Episode 303 - Home on the range

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HostsMelissa Ellis Simon Mackley

Roving reporterSarah Jefferson

Show notes

From the Facebook post

This week,

Simon Mackley joins

Mel on the pod to discuss

parkwalk,

logos,

streaking,

uglies and all the fun at

Dazza's.

Mel recounts her visit to Renmark (opens in a new tab) parkrun, we have

Sarah at Geeveston (opens in a new tab) parkrun,

Pippa the streakmeister, and lots of

discussion that you'll just have to tune in to hear.

From the podcast feed

This week, Simon Mackley joins Mel on the pod to discuss parkwalk, logos, streaking, uglies and all the fun at Dazza’s. Mel recount's her visit to Renmark (opens in a new tab) parkrun, we have Sarah at Geeveston (opens in a new tab), Pippa the streakmeister, and lot’s of discussion that you’ll just have to tune in to hear.

Roving reports

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:23

  Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country with returning guest co-host Simon Mackley, quizmaster and event ambassador, on Quandamooka Country, now living at Redland Bay and a regular at Fodder Forest, where he met Gungahlin adventurers Bill and Yvette. Mel drove seven hours to camp at Renmark, South Australia, finishing midfield of 44 and chatting with the Shepparton Runners Club's Deb and Phil Harvey and Jo and Wayne Porter of Anstey Hill Recreation, then raced home to tail-walk Eynesbury juniors, where Greg the Victorian event ambassador volunteered and Renee was swooped by a magpie and yelled at by a duck.

• Emails starts at 6:33

  Listener feedback read by both hosts: an email from Sam Schroder ("the Office Lady") about how the Volunteer Coordinator role works at Picton, where local volunteer Vicky works the crowd with a clipboard each Saturday; a Facebook comment from Belinda Taylor asking for more overseas roving reports (praising Jeff from the US and Harry from Malaysia); and Sue Keane correcting Ollie's pronunciation of Jerrabomberra. Prompts a discussion of Volunteer Coordinators at Mossman, Curl Curl and elsewhere.

• Dad joke starts at 12:59

  Simon, on the suggestion that Victoria should have a "Greatsman" version of the Statesman award, says "It kind of greats on me" and immediately labels it himself: "Dad joke." Mel replies "Them's fighting words."

• Streaky September starts at 14:52

  Week three of the streaking challenge. Simon started on 1 September and caught COVID on 2 September, tried streaking in his backyard and gave up; he is now walking a 1.35k loop to the bus stop with the dog. Mel is still going, having done a lap of the block with her husband and later walked to the bottle shop to bank a streak. Also covers the streaking Bingoe card, Mel has yet to tick Strava art or the signpost box, and Ollie's promised "level up" from Fiji.

• Streakmeister tips starts at 17:19

  Pre-recorded audio from UK contributor Pippa, introduced by Mel as "for the third week we have the Streakmeister". Pippa asks whether streaking has become a habit yet, recounts streaks past Buckingham Palace, walking to work so her daughter could cycle, and getting lost running in the woods, then reflects on the long-term effect of streaking: it changes your perception of distance so you walk or cycle rather than reaching for the car.

• Dazza's starts at 19:48

  Country Music Day theme, Dazza's joke is that country music played backwards gives you your dog, truck and wife back. Posts read out: Claire Stutchbury (Eminem "guess who's back"), Jack Corkill back after a four-and-a-half-month hiatus at Stones Corner, first-timer Craig Ryan at Gardiners Creek, NZ 250th milestones for Chantelle Hosking (Owairaka) and Tim Robbins (Greytown Woodside Trail), Patty Shymitzek at Shellharbour, Jacqui O'Connell with naughty number 817 at Inverloch, Bruce Purdy ("the ideas man") on cow punk, Emma Nico at Kirra, Johan from South Africa with a "Home on the Range" parody, most-liked post from Sam Schroder at Curl Curl, Michael Sharp with a John Denver riff and an upside-down flag photo from The Beaches, Caro Vos at Somerset West, Helen Rutter at Delaware and Raritan Canal, Christine Imbert completing stopwatch bingo at University Parks Oxford after 341 parkruns, and Louise Minty at Rock Creek Trail, Portland.

• the Obi Award — Johan Duvenhage starts at 28:07

  Mel has to hunt for the envelope herself because Ollie is away in Fiji ("it must be in my in-tray... it didn't arrive at my house"). The Obi goes to Johan for his country-song take on the Dazza's theme, his post "oh, give me a home where the parkrunners roam, where the children and parkrunners play, where seldom is heard a discouraging word and the sky is not cloudy all day", sent from Heidedal parkrun in South Africa, plus a photo of himself in a cowboy hat. The parody also supplies the episode title, "Home on the range".

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 29:13

  A single roving report this week. Mel throws to it "Simon, time now to throw to our roving reports. We've got one this week"; Sarah reports for the Channel 5 News Crew from Geeveston parkrun in Tasmania, and Simon recaps it afterwards.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 32:48

  The parkrun Adventurers Club has hit 300 members, "three weeks late to coincide with our 300th episode, but we got there". Of those, 235 took part on 17 September at 134 locations. State breakdown: 28 events in Victoria (down on usual), 26 in New South Wales, 23 in Queensland and 12 in South Australia, which was up on its usual numbers. Includes a digression on why Greenway parkrun has a mid-word capital W.

• the Frond starts at 33:18

  The fronds rundown delivered inside the Consolidated Club Report: eight at The Ponds; four at Greenway (Tracy Jensen, Neeraj Kanal, Aaron and Michael Gentle); four at South Toowoomba (Pauline and Russell Taylor, Barbara and Roger Luther); the largest, six, at Des Connor Park Juniors (Belinda Taylor, Erica Liotta, Leonie Butler, Michael Blain, Michael Schultz and Tracey Wood); five at Westerfolds Junior and four at Eynesbury. Mel notes the fronds are "making the news at all the junior parkruns". An earlier frond of three is also called at Simon's home event.

• International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day starts at 35:28

  Forward look at this year's ugly Christmas range, which Simon is buying for the first time. The reimagined original design adds two rows of motifs: a pineapple for "the OG Mel", Mel Erbacher; a red balloon for Scotty Trickett and his 99 red balloons; the Eynesbury duck for Melissa Ellis; and an unexplained cactus that Simon guesses is Ollie "because he hasn't shaved and he's all prickly", Mel parks the question for Ollie to answer next week. The animal row gathers the kangaroo (original), koala and pineapple (second), emu (third, "our Nambour year", with Fluffy), platypus and echidna (last year), plus new crocodile and kiwi "for our friends across the ditch". A second gingerbread design carries gumdrop buttons and "run, run as fast as you can" on the back, and there is a limited-edition visor.

• Sign-off starts at 39:06

  Simon asked where Mel was going next parkrun day: she was heading to North Parkes Oval in the New South Wales town of Parkes over the long weekend, a trip two years in the planning, taking the dogs and the dog pram and dragging Zoe and Paul along. Simon said he would not be parkrunning for the next two weekends - a wedding that weekend and then eight nights in Bali, their first overseas trip since COVID - and Mel wished him a good time. He gave the Facebook and email contacts, said that was it for another week and thanked Mel for having him.