Episode 16 - Pat Farmer

2016-04-19

In this episode

• Guest interview — Tom Williams on the Little Stoke parkrun charging dispute

  Mel sets up the news story (Stoke Gifford Parish Council voting 6-4 to charge Little Stoke parkrun for use of the park) and both hosts interview parkrun Global COO Tom Williams: how the dispute began six months earlier with a demand of a pound per runner, why accepting any land-use fee would break parkrun's model worldwide, the decision to cancel the event, what a UK parish council actually is, how listeners can help (#LoveLittleStoke, the change.org petition), and the 40% spike in UK registrations that followed the coverage.

• Interview with a parkrunner who has an interesting story (unnamed slot) — Pat Farmer

  Cued by Scott with the recurring formula 'From time to time on the podcast, we like to catch up with parkrunners around the world and around Australia, who have got an interesting story to tell.' Ultra-runner Pat Farmer talks about his 'Spirit of India' run — 80 km a day for 64 days from Kanyakumari to Kashmir raising funds for girls' education via the Nanhi Kali Foundation — plus hospitalisation from the humidity, how he picks causes, his pole-to-pole and Vietnam runs, polar bear encounters, and what he and his wife Tanya love about parkrun (home event St Peters).

• Roving Adventurers (roving reporter crossover) — Warwick parkrun

  Scott hands over to 'one of our roving adventurers, Peter Pohlman', who interviews Garry Wells ('Guru'), a founder of the 530 Runners club, at Warwick parkrun in Queensland — what 530 Runners is, how to join ('just ask'), whether they need a hand sign like the Zoolanders or Westerfoldians, and the Warwick Pentath-Run and its Friday-night freedom run.

• Around the social landscape

  Weekly social-media round-up: listener suggestions for parkrun adventurers merchandise (technical shirts and singlets, Ross Pentland's bottle openers on Twitter, Melissa Ellis's 'I'm a parkrun adventurer' singlet earned at a milestone, Scott's leg warmers), then Instagram — Stuart Marshall's just-married photo, Healthy Mum Healthy Family's BentLogic tag, and gems_21's two-year-old running the full 5 km — plus shout-outs to regulars Running Guy Ryan, Misspelt, _PK and Positiveism1.

• Launches and anniversaries ("Where is the cake?")

  Upcoming launch in the Clare Valley, South Australia (with the Naked Runners wine tangent and a callback to Robbo trailing it in an earlier episode), then the anniversary calendar: Ginninderra ACT turning four, Lilydale Lake Victoria two with a red theme, Rockingham WA three with a heroes-and-villains theme, and Stones Corner Queensland (Ian Hay's event) two with a fluoro theme, staffed by the whole Southbank parkrun event team.