Episode 242 - Dog Assisted

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HostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake

Roving reportersAlison Fraser (King) Grette Wilkinson James Scarborough Mark Scarborough

Show notes

From the Facebook post

This week Olly and family were busy notparkrunning any which way, while Mel returned to Pakenham (opens in a new tab) parkrun for a

dog

assisted family run. Tracey gave us the SPF & TCC stats and aside from Alison at Trentham Memorial (opens in a new tab) parkrun NZ, everyone else was partying in SA (featuring Grette at The Avenues (opens in a new tab) parkrun, Mark and PK at Mount Barker (opens in a new tab) parkrun and the Channel 2 News Crew's James at Thorndon junior parkrun)!

Meanwhile the new Informant is having a few teething problems...

(Image: Pegasus (opens in a new tab) parkrun barkrunner Brunner, and his Bailey shot!)

From the podcast feed

This week Olly and family were busy notparkrunning any which way, while Mel returned to Pakenham (opens in a new tab) parkrun for a dog assisted family run. Tracey gave us the SPF & TCC stats and aside from Alison at Trentham Memorial (opens in a new tab) parkrun NZ, everyone else was partying in SA! Meanwhile the new Informant is having a few teething problems...

Roving reports

1·2·3Mount Barker, Thorndon juniors and The Avenues4Trentham Memorial

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:00

  Ollie Spake acknowledges Wurundjeri, Dharawal and Yuin Country; Melissa Ellis hosts with Ollie, who is locked down in New South Wales and did a 5 km bike ride with Hannah, a revived Bass Pointparkrun and a 2 km juniorparkrun with the whole household, one daughter skipping. Mel went to Pakenham, event 310, with her grand-doggie Dustin and a family crowd, posted a post-COVID PB on Strava despite a toilet stop, and read out parkrun's rules on marking dog-assisted results. Eynesbury juniors had two full puddles and rubber ducks, and listeners Tracey in a Tutu, Adrian Hillyer and Dawn Branton offered duck names including Eynesbury Puddle Duck, Bruce, Purdy and Ernie.

• SPF and TCC stats starts at 20:04

  Tracey Wood delivers the week's two acronym counts: the SPF (Shellharbour parkrun Factor) was 8 and the TCC (Toolern Creek Count) was 42. She signs off "Toodles from Tracy [Tracey]" and hopes Brisbane comes out of lockdown. The hosts return to it: "we now have a TCC as well as a SPF... the TCC was 42, so that's just blown the SPF previous record out of the water."

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 20:32

  Three Channel 5 reports this week. Mark Scarborough reports from Mount Barker parkrun in South Australia and interviews Paul Kitching (PK) about the Laratinga Wetlands course, his parkrun history and Bushy Park; he also recounts freedom runs at Renmark and Victor Harbor and rates the Port Elliot Bakery sausage roll 7/10 and the steak-and-onion pie 9/10. Grette Wilkinson previews the brand-new the Avenues parkrun in Kuitpo Forest, SA with Event Director Steve, South Australia's first single-loop course, 100% fire tracks, with a campfire at the start/finish. Alison King reports from Trentham Memorial parkrun in Upper Hutt, New Zealand on a one-degree frosty morning, interviewing Judith, Cara, Event Director Alan and Sarah (the most recent person to complete all 33 NZ parkruns), then flags Victorian tourist Miles Savage among the 56 finishers.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 27:26

  James reports from Thorndon Junior parkrun in South Australia for the junior-reporter crew, interviewing junior parkrunner Bethany (seventh junior run, 100+ 5K events at Lochiel Park) and Run Director Michelle, who started volunteering at junior parkruns in Milton Keynes in the UK. The hosts praise him, "Fantastic report, James. Always a pro", and note he has now done Aintree, Westerfolds and Thorndon.

• Dazza's starts at 45:32

  A French-themed week of listener posts, prompted by parkrun France's return. Contributions read out from Adelina Trott, Sally Heppleston (Warrnambool), Andrew Turner (RD at Maribyrnong), Tanya Bailey (Pegasus, minus three), Bruce Purdy (Churchill parkrun and Churchill's Cigar), Tracy Leiper, Sam Schroder (Love Shack not parkrun), Rebecca Bailey (Warilla Bakery, 2/10 sausage roll), Val Warwick (Devonport, with a Marie Antoinette seagull story), Mandy Oliver (Surfers), Ingrid Botha, Gail Weston (Bendigo), Vicki Thompson, Mark Scarborough, Alison King, Kate Dull (sub-30 PB at Warringal Parklands), Chris Fraser, Cameron Drake, Jacqui O'Connell, Claire Stutchbury (Gatton), Brett Bailey, Tony O'Connell, Tracey Wood, Faye Morgan, Simon Mackley, Cathy Lambert, Karen Hamilton, Errol Poole, Marg Prowse and Riccardo Rambini. Both hosts butcher assorted French phrases throughout.

• the Informant starts at 1:02:54

  Weekly unofficial stats from level 2 with a view: 559 events across 9 countries, 307 in Australia and 34 in New Zealand, with France welcomed back with 8 events; four launches (Dorset Recreation Reserve VIC, Sherwood Reserve NZ and two in Poland); 25,034 of 36,382 worldwide runners in Aus/NZ, attendance down 7,700; 2,815 PBs; milestone counts; 15 people called bingo (Jane Tully quickest at 158 events, Noah Sullivan slowest at 315); nine new statespeople, all from the ACT; movements on the most-events and Wilson Index lists. The read repeatedly breaks down into on-air bickering with the hosts about calling France "the Frenchy Froglegs" and about "beige trousers" putting bad stuff in the stats.

• Sign-off starts at 1:07:51

  Ollie asked Mel her plans for the next parkrun day: she would head to event two of the recent launch at Dorset Recreation Reserve, which is local to her mum, taking her mum to parkrun and bringing her back for a visit, then juniors on the Saturday and, on the Sunday the 11th, a 5K course Eynesbury was throwing in as part of one of the Western Victorian longest runs, possibly with more events after and the as-yet-unnamed duck along for the ride. Ollie, with the Greater Sydney lockdown now including his own local government area and cases not tracking in a positive direction, expected either another Bass Pointparkrun or a hunt for the maypole, plus croissants, a sausage roll and a snot to catch up on. He thanked Mel for another catch-up and everyone for their time, gave the Facebook and email contact details, acknowledged NAIDOC week and invited listeners to share whose land they would be parkrunning or not parkrunning on, and said they would see everyone next week for more adventures.