On Wednesday last week I took the car and drove the 7,5 hours down to Skåne (southern part of Sweden), to visit Malin and also to train on the route for the Swedish MTB Marathon champs, a very technical one, Malin stays about 6km from the start, so was perfect! On Thursday I got guided around the route by the race director so that I would know where the most technical sections were. I took another round on Saturday so I felt that I had the route under control.

I was a bit nervous before the start, since this had been the main goal for the season and if I had to pick one race to win, this would be the one! I was still a bit unsure on how my form was since the crash 4 weeks ago, I had not been able to follow the training plan, but I did not feel any pain now so if my body would respond I could maybe make it:-)

We started with the guys as usual and I expected a high pace from the start but it was reasonable up the first climb but when we hit the first single track it all became one long line. Angelica was a few riders in front of me and I managed to pass her after the starting loop when we passed the finish for the first time and I got a gap, even though shortly both her and Emmy was with me again. The 3 of us rode together until the 24km mark and since we had some guys with us it was difficult for anyone to break. When I saw that the 4th girl was coming closer I decided that we could not go this slow so I attacked up a climb and we lost Angelica. Now it was me and Emmy together for a long time. We went out on the last loop and got to the most technical place, I had to run and Emmy got over, so she got a gap of 200 meters on me which she kept for  a while. I eventually caught her and I could see that she was getting tired so when we came to the steepest climb of the day I went to the front and changed to the next gear and left her. I quickly got a gap of just under 2 minutes and managed to keep that to the finish.

I got very tired towards the end so I was nervous that someone was going to catch me. I fought hard and only believed I was going to win when I crossed the line, completely finished, as the Swedish Marathon champion, what a feeling! That jersey was very much longed for!

It is nice feeling to now have won the Swedish Champs both on the road and MTB (marathon) :-)

A huge thank you to Malin and Pär for all the support during the race with handing bottles, giving times and photographs!! It is not every race that I have such good staff with me;) And also thank you for letting me stay with you for this week!!

This is what it looked like in pictures - Thanks Pär!

Perfect service from Malin!

Was completely finished after the finish line!!

The sweet feeling on the podium:-)