After 3 weeks of no race and good training I was really looking forward to the race in Norberg yesterday, this race being my first marathon win last year. It was hot, for being in Sweden, 27 degress;), and that was all in my favour!

But the race almost ended before it started… The start is in the middle of town on a wide road, after only 500 meters we turn in to a cycle lane and everyone wants to be first. We had just gotten the speed up after about 250 meters when I see a guy falling in the corner of my eye, since he fell in my direction and I had other riders all around me I had no chance to avoid the crash, it felt as if I hit his head… I flew and landed hard on my coccyx and could hardly get up. I found my bottle amongst all the bikes and by the time I get my handle bar straight and chain on I was all alone on the tar. All start groups were gone! I thought for a second to just walk back to the start but then something inside said I should just try and see, I could always stop later.

So off I went to chase and pass hundreds of people, I pushed so hard in the beginning whilst the adrenaline was high and it was not so sore. I kept the same distance in time to the leading girls for a long time until I hit the 55km mark and it started to hurt so badly. I passed one of the good girls fixing a puncture and I was now in 3rd position and now I felt I had to go on, otherwise I would have stoped, but the podium spot made me push through, even though I was seeing stars in the last 15 kilometers...

I am very happy to finish 3rd under those circumstances but of course very very disappointed since I felt really good and think I had a good chance on doing something special in this race. I am also disappointed since this was the start of a 6 week racing block that I was looking forward to.

Back home in Falun I went to the ER to do X-rays, luckily nothing was broken but the doctor said it can still be a hairline fracture that can not be seen since I had so much pain. So it will be a few days off the bike and the pain will decide when I can be back in training again.