Here at National Liquor News our entire purpose is to be a voice for independent liquor retailers. Our focus is to deliver breaking news, insights and all of the relevant tools to help liquor retailers to run successful stores.
But further to that, we are passionate about the people who run these stores, the men and women, young and old, who are the backbone of the industry. So when we heard about an incredible challenge that is about to be undertaken by one incredible liquor retailer – that was news that we had to share.
John Wilson is the owner of two award-winning Liquor Legends stores in Canberra, at Hawker and Charnwood. He has been in the liquor industry for the last 25 years, beginning at Liquorland in Sydney, he then moved to Brisbane where he began working with John Carmody at Liquor Legends.
From there, he decided to move back to his hometown of Canberra to open some stores of his own with wife, Shannon.
Over this time he has served as a board member for the former Liquor Stores Association of NSW and he was also one of the founding board members for Retail Drinks Australia, where he is still currently on the board.
So, his is a face that many of us would recognise. But what a lot of people might not know is that beginning on 29 June, Wilson will take on the Bravehearts 777 Marathon challenge where he’ll be running seven marathons over seven days – that’s an epic 295km he will be running.
“It was supposed to be one marathon in every state and territory around Australia over seven consecutive days, but with COVID-19 restrictions, I’m now doing it all in Canberra,” Wilson told National Liquor News.
“I’ll be running into Canberra everyday from the outskirt suburbs and I’m going to incorporate all of the avenues; so there’s Perth Avenue, Hobart Avenue, and Adelaide Avenue – all of the states basically. They’re all around Parliament House so I’ll incorporate a different one of those every day and I’ll finish up around the lake.
“I decided I was going to do this about 11 months ago and have had a running coach for about eight months. I’m taking it pretty seriously because I know that it’s going to hurt.”
As a part of the challenge, Wilson committed to raising $10,000 to help protect Australian children against sexual assault. He has already smashed that target and at time of writing, he had raised $11,440.
If you’d like to support John and make a donation, you can do so here.