Episode 24 - Rochelle Vaisanen

Episode details · 314 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:11Scott Trickett: It's time for another episode of the parkrun Adventurers. My name is Scott. Welcome Mel Erbacher.

00:00:20Melissa Erbacher: Welcome. I am welcome.

00:00:24Scott Trickett: Any adventures on the weekend for you Mel? No.

00:00:29Melissa Erbacher: Ah, I didn't have exactly parkrun adventures, but I did on Saturday night. I had a bit of an adventure with some parkrun chicks, some Sunshine Coast running chicks who are also all avid parkrunners. And we decided it was well and truly time to have a girls' night out. So we went out to dinner and we took ourselves bowling, 10-pin bowling. That was interesting. I was actually sore in the arm muscles all the next day. So obviously I need to start doing something with my upper body so that that doesn't happen in the future. How about you, Scotty? Did you get up to any shenanigans on the weekend?

00:01:13Scott Trickett: Well, we're not going to just pass over this temping bowling thing. I'm just curious if it went temping bowling and it's not 1984.

00:01:23Melissa Erbacher: Oh, but it is. If you go to a bowling alley, it is still 1984 and they do disco bowling and I'm pretty sure, judging by the carpets and the furniture, that nothing has actually changed in the last 30 years. So it was good. It was quality. I'm not sure the balls have changed in all that time either. God only knows, you know, how many fingers have been put in those things, but... And the idea of wearing somebody else's shoes, you know, that still happens. But you know what I was thinking? Bowling shoes are very cool looking. And if somebody designed some running shoes that looked like bowling shoes on the outside but were just built as running shoes, you would make a fortune, an absolute fortune, because what you would think would be a niche market would be just massive and everybody would want to buy them. I would buy them, you know, and they would be very cool.

00:02:27Scott Trickett: Let's not talk about this too much because we're going to give people some ideas, but I think that's a great idea too because running shoes are all really, they're quite daggy.

00:02:37Melissa Erbacher: They are. We need to shake them up a bit, I reckon.

00:02:40Scott Trickett: We need some hipster shoes. I reckon there'll be a few stores in Melbourne that could take up the challenge to produce some half-decent looking running shoes. I just brought a new pair a couple of weeks ago and they're grey.

00:02:54Melissa Erbacher: Oh, no.

00:02:55Scott Trickett: It's like I've even given up contemplating just getting shoes that look good because they all look hideous these days.

00:03:03Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, they look like those, you know, cars that they put the bright colors on and then they put those decals on the side that's like a wave or a splash or something. And you just know in 20 minutes that's going to look dated and terrible and a bad idea. And a lot of shoes really are like that now.

00:03:20Scott Trickett: I've got a bit of see-through teal plastic running up the side of my shoes. It serves no purpose. Yeah, it's going to come off.

00:03:34Melissa Erbacher: pretty soon we need to get talking to nike and adidas and asics and all those hocker hocker however you want to pronounce it all those big running guys and yeah we need to get some parkrun adventurer shoe line happening i like that so we've moved on from the leg warmers yep to actual bowling shoe styled runners Everybody, you heard it here first. If anyone else tries to claim they thought of it sooner, they're lying.

00:04:08Scott Trickett: So you took the parkrun social, you took it outside of parkrun.

00:04:12Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, we did. Well, the thing is, the ladies that I actually went bowling with, they're all from different parkruns now. So we all started out at the same parkrun, but now they've moved on to different events because they're closer or they've become event directors themselves. And yeah, it's a good way to bring it all back to the same family and socialize outside of parkrun and still see the people that you used to see at parkrun and are still parkrunning, but you don't get to see so much anymore. And we had a good night. Going to do it again soon.

00:04:42Scott Trickett: Sounds good. I did a similar sort of thing today but let's peel back the curtain a little bit here for our listeners. We don't record this on Wednesday. So this morning I went out and I went running with my mates but it was parkrun related. We tested out some courses for a new parkrun and I just called up my mates or sent them messages and said, let's go for a run. So it really was an excuse to have a social run. But it was also a bit of an eye-opener to what is in store this Sunday on the longest run. We touched on the longest run a couple of episodes back. This is where you can run up to seven or as many as you want freedom runs in one day. I've never done it. And I thought it sounded easy. You know, it's only 5K each time and you get a nice big rest in between. But today we did three courses and I'm telling you now, by the time I got to the third, there were some groans.

00:05:55Melissa Erbacher: You didn't believe me the last time when I said it, did you? I didn't.

00:05:59Scott Trickett: 5K is easy. Do it a few times in a row. There's this whole stopping, cooling down, getting in the car.

00:06:10Melissa Erbacher: Stuff starts to seize up.

00:06:12Scott Trickett: Yeah, maybe mentally switching off and then switching back on again. So as much as I'm looking forward to the longest run on Sunday, I just might not get through seven.

00:06:26Melissa Erbacher: You might have to volunteer to time or something at a couple of the events.

00:06:31Scott Trickett: Yeah. I might give... Westerfold's a miss because that's got a bloody big hill.

00:06:37Melissa Erbacher: You love the hill at Westerfold. What are you talking about?

00:06:41Scott Trickett: Yeah, but not when I've got another 30km to run after it.

00:06:46Melissa Erbacher: What?

00:06:48Scott Trickett: Well, we'll see. But I am looking forward to it.

00:06:51Melissa Erbacher: And so how are you feeling now? So that was during the day there were some groans. Have you got any repercussions?

00:06:58Scott Trickett: Oh, I'm still groaning. I'm fearful of getting up out of this chair at the end of this recording.

00:07:07Melissa Erbacher: Well, maybe we shouldn't have mentioned this now though because people are going to listen to the podcast before they head out for the longest run and you might make people rethink what they're going to do.

00:07:19Scott Trickett: If they're of the male persuasion, they're in the same boat that I was a couple of weeks ago.

00:07:25Melissa Erbacher: They're not going to believe you.

00:07:28Scott Trickett: No, they're not going to believe me until it actually happens. So until you've done it, you can't understand it.

00:07:35Melissa Erbacher: Oh, I cannot wait for longest run this weekend, actually. Very, very excited.

00:07:39Scott Trickett: Yeah, so am I. It's going to be a real day, real adventure. And it's going to be social. Like, I'm not doing it for the fitness and running side of it, really. I'm really looking forward to catching up with some other parkrunners that I don't get to parkrun with anymore.

00:07:58Melissa Erbacher: Big time.

00:07:59Scott Trickett: Yeah, there's so many events in Melbourne these days, and there's some guys over in the west who I hope are going to come over And run and... Groan. Yeah, groan.

00:08:12Melissa Erbacher: But you know what? It's not just going to be the people that you already do know either. You're going to meet so many new people that, you know, have been parkrunning all this time and you didn't know. And, yeah, great way to meet new friends from other events that you've never happened to run with before.

00:08:29Scott Trickett: This is true because I am making new friends over at Studley because I have this... Try and talk to someone you've never spoken to before each week. And when you're starting the new event, I'm meeting all these awesome people at Studley. Great. And now I get to do it all again on Sunday.

00:08:50Melissa Erbacher: Double the fun. Well, eight times the fun for the whole weekend, if you think about it. You should try to meet a new person at every single one of the runs.

00:09:03Scott Trickett: I will try. Mission accomplished. Accept it. Are you doing eight?

00:09:07Melissa Erbacher: No, no, I'm talking about on Saturday you've got your normal parkrun and then you've got seven on longest run day. I'm good at maths sometimes.

00:09:16Scott Trickett: I'm not. Okay, so that's all happening next weekend. Weekend just passed. We saw another powwow take place down in Lonnie. a bunch of event directors and people from parkrun around the country headed there, and Ben Brockman, who is the ED at Devonport parkrun, was our roving adventurer. Take it away, Ben.

Roving Adventurer report — Launceston event team powwow

00:09:45Ben Brockman: G'day, guys. Ben here reporting for the parkrun Adventurers down in Launceston for the event team powwow. Basically, the powwow is a bit of a get-together for event teams from across the country. So I think down here in Launceston we've got about Eight different parkruns represented as well as head office with Tim Oberg down here. So I basically went out for dinner last night. Then today we're going down to Launceston parkrun, followed by a bit of a Q&A with Tim. And then we've got the Launceston 10 tomorrow. A lot of flooding in Tasmania this week, so there was a bit of a touch and go whether Launceston parkrun was going to go ahead. But it sounds like the course is okay. It might be a little bit damp, but we're good to go. So about to head down there and we'll... Try and chat to some of the other EDs over there. All right. All right, I'm just here with some of the event team from Lakeview parkrun and Elkie, the event director. How did you find it, Elkie, at Launceston parkrun?

00:10:36Elkie: It was definitely cool. Maybe not as, well, cooler than what we get at the lovely Lakeview there at Belmont Lake Macquarie. But we were very happy to come down to Tasmania for some of us. It's our first trip to Tassie and it's been lovely so far. Yay! We brought six of us down.

00:10:55Ben Brockman: Yeah, great.

00:10:55Elkie: Husbands and wives and always an excuse to parkrun when you're on holidays.

00:11:00Ben Brockman: Yeah, doing your bit for the local Tassie economy then.

00:11:02Elkie: Yeah, why not? We're spending some money.

00:11:04Ben Brockman: Yeah, excellent. And we'll be running the Launceston 10 tomorrow then?

00:11:07Elkie: Yeah, well, why not? Well, when you're here to do a parkrun, you might as well hang around and take a bit of nice Tassie bling home. We'll also get to see some of the sites of the CBD I'm gathering.

00:11:19Ben Brockman: Yeah, no doubt. Yeah, it runs through the CBD and along the highway.

00:11:24Elkie: So today was really just a warm-up out for our 5km. So tomorrow will be a top run for us all for 10km. One of our group of six won't be running. He'll be holding the jumpers. That's right, he did his first parkrun today.

00:11:37Ben Brockman: And he's just snuck off so we can't get him for the interview on the podcast. So well done, Trev, for your first run.

00:11:43Elkie: I'm sure he'd say that he enjoyed it and he can't wait for next parkrun day. Yeah, we might see him at Wagga parkrun, maybe on the event team perhaps.

00:11:51Ben Brockman: Yeah, sounds fantastic. I'm just here with Tim Oberg, head of parkrun Australia. We've just finished Launceston parkrun this morning. How did you go with it, Tim?

00:11:58Tim Oberg: Yeah, Ben, it was great. I haven't been here since we launched the event and I didn't actually get to run that day because I was helping all the volunteers. So this was my first official run at Lonnie parkrun and it was an absolutely beautiful course and very soft underfoot, which is great. And we're very lucky because, as most people are probably aware, there's been some terrible flooding here in northern Tasmania in the last week and it's all gone down. in time for parkrun Day. So, yeah, it was a really, really good run.

00:12:25Ben Brockman: Yeah, great. Yeah, very lucky with the day today. And Launceston 10 tomorrow, mate?

00:12:29Tim Oberg: That's it, the Lonnie 10 tomorrow, one of the great iconic Australian road races. So, really looking forward to having a run around the streets of Lonnie. Everyone tells me it's an extremely fast course. So, yeah, hopefully do a good time. And, yeah, it's always, it's just wonderful to be in Tasmania. I love visiting here.

00:12:45Ben Brockman: Yeah, fantastic. Thanks for coming down, Tim. Yeah, PB Central at Launceston 10 tomorrow. So, thanks, mate. Thanks, Ben. All right, I'm just here with Alan, the event director at Shepparton, and Pete, the event director at Coburg. We've just done the Q&A with Tim Oberg after the event team power hour. Both of your first runs at Launceston this weekend then?

00:13:07Allan Connolly: First parkrun. My first Tasmanian trip. Yeah, great. Very enjoyable, yeah.

00:13:12Ben Brockman: And how did you find Alan?

00:13:14Allan Connolly: Good, yeah. I was one of the ones that done a bit extra in the parkrun this morning. It was good, so it was really enjoyable.

00:13:20Pete: Yeah, excellent.

00:13:21Allan Connolly: Yeah, it was good.

00:13:22Pete: And Pete, found the course all right? Yeah, yeah, I was one of the ones who did the 5K. And, yeah, it's a lovely course. It wasn't too flooded, so that was good.

00:13:32Ben Brockman: Yeah, great. Yeah, we were lucky with the weather in the end this weekend and running Launceston 10 tomorrow, guys.

00:13:37Allan Connolly: Yes, yeah, 10 tomorrow would be good. It would be good. Running around Launceston at all would be very enjoyable.

00:13:43Ben Brockman: Yeah, great. Nice, fast, flat course, so PBs around, I'm sure.

00:13:48Pete: Guaranteed a Tasmanian 10K PB. Yeah.

00:13:51Ben Brockman: Tasmanian 10k BB. And I think it actually crosses a bridge as well. So Scott Trickett's pretty keen on that. So it crossed the bridge twice.

00:14:00Allan Connolly: Can we put Trickett's bridge down as this one as well or not?

00:14:04Ben Brockman: Yeah, go for it. Put the chalk on the path and I'm sure Scott will be pretty stoked with that. All right, well, enjoy the rest of the time in Launceston, guys. Great to meet you this weekend. Cheers, mate.

00:14:12Scott Trickett: Thank you.

00:14:13Melissa Erbacher: Great job there, Ben, with the roving adventuring down at the powwow. Sounds like you guys all had a wonderful weekend. Glad the weather held out for you.

00:14:23Scott Trickett: He's got quite the radio voice, Ben. I think he's going to be on the pod pretty soon.

00:14:29Melissa Erbacher: Definitely.

00:14:31Scott Trickett: And I like that he's looking out for me with my bridges too. I think we can step it up from the chalk though now, boys.

00:14:38Melissa Erbacher: Permanent signage, you think? Maybe a banner?

00:14:43Scott Trickett: Something chalk's been done. We've got to come up with the next thing.

00:14:47Melissa Erbacher: No pressure, guys. And we're very lucky to be joined in the studio now, or the virtual studio, with a parkrun adventurer who has just recently completed a bit of a big deal of an event. And she's a wonderful parkrunner from Queensland and her name is Rochelle Vaisanen. Rochelle, welcome to the podcast.

Adventurer interview — Rochelle Vaisanen

00:15:23Rochelle Vaisanen: Thank you for having me.

00:15:25Melissa Erbacher: So let's get started. You had a bit of a big deal event on Sunday. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?

00:15:34Rochelle Vaisanen: Definitely. So on Sunday I competed in the Cairns 70.3, so half Ironman as it's also known, and it's also run in conjunction with the full Ironman event up in Cairns.

00:15:47Melissa Erbacher: What was the weather like?

00:15:49Rochelle Vaisanen: Well, the days leading up to it was picture perfect, hardly any breeze, blue skies, and then Saturday afternoon the winds picked up It got a bit grey and then Sunday morning just before 5 o'clock the first raindrops started and then the first downpour happened about 20 minutes later. And it was pretty much torrential for most of the day so it was very tough conditions out there.

00:16:17Melissa Erbacher: The swim section, you did that in open water, right?

00:16:21Rochelle Vaisanen: Correct, yes.

00:16:22Melissa Erbacher: Don't they have crocodiles up in Cairns or near thereabouts?

00:16:28Rochelle Vaisanen: They do and it's always a talking point of conversation and it was quite interesting because we were standing in the swim start and there's a triathlon club called the Club Crocs or something like that and the commentator was saying that there's 140 members of Club Crocodile and all everyone heard was 140 in crocodiles and there was a bit of panic in the start line and we realised he was actually talking about a triathlon club but yeah Yes, no crocs sighted and we thought if we see any boats coming towards us, swim faster.

00:17:03Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I imagine that would be quite the motivation to go a little bit faster.

00:17:07Rochelle Vaisanen: Yes, it's quite lucky the water's quite sandy and murky. You can't actually see anything. I think if it was a clear bottom, it might be a bit more scary.

00:17:15Melissa Erbacher: But when you actually swim into other people, do you freak out and think, oh, my God, that could be a crocodile?

00:17:22Rochelle Vaisanen: No, I didn't have any of those thoughts. No. If someone swims into me, it's more a head, you know, someone's whacked your head, so you definitely know it's a person rather than a crocodile, although it could be a crocodile. But no, I didn't have any of those thoughts throughout the race.

00:17:37Melissa Erbacher: Well, I would have drowned in the first 10 metres, so kudos.

00:17:42Scott Trickett: I imagine building up to this, that's not something you just think about. How long in the making was your decision to do a 70.3?

00:17:50Rochelle Vaisanen: Well, it's actually been about three years in the making for me. I first started triathlons back in 2013 in London. And not long after, about six months into triathlons, I had a friend training for an Ironman and put these crazy ideas in my head. And I thought, right, I'm going to sign up. I'm going to do a 70.3. And then a month later, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. So that put those plans on hold. But fast forward until about six months ago, I decided all my treatment was done, all my surgeries were done, and I was like, now is the time that I want to start training. So I set about six months for myself to train for this event.

00:18:34Melissa Erbacher: With your diagnosis, that must have obviously halted any training on and off, I guess, over the years that followed?

00:18:44Rochelle Vaisanen: Definitely, but I was very fortunate that being active and fit before treatment definitely helped me to be able to remain active throughout treatment. And this is where parkrun's come in also. I still ran and did parkrun when I could. And, you know, just having that throughout treatment every Saturday was my motivation. And then surgeries, of course, you know, especially with breast cancer and you know, rebuilding things like swimming, all of those things. You have to build your strength back up. And obviously during chemotherapy, I wasn't able to do any specific triathlon training with swimming and cycling just because I can't get in a public pool because of germs. And if I fell off a bike and broke something, the body can't heal itself. So I was a bit limited. So I stopped running during that time.

00:19:33Melissa Erbacher: Isn't it interesting that riding a bike is classified as a higher risk for, you know, falling off and hurting yourself? I'll let my husband know that. He's recently taken up cycling.

00:19:45Scott Trickett: Rochelle, can we take it back to that you are a breast cancer survivor? Was that a motivating factor for you to do this? How much of a motivating factor was it during your Ironman?

00:19:57Rochelle Vaisanen: Oh, it was, you know... It's about regaining your life again. I think just because I'd made that decision before I was diagnosed. So for me to get back to that point was just, you know, you realize what you've been able to get through and achieving things that a lot of people can't even fathom completing a race like that. And I have to say I was a bit of a blubbery mess when I crossed the finishing line. And it was just that overwhelming sense of achievement and not just achievement in completing the race, but achievement of getting through everything that I had to get through to get back to that point nothing wrong with being a blubbering mess you know I would be too if I'd got through this yeah let alone with what you went through to get there yeah definitely it was um yeah it's it's quite hard to put into words sometimes just uh and also um a lot of friends they see you doing this and they see that well, you've been through breast cancer and you've had chemotherapy and all these surgeries and you can still go and do this. And I think it motivates a lot of other people to know that they can achieve things that they may not think that they can.

00:21:02Scott Trickett: Have you got another goal? Are you thinking about the full?

00:21:07Rochelle Vaisanen: No, no fulls at this stage. I'd quite happily do a few more halves, but I was in awe watching the people completing the full. I was sitting on my balcony having a champagne and I just thought, oh, they're still going. And so there's no desire just yet to do the full distance. I'm quite happy with doing the half distance.

00:21:27Scott Trickett: Sometimes that's a sensible decision. If you cross the finish line, you're thinking, oh, maybe I should do the full and then you see how painful the full is.

00:21:35Rochelle Vaisanen: And it's still going through the night, definitely.

00:21:37Scott Trickett: Yeah, crazy stuff, crazy stuff. So what role did parkrun play in all this? Given that you could only run, parkrun was perfect for that.

00:21:47Rochelle Vaisanen: yes it was um so i actually started doing parkrun when i was in the uk there was a local one about 3k away from me and so when i was diagnosed i came back to australia for my treatment and went back to live in ipswich with my family and one of the first things i did was jump online to see if there was a local parkrun and there wasn't and i wasn't aware um augustine heights is the closest one but i didn't realize how close it was And so a week later before my first surgery I went for a run and while I was running I remember on the homepage I saw there was a link to say start your own parkrun. So I went home and I clicked the link and then a few days later I got an email from Sarah Logan and sort of started the ball rolling with starting my own parkrun in Ipswich.

00:22:39Melissa Erbacher: And how did that go? Obviously Ipswich has been running for a couple of years now, is that correct?

00:22:45Rochelle Vaisanen: It will be next February will be its two year anniversary. So it took about six months to launch and amazing support from Tim and Sarah. It was quite daunting for me because I hadn't lived in Ipswich for 13 years now. So I didn't really know too many people. And I thought, well, how am I going to find volunteers? How am I going to do this? But I had great support from the council and Ipswich Hospital Foundation. And now, you know, they get an average 120 runners each week. It's fantastic. And I've relinquished my duties there now because I've moved to Brisbane. But Kay Sherlock's doing an amazing job. She took over from me and it's been a really successful event.

00:23:29Scott Trickett: We have noted that you've got a fantastic volunteer record. You've volunteered 75 times.

00:23:35Rochelle Vaisanen: Yeah.

00:23:37Scott Trickett: Did that mean your running was limited while you were involved with Ipswich parkrun?

00:23:42Rochelle Vaisanen: It was, but that was okay for me. I finished chemotherapy a week before we launched, and so that time was just for me to sort of rebuild my strength. And I was just happy to get the event up and running and dedicate that time to sort of training people and just being being the event director there so but no everyone sort of encouraged me and they would say oh we'll take over from you this week if you want to run and so the community was very supportive with my journey getting back to fitness post-treatment also.

00:24:20Scott Trickett: You discovered parkrun in the UK so how do UK and Aussie parkruns compare? In the UK you were running at Highbury Fields?

00:24:29Rochelle Vaisanen: Well, that one's around a tiny little park as it is in London, little parks around the place. And it's a five, I think it was a five lap course. So a little bit different to, and it's a lot flatter compared to, I don't know if you've ever done Ipswich, Queensland, but there's a lot of hills in Ipswich, which you can't avoid. So it was a big shock when I came back to Ipswich to try and put a course together because We've got all this space and I was sort of looking for a tiny little place just to do a replica of Highbury Fields.

00:25:00Melissa Erbacher: So we haven't actually had an opportunity to talk about the Ipswich Queensland course on the podcast yet. Can you give us a bit of a course description?

00:25:09Rochelle Vaisanen: Okay, so where we start, it's all within one large park, but there's a few sort of hills involved, and it's a two-lap course, so it's a two-by-two-and-a-half K, and I think there's about... one small climb and then two sort of large climbs. But it's always nice because you finish downhill and I think if you're going to finish downhill rather than finishing uphill. So it's quite a challenging course and I get a lot of grief and each time I actually go and run it myself, all the locals, you know, give me a few words along the way, sort of reminding me that I was the one that designed it. But, you know, I think they love it at the same time.

00:25:52Melissa Erbacher: Well, you can't make everybody happy. And it's one of those sorts of things, I guess, when you're putting hills on courses that people are going to have a love-hate relationship with it, but they still keep coming back.

00:26:04Rochelle Vaisanen: Exactly, exactly.

00:26:07Melissa Erbacher: So now you have actually done a few of other events around Queensland. You've been to Kedron, Augustine Heights, Rocks Riverside, Kirra. Have you got a favourite outside of Ipswich, Queensland?

00:26:23Rochelle Vaisanen: Oh, well, Kira was beautiful. I mean, anything along a beach is not too bad for scenery-wise. Yeah, I think sometimes the Kedron's a bit like Kira where it's flat out and back, but I think there can be quite tough because you sort of have to keep pushing the whole way. Augustine Heights was beautiful as well. But, yeah, I think probably Kira. Kira so far is my favourite. I really wanted to try Cairns while I was up there, but... I thought it probably wasn't a good idea before race day because I might push a little bit too hard.

00:26:57Melissa Erbacher: You might have to get back there and have a crack sometime.

00:27:00Rochelle Vaisanen: Yes. Well, I'm going to South Africa in Cape Town in September this year, so I'm hoping to try one of their courses while I'm there.

00:27:08Melissa Erbacher: Oh, that will be a fantastic adventure.

00:27:12Rochelle Vaisanen: Definitely. I'm looking forward to it.

00:27:15Melissa Erbacher: Well, thank you so much, Rochelle, for joining us on the podcast and sharing your adventures with us. You've had a massive journey getting to the 70.3, so congratulations on getting in under your goal time and, you know, finishing it without drowning or being eaten by a crocodile or coming off the dangerous bike in the wet.

00:27:36Rochelle Vaisanen: Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.

00:27:38Scott Trickett: If any of our listeners want to check out your blog, all they have to do is go to cancertriathlon.com. Joining us on the pod this week is the King of the Mount. We're joined by Phil Ackland, ED of Mount Gambier. Welcome, Phil.

Event Director interview — Phil Ackland, Mount Gambier

00:28:01Phil Ackland: Hi, Scott. Hi, Mel. Is that how they refer to you around Mount Gambier?

00:28:05Scott Trickett: The King of the Mount? Or have I just come up with that?

00:28:09Phil Ackland: I think you've just come up with that on the spot. I've never heard that one before, but maybe I'll take that. So that's a new one.

00:28:16Scott Trickett: Well, Mount Gambier, I love Mount Gambier. A lot of good people come out of Mount Gambier. One of my best friends in life comes out of Mount Gambier. And the Mount Gambier course, which I have run and visited, is also one of the best parkruns going around. Tell us a bit about the course because it's known for this lake right in the middle.

00:28:35Phil Ackland: Yes, the course goes around the Blue Lake in Mount Gambier. I figured if we were going to have a parkrun in McGahn, yeah, it had to go around the Blue Lake. So, yeah, the scenery through there is fantastic. There's a little bit of climbing involved. I've heard it described as an out and back that's uphill in both directions by someone that visited. So, yeah. It is tough. So we're flying to the middle and you've got to come back over the top. Yeah.

00:29:03Scott Trickett: Yeah, it is tough. It's got a nice climb on it.

00:29:05Phil Ackland: It does. Yeah, the return trip catches people. But the scenery kind of takes the sting out of that. If you're a tourist especially, yeah, you wouldn't even notice it's there, would you?

00:29:18Scott Trickett: I certainly did.

00:29:21Phil Ackland: Okay. You might notice it there.

00:29:24Scott Trickett: And the Blue Lake, I think it was green when I was there. It's not always blue, is it?

00:29:29Phil Ackland: No, it's not. It sort of seasonally changes colour. So during the summer months, in particular, in little either side, it's really quite a bright, bright blue colour. And then during the winter months, it sort of changes to more of a greyish, looks like a regular blue. lake kind of color through the rest of the year but yeah during the summer during its peak it's really quite bright now phil you've got a lake and you it but it's an out and back course so is the lake more than five kilometers to go all the way around or what what was the thought process behind that uh the lake a trip around the lake and there is a walking path it's a very commonly used walking track walking slash running track in town um It's a bit shorter than 5Ks if you do one circuit of it. So we needed to either add something to it or and there's the section that we don't use is actually quite a bit more narrow with some obstructions with guard railing and things like that. So um it just worked better to be an out and back sort of around the back of the lake and and returning to the start line i'm also a fan of the the out and back course style as well for parkruns um because of their social nature then so everyone sees everyone else on course at particular times so i think they work quite well in that respect

00:30:56Melissa Erbacher: I would agree with you there. I think that might be something we need to get Mr Hay onto for Facts in a Haystack is finding out what the proportion of events across Australia are out and back versus loops or different kinds of events because you don't really hear about too many loop courses. You hear about like multi-lap courses but not too many just single loop ones.

00:31:21Phil Ackland: Yeah, I think the single loop ones, if you're after a faster, for those looking for a faster trip around, I think the loop courses would tick that box better because everyone stays spread out. But, yeah, the out and back, I like the social angle of that. And obviously with parkrun, that's quite an important factor.

00:31:42Melissa Erbacher: Nambour parkrun's a loop. I don't think you could say it would be faster.

00:31:48Phil Ackland: Depending on the other variables, yeah.

00:31:50Scott Trickett: Well, same with Westerfolds. That's a loop, and I think that's one of the slowest parkruns going around.

00:31:55Phil Ackland: There's a bit of climbing in that one too, isn't there, Scott?

00:31:58Scott Trickett: There is, but I still reckon there's more climbing at Mount Gambier.

00:32:02Phil Ackland: Yeah, they're different.

00:32:03Scott Trickett: Now, you're a running coach, fitness coach as your trade, and you really love running, running long distances, don't you?

00:32:12Phil Ackland: I have found a bit of an interest in that, yes.

00:32:15Scott Trickett: Where did the interest come from? How did you decide to run 160-kilometer races?

00:32:23Phil Ackland: I think the common story is it develops into that. So I started out with the shorter events. I think my first event was a 10K. This is pre-parkrun days. Became interested in that, looked for the half marathon distance into marathons and so on. I think I then went on to get involved with the obstacle course events and I did several of those. I think that sort of led the interest into trail running, being off-road, and kind of followed the process there from looking for bigger and bigger challenges. So for me, it's a lot about the challenge of trying something you don't necessarily know you can do and something that you can't always achieve, but it's that challenge in going out and seeing things if you can actually do it. So it's just sort of developed over a period of years.

00:33:23Melissa Erbacher: And not over a night with some friends and alcohol?

00:33:29Phil Ackland: I'm sure there's been those moments along the way. Yeah, I'll have my beer, watch this kind of moments. No, but it's really just sort of growing. Yeah, just looking for that next personal challenge, I think. And it's been a mixed bag of successes and not so great successes, but always learning something out of one thing to take into the next and building on that.

00:33:55Melissa Erbacher: If it was easy, everyone would do it.

00:33:57Phil Ackland: Yeah, that's it. A common question is, well, how did you know you could do that? Well, I didn't. I didn't know I could do it, but, yeah, that's kind of part of the point. UTA last month didn't go anywhere near as well as I'd hoped and didn't finish that either. So that was about 70km through that. And the last stage of it was just, yeah, just floundering along in the dark on the trails and, yeah, just got to a point. I've been kind of struggling with various things for about 10 hours worth and now that's about all I can put myself through. Yeah, they don't all go to plan.

00:34:37Scott Trickett: What are you thinking when you know you're not going to get, like,

00:34:41Phil Ackland: It depends on what stage that's at. I mean, even on a good, an event that goes well, there's still those times where you just really hit flat spots and lows and wonder what the hell you're doing and why you're doing it sort of stuff. But it's usually just about managing it to the next checkpoint where you do what you've got to do there and get yourself sorted and head back out again. Like in the case of, say, UTA this year, I'd already done that a couple of stages where I'd just get into the next checkpoint. And you've got to have a line in the sand somewhere. Like what does this event mean to you? How much are you going to – how big a hole are you going to dig into? Are you prepared to dig into to get it finished? And I kind of got to my line in the sand with that one, with all the other bigger picture things that were going on. and coming up and you've still got to get out of there and get back home and go to work and so on. So there was always the option to keep going, but you've got to kind of think, well, what's going to happen next week and the week after if I run myself that far into the hole? So there's a lot you think about.

00:35:55Scott Trickett: Like you keep going just hoping you're going to feel better?

00:35:58Phil Ackland: Yeah, and sort of get to that, like, knowing there's a checkpoint, an aid station coming up, because depending on how much time you've got left, like how much time there is for the event and so on, I mean, you can stop and a strategy is to stop and have a sleep for an hour or so, sleep for an hour, wake up, eat and drink and get back on your feet, so. Yeah, there's a lot of things to sort of weigh out when it's not working properly and what are you prepared to do and, yeah, heaps of guts are in your head and the emotions that go with it. Yeah, it makes for an interesting day out.

00:36:35Scott Trickett: Just the idea that you're going to start a race where you could potentially have a sleep during it, wake up and you'll still have to keep going.

00:36:43Phil Ackland: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's not a parkrun thing, is it? No. Sleep at the turn around.

00:36:52Melissa Erbacher: Break it down into the next couple of parkruns.

00:36:55Phil Ackland: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, it's just like three or four more parkruns to go and you'll get to the next spot. Yeah. And then we'll look at it there. Yeah, at each of the checkpoints, it's then just reassessing. So my wife, Nikki, looks after me at the aid stations. when that's a viable option. So we sort of worked together as a bit of a team. Now she learns stuff along with me, learning stuff, and that goes into the next one. So I went at UTA. By the time I got into Checkpoint 3, which is about 47, 48 Ks, I was already not well at that point. So I got into there in the middle of the afternoon. It was really quite hot. For the Blue Mountains especially, it was really quite warm. Actually, I sat there and said, forget the plan. I need to rewrite it. I was there for about an hour and 45 minutes. I stopped and started getting some fluids in and some food. We had a burger and a coffee before I left.

00:38:07Scott Trickett: What's your next challenge?

00:38:09Phil Ackland: My next challenge lined up is I'll be at the You Yangs in July. My second attempt at the 100-mile there. So 100-mile, 160 kilometers, yeah. I attempted it last year and I got 105 kilometers out of that one and called it a day there. So like I mentioned, I've taken what I've learned from last year's look at it and everything else along the way in this year and having another attempt at it.

00:38:42Melissa Erbacher: Did they give you a medal for doing the 100?

00:38:44Phil Ackland: No. No, they didn't.

00:38:48Melissa Erbacher: You need to come up to Queensland because we have this event. It's called the Glass House 100 and it's 100 kilometer and 100 miler and there's a 50K and a 30. But if you enter the 100 mile and you only, inverted commas only, do 100 kilometers, they decide to give you a medal for the 100 kilometers. Then you don't go home with nothing after killing yourself over a ridiculous amount of distance.

00:39:19Phil Ackland: Right. Well, the Yuyangs, this year they do have a 100-kilometre option that wasn't there last year. But you do have to decide up front and enter either of those events or one of the other events. So if you don't complete that 100-mile and that's what you've entered, then it's a DNF and, well, you can come back the next year.

00:39:44Scott Trickett: So tell me, Phil, so what is the feeling like when you've run 105K and effectively will not achieve what you wanted to?

00:39:54Phil Ackland: Yeah, it's an awkward one because in that... you've run 105 kilometres or covered 105 kilometres. So that's quite a feat in itself. So certainly when I'm explaining to people later when I've come home, and you say, yeah, I've only got 105 kilometres, then that comes across a little odd because it's a long way. But at the same time, I haven't completed what I set out to do. So it's kind of got those couple of different angles to it. So there's disappointment and you always want to finish what you set out to do. That's why you enter these things and take on the challenge. But there's always something to learn from it and take from it. So there's a period of time where you kind of dwell on it a bit and it gets you a bit down, but then you pick yourself up and go through your sort of mental notes or the notes you physically made about it. and see what you can take from it in a positive angle and put into the next one.

00:40:58Scott Trickett: It's 21 parkruns. Can you imagine running your course 21 times in a row?

00:41:04Phil Ackland: These longer events are more and more often getting referred to as number of parkruns. So it's definitely become a form of measurement for these events now. Certain number of parkruns equals that event.

00:41:20Melissa Erbacher: Just wait. Athletics Australia is totally going to take it on as the new unit of measurement for all their events.

00:41:26Phil Ackland: I think so, yeah.

00:41:28Melissa Erbacher: I'm pretty sure that's why Tim entered into this whole partnership with them.

00:41:32Phil Ackland: To make it a unit of measurement, yeah.

00:41:34Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, officially.

00:41:37Phil Ackland: How many parkruns is it?

00:41:41Melissa Erbacher: Exactly. I mean, nobody knows how far a mile is, but everyone understands the distance a parkrun is, so it makes sense to me.

00:41:49Phil Ackland: It's just two parkruns, there you go. It is getting used a lot more often in the longer runs, it's broken down into that unit of measurement. So it's good to see.

00:42:01Melissa Erbacher: And speaking of parkruns, Phil, you recently became a Territory Director for parkrun Australia. And you have the distinction of being one of only, I believe, two territory directors that have events in two different states. How excited are you about that?

00:42:20Phil Ackland: Yeah, it's a little border crossing region. Yeah, well, I think that's a good thing. I quite like that it crosses the border. So there's at this stage one SA event and two Victorian with a few extra Victorian ones on the way. So I kind of like that it ignores the state boundaries and has this geographical region about it. Yeah.

00:42:46Melissa Erbacher: And have you got any events in the pipeline that are going to do an Albury-Wodonga type situation between SA and Victoria?

00:42:54Phil Ackland: No. Events that will cross the border themselves, you mean?

00:43:01Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, absolutely. So one parkrun that will run in two states.

00:43:06Phil Ackland: Unless someone sets one up on the Great Southwest Walk. You actually cross the border on that trail. So if someone sets one up there... That would be a possibility, but probably unlikely.

00:43:20Scott Trickett: Could do Broadertown. How far are you from Broadertown?

00:43:24Phil Ackland: Broadertown is about two and a half, two and a half hours away.

00:43:28Scott Trickett: Not a big town either.

00:43:30Phil Ackland: No. So I'm not sure about that one either.

00:43:33Melissa Erbacher: That's all right. We don't measure success by numbers of participants.

00:43:37Scott Trickett: And what about your parkrun adventuring, Phil? You've got a few under your belt. You get over to Melbourne a fair bit.

00:43:46Phil Ackland: Yeah, I've done a few. My very first parkrun before Mount Gambier was up was at Diamond Creek. So I've kind of got this attachment with Diamond Creek. That was my first parkrun, and we visited there quite a bit. I have a sister-in-law that lives a couple of blocks away from the course as well. Yeah, so I started there, and Westerfolds isn't too far away from that either, so... And New Year's, the last two years we've been across and done the Christmas New Year doubles. And so we got a few in last year. So we got three in two days.

00:44:29Melissa Erbacher: That's the way to do it.

00:44:31Phil Ackland: It's a good value trip then. I think I snuck in a New Year's Eve run at the You Yangs as well before the New Year's Day ones. So I really squeezed a lot into that one trip across. Yeah.

00:44:45Scott Trickett: Phil, thanks for coming on the podcast this week. It's great to catch up with the King of the Mount.

00:44:51Melissa Erbacher: I don't think that's going to take on.

00:44:53Phil Ackland: No, I don't think it's going to take on.

00:44:57Scott Trickett: I'll drop it because you do a regular radio bit, don't you?

00:45:01Phil Ackland: Yeah, I have been on the radio a bit locally, yeah.

00:45:04Scott Trickett: Okay, so just get in the ear of the producer and just say, hey, instead of just calling me Phil from parkrun, go with King of the Mount.

00:45:13Melissa Erbacher: Mount can mean a lot of things, Scotty. I'm not sure everyone would fully understand what you're referring to.

00:45:20Phil Ackland: Yeah, we call it the Mount all the time.

00:45:25Melissa Erbacher: Okay, but... In another direction now, so... Well, as somebody who's not a local, if you talk about the Mount, it does sound a little bit suspicious. Just saying.

00:45:37Phil Ackland: I'll pass that around and I'll see what we get. Thanks for joining us. Thank you.

parkrun adventure challenge

00:45:52Scott Trickett: Mel, you may remember back in Episode 8, we caught up with Brad Beer, who is a parkrunner at Main Beach, and we set him a challenge. And that challenge was to run a slow parkrun.

00:46:08Melissa Erbacher: If I recall correctly, he had never run a parkrun over 20 minutes.

00:46:12Scott Trickett: No. So we just challenged him to run one over 25 minutes. So really not that slow. But he got back to us during the week and he did it. So well done, Brad. And he said he thoroughly enjoyed it too, which is no surprise to you or I.

00:46:30Melissa Erbacher: Did he not mention he was pacing?

00:46:33Scott Trickett: I think he did. Yeah, he helped someone achieve a goal.

00:46:37Melissa Erbacher: which is always awesome. Good job, Brad. Adventure challenge completed.

00:46:43Scott Trickett: Now, I snuck in another challenge in last week's episode for Brendan down at Shell Harbour to talk like a pirate for the whole event. Well, actually, I didn't say the whole event. I said just for his run briefing. And he got back to us, and he also accepted the challenge. So well done, Brendan. We didn't get any audio of it, so I wonder if anybody...

00:47:07Melissa Erbacher: sneakily recorded it for us and can still send it to us i wouldn't hold your breath we might need to get him on the show just to give us a rendition because i'm sure i couldn't do his pirate voice justice my pirate voices always sound like irish pirates and i'm not sure that's how everybody's accents go so i think we need to get him on

00:47:35Scott Trickett: Okay, I'm prepared to hear yours.

00:47:39Melissa Erbacher: Oh, are you? That's very generous of you, Scotty.

00:47:43Scott Trickett: Just so we've got a reference point, so if I do get audio from Brendan.

00:47:48Melissa Erbacher: Well, you know what? In September every year, there is an international talk like a pirate day. And I think as a parkrun Adventurers Challenge, the two of us should do an entire podcast with a pirate accent. So how about we take up that challenge and we leave our pirate accents until then?

00:48:11Scott Trickett: How long have I got? Till September.

00:48:13Melissa Erbacher: You've got till September to work on it.

00:48:16Scott Trickett: I think my pirate's a bit Scottish. Yours is Irish.

00:48:22Melissa Erbacher: It could be really, really fun or it could be just terrible. So we'll let the listeners decide, I reckon.

00:48:30Scott Trickett: Let's frame a market. I reckon terrible would probably be coming in pretty short odds. But we've got till September to perfect it.

00:48:39Melissa Erbacher: we'll get practicing. Also on Facebook, we had Gary Nisbet let us know that there was a milestone event for himself and the Nisbet family at Kapalabar parkrun. They had three generations running together, all having joined the most events list. So Gary, is the dad of David, who's the dad of Sienna. And Sienna ran her 20th event on Saturday. So well done, guys. I believe David's son was also there running his 10th event. So the whole Nisbet family is embracing the parkrun adventures, and we love to see it. Great job, guys.

Social Adventurers (Facebook and Instagram round-up)

00:49:21Scott Trickett: I think they love parkrun.

00:49:23Melissa Erbacher: Just a little bit.

00:49:26Scott Trickett: We got something else right. On last week's podcast.

00:49:31Melissa Erbacher: We did?

00:49:33Scott Trickett: Our geography was good.

00:49:35Melissa Erbacher: No. That would be a first.

00:49:38Scott Trickett: We took a guess where Goondiwindi was without doing any research. And I was right. It was near the border. And you were right that it was inland.

00:49:49Melissa Erbacher: Well done, team adventurers.

00:49:52Scott Trickett: Thanks. Good on us. Thanks for letting us know, Peter Pohlman. They all took an adventure out to the Goondiwindi launch. Recorded a video.

00:50:02Melissa Erbacher: Now this is something, though, that always gets me. It's spelt Gundawindi, but it gets called Gundi. And I'm confused by that. And I have heard of people saying Gundawindi as well, but there's definitely two O's. So... Gundy?

00:50:20Scott Trickett: Yeah, it's... Gundagai?

00:50:22Melissa Erbacher: Well, that's why I'm confused. I thought Gundy was Gundagai too, but no, turns out Gundawindi is Gundy.

00:50:31Scott Trickett: Where's Gundagai?

00:50:34Melissa Erbacher: It's in Queensland, I think. And it's in, well, it could be New South Wales. I don't know. No, see, now you're making me get my geography wrong. Don't ask me difficult questions. What I do know is that Gundawindi parkrun is the newest star in the Southern Cross Circuit. So that will mean that people that were formerly stargazers possibly lost their stargazer status on the weekend and need to do some parkrun adventuring to get it back.

00:51:07Scott Trickett: Are we going to get to a point with the Southern Cross Circuit where there's more parkruns and there are stars in the circuit?

00:51:15Melissa Erbacher: Well, no, they are. They're all stars. It's like the Milky Way.

00:51:19Scott Trickett: Oh, okay. So I've shown up my lack of astrology. Is it astrology?

00:51:26Melissa Erbacher: astronomy oh man we're not having it yeah i think we need to move on to the next facebook post melissa ellis had three crazy barrack spring parkrunners traveling to shepparton this week leaving the rain behind them and enjoyed the sunny run at an absolutely beautiful course so that's good to hear so melissa ellis is having a crack at being our number one adventurer she's she's somewhere different every week You're nailing it. Good job.

00:51:58Scott Trickett: Cara Voss, she was enjoying some interstate adventures at Rhodes parkrun.

00:52:05Melissa Erbacher: You said Park One because you read onesie, didn't you?

00:52:10Scott Trickett: Because did you know that it was WWF?

00:52:14Melissa Erbacher: The World Wildlife Foundation.

00:52:17Scott Trickett: It was their onesie week.

00:52:20Melissa Erbacher: And she was dressed as a panda, a panda onesie. sure how that one slipped by how i missed that one because i love the wwf well we should make a mental note for it for next year and maybe we should see if we can get it rolled out across all parkruns to do a wwf onesie park it could be a park onesie did you did you get it yeah there was a pun Okay, obviously not a very good one. Moving right along to in.

Puns and dad jokes segment

00:52:51Scott Trickett: We're going to save that for our puns and dad jokes segment coming up.

00:52:56Melissa Erbacher: Oh, they're going to be going off like hot potatoes.

00:52:59Scott Trickett: Start building up. Start thinking of your dad jokes and your puns, particularly if you're going to be a guest on the program because that's going to be our opening question.

00:53:08Melissa Erbacher: On Instagram this week, we had Bunyaville trail runners sharing a picture of two runners walking through a creek and the caption last week's Bunyaville parkrun. I'm pretty sure there's not normally a creek there and the water was very murky, muddy brown. So I'd be walking through it fairly delicately myself. Certainly don't want to twist an ankle in some hidden rocks.

00:53:30Scott Trickett: No, it's almost knee high. Do you know if they went ahead?

00:53:35Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, yeah. I'm pretty sure it wasn't cancelled.

00:53:39Scott Trickett: Good on you, Bunyaville parkrunners. You're a bit hardcore. Hey TJ, had a pic of a pooch on a seat overlooking a pond. Captioned lily pads and park dogs. She was at Balyang.

00:53:53Melissa Erbacher: Dirty Cheetahs had a pic of runners wearing cheetah ears at Crissy Field parkrun. So we've got our parkrun adventurers heading over to San Francisco again. I can't wait to get to that one.

00:54:06Scott Trickett: Run Jo Run grabbed the tourist shirt again this weekend as she took a trip over to Wyndham Vale parkrun. She went to the launch four months ago, managed 35 minutes. She was very pleased to see 29.27 in the results email, with her first case smashing it at 5.34. Run Jo Run is getting pretty fast.

00:54:29Melissa Erbacher: That's awesome work, well done. Running Optimistic was volunteering at parkrun, great start to her weekend. Hay at Chuggo Rocks, I'm assuming Chuggo Rocks is a friend.

00:54:44Scott Trickett: Will B, 1981, had his assistant photographer taking snaps along with him, volunteering for the morning. Today was the coldest parkrun I have ever done. I was warmest standing in the rain last week. Well, it gets cold in Canberra, Will. That should be no surprise.

00:55:01Melissa Erbacher: It does. Fortunately, his assistant is one of the cutest parkrun assistant photographers I've ever seen. So that must have warmed the heart a little bit.

00:55:12Scott Trickett: She is cute.

00:55:13Melissa Erbacher: Tanya RR was at Newy parkrun's fourth anniversary where they unveiled Westcott Way and some fantastic new course signage. They've got kilometre markers out on the Newey course now. And she said the new Newey parkrun signs are ace. Definitely agree with you there, Tanya.

00:55:35Scott Trickett: Yeah, they're pretty fancy. John Z Webb, he enjoyed the parkrun adventure we heard from him when Ben caught up with him in his roving report earlier. And he took his father-in-law down for the trip. Beautiful course and he'll be back for a faster crack.

00:55:55Melissa Erbacher: Heather's Happy Snaps said, found a park, did my run, brought my barcode, no scanners. Sad face. Hashtag, Broom needs a parkrun. I think Broom would be a fantastic place for a parkrun. Definitely keen to get one over there.

00:56:10Scott Trickett: Ray Macy had a beautiful pic of the sunrise. Nice morning for a run. Certainly was by the look of the pic.

00:56:20Melissa Erbacher: There were gorgeous sunrise pics all over the place this weekend, I think. Nod Lightyear said, thanks Keilor parkrun and the Wurundjeri Willam clan. Enjoying some time with my new friend, token number two, smiley face. We are new to each other. So I'm guessing he did quite a decent time on the weekend.

00:56:42Scott Trickett: Nod's getting really fast. Miss Spelt? Was it Stanthorpe? And it was about me two degrees. And she can finally feel her fingers again.

00:56:53Melissa Erbacher: I saw that pick. It looks like the ground was completely frosted. I don't imagine it would have been fun for barefoot runners. I don't care if they've got soles like leather hide. Surely they must feel the cold.

00:57:09Scott Trickett: It looks like ice, doesn't it?

00:57:11Melissa Erbacher: It does. But you know, Stanthorpe parkrun are actually having their Christmas in July event in a few weeks' time. And they actually have a snow machine come out for that. And of course, though, sometimes it does snow in Stanthorpe. So if the weather gods are kind, then perhaps they'll get the real thing as well. But if they don't, they still have a snow machine, which is fairly impressive.

00:57:35Scott Trickett: I must admit, I do find it weird that the events in inland Queensland are colder than they are down here at this time of the year. The world's a funny place.

00:57:45Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. We could get into climate change, but we're not that kind of podcast.

00:57:50Scott Trickett: Stick to astrology.

00:57:56Melissa Erbacher: We had a little pick from Tesla Fox who was getting some good parkrun tourism in between rounds of cross country. His last two parkruns were also anniversaries, Highlands on the left and Frog Hollow on the right. I've got to paint you a picture here. So he's got a picture of himself running and it's split in two and behind him there are two ladies looking fabulous in tutus on the left and on the right there is a gentleman dressed as the Frog Prince which I just think is brilliant. So very nice that you're wearing the tribe sports shirts there tesla fox but where are your costumes you've got a costume up for anniversaries man that's your challenge for the next one well the next one in melbourne so tesla fox is a melbourne runner the next one is in Jells in a couple of weeks i expect to see a re not a not not a redraw what are they called a rematch

00:58:54Scott Trickett: He is being shown up by the Frog Prince, I've got to say. We need to find out who that is.

00:59:00Melissa Erbacher: That's a brilliant costume. I'm loving it. It's got the crown on the head and everything. Dr. Scott Watkins was in Dusseldorf in Germany and shared a photo of a bridge taken from a bridge while on a running adventure in Germany. I took this photo while listening to the parkrun Adventurous podcast at the exact moment they asked for photos of when people were listening to the podcast. What are the chances of that, Scotty? It's like it was meant to be. A photo of a bridge from a bridge while listening to us. It's insane.

00:59:39Scott Trickett: It doesn't look like summer in Germany, does it?

00:59:43Melissa Erbacher: No, no, it does not. It was very foggy there as well.

00:59:48Scott Trickett: Hey, busy, busy week for Instagram.

00:59:51Melissa Erbacher: Oh, busy week for all the social adventurers this week. It's great to see. I love having these stories shared with us every week. Makes me feel part of their adventures.

Strava Club update

01:00:02Scott Trickett: Let's just quickly touch in on our Strava Club because we have a new member. Who is it? Well, Mr. Brendan Davies has joined our Strava Club.

01:00:14Melissa Erbacher: Ooh.

01:00:15Scott Trickett: I have a sneaky feeling he's going to be at number one on the leaderboard most weeks.

01:00:20Melissa Erbacher: Well, there's a challenge for the parkrun adventurers who are on Strava.

01:00:24Scott Trickett: So he's on holiday at the moment and he smashed out 120Ks.

01:00:30Melissa Erbacher: Well, maybe he ran into a lot of big games that, you know, needed to be run away from.

01:00:36Scott Trickett: Well, his average pace was 4.28. So he might have been running away from something.

01:00:42Melissa Erbacher: Besides, if you're in a country like that, wouldn't you want to see as much of it as you could? I'd be running all over the place too.

01:00:49Scott Trickett: So Brendan's on there and I'm just again scrolling, scrolling, scrolling down. We've got a lot in this club now and I still can't find Rebel Rouser. Not in the top 100 this week. Didn't get out for many runs.

01:01:09Melissa Erbacher: I ran, but here's the thing. I have recently become separated from my watch. So it actually happened at the end of my Darwin trip. So none of my Darwin runs or anything that I've run since have been able to make it to Strava. I can't Strava prove it. I can manually do the parkrun at the very least, but, yeah, no, all the rest of it's gone. So it might be a little bit quiet on Strava from Rebel Rouser for a little while while I wait for my watch to get returned to me. We're hoping the watch gets returned to me.

01:01:53Scott Trickett: Fingers crossed. If you're in Darwin and you found it, do the right thing.

01:02:00Melissa Erbacher: Also because my iPod is with it, so that would be great if they could both come back together. And my car keys. Yeah. So, this week, where's the cake, Scotty?

Where is the cake?

01:02:13Scott Trickett: Well, we've got the launch at Burley Griffin.

01:02:18Melissa Erbacher: You reckon they're going to have cake in the ACT? It's been a while since they've had a launch. I think they might have cake.

01:02:23Scott Trickett: Yeah, I think they might. But we know they'll have cake at the anniversaries and Corinne Glades are celebrating their second anniversary this weekend with a tutus and ties theme.

01:02:37Melissa Erbacher: Nice. North Shore and Queensland are celebrating their third anniversary with fluoro rage. That's an interesting take on fluoro. I don't know whether or not it's angry or it's just like one of those. Is it rage or is it supposed to be a rave? Maybe I typed that wrong. Yeah, I'm not sure. I think now I'm seriously thinking I meant to type rave as in one of those parties that you go to when you're young and have extra energy.

01:03:09Scott Trickett: Yeah, I can't imagine they're angry up in far north Queensland. What have they got to be angry about?

01:03:14Melissa Erbacher: Well, there's nothing angry about fluoro.

01:03:17Scott Trickett: Town of Seaside, where I know you will be, are celebrating their first anniversary. And they're working blue, so they're going with the blue theme.

01:03:26Melissa Erbacher: blue for the seaside and i'm very very excited to be heading over there because cake and also this is a major milestone you know first anniversaries are always just a bit special and Who else is having their first anniversary, Scotty? Wangaratta, in Victoria they're going with a superhero thing are you heading out that way you were only there a couple of months ago

01:03:53Scott Trickett: I was. Would love to have got up there, but not going to make it for their first anniversary. But good luck to Laura and her team. Beautiful parkrun. You must be looking forward to Town of Seaside this weekend, Mel?

01:04:08Melissa Erbacher: I am. It's been far too long between costumes.

01:04:12Scott Trickett: And to find far too long.

01:04:15Melissa Erbacher: I think it's been about four or five weeks.

01:04:19Scott Trickett: What was the last occasion? Was it an anniversary or just for... Just for giggles.

01:04:24Melissa Erbacher: Just for giggles. Yeah, no, I think it was... Yeah, I think it was just because it had been too long, so I wore a costume when I was run directing last time, as you do.

01:04:36Scott Trickett: Yeah, so you're costuming up this week. Are you going to get a run in this week or are you volunteering?

01:04:42Melissa Erbacher: No, I'm allegedly going to get a run in, so...

01:04:47Scott Trickett: So does that factor into what your costume is going to be this week? Because I know you're tossing up between a couple of ideas.

01:04:53Melissa Erbacher: No, it doesn't factor in at all. I always run in my costumes. It doesn't matter if they're not built for it. As evidenced by being dressed as Slimer at last year's Noosa parkrun and looking like a giant deflated booger for the entire five kilometres because the inbuilt fan that inflates the costume fell out in the first 500 metres. But did you actually run? Yeah, I did actually run. It got very sweaty in that plastic costume, I can tell you. So it started out freezing, but yeah. I'm just about to head down the gauntlet of anniversaries in the next couple of months. Literally, if not every week, it's at least every second week, I will be at an anniversary until September, between now and September. So there's going to be a lot of cake and there's going to be a lot of costumes and I cannot wait. Great.

01:05:54Scott Trickett: We'll have something to talk about. Look forward to some pics on Instagram.

01:05:59Melissa Erbacher: There will be pics.

01:06:01Scott Trickett: Can't wait. See you next week.