Episode 439 - Legendary Intern

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HostsLyndell Murray Tony O'Connell

Roving reportersRuth Perkins Tracey Wood Yvette Turner

Show notes

From the Facebook post

This week, TOC and Lyndell the Legendary Hitchhike around the Galaxy. Tracey in a Tutu gets a parkrun day of her own to celebrate 500. Lithuania gets two new shiny events and a Special Day. We've got roving reports from Lithgow (opens in a new tab) in NSW, Dalby (opens in a new tab) in QLD and Moussette (opens in a new tab) parkrun in Canada.We discuss the eight and a half launches and, in late news, celebrate the portal opening for Adventurers shirt sales for a very limited time.

From the podcast feed

This week, TOC and Lyndell the Legendary Hitchhike around the Galaxy. Tracey in a Tutu gets a parkrun day of her own to celebrate 500. Lithuania gets 2 new shiny events and a Special Day. We’ve got roving reports from Lithgow (opens in a new tab) in NSW, Dalby (opens in a new tab) in QLD and Moussette (opens in a new tab) parkrun in Canada. We discuss the eight and a half launches and, in late news, celebrate the portal opening for Adventurers shirt sales for a very limited time.

Roving reports

1·3Dalby and Lithgow2Moussette

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:21

  Tony O'Connell from Inverloch on Bunurong Country with guest host Lyndell Murray, recording from Meanjin on Yuggera and Turrbal Country after Brisbane storms; Lyndell's tourist streak stands at 97 with a 100th planned for December. TOC's month: The Phar Lap Track, a walk with the Tail Walkers at Inverloch, the new Lake Fyans in the Grampians with Jackie, and Great Southern Rail Trail where he caught up with Jo McCartney, his first ever roving-report interviewee. Lyndell did Coolum Eco, Maleny Trail and Jeune Park at Beaudesert, where her friend Linda completed her alphabet, then photographed Tracey Wood's 500th at Chermside; TOC adds that Martine Barrot, Heather Morgan and Chris Fraser all completed 250 different events in Kalgoorlie.

• parkrun news bulletin starts at 10:27

  The fortnight's parkrun news: Mel and Dave spotted in their adventurers tops doing zoomies on the Channel 9 News at the Melbourne road-tunnel open day (about 50,000 walkers and runners); Storm Claudia forces 116 UK cancellations one week and 70 the next; and Lithuania, new to parkrun, declares Independence Restoration Day (11 March) its special day, with a second event launched and a third due.

• Attendance and milestone stats starts at 15:04

  Weekly numbers rundown: roughly 336,000 finishers and 47,000 volunteers globally, parkrun past 11.5 million registrations; New Zealand's 64 events (Hagley largest with 733, East Otago High School smallest with 17, attendance records at Lower Hutt and Paringa); Australia's 516 events, 72,514 finishers, 6,366 volunteers, plus junior numbers and largest/smallest fields (Albert Melbourne 881 and 812; Railway Park, Centenary and Coober Pedy Oval with four).

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 19:05

  Three reports back to back: Tracey in a Tutu at Dalby (QLD) with co-ED Brittany, Ruth Perkins at Moussette (Quebec, Canada) with Event Director Dominique, and Yvette Turner at Lithgow (NSW) with RD/ED Paul. TOC recaps all three and notes a couple more reports still in the backlog.

• Dazza's starts at 32:27

  Five listener comments from each of two Dazza's posts - Steve Irwin day (15 Nov) and 2-2 (tutu) day (22 Nov). Contributors include Billo at Ovens River Trail, Val Warwick and Janet Llewellyn Reid at Reynella East, Andy Airey at Yamba, a crocodile-sign story from Kewarra Beach, Ali Sheppard at Morden (UK), Andrew Blanda at Benalla Botanical Gardens, Wendy Glen at Churchill (who lost her whole tutu collection in a car accident), Sarah Jefferson at Lota, Kate Kremen-Rose at Zillmere, Faye at Ginninderra and Tonya Gollard at Brisbane Valley Rail Trail.

• the Obi Award — Faye Canberra starts at 41:51

  Lyndell has the envelope in Queensland. The Obi goes to Faye "for that fabulous photo, the perfectly synced zoomies and beautiful tutus" at Ginninderra parkrun in the ACT.

• Emails starts at 42:13

  One email, from Lynn and Pete Black, praising the choice of the Clare Valley for palm26. They had already booked a Clare Valley trip and switched to Port Broughton parkrun when Clare Valley parkrun was cancelled at the last minute because of a shed and house fire backing onto the trail.

• Club Corner starts at 43:56

  Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III continues his country-by-country tour with Norway: Toyen parkrun in Oslo launched August 2017 and the country now has a dozen events; Festningen is the world's third most northerly event (Broparken in Sweden second); geography, multi-lap courses, Nansenparken and Ekebergsletta in Oslo, and the 2025 launches Greveskogen and Berger Stadion. Closes with the 2025 happiest-countries rankings and a trail to Finland next time.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 48:10

  For Saturday 22 November: of 850 members, 610 took part in 11 countries across 310 locations - 66 UK events, 8 South Africa, 5 USA, 3 Ireland, 2 Germany and one each in Italy, Japan, Singapore and Sweden; NSW and Queensland 54 events each, Victoria 50, WA 20, SA 16, Tasmania 11, ACT 7, none from the Northern Territory where three events were cancelled by a cyclone. Includes pilgrimages to Bushy by Ian Thompson and Martin Waller.

• the Frond starts at 49:22

  Fronds for the two weekends: a frond of seven at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School (UK) and one of five at Ingrebourne Hill (UK); fronds of seven at Carine Glades (WA) and Reddall Reserve (NSW); a frond of 13 at Kalgoorlie-Boulder, eleven at Coolum Eco and two of nine at Chermside and The Phar Lap Track. Carolyn McCrae, in the Kalgoorlie group, made a small parkrun keepsake in yarn for everyone who went.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 53:14"Where is the cake?"

  Nine planned launches over two weeks, described by TOC as "eight and a half": Blades Hotel (South Africa, 304 finishers), Kultūros Ir Poilsio Parkas (Lithuania's second event, 75), Elemore Park (UK, 152), Frank's Farm (UK, 212), De Soza at Buninyong (Victoria, 107), Yamata Sports Park (Japan, 15), Dorothy Nyembe (South Africa, 175 with 68 first-timers and Johan among the volunteers) and Llanfoist Crossing (Wales, 373). The half is Bulltofta in Malmo, postponed to 29 November because of ice and snow. Earlier in the episode, Tracey Wood's 500th at Chermside is celebrated with a cake and a guard of honour.

• Watching the numbers starts at 57:11

  A placeholder week - the hosts have not yet picked a new event to track since Brooklyn, and say they will wait for one of the coming launches to take their fancy.

• Sign-off starts at 1:00:57

  TOC asked Lyndell what she had planned for the next week: she was heading to South Australia, to the home of Larry the Lobster at Kingston SE, for what she thought was Moriah Creek Reserve parkrun, saying she was not sure whether it was Moriah or Maria. TOC had absolutely no idea where he was going, it would be something local, within about an hour's drive, and he might just volunteer, having only decided the previous Saturday late on the Friday night. Simon and Sarah were flagged for next fortnight.