Ararat’s Kit Bastin will celebrate a personal milestone of 200 Parkruns in February.
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Mr Bastin competed in numerous Parkruns around Melbourne before he made the move to country Victoria about 12 months ago.
Since the move, the 66-year-old has embraced his newfound tree change lifestyle.
“It’s strange to say but one of the criteria was the place I chose to move to had to have a Parkrun,” he said.
“I came up to Ararat a few times and bought a house up here.
“The Parkrun people included me from the beginning and it was like joining an instant community.”
Mr Bastin said other runners within the group were particularly helpful with connecting him to people within the area.
“Because of the many Parkruns I participated in the past I knew what the atmosphere would be like and the diversity among the members,” he said.
“I found the members to be helpful when I was needing to contact various kinds of tradies while renovating my house.
“You find the same kind of culture within Parkrun no matter where you are.”
Being a runner all his life, Mr Bastin joined Parkruns when they started popping up throughout Melbourne.
“I’ve run since 1965 – at least three times a week. I used to run with clubs but then couldn’t really find anything that suited around me,” he said.
“It was only really when Parkrun surfaced that I got back into running with other people.
“Everyone is very respectful of everyone's abilities, commitments and level of fitness.”
Mr Bastin said when he felt he was getting slower against his personal best times, a good way to measure his performance was around percentages.
“As I slow down, a big part of my running is to make sure I can still come the following week,” he said.
“It takes a lot of discipline sometimes to hold back a sprint at the end when you are neck-and-neck with say a 10-year-old.
“I focus now on staying within a certain percentage of my age groups times registered.”
Sitting on 198 runs, Mr Bastin said at this stage nothing should stop him reaching the 200 run milestone.
“We won't put a time on it but it should happen to schedule,” he said.
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