John Walsh might not have been a public figure in the normal sense of the word, but everyone in the Maltese running community knew who he was.
His name was simply synonymous with running, and especially with the Malta Marathon. This low-key, friendly and very motivated man with his Scottish brogue, interspersed with the occasional Maltese word, helped to create one of Malta’s most successful athletic events. What started as a modest event in 1986 has now grown into an international spectacle which attracts runners from all over the world. Together with his friends and running buddies on the organising committee, they have put Malta on the map of those “crazy people” who travel the world running marathons.
More than that, however, John helped ordinary people to understand and appreciate the beauty and pure joy of running. Just to put things in perspective, in 1984, only 13 runners took part in the Mdina-Spinola race – and people who used to run were often jeered and mocked on the roads by bystanders who thought they were simply mad. Female runners had an especially difficult time in those days.
Today, it is a common sight to see both men and women training and running on our roads in an effort to keep fit and lose weight – it has become part of Maltese culture. There are countless people who took up running thanks to John, not only because of the races which he helped to organise, but because he was also an athletics coach and because of his newspaper articles in which he guided complete beginners to achieve their goals. Many a new runner, starting with a mere five minutes jog, ended up completing the half marathon and even the marathon held each year in February. In his articles John Walsh often described the feeling runners experience of achieving a natural high through the efforts of physical exertion, but he also wrote about the sheer satisfaction of setting a goal for yourself, and achieving it. Reading him, runners often found themselves nodding in agreement because John understood them perfectly.
In an appreciation which appears on the Malta marathon website, his long time friend and co-founder of the event, Joe Micallef, also points out that, apart from his huge input and organisational skills, John Walsh also used to design the medals each year. “Without knowing, hundreds of participants of the Malta Marathon, Malta Half Marathon, Walkathon and Mdina 2 Spinola events over the past years, have a piece of John somewhere in their homes.”
It is typical of John’s understated personality that few probably knew this.
While ordinary runners will mourn John as they bid him goodbye today at his funeral, it is undoubtedly his wife Carol Walsh who will feel his loss the most. He was not only her husband, but her coach, and the man who discovered her natural running talent, leading her to win the medals which made the whole country proud. Theirs was a unique partnership in every sense of the word.
As tributes, photos and words of praise continue to pour in on the Facebook page dedicated to his memory, it is clear that this quiet unassuming man touched the lives of many young people as well. As a teacher at MCAST, as a coach and as a motivator, he will be greatly missed.
While his death at such an early age was a shock, it is perhaps fitting that he passed away doing what he loved best.