Pat Farmer recently completed his long time goal to run all around Australia, finishing in Sydney on 1 January 2000. Farmer was first inspired to run when he saw Cliff Young in the first Sydney-Melbourne ultra marathon running past his workplace; he gave up his job to follow his goal to be the best ultra marathon runner in the world, setting himself body and mind numbing feats - two Trans-American races in which he finished second and fourth, twice across the Simpson Desert, Hong Kong and China, in the process raising several millions of dollars for various charities.
Farmer's world fell apart in 1998 with the sudden death of his wife Lisa, leaving him with two young children, but he's had the help of a close-knit family to enable him to continue running, and his most recent six month 14,500km Around Australia Run has been the culmination of his career.
This is a quintessentially Australian story of the western suburbs battler who refuses to impose limits on his abilities and achievements, and reaps the rewards of success driven by principles of dedication, diligence, patriotism and self-belief.
