Episode 37 - Danny Norman

Episode details · 174 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:00[music]

00:00:11Melissa Erbacher: It's episode 37 of parkrun Adventurers. I'm Mel and I'm joined by Scotty.

00:00:16Scott Trickett: Hi Mel.

00:00:18Melissa Erbacher: Hey Scotty. We got some more news this week because everybody loved the news last week and guess what? Every week there's more news. This week, 2,483 people have registered with parkrun Australia, taking the total registered runners to 363,046. Last parkrun Day, 22,002 parkrunners showed up for a free timed 5k, 3,644 of them ran personal bests and 2,133 forgot their barcodes.

The news

00:00:57Scott Trickett: At parkrun HQ, between May 2015 and June 2016, the support team received 25,000 requests from runners and 5,000 requests from event teams.

00:01:11Melissa Erbacher: Adverse weather conditions continue to plague many events, with cancellations continuing. The inaugural events for both You Yangs and Maury parkruns were cancelled last weekend amidst safety concerns. Both launches have been rescheduled to the 24th of September.

00:01:29Scott Trickett: On Monday the 19th of September, the hit podcast with a cult following known as parkrun Adventurers announced they would be extending the cut-off for submissions to their hotly contested Strava art competition. Contestants will now have until Sunday the 25th of September to enter. The announcement came as a flurry of creative Strava activity exploded across social media, with record numbers of parkrun adventurers submitting last-minute entries by the original deadline.

00:02:00Melissa Erbacher: Kurt Fearnley continues to inspire the nation, winning a silver medal for the 42.2km distance at the Large Quadrennial International Sporting Event. This is Kurt's 13th medal across five Large Quadrennial International Sporting Events. including two marathon golds, one bronze and now a silver.

00:02:19Scott Trickett: The winter running season continues. with many adventurers taking on a variety of distances at events other than parkrun on the weekend. In New South Wales, the Blackmores Sydney Running Festival dominated the scene with 34,000 participants descending on the city, while in the Northern Territory, the Mitchell Street Mile took centre stage. In WA, adventurers were offered the chance to dance with the devil in the Devil's Lair Cape to Cape.

00:02:46Melissa Erbacher: And casualty rates are rising as a familiar menace returns to terrorise runners across the nation. Winged, diabolical beasts, commonly known as magpies, have returned to the skies, tormenting runners and cyclists alike. Avid parkrunner Deborah Mills was recently assaulted.

00:03:05Deborah Mills: Here's her story. I start trotting over to the playground to catch up with friends. Suddenly, I feel a crunch on my head. I turned around. The crazy magpie is coming for me again. I fell to the ground and I'm screaming at the top of my voice. He's coming in again and again and I'm shaking like crazy running to a tree. I quickly call up my hubby, screaming for him to come and get me. Then the magpie flies into the tree that I am covering in and so I run to another tree. This experience was terrifying and made me realise that you have to always hide during magpie season or run with others at pack run to protect you.

00:03:51Melissa Erbacher: True words, Deborah, true words. Magpies are a protected species in Australia. If you see them, do not approach. If you have witnessed or been a victim of a magpie attack, we urge you to contact www.magpiealert.com to register the attack and warn other runners.

Mel's news / Scotty news

00:04:12Scott Trickett: And so that's the news news. But is there any Mel's news from the weekend worth sharing?

00:04:20Melissa Erbacher: No Mel's news this week, I don't think, Scotty. What's the Scotty news?

00:04:25Scott Trickett: I had a party. I had a dress-up and a party on Saturday, which was lots of fun.

00:04:29Melissa Erbacher: You did! Yes! And? Costume? Details?

00:04:34Scott Trickett: Well, it was 80s, and the good thing about the 80s is that it gives you lots of variety. So... At one point I was going as Larry Bird, but then that was pretty lame because people would just think I was going as a basketballer, even if I did put on a big fake moustache. So I ended up getting some leopard skin pants and a rocker t-shirt and some big hair.

00:04:58Melissa Erbacher: Oh wow, you're painting quite the word picture there.

00:05:01Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:05:03Melissa Erbacher: Leopard pants.

00:05:05Scott Trickett: Yeah, yeah. And it's something that so wasn't me. Like, I actually lived in the 80s. I was a kid, but I do remember it. And I was all Run DMC, LL Cool J in the 80s. I was far from Poison. Who are the big hair bands? I don't even know them.

00:05:23Melissa Erbacher: Like Guns N' Roses or... Yeah, couldn't stand them. Okay.

00:05:28Scott Trickett: So it was fun to dress up as... That would just be something that I completely wasn't. And run 5K. And the pants, I've got to say, so they were women's pants as well. They were really comfortable.

00:05:44Melissa Erbacher: Well, that's what we think. That's why we wear them. Yeah. As opposed to wearing men's pants.

00:05:49Scott Trickett: Men haven't picked up on this. We're practical. Women making their pants for comfort. And I loved it. They were stretchy.

00:05:58Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:06:01Melissa Erbacher: They were leopard skin prints, so were you able to run as fast as a cheetah?

00:06:05Scott Trickett: Not quite, because I had this big wig on. And as we all know, air does not escape through the wig.

00:06:11Melissa Erbacher: Hair is not aerodynamic.

00:06:14Scott Trickett: No. But also the funny thing is, so I ran at Pakenham, and it's an out and back. And so we had a nice tailwind going out, but then we had a really strong headwind coming back. But it was good, because I had the wind flowing through my hair. This was also a new experience for me. I've never had that privilege before.

00:06:36Melissa Erbacher: It's lovely when it lifts off the back of your neck, isn't it?

00:06:39Scott Trickett: Yeah, it really does. Yeah, I loved it. I was a bit scared the wig might actually come off.

00:06:48Melissa Erbacher: Oh, so many, so many images running through my mind right now.

00:06:52Scott Trickett: Lots of fun. The other thing is that my daughter is eight years old. And so we were concerned if we were going to find an outfit, an 80s outfit for an eight-year-old. But we came across this great tracksuit, matching tracksuit, you know, classic 80s parachute, you know, hideous. But the problem is Kasia didn't like it at all because she actually wanted to look good.

00:07:16Melissa Erbacher: Aww. Did you tell her that nobody looked good in the 80s?

00:07:21Scott Trickett: Well, she kept trying to tell us what people wore in the 80s, and she has no idea.

00:07:28Melissa Erbacher: What were some of her suggestions?

00:07:29Scott Trickett: She just wanted to look good, so she found a little black dress. No, she just was going for something that looked good.

00:07:37Melissa Erbacher: Okay.

00:07:38Scott Trickett: And trying to convince us that that's what kids wore in the 80s.

00:07:42Melissa Erbacher: And, okay, who won this battle of the parent-child, what you're going to wear situation?

00:07:49Scott Trickett: Well, we made her. We made her because it just looked so good. So she may not have been happy, but she looked cool. And she took it off as soon as we got in the car to go home.

00:08:02Melissa Erbacher: Oh, but she kept it on that long?

00:08:04Scott Trickett: Yeah, she ran in it.

00:08:06Melissa Erbacher: Wow, what a good sport. Did you bribe her with a lot of things?

00:08:11Scott Trickett: No, no, we're over the bribing stage.

00:08:14Melissa Erbacher: Oh, okay.

00:08:16Scott Trickett: So we're just in the forcing stage now.

00:08:22Melissa Erbacher: You guys win at parenting.

00:08:24Scott Trickett: Yeah, thanks.

00:08:26Melissa Erbacher: Well, she will appreciate it when she sees the photos in a few years' time or, you know, shows them to a psychiatrist.

00:08:33Scott Trickett: Yeah. Creating memories, nightmares.

00:08:39Melissa Erbacher: So this was the first time you've run at Pakenham, so that's a new event for you on the board. What did you think of the course? You said it was an out-and-back, but what's it like?

00:08:49Scott Trickett: Pakenham's a flat course, out-and-back, quite exposed, green. We run past two bridges, don't cross them. We were warned about magpies. We were told that it was clear of magpies the previous day, but that didn't mean that we were clear on the Saturdays. But I was hoping my wig, my hair scared them off.

00:09:10Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I'm not sure magpies would take on a leopard anyway.

00:09:14Scott Trickett: I was attacked on the Sunday though, so they didn't miss me over the weekend. Luckily this time I was standing still.

00:09:21Melissa Erbacher: They're out there. I'm seeing a lot of bloody pictures on Facebook. People's faces and their ears and there's carnage happening.

00:09:30Scott Trickett: Well, I've had a broken rib courtesy of a magpie a few years ago. So I have a genuine fear of birds.

00:09:38Melissa Erbacher: The broken rib, that was not caused by contact with the magpie. That was caused by you crashing or something like that because you were trying to duck from the magpie.

00:09:48Scott Trickett: Birds are scary, man, when they're coming at you.

00:09:51Melissa Erbacher: I have only ever been hit by a magpie once. I've been swooped a couple of times, but not in recent years. I was walking to school and I remember hearing a fluttering of wings and then bang in the side of my head. I turned around to look behind me because I was dead certain someone had just thrown a bird at me. And I just – it took about 10 seconds to sink in that, oh, no, wait a minute. I probably just got swooped. But the first thought that entered my mind was somebody had a bird in their hands and had thrown it at me. So it knocked the senses out fairly well. But, yes, I think there's a popular theory that birds talk to each other. And if you're nice to birds – then they'll be nice to you and they'll leave you alone. And I haven't been swooped in very many years. And I am nice to birds and I talk to them.

00:10:48Scott Trickett: We've set up, we've got a magpie family in our front yard. We feed them. We give them shelter.

00:10:54Melissa Erbacher: Well, they're obviously not talking to their cousins.

00:10:56Scott Trickett: No.

00:10:58Melissa Erbacher: Maybe they're the black sheep of the family and they've been ostracized.

00:11:01Scott Trickett: Yeah, the word's not spread. Anyway, take care out there, people. Only a couple more weeks to go to get through this.

00:11:08Melissa Erbacher: Unless, because it's been seasonally warm this year, they have two broods, in which case we're going to get a second round in October, November.

00:11:16Scott Trickett: Positive thoughts. A couple more weeks.

00:11:18[music]

Meet the ED

00:11:31Melissa Erbacher: We're very lucky to be joined this week by Vanessa Gibson, who is the event director at Sandgate parkrun and also one of the event organisers at the Sandgate Sunset Run. Ness, welcome to the podcast.

00:11:45Vanessa Gibson: Thank you. Thanks for having me. It's great to be here today and join you on the famous podcast.

00:11:53Melissa Erbacher: Now, Ness, I understand Sandgate parkrun are going to have their 200th run this coming weekend. Have you got anything special planned for that?

00:12:02Vanessa Gibson: Well, I know that has really crept up on us and someone mentioned it to me a couple of weeks ago and I was like, what, really? I kind of hadn't really been keeping on top of that. So yeah, to celebrate 200, it's a great milestone. We haven't really got anything planned specifically, but I know a few of our key loyal runners have some milestones this week. So there's a few 50s and 100s being celebrated. So, you know, I think it's just going to be As always, just a big celebration of fun and run and volunteers and community. So looking forward to it.

00:12:39Scott Trickett: You've done 200 runs, but you've recently changed the course. It's going to be a new experience for some people. Tell us about that.

00:12:47Vanessa Gibson: That's right. After probably about three and a half years of our standard course that we had run, we had to change our course to a temporary course recently when some pretty major path works were happening on our old course. So we switched it up and what was pretty special about this new course is that it goes on the new Shorncliffe Pier, which the pier was only opened at Easter of this year. after being closed for four years. So it was a big major kind of reconstruction project. And, you know, it's a real jewel in the crown of our area. It's a beautiful landmark and something all the locals are really proud of. So now that the pier was reopened, when we sent our course in the opposite direction, we're very lucky to have just a beautiful, big, long bayside location. So we just switched it around, went the other way, and our parkrun went instead onto the pier, down the path and onto the pier and back again. And we did that temporarily while the council was carrying out the park works. And then when that came to an end, we kind of just had to do a bit of a reassessment of what is the safer course and what's most suitable for the number of runners we have, which is we're a pretty big one. We're up around the 300, 350 mark. most weeks, so we're a fairly big event. And, you know, we had a really good talk and think about it and decided that that course was actually safer and better for our number of runners. And so we've made that our new permanent course. So it's a really special run, not that it wasn't before, but there's just something really unique about the pier and about the new course. And it's exciting because people who have been to our event before are kind of coming back and having a go at the new course and loving it just as much. So, yeah, it's something pretty special that I hope lots of people can come and try out.

00:14:49Melissa Erbacher: I'm pretty keen to come and run out on your pier, Ness. How long is it? How much of the course does it make up?

00:14:56Vanessa Gibson: Yeah, so the pier is 350 metres long. So it makes up 700 metres in total. So I guess not quite a fifth of the run. But yeah, it is a fairly long pier as far as piers go. And it's the turnaround point too. So, yeah, it's an out-and-back course. And so, yeah, it's just such a beautiful run to just, you know, run out there. You just feel like you're running on water some mornings and just, you know, with the sun peeking through the clouds. It's just picturesque and, yeah, just such a beautiful, beautiful run. And I do believe it is the only PR run in Australia, parkrun that is.

00:15:39Melissa Erbacher: Well, I haven't heard of any other ones and it sounds like absolute magic. So definitely have to head out there soon, I think. Now, Ness, you've been involved with parkrun for quite a while now. How did you first hear about it? Where did your parkrun story start?

00:15:53Vanessa Gibson: Yeah, I started running about... four and a half years ago and it was I'd had two kids and you know as a lot of other mums in that that scenario you kind of have your kids and like oh just wanting to shift a little bit of weight um post baby as well as have a have a bit of me time and so that's what running became to me so I I started out um a few years ago very short distances and you know pretty amateur runner and I had heard of parkrun but there were only a couple in Brisbane at that stage and it was the closest one to me was New Farm and that was a little bit far away and so I didn't really make it out but I'd heard that there were whispers of one starting up in Sandgate and I thought that would just be perfect and it was actually our local councillor who put the call out and said we want to have a parkrun here in Sandgate does anybody want to come and take part and And so I kind of emailed and said, yes, I'd love to see this happening in Sandgate so any way I can kind of. help out would be great. And of course, Tim Oberg got back to me and said, well, why don't you start it up? And I was a bit freaked out, really, and a bit, oh, I don't know if I can do this. And my kids were one and two at the time, so fairly little. But I thought, you know, I just want this for this area. And so my husband, Dean, and I decided to do it. And, you know, we started... pretty small like we'd get about 60 70 people a week and then it just grew and grew and word spread and you know like like a lot of other event directors i think we just could never have imagined what we would get from it and from that community and you just get back so much more than you ever put in and so it is it's just been the best thing really and yeah just haven't looked back so We've, yeah, parkrun has grown. We've just got this incredible community down here at Sandgate. It's a really unique kind of area. And, yeah, I just couldn't really imagine being without parkrun, like, Yeah, it's just such a staple in our week. And my kids are now five and six and come along every week. And it's really cool to see them kind of in their own right now, doing parkruns sometimes with us or just taking part. They've made their own friendships. People know them. Like, yeah, it's just been a really big part of their childhood, which just makes me really proud.

00:18:31Scott Trickett: Vanessa, you're also the organiser of... of one of Mel and I's favourite fun runs. We did it together last year, the Sunset Run. Now, is this something that also was born out of parkrun?

00:18:45Vanessa Gibson: Yeah, it was in a way. I guess Dean and I were, I don't know, we were kicking back one day and we thought, well, maybe organising a free 5K run every week isn't quite enough for us. But we were just down... locally down in Sandgate one day. And Dean was like, imagine having a fun run around this roundabout in the middle of Sandgate. Imagine shutting down the roads and running laps around the roundabout. We're like, yeah, that'd be pretty cool. And it just kind of really grew from there. And we thought, is this something that is actually viable? Would this work? Like, is this something that could actually happen? And we just kind of gathered a few people, all from parkrun. These are all people we met solely through Sandgate parkrun. We kind of assembled a bit of a team and went through it and we were like, do you think we could do this? And we said, let's give it a go. So that was in 2014. And so, yeah, the Sandgate Sunset Run was born. So it's, as you guys know, it's a two-hour team relay event around Sandgate Roundabout. And so it's pretty unique in that it's a 250 meter course and it's teams of between two and four competitors. and it's held at sunset at night time so you've got that kind of night atmosphere and vibe there's a bit of a community festival that goes with it and we've added along the way this is the third year now and we've added a couple of kids events as well as this year for the first time a social relay so just one that's a bit less competitive just a bit a shorter race just something that's that's fun for people of all ages to take part in so it's just an event that has grown and really become part of this community and it's just fun like it's just a great night out so you know we love it when people like you come from out of town especially and take part and see what's happening down here in little old Sandgate so yeah it's something that we spend a lot of time on and put a lot of love into and just really yeah just have a great time doing it.

00:21:02Melissa Erbacher: I've got to admit, Vanessa, that on paper, running around 250-meter laps for two hours... does not sound even remotely appealing but when we did it last year it is literally the funnest event that I did at all running wise last year and it was just chaos and but organized chaos and everyone was having such a good time and and I love that you can change it up different teams and have different strategies going in. Some of them do one lap each as fast as they possibly can. Others do two laps or four laps each and everything before they change the batons over. But yeah, it was just a crazy mess of fun. And the nighttime with the lights and the flashing batons and the atmosphere of the crowds was It was such a good time. I can't wait. I'm registered again to come back this year with a slightly different team. How does it work with the new social relay that you've brought in this year?

00:22:09Vanessa Gibson: Yeah, so the social relay is, so we've capped it at less teams than the Open. So, like, part of the feedback has been it gets a little bit congested on the track and, you know, we have some pretty serious runners take part. For example, the team who has won... for the past two years, one as in completed the most laps in the two-hour period, they have between them run almost a marathon in two hours. So when you think about the world record marathon holders, they run just over two hours. These guys are running about 40Ks in that two-hour period. So they go pretty hard, which is pretty cool. They can just obviously take it in turns and sprint the whole way. But we want it to be something that the whole family can take part of. Another really awesome thing about the run and so unique is that because it is a roundabout, no one's ever left behind. No one's ever coming last. It's not like a five or a ten or a half where you think I'm going to be the last one over the line. No one is ever last or behind or a long way away from anyone else. Everyone is right there in the precinct taking part, being cheered on by the amazing crowd that comes down. So I love that about it. And the social relay really will bring that even to the next level. It is, yeah, only 60 teams it's capped at, so only 60 people on the roundabout at any given time. and it's for ages 12 and up because we also had some feedback that some parents and teenage kids would have really loved to run in a team together and they didn't really have that opportunity with the open relay being 16 plus. So we've got a, it's for 12 and up, so it means that, yeah, family groups, you know, school students can take part together and, yeah, it's just something that's, Just a lot of fun, just a bit less competitive and we're really encouraging the dress up and creative team names. So, yeah, people are getting really into it and we love to see that.

00:24:25Scott Trickett: Now, let's go back a couple of years when the first parkrun Australia podcast was kicking around with Robbo and Russ. You also had a little bit to do with that as well. You hosted a couple of episodes. Did you enjoy that experience?

00:24:39Vanessa Gibson: Yes, yeah, I did do a little bit of co-hosting back in the day with Robbo and Russ, which, yeah, I loved doing and was a lot of fun. I do have a professional background in radio, so it was kind of a natural thing progression really to be able to talk um on that kind of forum and talk about running you know as you guys know it's pretty awesome so um yeah no it's something that that was just yeah really fun to do and no i love i love talking and i love talking about running so win-win thanks for coming on the podcast it's great to catch up about sandgate always good things coming out of that event so thanks for sharing them with the listeners Thank you, guys. I appreciate you having me on and showcasing our beautiful run here in Sandgate and look forward to seeing both of you soon.

00:25:24[music]

00:25:39Scott Trickett: It's time now to chat to a man who was involved with parkrun before it was even called parkrun. Welcome to the podcast, Danny Norman.

00:25:47Danny Norman: Hi there. Hi there, Mel. Hi there, Scott. How are you doing?

00:25:51Scott Trickett: We're great, but this is true. You started when it was, it was just called Time Trials, is that correct?

00:25:57Danny Norman: Yeah, there was only one. So August 2005, sorry, yeah, 2005. So yeah, that's just over 11 years ago. I celebrated my parkrun 11th birthday, as I like to call it, just last month. So Bushy Park, only one that existed. BPTT, the whole concept of Time Trial was plural. wasn't even bandied around at that point it was just simply the one event with no ambitions beyond that so yeah I've been around for a while I guess and you've seen it change a lot yes yeah absolutely massively and and there's many beauties to that in terms of watching it having grown from I must remember these figures. I think there's about 35 people in the run that I did at Bushy Park, so obviously the 125,000, 150,000 I think it is now, isn't it, globally each week. And to do that and to kind of envision that it would do that. I mean, some people say, oh, they never sort of saw it would do that. I had faith that it did. I remember having conversations with Paul Sinton-Hewitt in the early days saying the propensity, the possibilities of the expansion just by looking at Google Maps in the early days as to how it could grow, how it could be. For some people, it was pie in the sky, pipe dreams, but I thought it would be a reality. So to have genuinely watched it grow from what it was to what it is now, has been fantastic and to fulfil that vision, as it were. And the way it's done that with the hard work of so many people, the dedication, yeah, it's been awesome to watch.

00:27:47Melissa Erbacher: Danny, you've been involved in parkrun through several ways, one of which was the parkrun... show podcast which went for 186 episodes and you started that in 2011 you talk about the growth of parkrun there and at the heading of every show you would give the stats every week and i went back and i listened to the stats on your first week and there were 88 events 10 790 runners and 2182 new registrants to the parkrun family that week But then you go forward to the very last episode and it was just insane. Globally, 549 events with 12 cancellations that week, 89,929 runners and 315 events just in the UK. It's massive. What has it been like for you to experience watching that growth over the time?

00:28:53Danny Norman: Yeah, it's interesting you mentioned statistics because even from that time, because the podcast finished less than 18 months ago. And in that time, the numbers that you stated just then, they've almost pretty much doubled. A lot of that has come globally. And so even then, because at the time, it became, I guess, I became infamous before. When parkrun always attained the figures and numbers, it would be like, oh, benchmarks. 50,000 celebration 60,000 new records and it became it wasn't a monotony it was a case of it was always fulfilling again what I thought it might become and so when you attain when it attained 100,000 mark we kind of wanted to make it it do before we finish the podcast and and of course like I say it's 150,000 now yeah it's to watch it grow like that it is amazing I mean I as to people are saying, where will it plateau? I mean, it's nearly a thousand events, but I think it's got a long, long way to go. And, um, but that was, that's what I enjoyed with the podcast. It was always saying those numbers at the beginning and having that track record and, and kind of commentating on it through that period of time and, uh, and having the numbers go up each time it was, it was never going down. It was never going to go down. Um, and apart from during bad weather periods, if that, if that makes sense, but it always pretty much, uh, go up in waves and it was the way that the kind of demographic changed I mean that's the biggest thing for me is from when I started for what the time trial was from primarily targeted club runners to the very inclusive and the very family friendly the like I said the inclusivity the very everyone oriented side of things it's been amazing It's been absolutely amazing and it's still growing in the right way.

00:30:57Scott Trickett: Your involvement in the podcast, was that through being a fan of parkrun or were you brought on staff at that point?

00:31:07Danny Norman: Good question. So the reason why I was brought on, so the way I kind of describe it was I guess ever since my very first parkrun, so when I finished the parkrun, I got my little Nokia phone out and I called my mum and I said, this is an amazing idea. I love it. It's fantastic. It's brilliant. It was my first official 5K with a result, if that makes sense. I had never raced a 5K. It wasn't a race at the time and it still wasn't a race, but meaning I hadn't done the 5K distance and officially got a result from it. And I really enjoyed it. But aside from that, it was the fact that it felt so – something special about it. It really dawned on me. Anyway. But because of that, I became very interested in how it worked. So I basically got to know the systems and how it worked. I was interested about how the results played out. But then I asked and got to know about PSH. And so I was always very much nosy and wanting to know certain things with parkrun. And the reason how it then expanded out to do the podcast, to cut a very long story short, that I was involved on the Bushy parkrun committee. that I would do various roles. But one of the chief roles that I would do, I'd do the bushy run report. And I would do the bushy run reports. And I remember at the time, the run reports that used to be produced were, I guess you guys, but you still see that in the events, that the results that come out, they are the copy and paste, one, two, three, one, two, three, age grading, one, two, three. These are the stats and they were plunked out there. And they were very boring and nobody looked at them. And PSH tasked me with writing the run reports, and I'm not really holding back. And so I use the opportunity to try and put a creative spin in it, but also make it that people read it who weren't at the event, who weren't really part-time, and just make it an enjoyable read. And when I was doing this, it panned out that the person who was reading these run reports up in Leeds was your interview guest, which would be a couple of weeks ago, was Tom Williams. the COO now of parkrun. And he would read the run reports and he would enjoy them. So as it panned out, Tom had an idea to do a parkrun podcast. I was always in his mind to do that. In terms of employment side of things, I wasn't employed at the time when I first started. The podcast did start in, I think, a couple of weeks after I left one of my previous jobs. And then I became employed by parkrun a little while later. But it was never really an employment factor. I was never really solely employed to do the podcast.

00:33:45Scott Trickett: And so you did it for a number of years. You started out with Tom and Martin. And then you added a few co-hosts throughout the time.

00:33:53Danny Norman: Yeah.

00:33:54Scott Trickett: Did you have fun?

00:33:55Danny Norman: I did have fun. And so the reason why Martin and Tom were involved in the early days was it was their second venture. So, Marathon Talk. they'd done and they'd established for a little while and they wanted to do the parkrun podcast but they wanted to make sure it was put out in the waters appropriately and because they had a bit more experience and I was very very nervous at the time they guided me out into those podcast waters and then bit by bit Martin sort of dropped off a little bit and then Tom dropped off a little bit and it was quite hard to do three people at the same time we felt but also with parkrun being what it is, and that's very inclusive, having three guys at the time who were primarily 16, 17, 18, 19 minute 5Kers, it didn't really encompass the broad range of parkrunners. And I was very aware of that, and all male. And so we had Nicola Forwood, who would engage with our podcast on social media in very creative ways. She impressed me a lot. It I just felt it was right to bring a lady in and, sorry, a female in, I should say, because some people get offended by ladies, sorry. Bring a female on board. Sorry.

00:35:15Melissa Erbacher: Who gets offended by lady? What's offensive about lady?

00:35:19Danny Norman: There isn't, but this is another thing which got brought up. I think it was Tom Williams. Again, I keep mentioning Tom Williams. I wasn't going to, but Tom, yeah, he mentioned the word lady. I think it was in a newsletter once and people flipped out about it in a parkrun newsletter. I don't know, derogatory, I think it's being chivalrous myself, but anyway. So, yeah, and so I brought Nicola in, and also Nicola wasn't very fast, admittedly. She was very much a back of the packer, and so we had this broader spectrum. We had this bookend of the range of abilities, and she brought a lot to it. And it really gave a, women would have said at the time, they said that having Nicola on board gave them something more to relate to. So Martin, Tom originally, and then Nicola. And then we expanded out to have a few more people. We had people who were engaged with the show a lot. We had people who were ambassadors. We had Dennis Brandrick who offered his services when I was going to take my first break. He did the editing for us. And again, started to branch out and just give a bit more of reflections. of parkrunners as a whole by having these varieties of people from around the UK as well.

00:36:32Scott Trickett: And my next question is, do you miss it? It's been going for 18 months. I knew you'd ask me that question. Yeah.

00:36:39Danny Norman: Yeah, I knew you'd ask me that question. And I had a pre-prepared answer in my head. Do I miss it? Yes and no. It was a double-edged sword because I did enjoy it. It gave me creative crunch. It gave me extra purpose in going to the parkruns that I would go and speak and meet with the event teams and I would then try and reflect their parkrun as best I could when I would do their reviews of their locations and so yeah I really enjoyed that and now when I go to parkruns I very much tour now I carried on the touring I'm a lot more anonymous and I enjoy that but going there with a sense of purpose and having people excited for you to be there for that particular podcast purpose that they were going to have their parkrun in lights, as it were, that I would give that to them. And I enjoyed that. But at the same point, it became very all-consuming, just like with the employment side of things. It became very all-consuming. And I am very much a parkrunner at heart. And to be able to go back to being a parkrunner as opposed to being there under a kind of official capacity, I don't miss that. And also, with the growth of parkrun, the pressure to keep the podcast short and also to try and encompass and satisfy everybody's desire for the podcast to feature everything, it became impossible. I mean, as we've mentioned, 150,000 runners, nearly 100,000 in the UK, people wanted you to talk about their event. It's impossible. And every great thing that would happen, you'd be notified, and the weekends would be full of communication coming at you. And I'm sure you guys have this. It's very hard to spin the plates and keep everybody happy about featuring everything that people think that they feel that you should do. And so I don't miss that pressure. So, yeah, it's a give and take thing. I miss the fun side. I don't miss the pressure side of things.

00:38:39Scott Trickett: Being free of the podcast, Denny, you're obviously free to be a regular parkrunner now.

00:38:43Danny Norman: Yeah.

00:38:44Scott Trickett: Is home still Bushy Park?

00:38:46Danny Norman: You're asking me questions I knew you'd ask and they're great questions. I knew you'd ask these things. I should have told you beforehand before we started recording is to, you're going to ask me these questions, aren't you? Home officially is still Bushy parkrun. It is down on the system as Bushy parkrun. But I had a quick check. So I expect a lot of people would do this. They would go through their stats and just double check these things. And I had a look and I don't think I've been back to Bushy. I've been to Busty Park, of course, but not the parkrun since February this year, which is quite a long time, considering that I'd run there 222 times or probably just over 200 before I started really going on the touring thing. To suddenly go, be somewhere very regularly one week to suddenly going, well, barely going there two, three, four times a year. So having that familiarity gone, lost from your weekly Saturday fix, it's strange. It's different. When I do go back on, I still see the regular faces. The familiarity levels are still fun. I still do a run on Wednesday night with regular parkrunners from Bushy Park at the Arathusa Mile. And so I get to see those people. So is Bushy parkrun still my home? It will always be my home. I will always feel it will be my home. It's where I was born into parkrun. And at the same point, I barely do it enough. I do it at a service by not going there regularly. But I really like my touring at the moment. So, yeah, yes, it is. And no, it isn't in other ways. And I do miss the familiarity.

00:40:30Scott Trickett: No, you've become a true adventurer. That's exactly what Mel and I are going through. We love our home event, but it's fun to adventure. Now, I'm going to ask you a question that I told you I was going to ask you. After all these years, give us your top three parkruns that you've ran.

00:40:47Danny Norman: And I can either sit on the fence or either I can give my opinion. And I learned very early on to be very diplomatic and fence-sitting. But I genuinely believe – okay, so – I will try and answer this as fairly as I can. I can't just go bang, bang, bang. These are my top three. The very cliche, the very saccharine sweet, all parkruns that are equal and fantastic and amazing is fundamentally true. Because you can go to certain parkruns and you can turn up in certain weeks and it'll be different to how it will be 51 other weeks of the year. That's why I stopped going to inaugurals because they became a big circus for me. And I didn't feel like I got a true flavor of the event. So in light of all that, my three favorite, I've got my little post-it note attached to my laptop in front of me right now. This is really hard because at the same point, I know that people are going to listen to this and go, you didn't mention our parkrun. And of course, I don't want to upset those guys either. Favorite parkruns. Cliche. It has to be bushy. I mean, it's the home. It's the cradle of parkruns. Like I said, I can always go back there. There were times when I was very stressed out by working for parkrun. I went through a little bit of a bad patch and I went to Bushy and I could go there and I could go and just slip in anonymously and see friendly faces. And I'll always have that. I can always go there and I know that it is home, per se, for me, for parkrun. I mean, Bushy has to be... In the top three. Ellenbrook Fields parkrun. I have to mention because that's my hometown in Hatfield in Hertfordshire, which is just north of London. I went there for the inaugural. I broke my inaugural rule. Having a parkrun there, I went and ran there once. And like many people say, when they go and do a parkrun in the place or town or park that they grew up in, it means a lot to them. So that would be in my top three. And my parents. My parents who are extraordinarily devoted to me and my parkrun passion and they followed it every single step of the way. They are volunteering pretty much every week there now and that means a lot to me because of that because I think they'll get a lot out of it. My dad had a stroke a few weeks ago and they put a message out there publicly and they really cared for him and they look after my parents because I don't get to see them very often. I don't live massively near them and I know that they have a lovely community on their doorstep, that will take great care of them. And they have done. And they do do on Saturday mornings. So that has to be in my top three. And my mum loves the volunteers. She absolutely adores the volunteering. And then can I have, after this one, can I have a fourth one? Am I allowed to break the three parkrun rule?

00:43:39Melissa Erbacher: Go for it.

00:43:40Danny Norman: Thank you very much. Okay, so I have to mention Surbiton Junior parkrun because I'm the event director of that. I've been the event director for that for about 13 months now. That brings and gives a lot to me now post-employment with parkrun. You guys don't have Junior parkrun yet, do you, in Australia?

00:43:58Melissa Erbacher: Not yet.

00:43:59Danny Norman: Not yet. Not yet. And I can't wait if and when you do get it because I know you guys will just take to it and you'll adore it just as much as we do over here. And I really enjoy it. I really do enjoy it. And being part of it, it's the junior side of things. It's certainly a very different aspect to the 5Ks. So Surbiton Juniors has to be in my three. And my fourth one has to be just a couple of weeks ago, really. I went to do Mareccia parkrun in Rimini in Italy. And I haven't really been around to other countries as much as other people. So I've toured a lot in the UK. But I haven't done Australia. I haven't done New Zealand. I haven't done Denmark, Poland, America, all that. But I have done a couple of Italy runs and a French one and Ireland, which is officially overseas. And that was great. Why that was special to me was because it was beautiful. It was sunny, as you'd expect in the Mediterranean this time of the year, this side of the hemisphere. But it was amazing to go to somewhere which is miles away from parkrun, but feel the parkrun ideology had been so well transplanted into that location. And it was just parkrun with an Italian flavor. And the run director just... got parkrun if you can get parkrun um and it just felt brilliant that the the the whole idea is so simple that it translates so brilliantly elsewhere I had also done Uditore parkrun in Palermo in Sicily and the same thing happened there but marecci very recently is in um is in recent memory and that was very special i really really enjoyed it there's something about it that just made me so delighted about taking part

00:45:42Melissa Erbacher: Let's just very quickly for our listeners, put your top four into perspective, Danny. How many different parkruns have you done?

00:45:51Danny Norman: Of my 496 parkruns, I have done 179 different. So that includes Bushy. So yeah, 179 different parkruns.

00:46:01Melissa Erbacher: Okay. So those top four, that's high praise when you've been to that many.

00:46:07Danny Norman: Yeah. Yes, I guess so. I like to think of the other 175 to be only a percent just beneath it. They're all very much equal. I can remember every one. Somebody asked me, do you remember every one? If I was to give a list, I couldn't rattle off 179 different name locations. But if somebody said, what about this parkrun? I could tell you a lot about it. I could tell you a lot about the volunteer team. If I have spent time speaking, meeting them, I can remember the course. I can remember all the small elements about it. So all of them are very memorable. But like you say, those four ones in particular, I guess, yeah, they kind of do stand above the rest purely from a, I think they're very much a personal thing to me, rather than being, oh, the most beautiful or the most scenic or any other things, or the toughest or fastest or slowest. Because you do get fantastically scenic ones. I mean, Fountains Abbey, I argue once that Fountains Abbey was not one of the most,

00:47:06Melissa Erbacher: beautiful ones and it was and in the uk but um but at the same point there are there are 800 other parkruns that i haven't done so of course i don't like to rank other parkruns better than the others because i haven't experienced them yet that's it's a fairly common theme that when we ask people their top three they give us sentimental reasons it's it's the go-to answer and yeah we would agree with you that yeah it's not about ranking one better than another it's it's about that experience and that there's another level it's an x factor almost yes absolutely so danny you mentioned that you're pushing the magic 500 have you got plans yeah have you got plans for where you're going to run that are you just going to try and quietly slip it in without anyone noticing no i don't do things quietly when it comes to these milestones so yeah

00:48:01Danny Norman: this is when my ego comes out. I don't celebrate birthdays. I'm not a big fan of Christmas. But when I feel like I've achieved something, then yeah, I try and do something a bit more about it. It's funny because I would have been on 500 by now had I been a bit more passionate about parkrun. I would have been well over 500 by now had I been a bit more passionate about the time trials in the early days. If you ever go back and look at my athlete ID number 482 in the early days, I think I only did about 15... Maybe in the first year or so. And I really started to ramp it up a little bit after that. I was volunteering quite a bit. I was training a bit more seriously in my running at the time. I've also had one cancellation. I've DNF'd at three. I didn't register my result once. So when you come to these numbers and figures, when you get to them, it doesn't really show the true reflection of your history with parkrun. But obviously, officially, when it comes up into the accounts on the website, it means a lot. So my 500th, I do plan. And I've been thinking about this for a long, long time. And I plan to go to Bradford parkrun. That's up north near Leeds in the UK. The event director there is someone called Linda Bussey. Bussey, Bussey, Bussey, Bussey. That's what I used to call her on the podcast. And she is a big cat fanatic like myself. And the reason why I'm going to Bradford is she's been asking me for a long, long time. She used to listen to the podcast all the time. She's been asking me and asking me and asking me. And I've been promising and promising and promising. And I wanted to go up there. And I also wanted to make it a little bit more special in terms of the 500, as crazy as it may seem, is going to become a lot more regular in the southwest London region. We already have had four people in front of me. The fifth one is coming in a couple of weeks at Bushy. And so if I go to Bushy and do my one there, it's not quite as stand out. And I just want to make it a bit of a special occasion for myself. And also I owe a lot to Linda in terms of she also gave, she basically donated money to help me get my cat, Betty Boo, who was mentioned in the podcast a little while ago, who sadly died a few months ago from a very quick disease, unfortunately. But she gave money to help bring her over to live with me for a while. So, yeah, I owe it to her in many, many ways. Again, sentimentality is the reason why I'm going to Bradford.

00:50:34Scott Trickett: Sounds exciting. Congratulations, Danny. It's a fantastic effort. It's a great story too. And there's no doubt you were the inspiration for the parkrun Adventurers podcast. I hope you'll see some similarities between how you did things and how we've done things. So thanks for coming on.

00:50:53Danny Norman: Okay. Wow. Well, I didn't know that, to be honest with you. That's very flattering. Thank you very much. Very humbling. And I'm glad to have been some...

00:51:00[music]

Strava art competition

00:51:12Scott Trickett: As you heard earlier in the news, we've extended our Strava art contest. So you've got a few more days to get that in. We're going to announce the winner on next week's episode, 100% guaranteed.

00:51:26Melissa Erbacher: It's pretty exciting. We've had some amazing artwork submitted. I think we are going to have to do a photo book in the future, Scotty. Did I mention this last week? We should do like a coffee table book of Strava art, parkrun adventures Strava art or something.

00:51:42Scott Trickett: Yeah, put that in the ideas vault.

00:51:45Melissa Erbacher: Maybe that could be our merch. Volt makes it sound like it's never going to come out.

00:51:54Scott Trickett: Maybe it won't. Just like the leg warmers.

00:51:57Melissa Erbacher: Oh, everybody wants the leg warmers. They would have been very popular at the 80s. True. 80s event on the weekend.

Social Adventurers

00:52:05Scott Trickett: Now let's quickly wrap up social adventuring over the weekend. On Instagram, we had posts from Miss Belt and Macalicious. They were having a go at our Strava Art Challenge. David D'Alessio was running a marathon. Well done, Dave. Sandy's, what is this?

00:52:23Melissa Erbacher: It's Sandy Shell's life. It's like a Sandy Shell. Sandy Shell's life.

00:52:30Scott Trickett: Sandy's Shell life. This is a hard one. Sandy, change your name.

00:52:36Melissa Erbacher: Her name is Michelle.

00:52:38Scott Trickett: Michelle, change your name. Sandy's Shell's Life, Running Guy Ryan, Mac Girl 19, Dirty Cheaters, Simon P King, Will B 1981, and Evans High. All posted and tagged us from their Saturday parkruns. And good old Nod Lightyear was doing some retail therapy and thought of us.

00:53:00Melissa Erbacher: Speaking of not a light year, over to Facebook, Rowan Durant said, perfect parkrun morning, spectators and all, noisy as. So I think he had a whole bunch of birds going on out there. I don't think there were magpies though.

00:53:15Scott Trickett: Simon Mackley, it was his 97th parkrun. On the weekend, the next time he runs at Mossman will be his 100th on the 22nd of October. He can count. He's volunteering and parkrun adventuring in between.

00:53:31Melissa Erbacher: And Sally Heppleston had 18 months between PBs and she's thrilled beyond measure, so she must have got one on the weekend. So much hard work finally paying off, running less but running faster. This has been a goal for a long time and I'm pumped to have smashed it today.

Perlustration (listener survey)

00:53:47Scott Trickett: I'll give you a little preview into our perlustration results. We asked a question, how long between PBs? People are struggling to get PBs.

00:53:58Melissa Erbacher: Oh, really? There's lots of long time frames?

00:54:01Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:54:02Melissa Erbacher: What do you think that says about our listeners?

00:54:05Scott Trickett: They're not trying hard enough.

00:54:08Melissa Erbacher: No. I mean, they're probably more likely they've been at parkrun for a long time. We've got the hardcore tuning in.

00:54:17Scott Trickett: Oh, they're not trying hard enough.

00:54:20Melissa Erbacher: Or that.

00:54:22Scott Trickett: Alan Connolly, after an eight-hour drive to Sydney to pick up his wife Kerry and her friend Lisa from a cruise, his reward was some parkrun adventures to Sandon Point parkrun.

00:54:33Melissa Erbacher: And it looked like they had a magic weekend down there. No flooding for Sandon Point. And Alison Webster added a few photos to Facebook of her Strava art. She was one of the many out there trying to do some last-minute photos. artwork and she said this morning's run hashtag all for a costume item i do love that i'm motivating people to get out there with my random costume things not only just a costume she's obviously not as excited about the certificate the dvd or the polo shirt well there's gonna be two dvds I don't think she actually realised that she could get all four of those items just by winning.

00:55:17Scott Trickett: She thought it was multiple choice. Pick one.

00:55:20Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, maybe.

00:55:21Scott Trickett: No, all four.

00:55:23Melissa Erbacher: Unless, of course, you go for mystery option number P. Letter P, I should say.

00:55:31Scott Trickett: Will be personally crushed if you do, but it could be an awesome prize.

00:55:35Melissa Erbacher: It could be. It's possible.

00:55:36Scott Trickett: Also alluded to in the news earlier, we had a couple of launches cancelled last weekend. So they get to do it all again this week.

00:55:46Melissa Erbacher: Or try to do it again. Try. They didn't do it the first time.

00:55:49Scott Trickett: No. Get to be all excited about launching again. So the Yu Yangs and Maury are launching this weekend.

Where is the cake this weekend?

00:55:59Melissa Erbacher: And are there places we can go for cake this weekend, Scotty?

00:56:02Scott Trickett: There are. Would you like to know where?

00:56:07Melissa Erbacher: Yes, please.

00:56:09Scott Trickett: Ashgrove in Queensland. Anywhere near you?

00:56:12Melissa Erbacher: That's northern suburb of Brisbane, so it'd probably take me about 50 minutes to get to Ashgrove.

00:56:18Scott Trickett: They're having their first. Barrel in New South Wales are having their second. Merimbula, also in New South Wales, their third. Tamworth. Guess what?

00:56:30Melissa Erbacher: New South Wales.

00:56:31Scott Trickett: Also in New South Wales, they're second. And Toowoomba, which is in Queensland.

00:56:37Melissa Erbacher: I have been there third.

00:56:38Scott Trickett: For those playing along.

00:56:39Melissa Erbacher: Party on in New South Wales and Queensland this weekend. Victorians miss out on cake.

00:56:45Scott Trickett: So do South Australians, West Australians, Tasmanians, Northern Territory, Northern Territorians.

00:56:52Melissa Erbacher: And Australian Capital Territorians also. Now, Scotty, last week we had the first ever educational podcast word of the week. Have you got a new one for us?

Word of the week

00:57:03Scott Trickett: I have. I never like to disappoint. So the word of this week is how I'm feeling a bit at the moment.

00:57:10Melissa Erbacher: Which is?

00:57:11Scott Trickett: I'm feeling a bit indolent.

00:57:14Melissa Erbacher: Oh, I'm sorry.

00:57:16Scott Trickett: Yes. My body is too. I'm addicted to the life of pleasure.

00:57:24Melissa Erbacher: Addicted to a life of pleasure, huh?

00:57:26Scott Trickett: Feeling a bit lazy. Am I running? I should have got out a bit more during the week, but just didn't. So I was indolent.

00:57:36Melissa Erbacher: Well, thank you for that educational moment. I think this means we can file our podcast under an educational podcast nowadays.

00:57:47Scott Trickett: So I hope the rest of my week is energetic and industrious. And you too, Mel.

00:57:58Melissa Erbacher: I'm glad you hope the rest of my week is energetic and industrious, Scotty. Thank you. That's very nice of you.

00:58:06Scott Trickett: Good. It's all going to lead up to a massive episode 38 next week.