John Duck carries with him a story that has withstood the test of time. Forty years ago, Duck – spurred on by the generosity of Trafalgar and carried by his talent and hard work – ran the London Marathon for the second time.
He completed the 42 km in two hours, 22 minutes and seven seconds. With this time he placed 78th out of a field of 18,469 starters. Two years earlier, in 1982 he had placed 50th, but with a slower time.
“That particular year [1984] was probably my best year, I ran four marathons,” he said.
He ran four marathons, all in two hours and 22 minutes or less in the space of the year. He ran a personal best of two hours and 19 minutes in 1983 at the Hamilton Marathon in New Zealand.
Leading up to the 1984 London Marathon, Duck had finished a brilliant third at the Melbourne Marathon in October, 1983. This terrific achievement was adorned by $1000 in prize money. However, the higher finishers had won overseas trips to compete in international marathons.
In learning this, local legend Arthur Davis went door-to-door to collect funds to send John on a trip of his own to a marathon of his choice.
“By the end of the week, he handed me a cheque for $3,000,” he said.
“It was a complete surprise to me, I had no idea he was doing it,” he said.
Davis himself had become locally renowned and even nationally known due to his involvement as a solicitor in a highly publicised legal case surrounding three police officers who had struck and killed three students in a car accident.
Thanks to the fundraising of David and the generosity of his town, John decided he wanted to run the London Marathon again.
“It was the highest prestige race in the world at the time outside the Olympics,” he said.
“That race there, was regarded as the marathon that still stands with the greatest depth… to run 2:22 and place 78th,” he said.
With his time of 2:22:07, he would have placed 25th in this year’s London Marathon.
John got involved in athletics at school in Melbourne. He started as a race walker before transitioning to long-distance running. He ran his first marathon at 17 and continued to improve through his 20s and into his early 30s.
He ran over 50 marathons in his career.
His racing took him all over the world, from Austria to England, and Malaysia to New Zealand. Along with the sense of achievement he felt and his love for racing, travelling became a great motivator for John.
However, his trips were often short-lived and solely focused on the marathon.
“The organisers would pay for maybe three or four days before, and once you finish, you’re out of there,” he said.
However, the generosity of the residents of Trafalgar helped John experience many parts of the United Kingdom outside of the London Marathon. He stayed for five weeks, much longer than his usual overseas trips.
He stayed with ten different families in the UK who he had corresponded with. He had put a letter in a British running magazine to express his interest in meeting fellow runners and got plenty of responses. He has even remained in contact with several of these families over the last 40 years.
John no longer runs – hampered by injuries and a recent shoulder injury – but he still walks around 140 km a week.
John remembers many of his races fondly. From running past iconic castles and ferris wheels in Vienna to the consistent string of top finishes he achieved in Penang.
“But London could be my favourite,” he said.
