What to pack in T1 &2 bags and special needs???

Good question....I'm 9 weeks out and would like to hear the responces as well.

Here's what I did for special needs:

Bike bag had spare tube/CO2, emergency COKE, and my second bottle of nutrition.  I HAD to stop for the second bottle...otherwise I didn't really need anything that was in the bag.

Run bag had more emergency COKE, extra aquaphor (those little trial sizes you get everywhere are GREAT!), a long sleeve jacket, and maybe some dry socks (memory is fading a bit).  I never stopped for the runs special needs.

I was really big on mostly planning to NOT need the special needs unless it was an emergency.  I didn't have much of a choice on the bike...my bike only has one cage bottle so I had to get a second bottle of nutrition somehow.  But otherwise, I carried a lot of stuff I knew I would want...baby wipes, lube, tampons, etc.  I had a long sleeve shirt in T2 and wore it around my waist for most of the marathon so that I would have it no matter when I got cold.  I decided I didn't want to risk being freezing but 5 miles from my special needs.

Personally, I think people way overthink the bags.  You know what you NEED to do the race, you know what will help you in an emergency (for me that was coke and a few advil...just in case), then think about a couple of likely contingencies (cold, rain, etc.) and go with it.  You don't need to bring the kitchen sink!

The aboslute BEST thing I did for my transition bags though was to put all the "small stuff" that was going to get shoved into my pockets into a big ziploc bag.  Because when you dump your bag in transition the stuff will scatter otherwise.  It was SO handy to just pick up the ziploc and pull things out and put them in my pockets.

As for the Anti-Inflammatories...I said I packed some emergency Advil...but it was for just that...an emergency.  I ended up needing it...I had a really really whacky calf/achilles problem show up out of the blue on race day.  I'm sure the advil helped me get to the finish line.  But in a normal world I would never take meds during a race.  I was actually very surprised at Escape from Alcatraz a few weeks ago to see MULTIPLE athletes on the boat popping pills a few minutes before the start.  As a general rule, I think it's a bad plan.  That doesn't mean if something weird happens I wouldn't take them.  As I already said, I had to dig into my emergency advil supply for IM.

I like to have stuff on hand just in case.  I will agree with the poster above, that people overthink these things, but were triathletes ... thats what we do!  The main thing I found out on race day is that you need to be prepared for what is going to sit well on your stomach.  Just because you trained with a specific nutrition plan, doesnt mean your GI or your taste buds are going to cooperate.  

In my Special Needs bags I put things that I might want in there, but nothing I absolutely needed ... well other than my extra bottles of Infinit.  Put some extra goodies in there that might give you a pick me up ... something to get that taste of Gatorade and Powerbars out of your mouth.  Gum, candy, oatmeal cream pies (my fav), starburst, mints, snickers stuff like that.  The extra socks, long sleeve, body glide is all at your discretion.  

In my Transition bags, and SN for that matter, I found it very helpful to write a checklist of whats in there and refer to that once you open it up.  Your brain is going to play some major tricks on you and all of that planning can go out the window in an instant if you head of out of transition without something.  I popped advil on the course before the bike and the run, but do this at your own risk.  It works for me ...