Episode 22 - Anita Afonso

Episode details · 142 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:07Scott Trickett: Bonjour, parkrun Adventurers. Je m'appelle Scott. Bienvenue, parkrun Adventure Podcast. What's the French word for podcast? My four years of French didn't extend that far. In fact, when I was in school, I didn't even have podcasts. [French: "Hello, parkrun Adventurers."] [French: "My name is Scott."]

00:00:27Melissa Erbacher: I'm not entirely sure that what you said, was that welcome? Was that welcome to the podcast? I don't know if you used that in the correct context either.

00:00:40Scott Trickett: I only did four years of French. Don't test me.

00:00:45Tim Oberg: All I remember is I like ham sandwiches and my name is Scott.

00:00:51Scott Trickett: And I couldn't work ham sandwiches into the opener, so I went with my name is Scott. And it's ironic because I don't like ham sandwiches. So maybe it was je n'ai pas jambon sandwich.

00:01:05Melissa Erbacher: We could both probably use some more lessons because my French extends about as far as the word hors d'oeuvres.

00:01:11Scott Trickett: Well, you know what? You're in luck. Because this week on the pod, we're going to catch up with Anita, who's the country manager over in France. She's been tasked with launching parkrun in France. Tough gig. And we'll find out all about it later on in the episode. But before we do that, did you get up to any adventures this week, Mel?

Weekly adventures catch-up (segment not named on air)

00:01:36Melissa Erbacher: I did have some adventures this week. I was lucky enough to head north to Noosa parkrun on a little bit of a brisk morning to meet up with some other adventurers and take along some adventurers that I had staying with me as guests. Heaps of people were there this weekend because it was timed with the Noosa Sports Festival. So lots of people showing up for their parkrun fix on Saturday morning before they dashed over to Noosa Main Beach to do either the ocean swim or register for some of the runs or the ridiculously long cycles. that were happening on Sunday. And so we headed to Noosa to do that and lots and lots of cheering later, lots of goals achieved by adventurers. We'd had a great time. And how about you? I believe you were headed to Highlands last weekend, Scotty.

00:02:31Scott Trickett: I did. They had their third anniversary. Always great going out to Highlands. Very friendly crew out there. Always feel very welcome. And this week in particular, I was made to feel even more welcome because they named a bridge after the Trickett family. They called it the Trickett Trestle Bridge. So as you get around, it's a three-lap course at Highlands, so you get to run over it three times. So if you miss it the first time, you get a chance the second, and even then, If you miss it, you can't miss it the third time around. It's a lovely bridge. Not the biggest bridge in parkrun, but it serves its purpose. We need to cross the water somehow, and the little trestle bridge does the trick.

00:03:17Melissa Erbacher: Do you know who nicknamed it, the Trickett Trestle Bridge, for you?

00:03:22Scott Trickett: Well, the event team out at Highlands. came up with that okay so they they owned up to it did they you didn't show up early and do it yourself is where i'm going with this well it wasn't all about me because there were other locations around the course that had names as well so there was mary ann's meander there was muscle park i think that was in relation to me as well um you'll take it straight but i was honored just to be a small part and get my trick at trestle bridge in amongst all those.

00:03:58Melissa Erbacher: I love the idea of that, naming little sections of courses after people, parkrun people. I might have to start thinking about what I could name sections of my course after.

00:04:10Scott Trickett: What's your favourite section of a parkrun? I mean, it's pretty obvious for me. I love a bridge. I've mentioned it before.

00:04:17Melissa Erbacher: Once or twice.

00:04:20Scott Trickett: What should we call the urban...

00:04:24Melissa Erbacher: I have a soft spot for the spectacular reveal. So any parkrun that you've got your head down because you're either running up a hill or you're going through a section which has got trees all over both sides and then all of a sudden you come out and there's a spectacular view of anything just waiting for you. I love it when I can discover one of those on a course. And I've been lucky enough to see them on several courses that i've adventured to so that's that would have to be my favorite aspect and i think something that should be included at least one on every parkrun course if possible i like that so we call it mel's view um i don't know that that that could that could be misconstrued we could call it the Erbacher Corner or something like that Maybe we should put this one out for the listeners to send in their contributions about what we can call my sneaky reveal. No, that's terrible as well. Let's not call it that.

00:05:38Scott Trickett: I was really careful not to go there, but I'm glad you put me through it.

00:05:44Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, okay. Keep it clean, people, but let us know what you think we should call it.

00:05:50Scott Trickett: We could create a Strava segment.

00:05:52Melissa Erbacher: Yes, on every parkrun course that's got one, and that Strava segment can be named after me because that's not going to inflate my ego at all.

00:06:01Scott Trickett: Good. Well, that's good. You're grounded. Speaking of Strava.

00:06:06Melissa Erbacher: And speaking of Strava.

parkrun Adventurers Strava Club round-up

00:06:07Scott Trickett: Should we get on to this, the massive growth of the parkrun Adventurers Strava Club?

00:06:13Melissa Erbacher: The explosion of adventurers who have joined us.

00:06:17Scott Trickett: We're no longer in Missouri. We've fixed that. But if you can't find us on Strava, go to our Facebook page and there is a link directly to it. We can't explain the mysteries of Strava searches, but we are there. And as we've teased, as we've promised, there's more stuff coming, not just checking out what all your other adventurers does. Do. Run.

00:06:42Melissa Erbacher: Which is also cool, but it's not ultimately where we're heading. Entirely. And it's not too far away. So make sure you join soon.

00:06:53Scott Trickett: So what we've discovered this week on Strava is that Matt Archer loves running. If you didn't know, there's a weekly leaderboard and Matt Archer smoked us all. 150k he ran last week.

00:07:08Melissa Erbacher: And it took him more than 12 hours to do that. Still impressive.

00:07:13Scott Trickett: Yeah. So you can check out all that. I ranked in 43rd.

00:07:22Melissa Erbacher: Top 50. Good job. I'm just looking for Mel. You might be looking for a little while.

00:07:32Scott Trickett: I'm a little bit... Maybe you're saving it all up for next week or...

00:07:39Melissa Erbacher: I did run. I'm just not very good at... I'm not that person who rushes home and forsakes a shower or food or, you know, turning the car off just to plug. my watch into my computer. And I certainly don't have one of those Wi-Fi ones that just syncs automatically. So forgive me if you don't see me on there straight away. If you want to find me, I'm Rebel... Am I Rebel Rouser? Is that what my name is? See, I can't even remember my own name.

00:08:08Scott Trickett: Confusing us all. Confusing us all. But I'm...

00:08:12Melissa Erbacher: I'm in fluoro in my picture and I'm called Rebel Rouser because that's what I do. I rouse rebels.

00:08:17Scott Trickett: I need to get you one of those watches that does sync to your phone because that's a way to do it. Straight after you run, bang, into your phone, onto Strava.

00:08:27Melissa Erbacher: Well, that could solve a lot of problems. Let's work on it.

Guest interview — Anita Afonso, parkrun France Country Manager

00:08:42Scott Trickett: As we hinted to at the start of the program, tonight, or today, we're joined by Anita Afonso, who is the country manager for France, who are about to celebrate their first anniversary this Saturday. Welcome to the podcast, Anita.

00:08:57Anita Afonso: Hi. Hi, everyone.

00:09:00Scott Trickett: Exciting times for parkrun in France. You're about to turn one.

00:09:04Anita Afonso: Yes. It's been a great year. Very interesting. Yes, we just launched the fifth parkrun two weeks ago, and this Saturday we're turning one. So we're all very happy and excited about that.

00:09:21Scott Trickett: And where was the fifth parkrun? Was it a big successful launch?

00:09:26Anita Afonso: It was a nice launch. It was in a little town of less than 3,000 people called Pierre de Bresse. They have an amazing château there, which is a classified monument. And the council were so keen for us to start a parkrun there. So it's in the east of France. It's the only park on there at the moment. And the entire community was involved. That was fantastic. We had around 40 people, all first-timers pretty much, for the launch. And yeah, it was a great day.

00:09:59Scott Trickett: So have you had a successful first year? So you said you got five events. Are you happy with that?

00:10:04Anita Afonso: Yes, very happy with that. It's been successful in a lot of ways. We have five sustainable parkrun teams with volunteers involved and communities and families and people taking part. So on that sense, it's been very successful. We've had local interest. And what's been very important for us is that councils, for the five parkruns that we have in France, I've all been very keen to get the parkrun started. We haven't had any difficulty to actually start the parkrun locally. So for that, it's been fantastic to see that the local councils really are behind the parkrun concept and ethos. So it's been great for that.

00:10:52Melissa Erbacher: Anita, where do you begin when you decide that you're going to bring a parkrun to a new country?

00:10:59Anita Afonso: Well, the first thing I had to do was to understand how sport is organized in France. I had a lot of experience in the UK. I had worked in sporting events in France before moving to the UK. But the parkrun concept being so different from everything that existed, sports and in running, I had to kind of find ways to adapt the concept in France and way to organize it in the way that it would be organized. legal and, um, and all these, all these things really. So that's the thing I had to do, understand where in what boxes would the parkrun concept, um, fit really into. Um, so I worked on that for, for quite a while. And once I did that, it was pretty easy. I just had to find, um, the local volunteers and the locations and, and take it from there.

00:11:54Scott Trickett: You had a history of parkrun in the UK beforehand. You were the second ever employee for parkrun. Is that correct?

00:12:02Anita Afonso: I moved to the UK in 2008. And in 2009, I had the amazing opportunity to work for these little tiny sporting organizations called parkrun. And I hadn't really heard about this before, especially being French and parkrun being so small in the UK. But I did have a background in sporting events and sports management. And I happened to knock on the parkrun door at the right time where they were actually looking for someone to grow parkrun in the UK and to start new parkruns. So that's where I joined, when I joined in 2009. And then that gave me the opportunity to travel all around the country to meet with amazing people and communities and meet amazing volunteers. start new parkruns everywhere that where people wanted one i did that for a long time and then we we launched the ambassador program um and uh we had uh volunteers wanted to do more and i coordinated the volunteer the ambassadors sorry and um part of my role was just to to keep on developing parkrun for the ambassadors And then came the time for me to go back to France. And with my experience, for me, it was the most logical thing to do, start parkrun in France.

00:13:25Scott Trickett: So when you started in the UK, how many events did they have there? Do you remember?

00:13:30Anita Afonso: I think, I can't remember. I think they had around 10 to 15 parkruns, I think.

00:13:38Scott Trickett: And when you left?

00:13:39Anita Afonso: They had around... I don't want to say, I don't want to be wrong, but around 400, I'd say. Okay. We had launched the junior parkrun as well by then. So, yeah, I think it was around 400 with the juniors.

00:13:54Scott Trickett: That's enormous growth. It must have been so exciting.

00:13:57Anita Afonso: Yeah, it was very exciting because as well we saw the new countries coming into the family. So, I mean, the last 10 years, it's been mind-blowing seeing the growth of parkrun.

00:14:08Scott Trickett: You must have a really low parkrun number as well.

00:14:12Anita Afonso: It's 27,000 something. It's low, but it's not that low. I don't know. It's five digits. It's okay. It's a small number.

00:14:22Melissa Erbacher: With all these years of parkrun in your past, Anita, you must have had some pretty wonderful adventures. How many parkruns have you done and how many different locations have you been to?

00:14:34Anita Afonso: Well, I couldn't answer. I've done around 20 parkruns as a runner, more than 100 parkruns as a volunteer. I've been to many parkruns where I haven't been recorded, obviously. I couldn't answer the question for the locations. I don't know. I don't know because I've started... so many parkruns probably around 100 parkruns i've been to i don't know i couldn't answer really but um it was amazing experience for me because i was when I started my parkrun journey i was just this french girl who loved sports and anything related to sporting activity and i had this opportunity me being brand new in this new country to go all over the the country and to visit it and to meet amazing people who always have been so welcoming to me. Seeing all these amazing venues, going to places in Northern Ireland, Scotland, East, West, South England. So yes, I have seen quite a lot of amazing sceneries and met quite a few amazing people.

00:15:49Melissa Erbacher: Do any of those stick out in your mind?

00:15:51Anita Afonso: Well, it's hard to choose but Portrush in Northern Ireland was quite an amazing place to be. They have a parkrun on the beach and it's so far away from London from where I used to live and the people were so lovely there. That's one of them. It's very hard to name one. I always had something for the little parkruns in terms of numbers. So that's something else. My local parkrun, Wormwood Scrubs. I don't know if you know Wormwood Scrubs. I don't know if you've heard of Wormwood Scrubs in southwest London. It's right by a big prison. So it's not, when you say it like this, it's not the most welcoming place to go, and it's just a scrub, so it's just a big field. It was a small parkrun in terms of numbers. It only had around 40 to 50 runners. But the committee was just so lovely. The local running club, with very, very old school clubhouse from the 70s. It was one of the loveliest. I mean, it was my local parkrun, obviously, but that being a small parkrun compared to huge ones, it was just like a family every week. So just to name a couple.

00:17:06Melissa Erbacher: We're fond of the small ones as well.

00:17:11Scott Trickett: They're great. Tell us about the five events you've got in France. Have you got any iconic locations yet?

00:17:20Anita Afonso: Well, we're very proud of the five little parkruns. The first one is my local parkrun. So it's right by where I live. I live in the countryside of Bordeaux, so in the southwest of France, in the middle of the vineyards and fields with horses. And we managed, because I was looking for a long time, to find a space big enough to have a parkrun. And that's why we decided to do the very first one, so we could test the systems as well and And all the IT stuff that goes in the background of doing a parkrun. And that's our little parkruns, but it's quite hard to find. And then we've got some very iconic ones, like the one in Paris, which is in Le Bois de Boulogne. So it's in Paris, but it's by the biggest and the most famous sporting venue. So Roland Garros, where the Grand Slam tournament is going on now, is right back there. PSG, which is a football club, is right by there as well. The rugby club as well is right by there. So when the city, the Paris City Council gave us the permission to do the parkrun there without any problem, we felt so grateful and so honoured to be able to host the parkrun in that amazing venue. The one obviously in the château is Pierre-de-Bresse. The last one is fantastic as well. I mean, they're all great. The parks in France are not like in the UK in terms of there's so many in the UK. They're all amazing. But so far, we've been able to start parkruns in very, very lovely places. So I'm very glad with that.

00:19:01Scott Trickett: And what about the French people? Have they adopted parkrun like the rest of the world?

00:19:06Anita Afonso: there any hesitation or yes so that's that's pretty much our challenge at hand at the moment parkland is as grown and as i started in in english i mean where parkland is very at the moment is in english speaking countries so bringing parkland into a country that doesn't speak english first is um is difficult um talking about parkland explaining the concept is french was was um I had to think about ways to talk about this for many reasons. For example, the word run in English in French translates by race, but I didn't want obviously to call Parkland a race. I had to find a word that would work with that. The second thing I would say is the French mentality. At the moment, they see us in parks, but they're always very hesitant to come and join us. In France, people are not very curious. They do their own thing in parks. So, for example, when I was in the UK, if people saw a group of people doing something, they would come and ask, oh, what are you doing? What is that? It sounds cool. But in France, they see us, but they wouldn't come and ask us what we're doing. We have to go and see them and ask. It's the same thing. We're kind of bothering them in whatever they're doing. And that's not something that you really do here. So that's our biggest challenge is kind of explain what we do, show people that what we do is great and make them want to come and try. We need to find ways to kind of talk about our activity and make people want to come and join us. Because once they come and join us, they love it. Same as anywhere else in the world. They get the concept. They become parkrunners. They bring their families and friends. And, yeah, it starts from there. But there's this hesitation of actually coming and do the first step. So that's our biggest challenge in France, this awareness of what partners and how good it can do.

00:21:13Melissa Erbacher: You must get quite a lot of adventurers touring over to visit your events from other countries. I certainly know that I'm keen to try out some French parkruns. I was there in 2013 for the Marathon du Médoc and there were no parkruns there and my husband and I spent four weeks traveling around France and it was the longest period I had been away from a parkrun. since I started in 2012. So when I come back, because I have unfinished business with Marathon du Medoc, how close is it to your parkruns in Bordeaux?

00:21:51Anita Afonso: parkrun du Medoc, you're around 20 minutes drive from a parkrun. I think it would be probably the one near me, so the parkrun du Medoc. So you're not too far, half an hour I'd say, half an hour drive.

00:22:06Melissa Erbacher: Excellent. I'll see you in 18 months.

00:22:09Anita Afonso: Fantastic. Yeah, come and join us. It was always fun. Yes, definitely. I mean, the parkrun tourists are a big proportion of the people who take part in France at the moment. And it's great because it actually inspires the locals to take part and they see the friendliness across the borders. And for them, it's amazing when like in our little parkland in the countryside, we see locals, we see people coming from Australia or coming from New Zealand, they're amazed. They don't understand why those people would travel so far just to run a 5K on a Saturday morning. But they understand that it goes beyond just the concept. The park and love is just huge. So we do get a lot of tourists, and especially when there are big running events like the Paris Marathon or pretty soon the Euro as well is going to bring for a lot of tourists, the football tournaments. And yes, so it's great. It's just fantastic to see the parkrunners coming from all over the world.

00:23:12Scott Trickett: Well, it's exciting times for you, Anita. It must be so rewarding to bring something like this to a country and to a whole population. Have you got some big plans for Saturday? So it's your home parkrun that's going to be celebrating their one-year anniversary. What have you got in store?

00:23:29Anita Afonso: So we're going to do the parkrun and then we're going to go home, have a shower, and then we're going to come back to the venue and have a big barbecue, play pétanque, which is, I don't know if you know pétanque, it's like a French old school game with metal balls. We're going to play football, just stay around for the rest of the day. That's the plan. It's going to be fun.

00:23:57Scott Trickett: Yeah, that sounds like fun. That's a way to celebrate. Thanks for coming on the podcast this week. It's great to have you. Hopefully we'll catch up again.

00:24:06Anita Afonso: Yeah, thank you so much. And hopefully I'll see you in France maybe soon.

Tim Oberg Q&A (segment not given a name on air)

00:24:20Melissa Erbacher: It's been a little while since we had him join us on the show. Eight weeks, in fact. Eight solid parkrun adventurer episodes without the sultry sounds of Mr. Tim Oberg. But he's back. Tim, welcome to the show.

00:24:38Tim Oberg: Good to be here. And Mel, did you just say salty sounds? Is that what you said?

00:24:44Melissa Erbacher: No, I said sultry. Sultry.

00:24:46Tim Oberg: Sultry sounds, well that's even more interesting. Okay, anyway, it's good to be here. And my voice has never been described as sultry before, not even by my wife, but anyway, I'll go with it. So good to be here. Has the podcast changed in its theme or anything whilst it's in the last eight weeks? It is still about running.

00:25:05Melissa Erbacher: Well, I'm sure you're listening to it religiously every week, so you would know.

00:25:11Scott Trickett: So the first question is, Tim, who was on the podcast last week?

00:25:17Tim Oberg: Okay, I can answer that. I'll tell you two people who were on it last week, Scott Trickett and Mel Erbacher. Boom. Next question.

00:25:25Melissa Erbacher: Oh, no. You're not doing yourself any favours here. You must be our biggest fan.

00:25:33Tim Oberg: Who wasn't on it last week? Which one of you two wasn't on it?

00:25:36Scott Trickett: Well, you'll have to listen to find out.

00:25:39Melissa Erbacher: Name a third person that was on the podcast last week.

00:25:42Tim Oberg: All right. Okay. The third person who was on the podcast last week was...

00:25:49Melissa Erbacher: Sounds like you're delaying while you Google it.

00:25:53Tim Oberg: Well, because it just comes up into the start of all Google searches. Something to do with Kung Fu Running.

00:26:06Melissa Erbacher: That's the best answer that you've given to any of the questions we've asked you, the entire history of the podcast.

00:26:12Tim Oberg: Let me tell you why. Let me explain why I didn't listen last week. And that is because Scott set the podcasting app on my phone and then my phone broke. And now I'm on another phone that doesn't have enough memory for me to download the app to download the podcast. So that's my excuse. But anyway.

00:26:30Scott Trickett: Okay, let's get stuck into the questions. We had a question from Tim, the other Tim. The other Tim. Which one? The other Tim down my neck of the woods, Tim Baldwin. He asked, as we all love being adventurers, could we look at getting a sew-on patch with each parkrun's name on it? We could then buy them through Wiggle.

00:26:52Tim Oberg: Yeah, okay. So I actually love that idea, Tim Baldwin, and it's one that has been floated before. And the answer is not a definite no because it's a fun idea, but it's more about – How would that actually work in reality? What needs to be made? How would we get them out there, et cetera, et cetera? The other idea that's been floated, and I hope this isn't about to be another question that I'm about to ruin, but is the idea of the parkrun passport, where there would be a physical passport that you could buy, and then each event would have a rather stamp, potentially, that says, is designed by the owner of each event as well. So there'd be 165 different rubber stamps out there. And so you would then have your passport stamped when you visited an event. And I did quite a lot of investigation into that. I was getting quotes from book publishers and all sorts of things. And in the end, it just never got off the ground. But Both ideas are lovely and possibly could happen, but it really would just take some organizing and so on and so forth. So, yeah, the answer is a definite maybe.

00:28:19Melissa Erbacher: A definite maybe. That's a good answer.

00:28:23Scott Trickett: I've got to admit, I like this sew-on idea. I've never been a massive fan of the Passport because logistically I can see that's just going to be a real headache. But the sew-on patch, I don't mind.

00:28:36Tim Oberg: And would each patch look different? Does it have to? I don't know. I'm just, I'm asking you.

00:28:46Melissa Erbacher: I think it'd be a bit boring if you had all these patches the same.

00:28:51Tim Oberg: And where do they go? That's the other thing. Is it on a single parkrun shirt that is made for people to put patches on? So it's all those sorts of questions that I think before anything like this would happen, they need to be kind of thought of. But yeah, they're definitely nice ideas. And obviously, it's a proven formula. When you travel, you see people put patches on their backpacks and all that kind of stuff. So it's obviously inspired by that.

00:29:19Scott Trickett: Okay, great. A question back to the audience. How do we make this happen?

00:29:24Tim Oberg: Yeah, absolutely. Put it this way. If someone out there is listening in the parkrun Adventures podcast land and has a business that can make it happen seamlessly, then let's hear about it.

00:29:37Melissa Erbacher: I have, this one comes from me, Tim, but it's on behalf of all the parkrunners out there. So Mel from the Sunshine Coast wants to know, she understands that there is a no cash handling policy at parkrun events. However, it is possible for parkrunners to make donations directly to their events. Can you explain how that works?

00:30:03Tim Oberg: Absolutely. So the first part of your double banger question there with regards to no cash handling, basically that is a global policy with parkrun because we don't want our volunteers to ever be put in a situation where they have to handle cash and therefore be accountable for it. Because we would hate to see a situation where someone would be saying that they donated X number of dollars to a certain parkrun and gave it to a certain parkrun volunteer. That parkrun volunteer then says they don't know where that money is and then it all just becomes very sticky. So that is why we have that policy. And to complement that policy, I guess, we have a donations system of which I think the best one to mention is that you can donate through the Australian Sports Foundation parkrun page. And the reason I'm mentioning that one is because all donations to that page are tax deductible. And as we're about to enter June... it's a good month to be donating because it can help you with your tax return if you're looking for as many tax deductions as possible. So that's how that all works, Mel. And then obviously all the money that gets donated goes towards supporting our existing parkrun events and into, of course, to growing parkrun. And, you know, events require money from time to time for things like some events want to have marquees because they might be in areas where there's a lot of exposure to the elements, namely the sun and the rain. So some events request a marquee and then it's good to have money through donations to be able to cover that.

00:31:41Scott Trickett: Next question from Miss Katie in Research in Victoria. She wants to know how old does she have to be before she can volunteer by herself?

00:31:52Tim Oberg: Well, you can tell your daughter, Scott.

00:31:58Anita Afonso: The rules are the same.

00:31:59Tim Oberg: The policy is the same for volunteering at parkrun as it is for running or walking at parkrun because the rule is essentially... for participating at parkrun which is both so to participate at parkrun um you uh if you if you are 11 years old or older you can do it on your own uh and if you're under 11 you need to do so with your designated parent or guardian or uh or other so as long as it's been designated by your parent so What that means in reality is that if Kasia wants to volunteer or any other child, she just needs to do so. Actually, Kasia's still under 11, isn't she? Yeah, she is. So, yeah, she... Yeah, yeah, so she just needs to do so with one of you guys. And then it would also be prudent of whoever is the volunteer coordinator for that event to make sure that if they are having children volunteering that the role that they are being assigned to is appropriate.

00:33:05Scott Trickett: Tim, the partnership with Athletics Australia was a big announcement a couple of weeks ago. Is there any relevance for Adventurers in that announcement?

00:33:13Tim Oberg: Oh, good question. Good question, Scott. There is actually, I mean, there's going to be a whole lot happening in terms of the partnership with Athletics Australia. And a lot of it is, you know, we're sort of making it up as we go a little bit. Myself and the CEO of Athletics Australia and the president of Athletics Australia, we're just really going into this with looking for as many different opportunities as possible. And certainly one that's already cropped up is to do with the Blackmores Sydney Running Festival. Now, that event is actually owned by Athletics Australia. It's the only major marathon in the country that AA actually own. And so as such, now that we're partnered with them, there's going to be some really good, I guess, perks, if you want to call it, for parkrunners with regards to that event. So if you are a parkrun adventurer and you have been thinking about doing the Blackmore Sydney Running Festival at some point, certainly this year will be as good a year as any to give it a crack. It's on the 18th of September. Now I was talking with the race director Wayne Larden the other day and I mentioned to him that when I did it a couple of years ago, it was actually a killer. The course was really, really difficult. And he assures me that actually changed the course this year for the marathon. And it is now, and I quote this off the website, flatter, faster, and even more beautiful. So, yeah, that's pretty exciting. And in terms of what parkrun is going to get, it's going to be along the lines of discounted entry. We're going to have a reserved space at the finish area for recovery and cheering on. other parkrunners, and if anyone has done that before knows that the recovery area is sort of in the botanic gardens there with views out over Sydney Harbour, so that's really lovely. So anyway, the exact specifics of that arrangement are yet to be confirmed, but certainly I can guarantee that there will be some great benefits to parkrunners at the Blackmores Sydney Running Festival this year, so pencil it in.

00:35:15Scott Trickett: I might have to. Put that in my calendar. And what about the other big announcement? Your workforce doubled.

00:35:24Tim Oberg: recently it did it did it's probably uh one of the one of the greatest things ever to happen to me in my entire life was renee gimbett former Event Director of Coomera parkrun on the Gold Coast now territory director for the gold coast and now national operations manager for parkrun australia our second full-time employee and she's fabulously talented and organized and smart and kind and caring and all these things that I should be better at so she's just such a wonderful addition to the team and already she's pretty much every sort of job that I've given her she's doing it better than I ever was so in terms of me personally I'm thrilled to have her supporting me and supporting all of us and certainly from a professional standpoint and from a From the point of view of the parkrunners, it's a great thing for parkrunners to have her coming on full time and working for parkrunners. So, yeah, thrilled to have Renee on board. Renee, if you're listening, thumbs up.

00:36:34Scott Trickett: Well, it's a great sign. It means that parkrunners are healthy and growing, and that's a good thing for all of us. So maybe next month we'll have Ask Renee.

00:36:44Tim Oberg: That's it. Mate, she'll answer the questions better than me. There's no doubt about it.

Social Adventurers (Instagram and Facebook round-up)

00:37:01Scott Trickett: Do you often wonder, Mel, how everyone's listening to the podcast, whether it's on their run or on their commute? This week on Instagram, so Instagram doesn't just have to be on Saturdays. I want to see some Instagram pics on Wednesday and Thursday this week and show us how you're listening to the podcast, whether it's you are on a midweek run and you Capture a shot of your iPod or your player or even the view. Or whether you're on the commute and you show us the view outside your tram window. Hashtag thatparkrunadventures.

00:37:40Tim Oberg: That's an adventure, a social adventure for this week.

00:37:44Scott Trickett: Because we did get lots of great pics on Instagram. Will B was at the Burley Griffin... Griffin? Griffith.

00:37:52Melissa Erbacher: Griffin.

00:37:53Scott Trickett: Griffin.

00:37:53Melissa Erbacher: Lake Burley Griffin is the name of the lake.

00:37:55Scott Trickett: Yeah, I should know that. Will B was at the Burley Griffin trial. That's going to be a big event for Canberra. I think they're a bit excited. It's been a long time between launches for the Canberra folk. And an iconic location in Australia. It'll be great to be running around there.

00:38:12Tim Oberg: Run Joe Run smashed it.

00:38:15Scott Trickett: Must have been her lucky day. Not quite, Joe. I think you've been training and committed really hard to get your time on Saturday, which was really fast. Well done. Ray Macy was all set up in the parkrun tent at the Green Heart Fair. Dr. Scott Watkins was getting ready for another free-timed 5K run in Seoul with the Seoul Flyers. So not quite parkrun in Korea just yet. Adam Erbacher. was happy to have done a Freedom Run at Main Beach parkrun after today's filming job. Wow, there's another Urbacca in parkrun. What a coincidence.

00:38:58Melissa Erbacher: There's a few of them, actually.

00:38:59Scott Trickett: Well, this one, his first name's Adam, and he loves Freedom Running at Main Beach. And we might have... Well... LAUGHTER And I want to mention Phil Ackland's pic. He tagged us when he was crossing the finish line down in Portland last week. He described it as a varied and interesting course that's well worth a visit. So that's the Instagram wrap-up for this week. Insert jingle there. Insert the new Instagram jingle. And what's happening on Facebook?

00:39:06[laughter]

00:39:42Melissa Erbacher: Well, this week on Facebook, parkrun Adventurers asked our listeners who had an adventure this weekend, and we got some fabulous responses. So Jo McCarthy said she could Strava prove it. I think she might have been our Run, Jo, Run as well. So obviously she had a great weekend. danella taylor clocked some awesome elevation she did the cancer climb that you know in brisbane you you run up all these steps in this really tall building um insane but she does it every year so that's very cool how does strava track that Well, not very successfully, unfortunately, because she did say her GPS lost signal at about the third flight of steps up, so I'm not sure where it picked it up again. But Strava tracks elevation, so surely it can cope with it somehow, just not very well indoors. Yeah. Paul Curtin has said he's committed to his next four events at home as he's coordinating a bulk order of parkrun wristbands. So that's above and beyond for his event team. Great job, Paul. Chris Fraser was at home at Shell Harbour as the 28-minute pacer. He helped someone to a nearly two-minute PB, which is just about as good as running a two-minute PB yourself, he says. And I would agree. In fact, sometimes I think helping other people is more satisfying than getting those achievements yourself. And we've already heard from Siren Ray Macy, who was at the Green Heart Fair. For those of you who don't know, that's an awesome fair that gets run twice a year in the Brisbane area. And we had Mark from Chermside parkrun and a whole bunch of others out in force to spread the parkrun love there. So that's very cool. Brendan Peel, I think, must have joined you at Highlands, Scotty. He did. For the third birthday. Got to eat some cake. Enough cake, apparently, to sink a ship. So, obviously, they did a good job.

00:41:49Scott Trickett: There was lots of cake. Lots of variety of cake, too.

00:41:54Melissa Erbacher: Abdul Rauf Mohamed Issa finally made it to 50 runs at his ex-home pioneer parkrun, and his next goal is to run 50 at his new home parkrun at Woodbridge Riverside. and volunteer 100 times. How awesome is that? Love that goal. Jeff Hansen went hunting for a new parkrun course, decided that this wasn't it, and he shared an interesting Strava map with us. He only ran, it shows that he only ran 4.4 kilometers, but he assures us that it was definitely not short. He just stopped the Garmin when they got a bit lost in the bush in the dark. And Jeremy Savage said, my wife Kelly Underwood rejoined the WA parkrun States Person Club again by completing Maylands Peninsula parkrun. So congratulations, Kelly. That's an awesome achievement as well. Jo Bennett was out on a cold Saturday, got the Strava ready. She says, go parkrun people. So she's supporting everyone even on Facebook. And Tracy has said that she's sad that she can't Strava prove it because she got a massive 1 minute 45 new PB last while adventuring at town of seaside parkrun this weekend and her watch managed to lose all its stored recorded runs from the weekend and but you know what tracy it's okay because you can actually log runs on strava manually if you lose your gps data from your watch i don't know how to do it but i'm pretty sure it's fairly easy do you know how to do it scotty it is when you just go to add a run you just click on manual and you can say whatever you want That sounds like a can of worms waiting to be opened. But Tracy has got the fantastic support of the Town of Seaside parkrun volunteers who took her time for her. So all she needs to do is log that and you're away.

00:43:50Scott Trickett: Wow. Is that all?

00:43:53Melissa Erbacher: That's all from Facebook this week.

00:43:54Scott Trickett: Facebook was busy. You know what else is busy?

00:43:59Melissa Erbacher: Tell me.

Launches and anniversaries — "Where's the cake?"

00:44:00Scott Trickett: parkrun australia launches we've got three this week all around the country we've got one in new south wales at narrabri we're adding west beach to the south australian family and bowen up in far north queensland are ready to launch this weekend no doubt there'll be some adventurers at all of those launches and we want to hear about your adventures so don't forget to hashtag parkrun adventurers where's the cake

00:44:31Melissa Erbacher: Well, when you add the launches to the amount of anniversaries, this is a bumper weekend on the parkrun calendar because we've got anniversaries all over the shop. Ballarat in Victoria are having their first anniversary. Barenbar in Queensland are having their second anniversary. They've got a theme, Head to Toe in a Single Colour. I really like that. It's not just, you know, a colour theme. It's head to toe, so... That all makes for some really interesting pictures.

00:45:05Scott Trickett: It will be party time at Canning River. They've made it to their third anniversary celebrating with a cops and robbers theme and quite possibly our favourite theme of the year so far or if not our favourite top three. Sand and Point also made it to three years and they're celebrating with a leather theme.

00:45:24Melissa Erbacher: leather and running i'm not sure if that's a match made in heaven but i can't wait to see the photos i've done vinyl and running and i can certainly tell you that that is not a match made in heaven so i can't imagine leather is is gonna be fantastic for the running part however To give you some background about where they chose leather from, leather is actually the traditional gift for third anniversaries. So it's not just some let's pluck something out of nowhere situation. Hey, let's go with leather. There was actually some thought involved behind this. No doubt there is.

00:46:10Scott Trickett: There's a lot of thought that's gone into leather.

00:46:13Melissa Erbacher: And they have asked their parkrunners to keep it clean because it is a family event. Probably not the photos that you might be expecting when you hear leather is the theme.

00:46:24Scott Trickett: Yeah, I guess they've got a point. I'm still looking forward to the photos.

00:46:27Melissa Erbacher: I wonder if they'll have paces cracking the whips.

00:46:33Scott Trickett: We can only hope.

00:46:35Melissa Erbacher: And who knew we've got a new little venue that you can get social with us in the social media landscape. You can do discussions on Strava. I'm learning all sorts of new stuff. Dave Robbo from Get Mossy and Robbo to Rio and parkrun Adventurous podcast guest of recent weeks. said loving the parkrun adventurers Strava club good to see there are a couple of Dave's signed up obviously the next step will be to start a separate Dave's running club Strava club so the couple of days he's talking about is himself obviously but I'm sure David D'Alessio would be more than happy to join you so get the club going Robbo I'm sure you'll have heaps of people on board very soon

00:47:23Scott Trickett: And that's it for another episode of the parkrun Adventures. Thanks for joining me again, Mel.

00:47:27Melissa Erbacher: You're welcome, Scotty. Hope you all enjoyed the show this week. We'll see you next week for another parkrun Adventure.

00:47:35[music]

00:47:35Unidentified speaker: The world seems somewhat colder now that I've found There's no goddamn romance left in this town I spat and I sighed, and hopelessly tried to squeeze her from her stone. And she felt the same when her pithy and pain leaves her not alone. When all the world's daughters and sons told me their maker should be the grave digger. And I, the undertaker, will sing and will lower these bones to their might. Can't find a job that's worth us keepin' But there's always a maid where we've been sleepin' How quickly I want to hurt all your store So there's no comfort here Well I have to agree, oh that's right Don't you see it's so loud and clear And all the world's daughters and sons Go meet them, they kiss your feet, look great and bigger And at the undertaker we'll sing As we spill over these bones to their final home

00:49:57Unidentified speaker: I wish them well, but our souls aren't to sell. We will save ourselves from hell. When all the world's daughters and sons go meet their maker, she'll be the grave digger and I the undertaker. We'll sing as we lower these bones today. We sing as we lower these bones to their final fall.