Episode 190 - Chasing Vert
2020-01-24
— open the full-size coverHostsLyndell Murray Melissa Erbacher
Roving reportersMatty Trent Melissa Ellis Tony O'Connell
Show notes
From the Facebook post
The parkrun adventurers are chasing vert as Lyndell Murray guest co-hosts Episode 190 of the pod!
For a taste of Aussie parkruns our adventurers pay visits to Mundy Regional (opens in a new tab) parkrun (pictured) and Cobram (opens in a new tab) parkrun this week, while the G-Train is back to deliver the final two instalments of his Canadian correspondence with tales from Victoria (opens in a new tab) parkrun, Kitchener and Eramosa River Trail (opens in a new tab) parkrun, Guelph!
Ain't no mountain high enough:
From the podcast feed
The parkrun adventurers have had some misadventures. Lyndell Murray is guest co-hosting this week and brings with her a new challenge. And our adventurers get roving at Mundy Regional (opens in a new tab) parkrun and Cobram (opens in a new tab) parkrun in Australia, while the G-Train delivers the final two instalments of his Canadian correspondence from Victoria (opens in a new tab) parkrun, Kitchener and Eramosa River Trail (opens in a new tab) parkrun.
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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 transcriptRoving reports
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:24
Lyndell Murray guest co-hosting with Melissa Erbacher. Mel missed parkrun in the wet with two sick boys and no rain cover for the double pram; Lyndell's plan to run to Zillmere's birthday for cake fell through when the grass course was cancelled after heavy Brisbane rain, so she did a long treadmill run instead, while Dave rerouted to New Farm, one of few Brisbane events still on among 20-plus Queensland cancellations. They chat about UK ice cancellations, including one listed as 'course infested by ice skating zombie penguins', and Phillip Island's fairy penguins.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 10:43
Neither host made it to parkrun, so Mel hands over to an unusually long block of roving reports, introducing them for once ("among those were a bunch of our roving reporters… we don't usually introduce them"). Five reports run back to back: Matty Trent from Mundy Regional parkrun in Perth (interviewing ED Geoff Hansen), Sarah from Cobram parkrun in Victoria (interviewing 100-milestone parkrunner Sue and Run Director Trish), TOC from Wallaby Track parkrun in Ballarat, Melissa Ellis from the Puckapunyal army base where she has been mobilised for bushfire relief, and the G-Train with two Canadian instalments. The hosts then recap each report in turn.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 19:22
TOC files a short Channel 5 News Crew bulletin from Wallaby Track parkrun in Ballarat ("Howdy parkrunners, TOC reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew"), pitching a 'macropod club' for parkruns named after macropods, Wallaby Track and Kangaroo Island, as a way to support the Kangaroo Island event. The crew is also a running joke this week: Mel judges that Matty Trent "is making a bit of a play for the Channel 5 News crew… Never signs off, Matty", while the G-Train has apparently declined membership in favour of the title 'special correspondent'.
The Compass Club starts at 42:20new tourist club
Prompted by TOC's macropod club idea and Matty Trent's report from the brutally hilly Mundy Regional, Lyndell proposes a new unofficial club for chasing elevation gain, the Vert Club. Rather than a fixed set of events, runners accrue total elevation across all their parkruns towards three badge levels: Kosciuszko (2,228 m, the Strzelecki badge), Everest base camp (5,380 m, the Sherpa badge) and Everest itself (8,848 m, the Hillary badge). Worked examples: 59 Bunyaville parkruns, about 47 Nambour, just over 42 Mundy Regional, or 1,114 Wynnum parkruns to Kosciuszko level. Mel adopts it on air ("Yeah, I reckon. Vert Club") and takes on a project to total her own climbing since 2012, with Lyndell to send the rules to Peter Pohlman for his unofficial-clubs spreadsheet.
Sign-off starts at 55:15
The host thanked Lyndell for joining her on the podcast, said it had been lovely to have a more lighthearted episode for a change of pace after the previous week, and thanked everyone who had got in touch with her about that earlier episode. She thanked Lyndell again for being another awesome co-host, and Lyndell thanked her for entertaining her crazy idea for a new club, the Vert Club, and for the wonderful podcast that is the parkrun adventurers.