Episode 230 - Stepping up

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HostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake

Roving reportersMark Scarborough Melissa Ellis

Show notes

From the Facebook post

This week see’s Mark

dialling in from Our Park (opens in a new tab) parkrun while Mel was chasing four legged 🐕‍🐩 parkrunners at Kirra (opens in a new tab) parkrun. Meanwhile, the parkrun adventurers are counting down (

) the days until The parkrun adventurers podcast listener meetup

by sharing all the vibes at Dazza’s café.

But all is not quite as zen at adventurer HQ with a touch of tension between The Informant and his Intern.

From the podcast feed

This week see’s Mark dialling in from Our Park (opens in a new tab) parkrun while Mel was chasing four legged parkrunners at Kirra (opens in a new tab). Meanwhile, the parkrun adventurers are counting down the days until palm21 by sharing all the vibes at Dazza’s café. But all is not quite as zen at adventurer HQ with a touch of tension between the Informant and his Intern.

Roving reports

1Our Park2Kirra

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:22

  Ollie Spake hosting with Melissa Ellis on holiday on the northern New South Wales coast. Mel knocked off Kirra parkrun, where Zoe sat the run out so they could dash to the airport to collect Paul, and Mel chased two sausage dogs whose owner Natalie she recorded; she also researched the painted koala statues at the turnaround, left over from a Currumbin Wildlife Hospital art trail. The pair want listener ideas for an Australian-themed challenge for Dano when England's parkruns restart, and Ollie's eldest, Hannah, took her first turn as Run Director at Shellharbour before roving reports from Mark and James in Tassie.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 11:05

  Mark Scarborough files a self-contained roving block from Our Park parkrun at Orford, Tasmania, collecting an "O" for the alphabet. He interviews visiting parkrunner Tony from Mackay, Queensland (in Tasmania visiting his wife's mother in Hobart), then Event Director Kendall on the event's 23rd running, its COVID-delayed launch, its double out-and-back trail course past the beach looking out to Maria Island, and its steady stream of interstate tourists. Closes with a verdict from Channel 2 News crew reporter James: "It had lots of scenery and it's very rough, but I still loved it."

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 15:58

  Melissa Ellis's own recorded field report from Kirra parkrun on the Gold Coast, made while on holiday. She had not planned to record because Kirra has been profiled before, but chased down Natalie and her two sausage dogs, Harry and Duke, "dogs of sausage", who walked rather than ran the course. Natalie's home parkrun is New Farm in Brisbane; she was at Kirra supporting a friend's 200th.

• Dazza's starts at 18:13

  The weekly cafe shout-outs, described by the hosts as "jam-packed" again. Contributors read out include Tracy Wood (49th at Kedron), Erica Leota (E at Emerald, becoming an alphabeteer), Mandy Oliver (Paradise Point), Alison King (100th parkrun in New Zealand at Puarenga, with berry crumble custard pie), Mark Scarborough (Our Park, Wattle Banks Cafe), Chris Fraser (backup Timekeeper, no sausage roll report), Simon Mackley (Chipping Norton, and volunteer shortages), Tony O'Connell (watching Jack's first RD gig, coffee at Paul the Pie Man's), Bernadette Bennett (Avondale University College), Sally Heppleston (Diamond Creek), Rebecca Bailey (Z at Zillmere), Claire Stutchbury and Jack Corkill (alphabets finished at Yarrabilba), Tammy Taylor (New Farm), Janet Llewellyn-Reed (SA event ambassadors take over Aldinga Beach, with Greta spotted), Bruce Purdy (Pirate Club Day at Cascades), Ingrid Botha (Albury), Andrew Turner (RD debut at Maribyrnong), Helen Davis (Birdsland's second birthday) and Irene Heather (Parramatta). Prompts a long side discussion on parkruns struggling to fill volunteer rosters post-pandemic.

• the Informant starts at 33:25

  Unofficial weekly stats: 411 events in Australia and New Zealand, 503 worldwide; one new launch in Russia; 48,232 A/NZ participants of 53,114 worldwide, down about 3,000 on the week; 6,180 PBs; 1,996 first-timers; milestone counts; 16 people called bingo (John Young longest at 341 events); new statespeople across the ACT, NT and Victoria; three South Island completions and Dean King completing all 33 New Zealand events; Aaron Harvey equal 6th on the most-Aussie-events list; Steve Harris the biggest weekly mover. Runs throughout as a comic two-hander with the Intern, who has returned the Informant's car empty of fuel and with the seat and radio changed, the office-tension storyline flagged in the show notes, ending with "I can literally get anyone to come in and do your job."

• Sign-off starts at 48:25

  Ollie thanked Melissa and the Nambour parkrun crew in advance and gave a huge thank you to TOC for the support in getting the Palm weekend up and running, then thanked Mel and said they looked forward to seeing as many listeners as possible out at Palm that weekend. Mel added thanks to Chris Fraser, who had also supported TOC and had been a great help with their social media posts and photo editing each week, and said they looked forward to seeing him at Palm too. She then wrapped it up for another week, apologising for the last two mega pods and promising a short and sweet one in preparation for the weekend, and Ollie thanked her and said bye to everyone.