Les Brookfield might be the last one over the finishing line most weeks but amongst parkrun enthusiasts he's a legend.
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On Saturday, April 27, the 94-year-old Dubbo local completed his 100th parkrun - a big milestone even for those many decades younger.
"When I go along people say 'you're a legend', especially when I started going back, and they said I'm an inspiration," Mr Brookfield told the Daily Liberal.
"Well, that's good in its own fashion, but I'm not doing it to be an inspiration. I do it because I want to do it. And I'm capable of doing it. And I'm willing to do it. And it's exercise.
"I didn't do it for the honour, I did it because I wanted to."
Mr Brookfield is the oldest member of the parkrun community in Dubbo.
He did his first parkrun in March 2018 when he was invited along by another resident at Horizon's Village. That year he finished 32 parkruns and, in 2019, he hardly missed a week, finishing 49 parkruns.
When the COVID-19 pandemic saw parkrun take a hiatus, Mr Brookfield didn't stop his regular walks. He said he would still take a five kilometre walk every morning.
"I used to get up and walk for about an hour, sometimes a bit longer if I stopped and spoke to a stranger on the road or to admire a building going up and chatted to the builders," he said.
Mr Brookfield says he has always been an outdoorsy sort and has always enjoyed walking. Growing up he walked almost five kilometres to and from school every day and he worked on his family's dairy farm.
He said these days he will try to walk wherever he can rather than jumping in a car.
"We have a men's shed down here, just 300 or 400 metres away, where we go for morning teas on Mondays and Fridays," he said.
"People next door or just around the corner drive in their car and I walk in and they say 'do you want a lift home', but I rather walk.
"It's not that far and we're not in a hurry to get there and not in a hurry to come. We've got all the time in the world."
355 people showed up to help Mr Brookfield mark his parkrun milestone, including a number of family and friends to "carry him if he got tired". A parkrun member also helped decorate his walker with a custom number plate for the occasion.
He said he was grateful for having so much support from the community.
"There's a lot of people I've met there and a lot more who've met me and I don't know who the hell they are," he joked.
With his 95th birthday soon approaching Mr Brookfield has no plan to stop any time soon.
"I'll see you again when I hit my next 100," he said.
