In the last few months, veteran runner Alfred Debono has taken part in two overseas marathons to add to the list of races he has participated in since taking up running 20 years ago.

Now a member of the New York Road Runners Club, Debono completed the Budapest marathon on October 11 and, less than a month later, he ran the Athens Authentic Marathon.

Debono has been a regular in local and overseas marathons and half marathons for much of the past two decades.

Everything started on June 7, 1994 when Debono decided to accompany his wife for a walk around the village of Qormi.

In September, he ran his first 10km race in Ta’ Qali and that really marked the start of Debono’s athletics career as, in the following months, he continued to train seriously, losing 20 kilos in the process.

In his 20 years of running, Debono has competed in several prestigious races.

Apart from taking in 400 local races of varying distances, Debono has also completed the six major marathons worldwide, namely Japan, London, Boston, Berlin, Chicago and New York.

He has also run the world’s top 10 marathons – London, Berlin, New York, Chicago, Boston, Stockholm, Rotterdam, Paris, Honolulu and Amsterdam.

Until now, Debono has completed 40 half marathons (21.1km) and 30 full marathons (42.2km).

June 7, 2014 was a memorable day for Debono as he celebrated 20 years of athletics by running the Mourne Way Off Road Marathon in Ireland. He clocked 7:04:23

At the age of 65, Debono is looking forward to participating in more international marathons in the years to come.

In a statement, Debono thanked Tumas Group, Medcomms, Health Aid and his family for their support.