Episode 363 - Old Farts and Old Ducks

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HostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake

Roving reporterMelissa Ellis

Show notes

As Dazzas celebrates volunteer day and the wonderful contributions across our adventurer community, we hear about Mel's trip to the West-East-side at Campbelltown (opens in a new tab) parkrun and Olly finally shows up to share his visit to Tassie, Collingwood and, well, Shellharbour #inourbudgies

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

Roving reports

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:23

  Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country and Ollie Spake on Dharawal Country, back after a month away. Mel has been bathing and fencing in an escaping Pomeranian; Ollie recovered from the spicy cough after Tasmania, where he ran Point to Pinnacle for Carrie's Beanies 4 Brain Cancer, met Nedd Brockmann and quietly ticked off kunanyi parkrun. Mel visited Campbelltown parkrun in Sydney's heatwave with Lee, Sally McLaughlin, Bianca, Charlene Harrison and Chris Fraser in their Ugly Christmas Singlets, picking up a Rayfarer and iIndex event.

• News and discussion starts at 16:03

  The hosts' own name for the running-order block: listener feedback from Michael George correcting the UK event count to 800+ and reporting freezing-weather cancellations in northern England; a tip-off from Adrian Hillyer about parkrun's new "Notch" bracelet/key-loop range in the global shop; and a post from David French on the Aussie parkrun tourism page about doing 27km of the Ultra Trail Cosi Series and then fronting for Jindabyne parkrun, including a mystery runner who did 169km of trail and came to parkrun straight after, the hosts appeal for listeners to identify him.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 21:37

  Oliver Spake crosses to Melissa Ellis's recorded field audio from Campbelltown parkrun in New South Wales, where she interviews Billy on his 250th milestone. Only one report this week; Ollie notes that he recorded none during his Tasmania trip.

• Dazza's starts at 25:13

  Volunteer-themed edition, prompted by International Volunteer Day on the Tuesday. Posts read out from Greg Garner (first overseas parkrun at Queenstown, New Zealand), Ian and Lydia Knox (ugly koala at Kirra), Brendan Scholarly (volunteering in Queensland, park walking with his dad from Minnippi), Val Warwick (bumping into Jackie and TOC at Studley, breakfast at the Studley Boathouse), Georgina Devine (Zooper Dooper duty at The Beaches), Bernadette Bennett (mud at Thorp Perrow, North Yorkshire), Cathy Mudge (a Junior 10 milestone shirt for her dog Harley), David O'Brien (a freedom run on Deck 7 of the Pacific Explorer at sea), Jonathan Morgan (junior parkrun volunteering in South Australia) and Andrew Yeatman (the self-styled "old farts"). Andrew's post gives the episode its title when Melissa coins "Old farts and old ducks".

• the Obi Award — Jonathan Morgan starts at 32:48

  Oliver Spake opens the envelope as, by a new rule, "the male co-host of the pod". The Obi goes to Jonathan Morgan, thanking him and the team for keeping junior parkrun going for the kids at a wet and windy morning despite the elements, and looking pretty fab in doing so.

• Club Corner starts at 33:50

  Rachel returns with a pre-recorded piece on designing a parkrun course: the core restrictions (no roads, driveways or car parks), the nice-to-haves (toilets, bubblers, parking and public transport), start/finish and choke-point considerations, how course type affects participant capacity, volunteer and setup burden, help from core teams and local ambassadors, measuring with a wheel, mapping via Strava into Google Maps, the full walkthrough video for World HQ, and unofficial trial events. Closes with her standing line that all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 37:51

  For Saturday 9 December 2023: of 519 Adventurers Club members, 409 took part in nine countries across 216 locations, passing the club's goal of 500 members for the year. 32 UK events (an all-time high), three in America, two in South Africa, one each in Germany, Italy, Singapore and Sweden; locally 47 in the Greater State, 45 in Queensland, 42 in New South Wales, 11 in South Australia, 10 in Western Australia, six on the North Island, five in Tasmania, four in the ACT, three on the South Island and two in the Northern Territory. Adventurer PB: Louise Murphy at Warren County Armco. Milestones: Hayley Bowyer 50th at Ipswich; Simon Aruz 100th; Johan Duvenhage 250th at Durbanville, South Africa; Karen Hurrell 250th at Haigh Woodland; and Paul Kitching (PK) his 250th at Mount Barker, cheered across the line by the crew there and closing in on 100 volunteer credits.

• the Frond — Helen and Andy Rutter and Claire Vinicic (largest international frond, Darlington South Park) starts at 39:04

  Frond rundown inside the Consolidated Club Report. Largest international frond at Darlington South Park in the UK, Helen and Andy Rutter and Claire Vinicic. Locally, fronds of seven at three events, the noteworthy one at Southern Highlands Botanic Gardens with Bec Bailey, Billo, the Office Lady, her Luke, Asher, Jodie Maisie and Brendan Peel; fronds of seven also at The Ponds and Shellharbour, fronds of six at Campbelltown and Karkarook, and fronds of five at Ginninderra and Studley.

• the Informant starts at 43:09

  No stats segment this week. Oliver Spake thanks the Informant as a longstanding supporter of the podcast and reminds listeners they can still get the midweek stats for the parkrun day just gone at www.theinformant.me.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 43:41"Where is the cake?"

  Four launches. Battlestead Croft in the UK (114 finishers, all had parkrun before), a three-lap, mostly grass course around the grounds of Burton Rugby Football Club, no dogs. Centennial Park, Dunsborough in Western Australia (124 finishers, 25 first-timers), an out-and-back along Geographe Bay Road. Belair National Park in South Australia (320 finishers, 35 first-timers), the Birdie loop clockwise with a 500m teardrop turnaround, starting by the Escape Goat shed, bike hire and cafe, with a Phytophthora footwear-cleaning request the hosts struggle to pronounce. Palm Creek in Queensland (20 finishers, all had parkrun before), a two-lap sealed concrete course along Palm Creek.

• International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day starts at 47:22

  Looking ahead to Ugly Christmas Singlet and Shirt Day on Saturday 16 December: the hosts push the Facebook event page, ask listeners to tag themselves, wear any year's singlet, add tinsel and share photos, and flag that Ugly Christmas Singlet visors are still available to order. Melissa has no plans yet ("NFI"); Ollie will be run directing at Shellharbour as ugly as possible. The pair also note next week's episode is the last for the year before a short summer break.

• Sign-off starts at 49:20

  Ollie noted that next week's episode would be the last for the year ahead of a short summer break, then asked Mel where she planned on being ugly for Ugly Christmas Singlet and Shirt Day; she said she had no idea, with a teenager at home and nothing scheduled, while Ollie said he would be at Shellharbour run directing and intended to be as ugly as possible, dragging along any of the family who had their uglies to hand. He gave the Facebook and email contacts and closed for another week, saying they would see everyone next week one last time that year.