Episode 407 - Highlights and Hopes

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HostsMelissa Ellis Simon Mackley

Show notes

From the Facebook post

It's our Christmas edition and Mel is joined by Simon, Toc & Sarah to recap their highlights and achievements from 2024, and look forward to what may come in the new year. Crack a bon bon, put your party hat on and enjoy our festive banter as we wrap up another year of the parkrun adventurers.

- Ruth Perkins was in a bit of a pickle at Wetherby (opens in a new tab) parkrun.

From the podcast feed

It’s our Christmas edition and Mel is joined by Simon, Toc & Sarah to recap their highlights and achievements from 2024, and look forward to what may come in the new year. Crack a bon bon, put your party hat on and enjoy our festive banter as we wrap up another year of the parkrun adventurers.

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:24

  Christmas special: Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country and Simon Mackley on Quandamooka Country open the show, with Simon and Sarah to follow and Mel and TOC to close; Mel is back after an unexpected week off. Feedback on last week's episode: Mel and TOC are promoting the Ballerina Sunset Run on 8 February and Mel posted a registration link that adds you to the adventurers team, with Simon, TOC, Belinda Ferry and her girlfriend already signed up.

• Christmas bonbon jokes starts at 2:25

  The Christmas-special cracker-joke tradition, pulled three times across the episode. Mel and Simon open with it ("It's tradition." / "It's the bonbons.") - "What did the winner of the race lose? His breath" and "What do sprinters eat before a race? Nothing, they fast". Reginald devotes his first Club Corner insert to a "special Bon Bon Jokes edition". Mel and TOC pull their bonbons - "Why did the runner join a band? They wanted to improve their tempo" and "Which athlete stays warm during winter? A long jumper".

• parkrun news bulletin starts at 7:10

  Announced by Mel as "News and discussion". parkrun Australia's new two-year partnership with Snap Fitness, commencing 1 January 2025: parkrunners get a free 14-day membership, Snap members supported to attend their local event. Simon reads Snap's own numbers (1,000+ locations, 20 countries, five continents, ~half a million members) and Mel notes the parallel with parkrun's own footprint. Simon then checks how far each host lives from a Snap gym.

• Emails starts at 11:12

  Simon: "So we had an email now." Mel reads a note from Xavier Sanchez, a parkrun adventurer in the south of England who started the podcast at episode two and is up to the low 50s. He is planning a three-month Australian road trip mid-September to mid-December, starting or finishing in Sydney where his sister lives, and asks whether to head south (Sydney-Melbourne-Adelaide) or north (Sydney-Brisbane-Cairns). The hosts advise north for that time of year, saving the southern leg for a February-April return, and invite listeners to suggest shady or iconic events along the way.

• 2024 highlights and 2025 hopes starts at 14:37

  The episode's own Christmas-special theme, run three times as the host pairs rotate. Simon: working with the EDs at Jeune Park for Australia's 500th 5K launch and Queensland's first J, his 100th different event (Cowell Club), completing his alphabet at Zillmere in May, and lifting his volunteer index to eight. Sarah: 23 new locations across three countries and five Australian states, two junior events, WA Statesman again, and Coober Pedy as her highlight; for 2025, filling the map west to east, the last two Northern Territory events, and Port Lincoln. Mel and TOC: Mel's Clare Valley camping, Easter in Coober Pedy, Whitemark Wharf and two new grandchildren, and stepping down as ED at Eynesbury Heritage Trail junior parkrun; TOC's two event launches, palm24 at Toowoomba, 16 new events across four states, and palm25 in New Zealand.

• Club Corner starts at 17:59

  Mel hands over ("we're going to head on over to Reginald"). Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III presents a special Bon Bon Jokes edition instead of the usual club talk - four Christmas cracker jokes (Holly Davidson, chestnuts boasting in an open foyer, the candle that burns shorter, King Wenceslas's deep and crisp and even pizzas) - and closes by recommending the show's back catalogue.

• Dazza's starts at 20:19

  Sarah and Simon read the week's Dazza's posts. Dazza's prompt was World Volunteer Day; the listener challenge was to work "ugly" into the post, and 104 comments came in. Posts read: Billo at Campaspe parkrun (drove the Hume in an ugly, breakfast at Woodend); Joe McLean, NSW (100th volunteer credit coinciding with her 250th parkrun); Mark Walsh at Wynnum (course check after the work Christmas party, ugly emu tee, Bushy Park pilgrimage in two weeks); David Bravos at Aveley (300th parkrun, recreating a scene from the film 300 with Lucy, Chloe as RD); Yvette Turner at Point Hut Pond, ACT; Stephen Noble at Montrose Foreshore, Tasmania (stopwatch bingo after 10 years); Eric Banner at Reynella East, SA; Andy Airey from Wroclaw, Poland (a gingerbread-man Tail Walker, 45 tourists); and Ruth Perkins at Wetherby, UK.

• the Obi Award — Ruth Perkins starts at 28:22

  Simon: "Do you have the envelope for the Obi, Sarah?" Sarah announces the winner. Awarded for her Dazza's post from Wetherby parkrun in the UK, where she rode out Storm Darragh, wore a Christmas pickle costume over her ugly emu tee and chased her husband Chris round the course. Billed as the last Obi winner for 2024.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 42:03

  Mel reads the adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Saturday 7 December 2024: of 714 members, 500 took part in eight countries across 244 locations. Adventurers at 38 UK events, eight in South Africa, two in the USA, one each in Malaysia, Poland and Singapore; locally 52 in Queensland, 48 in NSW, 44 in Victoria, 14 in WA, 13 in South Australia, seven on New Zealand's North Island, six in Tasmania and the ACT, two in the Northern Territory and one on the South Island. TOC adds that Bushy Park was cancelled for only the third time in 20 years because the Royal Parks shut for Storm Darragh, that the UK had 475 cancellations against 336 events held, that Australia's 487 events made it the biggest country for the week, and that Albert Melbourne had the world's largest attendance at 664 finishes.

• the Frond — Stockton parkrun (frond of seven, Australia/NZ); Woodley parkrun (frond of four, international) starts at 42:57

  Reported inside the Consolidated Club Report. Largest international frond was four adventurers at Woodley parkrun in the UK - Brian Grieves, Christopher Miles, Alexander Thompson and Ian Thompson. Largest frond in Australia and New Zealand was seven at Stockton, NSW - David Bennett, Bill Troy, Georgina Devine, Lynette Pritchard, Greg Stark, Scott and Kathy Mudge - chosen for the highlight because Stockton is rarely heard from.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 45:10"Where is the cake?"

  TOC notes launches thin out over the southern summer, and that only one parkrun has ever launched on New Year's Day. Two launches this week: Aintree Reserve parkrun at Rockbank near Melton, Victoria - an undulating out-and-back along Kororoit Creek, 79 participants including 12 first-timers ever and nine volunteers, with Eynesbury junior volunteers helping out; and Park Blekitny parkrun in southern Poland, a four-lap course around a blue park with 100 participants, 28 volunteers and 47 first-time-ever participants. TOC also spots former host Scotty Trickett in the Aintree Reserve results.

• parkrun adventure challenge starts at 49:13listener challenge

  Mel and TOC debate whether to set a challenge over the five-week break and decide to, but without asking anyone to report back in Dazza's: the challenge is simply to thank a volunteer. The previous week's challenge, reported in Dazza's, had been to work the word "ugly" into your post.

• International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day starts at 54:52

  Mel flags it as the announcement in red bold letters in the show notes; TOC confirms 21 December is the day to wear your ugly shirt, notes uglies were already out on courses the previous week, and asks listeners to post photos to the show's socials and to the Ugly Shirt Day Facebook group. He nominates the budgie ugly as his favourite over Fluffy.

• Sign-off starts at 55:57

  Mel said she was taking the next week off, leaving Friday for a week down the surf coast, and planned to hit up Torquay parkrun, she had checked the future roster after TOC confused it with Ocean Grove, which cancels over Christmas. TOC said he would be back at Inverloch for the next couple of weeks, playing Santa on the stump on Christmas Day and hunting for a new costume, having already done Christmas trees, presents, Santas and an elf; Mel suggested Frosty the Snowman and beach Santa photos. They pulled Christmas bonbons and read the jokes ("Why did the runner join a band? They wanted to improve their tempo" and "Which athlete stays warm during winter? A long jumper"), declined to sing, wished listeners a merry and safe Christmas, and closed with the contacts and "we'll see you all next year".