Episode 448 - Surrounded by clowns

2026-04-24

HostTony O'Connell

Roving reportersAli Sheppard Lyndell Murray

Show notes

Grab your big red shoes, baggy pants and colourful top hat. TOC is packing his bag of tricks and Lyndell is juggling a life outside of parkrun. Reginald takes a giant magnifying glass to the Running Achievements app, and the roving reporters have bundled into the clown car, headed for Parklakes Wetlands and East Holmes Field parkruns. We celebrate listener achievements and milestones at Dazzas, and pull an endless string of launches out of our sleeves.

Roving reports

In this episode

• parkrun news bulletin

  Tony opens the news with Anzac Day parkrun cancellations and the parkrun Australia / Invictus "Team Veteran" partnership, urging listeners to check cancellation pages; Lyndell adds Brisbane events (Bunyaville, Sandgate) marking the day and pointing runners to dawn services. Second item: parkrun Ireland's new national campaign "Care for the Places We parkrun".

• Weekly stats (Australia and New Zealand)

  Tony reads New Zealand numbers for 11 and 18 April supplied by "our friend from over the ditch, Alison" (attendance records at East End, Invercargill and Lower Hutt; Hagley biggest with 1,007), then Lyndell reads the Australian figures for 18 April (89,460 participants, 6,794 volunteers, 530 events, 4,079 first-timers). Tony closes with a global look at Poland's country attendance record.

• Roving Adventurers (roving reporter crossovers)

  Two roving reports back to back: Lyndell at Park Lakes Wetlands parkrun (Bli Bli, Sunshine Coast) with founder Michael, and Ali Sheppard at East Holmes Field parkrun (Ilkley, Yorkshire) with Amanda Murray-Hynde and the parkrun Weather Fairy. Tony hands back at [00:34:27].

• Dazza's

  Listener shout-outs from two Dazza's posts - 11 April (cheese fondue day) with Yvette Turner's 300th, David Bravos and Chloe finishing their alphabets at Frog Hollow, Gareth Arnold at Bibra Lake and Jan Yates at Amsterdamse Bos; and 18 April (World Circus Day) with Sarah Jefferson at the beaches, Leanne Evans in Tasmania, Roberta Winters' 250th at Waggie Bridge, Ali Sheppard at Cockermouth Greenway, Gemma Kajewski's poem and 500th at Gatton, and Katie Clues at Burrum Heads.

• the Obi Award — Roberta Winters

  Tony picks the Obi from a paper envelope with a self-supplied drumroll (joking that "the other two have gone new school with their electronic Obies"), awarding it to Roberta Winters for her Dazza's post about being "surrounded by these clowns" while completing her 250th parkrun at Waggie Bridge in Canberra on World Circus Day - the post that gives the episode its title.

• Emails

  Introduced by a "You've got mail" stinger. Just one email for the fortnight, from Lee (A467161), who fears an early trip to Japan from late March to mid-April may have cost them a place at Palm next year; Lyndell replies that no Palm 2027 dates or locations are set yet.

• Club Corner

  Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III reviews the Running Achievements app as a follow-up to Club Corner 95 and his earlier Park Race app review - graphical challenge tracking, the periodic table achievement, Australian state/territory region badges, volunteer achievement levels and extended statistics. He notes the app credits Mel Erbacher with coining the Pirates Club, and signs off with his standard reminder that all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun.

• Consolidated Club Report

  Adventurers Club report for Saturday 18 April: 899 members, one short of 900; 640 members participated across 11 countries and 330 locations, broken down by Australian state, New Zealand island and international country (86 UK events, eight South Africa, four USA, two Japan, one each in Austria, Germany, Ireland, Malaysia and Norway).

• the Frond

  Largest gatherings of Adventurers Club members at a single event. Largest international fronds: a frond of 4 at Highcliffe Beach (UK) on 11 April, and a frond of 4 at Jamaica Pond (USA) on 18 April, boosted by the Boston Marathon. Largest Australian fronds: a frond of 8 at Toowoomba on 11 April and a frond of 17 at Waggie Bridge on 18 April, including Obi winner Roberta Winters.

• Pilgrimage

  Adventurers who made it to Bushy Park: one on 11 April (Angharad Callaghan) and two on 18 April (Orna O'Bairn and Alison Giblin).

• Launches and anniversaries ("Where is the cake?")

  Thirteen launches over two weeks and none in Australia for a third week running. 11 April: Okanagan Rail Trail (Canada), Lithuania's fourth event, LPT (Wales), Flomvollen (Norway) and Wilton Lodge (Hawick, Scotland). 18 April: Opeheke (NZ), Beaver Creek (South Africa), a German event north of Cologne, Matsqui Trail Regional (Canada), Green Park (Reading, UK), Lady Mary's Walk (Crieff), Tempelhofer Feld (Berlin) and Waverley Lakes (Sheffield).

• Looking ahead

  Tony previews a four-week European "smash and grab" tour with Jackie taking in seven parkruns - University of Galway, Poland, Finland (Oulu), Vingis in Lithuania, Zamek Malbork, the Netherlands and Singapore - and announces he will miss the May recordings. Lyndell plans Jubilee parkrun at Tenterfield to continue her 110+ tourist streak, then explains she is on the bench again next parkrun day supporting a friend's overnight trek to an Anzac Day dawn service.

• Bloopers

  Post-outro outtake of Lyndell repeatedly fluffing David Bravos's Dazza's post ("the best F in parkrun" becoming "fondue popcorn"), capped with "Here's those bloopers that some of the listeners were after" before the theme song.