This month we feature Kel Walker, who decided to tick running a Marathon off his bucket list before turning 50. He swore he would never run another one but it seems he had already caught the running bug! Familiar story?!

Growing up, Kel was a sprinter but started running in the City2Surf 12 years ago. He ran his first Half-Marathon in 2014 but there was always "the big one" calling his name in the distance.

Kel's first Marathon was on the Gold Coast in 2015 and after finishing in 4:59:28 he got chatting to another runner while waiting to catch the flight back to Sydney. This enthusiastic fellow runner said to Kel "If you run a single Marathon, you're a bucket list runner. If you run two or more, you're a Marathoner!"

In 2016, Ex Police Officer Kel became a "Marathoner". He added another Gold Coast Marathon to his list of achievements before bringing home a PB at the Sydney Marathon.

Whenever we talk to runners and athletes like Kel we consistently hear about goals and it seems that setting big goals to strive towards is the one thing that all successful people have in common.

Kel's next big goal is to qualify for the New York Marathon in 2018 by getting his time down to 3:14:00. He says it's a big ask but he's brought on coach, Sean Williams, from Sweat Sydney and Melbourne Pack who's already helped him smash out PBs at 5k, 10k and 21k.

Kel now has an awesome instagram (@austgrizz_running) and says "The running community has helped inspire me to seek out these challenging goals and I in turn am hoping to inspire others to take on the challenge of endurance running."

We look forward to seeing photos of Kel at the New York Marathon! Dream Believe Achieve!

Would you like to be featured in our Athlete Spotlight?

Our mission is to help celebrate wins and inspire many more, by hanging medals properly.

Keep posting photos of your Medal Displays to our Facebook page or tag @MedalDisplays on Instagram for your chance to be featured and earn yourself a free Medal Display!

Plus, you never know who you might inspire!

We're super excited about this as we know that behind every collection of medals is an awesome story!