Episode 340 - Homework

— open the full-size cover

HostsMelissa Ellis Sarah Jefferson

Roving reporterTony O'Connell

Show notes

From the Facebook post

Sarah is back for another week and she shares her adventures as an RD. Did she do her homework? Mel recaps her Maroondah Dam (opens in a new tab) adventure and looks forward to a month long festival.

There's big news in the worlds of men who run fast and men who run for crazy amounts of time and an extra exciting roving report from TOC at Bushy (opens in a new tab) parkrun.

We've got mail from all over the world, another Dazza's recap from the Office Lady, as well as the Birthday Boy and CCR news.

From the podcast feed

Sarah is back for another week and she shares her adventures as an RD. Did she do her homework? Mel recaps her Maroondah Dam (opens in a new tab) adventure and looks forward to a month long festival. There’s big news in the worlds of men who run fast and men who run for crazy amounts of time and an extra exciting roving report from TOC at Bushy. We’ve got mail from all over the world, another Dazza’s recap from the Office Lady, as well as the Birthday Boy and CCR news.

Roving reports

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:23

  Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country and Sarah Jefferson on Whadjuk Country, back for a second week with the neighbour's cat Winston keeping her warm. Sarah RD'd a rain-soaked Cottesloe parkrun with 68 finishers, notched her 50th volunteer credit, talked about why RD is her favourite role, choosing Cottesloe as her home event after Curl Curl, and reported that she had done her homework and switched to EMS rostering. Mel ran event five of Maroondah Dam parkrun at Healesville with her mum and Zoe along, catching up with Sally Heppleston and Nathan Castle and meeting listeners Jason Andrews and son Ollie from Aurora parkrun; Martine Barrot and Andrew Johnston volunteered dressed as ducks at Eynesbury juniors, whose 100th event is next Sunday with cake and a fluoro theme.

• parkrun news bulletin starts at 13:11

  News and discussion: Andy Butchart (31, Scotland) breaks the men's parkrun world best at Edinburgh in 13:45, taking three seconds off Andy Baddeley's Bushy Park mark; and Shipwreck parkrun ED Phil Gore wins the Dead Cow Gully Backyard Ultra at Nanango with a world-record 102 laps of the 6.7km loop (684km), assisted by New Zealander Sam Harvey, after four and a half days as last man standing out of 54 runners.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 17:55

  Sarah hands over "we might throw to some roving reports". One report this week: TOC at Bushy Park parkrun in London, interviewing Run Director Richard, plus a follow-up audio insert answering Mel's question about how Bushy manages its finish funnel with 1,200+ finishers.

• Emails starts at 27:19

  Two pieces of listener mail. Johan Duvenhage proposes an "AV club" / Adventeering index counting the number of different locations a person has volunteered at, and reports his own as AV 50; Mel is on 24 and Sarah on 10, and they throw back to Johan the question of what threshold should qualify for the club. Bec Bailey writes in from South America, high-altitude runs, meeting Australians from Parramatta, Noosa and Cairns parkruns on the Inca Trail because of her parkrun buff, and heading on to Bolivia.

• Dazza's starts at 32:10

  The Office Lady's weekly recap of what adventurers posted in the Dazza's group, milestones (Sue Smith's 100th at Chipping Norton, Lee Cabarita's 100th Parramatta parkrun, Carmel Roll's 250th, Chris Gore's 350th and number-one token at Shipwreck), a course record for Thomas Martin at Mernda, Chris Fraser's PB on the new Shellharbour course, Heather Morgan's Compass Challenge at Westerfolds, Alison King completing the final North Island event at Waitangi, plus volunteering and travel shout-outs from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and the UK. Closes with a welcome to first-time poster Jason Andrews.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 36:32"Where is the cake?"

  The monthly anniversaries rundown for July 2023: five parkrun days; five official first anniversaries, Umbagong District (ACT) in week three, then Frank Keenan Reserve (Vic), Nantu Wama (SA), University of WA (WA) and Westbury Town Common (Tas) all bunched in week five; Coomera (Qld, Gold Coast region) celebrating its 11th as a parkrun independence event; no Virginia parkrun anniversaries until January. Closes with the standard caveat to check local pages and a plug for the parkrun cancellations page.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 39:25

  CCR for Saturday 24 June 2023: of 434 members, 341 took part at 175 locations. 24 events in the UK, two each in South Africa and the USA, one each in Canada, Germany, Ireland and Italy; locally 39 events in Victoria, 38 in Queensland, 34 in NSW, 12 in South Australia, eight in WA, four on the North Island, three each in the ACT and Tasmania, two on the South Island and none in the Northern Territory. Mel thanks new helper Craig Ryan for taking over the Sunday CCR post.

• the Frond starts at 40:31

  Largest fronds of the week, three events with nine adventurers each: Main Beach (Gary Bowen, Ian and Rhonda Garvin, Sherry Martin, Nicole Sande, Michaelia Hannett, Ray Taylor, Jessica William, Belinda Land), Wagi Bridge (Bill and Yvette Turner, Andrew Johnston, Martine Barrot and others) and the Ponds (Dennis Peden, Jeff Robinson, Manish Bindroo, Jo McLean, Louise Garbers, Penny Prosser, Lisa Spencer, Mary DeLuna).

• Statesmen update starts at 42:09

  Statesmen tally for the week: Victoria five (four of them new, including Mel, who regained statesmanship by completing Maroondah Dam), Queensland seven, New South Wales seven, Tasmania nine and Western Australia 15. Victoria is still bottom of the table; Sarah is one event short of regaining hers.

• Sign-off starts at 45:40

  Mel said it was time to say where they would be next week: Sarah was finally adventuring, flying to Malaysia to tick off the country's only parkrun, where she would meet Helen and Stephen Davis for a frond and expected to meet Mel's friend Harry; Mel and the Office Lady were heading to South Australia and Kangaroo Island to start her birthday month, prompting a run of jokes about a Festival of Mel on tour. Mel thanked Sarah for stepping in for Ollie over the past two weeks and closed with the Facebook and email contacts.