Episode 239 - Quack Quack

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HostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake

Roving reportersDavid Irwin — UK roving reporter (Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire) Tracey Wood

Show notes

This week Olly & Mel recount their Longest Runs and Tracey also pops in with audio from North Brisbane (too soon). We hear from David in England with news of notparkruns and pastie preferences, plus all the crowd from Dazza's. But... hang on ... what announcement does The Informant have??

The podcast feed and the Facebook post carry the same notes.

Roving reports

1·2 +5Central Lakes, Harris Avenue, North Lakes and Redcliffe

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:23

  Ollie Spake hosting with Melissa Ellis, who is in lockdown in Victoria with the longest runs postponed. Within her 25 km radius Mel built her own seven-leg longest run: Toolern Creek in the dark, a 5k at Eynesbury where the puddle had finally filled and got its giant rubber duck, Wyndham Vale, Point Cook, a flooded and reversed Brimbank, a solo Sunbury where she slid over in the mud and overshot to nearly 6k, then home to Daryl for photos; Ellis Palace also ran a Pride theme with rainbow cupcakes. Ollie got a late call-up to RD Shellharbour's seventh birthday, with co-founder Carl Hayes and ambassador Nikki there and Ralph unwell at home.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 24:15

  Melissa Ellis crosses over "we've got a couple of roving reports to throw to, and we've got a new voice coming to the pod waves this week... Over in England." Two reports follow back to back: David from Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, filing from the 300th running of the Spaldwick not parkrun (no other runners, so he briefed himself), plus a follow-up clip defending Cornish pasties as "five out of five... they beat a sausage roll hands down"; then Tracey Wood, in her tutu, roving the entire seven-course Brisbane North Longest Run and interviewing a participant at each stop. Hosts debrief both.

• Dazza's starts at 40:33

  Long run of listener Facebook posts read out by both hosts, on the week's baked-goods theme (Poland's return prompting research into the karpatka, the "Polish vanilla slice", versus sausage rolls and Cornish pasties). Contributors read out include Alison King, Tracey Wood, Brett Bailey, Bruce Purdy, Tanya Bailey (and Brunner the bark runner), Claire Stutchbury, Rebecca Bailey, Chris Fraser, Ingrid Botha, Mark Scarborough, Val Warwick, Sam Schroder, Bernadette Bennett, Em from Shellharbour, Michelle Zaluka, Janet Reid, Tamsin Smith and Lee Cabarita.

• the Informant starts at 57:02

  Weekly unofficial stats rundown: 547 events worldwide at time of recording, including 71 rejoining from Poland and 308 in Australia; two launches (Poland and Valentine Peak, USA); 4,648 PBs and 1,076 first-timers; milestone counts; new ACT and NT Territorians; Wilson Index and most-events movers. Then the announcement teased in the show notes, "This, for the last time, has been The Informant... I'm afraid I'm retiring from public life... I am hereby permanently handing over the presentation role to someone better sit... well, someone else." He says he will keep crunching the numbers in the background. The hosts react, saying management gave them no warning, and invite applications for the reading role.

• Sign-off starts at 1:06:57

  Mel said she still had her fingers crossed that Eynesbury Heritage Trail junior parkrun would be back that week, explaining that they were recording the outro on the evening of Wednesday the 16th of June with restrictions lifting in Victoria and hope of being back on Saturday, but no definitive answer and a mad scramble to fill volunteer rosters across the state if the go-ahead came - she wanted to get back to her puddle before it evaporated. Ollie said it was the waiting game for anyone out there enjoying aparkrun or hoping for a parkrun or junior parkrun, gave the Facebook and email contact details, and Mel said that was it for another week, with Ollie signing off that they would see everyone next week for more adventures.