Episode 426 - Lost Property

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HostsMelissa Ellis Simon Mackley

Roving reporterRuth Perkins

Show notes

From the Facebook post

In this episode we discover what Mel lost at Reynella East (opens in a new tab) and hear Simons reflections on Hidden Vale (opens in a new tab) parkrun. There's Ascension Day chatter and a report from Puolarmaari (opens in a new tab) parkrun in Finland. Plus lots of mail in the inbox

- Ruth Perkins adventured all the way to Puolarmaari (opens in a new tab), and helped us out with a report so we knew how to pronounce it!

From the podcast feed

In this episode we discover what Mel lost at Reynella East (opens in a new tab) parkrun and hear Simons reflections on Hidden Vale (opens in a new tab). There’s Ascension Day chatter and a report from Puolarmaari (opens in a new tab) in Finland. Plus lots of mail in the inbox.

Roving reports

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:22

  Simon Mackley on the lands of the Quandamooka and Melissa Ellis on Wurundjeri Country, comparing Queensland rain with Melbourne's unseasonally mild, dry weather and hoping the flooded NSW events like Taree have recovered. Feedback from Ian Thompson, who does not know Ivan Neville but ran his 500th at Fulham Palace and found he had scanned Ivan afterwards. Mel drove seven and a half hours to Reynella East parkrun (event 351) in South Australia, camping in her new Jimny at Hahndorf, meeting RDs Chris Bray and Blair Claridge and adventurer April Sweet, and leaving her puffer vest behind; Simon did Cleveland for his 10th time in light rain and raved about Hidden Vale from the previous fortnight. New Zealand and Australian stats, a Nordic Ascension Day club report led by Uppsala, and congratulations to Danny Norman on his 500th unique event at Haga in Sweden.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 13:00

  Melissa hands over, "this week we've heard from one of our roving reporters, so let's go and have a listen and see what she's got to tell us". Ruth Perkins reports from Puolarmaari parkrun in Espoo, near Helsinki, Finland: she interviews long-time listener Matthew Wateridge (found the pod at episode two, 475 different events, home run Basingstoke from 2010, favourites Queenstown NZ and Sherwood Pines) and Run Director Mark Davis, who helped set the event up in 2021 with American Scott Pritchard and describes the forest course through the seasons. Simon wraps it with Matthew's full stats.

• Dazza's starts at 20:58

  Simon opens with Dazza's theme for the week, May is Share a Story Month. Posts read out from TOC in the ACT (Ginninderra with Jackie, Claire, Jack and Amelia), Sam Schroder in NSW (daughter Evie's Junior 10 at Macquarie University parkrun), Jo McLean (the Ponds parkrun's 10th birthday, 847 participants), Wendy Pallant (jet setter club, Skatås and Billdalsparken in Sweden), Leanne Evans in Tasmania (Kate Reed), Johan Duvenhage in South Africa (Plaatbos Nature Reserve), Ruth Perkins in Finland, Renata Koch in Norway (Tøyen), Margie Lewis in WA (Kununurra), Maz Strong (100th at Karkarook) and Brett Bailey in New Zealand (Lost Lagoon, Westport).

• the Obi Award — Ruth Perkins starts at 29:03

  Melissa asks "But, Simon, have you got the Obilope?" and Simon opens the envelope: "the Obi this week goes to... Ruth Perkins." Melissa gives the reason, "Thank you for bringing us that little bit of a roving report from over there and finding a long-term listener."

• Emails starts at 29:43

  "And we've had some mail, haven't we, Mel? You've got mail." Four items: Travis from Run the World with the 2024 adventurer count (40 participants, double the previous year) and the Project 1000 referral incentive; a listener asking where Rachel and her successor Reginald are based, working it out from the ancestral country Reginald names and landing near Alice Springs, signed Calum Burrell A461587, with a friend of the pod confirming the geography; a new UK listener, Gary Derwent (athlete ID A684), on the European Extra Day in Copenhagen and cycling between all four Copenhagen courses; and a long one from Ali Sheppard about converting her niece to her first parkrun at Peckham Rye, with the Office Lady's explanation of Aussie rules football read out after it.

• Club Corner starts at 41:10

  Melissa throws to Reginald. Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III presents his slot as "Joke Corner, where one attempts to be funny and or witty" this week instead of the usual country profile, a colander pun, two hippopotamus jokes, a bank joke, closing with the standing reminder that "in parkrun life, all non-Milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun" and a promise to "return to our country profiles" in future club corners. Simon comes back joking that Rachel should be brought back for the jokes.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 42:47

  Melissa reads the adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Saturday 31 May 2025: 792 members, 556 of whom took part in 13 countries across 281 locations. Internationally, adventurers at 54 UK events, 10 in South Africa, four in Sweden, three each in Denmark and Norway, two each in Finland, Ireland and Singapore, one each in Germany, Italy and Lithuania. Locally, 47 in Victoria, 46 each in NSW and Queensland, 21 in WA, 16 in SA, eight in Tasmania, six in the ACT, four in the North Island, two each in the South Island and the Northern Territory. A special Ascension Day supplement was also read earlier, covering Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden on 29 May, 40 adventurers at 12 events, largest frond at Uppsala parkrun.

• the Frond starts at 43:47

  International fronds first: a frond of six in Sweden (Christopher Miles, Charlotte Mitchell, Ellie Soper, Colin Hare, Elizabeth Sekera, Graham Wilkinson) and a frond of five at Haga in Sweden (Phil Olson, Danny Norman, Sarah Jantscher, Andy Poole, Wendella Poole). Largest local fronds: a frond of seven at Shellharbour (housemate Lance, Jason Green, David Foster, Louise Atkin, Delvene McKenzie, Kristen McKenzie, Lauren Pike) and fronds of six at Hidden Vale, New Farm and the Ponds, with the reminder that the Adventurers Club can be one of your five parkrun profile affiliations.

• Pilgrimages starts at 44:18

  "Now, pilgrimages. This was exciting because this week we had three people", three adventurers made a first visit to Bushy parkrun: Dan Baldwin (22:25, position 204, from WA, Applecross and Canning River his most-visited, there with partner Sandy), Colleen Kleinschmidt (20:18, position 772, thought to be from Danehy Park in the Boston area) and Neil Scott (31:22, position 1069, from Brisbane).

• Watching the numbers starts at 46:11

  Melissa: "This is our ongoing segment that we call Watching the Numbers at Alice Springs Telegraph Station parkrun." Event six had 121 finishers and nine volunteers, still no adventurers; of 41 first-timers, 15 were first-ever parkruns and 26 were visitors. She suggests Val and Steve, who are travelling, could detour south and be the first adventurers there. Simon notes the numbers are dropping off far more slowly than other recent launches.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 47:05"Where is the cake?"

  One launch worldwide: Newry Greenway parkrun in Newry, Northern Ireland, 150 participants ("right on the Dunbar"), 12 people starting their parkrun journey, 13 volunteers, an out-and-back along the Newry Canal Greenway. Simon notes the Northern Ireland ambassadors are on a streak of new events; both hosts remark how unusual a single launch is after the recent run of multiples.

• parkrun adventure challenge starts at 48:09listener challenge

  Simon sets the week's listener challenge: with 7 June being Butterfly Education and Awareness Day, add a butterfly to your post. Melissa wonders how many adventurers have butterfly tattoos and offers to run in her butterfly wings instead.

• Sign-off starts at 48:56

  Mel asked where Simon would be: either Sirromet or Scribbly Gums, staying close to home again because Jackson had a soccer game over an hour's drive away, prompting a detour into his eight visits to Sirromet taking his P-index to eight. Mel had no idea, with the King's Birthday long weekend in Victoria and her weekend with her daughter, so she planned to stay home and build letterboxes and perhaps work on her P-index locally. Simon trailed Mel and TOC next week with news of how TOC's discussion with his surgeon went, Mel joked about the gory details, thanked Simon, and gave the Facebook and email contacts.