Episode 44
2016-11-09
— open the full-size artworkShow artwork, November 2016HostsMelissa Erbacher Scott Trickett
GuestsBruce Fordyce Dave 'Robbo' Robertson Matt Raschke
Show notes
The parkrun adventurers explore the parkrun opportunities of South Africa, guided by parkrun South Africa Country Manager Bruce Fordyce. Dave ‘Robbo’ Robertson checks in to share his own recent SA adventures, and Matt Raschke joins us for Club Corner to chat about five30runners.
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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
Bruce Fordyce
The headline interview: how parkrun came to South Africa and how it grew. Bruce traces it from being paced by Paul Sinton-Hewitt at Comrades, to running Bushy Park before the 2011 London Marathon, to the first South African event at Delta Park, Johannesburg in November 2011 with 26 runners; then growth to ~88 events, half a million registrations and 28-30,000 runners a week, a deliberately slow launch rate of about two a month with the team present at every launch, big events (North Beach Durban, the world's biggest) versus tiny ones (Summerfields near Kruger, Springbok in the Northern Cape), the fact that roughly half of South African parkrunners walk, his overseas top three (Gdynia in Poland, Bushy, Mosman) and favourite South African courses, Century City in Cape Town which runs through a shopping centre, Voortrekker Monument, Root 44, Mofolo in Soweto, plus the hippos-and-lions stories and the South African fifth birthday plans.
Dave 'Robbo' Robertson
Robbo's own South African adventures: Green Point parkrun in Cape Town in pouring rain (600-700 runners, its 161st event, and a course he half-jokingly claims to have proposed on Twitter in 2012), Durbanville Hills parkrun at a wine estate, his first winery parkrun, where he took an Aussie first finish on the B course, and the Otter African Trail Run on the Garden Route, a 40-42km run on a five-day hiking trail with about 2,600m of elevation, finished in roughly 7:54 inside an eight-hour cut-off. Also whether South Africa is safe for Australian travellers, then a switch to the launch of Nitro Athletics in Melbourne with Usain Bolt, including Robbo's mission to get Bolt parkrun and barcode compliant.
Matt Raschke
Club Corner interview about the 5.30 runners club, the name means helping people run 5km in 30 minutes, not getting up at 5.30; founded around September 2012 at Newy parkrun by Dave 'Robbo' Robertson and Gary Wells to be more inclusive of back-of-pack runners and walkers; about 1,718 members, ~70% in the Hunter region around Newcastle with groups in Warwick, Brisbane and Geelong and members in California and the UK; the Facebook group, the red merchandise as an identifier, splinter groups or "tribes", and the Friday-night post asking where everyone is parkrunning tomorrow. Scott then goes off script for his top three parkruns: Nambour, Albert Park and Taree.
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:12
Scott Trickett with Melissa Erbacher on the Sunshine Coast. Scotty tries to coax a South African accent out of Mel (she says it came out more Irish) as a lead-in to a South African-themed episode.
parkrun news bulletin starts at 0:49
Scott hands to the news "before we do that, let's listen to some news", then he and Mel alternate items: parkrunners converging on New York for the marathon and doing a pre-marathon Central parkrun; volunteers at the Perth 2016 World Masters Athletics Championships; Nneka Okontar joining the Peel Club at Burley Griffin as only the 14th parkrunner in the world; Brendan Peel completing his 100th different event at the Karkarook launch to join the Cow Club; and the Westerfoldians taking the team title at Run for Fireys. Rolls straight into Scott and Mel's own weekend adventures.
Launches and anniversaries starts at 54:00"Where is the cake?"
Mel: "We've got one launch coming up this weekend, and it's another New South Walian event. We've got Nepean River launching on Saturday." Scott adds three anniversaries where cake may be found: Diamond Creek (third), Geographe Bay (second) and Launceston (fourth). Mel says she won't be at any of them as none are in Queensland.
Club Corner starts at 54:40
Scott hands over "Let's go interstate for Club Corner!" and introduces Matt Raschke of the 5.30 runners. Matt explains the club exists to help people run 5km in 30 minutes; that it began around September 2012 at Newy parkrun when Dave 'Robbo' Robertson and Gary Wells wanted something more inclusive for back-of-pack runners and walkers; and that it now has roughly 1,718 members, about 70% in the Hunter region around Newcastle plus groups in Warwick, Brisbane and Geelong and members in California and the UK. He covers the Facebook group, the merchandise as an identifier, the splinter groups or "tribes", and the Friday-night "where are we parkrunning tomorrow?" post. Scott then veers off script for his top three parkruns: Nambour, Albert Park and Taree, with Blackbutt (which he helped create) set aside as a home run.
Sign-off starts at 1:02:32
Scotty asked whether Club Corner was becoming Mel's favourite segment, and she said she loved learning about the clubs. They floated a parkrun adventurers tour bus with South Africa as its first destination, told listeners to start saving, and Scotty thanked Mel for joining him. After a detour into cricket and pink balls he set the week's homework of saving for the South Africa tour and learning about cricket, then prompted Mel to say goodbye.