Episode 298 - Not Flat

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HostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake

Roving reportersSam Schroder Tracey Wood

Show notes

This week the parkrun Adventurers reflect on a big weekend in Sydney, including a mega-frond at Cooks River (opens in a new tab) parkrun, the return of the City to Surf, and all the other adventures that left us a little exhausted come Monday! We hear roving reports from Tracey in Atherton (opens in a new tab), Rich Ard from his first international parkrun at Sippo Lake (opens in a new tab) in the USA and a debut roving report from Abi at Werribee Mansion! Rest assured, we’ve not left out Dazza’s or our Informant. We may even have another poem zone…

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Roving reports

1·4Cooks River and Werribee Park Mansion2Atherton3Sippo Lake

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:23

  Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country and Ollie Spake on Dharawal Country, both worn out after a huge weekend: Mel landed late the night before and went straight to work, Ollie has angry toes and unhappy legs from Sunday's event. Their weekend started on Saturday morning, and they throw first to audio captured by the Office Lady Sam Schroder.

• Emails starts at 10:21

  Feedback on last week's episode, read by both hosts: Graham Wilkinson on winning the Obi Award ("Poster boy and Obi award made my week", clarifying the Northern Ireland Assembly building behind him); Val Warwick praising the roving reports and Patrick's poem; Calum Burrell on the sea shanty; Bruce Purdy, "the ideas man", proposing a Poem Zone by request, where listeners send in a poem and nominate who reads it and in what style; and Patrick endorsing the idea. Leads the hosts to joke that the Channel 5 News crew, Abby, the Informant and the Office Lady could all be nominated to sing.

• parkrun news bulletin starts at 22:03

  parkrun Malaysia announced its return from 20 August 2022, with Taman Pudu Ulu parkrun and Presint 18 parkrun (Putrajaya) reopening and Taman Tasik Danau Kota parkrun to launch later once an event team is established. Then the August volunteer update: the event-day course check becomes compulsory worldwide (teams confirming the role up from 24% to 91%), a reminder of the hot and cold weather policy, the latest volunteer video on the Run Director role (the RD must stay at the start/finish and take no other role during the event), and clarification that volunteers can hold more than one role and earn credit for combinations.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 26:07

  Three roving reports back to back. Tracey Wood at Atherton parkrun on the Atherton Tablelands, far north Queensland, interviews regular and first-timers briefer Carolyn, a group of caravanning tourists (Jen from Penrith, Lynn from Adelaide, Brad from Melbourne, Rochelle from the Central Coast) and RD Michael, who explains the rail-trail course and his Kuranda-to-Port-Douglas ultra. Richard's debut report from Sippo Lake parkrun in Canton, Ohio, USA, interviewing Run Director Donna about the woodland course, Sippo Mountain and the event's upcoming 100th. Abigail's debut junior roving report from Werribee Mansion parkrun, interviewing Event Director Loretta Fraser about the mansion, vineyard, golf course and the flying foxes runners must not wake.

• Dazza's starts at 38:14

  Theme: International Left-Handers Day. Check-ins from Joe Richards ("bow down to the left handers of the world"), Richard from Sippo Lake in Ohio celebrating becoming an international parkrunner, Brett Bailey at a frosty minus-two Pegasus in New Zealand with his "Lady Di moment" see-through tutu photo, Peter Pohlman with a left-handed wave from the volunteer crew at The Beaches parkrun, Steve's bike with a cryptic ("the broth was spoiled"), first-timer Helen Rubin who met Mel and Ollie at Cooks River, Chloe Bravos at Abbey parkrun with Lucy and the Noongar seasons, Michael Gentle's all-left-turns account of touristing at Umbagong District parkrun, a post from Umbagong District parkrun itself, Val Warwick's frond report from Bell's Parade parkrun in Tasmania, Sue Keane getting her NENDY at Southern Highlands Botanic Gardens parkrun ahead of her 250, first-timer Catherine Green Street volunteering at Highfields, and Helen Rutter at Whitley Bay in the UK with an "ultra parkrun" of 3.26 miles and brekkie in a waltzer.

• the Obi Award — Michael Gentle starts at 50:19

  A joint Obi. Awarded for Michael Gentle's Dazza's post about touristing at Umbagong District parkrun, written entirely around left turns and U-turns for International Left-Handers Day (including leaving the flag facing "the no fines way"), and for Umbagong's own pure-gold volunteer Graham, whom Michael met and whom Mel had met on an earlier visit. The hosts note they can't award it to a parkrun itself "until we change the rules", so it goes to the two people. Ollie also pays Michael's fine on his behalf for the post.

• the Informant starts at 51:39

  Unofficial stats: 448 events down under (411 Australia, 37 New Zealand) out of 1,755 worldwide; attendance 33,003 down under out of 186,000 worldwide; no event launches; 3,701 PBs and 1,270 first-timers; 67 Junior 10s, 150 fifties, 96 hundreds, 24 two-fifties; 17 people called bingo. Ramesh Deepwal quickest on 159 events, Peter Daly slowest on 318 runs. Eight new statespeople including Laura Lee Evans (ACT), Whitney Keller, Adrian Pritchard, John and Catherine Fielding (NT), Michael Jones (SA), plus Paul Greenwood and Helen Smith completing South Island NZ. Tony Jennings up to equal 16th on the most-events list after Tamworth Wetlands; Ian Shaw and Jamie Laurent up 8 spots each on their 88th different event; 173 people lifted their Wilson Index, biggest mover Neil Percy up 44 to 151, then Steve Harris up 34 to 215 and top of the Queensland rankings. Adventurer Challenges: Kelvin Grivel and Melissa Klein inducted to the Peel Club, Anne Rayner to the Cow Club.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 54:48

  Saturday 13 August: of 272 members, 215 took part at 108 different events. The hosts announce a format change, they will no longer read out every event, country and state on air, moving the full breakdown to the Facebook page instead. Followed by the roll call of the record Cooks River turnout and an appeal for adventurers to come up and say hello when the hosts are at an event.

• the Frond starts at 55:33

  The largest frond of the week was at Cooks River parkrun in Sydney, an all-time record 21 adventurers, ahead of the hosts' pre-recorded Cooks River audio earlier in the episode. Named: Eman and Kristine Vergara, housemate Lance, Ollie, Bec Bailey, Kristy Hill, Patty Oshimo, Chris Fraser, Ingrid Botha, Mia Horrigan, Mel, Helen Davis, Dawn Branton, Michael Schultz, Sam and Luke Schroder, Craig and Rebecca Ryan, Roberta Williams, Rebecca Gordon and Caro Vos, with Chris Davies and Kerry Fraser noted as missing from the report.

• Streaky September starts at 58:40

  Looking ahead to September. Mel is already 21 days into a streak and getting a head start. The hosts explain the challenge for newcomers: walk, run or find any way to be active for at least two kilometres every day in September, with a Facebook support group and a Bingoe card of side-challenges (run in your pyjamas, selfie with a garden gnome, street sign challenges, streaking with a friend, Strava art, Spoonville). Bingoe card suggestions invited from listeners; the card is to be released imminently, with level-up challenges through the month. They also explain the running gag of spelling "bingo" with an E, "a hangover from the previous hosts who couldn't spell".

• Sign-off starts at 1:06:00

  Mel said she was going to Frank Keenan Reserve parkrun at Yarrawonga, Victoria's newest event, a border town up on the Murray River that she had been wanting to get to. Ollie said he would take a week off adventuring to run direct back at home, celebrating a 250 milestone and holding a commemoration for a local parkrunner who had recently died. Ollie said it had been a fairly big pod that he would try to edit down, trailed another Poem Zone entry, gave the Facebook and email contacts and closed for another week.

• Poem Zone starts at 1:08:46

  Set up and delivered after the outro. Tracey Wood's submission, inspired by Paddy Oshimo's entry the previous week, is a parkrun rewrite of Billy Joel's "Piano Man" ("It's seven o'clock on a Saturday and the regulars all stumble in"), Ollie sings it unaccompanied, having warned listeners they may want to tune out when the credits roll. Bruce Purdy's suggestion earlier in the episode that listeners send in a poem and nominate both the reader and the style appears to be turning the bit into a recurring request format.