Olympians, celebrities take to city’s streets for major running event
Fred Barbaro, 77, who ran the Melbourne Marathon on Sunday, started running just eight years ago.
But shortly after completing his first marathon, the 2021 Melbourne Marathon, at the age of 73, Barbaro was diagnosed with bowel cancer.
Fred Barbaro, 77, from Epping, is running his first Melbourne Marathon in 2021 at the MCG finish.
Running was so important to him that he returned to running three months after his cancer removal operation and has since run three more marathons, including the Boston Marathon in the US in April this year.
He says he feels healthy and good now.
“It’s really great,” he says of running. “You enjoy it. They say it releases endorphins.”
“During the marathon, you say to yourself, ‘I’m not doing this again,’ but a week after you finish, you sign up for the next marathon.”
“Although it can be a little painful at times, it requires some recovery time,” but he loves the camaraderie of running. “But the people I meet are all younger than me.”
Barbaro, from Epping, said he didn’t run much “outside of school” before he started running at the age of 69.
After retiring as a computer systems analyst in 2017, he joined weekend Park Run events and a running club in Lalor because he was looking for “something to do”.
His wife Rose, two children and four grandchildren applaud him today.
