Episode 400 - Thank you for the Music

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HostsMelissa Ellis Tony O'Connell

Roving reportersAli Sheppard Paul Kitching Tony O'Connell Tracey Wood

Show notes

From the Facebook post

Mel and Toc bring you the 400th episode. A milestone of sorts. But there's no party this time, just tales from familiar places and days spent with friends. Those who were celebrating were Ali Sheppard at Rosensteinpark (opens in a new tab) parkrun in Germany, Tracy at Lawson (opens in a new tab), PK at Mount Barker (opens in a new tab) and TOC at O'Connors Beach (opens in a new tab). Listen in to hear where our 700 Adventurers Club members were, what events launched, who had the biggest Frond and what Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III has for us in Club Corner.

- Sunil Chamund managed to drag his visitors- including a first timer!- to Leicester Victoria (opens in a new tab) parkrun!

From the podcast feed

Mel and Toc bring you the 400th episode. A milestone of sorts. But there’s no party this time, just tales from familiar places and days spent with friends. Those who were celebrating were Ali Sheppard at Rosensteinpark (opens in a new tab) parkrun , Germany, Tracy at Lawson (opens in a new tab), PK at Mount Barker (opens in a new tab) and TOC at O’Connors Beach (opens in a new tab). Listen in to hear where our 700 Adventurers Club members were, what events launched, who had the biggest Frond and what Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III has for us in Club Corner.

Roving reports

1Rosensteinpark2·4Lawson and O’Connors Beach3Mount Barker

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:23

  Episode 400, Mel on Wurundjeri Country and TOC on Boon Wurrung Country, joking about commemorative merch and clearing up last week's homework on cinder tracks. Mel thanks listeners who responded about juniors numbers; TOC was at Inverloch with 119 finishers and two junior milestones, and thanks Val and Steve Warwick and listener Charles Gregory from his Tassie trip to O'Connors Beach. Mel hosted Sam Schroder, chased an aurora up the Bacchus Marsh thousand steps on Friday night, then ran Puckapunyal on Taungurung land with Andrew and Martine and brunched in Seymour; Budgie has passed from Karen Hamilton to Bec Bailey at Shellharbour with a new German airplane companion, and TOC describes Yzerfontein parkrun's token hoop.

• parkrun news bulletin starts at 15:52

  News block opened with a newsflash sting: progress towards resuming Pioneer Dairy parkrun (NSW Central Coast) now the access road is finished and the board has approved a restart, aiming for a late January / early February return; a listener question answered by the show's South African correspondents on why Namibia and Eswatini have no Freedom Day equivalent; the permanent closure of Epworth Equestrian parkrun in the UK after the landowner withdrew permission, going out on a record 454 finishers; and Malling parkrun's rename to Leybourne Lakes.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 24:47

  TOC hands over to the roving reporters: four reports this week - Ali Sheppard at Rosensteinpark parkrun in Stuttgart on German Unity Day (with Run Director James), Tracey Wood at Lawson parkrun in the Blue Mountains (with marshal Louise and RD Lindsay), PK at Mount Barker for parkrun's 20th birthday (with co-ED Paul Butler and Heidi from The Athlete's Foot), and TOC himself at O'Connors Beach parkrun at St Helens, Tasmania (with founding ED Ash). TOC recaps all four.

• Dazza's starts at 48:08

  Listener posts read out, on Universal Music Day and the week's challenge to work a salute into your post: Pauline Taylor at Albert Melbourne, Rex Gream at Armidale, Johan Duvenhage with Levi at St George's parkrun in Gqeberha, Sunil at Leicester in Victoria (UK), Adrian Luscombe's 400th parkrun coinciding with the 400th episode, Heather Hunter at Taree, Steve Warwick singing his way round Bells Parade, Nick Graney at Highbury Fields and Calum Burrell at Cheadle Hulme. 130 comments this week.

• the Obi Award — Sunil Chimund starts at 54:49

  This week's Obi goes to Sunil, from the UK, for getting his visiting Victorian friends to parkrun at Leicester, one of them doing their first ever parkrun - as Mel puts it, 'good job getting the Australian tourist friends visiting into parkrun'.

• Emails starts at 55:45

  The email slot is called for and passed over: 'We don't have any emails, I don't think.' / 'No emails this week, Mel.'

• Club Corner starts at 55:50

  Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III continues his series on volunteer roles, covering the start of a parkrun day: the compulsory Event Day Course Check (and why it must be done on the morning), pre-event setup, and the car park marshal - plus the Event Director's part in course design, risk assessments and the landholder relationship. Closes with his standing line that all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 1:00:29

  For Saturday 12 October 2024: of a total of 700 members, 504 took part in nine countries across 265 locations - a milestone the hosts note lands on the 400th episode. 53 events in the UK, eight in South Africa, three in Ireland, two in the USA, one each in Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland and Singapore; in Australia 48 in Victoria, 47 in Queensland, 46 in NSW, 17 in WA, 14 in SA, seven in the ACT, four in Tasmania, one in the Northern Territory, and five on the North Island and two on the South Island of New Zealand. No pilgrimage this week.

• the Frond — Bug Hunter Waters parkrun and Cornerstone Lakes parkrun (six each, international); Shellharbour parkrun (ten, Australian) starts at 1:01:39

  Largest international fronds: two events with six participants each - Bug Hunter Waters in the UK (Denise Evans, James Avery, Nadege Rutter, Cass Castleton, Debbie Airey and Andy Airey, Andy in an inflatable spider costume) and Cornerstone Lakes in the USA (Stuart Henderson, Eman Vergara, Romul Vergara, Kristine Vergara, Natalie Wilson and Joe McLean, most of them there for the Chicago Marathon). Largest Australian frond: ten at Shellharbour, seven at Samford Parklands, six each at Albert Melbourne and Inverloch.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 1:04:49"Where is the cake?"

  Two launches: Battersea parkrun in the UK, a flat two-lap tarmac course and a new event for the London Challenge, possibly the closest to the city itself - 269 finishes, only three of them first-ever parkrunners, with 36 volunteers; and Halswell Quarry parkrun in the southern suburbs of Christchurch, New Zealand, the sixth in that region, two loops with a climb to the quarry rim and 180 metres of elevation - 450 finishes and 41 volunteers, 68 of them first-time parkrunners.

• parkrun adventure challenge starts at 1:07:18listener challenge

  Mel's challenge for the coming week: lie on the ground and form the first letter of the name of the parkrun you are at with your body - and to level it up, have a friend hold the selfie frame so the letter appears inside the cutout.

• Sign-off starts at 1:12:15

  Mel and TOC said where they would be next parkrun day: Mel heading across town to the southeast to Marriott Waters parkrun near Cranbourne to surprise a friend celebrating a milestone (asking listeners not to give it away), and TOC hoping to get to Phillip Island parkrun, which he pointed out is actually on Churchill Island. Mel trailed that Simon and Sarah would be hosting next week while she took a break from pod notes, and TOC closed with the Facebook and email contacts and "that's it for another week".