Episode 389 - What's a Melidex?

Episode 389 — open the full-size artworkShow artwork, January 2023

HostsMelissa Ellis Tony O'Connell

Show notes

From the Facebook post

What IS a Melidex? What are Budgie Smugglers? An Obilope? Dazzas? A frond?

You won't get ALL the answers this episode, but you WILL hear about Mel's adventure to Balclutha (opens in a new tab) parkrun. You WILL hear the Birthday Boys August offering, and you WILL learn about the latest batch of launches.

For the rest, you might just have to listen to the back catalogue…

Join TOC & Mel!

From the podcast feed

What IS a Melidex? What are Budgie Smugglers? An Obilope? Dazzas? A frond? You won’t get ALL the answers this episode, but you WILL hear about Mel's adventure to Balclutha (opens in a new tab) parkrun. You WILL hear the Birthday Boys August offering. And you WILL learn about the latest batch of launches. For the rest, you might just have to listen to the back catalogue… Join TOC & Mel. You’re welcome 😊

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:24

  TOC on Boon Wurrung Country and Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country, back from New Zealand and thanking Sarah for filling in, though they correct her placing Greg Garner's Victory Heights run in Victoria rather than Queensland. Listener name suggestions for the plane mascot include Zoomy (Greg Garner) and Budgie (Helen Patricia), with Jackie noting the holder would be a budgie smuggler. TOC ran Inverloch two weeks running and scored his first Groundhog Day in about 390 parkruns; Mel ran Balclutha on the South Island (26 finishers, first female, sheep on the floodbank, then an ice bar in Queenstown with Ezra) and this week Newport Lakes, where she took a wrong turn after a fallen sign.

• the Melidex starts at 11:40

  TOC coins the "Melidex", the number of times a listener has been to parkrun with Mel, and reveals he and Mel have attended 56 parkruns together since Berwick Springs in July 2014, across Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia, the ACT, Queensland and New South Wales, missing only the Northern Territory. He throws it out as a listener challenge: can anyone beat 56? Credited as borrowed from Danny and Nicola.

• Statesmen update starts at 14:06

  Prompted by Sarah being two events short of a WA statesman, TOC reads a tally compiled by Dawn: 24 statesmen in Victoria (111 events), 2 in Queensland, 63 in South Australia, 5 in Western Australia, 27 in Tasmania (22 events) and none at all in New South Wales; the ACT and Northern Territory are omitted for having too few events. He adds 324 members of the Peel Club (every state and territory) and 16 in the Aussie Pioneer Club (the first event in each state or territory). Mel is in the Pioneer Club and two events off the Successors (Rockingham and Nightcliff); TOC is one off his Aussie Pioneer (St Peters).

• Dazza's starts at 18:53

  Dazza's moon-landing-themed prompt (55 years since the first steps on the moon). Posts read out: Ellie Shepherd at Swansea Bay, Wales (a land train on course); Maggie Lewis and her mum at S.S. Koopa Trail, Bribie Island; Pippa White and the TAME Volunteer at Muncaster Castle; Sonja Pohlman's whale-breaching video at The Beaches, NSW; Pauline Taylor from Kedron, Brisbane, where adventurers gathered to celebrate Shortsy's life; Rex Gream's first international parkrun at Byxbee, USA, with 20 American family members; Dan O'Connell's 50th volunteer and 17th run-director stint at Kirkdale Reserve; Ian and Lydia Knox completing Capitalist status at a very wet Tuggeranong; Rhianna Witt Gamble's 150th different event at Maria Creek Reserve, SA; Charles Gregory and an enormous puddle at Launceston; and Stuart Brandwood at Princes, Liverpool, whose post about visitors Bill and Yvette Turner leads to Yvette writing in as a brand-new listener.

• the Obi Award — Rex Gream starts at 31:27

  Drawn from the "Obilope". The Obi goes to Rex Gream, all the way from the USA, for bringing 20 American family members to parkrun for the first time at his first international parkrun, Byxbee, "You might have changed some lives."

• the Birthday Boy starts at 32:14

  The Birthday Boy's August 2024 anniversary rundown: 40 events on the books over five weeks. Eight People Club events celebrating, Bill Rose Sports Complex (NSW) 5, Chelsea Bicentennial and Wilson Botanic (Vic) 8, Harris Avenue (Qld) 5, Hervey Bay (Qld) 10, Jakes Point (WA) 1, Port Lincoln (SA) 7, Victor Harbor (SA) 10. Also Eastern Gardens 6 (Explorer Club), Greenbank 7 (Rainbow Club), Cairns 11 (Miner Club), Balyang Sanctuary 12 (a Successor event and the 10th to launch in Australia), Claisebrook Cove 12 (a WA pioneer event) and Harmony Boulevard (Qld) 1. Closes with the reminder to check each event's own page for anniversary plans.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 36:22

  For Saturday 20 July 2024: of 665 members, 469 took part in eight countries across 239 locations. UK took gold with 48 events; six each in South Africa and the USA; one each in the Netherlands, Japan and Italy. Locally, 43 events in Victoria (silver), 41 in Queensland and New South Wales, 19 in Western Australia, 16 in South Australia, seven in Tasmania, six on the North Island of New Zealand and three in the ACT.

• the Frond — Rex Jackson Oval parkrun (18 adventurers) starts at 37:12

  Largest international frond was at Princes, Liverpool, Bill and Yvette Turner, Steve Milne and Ruth Perkins. No adventurers at Bushy this week. Largest frond in Australia and New Zealand was 18 at Rex Jackson Oval, NSW, including Sam and Luke Schroder, whose Dazza's post called it a "spontaneous giant frond two weeks in a row". TOC predicts the biggest international frond will move to the USA next week on "the green factor" after Rex Gream's efforts.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 39:17"Where is the cake?"

  Four launches, three in the UK and one in Japan, none in Australia or South Africa. Dereham parkrun (UK): grass, trail and hard surfaces, 151 finishers and 37 volunteers. Shibamata koen kadan near Tokyo: a double out-and-back along the riverbed, 53 finishers, nine volunteers, 74% male. Three Brooks (UK): a mile and a half from the former Little Stoke parkrun that was shut down by the local council, 414 finishers and 55 volunteers, with TOC untangling which council had the final say over each course. And the Plains parkrun (UK): 226 finishers and 27 volunteers squeezed into 35 car spaces, with sets of grassy stairs on the trail section.

• parkrun adventure challenge starts at 44:32listener challenge

  A challenge aimed partly at regular Dazza's posters who don't listen to the pod: suggested by one of the Level 2 with a View office staff, post in your Dazza's comment an emoji that represents an Olympic sport, ahead of the Paris opening ceremony. TOC and Mel float curling, swimming, basketball, soccer and equestrian.

• Sign-off starts at 46:47

  TOC asked whether Mel had parkrun plans: she said it was her at-home weekend after New Zealand and she would probably head to Maribyrnong, prompting TOC's memory of doing lead bike there on the last day that role was available and Mel's news that the Anglers Tavern had reopened after the Maribyrnong floods. TOC had no plans, floating an interstate trip just across the border to McLean Beach, one of Mel's favourites, or Inverloch or Great Southern, and said he would post it on the Friday night post. Mel trailed the following week as a fifth Monday blue moon with Ollie back, thanked TOC for joining her, and closed with the Facebook and email contacts and 'that's it for another week'.