David Hughes Says Running Turned 12 Birthday Guests Into 120

David Hughes, a retired accountancy business owner from Forster on the New South Wales Mid North Coast, took up running at 62 after treatment for stage 3 melanoma. As reported in profiles published in July and August 2026, he has since completed seven marathons and ultra marathons and around 200 parkruns.¹²

His start was humbling. Weighing about 110 kg, he set out to run 100 meters and ended up on the ground gasping for breath, according to The Senior.¹ “I initially decided to do a crazy thing and run 100 meters,” he told NCA NewsWire.²

It was three or four months before he tried to go any farther than that.¹

A diagnosis, then a decision

Hughes was diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma in 2013 and was told he had an 80 per cent chance of the cancer coming back within five years.² He went through a long course of radiation therapy before he began running, and he remains cancer-free.¹

“It changed my life for the better … you don’t have to be the best, just the best you can be,” he told NewsWire of running.²

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He says the sport has made him fitter and happier, and he describes the results in numbers. By his own account, his VO2 max (a measure of how much oxygen the body can use during hard exercise) is in the top five per cent of runners his age, and his fitness age is 59.² That puts him, on paper at least, younger than the man who first lay gasping on the footpath.

The friends kept arriving

Running also changed his social life. Hughes says it widened his circle of friends, and his 70th birthday made the point.¹ “There was 120 people there, and had I not taken up running, there would have been 12,” he told The Senior.¹

That is a tenfold return, the kind of figure a retired accountant can appreciate.

He is not unusual on the start line, either. NewsWire reports that nearly 6000 finishers of the 2025 Sydney Marathon were aged 50 or over, about 18 per cent of the field, and that 249 runners were in their 70s.²

What his routine suggests for late starters

Hughes is describing what works for him, not a medical prescription. Still, his approach offers a few practical ideas.

• Start smaller than seems reasonable. His first goal was 100 meters, and he waited months before trying more. Over eight years he has since built up to four marathons and three 50 km ultra marathons, he told The Senior.¹
• Train the parts that keep you running. He does lower-body strength work twice a week for 45 minutes, plus pilates twice a week.² NewsWire points to a British Journal of Sports Medicine review that found strength training cut sports injuries by nearly a third and overuse injuries by almost half.²
• Take recovery seriously. He gets a remedial massage every fortnight, pays attention to nutrition, limits alcohol and makes time for rest.²
• Enjoy the process. “I really enjoy the actual journey, rather than reaching the destination,” he told The Senior.¹

What’s next

Hughes has more races on his list: the Real Insurance Harbour 10, a 10 km run in Sydney, and the 2027 Gold Coast Marathon. He also hopes to qualify for the Boston Marathon.¹