“You do one run and then you’re looking for the next challenge. It sort of snowballs,” Kemp said.

The Glenormiston dairy farmer says it was wife Louise who initially got him into running. 

“We started walking.  I had put on a bit of weight and wanted to do something to improve my fitness,” he said.

“I was a smoker for 29 years and gave that up three years ago.

“I just found it (walking) wasn’t really enough for me so I started running and it just built from there.

“To start off with I would run two kilometres and would have to walk, but I’ve just gradually built it up.”

On January 5 he will tackle his first Surf ‘T’ Surf 10-kilometre run.

“I wanted to do it last year, but I thought you could just enter on the day which isn’t the case, so I ended up doing the three-kilometre lap of the lake,” he said.

Since then Kemp has tackled the Noorat to Terang Fun Run, the Melbourne Marathon 10-kilometre run, two half marathons and a 15-kilometre run in Bendigo.

Each Sunday he and Louise run from their home in Glenormiston North to Terang, around Mount Noorat on the way.

Kemp said he tried to run at least four times a week, be it four kilometres or 16, as well as four sessions at the Terang gym.

“Louise runs every day.  I do it when I can. We are pretty busy with silage and hay at the moment, so I’m probably only out a couple of times a week,” he said.

“It’s a good social thing as well. We all go out together. Three of the four kids and Louise will run in the Surf ‘T’ Surf as well.”

He plans to familiarise himself with the course.

“The plan is to do it at the same time of day as the event, when the weather conditions will be similar,” he said.

“The hills are going to be the tough bit. If you go in prepared though they are a bit easier.

“We do a fair bit of training on hills which hopefully will help.”