Episode 454 - Old and New

2026-07-17

HostsLyndell Murray Tony O'Connell

Roving reportersAlison Fraser Greg Moore Johan Duvenhage

Show notes

TOC and Lyndell have plenty of news, but no emails! An important envelope gets lost on level two, we salute our senior parkrunners, and Johan meets the oldest creature on earth at the newest parkrun in the world. We have roving reports from Plantation Forest, Opaheke, and Jells parkruns, and then we ‘hop’ and ‘dip’ over to Dazza’s. Oh, and, no big deal, but we also find out the location of palm 27…

Roving reports

In this episode

• parkrun news bulletin

  Extended news block: merch orders closed and in production; Bushy parkrun's eighth Octogenarian/Nonagenarian gathering (Alan Anderson, 820 parkruns and a four-digit barcode; top age-graded run Joyce Archibald 98.55%); a look back at the inaugural 2017 Bushy octogenarians meetup and the Yee family connection; Wynnum parkrun's sixth Octogenarian Plus celebration on 22 August 2026; the relaunch of Werribee Park Mansion parkrun after 1,379 days out following flood damage to its bridge; junior milestone wristband and t-shirt changes; birthdays for Melissa Ellis and Danny Norman; Australia's 25 millionth finish token; then NZ and Australian attendance/volunteer stats for 4 and 11 July.

• Roving Adventurers (roving reporter crossovers)

  Three roving reports back to back, announced at [00:21:45] "Let's hear from our roving reporters": Johan Duvenhage from the launch of Plantation Forest parkrun on St Helena, Alison Fraser from Opaheke Park parkrun in South Auckland, and Greg Moore from Jells parkrun in Melbourne. The hosts recap all three at [00:47:03]-[00:48:26].

• Dazza's

  Selected listener comments from the last two Dazza's Facebook posts. 4 July was 'Hopper Park Day' (comments from Yvette Turner at Mount Ainslie, Sonja Pohlman at The Beaches, Ian Brown at East Coast Singapore, Dan Joe at Karamu Stream, Joe McLean at Port Hedland, Pippa White at Birkenhead); 11 July was 'International Skinny Dip Day' (Mark Hibbard, Brett Bailey at Pegasus, Val Warwick at Hobart, Penny Simpson at Precinct 18, Stephen Cox at Maitland with Heather Morgan's 200 tourist streak).

• the Obi Award — Sonja Pohlman

  Lyndell awards the Obi to Sonja Pohlman for her sunrise photo from The Beaches parkrun, taken from her marshal spot in front of the teardrop flag. TOC: "That was a great photo from the beaches. The beaches always produces great photos... another great photo of the sunrise coming up over the ocean and the parkrun flag there as well."

• Club Corner

  Delivered in character by Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III as a 'Who Am I?' quiz, framed as a Palm 27 update: seven clues (a territory recently featured, never hosted Palm, 173rd event to open in Australia and 4th in its territory, out-and-back, beside a lake, named after a famous American) reveal the host location for Palm 2027 as Burley Griffin parkrun in the ACT — resolving the running gag about the lost envelope. Closes with a note that parkrun now hosts various renamed non-milestone clubs in the app.

• Consolidated Club Report

  Adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Saturday 11 July 2026: 944 members, 653 taking part in 14 countries across 352 locations, with a state-by-state and country-by-country breakdown (16 of the 20 reachable countries covered this week). Followed by discussion of Malaysia gaining a second and possibly third event.

• the Frond

  Frond round-up inside the club report: international fronds of six at Peter Pan parkrun (4 July) and eleven at The Lost Gardens of Heligan (11 July, where Andy Airy ran his 500th parkrun); the pilgrimage slot (Nadine Rutter at Bushy Park on 11 July); and the largest Aussie fronds — eleven at the Werribee Park Mansion relaunch and eight at Albury Wodonga.

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

  Launch round-up for both weeks. 4 July: McIvor Creek Trail (Heathcote, VIC — postponed by rain, 61 finishers when it ran), Mangere Bridge (NZ, 260 finishers), Konigshof (Germany, 49), Ballymount (Dublin, 371), Brackenhurst Campus (UK, 276). 11 July: Mingo (Delaware, Ohio, 34), Happy Hill (Winston-Salem, 58), Vale Park (Burslem, 301), and Plantation Forest on St Helena (76 participants, 33 first-time-ever parkrunners, 10 volunteers) with an extended discussion of its remoteness and Jonathan the tortoise.