Episode 429 - It's Question Time

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HostsSarah Jefferson Simon Mackley

Roving reportersCalum Burrell Johan Duvenhage Lyndell Murray

Show notes

From the Facebook post

After quite a few weeks, Simon shares his parkrun morning mishap while Sarah recaps her recent holiday. We have roving reports from Lyndell on Hamilton Island (opens in a new tab), Johan at Windhoek (opens in a new tab) and Callum at Dolgellau (opens in a new tab) parkrun. There was a swather of launches, a world record and travel trips discussed. Was that a new segment? Yes, that's right. Tune in to hear what it's all about.

- Miss Bunny and Miss Molly celebrating Devonport (opens in a new tab) parkrun for their 500th barkrun!

From the podcast feed

After quite a few weeks, Simon shares his parkrun morning mishap while Sarah recaps her recent holiday. We have roving reports from Lyndell on Hamilton Island (opens in a new tab), Johan at Windhoek (opens in a new tab) and Callum at Dolgellau (opens in a new tab) parkrun. There was a swather of launches, a world record and travel trips discussed. Was that a new segment? Yes, that’s right. Tune in to hear what it’s all about.

Roving reports

1Hamilton Island2Windhoek3Dolgellau

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:23

  Sarah Jefferson on Noongar Country and Simon Mackley on Quandamooka Country, recording on a Sunday in daylight; Sarah is back after six weeks, having taken the family to Katherine in the Northern Territory. Sarah walked Aveley's 12th birthday with Hadley in the carrier and Chloe Bravos for company; Simon has been building his P-index at Logan River, Scribbly Gums and Sirromet and did Central Lakes with his dog Jasper, who was sick in the car on the way. Johan from Bloemfontein corrects last episode's South Africa stats to 12 official languages, and the hosts try out the Medibank Family Roast conversation cards before the NZ and Australian stats.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 17:57

  Sarah hands over, "this week we have three roving reports for you to enjoy", to Lyndell at Hamilton Island, Johan at Windhoek and Calum at Dolgellau. Coming back Simon says seven roving reports arrived by email over the fortnight and the other four are being held over.

• Dazza's starts at 35:23

  Two weeks of Dazza's posts, five comments chosen from each. Week one (Pet Appreciation theme): Leanne Evans at Kate Reed with Disco; Felicity Castellan at Koonwarra with Eggie; Sue Keane at North Sydney and a bush turkey; Brett Bailey with Tanya and Brunner at Riverlution; Dan Baldwin at West Coast Park, Singapore. Week two (park-hopping theme): Ingrid Botha at Kamay; Katie Guthrie at Devonport; Lee Cabarita at Jakes Point; Heather Hunter with Fiona Mullen at Taree, back after the floods; Monty Slade at Ross-on-Wye.

• the Obi Award — Katie Guthrie starts at 43:51

  Simon hands Sarah the envelope, she notes she does not normally get the honours, and the Obi goes to Katie Guthrie, Miss Bunny and Miss Molly, for celebrating Devonport parkrun's 500th event as volunteer Timekeepers, with a photo of the two red heelers in the parkrun selfie frame wearing blue shirts.

• Emails starts at 44:14

  Two emails. Chris Gore writes about his son Phil, who won the Dead Cow Gully backyard ultra at Nanango, Queensland with a new world record of 119 yards (798.5 km), outlasting Sam Harvey of New Zealand, then ran New Farm parkrun in 17:48 two days later. A listener, Lisa, writes in with the current parkrun board directors, Scott Watkins, Renee Gimbert and Glenn Turner.

• Club Corner starts at 46:08

  Sarah throws to Reginald. Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III continues the tour of the parkrun world with New Zealand / Aotearoa: 50-plus events, Lower Hutt as the first in May 2012 with a peak of 451 in March 2025, and parkrun NZ's relationship with a children's university programme for 7-to-14-year-olds; Puarenga (geothermal, Rotorua) and Pegasus (suspension bridge) are singled out. He closes with the standing reminder that all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun. Simon follows with a New Zealand country brief, capital, currency, exchange rates, flight times and Kiwi inventions.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 51:11

  For Saturday 5 July 2025: of 808 members (a milestone the hosts celebrate on air), 546 took part in 11 countries across 284 locations. State-by-state and international breakdowns, a catch-up on Canada Day (14 members at six Canadian events on 1 July), and the Bushy pilgrimage, Paul Hyde on his second visit, Joe Kite on a first visit, Adrian Luscombe on his 23rd, with a note that Bushy hosted over 100 octogenarians and nonagenarians for their annual gathering.

• the Frond — Rhianna, Rosie, Leo and George Williams — Evesham parkrun starts at 52:38

  Largest international Frond was a Frond of four at Evesham parkrun, Rhianna, Rosie, Leo and George Williams. Largest Aussie Frond was 16 at Belvedere parkrun in Victoria (Garth Dowling, Bill Lodwick Jr., Lee Sucuzo, Terri-Ann Dowling, Chris Roos, Nathan Roos, Cindy Robins, Deborah Jessup, Scott Trickett, Michael Burke, Dawn Branton, Andrew Reynolds, Mark Ronald Kant, Wendy Backhouse, Chantelle Hosking and Cheryl Smit), delivered with the reminder that the Adventurers Club can be one of your five parkrun profile affiliations.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 55:09"Where is the cake?"

  Six launches since the last recording: Fugan unga kansui parkrun in Toyama City, Japan (76 participants, 21 volunteers, 57 first-timers); Belvedere parkrun at Seaford on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria (220, 18, 17); Werdersee parkrun on the southern side of Bremen, Germany (128, 13, 33); Oroua River Walkway parkrun at Feilding, New Zealand (183, 29, 15) with the Maori meaning of the name; Woodlands parkrun, Scarborough in the UK (319, 31, 17); and Lake Mary Ann Tingkkarli parkrun at Tennant Creek, Northern Territory (20, 6, 10), the Territory's second launch of the year.

• Watching the numbers starts at 58:04

  The final instalment of the Alice Springs Telegraph Station parkrun watch, sung in by Sarah: week 10, from 28 June, drew 97 participants against 98 the week before, which Simon reckons is about where it will find its equilibrium. Sarah states outright that this is the last time the segment will run.

• Rapid Fire starts at 58:45

  Sarah announces a brand-new segment, "Alert, alert. We have a new segment", in which the hosts answer unseen questions as quickly as they can, listeners invited to play along. This week's set is would-you-rather: sand or hills, poached/fried/scrambled, coffee or tea, podcast or music, Queensland or New South Wales for Simon; sunrise over the Pacific or sunset over the Indian Ocean, night in or night out, running with friends or alone, pizza or pasta, iPhone or Android for Sarah.

• Sign-off starts at 1:00:50

  After the new rapid-fire segment, Sarah thanked listeners for their patience with the new fortnightly format, her and Simon's first such recording, and asked where he was headed: Studley parkrun in Melbourne, on Mel's recommendation and others', looking forward to the famed bridge and inviting adventurers to say hello to him in his adventurers shirt, with Sarah advising him to look around as she had talked to Mel the whole way. Sarah had no plans at all, rare for her, but said she would sort it out in the next few days. Simon trailed Mel and TOC for the next fortnight and wished Mel a happy birthday for the intervening week, and Sarah closed with the Facebook and email contacts.