Episode 293 - Hackers

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HostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake

Roving reportersPaul Kitching Sam Schroder Sarah Jefferson Tony O'Connell

Show notes

This week, Mel and TOC join a few adventurers for a frond at Kirkdale Reserve (opens in a new tab) parkrun, PK joins the pirate club at Cairns (opens in a new tab) parkrun, statesman Sarah checks in from Kununurra (opens in a new tab) parkrun, and Sam catches up with a familiar Northern Territorian at Darwin (opens in a new tab) parkrun. But closer to home, something is not quite right at Adventurer HQ. Better stock up on the Caramilk…

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

Roving reports

1Kirkdale Reserve2Kununurra3Cairns4Darwin

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:23

  Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country and Ollie Spake on Dharawal Country. Ollie RD'd Shellharbour for NAIDOC Week with the farm kiosk joining in, Kerry and Chris Fraser back on the finish line and Paul Whelan clocking his 50th event; Mel, who grabbed a German flag instead of the Aboriginal flag by mistake, wore a yellow tutu with Jacqui O'Connell at Kirkdale Reserve event six with parkrun son Harry visiting from Malaysia, walking the course with Renee after a foot injury. They also cover both seeing Thor: Love and Thunder, the Event Day Course Check becoming mandatory, and parkrun France going on pause over medical certificate requirements.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 17:18

  Ollie throws to the crew block "our Channel 5 News crew, our adventurer community have been busy on our behalf doing what they do best". Four self-contained reports run back to back to: TOC from Kirkdale Reserve parkrun, Brunswick East (interviews Ashnee of Coburg, and Harry visiting from Malaysia); Sarah Jefferson from Kununurra parkrun, WA, completing her Western Australia statesman/states lady status and interviewing fellow finisher Matthew Stevens; PK from Cairns parkrun completing his pirate challenge (interviews ED Steve, Canadian tourist Lawton, and Welsh tourists Rachel and Andy); and Sam Schroder from Darwin parkrun, interviewing founder and NT Event Ambassador Mark Connolly. The hosts recap all four-.

• the Frond — Kirkdale Reserve parkrun starts at 39:51

  Referenced but never delivered as a segment. Ollie "So Toc joining us from Kirkdale Reserve parkrun, where all the fun was at, apparently"; Melissa Ellis "It was. The biggest friend [frond]." "More about that later." The episode's own show notes have "Mel and TOC join a few adventurers for a frond at Kirkdale Reserve parkrun". The promised later item never arrives; the episode runs from the Informant's stats straight to the Consolidated Club Report and the outro, so the Frond looks to have been a casualty of the "hacker" conceit that cuts segments this week.

• Emails starts at 39:56

  Acknowledged and empty this week. Melissa Ellis "But, Ollie, this week, no mail"; Ollie "Yep. All quiet in the inbox. As far as I know. Unless someone deleted them. I didn't check." The line is a setup for the episode's hacker running gag rather than a real mailbag.

• Dazza's starts at 40:15

  Ollie sets it up- with the week's Dazza's prompt: "It's wet and cold at Dazza's [Dazza's] today. How's the weather at your place? And did it have an impact on your parkrun fun? Come on in and tell us all about it", and notes "a lot of people joined us once again". The read-out is then hijacked by The Informant, who imposes "a work band [ban] on Dazza's": "for this week, your Dazza's report will be a self-driven read of the Facebook page. You'll see every post and every photo. The productivity improvement." No individual contributors are named on air as a result.

• the Obi Award starts at 41:32

  Melissa Ellis "Congratulations to our Obi [Obi] winner this week, Ollie. Very well deserved"; Ollie "Yeah, it certainly is." The winner is never named - the announcement falls inside the stretch the Informant's "hack" has cut. "Ollie" here is a vocative (Melissa addressing her co-host), not the recipient; his reply "it certainly is" rather than a thank-you confirms that reading.

• the Informant starts at 41:53

  Melissa Ellis throws to it "now, Ollie, it's time for us to listen to our informant", and the stats read runs- from "Level 2 with a view". 438 events down under (37 NZ, 401 Australia) out of 1,730 worldwide; 34,002 Aussie/NZ attendance out of almost 188,000; four launches (Canada, Germany, Ireland, Norway); 3,670 PBs and 1,375 first-timers; 77 Junior 10s, 174 fifties, 107 hundreds, 23 two-fifties; 22 bingos; Todd Osmond-Dreyer quickest on 153 runs, Natty B slowest on 375; 12 new statespeople including Sarah Jefferson at Kununurra; Neil Scott up to equal 13th on 140 at Welka; Christine Taylor the biggest Wilson-index mover; "Former host Scotty Trickett also cracks the top five"; five half cows and Samantha Howe's 100th at Henry Kendall Reserve claiming cow. Interleaved with the episode's industrial-relations/Caramilk running gag, including an in-character jab at the hosts: "I see Melissa Ellis and Oliver Spake have not completed their bingo yet. Hmm, that's not very productive."

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 46:56

  Ollie hands over "Can you tell us about the Consolidated Club Report for Saturday Just Gone?" and Melissa Ellis begins "let's hear about the adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Saturday the 9th of July 2022" - and is immediately cut off by The Informant, who cancels the segment in character: "We, as a united group, can see merit in leaving out the Consolidated Club report. For this week, your CCR will be a self-driven read of the Facebook page." No club stats are read.

• Sign-off starts at 48:22

  Ollie wished Mel a happy birthday for the week; she said it was the first year in three she was not in lockdown for it and she was looking forward to family, dinner out and parkrun day, where she would take Harry from Malaysia to the You Yangs so he could tick off his Y - on Harry's birthday too. Ollie said he did not plan to venture far and might just volunteer depending on how the roster fell, noting he had not run an official parkrun on his event's new course since it changed at the start of January. He thanked Mel and everyone, gave the Facebook and email contacts and closed for another week.