Episode 443 - Gelato in Milano

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HostsLyndell Murray Tony O'Connell

Roving reportersCalum Burrell Tony O'Connell Tracey Wood

Show notes

From the Facebook post

Lyndell & TOC get together to plan some goals, the Kiwis set a country record and we hear reports from Pollok (opens in a new tab), University of Western Australia (opens in a new tab) and De Soza (opens in a new tab) parkruns.

We eat all the food from Dazza’s, even the Brussels sprouts with icecream, and TOC gets excited about all the emails. Fronds abound and there are launches all round.

From the podcast feed

Lyndell & TOC get together to plan some goals, the Kiwis set a country record and we hear reports from Pollock, University of Western Australia (opens in a new tab) and De Soza (opens in a new tab) parkruns. We eat all the food from Dazza’s, even the Brussels sprouts with icecream, and TOC gets excited about all the emails. Fronds abound and there are launches all round.

Roving reports

1Pollok2University of Western Australia3De Soza

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:29

  Lyndell Murray on Meeanjin (Turrbal and Yuggera lands) with TOC from Inverloch on Bunurong Country. Lyndell has funnel managed at Rocks Riverside and Mitchelton, visited Victory Heights with Catherine and Yowie with Cherie, and trekked to Gayndah River Walk's fifth birthday, where the parkrunners pitch in at the local cafe; TOC and Jack did De Soza near Ballarat and drove three and a half hours to Eildon Pondage's first parkrun back after the bushfires. Listener feedback on Johan's interview with new global CEO Lil and Ali McArthur joining the board, then 2026 goals: TOC wants parkrun every week, 20 new events and to keep aparkrun streak of around 2,050 days; Lyndell's different-event streak is at 106 and she plans another 24-hour Beau Miles-style marathon; TOC also wonders whether parkrun Australia's welcome posts are swamping new events like Victory Road Reserve in week two.

• parkrun news bulletin starts at 14:58

  The fortnightly stats read. TOC does the "across the ditch correspondence" New Zealand numbers for 31 Jan (67 parkruns, 15,014 parkrunners, 1,157 volunteers, 11 events smashed attendance records and the New Zealand all-time national attendance record was broken by ~1,300-1,400, roughly a 10% jump) and 7 Feb (67 parkruns, 14,718 parkrunners, 1,147 volunteers); largest both weeks Hagley, smallest Mangawara River Walkway then Hamilton Park. Lyndell does Australia: 7 Feb had 97,488 participants, 6,781 volunteers, 521 events, 5,037 first-timers, 19 attendance records; Melbourne biggest both weeks; smallest included Bourke Racecourse (4), Railway Park (7), Nathalia Showgrounds (8), then Coober Pedy Oval, Moora (6) and Pyramid Hill Golf Trail (7). Junior events: 5 held, 698 Little Legends, 111 volunteers, 71 new registrations, 75 first-time-ever finishers. Lyndell catches a typo in the 31 Jan Australian figure (9,309 should be ~95,000) and TOC owns it.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 19:30

  Lyndell throws to the roving reports "And now it's time to hear our roving reports." Three reports run back to back, Calum at Pollock (Scotland), Tracy in a tutu at University of Western Australia, and TOC at De Soza, followed by a hosts' debrief.

• Dazza's starts at 30:54

  "And now let's head over to Dazza's." The hosts pick five comments from each of the last two weeks of Dazza's Facebook post. 31 Jan was Eat Brussels Sprouts Day (Cherie Martin at Belle Domaine, Nick Graney at Studley achieving his Cowell Club 100th different event, Ian Thompson at Holyrood, Wendy Glen at Phar Lap Track on her 150th different course, Johan at Brandkop South Africa with Levi and Sarnet Bester). 7 Feb was Ice Cream for Breakfast Day (Debbie Jessop at Phar Lap Track, Carolyn McRae at Koonwarra, Patrick "Patty" at Milano Nord with lemon gelato, Kelly Timms at Bowen, Office Lady Sam Schroder at Greenway, and Ingrid).

• the Obi Award — Patrick Shymitzek starts at 41:32

  TOC opens the envelope and awards the Obi. Stated reason: "I reckon any ice cream that you've got to carry with two hands and probably ask a mate for help with deserves an Obi, so well done", i.e. for the enormous lemon gelato photographed at Milano Nord parkrun in Italy, the comment that also gives the episode its title.

• Emails starts at 42:17

  Listener email segment, cued by Lyndell as "your favourite segment, Toc" and opened by a "You've got mail" drop. Four emails, all responding to the 2026 goals discussion in episode 442: Heather Hunter (A760611, chasing her Cowell Club, one new event a month); Yvette Turner (100 different Australian parkruns, Sydney Marathon with husband Bill, keep enjoying parkrun); Eman and Christine of Team Vigara (a one-year four-continent world parkrun adventure from July, asking to borrow a Channel 5 News crew press pass); and Tutu Tracy Leiper (A845608, Date Bingo at 92%, 340 of 366 days). TOC notes his "passionate pleas" for email did spark an influx.

• Club Corner starts at 50:02

  Presented in full by the Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III persona, from Arrernte Country: "Germany Week". Covers Germany's federal structure, its triple launch (Küchenholz, Neckarau and Georgengarten parkruns), the PSH/HQ grand tour of eight cities beforehand, the addition of Berlin, Frankfurt and Osnabrück by January 2018 for 11 events in the first year (a country record at the time), Germany launching with only the virtual volunteer app, growth to nearly 70 events, German Unity Day on 3 October plus Christmas Day, and Aachener Weiher parkrun being the most alphabetical parkrun in the world. Signs off with the standard line that all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun. Hosts follow up comparing their German parkruns (Lyndell at Riemer, TOC at Ziegelwies).

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 53:51

  Lyndell reads the adventurers CCR for Saturday 7 February: 629 Adventurers took part in 11 countries across 315 locations, out of 871 members. State-by-state breakdown (NSW and Queensland tied on 59 events, Victoria 45, WA 18, SA 17, Tasmania 13, North Island 9, ACT 4, South Island 2, NT 1) and internationally (UK 69, South Africa 10, Japan 2, and one each in Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden).

• the Frond starts at 54:56

  Largest fronds within the CCR. Internationally: a frond of four at White Promenade (UK) on 31 Jan (James Newt, Gail Bengert, Cass Castleton and VKP), and a frond of seven at Wimbledon Common on 7 Feb (Debbie and Andy Airey, Denise Evans, Martin Waller, Rhiannon Taylor, Tina Durie and James Nottingham), James biggest two weeks running. Largest Aussie fronds picked at random: De Soza, Victoria on 31 Jan (frond of seven, Dermot Johnson, Vicki Hallam, Greg Moore, Marg Prowse, Joanna McCarthy, Christy Gange and Dave Westaway) and Victory Road Reserve on 7 Feb (frond of 11), with Woden Town also on 11.

• Pilgrimage starts at 55:37

  Short recurring check on adventurers at the home of parkrun. No one at Bushy or Sandringham on 31 January (Lyndell notes the King was at Sandringham that day, and that she hadn't known there was a parkrun on the Royal Estate); Danny Norman was at Bushy on 7 February.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 59:36"Where is the cake?"

  Six launches across the fortnight. 31 January: York Community Woodland parkrun (UK, 36 volunteers, 347 finishers); Victory Road Reserve (Victoria, figure-of-eight on a former waste transfer station, 260 finishers, 26 volunteers); Constellations of the South parkrun (Eurella, NSW, 214 finishes including 36 first-time-ever parkrunners, 95% trail, 60m elevation, Lyndell says the course map "looks a little bit like Mr. Squiggle has had a bit of a sneeze"); and Holbeck for Lead parkrun in Denmark (101 finishers, 33 first-timers, 12 volunteers). 7 February: Cruickshank Park parkrun in Yarraville, Melbourne (307 parkrunners, 18 volunteers) and Storwy Mieszki in Poland (131 finishers, 22 volunteers).

• News of the moment starts at 1:00:56

  PALM 2026 is less than four weeks away. TOC asks anyone attending to click through on the events tab of the parkrun Listener Meetup Facebook page so numbers can be booked at the two pubs, and says he'll circulate a program and add people to the messenger group. Lyndell reminds listeners the Saturday night dress-up theme is rainbow.

• Sign-off starts at 1:02:50

  TOC asked Lyndell where she would be hiding next parkrun day: she was looking for somewhere close to home to volunteer because of other commitments and had not picked a spot yet. TOC was also on a volunteer roster, run directing at the Stump and looking forward to a visit from Tracy in a tutu. He closed saying how good it had been to get so many emails over the fortnight, and they asked listeners to keep them coming.