Episode 344 - Guess Who?

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HostsMelissa Ellis Simon Mackley

Roving reporterPippa White

Show notes

This week, Simon sat in the host’s chair and he had a surprise co-host! Discussions covered Zillmere & Newy adventures, APAC event calls, incredible age grade records, and an island off the coast of Ireland. Rachel discusses parkrun clubs, while the mystery surrounding PSH’s time travel is explained.

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

Roving reports

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:24

  Simon Mackley on Quandamooka Country and Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country, recording a day early on Sunday night because Sarah Jefferson has lost her voice and Mel is off to the World Cup with Ollie. Simon volunteered at Zillmere on Turrbal Country, taking his V index to seven, as Mosman co-ED Aileen finished her alphabet, and met adventurers Roberta Winters and Cherie Martin. Mel flew to Sydney and was driven north by Sam and Luke Schroder to Newy parkrun on Awabakal and Worimi Country (event 526, 436 finishers), with the Pohlmans and Caro Vos, followed by the Bootleg Bakery, Bar Beach, Caves Beach and Freedos of Woy Woy and San Remo; she lists the Region of Runners events and asks who the runner with the giant orange moustache was.

• parkrun news bulletin starts at 9:43

  Simon opens the news block: the parkrun APAC office has been running hour-long online sessions (communications, wellbeing, event support already done), with one on Tuesday 1 August aimed at prospective EDs, councils and landowners interested in starting a new event, and a fifth on Thursday 3 August with Carol talking about volunteers; recordings stay available via the link sent to everyone who volunteered in the last year. Melissa then raises the parkrun Stats Geek group's story that PSH (Paul Sinton-Hewitt) was scanned at both Horsham parkrun in the UK and the Wes Mitchell Park launch in Queensland on the same day, consensus is a scanning error, not time travel or a prank, and Simon confirms his athlete ID is the four-digit A1674. The block closes with an holding the age grade record at Coomera with 18:47 (~94%), and a note that Coomera was started by Renee Gimbert and is the eighth event in Australia.

• Dazza's starts at 18:28

  155 comments this week. The hosts read a selection: Sonja Pohlman (a Frond packed into a car for park faffing at Newy, Peter, Sonja and Oscar Pohlman, Sam and Luke Schroder, Melissa and Caro Vos); Martine Barrot at Umbagong District with Andrew Johnston, Stephen and Val Warwick; Roberta Winters at Zillmere with Cherie, the Viking Paul, Coppo and Tony; Helen Davis at Nolen's Park; Margie Lewis at her parkrun; "Booze Dayton" completing her 200th and her partner's 50th at Allerpark parkrun, Wolfsburg, Germany; Jackie Hancock at Pegasus parkrun, New Zealand, for a midwinter Christmas; Alison King in a one-degree frost; and Johan Duvenhage from South Africa, with one of his ethereal photos.

• the Obi Award — Sonja Pohlman starts at 23:47

  Melissa cues the envelope ("there must be an envelope somewhere on your desk") and Simon announces the winner. It goes to Sonja Pohlman for her Dazza's post, the Frond packed into a car for park faffing after Newy parkrun, the "kidnap vehicle" that took the adventurers to the Bootleg Bakery. Melissa adds that nobody is tracking past winners and invites a listener to keep a record from the back catalogue.

• Club Corner starts at 24:38

  Rachel's self-contained contribution on parkrun running clubs (as opposed to milestone/achievement clubs): the "largest clubs" standard report under each country's results tab, how hotly the Australian leaderboard was contested in parkrun's early years in Oz, membership drives, families split between clubs, and arguments over whether number of parkrunners or number of runs mattered, and how allowing up to five clubs per parkrunner has defused it. She runs down the current Australian order, led by RMA (Running Mums Australia), and reminds listeners that all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun. Simon and Melissa then compare their own club affiliations: Simon has Dirty Cheaters (primary), The adventurers, runs with a barcode and With Me Now; Melissa has The adventurers (primary), Dirty Cheaters, runs with a barcode and Team Veteran.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 27:18

  Melissa reads the adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Saturday 29 July 2023: of 441 members, 349 took part in six countries across 166 locations. Adventurers at 21 UK events, three each in Ireland and South Africa, one in Germany; locally 37 in Victoria (back on top), 33 each in Queensland and New South Wales, 11 in South Australia, 7 in WA, 5 on the North Island, 4 each in ACT and Tasmania, and 2 each on the South Island and in the Northern Territory, "another bowling strike". She then gives a special mention to Inis Meáin parkrun on the Aran Islands off Galway, the only event in the world starting at 11am (ferry-dependent), event nine with a record 261 attending, 240 of them first-timers, on a tourist trip organised by Andy Airey.

• the Frond starts at 28:16

  The largest Frond of the week was at Newy parkrun: Melissa Ellis, Sam and Luke Schroder, Sonja, Peter and Oscar Pohlman, Caro Vos and Lynette Pritchard (whom Melissa did not get to meet and apologises to on air). A second, smaller Frond is noted at Inis Meáin off the coast of Ireland.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 32:07"Where is the cake?"

  Simon covers the new Queensland launch at Wes Mitchell Park parkrun, Tin Can Bay, south of Maryborough and north of the Sunshine Coast, with 112 parkrunners on debut, and reads the course description (foreshore path out and back past the start-finish to a turnaround just before the Crab Creek boat ramp). Melissa notes that adventurer Greg Garner is the Event Director and wishes him well, expecting Queensland adventurers to start filtering through for their Wilson numbers. Earlier in the episode Simon also reports on the Zillmere celebrations he volunteered at (a 500 for Jill, ~100 runners, about 30 more than usual) and his friend Aileen finishing her alphabet there.

• Sign-off starts at 33:22

  Mel turned to looking forward with a reminder that the City to Surf was two weeks away and the adventurers frond would be at Centennial parkrun, and relayed an email setting out the costume requirements and pre-event adjudication for the Wonder Woman Guinness World Record attempt, offering to forward the details. She said she was staying near home again and going to Studley parkrun to catch up with Bec Bailey, newly home from her holiday, which kept her 36-event tourist streak intact, while Simon was returning to Scribbly Gum to lift his P-index from six to seven. Mel said she would be recording with TOC the following week while Ollie was still away, and Simon, who had stepped in because Sarah was unwell, gave the Facebook page and email contacts and signed off.