Episode 248 - Bird is the Word
2021-08-18
— open the full-size coverHostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake
GuestMick Duyvestyn
Show notes
From the Facebook post
parkrun adventurers podcast
have a new episode out - Episode 248 – Bird is the Word
Some of our WV parkrunners have helped Bubble Bird travel through Wyndham and meet Cluck Norris
From the podcast feed
This week Mel chats with Mick Duyvestyn, half of the crew behind the Bubble Bird relay that’s helping a certain yellow friend fly the coup in lockdown thanks to a creative flock of Melbournians. We also hear from Runner 5 (aka Karyn) following an exciting parkrun launch against all odds in Abel Township, and also from the scanned in and locked down alike at Dazza’s.
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Enhanced transcript
Speakers named, sound described and segments marked by the editing pass — not yet checked by a person.
Read the transcriptGuest
Mick Duyvestyn
How a wrong turn on a Mornington Misfits group run produced a Strava map shaped like a bird's beak, which became the 9.2km Big Bird Trail at Mount Martha, then, through Victoria's successive lockdowns, the Bubble Bird Relay: a sanitiser-carrying rubber chicken baton with a GPS watch strapped to it, handed between runners inside their five-kilometre bubbles, which has now covered over a thousand kilometres and reached Melton, Yarraville, Belgrave and beyond. Also covers his own parkrun story and his two-volunteers-to-one-run habit.
Roving reports
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:23
Melissa Ellis with Ollie Spake, who is still running from zombies as Runner 5 with his own playlist. Ellis Palace event 49 went 80s (denim, mullets, a Walkman in its box) with a well-travelled plastic chicken called Bubble Bird as house guest, and Mel is planning the 50th and getting Ellis Palace added to her apricot shirt under Berwick Springs and Toolern Creek. Ollie, now confined to his local government area under the NSW lockdown, hunted hills for Point to Pinnacle training and hopes to sample part of Bec's Banksia Avenueparkrun up to the bridge; they welcomed Austria's launch and tracked Mark's drive across the Nullarbor towards Port Hedland.
Emails starts at 38:48
Oliver Spake reads a listener email from Tracy, who enjoyed the Caitlin Adams and David Crook interviews, asks whether a milestone episode is coming up in about three episodes, and suggests the parkruns in David Crook's book could become "the Crookbook Challenge", a name both hosts immediately take to.
Streaky September starts at 41:02
The hosts preview the coming Streaky September, working out that episode 250 will be week one and that the Bingoe card traditionally isn't released before September starts. Melissa Ellis recounts her typo when renaming the Facebook group, which turned "Streaky September" into "Streaky Septmeber", now affectionately kept as a thing.
Dazza's starts at 43:58
Weekly round-up of listener posts, split between scanned-in parkrunners and not-parkrunners in lockdown. Includes Cameron Drake (3 years at Tamworth Wetlands, green theme, cake), Pippa White (Daventry), Helen Reeves, Linda Coombes (Warwick), Chris Gallivan, Val Warwick (Devonport), the Bailey family at Pegasus, Tracy Wood (Kedron), Bruce Purdy (Cohuna), Bernadette Bennett, Claire Stutsbury (Augustine Heights), Mandy Oliver, Mark Scarborough (Exmouth), Sally Heppleston, Faye Morgan, Ingrid Botha, Sam Schroder (birthday) and Melissa Ellis's own Ellis Palace 80s-themed not parkrun.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 51:18
Melissa Ellis throws to "a roving report from a new location". Karyn files it entirely in character as Runner 5 of Abel Township, the fictional settlement from the Zombies, Run! app, reporting the inaugural running of Abel Township parkrun, a recovered pre-apocalypse parkrun database, a barcode dispute with Janine on scanning, and a zombie horde moving in mid-event.
the Informant starts at 54:09
Weekly stats rundown delivered in persona from "my study with a view" (this week a staring possum). 1,143 events in 18 countries, 220 in Australia and 34 in New Zealand; Austria joins the parkrun family with 1; six launches in five countries; 17,218 down-under participants of 157,500 worldwide; 2,147 PBs and 623 first-timers; milestone tallies; seven people called bingo (Joshua Seabird quickest at 142 runs, Jarrett Minogue slowest at 265); four new statespeople all in the Northern Territory; David Messenger the only upward mover on the top-20 Aussie/NZ events list after running Toowoomba; 45 new Wilson Index claims with Peter Berry the biggest mover.
Sign-off starts at 1:03:09
Mel said it had been another wonderful episode and thanked Ollie again for joining her that week. She gave the contact details - Facebook or their gmail address - and said that was it for another week, with the pair signing off that they would see everyone next week for more adventures.