Episode 267 - parkrun spirit

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HostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake

Roving reportersAlison Fraser (King) Sam Schroder

Show notes

2021 is a wrap, as the Adventurers catch up on Christmas festivities that included a parkrun Santa gift to parkrun New Zealand, plus – in true 2021 style – more parkrun pausing across the globe. We hear the Christmas cheer from our festively fabulous roving reporters, Alison at Puarenga (opens in a new tab) and Sam at Picton (opens in a new tab) parkrun. Dazza closes for the year after enjoying a little of the Christmas festivities, and we take on the ever-contentious topic of setting our parkrun goals for the 2022 as we prepare for a short break to ring in the great year that will be 2022.

From the podcast feed. No Facebook post text is recorded for this episode.

Roving reports

1Puarenga2Picton

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:23

  Melissa Ellis and Ollie Spake mark their 52nd episode of the year and since taking over as hosts, in a shorter post-Christmas pod. They welcome New Zealand back (15 of 34 events returned on Christmas Day, Ōtaki River due to launch New Year's Day) while Wales, the Netherlands, Canada, Norway and Finland go back on pause, thank listeners for their response to last week's Devonport tribute, and tally their 2021: Mel 30 parkruns, 20 of them new events, plus 52 episodes edited; Ollie nine parkruns and 21 volunteer days. Thanks go to the informants, the Channel 5 News crew, Chris Fraser and Mel and Scotty for the keys, before Christmas Day parkrun experiences.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 13:43

  Oliver Spake crosses to the Christmas Day roving reports "Okay, let's listen to a couple of our roving reports." Two reports follow back to back: Alison King from Puarenga parkrun in New Zealand (celebrating parkrun's return there on Christmas Day, with an interview with walker Neil), and Sam Schroder from Picton parkrun, where she was Run Director for a record 96 participants and handed out hand-painted Christmas baubles. Melissa Ellis and Oliver Spake debrief both.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 13:53

  Alison King's report from Puarenga parkrun (Rotorua, New Zealand) is filed explicitly under the Channel 5 News Crew banner - "It's Alison King here reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew from Puaranga [Puarenga] parkrun". She marks New Zealand's return from pause ("the best Christmas present ever") and interviews Neil, an walker on his 87th walk who kept walking the bike park through the pause. Oliver Spake also thanks the crew collectively and notes that they can step in and co-host.

• Emails starts at 23:14

  Melissa Ellis: "But, Ollie, we had mail again this week." Oliver Spake reads an email from Richard, sharing a post by RD Gordon of Pioneer Dairy parkrun about Helen, a first-timer at the event notching up her 265th parkrun. Unable to run because of a hip condition, she walked the course with the Tail Walkers staying with her the whole way and was clapped home. Melissa notes Helen was wearing an Ugly Christmas Shirt and had previously been a distance swimmer.

• Dazza's starts at 25:04

  The Christmas Day edition of the cafe. Melissa Ellis had posted a video herself "rocking the black shades" going for "the rock star Ollie look". Visitors read out include Danny Norman ("Dano", With Me Now), Phil Olson from the UK, Mark Scarborough (marshalling at Wagga Bridge with Angus the dog), Richard (San Remo), Bruce Purdy, Peter Pohlman (P1 and P2 at "Flaccid Balloon" / Main Beach parkrun, first parkrun in 20 weeks), Andrew Turner (RD at Maribyrnong), Claire Stutchbury (Bargara), Suzanne Crane (Kelvin Grove), Val Warwick and Stephen Warwick (both marshalling at Devonport), Alison King (Puarenga, 53 parkrunners and 12 volunteers), Chris Fraser (last run on the Shellharbour OG course), Abigail's mum (RD at Wyndham Vale), Nadine Crawford (Meadowbrook), Bernadette Bennett (Newy, 204 parkrunners), Brett Bailey and Rebecca Bailey, Christine Imbert (Tilgate) and Pippa White (Evesham). Oliver Spake notes it is Dazza's last outing before the break.

• the Obi Award — Val Warwick starts at 37:58

  Dual recipients for the first time - Melissa Ellis "We've got two winners, Ollie. We've got dual recipients", Oliver Spake: "Unprecedented." Val and Steve Warwick win for their photo on the Mersey with the Spirit of Tasmania in the background, taken after marshalling at Devonport; Brett and Tanya Bailey win for their "double Bailey" video from Pegasus parkrun with Brunner the bark runner. "It was too hard to split those two this week." Preceded by the running envelope gag - both hosts claim to have misplaced it.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 39:11

  Melissa Ellis: the Adventurers Club is up three this week to a grand total of 76 adventurers, with 57 members on the Consolidated Club Report from around the world including the UK and New Zealand, and 29 notties recorded. Followed by the New Zealand not-parkrun standings - Whangarei on 27, Pegasus on 19 and Hamilton Lake on 17, with Oliver Spake thanking "Alison, as always, for those statistics". Of the three, only Pegasus had actually returned from pause. Melissa confirms they will keep reporting New Zealand not-parkrun stats until all events are back.

• Sign-off starts at 40:42

  Ollie asked about New Year's Day plans: Mel was driving to Deniliquin in southern New South Wales for McLean Beach parkrun with Abby's mum, expecting to be met by the Frasers, while Ollie was timekeeping at Shellharbour for its last run on the original course. They then set 2022 goals - Ollie to finally get an event number two, a parkrun in a new state and his first in Melbourne; Mel to keep touring new events, grow the podcast and establish her Eynesbury juniors event - looked ahead to Palm in Tasmania, announced they were taking the following week off (emails and roving reports still welcome for a bumper episode in two weeks), thanked listeners and each other, and signed off with "that's it for another year" and happy new year.