Episode 455 - Tantrums, Tears and Tribulations

2026-07-30

HostSimon Mackley

Roving reportersAlison Fraser Eman Vergara Ingrid Lyndell Murray Sarah Jefferson

Show notes

This pod, Simon and Sarah bring you news of a new parkrun country. Exciting times! Sarah interviews Steve Howe at Long Point 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, Warkworth Showgrounds and The Ponds parkrun. And Reginald shares their knowledge about ambassadors, while Lyndell rounds out the episode…

Roving reports

In this episode

• Feedback from the last episode

  Simon and Sarah run through listener/episode feedback: the PALM 27 date and location are confirmed (Burley Griffin parkrun, 20th of March), neither host has booked flights yet, and adventurers merchandise has started shipping — with packing labels arriving from "the hunting lady", the running gag the episode title and show notes tease.

• parkrun news bulletin

  News items: Festival Green parkrun on Grand Cayman will be parkrun's first location in the Caribbean, launching late August with support from the Cayman Islands Ministry of Health's Step into Wellness campaign and an unusual 6:30am summer start; plus congratulations to Em Nico on 10 years as Event Director of Kirra parkrun.

• Attendance and milestone stats

  Simon reads parkrun New Zealand attendance and milestone stats for 18 and 25 July (biggest, smallest and closest-to-average events), then Sarah does the same for Australia — 60,990 participants on 18 July and 70,789 on 25 July, with smallest and largest events named.

• Roving Adventurers (roving reporter crossovers)

  Three back-to-back roving reports: Ingrid at Chipping Norton with Paul Power of Sanctuary Runners Australia plus three Sanctuary Runners members; Alison Fraser across the ditch at the Warkworth Showgrounds parkrun launch with ED/RD Michael Jenkinson; and Eman at The Ponds with co-Event Director Rio. Simon recaps all three at 00:39:32.

• Dazza's

  Five selected comments from each of the two Dazza's Facebook posts (18 July "Celebrate Dazza Day", 101 comments; 25 July "International Red Shoe Day", 143 comments). Shout-outs to Wendella at Fort William, Ingrid Paris at Cow Pasture Reserve, Dan O'Connell at Beaufort Lakes, Gareth Arnold at Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Amanda Lake at Kerang Regional, Alison Fraser at Mangere Bridge, Lee at Weipa, Maz Strong at Maribyrnong, Rodney Glossop at Murdoch University and Adrian Luscombe at Lullingstone.

• Emails

  "Simon, we have mail" — an email from Brett and Tanya Bailey in New Zealand covering upcoming South Island events, their V100 and Tanya's 250th milestone, an Australian road trip at Christmas, and their apologies for missing PALM 27 in Canberra.

• Club Corner

  Reginald Yardley-Pomfrey III explains the parkrun ambassador roles he skipped in his earlier 13-part volunteer series: event ambassadors and regional event ambassadors, then the specialist roles — outreach, translation, social media, video and photography, content creation, health and wellbeing, live event processing support, critical incident line, grant ambassadors and national coordinators. Simon follows up with news of meeting parkrun Global CEO Lil Duggan at the APAC office and a call for new APAC ambassadors.

• Consolidated Club Report

  Adventurers Consolidated Club Report 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%, UK 10%, South Africa 5%, Ireland 4%, USA 3%).

• the Frond

  Largest fronds for the fortnight. International: a frond of seven at Green Park, UK (18 July) and a frond of four at Kingsway Park, Urmston (25 July, including Callum Burrell and Ruth Perkins). Australian: a frond of 11 at McIvor Creek Trail, Heathcote (18 July) and a frond of 10 at Nathan Road Sports Ground (25 July, with Lyndell volunteering) — that event's last before closing. Also three pilgrimages on 25 July.

• Watching the numbers

  Sarah explicitly reintroduces this segment — "We are reintroducing a parkrun Adventurers segment. It is called watching the numbers" — in which the hosts pick a parkrun of interest and track its participation. First subject is Plantation Forest parkrun on St Helena: 76, 76 and 75 participants over its first three weeks, with 27 of the 75 unregistered/unknown.

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

  Launch rundown for the fortnight. 18 July: Jagerplas parkrun (Netherlands, 223 finishers), Jeskyns Community Woodland Cobham (UK, 663 finishers, 54 volunteers), Millennium parkrun Grand Rapids (USA, 36 participants) and Star Raceway parkrun, Klerksdorp (South Africa, 361 finishers). 25 July: Ae Forest parkrun (Scotland, 109), Bittesby Country Park, Lutterworth (UK, 297 with zero first-timers) and Murdoch University parkrun (Perth, WA, 205 participants, 26 volunteers).