Episode 229 - King & Queen of the mountain

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HostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake

Roving reporterMark Scarborough

GuestsJen Arnold Stephen Jackson

Show notes

From the Facebook post

Olly and Mel are still buzzing from all of the Main Beach (opens in a new tab) 10th anniversary excitement

, with lots of cafe visitors sending their regards. Olly speaks to Bathurst (opens in a new tab) parkrun ED's Stephen and Jenn

about life before and after parkrun, Mark drops in from Geeveston (opens in a new tab), and The Informant is MIA

. Plus listen in for explanations on Weetbix parkrun, UooUoo's and Skywhalepapa's. Never a dull moment!

From the podcast feed

Olly and Mel are still buzzing from all of the Main Beach (opens in a new tab) 10th anniversary excitement, with lots of cafe visitors sending their regards. Olly speaks to Bathurst ED's Stephen and Jenn about life before and after parkrun, Mark drops in from Geeveston (opens in a new tab), and The Informant is MIA. Plus listen in for explanations on Weetbix parkrun, UooUoo's and Skywhalepapa's. Never a dull moment!

Guests

Roving reports

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:23

  Ollie Spake hosting with Melissa Ellis, 'one half of our Main Beach parkrun live on the scene crew'. Mel and Lyndell were on the ground for the 10th anniversary of Australia's first parkrun at Main Beach, over 500 finishers all masked, after a stressful week of Brisbane's snap lockdown and a cancelled flight; Ollie gave up his Shellharbour morning to co-host the live stream with Danny Norman of With Me Now, though he still dropped the gear off at first light, and congratulates Em on 200 volunteers. Mel plans Kirra next week and a later return for New Farm, listener Peter Pohlman explains the 'Weetbix parkrun' nickname for Avondale University College (the old Sanitarium factory site), and Ollie introduces his interview with Bathurst EDs Stephen and Jen.

• Meet the ED starts at 10:44

  Ollie interviews Jen Arnold and Stephen Jackson, the Event Directors of Bathurst parkrun, about how the event came about, life before and after parkrun, their triathlon and marathon backgrounds, their international parkrun tourism, and the Mount Panorama Punish race they founded.

• Dazza's starts at 45:49

  The listener cafe. Ollie and Mel read out around twenty listener posts from the parkrun Australia 10th anniversary weekend, including Jack Corkill (10th place at Main Beach on the 10th birthday), Bruce Purdy at Newborough, Jenny Reedman, Alison King, Penny Simpson, Neil Taylor (Skywhalepapa over Lake Burley Griffin), Chantelle Hosking at Queanbeyan, Chris Fraser, Caro Vos at Woy Woy, Mark Scarborough, TOC, Erica Liotta at Goondiwindi, Greg Garner, Val Warwick, Tracy Wood, Mandy Oliver, Rebecca Bailey, Lyndell Murray, Shannon Aspinall, Irene at Meningie, Cameron Drake, Josie Kidman, Dawn Branton, Adelina Trott, Lee Hargraves, Rio Montalaba Lambino and Ingrid Botha.

• The Oracle starts at 47:08

  A short mock-portentous, Yoda-cadenced interlude summoned by the hosts to explain a cryptic listener cafe post: Jenny Reedman was volunteering at Main Beach handing out tokens. Sign-off: "Knowledge is power. This has been the Oracle."

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 1:05:05

  Mark Scarborough reports from Geeveston parkrun at Heritage Park, Australia's southernmost event, in Tasmania. He interviews Nadine, a touring parkrunner from Rosebud on the Mornington Peninsula; Lee Evans of Kate Reed parkrun in Launceston; and Nina, the day's Run Director at Geeveston, who talks about bushfire and COVID setbacks and the resident platypus in the Kermandie River. Closes with a verdict from James of the "Channel 2 News crew".

• the Informant starts at 1:12:47

  The Informant is away for Easter and an unnamed "intern" persona delivers the weekly stats instead: 417 Down Under events and a post-COVID record 508 worldwide, 50,763 participants across Australia and New Zealand, 7,176 PBs, 2,459 first-timers, milestone counts, 16 people calling bingo (Ross DeBoer took 278 events, Danielle Stasinowski 169), ten new statespeople, Wilson Index movers and Carol Perez still the highest Wilson indexer on 173. Hosts respond that the Informant "did not use official channels to request leave" but that the intern was "less grumpy and less sassy".

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 1:18:17"Where is the cake?"

  Des Connor Park junior parkrun in Brisbane launched with 37 kids. Mel explains she was tempted to attend but the end of daylight saving in NSW would have meant a roughly 4am start. The wider anniversary content of the episode, parkrun Australia's and Main Beach parkrun's 10th anniversaries, plus Avondale University College parkrun's launch, is carried in the opening host chat rather than in a formal segment.

• Sign-off starts at 1:23:48

  Ollie said it had been a fantastic week and another great opportunity to hear about everyone's parkrun days, then asked Mel her plans for next week, recalling she had said she was off to Kira; Mel said she was working on her III. Ollie told her to enjoy her parkrun day when it came around, thanked her again for all her wonderful work at Main Beach and for joining the episode, thanked everyone else for joining, and wished them a good parkrun day.