He might have just run 70 kilometres from Gympie nursing a crook foot, but veteran ultra-marathon runner and former Federal Liberal parliamentarian Pat Farmer was all smiles Sunday afternoon as he arrived to a warm Noosa welcome at the conclusion of day 106 of his 14,400-km round-Australia Run For The Voice.
The 61-year-old, who has previously set world records and raised awareness and funds for charities by running from the North Pole to the South Pole, the length of India, across America and across and around Australia, to name but a few of his conquests, was welcomed by members of Noosa For Yes, including former councillor Vivien Griffin, and Noosa MP Sandy Bolton.
Farewelled by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Hobart back in March, Pat will end his Voice run at Uluru in mid-October, just ahead of the referendum on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
Asked how he was bearing up, having run the equivalent of two marathons on many of his 100-plus days on the road, he told Noosa Today: “The foot’s a bit sore, but nothing I haven’t been through many times before. The important thing for me is that this isn’t Pat Farmer running around Australia again; it’s Pat Farmer running a campaign to inspire people to vote for this simple step towards a fairer society.”
Read the full interview with the remarkable Pat Farmer in next week’s Noosa Today.