This may be the wrong place for this post but I just had a race last saturday and I noticed a lot of people carrying their stuff in buckets. As i watched them I thought to myself "Why are these people carrying their stuff in buckets? Couldn't they find a plastic bag or something?" I continued to think this up until T1 where the guy next to me sat comfortably on his bucket to put on his shoes while I plopped my butt on the pavement so I wouldnt fall over. I am deffinately adding "bucket" to my checklist for my next tri. I also thought it was neat that some of the people had covered their buckets with their race bibs from all their races. It was really cool.

Absolutely counts. I think whatever makes someone faster and more comfy is fair game. I prefer the "less is more" approach. The less I bring into T1 the less I have to remember to do.