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John Bannon was more than just a premier, he was a tenacious runner, clocking up 28 Adelaide marathons between 1979 and 2006, say members of the South Australian Road Runners Club.
Peter Slagter ran the inaugural Gawler to Adelaide marathon with Dr Bannon in 1979 and the two turned portion of the so-known as Spectacular Seven, a team of men competing to run the most Adelaide marathons consecutively.
“Back again in 2005, him and I and another chap ended up the very last three left standing who had done all the marathons and the calendar year soon after it was only John and the other man,” Mr Slagter stated.
“John tried to do that a single following a major medical procedures that he experienced, some four weeks following the key surgical procedure and Angela, his wife, and I were standing on the facet strains considering ‘John, what the heck are you performing?’
“That just demonstrates you the tenacity of the male. Sadly he only lasted 5 ks but he desired to be the last man standing to have accomplished all the Adelaide marathons.”
The South Australian Street Runners Club has compensated tribute to Dr Bannon on social media, expressing he retains the equivalent very best regular working time in excess of 25 Adelaide marathons of a few hrs and seven minutes.
His very best time was in 1983, when he ran a marathon in two hours and forty four minutes.
“Most of us runners consider and try to do a a few-hour marathon and he has done most of people 28 under 3 hours so as an athlete he was fairly very good. I don’t know how he discovered the time to do it,” Mr Slagter explained.
He stated that when Dr Bannon strike the highway, he was just like any other runner.
“The attractiveness about this managing sport is it really is a hell of a leveller,” he mentioned.
“You could be working well in this situation, politicians or the dustman next door or any person, and John was one of individuals men who did not want to be up there.
“He was just a standard man and you could speak to him on any amount.”
His aged working mate recalled a single instance of this currently being his option of operating attire.
“His dress feeling when it came to operating was always a funny point because him and his black shorts, it was usually a topic of discussion at the coffee store afterwards simply because John never ever wore the up-market place Nike fashion shorts and this kind of factor,” mentioned Mr Slagter.
Dr Bannon was a existence member of the South Australian Road Runners Club, and Mr Slagter mentioned he would be sorely missed in the operating local community.
“We missed him in the very last seven years, since of his ailment he was not working. I’m confident I can speak on behalf of the running fraternity that we are going to skip him even more now.”
Matters: government-and-politics, states-and-territories, dying, community-and-culture, sa, adelaide-5000
