Episode 417 - Baby Brain is Real

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HostsSarah Jefferson Simon Mackley

Roving reporterRuth Perkins

Show notes

From the Facebook post

Sarah is back in the comfy chair, talking with Simon about the last seven weeks, cyclones and a few records. We have a roving report from Penrith (opens in a new tab) parkrun (not the one in Western Sydney). There were two exciting launches, with at least one going straight to the top of the bucket list. Tune in to see which two unlikely Adventurers also cross paths.

- Tim Robbins found Tracy the Troll and Spider Abdul at Chermside (opens in a new tab) parkrun

From the podcast feed

Sarah is back in the comfy chair, talking with Simon about the last seven weeks, cyclones and a few records. We have a roving report from Penrith (opens in a new tab) parkrun (not the one in Western Sydney). There were two exciting launches, with at least one going straight to the top of the bucket list. Tune in to see which two unlikely Adventurers also cross paths.

Roving reports

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:23

  Simon Mackley on Quandamooka Country and Sarah Jefferson on Noongar Boodja, back after the birth of her and Matthew Stevens' daughter Hadley, who has already slept through six parkruns on a parent's chest. Simon came through Cyclone Alfred with minor flooding and a felled tree and, with many southeast Queensland events closed, ran a record 561-strong Wynnum event 601; Sarah walked Sir James Mitchell parkrun (event 9) in South Perth with friends, an event the City of Perth asked for and stood up in five weeks. Clarification that the numerals-in-the-name parkruns include Lake2Lake and the returned Root 44, a reminder to join the palm25 messenger group for Queenstown, NZ and Australian stats (14 new attendance records, Bibra Lake setting a WA record of 596) and a last call for adventurers buff orders, with Ali Sheppard carrying the UK batch.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 12:29

  Sarah throws to the week's single roving report, from the UK. Ruth Perkins reports from Penrith parkrun in Cumbria on a crisp one-degree morning, describing the playing-fields course, the River Eamont, the Lake District fells and the Pennines, and interviews Andrew Richardson, who has delivered the First Timers Welcome there for about ten and a half years and has never run another parkrun (Ruth dubs him a "passionista"). He talks about the call-and-response briefing, the site's history and next week's Motor Neurone Disease Association charity event, noting that Rob Burrow's last ever public event was at Penrith. Simon adds on the return that Andrew has 15 parkruns and 439 volunteer credits.

• Dazza's starts at 21:57

  World Speech Day theme, with the hosts asking who gave the event brief or First Timers Welcome; the week's prompt was wind emojis. Comments read out: Jo McLean at East Richmond (NSW); Tim Robbins park-faffing at Chermside (QLD), with Tracy the troll and Spider Abdul, the travelling soft toy taken from University of WA parkrun by Rory Marriott; Gareth Arnold at Tamworth Wetlands with the toy Chutney and a Noongar "Kaya" greeting; Leanne Evans at Hoblers Bridge Reserve (TAS); Eric Banner at Shiraz Trail (SA) with Andrew Johnston, Martine Barrot and Roberta Winters; Andy Airey on a 720km round trip from Chipping Sodbury to Barmouth for Y Promenâd; and Jonathan Morgan volunteering at Delta parkrun in South Africa en route to Kenya.

• the Obi Award — Tim Robbins starts at 27:26

  Sarah asks "do you have the Obilope this week?" and Simon opens it: the Obi goes to Tim Robbins, whose Dazza's post came from Chermside parkrun (park-faffing the park walk, with Tracy the troll and Spider Abdul); the hosts add that Tim was also volunteering at juniors with Rory Marriott on the Sunday.

• Emails starts at 27:58

  "Crickets", no emails read this week. The one email received is held over for Mel and TOC next week because it concerns Palm. Sarah instead invites feedback on Reginald's new "Who am I" guess-the-parkrun bit from the previous episode.

• Club Corner starts at 28:50

  Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III presents part of the ongoing volunteer-roles series, covering two behind-the-scenes roles: Results Processor and Report Writer. He traces the barcode-to-results pipeline through the Virtual Volunteer app and the Timekeeper files, notes that the RD usually processes results but a separate person can be rostered, and sketches the history of the run report from local-newspaper club reports to today's Facebook posts. Two more instalments in the series to come. Sarah and Simon discuss afterwards whether either role has ever been rostered at their own events.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 32:09

  For Saturday 15 March 2025: of 769 club members, 572 took part in 10 countries across 287 locations. Internationally 61 in the UK, eight in South Africa, two in the USA and one each in Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Japan and Lithuania. Domestically 56 in NSW, 50 in Victoria, 44 in Queensland, 19 each in SA and WA, 10 in Tasmania, six in the ACT, four on the North Island, three on the South Island and none in the Northern Territory. Michael George made the Bushy pilgrimage for the first time. Sarah predicts 800 members by the start of May.

• the Frond — Mickey, Leanne, Miles and Jarvis Mansell and Alison King (largest international frond, Puarenga); Brett Crispin (largest frond, Timberlock) starts at 33:15

  The largest international frond was on the North Island of New Zealand at Puarenga, with the Mansell family, Mickey Mansell, Leanne, Miles and Jarvis Mansell, plus Alison King. The largest frond was at Timberlock, with Brett Crispin. Sarah adds a running joke about fining TOC whenever Inverloch is mentioned, calling it "the new Shellharbour".

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 35:09"Where is the cake?"

  Two launches. Hoblers Bridge Reserve parkrun in Tasmania drew 180 participants and 15 volunteers with only seven first-timers, an out-and-back flat trail alongside the North Esk River, mostly packed gravel with a short boardwalk. Mauerweg parkrun in Berlin, Germany drew 87 participants and 25 volunteers with 14 first-timers, run on the Wall Trail along the former Berlin Wall border strip south of the Lichterfelde and Marienfelde districts.

• parkrun adventure challenge starts at 37:28listener challenge

  Following the discussion of parkruns whose names contain numerals, listeners are challenged to include an actual numeral, not the spelled-out word, in their Dazza's comment this week.

• Sign-off starts at 37:58

  Simon asked Sarah where she would be next parkrun day: she was heading back to Cottesloe parkrun, having deliberately gone elsewhere the week before, to take Hadley back to meet the team, with about 33 degrees forecast so they would take the shelter down to the beach and swim afterwards. Simon was staying local, most likely Scribbly Gums, depending on what was open. He noted they would not be recording again until Palm, since their next scheduled recording falls on the Palm weekend when everyone will be in New Zealand, trailed Mel and TOC for next week, and Sarah closed with the Facebook and email contacts.