Episode 271 - Arise

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HostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake

Show notes

This week Mel and Olly enjoyed different adventures of the musical type! We dive into a new index challenge and Mel finds things that Olly is better at. We also change up the format at Dazza’s, hear from our millennial Informant and hit a new milestone in our Adventurers club!

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

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:23

  Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country and Ollie Spake on Dharawal Country, both sweltering. Unbeknownst to each other they each went to a music festival the day before: Mel's first, at Werribee Park with her sister (Jimmy Barnes headlining, with Diesel), Ollie seeing Montaigne, Kasey Chambers, Holy Holy and the Teskey Brothers. Ollie RD'd Shellharbour after whippersnippering the course, with 168 finishers; Mel did the first-timers briefing at Toolern Creek where every first-timer was a tourist, and took up Brendan Peel's cheeky challenge to reach 100 runs at her home event, before listener feedback on the golf club and famous five club and the informant's same-letter-count index.

• parkrun news bulletin starts at 21:22

  Olly reads parkrun Australia's announcement of a new national supporter joining the family from 1 February, Blue Frog, a cereal maker: "we feel that Blue Frog truly understand our values and will support us with a financial commitment appropriate to our growing size and scale". Both hosts browse the Blue Frog website live on air and joke about whether the podcast could get free samples.

• the Informant starts at 23:54

  The Informant's weekly unofficial stats, delivered in character from "Level 2 with a view", this week the view is darkness because he was stuck working back late, and he blames "Oliver and the beige one" for stitching him up. 405 events down under (395 Australia, 10 New Zealand) out of 1,640 worldwide; attendance 40,520; two launches including Oaklands Estate Reserve in South Australia; 3,941 PBs; 1,894 first-timers; milestone, statespeople, most-events and V-index movers; plus the junior parkrun wristband rundown. Signs off "Laters!"

• Emails starts at 27:58

  Introduced by the "You've got mail" jingle. One letter, from Michael Blain, raising an accessibility point: he and "many others who are hard of hearing really struggle to hear clearly the informant", and he asks whether the distortion could be toned down. The hosts explain the voice changer is deliberate, to protect the Informant's identity, so they are committed to the voice, but point listeners to his published stats on Facebook and the informant.me website. They also observe that the Intern is easier to understand.

• Dazza's starts at 31:00

  Format change week. After a record 32 comments last week made the segment run long, Dazza asks the hosts to bring "the best of the best, the highlights", and Mel gets credit for having called it. The new "abbreviated Dazza's" runs with the hosts taking turns: Greta Wilkinson (third green shirt at Mount Barker), Alison King (Taupo, plus get-well wishes for her broken ankle and helicopter rescue on the Tongariro Crossing), Abigail's mum, Richard (San Remo, chasing his century at Pioneer Dairy), Sam Schroder (Picton), Phil Olson (Henlow Bridge Lakes, UK), Bernadette Bennett (Mount Ainslie), Michael Scott (Wentworth Common), Heather Morgan (first female and fourth overall at Aurora) and Matthew Probst (Sydney complete).

• the Obi Award — Matthew Probst starts at 41:43

  Awarded at the close of Dazza's, complete with envelope sound effect handed over by the Intern. This week's Obi goes to Matthew Probst for completing every Sydney parkrun, started New Year's Day 2021 at Campbelltown and went to a different location every week since, finishing at Parramatta where Cathy Ray handed over his token and hat and "knighted" him a Rayfarer.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 42:46

  Adventurers Club milestone week, the club is up eight to 105 members, passing the 100 shirt, with a mock round of applause. 83 members appeared on the Consolidated Club Report, covering seven UK events (Southampton, Rising Sun, Haigh Woodland, Tooting Common, Irchester Country, Peel and Henlow Bridge Lakes), two in New Zealand (Taupo and Greytown Woodside Trail), two in South Africa and none in the USA, where snow cancelled events.

• Sign-off starts at 45:25

  Mel asked Ollie what was on his horizon for the next week and he said more of the same - Shellharbour. Mel was not sure she could parkrun at all, being required at work from 8am, and said she was reluctant to miss one now parkrun was actually running after so many lost to bushfires and COVID, promising to find a way if she could. Ollie wrapped up on that not-so-bright prospect, said they looked forward to hearing everyone else's experiences at Dazza's, gave the Facebook and parkrunadventurers@gmail.com contacts and signed off with "that is it for another week".