Episode 143 - With Us Now
2018-12-20
— open the full-size artworkShow artwork, January 2018HostsMelissa Erbacher Scott Trickett
Roving reportersCaroline Southwell Steve Marston
GuestsDanny Norman Nicola Forwood
Show notes
The parkrun adventurers wrap up our third year of podcast fun, joined by parkrun podcast royalty Danny Norman and Nicola Forwood of With Me Now and The parkrun Show fame! Roving reports are here: Caroline Southwell visits Penrith Lakes (opens in a new tab) parkrun in NSW while Steve Marston pops by Portobello (opens in a new tab) parkrun in Scotland. And we sign off for 2019 with a gift from ourselves and the Channel 5 News Crew, made especially for you!
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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
Danny Norman
The hosts' self-declared "office Christmas party" with the only other parkrun podcasters. Danny is questioned on how With Me Now differs from The parkrun Show, the workload, editorial independence from parkrun HQ (the "egg gate" sponsorship controversy and an earlier complaint over a Sewerby parkrun comment), his 2018 highlights (Rutland Water, and being welcomed at podcast-engaged events), plans for 2019 including a possible live show, and, candidly, his ongoing struggle with severe depression and how the podcast helps him through it.
Nicola Forwood
Same "office Christmas party" block. Nicola covers her 2018 highlights, daughter Poppy's 50th parkrun and Poppy rediscovering her love of it at Cliff Castle, plus an emotional visit to Sizewell parkrun near her late father's home, and what has changed for her since The parkrun Show, including the death of her husband Ben, finding freedom again, and why she and Danny deliberately never parkrun in the same place.
Roving reports
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:17
Scott Trickett and Melissa Erbacher on the last episode of 2018, Scott insisting it is the Christmas episode (take two, or the sequel) while Mel points out they already had one, and Scott still cursing the mid-run break that threw the episode numbering out of whack. There is a summer break coming, so listeners get a chance to catch up and nobody misses ordering a Christmas singlet or voting in the Perlustration again.
Bad Christmas Jokes starts at 1:50
Annual end-of-year Christmas cracker/bonbon joke exchange between the two hosts, run in two rounds, first ("One of the best things about the Christmas episode, the sequel, is that we get to do our Christmas jokes"), then again. Scott calls it "the 2018 edition of Bad Christmas Jokes". Guests Danny and Nicola are pulled into it, and both TOC and PK end their Channel 5 messages with one, so it threads through the whole episode.
Year in review starts at 4:18host top-three highlights
Scott asks Mel to share her parkrun highlights of 2018 ("is look back on 2018 and I want to hear, just share some of your highlights from the year"), setting the listener meetup aside. Mel picks Margaret River parkrun in WA and her first international event, the inaugural Taman Pudu Ulu parkrun in Malaysia; Scott picks two weeks at Bright parkrun (where he run-directed on tour with Yvonne Okasha) and visiting The Ponds. The same top-three question is later put to both guests and.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 13:56
The roving-reporter crew's annual end-of-year contributions. Christmas messages from TOC and Melissa Ellis, then a longer thank-you message from Paul Kitching (PK), explicitly "not for a roving report, but for my Christmas message", thanking the hosts, parkrunners and his fellow roving reporters. The hosts thank the crew, noting there are seven of them, that Melissa Ellis joined the team this year, and that applications are open for new members.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 1:10:03
Two roving reports, both from reporters the hosts flag as "two new reporters". Caroline Southwell reports from Penrith Lakes parkrun in Western Sydney (event number 200), interviewing Run Director Sam about the event's three alternate courses and its strong deaf-community participation supported by Auslan interpreters. Steve Marston reports from Portobello parkrun in Edinburgh in near-freezing sleet, with his son Ethan. Mel thanks both.
Launches and anniversaries starts at 1:22:22"Where is the cake?"
Extended to cover the two-week Christmas break. No launches in December; the 5 January launch is Mansfield Botanic in Victoria, which Scott will attend. The only anniversary this week is Underwood Park in Brisbane (prompting Scott's hunt for a "U"); 5 January anniversaries are Lawson (NSW), Margaret River (WA), Quinns Rocks (WA), Rocks Riverside (Qld) and Tannum Sands (Qld). Segues into a shout-out to regular contributor Kelly Hodges, who has just had baby Charles with partner Christian.
Sign-off starts at 1:26:14
Mel said they had not thanked the Channel 5 News crew nearly enough for their contributions all year and deliberately did not read out the seven names for fear of forgetting one, and Scott said there were openings for applications, with a caveat, referring to the hoops Melissa Ellis had jumped through to join that year. Scott said he hoped everyone enjoyed their send-off for the year and Mel looked forward to chatting to everyone in 2019, wishing listeners a safe and merry festive season and enjoyable Christmas Day parkruns and New Year's Day doubles, adding that there was always parkrun next Saturday; Scott said they would be back next year with no definite date and joked that listeners should keep refreshing Facebook and their podcast app.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 1:28:02
The episode's promised "gift to our listeners", a group cover of Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" performed by the Channel 5 News Crew and hosts, running to the end of the episode, including a guitar solo. Teased by Scott ("it's going to finish with another gift to our listeners at the very end of the episode") and as the hoop the new crew members had to jump through.