Out of curiosity what is your best kept race day bag secret. What do you keep in your bag that we wouldn’t normally think of.
Also, I’m looking to cross check my bags, what is in your race day bags?
Morning Bag
T1
Special Needs
T2
Special Needs
Cheers!
IM TX is coming!
Not doing TX but passing on the best advice I ever got for run SN, a little travel size mouthwash. After 9 or 10 hours of sugary sweet, it’s AWESOME!
good luck
Morning Bag - Light jacket, sweat pants if needed, car keys, $10
T1 - Bike Helmet, bike shoes, maybe a small towel to wipe my feet dry
Bike Special Needs - Nothing
T2 - Run Shoes + Socks + Plastic bag with all else (race number, visor, sunglasses, nutrition). Run out of T2 with bag and take stuff out and put on as you go.
Run Special Needs - Nothing
Morning bag - I don’t use one as I hand off my clothes to my family who stuff them in a bag to carry around all day. 
T1 - Helmet is in the bag as the shoes will be clipped into the bike the morning of the race. Fluids are also put on the bike during the morning.
Bike Special Needs - I was told that the tubes and CO2 cartridges are donated, not sure if that is true or not, so I throw one of each in the bag. I carry a C02 cartridge, tube, and tire lever behind me on the bike.
T2 - Socks are turned halfway inside out and put in the appropriate shoe to slip on easily in transition. Run belt with bib, chapstick and huma gels, sunglasses, and visor. After I slip on my shoes, I put the rest on as I am running.
Run Special Needs - I usually have a few more huma gels just in case I drop one or have a need for more.
Morning bag - extra banana and throwaway water bottle for all that water to replace due to nervous peeing, throwaway flip flops. Dry t-shirt and baby wipes for post race. I know I smell like ass after the race and between logistics, post race stuff, it’s gonna be a long time before I don’t smell like ass.
T1 - in addition to the usual bike stuff, a small tube of chamois cream.
Bike special needs - just my regular liquid nutrition - I don’t deserve a treat yet!
T2 - cloth to wipe sunglasses if I am not wearing different ones for the run. Plastic bag with vaseline. I am not sure I love the idea of being the 300th pair of fingers to reach into the jar of vaseline in T2. Call me a wuss…
Run special needs - small bag of plain potato chips, bar of high quality 80 percent chocolate - that shit won’t melt all over your hands and a bite will last a long time in your mouth. A friend of mine swears by bacon, but I just can’t go there.
Bike SN - $10 Gift Card to Starbucks to give to the volunteer that grabs your SN bike bag.
Run SN - $10 Gift Card to Starbucks to give to the volunteer that grabs your SN run bag
globetrotter…what would you suggest for that high quality chocolate bar? Do you put it in a cooler?
My go to is Lindt 85 or even 90 percent cacao dark chocolate. It’s so dark that it won’t melt much - even in your hot sweaty hands after 13 miles of running! At least for me, I don’t want anything too sweet at this point in the race (think about all those Gatorades and GUs) and the intense dark chocolate will cut through your fatigued taste buds. Break it into its blocks and put in foil, then in a ziploc. Pop the pieces in your mouth as you run along and you’ll have dark chocolatey goodness for at least five or six miles!
When you’ve got everything together the day before your race, lay everything on top of each bag, and take a photo of each bag. Then take them to rego/drop off.
When you’re laying in bed at 1am race morning wondering if you packed those socks - check your phone & go back to sleep instead of stressing.
Something to consider for IM Texas is that with the triple loop run course you pass the special needs station three time. However, you can access you special needs bag only once. Use it the first and you can not access it again. Or access the second or third loop.
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By no means a “best kept secret”, but more to piggy back off the thread and get some advice. Will be my first full.
Morning Bag- Nothing. Hoping I can just hand off stuff to family at swim start.
T1- Helmet, Shoes, Socks, Tri Top (with gels in pockets already)
Special Needs- Nutrition Bottle, tube & CO2, Probably a PB&J sandwich or ginger honey stinger waffle (settles my stomach after a bunch of liquid nutrition)
T2- Shoes, race belt, singlet, hat, fresh socks just in case.
Special Needs- Can’t think of much I’ll need here. Typically just use on course stuff. Should I really need anything?
Keep it simple - live off the course. Do not complicate your day.
Other things to add that aren’t mentioned already…
Morning bag- everything I’ll want at the end of the race- soft long sleeve shirt, easy to put on soft pants, compression sleeves, and flip flops. Also a coke and a bag of potato chips.
T1- bottle of mouthwash to rinse the lake out of my mouth
Bike SN- a can of Arizona Arnold Palmer (or your favorite bike rest stop beverage here), pair of dry socks in case my current pair is giving me a fit, extra bottle of premixed nutrition (in case I eject one from my cages by accident)
T2- lube, gin-gin ginger candies to settle my stomach if need be
Run SN- extra container of Tailwind to mix in my bottle, bag of lays potato chips, dry socks just in case
The other thing that I’ve had in my bags are index cards with my mantra written on them, or notes from family and friends to read to give myself a mental reset or an extra burst of energy.
That’s an awesome idea!
regardless of the event distance I’m doing I always say thanks to the marshals and volunteers, what a great way to say thanks!
My tip for the run special needs bag is blister treatment. Especially if your feet get really wet from water on a hot day.
For me, I stopped and put cloth tape on my big toe, it was a complete relief and saved my day… all for a few dollars
Second pair of running shoes and socks in SN Run bag. Just in case, something is going wrong with first pair. Second pair for me is a pair that I just took out of rotation, well broke in with higher miles and won’t be upset if I don’t get back
Agree!
Other than all the normal things everyone else mentioned:
Run special needs – extra pair of socks and 2 sticks of a minty gum. Never used the socks and usually just put them in the pockets of my tri top but the gum is like heaven.
Best advice: minimal. BEST best advice: Charmois Butt’r (ketchup packet sizes, in EVERYTHING)
Morning bag: don’t use, I’ll hand my pajama pants and hoodie to my wife when I put on the wetsuit, or for Texas, the same minus the wetsuit (maybe we’ll get lucky). If wetsuit, chaffe butter on the neck.
T1 bag: Helmet, shoes, socks, sunscreen, chaffe butt’r. (2000cal liquid already on the bike in 2 bottles. Chews and chaffe butt’r in the bento, packet of sustained energy in the bento just in case of a bottle launch)
Bike special needs: nothing
T2 bag: Race flats, socks, hat, sunscreen, bib and bib belt, chaffe butt’r in the belt.
Run special needs: nothing
Simplifying my day makes everything much more manageable and less stressful for me, especially bike nutrition. But my way isn’t the right way, it’s what works for me. I have friends who put a picnic in their bike special needs bags, literally, sitting in the grass eating PBJ’s at Louisville. Do what works for you, and what you can manage.
PS. Chaffe butt’r. All the things.
This is specific to IMTX. Run special needs, baby wipes in a plastic bag. Hopefully you won’t need them, but if you get off the bike starting the run and/or have GI distress on the first loop then Run special needs is at Northshore Park where they have a bathroom and port-o-lets, but lets assume the TP will be gone from swim start in the morning, so the baby wipes will be available.
For bike special needs when it was May a frozen bottle was something I used.
This is another tip to help you sleep and not freak out the night before. Since you drop off your T1 and T2 gear bags at bike check the day before, lay everything out on the floor by the bag. Take a picture with your phone. Then when you are wondering if you put your sunglasses in the bag or Nuun or whatever, you can look at the photo and see if it was there or not. If not, you can put it in the bag the next morning.
Good luck and will be cheering for you.