John Shaw has finally become the elite runner, I believe, he was meant to be!
I caught up with John on the eve of the 2018 Goldcoast marathon that we were both running the following day. Be sure to listen to the interesting post race chat at the end of the podcast.
His early life reads like many lives do, tough childhood, a father that struggled with family life, and young John left to roam free and develop his curiosity with nature and allowed or left to enjoy freedom and the ability to build his engine from running wild up Mount Wellington in Tasmania, Australia.
Before he could even contemplate a running career, he was married, 3 kids and working in a bank. The bank held him, constrained him, controlled his destiny for another 20 years. Finally he broke free and made plans to buy and run his own business.
This was the start, the start to a CHANGE, a new life, where he suddenly started thinking for and about himself, in the world of self employment. I believe this was the start of Johns journey to become the person he was meant to be, this change, this desire to break free.
However, he again succumbed to the chains of routine and before he knew it, he was stuck in the grind of earning an income, gaining weight and becoming a “couch potato”.
At the ripe old age of 59, he decided that things had to change again. This time he wanted to get fit , lose weight and start running. He did this one step at a time on his treadmill. setting a goal to walk or run 1000kms. He said to himself, each 50kms walked would lose him 1kg of weight, this was his mantra.
A couch to 5km program was his next step, then the park run program and then finally he hired a coach to help him plan an assault on the marathon.
At age 64 John ran a 2:45 marathon, completing his journey form couch potato to elite runner. He became the athlete he was always meant to be…………finally.
We talk about all this , as well as his passion for running, loving the “flip flop” of other runners around him and ultimately loving rubbing shoulders with the kenyans, the Boston marathon winner and Australias own marathon legend Jessica Trengrove.
He has a world record, masters records and Australian records. He also deals with a recent failure at the 2018 Goldcoast marathon and joins me for a post race chat, further enhancing my respect for this amazing athelete.
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