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Monday
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Richard needed to register and pick up his badge for the competition in downtown Pittsburgh on the University of Pittsburgh campus. While we were at the Petersen Events Center (above) we stopped to watch some basketball. Both women and men were practicing or playing at the impressive facilities.
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Tuesday
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Tuesday morning we got up at 5:30 so that Richard could have a good oatmeal breakfast and be ready for his race. We stayed at the MainStay Suites near the airport and knew that it would take about an hour to get to North Park where the cycling races were all held.
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The six photos above show Richard (before he changed to his sleeveless jersey), picking up his identifying number, 200. He attached the number to his bike and also wore that number on his jersey for all three races.
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The first race was the 10K Time Trial. Both the 5K and 10K are individual races. The competitors start and finish individually and then the times are ranked to determine the winner. These are not Richard's favorite races because the distance is too short but he used the 10K as a "warmup."
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There were two race assistants who took turns to hold the rider as the timer beeped. The 50 - 54 year old group went first with the racers starting every 30 seconds. Next was Richard's group, 55 - 59 year olds. Richard said that having someone hold the bike was great because otherwise time is lost as you put your foot up to connect it to the clip-in pedal.
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They only used the balloons on the time trial races because they weren't wide enough for the 20K or 40K finishes when several riders raced across the finish line at the same time. The balloons were decorative and Richard matched them with his blue, white, and red theme for his three races. Richard's time trial was at 9:30 in the morning and we had to stay in that part of the park until after 2:00 in the afternoon as all of the other age categories finished their races! Luckily it was a pretty area, not too hot (although quite humid) and there was a lot of shade!
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