Fred Barbaro, 77, who is running the Melbourne Marathon on Sunday, took up running just eight years ago.
But soon after he finished his first marathon, the 2021 Melbourne Marathon at age 73, Barbaro was diagnosed with bowel cancer.
Fred Barbaro, 77, of Epping running his first Melbourne Marathon in 2021 at the finish in the MCG.
Running was so important to him that he returned to it three months after his operation to remove the cancer and has since run three more marathons, including the Boston Marathon in the US in April this year.
He says he now feels healthy and well.
Of running, he says “it’s just amazing. You get a kick out of it. They say it releases endorphins.
“During the marathon, you say to yourself, ‘I’m not going to do this again’, but then, after you finish, a week later you sign up for the next one.”
While “it gets a little bit painful at times, it takes a bit of recovery time”, he loves the camaraderie of running. “All the people I meet, though, all of them are younger than me.”
Barbaro, of Epping, said before he took up running aged 69, he hadn’t run much previously, “except in school”.
After retiring as a computer systems analyst in 2017 he was looking for “something to do” so he joined weekend Park Run events in Lalor and joined a running club.
His wife, Rose, two children and four grandchildren are cheering him on today.
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