Episode 137 - Dane Bird-Smith
2018-11-09
— open the full-size coverHostsMelissa Erbacher Scott Trickett
Roving reportersMelissa Ellis Tony O'Connell
GuestDane Bird-Smith
Show notes
From the Facebook post
The parkrun adventurers have Episode 137 in the bag, just in time for the weekend!
Leading the pack this week we have Aussie Olympian and Commonwealth Games athlete Dane Bird-Smith joining us to share the finer points of race-walking among other things. Plus more fab roving reports from two awesome events: Koonwarra (opens in a new tab) parkrun and Cohuna (opens in a new tab) parkrun!
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From the podcast feed
The parkrun adventurers recall the highs and lows of the past week with Scotty heading to a milestone event and Mel having a parkrun misadventure. Aussie Olympian and Commonwealth Games athlete Dane Bird-Smith stops by to give us the finer points of race walking. Roving Reports get filed from Koonwarra (opens in a new tab) and Cohuna (opens in a new tab) parkruns by Channel 5 News Crew members TOC and Melissa, plus we unleash a new segment for the outro, a spin on Top Threes!
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Enhanced transcript
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Read the transcriptGuest
Dane Bird-Smith
Race walking explained for parkrunners, the straight-knee/contact-phase technique and how it is judged, race walking a 5k in 18:46 at Mooloolaba parkrun, his 15:21 run at parkrun the previous weekend after almost no running since Rio, how he got into the sport at 16 via a school athletics meet (and his dual-Olympian father), why race walking is easier on the joints but brutal on the anterior tibialis, distances from 1500m to the Olympic 20k and 50k, raising the sport's profile after the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, and the 2019 Doha World Championships with its midnight 20k walk in 28-32 degree heat.
Roving reports
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:17
Scott Trickett doing the intro with Melissa Erbacher. Scott went back to Point Cook for its 250th event, where Event Director Craig wore his purple suit for the briefing and locals Maxine and Sean, celebrating their 200th runs, donated a mounted PB bell; Scott ran 4km then walked the last kilometre with daughter Kasia, who rolled her ankle at the Run for the Fireys the week before, and his mother-in-law again didn't make it. Mel flew to Hobart for what was meant to be her parkrun birthday, endured a rough windy landing, drove south to Geeveston through gale-force winds and rain only to find the event cancelled for safety (falling eucalypt branches), and did a freedom run of the course with Adam and three others, so no Compass Club credit.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 39:56
Two roving reports filed back to back. First, Melissa Ellis from Cohuna parkrun in northern Victoria during the Big Cohuna Festival weekend, she interviews Cheryl, a South-African-born Melbourne parkrun tourist completing her seventh 'C' for the Pirate Challenge (201 parkruns, 121 different events), then Amy, Cohuna's founding Event Director, on the event's approaching second anniversary, its 101 events, the Gunbower Creek course, and the town's festival weekend. Second, TOC from Koonwarra parkrun's first anniversary, interviewing Event Director Ebony on 163 finishers, a 90-per-week average in a town of 300, the K-themed dress-up day and TOC's own koala outfit.
Top Threes starts at 52:56
A brand-new outro segment launched in this episode after the hosts discuss what to replace the retired end-of-show bits with. Each host gives a top three of things to try at parkrun, and listeners are invited to send in their own. Scott: try an Athlete's Foot wear-test at parkrun, lead the warm-up at junior parkrun, and do a one-on-one parkrun with a kid. Mel: do a parkrun in fancy dress, run negative splits, and volunteer for the role that scares you most. A bonus challenge is issued for listeners to film themselves attempting race walking after the Dane Bird-Smith interview.
Launches and anniversaries starts at 1:09:25"Where is the cake?"
The weekly calendar, noted by Scott as having been bumped to the very end of the podcast by the new Top Threes segment. One launch: Victory Heights Trail parkrun in Queensland, 21 months in the making, with Mel attending and praising Event Director Jodie Fisher; the launch had been delayed after storm damage forced trail rebuilding. Anniversaries: Broken Hill, Diamond Creek (Victoria), Geographe Bay (WA), Launceston (Tasmania) and Nepean River (NSW).
Sign-off starts at 1:12:06
Scott declared that concluded another episode of the parkrun adventurers, saying they would love to continue for another 40 minutes but had run out of things to say and he had to go and pick up his daughter; they thanked each other and said they would speak next week.