Episode 28 - The Run Beyond Project

Episode details · 172 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:12Melissa Erbacher: It's time for episode 28 of parkrun Adventurers. As I realised on Saturday, I often forget to tell people who I am. I'm Mel. I'm joined by my co-host Scott and we are the artists presently known as the parkrun Adventurers. Welcome to the podcast, Scotty.

00:00:32Scott Trickett: Thank you, Mel.

00:00:33Melissa Erbacher: Big weekend? Adventures abounding?

00:00:36Scott Trickett: parkrun adventures? Not really.

00:00:39Melissa Erbacher: Other adventures?

00:00:40Scott Trickett: I'm a little bit sore. I'm a little bit sorry. I unfortunately joined the Stack Club on Sunday.

00:00:48Melissa Erbacher: There's no unfortunate about that. Stack Club is, it's a badge of honour.

00:00:53Scott Trickett: I'm a bit sore. That's the only problem. So there's negatives and there's positives. But I'm really focused on the negative at the moment.

00:01:02Melissa Erbacher: The high price of entry.

00:01:04Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:01:07Melissa Erbacher: And how did we manage this event?

00:01:11Scott Trickett: trail run on Sunday, and it's a really good trail run because it's like 10 minutes from where I live. So you know how sometimes when you enter a race, this is maybe more for big city folk like me, but the ordeal of getting up really early, driving into the city, finding a car park, fighting all the masses of runners can sometimes spoil the experience of entering a big fun run. But When the event is 10 minutes from home, you actually get to sleep in on a Sunday. It's a great thing. But then it's spoiled by the fact that you fall over 2k into the race, really hurt your hip, and try and finish the next 15k, which I didn't do. So I had to DNF for the first time ever.

00:02:03Melissa Erbacher: Wow. Welcome to the DNF club too then.

00:02:07Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:02:08Melissa Erbacher: So two kilometres in, what did you trip over, your feet, your stick?

00:02:14Scott Trickett: No, it was just slippery. I was coming down a hill and I'm just not as agile on my feet as I once was. So over I went. And I thought I was all right. I thought I bounced up, tried to act pretty cool. And about 10, 20 minutes later, I had this sharp piercing pain going right through my hip. And I enjoyed that pain for the next hour as I tried to push through.

00:02:42Melissa Erbacher: So how far did you get before you DNF'd?

00:02:45Scott Trickett: Eleven and a half.

00:02:48Melissa Erbacher: Oh, I don't know if that's worse or better.

00:02:51Scott Trickett: It was because my leg had gone completely dead. So I was sort of dragging it. And I was quite happy to probably drag it for the rest of the race, which was 17K. But the problem was I kept tripping on all the rocks. And so after my third almost stack, I thought, no. I can put up with the immense pain, but I can't put up with the embarrassment of falling over again. So I'm out. It happens. Hope your weekend of adventures was better than that.

00:03:23Melissa Erbacher: Well, I joined the Stack Club a long time ago and I did it much less ceremoniously than you. I was literally just walking and that's why my feet, both of them, slid out in front of me and I went smack down on my bum and got a bruise the size of a grapefruit right on my left butt cheek, which was just awesome. Turned all sorts of delicate colours over the next week after that. Couldn't sit down very comfortably, but I was walking. That's where the embarrassing part comes in because if I'd been running, it never would have happened. And that was out on the Nambour parkrun course. I was navigating the twins and yeah. But that was a long time ago and my first DNF was a long time ago as well. So I've nursed those pains now. over a long period of time. This weekend I didn't get up to too much. Super exciting. I had a little bit of an adventure to my home parkrun with my dogs because we had lots of dogs actually at Kawana this weekend which was great. All the usual suspects and some new parkrunners bringing their new dogs along so our dogs had a great time. They slept very, very well for the rest of the day. But apart from that, I think the most exciting thing that I did all weekend was I purchased some new shoes online, some new running shoes. And it was a little bit scary because they're a type of shoe that I don't own. So I'm not 100% sure they're going to fit. And I got three pairs of them. And I don't know what styles they are because it was a lucky dip.

00:05:07Scott Trickett: Wow. I didn't know that existed. Yeah.

00:05:10Melissa Erbacher: I didn't know that existed until I was online on the weekend looking at shoes. One of our local running clubs on the coast, somebody mentioned in a forum, hey, these guys are having an end of financial year sale. You can get some really cheap trail shoes online. And so I went and I've been really, really wanting some of those, and I'm going to pronounce this wrong. It's either Vibram or Vibram. One of those things. But you know those five-fingered toe shoes where there's an individual place for individual toes? You would have seen them around. They're minimalist shoes. So I've been wanting a pair of those for ages. But they're very expensive, RRP. And I thought, oh, well, I'll go check it out. And as it turns out... Little feet people win again because I have small feet and apparently they don't sell a lot of shoes in my sizes. So one of the deals that they have on this website is three pairs of shoes for $99 and it's just because it's a lucky dip. And they'll send you three different styles and they guarantee the sale value is at least $200 and the sale value is like 50% off. So I'm thinking the shoes are worth a lot more. I don't care that they're not this current season shoes because they're all still brand new shoes that have never been worn. They're just for little people feet. And yeah, so now I'm excitingly waiting for the post every day for my new cloven hooved feet to arrive.

00:06:44Scott Trickett: Very exciting. What brand are they called again?

00:06:49Melissa Erbacher: Vibram. Vibram.

00:06:50Scott Trickett: You sure that's right? One of those.

00:06:52Melissa Erbacher: No. Well, no, I'm sure that's the brand, but I'm not sure that's how you pronounce it.

00:06:57Scott Trickett: I hope they don't have any Wauchope styles.

00:07:02Melissa Erbacher: War Hope? Don't you mean War Choppy?

00:07:05Scott Trickett: Wow, Choppy. U Shoppy?

00:07:08Melissa Erbacher: War Hope.

00:07:11Scott Trickett: Since when was the U C or the C?

00:07:15Melissa Erbacher: The A U C? No, it is... It's A U C, isn't it? It must... Yeah, C is silent and it makes a rrrr noise, apparently.

00:07:26Scott Trickett: So we do apologise to the people of Wauchope.

00:07:29Melissa Erbacher: It makes perfect sense now that we've had it explained to us by several different listeners, one of whom was my mother, who called my auntie to check.

00:07:37Scott Trickett: Hi Mel's mum.

00:07:42Melissa Erbacher: I would like to say hi to Scotty's mum, because if I understand correctly, you've been listening since episode one. So well done you. for sticking with us all this time.

00:07:54Scott Trickett: She's my biggest fan. Hi mum. A couple of weeks ago we were lucky enough to have Brendan Davies on the podcast and he mentioned his favourite parkrun was Penrith, Penrith Lakes. So we thought it was time we ventured out to Penrith and had Shelley Cootes on the program. Welcome to the podcast, Shelley.

Meet the ED — Shelley Cootes, Penrith Lakes parkrun

00:08:07[music]

00:08:23Shelley Cootes: Hi, thanks. Nice to speak to you guys.

00:08:27Scott Trickett: Penrith has been going for two years. Has it been a fun two years so far?

00:08:31Shelley Cootes: Yeah, it has. It's been awesome. We've had, you know, now we get 200 to 300 parkrunners a week and about 16 volunteers. So it's become quite a decent-sized event. And I just get to see so many people who have, I suppose like all other parkrunners, you know, people get PBs week after week, whole families participating regularly. We actually have a group of dedicated hearing impaired parkrunners, which is pretty cool at our event. They run and volunteer quite regularly and we often have an Auslan interpreter volunteering as well.

00:09:14Scott Trickett: Tell us more about the hearing impaired runners and the Auslan volunteer. What does that involve?

00:09:22Shelley Cootes: So we originally had two parkrunners who joined us who were hearing impaired. They started quite near the beginning of our event. And they started coming, husband and wife. Then they started inviting people in their friendship circles. So now we have probably six regulars and a few more come along every now and then. It's really great because prior to parkrun, I haven't had hearing impaired people in my circle. So it's sort of good to be more inclusive. We had to ask some advice from other run directors to find out, you know, how I can include them in the event and I found out that, you know, hearing impaired parkrunners can do any position and they certainly do at our event. They probably volunteer at least, you know, a couple of times a month, which is pretty cool. And one of the daughters of one of our hearing impaired parkrunners quite often interprets for us in Auslan. So I remember the first time we had an Auslan interpreter. It was pretty exciting and our deaf parkrunners were very excited pleased to see that we were including them in this way.

00:10:46Melissa Erbacher: That's fantastic. Auslan is one of the top three languages that I would like to learn. Yeah, me too. That's always been on my list. I just need to work on my dexterity, I think, because I probably stuff up all the words with my hands. I'm used to doing it with my tongue and I'm sure my hands would do the same thing.

00:11:06Shelley Cootes: We like to clap a lot as they would, which is kind of waving with both hands at the same time. That's nice.

00:11:14Melissa Erbacher: Yeah.

00:11:15Shelley Cootes: And we've had two of them being parkrunners of the Month too.

00:11:18Melissa Erbacher: Sounds like you've got a fabulous community going on there, Shelley. Can you tell us about your course? In fact, I understand you have multiple courses for a particular reason. Can you explain that to us?

00:11:32Shelley Cootes: Yes, we've got three different courses and Our parkruns at the Sydney International Regatta Centre, which is where the rowing was for the Sydney Olympics. And they have a lot of events on there. So we have three different courses to fit in with whatever event is on. So our first course is simply a lap of the lake. which is just short of 5Ks, but we make it five. And then if that is not available due to another event is on, we've got two alternate courses. One of those has been a cross-country course. It's a two-lap cross-country course, which that's not the favourite by some of our parkrunners and it is the favourite by some of our other parkrunners. So we have those parkrunners that love to come no matter what course we're on. And we have other parkrunners that have a favourite course that they like to do.

00:12:25Melissa Erbacher: Well, sounds like more of an adventure to me.

00:12:28Shelley Cootes: Yeah, well, it's like having three parkrunners in one. Which one are we going to do this week? We do have our roster on our Facebook page so people know what course is coming up.

00:12:39Scott Trickett: So do you know which is the most popular one?

00:12:42Shelley Cootes: Do the numbers suggest more people show up when it's the lap of the lake... Yeah, actually the most common one seems to be our second course, which is what we call our Southern Bank course. And the reason why we get good feedback on that course is... firstly it's all on paths a lot of runners like to be on paths and it also gets more pram parkrunners and it's it's a sort of it's a bit more of an up and back course so it's much more social you get to see everybody going past you whereas a lap of the lake you can sort of see if you're at the back of the pack you can sort of see everybody in the distance whereas there's Southern Bank course, you get to see everybody as they go past. So it's much more social.

00:13:28Scott Trickett: It wasn't all happy times for you recently. You had a bit of drama with course access and the threat to shut you down. Luckily, that didn't happen. But what did actually happen?

00:13:42Shelley Cootes: So back in March, which seems like a while ago, but it's not really, I suppose, we were told that we could no longer use our normal access gate. Unfortunately, the driveway that we were using to get to that gate, about 30 metres of land, was owned by a private business. And after 20 years of the Regatta Centre using that driveway, they decided that they didn't want to let them use it anymore. So that affected not only parkrun but other users of that area. Unfortunately, the car park that we used was just inside that gate and without being able to access it. It meant that we could no longer use the car park for parkrun. The car park fitted about 300 cars. So, you know, it was a pretty good space for us to park. Luckily, the Regatta Centre were very supportive and they gave us an immediate alternative solution while we tried to talk with those landowners and to come up with some sort of more permanent alternative solution. Luckily, one of our passionate parkrunners contacted Stuart Ayres, who's the Minister for Sport, via Facebook. And we had quite a big response from parkrunners on this Facebook post. And then the issue just escalated from there and exploded in our local area because we then had a couple of other passionate parkrunners contact the local media and we ended up being front page on one of our local papers. And then another one made contact with the local council. The council immediately took us to their council meetings. And they classified us as a high priority and started to help find us a new location. We were almost about to make the decision to move from the Regatta Centre because it didn't seem to be a suitable alternative solution at the Regatta Centre. So we were looking elsewhere and I suppose on the eve of making the decision, the regatta centre sent me a text message and said, we have a solution if you want to give me a call. So I couldn't think of anything else. So I rang them back straight away and they explained to us that the solution was what we thought would be a temporary solution with a few tweaks actually was working for them. So we're able to stay at the Regatta Centre with a few things. We need to measure our courses again because they're starting from a different location. But we can stay at the Regatta Centre, which was a massive relief. And, you know, the Regatta Centre is, you know, you know, being where the Olympic rowing was. So we're pretty pleased to be staying in that location. The other good thing that happened out of that issue is that we got a bit closer with Penrith City Council and they're still willing to consider a second Penrith parkrun in the area. So we're moving towards trying to arrange that. So there's a team of volunteers who have put their hands up to try and get that started and I'm helping them out however I can. We're finalists in a competition to get the start-up funds for the second parkrun and it's a vote, you can vote daily for it and at the end of week three we were still in the top two. So as long as we can keep our position up until the 15th of July we'll will be able to have that money donated to us.

00:17:18Melissa Erbacher: Wow, there's not a lot of people who can lay claim to turning a very stressful, challenging situation into double the parkruns in their area. Well done, Shelley. Thank you. You're the founding ED there and how did you get involved in parkrun in the first place? Were you already parkrunning somewhere else first or...?

00:17:41Shelley Cootes: No, I'd never heard of parkrun before I decided to become an event director. In 2013, I ran a marathon. It took me nine months of training to get that far. And I had so much support during that time. So I had parents looking after my children. I had my husband that was happy for me to go on long runs. I had my coach. I had my friends. Everyone was really supportive. And After doing that, I sort of wanted to pay it forward a bit. So, you know, I put it out to the world that I was looking for something to do. And a friend, Narelle from Augustine Heights parkrun, suggested that I started a parkrun in Penrith. Prior to that, I hadn't heard of what a parkrun was, but I thought it sounded all right and then took myself off to Parramatta parkrun, which at the time was my closest parkrun, and decided that, yeah, I was in. And then after that, as soon as I put my hand up to do it, I had a lot of people put their hand up to help me. So that was pretty cool. And then, yeah, so now I've checked it out today. I've volunteered now 77 times. I'm almost up to my 50th parkrun. I plan to run my 50th on the 30th of July, which also happens to correspond with Penrith Lakes parkrun's 100th event. So that's pretty special to me.

00:18:59Scott Trickett: Well done on all of that.

00:19:01Shelley Cootes: Thanks.

00:19:02Scott Trickett: Thanks. You also like an adventure. We checked out your stats too. You visited a few other parkruns. Have you got a favourite amongst all those adventures?

00:19:13Melissa Erbacher: Oh. Or a top three. Take the pressure off.

00:19:16Shelley Cootes: Top three.

00:19:17Melissa Erbacher: Not including your own parkrun.

00:19:19Shelley Cootes: Oh, no. Of course, my own parkrun's number one. But... I suppose international parkruns are exciting. So we went to Hagley parkrun at Christmastime. So my husband's family are from Christchurch.

00:19:31Melissa Erbacher: So I got to go there twice over Christmas.

00:19:33Shelley Cootes: It was pretty cool. Campbelltown has my PB. So I really like to go to Campbelltown when I can. And Albert Park in Melbourne was one of my first parkruns as well. So one day for our wedding anniversary, just after I told my husband that I'm going to do this crazy parkrun thing, it was our wedding anniversary and he surprised me with a trip to Melbourne and a visit to Albert parkrun. So that was pretty cool too.

00:20:05Melissa Erbacher: It's always great to have your family on board with parkrun adventures. Nice work, Shelley's husband. Can you tell him that? Because he thinks I spend too much time at parkrun. They all say that, but they don't mean it. I'm sure they don't mean it.

00:20:23Shelley Cootes: Yeah, well, he started to come now too. So that's great because my kids have been coming ever since the start. So now he's coming a bit more often as well. So that's pretty cool to be able to share it with him.

00:20:33Melissa Erbacher: Awesome. Well, Shelley, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. It's been a pleasure having you as a guest and learning about all your courses at Penrith. We look forward to visiting you there sometime soon. That would be great. our next guests on the podcast come from the run beyond project we're very proud to have dave criniti and amanda shannon join us guys welcome to the podcast thanks for having us now i hope i pronounced your surname correctly there dave i took a punt yeah that's right close very close so guys tell us about the project

Guest interview — The Run Beyond Project (David Criniti and Amanda Shannon)

00:20:58[music]

00:21:24David Criniti: Yeah, so it only started last year. It started at Chester Hill High School, similar to parkrun, you know, it was just a one event kind of thing to start with. And I had this idea that I wanted to take a group of students and teach them about these skills of goal setting and commitment and resilience and use running as a medium for doing that and actually to sort of step back a bit I guess one of the things that kind of got it in my head to do this was a bit further back at the end of 2013 I remember having a staff meeting at school and the principal came in and said oh this group are coming to school next year they're called the Helmsman Project and they're going to uh lead the kids on a program and it was a similar sort of thing teaching you know teamwork and resilience and they're going to take the kids on a sailing trip for five days and and he said we just need a staff member to go on on this sailing trip and just supervise and I thought oh cool you know I'm I'm more than happy to um go on a sailboat for a week and get paid for it so yeah So I did that and the kids had a great time and they learnt so much that they wouldn't in the classroom ordinarily. And they were taking the helm of the boat and, you know, taking it in turns, telling each other to hoist the sail and do what. whatever was required to get the boat from, or the yacht, I should say, from point A to point B. And I thought that was a really cool experience. And since I love running so much, it would just be awesome to be able to do a similar thing utilizing running as the medium rather than sailing. And so, yeah, I guess part of the idea came from that.

00:23:22Melissa Erbacher: You're on your second intake of students at the moment, Dave, and I understand you're going to be recruiting your third intake very shortly. What's the selection process like? How do you get it out there? Where do you find the kids?

00:23:40David Criniti: Okay, so the kids are in the schools that we're teaching at. So the program is implemented by teachers. As I said, last year it was just the kids at my school, at Chester Hill High School. And then this year, Amanda, who is in my running club, the Sydney Striders, sort of contacted me through the Facebook page and said, hey, you know, can I get on board? And so... It was the teachers, you know, Amanda and I have selected our own students based on our perceptions of student needs and capabilities and whatnot. And the same thing with Mel Shaw, who's currently in the process of selecting or has just selected some students from her high school and they'll be kicking off next term.

00:24:28Melissa Erbacher: Do the kids get an opportunity to, you know, obviously once they hear about it or they see other students go through and they might spark that interest, do they get an opportunity to apply as such?

00:24:41Amanda Shannon: Well, yeah, actually. I mean, with my particular cohort of girls that I'm taking through the program at the moment, I selected them because after sort of scoping them out across country and seeing which kids would be able to achieve the goal race of the 10 kilometres. And the project popularity has grown exponentially since then, and I've got quite a number of students who would like to participate in the project when I run it again next year. So I'm going to actually kick off a bit of a run club when the project is conclude so that I can keep the interest high and and hopefully get a bigger group of kids both male and female ready for the project next year but yeah I mean it's the kids are really excited about it and they're celebrating the girls success quite well and yeah.

00:25:35Scott Trickett: Have you had any students who you've selected who didn't want to take part?

00:25:42David Criniti: Yeah, there's a little bit of, I think Amanda and I have probably had one student each who was sort of more challenging than the rest of them and more challenged by the program. But I guess, you know, that was the cool thing that we're reiterating to all the kids, you know, it's not about the running, it's It's using the running as a mechanism to teach all these skills about goal setting and resilience. And I said to the kids when we were down in Tasmania this year, very nervous the day before their half marathon. I said, guys, you know, tomorrow it might hurt. You might decide. At the end of it, I never want to run again. I said, I hope you don't. But on the other hand, even if you do, I hope you learn that you're able to set goals that you think are hard and you're able to commit to those goals and you're able to show the resilience to overcome the obstacles that get in your path on the way, you know. And so... Yeah, there was some reluctance by a small minority, but on the other hand, if that can lead to the development of these skills that stand them in good stead throughout their lives, then that's a worthwhile thing, I reckon.

00:27:07Amanda Shannon: I do have one particular student who's not taken to it as best as she could, but that hasn't changed her commitment to the program. Her attendance to all the training sessions is at 100%, and she seems to really enjoy the more social dynamic of the group. So she's got a real sense of belonging with the rest of the girls, and I think fundamentally, even if she doesn't continue with the running, she's got that.

00:27:34Melissa Erbacher: on her side at the end of it so again it's it's about these other skills that we're teaching using that metaphor of running my next question was actually going to be do you run the training sessions outside of school hours or or do you get to do it during school how does that all work and what kind of commitment time wise do you expect from the kids every week

00:27:58Amanda Shannon: For my training program, we have an official training session after school on Wednesdays from 3 till 4 and that's – we've slowly developed. We've sort of built that up kilometre by kilometre each week so the girls – have currently completed an 8K training run. And this Wednesday in the school holidays, I'll be taking them to Bondi so we can complete the nine kilometre training run along Bondi to almost to Coogee and back. And they also committed to another cross-training session, which was originally during school, but we've moved that to 3 to 4pm every Friday afternoon. And then there's also the interim races that they've completed in the process. So that's the parkruns that we've done. And we also started off with a five kilometre race with Sydney Marathon Clinic. So it's all done pretty much outside of school hours. So it's a big commitment from the girls. And we did say that from the start that this is you know, this is something that you can't just drop in and out of. You have to be here 100% of the time. And I think they've done an amazing job of sticking to those goals and to that commitment that they've outlined from the start.

00:29:10David Criniti: On that, it was the same thing with our boys at Chezzo. It was an after-school commitment. And the thing is, you know, initially trying to pull them in, it was basically, you know, selling it with, you know, oh, we'll give you these cool team uniforms and we'll try and get you a pair of shoes. And my kids, you know, went down to Tasmania, which was obviously a real big carrot. But the great thing was that... as time went on and they got into it and they enjoyed the training sessions and they enjoyed going to events and meeting the running community, that they could see the rewards for the commitment and they started to focus on more of these intrinsic rewards rather than these carrots we were sort of dangling to lure them in in the first place. And, yeah, so that was the cool thing that we saw about the program.

00:30:06Scott Trickett: I was going to ask about the backgrounds of the kids, mainly the ethnic backgrounds. Are they coming from some diverse families?

00:30:14David Criniti: Yeah, they are. So last year we had four Afghani boys and one guy from Somalia.

00:30:26Amanda Shannon: They are quite diverse. I mean, Evans High School and pretty much any school in Western Sydney is quite multicultural and quite diverse in terms of ethnic backgrounds. So we've got a good mix of kids in our group. So Hannah is our beautiful girl from Sudan. Juliana just moved here a couple of months ago from Columbia. And then Marissa and Grace are both born here but have diverse backgrounds as well. So Yeah, it's not necessarily the goal to aim for specific ethnic backgrounds, but we do try to sort of target students who are facing adversity and who have had to overcome some difficulties in their time because those are the kids that really embrace these kind of programs, I think.

00:31:19Scott Trickett: And what about their families? Are they comfortable with their kids trying something new?

00:31:28Amanda Shannon: The families are amazing, actually. They've been incredibly supportive of the program. They've sort of just let us take their kids every week and, you know, go on all of these really hard runs and they've been very grateful that their kids have had this opportunity. So, yeah, I haven't actually come across any sort of issues with that at all. They've just embraced it.

00:31:49David Criniti: And I guess the thing is, you get to know these kids and you realize, talking about diversity, there's such a diversity of family situations too. And one of the kids in my program would tell me each week, basically give me the update of his phone call to his mom in Afghanistan. between when we last saw each other at training. And, you know, here's a guy who's only 18 years old and he's out here on his own with his parents still back there in Afghanistan and that's his family situation. So it's kind of interesting that, you know, we sort of started off with this... This goal of teaching these kids about resilience and some of these kids, the resilience that they've shown just to be here, it's just extraordinary.

00:32:45Melissa Erbacher: Do you find they're teaching you a lot?

00:32:47David Criniti: Just in terms of things that they've taught us. I mean, you know, running with one of Amanda's girls on Saturday, you know, I guess every time I step out and lace up, I'm really aware of, okay, what time am I going for today? And so with that in mind, when I'm pacing, you know, I'm encouraging and, oh, come on, you're on such and such a pace and you can do this time and, and about 2.5k about about halfway through the race she stopped and said i can't do it and so you know it was just this uh re-evaluation of okay let's um let's put myself in in her shoes and okay um let's let's go on and and finish this and i really had to sort of uh yeah it does teach you about the perspective on things and okay this is this is a challenge just just getting through this uh rather than you know focusing on something which is quite an arbitrary and meaningless goal when you think about it anyway yeah yeah i think that's that's that's along the lines of what i've learned as well every time i go out for a training run i myself am really focused on time and and getting a pb but

00:34:08Amanda Shannon: With these girls, it's a distance they've never conquered before and I have to keep taking a step. This is just them getting out there and running at a consistent pace and not stopping is so extraordinary that, I mean, four months ago they would never have even contemplated running 8Ks. So I'm always having to step out of my own shoes and recognise that it's not about how fast we're running and it's just about getting the run done and knowing that you can conquer that distance.

00:34:41Scott Trickett: Well, parkrun is only 5k and you've been running at The Ponds and Rhodes. How have the kids enjoyed the parkrun experience?

00:34:52Amanda Shannon: They've really loved the parkrun experience. It's been one of the most positive things I think we've done with this program this year. I initially started out at Rhodes. because it's the parkrun that I was familiar with and I knew it was a nice flat course and I knew it was a fast course and the community vibe there was so extraordinary that I was like, I want these girls to experience this kind of running community. So we went there and we were welcomed with open arms. They wrote, go Evans High girls on the road at the two and a half K mark and cheered them on as they were running along. And we enjoyed it so much so that within a few weeks, I'd organized another excursion to take them again to Rhodes parkrun. And it wasn't until I was there that someone said to me, hey, did you know that the Ponds parkrun is closer to the girls? And I was like, oh my goodness, there's another one over in Ponds. So we organized for the girls to go there. And again, the running community there just embraced us and were really encouraging and really supportive. And it's just... This is the thing that these girls haven't necessarily ever been exposed to is this positive, healthy, fantastic community of people that are so wonderful to each other. And I'm really glad that there is this free forum for them to continue to run after they've finished the Run Beyond, you know, that I know they'll go back there and I know they'll try and smash out a new time each time they go. So, yeah, it's very exciting.

00:36:23Melissa Erbacher: We don't have a lot of teenagers running at the local parkruns that I'm at frequently. And it seems to be this gap. You have a lot of kids that come along with their parents. until they're old enough to say no and their parents won't argue with them anymore and then they start coming again sort of when when they go to uni but there's this gap in the middle where we do have a couple but we don't have too many is there anything that you guys have learned through your experiences that you think we could use at parkrun to attract more high school kids

00:37:02Amanda Shannon: I think get the schools involved. Ever since we started mentioning parkrun at the assemblies because we give the girls a certificate every time they complete a parkrun and we hand it out at the assembly and congratulate them on their achievements during the race. And it was only after that that one of the boys in my year 10 classes came up to me and said, hey, can I come with you guys on the next parkrun? And so he actually joined us on Saturday when we did the run at And I said to him at the beginning, do you know how fast you might do this 5K in because the ponds are seeded? And he said, oh, I have no idea. And I said, oh, well, you know, maybe stick between the 24 and the 27. Maybe you can go a bit faster than that. He came 12th and did it in 20 minutes. in the end and had no idea that he was even capable of doing that at the start. And I think it's just the exposure to the high schools and letting them know that these things are available to them. You know, hopefully other teachers will think, hey, this is a really positive thing that I can take my kids on and that's how the word will get out there. So, I mean, I'm definitely going to be promoting it as a continual thing when the Run Beyond project ends because I believe in parkrun and I believe it's been an asset to this program as well.

00:38:20David Criniti: And it's just, I think, an awareness that it's probably a cultural thing. There's not really this culture of, oh, let's get up on a Saturday morning and go for a run. And creating an awareness is part of what this is about and fostering those gateways. And it's great that we've been able to do that on a small scale and we're hoping that that will increase in future. And definitely the fact that the kids have been so welcomed at parkrun really has enabled that to... to be something that we think will continue in future. So fingers crossed.

00:39:07Scott Trickett: Sounds positive. Good luck with all that. Dave and Amanda, Mel and I are big fans of what you're doing. So good luck with everything in the future. And thanks for coming. Thank you guys.

00:39:17David Criniti: And we're likewise big fans of parkrun. Thanks for having us.

Social Adventurers (social media round-up)

00:39:32[music]

00:39:32Melissa Erbacher: On Instagram this week, we had Tanya RR sharing a great video with us. It was a holiday in 40 seconds with 40 sounds. She obviously ran in Singapore at Singapore parkrun and it looks like she had an amazing adventure on her holiday. I love the way she has compiled it all in just little one-second grabs of the whole time. I think if parents-in-laws could do that, then... Holiday snaps would be a lot easier to go through.

00:40:04Scott Trickett: Underscore PK was at Mount Barker parkrun again. Great weather for ducks and parkrun adventurers, especially those recovering from 51st birthday celebrations.

00:40:17Melissa Erbacher: Do you take that to mean that Underscore PK had a birthday himself or he was just celebrating somebody else's celebrations?

00:40:26Scott Trickett: That's a good question, Mel.

00:40:28Melissa Erbacher: Let's wish him a happy birthday just in case.

00:40:31Scott Trickett: Yep. You sing happy birthday. Ready, set... No, no.

00:40:36Melissa Erbacher: I've never agreed to singing on the podcast yet. I'm not sure it will ever happen. But happy birthday, underscore PK, if it was indeed your birthday this weekend. Dirty Cheaters were out and about again. Dirty Cheaters on tour this time. M. Botto was at Curl Curl parkrun and Dora... No, I'm going to get this wrong. Dorata Asinio at Hobart parkrun. Congrats to... Zippy Rainbow from Curl Curl on 100 parkruns. They had great jump shots. They can get some serious air, these guys. The top one was totally photobombed by a toddler wearing a hoodie, though, and lying on the ground beside them. It even had little ears. It was very cute.

00:41:16Scott Trickett: Expat Runner. Family complete at Kilkenny parkrun this week. And they got some special attention for visiting from Australia. What does that mean, family complete at Kilkenny parkrun this week?

00:41:32Melissa Erbacher: I'm pretty sure it means the whole family were there at parkrun. They had a good set in the photo.

00:41:38Scott Trickett: Okay. Or did they complete a family of parkruns?

00:41:43Melissa Erbacher: What would be a family of parkruns?

00:41:47Scott Trickett: Maybe Kilkenny's the dad and another parkrun in New Zealand is the mum. Maybe you were right. Maybe it's just the whole family was there. Let's go with that. Okay.

00:42:01Melissa Erbacher: Ben Brockman was at Greenwich parkrun for his fifth different parkrun in five weeks this weekend, but he forgot his barcode. So he wants to know, does that really count? I would be tempted to log that as a Freedom Run. If you didn't get scanned in officially, you may as well have done it as an unofficial run. Is that allowed? What do you think?

00:42:26Scott Trickett: Yeah. It's not the same, though.

00:42:29Melissa Erbacher: No, it's not the same. You're just going to have to stay there for an extra week. The UK will have to keep you, Ben.

00:42:35Scott Trickett: Running Optimistic shared a pic of nine runners all sporting GCAM marathon and half marathon finisher shirts. They were celebrating success.

00:42:46Melissa Erbacher: And they all looked very happy about it. So great job, guys, for finishing up at GCAM. They don't give those shirts out to the DNFs.

00:42:54Scott Trickett: Are you sure?

00:42:55Melissa Erbacher: Yes. You don't get those shirts until you cross the finish line. Hey TJ shared a post Freedom Run Runfie they just completed their reverse parkrun challenge at Jells and that is a little sneaky peek of what's to come next week when we share the reverse freedom run challenge audio with everybody.

Reverse parkrun freedom run challenge (listener challenge)

00:43:19Scott Trickett: Yes we're giving you another week just for people to catch up on listening to the episode but we did get some so we look forward to sharing them with you all next week. Macgirl19 was at Torrens parkrun with a lovely pic of the River Torrens. He was saying, good morning Adelaide.

00:43:39Melissa Erbacher: Oz Twin Mama shared a pic the day before the Gold Coast Half 2016. Some of these pics on Instagram were shared a little bit after we recorded last week, so we're still playing catch up. And said that they park walked at Broadbeach Waters and it was tough watching all the runners fly past as they walked their first ever parkrun.

00:43:59Scott Trickett: It's okay to walk parkrun.

00:44:01Melissa Erbacher: Absolutely. But it was just the first one. So I guess, you know, old habits die hard. They must have been saving their legs for their half the next day though. And that's the wise thing to do.

00:44:13Scott Trickett: Let's head over to Facebook where Alan Connolly, he had a great morning of parkrun tourism. I think he meant parkrun adventuring. For him and a bit of volunteering for Kerry at Cobram parkrun.

00:44:27Melissa Erbacher: Well, they got the volunteering right. Loving it. Brendan Scholarly. Had a bit of a big post to share this weekend. He said, those of you that really know me understand that I am truly passionate about parkrun. I believe in parkrun's ability to change people's lives and I believe in parkrun's power to help people overcome their fears. Today, parkrun helped me overcome one of mine. Obviously, that fear for him was getting a tattoo. You've seen this pic, right, Scotty?

00:44:59Scott Trickett: Yes, I have.

00:45:01Melissa Erbacher: What did you think?

00:45:03Scott Trickett: Good on you, Brendan. I love parkrun, but it's not something I'd do.

00:45:09Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I think inking might actually test my commitment to parkrun also.

00:45:16Scott Trickett: Because there, and it was raised, there is the possibility that we might change the logo.

00:45:26Melissa Erbacher: That's all right. They have shows for that nowadays, don't they, where they go and the tattoo artist's Do some kind of creative cover of a previous, you know, bad tattoo.

00:45:36Scott Trickett: We're not saying this is a bad tattoo.

00:45:38Melissa Erbacher: No, no. This is great.

00:45:40Scott Trickett: As far as tattoos go, this is the best one I've ever seen.

00:45:44Melissa Erbacher: Our listeners don't know what it is, though. We haven't explained it to them. You did say logo.

00:45:51Scott Trickett: It's the parkrun tree on Brendan's ankle.

00:45:54Melissa Erbacher: And it's quite large. It's not an inconspicuous tree.

00:45:57Scott Trickett: Well, Brendan is an ED, so he's coming on the pod soon. and we'll hear all about it. Wrapping up on Facebook, Mr. Tim Oberg was calling for help. He needed help from his running friends. He was having IT issues with a GPS device.

00:46:16Melissa Erbacher: I do love that when people call for help, they hashtag parkrunadventures.

00:46:21Scott Trickett: Like we're going to come to the rescue.

00:46:24Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. We can try.

00:46:28Scott Trickett: But we didn't.

00:46:30Melissa Erbacher: Well, no, I offered my husband's assistance. That's kind of the same thing, right?

00:46:36Scott Trickett: I said get a TomTom.

00:46:37Melissa Erbacher: Look, I still haven't managed to figure out how to get my runs off my current GPS onto Strava at the moment. So I'm doing it by stages. I'm certainly not the person who's going to help Tim with his GPS issues.

00:46:54Scott Trickett: We need to get Mr Strava on the pod.

00:46:57Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, that would be a good idea. Or Mrs Strava.

Where is the cake? (launches and anniversaries)

00:47:01Scott Trickett: Do we have any cake this week or do we have any launches this week? I think we do.

00:47:05Melissa Erbacher: We do indeed. We've got two in two very exciting states that don't get them all the time anymore. You guys in Victoria have been taking a lot of the limelight in recent months. But this week we've got launches in South Australia at Renmark parkrun and in Queensland at Meadowbrook parkrun. It's been a good long while since we've had a launch in Queensland.

00:47:28Scott Trickett: Are you sure that's Meadowbrook? Mead-ow-brook?

00:47:32Melissa Erbacher: Mead-ow-brook. No, I'm pretty confident it's Meadowbrook.

00:47:37Scott Trickett: Yeah, where's Meadowbrook?

00:47:39Melissa Erbacher: It's in Brisbane.

00:47:40Scott Trickett: So a city parkrun?

00:47:42Melissa Erbacher: Well, it's one of the outer suburbs of Brisbane, but it's closer to Brisbane than it is to the Sunshine Coast. So I would say, oh, don't make me make a comment on the geography of it exactly, because I'll get it wrong, and I don't want to offend anyone this week.

00:48:00Scott Trickett: Okay, let's move on to anniversaries. And we've got Noosa. They're having their second anniversary, but celebrating onesie style.

00:48:09Melissa Erbacher: They are. And I think this is a fantastic theme this week because last year Noosa's anniversary was freezing. And it was an 80s theme, which was amazing. And I ran in a plastic costume, so I got quite warm anyway. But I know a lot of the other runners were still a little bit chilly. So I think onesies. are a fabulous idea for a winter parkrun anniversary. Good job, Noosa.

00:48:33Scott Trickett: I don't believe this. It was freezing in Noosa.

00:48:38Melissa Erbacher: I wore gloves and my hands were still frozen most of the way around the course when they launched.

00:48:43Scott Trickett: In Noosa.

00:48:44Melissa Erbacher: In Noosa. It's a shady course in the bush. What are you talking about? In Noosa. Just because it's sunshiny all the time doesn't mean it can't get cold.

00:48:54Scott Trickett: It's called the Sunshine Coast.

00:48:56Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, it's not called the hot coast. You Victorians don't have any kind of monopoly over the cold weather.

00:49:05Scott Trickett: No, because I know we share it with Armadale, and they're having their second anniversary this weekend. So come in your best or worst headwear. And if you need some inspiration, what would you think, Mel? Your favourite beanie?

00:49:21Melissa Erbacher: Well, that would be my best, I guess. I don't know what I've... I don't have any worst headwear. I do have a lot of hats and wigs and antennae.

00:49:31Scott Trickett: Sombrero?

00:49:33Melissa Erbacher: Well, I think we've had this discussion in the past and I'm pretty confident you've got multiple sombreros.

00:49:39Scott Trickett: And I don't. So I don't know what conversation that was. Is that with another Scott you do a podcast with?

00:49:48Melissa Erbacher: It could be. Yeah, that's the Tuesday, Scott.

00:49:51Scott Trickett: I like him. I like the sound of him.

00:49:53Melissa Erbacher: He's got a lot of sombreros. He must be a fun guy. He's a resourceful guy.

00:50:01Scott Trickett: Good to have around in anniversary season.

00:50:04Melissa Erbacher: Exactly.

00:50:06Scott Trickett: Anyway, that's it. Good show.

00:50:09Melissa Erbacher: They're always good shows, Scotty. I enjoyed it this week. Oh, you say it like you don't enjoy it every week. I do.

00:50:17Scott Trickett: This week in particular. Next week, I think I'm going to enjoy that too. Special guest that we're not going to mention. You're heading up for another powwow. My beautiful wife is celebrating her 100th this week. So that's all a bit exciting. Lots of adventures to be had. On next week's show.