Episode 434 - It’s Upside Down
2025-09-23
— open the full-size coverHostsSarah Jefferson Simon Mackley
Roving reportersAlison Fraser (King) Lyndell Murray Tony O'Connell
Show notes
From the Facebook post
It's Simon & Sarah's time to turn up the volume and mix things up this week. Sarah shares all about her adventure to the nation's capital, while Simon recaps his P-Index achievements. There were roving reports from Lyndell at Scribbly Gums Conservation (opens in a new tab), Toc at Point Hut Pond (opens in a new tab) and Alison at Caroline Bay (opens in a new tab) parkrun. There's a swather of launches, percentage wars and yet another new segment. Plus there is something else you may just want to hear, so keep your ears open.
-Tony and Jacqui O'Connell at Point Hut Pond (opens in a new tab) parkrun
From the podcast feed
It’s Simon & Sarah’s time to turn up the volume and mix things up this week. Sarah shares all about her adventure to the nation’s capital, while Simon recaps his P-Index achievements. There were roving reports from Lyndell at Scribbly Gums Conservation (opens in a new tab), Toc at Point Hut Pond (opens in a new tab) and Alison at Caroline Bay (opens in a new tab) parkrun. There’s a swather of launches, percentage wars and yet another new segment. Plus there is something else you may just want to hear, so keep your ears open.
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Enhanced transcript
Speakers named, sound described and segments marked by the editing pass — not yet checked by a person.
Read the transcriptRoving reports
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:26
Sarah Jefferson on Noongar Boodja and Simon Mackley on Quandamooka Country. Sarah's baby is now crawling and sampling around 60 foods after a stint at sleep school; Simon ran Bridge to Brisbane with 35,000 others and enjoyed mid-20s spring weather while Perth stayed fresh.
Streaky September starts at 2:23
Sarah opens with "Have you been streaking this September, Simon?" The pair compare notes on the Streaky September Bingoe card: Simon admits he had not looked at it until that day, Sarah describes a streak walked up and back a 200-metre footpath outside her house with her baby Hadley in the carrier. They then run through the four newly released challenges, streak after 11pm, streak before 6am, spot a bird, and run the date, and Simon advises pairing up with a friend for the late-night and pre-dawn ones for safety.
Watching the stopwatch bingo of Melissa Ellis starts at 12:44
Simon announces "a new segment that I'm calling watching the stopwatch bingo of Melissa Ellis", a running tally of how close co-host Mel gets to finishing an episode on an exact minute. This week she finished with a 0-3 rather than the 0-0 she wants. Sarah asks "Are we going to get sacked, Simon?"
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 17:06
Simon hands over "I think it might be time we threw to roving reports." Three reports run back to back: Lyndell Murray at Scribbly Gums Conservation parkrun (Redland Bay, QLD) with ED Kylan; TOC at Point Hut Pond parkrun (ACT) with RD/ED Anya; and Alison Fraser (King) at Caroline Bay parkrun (Timaru, NZ) with ED Colin McPherson. Sarah recaps all three.
Dazza's starts at 35:35
Five comments chosen from each of the last two weeks' Dazza's posts. From 6 September (procrastination day): Lance and Robin Plain at Pirrama, Rhianna Wick Gamble doing parkrun at sea on the Crown Princess, Jonathan Morgan at Parkville, Johan Duvenhage at Sasolburg Stadium in South Africa, and Ian Thompson's 250th volunteer at Basingstoke Juniors. From 13 September (Positive Thinking Day): Sam Schroder's 250th parkrun at Pioneer Dairy, Tony Everingham at Stones Corner, Steven Warwick at Merredin Peak, Chris Gore at Battersea, and Rex on his first time run directing at Walker parkrun.
the Obi Award — Rex Gream starts at 44:23
"And there must be time for an Obi [Obi]." Sarah retrieves the envelope from her famously clean desk and awards it to Rex, for stepping up to do his first run directing at Walker parkrun, "Well done on your first run directing. We hope that it went really well." His surname is rendered two different ways in the episode: "Rex Gream" when the Dazza's post is read and "Rex Gream" when the award is given.
Emails starts at 44:52
"Emails this week, Simon. We have none." The inbox was empty apart from the roving reports, one of which is being held over to the next episode.
Club Corner starts at 45:10
Simon throws across to Reginald, who presents a double-header on Italy and France. Italy: JFC Naples sits on UK servers despite being in Italy (a correction to Club Corner 76); Uditore was the first Italian event with five finishers and nine volunteers; about 15 events now, 9am starts; Treviso is Prosecco country; Montelepre has closed; Favorita, aka "Favourite parkrun"; and at Milano Nord in 2017 Franco Tonnelli, a climber and mountain runner left paraplegic by an accident, completed a parkrun in an exoskeleton in 2:57:12. France: closed since 2022, began with Les Dougnes and peaked at eight events, all inland, with la Ramée running a two-lap course where each lap differed. Both countries share 25 December plus New Year's Day as extra event days.
Consolidated Club Report starts at 50:38
For Saturday 13 September 2025: of 838 members, 606 took part across 16 countries and 298 locations. Internationally 62 events in the UK, 10 in South Africa, five in the USA and on the North Island of NZ, four in Italy and on the South Island, two each in Denmark, Poland, Singapore and Sweden, and one each in Austria, Canada, Ireland, Lithuania, Malaysia and the Netherlands. Presented differently this week as a percentage of each state and territory's events attended: NT 50%, ACT 44%, QLD 42%, NSW 39%, WA 38%, VIC 35%, TAS 29%, SA 25%, "the gold medal in Australia this week goes to the Northern Territory, followed by the ACT, with Queensland taking the bronze."
the Frond starts at 52:17
International: on 6 September a frond of four at three events, Armley, Grove Fields and Southampton; on 13 September a frond of 10 at Etna in Italy (Denise Evans, Debbie Airey, Rachel Dorsey, Keith Weblin, Libby Weblin, Rhiannon Taylor, Linda Bossidge, Andy Airey, Ivan Storer and Nikki Olway). Australia: largest Aussie frond on 6 September was nine at two events, Shellharbour and the Phar Lap Track; on 13 September a frond of 12 at Inverloch for its 11th birthday, plus a frond of 16 at the Reddall Reserve launch in New South Wales.
Pilgrimage starts at 52:50
"All right, Pilgrimage. On the 6th of the 9th and the 13th of the 9th, we had no adventurers at Bushy Park." A short weekly check on whether any adventurer made it to Bushy Park.
Launches and anniversaries starts at 54:00"Where is the cake?"
Nine launches over two weekends. 6 September: Red Hill Rail Trail (Mornington Peninsula, VIC) 100 participants / 17 volunteers / 13 first-timers; Brook Leys (northwest of Cambridge, UK) 528 / 42 / 20; Haughmond Hill (northwest of Birmingham, south of Wrexham) 160 / 33 / 3. 13 September: Belvoir Forest (Belfast) 296 / 28 / 1; Coolum Eco (Sunshine Coast, QLD) 101 / 16 / 3, kept a well-guarded secret until the Friday night; Farm Pond (Framingham, Massachusetts) 78 / 15 / 30; Henley Lake (Masterton, NZ) 171 / 9 / 49; Reddall Reserve (Lake Illawarra, NSW) 233 / 32 / 7; and Schönbusch (Aschaffenburg, Germany) 115 / 21 / 36. Also noted: Cottesloe's 500th, which Sarah missed, and Inverloch's 11th birthday.
Watching the numbers starts at 1:00:14
Tracking Brooklyn Bridge parkrun's early events: event 3 on 6 September had 300 finishers and 23 volunteers with 224 first-timers to the event; event 4 on 13 September had 309 finishers and 19 volunteers, 230 first-timers to the event and 50 doing their first ever parkrun. Numbers appear to be settling from 538 at launch to around 300. The first adventurer there was Mary DeLuna of the Ponds parkrun, NSW. Sarah adds that Brooklyn Bridge has already cancelled for 1 November, New York Marathon weekend, as has the next closest event Branch Brook Park (which has also cancelled 8 November).
Rapid Fire starts at 1:02:25
A would-you-rather quiz where each host puts unseen questions to the other and answers quickly. Sarah's set: plane over road trip, run over walk, flat white over long black, adventure over time at home (Simon: "I saw on my screen park or an adventure, so I had to say adventure"), hotel over camping. Simon's set: speak every human language, four distinct seasons, travel to the past, never sleep again, and be a famous artist.
Sign-off starts at 1:04:25
With the rapid-fire questions done, Simon asked Sarah where she was going on her next parkrun day: she planned to check out the newest event in Western Australia, Black Swan Lake parkrun. Simon was heading for the first time to Pirrama parkrun in Sydney, and in case the pod came out late, to Birtinya Island the following weekend during a family getaway to the Sunshine Coast, two new courses in two weeks. They signed off with Mel and TOC back in the hot seat next fortnight, then added a coda after the outro in which Simon asked where Sarah would be on 7 March next year and she answered palm26.