Episode 145 - Singleton parkrun

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HostsMelissa Erbacher Scott Trickett

Roving reporterMark Scarborough

GuestKirrilee Robinson

Show notes

The parkrun adventurers take their Most Events List rivalry to the international arena. The Event Director interviews make a comeback with Singleton (opens in a new tab) parkrun’s Kirrilee Robinson joining us. And Mark Scarborough is back with another Roving Report, this time from Goulburn (opens in a new tab) parkrun.

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Guest

Roving reports

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:19

  Scott Trickett and Mel Erbacher, after Stranger Things chat and Scott's plans for the opening sequence of parkrun the movie. Mel was at Wishart parkrun, one of the few Brisbane events she had not done, waving at ED Adrian Royce (chasing Queensland statesmanship) but landing an event number 231 she already had on her Wilson Index and no bingo number; that took her to 72 events and reignited the most-events rivalry, which Scott, prompted by Danny Norman's podcast, insists must now count global events (Mel 74, Scott 73). Wes rates the park five out of five and the bagel was excellent; Scott stayed home at Westerfolds, now pushing 250-260 attendees with 250-run milestones, and says hello to listener Stephen.

• Meet the ED starts at 10:31

  The Event Director interview returns after being dropped for all of 2018, Scott: "In 2018, they disappeared, but we wanted to bring them back for 2019. So for the first time this year, we're going to catch up with one of our lovely Event Directors." Kirrilee Robinson of Singleton parkrun (NSW, Region of Runners) covers the out-and-back Rose Point Park course along the river, ~75-100 participants a week, a 70-something local who was helped to his 100th parkrun by the community, her own path from unfit non-runner in September 2014 to Event Director, the August 2014 launch and upcoming 250th event, her five different events so far and a goal of 20 this year, and what to see in Singleton (Infantry Museum, the largest sundial in the southern hemisphere at the parkrun venue itself, Hunter Valley wineries, Lake St Clair).

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 19:20

  Mark Scarborough reports from Goulburn parkrun's first birthday, an hour up the Hume from Canberra, "the first inland city in Australia" and home of the Big Merino. Opens with stats (102 average weekly participants, 37:20 average time, 1,181 total runners) and notes it is his eighth different event in a row. Interviews visiting parkrunners Shady (from Seattle, in town for the Goulburn Blues Festival) and Scott (from Wollongong), then both Event Directors: Mick on the first year, the 456-strong launch, the cowbell at the finish and 970 registered Goulburn parkrunners, and Ange on how the event began, her cousin at Lake Macquarie, a first parkrun at Bega, and ambassadors Gary and Denise Clark walking them through setup.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 29:31"Where is the cake?"

  No launches this week, but several anniversaries, Dalby and Kirra in Queensland (Plantation listed but likely to be cancelled because of the far north Queensland floods), and Darebin, Rosebud and Wyndham Vale in Victoria. Also flagged is the anniversary of Sirromet parkrun, whose ED Liv Kuepp was the very first Event Director the show ever interviewed back in episode 1, and which both hosts plan to visit together on the coming Saturday.

• Time Travel Flashback starts at 31:53

  Week two of a running series revisiting recent weekends. The hosts go back to 29 December 2018 (Scott at Gardeners Creek, where he is now event ambassador; Mel at Kelvin Grove for her 20th different event of the year, running into Lyndell and David Moss, and landing a 46-second stopwatch bingo she was not actually aiming for) and then New Year's Day 2019 (Scott doubling Rosebud and Hastings Foreshore on the Mornington Peninsula with Kasia; Mel doubling Pallara and Forest Lake in Brisbane in Ugly Christmas Singlets with her extended family, praising the volunteer teams that coped with 318 and 500 participants against normal weeks of 33 and 75).

• Sign-off starts at 49:15

  Scott closed off week two of the Flashback Time Travel series and trailed next week's instalment covering 5 January, then said that would wrap up the episode. He raised a Poem Zone entry from Eden at Roosevelt Island, which Mel denied having banned, bumped it because the outro had run long while promising the Poem Zone might yet return, thanked Eden for the entry, and thanked Mel for episode 145 before catching her next week for 146; Mel added that next week they would both know where they had parkrun together.

• Poem Zone starts at 49:37

  Scott tries to revive the segment for an entry sent in over Christmas by Eden at Roosevelt Island, and accuses Mel of having banned it ("Mel's banned it" / "I have not banned it"). The poem is bumped for time, "this has been a long outro in the end, so we're going to bump it. Who knows? The Poem Zone may still come back... Maybe." The entry is acknowledged on air but never read.