Episode 399 - Das Ist Gut

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HostsMelissa Ellis Simon Mackley

Roving reportersCalum Burrell Sarah Jefferson Tracey Wood

Show notes

From the Facebook post

This week Mel and Simon are back together to talk a lot about Germany. Mel was back at Pucka, Simon returned to Redland Bay (opens in a new tab) parkrun and Budgie checked in. There's a new member of the team, filling in a gap left by someone who thinks they're funny. Roving reports from Epworth Equestrian (opens in a new tab) parkrun , Point Hut Pond (opens in a new tab) parkrun & Otago Central Rail Trail (opens in a new tab) parkrun, Alexandra, and a challenge to boot.

Nick Graney adventured all the way to Mousette parkrun in Quebec, Canada!

From the podcast feed

This week Mel and Simon are back together to talk a lot about Germany. Mel was back at Pucka, Simon returned to Redland Bay (opens in a new tab) and Budgie checked in. There’s a new member of the team, filling in a gap left by someone who thinks they’re funny. Roving reports from Epworth Equestrian (opens in a new tab), Point Hut Pond (opens in a new tab) & Otago Central Rail Trail, Alexandra (opens in a new tab) and a challenge to boot.

Roving reports

1Epworth Equestrian2Point Hut Pond3Otago Central Rail Trail, Alexandra

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:23

  Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country and Simon Mackley on Quandamooka Country, first time together in eight weeks. Budgie has been in Germany with Karen Hamilton for Unity Day at Alstervorland and International parkrun Day at Moorbek, where she was first female finisher after running the Berlin Marathon; Simon lists 30 adventurers across 15 German events on Unity Day. Simon ran a hot Redland Bay event 342; Mel and Dave did Puckapunyal with 11 participants, Mel announces the birth of her first grandson, and after parkrun's 20th anniversary she describes the kids singing happy birthday at Eynesbury juniors and reflects on whether small numbers make a junior event unsuccessful.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 9:58

  Three roving reports back to back: Calum Burrell at Epworth Equestrian in North Lincolnshire (third-last event before the landowner withdraws permission, course record 373 with 333 first-timers, interviews with ED Ade, RD Janice, visitors Annette and Lorraine and Barcode Scanner Lindsay); Tracey Wood at Point Hut Pond in Gordon ACT (co-founder Tyson, marshal Luke, RD Em); and Sarah Jefferson at Otago Central Rail Trail parkrun Alexandra in New Zealand (founder Sally). Melissa Ellis wraps all three and adds a researched aside on the Alexandra hillside clock.

• Dazza's starts at 41:06

  International parkrun Day / parkrun's 20th birthday edition. Posts read from Gareth Arnold (WA, Woodbridge Riverside and a robot-themed cafe), Josh Button (NSW, Chipping Norton's 50th), Nick Graney (Moussette, Quebec), Joanne Blackbird (Victoria, Funnel Manager at Albert Park with 985 finishers), Peter LaRue (South Africa, Homestead Lake with the 9th Benoni Scout Group), Brett Bailey (New Zealand), Helen Rutter (Wales, diverted from Tremorfa to Trelai Park), Mark Walls (Queensland, Chermside), Janet Reid (South Australia, 'aboard the mothership Lochiel', all in apricot) and TOC (Tasmania, O'Connors Beach with a doctored selfie frame reading O'Connell's Beach).

• the Obi Award — Nick Graney starts at 49:43

  Simon Mackley awards the Obi to Nick Graney for his Dazza's post from Moussette parkrun in Quebec, celebrating parkrun's 20th anniversary in French Canada with a bilingual pre-brief and the Canadian flag - 'look forward to finding out where you pop up next, Nick.'

• Club Corner starts at 50:18

  First Club Corner presented by Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III, who explains that Rachel has left for the stand-up comedy circuit. He starts a detailed run through the volunteer roles, beginning with Event Director (and co-EDs), the 2024 recognition of ED as a claimable volunteer role, the relationship between EDs, Run Directors and parkrun HQ ambassadors, plus Volunteer Coordinator and communications roles. Signs off with Rachel's line that all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 54:50

  For Saturday 5 October 2024: 693 members, 524 taking part in 12 countries across 269 locations. Adventurers at 40 UK events, 11 in Germany, six in South Africa, three in the Netherlands, two each in Canada, Italy and the USA and one each in Austria, Japan and Poland; locally 56 events in NSW, 52 in Victoria, 39 in Queensland, 20 in WA, 14 in SA, five each in the ACT and the North Island, four in Tasmania, three on the South Island and two in the Northern Territory. Bushy pilgrims for the 20th anniversary: Adrian Luscombe (19th visit), Lisa Ackerson (first) and Branka Moss (third).

• the Frond starts at 56:13

  Largest frond was a tie between two non-UK events: Westpark in Germany with four (Bill Troy, Ellie Soper, Christopher Miles, Leonie Butler) and Amsterdamse Bos in the Netherlands with four (Laura, Caleb, Timothy and Tabitha Amos). Largest fronds in Australia and New Zealand: 13 at Shellharbour, 11 at Samford Parklands and eight at The Ponds. The Shellharbour frond is read out in full and used as a hook to wish Oliver Spake a happy birthday.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 58:52"Where is the cake?"

  Two launches: Naturlehrpfad, Wetzlar parkrun in Germany (88 participants, 20 first-timers, 12 volunteers), whose course description Simon Mackley starts to read in German before switching to English; and Paisley Park parkrun in west Belfast (112 participants, 24 volunteers, five first-ever parkrunners), which starts on a cinder track. Earlier in the episode the hosts also mark parkrun's own 20th anniversary and International parkrun Day, with 1,818 participants and 124 volunteers at Bushy Park.

• parkrun adventure challenge starts at 1:02:25listener challenge

  The hosts review last week's low take-up of the birthday-emoji challenge (hard to score, because people were posting cake emojis for parkrun's 20th anyway) and set this week's: post a salute - 'I am talking more of a military salute', explicitly not a one-fingered one.

• Sign-off starts at 1:03:01

  Mel set the week's listener challenge - give us a salute, a military one rather than a one-fingered one - then asked where Simon was going: she would be back at Pucka parkrun two weeks in a row, and he was heading to Forte Forest, not far from home, to meet South East Queensland ambassadors for their quarterly catch-up, which he said is mostly breakfast and sharing ideas rather than talk of new events. Mel mentioned bumping into listeners lately, including Andrew at Mount Annan and Bill volunteering for the first time at juniors, and announced Budgie would be flying into Shellharbour that Saturday for an adventurer to pick up from Karen Hamilton. They trailed the following week's 400th episode with Mel and TOC, a 'no frills 400' with no party and no T-shirt, Mel thanked Simon for joining her after eight weeks away, and he closed with the Facebook and email contacts and 'that's it for another week'.