Episode 35 - Tom Williams
2016-09-07
— open the full-size artworkShow artwork, July 2016HostsMelissa Erbacher Scott Trickett
GuestTom Williams
Show notes
The parkrun adventurers talk inspiration on out-and-backs and go loopy for laps. And we travel back in time and across the Northern Hemisphere to hear how the fun all started for parkrun Global Chief Operating Officer Tom Williams.
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Enhanced transcript
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Tom Williams
Tom the parkrunner rather than Tom the boss: separating the job from the Saturday experience, and the awkwardness of turning up at events unannounced; registering as parkrunner A6013 on 4 August 2007 after seeing Bushy Park Time Trial in Runner's World; founding Hyde Park Time Trial in Leeds (the fourth event and the first outside London) in October 2007 by writing it into the University of Leeds sport and exercise science course; his family's routine around Harrogate Juniors, where wife Helen is Event Director, and daughter Rosie telling the tail runner she was four so she could run at three; parkrun tourism, 72 different events, Crissy Field, South Africa, Canada, freedom runs in Sweden, and upcoming trips to Russia for International parkrun Day and Poland's fifth anniversary; the Yorkshire ten-in-a-day run that prefigured Australia's Longest Run, and why parkrun could not support such events formally; and Marathon Talk's origins and its links back into parkrun (Bruce Fordyce and parkrun South Africa, Ellie Greenwood and Canada, Ron Clarke and Australia). The hosts close by asking him back for a second part.
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:11
Scott Trickett with co-host Mel Erbacher, neither with a PB after the personal-best Saturday. Scott managed only a 500-metre warm-up before a windy run at Jells, now his equal second favourite, and has been converted by Matt Ratchke to the mental game of two-lap courses; Mel ran Kawana's out-and-back without walking, with husband Adam volunteering, and finished alongside a young parkrunner, Jack, and the family greyhound Nellie, who tends to give up before the line. She is three minutes off a PB with six runs to her 100th, and Scott sets a goal of getting there.
Strava Art Competition starts at 43:48
Scott: "We are now three weeks into our Strava Art Competition. The entries are flowing in, flooding in." The hosts run through the prize options, Option P (mystery prize of undisclosed value) versus Option A, and Mel reveals the third Option A prize: two signed DVDs, one each from the hosts' top-10 favourite movies. Entrants must be members of the parkrun adventurers Strava Club; the hosts tease the undisclosed judging criteria, noting ovals "may or might not win" and that they are increasingly impressed by large street-map drawings.
Social Adventurers starts at 46:14
Instagram, Facebook and Twitter round-up. Instagram: _PK's Medibank "personal better" post with a dad joke; the "cheetah sisters" invading Curl Curl parkrun; Simon P. King at parkrun's only Asian event; Mama of Hope completing all volunteer roles; ERC certificates for The Ponds parkrun. Facebook: Jen Pollard at Balyang and the Hoka One One series at Anglesea; Caro Vos becoming a WA volunteer statesman at Dawesville; Bree's hiccup remedy; Sue Devlin's Rhodes parkrun sunrise video featuring Michelle Bridges; Mark Caldercourt driving 800-odd km to Portland to become a Victorian statesman; Kirsten Ellis topping the Strava leaderboard. Twitter: Tom Williams' tweet about the recording just done, Ross Pentland on hillier/harder courses, and a 1984 Sunsuper Run vintage photo in Dunlop KT26s.
Launches and anniversaries starts at 55:25"Where is the cake?"
Mel: "So where's the cake this week, Scotty? Do we have any launches happening?" No launches for a few weeks, but three anniversaries: Bega (NSW) first anniversary with a sport theme; Inverloch (Victoria) second anniversary with an under-the-sea theme; Wynnum (Queensland) fourth anniversary with an anything-goes theme.
Sign-off starts at 56:27
Scotty said that took them to the end of another parkrun adventurers podcast and told listeners to look out on Facebook later in the week for a survey asking whether they preferred laps or out-and-backs, among other questions, joking that anyone listening three months later had missed the best survey. Mel disagreed, closing with the line that the best time to plant a tree was yesterday and the second best time is now.