BT Forum

Are you planning on doing more triathlons? If so, just get a tri suit. Two piece outfit, and you're good to go for all three sports. You don't have to worry about putting on clothes while you are wet.

Socks - I wear socks - and for triathlon races, I use the low ankle thin socks. It's not any harder to put on if my feet were dry. 

Are you using cages on your bike? If so, you may want to consider using an old sneaker for your bike, then change it to your run shoes at T2. Your feet should dry up by the time you finish the bike. 

Otherwise, my suggestion would be just to get a tri clothing.  Bathing suit can cause a bit of chafing if you're not used to running in them. 

Like the previous poster said, if you're planning on doing other triathlons,  buy a tri suit, one or two-piece.  To me it's not the distance of your tri that determines your clothing, but the fact that you may do more than one. In fact, for a short distance triathlon (that's all I do, too) you want to go as fast as possible in transition.

You don't want to be putting on clothes in T1. Drying off enough to get them on easily eats up a LOT of time. When I did my first tri last year I swam in a tri top and bikini bottoms and then "threw" on my tri shorts in T1. "Threw" = it took me forever (over 4 minutes spent in T1).

This past weekend I did my second tri (400m swim, 6k bike, 3k run) and wore my tri top and shorts for the swim. The only bit of clothing I added in T1 was socks. My feet dried off pretty well running out of the swim and I stood on a towel while putting on my helmet, bib number, etc. So feet were pretty dry and socks went on easy. I made it out of T1 in 2 minutes !!

If you'll be biking in sneakers buy a pair of Xtenex laces so that all you have to do is pull on your shoes. That, too, will save time. And, practice your transitions, especially the order in which you do things. If you practice this you won't have to think about it on race day.

+1 to the other posts.  For a short triathlon, you can probably get by with the same pair of jammers for swimming, biking, and running.  If you look around, you can get a decent pair of tri shorts for $60-80.  That said, please keep in mind that after your first event, you will become like everyone else and hooked on doing triathlons Seriously, has anyone ever heard of someone that does one triathlon, and says "Yeah, That was enough!"

The best way to get good at transitions is to practice them. Get a stopwatch and practice running up to your bike barefoot and getting your socks and shoes on (If your wearing cycling shoes, you can practice putting those on, and then practice getting your running shoes on separately for T2).  You should also practice getting your helmet on/ off, as well as your sunglasses and hat. Train yourself to come up with a routine for these . . . what you will do first, second, etc.  If you repeat this routine several times, and time how fast you can do it,  you will begin to see a difference in your transition times. 

On race day, carefully review how your transition area is laid out.  Small things like forgetting to loosen the Velcro straps on your cycling shoes, or not having your socks with your shoes, etc can set you back several seconds, and the flustered feeling you get only slows you more. You are also more likely to forget things like race numbers, etc.

One of the great things about triathlon is the mental side.  To execute an effective race, you really have to think things through and have a plan. As you get more into multisport, check out this post by Joe Friel on Race plans.  I adapted this for my A race last year, and what a difference it made for me. 

Good luck and have fun with your race!

nothing more to really add except to put a towel down on the ground under your bike, and pre-bunch a pair of low cut running or cycling socks and place them by your running shoes.  Running socks are stretchy as is, and bunching them up lets you just slide your toes in and hook the rest behind your heel.  It's easy to do even with wet feet....but the bottoms of your feet (where the socks would catch the worst) are already dry because you stepped on your towel.

oh, and don't try to rush transition.  Take 2 extra seconds to calmly put on your socks and and shoes instead of 15 to panic and try to rush it.