Ironman Florida : Official Thread (Page 3)

The #1 training partner is regestered. Looking forward to the experience. This is the second one.

I just did it oh ... 10 days ago ? I'll get do it again in 350+ days

The bike rest stop is at mile 50. The have a bunch of paper bins with your transition bag in it. You dropped off the special needs transition bag in the morning of the race and they tranport these bins to mile 50. The bins are lined up sequentially by your bib numbers. When you reach the bins, there will be a volunteer nearby to help your retrieve your bags. You get what you need and either drop the bag back into the bin or onto the ground.

The run transition bag is at the 13.1 mile turnaround point. Basically, you make a U-turn at the turnaround point and about 30 yards later you would see a bunch of volunteers standing next to a bunch of transition bags. They are also lined up sequentially. You tell the volunteers your number and they will give you your bag. Take whatever you need and either give it back to the volunteer or throw it away.

They have the system down pretty tight. Before you get to any of the transition area (special needs or regular r/b/s transtion area), there is a few volunteers standing around looking at your bib. As you pass them, they would shout out your bib number via a loud speaker to tell the transition bag volunteers that you are coming. The volunteers would hear the number and scramble to get your bags for you. By the time that you get to your designated area, the bags will be waiting for you.

You can help yourself as well as the volunteers by yelling out your number as you approach the guy with the loud speaker AS WELL AS near the volunteer areas. They have a lot of athletes to deal with so by yelling out your number you are helping them as well as yourself with a more smooth transition. I saw a few of a$$holes out there giving the volunteers attitudes because the volunteers were a little bit slow. Don't be one of these a$$holes. The volunteers are there to help you ... not screw with you. Thank them when you are done.

As far as content of the special needs bag. Go minimum if you can. There are Gatorade and gel stations at almost every 10 miles intervals. Tell yourself that you consider anything and everything in those bags as trash after you pass them.

I put the same amount of stuff in my special needs bike bag as I carry with me on the bike. In other words, the same amount gels, energy bars, and fluids. When I get to mile 50, I replace everything that was used during the first 50 miles and discard everything else.

In my run special needs bag, I only carry arm warmers and a pair of gloves. You may consider carrying a run light. The turnaround point at the park is litterally pitched dark in many stretches. They have some artifical lights in some area but others are pitched dark. Some of the side streets during the run is also dark but manageable.

As far as run and bike transition bags, put in there what you normally carry during any other races ... no more, no less. There is also a morning dry clothes bag. This is a bag that has stuff that you need in the morning (i.e., sweatpants, goggles, wetsuit, sandles, etc). You carry this bag with you to the start of the race. Before you leave the transition area and head towards the beach there are a bunch of bins with bib numbers on there. You would take out of the morning bag what you need for the swim (i.e., wetsuit, goggles, etc) and put in what you don't need (i..e., sweatpants, sweatshirts, etc). Once you are done, you just drop the bag into the bins. The bins will be there after the race in the exact location. When you come back to the transition area to pick up your bike, you just pick up the morning bag also since they are in the same tranisition area.

You can also pick up your transition bags in the same area as where you dropped them off the day before. Your special needs bag can be picked up the following morning between 7AM-noon. If you want to know what's in store for you then goto the ironman florida web page and download this year athlete's guide. It's good reading.

As far as managing nutrition, do what you do in practice ... no more, no less.  Don't pack 12 suitcases for a 17 hour tour   On the bike, you have water, Gatorade, and gels at every 10 mile intervals.  On the run you have fruits, Coke, gels, Gatorade, water, chicken broth, and a bunch of other stuff every mile.

I added my name on page 3 but it's not there any more! :-( 

But I'm still in baby!