Four years ago I wasn't a runner. Today I run long distances in the Alps, not fast, and I don't care about fast. I care about doing this for the rest of my life. And I can teach you to do the same.
A Finn in the Bavarian Alps who learned to run late, and found a whole life in it.
I'm 48. I live in Weilheim in Oberbayern, in southern Germany, minutes from some of the most beginner-friendly alpine terrain there is. Four years ago I wasn't a runner. I was 44, heavier than I wanted to be, and a five-kilometre parkrun felt a long way off.
In August 2022 I ran one anyway: slowly, in a park. That turned out to be the whole secret: I just kept turning up. More than 750 runs later, I've gone from that first parkrun to long-distance ultras in the mountains. Not every race ended at the finish line, and I'll tell you about that too. I'm not fast, and I've made my peace with that. What I care about is being able to run long, in the Alps, for the rest of my life.
Along the way I read everything I could find, cross-trained on the gravel bike, finished my first middle-distance triathlon, and learned (by getting plenty of it wrong) what actually keeps a late starter healthy and out the door. Here's how it went, one start line at a time.
My real scale and training data since 2017. Notice the years of nothing. Notice the plateau near 90 kg. The change followed the running, but not because running burns weight: because it changed everything around it.
Source: my own Garmin and scale exports, unedited. I'm not a talent. I'm a 48-year-old who started at 44, stayed uninjured, and kept showing up. That part is coachable.
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Four years ago, I'd have called this impossible.
I'm not coaching from a textbook. Everything on that timeline I did as a late-starting, not-naturally-gifted beginner, which is exactly who I coach.
Late start, not gifted, scared of getting hurt at first. I went from a first parkrun to long-distance ultras, so I know the doubts, because I had every one of them.
Years spent on the science of endurance, longevity and habit, and cutting through the supplement-industry hype. I'll tell you what matters and what to ignore.
I train in the Bavarian Alps and I'm an active member of the DAV Weilheim. Beautiful, beginner-friendly terrain on my doorstep, and a real community behind it.
If my path sounds like the one you'd like to walk, let's talk. The first conversation is free.
Apply to run with me