Episode 411 - GPS fails
2025-02-06
— open the full-size coverHostsMelissa Ellis Simon Mackley
Roving reportersAlison Fraser (King) Lyndell Murray Ruth Perkins
Show notes
From the Facebook post
We found him!! No, not Simon – although he's here with Mel this week after gatecrashing Sirromet's party. Fresh from a Vergara visit, Mel has challenges on the brain trying to keep Reginald engaged, so he doesn't run away like the previous unpaid staff. The roving reporters are busy, reporting in from Gordon Carmichael Reserve (opens in a new tab), Beeeevahhh (Belvoir) Castle and Tamborine Mountain (opens in a new tab) parkrun. Oh yeah … and we found Budgie.
Matthew Billo Billington found fellow adventurers Lila and Sue at Rex Jackson Oval (opens in a new tab) parkrun.
From the podcast feed
We found him!! No, not Simon – although he’s here with Mel this week after gatecrashing Sirromet’s party. Fresh from a Vergara visit, Mel has challenges on the brain trying to keep Reginald engaged, so he doesn’t run away like the previous unpaid staff. The roving reporters are busy, reporting in from Gordon Carmichael Reserve (opens in a new tab), Beeeevahhh (Belvoir) Castle and Tamborine Mountain (opens in a new tab). Oh yeah … and we found Budgie.
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Enhanced transcript
Speakers named, sound described and segments marked by the editing pass — not yet checked by a person.
Read the transcriptRoving reports
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:26
Simon Mackley on Quandamooka Country and Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country, Mel sweltering through a Melbourne heatwave while Queensland has floods. Feedback from Calum Burrell that Mel and Nicola Forward twinned at Sale and Sale Water; Mel did Coburg event 450 with Christine and Eman Vergara, Craig Ryan and friends for Christine's birthday, then accidentally drove back to Coburg parkrun instead of work on Monday; Simon stumbled into Sirromet's ninth birthday crazy-hat day without a hat, prompting a tally of winery parkruns and the idea of a grapist club.
Budgie update starts at 8:02
Mel: "now anyway it's time to talk about budgie we do have a budgie update". Gareth (Arnold) has the travelling mascot Budgie in his possession after a Budgie swap at an oval in South Australia; Budgie is now bound for the UK, and Simon reveals inside information that Budgie already arrived there on Sunday lunchtime. The show notes end with "Oh yeah … and we found Budgie".
parkrun news bulletin starts at 8:52
Simon brings a Financial Times (UK) article, "parkrun comes of age: six of its best international 5Ks", picking London Bushy, Frankfurt's Nidda, Milano Nord, Central Burnaby in Vancouver, Brimbank in Melbourne and Hikarigaoka in Tokyo; Mel is baffled by the Brimbank choice and argues for beach or Albert Melbourne instead. Followed by the Australian attendance-record news: 29 events broke their previous largest attendance, some records only a week old and one standing over 400 events. Mel closes it "Thank you for bringing us that little snippet of international news."
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 15:05
Mel hands over "Well Simon we've got some roving reports for you so we're still playing catch up so this is this week's selection." Three back-to-back reports follow: Alison at Gordon Carmichael Reserve (Tauranga, NZ), Ruth Perkins at Belvoir Castle (UK) and Lyndell at Tamborine Mountain (QLD). Simon recaps all three.
Dazza's starts at 36:31
Mel: "In any case, Simon, it's time for [Dazza's]." This week's prompt is Change Your Password Day, "Passwords are like parkruns. Some are very simple. Some are really quite complex. And some demand a lot." Contributors: Claire Corkill (ACT, Barcode Scanner at Tuggeranong, five weeks of volunteering and expecting a baby); Wendy Pallant (UK, first ever Sign Language Support volunteer at Bramhall Park); Andrew Blanda (NSW, Timekeeper at Cooks River's 10th birthday with unofficial baker and cake-support roles); Tracy Leaper (three-hour drive to Tin Can Bay and a car/phone Bluetooth argument); Charles Gregory-Hicks (Tasmania, Whitemark Wharf to complete his Tassie statesmanship); Chris Roos (record attendance of 642, trialling the Number Checker role); Billo (NSW, completed the parkrun adventurers Challenge at Rex Jackson Oval); and Helen Rutter ("Herbie birthday" 53 at Old Railway Trail, Llangollen).
the Obi Award — Wendy Pallant starts at 43:51
Mel: "Simon, do you have an [Obi] post?" The award goes to Wendy Pallant, for being the first Sign Language Support volunteer at Bramhall Park parkrun in the UK, "What a very useful volunteer role that is... Quite unique."
Emails starts at 44:29
"We have mail. You've got mail." Simon reads the New Zealand round-up sent in by Alison: a record 12,741 finishers at 56 parkruns; the launch of East Otago High School at Palmerston (the first NZ parkrun based at a school, 83 finishers); 12 new attendance records; Hamilton Lake running out of tokens and manually processing 501-515 while neighbouring University of Waikato was cancelled for path works; and Palmerston North equalling its record of 454.
Club Corner starts at 45:45
Mel hands over "it's always good to hear from Reginald and hear what they've got to tell us today." Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III explains the finish token and finish token support volunteer roles, how tokens are handed out at small versus large events, the knitting needles, containers, rubber bands and 3D-printed contraptions used to manage the stacks, and the reminder that all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun. Simon and Mel debrief afterwards on the awkwardness of handing tokens to people who all want to receive them differently.
Consolidated Club Report starts at 49:26
For Saturday 1 February 2025: of 744 members, 569 took part in 11 countries across 277 locations. UK 58 events; seven in [country not stated in the audio]; two each in South Africa, Poland and the USA; one each in Denmark, Japan and Sweden. Locally: 47 events in Queensland, 45 NSW, 43 Victoria, 22 WA, 16 SA, 12 Tasmania, 8 ACT, 7 North Island, 4 South Island, 1 Northern Territory. Mel reminds listeners they can add the Adventurers Club as one of their five parkrun profile affiliations, via the official profile and not the 5K app.
the Frond — Shellharbour parkrun — largest frond of the week, 12 adventurers starts at 50:28
International fronds of four at two events: Alice Holt (Ewan Borton-Lynn, William Borton, Nicholas Stott, Alexander Borton-Lynn) and Bramhall (Colette Goldthorpe, Lee Stott, Gabby Lipschen, Wendy Pallant). The pilgrimage to Bushy drew no one, "Just deer." Largest frond was 12 at Shellharbour, with a frond of nine at Emerald Lake (Garth Dowling, Donna Anderson, Lyndell Murray, Thomas, Joshua, Daryl, Charlotte, Vicky and John Smith) where Vicky Smith, "Nana" of Nana and Pa, was regaining her Victorian statesmanship on her 70th birthday, and a frond of eight at Chermside in Queensland.
Launches and anniversaries starts at 52:54"Where is the cake?"
Three launches in the past week: Midleton Greenway in Midleton, County Cork, Ireland, an out-and-back with the nearest parkrun almost 20km away, launching with 636 participants; East Otago High School in Palmerston, South Island NZ, three return laps of the school sports field, 83 finishers; and Drage Reserve parkrun in South Australia, about one kilometre from the mothership Lochiel, a flat figure-eight, 85 participants, "great for prams". Mel also tracks Birtinya Island's fourth event, down to 246 from a launch of 461.
parkrun adventure challenge starts at 55:04listener challenge
Mel: "Now, Simon, a listener challenge." Listeners are asked to work a fly emoji into their [Dazza's] post this week, prompted by the steamy weather and the flies that come with it, and to be clever about it, using the word "fly" in any sense they like; the best will be read out next week.
Sign-off starts at 55:49
Mel turned to looking forward to next week: Simon said he would be at Scribbly Gums to build up his P-index, and Mel would be at Portarlington parkrun on Saturday morning, walking to save her legs for the Bellarine Sunset Run that evening, with Dave planning to run both, her only previous visit to Portarlington was October 2017. She repeated the invitation to join The adventurers team or volunteer for the sunset run, listing TOC, Craig Ryan, the Belinda Fairy and adventurer Kelly as going. Simon trailed Mel and TOC for next week and revealed he would miss the following recording as he would be in Japan, with no parkruns on the northern island, so no parkrun for two weeks; Mel gave the contacts and signed off.