Patrick Hofmeister

The last 10 days I have spent in Miskolc (Hungary), the venue of the WOC 2009. I was supposed to run Long and Sprint during that week but didn’t manage to reach the Finals. Nevertheless, I must say, that I am not disappointed with my races. Technically I had solid runs with no major mistake, neither in the Long nor in the Sprint. What I had to accept once more was the fact that I am still too slow to compete on the highest level. That is definitely frustrating when you are doing good races technically but nevertheless miss the final by some minutes or seconds. If I want to have a chance for the final next year in Norway I have to be faster, that’s for sure. The conditions for training are getting better living the next two years in Sweden. I finished my bachelor degree right before WOC and some days ago I got the confirmation that I passed all the necessary exams as well as my BA-thesis. So, now I can call myself Bachelor of Arts in International Business Studies… what a great title!? The semester in Jönköping has already started this week. Due to WOC I missed the introduction week at the university but I hope that I can compensate that in the next days. I reached Jönköping yesterday, stayed the last night in a hotel waiting for the keys for my student room. But now I am in, living in Raslätt a little bit outside Jönköping with 3 other guys from Spain, Pakistan and Canada. Nice mixture!
The new life in Skandinavia can finally begin…Jag glädjer mig!

Incredible! My three-year Bachelor in International Business Studies at the University of Paderborn is already over… time has been passing by so fast! Although I have to admit that Paderborn is not the very place to be, I really enjoyed my time in Ostwesfalen. During my stay here, I’ve got to know so many nice people, with some of them I could build up friendships that could last forever! Thank you for this great time, Eric and Roman, you IBS students, Sport students, ASG runners and members of the training group LOWL. You are all welcome to look me up in Jönköping that is going to be my hometown for the next 2 years. I am joining the Master programme International Logistics & Supply Chain Management at Jönköping International Business School (JIBS).
But first of all I am heading towards Miscolc (Hungary), the venue of this year’s World Orienteering Championship. Although the recurrent pain in my Achilles tendon prevented me from huge amounts of running training, I feel well prepared for the Champs. I decided to focus on high-intensive running training (like 10×200m, 10×400m, 10×3min int.) at maximum speed while doing most of the other sessions in the pool (aquajogging and swimming) or on my bike. Moreover, we did some good orienteering trainings with a lot of climbing in the terrain of WOC 1995.

I am leaving Paderborn with all my stuff on Friday morning. My first start is going to be on Monday’s long distance qualification. Then, on Thursday, there will be the sprint. So, stay tuned guys….