Episode 195 - Deri Thomas
2020-02-28
— open the full-size coverHostMelissa Erbacher
Guest co-hostMark Scarborough
GuestDeri Thomas
Show notes
From the Facebook post
Happy leap year parkrunday eve adventurers! So much fun to be had this weekend and we are celebrating in anticipation with the release of Episode 195 of the pod!
The Channel 5 News Crew's own Mark Scarborough returns to guest co-host. And with the highly anticipated launch of parkrun in the Netherlands happening tomorrow, we are super pleased to share with you our chat with the lovely Deri Thomas, parkrun’s Territory Manager for Europe.
Let's get Netherlandic:
From the podcast feed
The parkrun adventurers focus on family influencing our parkrun experiences as Mark Scarborough returns to guest co-host this week. And with the launch of parkrun in the Netherlands looming we catch up with Deri Thomas, parkrun’s Territory Manager for Europe, to discuss all things parkrun Netherlands, Sweden and his own parkrun adventures.
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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
Deri Thomas
The launch of parkrun in the Netherlands on 29 February 2020, why the Netherlands was chosen over Spain out of nearly 500 European expressions of interest, why six events launched simultaneously rather than one, permissions and landowner relations, Dutch cycling culture and its course-safety implications, expected turnouts, and the likely rollout into smaller Dutch towns. Also his own parkrun story: first parkrun at Cardiff in 2008, having moved to Sweden in 2005, contacting HQ in 2015 to start parkrun in Sweden, being Co-Event Director at his Stockholm home event, saving his 50th, and a six-parkrun Australian/Singapore tour (Nambour, Victory Heights, Ballina, Rhodes and Parramatta on New Year's Day, East Coast Park).
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:23
Melissa Erbacher with Mark Scarborough for about his third turn behind the mic. Mel's household was laid low by a bug so she missed parkrun; Mark returned to his old home event Gungahlin, running the lap of Yerrabi Pond and pacing his son James to a Gungahlin PB, and talked about running with his kids, Elise's return from injury and the family ticking off parkrun challenges. They wonder how the next generation will treat parkrun, and Mel introduces an interview about the new parkrun country launching this weekend.
parkrun adventure challenge starts at 49:01listener challenge
Mel revives the listener challenge after a long absence: "I think it's been a long time between adventures, as in challenges that we've thrown out to our adventurers. Perhaps this could be an appropriate time to bring it back and we should challenge everyone to organise, even if it's just one this year, organise a takeover at an event someplace with a group of other adventurers and tell them we sent you." Prompted by Mark describing a Gungahlin/[Wagyu] Bridge takeover of Braidwood parkrun's volunteer roster so the Braidwood core team can run their own event.
Sign-off starts at 50:18
Mel thanked Mark for joining her on the pod again and asked whether they would have the pleasure of his presence at palm20; he said no, because that weekend is his family's annual camping trip to the bushfire-affected south coast, where he would do Batemans Bay parkrun, and he wished them fun with the dress-up night and the freedom runs. Mel said missing palm20 to support another community was a good reason, then closed the week: the pod would take a break the following week while travel and organisation for a live recording were sorted, and she would spend a couple of days in the Barossa first, so listeners should be hungry for the next episode, recorded live from Mount Barker parkrun. She signed off with "happy adventures".