Episode 172 - Rohan Day
2019-09-05
— open the full-size artworkShow artwork, 20 February 2019HostsMelissa Erbacher Tony O'Connell
Roving reportersDavid Moss Grette Wilkinson Melissa Ellis
GuestRohan Day
Show notes
From the Facebook post
Anybody know what day it is? It's Rohan Day!
Join Channel 5 News Crew Member TOC and Mel this week as we speak to the Big Long Run's Run Director Rohan Day, then stay tuned for all the goodness of roving reports from Point Cook (opens in a new tab) parkrun and Mount Barker (opens in a new tab) parkrun in Australia, and Løvstien (opens in a new tab) parkrun in Norway!
Go here
now: http://parkrun.social/pa-pod
From the podcast feed
The parkrun adventurers get into the swing of #streakyseptember with Channel 5 News Crew member Tony O’Connell (AKA TOC) kicking back on the co-host couch with Mel. Run Director Rohan Day joins us for a chat about Big Long Run’s flagship events. Plus we have Roving Reports from Point Cook (opens in a new tab) and Mt Barker parkruns in Australia, and Lovstein parkrun in Norway!
Listen
Open on Podbean (opens in a new tab) Press any timestamp below to play from that moment.
Enhanced transcript
Speakers named, sound described and segments marked by the editing pass — not yet checked by a person.
Read the transcriptGuest
Rohan Day
Running Big Long Run's flagship trail events, the volunteer culture at Wonderland in the Grampians, the range of distances from 2 km to 63.5 km, the fringe activities other people bolt onto the weekend (the inflatable kids' course, the Run Nation film night, Matty Bell's karaoke), how the Two Bays Trail Run grew out of an unpermitted "fat ass" event and a $500 fine into a 1,390-finisher race, the Arthur's Seat climb, the accidental Alice in Wonderland costume tradition, and his own parkrun history at Chelsea Bicentennial, Inverloch, Karkarook and Phillip Island.
Roving reports
In this episode
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 0:22
TOC opens the episode with the Channel 5 News Crew framing, then immediately subverts it because he is in the studio rather than out roving: "it's Toc reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew. Today I'm at the launch of episode 172... Hey, hang on, Mel. What do you mean I'm at the launch?" Mel replies "You're not roving this week, Toc. You're on site. You're on the couch" and he calls it "a stationary report". Leads into banter about Scotty's departure and TOC's first roving report back in 2015 / episode 4.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 31:42
Three self-contained roving reports run back to back, followed by the studio recap "more awesome roving reports coming in this week from Melissa, Greta and Dave". Melissa Ellis from Point Cook parkrun (Victoria), interviewing new Run Director Nikki on a record 175-attendance "Where's Wally" theme day; Greta from her home event Mount Barker (South Australia), interviewing Fernando whose twin daughters Harriet and Phoebe completed their 100th parkrun, believed the youngest twins in the world to do so; and David Moss from Løvstein parkrun in Bergen, Norway, interviewing founder and Run Director Heidi about siting the course, the hills and the rain.
Launches and anniversaries starts at 47:04"Where is the cake?"
Two launches covered. First the previous week's unannounced "soft launch" of Harris Avenue parkrun in a Brisbane suburb, which drew about 340 people after the details were shared to the Aussie parkrun Tourism Group, Mel notes soft launches exist precisely to avoid the crowds a previous Brisbane launch attracted, and praises the event team for coping. Then this week's launch of Marina parkrun at [Geraldton], Western Australia.
The Compass Club starts at 48:47new tourist club
Prompted by the Marina launch, TOC points out it "may alter some of our clubs". Mel realises the new WA event will become the westernmost point of the Compass Club in Australia, wiping out her Margaret River claim, on top of already missing the southernmost after her "[Geeveston] malarkey", so she now needs return trips to both WA and Tasmania, the two furthest points from her.
Streaky September starts at 49:42
The month's flagship challenge, in its opening week. TOC reports his own streak ran Streaky September to Streak to Christmas to Streak to Easter and on into a full Streaky 365, about 4,500 km and six pairs of shoes. Mel recaps the challenge's origins ("it was mostly to get ourselves out of a bit of a rut"), notes the Facebook group has been renamed back to Streaky September, and reports a world first: a police-officer streaker who fitted a streak into a night shift and made a drug-bust arrest along the way, "Streaky September is fighting crime since 2019". A Streaky Bingoe card is promised for the week. Includes listener audio from Matthew Billington and his wife Sally on completing 365 straight days, and a shout-out to Pippa White and her daughter, who rode Pippa's shoulders dressed as a parrot for the Pirate Club.
Sign-off starts at 1:02:34
The hosts said where they were headed next parkrun day: TOC and Jackie were going to Torquay on the surf coast for their 99th different event, with Lorne later in the month a likely 100th and Studley saved as their nendy; Mel was headed to her nendy, the Glasshouse Mountains trail event, chasing a second perfect month. Mel then passed on the many lovely comments and messages that had come in thanking Scotty for his contribution, joked about a review that gave her half a star for her abrasive voice, and thanked TOC for a lot of fun on episode 172, telling him to come back any time.