Episode 382 - What's in a name?

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HostsMelissa Ellis Simon Mackley

Roving reportersAlison Fraser (King) Calum Burrell Janet Reid Tony O'Connell Tracey Wood

Show notes

From the Facebook post

Mel is back at the desk with Simon, talking about Cronulla (opens in a new tab) parkrun and his trip to Wishart. There was talk of Speed Week at Sandgate and BERT & ERNIE. Roving reports from Jeune Park (opens in a new tab), Whyalla Foreshore (opens in a new tab), Clarence (opens in a new tab) and Pokkinen (opens in a new tab) parkrun, Oulu. A plethora of launches across the world plus Longest run Australia reminders. Will you rise to the challenge?

From the podcast feed

Mel is back at the desk, talking to Simon about Cronulla (opens in a new tab) parkrun and his trip to Wishart. There was talk of speed week at Sandgate and BERT & ERNIE. Roving reports came in from Jeune Park (opens in a new tab), Whyalla Foreshore (opens in a new tab), Clarence (opens in a new tab) and Pokkinen (opens in a new tab). There were a plethora of launches across the world and Longest Run is upon us again. Will you rise to the challenge?

Roving reports

1·2Cronulla and Jeune Park3Whyalla Foreshore4Clarence5Pokkinen

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:23

  Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country and Simon Mackley on Quandamooka Country. Mel thanks Sarah for co-hosting the previous week while work got on top of her (hence a late edit and a week off), argues with Simon over whether Armidale earns her the University Challenge or the Professor Challenge, and Simon concedes Peter Pohlman's point that the Milestone Club existed in 2017 and settles the pronunciation of Jeune Park, named for a Melbourne Cup racehorse. After a rough week Mel took up TOC and Jackie's offer of a weekend away at Cronulla, where they did a live and TOC interviewed Event Director Dan.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 18:01

  Simon hands over with "Well, to give you a bit of a break, how about we throw to the roving reports?" Four reports follow back to back: Tracey Wood at Jeune Park (Beaudesert, QLD), Janet at Whyalla Foreshore (SA), Calum Burrell at Clarence (Bury, UK) and Alison at Pokkinen (Oulu, Finland). Melissa runs the roll-call.

• Dazza's starts at 48:03

  Dinosaur-themed week with about 120 comments. Posts read out from Jamie Humphreys (Løvstien, Bergen), Andy and Deb Airey (Deb finishing her periodic table at Reading), Dave Tozer (Cwmbran), Claire Winozik (Darren Peet's 300th at Valley), Joe McLean (Surfers Paradise, with swim-streak banter aimed at Sarah Jefferson in WA), Garth Dowling (Fibonacci sequence completed at Trebeck Reserve with Bill Lodwick) and Andrew Yeatman (Edinburgh Oval).

• the Obi Award — Deb Airy starts at 53:50

  The "Obilope" is opened on camera by Simon: "And the Obi goes to Andy slash Deb Airey." Melissa clarifies it really goes to Deb Airey for finishing her periodic table, the 15th person to do so, after the original attempt at Reading was cancelled for flooding, and for the photo of her with the pop-up and a framed periodic table.

• Club Corner starts at 54:52

  Rachel, coming to listeners from Arrernte Country, on risk assessments: parkrun Global's country base templates, Australia's snake and kangaroo risks, the global ice-cream-van risk, Australia being the only country listing extreme heat but not extreme cold, and three risk-themed jokes. She closes with her standard reminder that all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 59:37

  Melissa admits she did not update the stats, "Can I claim COVID brain?", and refers listeners to the website and Facebook post. She thanks the "Belinda Fairy" for having compiled the report for the last few weeks, and gives only the headline: the UK topped the leaderboard and Victoria came second.

• the Frond — Itchen Valley Country parkrun (largest international frond); Bungendore Common parkrun (largest Australian frond) starts at 1:00:30

  Largest international frond was six adventurers at Itchen Valley Country parkrun: Heather Morgan, Helen Davis, Alison King, Linda Boziak, Hilary Fraser and Victoria Knight Phillips. Largest Australian frond was 11 at Bungendore Common ("Bungers") in NSW: Jack and Claire Corkill, Nick Graney, Neil Scott, Peter Abela, Ian and Lydia Knox, Diana Marshall, Vincenzo Coco and Sam and Luke Schroder. Nobody was at Bushy, though regular Eynesbury Juniors volunteer Suzanne Aquilina and her husband Charlie were there representing Melton City Runners.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 1:03:10"Where is the cake?"

  Two weeks of launches covered: Lake Pacawa (Plover, Wisconsin, USA), Halsema Trailhead (Jacksonville, Florida, USA), Tollgate Farm Park / baqʷab (North Bend, Washington, USA), Y Promenâd (Brecon, Wales), Terra Nova (Trichardt, Mpumalanga, South Africa), Emerald Resort (Vanderbijlpark, South Africa), Bay East Garden (Singapore, the country's fourth) and Rex Jackson Oval (Helensburgh, NSW), the last prompting a discussion about parkruns named after questionable historical figures and the shortage of events named after women.

• Sign-off starts at 1:13:31

  Simon asked where Mel was going next parkrun day; she said it was her home week with no adventure planned and she had COVID, so she would probably stay local and had not decided where. Simon was tossing up between Meadowbrook, which he had done only once on a New Year's Day double, and Underwood, both about 30 to 35 minutes away, because Jackson had an early soccer game further afield. Mel pushed him towards Meadowbrook as a name she had never heard in nine years of listening, congratulated him on finishing his alphabet at Zillmere with Dorota, and then wrapped up with the Facebook and email contacts and 'that's it for another week'.