laying out your gear in transition area... (Page 2)

Oh my gosh that hill might have an elevation change of (gulp) 80 ft? What is everyone going to do????

Usually it goes on the ground under the rack. 

In regards to the wetsuit, you take it off and put it under your bike.  No folding...that's for after the race.  ;P

The biggest thing I can say is to actually walk through your process before you leave transition.  Actually walk to the beginning of Transition (as coming in from swim), job to your spot.  touch everything in the order you will be putting it on. (sunglasses, helmet, etc).  Then jog away.  then come back the way you will from the bike and do the same thing for the run stuff.  Actually touch everything and see if it makes sense. 

Ie, if you don't have your bike shoes on your bike, then you should have the bike shoes in front of the run shoes as you are looking at your bike.  Make sure your glasses are opened up and do everything you can "down range".  Ie, in T2, I put my running shoes on, grab my hat (which has my race belt inside) and put the hat and race belt on while I am running.  The less you stand, the better.  If you put on cycling gloves, then put them on the bike cables and put them on while you ar riding.  Little things like this count.

FWIW, everyone's got great suggestions.

(1) I bring 2 towels.  One as my "floor" and one as my "quick wipe if necessary" towel.  Generally don't need but feel better having it.

(2) Yes, think about a driving rainstorm and figure out how you will keep your shoes, socks, etc. dry.

(3) Careful with the plastic bin idea.  I love it, but many tri's have long walks from parking to transition.  I try to have everything in a bag that I can throw over my shoulder or otherwise be able to ride my bike with so I can make it to the transition.

(4) If it says open at 6:00AM, I'm milling around at 5:30-5:45.  I'm anal that way, so take that for what it's worth.

I forgot about the rain portion of your question.  I did a race in the pouring rain and this is what I did.  I actually changed out of my transition bag.  It had a side opening, so I put everything inside and flopped the top over it.  It kept things from being soaked, but they will get wet.

And if it's wet, look to see where you will be running with your bike.  I chose to wear my bike shoes instead of leaving them on the bike because I had to run through a mud pit before the mount line.  for this reason, I also kept them on when I was dismounting.

Here is a picture of my transition area from one race.  It was pretty spacious so I had a good amount of room.

Bike stuff in front.  Helmet is on my aero bars.

Run stuff in back.

The little towel in front was to clean off feet.  The sunscreen bottle and coin purse weren't there during race.  I just had not moved them when I took the picture.

(transition area.jpg)

Bambam66,
Just ask McFuzz to help you.  Most of the layout stuff is not that big of deal.  Last race I did, I layed out my area, shoes helmet, everything.  I actual laid the towel OVER stuff or took a second towel.  One to hold the space and one to dry with.

When I came up from the swim, I grabbed my one towel dried my hair just a bit, helmet on, glasses on.  Grabbed my bike shoes threw them on, draped my (McFuzz's) wetsuit over a railing, ducked under the bar, grabbed my bike and was gone.  When I came into T1 there were 5-6 people there, when I left there were 4-5 people there mostly the same people.  My time was 5th fastest in my AG, that is out of 17.  If I had done it 15 seconds faster, I would have been 2nd in my AG.  So I must have done something right.  36 seconds faster and I would been the fastest.