Episode 199 - Bek Milne
2020-04-24
— open the full-size coverHostMelissa Erbacher
Guest co-hostScott Watkins
GuestBek Milne
Show notes
From the Facebook post
Plus Queanbeyan parkrunner and member of the Australian Defence Force, Bek Milne, joins us for a chat all about her passion for parkrun, volunteering, community, tradition, and the opportunities presented for honouring our servicemen and women this ANZAC Day.
From the podcast feed
The parkrun adventurers ‘test positive’ this week as guest co-host Scott Watkins returns with a new segment or two. Plus we speak to Queanbeyan parkrunner and member of the Australian Defence Force, Bek Milne, about a parkrun for Jerrabomberra, and what community and honouring our servicemen and women means on ANZAC Day.
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
Bek Milne
ANZAC Day 2020 under COVID-19 and what community and commemoration mean to serving members and veterans, the driveway dawn service, projected footage and lanterns, a virtual Girl Guides camp for the ANZAC badge, alongside her parkrun story: first event at Bibra Lake (WA) on Christmas Eve 2016 and four parkruns in her first seven days, moving to Canberra in 2019, why parkrun's predictability appeals to military people, recruiting colleagues, the Veteran Sports Australia club option, and her plans to start a (hilly, trail, out-and-back) parkrun at Jerrabomberra so her suburb can offer a "J".
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:24
Melissa Erbacher hosting with Scott Watkins back as guest co-host for his 2020 turn, with parkrun still paused. Mel explains the gap since episode 198: the pod is now ad hoc rather than weekly, and she skipped a week because she was not in the right frame of mind with everything going on in the world, adding that nobody can be upbeat all the time and that constant silver-lining talk can grate as much as the doom and gloom.
parkrun news bulletin starts at 5:00
Guest co-host Scott Watkins revives the show's old news segment with a roundup of what event teams are doing during the COVID-19 shutdown: Mount Barker (SA) hosting an Un-parkrun Day bingo video show each Saturday, Karkarook (Vic) still publishing weekly news reports, Chelsea Bicentennial (Vic) running an iSpy "who are you looking forward to seeing" activity, Newy (NSW) profiling the other events in its self-proclaimed Region of Runners, crosswords from Albert Melbourne (very hard) and Dubbo (more accessible), and on the Aussie tourism Facebook page a street-sign spelling challenge and a guess-the-course photo game. International news: parkrun has enabled custom text under "parkrun" on apricot event shirts, though international stock is limited so parkrun Australia hasn't promoted it heavily. Mel rates the delivery "a solid seven and a half out of 10", docking points for not using a nasal newsreader voice.
The Channel 5 News crew starts at 45:45
The roving slot with no actual roving report in it. Mel: "it's been a while between roving reports, and we don't technically have any because nobody's roving at the moment", with parkrun suspended there is nowhere to rove from. She fills the slot with listener audio received a few weeks earlier from Pippa in the UK, who checks in wearing her Ugly Christmas Singlet, having run 5K at Australian parkrun time and planning to run again at UK time, and looks forward to seeing people at the big parkrun quiz.
Testing Positive starts at 47:28
Brand-new segment devised by guest co-host Scott Watkins (pun on COVID testing, acknowledged on air, Mel: "Pun intended"). Hosts trade positive things happening in the parkrun community and in general: Scott's Zoom dinners and joint cooking nights using themed ingredient boxes from South Yarra restaurant Atlas (Israeli, Korean, Mexican, Peru next) cooked along to YouTube and Instagram Live; Mel's partner Adam taking up sourdough from scratch, naming his starter first Leonardo then Frank (short for Frankenstein's monster), and buying a Dutch oven and proofing baskets with no bread produced yet; Scott and Joanne being spared the hated job of sorting 600 tokens; small online parkrunner communities springing up on WhatsApp and Facebook to check in on each other; and scouting potential new courses on quieter tracks. Mel adds she has been progressing a new event through the prospect process from isolation. Both close by stressing nobody should feel pressure or obligation, and inviting listeners doing it tough to get in touch by email, Facebook or Instagram.
Sign-off starts at 1:02:51
Scott thanked Mel for having him back on the podcast, said it had been a pleasure and that he had enjoyed the interview and hearing what she was doing, and told everyone listening to keep taking care and enjoy their week until they were back again. Mel thanked him for coming along for the ride and said he could come back later in 2020; he joked that there was a queue, thanked the rest of the news crew for their contributions and reports of recent weeks, said he is always listening at one and a half times speed and was happy to have stepped up again. Mel closed with an inside tip that episode 200 would be a biggie.