Episode 109 - Sonia O'Sullivan
2018-04-25
— open the full-size coverHostsMelissa Erbacher Scott Trickett
Roving reportersPaul Kitching Tony O'Connell
GuestSonia O'Sullivan
Show notes
The parkrun adventurers experience history being made as the first junior parkrun Australia event launches on Aussie soil. Irish running legend Sonia O’Sullivan stops by for a chat about her middle-distance running and parkrun careers. Plus the Channel 5 News Crew are out and about in Victoria and South Australia this week with reports being filed by TOC and PK from Maribyrnong (opens in a new tab) and make way, make way, Moana (opens in a new tab)!
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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 transcriptGuest
Sonia O'Sullivan
Her parkrun history from the Bushy Park Time Trial in 2005 (when about 26 runners turned up), heading back to Ireland to run her 100th parkrun in Dublin as part of the VHI parkrun roadshow, Bere Island parkrun, her St Patrick's Day visit to Westerfolds and its potato medals, the 1994 purple patch and her still-standing 2000m world record, the Chinese doping era, how training and recovery have changed, her favourite distance (3000m), why she has no interest in ultras, and being "parkrun fit" as a 22-minute parkrunner.
Roving reports
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:16
Scott Trickett and Melissa Erbacher, both on a high after the launch of junior parkrun in Australia at Southport, where 202 juniors ran against Scott's guess of 74; Mel was on the scanner with a second scanner recruited from the Marshals, and both reflect on kids running free and unpaced. Scott got Mel's watch synced to its own app, but not yet to Strava. Mel missed Saturday parkrun because Wes was unwell; Scott walked Westerfolds with Kasia after failing to find a volunteer spot anywhere in Melbourne, then ran the Athletics Victoria cross-country relay.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 35:41
Two roving reports run back to back: TOC from Maribyrnong parkrun in Victoria (interviewing Richard, a German parkrun tourist, then Casey, a vision impaired runner, and Jess, her first-time guide, on guiding and the Achilles clubs), followed by PK from the Moana parkrun launch in South Australia (interviewing his mate Davo, blogger Jane Luke, joint ED Sam, first finisher Mike and umpire Isaac), complete with running Moana-the-movie gags. Named as the Channel 5 News Crew in the episode's own show notes rather than on air.
Launches and anniversaries starts at 57:50"Where is the cake?"
A record-breaking week: seven launches on one day across seven states/territories - Aplins Weir (QLD), Bellerive (TAS), Goolwa (SA), Kununurra (WA), Mount Ainslie (ACT), Ocean Grove (VIC) and Picton (NSW) - which the hosts believe has never been done in one country before, backed by Medibank and to be covered by a rolling "progressive launch" of Facebook Lives. Anniversaries at Ararat, Clare Valley, Emerald, "Laylaw", Lillydale Lake, Parkville, Rockingham and Stones Corner.
Sign-off starts at 1:07:28
Scott called an end to a riff about wanting Mel to find him a Dr Pepper breakfast bar in America and said let's wrap up the 109th episode of the parkrun adventurers podcast. Mel called it the last episode where the podcast would be an only child, with a sibling arriving by next week - the new UK show Free Weekly Timed - and Scott said he would speak to her next week in different time zones.