Episode 455 - Tantrums, Tears and Tribulations
2026-07-30
— open the full-size coverHostsSarah Jefferson Simon Mackley
Roving reportersAlison Fraser (King) Eman Vergara Ingrid Botha Lyndell Murray
GuestSteve Howe
Show notes
From the Facebook post
This pod, Simon and Sarah bring you news of a new parkrun country. Exciting times!
Sarah interviews Steve Howe at Long Point (opens in a new tab) parkrun, and Simon shares about his latest Gold Coast race and volunteering.
This episode gets a little ‘ugly’ and we will answer the question, who exactly is The Hunting Lady?
There are roving reports from Chipping Norton (opens in a new tab), Warkworth Showgrounds (opens in a new tab) and The Ponds (opens in a new tab) parkruns.
And Reginald shares their knowledge about ambassadors, while Lyndell rounds out the episode…
From the podcast feed
This pod, Simon and Sarah bring you news of a new parkrun country. Exciting times! Sarah interviews Steve Howe at Long Point (opens in a new tab) parkrun, and Simon shares about his latest Gold Coast race and volunteering. This episode gets a little ‘ugly’ and we will answer the question, who exactly is The Hunting Lady? There are roving reports from Chipping Norton (opens in a new tab), Warkworth Showgrounds (opens in a new tab) and The Ponds (opens in a new tab) parkrun. And Reginald shares their knowledge about ambassadors, while Lyndell rounds out the episode…
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Enhanced transcript
Speakers named, sound described and segments marked by the editing pass — not yet checked by a person.
Read the transcriptGuest
Steve Howe
Long Point parkrun's 10th event, how the event was set up with Event Director Jesse and area rep Jennifer, City of Rockingham council support and land-developer sponsorship, the flat sealed out-and-back course by the beach, his favourite WA parkruns (Mundy, Sir James Mitchell/South Perth, Applecross, Jarrahdale), being five events from WA Statesman, a cyclone-hit trip to Karratha, run directing at Kununurra, and plans for Bushy parkrun next year.
Roving reports
In this episode
Welcome starts at 0:29
Sarah Jefferson on Whadjuk Noongar Country and Simon Mackley on Quandamooka Country, Sarah thanking Simon for his patience after an afternoon of toddler tears and teething. Simon ran the Gold Coast Marathon 10k, then Robelle Domain for re-index 48, and marshalled at Fodder Forest while nursing a cold and at Pallara's eighth birthday to farewell co-ED Brian, who is moving to Rosebud. Sarah clocked Carine Glades with its fairy garden, Bibra Lake, her 90th Cottesloe, and Long Point, then WA's newest event, at its 10th event.
parkrun news bulletin starts at 16:46
Sarah announces Festival Green parkrun joining the parkrun family in late August, parkrun's first location in the Caribbean, on Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands, launching with support from the Ministry of Health, Environment and Sustainability's Step into Wellness campaign, and possibly the only event in the world with a 6.30am start (March-October) moving to 7am November-February. Simon then congratulates "friend of the pod" Em (M. Nico) on 10 years as Event Director of Kirra parkrun on the southern Gold Coast.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 20:49
Sarah hands over "I think I'm going to give my voice a rest and we might throw to some roving reports". Three reports run back to back: Ingrid at Chipping Norton (NSW) with Paul Power of Sanctuary Runners Australia; Alison Fraser at the Warkworth Showgrounds launch (NZ) with ED/RD Michael Jenkinson; and Eman Vergara at The Ponds (NSW) with co-ED Rio. Simon recaps all three.
Dazza's starts at 40:26
Five comments chosen from each of two Dazza's posts. 18 July was "Celebrate Dazza Day" (101 comments): Wendella at Fort William (Scotland), Ingrid at Cowpasture Reserve, Camden, Dan O'Connell at Beaufort Lake (Vic), Gareth Arnold at Kalgoorlie-Boulder (WA), Amanda Lake at Kerang Regional (Vic). 25 July was "International Red Shoe Day" (143 comments): Alison Fraser at Māngere Bridge (NZ), Lee Cabarita at Weipa (Qld), Maz Strong at Maribyrnong (Vic) with an adaptive indoor rowing world record, Rodney Glossop at the Murdoch University launch (WA), Adrian Luscombe at Lullingstone (UK). Christmas-in-July ugly singlets feature throughout.
Emails starts at 50:37
One email, from Brett and Tanya Bailey in New Zealand: South Island events still to do, they will miss palm27 because of clashing plans, a Christmas roadie from Adelaide to Melbourne, a 2026 Rugby World Cup trip, Tanya's 250th coming up and Brett's V100 later in the year.
Club Corner starts at 52:21
Sarah throws to "our friend Reginald". Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III delivers Club Corner on parkrun ambassador roles, event ambassadors (EA), regional event ambassadors (REA), and the specialist roles: outreach, translation, social media, video and photography, content creation, health and wellbeing, live event processing support, the critical incident line, grant ambassadors and national coordinators. Simon follows up with news of meeting parkrun Global CEO Lil Duggan in the APAC office and a call for ambassadors across APAC.
Consolidated Club Report starts at 58:31
For Saturday 25 July: of 951 members, 644 took part in 14 countries across 360 locations. Presented this fortnight as a percentage of events attended per state/country, Qld 47%, NSW 46%, Vic 42%, WA 33%, SA 25%, Tas 46%, ACT 80%, North Island 14%, South Island 12%; internationally UK 10%, South Africa 5%, Ireland 4%, USA 3%, plus two events each in Canada, Italy, Netherlands and Sweden and one each in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Singapore.
the Frond starts at 59:57
Largest international frond: 18 July a frond of seven at Green Park, UK (Ian Thompson, David Wright, Nigel Arnold, Pippa White, Nicholas Stott, Cass Castleton, Dan Houghton); 25 July a frond of four at Kingsway Park, Urmston (C.D. Whitehead, Calum Burrell, Ruth Perkins, Samuel Schumann). Largest Australian frond: 18 July a frond of 11 at McIvor Creek Trail, Heathcote; 25 July a frond of 10 at Nathan Road Sports Ground, that event's last before closing, with Lyndell volunteering. Three pilgrimages on 25 July (Julie Clasm, Michael and Tanya Charlton).
Watching the numbers starts at 1:03:51
Sarah announces "We are reintroducing a parkrun adventurers segment. It is called watching the numbers", the show picks a parkrun of interest and tracks its participation over several pods. First subject is Plantation Forest parkrun on St Helena: 76, 76 and 75 participants across its first three weeks, with 27 of the 75 in the latest week unknown/unregistered.
Launches and anniversaries starts at 1:05:10"Where is the cake?"
18 July: four launches across four countries, Jagersplas (Netherlands, 223 finishers), Jeskyns Community Woodland, Cobham (UK, 663 finishers, 54 volunteers), Millennium, Grand Rapids (USA, 36 participants), Star Raceway, Klerksdorp (South Africa, 361 finishers). 25 July: three launches across two countries, Ae Forest (Scotland, 109), Bittesby Country Park, Lutterworth (UK, 297 participants and zero first-timers), and Murdoch University, Perth (205 participants, 26 volunteers), which Sarah notes is close to her nearest-event-to-home.
Sign-off starts at 1:08:25
Sarah asked Simon where he was headed next parkrun day: adventuring to Macquarie University parkrun, knocking off another Sydney event that started after he moved to Queensland, with Jackson and friends including the Office Lady and Luke and a coalition of dirty cheaters. Sarah was staying local and thinking of going back to Bibra Lake, very close to where she lives, possibly working on her next P-index rise. They thanked each other for the catch-up, noted they would not record for another four weeks, said Lyndell and TOC would be back next fortnight, trailed a bonus roving report from Lyndell at the end of the episode, and mentioned the Office Lady had re-engaged their Instagram page.