Episode 3 - Ian Hay

Episode 3 — open the full-size artworkShow artwork, 3 January 2016

HostsMelissa Erbacher Scott Trickett

Roving reporterMelissa Flentjar

GuestsIan Hay Matt Briggs

Show notes

The parkrun adventurers turn eyes to the skies as we chat about the Southern Cross Circuit and what it takes to be a ‘Stargazer’. Roving reporters Silpa and Mel get the inside word on volunteering at St Peters (opens in a new tab) and Point Cook (opens in a new tab) parkruns. We have our first taste of FUN parkrun stats in our new segment with Ian Hay, and interview Churchill (opens in a new tab) parkrun’s Co-Event Director Matt Briggs ahead of the weekend’s launch.

From the podcast feed. No Facebook post text is recorded for this episode.

Guests

Roving reports

1St Peters2Point Cook

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:08

  Scott Trickett and Melissa Erbacher: Mel ran a saturated, gale-blown Kawana; Scott held the Studley trial run on Sunday with 54 runners, having arrived to find a pop-up rave on course and the turnaround flag later souvenired and dumped on the riverbank, launch is about a month away. Mel explains the Southern Cross Circuit 'stargazers' (Gatton, Warwick, Toowoomba, Pittsworth, Stanthorpe, Highfields, with Roma as the pointer star), devised by Sonja and Peter Pohlman with former Warwick ED Linda Coombes; she has done Stanthorpe and Roma and praises Roma's riverside bush course. Scott names tiny Highlands as Melbourne's friendliest.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 8:37

  First outing of the show's roving-reporter crossover slot, and the hosts are still settling on what to call it, Scott muses "Maybe they can be our roving adventurers" before crossing over "This week, though, we had our rovering [roving] adventurers where the party's at." Contains two self-contained field reports: Silpa from St Peters parkrun's fourth-birthday neon-themed event (interviewing Volunteer Coordinator Bernie and parkrunner Sharon), and Mel from Point Cook parkrun's second anniversary Hawaiian-themed event (interviewing volunteer Christine Willems and touring parkrunner Kaz Derby). Melissa wraps it.

• Facts in a Haystack starts at 14:54

  The literal on-air birth of the show's stats segment. Scott opens "a segment I like to call Fun Facts with Ian"; Melissa counters that it isn't "quite cool enough" and floats "haywire" from an earlier chat with Ian, then raises Scott's own suggestion "facts in a haystack". Ian Hay refuses to pick a favourite, they run the stats, and the name is settled at the end of the segment, "So we're going to join you once a month for a segment called?" / "I think we should call it Facts in a Haystack." Stats covered: ~335,000 km run in Australia since 1 January (about 9.5 laps of Australia, against 7 laps at the same point the previous year); the most common parkrunner first names (David for men; Sarah and Michelle neck-and-neck for women); 106 Scotts against about 80 Mels/Melissas among that weekend's runners; ~22,000 runners producing 3,300 first names of which 2,000 were unique; and the largest registered running clubs that weekend, Running Mums Australia (340), Derek Zoolander Centre for Kids Who Can't Run Good (232) and 530 Runners (third).

• Meet the ED starts at 23:06

  Studio interview with Matt Briggs, Co-Event Director (with Heather Farley) of Churchill parkrun in Victoria's Gippsland, ahead of its launch that weekend. He explains the event grew out of his own tourism to Inverloch parkrun, where Territory Director Tony O'Connell is based, and a suggestion from Bob and Ruth Dolges; describes Churchill as an almost entirely trail course with challenging hills, 16 km from Traralgon; talks about photography as his favourite volunteer role and how uploaded photos keep the community connected all week; recounts losing weight from 140 kg to 110 kg over nearly two years through parkrun; and names his Gippsland top three as Inverloch, Sale and Pakenham. He jokes about having "threw down the gauntlet" over launch attendance and hopes Tony O'Connell brings backup finish tokens.

• Social Adventurers starts at 30:38

  First outing of the social-media round-up. Scott opens "Time to take a look at our social adventurers. We're blowing up all over social media, Instagram especially." Melissa's pick is Simon's Instagram post about his parkrun adventure at Merimbula, which they decline to read out on air to protect the podcast's iTunes rating; Scott's picks from the fancy-dress callout are a pirate outfit at Highlands and a man in a purple wig dressed as the Queen, photographed by Cathy Ray at Newy's birthday; Melissa's is Heather's sumo suit at Tamworth, which leads into a running gag about Melissa's overflowing costume room. Listeners are pointed at the hashtag parkrunadventures.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 33:33"Where is the cake?"

  Melissa opens with "And where is the cake this weekend?" Churchill parkrun launches in Victoria (no cake expected at a launch), and Bibra Lake parkrun in Western Australia celebrates its first anniversary with an orange theme, which the hosts speculate about at length. They also flag Australia Day parkruns across the country, and preview next week's guest, Robbo, of the Region of Runners and the parkrun Show Australia podcast, ahead of The Terrace parkrun's launch on 30 January.

• Sign-off starts at 34:26

  Mel noted Australia Day parkruns were happening at many events across the country that weekend and trailed a special guest for next week; Scott said it would be great to have Robbo on, to reminisce about the parkrun Show Australia podcast and to talk about the upcoming Terrace parkrun launch on 30 January. Scott then called it for their third episode with a joke about calling anyone whose name you forget Dave, and Mel added "or Sarah, if it's a girl" and looked forward to chatting next week.