Patrick Hofmeister

Yesterday, it was time for my first start in the blue-yellow jersey of my new Swedish club IK Hakarpspojkarna. For my debut competition I chose nothing less than the DM Lang (Smaland’s Long Distance Champs) held next to Växjö. After some trainings in the Jönköping region as well as at the club house, which is by the way pretty nice being on the very top of a hill in Huskvarna with an awesome view over Jönköping and the Vättern, I felt quite well-prepared for my first competition in Sweden since Tiomila.

Due to inacurrate registration and some late changes in the startlist, I was supposed to be the last starter of the field. The terrain description told me nothing special of the forst: typical flat Smaland terrain with moderate contour features and some stones. Nothing to be scared of, although I have to admit that especially at the beginning I had problems to distinguish between the stones which were mapped and which were not. All in all I had problems to find the smartest route-choice through the very diversified terrain. When I had better taken the roads, I went straight and when the best route was straight I made a long way round. (see 2,10,13) Apart from that, I made a huge mistake at the 9th control. I reckon that many runners had problems there because the stone was hidden in a little green and the map was probably a little bit imprecise in that area. Another mistake occured to the 15th control where I lost the focus approaching the control and had to relocate on the path between the 15th and 16th control. The performance could be considered half-decent, but as I already indicated in the headline with plenty of room for improvement.

Tomorrow we are going to have a relay training with my clubmates at the IKHP stugan. I am looking forward to that one because it is the last rehearsal before the German Relay Championships next weekend which I am going to run with my club MTK Bad Harzburg. Although there are some strong rivals I hope that we are ready to fight for the medals…