Episode 373 - Geographical Inaccuracy

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HostsMelissa Ellis Tony O'Connell

Roving reporterTracey Wood

Show notes

From the Facebook post

Q. What do you get when you cross a rodeo with a hot air balloon spectacular?

A. Mel's amazing tourism adventure!

This week, Mel visited Braidwood Showground (opens in a new tab) parkrun, which incidentally wasn't the location for the rodeo OR the balloons. And TOC is backing it up and keeping the recording south of the Murray.

If that's not confusing enough, Tracey is at Underwood Park (opens in a new tab) parkrun for no particular reason at all.

Hopefully Rachel has her spreadsheet together!

From the podcast feed

Q. What do you get when you cross a rodeo with a hot air balloon spectacular? A. Mel’s amazing tourism adventure! This week Mel visited Braidwood showground (opens in a new tab) parkrun, which incidentally wasn’t the location for either. And TOC is backing it up and keeping the recording south of the Murray. If that’s not confusing enough, Tracey is at Underwood Park (opens in a new tab) parkrun for no particular reason at all. Hopefully Rachel has her spreadsheet together!

Roving reports

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:23

  Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country and Tony O'Connell on Bunurong Country in a Victorian March heatwave, with Ollie Spake resting after a small operation. Mel owns up to placing Queen Elizabeth, Casino in Queensland in the Consolidated Club report; TOC was at Inverloch for a double 250th, double 100th and a 50th plus a visit from Billo and Lila, while Mel drove from Queanbeyan to Braidwood Showground with Bec Bailey, Claire and Jack Corkill and new listener Nick Graney, then took in the Queanbeyan rodeo and the Canberra Balloon Spectacular. Also International Women's Day, Lyndell's 50th volunteer at Bunyaville, the Periodic Table Challenge rules, and TOC's look at how the removed average-attendance figure understated current numbers at Inverloch, Albert Melbourne and Main Beach.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 19:27

  TOC crosses to the week's roving report: Tracey in a tutu at Underwood Park parkrun on the south side of Brisbane, admitting she has no particular reason to be there ("unimportant, underwhelming and uninteresting"). She interviews local Sandy on the course profile, walks with local Angela, and finishes with Mark, the Run Director of the day. Melissa closes the crossover.

• Dazza's starts at 27:09

  175 comments this week on the prompt "Did you go north, south, east or west this parkrun day?" Read out: Jo Richards (Karkarook), Michael Blain (Queensland statesman status at Hamilton), Ian and Lydia Knox (Coober Pedy Oval, photographed with firefighters in full turnout gear), Dawn Branton (University of Waikato, completing every Australian state and territory plus both New Zealand islands), Heather Hunter (Forster), Chris Gore (Rockingham), Ryan Stoddart (Ginninderra), Tamsin Smith (run directing Southampton, 1,049 participants), Mary Botto (Kensington, USA), Phil Olson (wife Julie's 250th different venue at Abbey Park, first woman to do so), Johan Duvenhage (Aviators Paradise, South Africa) and Jason Andrews (Westerfolds). Later posts from Billo (Inverloch) and Andrew Yeatman (Canning River) are read outside the segment proper.

• the Obi Award — Ian Knox starts at 37:04

  The "Obilope" is opened at the end of Dazza's. The Obi goes to Ian and Lydia Knox for their Coober Pedy Oval parkrun photo, the two of them in the selfie frame with a pair of firefighters who ran in full turnout gear including breathing apparatus in extreme heat, against the red dirt and gums. TOC: "It had that harsh environment around them, the red dirt, the gums, a couple of fireys in turnout gear, and it was just a brilliant photo."

• Emails starts at 38:15

  The email slot is opened and immediately closed, there was no email this week. TOC: "Mel, this week we didn't have an email... So, people, get on the computer. What's that internet thing called? Send us an email."

• Club Corner starts at 38:30

  Rachel's pre-recorded part one on "classic clubs" drawn from the Aussie parkrun Tourism (unofficial) Facebook group, most of them based on event-name spelling: the Pirate Club (seven C events plus one R, for "seven seas"), The The Club (all Australian events beginning with the word "The", The Avenues, The Beaches, The Entrance, The Ponds, The Terrace), Mountaineer (events containing Mount/Mountain/Mt/Mountains) and Hillbillies (Australian events with "hill" in the name, e.g. Anstey Hill Recreation, Blue Gum Hills). She closes by reminding listeners that all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 41:25

  For Saturday 9 March 2024: of 595 members, 465 took part across 240 locations in 10 countries. 36 UK events, four in South Africa, three in the USA, one each in Italy, Sweden, Japan, Poland and Singapore. Locally: 55 events in New South Wales, 45 in Victoria, 39 in Queensland, 13 in Western Australia, 12 in South Australia, nine in Tasmania, seven in the ACT and North Island, four in the South Island and one in the Northern Territory.

• the Frond — Irchester Country, Riverside Walk and Tidworth (three-way international tie, three adventurers each) starts at 42:37

  Largest gatherings of adventurers at a single event. Internationally a three-way tie on three apiece: Irchester Country (James Avery, Tracey May, Nadege Rudder), Riverside Walk (Debbie and Andy Airey, Mark Perkins) and Tidworth (Kim Leonard, Sammy and Cameron Jerish); a shout-out also to Alan Raven at Ford. Locally the largest frond was 10 at one event, with nine at Inverloch (Ray Farr, TOC and Jack, Adrian Sell, Joanne Harland, Serena Newman, Jane Wiles, Lila Butler and Billo).

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 44:11"Where is the cake?"

  One new parkrun in the world this week: Trebeck Reserve parkrun at Winchelsea, Victoria, southwest of Melbourne and west of Geelong, a two-lap out-and-back, 92 finishers and nine volunteers at the launch, with a free camp, playground and toilets nearby. TOC follows it with a deep dive on launch numbers for 2024 (nine in January, two in February, two so far in March) against parkrun's global five-year strategy target of doubling events to 4,400 and participation to 500,000 a week.

• Sign-off starts at 51:09

  The hosts say where they will be next Saturday: TOC is doing a duplication, run directing Inverloch a second week running with 24 volunteers recruited from the residential estate he lives in at Cape Patterson; Melissa is flying to Launceston ("Lonnie") in Tasmania to finish off the Pioneers Club.