Patrick Hofmeister

It’s awesome to compete again. That was my first thought when I reached the helipad of the Swissotel after having climbed 1,336 steps and 73 floors. Even though my time of 8min33 was 1:42 slower than the winning time of the World Rrecord holder Thomas Dold (GER), I was very happy with my performace last Sunday. More importantly, pushing up the stairs running directly against other runners, really made me want to compete again. So, my first tower run was a complete success. And I think this running discipline suits me well. Until half way up the staircase I felt perfectly fine. On floor 42 however, there was a camera taping some impressions from within the staircase to show it on the screen in the venue area. After that the running direction changed and there, I really hit the wall. I couldn’t keep up the pace anymore and had to slow down significantly. At the end, passing floor 60, I could accelerate once more knowing that the finish line is close. Crossing the finish line, I was sure that this was definitely not my last tower run, maybe also because of the view that I could enjoy afterwards. The helipad of the Swissotel is 226m above the city and offers an amazing view over the skyline of Singapore. The biggest challenge for me was pacing myself because I’ve had only 6 running trainings prior to the event in the last 4 months. Only 4 times did I train specifically at the stairs. The highest stairs I could find in my preparation period were 26 storeys in a building close to my place. Another obstacle was all the runners in the staircase, even though it was not a mass start event but groups of eight starting in a 30s interval. The winner was starting together with 3 others men competing in the Ultimate Towerrun Championship after the public event; so they enjoyed an empty staircase. My time was enough to come third in Men’s Open (i reckon it was 10th overall), and entitled me to get an awesome price consisting of trophy,watch ,Mizuno voucher as well a two-night stay in the newly open Swissotel in Shanghai for two persons. As I said, that was not my last tower run…