Episode 425 - Tracky Dacky Doo Dah Day

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HostsMelissa Ellis Tony O'Connell

Roving reportersAlison Fraser (King) Lyndell Murray Yvette Turner

Show notes

From the Facebook post

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, Zip-A-Dee-Day, My oh My it's Tracky Dacky Day! But you won't know what on earth we mean until you listen. What you will also discover is Mel and Toc excited about new Merch, a swather (yes that old chestnut) of overseas launches, inspirational emoji interpretation and the conversion rate of the British pound. Plus, lucky listeners will get to hear all about Leeton Sport and Recreation Precinct (opens in a new tab), Hidden Vale (opens in a new tab) and East Otago High School (opens in a new tab) parkrun!

- Kelli and Belinda were at a parkrun solvable only by emojis... Old Thomson River Road (opens in a new tab) parkrun!! Turns out my guess of Grandma Hand Creek Drive parkrun wasn't right!

From the podcast feed

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, Zip-A-Dee-Day, My oh My it’s Tracky Dacky Day! But you won’t know what on earth we mean until you listen. What you will also discover is Mel and Toc excited about new Merch, a swather (yes that old chestnut) of overseas launches, inspirational emoji interpretation and the conversion rate of the British pound. Plus, lucky listeners will get to hear all about Leeton Sport and Recreation Precinct (opens in a new tab), Hidden Vale (opens in a new tab) and East Otago High School (opens in a new tab) parkruns.

Roving reports

1Leeton Sport and Recreation Precinct2Hidden Vale3East Otago High School

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:22

  Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country and Tony O'Connell (TOC) back in the driver's seat on Bunurong Country, TOC confessing early to a stress fracture in his tibia that will keep him on the volunteer roster for a while. Feedback from Yvette Turner marking National Volunteer Week and thanking the hosts, and Heather Hunter on the floods that inundated the event she reported from last week. TOC was RD at Inverloch event 504 with 11 volunteers and 84 finishers in drizzle that cleared to sun; Mel chose her nearby Toolern Creek (event 471, 80 parkrunners) on a nice flat out-and-back. Stats for New Zealand (Lost Lagoon launched, Hagley biggest) and Australia (The Ponds largest, records at Kununurra, Casula Parklands and Macquarie University), then news that parkrun's 11 millionth registration was Australian junior Matthew O'Toole at Edinburgh Oval, where Sarah Jefferson also ran, and TOC's deep dive into registration and volunteer count distributions.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 23:31

  Tony O'Connell hands over "Righto, Mel, let's keep moving along... I'm a bit excited about some of this week's roving reports. Let's go and have a listen." Three reports follow back to back: Yvette Turner at Leeton Sport and Recreation Precinct (event 199, interviewing RD Chris Thompson), Lyndell Murray at Hidden Vale west of Brisbane (event three, interviewing founder Morgan), and Alison Fraser (King) at East Otago High School in Palmerston, New Zealand (interviewing ED Chris Wells). The hosts recap all three.

• Dazza's starts at 42:31

  Tony O'Connell reads Dazza's prompt for Aviation Maintenance Technician Day, then the hosts work through listener posts answering the week's challenge to name their parkrun in emojis: Geoff Glaab (USA, White Lick Creek), Gareth Arnold (Kadina Trail), Jason Andrews and son Ollie (Bannockburn Bush), Helen Rudder (Elder Park, Scotland), Bill/"Billo" (Grand Ridge Rail Trail), Andrea Booth (Gardiners Creek), Kelly Timms and Belinda (Old Thomson River Road), Maria Weeks (Tokoinranta, Finland), Graham Wilkinson (Scotland) and Johan Duvenhage (Sun City, South Africa). Melissa Ellis breaks off to thank David "Dave" Bravos, described as the show's "equal opportunity employee", as the author of this week's Dazza's post.

• the Obi Award — Kelly Timms starts at 58:03

  Melissa Ellis opens the envelope-: "This week's Obi goes to... Kelly Timms up there in Queensland." Awarded for the time she put into her emoji puzzle for Old Thomson River Road parkrun, and because it was her first appearance on Dazza's. Tony O'Connell adds "you had nearly the most emojis in there."

• Club Corner starts at 58:56

  Tony O'Connell hands over "I think it's time for us to go across and listen to what Reginald has to say." Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III delivers what Melissa Ellis calls "really the first edition of the Countries series", tracing parkrun UK from the Bushy time trial in October 2004 through Cardiff (Feb 2008), Glasgow/Pollok (Dec 2008) and Waterworks Belfast (Nov 2010), then the outliers: Camp Bastion in Afghanistan (2011-14, 111 events), the Rolf Valley time trial in Zimbabwe (2007), Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man, the Falkland Islands and Akrotiri and Dhekelia. The hosts follow up with the show-note fairy's currency and distance references (a pound is roughly two Australian dollars; the UK is about 16,000 km from Australia, "more than 3,200 parkruns").

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 1:03:19

  For Saturday 24 May 2025: of 791 club members, 553 took part in 18 countries across 312 locations. 67 UK events, 10 South Africa, four each Germany and USA, two Ireland, one each Canada, Finland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Singapore and Sweden. Domestically 52 events each in Queensland and Victoria, 47 NSW, 21 WA, 13 SA, 10 Tasmania, eight North Island, six ACT, three South Island, two Northern Territory. The pilgrimage stand-in for Bushy was Ivan Neville, who took three flights and 28 hours from Australia to Fulham Palace.

• the Frond starts at 1:04:28

  Biggest international frond was four adventurers at Durlston Country Park, Stuart Morglund, Tamsin Smith and Kim Leonard among them. Largest Australian frond was 12 at Hidden Vale: Shane and Catherine Wharton, Ryan Stoddart, Simon Mackley, Steve O'Connor, Sarah Maas, Delise Golding, Karina Campbell, Lyndell Murray, Brett Johnston, Hayley Bower and Tracey Wood ("Tracey in a tutu"). Ryan Stoddart's Dazza's post notes it was his 200th different parkrun location.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 1:06:53"Where is the cake?"

  74 launches for the year so far, nine this week: Lost Lagoon (Westport, South Island NZ, 112 finishers/15 volunteers), Courtenay Airpark (Vancouver Island, Canada's westernmost, 20 finishers), Coronation Park (Swadlincote, Derbyshire, 293 finishers/27 volunteers), Mace Ranch (Davis/Sacramento, California, 118 finishers), Greveskogen (Tønsberg, Norway, 109 finishers with 83 first-timers), Plaatbos Nature Reserve (South Africa, 81 finishers), Orchard Community (Ontario, Canada, 80 finishers), North Sea Camp (Lincolnshire, in an open prison, 21 finishers) and Redmond Central Connector Trail (Seattle, 114 finishers). Tony O'Connell jokes that he has asked parkrun HQ to save the Japanese, Finnish and Norwegian tongue twisters for the weeks Simon Mackley co-hosts.

• Watching the numbers starts at 1:11:20

  The hosts' self-named ongoing tracker of Alice Springs Telegraph Station parkrun: event five drew 149 finishers and nine volunteers, 57 first-timers of whom 24 were brand new to parkrun, and still no adventurers. Attendances so far 186, 147, 156, 136, 149, hovering around the Dunbar number.

• parkrun adventure challenge starts at 1:13:10listener challenge

  Last week's challenge, name your parkrun in emojis at the end of your comment, is worked through during Dazza's. The new challenge, announced here by Tony O'Connell, is National Tracky Dacks Day on Saturday 31 May, for listeners to interpret as they will; Melissa Ellis explains tracky-dacks for the international audience and both hosts promise a photo of themselves in theirs.

• Sign-off starts at 1:15:02

  TOC said it was that time of the night and asked where Mel would be: another long drive over the border to South Australia with Reynella East in her sights, accommodation not yet booked. TOC's plans depended on a surgeon's appointment the next day for a leg injury, but he hoped to road trip to New South Wales or preferably the ACT, where he has only a couple of events left, naming Point Hut Pond or Ginninderra. Mel trailed herself and Simon for next week, wished TOC the best result from the doctor, and TOC closed with the Facebook and email contacts and "we'll see you all in your trackies next week".