This Sunday will be the fourth and final race of the Headfirst Performance Shelbyville Sprint Triathlon Series. Instead of doing a typical race preview post, I thought that it might be useful to go over all of the items that I will take to the race.

I’m a list maker. I don’t necessarily make lists because I would forget something, but I make them because I would think that I was forgetting something. Maybe it’s my engineering background or maybe it’s by Type A personality, but if I’m not 100% sure that I have everything I need going into a race, I will be a nervous wreck. So years ago, when I first started doing triathlons, I created a check list. I have one for Sprint Distance, one for Olympic Distance/Half-Ironman and one for Ironman Distance. Now that you are thinking “this dude is a huge nerd”, I’ll share my Sprint Distance list with you.

I have each list broken into five sections. Swim Items, Bike Items, Run Items, Clothing Items and Miscellaneous Items.

Swim Items

• Goggles
• Spare Goggles (I keep these in my bag and only use them if I have a strap break on my main pair or if they leak like crazy during the swim warm-up)
• Wetsuit (optional)
• Plastic Bag to put wetsuit in after the race (optional)
• Body Glide (I put this on my neck, wrists and ankles when wearing a wetsuit – I’ll still put it on my ankle around my timing chip for non-wetsuit races)
• Take off wedding ring (I would really hate to lose my ring at the bottom of a random lake or river)

Bike Items

• Bike (sounds obvious, but the obvious things are usually the ones that you forget)
  

  Without rubber bands, the shoes would drag the ground when you run with your bike out of T1

• Bike Shoes
• Rubber bands (to hold shoes in place on bike – see photo to the right)
• Pump (for a quick fill-up while setting up transition)
• Helmet
• Socks (optional for sprint races)
• Flat tire kit (spare tube, CO2 cartridge and applicator)
• Baby Powder (to put in shoes when I choose not to wear socks)
• Gum (I have to have gum when I ride or run to keep my mouth from getting dry)
• Tape (small piece to tape a piece of gum to my top tube)

Run Items

• Hat (only if I know it’s going to be sunny or raining)
• Running shoes with speed laces
• Spare socks (if it’s raining, I’ll want a dry pair to put on after the bike)
• Sunglasses (my bike helmet has a face shield, so I’ll only need these for the run)

Clothing Items

• Flip Flops (for walking around before and after the race)
• Post race clothing (clean dry clothes to change into)
• Singlet (or whatever  I’m planning to race in)
• Towel (I really only need this if I have to run through sand or dirt after the swim – I’ll put it in T1 to wipe my feet off)

Misc. Items

• Race Confirmation letter/email (if packet pick-up is race morning, it’s a good idea to have this just in case they don’t have you on their list)
• Driver’s License and USAT card (same reason as above)
• Pre-Race Nutrition (usually just a gel for a Sprint race)
• Watch (can’t forget my Garmin – how else would I be able to chart all of my data???)
• Timing Chip & Bib Number (if packet pick-up is not race morning)
• Race Number belt

So that’s my list. I’ve added things over the years and I’m sure I will add something else at some point…maybe BENGAY once I hit that 45-49 Age Group! If you have any other things that you like to include that you don’t see here, let me know. Good luck and hope this helps!

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