Episode 329 - Winter Waffle

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HostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake

Show notes

This week, Mel was camouflaged and Olly was where he (almost) always is. We apologise for the late (not April Fools related) release, as excitement mounts for palm23. There’s Dazza’s, CCR stats, and a really riveting Rachel rundown.

The podcast feed and the Facebook post carry the same notes.

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:23

  Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country and Ollie Spake on Dharawal Country, both with cicadas, on a waffle-themed episode with no roving reports or interviews, just Rachel and the hosts. Ollie has been previewing Eurovision playlists in Puzzles, his lockdown-built garage bar, and marshalled a slippery hill at a rainy Shellharbour after setting up the course while the usual setter recovers from a fractured foot; Mel ran Puckapunyal event 66 for a new Wilson index number, then visited a friend's farm for crumpets, camels and goats. Lyndell Murray has been named a World Triathlon technical official for the Paris 2024 Olympics (see episode 251, Tokyo Tales), Mel has sorted the back catalogue into seasons (now season eight, palm number six coming), and a New Zealand launch is next up.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 14:07"Where is the cake?"

  Mel hands over to a new-event launch in New Zealand: a Wellington waterfront parkrun starting at Waitangi Park and running north along the waterfront, with two out-and-back segments and a clockwise loop around Waitangi Park. 287 participants at event number one, supported by 20 volunteers. Mel gets Ollie to pronounce the Maori name and notes "there's no H, so it's not an F sound". Avondale University College parkrun's second birthday also gets a mention later inside Dazza's via Georgina Devine's post.

• Dazza's starts at 15:40

  Mel hands over with "we're going to move straight on now to Dazza's". Appropriately for International Waffle Day, Dazza asks whether listeners are dessert-breakfast or savoury fans. Visitors: Jack Corkill (first-timers' briefing at a wet Maitland parkrun); Claire Corkill (region of Runners tick-off at Maitland plus stopwatch bingo after 269 runs); Sarah Jefferson (stopwatch bingo after 258 runs, pancakes at home); Samantha Roberts (returned to Coomera parkrun after nearly three years); Georgina Devine (Avondale University College parkrun's second birthday, her 10th location, first single-lap course, finished on a slip and slide); Greg Garner (a knotty, the 12km trail run at the Yandina 5.0); Roberta Winters (Nutella waffles after her first international parkrun at Bushy, her 100th parkrun with 1,155 others); Lynette from Cobram (volunteering at Eynesbury Heritage Trail junior parkrun with Sarah, Al and three grandsons); and Anne Fry (Robin's 25th volunteer and 100th on course at Shiraz Trail parkrun).

• the Obi Award — Roberta Winters starts at 26:08

  Ollie opens the envelope and awards the Obi to Roberta Winters for her post about running her first international parkrun at Bushy, her 100th parkrun, "with 1,155 of my dearest friends", with Nutella waffles afterwards, and for the photo behind the pop-up that started the hosts' welcome-flag discussion. Mel: "The smiliest adventurer I think that we have, Ollie ... living her best life over there in the UK."

• Club Corner starts at 27:31

  Ollie hands the reins to Rachel, who this week covers Australian states and territories as club/achievement groupings: Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales each have more than 100 events, making them hard to complete, while the NT (three events, "a Territorian") and the ACT ("a Capitalist") are the most achievable. She runs through the state titles, Waratah Wanderer, Banana Bender, Sandgroper, Croweater, Tasmaniac, and regional groupings, and reminds listeners that all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun. Mel afterwards corrects the Victorian regional title, joking that AIs "only know what they're told".

• Emails starts at 30:03

  Mel sets it up ("there's another way to spread the word, isn't there, Ollie?") and Ollie reads mail from Eman Vergara: Team Vergara travelled to the nation's capital so Juno could complete her club challenge at 19 months old, meeting Mark Scarborough and "the infamous troll" at Wagi Bridge parkrun on the hosts' recommendation; and news that Toowoomba is working on a running festival this year, with Bonza's direct flights from Melbourne making the Garden City more accessible. Signed "Eman and Chris"; a photo of Eman, Christine and Juno with Marvellous Mark was included.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 31:39

  For Saturday 25 March 2023: out of 399 members, 313 took part at 173 locations. 24 events in the UK; two each in Singapore, South Africa and the USA; one each in Germany, Poland, Finland, Austria, Malaysia and Ireland, which Mel believes is the most countries the club has ever been represented in. Locally: 36 events in Victoria, 33 in Queensland, 31 in NSW, 11 in South Australia, 10 in WA, 7 on the North Island, 4 each in the ACT and Tasmania, and 1 on the South Island. The club also passed its 400-member milestone. A new stat: three adventurers recorded palindrome times, William Boughton at Tampere (Finland) 24:42, Sarah Langley at Shepparton 40:04 and Parth Bommakanti at Toowoomba 40:04.

• the Frond — San Remo parkrun — Michelle Fyfe, Susan Frederick, Dexter Roddick, Sally Gutierrez and Susan Mitchell starts at 32:48

  Announced inside the Consolidated Club Report: the largest frond of the weekend was in New South Wales at San Remo, where Michelle Fyfe, Susan Frederick, Dexter Roddick, Sally Gutierrez and Susan Mitchell gathered.

• Sign-off starts at 33:52

  Ollie asked Mel what was on the horizon and she said she had no plans for the coming Saturday, her efforts going into preparing for Palm; they then announced there would be no episode the following week, the break running until episode 330, the live Palm 2023 recording, because Mel flies to WA a week early and cannot edit. They said the live episode was live only in front of an audience and would be released later, that Dazza's would stay open through the break though with no Obi on offer, and Ollie said he was heading to a new event, Werrington Lakes Reserve near Penrith, where adventurer Catherine Pirotta was run directing for the first time. He made a last call for Palm, gave the Facebook and email contacts, and said they would see everyone at Palm.