Add your tips for first time triathletes

Practice transitions. Specifically the T1 transition. I was all loopy coming out of the water and had a hard time getting my wetsuit off. My T1 time was terrible.

Practice mounting the bike, especially if you're using clipless pedals. I was less than graceful.

Never try to put on tight dry clothes when you're wet.  It just doesn't work.  Nobody cares what you're are wearing.  Just wear it through the whole race unless it's cold. Then it's ok to put on a loose fitting jacket.

Ernie

PS.  You don't need nutrition for a sprint. 

Amen to that.

Pizza.  Pizza always makes my race 100% better if I eat it the night before.  It just...works  -for me.

Bike, Bike, Bike.  This is almost always the longest leg of the race in time.  My first mistake was not biking enough

Practice the transition between bike to run.  Jelly legs can be a shocking surprise come race day...

Wetsuits rock.

(I could go on forever, but there's a couple)

Make a list and check it twice.

Remember where everything is you packed. Misplaced my timing chip and ran around 30 mins before the race looking for it. Had it wraped up in a towel so I wouldn't forget it.

I'm jealous, I have to give up Pizza during the season (except for a post race binge), or maybe that's because I am still a clydesdale.

As for tips.

Have fun, push yourself but just have fun with your first few races. Smile, be social, there are so many great people to get to know. Also race in the moment, not in the past over what went wrong or great, but where you are at the time.

Something else I learned  from BTers the day before a race:

If there is a hill right out of T1, make sure you rack your bike in transition in a relatively easy gear so you're not trying to shift gears and get settled in at the same time.

a pint of Ben and Jerry's the night before is a fantastic pre-race meal (not kidding)

Warm up for the swim

Finish the swim strong, but not full out.  The 1 minute (or less) you lose on the swim by not frying yourself can be gained on the bike and run by pushing marginally harder.

no matter how bad it hurts, finish strong.

The day before take some time to have a visualization of the next day, from the time you wake up to the finish line.  Imagine yourself in all the steps, focus on what you will do and how you will go about doing it, and be specific.  Lay out everything you will need the day before, but not late in the day when you should be resting and getting ready for an early sleep. 

Also, get a race belt.  It is soooo much more convenient than safety pinning your numbers.  You just have to buy it once ($12) and you'll have it for every tri or running race.

 For quick transitions:

1) yankz - www.yankz.com

2) race belt

Practice SIGHTING when you are training in the pool. I did not do this and the thought really never crossed my mind. Swam way off course without even realizing it because there is no little line on the bottom to follow!

It is said time and time again but DO NOT TRY ANYTHING NEW ON RACE DAY! I tried some clif shot drink mix on the bike that I had not trained with and I almost threw it up. Result- did not get any fluid intake on the bike at all.

Have fun fun fun! Don't worry about your time or your place. Just have a great time and take it all in. Be sure to thank the volunteers. Without them you would not be there! 

This is less of a race-day tip, but more of a training tip:

DO NOT stress out if you miss a workout - it is not the end of the world and it's not going to ruin all your training up to this point. That's something that does take some time and experience to really believe. Over the past few weeks, I've seen quite a few first timers getting extremely stressed out about missed workouts, so I just want to let you know it's okay. And, not all workouts need to be made up (especially for those of you who are making them up by doing 3 sessions a day once or twice a week). If you miss a session, feel free to ask some of the more experienced athletes on this site what the best thing to do is (i.e., just forget about it, make it up later in the week, replace another session with the missed one, etc.). That doesn't mean it's okay to be skipping workouts every week and please do your best not to, but life gets in the way every once in a while and you can't let it get you down. Okay?

Lots of great tips have been posted above. Good luck to everyone who's about to begin their first season!

Thank the volunteers before and after the race, and while on course (without them you wouldn't have a race!).

Make a written checklist for your transition gear--if it's in writing, there is no mental energy wasted trying to figure out if something is missing.

This is hard for me to put into words. As you said don't stress out over missed workouts, but at the same time be as consistent as possible.

Run about 30% more than you think you need to, particularly during the winter.

RELAX

Get a minimum of 2-3 overdistance workouts under your belt.  Do these with plenty of time to fully recover, this depends on race distance.

Have Fun.

Make sure you have enough time on race morning to drop the kids off in the pool. 

Wow, I'm surprised no one has mentioned this: Bring water/gatorade/powerade/whatever you plan on drinking with you. I showed up for a race last year and they had 10 coolers of powerade, but not one cooler of water. I had to do the bike portion with way-to-sugary powerade (blue too..UGH.) Luckily on the way out of T2 they were handing out bottles of water.

 So...I learned to bring my water with me and if they have some there, I can pour out mine and fill up my bottle with their cold water instead.

Chance