Episode 3 - Ian Hay

Episode details · 127 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:08Scott Trickett: Hey parkrun Adventurers, welcome to episode three. Third time lucky hopefully Mel, what do you reckon?

00:00:16Melissa Erbacher: I think we were actually pretty lucky the first two times Scott, hopefully we don't stuff it up in the trifecta.

00:00:21Scott Trickett: So far so good. Good week parkrun wise for you, good weekend I should say?

00:00:27Melissa Erbacher: Yeah it was a little bit wet and woolly on the Sunshine Coast this weekend Scott but I actually got to have another run at Kawana this weekend so... I took on Mother Nature and her horizontal stabbing rain and gale force winds and got through that finish line absolutely saturated with my shoes about 10 kilos heavier and loved every minute. What were you up to this weekend? Mm-hmm.

00:00:53Scott Trickett: I got to experience parkrun on a Sunday this week. We had a trial run for Studley so we had 54 runners join us on Sunday morning to test out the course and it was an adventure because I got there early to set up the course and I was confronted by a pop-up rave or as the guys who I met down by the river, it was a pop-up doof session, man. It wasn't what I was expecting, but it was just, yeah, it was in the middle. So Studley parkrun is located in a parkland by a river and there's no houses around. So it's a perfect location if you wanted to get 200 of your friends together and have a rave in the middle of the night. And that's what happened. So I'm putting the flag in the turnaround point. And as I'm hammering it into the ground and approached by a couple of friendly fellas who wanted to know what I was doing, I just hoped that it would be there when I set the runners off and so they knew where to turn around. And to the surprise of nobody, it wasn't. Someone had souvenired the flag. It turns out someone had taken it, walked 100 metres with it. Realised what the hell am I going to do with a parkrun flag and chucked it in the river, on the banks of the river. So we did recover it. But yeah, that was my adventure from Sunday morning parkrun this week. It was a trial run, which we have to do in parkrun because we can't just set up an event. cross our fingers and hope that everything works we have to test the course we have to test our equipment and that's what i was busy doing on sunday and i'm pleased to announce that feedback was all good and we look forward to launching in about a month's time

00:02:47Melissa Erbacher: Wow, Scott, sounds like you've had a little bit of fun out there with your stargazers this weekend. Speaking of stargazers, this is actually a parkrun thing, possibly a little bit different than what you experienced at Studley Park. But for those of you who aren't aware, one of the regions in southeast Queensland is known as the Southern Cross Circuit. So In parkrun terms, the circuit is created by a bunch of events which form the rough shape of the Southern Cross and with the bonus pointer star, of course, of Roma. So the events that make up the Southern Cross circuit are Gatton, Warwick, Toowoomba, Pittsworth, Stanthorpe and Highfields with the bonus pointer star, as I mentioned, of Roma. And to become a stargazer, you actually have to run all of the events in this particular Southern Cross Circuit. And to become a super stargazer, you need the bonus point to start a Roma. There were some new members of the stargazer group this week and there's only a couple of them at the moment.

00:03:56Scott Trickett: So who came up with the idea of the stargazers or how did it come about?

00:04:01Melissa Erbacher: Well, Sonia and Peter Pohlman, together with Linda Coombs, who's the former event director at Warwick parkrun. Sonia and Peter are well known in parkrun tourism circles because they do these fabulous video reviews, which they share with the parkrun Tourism AU Facebook group every week. They were discussing how they might be able to bring some more tourists to the area of some of the less toured parkruns, I would imagine you would call them. And that's how they came up with the Southern Cross Circuit. I had a look at it on the map. It shows the beautiful constellation of the Southern Cross. They're out in the beautiful wilds of southeast Queensland where you can actually see all the stars of the Milky Way every night. So It seemed rather fitting, and to be honest, I would love to be a stargazer. It's one of my bucket list items. I want to get around to all those events. I've started with the southernmost event. I've been to Stanthorpe parkrun, and I've done the bonus pointer star of Roma, which is also probably less attainable for a lot of people because it's quite a drive to get out to Roma. So now I just need to knock off about five more events, which are a lot closer.

00:05:20Scott Trickett: Tell us about Roma, because you're right, not many people would have been to Roma. When you put Roma on the map, I'm thinking Italy. I didn't know there was a town in the middle of Queensland called Roma. What's the parkrun like?

00:05:34Melissa Erbacher: Oh, the parkrun is absolutely stunning, Scott. It's run alongside a river through beautiful tall gum trees out in the bush. And the event team is very, very enthusiastic and motivated and just absolutely love what they do for the community. It's quite a small group. The average runners, you know, you can expect to get a top 50 time or finish position if you head out to Roma. which is, you know, nice for those of us who aren't possibly the fastest runners out there. But it's just a fantastic little community and obviously it's more remote because of where it is. There are a lot of the mining people that come in and out of the town. But, yeah, no, the parkrun itself is beautiful. You can't describe it. It's not an out and back. It's not a loop. It's got a few little... wiggly bits around the place, which sounds confusing when they explain it, but when you run it, it makes perfect sense. So it's a beautiful event. I really strongly recommend people get out to Roma because it's gorgeous.

00:06:45Scott Trickett: I'll have a wild guess here. I bet they're super friendly.

00:06:48Melissa Erbacher: Crazy super friendly and obviously if you're heading out there as a tourist, they're going to spot you a mile off because they know exactly everyone who's there and they're very, very welcoming and very, yes, as you say, very friendly.

00:07:04Scott Trickett: Yeah, this was following up on a conversation I had during the week about name your friendliest, your top five friendliest parkruns you've been to. And it was a conversation with some experienced parkrunners and we all came to the conclusion of, for us in Melbourne, it's the smallest parkrun out in Highlands in the northern suburbs. And I don't know if it's because it's a smaller event, but they just make you feel so welcome. They're excited to see you. And I'm guessing that's the same experience at Roma and some of these other parkruns that are in the Stargazer circuit.

00:07:38Melissa Erbacher: Absolutely. It was the same when we were at Stanthorpe. I went with my husband late last year and had a weekend down there, which was gorgeous. But it absolutely poured rain until about quarter past six in the morning. And we thought, oh, we haven't come all this way to not do parkruns. So we were going to go whether or not there was a cyclone. um that far inland I know that doesn't happen but we got there and I think there were only um oh there were about 30 other runners so it was a top 50 finish for me but they were so welcoming and so friendly and yeah it's just one of the beautiful aspects that you can expect from the smaller communities that are out in the rural areas you know they they do band together and they do all know everyone and they are so welcoming of guests and tourists so Fantastic place to go for a parkrun adventure, absolutely.

00:08:33Scott Trickett: So hopefully we'll hear from some of these parkruns in the coming weeks. Maybe they can be our roving adventurers. This week, though, we had our rovering adventurers where the party's at. We had Silpa sending us some stuff from St Peter's. If you remember from last week, they had their neon theme. Let's have a listen to some of the stuff she managed to capture from their anniversary.

Roving Adventurers (roving reporter crossovers)

00:09:00Silpa: So I'm here at St Peter's parkrun with Bernie. Bernie, tell me, how long have you been coming to parkrun for? Since January 2015. 2015. So you've done a few parkruns. I have. Today was number 40. Excellent. Not too far off your next shirt then. Yes, yes. Fabulous. Now, Bernie, we know that you do a slightly different volunteer role at St Peter's. Can you tell us what that is? Sure.

00:09:24Bernie: I started out, I've done a couple of times of setting up the equipment, that sort of thing. And I noticed there was a person recruiting for volunteers one week, Catherine, and she said, do you want to have a go at this next week? So I took it on and at the time it was, you know, a clipboard and a pencil and walking around and asking people to volunteer. And that evolved into using the Google Docs on my phone, which made it very easy and sort of approaching all the people that come and, you know, you've got the four or five weeks ahead in front of you and you just recruit for people to do whatever position they're keen on. And so how many volunteers do we typically need at St Peter's every week? That's a really good question, I should know the answer to. I think it's around 15. 15, wow, that's quite a number. But then we get about 300, 350 people a week, don't we? Yes, we do, yeah. Excellent. And what do you like most about parkrun? I'm addicted. I'm totally addicted. It took me week one, the first time I came I was addicted. I love that the person that does it in 16 minutes gets as many cheers as the person that does it in an hour. I'm somebody who's sort of, you know, anywhere in between 35 and 40 minutes and people cheer me the whole way around. Really great community spirit and, you know, amazing volunteers run it.

00:10:35Silpa: Excellent. Well, Bernie, it's been so good to have you take on the volunteer coordinator role at St Peter's and continue doing all of the good hard work. Thank you. Thank you. Cheers. So I'm here with Sharon. Sharon, happy fourth birthday. Thank you. So Sharon, tell me about your parkrun story.

00:10:51Sharon: Well, my parkrun story starts with you, Silpa, because you got me involved in parkrun. Hurrah! And suggested that I come along. And it's a great opportunity to do a five kilometre run every now and then. And yeah, I've been doing it for about five months now.

00:11:06Silpa: And tell me, what do you like about the parkrun course at St Peter's and what do you not like?

00:11:12Sharon: I probably most like that the majority of the course is flat. It's close to me so it doesn't take too long to get here on the Saturday morning. It's good that it starts at 8 o'clock because it's kind of get it over and done with. And least like probably the hill, although I did get my personal best on the hill today.

00:11:31Silpa: Congratulations. It's a tough hill. And have you managed to volunteer since getting involved in parkrun?

00:11:37Sharon: Yes, I have done one volunteer session. I was a marshal.

00:11:42Silpa: And what did you most enjoy about marshalling?

00:11:44Sharon: I just really enjoyed seeing the runners actually, just smiling and enjoying the run.

00:11:48Silpa: And are there any of the parkrun courses in Australia or any other part of the world that you would like to get yourself to?

00:11:55Sharon: Yeah, I'm planning to go back to the UK for my sister's 50th birthday party in June. And there is a parkrun just around the corner from her in East Dulwich. So I've already put that in my diary and looking forward to that.

00:12:08Silpa: There you go. Let's hope it's not raining when you're there. I hope so.

00:12:12Melissa Erbacher: Wonderful hearing from Silpa, who was our roving adventurer at St. Peter's parkrun this week, speaking to Bernie and Sharon about their volunteer roles. And we also heard from Mel, who's the ED at the upcoming Laylor parkrun. She was at Point Cook this weekend for their second anniversary, Hawaiian theme. Can't forget the Hawaiian theme. And she had a chat to Christine about volunteering.

00:12:36Unidentified speaker: I've just come across Christine Willems who's one of the volunteers out here today at Point Cook parkrun. What brings you to volunteering with parkrun?

00:12:46Christine Willems: I love volunteering. I get to see everybody and I particularly love being at the end because you see everyone trying their hardest to get across the line. Everyone gets a run up to cross the line. And how many times have you volunteered, Christine? I think today was my 18th time.

00:13:00Unidentified speaker: And just lastly, for those who may not have volunteered yet at parkrun, what would you like to tell those people to encourage them to get out and volunteer?

00:13:10Christine Willems: Come and help out, it's heaps of fun. You get lots of time to chat and it's a lot more fun than running 5K.

00:13:16Unidentified speaker: I've just located another parkrun tourist, Kaz Derby. What's your home parkrun? I normally run at Lilydale Lake.

00:13:24Kaz Derby: Wonderful, and what brings you to Point Cook today for their second anniversary? Well, it's a bit of a story. My running buddy has set herself a challenge to run every parkrun within two hours of our houses by the time she's 40 in June. So I'm tagging along for the ride and we tossed up between Phillip Island and Point Cook. Point Cook had a birthday and cake, so that sealed the deal. Wonderful. And how many parkruns have you guys done in your pre-40 adventures? So far we've done seven and we've got another seven planned for the next week. eight or ten weeks. And for those who haven't been lucky enough to visit Point Cook parkrun, tell us a little bit about the course. It's a lovely out and back course, relatively flat, a couple of small inclines but nothing that you would notice if you're getting into the spirit of parkrun. It's quite open at the moment but there's lots of new tree planting so I can imagine in years to come there's going to be quite a bit of shade. The organisers of this particular parkrun have done a great job with little motivational signs along the way and it's a really, really friendly environment. I think it's great for prams. It's a sealed path right throughout except for the last little bit. Yeah, they seem like a really good crowd and we've enjoyed ourselves today.

Facts in a Haystack (initially pitched as "Fun Facts with Ian")

00:14:54Scott Trickett: Now it's time in the show for a little bit of fun with stats, a segment I like to call Fun Facts with Ian.

00:15:02Melissa Erbacher: I just don't think Fun Facts with Ian is quite cool enough. Earlier in the day we were having a bit of a chat with Ian and he mentioned something about his computers going haywire. So I quite liked that. Oh, that's a bit of play on words there with haywire. Another suggestion you had recently, Scott, was facts in a haystack. Ian, can I get you to weigh in on this?

00:15:25Scott Trickett: We should introduce him first. We should. Welcome to our Stones Corner AD and Mr. Stats and Facts Man of parkrun Australia, Ian Hay. Thanks for joining us, Ian.

00:15:37Ian Hay: Thank you, guys. And I like that intro. I like the name. It's cool. Cool playing words. Very different. Which one? Which one? Is it a favouritism thing here? So it depends on who I go with. I could be in trouble. It's a competition. Yep. It's competition.

00:15:56Melissa Erbacher: I think he's avoiding the question.

00:15:58Ian Hay: Absolutely.

00:16:00Scott Trickett: Ian, we asked you to come up with some stats that aren't available to the average parkrunner, something we can have a bit of fun with. What have you got for us?

00:16:08Ian Hay: Okay. Well, I can't miss out on the main ones to begin with, and that's your totals. So I have to cover those off to begin with because I think they're really cool because it's massive this year if you've seen all the extra growth that we've had. If you want to look at kilometres, so this year to date, we've clocked over just actually just under 335,000 kilometres. And if you put that in perspective, that's just over nine and a half laps of Australia. So it's pretty huge for what, only halfway into January. So massive. If you compare it to last year, at this time, we were just around the seven laps of Australia. So what we've done, two and a half extra laps in one year. So it's pretty big growth, if you ask me.

00:16:50Melissa Erbacher: So can I just clarify there, Ian, is that since the 1st of January we've done 335,000 kilometres?

00:16:57Ian Hay: That's correct, yes. So that's including our New Year's Day parkrun and then the couple after that.

00:17:05Melissa Erbacher: Wow, no wonder I'm tired.

00:17:07Ian Hay: Exactly.

00:17:07Scott Trickett: Okay, so Ian, so one of the things with parkrun is that you do meet a lot of people and sometimes... Believe it or not, you might not remember everybody's name you meet. So I was thinking maybe you could give us the stats of the most common first names. So in case we ever do forget, we can just call on the most common name and hope for the best.

00:17:29Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, that sounds like a good idea to me, Scott, because, you know, pretty much unless somebody volunteers, I don't personally know everybody's name. And I do know, obviously, as an event director, more people are likely to know my name. And you have that moment where they're just looking at you and you're thinking, oh, my God. i know i've met you before i can't remember your name ian it would be awesome if we had like a go-to guy's name and a go-to girl's name where most of the time we would probably be right do you have those sort of details for us well we do we've got um what the two two names that uh you'd be pretty likely to get right which would be um david and sarah so um actually sarah and michelle will be your top two they're pretty close together for the uh the female side but um Okay, I like that. I like that we have a choice with women because I would say not everyone looks like a Sarah, but then some people do look like Michelle. So, yeah, we might have to use our intuition for that one.

00:18:27Ian Hay: Yeah, exactly. And it is a common ED and RD problem trying to get the name, so that could certainly come in handy. Save a few of us.

00:18:36Scott Trickett: And just for the record, Ian, more Scots or more Melissa's?

00:18:41Ian Hay: Ooh, I hate to tell it, but I think Scott won out there by quite a bit, actually.

00:18:46Melissa Erbacher: What are the numbers? Seriously, like more Scots than Melissa's. I have a hard time believing that.

00:18:53Ian Hay: So it was about 106 Scots, and it was around about the 80 Mels, Melissa's, so...

00:19:01Melissa Erbacher: That's okay. You know what? I'm good with that because obviously there are just more Melissa's volunteers. So your numbers, they're based on the ones who ran, right? So I'm making the assumption, therefore, that more of us Melissa's are the generous kind and we're out there volunteering, so we're not appearing in Ian's stats. So I'm okay with that. You can win this little competition there, Mr Trickett.

00:19:27Scott Trickett: Thank you.

00:19:28Ian Hay: If I include the volunteer stats, then that will easily take out Scott, so that's fine. Next time. So the next one that I actually found quite interesting was this week we had just over 22,000 runners. And 33,000, out of those 22,000, there were 3,300 unique first names. So out of those, so there were 3,300 names, first names. Out of those, 2,000 were unique. So 2,000 of them were only basically were unique across every single parkrun. So 1,300 of them were the same names, like repeats, like Mel myself and so on but um yeah so two thousand of them were unique so it's quite a lot if you ask me so as in there was only one zach yeah well there was only one oh there was definitely more than one zach i would say but so Constance, perhaps there might only be one Constance yeah very possibly so the next one that i had was the uh the clubs For those who don't know, you can register a running club with your profile when you set up your parkrun account. And we had basically there were two clubs, the two biggest clubs for this weekend. One was Running Mums Australia. So they had 340 runners. Coming in directly behind them was Derek Zoolander Centre for Kids Who Can't Run Good at 232. Ah, I see.

00:20:48Melissa Erbacher: Now that's where I'm represented because I ran and I was one of those Zoolanders.

00:20:53Ian Hay: Very good. I also found it interesting that both of those were also at the top at the same time last year as well, and they've been steadily growing, which is great to see.

00:21:03Melissa Erbacher: Awesome. So, Ian, about the clubs, so you mentioned that people could join clubs when they first register, but they can also join and sign up to clubs after they've registered at any point, can't they? Yeah.

00:21:17Ian Hay: Absolutely, yes.

00:21:18Melissa Erbacher: Well, we might need to put some instructions on our Facebook page about how people can do that if they're interested because it seems to me there are a lot of people out there, registered parkrunners, who aren't members of a club. So maybe we could get them to sign up and join with some of their, how do we say, like-minded runners.

00:21:39Scott Trickett: So you're a Zoolander.

00:21:41Melissa Erbacher: I am, Scott. Are you a member of a club?

00:21:44Scott Trickett: I'm a Westerfoldian. I don't think we're on the list yet. We need to grow our numbers. You do. But we're very unique. We're linked to one event only. Zoolanders can run anywhere. Ian, are you a member of a club?

00:21:58Ian Hay: I'm with the 530 runners, which came in third, actually, so they're next on the list. I don't think I've heard of them either.

00:22:08Scott Trickett: Running mums, 530, who are these people?

00:22:12Melissa Erbacher: Westerfoldians, that's what I want to hear more about.

00:22:15Scott Trickett: Maybe we need to start the parkrun Adventurers Running Club.

00:22:18Melissa Erbacher: Well, as a club, oh, but you know that would just obliterate everyone. That wouldn't be fair.

00:22:24Scott Trickett: Well, we need to start a petition to parkrun HQ to be a member of more than one club. That would be handy.

00:22:32Melissa Erbacher: Yes, so you could run for a different club each week if you wanted to.

00:22:35Scott Trickett: How do you reckon HQ would handle that request?

00:22:40Ian Hay: Yeah, that could be a tough one. It'd be fun, though.

00:22:44Scott Trickett: Okay, Ian, thanks for that. So we're going to join you once a month for a segment called?

00:22:49Melissa Erbacher: I think we should call it Facts in a Haystack.

00:22:52Scott Trickett: Facts in a Haystack. I like that. You happy with that, Ian?

00:22:55Ian Hay: I do like that. That sounds good. It's got a catch to it. Great.

00:22:58Scott Trickett: Thanks.

00:22:59Ian Hay: Thanks, guys.

00:23:06Melissa Erbacher: Well, ladies and gentlemen, we're very lucky to be joined in the virtual studio today by Matt Briggs, who along with the fabulous Heather Farley is a co-ED at Churchill parkrun. Matt, say hello to everyone.

00:23:20Matt Briggs: Hello, everyone from Churchill parkrun.

00:23:22Melissa Erbacher: Now I'll start with a little question about what made you want to start your own parkrun?

00:23:29Matt Briggs: So what made the start for Churchill parkrun was I was casually going to the Inverloch parkrun where our Territory Director Tony O'Connell is and I was approached by Bob and Ruth Dolges. just a couple of kilometres outside of Churchill and they thought it would be really good to get people from the local area over near Churchill to get a parkrun up and going. It's really good to be joining in a local area with Traralgon parkrun, not that far away as well.

00:24:01Melissa Erbacher: How far away is Traralgon?

00:24:04Matt Briggs: Traralgon is about 16 kilometres, so they're both very close to one another, which is good. So it gives a lot of people a wide variety of courses, where Tarelgan is mostly a flat course with a couple of up and backs, but Churchill offers a nice trail that has a couple of challenging hills for everyone to get their heart rate going and really enjoy their run.

00:24:31Scott Trickett: So you touched on it briefly there, Matt. It's a trail parkrun. Is it all trails?

00:24:37Matt Briggs: Yes, it's all trails. There's probably about 0.5% where it's on concrete, which is just the start, but the rest of it is on a nice compacted trail that the council was very fortunate to help us with, which is good.

00:24:53Scott Trickett: The word on the street is you're a keen photographer. Is that your favourite role?

00:24:57Matt Briggs: It very much is. When I had my first Inverloch parkrun, it's the main reason that got me into photography for parkrun. There was a photographer on the day, as you know, and she got this beautiful photo of me giving someone a high five. And for that being my first parkrun experience, it's like, wow, I really loved having that kind of contact and running with a large group of people.

00:25:27Scott Trickett: get to a 5k goal was really amazing for me and being able to share my photography background was uh really beneficial to a lot of parkruns you'll learn this and mel already knows this to have a good photographer as a regular volunteer is invaluable because it's probably one of the hardest positions to fill because i think people get intimidated by

00:25:53Melissa Erbacher: Everyone's scared to take bad photos.

00:25:55Scott Trickett: Yeah, exactly. But it's so important to the event because the photography sells the event to other people.

00:26:02Melissa Erbacher: The photography is the catalyst for introducing parkrunners to each other when they're tagging each other and you can put faces to names and...

00:26:11Matt Briggs: It's a very great way for people to volunteer. Like a lot of people will think, oh yeah, I've gone to parkrun, I've done my five kilometres, that's all that there is for parkrun in a way. But when you volunteer and you're staying to the very end, you go to the cafe, you go the event director or run director is uploading photos and you can just see how much they enjoy the photos and even when it comes to the uploaded photos that can go for days and days people commenting on photos tagging their friends and being really supportive so it's good in that sense where the support isn't just for the brief one hour of the Saturday morning it's all throughout the week to the next event

00:26:58Melissa Erbacher: That's an excellent point. I love how you mentioned that it extends beyond just that one hour. So along those lines, what impact would you say parkrun has had on your lifestyle? So outside of just the weekend, like how has it changed your behaviors yourself?

00:27:17Matt Briggs: I would say that I'm a lot more enthusiastic than I used to be. My whole reason for joining parkrun has been a weight loss adventure where it's gone on nearly two years now for when I've been wanting to lose weight. I was just on holidays and I didn't like how I couldn't even go one and a half kilometers on a hike without being puffed and i eventually got down from 140 kilos down to 110 currently fantastic and just the support that everyone gives you is tremendous and being able to give that back to them is fantastic as well i've noticed your facebook name is matthew marathoner briggs so i'm guessing that's a clue to the fact that you've done a marathon Yeah, my first marathon was actually the Melbourne Marathon last year and I had a very bad lead up to it with poor knees, struggling to keep me going, a lot of physio work and Jackie O'Connell, Tony O'Connell's wife, at the end of the marathon, it was about 800 meters to go and they seen me struggling and actually ran me the last few hundred meters and it was really good to have them there to help me finish after a very long run.

00:28:43Scott Trickett: Well, good luck with the launch this week. Are you nervous or excited?

00:28:48Matt Briggs: Pretty excited, a little bit nervous. I've kind of threw down the gauntlet with Serum at parkrun. I said, oh, now it's time for Churchill parkrun to break 600 for their launch. I don't think we're going to quite get there, but it's going to be a nice challenge.

00:29:04Melissa Erbacher: Oh, to be honest, Matt, I really don't know anyone who would actually want that many runners on the first day. That's just massive.

00:29:12Matt Briggs: I'm keen. I just hope Tony O'Connell, our territory director, brings enough backup tokens for us just in case we break the 300.

00:29:22Scott Trickett: Before you go, Matt, I'm going to put you on the spot. So for the people that aren't aware, in eastern regional Victoria, the Gippsland region, there's been quite a few parkruns that have popped up. You've experienced them all, I'm hoping.

00:29:35Matt Briggs: Yes, I have.

00:29:37Scott Trickett: Give us your top three.

00:29:39Matt Briggs: My top three, I would have to say emotionally I'm attached to Inverloch parkrun being my first. My second favourite would be the Sail parkrun. It is a very beautiful two and a half kilometres out and back with... The way I got it sometimes you get lucky you get to see the fountain going around the two and a half K turn around and It's just really beautiful there and next I would have to say Pakenham parkrun, they've been going for a couple of years now and the support that everyone's had there and how much people reach out to each other there's been really fantastic from what i've seen and experienced and it's a real pleasure to be able to go back there again thanks for joining us matt no worries

Social Adventurers

00:30:38Scott Trickett: Time to take a look at our social adventurers. We're blowing up all over social media, Instagram especially. You've got a favourite this week, Mel?

00:30:48Melissa Erbacher: I had quite the little cackle when I read Simon's Instagram this week. He had a specific parkrun adventure at Merimbula, and I'm not going to share the details with you, but I would strongly encourage everybody to just do a little search on Instagram, hashtag parkrunadventures, and scroll through to a post from Simon and have a little read of what he experienced at Marimbula this week. Hopefully you enjoy it as much as I do.

00:31:14Ian Hay: Yeah, we want to keep the clean slate.

00:31:17Scott Trickett: rating within itunes so we won't read it out word for word but he did talk about his visit to marimbula one of the best parkruns in australia running out on the boardwalks and he had a great time there we also had a great response to our call out for fancy dress You sent in your photos of some of your best parkrun adventures, fancy dress-wise. I particularly like the pirate thing out at Highlands. And I also like any man who's brave enough to dress up as the Queen in a purple wig. So that was a great photo from Cathy Ray at Newey's birthday. Did you have a favourite?

00:31:57Melissa Erbacher: I did. I actually really love Heather's efforts at Tamworth with the sumo suit. I actually asked her how that worked from a costume building perspective. And apparently it packs down quite flat, which is, you know, one of the problems I have with my costume room is that things don't fit anymore in a cupboard. So I look for all aspects of the costumes, not just the impact. And let's face it, sumos, they make an impact, don't they?

00:32:27Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:32:27Scott Trickett: Did you just let us know that you've got a costume room?

00:32:31Melissa Erbacher: I do, Scott.

00:32:33Scott Trickett: An entire room in your house dedicated to costumes? Yes.

00:32:36Melissa Erbacher: Well, I wouldn't say dedicated so much as overrun. Yeah, it started with the box which went in a cupboard and then it kind of couldn't be contained to the box anymore and now it's no longer able to be contained to the cupboard. So when I have guests come to stay, I have to do a little bit of creative manoeuvring and cleaning so that they can actually see you know, sleep in the guest bed. But yes, basically I need a bigger house so I can fit more costumes.

00:33:08Scott Trickett: So these are important questions you're asking when you want to know how a sumo suit packs down.

00:33:14Melissa Erbacher: Yes, absolutely. Because, you know, it impacts the real estate of my costume room. So I have to be thrifty these days.

00:33:23Scott Trickett: Yep, no doubt you do. Okay, so you can hashtag, continue to hashtag parkrunadventures. We're looking out for them. We've seen some great ones this week.

Where is the cake this weekend?

00:33:33Melissa Erbacher: And where is the cake this weekend? All right, so we heard from Matt Briggs that Churchill parkrun is launching in Victoria. Probably no cake there. But we do have an anniversary at Bibra Lake in Western Australia. It's their first. It's an orange theme. That could make for some interesting cake.

00:33:51Scott Trickett: What's going on there? What's the orange theme about?

00:33:54Melissa Erbacher: I don't know. Maybe we need some of the Bibra Lake parkrunners to get in touch and let us know where that originates because, yeah, it's – I mean, it's a fantastic colour. Absolutely. Especially when it's radioactive. It might have something to do with the soil. I don't know. Is that more a Kalgoorlie boulder situation?

00:34:13Scott Trickett: Well, do you think they're Dutch or they just love citrus? Yes.

00:34:16Melissa Erbacher: Perhaps they're really, really big fans of the Oompa Loompas.

00:34:21Scott Trickett: Yep, lots of ways to take it. Hey, we've given you some ideas for their anniversary.

00:34:26Melissa Erbacher: And so this weekend we've got Australia Day parkruns happening at a lot of the events across the country. And next week on parkrun Adventurers Podcast, we will have a special guest from the region of runners.

00:34:41Scott Trickett: Yeah, it'll be great to have Robbo on. He's a big figure in the region of runners and we can reminisce about the parkrun Show Australia podcast and he can talk about their upcoming launch, the Terrace parkrun, which is ready to go on the 30th of January. So that's it for our third episode. Time to wrap it up. If you meet someone at parkrun this week and you don't remember their name, just go with Dave.

00:35:08Melissa Erbacher: Or Sarah, if it's a girl. Look forward to chatting to you next week, guys.