Episode 236 - Snot Logs & A-Listers

— open the full-size cover

HostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake

Roving reportersLyndell Murray Melissa Ellis Tracey Wood

Show notes

From the Facebook post

Join us this week as Mel adventures to Dolls Point (opens in a new tab) parkrun and Olly delights in visiting penguins.

We hear from Tracey on The V-side

with Achilles Brisbane at Sandgate (opens in a new tab) parkrun & Kedron (opens in a new tab) parkrun, and Lyndell checks out Des Connor Park junior parkrun. Plus we discuss parkrun restarts around the

globe, ugly buffs (get yours at International Ugly Christmas Singlet or Shirt Day before time runs out) and upcoming Longest run Australia plans.

Don't forget to visit and order your buffs now: https://www.facebook.com/internationaluglychristmassingle...

And check out the The Informant for all your stats!

From the podcast feed

Join us this week as Mel adventures to Dolls Point (opens in a new tab) parkrun and Olly delights in visiting penguins. We hear from Tracey on The V-side with Achilles at Sandgate (opens in a new tab) & Kedron (opens in a new tab), and Lyndell checks out Des Connor Park junior parkrun. Plus we discuss parkrun restarts around the globe, ugly buffs and upcoming Longest run plans.

Roving reports

1Dolls Point2·3·4Sandgate, Kedron and Des Connor Park juniors

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:22

  Melissa Ellis hosting with Ollie Spake, who spent the weekend at a fancy-dress Eurovision party dressed as the Norwegian entrant, with Cathy as the Ukrainian frontwoman. Ollie stayed local at Shellharbour barcode scanning, meeting Robin who drove up from Victoria to volunteer, a tutu-and-penguin-jumper first timer and her friends Debbie (co-ED, Jubilee Way) and Karen celebrating her 50; Mel flew to Sydney for Dolls Point event 145, ran a post-COVID 5k PB alongside Chris Fraser's Dolls Point PB, brunched with Helen and Steve, Susie and Shane Smedley and the event team including Ingrid, met Paris the dog, and scouted the Centennial Park start with her suitcase. They ask overseas listeners whether tutus are an Australian thing.

• parkrun news bulletin starts at 11:33

  Melissa Ellis reads the parkrun UK press release of Friday 21 May announcing the delay of the English 5k restart from 5 June to a new target of 26 June, with a go/no-go decision on 11 June; Oliver Spake reads the accompanying statement from parkrun Global CEO Nick Pearson and the notes on landowner permissions, red tape, and support from Sadiq Khan, DCMS and Sport England. They then run through the good news: 10 US events returned (Bear Creek Greenbelt, Himmel, Lilly, Livonia, Durham NC, Charleston, Depot Park, Egan, Roosevelt Island, Fletcher's Cove), 30 of South Africa's 221 events returning 29 June, Poland 12 June, Denmark 19 June.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 17:08

  Oliver Spake throws to the roving reports ("Is it time to listen to the roving reports and hear more of your travels?"). Three reports run back to back: Melissa Ellis interviewing Run Director Ingrid Botha at Dolls Point parkrun (NSW), Tracey Wood's Achilles VI-guiding report from Sandgate and Kedron, and Lyndell Murray's first-ever visit to a junior parkrun at Des Connor Park junior parkrun, Ashgrove.

• The V-side starts at 23:47

  Tracey Wood's Achilles / vision-impaired running segment, recorded at Sandgate and Kedron parkruns during National Volunteer Week. She interviews VI walker Geordie, guide Robert, guide Darlene, and Kieran on his 100th parkrun at Kedron, then explains how to get involved in VI guiding in Queensland (Kedron, South Bank, New Farm) and Victoria, signing off "See you on the V-side."

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 32:13

  Lyndell Murray reports from Des Connor Park junior parkrun in Ashgrove, Brisbane, the first junior parkrun in Brisbane, seven weeks old, her first time at a junior event. She interviews Event Director Pat and Run Director Gab about founding it, junior runner and Warm-up Leader Connie, and repeat interviewee Belinda about her 104-events-in-a-row streak and her switch to volunteering. She adds a postscript that event team member Gareth Saunders holds an Order of Australia for services to parkrun, then signs out "for the Channel 5 News crew".

• Dazza's starts at 47:02

  The weekly cafe round-up of listener Facebook posts, this week themed on Tutu Day (22 May) and National Volunteer Week. Contributors read out include Sam Schroder, Jodie and Brendan Peel, Dawn Branton, Val Warwick, Tony O'Connell, Janet Reid, Mandy Oliver, Caro Vos, Irene Bommakanti, Mark Scarborough, Cameron Drake, Sally Heppleston, Brett Bailey, Tara Wakefield, Tanya Bailey, Tracey Wood, Aaron Hardy, Lyndell Murray, Bruce Purdy, Ingrid Botha, Jack Corkill, Rebecca Bailey, Pippa White, Chantelle Hosking and Chris Fraser. Jack Corkill's "snot log for Brekkie" prompts an explanation of the vanilla slice / snot block for overseas listeners, the source of the episode title, along with Chris Fraser's "met up with an A-list celebrity in a tutu at Dolls Point".

• the Informant starts at 58:16

  The anonymous stats segment. 539 events worldwide submitted results (395 Australia, 33 New Zealand, 10 USA, plus Japan, Russia and remote UK territories); no launches. ANZ attendance up ~3,000 to 43,042 of 48,256 worldwide; 6,574 PBs; 1,583 first-timers; 138 junior 10s, 189 fifties, 137 hundreds, 30 two-fifties. 22 called bingo (Lisa Williams quickest on 174 events, Liz Manson slowest on 313). Eight new ACT Territorians, two new NT completers, two new Victorian statespeople. Biggest Wilson mover Jeff Whiffen (+72). Feature on the US return (561 runners, down ~10% pre-COVID) and on longest waits between milestones, Andrew McKelvey 2,366 days 49-to-50, Julie Drummond 5,562 days to her 50. Interrupted mid-segment by solar-panel salesmen at the door.

• International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day starts at 1:03:37

  Merchandise push for this year's addition to the range, the "ugly buff" / neck tube. Melissa Ellis has ordered one of everything to match her previous years' Ugly Christmas Singlets; Oliver Spake is still canvassing the family. Orders close Thursday 3 June, in time for International Ugly Christmas in July Day on 24 July, but not in time for Longest Run. Pippa White is noted as having already bought hers.

• Sign-off starts at 1:08:37

  Ollie said that was almost it for the week, thanked everyone who had written in and said they had enjoyed hearing more via email, gave the contact details - Facebook or parkrunadventurers at gmail.com - and said that was it for another week, with the pair signing off that they would see everyone next week for more adventures.