[FWD: RE: {Trifiniti Endurance} special needs bags at Ironman]

[Dorette Sommer-Franks]

One more to add:

As for me, early on I put everything but the kitchen sink in my special needs bags: food, spare socks, paunchos & rain gear, candy, spare tire tubes and CO2's, towels, Vaseline, body glide, etc etc. My special needs bags weighed more than my gear bags!!

I found that I would always stop at my Bike special needs bag but really only to get extra nutrition that I didn't want to carry on the first half of the bike, and maybe some chamoux cream, but everything else I didn't really need or use. Now I just carry the chamoux cream packets in my Bento Box.

For my run bag, I found that a lot of the time, I really didn't want to stop for that at all, so I usually never used it except if running after dark and I wanted to pick up a jacket or long sleeve shirt to keep warm.

So now, after 14 of these, I keep the bags pretty minimal, especially since sometimes you may not get the bags back.

Here is my list:

Bike Special Needs:
- Nutrition for 2nd half of bike (mine happens to be 3 EFS Liquid Shots in a bike bottle (1200 calories @ 400/hr) that I freeze the night before so it's cool when I pick it up, and then I add water to the bottle until it's filled to make the EFS not as thick)
- A hand towel to wipe my face and hands
- A small bottle of purcel to wash my hands
- A spare tube and CO2 cannister just in case; I carry two spares on my bike and it just gives me piece of mind if I have a flat in first half that I can pick up that extra spare at special needs in case I have another flat -- no use stressing over the risk of having 3 flats and your day is over!

Run Special Needs:
- Spare pair of dry socks just in case of rain, blisters, etc
- A long sleeve shirt if I think it's going to be cool after dark
- If the run course is not 100% lighted, I will put my headlamp in my special needs bag. It really came in handy at Whistler this year since a lot of the course was on a trail in the trees and they just couldn't get portable lights into those areas.

If the race info says you will not get your Special Needs bags returned to you, I will take the spare tube/CO2 with me on the bike, and I will stop at the Run Special Needs bag and pick up my long sleeve shirt and headlamp - I can just carry them around my waist and in my singlet pocket if needed. Could even put the spare socks in my pocket, but I tend to leave them since I have so many extra pairs of socks.