Episode 19 - Facts in a Haystack
2016-05-11
— open the full-size artworkShow artwork, April 2016HostsMelissa Erbacher Scott Trickett
Roving reportersJeremy Savage Kelly Underwood Zara Curtis
GuestsIan Hay Tracey Cullen
Show notes
The parkrun adventurers discuss NENYDs, Riverway (opens in a new tab) parkrun Event Director Tracey Cullen pulls up a microphone to talk parkrun in Northern Qld, and our favourite segment ‘Facts in a Haystack’ takes an unexpected turn. Roving junior adventurer Zara Curtis reports in from Altona Beach (opens in a new tab), and WA adventurers Jeremy Savage and Kelly Underwood visit Balyang Sanctuary (opens in a new tab) parkrun.
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Enhanced transcript
Speakers named, sound described and segments marked by the editing pass — not yet checked by a person.
Read the transcriptGuests
Tracey Cullen
The episode's headline studio interview. Mel opens it "now we're headed back to North Queensland... we're joined now with Tracy [Tracey] Cullen, the Event Director at Riverway parkrun". Covers the broken toe she got running for the phone on Mother's Day and the resulting moon boot; volunteering more than she runs; founding Riverway as the first parkrun in North Queensland three years earlier after seeing a friend's weight loss on Facebook and running Ginninderra with her sister; negotiating a 7am start with Tim Oberg because of the Townsville heat; the Strand knock-back and why Riverway's site won (free pools, playground, showers, cafe); a notoriously confusing course that catches out fast tourists chasing first finishes; growth from ~60 to ~200 runners a week; and moving the finish line off the grass to be parallel with the path after feedback from Zach, their first wheelchair athlete.
Ian Hay
Brought on to deliver Facts in a Haystack, but his laptop will not boot so there are no stats. The hosts improvise an interview about his own event instead, Stones Corner parkrun's second birthday, breaking their attendance record by 100 to around 430, the 2.5km out-and-back course over a "blue stream" that is really a drain pipe, his limited adventuring (Wynnum, Minnippi, South Bank), and South Bank parkrun's crew covering every volunteer spot for the birthday.
Roving reports
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:07
Scott Trickett in Sydney for work and Melissa Erbacher elsewhere, both healthy again. Scott has mapped out freedom runs and coins the NENYD (nearest event not yet done): Mel's is Petrie, about 78 km away, which she is saving strategically; Scott's is Wyndham Vale or Pakenham. They note Colleen O'Shea at Fingal Bay becoming the oldest woman in the world to reach 100 parkruns, joining Norm from episode two in Aussie longevity.
Facts in a Haystack starts at 26:18
Scott hands over "it's time for my favourite segment on the podcast... Our favourite segment, Facts in a Haystack", but the segment collapses: Ian's laptop will not start up, so he has no stats at all ("they're on my laptop and they're looking fantastic. Unfortunately, the laptop's not starting up"). The hosts salvage it by interviewing him about his own event instead: Stones Corner parkrun's second birthday, an attendance record broken by 100 to about 430 runners, cake left over, the whole South Bank parkrun crew coming down to take every volunteer spot so the Stones Corner RDs could run together in tutus, and South Bank's own 998-strong anniversary. Matches the show notes: "our favourite segment 'Facts in a Haystack' takes an unexpected turn".
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 33:43
Two back-to-back field reports. First, junior adventurer Zara Curtis from Altona Beach parkrun's first birthday, interviewing a visitor called Wendy who is up to 14 different events, signing off "Next stop, Portland parkrun launch May 21st". Then WA correspondent Jeremy Savage from Balyang Sanctuary parkrun in Geelong, interviewing Event Director Dale (who completed his 100th run that morning, finishing 100th) and Mary from Ballarat, and grading the course "top 25 of what I would consider a perfect course". Scott coins a collective noun in between: "an avalanche of junior roving adventurers".
Social Adventurers starts at 38:33
Round-up of listener contributions on social media. Follow-on from the previous week's Red Shirt Challenge: on Facebook, Gary Nisbet and Melissa Ellis posted photos continuing it; TOC contributed from "the nation's capital" doing parkrun tourism, prompting Mel's joke "if you're listening, and we know you are, now's the time to run faster". On Instagram, listener "Mama of Hope" ran the London Marathon and then Paris parkrun while on holiday, finishing as first female in a field of about 20.
Launches and anniversaries starts at 40:22"Where is the cake?"
One Australian launch this week, The Entrance parkrun on the NSW central coast, with a warning that it is a 7am start, not the usual 8am. Cake: Curl Curl's third anniversary with a Caped Crusaders theme (prompting a small argument about whether a caped crusader is the same as a superhero), and Yarrabilba in Queensland celebrating its second anniversary with a $10 op-shop formal black tie theme.
Sign-off starts at 41:26
Scott said they had received lots of good suggestions for clever and witty sign-offs and that they had all gone in the think tank, which Mel noted was getting pretty big. He said they therefore had no witty sign-off this week, and would instead leave the episode with the review Jeremy and Kelly recorded of their adventure to Balyang Sanctuary parkrun.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 41:37
Second roving crossover, used as the outro in place of the usual witty sign-off (Scott: "We had lots of good suggestions for clever and witty sign-offs. They've all gone in the think tank... So we don't have a witty sign-off this week"). Jeremy Savage and Kelly Underwood file a practical venue review of Balyang Sanctuary parkrun in Geelong after their trip over for the Wings for Life World Run, parking and toilets at the start, the Barwon Edge Boathouse cafe 800m along the course (excellent French toast, opens 9am), the alternative cafe Two Sugars about a kilometre away, and caravan parks on Barrabool Road 1.4km from the start line.