Episode 217 - The Informant
2021-01-15
— open the full-size coverHostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake
Roving reporterMark Scarborough
GuestTracey Donald
Show notes
There's excitement in the air this week as Victoria joins the rest of the country in restarting events. We hear from Toolern Creek ED Tracey Donald and Mark reports in from Riverbank (opens in a new tab) parkrun. Plus, The Informant makes his debut! parkrun Vic is coming...
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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
Tracey Donald
A short field interview recorded at the Toolern Creek course five days before parkrun resumes in Victoria: Tracey is out walking the course checking for issues, describes a construction detour and "a big hole" that will be managed with cones and marshals ahead of a new bridge over the creek, explains the chalk message she left at the start line to alert the many new residents in the area that parkrun is coming back, and reports a full volunteer roster for the relaunch weekend.
Roving reports
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:00
Melissa Ellis (singing that parkrun Vic is coming back in five days, on the 16th) and Ollie Spake, described as the Shellharbour ED who hasn't run a parkrun since 7 March. Ollie again skipped his undiscovered-local-parkrun homework and volunteered at Shellharbour, where numbers were up and over-sanitised barcodes went fuzzy; Mel did aparkrun on the Toolern Creek course, brunched with regulars and recorded a short interview with Toolern Creek ED Tracey Donald. Ollie is to remind Mel to bring her budgies in off the deck at the end.
Statesmen update starts at 16:50
Follow-up to the previous week's statesmanship discussion. Oliver Spake reads a listener message from Aaron Hardy, who confirms COVID wrecked everyone's statesmanship plans and who has now become the New South Wales statesman after visiting an event that had run only three times last year. The hosts invite the other statesmen to report in on "regaining your crown". The Informant's segment later in the episode extends the same theme with new ACT, Northern Territory and (self-declared) New Zealand statesman lists.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 18:57
Roving report from Mark Scarborough at Riverbank parkrun in Yass, NSW, event number 19, and their first event back after bushfires, river flooding and COVID. He explains the Aboriginal derivation of the name Yass ("yar", running water), then interviews visiting tourist Anita from Ginninderra parkrun (Canberra) about the course and her top three parkruns, and Event Director Amanda about the 101-runner relaunch turnout and the two-lap course. Back in the studio Melissa Ellis dubs him "Marvellous Mark" for recording with a proper microphone plugged into his phone, and notes his "top three parkruns" question is a throwback to the Scott and Mel era.
the Informant starts at 26:49
Debut of a new anonymous stats segment ("Plus, The Informant makes his debut!" per the show notes). Oliver Spake first reads a potted, deliberately vague background on the mystery contributor, casual parkrunner 2013, routine 2014, tourist late 2015, obsessed with lists and numbers 2016, "certifiable lunatic status" 2017, green shirt, 100+ locations, three foreign holidays planned purely for parkrun, three years living in Auckland. The Informant's own recorded block then delivers unofficial stats: 430 events down under (32 New Zealand, 389 public Australian, 9 active prison events); 257 events run in Australia and New Zealand this week plus 25 from Japan, Russia and Cape Pembroke in the Falklands; 29,536 runners at an average of 115 per event, 1,636 first timers, 152 fifty-milestones, 74 hundreds, 14 two-fifties. He then declares the North and South Islands to be "states" and congratulates new statesmen: Peter Thomson, Gordon Calcino, Stephen Miners and Jay Trevena (ACT); Claire Marie O'Brien, Matt Costello, Imogen Ryan, Emily Jane Taylor and Christine Hurren (Northern Territory); Linda Doty (all North Island events, at Waikato); Hayden Johnson (all South Island events, at Wanaka); and Aaron Hardy as the only current New South Wales statesman. Sign-off: "my spreadsheet is bigger than yours." The hosts afterwards relay his two questions for New Zealand listeners (are there prison events? are there retired events?) and invite listeners to request fact-checks in the comments on the episode's Facebook post.
Sign-off starts at 53:27
Mel said she would promptly go and rescue her budgies from the back deck and that was it for another week, and Ollie thanked her. She added one more thing - 'parkrun Vic is coming, parkrun Vic is coming' - and Ollie said it was not very far away.