Louisville special needs bags poll

Bike Bag: Sunscreen, spare CO2 and tube, 7 oz of red bull in a fuel belt bottle and some kind of treat(snickers or gummy bears).

Run Bag: Sunscreen, socks, and a treat.

Good post....forces me to think (planning is not my forte).

Bike Bag:  shoes, helmet, shorts, jersey, Vaseline, 5 power bars and 5 gels, race belt/number

Run:  Shoes, socks, shorts, shirt, Vaseline.

No special needs bags.

Hmmm, I think that's it.

~Mike

Here is where I get to show the true depth of my OCD behaviour…  Below is the list that I ended up with *for consideration* for my first IM. You’ll get lots of ideas and input, but the most important (which I did not heed) is to keep it as simple as possible; think about what you realistically will need/want. I am sure that just like the shorter distance triathlons, the more you do it, the more you simplify; but it’s hard for IM newbies like myself to take away the security blanket of some of the extra items. We’ve just worked SO hard for that one day and time…

The compromise I’m doing for my next IM that I attempt will be to put any optional/just-in-case items into a separate bag within the bag, so they do not get in the way of those that I really do want to get to. And my overall goal will be to not have to stop at special needs at all.

Oh, and when they say don’t plan on getting your special needs bag back, they aren’t kidding. They make a reasonable effort, but the bags get dumped, pushed around, broken open, etc.; and they are just laying out in the open for people to dig through and try to find what they can.

Transition 1 (swim to bike):

-         Bike helmet

-         Bike shoes (wasn’t allowed to leave helmet or shoes on bike)

-         Bike shorts (I wore them over tri shorts which worked great, believe it or not)

-         Tri-belt with number attached

-         Sunglasses

-         Socks

-         Couple of paper towels

-         Nutrition in ziplocs ready to stuff into shirt pocket

-         Extra bike tubes (heard many stories of finding bikes with flat tire in transition)

-         Body glide/chamois butt’r

Special needs T1:

-         Extra tubes and CO2 cartridges

-         Extra chamois butt’r

-         Padded mail envelope “cooler” with frozen drink (red bull, coke, whatever your preference)

-         Couple of paper towels

-         Extra pair of socks (esp if rain possible)

-         Baggie of talcum powder

Transition 2 (bike to run):

-         Running shoes

-         Hat/visor

-         Fuel belt

-         BG/Chamois butt’r

-         Socks

-         Paper towels

-         Blister pads

-         Spare (old) sunglasses

Special needs T2:

-         Extra chamois butt’r or bodyglide

-         Paper towels

-         Padded mail envelope “cooler” with frozen drink

-         Sock armwarmers (long socks with toes cut out) -> only if race where temps drop in evening and you’ll still be out there

-         Blister pads

Question:

If you don't get special needs bags back, then what happens when people change from tri/bike shorts to run shorts in T2? What happens to the tri/bike shorts?

You will get your T1 and T2 bags back.  Your sn bags are going to be given half way through the bike and run and those are the ones you should not count on getting back.

You get you T1 and T2 bags back, you would not change into new gear in a Special Needs area...so no worries. You will get all your regular T bags back at the end of the day.

Bike Bag:  Turkey sandwich & snickers bar in Gladlock w/ blue frozen ice thingy, 2 tubes & 2 CO2 cartridges, 4 Advil

Run Bag:   4 Advil, Peanut M&Ms

Bike Bag:  3 New Bottles of Inifint (I don't like to concentrate them), 2 Gels, Endurolytes, CO2 Cartridge, Tube, Peptobismol, Body Glide

Run Bag:   3 Gels, Endurolytes, Body Glide, depending on weather possibly a long sleeve running shirt (with it being Lousiville I doubt that it will be needed) 

Good idea I'm reading! 

'I think we're gonna need a bigger boat'.....I mean bag.

~Mike

I got the same respnse for IMLP and figured I should too. Problem was, it was raining so friggin hard dry socks weren't going to do a thing. Now an extra pair of sneakers well...

Actually, I think it's a game day decsion. I put a LS Tee in and never used it. Next year I don't plan on using a run SN (as I didn't stop this year) but again the weather may impact that.

BIKE SN was just to refuel - Perp and a new gel flask.

Some sage advice I got on this topic - Don't overthink it. 

SN Bike:

- extra bag of perpetuem in powder form

- naproxen

- extra batteries for my mp3 player (just joking)

SN Run:

- naproxen

- extra socks in case I feel like changing mine out 

- technical long sleeve T-shirt in case I'm having a bad day and will be in the dark for a while

- notes (I haven't read yet) from my loved ones

- PSP with a couple movies loaded up (just joking)

Bike SN:

Extra tube & CO2
2 Frozen Cliff Bars
Gel flasks

Run SN:

Dry socks (They were very nice at IMWI)
Gel flask
Aquaphor (just in case!)

Bike bag: Extra tubular tire, 2 CO2 cartridges, Clif bar

No run special needs packed or needed in either IM I did.

I'm a pretty minimalist racer although it might have been nice to have a dry pair of socks or a rain jacket in a run bag for LP.

spec needs bike: extra powerbars and gels.  two extra tubes and cartidges.  had an extra vest as IM LP looked to be a rainout (last minute addition.)

spec needs run: extra shoes and socks.  last minute addition as IM LP was to be a rainout.

Cp2K

Aside from the blatent disreguard for the rules that specifically says "only food in SN bags" I will suggest an alternative to putting a spare tube/CO2 in your bag.  Pick them up on the road!  I saw dozens of tubes and CO2 cartriges along the road that had fallen off of bikes. 

I will carry repairs for 2 flats....most likely I won't have a flat.  Even less likely I will have 2 flats.  If I have 3 flats, then I will put a patch on one of the tubes from the first two flats.

Before I get flamed by people trying to justify putting non-food items in their bags by saying what the rules REALLY mean, not what they say, I don't really care.  Put whatever you want to in the bag and intrepret the rules how eve you want to.

~Mike

. 

Interesting... I wonder if any of the IM vets can chime in on if this is new, different races have different rules?, etc. That just seems like a strange rule, makes me wonder if people had gone overboard with SN bags to the point where something had to change.
 

My next will be IM Cozumel, which will probably have different rules altogether (not a NAS event). And yes, I'd probably be a bit of a rule-follower myself if I was doing this race and that was what was stated in the guide.