Episode 36 - Lucy Bartholomew

2016-09-14

In this episode

• parkrun news bulletin

  Scott opens with "we're going to hit you with some news straight off the bat"; Mel reads the weekly numbers (18,862 parkrunners at 173 locations, 2,448 new runners, 1,664 volunteers), then a news-desk-style run of items: Katie Kelly and Kurt Fearnley medalling at the "large quadrennial international sporting event" (a running euphemism for the Olympics/Paralympics), Lucy Bartholomew's Gobi Desert 70k win, Brendan Davies at the Great Whitsunday Trail, the St Peter's parkrun course revision (with Paul Wilcock's statement read in), and a weather item on 11 flood cancellations.

• Guest interview — Gareth Saunders (South Bank parkrun ED, five years with parkrun Australia)

  Phone-in guest interview: Gareth Saunders on starting New Farm parkrun (Australia's second event, 42 runners on day one), moving to South Bank, serving as National Operations Manager and then President of parkrun Australia, his recent PB, South Bank's Australian attendance record (998, "two people away from cracking four digits"), the Goodwill Bridge/Go Between Bridge course, and the discounted parking barcode.

• Main interview — Lucy Bartholomew (skyrunning)

  Scott introduces Lucy Bartholomew as a local Diamond Creek parkrunner calling from the UK. She covers her Salomon-sponsored European summers based in Chamonix, the Mont Blanc Marathon, the Skyrunning World Championships in the Pyrenees (10th), the Matterhorn Ultraks and the YCC, what qualifies as skyrunning (3,000m+ climbing, altitude), mandatory kit, starting with her dad at 15 (North Face 100 crewing, then a 100km on the Victorian coast at 16), and how a 5k parkrun at Southampton left her more sore than a seven-hour run.

• Social media round-up (Twitter / Strava club)

  Post-interview round-up of the show's social presence: Twitter response to last week's Tom Williams episode, the Strava club now at 216 members, George Alexandropoulos displacing Brendan Davies at the top with 21 runs and 335.6km in a week, and the 26.2km leaderboard threshold.

• Strava Art Competition

  Ongoing listener challenge with a week left to enter; Mel jokes about entering as well as judging. Weekly prize reveal continues — the fourth and final "option A" prize is announced as a parkrun polo shirt, with an option B alternative.

• Polo Wednesdays

  Scott announces "moving forward from this Wednesday is Polo Wednesdays" as the framing for the parkrun polo shirt prize, with Mel protesting that she avoids collars and ironing.

• The Perlustration (annual listener survey)

  Launch of the show's listener feedback survey on Facebook, described as "our now annual Perlustration" — ten quick questions. Running joke through the rest of the episode about the obscurity of the word, with Mel accusing Scott of looking up synonyms for "survey".

• Listener posts / Facebook feedback (the "Hicks Club")

  Mel reads Bathurst parkrun's share (calling the hosts "parkrun Australia Tragics") and Marie McDougall's post about Steve Hicks of Shepparton running a PB at his 100th parkrun, asking whether there is a club for PBs at milestones — prompting the hosts to float the "Hicks Club".

• Statesmen update

  Discussion of statesman status (running every event in a state): Michael Schultz's per-state event counts show Victoria at 37 and Tasmania at 3, with Queensland hardest at 63; the cost of reaching Weipa is flagged as the real barrier; Mel notes she loses NT statesman status when Palmerston launches.

• Facts in a Haystack

  Referenced only, not aired this week: Scott notes Melissa Ellis's question about how many events each state has "was a question for Facts in a Haystack", but the answer came from listener Michael Schultz on Facebook instead of from Ian Hay in-segment.

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

  Palmerston (NT) launching Saturday as the territory's second event, the You Yangs trail event on Melbourne's outskirts, another launch in New South Wales, New Farm's fifth anniversary in a purple theme, and Pakenham's second anniversary with an 80s theme (Scott attending — it is also his NENDY).

• The new word of the week

  Closing bit born out of the perlustration joke — Mel suggests Scott teach everyone a new word every week, and the episode signs off with "The new word of this week is perlustration."