It’s the year 2019, and I am registered for what would be my second Boston Marathon. After finishing 2018 as my biggest year yet with more than 4000 km of running, I have high hopes of showing up fit in Boston. Alas, in February I suffer a stress fracture in my sacrum, which shatters my plans for the spring marathon. Instead, after letting the bone heal, I start cross-training and make serious gains (as in: progress, not mass) to get stronger and a more well-rounded athlete.

Fast-forward to the year 2025. After finishing my 6th World Marathon Major in Tokyo in March, I have high hopes of running a fast fall marathon in Chicago. Alas, somewhere in November 2024, I suffer a foot injury. But wait a minute, Henrik, didn’t you just say you ran the Tokyo marathon in March? Yes, I did, and it’s complicated because I in fact ran that marathon on an injured foot. Don't try this at home, folks! This was a conscious decision though, using a well-managed mix of cross-training and running, and a simple goal: finish the 42.195 km in Tokyo whatever it takes, even if that means walking. However, that is a story for another time. Today, I want to talk about what happened after my stress fracture in 2019.

I started working with a new coach. How do you find a new coach? Ideally, through words-of-mouth recommendations or by personal experience. In this case, it was the latter. Our company gym started to offer run-classes. Not in the sense of “learn to run”, but rather “do staff that you normally wouldn’t do and which enhances your running”. After a couple of sessions, I was intrigued and asked the trainer if he offers one-on-one coaching for ambitious runners, too. Turns out he does. Meet Sebastian (Basti) Hallmann, former multiple German champion turned trail runner turned retired runner, and my coach for the past six years.

A lot has happened in those six years, personally, globally, and performance-wise. In a nutshell:

  • 2019: the buildup year. Get back into a solid running routine, building back endurance for …
  • 2020: … a comeback marathon in March 2020. Well, we all remember how that turned out. The March marathon got cancelled, but honey badger doesn't care, and I had a blast running fast times on the road without official races.
  • 2021: no races, a lot of mundane training, leading up to …
  • 2022: … another try to run a spring marathon, preparation going well until COVID-19 hits me for the first time. At least I get to run the Berlin Marathon later that year, my first official Marathon preparation under Sebastian’s guidance. And just to make it more interesting, I also run the London Marathon the very same year, or should I say, just seven days later? Cannot recommend, and my calves would nod heavily if they could nod.
  • 2023: Another spring health hiatus, followed by a decent fall Berlin Marathon. Nowhere near my times from 2018, but mentally and physically getting better and better, until …
  • 2024: … brings back some PRs. A fast 5k personal best on the roads of Düsseldorf and finally, after more than seven years in the making, a marathon personal best in October 2024.
  • 2025: A challenging winter marathon preparation (see above) with a well managed Tokyo marathon. It is amazing what the body can do once you have a couple of years of marathon training in the legs.

You’d think that’s not a lot to show for six years of training. And yet, I am very happy where I am, in particular as I’ve learned a couple of things, some the hard way:

  • Hills pay the bills, and Basti loves hills.
  • There are many ways to die on the hill in the Riemer Park, and I'm not sure if I've met them all yet.
  • There is life after a long-run (a.k.a. easy days easy).
  • You don’t need a lot of technology to be coached, a shared spreadsheet and good communication is enough.
  • Running next to a former pro can be very humbling.
  • At the same time, running next to a former pro can bring you to places (speed-wise) you’d never thought possible.

Last year around the same time, I congratulated coach Basti on our five-year anniversary, which lead to the following conversation:

AI generated image of a chat exchange

I got reminded of this exchange when listening to Episode 244 of The Morning Shakeout podcast a couple of weeks ago, where Mario Fraioli said: “Coaching at its core is relationship”. I have a very good relationship with my coach. And I have no doubt that I will be able to come back to really fast times once my foot injury is dealt with for good. The only thing I need is trust and patience.

While the exact history is not known anymore (sadly, we did manage to lose the low-key training spreadsheet once), I consider June 7th, 2019 the beginning of this training program and hence our anniversary. So, happy 6th-year anniversary, Basti, here's to the next comeback!