Food & special needs bag at Ironman races

You CAN access  your bike gear bag on race morning...at least I could in every IM race I've done (9x).  Even though you have to check in your bag the day before so they can get the lines of bags arranged by number in the transition area you can access the bag on race morning and put in whatever food you want.  Good luck

In all the WTC IM's (4) that I have done, you DO have access to your gear bags in the morning.  I've never had to use that option, but was always told that we could (and glad to know just in case!).

Which one are you doing?  If you are not allowed access, maybe you could leave these items on your bike?  I know you can add your nutrition to your bike in the morning, so I guess you could leave some items on the aerobars or something.  Hmmmm.....but, then if they get your bike for you, that might not work either (sometimes I've gotten my bike, sometimes they have gotten it for me).

I would definitely check; however, cuz I always thought you DID have access to gear bags in the am .

Good Luck in your race!!

You could also drop it off at the very end of check in and use those disposable ice packs to keep it cold.  I know that Socks can put those disposable ice packs into her special needs bag taped around a diet coke and it's typically still ice cold 12 hours later....

I mean, it only has to last overnight, right?

Ok, makes sense now.  I'm doing Kona... my last full IM was Lou in 2009, so I couldn't remember if I had Bike Gear Bag access or not.  But I guess the second option, like you said, is to just leave the fresh food on my bike the morning of (I can tape it down if they're getting it for me).

Thanks!

Related question: do you get the contents of your special needs bags back when the race is over is it "donated"?

They tell you that you won't be able to get your SN bags back, but at CdA this year they had them in boxes we could sort through the next day.  I was able to get both of mine back.

Depends on the race...some give them back or give the opportunity, some don't.

Thanks to both on that.  Guess i will expect to not get them back and hope that maybe I will.

Some races will tell you ahead of time.  Like IMFL advertises that you can go back and get them the next day.

That being said...unless they specifically say you will get them back a good rule of thumb is not to include anything you wouldn't care about never getting back.

I have found that IM races in the US are run differently to Europe, We were told that once our bike and run bags are stored in transition, we can not get at them. We did however have a day or swim bag which we brought with us on race morning. This gave me the oppertunity keep my bottles fresh and put fresh nutrition on the bike before the start. We then handed our day bags in and collected them at the end of the race.

Next year I plan to take the bottles that I have prepared out of the bag and actually put them on the bike. It was early in the morning.

Hey thats MY diet coke!!!  This actually works great.  It is my secret weapon in my run SN bag   Still cold after sitting on the ground since 4:30 AM