Episode 378 - Run the World
2024-05-02
— open the full-size coverHostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake
GuestTravis Ireland
Show notes
It’s a blue moon pod – which means Olly is back to join Mel at Level 2 and bring us up to date on Disney princesses, Welsh launches and sailing. If that isn’t exciting enough – TOC slips in the back door to chat to Run the World creator, Travis Ireland, giving insight into how the innovative platform was created and his journey to find love for parkrun. Rachel dips her toes in the water, Dazza goes bat crazy, and Tassie seems to be the place to be. Tune in…
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Enhanced transcript
Speakers named, sound described and segments marked by the editing pass — not yet checked by a person.
Read the transcriptGuest
Travis Ireland
The origin and growth of Run Down Under / Run the World: how a 2013 desire to replace an addiction and run a year-long marathon build-up turned into a 14,080km virtual map, the 759 founding members and the Excel spreadsheet that took 19 hours a week, the new app and its Strava teething problems, the nine maps (including Run the Longest Walk, which Travis is running now), giving over $100,000 back to 400 clubs, and his four-year journey from resenting parkrun as a rival to his Gold Coast fun run series to becoming a partner and fan. Closes on his 100th parkrun at Lancefield, Victoria, where 14 people ran.
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:23
Ollie Spake on Dharawal Country and Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country, both in blue for a blue moon. Ollie adds his thanks for palm24, where he met Renata (and ran into her again at Brisbane Airport), explains his Princess Jasmine costume came from a suggestion by someone on the Channel 5 crew, and recounts being interviewed about parkrun on ABC Radio Illawarra by former Matilda Amy Duggan. Ollie's new Saturday routine of a pre-dawn gym run and Zali's football squeezed in Sandon Point with his mum and Hannah; Mel guest-RD'd Puckapunyal with TOC, Jackie and Dan O'Connell, Alicia and Belinda Taylor, who flew down from Brisbane; the delayed Consolidated Club Report is being fixed; they discuss the Bring Back the Stats group's account of its meeting with parkrun, the bus has sold out, and TOC's interview with Travis Ireland is coming up.
Dazza's starts at 50:34
Ollie hands back to Dazza's with the week's prompt ("On Thursday we commemorated the Anzac legacy. Today we walked, ran, volunteered or cheered at parkrun. How was your morning?"). Posts read out from Pauline and Russell Taylor (tail walking at Queenstown, NZ, in an adventurers buff), Mark Walls (first pacing attempt at Wynnum, a palindromic 32:23), Sherry Brandman (ACT frond, Paul Whelan "the Viking" reaching Capitalist status and Michelle Wheatley 200 runs at 50 locations), Rex Gream (Armidale, visited by Brendan Peel), Renata Koch (20+ World Tourists at Launceston), Andrew Yeatman (Maylands Peninsula, WA, recruiting adventurers), Billow (Coburg, beside the old Pentridge Prison), Anne Fry (Wimmera River, Horsham - her third state in three weeks), Adrian Homburg (Bushy Park "parkrun Mecca"), Heather Morgan (Ifield Mill Pond), Andrea Booth (Somerdale Pavilion, running the Curly Whirly to the Benny Hill theme), Sunil Chimund (Wollaton Hall, "Wayne Manor") and Jake Dubit (South Africa). Hosts note an unusually large crop this week because of the World Tourists' travels.
the Obi Award — Sunil Chimund starts at 59:06
The week's Obi goes to Sunil for his photo from Wollaton Hall parkrun in Nottingham - "Wayne Manor" from The Dark Knight Rises - with an Australian friend. Melissa Ellis: "that's just because I thought that was rather amazing, that photo of Wayne Manor."
Club Corner starts at 1:00:17
Rachel's pre-recorded contribution on niche unofficial clubs, opening with her standing reminder that challenges long pre-date the tracking apps and "the apps are not the sole arbiter of what is, or is not, a challenge". This week: the Beach club (15 Australian events whose names contain "Beach" - completing them makes you a "beach bum"), the "bench warmer" (all Reserve parkruns), and the "Gilligan" (all Tasmanian events plus every event with Island in its name plus S.S. Koopa Trail on Bribie Island), including the double-island quirk of Whitemark Wharf on Flinders Island.
Consolidated Club Report starts at 1:03:07
Melissa Ellis reports the adventurers CCR for Saturday 27 April 2024, recovered late after technical problems: of 621 members, 480 took part in 11 countries across 259 locations - 50 UK events, four South Africa, two Poland, one each in Singapore, USA, Ireland, Finland, Canada and Japan; in Australia and New Zealand 51 NSW, 48 Queensland, 41 Victoria, 16 WA, 15 SA, nine Tasmania, seven ACT, six North Island, three South Island and one Northern Territory.
the Frond starts at 1:04:23
The week's group gatherings: five adventurers at Jablonna in Poland for the World Tourists Group European meet-up (Helen and Andy Rutter, Adrian Lescombe, Christine Imbert and Dawn Branton); a frond of four at Alice Holt in the UK (Stuart and Morgan Smith, William Burton, Nicola Stott); and in Australia 11 at Jeune Park, nine at Capestone Lake (event seven) and eight at The Ponds. Ryan Stoddart's 500th parkrun on his birthday weekend at Capestone Lake gets a special mention.
Launches and anniversaries starts at 1:08:32"Where is the cake?"
Three launches take April's total to 14. Jeune Park parkrun at Beaudesert, Queensland - 181 finishers, 28 first-timers, 20 volunteers, two anti-clockwise laps past Spring Creek. Cycle Route 43 parkrun at Ystalyfera in Wales - a flat out-and-back on the Route 43 cycleway, 210 finishers and 26 volunteers, which caused "a ripple of disappointment with naming conventions, as many thought it should have been a Y event". And a new Polish event on city forest paths - two laps plus a 400m run-and-return, 130 finishers and 10 volunteers.
Sign-off starts at 1:13:32
Asked about parkrun day, Mel said she had a flight to Tasmania, into Nipaluna Hobart with her travel buddies Martine and Andrew and no doubt Eric, planning to visit the Warwicks and possibly Bells Parade; Ollie said he would probably miss parkrun day, flying into Nipaluna on the Friday night because his father had bought a yacht moored there and he was needed on deck before it was sailed back across Bass Strait. Mel thanked him for joining her, Ollie noted that Wanwan is the local language word for Shellharbour, they wished each other safe travels, and Mel closed with the Facebook and email contacts and 'that's it for another week'.