Most race-day disasters are packed at home, not raced in. This is the checklist I use with the athletes I coach: everything you need to bring, every body-care item you’ll forget if it’s not on a list, the pre-race timing rules that decide how your legs feel at the gun, and the common mistakes I’ve seen ruin more races than any swim, bike, or run mishap. Tick items as you pack. Your progress is saved on this device. When you’re done, print or save as PDF so you can use it in the hotel.
The single biggest packing mistake I see is leaving everything for the night before. You forget things when you’re tired, and stress-packing eats into sleep that you can’t make back. Aim for this:
Two days out: first pass. Lay everything on the floor or bed by category (this page’s sections work). Tick the checklist as you go.
One day out: second pass. Walk through every list a second time, with fresh eyes. This is when you catch the things you assumed were already in the bag (chip strap, race-belt, that one specific charging cable).
Race morning: almost nothing. Bottles in, fresh food in, AirTag check, lock the door. If you’re still searching for stuff in the morning, something went wrong upstream.
These are the timings that decide how your legs feel at the gun. They’re also the easiest things to get wrong because everyone’s already nervous.
| When | What |
|---|---|
| 3 h before | Last real meal. Familiar food, mostly carbs, some protein, low fat, low fibre. 80–100 g of carbohydrate is a good target for a 70.3 or full; 50–80 g for an Olympic; 40–60 g for a sprint. Stop eating at the 2:30 mark at the latest, so your blood sugar isn’t crashing through a reactive-insulin trough right at race start. |
| 2 h before | Hydration check. 500 ml of water with electrolytes. Should produce one clear bathroom visit between now and the start. If you’re heading into a hot race, this is also when sodium loading should already be done (it’s a yesterday job, not a today job). |
| 90 min before | Caffeine (if you use it). Use the dose you’ve trained with, not a race-day experiment. The standard endurance protocol is 1 to 3 mg per kg of body weight as a pre-race bolus, 30 to 60 min before the start, sometimes split with a smaller second dose late-bike or early-run for a run-leg lift. That is a per-bolus dose, not a daily ceiling: most adults can comfortably take pre-race + in-race + their normal coffee and stay under ~6 mg / kg / day (the broadly-accepted upper safe range) without GI or HR side effects. First-time mega-doses on race day are how athletes end up jittery, gut-crampy, and in a bathroom queue at minute 40. |
| 60 min before | Confirm transition + walk the paths. At 70.3 and Ironman races your bike is already racked from yesterday’s mandatory check-in (see the race-week countdown below for what check-in involves), you can’t set the bike up on race morning. What you do now: drop your morning bag(s) by the rack, set out shoes / helmet / race-belt / nutrition within the rules, top up tyre pressure, wake the bike computer and watch (both should already be fully charged from yesterday, race morning is no time to hunt for a wall socket), verify the chip is on, and double-check the goggles you plan to race with (strap not perished, lens not scratched, no overnight kinks). Then walk the in / out paths twice: swim exit to bike rack to bike-mount line, and bike-dismount line to run-out. Sprint and Olympic races usually allow same-morning rack, so arrive earlier and don’t rush. |
| 30 min before | Top-up gel + bathroom routine. 25 to 40 g of carbohydrate, a few sips of water. Bathroom-wise: ideally the big morning visit (number two) happened at the hotel, following the routine your gut already knows. Watch fatty / high-fibre food the night before, it’s the most common cause of an unwanted mid-race stop. A short, slow stroll after breakfast often nudges things along if your routine is being shy. Number one is less of a problem: a quick pee during the swim warm-up is normal triathlon practice and briefly warms the wetsuit (everyone does it). A bit of warm or lukewarm water poured down the inside of the wetsuit neck just before you swim is a low-tech way to blunt the cold-shock gasp when you first immerse. If a support person can bring a thermos, great. Otherwise a small bottle filled with lukewarm tap water from the hotel works fine. |
| 15 min before | Get in the water. Acclimate. If the race allows pre-swim warm-up, use it. Sudden full-body immersion in cold water spikes heart rate, triggers the cold-shock gasp reflex, and is one of the recognised contributors to SIPE (swimming-induced pulmonary edema), a rare but serious problem in open-water triathlon. Walk in slowly, get the face wet, splash water in through the wetsuit neck and sleeves, then swim easy for ~5 min if the window allows, 2 min if it doesn’t. Any in-water time helps. Heads up: at IM and 70.3 events the warm-up window often only opens 15 min before the pro start, and age-group access closes 15 to 30 min after that, so it can be tight. Use whatever window is open to you, even if it means standing around in a wet wetsuit for 5 to 10 min waiting for your wave to be called: the warm-up matters more than the brief chill. If the race doesn’t allow in-water warm-up at all, splash water on your face and neck repeatedly on land to fire the same nerve reflex (the mammalian dive response). |
| 10 min before | Last-minute wetsuit zip if you haven’t already. Many athletes wait until this 10-to-15-min window to fully zip up. A wetsuit zipped 30+ min before the start in cool morning air can chill you faster than standing in a hoodie, so there’s no prize for being suited up early. Goggles on the forehead. Box breathing (5 in, 5 hold, 5 out, 5 hold) for 2 to 3 minutes pulls the heart rate down and shifts you out of pre-race panic into a parasympathetic state. Visualise the swim start. Find a friendly face. |
| 2 min before | Goggles down, into position. Goggles snug, strap tucked under the swim cap (so a hand can’t knock them off in the start scrum). Mouth wet. Calm. Trust the work. |
First time with a new gel, new salt tab, new caffeine dose, new wetsuit, new goggles, new pre-race breakfast, new shoes, new chamois cream: not on race day. Race day is when you use the kit and the protocol you have already tested in training and / or in a B race. If something on the checklist below is new for you, use it in a long brick this weekend.
Tap to tick. Your ticks are saved on this device. When you’re done, hit Print / Save as PDF to take a paper or PDF copy with you.
Lucky charm, glasses case, contacts & solution, music, race-day playlist, mascot, anything you race with that isn’t on a generic list.
Do this the day before the race, in daylight, with the bike on a stand or upside down. Then again on race morning before you rack. Mechanical DNFs are nearly all caught by this list.
If something is wrong with the bike at the race-week pre-flight, don’t race-week-engineer it: take it to a bike shop, or call me. Race week is for confirming the bike is ready, not for new bar tape, new cleats, new shifters, or a fresh chain. Anything “new” needs at least one ride before race day so you can catch the gremlin in your driveway, not at mile 25.
The race-week version of “you don’t know what you don’t know.” Most of these have cost athletes I’ve coached real time, or real DNFs, before they wised up.
The best predictor of performance is performance itself. If it’s your first race at a given distance (or first time on a particular format: draft-legal, IM, Xterra, a hilly half marathon), take every calculator estimate, finish-time prediction, and pacing plan with a grain of salt. Things can and will happen. There’s no substitute for having raced the format once already, you have to feel it to truly understand it. Plan conservatively the first time; chase the time on round two.
The most preventable injury cause on the start list. Race in the pair you’ve already run at least one long workout in. Same goes for tri-suit, wetsuit, goggles.
Solid food inside the 2:30 window before the start is a classic blood-sugar trap. Carbs spike insulin, insulin pulls blood sugar down, and you can hit the start line in a reactive-hypoglycaemia trough with a heavy gut on top. Eat the real breakfast at 3 h out. Nothing solid after 2:30. A 30-min top-up gel is fine because it’s small, fast, and timed so the rise carries into the swim.
Most athletes wake up already mildly dehydrated, and pre-race nerves + the bathroom queue make it worse if you don’t plan. 500 ml of water with electrolytes around the 2 h mark, sipped, not chugged. One clear bathroom visit between then and the start is your green light. If your morning pee is dark yellow at 6 a.m., you started behind.
Maltodextrin, glucose, sucrose, fructose: each uses different gut transporters. Modern endurance fuel is dosed at a 1:0.8 glucose-to-fructose ratio for a reason (it lets you absorb 90+ g of carb per hour without sloshing). Grabbing a random aid-station product on top of your own gels often means you exceed the gut’s capacity for one transporter, the rest just sits there, and you cramp or feel awful at hour 3. Stick to one brand / one ratio you’ve trained with, or do the math.
“I’ll just drink water” works for a sprint. Past 2 to 3 hours of racing, especially in heat, no sodium = falling plasma osmolality, GI distress, muscle cramps, and the kind of hyponatraemia that ends races (and occasionally lands athletes in medical). Aim for roughly 500 to 1,000 mg of sodium per hour at long-course, scaled to your sweat rate. Test it in training. The race-fueling calculator gives you a number.
The bike is the easiest place to drink. Athletes who finish well on the run are almost always the ones who hit T2 already topped up. Riding under-hydrated thickens what’s in your gut (gels and concentrated drink mix need water to clear the stomach), which is a leading cause of mid-run GI distress. Default: 500 to 750 ml per hour on the bike, more in heat. Take the aid-station hand-ups.
Latex tubes especially can blow overnight if pumped too high. Pump on race morning, in your hotel room or transition, after a quick visual check of the tyre.
The sleep that actually matters is two nights before. If you can’t sleep race night, don’t panic: research is clear that one poor night doesn’t move race performance noticeably, but stressing about it can.
The strap that snaps in T-minus-3-minutes is a real and brutal race-killer. Always two pairs in your kit: clear / low-light, and tinted.
Open bar ends fail bike check-in at almost every sanctioned race. Carry a spare set in your tool roll, especially after travel: they fall out in transit.
A snapped chain is rare but not impossible. With a chain tool and a quick-link in your size, it’s a 5-minute roadside fix. Without one, it’s a DNF.
Travels straight into your eyes via sweat. SPF stick on cheekbones, ears, back of neck, shoulders. Skip the forehead, use a cap or visor instead.
Race day is not the day to triple your usual dose. Use your normal training amount. New on race day = stomach roulette + early-race spike-then-crash.
Every race is slightly different: drafting zones, helmet rules, run-out direction, cut-off times, limited race-morning access to T1 / special-needs bags, lap protocols, drop-bag pick-up locations. Read the updated guide twice, the second time the day before, and recheck for late edits. Then attend the race briefing (in-person or on-demand): it’s nominally mandatory at most events and the only place the late-breaking changes get announced.
Airlines lose bike bags every weekend. An AirTag (or Tile, SmartTag) inside the bag tells you whether to wait at baggage claim or start the lost-bag protocol immediately. Bonus: one inside the bike frame in case it gets stolen in transit.
If you only ever eat your race-day fuel on race day, your gut hasn’t practised. Train the gut: do a long ride a month before, with the exact gels, drink mix, bars, salt tabs you plan to race. Calculator here if you need to lock in the plan.
Rough template. Adjust if you’re travelling, racing local, or working around obligations.
| When | What |
|---|---|
| 7 days out | Last meaningful workout: short, sharp, opens the legs. Drop volume. Bike serviced at the shop. Wetsuit pulled out, checked for tears. |
| 4 days out | Confirm registration, expo hours, parking, hotel. Book the seat at the athlete briefing. Start nudging carbs up slightly (modest carb-front-load, not stuff-yourself mode). |
| 3 days out | Lube the chain. Test the wetsuit in open water if conditions allow. Short easy bike + short easy run. Sleep early. |
| 2 days out | First packing pass (use this checklist). Travel to race location if needed. Drive / ride the bike course start, T1, T2 if you can. Lay out trisuit and race-day nutrition. The night you actually want to sleep well. Athlete check-in at the expo often opens around this time for IM and 70.3 (sometimes earlier for IM): you pick up your race packet, get your bib + bike frame stickers + helmet sticker + bag stickers, sometimes a timing chip. Check-in can be left to 1 day out at most races, but going earlier removes one stressor. |
| 1 day out | Second packing pass. Easy 10 to 20 min spin + 3 to 5 min run with strides. Athlete briefing (in-person or on demand). Bike check-in is typically today at 70.3 / IM: you bring the bike already serviced and tyred-up, plus helmet, racing belt, and your bib numbers already stuck on (helmet sticker, bike frame sticker, T1 bag, T2 bag, special-needs bags if used). Volunteers will spot-check the helmet and the frame number. Once it’s racked, it stays there overnight, so make sure the bike computer is off, tyre pressure is reasonable (you’ll top up race morning), and a plastic bag is over the saddle / cockpit in case of overnight rain. Today is also the day to charge every electronic device to 100% and then turn them off: watch, bike computer, power meter / pedals, HR strap, footpod, lights if needed, phone, headphones, AirTags. Race morning is no time to be hunting for a wall socket. Carb-front-loaded dinner, familiar food, normal portion, low-fibre. In bed early, accept that you may not sleep well, that’s normal: the sleep that actually counts is two nights before. |
| Race day | Wake up 3 h before swim start. Breakfast at 3 h out. Final transition set-up. Follow the timing rules above. Trust the work. |
| +1 day | Easy walk, food you actually want to eat, recovery work. Send your coach (me) the data so we can debrief. Book a celebratory anything. |
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