Welcome starts at 0:17
Scott Trickett and Mel Erbacher back after a week off, Mel now finished work and celebrating a wedding anniversary. Scott's fortnight: a PB at Bright on the annual boys' road trip in minus one degree with no gloves and no long pants, a freedom run at Euroa that came up 500 metres short, Westerfolds' alternate course starting and finishing at the manor on top of the hill, and a stressful new volunteer role as car park marshal alongside Yvonne and Kasia. Mel is volunteering at Kawana for the foreseeable future, co-run-directing with Kelly Hodges on her return from maternity leave with baby Charles and photographing from her favourite spot on the hill, having been laid up for a day after walking to Palmwoods' Time Warp Festival; Scott plans freedom runs when he is back on the Sunshine Coast in a month.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 13:17
The bulk of the episode, seven roving reports across two weeks, explicitly badged as Channel 5 News Crew work. Scott sets it up "we've been busy, and so have our Channel 5 News crew... we've got a bunch of roving reports". In order: Mark at Albert Park parkrun, Melbourne (Event Director Scott, Irish visitor Mary Murphy, US visitors, 260-time regular Vin); Lyndell Murray finishing her alphabet at Jells parkrun (Waverley Warriors footballers Sam and Mark, Run Director Mark); Mossy at Christies Beach parkrun, SA (Israeli visitor Tim, Event Director Miriam Williams); Tony O'Connell at the Grand Ridge Rail Trail parkrun launch, Mirboo North (ambassador Kate Luton, Jodie, co-ED Stacey); Melissa Ellis at the same launch (Michelle Taylor's 100th different event, plus an on-air correction of the event's name); Grette Wilkinson at the Shiraz Trail parkrun launch, McLaren Vale (Christina, first-timers Michelle and Louise, volunteers Mariana and Natasha, ED Alicia); and Lyndell Murray again at Glasshouse Mountains Conservation parkrun for May the 4th. Scott and Mel recap the lot.
Podcast deep dive starts at 14:06
A short named aside on other parkrun podcasts. Mel gives a shout-out to "surrogate mum Bev on With Me Now, who's done their first roving report" from Japan; Scott calls it "we'll do a quick podcast deep dive", praising With Me Now for dropping its 29-minute format cap and its interview with Tom Fordyce, and signs off "big love to the parkrun podcast world".
Launches and anniversaries starts at 1:07:00"Where is the cake?"
No launches this week, but Scott previews next week's Whitemark Wharf parkrun on Flinders Island, Tasmania, reachable only by ferry, which sparks a long riff about the near-miss chance of an X-named parkrun (the Xanthorrhoea garden at the start/finish, and the WA town of Xantippe). Mel then catches up last week's missed anniversaries (Applecross WA, Batemans Bay NSW, Cleveland Qld, Echuca Moama Vic, Nulkaba NSW, Parkville Vic, Queanbeyan NSW, Rhodes NSW) and Scott reads this week's (Altona Beach Vic, Curl Curl NSW, Lancefield Vic, Ocean View Qld, The Entrance NSW, Timboon Vic, Wildflower NSW, Yarrabilba Qld).
Sign-off starts at 1:12:22
Mel asked whether Scott had big plans for the weekend: he was going back to Berwick Springs, an event he had not visited in about five years and which launched a couple of weeks before Westerfolds, to celebrate a Medibank parkrun Hero, noting that as staff neither he nor Yvonne - nor Mel, even on maternity leave - could win the end-of-year trip to Bushy. Talk turned to Mel's leave and the baby being late by Wesley's clock, with Scott promising he was making plans so listeners would not miss another episode and that they would be back next week for 156 with or without her; Mel left it on that cliffhanger, saying it could be half about Lyndell next week.

Episode 155 - Oodles of Roving Reports

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Roving reports

In this episode

Welcome starts at 0:17

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 13:17

Podcast deep dive starts at 14:06

Launches and anniversaries starts at 1:07:00"Where is the cake?"

Sign-off starts at 1:12:22