Episode 21 - Longest Run

Episode details · 295 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:07Scott Trickett: Episode 21 of the parkrun Adventurers. And we're still rocking out. We might be rocking out for a few more weeks. We've made it to 21. So this is our half marathon edition.

00:00:21Melissa Erbacher: Half marathon of parkrun Adventurers. And well done to all of you who've stuck with us this far. You are now a half marathoner at parkrun Adventurer Podcasting.

00:00:32Scott Trickett: Have you noticed half marathoners is, I think, becoming the thing to do? Now that you do 5K every week, nobody in their right mind is paying to do a 5K run.

00:00:43Melissa Erbacher: People are even skipping the 10.

00:00:45Scott Trickett: 10K is... Well, I had this dilemma this weekend. Do I do a 10K trail run up at Mount Macedon and pay $60? I thought, no. No. I'm not going to do it. But if I'd done, if they'd had a 20K option or a 21K option, I reckon I would have done it. So I think parkrun is helping promote half marathons.

00:01:11Melissa Erbacher: parkrun's the gateway run. I would say that that's probably accurate. People measure running distances now in parkruns. So if they're going to register for a 10K, they'll think, oh, that's only two parkruns. I do half of that every weekend. I could do twice that much as easily. So, yeah, I think they're heading straight for the half marathons. Personally, lately, having done a couple of half marathons, I'm really loving the idea of 10Ks.

00:01:41Scott Trickett: because half marathon was just a bit too far.

00:01:44Melissa Erbacher: No, it's not too far. I'm fine with the distance, but I miss out a bit given my pace on the social aspect. So I could do the 10K, finish roughly around the same time as the half marathoners of normal speed, and then I can still, you know, sit around chatting, having a social time, cheering the others in, and not be completely thoroughly destroyed having just spent three hours on my feet. So that's where the attraction of 10Ks lies for me.

00:02:19Scott Trickett: I get that too. But this is episode 21, so we're not going to talk about 10Ks.

00:02:24Melissa Erbacher: No. It's all going to be about the half.

00:02:27Scott Trickett: Or longest runs. They're coming up. Winter solstice is on Monday, June 20th, which means on Sunday, June 19th, around Australia, there's going to be a couple of longest runs. Yes.

Longest Run explainer (winter solstice seven-parkrun freedom run)

00:02:42Melissa Erbacher: For those of you who don't know what a longest run is, Scotty's going to explain it.

00:02:47Scott Trickett: Okay. Well, I'm going to partake in my first one because we've never done it before in Melbourne. This is all very new. So maybe you should explain it because you're quite experienced.

00:02:58Melissa Erbacher: You've never had one in Victoria?

00:02:59Scott Trickett: No. Okay.

00:03:01Melissa Erbacher: You're in for a treat. Okay, I'll explain it. So Longest Runs started several years ago in Australia. I think they came from the UK where they do them on the summer solstice, which is around Christmas time. We tried it on the summer solstice the first year. Turns out attempting to run multiple parkrun courses in the middle of summer throughout the day Not such a smart idea. So they changed it the next year to the winter solstice. And what you need to do is basically, or they'll get hosted for you, is seven events, seven parkrun courses. consecutively and you get to run them so there's a schedule throughout the day you start pretty early and there's enough time for runners to participate in every event and then travel safely to the next one it's not official it's called the longest run as opposed to longest parkrun because it's not actually affiliated with parkrun but obviously we're using all the parkrun courses on the schedule and doing a freedom run en masse with a group of runners. So everybody participates at their own risk and it is a super fun day. Like last year, On the Sunshine Coast, we had our first one. Normally there's one in southeast Queensland in Brisbane or the Gold Coast or they have a couple. Last year was the first time we had enough events on the Sunshine Coast. So ours wasn't the traditional seven. We only did the five, although a couple of our parkrunners who joined us on the day also tacked on a couple of earlier and later events in northern Brisbane so that they could get the full seven in. But it was so much fun. You know, you travel, you don't have to do all the courses if you don't want to. You can help out the volunteers when some of the events do timing and take photos and things like that. Not all of them do. But yeah, you can run as many or as few as you like. It's a fantastic opportunity to do events that you haven't actually traveled to outside of parkrun Day. And you can do seven all in one day if you're crazy enough and your legs can't stand it. So love it, love it. You're going to really enjoy it in Victoria, Scotty.

00:05:26Scott Trickett: So we're going to do seven down here, but let's also just emphasize one more time. This is not an official parkrun thing. This is just something fun to do on Sunday and freedom runs are fun things to do. So let's make that a hundred percent clear, but we're starting at Jells at 6:30 in the morning. So it's going to be dark for our first one. And we might even finish in the dark by the time we get to number seven. Do you come across that problem up there?

00:05:57Melissa Erbacher: I schedule it personally so that there is between 50 minutes and an hour to complete each course, which gives plenty of time for people who want to walk a whole bunch of them or people who are slowing down throughout the day because obviously, you know, They're adding all those extra kilometers to their legs. So the closer your events are together geographically, the better off you are because you can allow more time to have, you know, longer running times. Obviously, most people aren't going to take a full hour. So that even adds in an extra buffer of time for them to move on to the next event safely. We don't factor in on the Sunshine Coast any time for eating. because you don't want to have a massive meal while you're running all those things anyway. So people are encouraged just to bring enough snacks that they can nibble throughout the day and keep them going throughout all their runs. Last year, we did actually run behind from the very first event because we actually had an accident on the first course. We had a fairly substantial stack. from a very well-known parkrun adventurer and it took me 25 minutes to patch him up. He was determined to do the next event and every event after that and the blood was running all the way down his legs again by the time he was halfway through the second event. Eventually, we just stopped hatching him up because it was just all falling off, bandages and all. So, yeah. But he just kept going?

00:07:38Scott Trickett: Did he finish? Did he do them all?

00:07:40Melissa Erbacher: He did. He was one of the few people who actually did seven events that day. So, he'd actually done one earlier in the morning before we started at Golden Beach, and then he did another one on his way home to Brisbane. So, seven events that day.

00:07:57Scott Trickett: Well, it's going to be very exciting. So there's one in Sunshine Coast. There's going to be one in Sydney this year. There's going to be one in Melbourne.

00:08:05Melissa Erbacher: We're still waiting to hear whether or not WA are going to host one. They did last year, which was very well attended.

00:08:11Scott Trickett: Come on, WA. Don't be left out.

00:08:14Melissa Erbacher: Having experienced the longest run for the first time myself last year, I didn't run any of the events, but I volunteered at all of them. So we take times in Queensland and give everybody results for the whole day. I know not all the longest runs do it, so don't hold out for times. Everyone's encouraged to bring their own GPSs. But the thing that really stuck with me was that at every single event, we actually gained runners. sort of toward the end of the day so people joined us in the later events and we had more runners and more runners and more runners but the people we I believe we had 15 who did every single event and toward the end of the day the cry when you said go got louder and louder and As people's knees were seizing up and their legs were just completely anguished at the prospect of doing another five kilometers after having 45 minutes or an hour break since they had to do a last one. And it's something you'll notice. So pay attention when you go to the longest run because people will be screaming louder and louder as you say go toward the end of the day. I'm going to record it this year for the podcast.

00:09:30Scott Trickett: Are you going to be running this year?

00:09:33Melissa Erbacher: No, I don't think so. I'm pretty sure I'll just, I'll time keep all the events for the whole day and be the first aid officer in case anybody needs patching up again.

00:09:44Scott Trickett: You love volunteering.

00:09:46Melissa Erbacher: I do. It's a great day. We love you for it.

00:09:48Scott Trickett: Yeah. Very lucky. So we're looking forward to it. So we're going to post that on the Facebook page, all the events information. So I hope to see lots of adventurers there.

00:10:00Melissa Erbacher: We should say that the Longest Run is its own Facebook page. So not affiliated with parkrun, but if you check out Longest Run or type it into Facebook as a search, you can find it. And join the group or like the Facebook page so you get the notifications for when the schedules get released.

00:10:19Scott Trickett: One of the events you're going to run at the Melbourne Longest Run is Coburg. which we celebrated. We had Pete on last week and we had the anniversary on Saturday. Great morning. Lots of Cs. Did you look at the photos, Mel?

00:10:34Melissa Erbacher: I did. They were great. What was your costume, Mr. Trickett?

00:10:39Scott Trickett: Look, this is where we're a great yin and yang combination. You do the costumes, you do them so well and you love them. I'll get involved in the costumes, but I just can't pull it off with the same style that you can. So I went with the chief theme.

00:11:01Melissa Erbacher: The chief theme? That's not what you told me you were going to get dressed up as.

00:11:05Scott Trickett: What did I say?

00:11:07Melissa Erbacher: I'm pretty sure you told me you'd be a caveman.

00:11:11Scott Trickett: Well, the caveman costume fell apart, literally, in the office on Friday afternoon.

00:11:18Melissa Erbacher: In the office you were wearing it to work?

00:11:21Scott Trickett: Well, the material was purchased by my good mate, John, and then he took it home to make and might have left things to the last minute. And might have overestimated his seamstress ability. And so he came as a clock and I came as a chief.

00:11:43Melissa Erbacher: Gotcha. I still, yeah, there was some interesting, like I said last week, you know, people's interpretations of what something is for the sea is very interesting. But I believe we've got some more events coming up this week with different letter themes. Yeah. Yeah, some more challenging stuff to look for costumes for, I'm sure. And speaking of cool, something pretty damn awesome happened on Strava this week, Scotty.

00:12:17Scott Trickett: I know.

00:12:17Melissa Erbacher: Do you want to let the listeners know what it was?

00:12:22Scott Trickett: I know because I did it. We did it.

00:12:24Melissa Erbacher: Well, then you should tell people so everybody knows.

00:12:28Scott Trickett: You might not think it's much, but it's going to be big. If you're not on Strava yet, you need to ask yourself why.

00:12:36Melissa Erbacher: You need to take a reality check. See if you're actually a runner.

00:12:42Scott Trickett: But there is now the parkrun Adventurers Strava Club.

00:12:46Melissa Erbacher: And it is the coolest running club on Strava.

00:12:50Scott Trickett: It is. Our membership has grown.

00:12:53Melissa Erbacher: Exponentially in days.

00:12:54Scott Trickett: In only a couple of days. It's fantastic. Fantastic.

00:12:59Melissa Erbacher: I might actually have to upload some of my runs to Strava so people can see that I am actually part of this club.

00:13:05Scott Trickett: But you need to be in this club because exciting stuff is going to happen in this club. We're not going to tell you about it now.

00:13:10Melissa Erbacher: It may relate to adventures.

Catch-up with Robbo (region of runners)

00:13:20Scott Trickett: It's always a good time to catch up with Robbo from the region of runners and topical because Robbo, you know, half marathon episode, you had a half marathon adventure a couple of weeks ago in Sydney, didn't you?

00:13:33Dave Robbo: I did, mate. Yeah. And, uh, and thanks for having me back on the show. It's, it's great to be here on number 21 and, uh, yeah, got invited to go down to Sydney and have a run at the Sydney morning Herald half marathon. And, uh, I guess I did it a little bit differently to pretty much every other half marathon I've ever done. And it was a little bit strange for me. I'm someone that has come from a background of running naked and set up a little group called the Naked Runners. And it's not as rude as it sounds for any of the uninitiated. It's more about leaving all your gadgets and gizmos at home and just running free every now and then. But there I was with two iPhones and a selfie stick. on the front line of the Sydney morning Herald half marathon. And I proceeded to document the entire journey and, um, and post little snippets up on Snapchat, which is my latest little social media platform that I've been dabbling in. So yeah, it was good fun. Um, I had intentions of trying to stick with a 90 minute pacing group and, uh, but I also had a little adventure, uh, trying to lead the race for the first two minutes and to get some cool vision but that backfired a little bit because I don't think I ever caught my breath back from that so yeah it was good I didn't stick with the 90 minute group for too long I think came home a bit after all that but a lot of fun very scenic course and I'm pretty sure loads of parkrunners out there as well from not only Sydney but all around the place too so yeah very topical knocked over a half marathon and here we are at the half marathon podcast.

00:15:11Scott Trickett: So I saw a shot of you with Michael Shelley. So was that at the start?

00:15:16Dave Robbo: That's right. Yeah. So I paced Michael and Harry Summers is the other elite athlete in that photo. I'm sure they're wondering what the hell I was doing. But yeah, there I was brandishing two iPhones and They didn't really stop for an interview or anything, but, you know, I got the photo and got very, very out of breath. So, yeah, those guys absolutely flying. And that was on a downhill section. It would have been going well under three minute per K pace and pretty much suicidal for me. I mean, I've been doing a bit of training and I reckon I'm not too bad. But, yeah, those guys are on an entirely different level. And it was interesting to experience just how fast those guys go.

00:15:59Scott Trickett: So how long did you pace them for?

00:16:01Dave Robbo: I looked up, they had, you know, the car that is out in front, it's got the clock on it, which most of us would never see beyond the start line. And I reckon I saw it tick over to two minutes. And after that point, those guys were off into the horizon pretty quickly. And then, yeah, and then the 10,000 other runners started to stream through. So it was short-lived, but I'll tell you what, it was exhilarating.

00:16:23Melissa Erbacher: So explain the logistics of two iPhones and a selfie stick while you're running and trying not to fall over.

00:16:30Dave Robbo: Yeah, because I was actually running backwards down that first hill too, which was quite interesting at a fair bit of pace to try and get some shots. But the camera or the phone on the selfie stick was just taking stock footage and I'd never used a selfie stick before. I felt a bit daggy going into it. Big W and buying one the night before the race but I did get one and there I was at the start line with it and so I was working out how to use it but I had that going and then I had my other normal everyday iPhone and that was hooked up to the internet and so I was able to sort of take a little 10 second video or a little picture here and there to upload to my Snapchat story which was a bit of fun so I threw the whole thing up on On Facebook and on YouTube as well. It's on Mossy and Robbo for anyone that is interested to see it. It's pretty blurry. It's probably a little bit hard to follow at times, but yeah, you'll see me yelling at a lot of people and trying to get people excited. And it was a lot of fun.

00:17:35Melissa Erbacher: So one in each hand, I'm assuming?

00:17:37Dave Robbo: Yeah, yeah. And it was a bit annoying, I've got to say, too, running along. You sort of wanted to get rid of them every now and then. But yeah, sort of throttling the selfie stick up around where the phone is and then and then another phone in the other hand. So not great for high-fiving, I found. So I sort of need, I think I need to invent a holster that you can pop your transmitting devices in so you can just, yeah, quick release, get them out when you need them and then pop them back in to continue with your running or your high-five duties. So, yeah, it's certainly a learning curve for me.

00:18:13Scott Trickett: You mentioned your mate Mossy there. You have taken a bit of a break from the Naked Runners and you've started a new project.

00:18:19Dave Robbo: That's right, mate, yes. The Naked Runners is just, well, we got to episode 69 and we thought that's a nice time just to sort of hang up the boots for a little while. And being an Olympic year, we're putting all our eggs into the Rio basket. So the plan is to get over there and create a fun little daily, I guess, package of what we see and what we experience on the streets and in the stands over there for the Rio Olympic Games. I guess it's what you do when you're not quite good enough to compete for your country at an Olympic Games. You find another way to get over there and soak it up and get in the mix. So that's what we'll be endeavouring to do. And just this week, we'll be launching our crowdfunding campaign to invite the Australian public to help finance our project. So, yeah, for anyone listening, if they want to find out more, jump onto mossyandrobo.com and all the Mossy and Robbo socials. I'm sure you'll no doubt see it around. You might see me at your parkrun. saying help get Mossy and Robbo to Rio. But yeah, the big thing, guys, I want to do, because I look at the parkrun global map, and there's no parkruns in South America, let alone in Brazil or Rio itself. So basically, I'm pretty sure it's going to be part parkrun missionary work. And yeah, hopefully we set something up. a nice little 5K course on Copacabana Beach by the time we finish there at the end of August. So we'll take a flag over and we'll see what we can do.

00:19:51Melissa Erbacher: So when Mossy and Robbo went to Scotland a couple of years ago, you had the tartan couch. What's the equivalent for Rio?

00:20:00Dave Robbo: The Samba sofa this time. So we've, yeah, because it's the, It's the capital of the Samba. So, yeah, one of the stadiums or one of the areas is the Samba Drome. That's where the marathon actually starts, where Carnival is famously celebrated each year. So, yeah, I think that'll probably work. The Samba Sofa on the beach at Copacabana, getting up to the Christ the Redeemer statue. So, yeah, look out for the Samba Sofa over there in Rio.

00:20:34Melissa Erbacher: And instead of those Scottish tam o' shanter hats, are you going to be wearing fruit bowls?

00:20:39Dave Robbo: Yes, I think so. Yeah, yeah.

00:20:42Melissa Erbacher: Cannot wait.

00:20:43Dave Robbo: And we used to have Tartan Tuesday, and you had to wear your tartan on Tuesday and share it on social media. But I think it'll be Fruit Bowl Friday, and you'll be able to get behind the campaign and wear your fruit bowl hat. So I don't actually own one yet, but I'll be going out and sorting that out very shortly.

00:21:02Melissa Erbacher: It's a gap in my wardrobe also. I'll have to be sorting that out too.

00:21:06Dave Robbo: You've dressed as a banana before, haven't you?

00:21:08Melissa Erbacher: Pineapple.

00:21:09Dave Robbo: Pineapple, pardon me. You're qualified.

00:21:13Scott Trickett: Look, you can borrow mine. You can both borrow mine if you want.

00:21:18Melissa Erbacher: You've got multiple, obviously, Scotty.

00:21:20Scott Trickett: Yeah, I'm surprised you both don't have multiple.

00:21:24Dave Robbo: Fruit bowl headband? Could be the other thing as well. Just fruit tucked in on your headband maybe. That could work.

00:21:32Melissa Erbacher: In your naked runner's headband.

00:21:34Dave Robbo: In your naked runner's headband, yeah.

00:21:36Scott Trickett: Well, it's going to be hot in Rio, so you don't want too much, you know, heat escapes through your head. True.

00:21:41John Pearson: So the headband might be the way to go.

00:21:43Scott Trickett: Yep, yep. And what about back home, Robbo? I knew he was coming up to their fourth anniversary in a couple of weeks. Planning is already underway?

00:21:51Dave Robbo: Yeah, that's right. Literally just tonight we've had a planning meeting and it dawned on me how far the event's come. We, from very humble beginnings four years ago, to an event meeting then, an event team meeting, which seemed to have about as many people in it as we had at our launch event back in 2012. So, look, it's a big show at Newey, but it's always kept close, that really great community vibe, I guess, and hopefully it will always remain. And, yeah, we're very excited, I guess, to celebrate that. the fourth birthday on the 11th of june which is the queen's birthday long weekend so uh that'll be good fun it's the it's the first it's the home of parkrun i guess in the hunter or what we've ended up referring to as the region of runners so it does have a special place um here locally so yeah we'll see we'll see how many people turn up on the day there's a few uh uh Course markers are going to be installed as well and unveiled on the day. So that'll be exciting, branded course markers. And yeah, an Olympic marathoner to be. Scott Westcott should be there and Kurt Fearnley, Paralympic superstar. So yeah, it should be a lot of fun.

00:23:13Melissa Erbacher: Seems like a bit of a master stroke of genius to me to have an event launch on a long weekend and therefore your anniversaries every year on a long weekend. Perfect opportunity for parkrun adventurers to go for a nice trip away, get a parkrun adventure in while they're down there. Are you expecting big numbers?

00:23:33Dave Robbo: Look, it's always hard to tell, Mel. Ever since we've had birthdays at Newey, we've thought it could go big and in the first and second birthdays, there was, there was thoughts of getting into four figures. Uh, but a bit of wet weather has kept those, those down and, um, it's hit 800 a couple of times, but, um, yeah, it's, it's hard to tell. There's a few dynamics, I guess, happening at this time of year. It gets a bit cooler, which personally I love because it's, uh, I find it, you know, running's a bit easier in the cooler months for me, but, um, I guess there's different things on and there's a lot of, say, school sport. I know families with young kids that are driving off to netball and soccer and footy and different sports have varying demand. But yeah, long weekend, maybe some of that sport's off. People have a bit more freedom to go and get around a parkrun. So let's wait and see if it's good weather. It has been absolutely magic. in the last week or two down here in, in Newcastle and in the Hunter. So it's good weather. People are keen and they're, you know, they're not so, uh, worried about, I guess, having a slower run, having more of a celebration than, than running a PB. Then I think we could see, yeah, some pretty, pretty big numbers on the start line.

00:24:55Scott Trickett: How many Dave's do you reckon there'll be?

00:24:58Dave Robbo: Well, there's a, it's a, it's a hotbed of Dave's I've got to say at the moment. And, um, look, I've got to thank you guys for, for what you've done with the, with the development of the Daves and the Daves who run in particular. And yeah, you know, harking back to previous, a previous episode where Ian Hay was unveiling the most commonly named parkrunners on a given weekend. And David was the highest ranked male name. So I had it in my mind. I was brewing up for a little while, a running club to start called the Daves running club. And that was the, the final thing that made me decide to do it. So we have at the moment about 40 or so members of the Dave's Running Club. And any Dave who runs is welcome to join. You'll find it on Facebook. And Newey parkrun in particular, I would say, yeah, no shortage of Dave's there. Not sure what our record is. Maybe might have hit 23 Dave's one time. So it's certainly, yeah, all's going well in the world of the Dave's Running Club.

00:26:03Scott Trickett: So we can join the Dave's Running Club, and there's going to be a range of merchandise for the Dave's Running Club?

00:26:09Dave Robbo: I think so, yeah. The logo's still in early design phase. I regularly attend a long run with a group here in Newcastle called the Newcastle Flyers, and we have a three-Dave minimum. So we have to have three Daves on every one of those runs, and we generally do get that, sometimes four or even five. So that's exciting.

00:26:33Melissa Erbacher: Do you accept, into your running club, do you accept middle name Davids or surname Davids?

00:26:41Dave Robbo: Yeah, look, on some of our meetings that we have on the long run, this has certainly been debated. And I think if you've got a middle name of David or Dave, then I think that gets you a ticket into the club. But yeah, it's been up for debate a few times how strict it is and The consensus has been, this is outside my hands, yeah, they want it to be pretty strict. So you have to either have your first name or your middle name has to be David or Dave. And otherwise, we might have to set up a separate club, which is Associates of Dave Running Club or some sort of support, Dave's Running Club supporters or something. But there's people considering name changes as we speak just to get into the club. So it is proving very popular.

00:27:30Melissa Erbacher: And I'm all for gender equality. So what about Davina's?

00:27:35Dave Robbo: Yeah, look, that has come up as well. And I think if it's a derivative of Dave, then it certainly has to be considered strongly. And I would be pretty keen. We've had some females say, look, my dad is Dave. Can I get in?

00:27:54Melissa Erbacher: Daughters of Dave. There's another sub club.

00:27:58Dave Robbo: I'm generally pretty keen to share the love and open the doors. But, look, I can only go off what the committee thinks. And, yeah, look, there's been a bit of reluctance to let it open up that much just yet. But I think there's got to be ways we can have – look, everyone knows a Dave, so there's got to be ways we can support those that are somehow linked to Dave. But, yeah, watch this space, guys. It's certainly evolving.

00:28:27Melissa Erbacher: I love that you have a committee.

00:28:29Dave Robbo: Yeah, it's pretty loose, but it's a committee.

00:28:38Melissa Erbacher: So you've had an adventure recently, Robbo. Where was that? Tell us the details.

00:28:44Dave Robbo: Yeah, look, this was an exciting one. I found myself up in Brisbane, Mel, on a Friday afternoon up there speaking at a – holding a sports panel at a – a leadership day, and it was at South Bank, and that's where my accommodation was, at the Ridges Hotel at South Bank. So literally, I reckon I could have paced it out. It would have been 98 steps from the hotel to the South Bank parkrun start line. But I've run South Bank parkrun before, and I've done New Farm before, so they're my only two Brisbane ones. So I rang up my Brisbane-based brother, Craig Robertson, and I said, where are we off to for a parkrun tomorrow? It has to be somewhere new, and it's in your hands. And he said, look, I'm going to pick you up, and we're going to go to Minipi parkrun. And so, yeah, we headed out there and had a lot of fun. They had a whole bunch of people in lab coats that day, and one of their runners, I can't remember her name, but she was celebrating her 100th. parkrun and she works does a job where she wears a lab coat a lot of the time so that's why that happened but yeah and there was a guy in a clown wig doing the warm up on a park bench so that was pretty exciting I loved they had an acknowledgement to country which was great they asked if there was any visitors I got to stick my hand up proudly and say Newey so yeah great course you guys have both run it I'm assuming. Well, Mel, you would have.

00:30:16Scott Trickett: Yeah, I've run it.

00:30:17Dave Robbo: Yeah. Scotty?

00:30:18Scott Trickett: No, I've never been to Minipi.

00:30:20Dave Robbo: Yeah. So fair to say a lollipop description, Mel? Yeah. With a bit of a stick and a... Yeah, and then two laps around the bulbous part of the lollipop and pretty flat. The locals reckon it's probably one of the quickest ones in Brizzy. Scotty, the big thing I thought of was that there's a bridge and you get to cross that bridge basically inside the first K, so... you do that bridge crossing that gets you onto the top part of the lollipop, and then you get to cross that bridge again coming home. So I thought you'd be pretty happy with that.

00:30:53Scott Trickett: It's on my list, but that list is very low.

00:30:56Dave Robbo: Get up there, mate, for sure. So, yeah, no, get up there. Big tick for Minipi. One interesting thing the event team was saying, I spoke to Carmel and the guys there, but when they had their New Year's Day doubles, That got a lot of people in that maybe hadn't tried Minipi before. And ever since then, they've gone from numbers of around 100-ish to well over 250 each week. And it was a big, strong crowd there when I was there the other day. So a lot of support for Minipi, which is great and a good buzz there. And they even had a cake for the 100th parkrunner as well. So snared a bit of cake. Life was pretty good. So big tick next to Minipi parkrunner.

00:31:39Melissa Erbacher: Now Robbo, this was your third outing in Queensland. I believe the first two outings, each at South Bank and New Farm, you snaffled yourself a first finish. How did you go at Minipi?

00:31:51Dave Robbo: Oh look, the pressure was on Mel. Yeah, no, I couldn't keep it going. I had my hands full with a few young triathletes and don't they have a habit of popping up at various parkruns up and down the southeast?

00:32:03Melissa Erbacher: Oh, constantly thwarting me.

00:32:05Dave Robbo: Yeah, yeah. So I know you'd have that problem. But yeah, no, look, I was happy to have a good crack. But yeah, one of the boys who's Augustine Heights regular, he'd made the journey and he got under 17 minutes, which was great running. So a lot of people speaking to them afterwards, getting ready for the Gold Coast Marathon in six weeks or so, a bit under now. So yeah, the pace was too hot. I'll have to pick a different week when... When 19 minutes gets you a first finish, so we'll see. It's all luck of the draw, isn't it?

00:32:42Melissa Erbacher: It is. You need to be a little bit strategic, I think.

00:32:45Dave Robbo: Maybe if I had the Brazilian hat, the fruit hat on, that may be what I needed. It would have scared them off or weirded them out.

00:32:54Melissa Erbacher: Put them off their game.

00:32:58Scott Trickett: Got to do whatever it takes. Robbo, always great catching up with you. Hopefully we'll get you back on again soon.

00:33:05Dave Robbo: Yeah, love to, guys, and keep up the great work. Can't wait to ride the journey for the next 21 all the way to the parkrun Adventurers Marathon. So well done, guys, and happy listening to everyone out there and happy running.

Event Director guest interview (Meet the ED format)

00:33:29Melissa Erbacher: Our next guest is... named Mel also which is awesome. She hails from Parramatta parkrun in New South Wales. Mel welcome to the podcast.

00:33:42Mel Alderton: Thank you and thank you Scott and Mel for having me.

00:33:45Melissa Erbacher: So you are the event director at Parramatta parkrun Mel. How long have you been doing that?

00:33:51Mel Alderton: I've been event director now since early this year. Took over from the previous event director who started our event back in March 2013, Jonathan Arthur.

00:34:08Scott Trickett: Yeah, you were the 21st event to launch in Australia, one of the first brigade. Were you there at the beginning?

00:34:17Mel Alderton: Yes, I was. About a week before it started, I saw a post on Facebook from a friend of mine in a run club I was in at the time, and it was fairly close to home. And it sounded interesting, and I thought, well, trying to get my 5K runs up for sprint triathlons. So I thought I'd go along, give it a go, turned up, and I thought, I don't know anybody. I was feeling a bit like a fish out of water with all these very thick-looking runners around me. So off I went, thoroughly enjoyed it, kept going back, suffered a few injuries along the way, so volunteered. ended up becoming a run director and here I am now.

00:35:03Scott Trickett: I ran at Rhodes, I did a Freedom Run at Rhodes last week and I did look at Parramatta but I was just a bit further out in Sydney. So tell us a bit about your course and where it's located.

00:35:17Mel Alderton: Right, the course starts at George Kendall Reserve at Ermington. In a way Parramatta is a bit of a misnomer but it does fall under Parramatta Council. It then runs alongside the Parramatta River out to the Silverwater Bridge and the turnaround point is about 500 metres past the Silverwater Bridge. So it runs in a westerly direction, then turn around and come straight back again. So it's a good course in that it is just out and back. I think for me anyway, sometimes if it's a two-lap course or something, sometimes after one lap you sort of go, I've had enough and you want to sort of quit When it's out and back, you've sort of got to keep going in some respects. It's quite a scenic course. It's reasonably flat. We do have one little incline, I like to call it. A lot of people call it a hill, but it's not really. It's a nice little course. A few cyclists on the path, but I think you get that in a lot of the parkrun courses these days. We're just across the river actually from Rhodes, not far away at all.

00:36:23Melissa Erbacher: Can you see any other parkruns from where you run?

00:36:28Mel Alderton: No, we can't. There was at one stage talk of a parkrun starting pretty much the other side of Silverwater Bridge and we would have been running opposite sides of the river to each other. But that idea pretty much got knocked on the head as being a little bit too close to home.

00:36:46Scott Trickett: Now, we looked up your stats also, Mel, and we noted that you're a great volunteer, which we love. And you've also done a bit of adventuring. You've visited nine other events. Have you got a favourite amongst them or a top three?

00:37:02Mel Alderton: Oh, top three. Shell Harbour was very picturesque. I would like to go back to Shell Harbour because I wasn't very well that day.

00:37:13Unidentified speaker: So that one was pretty nice.

00:37:15Mel Alderton: Bega would have to be a sentimental favourite. My father was born in Bega and he was an athlete. So it was a long-term plan of mine to get to Bega parkrun and it involved getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning while we were on holidays down the coast at Christmas and driving down to Bega to do parkrun. It was about a three-hour drive or something, two and a half, three-hour drive. And then we spent the day exploring all the area where my dad grew up and going out to Tathra where his grandfather used to ship cheese. He had a dairy farm. So that was a nice one to visit and another one I'd like to go back to.

00:38:14Scott Trickett: I like the idea that you got up and did a three-hour drive to the park and that sounds like a real adventurer.

00:38:19Mel Alderton: I tell you what, my husband went above and beyond the call of duty on that one because he did all the driving and he's not a runner. He can't run for medical reasons but, you know, he got up and he drove me and, you know, ferried me around Bega afterwards but he enjoys the social side of it and meeting some of the runners and that sort of stuff so, Probably, I mean, Bowral was quite pretty too, except it was three degrees when I went. And we squeezed that one in before my daughter's soccer game. She wasn't real thrilled, but, you know, if you're going to go to Bowral for a soccer game, you can go an hour early and go for parkrun. I don't see a problem with that.

00:38:59Melissa Erbacher: We haven't had a chat about Bowral on the Adventurers podcast yet. I'm keen to hear more about that one because it looks like, is it a trail cross-country and they mow the paddock or something?

00:39:14Mel Alderton: The start is across a paddock and then you go onto a cycle path and you run on the cycle path for probably 4K. It's been the first 4K. and last 500 metres or so that's across grass. So you go downhill to start and then uphill to come back, which is fun when it's been raining, apparently.

00:39:38Scott Trickett: Or when it's been minus three degrees.

00:39:40Mel Alderton: Or when it's minus three degrees and the ground's covered in frost. So there's cows looking at you. Bega's a bit like that. You run through paddocks and there's cows. And the week after it's flooded, it's very aromatic.

00:39:58Melissa Erbacher: It is fun. Flooding the cow paddocks.

00:40:01Mel Alderton: Yes. Because it goes through the old race course and now it's used as grazing land. So the cows have been there and doing what cows do. And it floods a lot.

00:40:14Scott Trickett: It's interesting to hear because that was a report I got back. It had an interesting aroma.

00:40:22Mel Alderton: The people are lovely. The people are wonderful and they're saying, oh, you know, come back and visit us and, You know, it's great. That's what I love about it, going and meeting all these people.

00:40:33Melissa Erbacher: I really want to get to more of the regional events that, you know, a little bit further out, not always just in the cities or in the suburbs. Do you have a bucket list, Mel, of ones that you'd like to visit?

00:40:44Mel Alderton: The next one on the bucket list is Batemans Bay. It's half an hour from where I go on holidays. So up until now when I go on holidays it's just no parkrun because it's like two and a half hours drive to the closest parkrun and I'm not that dedicated. But now I've got one half an hour away, which means Saturday morning it's going to Batemans Bay, go to do parkrun, go do some swimming training afterwards, do the grocery shopping and then back to the caravan. So I've got it all worked out now. It's my weekly trip into town. So I'm looking forward to giving that one a try.

00:41:19Scott Trickett: You hinted there that you're a swimmer. So do you have a triathlon background?

00:41:24Mel Alderton: Well, interestingly, my background is none of the above. I used to swim for fitness, but I've never swum competitively. And I guess my story is a lot like a lot of women who lose weight and decide to run to keep fit, which is what I did five years ago. I'm not terribly good at running it's an effort um despite the fact dad was a top athlete I think it skipped my generation went straight to my son however I decided I was cross training with swimming and cycling and lined up for a 10k run one day and went oh this is doing my head in I can't do this anymore and decided I'd give triathlons a go and I just potter around. It's an age grouper and do sprint distance and the occasional Olympic distance.

00:42:26Melissa Erbacher: The occasional Olympic distance. You're very casual when you just throw that in there.

00:42:31Mel Alderton: Well, yeah, I didn't quite finish one this year. I had an injury so I had to pull out of the run halfway. So when I say occasional, I've managed kind of one and a bit. But, I mean, that's what got me into parkrun in the first place because, 5k is the sprint distance run and i was not quite there when i was um when parkrun came about in my area so i thought well it's a good way for me to get my running up to speed or up to the distance i needed for sprint distance you know my background is actually triathlon and i have this newfound respect

00:43:08Scott Trickett: for people like yourself who are giving it a go. Because I've been trying to give it a go for the past two summers, and I just haven't got there. So good on you, or at least, what did you say, Todd?

00:43:21Mel Alderton: Pottering around.

00:43:22Scott Trickett: Pottering around.

00:43:23Mel Alderton: Pottering around. I'm a confirmed back of the packer, and I keep saying to people, I reckon we have more fun up the back of the pack because we've got nothing to prove. We're not out there trying to get a podium finish and beat anyone. We're just out there having a good time. We've got my little, I've got a little saying, you know, my race, my pace, my way. I'm just out there doing what I want to do. And I was running with someone at parkrun one day and she said, oh, I did a triathlon once but I didn't think I was good enough. And I said, that made me sad. But chatting to her and chatted about my coach and, you know, she ended up, getting in touch with my coach and she's done a triathlon since then and she's killing it at parkrun she loves coming to parkrun every week and she's just having a ball when people don't think they're good enough they think they have to be fast they think they have to be the best at everything you know it's just a shame that people feel like that that other people make them feel like that or they think they have to do marathons or half marathons they're They don't realize that, hey, if you just want to do a 5K parkrun every week, that's fantastic. And you don't have to do it in 20 minutes. You can take 45 minutes if you want. And that's the sort of message I try to get across to people, that it doesn't matter what level you're at, you're having a go and that's the main thing.

00:44:47Scott Trickett: Indeed. That's the message we're trying to get across. So good luck to you, Mel. Thanks for coming on the pod. Thank you. I hope a few people get out and adventure at Parramatta parkrun.

00:44:56Mel Alderton: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Roving adventurer report — Portland parkrun launch (Craig Curtis)

00:45:03Craig Curtis: Good morning Scott and Mel, it's Craig Curtis here, Territory Director for one of the Territory Directors in Victoria. I've just been to the Portland parkrun launch here in beautiful Portland and the weather's turned on a beautiful day for us today. We actually have completed the run and we're back at the traditional post-parkrun cafe where we're all having breakfast and coffee. And I'm here with Alan Hoskins, the event director for Portland parkrun, along with Brian Glover, who's part of the run team who's been helping Alan set up, as well as Brian Barrera, ED over at Hamilton, and Phil Ackland, ED over at Mount Gambier. I might just start with you Alan, so tell us a little bit about this morning.

00:45:48Alan Hoskins: Sure mate, great day, beautiful day, beautiful Portland weather as per normal. I predicted this, I thought it was going to be nice. We've had shocking weather during the week and just looking at the weather forecast, praying and hoping and we got it right for a change, it was good. 148 finishes, so great result and no problems with result processing which was great. Yeah, just a fantastic day, and everyone enjoyed it. Good positive feedback from everybody.

00:46:16Craig Curtis: Sounds really good, Alan. Thank you. Thanks a lot. There's been lots of people. I've seen lots of people come as tourists who've been in town visiting, people from Point Cook, and I think there was people from Inverloch, and was there someone from Queensland, a Gold Coast?

00:46:31Alan Hoskins: Some Gold Coast. They've come from far and wide all around Australia, which has been fantastic. A lot of farm people have actually travelled down this morning early from Geelong. which has been great. It's a big drive from Geelong, three-hour drive, so to be here at a parkrun, it's a pretty good effort. And the guys from Mount Gambier, Hamilton, and around the region around here, and also from Warrnambool and Port Ferry, which are looking at setting up parkruns as well. So it's a great effort from everyone to come at this time of the morning and get around our parkrun.

00:46:57Craig Curtis: Fantastic. And as part of the event team, we have Brian Glover. So Brian's been working hand-in-hand, setting up the event here with Alan, and... For those in the running world know Brian as the old man in orange. Is that what they call you these days? That's what they call me. Brian, so how many marathons and ultramarathons have you done now? 173 marathons, 69 ultramarathons. And what do you think of parkrun as part of that? It's a good way for anybody that's thinking of doing these longer events. It's a good way of starting training and get the encouragement to be out there as well. Fantastic. Now, Phil, we have Phil here from Mount Gambier, as I said. So tell us a little bit about your morning, Phil. What do you think of the course and how does it stack up against the good old hilly Mount Gambier?

00:47:47Phil Ackland: Well, it's definitely flatter than Mount Gambier. It's a very varied course in Portland. It's fantastic to run through. There's so many different aspects to it and a couple of nice straight sections you can get some of your pace on. Different waterway areas. So it's really quite varied and interesting, I guess, is probably the best way to describe it. Really a pleasure to run around it.

00:48:08Craig Curtis: Very, very good.

00:48:09Unidentified speaker: Brian, what about your experience this morning? Got the whole family here this morning? I think Alan was a bit tricky. During the briefing, he didn't tell me there was a little bit of a hill. And it was a bit of a surprise.

00:48:21Alan Hoskins: You've just done 100 kilometers last week, and you're worried about that little hill.

00:48:26Unidentified speaker: And he said it's a flat course. But anyway, it's really nice. I love the scenery. I enjoyed the scenery, and at the same time, I think it's going to be a fast course because it's not on gravel, but it's just a hill. Just a hill. Cool. Not that bad. No, it's not that bad compared to the others, but Alan didn't tell me.

00:48:52Craig Curtis: Thanks, Brian. Well, I think we might wrap up there. So congratulations, Alan, and congratulations, Brian, on all your hard work in getting a new event here in Portland. And we look forward to coming back for some more cake in 12 months' time. Definitely.

00:49:07Alan Hoskins: And you're all welcome back here in Portland. And thanks to all you guys as well for the support you've shown me over the last... well, obviously eight months in this journey, and it's been fantastic. And all the support, Phil being over in Mount Gambier, but also for Brian and Diane, it really helped our event team out as well as showing us the ropes and showing us what to expect as well. So it's been great. Thanks, guys. Thanks, guys. Cheers.

Roving adventurer report — Portland parkrun launch (Zara Curtis)

00:49:31Zara Curtis: Hi, Mel and Scott. This is Ari Curtis reporting from Portland parkrun launch for parkrun Adventurers. It was an extremely cold morning, and I would like to acknowledge everyone who got out of bed to come celebrate Portland parkrun's launch. I'm with parkrun Adventurers Sean Hill and Maxime Sylvester, who I know are diehard parkrun tourists. Welcome, guys. Thank you, Zara.

00:49:53Maxime Sylvester: Thank you, Zara.

00:49:54Zara Curtis: Tell me what's so great about parkrun that makes you drive 400 kilometres on a cold Saturday to join parkrun?

00:50:02Maxime Sylvester: The wonderful people that are at the launch, like yourself, and all the other people that enjoy a parkrun on a Saturday morning.

00:50:09Sean Hill: The camaraderie. It's really good fun.

00:50:11Zara Curtis: How did you find the course, Sean?

00:50:14Sean Hill: Very nice. A little hill at the start, and the course then that was there on the way back as well. But apart from that, it was a beautiful course, very scenic. Good to run.

00:50:24Zara Curtis: Thank you. What is your home parkrun, and is it any different to Portland parkrun, Maxine?

00:50:30Maxime Sylvester: Our home run is Point Cook, and it's a little bit different. We don't have a nice lake, but the camaraderie is really good out there with the high fives out and back course, which is really lovely, and it hasn't got that hill in it.

00:50:47Zara Curtis: How many parkruns have you both done? Eighty-nine. Eighty-nine each. Today. How many different parkruns have you been to?

00:50:55Maxime Sylvester: We've been to all the Victorian parkruns and I think that's about 32?

00:50:59Sean Hill: Yep, two in Tasmania and two in Queensland.

00:51:05Zara Curtis: That really does mean you're parkrun adventurers. Have you been lucky enough to do any parkrun interstate or overseas?

00:51:12Maxime Sylvester: We have done interstate. We've done two in Tasmania, Hobart and Launceston, and we've done two in Queensland at Southbank and North Lakes, which we go to twice a year, but we haven't done any overseas yet.

00:51:26Sean Hill: Yes, twice a year is overseas.

00:51:28[laughter]

00:51:28Unidentified speaker: LAUGHTER

00:51:30Zara Curtis: Which is your favourite parkrun?

00:51:32Maxime Sylvester: It'd have to be Point Cook. Of course.

00:51:36Zara Curtis: How did parkruns change your life?

00:51:39Maxime Sylvester: A lot fitter. We've made great friends and it's just really nice to get out on a Saturday morning to start your weekend.

00:51:47Zara Curtis: Thank you very much, Sean and Maxime. Enjoy the rest of your day and I hope the rest of your time in Portland is awesome. That's all from Portland. Next stop, You Yangs parkrun launch sometime after winter.

00:51:59Scott Trickett: Zara was back with another roving report from Portland, another successful launch.

Roving adventurer report — Warwick Pentathrun (Melissa Taylor)

00:52:05Melissa Erbacher: And there are adventures happening all over the place this weekend. We actually had a roving adventurer checking in from the Warwick Pentathrun, obviously in Warwick. Her name is Melissa Taylor and she chatted to a whole heap of of the half marathons this weekend, and this is what they had to say. Okay, so this could end in disaster.

00:52:29Melissa Taylor: This is my first time doing an interview for parkrun Adventurers. This is Nola from Warwick parkrun. This is her second... Full pentat. Full pentat. She's just finished the 21.1. Now, do you want to give some thoughts on the race, Nola?

00:52:47Unidentified speaker: Oh, well, I was pretty pleased with how I went. This pentat has a little special thing to our family because my daughter's running as well. Four years ago, she was injured in an accident a week before pentat. So she ran it for the first time today too, so it's pretty special for us.

00:53:06Melissa Taylor: Oh wow, how's she gone?

00:53:07Unidentified speaker: Good, yeah, she came in 20 seconds ahead of me. But we're parkrunners, so yeah, it's all good. Oh, good on you.

00:53:15Melissa Taylor: Okay, interview number two. This is Ralph from Nambour parkrun. I might be biased, but it's probably the best parkrun in Australia. Ralph did his first 21K today. Ralph, could you tell parkrun adventurers about the race?

00:53:30Alan Hoskins: Oh, it's very scenic, lots of greenery, lots of water.

00:53:36Craig Curtis: Yeah, it's great.

00:53:39Melissa Taylor: I'm Cheryl from Nambour parkrun. She used to help out at the Warwick Penta. Cheryl's now with Nambour parkrun and she's finished the 21K and parkrun Adventurers are having their 21st episode this week.

00:53:53Unidentified speaker: Cheryl, can you share some thoughts on the half marathon today? Oh, it was great weather. Yeah, challenging course as usual. A few ups and downs. Yeah, it was a great run. Really good run. A couple of sneaky hills.

00:54:07Melissa Taylor: There's sneaky hills.

00:54:10Unidentified speaker: Yeah, and it's a good finish going up a hill a little bit to the end. You start going down and you think, yay! But it's challenging, it really is. But beautiful going from A to B. It's a really good half marathon.

00:54:25Melissa Taylor: Now, you probably know the voices from... episodes such as parkrun tourism blogs.

00:54:31Craig Curtis: Crack-a-lackin', crack-a-lackin'.

00:54:34Melissa Taylor: It's the Paulmans. Hello. Hello. And I followed their butts most of the way. Did you? I did, yeah. You cheeky thing. Actually, we had some of your running group, I think, who were talking about donuts the whole way. Oh, good.

00:54:49Craig Curtis: That was really bad, because they're talking about caramel donuts and bacon and peanut butter donuts.

00:54:54Melissa Taylor: No, that was me. I was the bacon and peanut butter donut. Bacon donuts. The Elvis from Donut Time. Oh.

00:55:00Craig Curtis: That's a shout out there, free sponsorship. Yeah, sorry.

00:55:02Melissa Taylor: Like I didn't hear that.

00:55:03Craig Curtis: And now we're talking about my orange shorts.

00:55:06Melissa Taylor: Yes, they are rather bright. Peter is known as the ugly rainbow.

00:55:09Unidentified speaker: Thank you.

00:55:10Melissa Taylor: Thank you. I do try. He's flying the rainbow flag today. He is flying the rainbow flag. So how many times have you done this course? This is our second year of doing the five events. So this is the second time we've done it.

00:55:25Unidentified speaker: Okay, well yes, that's very true. That's encouraging, thank you.

00:55:28Melissa Taylor: You can always rely on Ralph to bring you back down to London. We can edit him out later. Being locals, we do get to train on at least the first part of the course, so the first hill we get quite used to, but that one at 18, 19km, yeah, what can I say? That was a bit nasty.

00:55:46Unidentified speaker: And we look forward to the 10k ascent tomorrow.

00:55:48Melissa Taylor: I can't wait. That's the fun one. I've heard all good things about it. That's right. Thanks guys. I'm trying to do a sneaky interview with Tracy and she's just worked it out. She's not silly. And we're getting a lift back in the car with her husband and he's in the bad books at the moment because he wasn't at the finish to see her cross the line. Now, Tracy, just give me one word to describe the half marathon. One word. Hilly. Hilly. It was. And here comes another runner. Oh, my God. They're still finishing. That's the last one. Wow. Well done, girl. Okay, so take two with Deborah Mills. We're sitting in a pool while she's standing in it getting an ice bath and I'm freezing my butt, dipping my toes in.

00:56:41Unidentified speaker: Absolutely freezing in here. Warwick is beautiful though. Beautiful blue skies today and it's not too cold. It was perfect running with the conditions, don't you think Mel? Absolutely perfect. Just the right amount of hills. No, we could have less hills and those long stretches of nothings, but the horses, it was amazing to be running along and there's just horses galloping towards us. Did you see them? I know, that was amazing, yeah. With their manes flying and the sun reflecting off the manes and the kelpie that was going crazy up and down the road. Yeah, and with the cornfields, I think it was corn or wheat fields, the noise they were making with the wind, it was...

00:57:20Melissa Taylor: yeah it was beautiful and the skies were clear no pollution it's just perfect running weather out here and conditions So we've done the half. Deborah's been sorted out by the chiropractor. Yeah, I feel like a new woman.

00:57:35Unidentified speaker: And now we're ready to go nail some more hills at the cross country. Yes. So we've got some vicious hills on the golf course at Allora. So we've got to do them twice. So we do one lap and then realize we've got to do it again. But the worst is over. The worst? Well, no, it isn't. The worst isn't over. No, the 10K tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow I'm running up to Queen Mary Falls and we're just speaking to the owner at the Coachman's Inn and he was saying how bad the hill is. So yeah, it's going to be fun. I'm hearing false pretenses.

00:58:08Melissa Taylor: I thought it was a party. It's a party afterwards. We're having a party tonight. Okay. Alright, I'm in. Thanks, Deb. Alright I've got John Pearson here from Noosa parkrun. Now John parkrun Adventurers are celebrating their 21st birthday this week and you just ran 21k. Can you describe the course in one word?

00:58:28John Pearson: About 21k is long. That was more than one word I think.

00:58:33Melissa Taylor: You're not very good at maths, you might be a good runner. Scenic.

00:58:36John Pearson: Scenic.

00:58:37Melissa Taylor: It was, it was beautiful wasn't it?

00:58:38John Pearson: It was.

00:58:39Melissa Taylor: How did you go today?

00:58:40John Pearson: Okay, yeah, just trotted it through nice and relaxed to make sure I can get through all five events in one piece.

00:58:46Melissa Taylor: Okay. What time would relaxed be?

00:58:50John Pearson: uh just over 1 21. oh there you go just an hour quicker than me but as long as we both relax we're all good that's right well congratulations did you eat donuts at the end no no those elite athletes just looked at donuts and then went gluten-free cardboard oh what about last night what happened at the rsl can you share anything oh look just a standard roast dinner that us poms normally eat and five desserts okay any beer no no what

00:59:17Melissa Taylor: a gluten in beer oh okay no you're too good okay podcast number interview i've lost count but um here we go parkrun adventurers i've got marie and james and they're lining up for the cross country yes but they finished the half marathon which is 21k this morning how do you feel after that

00:59:39Unidentified speaker: I do the personal best.

00:59:41Melissa Taylor: PB, awesome. Chucking some push-ups and burpees afterwards?

00:59:45Unidentified speaker: No, I was burping a lot.

00:59:47Melissa Taylor: And what about you, Marie? Yeah, good, good. Not too bad. I'm a first-timer at this event, so it's pretty exciting. Me too. It was pretty scenic, wasn't it? Beautiful. It was gorgeous. What did you think of the hills? They weren't as bad as I thought. And it was nice to see the top of them and know that there's going to be a down on the other side. Yep.

01:00:06Unidentified speaker: That's how you do it. You take advantage of that down and shorten your step on the way up.

01:00:12Melissa Taylor: So which parkruns are you from?

01:00:14Unidentified speaker: Calendale.

01:00:15Melissa Taylor: Calendale. Okay. Brisbane. Awesome. Alright, well good luck for the rest of the event. Thank you. You too.

01:00:22Unidentified speaker: That's only just a bare second and there's only three more to go.

01:00:25Melissa Taylor: That's right. Alright, I'm at race three of the Warwick Pentathrun, standing outside the dunnies, meeting people, as you do. And I've got Tara and Sarah. Which parkrun are you guys from? Gatton. Gatton. And you did the 21k this morning. Yes. parkrun Adventurers are having their 21st birthday this week so that's why we're interviewing all the 21k people. How did you find it?

01:00:51Unidentified speaker: I did a PB!

01:00:52Melissa Taylor: Yay! Is it your first time on this course? Yes. So first time for both of you? Yes. Excellent, well done. How would you describe the course?

01:01:03Unidentified speaker: You get points or something.

01:01:05Melissa Taylor: Hilly! That seems to be the consensus.

01:01:09Unidentified speaker: Yes.

01:01:09Melissa Taylor: And what about fueling for the night before, what would you do differently? Anything? No, I think we've actually been pretty good. Yeah? What did it involve? Pasta, pizza, beer? We had pea pizza. We had fish and chips. It's all pasta. I mean all carbs. And that's how you get a PB folks. Fish and chips and pizza. Thanks girls. Now I'm meant to be commentating on the half marathon but I'm going rogue and I'm interviewing Jason and Eric from Brightwater parkrun. Tell us about your weekend guys.

01:01:46Unidentified speaker: Terrible. Terrible, my legs are shattered.

01:01:51Unidentified speaker: Eric's been in the hurt lock ever since the half marathon. He thinks it's a little bit harder than parkrun.

01:01:56Melissa Taylor: Eric, do you want to tell us a bit about your training? No, no, zilch.

01:02:00Unidentified speaker: No, I did two 10km runs last week and that's the most I've done apart from parkrun each week for the last year. So, yeah, full of beans. We won't be back here next year.

01:02:12Melissa Taylor: And Jason, do you want to tell us where you spent most of the weekend?

01:02:15Unidentified speaker: Oh, yeah. I spent most of the weekend in a coffee shop.

01:02:18Melissa Taylor: Or a massage table. Or a massage table.

01:02:21Unidentified speaker: In the first 600 metres of the half marathon, I thought I tore my calf muscle again, but it's come good in the last run, so I'm going to give it a good old hit, the 1500 metres.

01:02:32Melissa Taylor: Okay, can you give me your thoughts on the first 600 metres of the half marathon?

01:02:35Unidentified speaker: Oh, it's beautiful. It's the most expensive 600 metres I've ever ran in my life. I tell you what, it was so much worth it. Walking back, my head down between my legs. They thought this guy was fast or slow.

01:02:50Unidentified speaker: It wasn't too enjoyable. It was well worth the visit, Dana.

01:02:53Melissa Taylor: Okay, we've only got one race to go. It's going to be a toffee, a whole 1,500 metres. So good luck, guys.

01:03:00Scott Trickett: Yeah, same to you, Melissa. We'll smash it. She was busy. Well done, Melissa. That's some awesome adventuring and roving adventuring. Thank you. On Facebook last week, not only did we have a picture of a shirtless Paul Rudd shared across the country, Scott Watkins also shared a groovy little link which helped us find our Nindi. Nindid. I always get that wrong. Nindid.

Social Adventurers (social media round-up)

01:03:33Melissa Erbacher: I think you like to say Nendi. Nendi.

01:03:35Scott Trickett: No, you go netted. And it was a really cool link. Go to our Facebook page. Look over in the visitor's posts. He posted this tool that helps you find your nearest 5K run to wherever you are in the world, literally in the world. It'll find your nearest 5K run. So thank you, Dr. Scott. What else was happening on the social scene? Were we everywhere on the social interwebs this week?

01:04:01Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, we were all over the place again. We're always all over the place. On Instagram, we had Run Jo Run sharing with us her road trip. She said, woohoo, another road trip, this time to the wonderful city of Portland. Love going to parkrun launches to see the excitement of the organizing team, the new people about to experience the magic for the first time, and, of course, the chance to catch up with other parkrun adventurers.

01:04:28Scott Trickett: Finding My Balance had a gorgeous morning out running with the Capella Bar parkrun community.

01:04:35Melissa Erbacher: Jeanette Campbell, 21, was parkrunning for her 50th birthday with Elizabeth O'Neill, 1980, who was running her 50th parkrun. And she said, like twins, but different. Congratulations, ladies. Happy birthday, Jeanette Campbell. And well done on your 50th parkrun, Elizabeth O'Neill.

01:04:55Scott Trickett: And finally, wrapping up in Instagram, we had Miss Spelt. Half a freedom run on the Warwick parkrun course along the Condamine River. Love the beautiful big old gum trees guarding the riverbanks. Warm up for tomorrow done. So she was heading to the Pentathrun, obviously.

Where is the cake? (launches and anniversaries)

01:05:13Melissa Erbacher: We've got no launches this week.

01:05:16Scott Trickett: No launches. That's okay. We're having a break from our global domination.

01:05:21Melissa Erbacher: Heaps of anniversaries, though. That kind of makes up for the fact that there are no launches.

01:05:26Scott Trickett: So, Mel, where's the anniversaries this week?

01:05:29Melissa Erbacher: Where's the anniversaries? I don't care about anniversaries. I care about cake.

01:05:34Scott Trickett: It's not all about the cake.

01:05:36Melissa Erbacher: Well, a little bit of it's about the cake. Well, this week you can get cake and or fancy dressed in Castlemaine, Victoria. They're having their first anniversary and it's a C and P theme for Castlemaine parkrun. So they've got double the letters, which means I would be really interested to see which parkrunners go as C and P themes. They've got to get both the words going.

01:06:06Scott Trickett: I'm fresh with ideas for C, but I haven't extended my brain capacity for C and P. Carpooling? I can go with someone who's carpooling.

01:06:19Melissa Erbacher: You could go as a carpooler. You could go as a captain pirate. A pirate captain. It doesn't have to be CP in that order, I guess.

01:06:32Scott Trickett: Or... You could just go down to Devonport for their first anniversary and they're just sticking with the pea theme.

01:06:38Melissa Erbacher: Otherwise, you could go to Highlands back in Victoria for their third birthday. They're having tiaras, top hats, ties and tutus. Gotta love some alliteration there.

01:06:49Scott Trickett: I'm heading to Highlands, so I think I might borrow one of Kasia's tiaras.

01:06:54Melissa Erbacher: I'm yet to see you in a tutu, I think, Scotty.

01:06:57Scott Trickett: Growing up in a ballet family, I've had enough tutus. So I can categorically say you will not see me running in a tutu at parkrun.

01:07:08Melissa Erbacher: You don't have to run in it, you just have to wear it.

01:07:11Scott Trickett: I can categorically say you will not see me in a tutu at parkrun. Sorry to spoil the fun for everyone.

01:07:19Melissa Erbacher: I think there's a lot of people out there whose hopes and dreams just got dashed.

01:07:24Scott Trickett: Hopefully none of those people are at Mount Penang because they're celebrating their second anniversary. As well as Penrith Lakes. They've been around for two years as well. And they're going blue. They're working blue this week for their second birthday. And I must admit, I saw the photos from Taree last week. And the blue theme works really well. Looks good.

01:07:50Melissa Erbacher: Blue's a good colour. And last but not least, we've got the Ponds in New South Wales celebrating their first anniversary with a fluoro theme.

01:07:59Scott Trickett: So hopefully we got you to the end of your long run, filled up your commute this week.

01:08:07Melissa Erbacher: Hopefully we made you laugh out loud on the bus or the train in front of the other people and they're wondering what you're listening to that's so witty.

01:08:17Scott Trickett: When you step off the bus, shout, parkrun Adventurers!

01:08:22Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, because they're not going to think you're crazy at all.

01:08:26Scott Trickett: getting tim back on the podcast next week he's had a nice break so i hope you've all saved up your questions for him we're going to throw a couple at him but we'd also love to hear any questions you've got so make sure you send them through to the email address parkrunadventures gmail.com or just send us a facebook message as well don't forget you can always hashtag Everything and anything you do parkrun adventuring related with the #parkrunadventurers hashtag. That way we'll find it on Twitter and Instagram. Throw us a review on iTunes. We haven't had one of those for a while.

01:09:04Melissa Erbacher: Throw us a good review. We're not really interested in the ones that are poor.

01:09:07Scott Trickett: No, I wouldn't mind as long as you give us five stars. Give us five stars and then just bang us out in the comments.

01:09:14Melissa Erbacher: And then honest feedback.

01:09:15Scott Trickett: Yeah.

01:09:17Melissa Erbacher: Don't ruin our ratings.

01:09:20Scott Trickett: So do that this week, and we'll catch up with you all next week.

01:09:25Melissa Erbacher: Happy adventuring.

01:09:26[music]

01:09:26Unidentified speaker: I'm on my way home For years I've been gone Let the captain guide us to our own land When I first set off said she'd wait for me I was a rich man And baby, you're caught in all of my thoughts. There's the nightmare or dream where you don't feature. And when I arrive with the sorest of eyes, please wear the bright green skirt when I meet you. But she never showed, it's hard but I know I guess she found her way to forget me She haunts me at night, the captain was right I gave my heart to the deep sea