Episode 423 - The Hope Song

— open the full-size cover

HostsMelissa Ellis Simon Mackley

Roving reportersAli Sheppard Calum Burrell

Show notes

From the Facebook post

With FOMO from last week, Simon joins Mel on Level Two with a View. Mel celebrates at Peppertree while Simon revisits Fodder Forest (opens in a new tab). We have roving reports from Lyme Park (opens in a new tab) and Potternewton (opens in a new tab) parkrun' in the Uk for two special 250 celebrations. Meanwhile Reginald has their Eurovision pants on.

- A special occasion at Peppertree with a visit from Mel! Plus Adrian Hillyer chalked up his 250th vollie!

From the podcast feed

With FOMO from last week, Simon joins Mel on Level Two with a View. Mel celebrates at Peppertree while Simon revisits Fodder Forest (opens in a new tab) parkrun. We have roving reports from Lyme Park (opens in a new tab) and Potternewton (opens in a new tab) parkruns’ in the Uk for two special 250 celebrations. Meanwhile Reginald has their Eurovision pants on.

Roving reports

1·2Lyme Park and Potternewton

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:24

  Simon Mackley on Quandamooka Country, back after eight episodes away, with Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country; Mel thanks Simon and Danny for covering last week and notes Simon's recent 50th birthday. Mel went to Peppertree for founding ED Adrian Hillyer's 250th volunteer milestone, followed by brunch at Lola's in Bacchus Marsh; Simon stayed close to home at Fodder Forest for his 23rd time (82 finishers, a moved soccer game) after Redland Bay the week before with puddles, plovers and a palindromic position token. Feedback from TOC explaining that he placed the new UK event Park in the Past near Hope, rather than Wrexham as Danny suggested, because Hope is his granddaughter's name.

• parkrun news bulletin starts at 5:56

  Weekly Australia / New Zealand numbers for Saturday 10 May 2025. NZ: 59 events, 9,967 finishers, 960 volunteers, Hagley largest with 607 and Southend smallest with seven; torrential North Island rain cut the numbers. Australia: 508 events, 69,854 finishers, 6,266 volunteers, 10,988 PBs, 2,961 genuine first-timers, 4,042 registrations; Nhill smallest with three and Albert Melbourne largest with 814. Mel closes with "there wasn't much news that came across my desk this week".

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 7:32

  Mel hands over "it's time to throw to our roving reports". Two UK reports, both marking a 250 milestone: Calum Burrell at Lyme Park with Pippa White (250th different event, on her 410th parkrun) and Ali Sheppard at Potternewton with Poppy Forward (250th parkrun and 150th different venue). The hosts debrief, including Mel's research into the Forwards' six Australasian parkruns and a request that Calum put his phone on airplane mode while recording.

• Dazza's starts at 24:35

  Simon: "Shall we pop over to Dazza's?" Dazza's theme this week is "trust your intuition day", with the listener challenge to add hashtag DORB to the post. Posts read out from Tracey Leeper (Ashgrove), Yvette Turner (Bega), Lynette Anne (Woodlands Historic Park), Renata Koch (Parramatta's new course, with Sam Schroder and Luke Schroder), Chris Gore (Lake Claremont), Jo McLean (Queens Domain), Alison King (Puarenga, NZ), Maria Wicks (Pymmes, UK), Monty Slade (Ross-on-Wye) and Martine Barrot (Osaka, Japan).

• the Obi Award — Renata Koch starts at 33:58

  The Obilope, filled in this week by the office staff, goes to Renata Koch for her Dazza's post from Parramatta parkrun's new course, where she walked and talked with Sam and Luke Schroder on their family day in Sydney.

• Club Corner starts at 34:52

  Mel throws straight to Reginald, who delivers a parkrun-adjacent Eurovision edition from Arrernte Country: 37 countries in the 2025 contest at Basel, of which 13 also have parkrun (Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom). Odds have Sweden favourite, then Austria, Netherlands and Finland, with the rest at a 1% maximum. Signs off with the standing reminder that all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 38:06

  For Saturday 10 May 2025: of 784 members, 561 took part, in 12 countries across 299 locations. UK 58 events, South Africa 10, USA three, Italy / Japan / Poland two each, Canada / Germany / Ireland / Sweden one each. Locally: New South Wales 57, Queensland 51, the Greater State 49, Western Australia 19, South Australia 16, ACT and Tasmania eight each, North Island seven, South Island two, Northern Territory one.

• the Frond — Lyme Park parkrun — largest international frond (seven); Shellharbour parkrun starts at 39:06

  Largest international frond at Lyme Park in the UK with seven adventurers, Nigel Arnold, Pippa White, Lee Stott, Gabby Lipshin, Calum Burrell, Phil Corker and Karen Hurrell. No pilgrimages this week. Largest frond overall at Shellharbour with 12; a frond of nine at Lake Claremont (Chris and Karen Gore, Cameron Storey, Andy and Christiana Charlet, Sarah Jefferson, Brenton Pullman, Matthew Stevens, and Hadley and Rosemary Knight). Closes with the reminder that The Adventurers Club can be one of your five parkrun profile affiliations.

• Watching the numbers starts at 40:36

  Mel's self-declared favourite segment, tracking the new Alice Springs Telegraph Station parkrun week by week. Event three had 156 parkrunners, nine more than week two, with 59 first-timers of whom 35 were recording their very first parkrun ever, and 52 people back for their second or third. No adventurers have visited yet.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 41:35"Where is the cake?"

  Six launches: Brickfields Park (Twerton near Bath, UK) with 329 participants; Hidden Vale (Spicers Hidden Vale, Grandchester, Queensland) with 202; Loughmacrory (Omagh, Northern Ireland) with 60; Lurgan Park (Craigavon, Northern Ireland) with 96; Shaw Cherry Hill Farm (Gorham, Maine, USA) with 14; and Three Rivers Heritage Trail (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) with 31. A seventh was a late scratching after its course flooded, and is due to launch the following weekend. Year to date: 59 launches across 19 weeks, an average of 3.1 per week, UK 18, Australia 17, USA six.

• Sign-off starts at 47:25

  Mel asked Simon where he was going next week: he was staying close to home because of another soccer game an hour and a half away starting at the same time, so he would race back from parkrun to take Jackson to it. Mel was taking Friday off work for one of her long road trips, driving about seven and a half hours to South Australia, undecided between the Avenues and Myponga Reservoir having already done Drage, and unsure where she would stay. Simon said Sarah would be joining him on the pod next week, Mel thanked him for coming on and they noted they had not recorded together for two months, before closing with the Facebook and email contacts.