Episode 253 - Runner 5(00)
2021-09-24
— open the full-size coverHostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake
GuestsAdrian Hon Brian Peters
Show notes
While The Informants are off enjoying a break, Olly and Mel have been hard at work to bring you two interviews with Brian Peters and his 500th true blue milestone, and Adrian Hon from Zombies, Run! Plus all the streaky updates, highlights from Dazzas and breaking news of the ugly kind!
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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 transcriptGuests
Brian Peters
Brian's 500th parkrun, completed that morning at Main Beach, 470 of them at Main Beach, nine other events visited and 55 volunteer occasions. He recalls discovering parkrun through a City of Gold Coast staff email after Tim Oberg approached Samantha Hughes, being there on day one, and how he came to propose and then personally organise the tail runner/sweeper role at Main Beach for six years after finding an injured child and a struggling last-place runner on course. Also covers COVID lockdown running past Metricon Stadium, his top three courses (Main Beach, Broadbeach Waters, Kingscliff), and retiring the green 250 shirt for the blue 500 one.
Adrian Hon
The origins of Zombies, Run!, the idea coming from an early GPS-watch running habit plus co-creator Naomi Alderman's running-club anecdote about someone wanting to survive the zombie apocalypse; funding it via one of the UK's first Kickstarters in late 2011; the audio-only design forced by a three-person company; other apps (Zombies Run 5K Training, The Walk, funded by the NHS and Department of Health, Superhero Workout, Step by Step); scaling difficulty to any runner; the Australian user base; fan contributions to the stories; the eventual end of the Abel Township saga; and whether Abel Township would run a parkrun. Adrian mentions going to school with Andy Baddeley.
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:23
Melissa Ellis and Ollie Spake, Ollie now without the troll he chaperoned last week and back on a roadworks-altered Bass Pointparkrun through the off-leash dog park. Mel's Ellis Palace nottie was rainbows and unicorns with fairy bread and breakfast jelly, she was swooped and struck by a magpie on her two-loop course, and she is four missions into Zombies Run on her training plan. A message from Bruce proposes 'Septober', changing home parkrun through the alphabet by the end of October, and Mel explains how to switch home parkrun before logging a nottie; no roving reports or stats this week, but two interviews: Adrian Hon of Zombies Run and Brian Peters on 500 parkruns at Main Beach.
Streaky September starts at 35:28
Established regular, running for the whole of September 2021. Mel and Ollie check in on each other's daily streaks and on the weekly "level up" bingo-card challenge. Last week's challenge (find a chalk drawing with a positive message) is reviewed, Ollie found one, "actually written in something other than chalk"; Mel's own kind-thing is rescuing abandoned supermarket trolleys and returning them. This week's new level-up is set: "chronicle your local area", inspired by listener Sonja Pohlman's lockdown chronicles of her suburb. Bingoe card posted on the parkrun adventurers Facebook page.
Emails starts at 41:46
One listener letter, read aloud by Ollie, from "Tracy in training", she opens with "Brains!" in keeping with the zombie theme, reports being inspired by the "kind of things" segment to collect a full bag of roadside plastic while walking the dog, enjoyed the previous week's goalball chat with Jenny Blow, and complains about missing Abigail's chirpy voice at the end of last week's pod. Mel and Ollie respond that Abigail records only when she feels like it and cannot be replaced.
Dazza's starts at 45:21
Established regular. Round-up of the week's Facebook posts, with an extended video-clip experiment: video contributions came in from Caro Vos, TOC, "Hills with Will", Val Warwick, Bruce's backyard not parkrun, Donna's rainbow cake, Tracy Wood, Mark Connolly (Palmerston 5th anniversary), Janet Reid, Marvellous Mark, Bec Bailey, Neil Taylor and Sam Schroder, plus Mel and Ollie's own not parkrun glimpses. Written reports read out from Tanya Bailey (Wellington waterfront), Bernadette Bennett, Newcastle, "the not the wedding venue, Jack Corkill (Toowoomba, 98th location), Peter Pohlman (Hamilton suburb street signs), Michael "Schultzy" Schultz (New Farm's 10th birthday, event 469), Shirley and Greg Dell (Lakes Entrance), Sonja Pohlman ("not toured to not Italy"), Lisa Spencer, Brett Bailey, Nadine Crawford (Rosebud), Phil Olson (Burgess Park) and Ingrid Botha. The hosts extend the video request for another week.
Consolidated Club Report starts at 1:08:42
Very early appearance of the CCR, the parkrun Adventurers Club now has 46 members, 14 of them appearing on this week's Consolidated Club Report and 23 people registering not parkruns. Mel thanks Simon Mackley for the technical assistance that let her navigate back to previous weeks' not parkrun results, and grumbles that the parkrun website is not intuitive. Runs straight into the weeklyparkrun results wrap-up: Wyndham Vale topped Australia with 61 (down from 75), Inverloch second with 42, then the hosts' home events Shellharbour on 26 and Toolern Creek on 7.
International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day starts at 1:11:47
Breaking-news announcement (delivered with an imagined newsflash sting) that the Ugly Christmas Singlets are coming: borders open next week, exact date to be confirmed but before the end of September. This year's singlet returns to a more traditional Christmas colour, features two new Aussie mascots, and there will still be only one design, "expect the ugly unexpected". Listeners pointed to the International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day Facebook page and its teaser post.
Sign-off starts at 1:15:36
Ollie said he needed to get out and streak and that it was probably time to wrap it up; Mel said she would be watching Strava to make sure he did. Ollie gave the Facebook and parkrunadventures@gmail.com contacts and signed off with "that's it for another week", saying they would see everyone next week or at Dazza's by video.