Episode 261 - Back in the ACT

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HostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake

Roving reportersKaren Hamilton Melissa Ellis Tracey Wood

Show notes

From the Facebook post

Presenting Episode 261 (we think

)

Join the adventurers this week as Mel ditches ‘The Creek’ for a real rendezvous in the rain at Tuggeranong (opens in a new tab) parkrun , while Olly course checks at Banksia Avenue #(not)parkrun .

We hear from probationary news crew reporter Tracey @Zillmere (opens in a new tab) parkrun and Karen Hamilton checks in mid marathon from Burley Griffin (opens in a new tab) parkrun .

Dazza is back with A L L the flavours

while the Informant is a little more grey

. #sphinxy

From the podcast feed

Join the adventurers this week as Mel ditches ‘The Creek’ for a real rendezvous in the rain @ Tuggeranong (opens in a new tab) parkrun, while Olly course checks at Banksia Avenue (not)parkrun. We hear from probationary news crew reporter Tracey @ Zillmere (opens in a new tab) and Karen Hamilton checks in mid marathon from Burley Griffin (opens in a new tab) parkrun. Dazza is back with all the flavours while the Informant is a little more grey.

Roving reports

1·3Tuggeranong and Burley Griffin2Zillmere

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:24

  Ollie Spake, still a parkrunner in waiting and feeling 'pretty ugly' tonight, with Melissa Ellis, who is a real live parkrunner again this week after a roadie and a rendezvous, with more to come on both.

• parkrun news bulletin starts at 13:11

  Ollie reads parkrun Australia's weekly update verbatim: the ACT returns this week (participants encouraged to use the Check In CBR app); New South Wales reopening now targeted for Saturday 18 December after the delay to lifting restrictions; and parkrun has written to the Victorian government seeking clarification of its classification to allow events to return across that state.

• Streak to New Year's Day starts at 16:04

  Recap of the week in the streak Facebook group: Barbara Doby colour-matching her shirt to her surroundings (jacarandas, bridges) on herparkruns, Alison folding herparkrun into her run to work, Bruce receiving his firstparkrun results email (prompting a discussion of why those emails are intermittent), and Patrick Schimitzek doing aparkrun at 'the creek' plus more Strava art, a tutu, tagged to Tracy. Mel admits her own streak quietly ended.

• International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day starts at 21:43

  Ugly Christmas Singlets and Crook books are landing in mailboxes; Ollie has "one in front of me and one on me", Mel's arrived the day of recording. Ollie plugs David Crook's book 'On Every Saturday: the story of parkrun in Australia' (the 'Crook book'), and Mel reveals she is a centrefold on pages 268-269, photographed on the beach at Shellharbour with volunteer Sue. Listener uglies are shared again during Dazza's.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 24:23

  Two crossovers: Tracy in a tutu at Zillmere parkrun checking out the new grass course and interviewing a visiting Chermside parkrunner, two parkrunners named Cameron and Charlie, and Run Director Peter; then Karen Hamilton checking in across four instalments as she runs a self-created marathon lap of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra, dropping into Burley Griffin parkrun at about the 16km mark on the ACT's first weekend back.

• Emails starts at 41:24

  Mail from Peter Pohlman, who reports 100% street completion of Waratah and Georgetown in New South Wales and asks how many listeners tried citystrides.com after last week's mention. Mel corrects last week's fumble, it is City Strides, not City Striders, and explains how the site connects to Strava or Garmin to map every street you have run.

• Dazza's starts at 43:43

  Dazza stayed home this week and asked for ice cream flavours. Check-ins from Alison King (Paringa, New Zealand's 13th week without parkrun), Tracy Wood (tail walking at Zillmere), Greta Wilkinson (Avenues), Ingrid Botha (Toolern Creek), Sam and Luke Schroder (Tuggeranong), Christine, Janet Reid (Jeff's 250th at Lochiel), the Bailey shop, Rebecca, Tanya and Brett, Claire Stutchbury, Will Barlow, Mandy Oliver (a double-double-double ton at Surfers Paradise), Bruce Purdy, Nadine Crawford (first ACT parkrun and best time in five years at Tuggeranong), Val Warwick, Chris Fraser, Greg Garner (50 volunteers and 50 runs at a third birthday), Bernadette Bennett, Jodie Maisie, Tony O'Connell, Parth Canty, Pippa White (who met Paul Sinton-Hewitt) and Lyndell Murray, whose parkrun was cancelled for wet weather.

• Weekly award starts at 58:25unnamed — listener naming suggestions sought

  Mel proposes a new weekly award for the best parkrun experience posted to Dazza's, modelled on the Logies and on her local radio station's 'Melby' award. Candidate names floated on air, the Dazzler, the Parky, the Abbey, are all rejected, and listeners are invited to message or comment with suggestions. No award is made this week; the hosts deliberately defer it, joking that Daryl can be the third umpire if they cannot agree.

• the Informant starts at 1:01:23

  Weekly unofficial stats: 213 runs in Australia (up three, helped by the ACT's return) out of 1,508 worldwide across 18 countries, six launches, Aussie attendance up 2,581 to 21,147, 2,316 PBs, 728 first timers, milestone tallies, 11 people calling bingo, seven new statespeople, and movements on the most-events and Wilson Index charts. Extended riff on Canberra being 'the most dull city in Australia... a veritable rainbow of grey', then a data check on whether NSW tourists swamped the ACT return: 612 runners this week against 1,124 on 19 June, showing not a jump in tourists but a slump in locals.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 1:06:00

  Adventurers Club up two to 61 members, with 32 on the Consolidated Club Report (13 more than last week) including Seaford Beach, Crystal Palace, Beacon, two South African events and five adventurers at Tuggeranong. 29 not parkruns, up two. Not parkrun leaderboard topped by Kunwara (39) from Wyndham Vale (34) and Campbelltown (30), with Toolern Creek on 13 and Shellharbour on 12. New Zealand figures via Alison: Whangarei 49, Hamilton Lake 48, Anderson 36.

• Sign-off starts at 1:11:32

  Ollie asked whether there was anything on the horizon for Mel; she expected to stay close to home for a couple of weeks because Zoe had appointments on Saturdays, and Ollie said much the same, never ruling out a spur-of-the-moment decision, with Christmas approaching and his local parkrun hopefully not far off restarting when New South Wales resumed. Mel then signed off with the Facebook and email contacts and "that's it for another week".