Saturday Spectators/Drivers – please ask anyone coming with you to fill in the following

https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=19593253&appointmentType=23371619

Sunday Competitors

https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=19593253&appointmentType=23371565

Sunday Spectators/Drivers – please ask anyone coming with you to fill in the following

https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=19593253&appointmentType=23371647

Alton Water Triathlon - Change of Date to weekend of 12th/13th June

Good Morning All

 

A belated Happy New Year to you all.

 

Over the Christmas Break we have reviewed our plans for this year’s race alongside Anglian Water and we have decided that in order to maximise our chances of the race going ahead, with, or without social distancing, we need to bring our event forward a week to the weekend of 12th/13th June.

 

We know from our plans for 2020 that running a socially distanced event with over 400 participants on a single day would see us needing to put the entrance road to Alton Water out of use for most of the day. Anglian Water are understandably reluctant to reduce public access to that degree and would rather we have the race completed before midday.

 

Given that we hope to have nearer 500 competitors by June we have decided the best way to meet the midday timeline is to make the Alton Water Triathlon a weekend event;

 

Saturday 12th June

·         Super Sprint Triathlon

·         Sprint Triathlon

·         Sprint Triathlon relay

·         Sprint Aquabike

 

Sunday 13th June

·         Standard Triathlon

·         Standard Triathlon Relay

·         Standard Aquabike

 

We will also be moving the Transition, Car Parking and Registration area to the east side (nearest the dam) of the Watersports Centre where we will have much more room to spread everything out and ensure we can socially distance waves of up to 250 competitors if needed.  We have had to shift our date back a week as the site is not available on the Saturday before the currently scheduled date.

 

If you cannot make the revised date then please email us with your bank account name, sort-code and account number and we will arrange a refund of your entry less the £15 for admin costs detailed in the race rules.

 

Entries are open and we look forward to seeing you on either Saturday 12th or Sunday 13th June 2021.

 

Kind regards

 

Bill, Mark & Ruth

The Alton Water Triathlon Team

 

SPRINT AND SUPER SPRINT RACES NOW ALSO DEFERRED TO JUNE 20TH 2021

Good Morning All

Thanks to all of you who have already responded to our earlier email this week which detailed deferral of the Standard Distance & Relkay events to 2021.

We have now had around half the potential sprint and super sprint responses back to our offer to move their event on 6th September to Trifarm, and nearly 80% of those who have responded wish to defer.

As such we think it makes sense to finally bite the bullet and accept that we will simply defer all entries to June 20th 2021 at Alton Water. 

We are sorry to let down you Fabulous Few who were willing to give it a go on the 6th September.

We look forward to seeing you all on June 20th next year at Alton Water, for what we hope by then can be a fabulously normal Alton Water Triathlon 😊

CHANGE OF VENUE AND PART DEFERRAL OF ALTON WATER TRIATHLON 2020

There are quite a few elements in what follows so please read all the way through.

The unfortunate headline is that we cannot go ahead with our event as originally planned at Alton Water on 6th September.

Anglian Water have had a ban on group activity on all their sites until the end of August, but they had been hopeful that they could accommodate us in September and booked us in accordingly and we have proceeded in good faith on that basis.

We secured a Race Permit from British Triathlon for the event last week and had revised all our procedures to reflect the social distancing and the many other requirements detailed in the very latest Event Permitting guidelines published at the end of July

These guidelines necessitate a very different race day experience with an individual time trial start, a non-competitive event, no relay options, no aid stations, no ranking of results, and a socially distanced transition area. We have already organised a triathlon under these new guidelines and everyone had a very enjoyable, if different, day.

No mass start and site space constraints mean that the race has to take place in waves. Each wave must completely finish the event, clear transition, and leave the site before the next wave can arrive once transition has been cleaned.

Implementing these changes leads to a much longer race day and Instead of being out of the water by 10am, and the race largely over by midday as in a normal year, we were looking at occupying most of the core Alton Water site and parking all day well into the late afternoon.

Unfortunately, despite strenuous efforts on both sides, the extended timescale of the race day, and the many changes we have had made have still not delivered an event format that Anglian Water can accept.

So we have no venue available so what to do? Here are our proposals

• STANDARD DISTANCE & ALL RELAY TEAMS – DEFERRED TO JUNE 20TH 2021

If you have entered either the standard distance or one of the relay events, we will defer your entry to the 2021 race on June 20th at Alton Water as we had previously said would be the case in our email of 31/5/20.

• SPRINT AND SUPER SPRINT RACE (NOT INC RELAYS) – PROPOSED VENUE CHANGE

For those who have entered the super sprint or sprint triathlon or aquabike events then we propose to move these events to Trifarm in Boreham, Chelmsford, 45 minutes away from Alton Water, and hold them on the 6th. Faster swimmers will start at 7:30am, second wave at 10:00am, and the last wave at 12:30,

This way we get half of the race to the start line .

For you sprint/super sprint entrants we would ask that you follow the links on their to opt in to the race, or defer your entry to next year, please do this as soon as possible.

TO TAKE PART: Please book in on the following link: https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=19593253&appointmentType=16261823

TO DEFER TO 2021: Please book in on the following link: https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=19593253&appointmentType=16261837

If a significant number of sprint/super sprint entrants opt to defer then we may offer individual standard distance entrants the option to race the sprint distance and refund the difference in entry cost between the two races.

Anglian Water have restated their commitment to ourselves and the race, and we are all keen to make the Alton Water Triathlon a regular landmark event and we will do everything we can to finally try and bring you the third full edition of our wonderful event, at the third time of asking on June 20th 2021.

However we would encourage as many of you as possible to join us at Trifarm on the 6th, we know you will enjoy it if you do

Any questions or queries please email us at hello@trifarm.co.uk

Bill, Mark & Ruth

The Alton Water Triathlon Team

Provisional Rescheduled date of 6th September 2020

Good Morning All

First an apology.  We should have checked whether there were any other significant local events on, and if we had done we would have spotted the date clash with the Great East Run. Many of you were quick to point out our error.  As we don’t want to find out what happens when 300 triathletes meet 3000 runners on Freston Hill we thought we better find an alternate date. 

As such can you pop the 6th September into your diaries as the provisional date for your 2020 race.

Yesterday (5/6/20) British Triathlon published some draft guidance documents detailing how to organise events in light of the Covid-19 outbreak.  It is likely that some, or all, of the proposed guidelines could still apply to races in September, and as such your race-day experience may be modified accordingly.  We are involved in discussions with BTF on the proposed changes later this week, but it is likely that we will have to wait until much closer to race day before we can detail exactly what changes we might have to make.

Thank you for bearing with us, and we look forward to seeing you on the day.

Alton Water Triathlon - Update on COVID19 position

The BTF has suspended all Triathlon activity until at least 30th June 2020.

We are currently working with our partner companies to identify a potential fallback date for the 2020 event in September. We will advise of the exact date shortly, and only reopen the race for entries when the BTF lifts the current suspension. All current entries will be transferred to the September date.

We are pleased to announce that our 2021 race will take place on June 27th 2021. Any entrants not able to make the deferred 2020 race date in September will have their entry transferred into the 2021 event.

Coronavirus update 16/3/20

We are following guidance from official sources in continuing towards the open water swimming and triathlon season. Presently this is as follows; "There’s no need to cancel or postpone your events at this time. Reassure your athletes, stakeholders and customers, building on the Public Health England principles. Remain mindful of guidance on infection control. Take sensible steps to discourage individuals work with flu-like symptoms from coming to a club or an event." Obviously this advice is under regular review and we understand Swim England and British Triathlon will be re-assessing matters later this week.

Best Wishes

Mark, Bill & Ruth

Refunds from 2019 race closing on 17th February

Morning All

Just a little housekeeping note relating to refunds from last year's race.

We have deferred everyone who has not requested a refund from last year's event into this year's race on the 28th June. That race date has been public for many months now, and we have refunded any entrant from last year who requested a refund over the last seven months. We need to draw a line under that refund process, and so could I ask that you check your race diaries and email hello@trifarm.co.uk any further refund request to us before the 17th Feb. After that we will consider the refund process relating to last year's event as closed.

The deferred entries from last year's race can be found here

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56daf42537013bc69c737f04/t/5d9628b6d183af03dd942ef0/1570121911691/2019-2020+deferrals.pdf

Safety is paramount and as such we decided to cancel 💔

CANCELLATION OF THE ALTON WATER TRIATHLON DUE TO TAKE PLACE ON 14TH JULY

On Wednesday morning we received a call from Anglian Water advising us that the levels of blue green algae have continued to rise over the last few days, and that this morning they have crossed the level beyond which it is no longer considered safe to allow swimming in the reservoir. As such the swimming leg of the triathlon/aquabike could not proceed on Sunday. Last year’s event took place without issue a week later in the calendar than this year, and so the algae has appeared a fortnight earlier than in 2018.

In the rules that were available on the BTF website as part of your entry, as blue green algae is a safety matter we are entitled to run the event as a duathlon, and indeed we highlighted this possibility in your race briefing, and the covering email that accompanied it on Tuesday morning. However following on from the briefing being circulated we received several comments back from competitors expressing reservations about switching to a duathlon. 

We also took the opportunity to speak with a small number of participants at lunchtime today to ask what their preference would be as a way forward. When given a choice between a duathlon this Sunday, or a deferral of their entry to a date in June 2020 they were unanimous is picking the deferral option. Aquabike entrants would not even have a duathlon option, their race would simply become a ride. 

Whilst we might technically be allowed to run the event as a duathlon/sportive, it is not the event that we have all invested our hearts into trying to put on, and nor is it the event you, our wonderful competitors, are expecting to compete in after all your training. As such we have decided that, very reluctantly, we are going to cancel this weekend’s Alton Water Triathlon.
We are offering entrants two choices moving ahead, either;

• As per the rules of entry, receive a refund of your entry fee less a £15 administration charge. Significant costs have already been incurred and the £15 fee will still leave us bearing a loss for the cancellation of the event, or 
• Carry over your entry to 2020 when we will look to schedule a date in June, tentatively looking at the 28th, which I hope to have confirmed within a week after further discussion with Anglian Water.

It goes without saying that we are devastated at the loss of the opportunity to put on a bigger, better, Alton Water Triathlon in 2019. It is that very ambition to be bigger and better that pushed us towards cancellation as the better option this weekend, rather than adopt a make do and mend approach that risked putting on a duathlon that met no one’s expectations. 

If you wish to use the refund option then we will need you to email info@altonwatertriathlon.uk with your bank account name, sort code, and account number. There is no simple way of refunding direct to your cards. As each refund will have to set up as an individual transaction it is going to take us many days to process all the refunds so we would ask for your patience whilst we work our way through the requests. 
We thank you for entering our wonderful race. We apologise again for finding ourselves having to cancel the event this year, but we hope we will still see many of you back in June 2020.

Thanks and Best Wishes
Bill Richmond, Carla Gilbey, Mark Weston, Ruth Hatch
The Alton Water Triathlon Team💙

#altontri