It felt good to finally get to race after covering most of the forest with my rake and taking care of so many leaves that I could change my name to match the Centerpartiet leader. So many leaves, nuts, rocks, glass and even a golf ball. But we cleaned it all and made an almost perfect track.

Day 1




So show precisely what Day 1 looked like here is a share of a great video by Åsa Erlandsson. If you look closely you will even see me with my rake in a grass corner up near the road section. But that was Friday and now I am sure you want to know how the race went. The random seeding put me kind of close to the back and after all the work with the track my body was completely dead. So the start went as expected and I was last instantly and struggling to keep up. It was fine at first but things spread out quickly and I changed my perfect race plan to the usual of trying not to be last.

Ahead of me was someone from Söderköpings SK although I didn't realize this because there was already a gap. But I caught up when he took 'my line' down the hill after Sven's super stairs of death and went kind of straight and was stopped. So I managed to slide passed and floored it. The next two laps was basically me giving it 120% trying to get away, mostly because I knew that I would mess up sooner or later. But the gap back was equal and I felt like this would just end with some kind of sneaky sprint. Then all of a sudden the gap was bigger and it grew and grew so I was safe. But forward I could not see anyone so the race ended this way. So that was 42nd out of 43 that started which was above expectations considering my muscle status. And I did a flawless race too...no mistakes.

Day 2

There was much less rake work the second day because we had prepared everything on Saturday and it was not windy. So after removing more leaves, glass, water bottle tops and all kinds of crap it was race time again. My seeding put me in the second last row which was fine because this start was insane as someone two rows ahead was sloppy and almost took us all out. I was last on the road straight but took a wide line and braked late and passed two people on the outside. The one from CK CX stayed behind and the other was the guy from Söderköpings SK again. But this time he seemed eager for revenge and passed me on the grass at the löphinder and I was behind him almost på rulle. He was doing very well and kind of forced me to take the bad line up the hill of death (immediately next to the stairs of death) but I was still på rulle down the other side. I made a move on the inside to pass but he did well in the outside line and I was again på rulle on the tricky part of the course with the slippery corners. And since I was putting the pressure on he fell in one of those corners and I kind of had to jump way up to the left to get passed. So now it was race time again just like Day 1. Around the forest corners and out on the road straight at my max ability and I had a gap. But just like yesterday it was not really growing much until the grass corners at the far end and then again at the hill of death. It hurt so jävla much on that hill and I am looking forward to seeing the pics of me where I know I have a race/attack face. And CC Lasse said that I actually opened up the gap a lot just in that hill. My body felt fine so I kept on at max for the rest of the time. But just like yesterday I could not even see the next guy up but I must have been getting closer. So again this was 42nd place but there were 2 behind and one DNF. Progress is good.

And so the fun continues next week in Söderköping where I suspect there will be some home advantage things playing in. Just think if it will be the same as last time...the most epic cross event I have ever done. So much wet grass...so slow...