Episode 77

Episode 77 — open the full-size artworkShow artwork, February 2017

HostsMelissa Erbacher Scott Trickett

Roving reporterLyndell Murray

GuestsDave 'Robbo' Robertson Renee Russell

Show notes

The parkrun adventurers head to Qld for an adventure together this week, and Robbo is back for the final wrap up of the World Athletics Championships. Varsity Lakes Event Director Renee Russell pulls up a podcast chair, and Channel 5 News Crew reporter Lyndell Murray asks the hard-hitting questions at Wishart (opens in a new tab) parkrun’s anniversary.

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Guests

Roving reports

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:09

  Scott Trickett with Melissa Erbacher on the Sunshine Coast, recalling Renee's week as fill-in co-host. Scotty announces Medibank's Free and Active program, which will help launch 40 new parkruns, starting this Saturday at Brimbank Park in Melbourne with Sunrise crossing live. Both attended the first parkrun Australia conference on the Gold Coast, where Mel did Finish Token Support at Varsity Lakes and Scotty, without his watch and with two pacers who sailed off ahead, ran an all-time parkrun PB of 21:05, one second better than his old mark.

• World Athletics Championships wrap-up starts at 10:52Robbo

  Robbo returns for the final wrap of the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London: Sally Pearson's 100m hurdles gold and comeback, Hero the Hedgehog the mascot, Bosse's surprise 800m win, the Australian 5000m runners (Patrick Tiernan 11th, Madeline Hills, Eloise Wellings, Heidi See), Mo Farah's farewell silver, and the women's steeplechase runner who missed the first water jump. Closes with Robbo's own Sydney Marathon build-up.

• Meet the ED starts at 26:44

  Studio interview with Renee Russell, Event Director of Varsity Lakes parkrun on the Gold Coast, where the hosts had run and volunteered during the first parkrun Australia conference: course description around the lake, 80-120 runners a week, how she was thrust into the ED role in November 2014 when the previous ED left, having the visiting territory directors take over all volunteer roles so she could run, the family-heavy demographic, and her own parkrun touring (Singapore, Darwin, Palmerston, Stockton, St Peters, Albert Park).

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 35:44

  Lyndell Murray reports from Wishart parkrun's third anniversary, themed "the 80s jogger". No cake but free coffee, so she polls the field, costumes or coffee?, interviewing Bronwyn, Monique, Naho, Jeff and Event Director Adrian, all in fluoro, leotards and terry-towelling headbands. Costumes win decisively.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 47:28"Where is the cake?"

  Anniversaries this weekend at Callaghan and Hobart (themes unconfirmed but costumes expected), plus launches at Brimbank Park in Melbourne, the flagship for Medibank's Free and Active program, which will fund 40 new events, and Aldinga Beach in South Australia, started by the Christies Beach Event Directors.

• Sign-off starts at 48:41

  Mel called it another episode down, then said she had registered Adam for the 2K event the following weekend and was secretly making him a costume, and they talked up Streaky September and the freedom runs they had been challenged to do at events they had not yet done. They confirmed they were enjoying it and would be back next week, with Scotty pushing for 'August Madness', and Mel closed with 'see you later, parkrun adventurers'.

• Streaky September starts at 49:29

  Brief check-in on the Streaky September run-every-day challenge: listeners are already signing up, and the hosts have been challenged to include freedom runs at events they haven't done, which they suggest incorporating into the challenge. Both note they have two weeks to get ready.