Episode 256 - X Factor
2021-10-14
— open the full-size coverHostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake
Roving reportersCameron Drake Lyndell Murray
Show notes
This week we celebrated BOND, picnics and the return of The Informant! Lyndell the legendary is back with a legend at Yowie (opens in a new tab) parkrun plus Caveman Cam explores Mt Clarence (opens in a new tab) parkrun with an interesting hypothesis. Plus, we recap our notties and plan future adventures.
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Enhanced transcript
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Read the transcriptRoving reports
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:23
Ollie Spake hosting with Melissa Ellis, recorded Monday 11 October. Mel's Saturday was a tired, brunch-less Ellis Palace nottie, then a picnic at Eynesbury with Abby and friends, walking the Eynesbury Heritage Trail juniors course, Zoe's first time with other children since July, where Mel presented Abby with a parkrunner of the month vest sent by TOC from Inverloch, which Abby slept in. Ollie had a quiet birthday with cake, is between jobs, injured himself so missed a birthday run but is now recovered, has reached H in Septober and ran Galston on Sunday with a podcast family member; coming up are parkrun announcements, held-over roving reports and news from Dazza's.
International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day starts at 9:28
Mel flags that orders for this year's Ugly Christmas Singlets close on the night of recording (Monday 11 October), notes orders have gone well and have been shared on the adventurers page and the International Ugly Christmas Singlet and Shirt page. Ollie confirms he placed his order that afternoon. Later ties back to a suggestion that next year's design could be dinosaur-themed (the "adventuresaurus"), with the caveat that the singlets traditionally carry an Aussie theme.
Streaky September starts at 15:46
Referred to throughout this episode as "Septober", the streak challenge extended into October with aparkrun alphabet twist. Bruce answers the hosts' homework question about what to do for X: log the 24th not parkrun at Apple Cross as the next best thing, or spot five Xs in signage during the W knotty, with Ollie adding Strava-art Xs. At the check-in Ollie is up to H (two notties that week, Fingal Bay and Galston) while Mel has done seven, Huskisson, Inverell, Jindabyne, Kangaroo Island, Lakeview, Mount Ainslie and New Farm, with everyone aiming to reach Z at Zillmere on 30 October.
parkrun news bulletin starts at 17:53
Two pieces of parkrun news. First, parkrun's overnight website update introducing volunteer club badges (10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500), which changed the results URL structure and temporarily broke third-party tools like the Running Challenges Chrome extension and the 5km app; it also enables re-ordering of previously claimed milestone shirts. Second, in a solo coda after Mel signs off, Ollie announces that under the New South Wales roadmap parkrun events in NSW are set to reopen on 4 December, with hopes Victoria follows soon.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 21:57
Lyndell Murray's return to roving after a long absence, filed from Yowie parkrun at Kilcoy in the Somerset region of Queensland (event 104). She interviews touring adventurers Annika and Michael (a St Lucia Run Director chasing his alphabet and the Fibonacci challenge), Event Director Esther on how she and her son Josh started the event, and marshal Ron Grant, the first person to run around Australia, in 1983, at 62 km a day for 217 days. She also fails, entertainingly, to establish the difference between a yowie and a bunyip.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 35:44
"Caveman Cam" (Cameron Drake) reports from Mount Clarence parkrun in Albany, Western Australia, testing a hypothesis that parkrun is a "gateway drug" to running obsession. He canvasses Rob and Jackson, then two more parkrunners about peer pressure into bigger events, and is warned the course is one of the steepest in Australia, closing with "Note to self, beware of any parkrun with the word mount in its name."
Emails starts at 41:11
"Mel, we've got mail", a letter from Eman following up on the previous episode's question about newborn daughter Juno. After her six-week vaccinations the family did their first parkrun adventure together at Yowie parkrun, Kilcoy (20 finishers), with Eman and Christine swapping pram-pushing duties. Neatly coincidental with Lyndell's roving report from the same event.
Dazza's starts at 42:33
The week's Dazza's post ran a 007 theme, with Dazza's run brief written as a string of Bond titles ("parkrun, where you never forget your barcode twice… a downhill means a license to kill your PB… but doctor, no barcode, no results"). Contributors read out include Peter Pohlman, Bruce Purdy (Bond theme-song top three), Adrian Royce, Bernadette Bennett, Mandy Oliver, Linda Robertus, Val Warwick, Janet Reid (and her 1957 Dodge truck "Bert"), Linda Coombes, Pippa White, Erica Leota, Tracy Wood, Claire and Jack, the Bailey family, Alison King, Lynette Anne, Sonja Pohlman, Chris Fraser, Sam Schroder, Chantelle Hosking, Ingrid Botha, Abigail's mum, Sally Heppleston, TOC, Suze Arnett, Mark Scarborough and Michael Scott. Earlier in the episode the hosts also celebrate Claire and Jack's Cowell Club milestone and surprise engagement at Ocean View parkrun, first spotted in the Dazza's comments.
the Informant starts at 1:02:47
The Informant returns after several weeks off following a spreadsheet meltdown and a "big capital upgrade" at the stat hub, trailed earlier in the episode by his Facebook comment about funding it with recycling refunds and Pokemon sales. Stats: 1,398 events worldwide across 18 countries; 209 in Australia; Australian attendance 21,035 of a post-COVID record 172,930 worldwide; 2,027 PBs; 739 first-timers; milestones (51 junior 10s, 87 fifties, 61 hundreds, 20 two-fifties); 19 bingo calls, quickest Elaine Gregerk on 161 events, slowest Nikki Plimmer on 411; two new statespeople (Natasha Lankowski and Elvin Lee, NT); biggest Wilson Index improver Sarge Jameson; and a Peel Club update requested by Bruce, 122 all-states parkrunners, 45 of whom have run in New Zealand, 15 across both islands, first being Tim Oberg on 15 August 2015.
Consolidated Club Report starts at 1:06:04
The Adventurers Club is up three to 56 members, with 18 members on the Consolidated Club Report and 26 people logging notties. Not parkrun leaderboard: Wyndham Vale top again on 57, Coonwara second on 54, Campbelltown third on 41, Shellharbour on 21 and Toolern Creek on eight, the last boosted by visiting tourists Bruce and Nadine, with Mel giving Nadine a shout-out for co-designing the Septober challenge behind the scenes.
Sign-off starts at 1:08:13
Mel asked what was coming up; both were registered for the virtual City to Surf, Ollie also owing sevenparkruns if he was to reach Zillmere by 30 October, and Mel planning to run her mapped Melton course again while ploughing through her daily alphabet naughties, filling the gap to Z with repeated X days. They joked about a parkrun adventurers City to Surf group dressed as palm tree fronds next year, and Mel signed off with the Facebook and parkrunadventures@gmail.com contacts and "that's it for another week".