Episode 14 - Brendan Murray

Episode details · 219 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:01Scott Trickett: Are you ready, Mel?

00:00:03Melissa Erbacher: Ready for what, Scotty?

00:00:04Scott Trickett: Another parkrun Adventure podcast.

00:00:07Melissa Erbacher: I'm always ready for the podcast. It's the funnest, funnest time of the week.

00:00:12[music]

00:00:12Scott Trickett: Okay, here we go. Welcome to the parkrun Adventurers podcast. My name is Scott.

00:00:25Melissa Erbacher: My name is Mel.

00:00:27Scott Trickett: And we are here to bring joy, laughter...

00:00:30Melissa Erbacher: Adventures.

00:00:32Scott Trickett: Information.

00:00:35Melissa Erbacher: Not always accurate. It's, yeah, rarely accurate, actually.

00:00:41Scott Trickett: But hopefully we're filling a gap in your week.

00:00:44Melissa Erbacher: I would go so far as to say we are the poets of podcasting. It's all very subjective, what we say.

00:00:52Scott Trickett: Yep, self-appointed poets of podcast. That's who we are. parkrun turned five on the weekend, so parkrun Australia's been around for five years.

00:01:03Melissa Erbacher: Happy anniversary, parkrun Australia. That's amazeballs. Can you remember your fifth birthday, Scotty?

00:01:11Scott Trickett: Let me think. No.

00:01:13Melissa Erbacher: You can't?

00:01:14Scott Trickett: No.

00:01:15Melissa Erbacher: Wow. It was a long time ago. I'm sure it wasn't as long as you think it was.

00:01:23Scott Trickett: Can you remember yours?

00:01:25Melissa Erbacher: I'm pretty sure, I could be confusing it with my eighth birthday, but I'm pretty sure my mum took me to see Benji at the cinema. You know, the dog, Benji.

00:01:37Scott Trickett: I think that was your eighth. I'll tell you what, I'll make it easier. Can you remember your first parkrun?

00:01:45Melissa Erbacher: Yes, I can. Had to think about it there for a minute, but I can remember my first parkrun.

00:01:51Scott Trickett: Do you have any idea what you're getting yourself in for?

00:01:56Melissa Erbacher: Not a clue.

00:01:58Scott Trickett: Were you nervous?

00:02:02Melissa Erbacher: I don't think I was nervous. Because I went to the second event at my local, at my home parkrun, I had feedback from friends who'd been to the first and had kind of given me a rundown. So I don't think nerves was one of the things that I was experiencing. I was looking forward to it. I was really...

00:02:26Scott Trickett: interested to see how it was all going to go and how it would work because even though somebody explains to you tokens and barcodes and things like that you you still you know really need to experience it to understand it properly you know what memories i've got from my first time at parkrun it's not my first run as such i was as you know i was starting out westerfolds with a very little experience about parkrun so i looked up my closest one which was highlands and the north here in Melbourne, and I contacted them and said, I'll come along and help you volunteer. They said, great. And when I got there in the morning, the volunteer team consisted of Sue, the event director. Sue was timekeeper, scanner, tokens, everything.

00:03:14Melissa Erbacher: Wow, so did you think, is this how all the events operate?

00:03:20Scott Trickett: I kind of did for a while. So I helped Sue out. I think I was on the timekeeping. And the best thing was it looked really easy. So I thought, this is easy. I can do this.

00:03:34Melissa Erbacher: As in, this is easy. I can run my own event.

00:03:37Scott Trickett: Yeah. Yeah, because if we could do it with two people. Okay, admittedly, the numbers weren't massive. But the principles are still there.

00:03:46Melissa Erbacher: I'm intrigued that you didn't. think oh my god what have i got myself in for when you showed up and there was just one person trying effectively to do all the roles um she must she must have you know carried it really well well you know what it was because when i started out parkrun just wasn't a thing here in melbourne so i didn't know about it it's almost like it was just starting out it was at albert park

00:04:15Scott Trickett: They'd been going for a while, but still the numbers weren't big at Albert.

00:04:19Melissa Erbacher: You didn't have the expectations there or the experience of what an event typically looks like now.

00:04:28Scott Trickett: No. No, it's very different. And it's something I do try and remember when I'm bringing in new event directors. And I like to keep things simple and remind them of this because parkrunning is getting big. And every event wants to be the biggest. We need to keep it simple. And you know what happened at Albert Park on the weekend? Speaking of keeping it simple.

00:04:58Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well they had to go back to the basics, didn't they?

00:05:01Scott Trickett: They did. And again, it's a nice reminder about it's just a run in the park and it's put on by volunteers. So if you weren't familiar, Albert Park were faced with starting their event with no equipment on Saturday. 300 runners. What would you do, Mel?

00:05:21Melissa Erbacher: 300 runners, no stopwatch, no barcode scanner. All the volunteers still there showing up for, you know, doing their actual roles, but no technology to To do it.

00:05:35Scott Trickett: You'd panic a little bit, wouldn't you?

00:05:37Melissa Erbacher: Yes. Yeah. I haven't had to experience that from the get-go. I mean, things go wrong during parkrun where either the stopwatch stops working or you lose tokens and things like that. Those sorts of issues, one element of a bigger picture. But to not have anything, I like to think I would have handled it as well as they did.

00:06:02Scott Trickett: They used an iPhone, some post-it notes and lots of photos and they got through it, which is a remarkable effort.

00:06:11Melissa Erbacher: Given the numbers that they have at Albert Park as well.

00:06:14Scott Trickett: They're a very clever team, very resourceful, so well done. But it can be done.

00:06:20Melissa Erbacher: It's that simple model.

00:06:22Scott Trickett: I enjoyed the simple pleasures of running on the weekend as well. I didn't get a run at parkrun. I was volunteering, which I was very happy to do. But on Sunday, I broke all my rules that I've stated on this podcast as well. And I had a solo run. I ran by myself.

00:06:40Melissa Erbacher: Wow. So on purpose or did everybody just bail on you at the last minute?

00:06:46Scott Trickett: A little bit of that. I've got to say I really enjoyed it.

00:06:49Melissa Erbacher: Okay. So you said you broke all your rules. So first rule is you prefer to run with other people. What's another rule that you broke?

00:06:58Scott Trickett: I put my headphones in. Loaded up some beats on my phone. I really enjoyed it.

00:07:06Melissa Erbacher: Rude and disrespectful to all those people that you weren't running with.

00:07:09Scott Trickett: I was running at 7 o'clock in the morning. I think I may have seen two people. So I put the beats on, so I had the headphones on, took my top off.

00:07:22Melissa Erbacher: Oh dear, those two people must be scarred.

00:07:25Scott Trickett: I quickly put it back on.

00:07:28Melissa Erbacher: When you realized it was cold at 7 a.m. Yep.

00:07:33Scott Trickett: But the other thing is I knew where I was going. I ended up doing a freedom run at Diamond Creek parkrun, nice and flat. I knew where I was going. I knew how far it was. And I didn't really look down at my watch until I was about 8 km in. I was running a lot faster than I thought I would. So that gave me a nice little buzz as well.

00:07:53Melissa Erbacher: I just need to interject here. So you did a freedom run of Diamond Creek. I'm pretty sure they don't measure their course at eight kilometers. You must have tacked some on as well. Or did you do it twice?

00:08:05Scott Trickett: No, no. I ran to it and I actually ran the wrong way. I started from the halfway point. But Diamond Creek have got markings on the path so you can go there and do it anytime.

00:08:18Melissa Erbacher: So you had a bit of an adventure. You broke your own rules.

00:08:20Scott Trickett: I did. A solo adventure. Yeah. So I broke my own rules. Are there any rules that you break or want to break?

00:08:32Melissa Erbacher: Good job there, Scotty. Nice segue. Very smooth. Well, you were talking about music before. I have, what would I call them? I have deals. I have deals with certain songs that I put my iPod on shuffle if I'm running solo and If a particular song comes on, then I have to behave in a certain manner. So, for example, if the Rocky theme song comes on or Everlong by Foo Fighters or Midnight Oil's King of the Mountain, those are all three songs that I have a deal with that I cannot stop and walk. It doesn't matter if I have run 20 kilometers. If that song comes on, I have to run. And if Monkey Wrench comes on, then I actually have to run really, really fast. I make deals with different songs about how I run.

00:09:31Scott Trickett: I like that because I think the music I was listening to on Sunday, it was upbeat, so I think I ran faster. You've got a big race coming up this weekend. Are you going to set about breaking any rules in that event?

00:09:46Melissa Erbacher: Um... This is another one of my rules. Welcome to my brain. I will not do an organized event that I have to pay to be in or travel to be in unless I'm going to get a medal. And the Bunbury Three Waters Festival has various distances, one of which is a 10K, one of which is a 5K. There's a half marathon, a full marathon, and a 50K. I believe it's 50. It might be 55. They don't give medals for anything less than a half marathon and this is the second time I have registered for a half marathon because there weren't medals for any of the shorter distances.

00:10:30Belinda Smith: That's just one of my things.

00:10:32Melissa Erbacher: I'm not breaking that rule. It is so tempting for me to have done the 10k so that I could have actually enjoyed in a different way the rest of the festival so I would have been able to watch a lot more of the earlier distances and cheer them on because I can't help myself but cheer when I'm at the events even if I'm running so when I run the half marathon that will be three hours of me being a mobile cheer squad basically but so I'm not breaking that rule I'm going to get a medal even though I am grossly under trained for this event it's going to hurt a lot and by the end of it. However, I'm going to combat that by attempting to break a whole bunch of other rules. And these are rules that runners tend to make. I think experienced runners have basically come up with these list of things. You've got to help me out here, Scotty. What are the things that you would never do on race day?

00:11:41Scott Trickett: Big meal beforehand.

00:11:43Melissa Erbacher: Okay. As in the night before or in the morning or...?

00:11:48Scott Trickett: Generally the morning. I don't think you need to be having a big cook-up, breakfast.

00:11:53Melissa Erbacher: I don't usually eat anything in the morning before any run. I don't eat before parkrun. I don't eat before my long runs. However, it has been pointed out to me that if I'm going to run for three hours that I need to run with food. And while I should have possibly tried this during training, I didn't because... I had a couple of bad training runs, one of which did end in vomiting. And so food just doesn't sit well with me. But I'm going to try and eat food during this run. So we'll see how that goes. That's one of my rules broken. I am also going to wear something.

00:12:30Scott Trickett: I was going to say, that's the other one. Never try out new... New apparel. Yeah.

00:12:36Melissa Erbacher: No new shoes, no new running shirt, no new... hydration belt that hasn't been tried over the distance or at least on long training runs yeah that all works well in theory but if you haven't had time to make your costume until the last week before the race you're going to break that rule and I've been working on my costume today I went and bought some more body paint and glitter so I've never actually I volunteered a lot with with face paint and things like that on. But I've never actually run 21 kilometres with it on my face. So we'll see how that goes.

00:13:20Scott Trickett: You could ignore the taper. You could go really hard at parkrun on Saturday, blow up.

00:13:27Melissa Erbacher: Well, it will be a PB, whatever I do at Bunbury. So I'll consider that. I'll consider that. I'm also considering drinking. A lot of wine the evening before to see if that helps my hydration.

00:13:43Scott Trickett: Yeah, look, I think that's a rule that some people follow. What you're doing is you're increasing your sugar intake. Oh, so there's science that proves this is good. Yeah, so you've got plenty of energy to burn the next morning.

00:13:56Melissa Erbacher: Okay. The head may or may not agree with you.

00:14:00Scott Trickett: Alcohol may be dehydrating, but think of the sugars that you get in there. It's glass half full.

00:14:09Melissa Erbacher: Technically, grapes are a fruit. I'm interested to hear what other people have actually done. I mean, you post in running forums about... getting other people's opinions on this and that and the other and what you should eat before a marathon and then you'll have some guy who runs two and a half hour marathon saying oh i always have a pizza and three beers the night before and things like that i'm i'm interested to hear what people's pre-race what what do you call those things um rituals rituals pre-race rituals You know, I do know somebody who wore the same undies for a few different, I mean, they washed them in between, I'm advised, but they wore these same undies where they always got their PBs in these undies.

00:15:01Scott Trickett: That's a superstition.

00:15:03Melissa Erbacher: Well, it's a little bit of a ritual. Are you superstitious?

00:15:07Scott Trickett: I think I was, but I'm not anymore. Too old for that. Done too many runs to basically debunk every theory or ritual or superstition I may have had. I'm curious to hear what others are too.

00:15:22Melissa Erbacher: Superstitious. Superstitious runners. Superstitious runners. or i should say jet lagged back from his adventures overseas we're now joined by Tim Oberg welcome back to the podcast tim mel it's always great to be on the podcast even when i am jet lagged as you say so you've had some adventures of late where have you been

00:15:53Tim Oberg: I have. This is probably the most relevant piece I will ever do on your show in terms of parkrun adventuring because I've been in South Africa for the last 16 or so days. And as you do when you book overseas travel, you always start with a Saturday and end with a Saturday in order to get maximum number of parkruns in. So we were there for three consecutive Saturdays. And on the first Saturday, we ran at a parkrun in an African township in the east of the country, quite close to the Mozambique border. And then on the middle Saturday, we did the two oceans, or the two oceans marathon was on in Cape Town, but that obviously consisted of a marathon, an ultra marathon and a half marathon. So the parkrun contingent was there doing that. And then on the final Saturday, we ran at Constantia Greenbelt parkrun in Cape Town, which is one of the most affluent areas in the whole country. So it was a real contrast in terms of what we saw with the parkrun, starting with the township where... The bulk of the people participating had no running shoes or old running shoes and no running kit and certainly no garments or GPSs and so on. They all had iPhones though, funnily enough. It doesn't matter where you go, they've all got iPhones. And then on the last Saturday in the affluent Constantia area, which was just beautiful running between around million-dollar homes on a trail and looking at wineries and so on as you ran, it was just absolutely stunning. So a real contrast, but both events fantastic.

00:17:47Melissa Erbacher: So I have a question about the first one that you went to, Tim. I noticed I saw in the photos in the newsletter that the kids and the other participants, they all had their barcodes, like we have our barcodes here. But as you say, you know, they don't have shoes. They do have, you know, phones. They're scanning in. Their results, I'm assuming, still get emailed to them. Where do they access that?

00:18:11Tim Oberg: Yeah, that's a great question. And it's a really interesting one for parkrun actually as an organisation. And the question is, how do we... How do we still have our parkrun model operate in locations where people just don't have internet access? And actually, one of the sponsors of parkrun in South Africa is a company called Blue Label Telecom. And part of that sponsorship is that they've now created a text messaging service that works via the old analog... Is it GSM network? I think it might be called. So basically, people... who don't have internet access but have old mobile phones on the old network, which a lot of these people do have, can receive their results that way. In terms of registration, and I saw this firsthand myself, what they would do is the event director would basically register people, like he would have a crippled folder and anyone who hadn't been registered, they could write all their details down and he would register them so the following week, um they would have he would have their printed barcodes waiting for them and then they would be able to uh get their results uh you know from that week forward so i guess it would mean that there'd be one week lag where you'd be an unknown runner um and then from there you'd be getting registered but the event director at kamose parkrun is a teacher uh so i think he probably is using a bit of free internet time at school and a bit of free printing uh for the benefit of his parkrun community there

00:19:50Melissa Erbacher: There were certainly a lot of smiles, so it's great to see that parkrun can reach places you would never really imagine.

00:19:57Tim Oberg: Yeah, it was really amazing. And look, Paul Sinton-Hewitt, the founder, he's born in Zimbabwe and raised in South Africa. And he was extremely emotional to sort of see this concept that he has or had and has, still has, is now reaching deep into his homeland. And to be honest, he wouldn't have been safe to go into that township without You know 30 years ago when he was living in South Africa, you know rightly or wrongly It just wouldn't have been somewhere that he would have ever wandered So and now to see parkrun in there is incredible.

00:20:32Scott Trickett: And what about the typical parkrun experience itself? Do they still do exactly the same thing as we do? Is the run briefing the same? Are the rules the same?

00:20:43Tim Oberg: Yeah, yeah, yeah, there are and you know, what was actually really Heartwarming was the event director at Inkamosi parkrun who I would have thought would have been really nervous having basically the global hierarchy of parkrun in town at his event. He got up and he gave as good a run briefing, pre-run briefing, as you will have ever heard. He said all the right things. I couldn't have faulted it. And it was exactly the same sort of things that we would say here in Australia in a pre-run briefing. So, you know, you keep left, make sure you've got your barcode, the volunteers all got a round of applause. He asked who was a tourist and, you know, I think normally on that day there were plenty. Yeah, so just said all the right things and I was really impressed with his run briefing, as I am whenever I hear any event director say, nail a run briefing perfectly. But yeah, outside of that, everything's the same. It's the same scanners, the same stopwatches, the same tokens. There really is next to nothing that you could say is different from what we do.

00:21:58Scott Trickett: But the main reason for you going to South Africa was the Country Managers Conference, correct?

00:22:03Tim Oberg: That's right. Yeah. So it's the third year that we've gotten together as a global group to, I guess, discuss the issues that each country is having and, you know, the good and the bad. And I guess sharing experiences and hearing as well of countries. where the vision stands right now from Nick Pearson, who's the global CEO and where things are traveling. So we had representatives from almost all of the parkrun countries in attendance. So there was myself, New Zealand, uh, South Africa, of course, uh, Russia, uh, Republic of Ireland, um, United Kingdom, of course. Um, uh, Jakub from Poland, who of course you guys know from the show, he couldn't make it down. Uh, he's, I think, I believe his mother-in-law is ill and he couldn't, uh, couldn't leave Poland. So it was a shame to miss him. Um, We didn't have anyone from the USA because there is no country manager in the USA at the moment. It's being run centrally. And then we had France and Italy. So, yeah, it was really good representation from the colleagues from around the world.

00:23:19Melissa Erbacher: So tell us, Tim, be honest. The top agenda item was letting the world know about parkrun adventures, wasn't it?

00:23:28Tim Oberg: But yeah, of course, that was 1.1 on the agenda was who are Mel and Scott and how do we get a dynamic duo like this in our own country. Of course, I said they're mine. You can't have them. But, yeah, that was the number one agenda topic. And then from there we spoke about the much lesser important areas such as how are we going to fund this for the next 10 years and how do we manage the fact that in 2022 we hope to have a million runners a week participating. So, yeah, they were the smaller topics that came up afterwards.

00:24:11Melissa Erbacher: Well, I'm glad to hear that you've got your priorities right on a country level.

00:24:16Tim Oberg: Yeah, of course.

00:24:17Scott Trickett: So how are we going to fund it?

00:24:19Tim Oberg: Well, that's a good question. But, I mean, obviously the funding mix that sits within parkrun right now is corporate support in the form of sponsorship. So, you know, in Australia we have Stockland, and Suncorp Bank. And just between us, there's going to be another significant announcement shortly on the sponsorship front. We can't say any more, but it is locked in. And then, of course, government support, so public funding through grants and so on. And that's a very important part of our funding here in Australia. Although, funnily enough, when you look at other countries, South Africa, as an example, has never received a rand or in government support all their funding comes from sponsorship so it varies from country to country here in Australia our mix is quite similar to the UK mix and that there's a good amount of corporate support a good amount of government support it probably won't change too much but what may change is some sponsorships may become global sponsorships where big business looks to come in and essentially own parkrun from a commercial sense across multiple countries. So that may happen. We don't have any global partners out yet, but there are sort of a handful of brands that would fit our ethos that are truly global and would be able to make a significant contribution. So that may happen. And then merchandise, we'd like to think, will become a greater contributor than what it is now because with Nick Pearson as CEO, his background is in sports retail and merchandising and he's bringing in a lot of great ideas. For example, from this month, the first ever parkrun running singlet should be available. That's something that we've been... Banging on about for a few years now. When are we going to be able to buy a singlet? And yeah, that should be happening this month. So we'd definitely like to see a lot of those around the place in Australia because obviously all the funding, all the funds that come in through merchandise sales support the growth of parkrun.

00:26:34Scott Trickett: Now, before we let you go, every good parkrun adventure doesn't always have to include parkrun. You mentioned you included the Two Oceans event. That's right. And everyone from parkrun had a run, some tried out the ultra. You did the half marathon?

00:26:52Tim Oberg: I did, I did. So as you say, pretty much everyone who was in town for the conference did one of the events within the Two Oceans Marathon Festival. With my wife, Nikki, being from Cape Town, we decided that we would run together, no matter the time. And her brother, Richard, and his wife, Nicole, the four of us, as I say, said we'd do it together. And our intention was that we would go as fast as the slowest person. And that's what we did. And look, it wasn't my fastest time ever. In fact, it was my slowest half marathon ever. And I haven't actually received my official time, but it was around two hours later. 45, something like that. But we had a great time and we stopped at the drink stations and talked to people and lots of high fives in the crowd and Nikki's knee was hurting so we did walk a little bit. All in all, it was a great experience. It was an interesting lesson for me to go into a proper race, if you want to call it that, with the intention of not doing my best. The intention was to enjoy it and run with my friends and family. It was a different mindset, but it was highly enjoyable. I'm sure anyone out there who's done similar would understand what I'm saying. But, yeah, across the rest of the parkrunners, there was some great results. Matt Shields, who is our country manager for the Republic of Ireland, was actually second in his age category across the event. I think he did the 56 in a tad over four hours. Ouch. I mean, that's moving. No matter what age you are, that's moving. Paul Sinton-Hewitt, he ran his first ever two oceans, and Tom Williams from the UK also. Bruce Fordyce, who is the running god of South Africa and our country manager there, he'd been told by doctors that he would never be able to run again, but he has persevered and rehabilitated his knee to the point where he was able to get around the 56K in I think it was six and a half hours. In his day, Bruce would have done that in probably three hours and something, I think. But he was, again, highly emotional when he finished because for him it was a victory and then he was told he just wouldn't be able to do it. So for him to be able to finish was a real achievement and in his mind probably up there with one of his nine or ten comrades victories.

00:29:34Scott Trickett: Okay, thanks for that this week, Tim. We're about to catch up with Brendan Murray and have a chat about Main Beach parkrun, the early days. So we might bring you back in for that interview.

00:29:44Tim Oberg: Looking forward to it. Any chance I get to speak to Brendan Murray is a chance I'll take. He's a legend.

00:29:51[music]

00:29:51Unidentified speaker: Music

00:29:58Scott Trickett: On the weekend, parkrun Australia turned five and we're going to go back five years to event number one and have a chat to a man who was there, Brendan. Welcome to the podcast, Brendan.

00:30:11Brendan Murray: Hey guys, how are you going? Thanks for having me on.

00:30:14Scott Trickett: Five years is a long time. Do you still remember the early days of Main Beach parkrun?

00:30:20Brendan Murray: Yeah, definitely a memorable time in my life and I can remember back to some of the early days and

00:30:28Scott Trickett: So you weren't the first event director?

00:30:31Brendan Murray: Well, not officially. How it sort of started, I think there was a guy that was helping out in my studio and still running around on the Gold Coast, I think John Borbidge. And he thought, you know, this is a great idea. And he'd had the conversations with Tim. And yeah, so that was like, I was kind of busy, you know, sort of going on with my business stuff. And he was working out of my studio at the time. And I just kind of was like, oh, yeah, this parkrun thing, I don't really know what it was or whatnot, but the next thing we're getting a photo shoot with the mayor and the paper and with Tim and Clarence the dog and whatnot. And I was like, oh, okay, this is pretty cool. You know, like we're getting a little bit of exposure here. And then... went along to the first event and, you know, had the old trusty laptop out with the timing system and, you know, Tim had been out and done the course marking and I think I'd gone out to help him with that at some stage for a jog and marked out the course or... Yeah, and so we were... The starting location was different to where I held most of the parkruns as event director. So I just remember being at the start and finish was in the park and probably what comes to mind is the finish line. You'd come up to the finish line and literally the last 20 metres would just scoot down in this like almost like a slippery dip down the hill. You could almost throw someone, you know, like a boogie board or something and they could do a massive grass slide or put a piece of black plastic down and slide into the finish line. So it was sort of something I was a bit dangerous. Um, but yeah, that was kind of my memory, the first one. And, uh, Then, yeah, I just remember, like, obviously with the system and the computer and uploading the results, I just remember there was a guy, it was Errol. He was one of John's clients and he was helping out as well. So Errol and John were, like, carrying their hair out over this, you know, getting the results up and anyone that's ever done some parkrun behind-the-scenes stuff would... well, in the earlier days, would know that it may have, you know, it can go wrong at times. And, yeah, so that was pretty funny. That was my memories of that first one.

00:33:13Melissa Erbacher: Had you met Ron Clarke before the photo shoot?

00:33:17Brendan Murray: No, no, I'd never met Ron before, actually, because, like, I was fairly new to the Gold Coast and, like, I obviously knew the name as Ron as a runner. I mean, I'm pretty... I was pretty... I guess, young in terms of, you know, Olympic history and all that sort of stuff. So I sort of knew a bit, but I didn't know of exactly what Ron's achievements were. And, like, I've since read his book and all that sort of stuff. And, yeah, obviously I'm inspired by the guy. But, yeah, I hadn't met him. And I actually didn't even know that he was the mayor of the Gold Coast. I'd only been living there for a few years and I just, you know, I'd sort of make the, I probably knew he was the mayor but, you know, I didn't make this connection that, hey, we've got this guy that used to be an ex-Olympic runner and he's the mayor of the Gold Coast. Like, sport and politics don't always, you know, You know, I always add the two up, but it was pretty cool to meet him and it was really like a really powerful thing to have his support behind it. So I think Tim did fantastically well in incorporating everyone into it, which was great.

00:34:33Scott Trickett: I'm looking, you ran at event two, Brendan.

00:34:37Brendan Murray: Oh, did I?

00:34:37Scott Trickett: Yes. The first run was, well, you may have run at first event, but maybe you didn't have a barcode.

00:34:44Brendan Murray: Yeah, uh, no, I don't think I did I didn't run the first event. I remember actually I remember going around and doing the signs on the mountain bike and uh And the tires were flat and it was just like a nightmare like Went out and marked the course and then had to make it back before the start of the race and I was like burring along the concrete but like on flat tires and Pedaling really hard not going really fast. So yeah, I didn't run the first one that's all Brian Peters is another one who yeah Brian Brian the tail runner just one of those I mean probably every parkrun's got one where you've got a guy that you just is You know just a really calm influence and you can always rely on them to do, you know, whatever it looks like He would be happy to set up at the start. He knew he would be there. He wasn't listed as a volunteer necessarily, but he was down there. And then he would happily jump in and he always wanted to be the tail runner. And he started this thing where he'd do a run, a freedom run before, so he could then still be the tail runner. So he injected a fair bit of energy into that. So big kudos to Brian.

00:36:05Scott Trickett: The interesting thing about Brian is that in a couple of weeks' time, he's going to be our first recipient of a 250 shirt.

00:36:13Brendan Murray: Oh, holy crap.

00:36:15Scott Trickett: Yes, so Brian's done 248. Brendan Murray has only done 26.

00:36:22Brendan Murray: Yeah, I reckon I've run more parkruns without a barcode than with one. I'm the worst culprit of it.

00:36:33Melissa Erbacher: But at least you don't try to convince the volunteers to add you after the fact.

00:36:38Brendan Murray: Oh, they did buy it for a while and then I think, yeah, I could tell that, you know, the parkrun Australia HQ knuckled down on it and, you know, volunteers were less likely, they'd just go, oh, no, too bad. So I'd be like, oh, no, too bad. Oh, I mean, obviously, you know, in the first, yeah, in the first couple, like, for me to actually run at Main Beach parkrun, everyone was like, oh, Brendo, you're having a run today, that's awesome, I'm like, yeah, I know, and I felt, like, really guilty about it, because you're having a run, but, um, you know, I was able to do that, because we, by that time, we'd established a bit of a team, and, yeah, so it was, it was cool. I'd turn up at the, at the event, and, and, and be in the directing role, and, um, I might be exhausted from a busy week in the business or whatever, but still, you'd leave that place. You'd arrive at that place and leave that place with a sore jaw because you'd just been smiling so much. So it was always a reward for effort, which was good.

00:37:49Scott Trickett: You've since moved to Albury. You're running there and helping out the team there.

00:37:54Brendan Murray: We did help them a couple of times in the earlier days when they had a few things on. So we did, my sister, myself, my partner Stacey, yeah, we did the event directing a couple of times. We participated in a few runs and we do liaise quite heavily with Sarah and Curtis who are, like, they just do everything. awesome job at Albury. I don't know, I think they're probably, everyone probably thinks this about their local event directors but I reckon they've got to be one of the best team event directors in the country. It'd just be hard to top. Yeah, we liaise with them for our trail series and they allow us to do a little bit of promotion and that sort of stuff which is really cool.

00:38:45Melissa Erbacher: So tell us more about your trail series.

00:38:48Brendan Murray: Yeah, so three race series. And yeah, we've got a 14, 19 and a 30. All with pretty decent elevation for their distance and good variety of trails. So not too much of, you know, there's no sort of, not too much back and forth or anything like that. It's all very varied and, you know, on good parks. So it's cool.

00:39:12Scott Trickett: I came up last year and did, one of the races. The one I did, it was raining all day.

00:39:18Brendan Murray: Yeah, with the waterfall?

00:39:19Scott Trickett: Yeah, yeah, lots of elevation. I walked it. There's no shame in saying I walked.

00:39:26Brendan Murray: No shame involved.

00:39:29Scott Trickett: The only thing I didn't like is you sent us down one road to turn around and come straight back up. And I just thought that was cruel. We didn't need to do that. But the rest was absolutely beautiful.

00:39:40Brendan Murray: Yeah, no, look, I knew that was nasty, but the reason I did that was obviously adding a little bit of distance that we needed to get up to 19, but all my thinking behind it completely was that That was a really easy access point, that bottom gate to the park that not many people knew about. Yeah, just for people to go, you know, it's right off a residential street. And just, yeah, so by going down to the bottom, maybe going, okay, there's an entry point. And probably no one is even thinking now that they wanted to return to that steep climb back up by that road. But, oh well.

00:40:26Scott Trickett: Well, look, you showed it to us. You're right. So now we know it's there. So look, what we'll do, Brendan, is we'll put all this information up on our Facebook page so people can find out more about this series, including the dates and the courses. But what we're going to do now is we're going to go back to Main Beach event number one and bring in someone else who was there. Tim Oberg is with us again. And Tim, let's start by what are your recollections from the very first event at Main Beach?

00:40:55Tim Oberg: Wow, event one. Well, There are a couple of things that come to mind. One is, obviously leading into it, we had no idea what was going to happen, how it was going to be received, would anyone turn up. So I think the first recollection is just that there was relief that people did turn up. Probably second was when we actually marshalled everyone together. There's a little hill there at Main Beach, and I was quite nervous getting up and, I guess, introducing Event 1 and Brendo and the team and so on. And we didn't get too many photos from that first event, but there are still a couple kicking around of me sort of standing on the hill, I guess, welcoming everyone. So that's a very vivid memory of mine. And probably lastly is that we had Ron Clarke there, the late, great Australian distance runner. He was mayor of the Gold Coast at the time and went on to become our first patron. And of course, sadly, he passed away last year, but it was an honour having Ron there and You know, the legend has it now that, of course, Ron didn't bring his barcode, and so now he's an unknown runner on our Main Beach parkrun event one results. I think he's at about number 108 or something like that at about one hour, and there's an unknown runner, and that's Ron Clarke. So I guess, yeah, they're probably the three memories from that first event.

00:42:24Scott Trickett: And starting up from scratch... How important was Brendan and the team that you formed getting that first event up and running?

00:42:32Tim Oberg: Yeah, well I moved to the Gold Coast in January of 2012 and really didn't know anyone on the running scene and whatnot. And quite early on I met Brendan and his partner Stacey and John Borbidge, who of course has been mentioned earlier. And I was doing some training with them. And I guess we just got talking about the parkrun concept and they all put their hand up to be involved. I guess I never had the intention of being the event director of event number one. I really wanted to be more the, you know, the facilitator of the whole thing. Of course, you know, I did get down in the trenches and run direct and volunteer and so on as we all did back in the early days and as any event director would at any at the early days of their event. But, you know, it was a relief for me to come and meet Brendan and John and know that the event was going to be in safe hands. And then, of course, when John moved on and Brendan took the reins 100%, then he was an absolute rock, got Main Beach parkrun moving, I guess you'd say.

00:43:45Scott Trickett: And we're all very grateful for all the work that was put in in the early days at Main Beach. So thanks, Tim. And thanks, Brendan. Thanks for coming on, telling your story, reminiscing a bit. And good luck with everything that you've got planned for this year.

00:43:59Brendan Murray: All right. Thanks, guys. See you. Take care, buddy.

Roving Reports

00:44:10Donella Taylor: This is Donella Taylor doing some roving reporting for the parkrun Adventurers podcast. I'm here today at the launch of the Lismore parkrun and we've got Noreen Finucane here. She's done her very, very first parkrun. How did it go, Nors?

00:44:27Unidentified speaker: Oh, it was great. It was great.

00:44:28Donella Taylor: Good atmosphere. Yeah.

00:44:30Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:44:30Donella Taylor: Yeah. And where's home for you, Nors? I've come from Tamworth.

00:44:35Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:44:35Donella Taylor: Yeah.

00:44:36Unidentified speaker: I knew Belinda was organising this event from way off and I thought it'd be a nice surprise to... Yeah, join her this morning. And support her.

00:44:44Donella Taylor: And that's lovely. And did you know that there is a parkrun in Tamworth? There is. There is. I've registered and just never run it. And will you be going along to Tamworth now? I will. I will. Yeah, for sure. I'll go down to the Tamworth parkrun. Awesome. Now I'm actually interviewing the event director of Lismore parkrun, Belinda Smith, who is actually my twin sister as well. Hi, Vinnie. Hi Donnie, how are you?

00:45:10Belinda Smith: Good, how are you? How did everything go today? Extremely well, very successful, I'm very happy. We've had so much positive feedback and lots of commendations of bringing parkrun to Lismore and everyone was really happy. We had a guy from the UK, so that was pretty awesome. We got a bit over 200, 203. Yeah, I think it was. 203. So that's, you know, that's awesome. I'm happy with that. That's a great number to start with. Yeah.

00:45:44Donella Taylor: And you got lots of brand new first timers today. We did.

00:45:47Belinda Smith: There were lots of brand newies out there today, which is great. And I hope that they are hyped after their run. And lots of locals as well. Yeah, lots of locals, which is a lot of people are from Lismore, there's a couple from Casino and Austonville, yeah, so that's great.

00:46:05Donella Taylor: I'm here with the Mayor of Lismore, Jenny Dowell. Hi Jenny. Hi Donella, fantastic to meet you and a great event this morning.

00:46:13Jenny Dowell: Yes, and what did you do today, what was your role? Well, I was in the trial last week, so I actually half ran, half walked last week, but we were short for a marshal, so I put my hand up last night to be a marshal this morning, so I was there and it was fantastic to see so many people, people who thought that they might only do two laps, didn't know if they could manage three, and all of them have finished three, so it's fantastic. And all of them completed, and it's amazing, isn't it? Yeah, fantastic. And that's great that you could help to volunteer as well and... Oh, really, this is a great event. It keeps Lismore healthy. But we've got lots of people who really can't afford to join a running club to have a free, healthy event every Saturday morning at 7 o'clock down here. It's just fantastic. So I think it'll grow. We've had more than 200 people today for the first one. And I know some of those were visitors, but I reckon it'll grow here and it'll be really fantastic.

00:47:08Donella Taylor: I do as well. I think it'll be amazing for your community. And I'm very proud of my beautiful twin sister, Belinda, who's done such an amazing job. We're very lucky to have her as a citizen of your show.

00:47:19Jenny Dowell: We are very lucky. She came to see me about this about probably six or nine months ago in my office. She told me about the idea. I'd heard a little bit about it because I've got a friend from here who lives up in Brisbane and participates. But she has brought all this together with Anthony and her two gorgeous daughters and some friends. They've brought all this to fruition. And she's a powerhouse. And on top of being a mum and a full-time worker and studying, you know, talk about give a busy person a job. She's just fantastic.

00:47:54Martin Gillies: I'm just with a runner who's just come in second actually. Hi there, I'm Martin Gillies. I'm formerly the event director at Wyrmwood Scrubs parkrun back in London. I'm out in Australia on a working holiday visa for 2016 and I have indeed just come second in the inaugural Lismore parkrun. Yeah, well done on that. And how did you find the course? Yeah, it was very interesting. The uphill start kind of spread the field out a little bit, but then there's lots of little twisty turns and a couple of really tight ones to catch you out. Particularly on the second and third laps, you've got a lot of people to kind of look out for. So it definitely keeps your mind busy as you're wandering around the three laps there. No worries. Well, thanks for that.

00:48:38Gary Clark: That's all out for me, Gerry, at Lismore parkrun. Thank you. So this is Gary Clark reporting in for parkrun Adventurers. Denise and I have travelled this morning to Victoria and after much debate we've landed at Lilydale Lakes. Very easy instructions to get here and we were treated to a wonderful sunrise. Denise has posted that on Facebook this morning. Hashtag parkrun Adventurers. So you'll be able to find that. Certainly plenty of people milling around here this morning. We're looking forward to seeing what lilydale lakes provides us as far as a run goes so we'll head off to the briefing and catch up with you after our run all right so we've just finished our run at lilydale lakes parkrun and what a beautiful course it is it's two laps it's all on gravel so it's quite nice underfoot dead flat absolutely flat so it's good for fast times i think denise and i both run our fastest time for for 12 months or so. Very friendly atmosphere and a great bunch of volunteers down here. The Lilydale Lake is absolutely gorgeous on your left as you're running around and of course if you ease off the speed a bit you can take in all of those lovely views and even this morning they had some paces out and about and celebrated their 100th parkrun. So happy birthday for 100 parkruns and I believe they're celebrating a at official parkrun birthday in a couple of weeks time. So if you're anywhere around Lilydale Lakes where you can get down here for their anniversary in April, then certainly suggest you do so. This is Gary Clark signing off for the parkrun Adventures. This is Darren Walters from Hervey Bay parkrun.

00:50:22Darren Walters: I'm sitting here chatting with Graham Granao, one of our full-time volunteers. Graham, what do you like about Harvey Bay parkrun?

00:50:30Graham Granao: I like the fact that all families are involved. They range from really small to very old, and it's good to see the families turn up here.

00:50:38Darren Walters: And your family runs and volunteers every week, and that's part of your weekly thing?

00:50:43Graham Granao: Yeah, I have a wife, a daughter, and grandchildren all run at the Harpy Bay parkrun.

00:50:50Darren Walters: And you've volunteered how many times, Graham? That's about 53 times now. And that's a fabulous effort. I think so myself. Now, talking to John Street, one of our eldest statesmen, and a full-time volunteer and runner, also a pacer every day, every weekend. John, what do you like about Harvey Bay parkrun?

00:51:08John Street: I think it's great to see all the families come together. You get them from the very young to the very old, and everybody seems to enjoy it. And I get a kick out of seeing everybody just enjoying themselves on their day.

00:51:20Darren Walters: And you also enjoy running yourself?

00:51:22John Street: Well, I do. I enjoy pacing for other people and trying to get their PBs for them, yes.

00:51:28Darren Walters: I'm now talking with Kylie Brazzavallo. What do you like most about Hervey Bay parkrun, Kylie?

00:51:33Unidentified speaker: I think the thing I like most is definitely, and probably people say this all the time, is the community spirit and the people that you've met. I've only been in Harvey Bay for three years, but I joined up Harvey Bay when it first started here and I've met the most wonderful people ever. So, yes, love it. Love it. For the kids as well.

00:51:49Darren Walters: And the Harvey Bay parkrun course, what do you think about that?

00:51:52Unidentified speaker: Oh, beautiful. Magnificent. I was just, I've got a friend along with me today for the first time, and I was saying to her once we got to the rock wall, oh my gosh, how beautiful is this? We're very, very lucky. We're blessed to have such a beautiful parkrun.

00:52:04Darren Walters: Thank you very much, Kylie.

00:52:06Unidentified speaker: My pleasure.

00:52:07Scott Trickett: Well, that was a nice collection of roving reports we got this week. We had contributions from the Lismore launch. Gary was back. He visited Lilydale Lake and Harvey Bay.

00:52:20Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, first time we've heard from Harvey Bay. Darren did a great job.

Social media round-up (unnamed weekly bit)

00:52:24Scott Trickett: Let's take a look. Was there any action on social media for us this week, Mel?

00:52:29Melissa Erbacher: There was, Scotty. We had heaps. Instagram had bunny underscore 79 going on a road trip to Bundaberg. They had a pic of our podcast on the dash in the car, which is all the rage right now.

00:52:43Donella Taylor: So if, you know,

00:52:44Melissa Erbacher: You're out there and you're listening to this in your car. Pull over. Take a photo of it. Send it to us. We want to see it. I'm going to do a montage. Anyway, the photo of the dash with the car was spliced with two kids in the back, a sleeping toddler and one very grown-up looking young man who was wide awake. And Bunny underscore 79 said, one little bunny managed to listen to the fifth consecutive parkrun Adventurers podcast. Up to date now, Mel and Scotty. Thank you. Thank you, Bunny 79, for subjecting your children to us for five straight episodes. That is excellent parenting.

00:53:21Scott Trickett: Should be more of it. Oz Twin Mama. parkrun Tourists today and our first, well, parkrun Adventurers, Oz Twin Mama,

00:53:31Melissa Erbacher: correction there but they went to their first interstate parkrun seven states and territories to go that is correct but you've started somewhere the adventure has to start somewhere yes good on you positivism one shared a picture of pb ice cream and another picture of our first hashtag junior adventurers um that was a pic of april dressed as elsa from frozen And I believe she got her PB in that costume at Tuggeranong parkrun. So congratulations, April. Obviously, if you're dressed like a queen, you go faster.

00:54:09Scott Trickett: Nod Lightyear was back looking very fluoro. Great top he was in at Altona Beach parkrun. So some good adventuring there from Nod.

00:54:20Melissa Erbacher: And Altona Beach looks pretty gorgeous too in the background. Finding My Balance had her third attempt at running Australia's toughest trail running parkrun course and smashed her PB by two minutes. Woo-hoo. Not bad for a 35-minute finish. Only walked up two killer hills. Great job, Finding My Balance.

00:54:43Scott Trickett: Shifting over to Facebook, Chris Fraser. Just finished listening to Episode 13. He loved the final interview at the end. Thought it was adorable. I wonder how many people stayed to the end.

00:54:57Melissa Erbacher: And actually caught that one.

00:54:59Scott Trickett: Go back if you didn't. I'm saying it's worth it. I may be biased. It's not often you get to hear from a penguin.

00:55:07Melissa Erbacher: No.

00:55:11Scott Trickett: A parkrun penguin who stays in a car.

00:55:13Melissa Erbacher: Named Twinkles.

00:55:18Scott Trickett: What did Donella Taylor get up to?

00:55:20Melissa Erbacher: Are you ready for me to move on to that now? Danella actually shared another junior adventurer's pic. Halloween fun with Jack as boy Dracula, Daddy Jerry as Dracula and Mackenzie as a friendly ghost. You might remember Mackenzie from early, early episodes. She's the little girl who said her favourite movie was Peppa Pig and she looks very cute as a friendly ghost.

00:55:49Scott Trickett: Wrapping up Facebook, can't forget Melissa Ellis and Tok went to the Traralgon first anniversary, and they shared a couple of pics.

00:56:00Melissa Erbacher: And the cake looked great. And the costumes, too.

00:56:05Scott Trickett: Another good theme. The theme was T for Traralgon.

00:56:09Melissa Erbacher: I thought what I imagined was a fairy, but maybe it was Tinkerbell. But there was Tigger, and there was Toothpaste. I wonder how that running worked.

00:56:21Scott Trickett: Lots of short steps.

00:56:24Melissa Erbacher: Brad Beer was talking about high turnover.

00:56:27Scott Trickett: Yeah. He didn't mention dressing up as a toothpaste.

00:56:30Melissa Erbacher: He didn't.

00:56:32Scott Trickett: You interpret advice in many different ways.

00:56:35Melissa Erbacher: This is true. And if I had thought about this more and I was wittier, I would probably come up with like half a dozen really good toothpaste puns, but I don't have any. And now I've got you thinking, don't I?

00:56:47Scott Trickett: Let's just floss over that and carry on.

00:56:52Melissa Erbacher: Yep, here come the dad jokes.

Launches and anniversaries ("where are we going for cake this week?")

00:56:54Scott Trickett: We have no launches this week, not in Australia anyway. There must be heaps overseas. But we do have two anniversaries. So where are we going for cake this week, Mel?

00:57:05Melissa Erbacher: If you're in New South Wales or you don't mind a bit of a trip from any of the other states in Australia, you could go to Fingal Bay, who are celebrating their third anniversary. And a little bit closer to home for you, Warragul are having their first anniversary. Will you be headed that way for some cake this weekend, Scotty?

00:57:23Scott Trickett: I would love to, but I'm not. Sorry, Warragul. Have fun without me.

00:57:29Melissa Erbacher: Okay, Scotty. You mentioned that you broke your rules and you listened to music on a solo run this week. I would like your three recommended songs to add to my playlist for my next long run, please. I've got a bit of a long one coming up this coming weekend and I could do with some new music to pep me up and get me over the finish line.

00:57:49Scott Trickett: You're putting me on notice. You're giving me a week to think about it, aren't you?

00:57:54Melissa Erbacher: No, no. I want them now. What were you listening to on the weekend that made you run so fast? Give me three of the best ones.

00:58:01Scott Trickett: Well, I just had one album on there. It's not going to work.

00:58:05Melissa Erbacher: Okay. And what was the album?

00:58:09Scott Trickett: The Life of Pablo.

00:58:10Melissa Erbacher: Okay. I'm not familiar with this album.

00:58:14Scott Trickett: Have you heard of Kanye West?

00:58:18Melissa Erbacher: Oh. He's married to that Kim Kardashian lady, isn't he?

00:58:25Scott Trickett: Apparently. Do you like the old Kanye or the new Kanye?

00:58:30Melissa Erbacher: No.

00:58:30Scott Trickett: Do you miss the old Kanye? No.

00:58:33Melissa Erbacher: I'm pretty sure I answered no to both those questions. Do I like the old Kanye? Do I like the new Kanye? No.

00:58:41Scott Trickett: It's time to wrap it up for this week. Good luck on the weekend, Mel. I am very jealous.

00:58:46Melissa Erbacher: Thanks, Scotty, but there's no luck necessary in costume making. It's all in the preparation.

00:58:54Scott Trickett: Good prepping for the weekend. Remember, it's all about how you look, not how you run. And it's all about having fun.

00:59:03Melissa Erbacher: And it's all about the bling, the lovely shiny bling at the end, which is going to make it all worth it, I'm sure. Not even nervous yet.

00:59:11Scott Trickett: So I'm looking forward to hearing all the reports that you're going to bring back for next week's pod.

00:59:19Melissa Erbacher: It will be great to hear from the West Australians. Really looking forward to it.

00:59:25Scott Trickett: Can't wait. Until next Wednesday.