Episode 52
2017-01-18
— open the full-size artworkShow artwork, November 2016HostsMelissa Erbacher Scott Trickett
GuestsRos Heit Vic Pisano
Show notes
The parkrun adventurers head inland and cross-country for some adventures this week. We catch up with Wondai (opens in a new tab) parkrun Co-Event Director Ros Heit to chat parkruns in rural country towns, and we speak to Vic Pisano from RunGroup about the app he has created to help runners connect.
Listen
Open on Podbean (opens in a new tab) Press any timestamp below to play from that moment.
Enhanced transcript
Speakers named, sound described and segments marked by the editing pass — not yet checked by a person.
Read the transcriptGuests
Ros Heit
The launch of Wondai parkrun, parkrun Australia's event number 203, in a small South Burnett country town, 129 people at the launch, roughly half locals and half travelling parkrun tourists. Ros tells how her 2015 breast cancer diagnosis and treatment led her to start Couch to 5K in June 2016, how a Brisbane friend introduced her to parkrun, and how her role as a local government councillor plus a new council rail trail and Department of Communities drought-support funding brought the event together. Also covers getting to Wondai (three hours northwest of Brisbane), inland heat and low humidity, and her seven parkrun tourism outings before her own event launched.
Vic Pisano
The RunGroup app, a free iOS/Android app for finding, joining and creating local running groups by pace, distance and timetable. Vic explains the origin (his running partner had to give up running after being told he faced an ankle fusion), the travel use case, organic uptake in India and South Africa, how parkrun communities could use it for midweek runs between Saturdays, and his own first parkrun at Torrens.
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:09
Episode 52 with Mel in Queensland and Scott in Victoria, their first ever morning recording. Mel was at the Wondai launch, where Gary Nisbet recruited four newcomers at his hotel on the Friday night and got them barcodes, the town's accommodation sold out with people staying in Kingaroy and Murgon, and Mel walked the course with tail runner Debbie, who knew everyone she didn't; Event Director Ros is interviewed later in the show. Scott had met Gary and Schultzy at Westerfolds on New Year's Day, complete with the box of Maltesers, and Mel confesses an autocorrect mishap in a message to Ros.
parkrun news bulletin starts at 4:44
Scott hands over "how about we go to some parkrun news?" Mel reads global attendance (178,649 parkrunners, 14,098 volunteers, UK cancellations from ice), then the pair run through non-parkrun Australian events of the weekend: the Cadbury Marathon (Tasmania), the Two Bays Trail Run (Dromana to Cape Schanck, Victoria), the Undies Run for Bowel Cancer (Adelaide) and Sandman 2 (Margaret River, WA). Rolls straight into Scott's own account of running Two Bays.
Launches and anniversaries starts at 39:28"Where is the cake?"
Opened with the cake formula "Well, there was a lot of cake at Sirromet last week. Where will you find cake this week?" New launches: Port Fairy (Victoria) and Lithgow (NSW), with a digression on whether Port Fairy has fairy penguins. Anniversaries: Pioneer (WA, third, deferred from last week due to council works), Point Cook (Victoria, third) and St Peters (fifth), with a note that Paul Wilcock is parkrun Australia's longest-serving ED at five years and the guest who has knocked back the podcast most often.
Sign-off starts at 43:58
Scott called time because Mel literally had to leave for her paid job, joked that everyone stops what they are doing to listen to the podcast, and told listeners to carry on with their lives; they promised to be back next week and Mel closed with 'try and have an adventure in the meantime'.