Episode 13 - Junior Adventurers

Episode details · 278 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:03Melissa Erbacher: Welcome everybody to Lucky Episode 13 of parkrun Adventurers. It was another big weekend last weekend, a nice long weekend, which is the perfect opportunity for adventurers to get out there and travel a little bit further afield from their home parkruns. Did you have an adventure this weekend, Scotty?

00:00:23Scott Trickett: Well, it's funny you should ask, because I did. Being the Easter long weekend, great excuse to get away. I headed up to Ballarat. Spent a little weekend away, but we got to experience Ballarat parkrun on Saturday morning, which I have been to before. I went to their launch last year, and it was nice to visit again. One thing that did make it nice is that my daughter, Kasia, completed her 20th run by running at Ballarat this week. So she snuck onto the most events table.

00:01:02Melissa Erbacher: So her 20th different run.

00:01:04Scott Trickett: Yes, 20th different. Sorry, I forgot to mention that part. So it was a massive moment in her life. She's still talking about it now.

00:01:14Melissa Erbacher: Days later.

00:01:15Unidentified speaker: Yep.

00:01:16Scott Trickett: She's completely oblivious to it, has no idea what it means. But I was a little bit excited to see her name on the most events table. That was good.

00:01:24Melissa Erbacher: Well, that's an awesome achievement. And so kudos to you and Ivana as well because obviously that achievement wouldn't have happened for Kasia without your transportation expertise and your supervision out on the course as she's under 11. It's a great job, Team Trickett.

00:01:42Scott Trickett: Yes, and our love of adventuring. So we love to get around to see lots of different parkruns. And we dragged Kasia with us.

00:01:53Melissa Erbacher: She's a very lucky girl.

00:01:55Scott Trickett: And she enjoyed Ballarat. So Ballarat's a really flat course, fast course. And she didn't crack a PB. I didn't do a PB. It was a bit cold in Ballarat. We had a good time.

00:02:08Melissa Erbacher: Doesn't cold usually mean you go faster?

00:02:12Scott Trickett: It just takes me a bit of time to warm up.

00:02:14Melissa Erbacher: Oh, okay.

00:02:16Scott Trickett: But one thing we did do, and I tasked her with getting some interviews, and you might have seen, we put a little photo on Facebook with her. She just went up to one of the volunteers at Ballarat and thought she'd fire some questions at him. Do you want to have a listen, see how she went?

00:02:34Kasia Trickett: We'd love to. Why did you come to parkrun today?

00:02:39guest: Oh, just to volunteer to help out.

00:02:42Kasia Trickett: Have you run any other parkruns?

00:02:45guest: Yes, I have. I've been to Adelaide, Shepparton, where else? A couple of other ones around Australia, so they're a great place to go and have a run when I'm visiting another place.

00:02:58Kasia Trickett: Can you run fast?

00:03:00guest: I used to be able to run fast, not anymore. I'm too old now.

00:03:05Kasia Trickett: What do you like about volunteering?

00:03:07guest: It's nice to see so many people out exercising and to help them make sure they have a good day. So it's nice to be able to volunteer and let everyone else have a good day. Thank you. Good on you. Thanks very much. See you.

00:03:21Melissa Erbacher: I think we've got a future parkrun Adventurers podcaster right there, Scotty. She talks very well.

00:03:28Scott Trickett: She does. She does. So if you want to have a week off.

00:03:33Melissa Erbacher: If I want a week off, I would actually like you to have a week off and I'll just do the podcast with Kasia.

00:03:39Scott Trickett: I think we've got to keep the male-female dynamic going.

00:03:42Unidentified speaker: Meh.

00:03:42Scott Trickett: Yeah, you're right. Meh. So let's go. Next week, I'll see if she's available.

00:03:48Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, that would be good.

Junior Adventurers roving reports

00:03:50Scott Trickett: Now, she wasn't the only parkrun Adventurer who was out getting some roving reports for us this weekend. We've got a whole sample. dotted all around the country, so let's take a listen.

00:04:03Unidentified speaker: Hi, my name is Amoy, and I am talking to Michael. Where are you from?

00:04:11Michael: I'm from Launceston. I live here.

00:04:14Unidentified speaker: Why did you start parkrun?

00:04:16Michael: Well, I was already running anyway, and I thought when I heard about parkrun that that would be something that I would really enjoy, and I have. I've done 83 parkruns altogether.

00:04:27Unidentified speaker: What is your favourite volunteer role?

00:04:31Michael: I like being run director. Thanks.

00:04:36Unidentified speaker: Hello Celeste, how many parkruns have you done?

00:04:39Celeste: Today will be my 148th. I'll just make that sound.

00:04:46Unidentified speaker: What is the best thing about parkrun?

00:04:48Celeste: The people. Everyone here is so friendly and I've made lots of new friends doing parkrun and it really makes my weekend.

00:04:55Unidentified speaker: Have you done any other parkruns?

00:04:58Celeste: Yes, I've done a couple in New Zealand and then probably another eight over Australia. Are you fast? No, but I enjoy the atmosphere more than the time.

00:05:11Unidentified speaker: What is the best thing about Launceston parkrun? Definitely the people. Thank you. Hello, my name is Lani and I'm five years old and my brother's name is Rowan. He's seven. How do you run so fast? It's the power of my legs. Why do you run so fast? Because I love it! Which events have you done? Hervey Bay, Kawana, Wynnum and I think that's about it. Do you like getting dressed up at parkrun? Totally! What's your favourite fancy dress? Ghostbusters. Hi, my name's Emily. I'm from Diamond Creek parkrun. I have done 10 parkruns. I have my 10 t-shirt. I've volunteered five times. And I've been coming with my family for two years. I love parkrun because you don't have to sleep in. You can get exercise and I like seeing my friends. I'm seven years old, almost eight. And today I ask why they like parkrun today.

00:06:34guest: What do I like about parkrun? I like the finish. I like the feeling at the end when you know you've done it for another week. And then you can have a chat with all your friends.

00:06:44Unidentified speaker: How many parkruns have you done?

00:06:46guest: Oh, that's a good question. I think I've done about 88, 89, something like that, I think. Quite a few now.

00:06:52Unidentified speaker: What do you want to get up to?

00:06:54guest: What do I want to get up to? I don't have a goal, I just want to keep on going and going until forever.

00:07:00Anne Ferguson: Who do you run with?

00:07:01guest: Who do I run with? I run with different people every week. At the moment I'm trying to stay with Kate Patty Preston but it's tricky. She's a very good runner.

00:07:11Unidentified speaker: What do you like about parkrunning?

00:07:14guest: I love coming and running with so many other people. I love how friendly everyone is and I love challenging myself every week.

00:07:25Unidentified speaker: How does it make you feel when you finish doing parkrun?

00:07:28guest: Really good. I feel really happy and really proud of myself. What do you like about parkrun?

00:07:36guest: I love the fact that lots of people who come from all sorts of different abilities all come together and run regardless of whether they're really good, whether they run, whether they walk, and then everyone gets together afterwards and has a chat and some social interaction.

00:07:57Unidentified speaker: How did you find out about parkrun?

00:08:00guest: I found out through reading about it in the leader local newspaper.

00:08:06Unidentified speaker: How do you feel after running?

00:08:09guest: Tired. I want to go back to bed, I think.

00:08:14Unidentified speaker: My name is Levi. Today I am parkrun junior adventurer at Central Lakes parkrun. Zach, do you like parkrun? Yes. Did you run the whole way? No. What was your favourite thing? Running. Thank you very much.

00:08:34Scott Trickett: That was nice to hear. Easter's really about the kids. I saw lots of kids at Ballarat. Did you have any Easter-themed Saturday parkrun adventuring yourself?

00:08:45Melissa Erbacher: I was at my home parkrun this weekend, but there were bunny ears and bobby tails and tutus aplenty to go around. Obviously, there was chocolate. There's always chocolate at Easter. One of our roving junior adventurers asked another one whether or not they like getting into fancy dress at parkrun. And I know those two particular juniors very well. And I've had opportunity on several occasions to get dressed up with them at various parkruns across the country. And I have to say, getting dressed up with juniors at parkrun is a whole extra level of fun. So, for example, I've been dressed as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with nieces, with nephews up in Sydney. in Townsville and so these little boys were super excited to be Ninja Turtles and I was pretty excited to be a Ninja Turtle as well and so was their mum but as a you know the four of us there together you could see that we were the team and I love those sorts of opportunities I've dressed up as the Wiggles with a couple of juniors in there so Rowan was dressed up as Captain Feathersword And Lani was dressed up as Dorothy the dinosaur. And I was Emma Wiggle. Little known fact, Tim Oberg's son Jack saw me at that event. And for the next year after that, he called me Emma Wiggle. And then I cut all my hair off and so that stopped. Lani's been dressed up as a mermaid. So, you know, kids can really get in on the action and I love seeing the juniors dressed up at our themed events. Usually it's only the anniversary these days that the kids go all out with their parents. But have you had experiences with Kasia and other juniors and their amazing costumes, Scotty? Yeah.

00:10:42Scott Trickett: Yeah, now that you mention it, looking back, the kids always do get involved. If that inspires them to get excited about parkrun, that can only be a good thing too. So it doesn't have to be a theme week, does it?

00:10:54Melissa Erbacher: No, not at all. I've had one lady, she volunteered at the finish line and she brought her three kids, her three young kids with her and we actually have a a park right at the finish line. So she was multitasking, watching her kids just play in the park as well as being on the stopwatch. And one of her boys, for no particular reason, was dressed as a fairy. And I say, why not? You know, if it feels like a fairy Saturday, let's make it a fairy Saturday. I don't think fancy dress should have to be restricted to special events.

00:11:29Scott Trickett: I'm seeing more and more people running in tutus, adults running in tutus.

00:11:33Melissa Erbacher: Well, how much fun does it look? Seriously, when you see kids and you'll be going out shopping and you'll see some princess, you know, she's five years old and she's dressed as a princess in the shopping centre because she got to pick what she wanted to wear that day. Sometimes I think adults can definitely take a leaf out of the kid's book. We should all be so courageous as to wear exactly what we want to wear wherever we want all the time. If that were the case, I would work in my pyjamas. It's probably a breach of my code of conduct, but, you know, I'd be comfortable.

00:12:14Scott Trickett: But you're right. I'm all on that bandwagon too. I like casual and I hate the idea of going to work in a suit and tie or pants and shirt just to make someone else happy.

00:12:27guest: Yeah.

00:12:29Scott Trickett: Luckily there's no dress code at parkrun.

00:12:33Melissa Erbacher: We do want you to wear clothes. Some people get a bit confused around Naked November. I have seen some very interesting ensembles, shall we call them. I think it's important that everyone remembers it's a family event.

00:12:48Scott Trickett: Yeah. I haven't seen any nakedness. Maybe that's a Queensland thing because it gets too hot.

00:12:54Melissa Erbacher: It is very hot here in the summertime. And that's very close to, well, Naked November's in summer, so...

00:13:00Scott Trickett: Guys, leave your tops on. That should be a dress code.

00:13:06Melissa Erbacher: Really?

00:13:07Scott Trickett: Yeah. I'm seeing too many guys taking their tops off when they shouldn't.

00:13:11Melissa Erbacher: Okay.

00:13:12Scott Trickett: Am I allowed to say that?

00:13:15Melissa Erbacher: You're allowed. You can say whatever you like. You might lose a few friends. That's an interesting perspective. I know a lot of ladies who would disagree with you.

00:13:30Scott Trickett: Look, pick your moments, and if you've got it, sure. Take your top off.

00:13:37Paul Kitching: There's a lot who think they have and they haven't.

00:13:41Scott Trickett: But we'll leave that for another podcast. Getting back on topic, Mel, I would love to see a photo of Captain Feathersword, is it, and Wiggle Emma?

00:13:52Melissa Erbacher: Emma Wiggle. Emma Wiggle. No worries. Well, how about I'll share that pic on the Facebook page, on the parkrun Adventurers Facebook page. And why don't we invite everybody to share their best pics of their junior parkrun adventurers in their fave costumes at parkrun.

00:14:11Scott Trickett: Good idea.

00:14:13Melissa Erbacher: I just thought of it.

00:14:15Scott Trickett: Okay, so if you're going to send those pictures in through Facebook or Instagram, how about we go with a new hashtag? Junior Adventurers.

00:14:25Melissa Erbacher: Yes, we want to see that lighting up the social media this week. Junior Adventurers.

Event Director interview (Miriam Tan, Dubbo parkrun)

00:14:35Scott Trickett: It's time to catch up with another event director, who is also a new Territory Director, probably the youngest we've got in parkrun Australia. Welcome to the podcast, Miriam Tan from Dubbo.

00:14:49Miriam Tan: Hi Mel, hi Scott, thanks for having me.

00:14:51Scott Trickett: Thanks for joining us. Dubbo is quite a remote part of Australia. Where is your next closest parkrun?

00:15:00Miriam Tan: So our next closest parkrun is about three and a half hours away. So Lawson in the Blue Mountains or Singleton in the Hunter Valley and Tamworth, which is also country New South Wales, but still three and a half hours away. So it's a bit harder to... to tourists around.

00:15:22Scott Trickett: So as a territory director, you must be working on building your territory.

00:15:27Miriam Tan: I am indeed. I'm not sure whether I'm allowed to tell everyone what I'm building on at the moment. But it's all very exciting. Because like I was saying, we're three and a half hours from another parkrun. So parkrun in rural and remote communities is, in my experience, has been such a wonderful thing for the community. Gets people together, gets people moving. It's a free event, so hopefully in the next couple of months, next couple of years, we can start to build on a few more rural New South Wales parkruns.

00:16:01Melissa Erbacher: Okay, Miriam, I'm a little bit geographically challenged, so I'm actually looking at Dubbo on Google Maps at the moment, and I see you've got a town not far from you called Dunedoo. Now, I think that would make a great parkrun name. So if that one's not in the pipeline, I think maybe you need to get some people onto it. What do you reckon? So if I may, it's called Dunnydoo.

00:16:29Miriam Tan: Oh, Dunnydoo, that's even better. Nicknamed as Runnypoo, some people like to call it. It's actually known because, you know, Dunnydoo is a bit of play on words. It's known as quite a toilet stop town, I guess.

00:16:47Melissa Erbacher: On the way to somewhere else, you mean?

00:16:49Miriam Tan: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So it's about 45 minutes to an hour from Dubbo. But we'll see, we'll see.

00:16:59Melissa Erbacher: I think that sounds like that's one of the places already, Scotty. What do you think?

00:17:02Scott Trickett: Dunnydoo.

00:17:04Melissa Erbacher: Dunnydoo.

00:17:04Scott Trickett: Yeah, maybe.

00:17:06Melissa Erbacher: Are you the founding event director at Dubbo then, Miriam?

00:17:09Miriam Tan: Yes, I am. So we launched in July last year.

00:17:16Melissa Erbacher: And what was your first experience with parkrun? Had you been to another parkrun somewhere else yourself or how did you hear about it?

00:17:25Miriam Tan: Yeah, I was studying uni in Newcastle, so I just moved to Merewether, which is a suburb in Newcastle. I was living one block from the beach and I thought, I'm so lucky, I'm so close to the beach, I really want to sort of utilise and take advantage of this beautiful scenery. I've always sort of been quite active but not... in a sense, a runner, I guess. And I started walking and jogging along the boardwalk there. And I just wanted to push myself a little bit more, I think. And I heard a friend mention parkrun, a free 5K event that was on in Carrington. So that's Newy parkrun. And I went along to my first one and Saturday morning hasn't been the same since, I guess. I moved to Tamworth then a couple of months later. And luckily enough, a lady named Heather Hunter had also contacted parkrun Australia and together we set up Tamworth parkrun. And then a couple of months later, I moved to Dubbo for work as my first job out of uni. And seeing how well Tamworth impacted, you know, how much it impacted the community, I thought, hey, why not? I'll start up a parkrun. So that's my parkrun story, I guess. And in Dubbo, everyone's embraced it. It's been, you know, different ages, different shapes, different sizes, different abilities. It's just fantastic. Everyone getting into it every week. It's great.

00:18:55Scott Trickett: It's been wildly successful. Your numbers are fantastic.

00:18:59Miriam Tan: Yeah, beyond my wildest dreams, you know. So we get about 300 each week, which we've got about 2,000 registrations, so it's about 5% of the Dubbo population. But just looking at – and numbers are definitely not a – a measure of how successful an event is. But just looking at different towns, similar size to us, we seem to be going quite well. So Dubbo's definitely embraced the parkrun spirit. I can remember when I first moved here, no one knew about parkrun or anything, and you think, oh, to try and convince everybody how amazing this concept is. But... Yeah, we've got 38 events under our belt, so I'm excited what the next year will bring for Dubbo parkrun.

00:19:50Melissa Erbacher: Can you give us a little bit of a course description?

00:19:54Miriam Tan: I can. It's not in the zoo. That's a question that I get asked all the time. That would be the Dubbo Stampede. That's the running festival we have in August. But Dubbo parkrun is out and back course and it's along the beautiful Macquarie River. So it's mostly cement, some gravel, about 500 metres of gravel and about 50 metres of grass. Actually, it's more bindis at the finish. But it's mostly flat. There is a little bit of a hill about halfway through, but what comes up must come down. And there's sort of two bridges on the path as well. There's a little bit of a hill ramp to sort of get back up there. But the great thing about it is because it's in the park, you don't see any buildings or any – I guess city life, it's just you, it's just nature. It's you running with your friends, walking with your friends, friends and family. So even on a clear day, you can see sort of the entrance to the zoo and some cattle and some kangaroos and beautiful, beautiful things like that.

00:21:06Scott Trickett: And you're also famous for some chalk drawings. And we had Easter on the weekend and you went crazy, outdid yourselves with the chalk drawings.

00:21:14Miriam Tan: Yeah, we are. We're lucky we've got a very creative family. One of them is actually a tattoo artist as well. So whenever we have a special event like Christmas or Easter or Australia Day or something like that, Valentine's Day, it's pretty special. The family, the Doug family, Debbie Aldous. They're the main ones that get involved and sort of get quite creative. And there's a lot of planning involved and making sure you've got enough chalk. And it's just beautiful. I guess it keeps you distracted a little bit. But because we live in rural New South Wales, not much rain, it obviously it does stay there for a while so people can enjoy it all week and for a couple of parkruns after that. So we're very lucky.

00:22:06Melissa Erbacher: So you said one of them's a tattoo artist and there are quite a few parkrunners out there who love parkrun to the level where they want it inked on their person someplace. Does he give discounts to parkrunners?

00:22:21Miriam Tan: Oh, I'm not sure. I wonder if we can tattoo someone's barcode on and see if that would work.

00:22:28Melissa Erbacher: You might have trouble finding a test subject for that one.

00:22:33Scott Trickett: I don't reckon you would.

00:22:36Melissa Erbacher: What if somebody else's barcode got tattooed onto you?

00:22:39Scott Trickett: Yeah. Well, it doesn't have to be the barcode. What about just the logo or the tree?

00:22:43Miriam Tan: I think I've seen a tree on an ankle before.

00:22:46Melissa Erbacher: Yes, there's definitely a tree on an ankle out in the world.

00:22:49Miriam Tan: Yes, in Sydney perhaps, I think.

00:22:53Scott Trickett: Maybe the parkrun Adventurers logo? Bring it out there?

00:22:57Miriam Tan: Yeah. We'll stick to cement for now, I think.

00:23:03Scott Trickett: Have you had anyone famous come through Dubbo parkrun?

00:23:07Miriam Tan: I think probably a highlight for me was when Youcef Abdi came out to visit Dubbo a couple of months ago. So Yusuf is a 3,000 metre steeplechase Olympic athlete. He works along with New South Wales Athletics. So he came and did our parkrun and slaughtered our record. It's 15 minutes 48 or something now. So it was good just chatting with him and he stayed and had a chat to a lot of the parkrunners afterwards. And we've got in a couple of weeks Yusuf and Scott Westcott, who is the parkrun Australia record holder team. and has qualified for the marathon for the Rio Olympics, are coming out to Dubbo parkrun. So it'll be a bit of a showdown, I think, to see who can run the fastest. But it's just great having those high-profile athletes, I guess, come to parkrun, which is such an inclusive and community-based event.

00:24:11Melissa Erbacher: I hope they both remember their barcodes. Yeah, me too. Yeah.

00:24:17Scott Trickett: A new Australian record at W in a couple of weeks' time. We're looking out for it.

00:24:21Anne Ferguson: That's, yeah.

00:24:24Scott Trickett: And what's your running story, Miriam? Do you come from a running background?

00:24:29Miriam Tan: I've always been quite active with dancing, netball, touch football, attending group classes and things like that, but not so much a runner. But parkrun definitely has turned me into a runner. I guess I've done... um two half marathons now and have started a little bit of training um we're lucky in dubbo we have a um world class athletics track here so we have access to that um and we've started a little bit of um training there which is really good we started doing track run as well i'm not sure whether you guys have heard of track run it's essentially started as parkrun on a track but we've sort of partnered with Athletics New South Wales and not necessarily 5Ks on a track, but we'll do, you know, a 2.4K time trial or 800 metres or something like that just to get people used to being on a track. And I know myself personally, I wasn't in little athletics or anything like that, but being on the track is actually pretty cool and it pushes you a bit further, I think. It's got good traction and... I guess it makes you a little bit more aware of your pacing and things like that.

00:25:45Celeste: So, yeah, that's my running story.

00:25:48Miriam Tan: I went to Stockton last weekend and did seven seconds off my PB, so I was pretty chuffed about that.

00:25:59Melissa Erbacher: Your overall PB or your just PB for Stockton parkruns?

00:26:02Miriam Tan: My overall PB. So my overall PB was at Albert Melbourne parkruns. last year very flat course as you probably know and my yeah i don't know what i was on that day i smashed my normal run time by about three minutes wow that sounds like a really lot of wasted personal bests yeah exactly so um You need to rein it in.

00:26:33Melissa Erbacher: I do.

00:26:34Miriam Tan: I do. And I will be back at Albert Melbourne in May, which would be good. It would be good to run on that course again and see how I go.

00:26:42Scott Trickett: You know, there's another course close by in Melbourne. Very close.

00:26:50Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, you might not have ever heard of it because we don't talk about it much on the podcast. Yeah.

00:26:58Scott Trickett: We love Albert, but you've done Albert. Come and visit us at Studley, or if you like flat, go to Maribyrnong.

00:27:04Miriam Tan: Is Studley flat?

00:27:05Scott Trickett: No. But Maribyrnong is.

00:27:09Miriam Tan: Well, I'm staying in the CBD, so it's whichever one I can. I've got a conference on that day, so I've got to quickly duck out, do parkrun, have breakfast, and quickly make it to the conference. Oh, great.

00:27:24Scott Trickett: We'll see you at Studley then.

00:27:25Melissa Erbacher: All right. Sounds good. So it sounds like you've done quite a bit of adventuring. How many different parkruns have you done so far, Miriam?

00:27:34Miriam Tan: Oh, I'm not sure. Whether it's about 15 different ones maybe. And I can remember when you were mentioning that you haven't done an overseas one. I went to Singapore parkrun last year, so that was pretty special for me. My dad lives over there, so I went to visit him and, of course, had to do it on a Saturday. Very, very humid. I guess Dubbo's more that dry heat. And I met some great people, though, mostly from Australia or the UK. But that was probably a highlight for me. Yeah, I've done a few in Brisbane. Albert Melbourne in Melbourne, St. Peter's, most of the Newcastle ones. I think they're a bit spoilt in Newcastle. I've got a few there. But, yeah, because I'm in Dubbo, I guess it's whenever I've got a trip away or something like that, I try to sneak in a parkrun somewhere in there. That's the way to do it.

00:28:36Scott Trickett: Yeah, that sounds like quite an adventurer. You tick that box, 15 different parkruns.

00:28:42Melissa Erbacher: Something like that, I think, yeah. Thanks again, Miriam. Thanks, Miriam. See you. Bye. Bye.

Facts in a Haystack

00:28:54Scott Trickett: It's time to talk stats again with our stats man, Ian Hay. Welcome, Ian. Hey, Scott. How are you doing? Great. Couldn't be better. We've been talking juniors at the top of the program. So we're hoping you've got some junior stats for us this week.

00:29:12Ian Hay: What a coincidence. I've got only junior stats this week, so I've got lots to go over.

00:29:16Scott Trickett: It's amazing how that works.

00:29:19Ian Hay: It's awesome, isn't it?

00:29:20Scott Trickett: It's serendipitous. That's right.

00:29:24Ian Hay: So I'm going to start out with just some generic stats that I've just pulled out of the database here. I've looked at this week. How many, I've just basically been looking at how many juniors we've got attending parkrun in comparison to adults. So I went back over the last year or so, and it's interesting. It sits around the 12 to 13% of runners are juniors, and that's pretty much across the board. For some reason this week, we've bumped it all the way up to 16% of runners. Now, to put that in context of numbers, that's 3,800 juniors out of 23,000 runners this weekend. Now, that's up by about 700 from our normal, so I have no idea why this weekend was a bit busier. It wasn't the same last year around Easter as well, so I don't know if it's Easter, but that's quite a big jump.

00:30:14Melissa Erbacher: Do you think it might be proportionate to an increase from last year, depending on, I mean, obviously there were fewer runners at the same time last year.

00:30:25Ian Hay: It's percentage-based, so I didn't expect it to be too much of a difference. It's sat quite nicely around the 12% to 13% month in, month out, and it hasn't really moved. And it's sat around 13% quite nicely, and that's just this massive jump to 16% in one week. So it's quite strange.

00:30:43Melissa Erbacher: Possibly the event teams out there are doing more Easter egg hunts and offering more chocolate this year.

00:30:49Ian Hay: That's right. And I do see a lot of event teams out there pushing the getting a lot of kids out, helping out with volunteer positions and just encouraging more families to get out as well. Now, the other interesting thing, too, I just went and grabbed a couple of specific events, too. So it looks like I actually found this interesting, too. Tamborine Mountain had the highest percentage of juniors. So they had 11 juniors and 25 adults. So it was 30% of juniors. And being more of a trial run, I was expecting that to be less, to be honest.

00:31:23Melissa Erbacher: There might be more families travelling to Tambourine now. Yeah, that's a good point.

00:31:29Ian Hay: The other one is Shellharbour. So that was the highest number of juniors. They had 77 juniors and 239 adults. So they were about 24%. But, yeah, a massive number of juniors. So big family. That sounds like a big family parkrun.

00:31:45Melissa Erbacher: That's great. I love hearing about lots of juniors getting involved. 77, that is a massive number though.

00:31:52Ian Hay: It is, isn't it? It is. The other one that I did want to look at was our 50 and our 100 clubs as well. So I was just curious to see how many. Obviously juniors, they're a bit younger and may not run as much. And I also looked at the under 10s as well because that's even harder for them to hit the 50, 100 clubs, I guess. So I looked at all of the juniors. We've got 18 in the 100 club and over. We've got one junior sitting at 181 runs. The next one, 166. So that's massive. That's really cool to see. The other one we've got is, yeah, we've got 300. So 328 in the 50 club and over. So that's 18 in the 100 club and over, and then 328 in the 50 club and over. So it's, yeah, a huge number of juniors. But just to break it down a little bit further, we've got just the junior 10s. So that's the 10s and under. We've got seven in the 100 club and over and 99 in the 50 club and over. So we're sitting right on just about at 100 in the 50 club and over for junior teams.

00:32:53Scott Trickett: That's great. That's higher than I thought it would have been.

00:32:57Ian Hay: It was for me too. I didn't expect it to be that high, to be honest.

00:33:00Scott Trickett: Yeah, because we've talked a little bit about my daughter who's on 47. And it's been a journey. It's been a struggle at times to get her to love parkrun. Yeah.

00:33:13Ian Hay: I've got a six-year-old, so I know exactly what that can be like sometimes. It goes up and down.

00:33:20Melissa Erbacher: Well, I imagine five kilometres is a long distance when it's very close to the same amount of years you are in age.

00:33:27Ian Hay: Most definitely.

00:33:28Melissa Erbacher: I know if I ran the amount of kilometres that's close to my age, I'd be tired too.

00:33:34Ian Hay: I'm not going to comment there, Mel. That's range of territory. Okay, so moving on very, very quickly. And the next segment I've got here is what I've called Battle of the Ages. So what I've done is I've come up with three categories for parkrun on Saturday just gone. The three categories I've chosen are volunteers, first-timers, and PBs. So what I've done is I've compared the percentage of adults and the percentage of juniors in each of those three categories. And we'll see who comes out on top. I like this.

Battle of the Ages

00:34:10Scott Trickett: Can we guess?

00:34:12Ian Hay: You can take a guess if you like. So for volunteers, what percentage-wise, who do you think would come out on top, adults or juniors?

00:34:20Scott Trickett: The adults have got that one.

00:34:22Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, but there were a lot of junior parkrunners, like actual junior parkrun events this weekend as well. So it might not be as big a gap as normal, if that makes sense.

00:34:35Ian Hay: Yep. So just to be specific, I probably should be more specific around volunteers. The stats that I've got are a little bit complicated to get volunteers per se. So these are actually of all the parkrunners who have ran, those who have volunteered ever. So I can't get who volunteered this weekend, but I can get who regularly volunteers. So they come along and run, and they also give back and volunteer as much as they can. Within the adults, we've got 38% of the adults who ran, so 7,400 of them have volunteered at some point, which is massive. I love that number. That's so cool. And the juniors come in at 20%, so they've got 800. So, yeah, adults did come in on top on that one.

00:35:19Scott Trickett: That kind of makes sense. It does. Because it is hard for a junior to volunteer sometimes.

00:35:24Ian Hay: It's much harder for the juniors to volunteer.

00:35:26Scott Trickett: Yeah, without adult help.

00:35:29Ian Hay: And that's why I was still impressed with that number for juniors. That is really high because you're right, it is a harder thing for them to do.

00:35:35Melissa Erbacher: And actually, I mean, I know you said that you think 38% or 7,400 of the runners who've ever run have also volunteered. I think that's actually pretty pathetic.

00:35:48Ian Hay: Yep, there's another 62% who have never volunteered and run.

00:35:52Melissa Erbacher: And I'm assuming that's only volunteered even ever once. That's right. So it sounds to me like there's a lot of people out there that need to pick up their game.

00:36:00Scott Trickett: I'm kind of with you, Mel. When Ian said 38%, all I heard was 62%.

00:36:05Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, 62% never.

00:36:07Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:36:08Ian Hay: And that's 62% that's missing out on volunteering. Seriously, I absolutely love volunteering. There's so much fun to it.

00:36:15Scott Trickett: I don't get it.

00:36:16Ian Hay: Everyone's got to do it. Yeah. so let's go on to first timers who do you think would take out the first timers for this weekend ooh that one might be a much closer battle of the ages well I'm going to go with adults because we had a campaign down here in Melbourne to find your motivation get some first timers down so I'm going to go with adults there were some big numbers in Victoria so with first timers most definitely

00:36:49Scott Trickett: It worked.

00:36:53Ian Hay: So adults came in at 17%. So 17% of that 23,000 were adults, were first-timers.

00:37:03Melissa Erbacher: Okay. Does that mean that by and large it was juniors that were more first-timers?

00:37:08Ian Hay: 28% for juniors. They took that out by a long shot. Wow.

00:37:12Melissa Erbacher: Massive.

00:37:13Ian Hay: So yes, one age. Very, very well. So the last one in our battle of the ages is the PBs, so the decider. Who got the most amount of PBs this weekend? What do you guys reckon?

00:37:28Melissa Erbacher: See, that's another hard one because a lot of juniors, their PBs depend on whether or not their parents can keep up with them. And so they've got a handicap, as it were. I would say probably adults for that one.

00:37:44Scott Trickett: Well, I'll go with kids because kids can't control themselves. Just to be contrary. Yeah, well, someone's got to win.

00:37:51Melissa Erbacher: Oh, you're so competitive.

00:37:55Ian Hay: Okay, let's see who wins this one. Juniors got 25% of the juniors had PBs. So a quarter of them had PBs this week.

00:38:04Scott Trickett: That's pretty high.

00:38:05Ian Hay: That is very high. Can the adults take it? They were 19%. Juniors had it.

00:38:12Melissa Erbacher: I'm back to the wrong horse every time.

00:38:15Scott Trickett: It was close.

00:38:18Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, it was closer between the two.

00:38:23Scott Trickett: And I'd say that's a pretty high number too, 20% of 19. That's a lot of PBs. Yeah, what do you reckon that is? Good running conditions at the moment, good weather-wise?

00:38:32Ian Hay: I know up here in Brisbane it was certainly cooler. It was still warm, but it's been cooler than it has been, so that helps.

00:38:39Scott Trickett: Who knows? Chocolate-fuelled, maybe? Everyone got stuck in the eggs on Good Friday.

00:38:44Melissa Erbacher: A day early, two days early, before Mr Bunny arrives or Mrs Bunny.

00:38:50Scott Trickett: That's right. Who would do that?

00:38:55Ian Hay: All those parties on Friday night, there's no drinking or anything that makes it worse. Just Easter eggs.

00:39:01Melissa Erbacher: You were mentioning earlier, Ian, as well, about juniors in the Milestone Club. So there's the 50 Club, the 10 Club, the 100 Club. But we're adventurers on this show. So I'm actually interested to know about how many juniors are in the most events list in Australia.

00:39:20Ian Hay: I think that would be an awesome one to look at. Once again, it's harder for juniors to get around to more parkruns. It depends on the parents taking them around.

00:39:30Melissa Erbacher: It is. Do you think that's something you could find out for us for future episodes?

00:39:34Ian Hay: Most definitely. I'll include that for next month.

00:39:38Scott Trickett: Great. Already looking forward to it. Thanks, Ian. Thanks for coming on for our Facts in a Haystack. Still our favourite segment.

00:39:47Melissa Erbacher: Yes, always love having you.

00:39:49Ian Hay: Good to hear. Thanks, guys.

Roving Report — Mount Barker parkrun 2nd anniversary (PK)

00:39:59Melissa Erbacher: And our number one parkrun Adventurers fan, underscore PK, also known in the real world as PK, was out doing some roving adventuring for us at Mount Barker parkrun this weekend.

00:40:12Paul Kitching: G'day there, this is PK or underscore PK, doing a bit of roving reporting for the parkrun Adventurers podcast. Today we are in Mount Barker for the Mount Barker parkrun's second birthday. Going to chat to a few different people and we'll start with Anne Ferguson, who's the mayor of Mount Barker. Anne, I believe you were here at the very first Mount Barker parkrun.

00:40:35Anne Ferguson: Yes, I was. And that was an act of faith on behalf of those that were running it. And it's interesting to see the demographics of the people change. But the spontaneity and the interest is just so much heightened. It's great.

00:40:52Paul Kitching: Fantastic. Thanks so much, Anne. We're going to chat to a few more people now. I'm here now with a fellow Derek Zoolander running group member. G'day Scott. How you going? Good mate. So mate, pulling any Z's today?

00:41:05Scott: Only a little one, a sneaky little Z on the second camera today, so hopefully it gets picked up and it's a half decent one.

00:41:11Paul Kitching: Awesome mate. Yeah, and we need to perfect that jump as well, and the look. It's a hard trifecta, isn't it?

00:41:17Scott: I think there's a bit of design that needs to go into the t-shirts, and then we'll We'll be sent for the Mount Barker Zoolander, and we'll build the team up to as high as we can.

00:41:25Paul Kitching: Good on you. Thanks, mate. And happy birthday, Mount Barker parkrun.

00:41:28Scott: Yeah, happy birthday to them all, and thanks, Roger and Ros.

00:41:32Paul Kitching: And I'm here now with John Laurie. John is the State Director? Territory. Territory Director. I knew I'd get that wrong. Territory Director for South Australia. Thanks so much for being here, John. You obviously love what you do, and we've got some great parkruns in South Australia.

00:41:47John Laurie: Yeah, absolutely. No, it's a great community that... that gets around parkrun, which is fantastic.

00:41:54Paul Kitching: I believe there are some other parkruns, well, there's another one coming soon to South Australia?

00:41:58John Laurie: That's right. We're heading up to Clare on Monday for their first trial, and that's launching on the 23rd of April.

00:42:05Paul Kitching: Fantastic. See, it's a great community, as you say, and it's really, really good that you're here with us today. Thanks so much for helping us all enjoy what we do on a Saturday morning. It's an absolute pleasure. Thanks, John. Cheers. G'day. I'm here now with Gary. Gary's the reason I got into parkrun. Thank you, Gary. Gaz, how did you get into parkrun?

00:42:26Gary ("Gaz"): Well, Paul, nice to say hello to the parkrun tourists. I got into parkrun via photography. I got asked to photograph for one week when the regular photographer was away. And one week led to two weeks, led to three weeks. And then I think I'm now around about the 40, 50 times volunteering on the photography role.

00:42:46Paul Kitching: So you started off just as a volunteer. You weren't a runner or walker at all, but I believe that you've got into it.

00:42:52Gary ("Gaz"): Yes, through watching all the folks here running each week. Yeah, and through other things I've got planned, I've now got into running. So I'm now running five, six times a week. And occasionally when I'm not taking the pictures here, I do run the parkrun. Fantastic. And not only running it, also pulling in a sub-30 PB recently. Yes, last week was 27 minutes 12, which I'm quite amazed by, considering that I've only been running now for like three, four months. So, yeah, I'm really, really happy with that.

00:43:25Paul Kitching: Look, Gary's one of the fantastic volunteers here at Mount Barker parkrun, and I know all the parkruns around the world are run on volunteers, and we thank you, Gaz, for helping us out and getting other people involved, and I want to thank Gary on behalf of all the newbies for that person that says, hey, you should give it a go, or they inspire you through your photos on Facebook. Thanks.

00:43:46Gary ("Gaz"): No worries, Paul, and just like I say, everyone out there, just keep running. It keeps you fit, and it's very good for you, so good luck to all the new runners. Nice one. That's it.

00:43:55Paul Kitching: Peace and out from Mount Barker parkrun.

00:43:58Scott Trickett: Nice work, PK. He got around, got a few interviews. Well done. Good to hear John Laurie. We're going to have him on the show soon, I think. I think he's due to come on.

00:44:07Melissa Erbacher: Long overdue, in fact.

00:44:10Scott Trickett: Also on Instagram this week, we went international again with Dr Nick. He was at Swindon Lydiard Park. Have I got that right?

00:44:22Melissa Erbacher: They're in the UK. They're probably not going to be listening anyway, Scotty. I'd go with it.

00:44:27Scott Trickett: What do you mean they're not listening?

00:44:30Melissa Erbacher: Well, certainly Dr. Nick is listening, but I'm pretty sure she went to Lyddiard Park, parkrun. Yeah, they're probably not tuning in as avidly as many are.

00:44:41Scott Trickett: Well, anyway, Dr. Nick was there for the first Junior parkrun experience with the nephews. They had a lot of fun, but it was freezing. Well, that's a UK for you. What do you expect?

00:44:53Melissa Erbacher: Run Joe Run was on a road trip this week. They took advantage of day off on Friday to travel four plus hours to Bairnsdale with Oscar the Hound. And on the way, we were coming up with ideas for Easter costumes and settled on a challenge to answer the question, which came first, the chicken or the egg? And they followed this up with one of them got dressed up with chickens and the other one got dressed up with eggs. And happy to say the chicken beat the egg this time, but there are plans for a rematch next Easter. That sounds like a bit of fun. Maybe we should roll that out at parkruns across the country.

00:45:30Scott Trickett: Every second person dresses up as a chicken or an egg?

00:45:33Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. Yeah. And then they race it out to see who comes first.

00:45:38Scott Trickett: Well, that will solve the debate, no doubt.

00:45:41Melissa Erbacher: Or it will split it 50-50, depending on who's faster.

00:45:46Ian Hay: Who knows?

00:45:48Scott Trickett: Recreating Mel was back on Instagram. She did some parkrun adventures with her family and they visited the very flat Lilydale Lake parkrun where, surprise, surprise, she got a PB. So big congratulations to Mel.

00:46:04Melissa Erbacher: Finding my balance was out there. Cracking 69th parkrun at Nambour parkrun this morning. It was so much cooler but a tough one at the same time. So it sounds like finding my balance has been there before and came back for seconds. That's pretty cool.

00:46:20Scott Trickett: Another doctor, Dr. Scott Watkins. He enjoyed the amazing view at Shell Harbour. Trails and Ales mentioned that it was great to help out as guest run director at Gels parkrun. It was his first volunteering stint. And the great thing about parkrun is that it's the same everywhere. So volunteers and runners know what to expect. So thanks, Mac, for the help out of Gels. And good luck with the blog called Trails and Ales. Worth a read if you like trails and ales.

00:46:57Melissa Erbacher: You'll probably get quite a few listeners onto that one or reading it at any rate. Matty Trent was on his way home from Manjimup parkrun's second anniversary on parkrun Day this week and said it was time to catch up on some podcasts. He shared a little picture of the dashboard of his car and I was fairly impressed because I'm technologically challenged. It had parkrun Adventurers on the dashboard of his car. It is. I need to get a car that's capable of doing that.

00:47:32Scott Trickett: And it was nice to see Liv Coop, who you may remember from our first episode, on Facebook. She and her husband introduced their nephews to parkrun when they visited Varsity Lakes for the first time. Commented that it was a great course, mostly flat, pretty hot along the back part of the course, but I think it would have been the same anywhere in southeast Queensland on Saturday. Is that true, Mel? Was it hot up there?

00:48:02Melissa Erbacher: It's not hot if you're volunteering because you get to stand in the shade and the breezes.

00:48:06Scott Trickett: You're having a dig at the live. I think she pulls her weight.

00:48:09Melissa Erbacher: No, I'm not having a dig at the live at all. What I'm saying is on Saturday morning I wasn't hot because I was standing around in the shade quite leisurely enjoying a volunteer instead of a run. The runners did report that it was quite warm.

00:48:28Scott Trickett: Liv also sent a special thanks to RD Rene, who was super friendly and welcoming out at Varsity Lakes. You mentioned Liz Moore is launching this week. We also have Kedron. Is that right? Kedron? Kedron. Kedron.

00:48:46Melissa Erbacher: Kedron. That's not a difficult one to pronounce, Scotty. It's got six letters in it.

00:48:56Scott Trickett: I managed to bugger it up. So what is it? Kedron.

00:48:59Melissa Erbacher: Kedron.

00:49:00Scott Trickett: Kedron. Is that in your territory?

00:49:03Melissa Erbacher: It is not. It's northeastern suburbs of... No, no, no, no. Hold on. Let's just say it's... Is it in Brisbane? It's northern suburbs of Brisbane.

00:49:15Scott Trickett: Okay, so it's a city run. Maybe.

00:49:18Melissa Erbacher: Eh, it's a suburban city run.

00:49:22Scott Trickett: Well, you know what? I want someone to go to the launch on Saturday and send us a roving report.

00:49:30Melissa Erbacher: Oh, look, I'm sure this one's going to be very popular. All the events in that general area have been massive. So, yeah, I understand it's going to be a great one.

00:49:40Scott Trickett: And where's the cake on Saturday? We've got two anniversaries to enjoy. Well done, Taralgon. I've got to say, a very successful year at Taralgon. Their numbers are crazy. I think they're going to get another parkrun in that town, so well done. And Main Beach, might have heard of it.

00:50:01Melissa Erbacher: In Queensland.

00:50:02Scott Trickett: Yeah. They're celebrating their fifth.

00:50:05Melissa Erbacher: And everybody should be celebrating Main Beach's fifth, wherever you are in Australia, because it's the birthplace of parkrun in Australia. So that's pretty special too. What a fun episode. I loved having all the junior adventurers on the show this week, Scotty. I think we need to do more of that in the future.

00:50:25Scott Trickett: Get the kids on.

00:50:27Melissa Erbacher: Yep.

00:50:28Scott Trickett: I also enjoyed catching up with Miriam and Ian. Ian's always fun.

00:50:32Melissa Erbacher: Oh, well, they're just big kids really, aren't they? It's what the podcast is all about. Big kids having big adventures.

00:50:38Scott Trickett: We're going to have the biggest kid in parkrun Australia on the podcast next week. Tim's coming on, so we need your questions. Send them in via the usual channels. If you've forgotten what those usual channels are, I'll remind you, Facebook messaging works really well. It's pretty easy. Emailing also works well. Try parkrunadventurers at gmail.com.

00:51:02Melissa Erbacher: And if you're out there having an adventure this week, why don't you tell a fellow adventurer about the podcast? Get the word out. Share with your friends.

00:51:14Scott Trickett: Come back next week. See you, everyone.

00:51:15[music]

00:51:33Kasia Trickett: time to catch up with some of the families that were at parkrun today. Why were you born with snowflakes on your back? Because I like snowflakes. Did you have fun at parkrun just sitting in the car? Not exactly. Was it cold? No, no, no. It was so warm. Why do you think I came up with the name Twinkles for you? Because I have twinkly eyes. Thank you for being in the parkrun Adventures podcast. Twinkles. Bye.

00:52:13Unidentified speaker: Bye. Bye.