Episode 219 - Lauren Reid
2021-01-29
— open the full-size coverHostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake
Roving reportersAlison Fraser (King) Mark Scarborough Melissa Ellis
GuestLauren Reid
Show notes
From the Facebook post
We are all about the achievements this week as we marvel at personal bests and world records happening all around the country.
Mark drops in from Coffs Harbour (opens in a new tab) parkrun, Alison posts her first roving report from Owairaka (opens in a new tab) parkrun and Mel shares all the flying fun from Lake Boga Foreshore (opens in a new tab) parkrun.
The Informant is back again, and if all that’s not enough to float your flying boat, we also chat to the woman of the moment Lauren Reid!
From the podcast feed
We are all about the achievements this week as we marvel at personal bests and world records happening all around the country. Mark drops in from Coffs Harbour (opens in a new tab) parkrun, Alison posts her first roving report from Owairaka (opens in a new tab) parkrun and Mel shares all the flying fun from Lake Boga. The Informant is back again, and if all that’s not enough to float your flying boat, we also chat to the woman of the moment Lauren Reid!
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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
Lauren Reid
Her new parkrun women's global (and Australian) record of 15:45 at Parramatta parkrun: how the attempt came together as a last-minute farewell run with her Delta Running Project and Manly training groups, being paced by Harry Summers, the heat on the day, backing up to win the Australia Day Invitational, her 800m/1500m focus toward the April nationals doubling as Olympic trials, her home parkrun at Curl Curl, Scottish parkrun memories at Cramond and Dunbar, and her imminent move from Sydney to Orange.
Roving reports
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:24
Melissa Ellis and Ollie Spake. Shellharbour farewelled outgoing Event Director Brendan with a print of the Killalea view; Mel road-tripped north with three friends to Lake Boga, a flat, fast lakeside course beside a museum for the WWII flying boat base, which completes her set of all 87 Victorian events, and then had another happy Sunday at her juniors event. Talk of a parkrun club for giant things (Swan Hill's Murray cod, Mark's big banana), then roving reports from Marvellous Mark at Coffs Harbour, from Lake Boga and from Alison at Owairaka.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 9:58
Mark's self-contained roving report from Coffs Harbour parkrun (NSW north coast), event number 144. He explicitly files it "for the Channel 5 News crew", gives the event stats, then interviews three people: holidaying couple Laurie and Therese from Queen Elizabeth parkrun at Casino, local regular Trent (who has lost roughly 35kg since starting parkrun and now tail walks), and today's Run Director Keelan, who describes the course and a year-long plan to extend it out to Muttonbird Island and turn it into a single-lap course.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 20:07
Two further roving reports back to back. Melissa Ellis reports from Victoria's brand-new Lake Boga parkrun on its second event (exactly 100 finishers, a 43-degree day forecast), interviewing Event Director Melissa and Run Director Tony, neither of whom has ever run a parkrun, and covering the Catalina Flying Boat Museum on the course. Alison then reports from Owairaka parkrun in Auckland, interviewing Wilson-index chaser Andrew Capel and nomadic New Zealand countrymen Nigel and Wendy. The hosts cross back at 00:27:40 to discuss all three reports and to ask listeners to coin a New Zealand equivalent of the "statesman" title.
the Informant starts at 53:37
The anonymous stats segment, opening with its standard disclaimer ("These are unofficial stats... with a 100% chance of an error from time to time") and closing with "my spreadsheet is bigger than yours". No event launches worldwide this week, so still 432 current events (32 New Zealand, 400 Australia including nine prison events); 435 events ran, 54,665 runners (up ~2,500 on last week's record), average attendance 135, 6,765 PBs, 3,211 first-timers, 263 fifty-milestones, 137 hundreds and 16 two-fifties. Cape Pembroke Lighthouse is excluded, and one event was cancelled for high fire danger. Trailed earlier at 00:06:59 when the hosts set it "homework" to count parkruns near Australia's Big Things.
Statesmen update starts at 55:13
Run inside the Informant's report: "It has been a huge week for New States people." Nine new ACT statesmen (Rachel Horton, Catherine Santacuso, Sharon Ringland, Nina Myers, Erin Daugherty, Nicole Gallimer, Charlotte Harper, Veronica Murtagh, Daniel Zhu); Noel Lockwood, Melanie Hardwick and Charlie Marrington in the NT; Michael Arnott, Chantelle Hosking, Rhianna Wick Gamble, Cheryl Smit, Melissa Ellis, Parth Bommakanti, Irene Bomakanti and Suzanne Arnott in Victoria; Paul Firth in WA; and Chris Fraser in NSW, who joins Emma Zammett and Amanda Hardy on concurrent statesman status across three states and territories. Followed by the most-events list: Neil Barnett leads on 291 unique events, Bruce Purdy is the biggest mover (up eight to 139th after his 81st different event at Warringal Parklands), and Tony Jennings moves to 14th on 134 after running Kelvin Grove. Note that co-host Melissa Ellis appears in her own show's Victorian statesmen list.
Sign-off starts at 1:04:37
Mel reflected that Australia's near-normal parkrun situation was surreal and that they had to keep reminding themselves friends overseas are still battling the virus, and Ollie thanked everyone listening in that situation, saying the freedom would come. They invited listeners to drop them a line with their parkrun orparkrun fun, then Mel asked if they were done for another week; Ollie agreed it had been another great week and thanked all the roving reporters, Lauren, and Mel, and Mel said they would see everyone next week.