Episode 20 - Scott Westcott

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00:00:07Scott Trickett: Episode 20 of the parkrun Adventurers is rocking out this week. A little bit of a different intro music. And we're going to have a little bit of different music throughout the program this week as a special treat. How are you going, Mel?

00:00:12[music]

00:00:21Melissa Erbacher: I'm super amazing. Scotty, how about you?

00:00:25Scott Trickett: Yeah, I'm not quite there, but I'm close. I'm looking forward to this episode. It's going to be a beauty. We've got a few guests on this week.

00:00:33Melissa Erbacher: It's a big one.

00:00:34Scott Trickett: So it could be a long run for some.

00:00:36Melissa Erbacher: Get ready, people. Pace yourselves.

00:00:38Scott Trickett: I warned you early. I'm also back in Melbourne this week, which I'm very happy about. I was happy to be in Sydney last week, but always good to be home. And unfortunately, I went to Sydney for almost a week and didn't manage to do it on a Saturday, which is just crazy. But I still managed to run a couple of parkruns while I was up there. Mel, you may ask me how I did that. I went on an adventure. I went on a Freedom Run adventure. I headed out to Cooks River parkrun and to Rhodes parkrun.

00:01:13Melissa Erbacher: You snuck a few Freedom Runs in.

00:01:15Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:01:18Melissa Erbacher: Nice work. That's what a true adventurer would do.

00:01:21Scott Trickett: It's a great way to see parkruns that you know you can't get to on a Saturday. So I recorded a little bit of audio after I completed those Freedom Runs. Let's have a listen. Okay adventurers, I've been in Sydney all week working. I had an early finish today. So like all good parkrun adventurers, I looked at the city of Sydney's map and mapped out my freedom runs. First port of call would have been St Peter's but I looked at the map and it was just a mess. So I'm going to save that for a Saturday morning, an official run. So I got the pro tip from Paul Wilcox and tossing up between Cooks River and Rhodes. So I've headed out to Cooks River and I've just done it. It's a... Two lap out and back course along the river here, so you go out for 1.25 and head back and then you do it again. Haven't done one of those before. Dead flat, there are a couple of little pimples on the course, I don't think anyone would actually call them hills. Commits a real parkrun crime that we run along the river, past I think two or three bridges, and don't get to cross them. So I think we're going to have to get someone from Cooks River on to justify that decision. Otherwise, great course, very flat, lots of shade along the river so no car noises. We start in St Mary MacKillop Reserve, nice playground, it's got a bit of shelter. So cracking parkrun for Cooks River, just need to address the non-bridge crossing issue. Now the real adventure is about to start because I'm going to head over to Rhodes. It's dark now and I've got about 20% on my phone which is also my navigation system but I couldn't really call myself a parkrun adventurer if I didn't want to risk this challenge. Back in the car, feel fresh, sat on a five minute case for that one so we might get to Rhodes in the dark and push that one a bit. Let's see if I make it and let's see if my phone battery lasts. No surprises, I'm back in my hotel room now. The phone battery didn't last but it did get me across to Rhodes parkrun so I've done their freedom run there. A real run of contrasts you start in the Olympic Park area. I did a variation of the course because there's a loop in their course and I did it at the start and I think it actually comes at the end of the official run. But you do this loop then you head out along the freeway so no lighting at night like zero lighting it was pitch black could barely see five centimeters in front of my face. But then you hit the roads waterfront area and we got some lighting there thankfully. It's quite pretty, dead flat both the runs tonight were dead flat. If I was to come back to Sydney I think roads would probably pique my interest a bit more because because it was so dark I couldn't really tell where I was running tonight but It seemed like a nice run. The real adventure began when I had to navigate back into the city. Phone battery was about 7% and it got me back onto the freeway and I figured out the rest of the way from there. So I took on an adventure and I highly recommend it. Freedom runs is the way to go if you're in town midweek and you're not going to be around until Saturday go out and do freedom runs. And it's a great way to see other courses.

Freedom run adventure report (Cooks River and Rhodes, Sydney)

00:05:12Melissa Erbacher: Well, sounds like you definitely had a little adventure. You should have recruited some locals to come along who might have been able to help you out with the GPS aspect of, you know, navigating from one to the other with very low battery.

00:05:26Scott Trickett: But good job, Scotty. It's funny you should mention that because a previous guest on the podcast noticed my run on Strava, Ashley, and he said, you should have let me know you were running there because he would have... Run with me. And that way I wouldn't have got the course wrong at Rhodes. I got it a little bit wrong. So I might do that next time I'm in town. I might let our listeners know that I'm coming. I'm that important.

00:05:51Melissa Erbacher: Put the call out. You'll be doing freedom runs during the week. Yes.

00:05:56Scott Trickett: It's not a bad idea.

00:05:57Melissa Erbacher: No, it's a great idea. We actually had an offer when we were in Tasmania for a guided tour of Devonport, which was really awesome, and that's because we mentioned it on the podcast, so people are listening. Yeah. Important people who do parkruns.

00:06:13Scott Trickett: Okay, so this week, are you going to do any freedom runs? Do you want to do any freedom runs this week?

00:06:18Melissa Erbacher: Oh, let me think about that. I don't think I can fit any in this week. Okay. You? You?

00:06:27Scott Trickett: no i might do a freedom at westerfolds tomorrow night but i've done that before so maybe you should make it an open open invitation anyway maybe you should be guiding people on that run yeah well there you go if you want to come westerfolds thursday night seven o'clock i'll give you a guided tour we'll do a freedom run how's your running going mel have you snuck in any runs this week

00:06:50Melissa Erbacher: Well, I've volunteered at parkrun the last two weeks in a row, and I did manage to get a run in on Sunday. I did a trail event up in Woodford, which was very good fun, 12 kilometers of hilly, traily goodness. There were some other crazy parkrun adventurers out there who I know listened to the show and they were doing the 50K and did an amazing job. Some others that were doing the 33K also did an amazing job. And I did notice because obviously, you know, people Instagram, it's on Strava, Sundays are becoming this massive day and the weekends are becoming a massive day for people to be sharing their They're running adventures, not just parkrun, but at other events as the winter running season kicks off. And there were so many this weekend. And I was talking to my husband about this the other day. We've stopped going to events that are just, you know, your standard 10K or half marathon events. because we're looking for something different now, you know, we've, we've done those distances, and we want our events to be something a little bit different. So for example, you know, there was the Wings for Life World Run, not this weekend just gone, but the weekend before, which had a chaser car, you know, chasing down the runners, and you just had to run as far as you could before the chaser car caught up to you. And that's something that really interests me, you know, events that have something a little bit different. Have you experienced any events that are something a little bit different, Scotty?

00:08:31Scott Trickett: It's funny you mention the Wings for Life, because I was all set to do it this year, but that damn trip to Sydney got in the way, so I missed it. No, but I have got my eye on, they call it GORM, the Great Ocean Road Marathon, because it's not actually, well, it is a marathon, but they go a little bit extra in both the half and the full. So it's like this weird mind trick where you get to the 42.2 and then they make you run another three kilometres, which is interesting. That's a little bit different. And the same with the half. I think they go for 23 kilometres instead of 21.

00:09:07Melissa Erbacher: Not to mention it's on the Great Ocean Road. So you've got, you know, all those spectacular views and all those spectacular hills to navigate.

00:09:15Scott Trickett: The views are amazing. I understand it was a bit windy yesterday. This year I think they ran into a headwind the whole way, which is one of the risks you take when you run from one point to another.

00:09:27Melissa Erbacher: Sounds like hard work.

00:09:28Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:09:30Melissa Erbacher: Sure, it was rewarding. Well, we should get our listeners to let us know what their interesting events are that they've got. You know, the winter running season is full of them. I'm keen to hear what everyone's going to be doing this year. So let us know. Drop us a line on the Facebook page or hashtag parkrunadventurers and comment on the Instagram pic or tweet us. We're all over the social media. Keen to hear what you've got planned.

00:09:59Scott Trickett: Lots of parkrunners at the UTA event in the Blue Mountains. So they were on an adventure. We also spotted on our Facebook page one of our keen listeners, Melissa Ellis. She did a great thing. So with her running group Raring to Run, they filled out the volunteer positions at Berwick Springs parkrun and then they headed down to the Great Ocean Road Marathon. And that sounds like a great adventure.

00:10:27Melissa Erbacher: Melissa Ellis and her friends are the definition of parkrun adventurers.

00:10:31Scott Trickett: We have been asked in the past, why are we parkrun adventurers and not parkrun tourists? So what's the difference between an adventurer and a tourist?

00:10:42Melissa Erbacher: I reckon it's the fun factor. Adventurers have so much more fun than tourists.

00:10:47Scott Trickett: Because you can be an adventurer even when you're at your home parkrun. Because being an adventurer is about doing something a little bit different. Trying something different. So you can do that when you're visiting in another parkrun. Or even when you're at home and you just try something different. Like talking to somebody that you've never met before. Or you wear something that you would never wear in your right mind if you went out for a run, a 5K run or walk.

00:11:14Melissa Erbacher: It's all about pushing the boundaries of your comfort zone and expanding them into a super awesome, huger comfort zone that's even more fun and has more possibilities. And back to redeem himself from what has been described as a lackluster facts in a haystack. We're joined once more by Ian Hay. Ian, welcome to the podcast.

Facts in a Haystack

00:11:49Ian Hay: Hey, guys. I'll definitely redeem myself this week.

00:11:53Scott Trickett: Hi, Ian. I wasn't describing it as lackluster. For the record, that wasn't me.

00:11:57Ian Hay: What an intro. What's with that? I think last week just didn't go so well.

00:12:02Scott Trickett: I loved it still.

00:12:05Ian Hay: Now, don't tell anyone, but this week I've gone slightly less technical. The stats are technical, but I've printed it out on paper. I'm not using my laptop. It's closed. So unless my doorway comes and destroys my paperwork, we're all good.

00:12:19Scott Trickett: This is progress. I like it.

00:12:21Ian Hay: That's right.

00:12:22Melissa Erbacher: So what have you got for us? You gave yourself a pretty big wrap with what these stats were going to be last week, Ian. So, you know, looking forward to you delivering.

00:12:31Ian Hay: Well, about that, I opened up the laptop. I looked at those stats and I thought, The world's not ready for something that good just yet. So I'm going to hold off on that and we've got a slightly different direction this week. It's almost as good. Actually, I think it's better, but it's just... So this week we have gone with, at the end of the last podcast, which was a month and a bit ago now, Scott mentioned his daughter having run quite a few parkruns around the state. and mentioned asking about some junior stats on a number of events that they've run across the country. So I've gone and got a heap of stats on that.

00:13:05Scott Trickett: So I wanted to know if she was the only or one of the few juniors on the most events table.

00:13:12Ian Hay: What I've done is I've gotten two bunches of stats on juniors. I've gone with unique events by state, so the highest percentage within a state, and I've also gone across all of Australia as well. So the first one, is basically the highest percentage of a state that a junior has managed to fill. So we've got, she's sitting at number 22 for that one. So she's got, what, 48%.

00:13:40Melissa Erbacher: Does this include Darwin in the Northern Territory as a state? Because then, you know, any child that had participated in Darwin would have 100%.

00:13:48Ian Hay: Yeah, exactly. So no, we've sort of gone a little bit different to there. So what I've done is I've got basically a couple of people in Victoria that are in the junior club that have done, what, 31 and 24 events.

00:14:03Scott Trickett: Okay. She's got a goal. She's got people she's got to catch.

00:14:07Unidentified speaker: Yep.

00:14:08Ian Hay: So these are the other ones. So I did basically across. So that was across states. So it's just to re-explain it properly. It's based on within each state who's done the most across the country. So I probably worded that wrong. So I probably confused everyone out there in the world. You confused me. I've confused myself as well, so don't worry. It's because it's on paper and not on the laptop, so that's what's done it. So when we look at basically across all of Australia, she's sitting at number 11, which... I've gone with all of juniors, so that's all the way up to age 17. And interestingly, we've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Out of the top 13, 12 of those are junior 10s that have done the most amount of events across Australia. So we've got one 17-year-old who's 15 to 17 who's sitting at the top of the list, and pretty much the rest of them are all junior 10s, which is amazing. So we've got some junior 10s really getting around the country.

00:15:07Melissa Erbacher: They've got some adult adventurers for parents.

00:15:10Ian Hay: Absolutely. So that's pretty cool to see. Good. So she's not in the top 10. She's very, very one event off sitting in the top 10. Actually, one event to be equal 10.

00:15:20Scott Trickett: Okay.

00:15:21Ian Hay: So you've got some driving to do, Scott.

00:15:24Scott Trickett: Don't worry, I'm planning. The mind's ticking over already.

00:15:27Ian Hay: So leading on from that, it got me thinking about where I could go next with the stats for this week. And what I thought I would do is base it around parkrun adventurers. So I wanted to look out and just see how many people are getting around the country, just outside of juniors. So I broke into two categories. One was I wanted to look at launches, and then the other one was I wanted to look at week-to-week events, basically. I was curious to see how many adventurers get out to launches across Australia. So I've looked at this year. Now, it should be a pretty obvious one for you guys. Who would be at the top of the list for the most amount of adventurers that got to a launch? I'm almost positive if the EDs listening in, they would know straight away. I'll see if you guys can guess it.

00:16:13Melissa Erbacher: Can you give us a state?

00:16:15Ian Hay: Queensland.

00:16:17Melissa Erbacher: Oh, for a launch. Which event got the most adventurers? And that was this year, this calendar year.

00:16:25Scott Trickett: I'm going with Nambour.

00:16:27Melissa Erbacher: Nambour was in November last year.

00:16:29Scott Trickett: I'm not going with Nambour.

00:16:35Ian Hay: I'm just trying to remember. As soon as I say it, he's going to go.

00:16:39Melissa Erbacher: No, Rocky was too far away. It had a lot of locals, but it didn't have a lot of adventurers. It's going to be something like Kedron or, yeah, I would say Kedron.

00:16:53Ian Hay: You're going to kick yourself when you hear this one. Sirromet. Sarah May.

00:17:00Melissa Erbacher: Because that was us. That was us getting the adventurers there. It had nothing to do with the fact that Liv worked really, really hard for weeks and weeks and months before that. That was all us.

00:17:12Ian Hay: Hopefully Liv's not listening in right now.

00:17:14Melissa Erbacher: Oh, she'll be listening. Hi, Liv. Oh, it was so obvious.

00:17:18Ian Hay: So, yeah, they had, what, 620 runners, and out of that, 479 were parkrun adventurers. That was 77%, which is huge.

00:17:30Melissa Erbacher: Adventurers love wine.

00:17:33Scott Trickett: And that did show in the massive drop-off from week one to week two. Yeah. For Sirromet 2.

00:17:39Ian Hay: Yep, that's right. But fortunately you weren't too far off because Kedron was number three. So they had 73% parkrun adventurers. Maylands Peninsula was number two.

00:17:51Melissa Erbacher: Maylands Peninsula, well, that's in WA. So even though that was a sneaky little, they didn't tell anyone they were launching officially. It wasn't in the newsletter and it wasn't on the podcast. But I think they're on to it in WA anyway.

00:18:07Ian Hay: It's kind of hard to hide these things. Everyone knows what's going on in parkrun Land, don't they?

00:18:10Scott Trickett: How did we go at Studley? Did we make the list there?

00:18:15Ian Hay: Studley came in at number six. Okay. Yeah. which was 66%, so still very high up there. So I also did it by total numbers, so percentage.

00:18:28Melissa Erbacher: Wait a minute, wait a minute. Studley was six with 66%. I'm hearing 666. I think the devil's in your stats this week, Ian.

00:18:41Scott Trickett: Messing with me again. Don't relate the devil and Studley. I'm not doing it.

00:18:50Melissa Erbacher: The numbers don't lie, Scotty. Okay.

00:18:54Scott Trickett: Well, let's move on. What's the next one?

00:18:58Ian Hay: So I also did it by, I like to do it by number of runners because sometimes the big events really struggle with percentage. It really, it brings out the smaller number ones. But even by numbers, Sirromet was still right at the top of the list. So that was huge. The Terrace came in at number two with numbers. So 443 tourists with a launch of 693, which is massive. and Kedron was still number three, even with numbers. But Studley did move up to number five, so that moved up a ranking, so 154 tourists, so yeah.

00:19:31Melissa Erbacher: We need to get numbers on how many tourists, well, no, adventurers, I should say, have been out there just this year, you know, at all the events, all together.

00:19:42Ian Hay: That's a good idea. I'll make a note of that for next time.

00:19:44Melissa Erbacher: Please do. Hmm.

00:19:47Ian Hay: So... The next bit that I moved on to was to look at the adventurers outside of a launch. So basically just week-to-week running of events and how many people, which events most people go to outside of their home event. Now, this is another one I'll get you to guess. It's probably going to be an obvious one when I highlight it as well, but I can tell you the highest percentage, the top four in the highest percentage of events was from one event. So over weeks and weeks and weeks, the top four was from one event of the highest number of adventurers going to it. Do you want to hazard a guess at that one?

00:20:28Melissa Erbacher: I'm guessing that's in Queensland again.

00:20:30Scott Trickett: Hang on, I need to get my head around this. So this is the event that has the most tourists.

00:20:37Melissa Erbacher: The most adventurers visiting.

00:20:40Ian Hay: Yes.

00:20:40Scott Trickett: Yes.

00:20:41Ian Hay: So on a particular week, which one has the most amount of tourist adventurers coming to their parkrun that week?

00:20:51Scott Trickett: I'm going to stick it local. I reckon it's Albert Park.

00:20:56Ian Hay: I thought it would be too, actually, but they don't even rank on this list.

00:21:02Scott Trickett: How about am I going this week? Go on, Mel. Sorry? Here's your chance to get one on me.

00:21:04[crosstalk]

00:21:08Melissa Erbacher: All right. I need to clarify that you mean total, the percentage, is it just at that event? So it's got the highest percentage. Oh, see, now first I was going to say South Bank, but I'm going to change my mind and say Noosa.

00:21:27Ian Hay: No on all counts. Not doing too well at the guessing this week. And the beaches came out on top. Ah, the beaches.

00:21:36Melissa Erbacher: In the region in front of us.

00:21:37Ian Hay: We're talking percentage here, so that's where the smaller events can really jump out.

00:21:43Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, this is true. This is, yeah, that makes sense. Once again, kicking ourselves, you're right.

00:21:49Ian Hay: Yeah, once you know, it's pretty obvious. So the beaches, it's, yeah, who wouldn't want to go there? So it's certainly one to go visit. But, yeah, that was the top four. So basically they've got four weeks this year where they've been the highest, so 73% down to 64%. of tourists, of adventurers going along to their events. Hamilton Island was the next one after that, so they were certainly up there as well. Of course. Yeah, so I thought that was quite interesting too.

00:22:17Melissa Erbacher: Very interesting.

00:22:19Ian Hay: So that is our parkrun Adventurers stats for this month.

00:22:24Melissa Erbacher: There's facts in a haystack.

00:22:28Ian Hay: Thanks, Janine. Wasn't that worth the wait after all that?

00:22:30Scott Trickett: It was. It took me a while to get my head around it, but I think I'm there now.

00:22:34Ian Hay: I'm hoping I haven't confused everyone out there.

00:22:37Melissa Erbacher: Scotty might have to listen to it a couple more times.

00:22:39Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:22:40Melissa Erbacher: Just to catch up.

00:22:42Scott Trickett: Okay, Ian, thanks again for another awesome week of Facts in the Haystack.

00:22:48Ian Hay: Anytime, guys.

00:22:49Scott Trickett: It's been a pleasure. We look forward to doing this again next month.

00:22:53Melissa Erbacher: Super glad you decided to print it out this week.

00:22:57Ian Hay: Thanks, guys.

00:23:12Scott Trickett: It is an exciting time of year for athletes around Australia as the Olympic selection announcements are made. There is a parkrun connection this year with the men's marathon athletes. Scott Westcott, our parkrun Australia record holder, is now off to Rio and he's joined us on the pod. Welcome Scott.

00:23:30Scott Westcott: Good evening Scott and good evening Mel and great to be having a chat with you guys and all your listeners in the parkrun landscape of Australia.

00:23:42Scott Trickett: What's more exciting for you, Scott, being the parkrun Australian record holder or getting to go to your first Olympics?

00:23:50Scott Westcott: It's very close. But look, I've enjoyed being the parkrun record holder for probably a little longer than what I thought was possible. It's actually been hanging around for almost three years. So if it makes it to Rio, then I reckon that's a good achievement. But I'm absolutely honoured to be a part of the Australian Olympic team and that has been a goal of mine since I was about the age of 16.

00:24:19Melissa Erbacher: So you must be a pretty handy runner then?

00:24:21Scott Westcott: Yeah, I don't mind it. It's actually, yeah, something that struck a chord with me early on as a kid in primary school and then, you know, on to adolescence, you know, when the world goes a little bit crazy and you kind of need something to anchor you and I found that in running. It was amazing. both because I was good at running but also because I found it just a way to escape or just to be on my own, to just reflect and unpack the day's events and just deal with all the stuff an adolescent has to deal with. I just found running did that for me and it's kind of set up a habit for life.

00:25:06Melissa Erbacher: And when you were a teenager, did you ever imagine that you would be going to the Olympics to represent your country?

00:25:13Scott Westcott: Probably I imagined it more as a teenager than what I have in the last five years, actually. I really thought that was what I was destined to do. I believe when you're in a small town in country New South Wales and you're pretty good at something, it You can get a little bit ahead of yourself. But, yeah, global athletics and global running is very competitive. And so the realities of that meant that I was soon, yeah, needed to jump up a level or two and I wasn't meeting all the targets as a young athlete. But I kept chipping away, chipping away, chipping away and got pretty close in recent Olympics, so 2000, 2004, 2008. And eight, I was very close to making a team. But after that, after, you know, not really getting close in 2012, I thought, well, that was it. So I hadn't been thinking about it too much in the last four years. But I had just been enjoying my running, going back to the roots of what it was all about. And that was just, you know, dealing with life's pressures. And they were different now that I was an adult and had a family, got three kids and, you know, a job and all that sort of stuff. But running was still very important.

00:26:33Melissa Erbacher: As an adult with a wife and three kids, how do you even manage to fit time in to run and train for an Olympics?

00:26:43Scott Westcott: I guess because I've done a lot of the bigger sort of taking care of the big adaptations when I was a younger man and I was single. So I've spent, you know, weeks plowing through 200Ks a week where you've got not much time else but, you know, sleep, eat and run. So I've done that. I don't need to do it again. And I've got all the, I guess, the benefits of that, and I've had the injuries to boot. But nowadays, being 40, I can't. you know, do the same levels of training. All I need to do is to touch on all those great training benefits that I've got already in my body. And, you know, I can do that with sort of two-thirds or three-quarters of the training that I used to do as a young man. So training pretty much is, you know, out the front door, close the door and start running. And when I get back inside the front gate, I better stop running because, you know, I'll have kids all over me or I've got to kick the soccer ball, I've got to hang out the wash and all. Whatever it is I've got to do. So it's just pretty time efficient the way that I train these days.

00:27:48Scott Trickett: You mentioned you've had a few cracks at the Olympics and you also mentioned you're 40, which is not old but not young. Do you reckon you're in your peak now? Do you reckon you've hit your peak in your 40s?

00:28:01Scott Westcott: I think... My physical peak was probably a little while ago. My personal best marathon was 2.11.36 set in Japan when I was 30 years old. That's probably when I was at the peak of my powers in terms of taking on board huge training loads and most of the time absorbing it. But the downside of that was I could easily overdo it and I was susceptible to injury and I had injury after injury and, you know, overuse injuries like stress fractures take a long time to heal. So now... I don't know if smarter is the right word but certainly more experienced in my head space is I think a lot more developed as an athlete. It would be nice to have my head now back when I had the body of a 30-year-old. It would be a pretty awesome combination but it's almost like I had to learn those lessons and then your body's not as it was but just learning how to use your body more effectively. Yeah.

00:29:06Scott Trickett: We're a bit under 100 days out from Rio. We are, yes. What's your training like at the moment?

00:29:14Scott Westcott: So there's 97 days to go. I know that because I'm doing a bit of a sneaky 100-day blog to Rio. Give it a quick plug. At least that's my... Yeah, so 100 Days to Rio blog, available at the Run NSW website. And I've been blogging since Friday, which was 100 Days to Go to the Olympic Marathon. And I'm just using that to, I guess, use my training as a bit of a conversation starter and sort of reflect a little bit on... why I do the training I do and maybe some of the memories that it conjures up or where I got that particular training session from or, you know, the behaviour that sort of goes around with running and the particular running that I do. So that's what the blog's about and I think, you know, it's a good time to do it. There might be a handful of readers but it's a good exercise for me.

00:30:06Scott Trickett: Yep, and you're training at the moment? What sort of workload are you putting in three months out?

00:30:11Scott Westcott: Yeah, three months out. So I've just kicked over, yeah, 14 weeks to go. And for me, Scott, that was always going to be the marathon-specific, you know, work starts now. So I'm looking at around... you know, 140, 150 kilometres a week. I've got a local physio practice has thrown me some time on the anti-G treadmill. So that's been actually pretty good. Not so much, you know, recovering from injury, but simply just more miles. So I can do... you know 10k run on the alter g treadmill and it's it's like going for a recovery run but without the impact so i'm squeezing in a little bit of extra so i might actually get up to around 160 165 kilometers a week just with a couple of runs uh on that Alter-G treadmill So it's not going to hurt me and it's better than riding a bike or going for a swim for cross training. So kind of classify that as cross training. And then I do my bread and butter session, as I would call it, is my long run on a Sunday. And that's typically about two and a half hours. And then I've got three speed workouts through the week as well. So Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday are all sort of varied speed and speed endurance workouts.

00:31:29Melissa Erbacher: On your bread and butter run, so you do two and a half hours. That's slower than obviously your marathon time during a race. But what kind of distance would you clock in that two and a half hours? Would you actually run a full marathon in that time or is your slow run pace substantially different?

00:31:48Scott Westcott: No. So you're right, Mel. I would never get – sometimes I might get close, but it would usually be about 35 kilometres in two and a half hours. I will do some runs in there that are more intense or will contain a section of the run. at marathon tempo, and I'll probably do between now and Rio, I'd say I'll do maybe four. So one every three weeks. We'll have a surge component in the long run. So that might drive the long run up to maybe 38K, but, yeah, that would be the extreme. I wouldn't go any further than that.

00:32:25Melissa Erbacher: Okay. And so your blog is called 100 Days to Rio, but obviously your journey to get to Rio started a lot longer ago than this. Yes. And the selection was only announced last week, but it was actually announced after a bit of a delay because there was an appeal put in. So you ran your Rio qualifying marathon last year in a time of two hours, 15 and 30. And Jeff Hunt, who is the person who appealed said, ran his fastest at 2.1609, which is, what, 39 seconds slower than you? That would have freaked me out. How do you cope with waiting an extra two weeks after you've waited so long? I guess...

00:33:13Scott Westcott: Not thinking it was going to be two and a half weeks. And then just life is just busy anyway, Mel. So it was okay. And trying not to think about it was probably the best strategy. But it was nerve-wracking. Don't get me wrong. I would have rather had heard, you know, the decision when they announced the girls' team and, you know, it was all cut and dry. But, look, the appeals... process is something that athletics affords its athletes and a lot of Olympic sports do the same. So as inconvenient and as anxiety provoking as it was, it was just part of the process. So I'm glad we're on the other side of it now and I can just think about preparing for Rio.

00:34:02Scott Trickett: It's going to be exciting. Let's bring it back to your parkrun. Your home is at Newy, where you've set the record, is that correct?

00:34:11Scott Westcott: Correct, yeah. So I was there for parkrun number one in Newey. We had 79 participants and I think pretty sure it was the 9th of June 2012.

00:34:20Scott Trickett: And you set the record in 2003, interestingly enough, on International parkrun Day. Have you had another crack at that record since then?

00:34:32Scott Westcott: Well, yes and no. I've tried to go fast, but look, everything just clicked on that day. And that was a week before Melbourne Marathon, and I ran 2.14.23 for Melbourne Marathon. So it was a bit of a form guide. So, of course, almost two years later, I went out and had another crack. a week before Berlin last year, and I ran 14.46 or 47, something like that. So I was a good 20-plus seconds outside my parkrun record. But what it actually did was it gave me an indication of – what fitness level I was for the marathon. And I knew, well, I'm not as fit as what I was before Melbourne two years ago, so I better not try and run the same pace. So it was actually really helpful. And I'll be fully getting my hands dirty and running a Newey parkrun two weeks before the Olympic marathon as my final hit out and hopefully a pretty good form guide.

00:35:37Scott Trickett: Great. I'm sure they'll give you a big send-off too.

00:35:39Scott Westcott: Yes, yeah, plenty of high fives.

00:35:42Scott Trickett: Yeah, my hand will be red raw by the end of it probably. Do you nervously or anxiously look at the fastest times from week to week and see if anyone's getting close to your record?

00:35:54Scott Westcott: No, I welcome it. I think, yeah, there was a little bit of that early on, I think, when parkrun was just getting established in 2012, 2013, and you had guys like Marty Dent, come out and have a few cracks and then Brett Robinson, who's one of our best 5K and 10K runners in Australia, he went and had a crack as well. I think he had it for a little while and I think, you know, just... yeah, when everything all came together, I think I took the record off Marty or Brett and, you know, just put it down in the 1420s. So any of those guys could actually do it, but they'll have to be pretty deliberate. They can't just sort of rock up and, you know, go for a Saturday morning run and get the record. They're going to have to, yeah, sort of knuckle down and approach it with some gusto, I think.

00:36:49Melissa Erbacher: So you've got, four course record, Scott, but you've actually run at five different events. So what happened with Fingal Bay?

00:36:57Scott Westcott: I had the record for a little while, didn't I? And you got to give it to another Olympian, surely. So I believe it was Aaron Royle who came up, well, I don't know how long after I set a record there and he beat my record by a second. But that's okay because, you know, he's a local Nova Castrian, now lives in Wollongong, but, of course, he's an Australian triathlete representative at Rio. So by all means, I can share the love around the area.

00:37:34Melissa Erbacher: And every second counts.

00:37:36Scott Westcott: It does. It does, yeah. So it could have been the sticky fingers on the stopwatch the day I ran perhaps.

00:37:42Melissa Erbacher: You didn't pay the timekeeper enough.

00:37:45Scott Westcott: No, that's right. And to be honest, I think it's all very friendly rivalry and I know there's a lot of guys who go out there looking to win every... One of the guys who's in our training group, he goes looking to win every parkrun in the district at some point or other. I think he's won all 13 parkruns in the Lower Hunter. So, yeah, there is some bragging rights there. But it's parkrun, not park race.

00:38:13Melissa Erbacher: This is absolutely true. And speaking of which, you're talking about bragging rights. What is your slowest ever parkrun?

00:38:22Scott Westcott: Well, I haven't run a parkrun with a pram or with any of my children yet. So I feel like it's a rhetorical question, Mel.

00:38:31Melissa Erbacher: Okay, so when are you going to get the kids out there? When are you going to get the kids out there?

00:38:36Scott Westcott: Well, my eldest is eight years old this year and –

00:38:41Melissa Erbacher: That's twice the age you have to be to start.

00:38:43Scott Westcott: Yeah, yeah. No, he's running quite well over 2K, and I'm very strategic about when he can start doing the hard grind. But, yeah, we'll have a look at the records. No, but seriously, I just would like him to be a couple of years older, maybe 10, and then we'll take him out and do a full 5K. I'm sure he could do it now, but, yeah, I want to see him. Yeah, take on running as something which he enjoys for life and, yeah, certainly don't want to scare him off too early because it's a long way. 5K is a long way for a young person.

00:39:19Melissa Erbacher: They don't have to run the whole way.

00:39:22Scott Westcott: No, that's true. And Newey is actually pretty convenient. You could actually run half of it and then just sort of loop back to the start over what we call the pretty bridge and not run all the way back.

00:39:33Melissa Erbacher: I meant he could walk the balance of the distance.

00:39:36Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:39:37Scott Westcott: Yeah, yeah, he could. He could. I probably need to retire for the third time, Mel, so I wouldn't have itchy feet though. So what would I be doing? Because it's a Sunday morning. I've got to run hard on a Sunday morning.

00:39:49Melissa Erbacher: So it's all about you then, Scott, really.

00:39:52Scott Westcott: No, it's not supposed to be, but at least for the next three and a half months it is and then maybe I'll have a go at retiring again and hit parkrun with the kids. It's a good challenge though, Mel. Yeah.

00:40:04Melissa Erbacher: It is. Thank you so much for joining us on the podcast, Scott. We will be watching and keeping track of you on your blog, 100 Days to Rio, and cannot wait until the 21st of August where we can all tune in to watch you in the men's marathon at Rio.

00:40:20Scott Westcott: No, thank you, Mel, and I do love just the parkrun community and everything that it stands for and just getting people, you know, off the couch and out there moving in such a non-threatening way. You guys do a wonderful job and I'll certainly be a big fan and, yeah, hopefully come and run a lot more, you know, parkruns with my family in the years and months ahead.

00:40:46Melissa Erbacher: Hopefully you can try some Victorian and Queensland courses.

00:40:50Scott Westcott: Yes, definitely. What's your recommendation?

00:40:54Melissa Erbacher: Albert Park and... Everybody goes to Albert Park who does Victoria. Don't get Scotty started on Albert Park.

00:41:02Scott Westcott: It is a beautiful course, I understand. Bendigo. Yeah, Bendigo. It's a tough little one, I've heard.

00:41:09Scott Trickett: Yeah, we've got some tough and we've got some flat courses, depending what you like down here.

00:41:13Melissa Erbacher: I'd like to see you have a go at the beaches on a sandy day.

00:41:18Scott Westcott: No, yeah, it's ugly, yeah. It'd throw my average way out.

00:41:27Scott Trickett: Well, good luck in Rio. I look forward to you shouting, go, Scott, during the marathon, because great name, Scott. Thanks for joining us on the pod.

00:41:34Scott Westcott: No worries. And thanks, Mel, and we'll see you in Queensland for the Gold Coast, a little bit down the road from you on July 3rd.

Meet the ED

00:41:49Scott Trickett: It's been a busy podcast this week, but we couldn't let another week go by without catching up with another ED. And this week we're catching up with an ED from, I'd say, an event that's in my top five, maybe even higher. Welcome to the parkrun Adventurers, Pete Johns from Coburg.

00:42:06Pete Johns: Hello, top five.

00:42:08Scott Trickett: Oh yeah, I bloody love Coburg.

00:42:10Pete Johns: Wow, praise indeed.

00:42:13Scott Trickett: I love the course, I love the people, and I love the event team, which you're part of.

00:42:18Pete Johns: That's very kind. Do you love the bridges?

00:42:19Scott Trickett: I bet you know the answer to that. I'll start off this interview by telling you a bit of a history. When we were putting the course together, we had two options, didn't we, Pete? We could have either gone north or we could have gone south.

00:42:34Pete Johns: And it's gone south ever since.

00:42:38Scott Trickett: Not quite. But the course has gone south ever since because the south course has three bridges.

00:42:45Pete Johns: Three bridges. Yeah. Three bridges on the way out, three bridges on the way back because it's an out-and-back course.

00:42:50Scott Trickett: Not only three bridges that we go over, we go under two as well.

00:42:54Pete Johns: This is absolutely true. We go under two roads.

00:42:57Melissa Erbacher: The full roller coaster of bridges by the sounds of it.

00:43:00Pete Johns: Roller coaster. Interesting you should say that because we do have a bit of an up and a bit of a down. It's quite an undulating course.

00:43:09Melissa Erbacher: Okay, so give us a bit of a better explanation of your whole course there, Pete, because obviously I've never been there. A lot of our adventurers listening right now won't have been there. So tell us about it.

00:43:20Pete Johns: Well, like Scott says, it's an out-and-back course. It's around a lake and along a creek, which is deceptive if you've never been along Merri Creek because you might expect it to be flat following the water, but Like I say, it's got some undulations. So yeah, it feels a bit like a roller coaster, and it's good fun, like a roller coaster.

00:43:44Scott Trickett: We start on an uphill at Coburg, which is a challenge, but there's a nice little downhill finish, which I really enjoy too. But you've got to be careful that you don't keep running, because if you do, you could end up in the lake.

00:43:57Pete Johns: The finish line is right by the lake.

00:44:00Scott Trickett: And the path leads right into the lake. It's going to happen one day, I reckon.

00:44:05Pete Johns: Yeah, some people like to think of it as the transition area before the swim leg of the parkrun triathlon.

00:44:13Melissa Erbacher: Traditional triathlons, they start in the water.

00:44:17Pete Johns: This isn't a traditional triathlon.

00:44:21Scott Trickett: So you're celebrating a year this Saturday and we're going to celebrate with a sea theme.

00:44:27Pete Johns: Sea for Coburg is the theme, yes.

00:44:30Scott Trickett: Have you picked out your costume, your outfit for this Saturday?

00:44:35Pete Johns: I have. I still have to do some shopping for it, though.

00:44:37Melissa Erbacher: Can you give us any hints?

00:44:39Pete Johns: It begins with a C. And it has something to do with running. And you'll have to follow on the Coburg Facebook page to find out.

00:44:47Scott Trickett: Well, mine begins with C, too. I hope we're not going to clash.

00:44:53Melissa Erbacher: Okay, I'm trying to think. You could be a couch.

00:44:57Pete Johns: Oh, that's a good idea. I should have thought of that.

00:45:00Melissa Erbacher: A little bit not great for wind resistance, so you might not be a PB runner if you go dressed as a couch.

00:45:09Pete Johns: That's okay. I'm run directing, so I don't have to worry about running.

00:45:15Melissa Erbacher: Could be awkward to drive there also, unless you live really close and you can just walk across the road.

00:45:22Pete Johns: One of the advantages of setting up your own parkrun is that you get to choose where it goes. Yeah, I live just by the turnaround point, so. That's kind of handy.

00:45:32Scott Trickett: And so how have you enjoyed the past year, Pete?

00:45:34Pete Johns: It's been great fun. Met lots of wonderful people. We've got a great event team here at Coburg. And, yeah, it's been really enjoyable watching lots of people who I've got to know over the time just getting better and better and getting PBs. Yeah, very exciting.

00:46:01Melissa Erbacher: Are you a bit of an adventurer yourself, Pete?

00:46:05Pete Johns: Yeah, I think I've done something like 10 different courses.

00:46:10Melissa Erbacher: Well, that qualifies definitely.

00:46:13Pete Johns: Yeah.

00:46:14Melissa Erbacher: Do you have a top three? And you can't include Coburg. It's against the rules.

00:46:19Pete Johns: I'm not allowed to include Coburg. Well, I've still done more runs at Westerfolds than I have anywhere else. So that would probably be my number one. That's also where I started. Hobart, that's a beautiful out-and-back course around a lake. No bridges, but very hilly, so I enjoyed that. And probably my most recent adventure was up at Dubbo, and their course is very similar to Coburg's. Very, very similar. It's as if we copied them. And yeah, absolutely loved running up at Dubbo.

00:47:03Scott Trickett: And how did you get involved? You said that you've done more runs at Westerfold. That's how we met. How did you get involved in parkrun?

00:47:11Pete Johns: I was a fairly new runner about two years ago. I'd done the couch to 5k. So the couch costume would really suit me. After I'd completed the couch to 5k, I kind of stopped and it was almost as if I'd done running. And I realised that I hadn't laced up my running shoes for a while, so I'd heard a lot of my friends in the UK talk about parkrun, so I looked up where my nearest parkrun was, and there was this place called Westerfolds Park, which I'd never heard of, despite only living 14km away, something like that. And went along to my first parkrun, felt really nervous, I was concerned that I was going to hold everyone up, but met A very encouraging bunch of people. Cheered over the line at the end. Couldn't help but go back the following week. And the rest, as they say, is history.

00:48:08Melissa Erbacher: So you met Scotty at Westerfolds. I would like to know what your first impressions were of him. Putting you a bit on the spot.

00:48:19Pete Johns: Yeah, quite on the spot there. Well, like everyone at Westerfolds, he was just a really friendly, encouraging person. He was one of these people who comes up and gets to know you by name.

00:48:34Melissa Erbacher: This is not the answer I was looking for at all.

00:48:37Pete Johns: No? I'm sorry, I have no dirt for you.

00:48:42Melissa Erbacher: Dammit! I'll get some. It's been too long since I had some, but I'll get some more. Yeah.

00:48:48Scott Trickett: I don't know what she's up to. Do you remember the day we talked about starting up Coburg and if you wanted to be the guy who was going to do it?

00:48:59Pete Johns: I do indeed, yes. Yeah, I was really quite nervous about taking it on, much like I was nervous about going to my first parkrun. But yeah, it's turned out to be one of the best things I've done.

00:49:12Scott Trickett: So no regrets?

00:49:13Pete Johns: Absolutely none.

00:49:14Scott Trickett: Thank God. Because my recollection is that I knew we were going to start a new park round and I wanted it to be up in Coburg. And I knew Pete was from that area. And so when I announced it one week at Westerfolds, I think I was looking directly at you.

00:49:33Pete Johns: When you said that you were going to get John to set one up.

00:49:38Scott Trickett: Well, that was just my ruse because I knew he would be no good at it.

00:49:41Ian Hay: But I was looking directly at Pete and said, if anybody wants to come and speak to me about starting up a...

00:49:48Scott Trickett: parkrun in the Coburg area come and have a chat to me and luckily he did and you gave me a six month promise or a guarantee that you would stick around and we've doubled that so I'm absolutely thrilled that we've got 12 months you're not going to leave us now are you I have no plans no it's been it's been great fun

00:50:10Melissa Erbacher: I can't move past costumes very easily. My brain is just ticking over. I need more than a C. I need a bit more of a clue than that.

00:50:27Pete Johns: I can't think of a clue without giving it away. That's the thing.

00:50:32Scott Trickett: It's going to be interesting to see what we're going to rock up with, because the other thing about Coburg is it's situated right next to the prison, the old Pentridge prison. So I reckon we're going to see some cops, convicts, criminals.

00:50:45Pete Johns: It would be a shame not to mark Coburg's penitentiary history. That's not where my plans are going, but I'm imagining that there will be lots of convicts and cops.

00:50:57Melissa Erbacher: Well, I can't wait to see the photos. I think it's going to look amazing. And I love trying to decipher, you know, when people think of something that begins with a letter and they get dressed up as it and it looks like something else, but it's like, okay, how is that the letter? And then they tell you. And then it's obvious when they've told you. But all you can think about is you look like a fairy. How is a fairy starting with P? And then they tell you, oh, it's a pixie. And it's like, oh, okay. It's those obvious connections that you don't make. And I'm assuming there's going to be a big cake.

00:51:32Pete Johns: There will be a cake, yes. One of our regular runners has very kindly offered to make us a cake. Yeah, I think that's going to be great. We've had a nice idea for a cake. I imagine there won't be any left.

00:51:46Scott Trickett: Well, I'm looking forward to it. Thanks for coming on the podcast this week, Pete. I will see you on Saturday.

00:51:51Pete Johns: Pleasure, Scott. I look forward to seeing you on Saturday. Are you going to come down, Mel?

00:51:55Melissa Erbacher: Not this weekend. We're doing a bit of a big deal thing up here on the Sunshine Coast this weekend. But I hope to get down to you sometime in 2017.

00:52:05Scott Trickett: You must. And I do mean it. I actually think Coburg is, you know, I said top five. It's probably higher than that because the course is pretty. And the photos coming out of Coburg are always awesome. I want more adventurers who come to Melbourne because Coburg is actually not that far from the city, is it, Pete?

00:52:22Pete Johns: No, it's about 10km north of the city, really easy to get to on public transport. We've got trams and trains that come very close to the course.

00:52:31Scott Trickett: But it's a hidden gem, and I want to see more adventurers.

00:52:34Pete Johns: Even the locals, when they come down to the course, say, oh, I didn't realise this was here. It's a beautiful, beautiful part of the northern suburbs. Music

00:52:42[music]

parkrun HQ update with Tom Williams (Little Stoke)

00:52:53Scott Trickett: Okay, a couple of weeks ago on the podcast, we caught up with Tom Williams in the UK and he gave us an update on the Little Stoke situation. A few weeks has passed, so we thought it was time to get an update. Welcome back to the podcast, Tom.

00:53:07Tom Williams: Thanks, Scott.

00:53:09Scott Trickett: What's happening with Little Stoke?

00:53:11Tom Williams: Well, not a huge amount right now. I think it probably will. Well, certainly not publicly. I think it probably will fairly soon. So I think where we were last time was that we were questioning, we were just challenging the robustness of their decision to impose a charge on the parkrun team. So I think, you know, when there are questions around when you're operating on public land, you're non-revenue generating and you're not being provided with a dedicated service or facility, we have some questions around that as to whether or not really you can impose a charge. or a council can impose a charge. Different, of course, if it's private land, different if you're being provided with an exclusive venue or facility or service, like a booking service. Different if you're revenue generating. And I don't want to sound like, you know, we're just saying, well, we're different to everybody else. But I think it's a legitimate argument. And philosophically, we feel that if local people want to get together in their local community and put on a free event for local people and for people to come in, of course, and that group of local people are going to not generate any income in any way as a result of doing that, then we kind of feel there's a rights issue there and that you should be able to do that. If not, what else are... So we have until the 28th of May, so the council imposed a deadline of the 28th of May, by which time we would need to have agreed to pay a fee, otherwise they would remove permission. So we've challenged the robustness of their decision to do that. They've not yet responded to our challenge. And the clock ticks and we get closer and closer to the 28th of May. And I think you probably know everything I know now.

00:55:05Scott Trickett: OK, that's interesting. I would have thought that with all the publicity that it got and a bit of pressure on the local council that we might have been further along than what we are.

00:55:16Tom Williams: Yeah, I'm really quite surprised as well. We've learnt a huge amount on this journey and it is really unprecedented in the nature of the way things have kind of progressed. And I think we have learned an awful lot. And one of the things we've really learned is the power, certainly in the UK, of the democratic process. And when... people are empowered, so the council are the lowest level of government as far as I can see it, but when they're empowered to make a democratic decision, then despite there being clear and public disagreement from almost the highest levels of government, so we've not had the Prime Minister come out against it, but we've had Cabinet Ministers come out against the decision and trying to overturn it, and we've had pretty strong lobbying from a number of extremely high-powered individuals. At the same time, whether or not they can or not and I'm not entirely sure of that it just seems that there is a respect and rightly so in many ways there is a respect for the democratic process and this council have been put in to make a decision that we don't agree with but they've been put in to make a decision about a local parkrun event and they've made that decision I We're not questioning the way they made the decision. We're just questioning, actually, their right to make that decision in this individual case. And, you know, there's another question, isn't there? Essentially, we lost the vote 6-4 at the parish council meeting, you know, how many weeks ago it was. Can six people really, is it right that six people can come together and say, you 5,000 people, which is how many registered parkrunners there are at Little Stoke parkrun. Remember, this isn't a new event, it's not a small event. They've been going for over three years and they've got 5,000 registered runners and 300 runners a week. Can six people really come together and say, you 5,000 people can't do what you want to do for free? That seems bizarre to me.

00:57:22Scott Trickett: A little bit unjust, you might say.

00:57:25Tom Williams: Yeah, certainly a little bit unjust. I think that's fair enough.

00:57:28Scott Trickett: Okay, great. Thanks for the update. So stay tuned. So we're going to maybe catch up with you in a few more weeks and hopefully we'll have a resolution.

00:57:37Tom Williams: Yes, well, the 28th, Scott, is the deadline. So yeah, we can speak on the 29th, if you like, and we'll see what's happened.

00:57:44Scott Trickett: parkrun passed another massive milestone last week.

00:57:47Tom Williams: Yes, it did. Yes, it did. So, parkrun UK reached its one millionth different runner. That's a unique individual. So, it's had about 10 million runs, but one million different people, which is a wonderful achievement, I think. And credit to everybody. Would there have been Aussies or not? I can't remember whether that was different people who were also registered in the UK or not. I think it worked either way. I think it worked if we included Aussies and South Africans coming over and also... UK registered runners and the UK passed 100,000 runners on a single weekend and they probably did it this week as well because I think looking at the stats we had a record attendance in the UK it's interesting so the global attendance used to be so influenced by the UK that we'd always set a global attendance record every time the UK set a record and now that you guys and South Africa are so significant in terms of numbers on a good week you guys will make up I think 55,000 runners Actually, as we're going into the Australian winter and the South African winter, particularly the South Africans seem a little bit soft, I'm afraid. Their attendance is really going down as it's getting colder. But yeah, we're seeing big records in the UK as we move into summer. Actually, June, July isn't typically so busy for the UK, but May is. We're seeing those records, but as Australia and particularly South Africa get quieter, we're actually not seeing global records, which is, for stats lovers like me that have followed parkrun stats for eight years, that's an interesting thing, as the rest of the world becomes more and more influential. Exciting times. parkrun's going to grow, no matter what. Absolutely. Absolutely. Great. Thanks for your time again, Tom. Thanks, Scott. Cheers, mate.

00:59:29Melissa Erbacher: It sounds like we'll be hearing from Tom again in a few weeks' time. Fingers crossed for Little Stoke.

00:59:35Scott Trickett: Indeed. We're launching Portland in Victoria this week in the western part of the state. It should be a good launch. Met the ED a couple of weeks ago, very enthusiastic, so good luck with your launch in Portland. What about the cake this week? We just heard from Pete, so we know there's going to be cake at Coburg for their first anniversary. Who else shares a birthday with Coburg?

Where is the cake? (launches and anniversaries)

00:59:59Melissa Erbacher: Well, Coburg also shares their twin with the first anniversary of Taree in New South Wales. They're having a blue theme this week.

01:00:08Scott Trickett: Oh, they're working blue.

01:00:10Melissa Erbacher: They're working blue. I haven't seen any blue ones. I wonder how many Smurfs are going to show up.

01:00:16Scott Trickett: What else would you go? You're the expert on costumes. Where else would you go with blue?

01:00:22Melissa Erbacher: You could come as one of those things from that movie that time. You know, Avatar. You could come as an Avatar. I reckon there'd be some people out there willing to wear blue morph suits and braid their hair.

Best / worst movies of all time

01:00:35Scott Trickett: We're going to do the follow-up to best movies of all time. We're going to do worst movies of all time soon.

01:00:41Melissa Erbacher: Whatever made you think of that?

01:00:43Scott Trickett: Avatar.

01:00:44Melissa Erbacher: No! You can't count that amongst your worst, surely. One of. Oh, I'm looking forward to that episode. To be continued. Okay, second anniversaries this week. We've got Roma in Queensland. Don't forget, you know, if you head out there, that is the bonus pointer star of the Stargazer Circuit. So, happy birthday, Roma parkrun. I was there last year and it was a great, great event. Thank you. Well worth the trip. Head out. Varsity Lakes in Queensland are also celebrating their anniversary. It's going to be their third this week so happy anniversary to Varsity Lakes. Lots of cake. Cake all over the place.

01:01:31Scott Trickett: That's it for episode 20 of the parkrun Adventurers. Hope you enjoyed a little bit of a different musical twist to this episode. Sometimes life is too short so you might as well enjoy what you've got right now. We're going to leave you with a Full song. The name of the band is Big Smoke. And have good adventures this week.

01:01:47[music]

01:01:55Unidentified speaker: I lit out under a raining cloud In a town where all the streets slope south Where the traffic float and stop to rest To the rhythm in my hollow chest If the distant constellation Was reading thoughts from in my mind It'd all be useless information Just coming down that line Cause I have no revelation Just a feeling I can't describe I need to speak with you tonight Oh honey I... I stumbled in the empty house And I stood there in the dark for hours I memorized each room, each hall I traced my fingers long to dust the walls I heard an old folk singer Coming through a radio Singing songs of loss and sadness used to know That was more than 50 years ago Wasn't born before he died I need to speak with you tonight Oh honey I I could live a million lives Would I change?

01:05:11Unidentified speaker: Thank you. I liked it. I loved that one.

01:05:57Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, that was good.