Episode 334 - parkrun Voyager

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HostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake

Roving reportersAlison Fraser (King) Lyndell Murray Tony O'Connell

GuestChloe

Show notes

From the Facebook post

This week, we embrace the spirit of carpe diem and advocate for a promising new word that has been tattooed in our minds....

Mel shares her adventure to Tallangatta Station (opens in a new tab) parkrun, where she wasn't solo, while we also hear of parkrun voyages to Caffarella (opens in a new tab) parkrun, Brisbane Valley Rail Trail (opens in a new tab) parkrun and Wolford Wood (opens in a new tab) parkrun. Even Myrtle the Turtle is Cha Cha Cha'ing around on parkrunday this week!

From the podcast feed

This week, we embrace the spirit of carpe diem and advocate for a promising new word that has been tattooed in our minds.... Mel shares her adventure to Tallangatta parkrun, where she wasn’t solo, while we also hear of parkrun voyages to Caffarella (opens in a new tab), Brisbane Valley Rail Trail (opens in a new tab) and Wolford Wood (opens in a new tab). Even Myrtle the Turtle is Cha Cha Cha’ing around on parkrunday this week!

Guests

Roving reports

1Caffarella2Brisbane Valley Rail Trail3Wolford Wood4University of Western Australia

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:24

  Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country welcomes Ollie Spake back on Dharawal Country after a week off spent running Run Shellharbour half marathon, celebrating Zali's birthday, Mother's Day and Eurovision, and helping at Shellharbour's 400th Kids Take Over event where Ava ran barcode scanning. Mel drove to Tallangatta Station parkrun event three on Dhudhuroa land with Zoe, who was coaxed out of the car to complete the course, then brunched at the Green Galah; listener corrections on pronouncing Tallangatta came from Georgina Devine and Adrian Hillyer, the 'swather' debate got a Rachel-and-ChatGPT treatment, the Office Lady and Heather Hunter added Prince of Wales parkrun to Rusty's coronation challenge, and Brendan Peel was congratulated on his 300th unique event at Cyril Curtain Reserve before a Eurovision recap.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 17:52

  Mel throws to the roving reports and Ollie hands over: "we have a swather of roving reports for us to catch up on". Four reports follow back to back, TOC at Caffarella parkrun in Rome, Lyndell Murray at Brisbane Valley Rail Trail parkrun in Blackbutt, an unnamed reporter ("Dashcam") with Christine and Myrtle the Turtle at an unstated event, and Alison at Wolford Wood parkrun in the UK for Andy Airey's Freyne. Mel and Ollie recap all four and note they are still playing catch-up on a backlog.

• Emails starts at 35:27

  "We've got some mail too, Mel. You've got mail." A private message rather than an email: Sarah Jefferson followed up the wheelbarrow runs recorded at Hampton Oval's 100th event (mentioned back in episode 331) by tracking down Hampton Oval parkrunner James Robson, whose long reply the hosts read out, becoming a single parent of two young daughters, buying the sailboat Salty Jocks, sailing 1,800 nautical miles up the WA coast, running 500km in October pushing the girls in a wheelbarrow and raising $11,000 for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

• Dazza's starts at 38:25

  A cut-down "Dazza's lite" of listener milestone shout-outs: Cherie Cottle at UWA photographing the koi pond, Paul Whelan's 71st location at Karoola Park with two events left for the region of runners, Claire Winozik missing stopwatch bingo by two seconds at Winnard Woodland, Calum Burrell completing his compass challenge at Henley Wood parkrun in Oswestry, and get-well wishes to Anne Fry, who coordinated volunteers from behind the scenes after an emergency appendectomy.

• Club Corner starts at 39:51

  Ollie throws to Rachel: "is it time we throw to Rachel for a bit more of a club corner?" Rachel explains the Wilson Index, the contiguous run of event numbers a parkrunner has collected, starting from event number 1, and the floating Wilson Index, the longest gapless streak of event numbers starting anywhere. She closes with the reminder that all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun. Mel and Ollie then compare theirs and discover they are identical: Wilson 10, floating Wilson 30.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 43:10

  The adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Saturday 13 May 2023: of 421 members, 325 took part at 175 locations, 26 events in the UK, three in South Africa, two each in the USA and Italy, one each in Ireland and the Netherlands; locally 39 events in New South Wales, 35 in Queensland, 32 in Victoria, nine each in WA and South Australia, five each in Tasmania and the North Island, four in the ACT and one in the South Island.

• the Frond — Shellharbour passionistas (frond of 11) starts at 43:53

  The largest frond of the week was 11 passionistas at Shellharbour ("We won't name them. They're the same every week"). Also eight at Tallangatta Station with Andrew Reynolds, Andrew Johnston, Mel and Zoe, Renee Jackson, Irene Parth-Bomacanti and Martine Barrot; and a gathering at Cyril Curtain Reserve in honour of Brendan Peel's 300th unique event, with Errol Poole, Brendan Peel, Adrian Homburg, Roberta Winters and Matthew Billington, who completed his pirate challenge.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 46:00"Where is the cake?"

  Two new events. Dixon Field joined the parkrun family at Gisborne in Victoria with 164 at the launch, half an hour from Mel, who will report on the course when she visits. And in South Australia, the Murray Bridge team returned after the floods with a Mother's Day themed launch at a new location: 56 people ran, walked or jogged, Daniel took the course record in 18:49, and the event's own announcement counted "six months, 21 days or 29 weeks or 203 days or 4,872 hours since our last event". Also discussed: National Volunteer Week in Australia and the June longest-run dates around the country.

• Sign-off starts at 50:09

  Ollie turned from the longest run dates to the coming parkrun day: Mel would not declare her hand, having been touting Dixon Field but possibly going elsewhere, and Ollie said he was run directing at home at Shellharbour before two weeks on the road. Ollie then said he had been remiss in not wishing Mel a happy Mother's Day, and she said she had caught up with three of her five children - Sarah and Jake visiting, Olivia in the air home from Italy and Madeline the week before - plus her own mum on the Saturday. Ollie thanked Rachel for supporting his case to amend the dictionary and gave the Facebook, socials and email contacts.