Episode 341 - On the buses

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HostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake Sarah Jefferson

Roving reporterSarah Jefferson

Show notes

From the Facebook post

Welcome back, Olly! It's great to have the band back together.

After news from our hosts' recent adventures – Mel at Kangaroo Island (opens in a new tab) parkrun and Olly at Southern Highlands Botanic Gardens (opens in a new tab) parkrun – we hear from Sarah at Presint 18 (opens in a new tab) parkrun, Putrajaya.

There's lots of mail, news of Christmas in July, and Rachel demistifies some more clubs. Plus, tune in to hear Olly's reaction to our costume plans...

From the podcast feed

Welcome back, Olly! It’s great to have the band back together. After news from our hosts’ recent adventures – Mel at Kangaroo Island (opens in a new tab) and Olly at Southern Highlands Botanic Gardens (opens in a new tab) – we hear from Sarah at Presint 18 (opens in a new tab), Putrajaya. There's lots of mail, news of Christmas in July, and Rachel demistifies some more clubs. Plus, tune in to hear Olly’s reaction to our costume plans...

Roving reports

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:24

  Ollie Spake back on Dharawal Country and Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country, thanking Sarah for filling in. Ollie took the family to Southern Highlands Botanic Gardens parkrun near Bowral while his mum was house-sitting in Burradoo, meeting Sam the Office Lady, Luke and Asha as Sam smashed her PB; this week he did course check and ran at Shellharbour and celebrated Em Scholar's 250th volunteer milestone. Mel, after airport parking was booked out for school holidays, travelled by bus, plane and ferry with Sam to Kangaroo Island parkrun, event 256, staying across the road at the Seaview Motel in Kingscote, and gave a run-down of the island's attractions she didn't have time to see. Cow congratulations to Eman and Natalie Sopa, and a half cow for Lee Cabarita.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 11:11

  Mel crosses to the first half of Sarah Jefferson's roving report from Presint 18 parkrun, Putrajaya, Malaysia - interviews with Run Director Hema and with Washington, an Australian tourist from Brisbane. Mel flags on air that she has split the report in half and only part one runs this week.

• Emails starts at 18:41

  Three pieces of listener mail. David Bravos sends a draft mission statement / manifesto for the podcast ("we encourage, unite and celebrate the amazing parkrun adventurers community"); an anonymous contributor offers three alternative welcome lines; and Ingrid Botha writes about parkrun arriving in her hometown of Glen Innes - the Australian Standing Stones event - and what it would have meant to have had it as a schoolgirl in 1990.

• Club Corner starts at 25:16

  Rachel's instalment on word-related club puns: the "The" club (The Avenues, The Beaches, The Entrance, The Ponds, The Terrace), a royalty club (Kingscliff, Kingston Park, Prince of Wales, Queen Elizabeth at Casino, Queens Domain, plus Jubilee Way and Queanbeyan), the Queensland-in-the-name club, the Rainbow (ROYGBIV) club, and a "run the zoo" club. She closes by reminding listeners all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 29:33

  Mel reads the adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Saturday 1 July 2023 - a club of 435 members with 331 (Ollie corrects it to 339) taking part at 171 locations, including 24 events in the UK, three in South Africa and one each in Austria, Canada, Ireland, Malaysia and Singapore, plus the Australian and New Zealand state-by-state breakdown. Ollie thanks Mel and Craig for compiling it.

• the Frond — Shellharbour parkrun (Frond of ten); Mt Penang and Wyndham Vale parkruns (Fronds of seven) starts at 30:35

  A Frond of ten adventurers at Shellharbour, and Fronds of seven at two further events - Mt Penang in New South Wales (Caro Vos, Susan and Dexter Roddick, Sally Gutierrez, Richard and Lydia, and Ian Knox) and Wyndham Vale in Victoria (Andrew and James Reynolds, Daryl Smith, Kevin Green, Donna Markwick, and Renee and Abigail Jackson).

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 31:47"Where is the cake?"

  News and results from a new event in Broome, Western Australia - Town Beach parkrun - which launched with 96 in attendance, meaning there are no more statesmen left in WA.

• Sign-off starts at 32:30

  Ollie prompted the looking-forward, trailing Ugly Christmas in July on 22 July with no new releases this year, and they announced there would be no recording the following week as Mel was taking a break from editing while her mum visited. Mel said she had no idea where she would be next parkrun day and Ollie expected a quiet one at home at Shellharbour, running rather than run directing, as he trained for the Sydney Marathon and still had to acquire Sid's costume for the City to Surf, for which he thanked the helpers, supporters and enablers who had reminded him. They noted it was NAIDOC week with the theme 'for our elders' before the contacts and sign-off.

• International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day starts at 32:34

  The hosts flag the return of the festive tinge to July: Ugly Christmas in July, officially (or unofficially) on 22 July. Listeners are told to dig out existing Ugly Christmas Singlets and layer them over winter thermals and buffs - there are no new releases this year.