Revisits and Backflips

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HostsMelissa Ellis Tony O'Connell

Roving reportersAli Sheppard Janet Reid Ruth Perkins

Show notes

From the Facebook post

Mel & Toc return with a bumper pod filled with revisits and backflips! There's a 1000th event, 10,000,000th barcode, 5k app adjustments and TOC shares news of his trip to Victory Heights Trail (opens in a new tab) parkrun to escape the wind. We have roving reports from Sewerby (opens in a new tab) parkrun and Dolls Point (opens in a new tab) parkrun and Janet is back catching up with Wildflower ED Andrea Doney aka The Slow Coach.

But that's not all! We have a swather of launches, Bingoe card discussion, plus hints from the elves about this years Ugly Christmas singlets.

Andrew Blanda and multiple zoomies at Wangaratta (opens in a new tab) parkrun!

From the podcast feed

Mel & Toc return with a bumper pod filled with revisits and backflips! There’s a 1000th event, 10,000,000th barcode, 5k app adjustments and TOC shares news of his trip to Victory Heights to escape the wind. We have roving reports from Sewerby (opens in a new tab) parkrun and Dolls Point (opens in a new tab), and Janet is back catching up with Wildflower ED Andrea Doney aka The Slow Coach. But that’s not all! We have a swather of launches, Bingoe card discussion, plus hints from the elves about this years Ugly Christmas singlets.

Roving reports

1Sewerby2Lochiel3Dolls Point

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:23

  TOC on Boon Wurrung Country and Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country, recording late at night as a one-take pod after a week off. Feedback: Gawler parkrun is in the Radelaide challenge of 27 events, of which Mel has 18; Budgie is stuck at South Toowoomba with Eman and moves to Parramatta on Sydney Marathon weekend, where an adventurer is rostered as Tail Walker. TOC and Jack flew to Queensland to escape gale-force winds for Victory Heights Trail parkrun in Gympie on Gubbi Gubbi Country (event 208, a mountain-bike park with jumps and zigzags), joined by Andrew and Martine, Margaret from Bells Parade and lunch with Greg Garner; Mel had her low-key 450th at Peppertree before her daughter's baby shower, and the week before did Gawler with Sarah and Belinda, who reminded her she had already run it in January, plus a tip on hiring EVs for touring.

• parkrun news bulletin starts at 7:37

  Round-up of two weeks of parkrun world news: Bushy parkrun's event 1000 (6,204 finishers, ~136 volunteers, 10 adventurers present), including contributed audio from UK participant Rob Eveson on events 999 and 1000; Tom Williams stepping down after 14 years as parkrun's head of EMEA; the announced-then-reversed 5K app changes ("the backflip"); a weekend outage on event results pages; and the registration of parkrunner number 10 million, a junior at Arrow Rest junior parkrun.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 22:58

  Mel hands over to a backlog of three roving reports played back to back: Ruth Perkins at Sewerby (Yorkshire), Janet Reid at Lochiel (Adelaide) with visiting Wildflower co-ED Andrea Doney, and Ali Sheppard at Dolls Point (Sydney) with two local parkrunners. TOC and Mel recap all three.

• Dazza's starts at 46:41

  Dazza's prompt this week was International Bacon Day and post-parkrun cafe habits. Contributions read out from Andrew Blanda (Wangaratta, synchronised double zoomie photo), Chantelle Hosking (Kingscliff, completing the Australian compass), Ian Thompson (Wakehurst, UK), Charmaine Grobler (volunteer photographer at Victory Heights Gympie), Hannah Newton and James (Dunedin, NZ), Chris Gore and Karen (Ridley Place Foreshore, WA) and Helen Rutter (Zuiderpark, the Hague).

• the Obi Award — Andrew Blanda starts at 52:41

  The Obi goes to Andrew Blanda for the photo of a near-perfectly synchronised double zoomie at Wangaratta parkrun, taken when he took two Wangaratta friends to their first ever parkrun. TOC compares it to synchronised swimming.

• Emails starts at 53:52

  An email from Billo answering the previous episode's question about a Meningie challenge: the challenge is called The Albert, how many parkrun locations run around the edge of Lake Albert, and the answer is two, Meningie and Wagga, with Albert Melbourne (Albert Park Lake) as an arguable third. TOC confirms his own searching found no other Albert lakes.

• Club Corner starts at 55:25

  Mel flags "a very different Club Corner this week" and throws to Rachel, who delivers it as "Joke Corner", a run of parkrun-themed dad jokes (knock-knock, the Terminator, the pterodactyl, "How did you find parkrun today? Google Maps"), closing with her usual line that all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun. TOC reads it as a nudge for listeners to send in new challenge ideas.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 57:34

  For Saturday 7 September 2024: of 682 members, 504 took part in eight countries across 278 locations. Overseas, 55 events in the UK, seven in South Africa, four in the USA, three in the Netherlands, two in Canada, one in Italy. Domestically Queensland led on 56 events, then New South Wales 48, Victoria 44, Western Australia 19, South Australia 16, Tasmania nine, ACT seven, North Island four, South Island two, Northern Territory one.

• the Frond starts at 58:40

  Largest international frond was a four-way tie of three adventurers each, Bug Hunter Waters, Hampstead Heath, Old Railway Trail Llangollen and Southampton; TOC picked Bug Hunter Waters, where Maria Wicks, Mark Pinney and Branca Moss ran. Largest Australian frond was seven at The Ponds, then six each at North Wollongong, Rex Jackson Oval and one further event; Mel highlighted Rex Jackson Oval (Bec Bailey, Paul Rainbow, Sam Duncan, Sue Keane, Paris Lawrence, Paul Whelan). The pilgrimage sub-item went to Maz Strong, the only adventurer at Bushy this week, an F33 shot putter with Tokyo and Paris Paralympic appearances and a Run Director at Kirkdale.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 1:01:15"Where is the cake?"

  A belated mention of Crinan Canal parkrun in Scotland (83 finishers, 17 volunteers in week one), then eight launches on 7 September, Hanmer Forest (NZ), Serengeti Estate (South Africa), Zalew Leg (Poland, "the floodplain"), Moorbek (Germany), Stadtpark Chemnitz (Germany, "City Park"), Spanish Banks Beach (Canada), St George's (South Africa) and Wezenlanden (Netherlands). TOC notes 93 launches worldwide so far this year, 28 of them in the Asia-Pacific.

• Streaky September starts at 1:03:51

  Streaky September check-in, including the weekly Streakmeister audio from Pippa a quarter of the way through the month, on mixed days, using the streak saver and walking rather than running. TOC describes measuring a 2km streak-saver loop under the shop verandas at Wonthaggi to beat eight days of gale-force winds, and runs through the Bingoe card: selfie, budgie streak, spelling, streak in the rain, streak saver, streaky Strava art, early bird (out before 7am) and parkrun.

• International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day starts at 1:10:57

  Mel relays an update from "the elves": a reimagined version of the original fluffy shirt, based on a well-known photo of a famous emu from Nambour, plus a brand new design she has permission to tease as "an iconic Aussie reptile". Orders close 29 September. The hosts stress they are not the elves and are only promoting it.

• Sign-off starts at 1:14:22

  TOC asked what Mel's next parkrun day held: a regional revisit to Nhill parkrun in western Victoria, where she had been at event one, taking Dave along and planning to see the silos, the pink lake, the pinball museum and the aviation heritage centre she missed the first time. TOC was run directing Inverloch parkrun's 10th birthday, with crazy hats and crazy socks, cake, and the event's 50,000th finisher expected that morning, which led to a guessing game on attendance - TOC picked 153, Mel picked 127, allowing for the Sydney Marathon drawing people north. Mel reminded adventurers near Parramatta to grab Budgie the aeroplane off Eman and take him to the next event, thanked TOC for joining her two weeks running, apologised for recording a day late, and closed with the Facebook and email contacts and 'that is it for another week'.