The Asterisk

I raced my second triathlon at the weekend, except it wasn't one. The Outlaw Sprint in Nottingham had the swim cancelled because of algae in the lake, which is just one of the joys of outdoor swimming, so the day became a duathlon instead. A 1.6km run, a 20km bike and a 5km run.Standing in my wave before the start I spotted a few people that looked around my age and decided they were my target. Not because I thought I would come anywhere, but pacing myself against people in their mid twenties is pointless and would probably get me in trouble, so I wanted a rough idea of where I could finish against people whose knees are the same age as mine.It worked better than I had any right to expect. I came off the first run around them, and I knew I was in front after the bike. Then about 1.5km into the second run I was passed, and had to dig deep to run him down and get back past. I had a really great chat with Kris afterwards and it turns out we both enjoyed being pushed. Having someone to…