Episode 15 - Melissa Flentjar

Episode details · 95 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:08Scott Trickett: And we're back for episode 15 of the parkrun Adventurers podcast. My name is Scott.

00:00:14Melissa Erbacher: I would say my name is Mel, but I'm trying not to say that every week.

00:00:18Scott Trickett: Why not? That can be our thing. On this week's episode, we're going to dive in, dissect and analyse my Jells parkrun run on the weekend. Amongst other things, we're going to catch up with Mel Flentjar, who's launching a Laylaw parkrun this weekend, which we're going to try something different and new and hopefully innovative at Laylaw, so stay tuned and you'll hear all about that later in the podcast. Are you going to contribute anything this week, Mel?

00:00:51Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I should probably have a little bit of a chat about something.

00:00:55Scott Trickett: Let's start there. What did you do on the weekend, if it was related to parkrun? I can't remember.

00:01:01Melissa Erbacher: Well, I actually... Went across to Western Australia for the first time. And I got to go to Bunbury parkrun on Saturday morning. So that was a bit awesome. First time on the west coast of the country. And, yeah, got to go for a bit of a trot. Well, actually, I walked around the course because I was saving my legs for a bit of a longer distance at the Bunbury Three Waters Running Festival on Sunday. Also with a whole bunch of parkrunners. So I had a really, really great weekend there.

00:01:32Scott Trickett: A great adventure. That's like the longest adventure you could go on in Australia.

00:01:37Melissa Erbacher: Well, domestically, yeah, it was a fabulous adventure. And to do a parkrun course in a completely different state is always awesome.

00:01:48Melissa Flentjar: But to do one on the other side of the country is a little bit special.

00:01:53Melissa Erbacher: So the event team were wonderful. They put on a really good event and it's a beautiful little course. I got to see swans, black swans swimming around in, it's actually run around the big swamp. So if you go to Bunbury parkrun's website and you look for the course description, it's actually like, oh yeah, you know, you run around the big swamp. And I thought, oh, that's quite generic. I wonder what this whole big swamp thing is. And I actually look, and on a map, if you look at it on a map, it's called the big swamp. That's the name of it. So, yeah, and there's quite a lot of water in the big swamp at the moment and quite a lot of swans. I stopped for lots of runfies trying to get the swans, but they spend a lot of time with their head underwater eating. So it's just like this big black blob sitting on top of the water if you're not quick enough.

00:02:51Scott Trickett: Sounds interesting. There must be a body of water, plenty of wildlife, not just swans.

00:02:57Melissa Erbacher: Not just swans. I actually walked past a couple of ladies who had binoculars for birdwatching and a whole big book and a big chart where they could take notes down. I've never seen birdwatchers on a parkrun course before, so it just goes to show, yeah, there's definitely a concentration of wildlife there.

00:03:14Scott Trickett: And it's a two-lap course, flat course, I presume? Yeah.

00:03:17Melissa Erbacher: Yes, it's two laps, and it's pretty flat. There's a couple of little undulations that you go up. Well, one that you go up twice, basically. There's a little bridge. You would love it. A lovely wooden bridge through an avenue of, well, it's bush on both sides, so it's quite shaded.

00:03:39Scott Trickett: And then the following day, you were there for your half-full marathon.

00:03:45Melissa Erbacher: Yes, my first and last for 2016. So I got my bling. I ran the whole way, so I'm very happy about that. And I tried and tested some rule breaking, which we talked about in the podcast last week.

00:04:01Scott Trickett: Did you successfully break all the rules?

00:04:05Melissa Erbacher: I successfully broke all the rules and none of them adversely impacted my run. So to recap, one of the rules was drinking alcohol the evening before. So I had a bottle of wine that I shared and that was up quite late, drinking that. And I didn't notice any difference the next day. I wasn't sick. I wasn't hungover, you know. It didn't impact my run.

00:04:36Scott Trickett: Must have been good wine.

00:04:37Melissa Erbacher: It was excellent wine.

00:04:39Scott Trickett: Was it local?

00:04:40Melissa Erbacher: Yes. We drank all local wine this weekend. Well, local to Western Australia. We made sure it was either from the Margaret River or one of the surrounding areas. I tried out a costume that I was literally sewing on the plane on the way over and still sewing late Saturday night to get finished. And that also involved face paint, body glue and glitter. And I wasn't sure how that was going to go over the distance, especially as if you read the packaging on the face paint, it's like avoid contact with eyes, keep away from eyes, nose and mouth. And it's like, well, Pretty much all those things are on my face and in fairly close proximity to the paint. And it actually rained at about 16 kilometers. And so when it was raining, because the face paint held up quite well around my eyes. But when it was raining, I did very well not to wipe it. But it was dripping into my eyes. And there was about 500 meters there. where it was burning like Tabasco sauce and I couldn't see and I was thinking, oh my God, I'm going to have to run the last five kilometres of this event blind because my eyes were burning so much. So that's probably why they say avoid contact with eyes. But fortunately it stopped raining and so I was able to dab the excess moisture away and the tears washed out the rest of the Tabasco sauce type sensation. So that was good.

00:06:18Scott Trickett: So a small confession here. When you mentioned last week that you were going to do glitter costumes, I was a little worried. Worried? Well, I was worried that you might have just been going over the top and you might not have been reading the situation right. But I've seen the photos and you nailed it. So tell people what you dressed up as because I don't think you did last week, did you?

00:06:43Melissa Erbacher: I didn't mention it before the event because I don't like people to know what I'm going as because then they have high expectations and I don't like disappointing people basically. So I went as Derek Zoolander from the original Zoolander film in his Derelicte outfit and the associated makeup that It comes with the very famous look Magnum. So I was throwing a lot of Magnums on the course and very happy to say that even when I finished and after the rain and the sweat of 21 kilometers, I still had face paint and glitter on my face and it looked relatively good. So check. That holds up really well.

00:07:29Scott Trickett: Well done. It didn't throw your rhythm out?

00:07:33Melissa Erbacher: No, not at all. Plenty of time for looks after all the cheers, encouraging the other runners on. You know what I love? These running events where you register early enough, you get your names on bibs because it just increases the amount of contact you can have with so many other runners. And this particular running event, the marathon and the half marathon were both run on the same course. So the marathon was two laps of the half and I got to see the same people multiple times. So, you know, you start out knowing their name because it's on their bib and you're just building up this relationship of cheers and good wishes along the way. And it was such a wonderful atmosphere. Everybody was really happy and friendly and supportive and clapping and high fives and thumbs up. And yeah, it was a really lovely event. I'd highly recommend it. If you're ever in Western Australia, roughly this time of year, look it up and head along.

00:08:33Scott Trickett: It sounds like a success.

00:08:35Melissa Erbacher: It was a success. I didn't have any costume chafing. I ate in the morning before the run. I ate new food I'd never tried during the run. Although that food, the whole big array that I took along, I showed Tim and he was looking through them. And basically, as a parent who knows about sugar levels and things like that, he told me everything I bought was pretty much terrible and I shouldn't have bought any of it. But, you know, it was too late by then. It was 10 minutes before I had to run. So I just picked a couple of them and took them. And, yeah, I didn't vomit. There's another bonus. I ran the whole way. I didn't feel sick. And I got my bling at the end.

00:09:16Scott Trickett: And so it would have been a good opportunity to catch up with the parkrun folk over in WA. Yeah.

00:09:22Melissa Erbacher: I did multiple occasions. There were some dinners. There was a Q&A on Saturday. There was, of course, parkrun on Saturday morning. And many of them, even who weren't participating on Sunday, came along to cheer and support. So I got to meet a lot of the extended parkrun family. And it was lovely to meet the West Aussies. They're just the same as us, you know, happy and supportive and love parkrun. So what more could you want? So that's my adventure for the weekend in a nutshell. Scotty, what were you up to?

00:09:54Scott Trickett: Well, this weekend for parkrun, I was running at Gels, and we're going to discuss that in depth later in the pod. But have you heard of the Great Pursuit? I haven't. Well, the Great Pursuit is an amazing race type of event that I took part in with my wife on Sunday. Highly recommend it. Lots of fun. You compete in groups of two. And you're given a set of clues to find locations located around the city. And you have to get to these locations as quick as you can. Some of them have challenges you have to do. Others have just like a little puzzle you have to solve and find the clue to. And it's all about strategy is how you're going to get around the city in the fastest time possible. and it's lots of fun this is our third year doing it and it was interesting last year we made a mess of it and we ended up running 15 kilometers oh wow we and both ivana and i were fit fitter than we are now strangely enough and we thought we'll just run everywhere we'll just don't pay too much attention to the clues just run and try and beat everybody by running nice strategy didn't work. This year we spent a bit more time in the planning stages and only ended up running about 8km in the end. But we really covered the same sort of distance. As in, if you do it properly, you should really only have to cover 8km. So we were a lot more successful this year. But it's lots of fun. It's running, it's walking, it's being active. If they have it up there, I highly recommend you check it out.

00:11:41Melissa Erbacher: It's a great pursuit. I'll have a look. Oh yeah, I'll have a look into it.

00:11:47Scott Trickett: It's maybe something you can get together with your parkrun buddies.

00:11:50[music]

Event Director interview — Melissa Flentjar (Lalor parkrun launch)

00:11:56Melissa Erbacher: Our next guest on the podcast is an event director for the upcoming launching Lalor parkrun. Melissa Flentjar, welcome to the podcast. Thank you.

00:12:07Melissa Flentjar: Thanks, guys, for having me this evening.

00:12:10Scott Trickett: You're launching this Saturday. Are you excited?

00:12:13Melissa Flentjar: Very excited. I'm excited to be able to bring parkrun to Laylaw, and we have a full volunteer roster. All the equipment's been charged. We've checked the course several times, so we'll be very excited to get there first thing Saturday morning and to be able to welcome everyone to Laylaw.

00:12:37Scott Trickett: Now, a bit of disclosure, I'm actually your Territory Director, so I have had a fair bit to do with lay law so far. But we've also got another partner involved in this parkrun, and that's the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service. We're doing something a little bit different in lay law.

00:12:55Melissa Flentjar: So starting with the launch, we will be having a full Welcome to Country event. we will also be having Aunty Pam coming along and we will be having a warm-up by the indigenous hip-hop projects and they will be staying around to do a hip-hop demonstration as the participants finish the course and every week ongoing we will be doing an acknowledgement to country before we start the event so All very exciting for parkrun and for Laylaw.

00:13:33Scott Trickett: Yeah, I think this is a first. I think there are some events around Australia that are including that currently. Maybe they're not doing it every week, but we're going to make sure we do it every week at Laylaw. And we're going to try and create a community and an environment that is welcoming to the Indigenous community. And it starts by getting the people from VAHS involved and taking their guidance about what we need to do at the event to make them feel welcome.

00:14:02Melissa Erbacher: Are you expecting a large Indigenous community to be participating at your first event, Melissa, or do you think it's something that will, over time, increase as people begin to understand what you're doing there?

00:14:18Melissa Flentjar: Look, the launches, we're expecting quite a few of the Indigenous community. There has been quite a big social media push by VAHS. There is a lot of interest. We've had quite a few registrations online to parkrun Laylaw. And with time, as word of mouth gets out that this event is all inclusive, you know, it can only increase. So we're very excited and we look forward to welcoming everyone to parkrun Laylaw.

00:14:52Scott Trickett: Describe for the listeners that don't know, Laylaw, the area, and what parkrun could do to this part of Melbourne.

00:15:00Melissa Flentjar: Sure. Laylaw's in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, in the outer north, running along the Hume Freeway. It's a lovely older area of Melbourne. There's quite a mix of young families there. European families, where the particular park is, it's built on an old golf course with new housing estates surrounding it. So we're hoping to include a lot of families, a lot of the older generations. The path is a mix of trail and takes in the Tambury bike path. And it goes over the large, rusty-looking bridge that goes over the Hume Freeway. So we're encouraging everyone across that big bridge to high-five other participants as they're coming their way. And then we take on the bike path and go up past the new iconic Melbourne markets before returning back into a lovely park. around the lake and back through the finish line. So it's a lovely part of Melbourne.

00:16:13Scott Trickett: You touched on one of my favourites there. We're going over a bridge. I might have had a little bit to do with this. You did. But I think it's going to be great because we've included it early on in the course and it's a perfect opportunity for lots of people to give some high fives. As Robbo would call it, a positive exchange. So if you're coming to the launch or if you're going to visit us, in the next couple of weeks we want to see lots of high fives over that bridge no excuses no one's too cool or too sweaty after about 500 meters do you think it comes in about 500 meters uh i think it's just over the one uh just around the 1k mark so and it's quite a large bridge so there is lots of opportunities for lots of high fives there now you've been in parkrun for how long a couple of years

00:17:03Melissa Flentjar: It's just about 18 months for me. My parkrun debut was October 2014.

00:17:12Scott Trickett: And you've previously been running it over at Diamond Creek?

00:17:15Melissa Flentjar: Yes, that's right.

00:17:16Scott Trickett: The biggest parkrun in Melbourne at the moment. Can you tell the listeners a bit about your journey to becoming an event director? How you started out as a regular parkrunner and now you're going to embark on your own event?

00:17:27Melissa Flentjar: Yeah, sure. I'd love to share that journey. So... In 2014, my life wasn't heading the most positive way. I was morbidly obese while trying to hold down a day job, raise my young twins and have a husband that travels all over the city for work. And health-wise, I wasn't doing too well and I just one day woke up and I just couldn't live the life that i was living and decided to pick up my phone and i did some internet searching on beginner running and came across the couch to 5k app i couldn't run 100 meters without feeling like my chest was going to explode but i i persisted um And when I finally completed the Couch to 5K app, I did some Facebook searching and came across the well-known group Running Mums Australia. And I posted on there. And Michelle Esdell from Diamond Creek warmly welcomed me across any time to Diamond Creek. And I took the plunge, as scary as it is for people first time going to parkrun. She met me there and she introduced me to the course. And I was hooked. parkrun became part of my weekly routine. And obviously with looking after myself and making good choices, I ended up losing just under 40 kilos and have got so much energy. And I just want to give that back to my local community now, just letting people know that parkrun is somewhere safe. They can come be with other supportive and encouraging people who um who will help them across the line and they can get fit for free every saturday so um it can only be beneficial for the community 40 kilos in 18 months that is a colossal effort just just by making good choices you say and and going to parkrun and other exercise Yeah, that's right. It was hard work. It wasn't easy. There were many ups and many downs. I ate well, exercised a lot and park-runned every Saturday and was supported by the park-run community and was all very positive and rewarding now because when I first started, spoke to Scott about potentially setting up something locally and being the first parkrun in the Whittlesea Council area. He was very excited and it's my honour to be able to give back to the community what I've taken from parkrun.

00:20:33Scott Trickett: I was going to say it's inspiring because I've only known Mel for the past few months, and I've only known her as a strong, fit-looking parkrunner. So it's hard to put my head around that you were 40 kilos heavier, inactive, and I'm guessing unhappy.

00:20:50Melissa Flentjar: Yeah, very, very unhappy. There was a lot going on and I know it's hard for people to stand up and say, hey, I need help or I'm going to do something about my life. But once the decision's made, it's such an amazing journey and it's positive on myself. My twins are now five. They've come to parkrun. My husband's even trialled parkrun. And I've just got people following me on social media because they're inspired and motivated by my journey. And I'm helping people I don't know out there become healthy and fit and happy.

00:21:36Scott Trickett: And it's funny, you told me a story this week. You're inspiring those closest to you. I think your husband said he wanted to purchase some running gear.

00:21:43Melissa Flentjar: After he did the trial, yeah. There was a little whisper in the ear that the cotton he was running in wasn't so cooling and comfortable that he needed some moisture wicking gear. So we went out and snapped that up pretty quickly and the kids have their own active wear and sport shoes now. So, you know, that's very positive for our family.

00:22:09Scott Trickett: You need to remind him he only has to do 50 more runs and he gets one for free. Yeah.

00:22:15Melissa Flentjar: That's right. We'll get there.

00:22:17Scott Trickett: Well, best of luck, Mel. I will see you on Saturday. I'm really looking forward to it. I think it's going to be one of the great launches we've had down in Melbourne. Good luck. Thank you.

00:22:26Melissa Flentjar: Thank you.

00:22:28[music]

Launches, anniversaries and "Where's the cake this week?"

00:22:37Scott Trickett: Last week's episode was a long one. I think it was our longest episode yet.

00:22:42Melissa Erbacher: So it might be time to let those of you who listen to the adventurers on your runs have a bit of a taper week.

00:22:49Scott Trickett: Yeah, it's all about contrast. We've already just, we've talked about Lalor's launch. We've also got another launch up in Queensland, Mackay.

00:22:58Melissa Erbacher: That'll be another geographic hole filled in the Queensland map for parkruns. So that'll be great. I'd love to get to Mackay parkrun. It's a little bit of a flight from where I am, but it'll happen eventually. Where's the cake this week, Scotty?

00:23:14Scott Trickett: If we're after cake, we're heading to Augustine Heights. They're having their third anniversary. We've also got two one-year anniversaries. Over in WA, Cottesloe. Cottesloe had a very soft launch. They might be having a very soft anniversary as well.

00:23:31Melissa Erbacher: And they'll actually be having a bit of a soft run because did you know they also run on sand for part of their course over there, Scotty?

00:23:38Scott Trickett: In some of my thorough research that I do for this podcast, I recently looked up Cottesloe and I did see some photos of them on the beach.

00:23:46Melissa Erbacher: Ah, well, I would like to say that I actually researched this for the podcast, but I was actually there yesterday. We went to have a look and check out where the parkrun course starts and stuff. So it looks gorgeous. Another ridiculously gorgeous parkrun. There's just too many of them now.

00:24:02Scott Trickett: Do you know what is my number one parkrun that I want to get to?

00:24:07Melissa Erbacher: Tell me. guess guess could could you give me a state it's in new south wales it's in the region of rennes in that case i would say sandon point no i want to get to the beaches oh okay you you want to get to the beaches just to run on the soft sand or would you go on a hard sand week so you could have it a bit easier

00:24:33Scott Trickett: I'm just intrigued by the idea that the parkrun is entirely on the beach. I think that's just so cool. I think that's just so very Australian. And it's something that I want to do. And I'm really surprised their numbers are so small.

00:24:47Melissa Erbacher: Well, I guess being on the beach, you know, you don't have parents with prams participating. I'm not sure if it's a dog-friendly beach. They might not even allow dogs as part of their run. So that might have something to do with it. It might just be that they've only got a very

00:25:02Scott Trickett: small hardcore group of people who are willing to run on soft sand it would definitely be an adventure we need to get someone from the beaches on the pod soon tell us all about it there's one more anniversary this week down my neck of the woods the third anniversary in three weeks for the Gippsland region as Sale celebrate their first anniversary

00:25:28Melissa Erbacher: The winter run season has certainly kicked off with a vengeance already. I mean, this past weekend, of course, there were massive running festivals in Canberra, Western Australia, Brisbane. I'm sure there must have been stuff going on in Victoria, New South Wales. So heaps more coming up. I would really love to hear from people who are traveling to these events because I know you're out there. about whether or not you're also trying to coincide the trip with a weekend stay and a parkrun that you haven't been to.

00:26:01Scott Trickett: It's the way to do it. I know we had down here, we had the Buffalo Stampede on over the weekend, but they went over three days. They did Friday, Saturday, Sunday, so you couldn't squeeze a parkrun in there. But it's almost mandatory now, isn't it? If you're going to do a road trip for a running event, it needs to be near a parkrun.

00:26:22Melissa Erbacher: It's certainly mandatory that I won't travel if I'm going to miss a parkrun on a Saturday.

00:26:28Scott Trickett: I was meaning to ask you, Mel. I saw something about you having your own fridge magnet. Please explain.

00:26:34Melissa Erbacher: Well, I have my own fridge magnet, Scotty. What more do you need explained?

00:26:40Scott Trickett: Describe the fridge magnet and how it came into existence.

00:26:44Melissa Erbacher: Last year at the Gold Coast Marathon... I may have, in support of my running club, the Zoolanders, created quite a large banner that was fluoro pink and had in lettering that's about a little bit less than a foot high and in metallic blue glitter, it says, Zoolanders, you're so hot right now. And so this is quite a large banner and I dressed up as Mugatu from the original film and I stood there for five and a half hours cheering on all the Zoolanders. And so there were photos taken of me with this big sign and it was shared in the Zoolander group. And one of the Zoolanders from Western Australia, his name is Fading Away, actually turned me into a fridge magnet. So these fridge magnets get given to Zoolanders who do good Zoolander deeds, whether that be some kind of adventurous feat in a massive run they do somewhere or if they themselves do some cool banners. Anything that furthers the Zoolander effort, they will get a Zoolander magnet as their reward. Reward. So I'm on people's fridges in Australia and overseas, I believe, as well. So that's a bit different.

00:28:13Scott Trickett: I didn't know that story because I'm not a Zoolander. So I miss out on all this Zoolander lore and history. So I'm glad you're here to educate us. But I think that means we need another magnet. We need some parkrun adventurers merchandise. What do you think about that idea?

00:28:30Melissa Erbacher: Oh, I'd love to see some parkrun adventurers merchandise.

00:28:33Scott Trickett: What should we start with? Visors, leg warmers?

00:28:37Melissa Erbacher: Well, what do all adventurers need?

00:28:40Scott Trickett: Good question.

00:28:43Melissa Erbacher: Have you read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

00:28:48Scott Trickett: No.

00:28:49Melissa Erbacher: Because don't panic is like the guy's mantra and every adventurer needs a towel. You can get out of all sorts of sticky situations if you have a towel.

00:29:04Scott Trickett: So a towel's going to be our first bit of merchandise?

00:29:09Melissa Erbacher: I don't know. I mean, I don't use towels much outside of my house because I don't swim. We might need to workshop this.

00:29:22Scott Trickett: I feel better about leg warmers than I do about towels.

00:29:25Melissa Erbacher: Leg warmers.

00:29:26Scott Trickett: Yeah, we've all got t-shirts, we've all got visors, we've all got headbands. What's the key missing accessory item that we can fill that void and profit from it? So there's some homework for our listeners this week. Episode one, we started giving you challenges, adventures. That never really took off. So now we're going to give you homework.

Listener "homework"

Listener challenges / "adventures"

00:29:52Melissa Erbacher: Because that's so much more fun than an adventure.

00:29:54Scott Trickett: Isn't it? So on your runs this week or at parkrun, have a think about what bit of merchandise or accessory you're missing. Let us know. We'll make it happen. That's the episode for this week. We said it was going to be short. If you've planned a 40 or 50 minute run, what are you going to do for the next 20 minutes?

00:30:11Melissa Erbacher: I think they should start listening to a previous episode again.

00:30:15Scott Trickett: That sounds like a great idea. But for this week, that's all.