Episode 447 - You raise me up

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HostsSarah Jefferson Simon Mackley

Roving reportersAlison Fraser (King) Jo McLean Ruth Perkins

Show notes

From the Facebook post

Wait… it can’t be… barkrun? Selfscanning? A new mascot? New volunteer roles? Don’t be fooled!

Simon shares his recent adventures, while Sarah prepares to take flight. Reginald drops in to share all things Wilson, while we hear reports from Lost Lagoon (opens in a new tab), Edithburgh (opens in a new tab) and parkrun Vingis (opens in a new tab).

Would you believe that Easter egg wrappers have been left all through the office and the email box is full? There’s no complaints here!

From the podcast feed

Wait… it can’t be… barkrun? Selfscanning? A new mascot? New volunteer roles? Don’t be fooled! Simon shares his recent adventures, while Sarah prepares to take flight. Reginald drops in to share all things Wilson, while we hear reports from Lost Lagoon (opens in a new tab), Edithburgh (opens in a new tab) and Vingis (opens in a new tab) parkruns. Would you believe that Easter egg wrappers have been left all through the office and the email box is full? There’s no complaints here!

Roving reports

1Lost Lagoon2Vingis3Edithburgh

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:23

  Sarah Jefferson on Noongar Boodja and Simon Mackley on Quandamooka Sea Country, recording on Easter Monday over Haigh's eggs, having just met in person at Palm in the Clare Valley; Sarah spotted Josh Groban in the Adelaide airport lounge on the way home. Feedback on the Tim Oberg interview and his RAD school running program, then Simon's month: Calamvale with ambassador colleagues, P-Index 9 at Logan River, a very welcoming new event at Gatton (Lockie and Nicola, Gemma, and hundreds of noisy corellas) and Birtinya Island with the high tide over the wall. Sarah got her post-baby PB at Cottesloe (her fastest since pregnancy came at Palm), met Eman and Kristine Vergara and Chloe Bravos at Sir James Mitchell, swapped a cyclone-cancelled 28 March for the gym, and was heading to Galup Reserve as the opening runs on.

• parkrun news bulletin starts at 19:39

  April Fools' Day roundup, the hosts share the pranks events posted on 1 April: Sandgate's dogs-only "barkrun"; Reddall Reserve's invented volunteer roles (cake maker, vest washer, usher, chalk writer, production manager); Queen's, Glasgow piloting "parkrun self-scan" with "no more queues at Kew"; Global HQ's new mascot "Bushy the Tree"; Hagley's school-style enrolment catchment zones; "Park Buff" at Haigh Woodland; participation charges at Castlewellan (£5 runners, £10 walkers, paid volunteers); a board decision to rename to "Park Fun"; and a parkrun credit card.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 32:44

  Three roving reports back to back, thrown to by Simon and recapped by the hosts. Alison Fraser at Lost Lagoon parkrun, Westport on New Zealand's West Coast, interviewing ED/RD Mary Rose (41st event, built and maintained by community volunteers, three laps of the lagoon). Ruth Perkins at Vingis parkrun, Vilnius, on Lithuanian Independence Restoration Day, interviewing RD and sole Lithuanian ambassador Andreas, Nordic skiers overtaking parkrunners, a fourth Lithuanian event launching next month. Jo McLean's first-ever roving report, from Edithburgh parkrun on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula, interviewing ED Danielle (eight years, launched straight onto the app, new Vietnam War memorial on course).

• Dazza's starts at 52:18

  Five comments chosen from each of the last two Dazza's posts. From 28 March (Weed Appreciation Day): Tanya Bailey at Pegasus, NZ; Rodney Glossop, who escaped Perth and Cyclone Narelle to finish his alphabet at Inverloch and ran into Tony O'Connell; Rex Gream's 50th volunteer at Armidale, acknowledged by fellow adventurer and RD Clancy Skinner; Dan Baldwin's Territorian tick at Alice Springs Telegraph Station (297 locations, half of Australia); and Calum Burrell's "we EDs / we RDs" weeds gag at Clitheroe Castle. From 4 April (International Carrot Day): Audrey Boswell at Point Vernon Foreshore; Karen Hurrell's 175th different event at Middleton Woods; Mia Ross's birthday parkrun at Berwick Waters; Rebecca Bailey's 250th at Whitemark Wharf, Flinders Island; and Jo McLean at Port Lincoln.

• the Obi Award — Bec Bailey starts at 1:01:37

  The Obi envelope is "delivered electronically" and Sarah announces the winner: "Congrats again on your 250th and making it an incredible adventure to celebrate that", Rebecca (Bec) Bailey, for reaching 250 parkruns at Whitemark Wharf on Flinders Island over the Easter long weekend, photographed with her 250 singlet while wearing the Tail Walker's vest.

• Emails starts at 1:02:06

  Four emails read out. Sherry Brandtman on her first PALM and the dress-up dinner (Ingrid, Sam, Luke and Bec taking best costume), prompting Sarah to praise a guest who recreated Paul Rainbow's outfit from the second PALM at The Beaches. Ingrid on her 2026 goals (two new letters, P-index of five, Wilson index to 20, joining the Peel Club) and her "find the joy" outlook. Simon thanks Seriancha for a recording of a new German event that arrived too late for last pod. A listener travelling in South Africa on Cannibals Cave and the RAD Run Club. And Leanne on running the miler at the Tarawera Ultra-Trail, mud, 28 hours of rain and an electrical storm, crewed by her husband Lee, adventurer Alison King, and parkrunners Gary and Sarah.

• Club Corner starts at 1:09:22

  Delivered by Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III. New Wilson variants tracked by the Park Race app, the double and triple Wilson (each event number twice or thrice, which he rates "not very exciting IMO") and the Golden Wilson, where each event counts only once, so there is no incentive to repeat event number ones. He also covers the app's P-index graphic, the PC index (events per country, currently capped at 13 as of February 2026), the alphabet bar graph, and jokes that the hosts' "SMAC index" is objectively the best-named. Back in studio, Sarah gives her PC index as three heading to four; Simon owns up to the SMAC index being his.

• Consolidated Club Report starts at 1:13:28

  For 4 April 2026: of 894 members, 642 took part in 10 countries across 346 locations. Domestically, 66 events in Queensland, 58 Victoria, 51 NSW, 20 WA, 17 SA, 10 Tasmania, 8 North Island, 7 each ACT and South Island, 1 Northern Territory. Internationally, 78 in the UK, 12 South Africa, 4 Ireland, 2 each Italy and Poland, 1 each Germany, Japan and Sweden. The hosts note the club is six members short of 900 and hope the 900th lands on episode 450.

• the Frond starts at 1:16:03

  Largest international frond on 4 April was four at East Holmes Field, Shane Corcoran, Calum Burrell, Ali Sheppard and Andy Wilkinson. Pilgrimages: two adventurers at Bushy on 28 March (Matt Miller and Nicholas Stott), none on 4 April, which Simon, whose cancelled Europe trip would have put him there, is teased about. Largest Aussie frond was 10 at Koonwarra.

• Launches and anniversaries starts at 1:17:14"Where is the cake?"

  Seven launches on 28 March: Asidlale Adventure near Sandton, South Africa (706 athletes, 37 volunteers); Bongil Bongil west of Sawtell, NSW (56/10); Breen Avenue Walking Track at Kyabram, Victoria (110/16); Orient Beach in East London, South Africa (901 athletes, 31 volunteers, 226 first-timers); Park Miejski, Oława in Poland (129/14); Talaue at Waiblingen, Germany (148/14); and Yzerfontein Beach north-northwest of Cape Town (400/25). Two on 4 April: Ahrens Park in Grinnell, Iowa (48/7, with an upload problem showing every finisher as unknown) and Rothamsted Park in Harpenden, UK (345/30). The hosts note how large the South African launches are and that many of Orient Beach's first-timers were back-of-the-pack walkers.

• Sign-off starts at 1:21:41

  Sarah said it was that time of the pod and asked where Simon was headed next parkrun day: staying as local as he could at Redland Bay to meet Sarah Yancher, who was coming there for the first time, and then missing parkrun the week after because of a birthday celebration the night before. Sarah was heading away for a month and hoped to send in a few roving reports, first stop Pirrama parkrun in the Sydney CBD, the prettiest parkrun in Sydney, then the Beaches the following week, then Japan for four parkruns, so she would not record again until June. The next episode would have Lyndell back in the comfy chair, the first of three in a row, joined by TOC before he heads off on his own big adventure.