Facts in a Haystack

Appears in 16 episodes, first in episode 3.

Every appearance

• Episode 97

  Ian Hay returns with January 2018 records: every week in January beat 2017's best single week of ~33,000 (the smallest was 37,000); ~174,000 runners in January 2018 averaging ~35,000/week against ~26,000/week in January 2017; events up from 205 to 272; volunteers up from 8,600 to 11,400 for the month; year totals 764,000 (2015), 1.15m (2016), 1.49m (2017). Ends with all three locking in end-of-2018 predictions for a prize - Ian 34,000/week, Scott 35,000, Mel 1.875 million (~36,000/week). Runs alongside a gag about banned filler words ("fantastic", "so", "now", "excited").

• Episode 78

  Ian Hay returns with parkrun Australia stats: only 0.3% of the 28,817 Australian events ever recorded have had a 59:59 stopwatch failure (85 in total, 36 of them in Queensland); most PBs overall (Alan Burrell, 64 PBs from 283 runs; Jordan McGaw, 58 from 197); longest PB streaks (Phil Downing, 28 in a row in 2015; Michael Holliday, 17 this year); and 'time streaks' - identical finish times repeated (Riley Watson 40:29 five times, John O'Grady 25:01 eleven times, Chris Tuck, David Harries). He also talks about pacing 4:30 at the Sunshine Coast Marathon. A no-cancellations-streak stat was requested but not ready.

• Episode 66

  Ian Hay (Stones Corner, Queensland) breaks down April's stats: the first ever one-million-runner month globally, a record global weekend attendance of 217,400, nearly 149,000 runners in Australia, 10,176 Australian volunteers for the month, 22,700 first-timers, nearly 34,500 adventurers, and year-on-year growth from 118,000 to 148,500 for the same (five-week) month.

• Episode 60

  Follow-up on stats requested from Ian Hay the previous week: the Pirate Club (parkrunners who have completed events starting with C and R). Scott reads Ian's figures — 50 pirates in Australia, 34 male and 16 female, broken down by state: 1 Tasmania, 4 South Australia, 5 Victoria, 9 New South Wales, 11 WA, 20 Queensland. Both hosts discuss how close they are to qualifying. Ian Hay is not present in the episode; he supplied the numbers off-air and Scott reads them out, so the bit is only implicitly his stats segment.

• Episode 59 - Nicola Forwood

  Ian Hay's first stats segment of 2017. January 2017 attendance ~130,000 across 205 events vs 119,000 in January 2016; February dipped to 123,000 across 210 events, a 7,000 new-year-resolution drop against 25,000 for the same period in 2016. Weekly numbers now 31,000-32,000. Event count 205 (end Jan 2017) vs 151 (end Jan 2016), now 210-211 vs 158. Also counts 26 Australian "C" events with 47,043 individual parkrunners having done one, as groundwork for the Pirate Club.

• Episode 50

  Ian Hay returns two weeks running to deliver the stats he owed from last week: the year-end "Mel versus Scott" rematch across all Australian parkrunners named Mel or Scott — 277 Mels with 933 volunteer stints vs 1,009 Scotts with 1,194 stints (Scotts win again on totals, Mels win on average), 10,500 runs by Mels vs 12,300 by Scotts, and the best events to find your namesakes: Maitland for Mels (37) and Newy for Scotts (57).

• Episode 49

  Ian Hay's 2016 year-in-review stats: The Ponds led with nine attendance records, Maribyrnong/Shellharbour/Stones Corner tied second on seven, Wangaratta had the longest streak at four weeks; biggest attendance ranges The Terrace (28-693) and Sirromet (11-620), excluding launches Newy (129-744), Lake Macquarie (71-591), Rocks Riverside (37-488); smallest turnouts Atherton (one runner, two volunteers) and Broadbeach (five); smallest averages Clare Valley 16, Atherton and Pittsworth 17; 81,000 volunteers in 2016 vs 60,000 in 2015; 1 million runs in Australia in 2016 (5 million km); Peel Club now 15 members, nine added this year, 17 people one event away; Compass Club down to two (Brendan Peel and Neil Barnett) with 18 one event away, mostly needing Geographe Bay. Finishes with themed "49" stats for episode 49: 288 people sitting on 49 parkruns, 141 events have had exactly 49 parkrunners (61 this year, Castlemaine five times), 15 people on 49 volunteer stints, 10 people with a 49:00 finish. A further stat Mel had requested is held over to the 50th episode.

• Episode 36 - Lucy Bartholomew

  Referenced only, not aired this week: Scott notes Melissa Ellis's question about how many events each state has "was a question for Facts in a Haystack", but the answer came from listener Michael Schultz on Facebook instead of from Ian Hay in-segment.

• Episode 34 - Bill Irving

  Ian Hay's stats segment, named on air as "our favourite segment, Facts in Haystack". Stats on Event Directors as parkrun tourists (Alan and Roseanne top with 74 unique Australian events; Fiona Edmonds from Logan third), fastest EDs (Dave Robertson 16:50, Neil Bath 17:24, Adrian Royce fifth, 18:33 to make the top ten), then two listener questions from Peter and Simon: youngest/oldest course-record holders in Australia (Samuel Soper, 11-14, 19:12 at Narrabri; Neil Bath oldest, 17:58 at Pittsworth) and longest streaks without breaking an attendance record (Blackbutt 160 weeks off a 538 launch, South Bank 144, Bunya 138), plus 50/100-club proportions by event (Surfers Paradise top at 27%, Rockhampton at zero).

• Episode 26 - Double Anniversary

  Ian Hay's stats segment. He abandons a planned State of Origin Queensland-vs-NSW stats comparison ("no matter which angle I looked at, I just couldn't find a way for New South Wales to win"), then covers the winter drop-off in national attendance (from ~25,000 in April down to ~18,000, and under 10,000 in the flooding week), and analyses the Peel Club — parkrunners who have run one event in each of the eight states and territories. Mel has just become the club's number 10; 13 people sit on seven states and 64 on six or seven. He notes Peel Club members average 49 volunteer stints each.

• Episode 20 - Scott Westcott

  Ian Hay's stats segment, named on air at [00:22:24] "There's facts in a haystack" and [00:22:42] "thanks again for another awesome week of Facts in the Haystack". This instalment: junior parkrunners' unique-event rankings (prompted by Scott's daughter), then which events drew the highest proportion of visiting 'adventurers', both at launches and week to week. Ian jokes about last week being called "lackluster" and about working from paper instead of his laptop.

• Episode 19 - Facts in a Haystack

  Explicitly named by Scott at [00:26:22]: "Once again, it's time for my favourite segment on the podcast" / "Our favourite segment, Facts in a Haystack." The stats segment then collapses — Ian Hay has prepared stats but his laptop won't boot ([00:27:05] "they're on my laptop and they're looking fantastic. Unfortunately, the laptop's not starting up"), so the hosts salvage it by talking to him about Stones Corner parkrun instead: its second birthday, a 100-runner attendance record broken (about 430 runners), the South Bank crew taking over every volunteer role for the day, and South Bank's own 998-runner anniversary. Melissa supplies the only actual statistic of the segment.

• Episode 18 - Rodney Turner

  Not aired this week but trailed at [00:39:51] — "he must also love stats [facts] in a haystack with Ian Hay, which fortunately we're going to have again next week," with Scott replying "Looking forward to that. My favourite segment."

• Episode 13 - Junior Adventurers

  Ian Hay's regular stats segment, this week all junior stats: juniors up from the usual 12-13% of runners to 16% (3,800 of 23,000), Tamborine Mountain highest junior percentage (30%), Shellharbour highest junior count (77), 18 juniors in the 100 Club and 328 in the 50 Club. Ends with a request from the co-host for a future rundown of juniors on the Most Events list, which Ian agrees to bring back next month.

• Episode 8 - parkdogs

  Ian Hay's monthly stats segment, introduced with a formal call "Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for Facts in a Haystack." This instalment: closes off last month's running gag by revealing all-time Australian volunteer counts by first name (Scotts 751, Melissas 595, Ians 764 — Ian wins and refuses to brag); notes four Australian record attendances already in 2016 and 102 course attendance records by late February versus 101 for all of Q1 2015; names the six events with four course records each (Albert Melbourne, Maribyrnong, Mount Barker, Shellharbour, The Ponds, Wangaratta); PB leaders by volume (Torrens 427, Lake Mac ~350, South Bank ~328) and by percentage (Churchill, Woodbridge Riverside and Devonport all ~20-21%); and volunteer totals by running club (Derek Zoolander Centre for Kids Who Can't Run Good 3,734; 5:30 Runners 3,030; Running Mums Australia 2,900). Ends with Ian saying "I can't wait until next month."

• Episode 3 - Ian Hay

  New monthly parkrun stats segment with Ian Hay, Stones Corner ED and "Mr Stats and Facts Man of parkrun Australia". The segment is literally named on air during this episode: Scott introduces it as "a segment I like to call Fun Facts with Ian", the co-host objects ("I just don't think Fun Facts with Ian is quite cool enough"), alternatives "Haywire" and "Facts in a Haystack" are floated, and at 00:22:46 they settle it — "we're going to join you once a month for a segment called?" / "I think we should call it Facts in a Haystack." Content: 335,000 km run year-to-date (9.5 laps of Australia vs 7 last year), most common first names (David; Sarah and Michelle), 106 Scotts vs ~80 Mels/Melissas, 3,300 first names among 22,000 runners with 2,000 unique, and biggest clubs (Running Mums Australia 340, Derek Zoolander Centre for Kids Who Can't Run Good 232, 5:30 Runners third).