triathlon_raceday_Setting_Up_your_Triathlon_Transition_Spot

Every race begins with one thing:  No, not the starting gun or whistle.  Every race starts with your arrival on race morning, and the setup of a transition area.  Setting up a transition spot takes a little time and thought.  We are going to to our best to help you do it like a pro.

A few tips:

• Get your bike and all of the rest of your stuff, including your bib numbers from sign-in, and head into the race area.
• Remember, NO spectators are allowed in the transition area. You can be disqualified!

• All of the spots on the bike racks are numbered. The bikeracks are provided by the organizers, so there’s no need to bring your own.Match your bib number with the number on the bike rack and set up your transition area there.

• Pick up the front of your bike and lean the hand-brakes over the rack.

• Take that brightly colored item you brought with you and tie it loosely to your bucket so you can find it when you get out of the water. Some people use helium balloons. You can lose a lot of time looking for your bike in the chaos and it’s worth having something.

• Lay your towel next to your bike but be sure it doesn’t overlap your neighbor’s space.

• Fill up your bucket of water and place it on or next to the towel (for sandy feet after the swim)

• Neatly place the following things on your towel: bike shoes, sneakers, hat, sunglasses and anything else you might need for the bike and run.

• Walk over to the officials WITH your number so that he/she can write it on your arms and legs.

• Go back to your spot and affix the bib number to your helmet and/or the front of your bike.

• Pin the number to your bike, if required.

• Pin the number to the shirt you will be wearing for both the bike and run. OR if you don’t want to wear a shirt, you can pin it to the front of your shorts.

• Place your bike helmet on your towel or on top of your handle bars. Do not buckle it or you will have problems unbuckling it when you get out of the water. After-swim fingers don’t respond so well to anything complicated.

• Make sure that everything you need is on your towel and organized so that you don’t have to fish through your bag during the race.

• Put the things that you don’t need in your bag to cut down on the confusion.

• Put on your wetsuit and sun screen. Be sure to do it in the parking lot or on the grass. Wet suits are challenging to put on and very uncomfortable gto wear if you get sand in them. You might also want to use some Bodyglide Anti-Chafe Balm or Pam (the cooking spray) to help. See our Triathlon Swim page for more details on “How to get Slippery”.

• If you decided to use some type of footware for the jog between the swim and the transition area, place them in a spot near the water. Catuion: Do not, we repeat, DO NOT, put them in the path of racers. They should be out of the way but near enough to find.