Episode 216 - Zoom zoom

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HostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake

Roving reportersMelissa Ellis Steve Darby Tony O'Connell

Show notes

From the Facebook post

Happy New Year adventurers!

Episode 216 is here!

The parkrun adventurers zoom into 2021 with Mel Ellis and Olly Spake behind the wheel. We have roving reports from Mawson Lakes (opens in a new tab) and Jubilee Way (opens in a new tab) parkruns, and our New Zealand correspondent Steve Darby is back, checking in from Hobsonville Point (opens in a new tab). Plus, listen in for all the news on palm21!

From the podcast feed

The parkrun adventurers zoom into 2021 with Mel Ellis and Olly Spake behind the wheel. We have roving reports from Mawson Lakes (opens in a new tab) and Jubilee Way (opens in a new tab) parkruns, and our New Zealand correspondent Steve Darby is back, checking in from Hobsonville Point (opens in a new tab). Plus, listen in for all the news on palm 21!

Roving reports

1·2Mawson Lakes and Jubilee Way3Hobsonville Point

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:20

  Melissa Ellis and Ollie Spake, with chat about Ollie's aeroplane pose (dubbed the Zoom Zoom) and Mel's jump shot, plus a photo of them at Curl Curl from the 2019 longest run. Ollie run directed Shellharbour in pouring rain after no New Year's Day event there; Mel travelled to South Australia with six other adventurers including TOC and Jackie for New Year's Day at Mawson Lakes (event 159, 242 finishers), her 12th SA event, and ran her fastest 5k in a couple of months. Mel recalls being called in for the Victorian fire effort this day a year ago.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 7:56

  Melissa Ellis's own field recording from Mawson Lakes parkrun, South Australia, on New Year's Day 2021 (event 159, 242 parkrunners and parkwalkers). She interviews volunteer Timekeeper Michelle Dezago about the lakeside 'Z course', the event approaching its fourth birthday, council support, average numbers around 200, Michelle's start at nearby Lochiel Park, her trip to Bushy Park for its 15th birthday, and how the SA community coped through lockdown.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 17:37

  Tony O'Connell (TOC) reports from Jubilee Way parkrun, north of Adelaide, on 2 January 2021 - 'getting the J' on a South Australian tour. He records a scene-setter at the start line, then interviews Run Director Phil about the horseshoe out-and-back creek course, the cones marking a koala and baby koala in a tree, and returning numbers; and Co-Event Director Deb about the team's pre-run numbers sweepstake (170-190 guessed), the event's two-year history and its 100th event squeezed in before the COVID pause.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 23:22

  New Zealand correspondent Steve Darby checks in from Hobsonville Point parkrun, Auckland (event 62, 75 runners), interviewing Event Director Chantelle Clark about rebuilding numbers post-COVID, the former Air Force site and its cleared-out bomb shelters, the prospect of a Trans-Tasman bubble bringing Australian tourists across, and - a question sent over by Mel Ellis - the fairy houses in the trees on course.

• the Informant starts at 31:07

  Stats supplied by the show's anonymous 'informant': 10,207 parkrunners across Australia on New Year's Day 2021, down from 38,754 in 2020 (partly the end of the New Year's Day double); and on the Saturday, 254 Australian events (17 more than the previous week, a net figure blending NSW events returning against others stood down for the Sydney COVID outbreak) with 32,854 parkrunners, up roughly 11,000 on the previous week's 20,904. Prompts a discussion of parkrun globally ending the New Year's Day double.

• Statesmen update starts at 40:40

  Current statesmen/Territorians counts by state: Northern Territory 3 events / 466 people; ACT 9 events / 335; Tasmania 18 events / only 3; South Australia 35 events / 17; WA 40 events / 11; Queensland ('the greatest state') 86 events / 6; and none at all in New South Wales or Queensland's eastern-seaboard tally. Melissa Ellis notes she lost her own Victorian statesmanship - one event short after the bushfire season and the pause - and the hosts invite listeners who have dropped off to write in with their plans to win it back.

• palm21 announcement starts at 45:25

  The hosts announce dates and location for palm21: the weekend of 16-18 April 2021, on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. The specific host event cannot be named because 'the event may or may not exist yet'; the stated plan B is Nambour parkrun (with its celebrity, Fluffy). International visitors are warned they will likely have to join virtually given Australia's border restrictions. Ollie improvises a live drum roll for the reveal.

• Sign-off starts at 51:13

  Ollie said he could not quite ask Mel where she was parkrunning that weekend and asked for herparkrun plans instead: she is going hot air ballooning over Melbourne, a birthday present postponed by lockdown, and has put Ellis Palace parkrun to bed at week 40, though she might go and freedom run Toolern Creek with the small group that does it later in the day. Ollie will be run directing at Shellharbour again, welcoming back parkrunners after the Christmas and New Year period, and noted his own last actual parkrun was Mount Barker on the 7th of March 2020. They wished each other well until next week, Ollie signing off with 'happy ballooning'.