Episode 8 - parkdogs

Episode details · 166 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:06Scott Trickett: It's time for another parkrun Adventurers podcast. My name's Scott and I'm joined by Mel.

00:00:12Melissa Erbacher: Hey, hey, Scotty. How are you doing this week?

00:00:14Scott Trickett: Fantastic. Couldn't be better. Let's start with some great roving adventuring we got this week. Let's throw it up to Maryborough. Let's have a listen to Andrew and his story. He got a great story around park dogs. Take it away, Andrew.

Roving report — Maryborough parkdogs (Andrew)

00:00:35Andrew: Hi, I'm Andrew, I'm here at Mirraburra parkrun with Tash who's been every week bringing a new dog from the refuge to try and improve adoption.

00:00:45Tash: Hey guys, how's it going? Today we've been brought out with a little Miss Adele who's an 18 month old staffy puppy that we've picked up from the Maryborough Animal Refuge. So far this year we've brought out six different dogs and all six we're happy to say have been adopted. We're so grateful that we can use Maryborough parkrun to help support another community organisation like the Maryborough Animal Refuge and give these dogs an opportunity to socialise and have some fun and hopefully meet their forever homes.

00:01:09Andrew: and just having a quick chat with Taylor about her experiences adopting Rusty from the refuge through the park dogs.

00:01:16Taylor: So I found my new best friend Rusty to take on and do parkrun with. Today was our first parkrun. We had a great run. He was a bit excited at the start but once he got going he was a gem and ran beautifully and now we're just chilling out.

00:01:29Andrew: Awesome, thank you.

00:01:31Scott Trickett: What a great idea Mel. I love this idea. What do you think?

00:01:36Melissa Erbacher: I think it's pretty gorgeous and, yeah, getting puppies to their forever homes or dogs of any age who need a second chance at a refuge, I'm very on board with that.

00:01:48Scott Trickett: I think it's going to inspire me to do something because my little story around my two little beautiful dogs, which we've talked about before, Buster has joined me on the podcast and it's Buster's story that's a bit sad. So I've got two dogs, Buster and Champ, and they used to come to parkrun with me. Not every week, but tried to do it most weeks. And they loved going, but they're two very different dogs. They're black and white dogs. Buster is all about run, run, run as fast as you can. Don't look back for anybody. Get in everyone's way. Champ is a lot different. He'll stop and sniff every blade of grass, pretty much say hello to everybody. And so within the space of about 10 metres, they've got nine metres apart from each other, which is fine. until Buster realizes that he's not next to his brother who he's known all his life and he freaks out. So he stops and then wants to run back against the traffic just to be back with his brother who's off sniffing his 400th blade of grass.

00:02:51Melissa Erbacher: So basically you do about nine kilometres if you're trying to do a five kilometre parkrun and you're running with Buster.

00:02:57Scott Trickett: Yep, yep. But Buster has no control. So he'll just go until he's exhausted, which didn't take too long. So by about 2km he was done and he was happy just to trot along next to Champy. But unfortunately, about 12 months ago, Buster had a little bit of a problem with his back, which has meant that he can no longer run anymore. So I've really missed the running with my dog aspect, particularly at parkrun, but just in life in general. But this is a great idea. I can still run with a dog and hopefully help out the dog and people who want a dog.

00:03:40Melissa Erbacher: So you're going to get in touch with one of your local refuges and see if you can make a similar sort of arrangement that they've got going on up there in Maryborough?

00:03:48Scott Trickett: I will try. Okay.

00:03:50Melissa Erbacher: That's awesome. I have to say, I do like to take my dogs along to parkrun as well. We've got two and of course you're only supposed to run with one dog. So the little Cocker Spaniel Clover, she goes along with Adam because she's much faster and he's obviously much faster. And then Enu usually gets relegated to volunteering with me. Unless of course, and this has happened several times, people have come up to me, they know I'm volunteering and they ask if they can take the dog for a walk. They ask if they can take him. and he can do parkrun with them or um also volunteer as a marshal out on the course and so he can say hello to all the runners and he loves every possible interaction that he has at parkrun and he's not all fussy about whether or not he's with me or with adam so he'll he'll just happily go along with whoever i give him to because he knows i would never give him to anyone scary but they both love parkrun as well and we love having them there and they go every week They don't go every week. It depends on whether or not it's wet or whether or not it's too hot. So Enu's a Husky Cross German Shepherd and he's got quite the substantial coat. We do clip him in the summertime so it's not too bad after he's had a haircut. But Clover's a water baby and if we're running at Kawana, for example, she will go straight for the water. And even if she's on a leash, you know, she, she will tug and tug and tug until she gets her way down to the ocean. And it's quite open and the waves are a bit big and scary for me to really feel comfortable with her running in there. Usually when we take her to the beach, it's elsewhere. That's not so scary and a little bit less wavy. So, um, Yeah, but they've been park tour dogs quite a lot actually, park dog adventurers. We've taken them down and they've done two parkruns in New South Wales and they've done quite a few around Queensland. So, yeah, I love having my dogs with me at parkrun. It is a shame that you can't have yours there with you.

00:05:53Scott Trickett: I don't think Champy's too upset. He was never really wrapped with the whole 5K run business. But I was like you, you can't take – You're only supposed to have one dog at a time. But there was never a problem. Someone always wanted to take one of them.

00:06:08Melissa Erbacher: It's another way to have an adventure at parkrun.

00:06:12Scott Trickett: Yeah. I wonder if they'll think I'm cheating. Because I'll come home and they'll smell my dog. And they'll know I've been to parkrun because I've been doing that.

00:06:24Melissa Erbacher: I'm sure they won't hold it against you when they sniff what your good intentions are. And maybe you can find some forever homes for those dogs too.

00:06:33Scott Trickett: He's hoping. So great story, great idea. Well done, Park Dog Adventurers.

00:06:40Melissa Erbacher: Fantastic work, Maryborough peeps. You're doing a great job. We're joined on the podcast now by our fellow Queenslander, Blair from Capalaba. Welcome, Blair.

00:06:56Blair Habberjam: Hi, guys.

00:06:57Scott Trickett: Thanks for coming on the program or the podcast, Blair. You've been a listener from the start.

00:07:02Blair Habberjam: I have, yeah. Listened to, well, Liv Coop, who you had on the very first show was, you know, she was the Cleveland ED that probably got me into becoming an ED myself, along with Amy Strong, who's my co-ED. We share the role at Capalaba. So, yeah, I followed that one. Liv obviously promoted it on the Cleveland and Sarah May pages. Been listening to you guys from the start. Great show. i suspected as much there was i did a little bit of research on capella bar and your parkrun today and I noticed a bit of Liv Coop influence particularly in the run reports very impressive work yeah we've definitely uh fed off live i suppose and um probably dale murray as well from armadale um and we sort of i think we feed off each other to be honest we've sort of picked up little bits and pieces and i don't know it's a who can outdo who type thing but um Yeah, we've definitely, we put a lot of work into our run reports and hopefully people get some interest out of them.

00:08:08Scott Trickett: Do you get some feedback around people are reading the run reports? Because there are some parkruns, I'm guilty of running some that actually don't do any run reports.

00:08:20Blair Habberjam: Yeah, I did ask that question a few months ago because sometimes you look at the likes on Facebook and they're a little bit low and you think, oh, we put so much time into this, Amy and I, so we share it, we do it week about. And we thought, oh, we should ask the question and we got a heap of feedback back saying, no, no, keep doing it, keep doing it. So, yeah, I think people do engage with it a little bit. It was enough to motivate us to carry on doing it anyway. great maybe i should start doing them yeah we've never done them at our runs so um i think it's quite rewarding you know going through all the photos you probably do that anyway but you go through and you pick out a few and we sort of make up little collages that we put on the run report and um you know try and introduce little features here and there i think we did one a while back that we ran for sort of six weeks or so just asking people's journey I guess like um how they'd got into parkrun and what it had meant to them and and I made the event team all of our event team give me their stories which they were really happy about just so I had some some you know data for our for our run reports I expect it's another great way of building your community there at Kapalabar Yeah, definitely. We've got a really great little community there. It's building all the time. This year, actually, we've sort of hit over 200 consistently for a couple of weeks now, which is quite big for us. And I think it's going to continue, although we're getting into the school year now. So that might, we'll see next week if numbers start to fall back a little bit. But yeah, no, we've got a great community of people who've been there from the beginning and coming up to those milestones of 50 and 100. So we seem to have a lot of them each week. One thing we do at Capella Bar for our milestone runners, and we've done this from the start, is we give them a balloon to run with on their 10th for the juniors, obviously, in 50s and 100s. and just sort of say, you know, if you see this person out with their balloon, give them a high five. It just sort of helps people recognise them out on the course. It's one of the Friday night run director jobs to go and pick those balloons up each week.

00:10:29Melissa Erbacher: That's fabulous. Do you ever get people having their balloons popped while they're out on the course?

00:10:35Blair Habberjam: Well, actually on our first, sorry, on the first of the year when we had the double with Minnippi, we did the double parkrun. We lost our two, we had two balloons and they disappeared up into the trees.

00:10:48Melissa Erbacher: I saw that.

00:10:50Blair Habberjam: Yeah, so we had to apologize to those two people and bring their balloons the following week. So it does happen. It actually happened to me last week. Fortunately, I had a spare. I opened the door of my ute and a balloon just flew out as I turned my back and off it went.

00:11:08Melissa Erbacher: And you had the spare balloon.

00:11:10Blair Habberjam: Well, it sort of worked out that way because obviously you can't always predict who's going to show up and we do try and ask people to let us know so we know the numbers but it's a little bit of guesswork sometimes so it just so happened that week someone didn't show up so I was in the clear.

00:11:26Melissa Erbacher: Have you ever driven with balloons and just let them loose and then when you actually brake, they stay at the back of the vehicle?

00:11:34Blair Habberjam: No, they don't. They come into the front.

00:11:36Melissa Erbacher: They come to the front?

00:11:37Blair Habberjam: Yeah, I've taken to just anchoring them down with whatever I've got in the back and Yeah, because I have had that where they end up in the front with me and I'm having to bat them out of the way to see into the mirror. Yeah.

00:11:49Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, how do you explain that one to the police officer when you rear-end someone?

00:11:53Blair Habberjam: Exactly, yeah. Fortunately, I haven't had that experience. But, yeah, just part of the fun.

00:12:01Melissa Erbacher: So you've got balloons, which is quite the party atmosphere. Do you get involved a lot with any themes?

00:12:09Blair Habberjam: Yeah, we love a theme at Capella Bar. We've had quite a number. I probably couldn't name them all, but just going back to our birthday was probably the biggest event we've done where we had a clown theme. And we just had so many prizes that we'd got from local businesses and everybody got into this clown theme. So it was just fantastic. We had face painters, we had you name it, we pretty much had it. Colour themes for like people running their 50s say, oh, can we have a green theme? So we'll put the word out and we'll have a green theme. And more recently in February, 6th of February is Waitangi Day in New Zealand. And I don't know if you picked up the accent, but I'm originally from New Zealand. So I put it to my team that we should have a Waitangi Day theme, which is New Zealand's national day. And they said, yep, you go for it. And so we did that one. And, yeah, I tried to get as many Australians as I could to wear black or wear their Kiwi stuff.

00:13:10Scott Trickett: And I got a little bit of support, I'll say that.

00:13:12Blair Habberjam: It probably helped that I was the most Australian looking one on Australia Day with flags and face paint and you name it. And then I used that against them all to try and get them to join me on Waitangi Day. So I was happy enough just to get people dressing in black. I thought that was a bit of a coup for me.

00:13:32Scott Trickett: Yeah, I reckon you've done really well. If you could convince a bunch of Aussies.

00:13:35Blair Habberjam: Yeah, well, that's right. Actually, probably there was as many South Africans I got on board as Australians.

00:13:42Melissa Erbacher: They're holding out hope that you'll do some sort of South African day later in the year, no doubt.

00:13:48Blair Habberjam: Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.

00:13:50Scott Trickett: You've seen, you mentioned you've had a big jump in numbers this year, which is great. But I understand it's also introduced a little bit of a problem to do with your course.

00:14:00Blair Habberjam: Yes. So Saturday just gone, we decided to move our start line, like probably within 20, 30 meters of the start line, we have a narrow bridge. which initially was quite good because it was a forced bottleneck and it kind of helped spread the field out. And it worked, you know, when the numbers were probably up to 100. But it has been consistent feedback for us that, you know, why don't you move the start over the bridge? And we've sort of been resistant. Because, you know, we did want to try and keep the path as clear as we could, as you do. But yeah, with the numbers getting so big, it made sense now to move it permanently. So I think from, well, from last week onwards, we'll definitely be having our start line in a different position. Just means we've got a big open space and we can, you know, funnel people onto the path. little bit differently but but it did make for a smooth start and the feedback was was very positive so yeah do you still get to run over the bridge uh you do because our first first 1k is a lap back to the start line so yeah they still run over the little bridge the bridge is like literally five meters long maybe everyone's a lot more spaced out by a kilometer anyway so it wouldn't be such a congestion issue Yeah, exactly. Exactly. No, I think it's been a good move and yeah, we'll probably stick with that.

00:15:25Scott Trickett: So I went online again and I looked up your course and I thought it looked really confusing. It looks really pretty. You're running along the river and it looks like there's lots of trees. But Mel corrected me. She said that it's not confusing at all because you've got permanent signage. Is that right?

00:15:42Blair Habberjam: um sort of yeah well sort of sort of permanent signage we got the um the local councillor to to agree to um for us to spray paint arrows on the course and and k markers so we and obviously we've got marshals and all the key um junctions so that that certainly helps you know once we've got you know we've got new people out running the course we've definitely got means for them to find their way around. So, yeah, the old spray paint's wearing a bit thin at the moment, so I've got to get back out there and touch them up, but it seems to work.

00:16:17Melissa Erbacher: Well, I thought they were fabulous because, I mean, I did try to listen to the course briefing before we – and we were only walking, so I thought, oh, well, we can still follow people. But when I listened to it, it just went – wow that's really complicated and i'm not sure we're going to get the proper 5k done today but it was so well marked and the marshals were excellent and really really enthusiastic as well i think there was one lady who just clapped solidly and cheered for 45 minutes to an hour you know she was brilliant so yeah that'll be vicky she's our regular second junction marshal

00:16:53Blair Habberjam: Every pacer day that we have or any big event, she seems to like to be out at the second junction.

00:17:00Melissa Erbacher: Oh, she's fantastic. You should pay her twice as much.

00:17:03Blair Habberjam: Exactly. Yep, definitely.

00:17:07Scott Trickett: Those volunteers are great, aren't they? The ones that regularly like to do it.

00:17:11Blair Habberjam: Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And we've got, yeah, well, probably like all parkruns, but you get a core of regulars who seem to just fill those spots for you week in and week out. And, you know, it all helps to add to the consistency and, you know, success of the event. So, yeah, we're very blessed, I suppose, at Capellabar to have a great bunch of volunteers here. I should actually mention all of our event team too. We've got an event team that's pretty much built from the beginning. We were lucky. We had both Amy and I who sort of came out of Cleveland parkrun. So we'd had some good experience and good mentoring from Liv. And we took one of their regular runners with us as a run director from the start, Eva. And then we've added three more since then in Shirley and her daughter Tammy and Ted who's the other male that I managed to rope into the team so I wasn't outnumbered totally.

00:18:08Melissa Erbacher: You're very lucky to have a great team. I mean most events have amazing teams that are very supportive and I think they all come from the same the same mold for lack of a better word there's I don't know how you pick yours but I always make sure my run directors are really quirky and have an excellent sense of humor and aren't afraid to dress up these are prerequisites that are very important to me yeah well I could say I was probably afraid you know not afraid to dress up I just didn't like to dress up when I first started parkrun I never really got involved in that but

00:18:45Blair Habberjam: I've certainly turned a corner in that respect. I get made to dress up. It seems like every other week I'm dressing up, wearing a tutu or face paint or crazy hats or you name it. But now I just roll with it. It's part of the fun and, you know, people seem to like it. So it's all good.

00:19:03Scott Trickett: It is part of the fun. I'm probably similar to you as well, Blair. Coming into parkrun, that wasn't me at all. But I was in Santa outfits, Easter Bunny outfits, wearing wigs. And you know what? It's fun. If you just put all the fear and judgment aside, it's heaps of fun.

00:19:24Blair Habberjam: Absolutely. Yep. Couldn't agree more. The same with just high-fiving and that. I'm quite a reserved person generally, and I think it's definitely brought that out in me, having to well you know initially get made to sort of do it just like the people that you're surrounded by at parkrun and then you know you just kind of get into it so it definitely makes for a more enjoyable you know experience Awesome, thanks Blair Habberjam. Great, great surname, Blair. got to commend you on that yeah it's a bit it's a bit out there isn't it it's it's not very common that's great so thanks for joining us thanks for joining us on parkrun adventurers thanks for having me

00:20:05[music]

Facts in a Haystack

00:20:09Melissa Erbacher: Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for Facts in a Haystack. Ian, welcome back to the show.

00:20:15Ian Hay: Hey, guys. How are you going? Hi, Ian.

00:20:17Melissa Erbacher: Super good.

00:20:18Ian Hay: Super good? Awesome. It's good to be back. I'm very excited.

00:20:21Melissa Erbacher: What have you got for us this week?

00:20:23Scott Trickett: Well, let's say, Mel, I think this is our favorite segment already. Sorry, Tim. Sorry, all the other ones, but Facts in a Haystack is where it's at.

00:20:32Melissa Erbacher: It is. We love Ian Hay and his facts in the Haystack.

00:20:36Ian Hay: It's just the name too. How can you not love that?

00:20:39Melissa Erbacher: Precisely.

00:20:40Ian Hay: Okay. Where are we going to start this week? Well, first of all, I feel like we can't move on from last month. I don't know if it was just me. I think it's everyone out there. I don't think anyone's been able to sleep just not knowing it just closed off for this whole month. I believe... Just to remind everyone, last month we talked about number of runs, and we had a bit of a match going on between Mel and Scott about number of runs. So it ended up being that Scott took the win there, having the most number of runs. So Scott's the first name. So all the runners called Scott across Australia. So he took the lead in that one. Now, Mel had a bit of a theory behind that, was that the Mels out there were too busy volunteering. to be able to get the same run count up as Scott.

00:21:27Melissa Erbacher: And I stand by that.

00:21:28Ian Hay: You stand by that. Yes, I do. Let's see if you can continue to stand by that. I now have volunteer stats, so we have full numbers. So we can close this one off.

00:21:37Melissa Erbacher: Oh, we need like a drum roll.

00:21:40Ian Hay: Yeah, I think we do.

00:21:41Scott Trickett: It's judgment day, Mel.

00:21:42Ian Hay: Sound effects time. Well, let's start off with the Scots. So... The Scots, now this is all time. Unfortunately, I can't get volunteer stats on a per week basis. So this is for all the Australian events ever since we started. There has been 751 counts of volunteering by Scots across Australia.

00:21:45[other]

00:22:05Scott Trickett: All down Scots.

00:22:06Ian Hay: Scots, yes.

00:22:07Melissa Erbacher: Oh, I've got a feeling Scots are in trouble.

00:22:10Ian Hay: You reckon you got it, Mel? It's going to be a close one. I hate to say it's actually not a close one. Melissa's come in at 595. The Scots got it. Can you believe it?

00:22:24Scott Trickett: I can.

00:22:25Melissa Erbacher: I'm lost for words.

00:22:28Scott Trickett: Scots love volunteering.

00:22:31Melissa Erbacher: Scots do love volunteering. That's all time in Australia. That's interesting.

00:22:38Scott Trickett: I am recruiting Scotts. I inducted a first-time run director on Saturday called Scott for no other reason other than his name's Scott.

00:22:47Melissa Erbacher: And you wouldn't also, Scotty, have happened to go and backdate some Scots volunteering at random events over the years, would you?

00:22:56Tash: No.

00:22:56Melissa Erbacher: Updating volunteer rosters and reconfirming them? No. Retrospectively? Okay.

00:23:02Scott Trickett: No, because if I had, and there's been plenty of occasions where I have volunteered but haven't given myself credit, so that margin of victory should be greater.

00:23:15Ian Hay: And there's no talk of money on the table here either, so you're trusting my stats are correct. So we're all completely honest here, so nothing to worry about.

00:23:24Melissa Erbacher: I'm not sure what's in it for you, Ian, but I'm pretty sure Scott's got to you.

00:23:29Scott Trickett: Did you do the count on Ian's?

00:23:31Ian Hay: I don't really want to brag, that's all. I don't think we should mention that.

00:23:35Scott Trickett: Oh, really?

00:23:37Ian Hay: The Ian's come in at 764. So they actually took out the top.

00:23:42Melissa Erbacher: That's worthwhile bragging about.

00:23:45Ian Hay: And once again, the stats are completely legit. I would not tamper with anything.

00:23:50Melissa Erbacher: I will be expecting to receive an electronic copy of those results tomorrow so I can go over the numbers myself with all my mathematical skills. Thank you, Ian.

00:24:01Ian Hay: Not a problem. Okay, now that we've put that one to bed, let's look at some other stats out there. I thought we'd talk New Year's resolutions because that's what we're, it feels like we're halfway through the year already, but we're coming close into March, basically getting to the end of Feb. So I thought we'd have a bit of a look at how we're going this year. So when you talk New Year's resolutions, I don't know, if you talk to people at the gym, they usually say the first week of the year, don't go to the gym because all the New Year's resolution has come in and fill it up and come in the following week and it's all clear. So let's see how parkrun goes with that. It's also, they also talk about how the health industry is a multi-million dollar industry and parkrun's completely free. So once again, I wonder how they go in comparison with the rest of the things. So this week Tim put out a newsletter talking about, we've already had four record, Australian record attendances this year alone. That in itself says where we've gone just in 2016. But I thought I'd break it down a little bit further and just mention some of, we've had a whole bunch of course attendance records this year. So I looked at course attendance records in 2015. So by the end of March, so thinking about we're not even at the end of February yet, the end of March we'd had 101 course attendance records in 2015. So in 2016, we're only getting, what, we've got one week left of February. We've already beaten that. So we're currently sitting at 102 course record attendances and we've still got another month to go. So I think we're just going to blow it out of the water compared to last year. So I think that just shows just the amount of people that are just coming on board and they stay with us and it just keeps growing. It's just amazing.

00:25:43Melissa Erbacher: I think we need more parkruns.

00:25:45Scott Trickett: At a local level, it's great too because you always want to break your course record. That's always a nice feeling.

00:25:52Ian Hay: Yep. It's amazing too, because I know I just had a look over the amount of courses that have had record attendances this year alone, and there hasn't been just one, there's been multiples at the same courses. So I had a quick look to see who was leading this year. We've actually got six events that have had four course record attendances this year alone. So I think that's just huge. So yeah, four lots in less than two months.

00:26:17Melissa Erbacher: Are they spread over different states or do they seem to be clustered in a particular area?

00:26:23Ian Hay: I'm not too good with my geography, so I'll read out the six I've got. I've got Albert, Melbourne. Okay, I'll see how I go with pronunciation on this one. Maribyrnong. Maribyrnong. Yep. Mount Barker, Shell Harbour, the Ponds and Wangaratta.

00:26:38Melissa Erbacher: Okay, so that's Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia by the sounds of it.

00:26:43Ian Hay: There we go. That was course attendance record. So I wanted to move on to PBs. So PBs are always a big goal of everyone. Everyone's working towards it. In summer, it gets a little bit harder. The heat out there certainly struggles. Scott and Mel, how have you guys gone this year with PBs?

00:26:58Melissa Erbacher: I haven't had a PB since May 2013. Thank you for reminding me, Ian.

00:27:03Ian Hay: I'm glad I brought it up.

00:27:06Scott Trickett: I'm similar, I think, middle of last year.

00:27:09Ian Hay: Middle of last year? Okay. Well, I know for myself, I had my first PB a month ago. It was actually on the last podcast, where we did the last podcast, a couple of days before that, and I was extremely sick that podcast. I went and gave myself a hernia getting a sub-20, which was my first time in two years since I got a PB. So I think I must take an award for commitment there. I don't know if anyone else out there can beat that one.

00:27:37Scott Trickett: That's a great effort and completely worth it in my mind.

00:27:40Ian Hay: Absolutely.

00:27:41Scott Trickett: I would give up a hernia for a sub 20. I would.

00:27:48Melissa Erbacher: Well, Ian's the right person to explain to you how to do it, I think, Scotty.

00:27:53Ian Hay: Yep. Let's not relive that. That was worth it, but I don't know.

00:27:58Scott Trickett: Or is there just a course I can go to and get a guaranteed PB?

00:28:02Ian Hay: Well, that's a nice segue there, Scott. So what I've got here on stats are PBs for this year. So I looked at it two ways. One is the number of PBs. So is there a certain course you can go to where you're more likely to get a PB? And I thought to be a bit fair, I also broke it down into percentage. Just some of the ones are bigger. So we've got Torrens, Lake Mack and South Bank are at the top of the list for the number of PBs this year. So Torrens came in at, they've had 427 PBs this year already, which is just huge. That's brilliant. Yeah, and Lake Mack and South Bank were around, what, 350 and 328. So that's huge as well.

00:28:39Scott Trickett: But they're all big events, aren't they?

00:28:41Ian Hay: They are big events, yes. So I broke it down a bit further to look at percentage. So the next three when we're looking at percentage are Churchill, Woodbridge, Riverside and Devonport. So Churchill, 21%, Riverside, 21% and Devonport, 20% of runners getting PBs. That's pretty huge. So that's for 2016 so far.

00:29:01Melissa Erbacher: Do you think that might have anything to do with the fact that Woodbridge Riverside, for example, is a new event and so therefore they're having new runners who are at the beginning of their parkrun journey and you're more prone when you're at the beginning of your parkrun journey to get PB after PB?

00:29:18Ian Hay: That's a good question. It'd be interesting to look at some other ones, start-ups, and see how they've gone with PBs.

00:29:25Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, and I know that was my experience that, you know, Yes, okay, perhaps not getting a PB every week to begin with, but when a runner comes for the first time and then, you know, another couple of weeks, another couple of months after that, they tend to get a lot more PBs and then after a while they kind of plateau and it stops happening. So possibly the older events aren't seeing as many PBs because they've got the established regular runners there.

00:29:54Ian Hay: Yeah, I think it's a good theory.

00:29:56Melissa Erbacher: Just my two cents worth.

00:29:57Scott Trickett: Yeah. Great. Have you got one more for us, Ian?

00:30:01Ian Hay: I do have one more. So I thought I'd look at, now that I've got some volunteer stats as well, I thought I'd have a look at volunteer records by club. So which running clubs out there are really dedicating a lot of time to volunteering and helping out at parkruns? Unfortunately, I didn't look at percentages, so it could be... Yeah, we've got some of the bigger clubs, naturally, at the top, but I've got total numbers. So we've got the Derek Zoolander Centre for Kids Who Can't Run Good at the top of the list, so... They have volunteered 3,734 times. So this is since parkrun has started, which is just massive. We've got not too far behind them. We've got the 530 runners at 3,030. And number three, we've got Running Mums Australia at 2,900. So, yeah, huge amount of support with those guys for parkrun.

00:30:49Scott Trickett: You know what that tells me, though?

00:30:51Melissa Erbacher: Zoolanders are smashing it.

00:30:53Scott Trickett: Yeah. Well, Running Mums, they are the biggest club, but they've slipped a third on the volunteer list.

00:31:00Ian Hay: Yes. Zoolanders have got them just.

00:31:04Scott Trickett: Interesting. Did the Westerfoldians appear anywhere in your stats?

00:31:08Ian Hay: I didn't see them, no.

00:31:10Scott Trickett: We're still small. We're coming. Maybe not for the Zoolanders, but we've got the Running Mums in sight.

00:31:20Ian Hay: Yeah, percentages. We need to cover off and then we'll be right.

00:31:23Melissa Erbacher: Thank you so much for coming on the show again, Ian.

00:31:26Ian Hay: Thank you, guys.

00:31:27Melissa Erbacher: It was good fun having you. And it is literally a highlight. We look forward to having you on again.

00:31:32Ian Hay: I'm glad to hear it. I can't wait until next month.

Social media scan (unnamed)

00:31:41Scott Trickett: Let's take a scan of the social media scene this week.

00:31:45Blair Habberjam: And it looks like David McGaw is having a parkrun adventure via Twitter.

00:31:50Scott Trickett: He's looking forward to, or he was looking forward to visiting Taree on Saturday. Posted some nice pics along the Manning River. Thanks Dave.

00:32:02Melissa Erbacher: Out on Instagram, we've got Bendigo parkrun's team sharing a pic of their very good-looking volunteers. We love a picture of volunteers. Keep them coming, guys. Recreating underscore Mel is getting her twins excited about being junior parkrun adventurers with some very cute new active wear. Underscore PK, he's one of our favorites, is out there again. He adventured to Torrens parkrun. and got a pick with RD James and fellow parkrunner Reece. And this week, managed to take a few first-timers with him too. So good job there, underscore PK. Positivism one, shared young April's parkrun adventure which involved a big downhill stack. Welcome to the stack club, April. It's a very glorious club. There's only a select few, so well done. And lucky the tail runner had band-aids for her because it was out on the course. I hope they filled in an incident report. And lastly, Nod Lightyear was extending the parkrun love by taking the kids to the playground at Gels parkrun. I'm not sure, Scotty, was that after the event though?

00:33:04Scott Trickett: It was. I know for a fact that Nod did not make it to Gels parkrun that morning. But it was good that he visited the playground and tagged us. So we mentioned him.

00:33:17Melissa Erbacher: Yes. Yeah, you don't have to hashtag parkrunadventures just at your runs on the weekend. I do it all throughout the week.

00:33:23Scott Trickett: Absolutely. Get on it. On Facebook, Melissa Taylor was setting up the course at Nambour with her run director. A beautiful pic of the sunshine through the trees on the trail and the Polman family adopted the parkrun adventurers movie theme this week with a pre-parkrun video nod to Mission Impossible. They're quite the performers, the Polman family. They don't mind a video.

00:33:51Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, their video reviews of the courses they've been adventuring around to are pretty cool.

00:33:55Scott Trickett: That's good. It's sharing your adventure with the rest of us, which is what we want to do. Are there any – well, I know the answer to this question. There are some launches this week.

Launches and anniversaries round-up (unnamed)

00:34:09Melissa Erbacher: And one of them is in New South Wales at Panania.

00:34:13Scott Trickett: Pananania.

00:34:14Melissa Erbacher: Pananania. Or it might be Panania, like Tanya. Yeah. I think we might need to ask how that one's pronounced too. And I hear there's one in Victoria this week.

00:34:25Scott Trickett: Yeah, great name. Great name for a parkrun, Studley.

00:34:30Melissa Erbacher: And what do you know about that one, Scotty?

00:34:32Scott Trickett: Looks like a beautiful course running through Yarra Bend Park in Kew, in the suburb of Kew. Yeah, it looks really good. Good idea for a parkrun, that one.

00:34:44Melissa Erbacher: I look forward to running at Studley in a few weeks' time.

00:34:48Scott Trickett: It's going to be lots of fun. The anniversaries this week, just the one, Tuggeranong.

00:34:54Melissa Erbacher: If you want cake, it's at Tuggeranong.

00:34:56Scott Trickett: Yes.

00:34:57Melissa Erbacher: And they're having a superhero theme. I'm not sure. I understand Gary Clark. He's the event director at Tuggeranong. I know I've seen him in a Flash costume and I've also seen him in a Superman costume. So I don't know if this is just an excuse to get a third superhero costume for himself or if he wants a costume change and so he'll run the first half of the course dressed as Superman and the second half as the Flash.

00:35:24Scott Trickett: We have to be versatile.

00:35:27Melissa Erbacher: And fast. Fortunately, Superman's faster than a speeding bullet, and, well, you know how fast a flash goes.

00:35:35Scott Trickett: Fast?

00:35:37Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, pretty fast.

00:35:39Scott Trickett: Thanks, Mel. I really enjoyed this week. I enjoy every week, but this week was a beauty. Champion Buster would say goodbye, but I know they won't, so I'll say goodbye on their behalf.

00:35:55Melissa Erbacher: Everybody should get out there and parkrun with their park dogs this week, I think. What do you reckon, Inu? What was that? I can't hear you. Look forward to seeing you on the podcast waves again next week, guys.

00:36:09[music]

00:36:30Unidentified speaker: Bye.