Episode 161 - The Amazing Robbo
2019-06-20
— open the full-size artworkShow artwork, 20 February 2019HostsLyndell Murray Scott Trickett
Roving reporterMelissa Ellis
Show notes
Rounding out our trifecta of regulars, Robbo aka The Amazing Robbo returns to share his parkrun frustrations and we also look back the changing face of Newy (opens in a new tab) parkrun. Melissa Ellis adventurers to Point Cook (opens in a new tab) and we find out about Lyndell and Scotty's parkrun patient zeros.
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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
Dave 'Robbo' Robertson
The frustrations of the parkrun tourist - near-misses at Tokyo (from Yokohama), Montreal and Devonport where triathlon scheduling clashed with Saturday morning, and the Freedom Run consolation; a mapped-out imaginary Yamashita parkrun in Yokohama. Then the changing face of Newy parkrun over seven years: a steadily faster and more experienced field, children born into the event now running fast, booming 60-plus categories, and Gordon Wilson of Carrington, who took up parkrun after a skydive and may be one of the country's quickest 90-year-olds. Finally Lauren Parker's road to the Tokyo Paralympics - ranked third in the world, Commonwealth Games bronze, and a 5K racing-wheelchair leg now down around 12-13 minutes.
Roving reports
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:21
Scott Trickett with Lyndell Murray for a second week, reviewing the feedback on her debut. Lyndell ran New Farm with her friend Cherie after arriving late and missing the briefing, and was told by a local that he hated Bunyaville; Scott, under orders from his coach to do four weeks of easy running, took mate Barney to Rosebud, where Barney, fresh from surgery, sprinted the finish and came back limping, before a rare post-parkrun coffee with ED Nadine and visiting adventurers.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 26:56
Melissa Ellis files a self-contained report from Point Cook parkrun in Victoria, interviewing Run Director and fellow tourist Andrew Reynolds: the out-and-back course along a gravel reserve path with a deceptive gradual hill on the last kilometre, typical fields of around 120, the event's odd naming (it sits across the freeway from Point Cook and was originally Point Cook Truganina), and Andrew's tourism record - the most countries of any Australian-registered parkrunner at 11, built by tying parkruns to major sporting events (Zandvlei in Cape Town around the ball-tampering test, Australia v France in Kazan at the World Cup, South Africa v the Wallabies next), with eight events left to complete his Statesman and Nhill planned as the finale on a road trip to Adelaide.
Launches and anniversaries starts at 30:36"Where is the cake?"
One new event: Queen Elizabeth parkrun at Casino, New South Wales - noted as a rare Q for alphabet-challenge hunters, with the hosts joking that "Casino parkrun" would have been the more fun name. Anniversaries: Gladstone (Queensland), Hastings Foreshore (Victoria), Jells (Victoria), Mount Helena (Western Australia) and Port Augusta (South Australia). The Jells mention runs on into a discussion of the course, which Lyndell ran on a recent, very cold Melbourne visit.
Patient Zero starts at 33:34
A bit teased at the end of the previous episode: the hosts name their "patient zero", the person who first infected them with parkrun. Lyndell's is Tess Odsey, then a stranger marshalling at New Farm parkrun who told her about it mid-long-run and insisted she could still catch the field, and who is now a Run Director at Lyndell's home event, Bunyaville. Scott's came via a pre-Facebook running blog and message board: a Melbourne blogger named Emma promoting a friend's new parkrun at Albert Park - that friend being Carol Cunningham, now parkrun's head of volunteer management, who also started parkrun in Singapore and has so far declined Scott's invitations onto the podcast.
Sign-off starts at 38:41
Scott turned from the story of his own patient zero to wrapping up what he called their second episode together with Lyndell, nearly calling her Mel by mistake. He asked whether she was ready to come back next week; she said she could, and he said they needed to do things in at least threes, so she would be back for episode 162.