Episode 211 - Waffle

Episode 211 — open the full-size artworkShow artwork, 20 February 2019

HostsLyndell Murray Melissa Erbacher

Roving reporterCameron Drake

Show notes

The parkrun adventurers have a short and sweet episode this week, with Lyndell Murray back to co-host. And fellow Channel 5 News Crew member Cameron Drake brings parkrun to the pod with a roving report from Tamworth Wetlands (opens in a new tab) parkrun!

From the podcast feed. No Facebook post text is recorded for this episode.

Roving reports

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:22

  Melissa Erbacher with Lyndell Murray. Mel counts the states and territories with parkrun back (Northern Territory, Tasmania, now Western Australia, with the ACT due the coming week), and Lyndell recounts finishing the Blackall 100 ultramarathon out of Mapleton on the Sunshine Coast, crewed by her husband Phil, running much of it in the dark, meeting friend of the podcast Erica at a checkpoint and receiving a wristband from the Noosa ultra trail runners reading 'only 20 parkruns today'. Mel says she misses volunteering at parkrun more than parkrun itself, while Lyndell has been volunteering as a triathlon technical official; they lead into a roving report from Cameron Drake, an Event Director in WA.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 13:13

  Cameron Drake ("Cam") files a self-contained roving report from Western Australia on the weekend parkrun returned to WA, the first WA events back after the COVID shutdown. He asks four parkrunners (Gerry, Claire, Bec and Kylie) what they missed most about parkrun, and closes by thanking parkrun Australia headquarters, the WA local councils and the event teams. He never states the event on air; Mel fills it in afterwards as Tamworth Wetlands parkrun (Baldivis, WA), noting it is not the first time Cam has left the location out.

• International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day starts at 17:44

  Extended chat about the show's annual International Ugly Christmas Singlet and Shirt Day, set for 19 December 2020. Mel notes sales "went gangbusters again this year", that participants do not need an official 2020 release shirt, and that a DIY make-your-own video is on the Facebook page; with parkrun still suspended in most of Australia she stresses you can run anywhere this year rather than at a parkrun. Lyndell, who refuses to acknowledge Christmas before December, admits the singlet order is her one annual concession.

• Sign-off starts at 33:48

  Mel said they should probably wrap it up, noting they had chatted about Christmas and television with only about 20 parkruns' worth of parkrun talk, and trailed that with so many events coming back online in Australia future episodes would return to Event Director interviews taking up the majority of the podcast. She thanked Lyndell for joining her and for the TV recommendations, teased her for being a bit grinchy about Christmas, and told anyone wanting to send Lyndell a birthday gift or card to get it in the post before the end of November.