Episode 11 - Freedom

Episode details · 232 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:09Melissa Erbacher: Welcome to parkrun Adventures, everyone. It is a massive week this week. I got on a plane from Queensland to Victoria, and I am beyond excited to say that I'm in the studio, in the actual physical studio, looking at the beard of my co-host, trying not to giggle when he makes facial expressions, because usually I can't see his face when we talk. I'm in Victoria. Yeah.

00:00:14[laughter]

00:00:38Scott Trickett: I've got an animated Mel in front of me. Usually I just have your Skype profile pic where you're, well, I won't tell you what you're doing, but this is better. Yes. I like this Mel.

00:00:48Melissa Erbacher: You see the hand gestures and all the emphasis behind the words.

00:00:52Scott Trickett: So it's a real treat for us.

00:00:54Melissa Erbacher: Oh, look, it's very surreal, I have to say, to be here, you know, running around literally Victoria, Victorian parkruns with you this weekend. It's been so much fun, and I'm, yeah, loved every minute.

00:01:11Scott Trickett: So apologies in advance. This is going to be a little bit Melbourne, Victoria-centric, this episode, but we will make up for it in other episodes.

00:01:19Melissa Erbacher: I don't think we need to apologize for that.

00:01:21Scott Trickett: No, because it was awesome. It is awesome here. What did you do?

00:01:26Melissa Erbacher: Well.

00:01:26Scott Trickett: Where did your parkrun?

00:01:28Melissa Erbacher: On Saturday morning, I had the pleasure of volunteering at the three-week-old Studley parkrun. Magnificent course. Absolutely stunning. Very, very beautiful. Fantastic volunteers. Brand new run director on this week, Oliver. He did a great job. And yeah, had a wonderful morning. Where were you, Scotty?

00:01:49Scott Trickett: Well, coincidentally, I was also at Studley.

00:01:54Melissa Erbacher: How funny I didn't see you there.

00:01:55Scott Trickett: Well, briefly. Yeah, because I was just in front of you because I had a walk. We were supposed to have a run with Kasia, but it turned more into a walk, which was also fine and lovely. The bridge, you survived the bridge?

00:02:10Melissa Erbacher: I did survive the bridge. It wasn't too wobbly on the way over or on the way back. It was actually more wobbly when I walked back to the car after the run, I have to say. So no, yeah, the bridge was fun, actually. I'm may not have kept 100% left because I have a little bit of an issue with height. So straight down the middle for me, looking at the planks that have very recently been sanded, the rough edges off, I noticed. So yeah, no, but I enjoyed the bridge.

00:02:37Scott Trickett: Did you experience the bush doof?

00:02:42Melissa Erbacher: I have to say that there were three very also animated people on the first little loop of the course, making their way back to in the boathouse direction. They were quite noisy and emphatic in their cheering of the runners and possibly a little bit getting in the way of some of the runners who were trying to run around them but once one of the gentlemen piggybacked one of the ladies it was much better.

00:03:07Scott Trickett: So this is a little bonus that we've got at Studley we've discovered. So two out of the three weeks plus our trial run, we've had to deal with a bush doof that pops up on our course. So we might have to look into that. They are animated and it is an interesting combination of active fit people mixed with... People that are still awake. Yeah.

00:03:19[crosstalk]

00:03:29Melissa Erbacher: Having been awake all the previous night. All night.

00:03:33Scott Trickett: Now, that wasn't the only parkrun course you ran on the weekend.

00:03:36Melissa Erbacher: No, see, well, originally when I planned to come down to Melbourne, I really, really, really wanted to run at Westerfolds. And then you told me, oh, yeah, you know, but I'm thinking I'm going to launch this other event and it would be good if you could come and do that one. And I was like, yeah, but I really, really want to run at Westerfolds. And fortunately, I've been lucky enough that you indulged me with a private tour. of Westerfolds on a freedom run yesterday afternoon.

00:04:07Scott Trickett: So we did. We went for a freedom run. Let's explain exactly what a freedom run is. The parkrun courses exist all day, every day. It doesn't have to be eight o'clock on Saturday morning for you to run them.

00:04:21Melissa Erbacher: The only difference is... Or 7am if you're in Queensland or 9am if you're in Tassie.

00:04:24Scott Trickett: Yeah, that's just confusing. We need to get that right. You can run them whenever you want. There won't be volunteers there taking your time, but that shouldn't stop you running the course. You can log them through your parkrun profile. So when you go log into your parkrun profile, there is a section. What do you think it's called?

00:04:45Melissa Erbacher: I think it's called Freedom Run, Scotty.

00:04:48Scott Trickett: Bear with me while I Google it or while I search for it.

00:04:52Melissa Erbacher: Now, it's worth noting as well that not all courses are actually available to do Freedom Run. So we have a couple of exceptions. I believe in Australia, one of which is Sirame parkrun in Queensland. It's run on private property and so it's not available to public outside of normal parkrun time. So there are a couple of exceptions to the rule. If you're not sure, best thing to do is check the event's website and you can double check whether or not you can run there during the week as well. I thought we were going to check this before the show, Scotty.

00:05:27Scott Trickett: Well, we didn't. It logged out.

00:05:29Melissa Erbacher: I'm pretty sure you actually logged a Freedom Run before the show.

00:05:34Scott Trickett: Okay, so when you go to your parkrun profile, there's a link called Freedom. View your Freedom Runs and record new ones. Click on that and you can add your time. You can add the date, the time, and then you get to pick the course. So why do you think you'd do this?

00:05:50Melissa Erbacher: Well... If you're like me and you're an adventurer and you can't actually get to a parkrun event on a Saturday, then you want to check out the course another time and you want to keep a record of it. So it actually attaches it to your profile. It doesn't contribute towards points for that particular event or your milestone shirts. But, you know, that's not why a lot of us do these runs. You know, we do it for the love and because we want to. Discover the new courses.

00:06:16Scott Trickett: Yeah, discovering the new courses is a big one. So I'm looking at my list and I've got Warragul, Traralgon, Riverway, Main Beach. I've never run those parkruns as official parkruns, but I know the courses and it was good fun. It's great fun. We did a road trip to Merimbula last year and we planned a whole bunch of freedom runs on the way up there through the Gippsland region. We're going to catch up with Toc later in this episode talking about the Gippsland region. So we hit Warragul, we hit Sale, Traralgon. It was great fun exploring these courses without knowing what was there.

00:06:52Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, we've done a couple ourselves as well, one of which was on a road trip. We did Albury-Wodonga. which was an excellent event, and we did that as a Freedom Run. And a couple of years ago when we were in South Australia for a parkrun powwow, actually, we were down there and we did Mount Barker parkrun on the Friday afternoon before running Torrens as the official parkrun on the Saturday. So yesterday was my third actual Freedom Run at Westerfolds. Yes.

00:07:23Scott Trickett: We recorded it.

00:07:24Melissa Erbacher: Let's have a listen.

00:07:25Scott Trickett: We've just sent Adam off. Welcome to the parkrun Adventurers. We're on location and we're going to do a freedom run. Hi Mel.

00:07:33Melissa Erbacher: Hey Scotty. Well we're at the stunningly beautiful Westerfolds. It's a gorgeous day in Victoria. Who knew those would happen? I'm very excited.

00:07:45Scott Trickett: It is exciting. So this is my home. This is the event that I started, which you probably already knew because we've talked about it a lot. And we're going to do a freedom run. We're about to head off. Do you have any idea where we're going?

00:08:00Melissa Erbacher: I believe there's a hill. It looks like from the start line it's uphill to start with. So I'm kind of hoping you would take me on tour.

00:08:08Scott Trickett: First impressions at the start line?

00:08:11Melissa Erbacher: It's very sunny, but I don't imagine it's this sunny at 7 o'clock in the morning. So we've chosen an afternoon to do our freedom run, which is the beauty of freedom runs. You can do them any time of the day, any day of the week, except during parkrun.

00:08:24Scott Trickett: Okay. Strava's ready?

00:08:27Melissa Erbacher: I think so.

00:08:27Scott Trickett: Watcher's ready?

00:08:31Melissa Erbacher: Yep. Now go easy on me, all right?

00:08:36Scott Trickett: So we're doing four-minute Ks to start up with.

00:08:39Melissa Erbacher: I'll see you at the end.

00:08:41Scott Trickett: Okay, let's go. So we run past the children's playground. So those screams aren't the wildlife.

00:08:55Melissa Erbacher: They're not also us.

00:08:56Scott Trickett: No.

00:08:57Melissa Erbacher: Yet.

00:09:02Scott Trickett: We're coming up to 1K. It's a nice sharp downhill. You have got views of the Yarra River to your left.

00:09:12Melissa Erbacher: And this is the part where we go left?

00:09:14Scott Trickett: Yes.

00:09:19Melissa Erbacher: Nice little hairpin turn you've got there. I bet if you're going at a fair clip that must hurt. Lucky I don't go at fair clip.

00:09:30Scott Trickett: definitely slows you down leading into this long stretch here we've got and I call it sort of like the the energy lab because we're unfortunately under power lines and no matter how well I'm feeling I always feel like crap running on this section and I blame the power lines so let's see how you feel to prove my theory right

00:09:56Melissa Erbacher: Well, it's also fairly exposed as well. There's no shade on this section. So that might have something to do with it.

00:10:04Scott Trickett: And this is also the section where they release the snakes. Just along the river here. We might run faster. So on this section, if you're running at night particularly, you'll see a lot of wombats.

00:10:24Melissa Erbacher: Really? Yeah.

00:10:25Scott Trickett: This is the wombat section of the course.

00:10:27Melissa Erbacher: Where's the sign that says watch out wombats? I mean, they're sizable creatures. You could trip over those if you're not looking.

00:10:34Scott Trickett: Have you ever seen a wombat run?

00:10:36Melissa Erbacher: Yes.

00:10:37Scott Trickett: They're hilarious.

00:10:38Melissa Erbacher: They're so cute.

00:10:39Scott Trickett: They're funny and they just bowl over anything that's in front of them. But they're kind of dopey, so they don't notice until the last minute that you're there. And then they panic and scurry off into the bushes. We've taken a little detour off the official parkrun course. Just after the 2k point, if you ever visit us, there's a little outlook. It says rapid... Actually I don't even know what it says. Rapid observation or something.

00:11:08Melissa Erbacher: It says rapids.

00:11:09Scott Trickett: Yeah, rapids.

00:11:10Melissa Erbacher: Rapids.

00:11:11Scott Trickett: So you might be able to hear them.

00:11:15[other]

00:11:15Melissa Erbacher: They sound like this.

00:11:19Scott Trickett: And it's very pretty and a nice spot for a rest. And we're stopping for a photo too. So when you look us up on Instagram, they'll know where we are.

00:11:36Melissa Erbacher: We should Instagram it now.

00:11:37Scott Trickett: Yeah, yeah.

00:11:43Melissa Erbacher: Well, that was a very pretty little detour. Might add a few minutes onto the normal parkrunner's time, but that's okay.

00:11:50Scott Trickett: Is parkrun a race?

00:11:52Melissa Erbacher: No, it's a run.

00:11:53Scott Trickett: How convenient. We're coming up to... The challenging part of the course.

00:12:07Melissa Erbacher: Is this the lead up to the murder house?

00:12:09Scott Trickett: Yes. The pre-lead up.

00:12:13Melissa Erbacher: So this is your fabled hill, not the last thing that we just did?

00:12:20Scott Trickett: No, we haven't got to the hill yet, sorry.

00:12:23Melissa Erbacher: Apologies, David. I like a good hill. Yeah.

00:12:31Scott Trickett: But there is a little bit of a dip before you get to the hill. It's probably harder than the hill because you mentally and physically psych yourself up for the hill and then you hit this thing.

00:12:42Melissa Erbacher: But if it's a dip, presumably you're going down, yeah?

00:12:45Scott Trickett: Well, a little bit, but a dip goes up as well, sort of. But yeah, now this is the hill.

00:12:56Melissa Erbacher: This is the hill.

00:12:56Scott Trickett: We're at the base of the hill.

00:12:58Melissa Erbacher: All right, now... Purely for the sake of the listeners, I'm prepared to walk the hill just for the purpose of sound quality and so you'll be able to understand the words that are coming out of my mouth.

00:13:13Scott Trickett: And you can take all the beauty in and not miss anything in the blue.

00:13:18Melissa Erbacher: I must say I'm enjoying the parkrun adventure studio this week.

00:13:26Scott Trickett: It's more breezy than what I'm used to.

00:13:29Melissa Erbacher: A little bit more sunshine.

00:13:30Scott Trickett: Yeah, it's definitely warmer.

00:13:33Melissa Erbacher: Oh, there's that magic view.

00:13:34Scott Trickett: There you go.

00:13:37Melissa Erbacher: If anyone's seen the parkrun AU100 video, you'll recognise this section of Westerfold. You've got the manor house up on your right, and a beautiful view down to the left. There's nothing like seeing a little section of the video in the real life.

00:13:59Scott Trickett: It's also the 4K point, and it also means it's all downhill. So many people tell me that it's a tough course because you go up a hill. No one ever mentions the last kilometer as a downhill.

00:14:14Melissa Erbacher: Oh, you've got some azales out there. I saw some larkies before. I'm still waiting to see a kookaburra.

00:14:21Scott Trickett: Wildlife has let me down a little bit.

00:14:23Melissa Erbacher: No, we've seen kangaroos.

00:14:25Scott Trickett: We've seen kangaroos. But it is, what is it, 4 o'clock in the afternoon?

00:14:30Melissa Erbacher: It's hot.

00:14:31Scott Trickett: There's a jiggly shortcut there.

00:14:38Melissa Erbacher: Do you reckon you've got runners to take?

00:14:40Scott Trickett: Yeah, Tina, shortcut Tina. Walked back and found her friend once. Now she's taking shortcuts down the hill. She's now shortcut Tina. When I said the last K was all downhill... I actually lied, because this last stretch of about two to three hundred is all I can begin.

00:15:02Melissa Erbacher: Not much.

00:15:04Scott Trickett: No. So we came up to the edge, just wanted to get her off the path to the shelter.

00:15:16Unidentified speaker: Well done.

00:15:16Melissa Erbacher: Well done.

00:15:18Scott Trickett: Where's the strabatella?

00:15:20Melissa Erbacher: Strabatella's me first.

00:15:22Scott Trickett: TomTom says 4.98.

00:15:25Matt Fullerton: So TomTom never lies.

00:15:27Scott Trickett: And we're finished. That was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed having you out there.

00:15:32Melissa Erbacher: I have to say that five kilometres, even though it took more than 40 minutes, went really fast for me. So thank you for taking me out on that tour, Scotty.

00:15:40Scott Trickett: And we did it well. We had a picnic beforehand. We did. With our other favourite people in our lives. And then they set off and did their own freedom run. And we did ours. And, you know, there's always, you've always got home. You know, now Studley is my event, but Westerfolds will always be home. And no matter how many times you run around it, it's a great run. So that was nice to share it with you. We also, if you've been paying attention on Facebook, we know not all of you have, but if you have, we set you a challenge during the week. And that challenge was to go out.

Secret Mission / Adventurer Challenge (Freedom Run missions)

00:16:17Melissa Erbacher: Well, actually, it was a secret challenge. So we asked if there were any adventurers out there who wanted to do a secret challenge. We didn't tell you all what it was. You had to get in touch with us for a special mission.

00:16:32Scott Trickett: And that mission was to run a course you hadn't run before and record it for us. Record your impressions. We had some adventurers step up to the task. Let's have a listen.

00:16:44Ollie: Hi, this is Ollie from Shell Harbour parkrun in New South Wales, and staying up in Queensland here, so wanted to give Main Beach parkrun a try. It's a parkrun that's pretty close to the beach itself, so looking forward to catching some views of the beach, looking forward to what looks like a pretty slim ring track but but a fairly flat one by the looks of it through the woods and Doing this recording from in the car because it's it's just a tad wet outside which which could be nice This one's been on my my bucket and spade list love trying all the different Beach parkruns many more to try But yeah looking looking for any substitutes went away for our our gorgeous Shell Harbor parkrun All right, here we go. So, I've stopped. The rain stopped. It was a great run, great course. A couple of puddles along the way, but that just helped keeping me fresh. The view along on the way back was fantastic, through the trees, looking across the beach, and loved the track. It was nice to see that filtered light through the trees, and I can certainly see why they run it this early in the morning in such a climate. Signs along the way, very helpful. Thank you, Main Beach parkrun, and yeah, hope to be back sometime.

00:18:12Bree: Hello parkrun adventurers, my name's Bree and for my parkrun adventure this week I aim to do a freedom run of Studley parkrun. So at Studley the course is described as heading east from the Studley Boathouse, completing a small 1km loop before crossing a pedestrian bridge into Yarra Bend Park and then that goes sort of up two kilometers and then back two kilometers back over the bridge and to the end without doing that first loop again. So that seems quite straightforward. So I've actually already done my parkrun. And it didn't quite work to plan, unfortunately. The bridge, which I was meant to cross, has currently got workmen doing maintenance work on it during the day. That only seems to be happening on weekdays for the next two weeks. But it means that I was only able to do the first kilometre loop. before the bridge. So I did that a few times, and it is, I have to say, it's absolutely beautiful. It's a beautiful location for a parkrun. I felt like walking there, I was in the middle of nowhere. It was a nice smooth gravel track, suitable for prams, and it was right next to the Yarra River. full view of the river lots of birds and wildlife around me it really was lovely and based on that i i think it's going to be an absolutely beautiful parkrun when i get around to seeing the rest of the course i think it's well worth a visit if you like the sort of parkruns that make you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere there's lots of fun uh to come here and have a go even though it didn't go to plan and i look forward to doing it again

00:20:02Nicole: Hi, this is Nicole doing some parkrun adventuring down in the southern state of Tasmania. I'm here with my trusty Mexican, Richie.

00:20:17Scott Trickett: Hello.

00:20:19Nicole: And we're at the beginning, the start line of the Launceston parkrun. We've walked through town, beautiful, quaint, old-style little town of Lonnie, along the river, past the silos, past the brewery, across the new bike path, very picturesque, beautiful sunny day. Yeah, gorgeous. And so off I go. Okay, so I've just finished the Launceston Freedom Run. Really picturesque course, nice and flat as promised, but got a real outlook on quite a diverse aspect of Launceston. There was rolling green hills, bushland in the park at the turnaround. housing as well and kind of like a rural feel to it super windy but good highly recommend if you come to Launceston because you could walk and then do it considering I think Launceston start their parkrun at 9am beautiful

00:21:32Melissa Ellis: Hi there parkrun adventurers. This is Melissa and I'm at the Jells Park parkrun in Victoria. It's a Sunday evening and I'm battling against the daylight but I believe I found the start location as described from the Jells Park website. So we're about to head off. We have to follow a path around Scotchman's Creek Trail, turning left onto the Dandenong Creek Trail. And it looks pretty straightforward on the map. So hopefully the light doesn't beat us and we can locate the right markers without any marshals. It does make me a little bit nervous. Anyway, we'll see how we go. So we made it around the trail. It wasn't too bad. Most of the points were clearly marked. The only issue we had, we took a wrong turn when we got to where they must usually have a marshal. And we took a right turn because it says to follow right turn directions towards the lake past the jetty. Only we discovered that we needed to turn left to find the jetty which we found and the rest was quite straightforward. So we completed the course, the light is just about gone so it's time to leave and we had a great adventure and we'll definitely be back here at Jells Park in the very near future to run parkrun.

00:23:09Chris: Hi parkrun Adventurers, I'm just checking in to let you know about parkrun Port Macquarie. Just on dusk and there are lots of people laying around in the park taking in the view and the balmy breeze. Now there's no permanent signposting of the course so you just need to wing it if you're going to do a freedom run. Looking at the event webpage it appears to be easy to make out the course. It starts and ends in front of Ridges Motel. So it's out and back with a little turn back to make up the 5k. I don't know if it was my comprehension or navigation skills that are in question, but I measured it way too short. Too full out and back laps would have been spot on 5k as far as I can tell, so I'm not sure what went on there. Whatever my issue was, the course is great. It's a concrete path all the way. I'd rate it as a fast and flat, although it's not billiard table flat. There's a couple of undulations there. It starts in the town green and runs out along the harbour break wall for 750m. The rocks that make up the break wall have been painted by locals and tourists, so it's good if you can go for a walk along there and read some of them. Some of them are quite good art. And it's an added bonus, the start of the run is also next door to a pet-friendly caravan park, so it's a great location for parkrun and barkrun tourists alike.

00:24:21Caro: That's the Freedom Run of the Maylands Peninsula parkrun, which is a new parkrun which is going to be starting next week. I'm quite looking forward to this. I'm looking out at the view of the river. So it should be quite a beautiful scenery along the way. And I imagine when it's going to be parkrun, lots of high fives going around as we go past each other. So, yeah, it's going to be a fantastic one. Cheers. back after my freedom run of Maylands Peninsula parkrun. I'm looking forward to doing this one officially next week. Lovely course, pretty flat, out along the river, a couple of undulations with nothing major. Beautiful views. Jazz?

00:24:57Karen: My name's Karen, and this morning I'm in Endeavour Hills, home of Frog Hollow parkrun. The course description at first glance seemed a bit long and complicated, but when I took the time to read it properly, I think it's actually pretty straightforward. So I'm about to go find out. OK, so that's Frog Hollow parkrun course complete. As I expected, the course was very easy to navigate. It was a mixture of gravel, boardwalks, and concrete paths. And I liked seeing a few little discrete parkrun course direction markers painted on the concrete and the boardwalk. For me it was actually a park walk because I can't run at the moment due to an injury. The good thing about walking is you get more time to look around and I enjoyed seeing lots of different types of birds and ducks and waterfowl. Although sadly I didn't hear any frogs. Part of the course goes out and under the freeway which was interesting because I've driven over the freeway countless times without ever knowing that all those waterways and parkways were right there underneath it. I also like seeing near the start line some permanent signage erected which explained what parkrun is, obviously aimed at recruiting and getting newcomers involved. All in all, I really enjoyed the course and I would very much like to come back here in the future when I can actually run it.

00:26:33Kelly: Hey guys, my name's Kelly and I'm at Salisbury parkrun and it's my first time here. We've driven an hour and a half to get here. It's freezing cold. It's two degrees at the moment. The course is meant to be going past like a river. It's a one-lap course going past the playground. It's located in a big park. um it's very foggy i can't see anything really i can hear dogs yelping and there's heaps of people pulling in and lots of bicycles and people are dressed in short and shirts which is crazy um so yeah i'm expecting a good run um i think there's a bit of a hill but yeah i'm excited Okay, I've just finished Salisbury parkrun, which is in East London. So we ran around through the river. We got huge towering trees. All the lawn is green. In the distance, there's fog, so it's very kind of mystical and amazing. Overall, awesome parkrun. We'll definitely do it again in the summer. They have a different course, so I come back here and check it out again. Lovely. Have a great day, guys. Bye.

00:27:33Scott Trickett: Thanks, Kelly. She was overseas, so we even had a little bit of international flavour from our adventurers. So thanks once again to Ollie at Main Beach, Bree at part of Studley. We had Nicole down in Lonnie, Melissa at Jells, Chris at Port Mac, Caro over in the west, Karen at Frog Hollow, and finish up there with Kelly at Salisbury parkrun. Well done for stepping up our parkrun adventurers.

00:28:00Melissa Erbacher: Yes, we love sharing the adventure love and there are going to be more future special adventures that we will do from time to time. So please keep an eye on our Facebook page because that is where we're going to ask for you guys to get in touch with us for your missions. Super secret, top secret, very fun every time, guaranteed. Thank you. And we are joined in the virtual studio today by a gentleman who is the event director at Inverloch and he's also a territory director for Gippsland. He's a wonderful asset to parkrun Australia. Welcome to the show, Toc.

00:28:45Tony O'Connell: Thanks a lot, Mel, and g'day, Scott, as well.

00:28:48Scott Trickett: G'day, Toc. You meet a lot of people in parkrun. Most of them are monks. No, they're okay. Toc is genuinely one of the great guys of parkrun, so we love having you part of the team. Tell us a bit about your parkrun journey. How did it start?

00:29:06Tony O'Connell: My parkrun journey started off with an adventure, which is pretty appropriate for this show. We went up to Merimbula for Christmas, and we were actually looking at what I could do to fill in the days, and my wife found this advert for parkrun. And I thought, yeah, we'll have a crack at that. So I registered and went along and met the lovely Danella at Merimbula and just fell in love with the whole concept. So I came back to Inverloch and thought about it for a while and I went down to another parkrun to Albert and ran that and I thought, yeah, we need one of these at home. And ironically, someone else from Inverloch had made some inquiries as well and it turned out it was someone that I went to primary school with 35, 40 years earlier. And so we got together and, yeah, with a couple of other great run directors or a couple of other people that came on as run directors that were also looking at setting one up and formed a great team at Inverloch.

00:30:08Melissa Erbacher: And I hear it's always sunny at Inverloch.

00:30:11Tony O'Connell: Mel, it is always sunny at Inverloch. Some days the sun's up above the clouds and some days it's up above the rain, but the sun's always there.

00:30:20Scott Trickett: There are good reports coming from Inverloch. Inverloch is sort of like a, would you describe it as a holiday town?

00:30:26Tony O'Connell: Yeah, look, Inverloch's a little coastal village. Probably more than half the houses would be holiday houses. Very small local population, probably 2,000 people. But yeah, a sleepy little town, a great little place.

00:30:44Scott Trickett: So you see a lot of tourism, a lot of adventurers?

00:30:48Tony O'Connell: We do see quite a fair share. Probably a few less now that Phillip Island's launched, being one of our, well, probably our nearest parkrun. We had a lot of people that were adventuring down to Phillip Island and would make the road trip across the Inverloch because it was the nearest parkrun in Gippsland. But with the explosion of parkruns, yeah, we've lost a few over to that way. But every week we have adventurers from... the smallest week we probably have four or five different parkruns.

00:31:18Melissa Erbacher: That's great. And so can you give us a little bit of a course description for us?

00:31:24Tony O'Connell: Yeah look, it's an out and back course but it's not traditional out and back in that we start in the middle and run out one way and come back and run out the other way with a second loop but we follow Anderson Inlet so we follow along the beach for most of the course so for most of the You've actually got ocean views mixed in with a little bit of coastal scrub. We've got a concrete track that we follow, generally pretty flat, and it's just a great little area. We run through a kids' playground area and lots of things to see and do along the course.

00:32:02Scott Trickett: One thing you've also been involved in is you're a Territory Director and you've spearheaded this massive growth in the Gippsland region. Which events have you directly had a hand in launching or being just involved in planning?

00:32:17Tony O'Connell: The ones that I've been directly involved in, Phillip Island had a fair bit to do with that one. Warragul, I went over with the event team to do the presentations to Council. A little bit to do with Traralgon, but that was pretty well set up before I got involved. Sale. And the other one that I was involved in was Churchill over in Latrobe Valley. They launched about six weeks ago. And then further east we had Bairnsdale this week launch.

00:32:48Melissa Erbacher: And how did that go?

00:32:49Tony O'Connell: That was sensational. We had 165 finishers, massive contingent of walkers and prams at the end, which was fantastic to see. It's a beautiful course. And it just, people turned up. It was like a typical parkrun at Quarter to eight, I thought, oh, this one's going to be a little bit quieter than we've seen. And at ten to eight, they just descended down the hill, arrived from everywhere.

00:33:13Scott Trickett: Right. And you answered our question. We had no idea what Bairnsdale meant. But you did. What was it?

00:33:21Tony O'Connell: Oh, you put me on the spot there. I actually Googled it and had a look. And it was children of the day, children of the... Children of the Valley? Children of the Valley. That's right.

00:33:25[crosstalk]

00:33:34Melissa Erbacher: Which isn't far from what I said it must have been because Ben is Scottish for child or baby.

00:33:40Tony O'Connell: And Dale is a valley.

00:33:41Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, which I Googled very inconspicuously during the show.

00:33:45Tony O'Connell: But while I was listening to the podcast with that on it, I was actually jogging along on one of my little runs and I was trying to use Google as I was looking and I was saying the answer. I know the answer. I know the answer. But there we go. We're on to it.

00:34:00Scott Trickett: You mentioned that you had a run. You're a pretty handy runner. Now, but you weren't a few years ago. Is that correct?

00:34:06Tony O'Connell: No, look, two years ago, two and a half years ago, I could not run half a kilometre at all. I just was not a runner. I thought the idea of running was a very foreign and stupid concept that I just did not enjoy at all. And the bugs got me. I really love my running now.

00:34:27Melissa Erbacher: And would you say parkrun's responsible for that to some degree?

00:34:30Tony O'Connell: It is to a large degree. The... The thing I love about parkrun is you go along, and I've been around a number of courses now, and it doesn't matter where you go, you just fit in. People want to talk to you. Great atmosphere and very encouraging. And I see that, and I love promoting that through my own parkruns, is that encouraging atmosphere. People can come along, they can walk, they can start their running journey, and they get encouragement from everyone.

00:35:01Melissa Erbacher: And so you and your lovely wife, Jackie, are both quite the adventurers. You've done a lot of different parkruns. Can you give us a top three?

00:35:10Tony O'Connell: Ooh, that's put me on the spot. Apart from Inverloch?

00:35:16Scott Trickett: Yeah, you can't include your home run.

00:35:17Tony O'Connell: Okay, we can't include. I've heard that rule before. That's why I said it.

00:35:22Scott Trickett: I know you've never run at Westerfolds either.

00:35:25Tony O'Connell: Oh, I know. The pressure's been on to run there and it will happen one day.

00:35:29Scott Trickett: Don't tell me you're scared of the hills too, Toc?

00:35:31Tony O'Connell: No, I love hills. Hills are my friends.

00:35:34Scott Trickett: That's what I thought.

00:35:36Tony O'Connell: Give the top three around. I would have to put Merimbula in there because I love the atmosphere at Merimbula. It's a lovely course out along the boardwalk, and it was what started me on the parkrun journey. Oh, there's so many good ones. Every parkrun's got something different. I loved Mount Gambier. I turned up there and... Thought it's around a lake, it'll be flat, and it had hills. I love that one.

00:36:03Scott Trickett: I'm with you there too. I love Mount Gambier. I was the same as you. I was going there for their first anniversary, and I was expecting it to be really flat because it's around a lake. It's got this massive hill in it.

00:36:14Melissa Erbacher: The lake is very far down.

00:36:16Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:36:17Tony O'Connell: I would struggle to pick my third one out of just so many that have been so good to run for different reasons. yeah no I'm going to wimp out and I'm not going to call the third one because there's just so many good parkrun courses out there that's alright there'll probably be quite a few event directors who'll take ownership of the third parkrun that must have been your favourite it's one of the other 22 that I've done I've done 25 in total so just pick one out of the hat they're all great I haven't done a parkrun course yet that I haven't enjoyed and I haven't enjoyed the atmosphere on it um Everywhere I've gone, you know, it's just been really good, really welcoming.

00:37:01Melissa Erbacher: Okay, so I've got one more top three for you. Every adventurer has a list, whether or not it's written down or just in their head, of the events that they want to get to. So if you could get to three events that you haven't yet done in Australia, which ones would they be?

00:37:24Tony O'Connell: Number one's easy, Nambour. I just love the thought of hills and trails and they just go so well together and that's one that I will definitely be doing this year. Looking around a couple of the ones in WA, they're on the longer term list. I wouldn't mind trying one inland, somewhere like Dubbo or Warwick or somewhere like that.

00:37:52Melissa Erbacher: I actually keep repeatedly hearing wonderful reports about Dubbo.

00:37:57Tony O'Connell: Yeah, look, the idea, and I'd love to go up and do their run through the zoo too, but like all runners, there is so many runs out there that you can sign up for and do, but there's only so many weekends. And there's always so many runs out there too that they want to run on a Saturday, and we've got to tell those people you can't hold runs on a Saturday. That's parkrun day.

00:38:19Scott Trickett: So what's next for TOC?

00:38:21Tony O'Connell: Next for talk in the parkrun world, we're looking at another couple of parkruns in my territory. Another one over in La Trobe Valley. We've got great support from La Trobe Shore over that way. And starting to work on one down in Mornington Peninsula down on the bay. And that'll be a very popular one, I think, particularly with the people down that way.

00:38:48Scott Trickett: Very exciting. Thanks for joining us. It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

00:38:53Melissa Erbacher: Always lovely having you, Toc, whether you're a roving adventurer or a guest on the show.

00:38:57Tony O'Connell: Cheers, guys. Thanks a lot.

The Social Adventurers Landscape (social media / milestone round-up)

00:39:05Melissa Erbacher: The social adventurer's landscape this week was very busy. We had Lindy So Indy 2 out at Campbelltown parkrun where her grandson ran his first official parkrun as a big four-year-old now. And her granddaughter Indy also went down the finishing funnel with her. Hopefully the stopwatch didn't click for two people when they realised that she was only just doing a short section of the course. And Danny Running must be Jet's mum because he completed his first official parkrun. So I would say there's a family relationship there. And she is very proud of her little guy. We had Jeanette Campbell, 21, at Mitchelton parkrun this week. And she said, the last Campbell, along with a photo, to reach the 50 Club. Well done, all of us. So that's awesome. There's three of them who've now reached the 50 Club. So great job, Campbells. And Cyanide0278 said, who gets up at 5 a.m. to drive two hours to run 5K? We do at the Terrace parkrun this week. Back. Here in Victoria, where we've spent much of the show, we had Coburg parkrun saying thanks to Amanda for volunteering today from Westerfolds parkrun and congratulations on joining the 25 Club. So heaps of milestones being reached this week. It's pretty special.

00:40:23Scott Trickett: Well done, Amanda. We had a roving adventurer. Matt Fullerton visited Albury for their anniversary and he caught up with their event director, Sarah, and they had a quick chat.

Roving report — Matt Fullerton at Albury Wodonga parkrun

00:40:34Matt Fullerton: So I'm here with Sarah, the ED for Aubrey Wodonga parkrun. How are you going Sarah?

00:40:40Sarah: Very well, thank you. We've had a fantastic morning here today.

00:40:42Matt Fullerton: We'll run through the key points. So first of all, the theme. What was the theme?

00:40:49Sarah: So the theme for today, we had bright, tight and tutus. So we've had a pretty good response to the tutus with a few males even dressing up for the day. So it's been fantastic.

00:41:00Matt Fullerton: It's great to see everybody get involved and certainly there's plenty of bright and a fair bit of tight as well. I've been lucky enough to tour around to a couple of birthdays and launches in the past but I must say that this is the first one I've been to that has a photo booth.

00:41:18Sarah: Yes, we're lucky enough as part of our event team we have the managers of RBR Party Hire. So Today they have made it a fantastic event with decorations and of course the photo booth, which I think everyone has got around and no doubt you'll see many of those on our Facebook page after today.

00:41:38Matt Fullerton: Yeah, certainly getting a workout, that's for sure. So could you just describe the course? For the people that aren't familiar with the course, just describe the course for us.

00:41:48Sarah: Yep, so we've got an out and back course. It is along the Murray River. It follows the river. It's all a pretty flat path. But I think what sets us apart from everyone else is the fact that we run in two states. So you start in New South Wales in Albury and you cross over Victoria into Wodonga. So I think that makes us pretty special. I do believe we are the first parkrun to do that. I'm not sure of any are on board.

00:42:12Matt Fullerton: I might have to check the stats on that, but I think you might be right there.

00:42:16Sarah: So yeah, I think that's our biggest drawcard. And of course, it's a beautiful run along the river.

00:42:21Matt Fullerton: There's a good turnout here today. What sort of numbers do you usually get?

00:42:25Sarah: Yep, so today we had, I think our final number was about 325. Not quite our record. Our record was last weekend with 330. Look, since January this year, we've had consistently up around the 300 mark. So we've seen significant growth and stable growth too. So, oh look, as with most parkruns, that'll probably die off in the winter. But yeah, we've certainly seen over the last year some really good growth. A lot more registrations. I think Curtis said this morning we're over 3,000 registrations all up.

00:42:56Matt Fullerton: Massive.

00:42:57Sarah: Yeah, so we've had a really good response and getting new people here every week, so it's great.

00:43:02Matt Fullerton: Yeah, well, look, congratulations on a great event and thanks for starting it all those months ago, two years ago. Two years ago, yep. It seems like only yesterday, but what was the key thing that made you start a parkrun event?

00:43:19Sarah: So I'll give Newey a little bit of a plug here. So Newey was our very first parkrun and the only parkrun that we'd done before we started, believe it or not. We were actually just visiting family in Newcastle and they... said come along for this run, we'll just do that in the morning. So we joined in, of course, I knew it was huge. The atmosphere there is fantastic. So from that one and only run, we were hooked. So we got back and we have quite a few fun runs and quite a big running community here. And there was certainly a need for it. So we started up our own without any volunteering experience and only one run under our belt. So we were very new and very fresh to it. But yeah, we had a lot of support and of course from our TDs and from Tim as well. So It's made it all possible.

00:44:06Matt Fullerton: Great. Excellent. Thanks again. Enjoy the rest of the morning and let's go eat some more cake.

00:44:12Sarah: Lovely. Thanks, Matt.

00:44:13Matt Fullerton: Thanks, Sarah.

00:44:14Scott Trickett: Well done to Sarah and Curtis who put on a fantastic event up at Albury Wodonga. Nearly got their record for their anniversary. So that's the way to do it in style or almost in style.

Cake and launches round-up ('Where's the cake this week?')

00:44:26Melissa Erbacher: Scotty.

00:44:27Scott Trickett: Yep.

00:44:28Melissa Erbacher: Where's the cake this week?

00:44:30Scott Trickett: Well, we're travelling to Campbelltown, which is in New South Wales. Did you know that?

00:44:35Melissa Erbacher: I did, actually.

00:44:37Scott Trickett: They're having their second anniversary in Yamba. Little small town close-ish to you, northern New South Wales. I've been to Yamba.

00:44:46Melissa Erbacher: Closer to me than you. Let's look at it that way.

00:44:48Scott Trickett: And they got to their first anniversary, so well done, the team at Yamba.

00:44:52Melissa Erbacher: No launches this week?

00:44:53Scott Trickett: Yes, there's one launch. Do you know anything about the launch?

00:44:59Melissa Erbacher: I don't know anything about the launch.

00:45:01Scott Trickett: Are you going to it by any chance? We're launching in Rockhampton this week.

00:45:07Melissa Erbacher: Wow, that was a big mental blank. And yes, actually, very excitingly, I am going to launch a Rockhampton parkrun. So Craig's done a lot of work behind the scenes to get that one off the ground. And I'm very excited to be flying up to represent parkrun. Well, he's representing parkrun too, obviously, but you know.

00:45:26Scott Trickett: Do you know anything about the course yet?

00:45:29Melissa Erbacher: I know that it runs at least partially through Botanic Gardens. So, yeah, it's supposed to be a really, really beautiful course and I'm very looking forward to it.

00:45:38Scott Trickett: Great. So we'll have a thorough report from Rockhampton in next week's episode.

00:45:43Melissa Erbacher: Deal.

00:45:44Scott Trickett: So that's it for our Melbourne edition.

00:45:48Melissa Erbacher: Our Victorian edition, I think.

00:45:49Scott Trickett: Our Victorian edition with a very strong Melbourne flavour. It's been awesome having you in the studio, Mel.

00:45:54Melissa Erbacher: I've been very happy to be here, I have to say.

00:45:57Scott Trickett: Look out on Instagram. We took some photos as we recorded the pod. Did we put them on Instagram yet? We will. We will. And we took some photos of me doing our Freedom Run. So make sure you like us on Instagram.

00:46:13Melissa Erbacher: Tag you're it, Scotty. I want to see you in Queensland very soon.

00:46:17Scott Trickett: Okay. We're making plans. So can you arrange a studio?

00:46:20Melissa Erbacher: Absolutely.

00:46:21Scott Trickett: Okay. It's a deal. Look forward to it. Yeah.

00:46:26Melissa Erbacher: In future episodes. I hope you're okay with my studio being somewhere on a beach with a laptop.

00:46:32Scott Trickett: Yeah, we can make that work.

00:46:33Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, excellent.

00:46:35Scott Trickett: Bye.

00:46:40[other]

00:46:40Unidentified speaker: What will you do without freedom? No! We will run! And we will live. Aye. Fight and you may die. Run and you'll live. Would you be willing? to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives but they'll never take our freedom friends