Episode 42 - Tim Oberg

Episode details · 199 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:11Scott Trickett: Another edition of the parkrun Adventurers podcast. Our 42nd edition, which is a popular number in running circles. 42k makes up a marathon. So this marks our marathon edition, sort of. Hi Mel.

00:00:28Melissa Erbacher: Hey Scotty, how are you doing this week?

00:00:31Scott Trickett: Always good, always fantastic.

00:00:34Melissa Erbacher: Fantastic! We have talked in previous episodes about my first and at this stage only ever marathon, Scotty, but I don't think we've heard about yours. Do you remember? Tell us, what happened at your first marathon?

00:00:49Scott Trickett: It was a long time ago. I've done six of them, I think.

00:00:54Melissa Erbacher: Show off.

00:00:55Scott Trickett: And my first one... Well, actually, six disasters.

00:00:58Melissa Erbacher: They've all been disasters.

00:01:00Scott Trickett: Never been happy with any of them.

00:01:02Melissa Erbacher: Oh, that just sounds like the perfectionist coming out of you. I'm sure they weren't all disasters.

00:01:07Scott Trickett: No, they pretty much were. But the first one in particular, so this was about over 10 years ago. I was a lot faster. I was younger and a lot faster. And I had never run a marathon before. before going into it. My longest run, I don't think I even got to 30 kilometers. I just did a lot of half marathons and I think I did them in about 80 minutes, something like that. So I worked out, yeah, so I worked out that I was going to do my first marathon in about three hours, max, max about three and a half hours. So I told all my family and friends, yeah, if you want to come down, you know, come down to the finish, you know, aim to be there around three, three and a half hours.

00:01:49Melissa Erbacher: Which event was this at?

00:01:50Scott Trickett: This was at Melbourne. So this was Melbourne Marathon back in the days where you ran from Frankston up into Melbourne. And my first marathon, I copped a really hot day. I think it was like 26 degrees.

00:02:02Melissa Erbacher: Sorry, you said 26 degrees is hot. Please continue.

00:02:10Scott Trickett: Well, it's hot when you're running a marathon.

00:02:12Melissa Erbacher: It is.

00:02:13Scott Trickett: And you haven't done enough prep, particularly the long run prep. So I got to about, I think it must have been about 30k, 32k into Brighton, just cramped up, couldn't go anywhere. And I'm sure there are plenty of our listeners who have cramped up before. You just can't do anything with a cramp. You've got all these people cheering you along and saying, come on, come on, run with me for a little bit. But your actual muscle just turns to rock hard. And as much as you really want to run with them, you can't. So my first marathon I walked for the last 10 kilometers, finished in just over four hours. Family and friends went home.

00:02:52Melissa Erbacher: They went home.

00:02:52Scott Trickett: Half an hour ago. Yeah, they went home because they thought, oh, we must have missed him.

00:02:57Melissa Erbacher: So confident were they in your ability to super speed fast that in under three and a half hours. That is a very fast time though, under three and a half hours.

00:03:08Scott Trickett: Yeah, which I've never got anywhere near.

00:03:10Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:03:14Melissa Erbacher: Do you hope to get near that one day?

00:03:16Scott Trickett: I do. So the next one I'm going to do will be under three and a half hours. I'm going to go about it the right way and I'm actually going to put in a bit of training.

00:03:24Melissa Erbacher: Wow. I look forward to hearing how that one develops.

00:03:28Scott Trickett: Yeah. Enough about me. How about we have some news? 13,985 lucky people became instantly more likeable and attractive over the weekend, and a further 17,773 people prepared to change their lives. In other news, there were 13,985 volunteers at parkrun over the weekend, and an incredible 17,773 signed up to the global running phenomenon.

parkrun news bulletin

00:04:07Melissa Erbacher: Speculation has arisen surrounding a possible world first in Australia last weekend as the top three male and female recipients of the points prize competition at a Queensland parkrun were taken out by members of the Derek Zoolander Centre for Kids Who Can't Run Good running club. It is not known whether a single running club has ever taken a clean sweep of the top spots at an event before. If we were any kind of real journalists, we may have attempted to find out for you. In a further twist, Pat O'Connor, the official recipient of the first place male award, showed a heartwarming display of parkrunnership. Pat presented his medal to fellow parkrunner, 72-year-old Graham Rose, who he felt more deserving of the prize.

00:04:51Scott Trickett: The Perth 2016 World Masters Athletics Championships has kicked off in Western Australia this week, with parkrunners among the proud athletes taking part. In addition to the traditional track events, the parkrun distance at both walk and running paces will take place side by side with such events as the hammer throw, shot put, discus and javelin. Good luck to all parkrunners and walkers competing. Here's hoping none of those flying devices stray onto the track during your events.

00:05:21Melissa Erbacher: parkrun Global have issued a statement advising a delay in the production and release of the next batch of Milestone t-shirts. This from Russ Jeffries, Head of Marketing.

00:05:31Unidentified speaker: Regrettably, we have experienced a delay with the latest batch of Milestone T-shirts. Due to unforeseen circumstances in the manufacture of the latest batch of free Milestone T-shirts, significant snagging of the fabric as it was cut by the factory, and with Tribe Sports wanting to maintain the high standards of quality, the fabric was rejected and needed to be reordered. This has resulted in a delay with new Milestone T-shirts expected to be available on the 1st of December.

00:05:59Scott Trickett: The Peel Club welcomed two new members on the weekend as Jackie and Tony O'Connell adventured to Darwin parkrun in the Northern Territory to achieve the highly prized goal. Membership of the Peel Club requires completion of at least one event in every state and territory in Australia. No mean feat given the vast expanse of the country. Jackie and TOC are only the 12th and 13th members to achieve this exclusive club status. And because the 33 degree temperature and 99% stew humidity wasn't quite challenging enough, Toc ran the event dressed as the red Teletubby.

00:06:37Melissa Erbacher: So Jackie and Toc were at Darwin who were celebrating an anniversary on the weekend. You and I both got to celebrate some anniversaries on parkrun Day. Where were you at this weekend, Scotty?

00:06:49Scott Trickett: I was home at Westerfolds, celebrating our third.

00:06:53Melissa Erbacher: Three years already.

00:06:56Scott Trickett: Yeah, it went really quick. Really, really quick. I haven't been there for a lot of the last year in particular. But wow, three years went really quick. I imagine four years for you just went just as quick.

00:07:10Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, it went super fast. I'm trying to count it up and figure out, I mean... Do you sometimes stop and think what did you used to do before parkrun? Like on Saturdays, what did you even do? Did you sleep in? Were you an early riser and somebody who still got up and got out anyway? Because that wasn't me. I would stay up late on a Friday night watching movies and eating junk food and then sleep in until midday if I could possibly manage it without having to go to work.

00:07:43Scott Trickett: Yeah, I've probably been the opposite. I've never been a big sleeper-innerer. Once I'm awake, I'm awake, whether that's at 4 o'clock in the morning or 7 o'clock. I wasn't running 5K every Saturday morning, that's for sure. So yeah, I've got no idea what I'd do without it now. You also celebrated your anniversary, but you also joined a club of your own.

00:08:08Melissa Erbacher: Well, it's not my club.

00:08:09Scott Trickett: A club that we're all in.

00:08:12Melissa Erbacher: It's a club that many people hope to get to at some stage in their parkrun lives. I joined the 100 Club on Saturday. Finally earned my black shirt. Only took me four years. That was pretty awesome. certainly dragged it out didn't you i didn't drag it out it was i got there as fast as i could and yeah it's it's it has been a long time coming but it's certainly you know i look at the other runners who started at kawana parkrun at the same time and and they're up you know most of them pushing 200 kind of runs and um Yeah, I think it's, I haven't even done the maths on how long it's going to take me to get my green shirt. I'm a bit too scared to think that it's going to be a decade, which is probably likely considering the average of four years is 25 runs per year, which means, yeah, 10 years to get to 250. Hey, but that's only six more years away. It's not too long to wait.

00:09:20Scott Trickett: Your black shirt's going to be well worn by then. I want to know, how does the black shirt go down in sunny Queensland?

00:09:29Melissa Erbacher: Well, it gets worn quite a lot. To be honest, in summertime, like the females, you don't see a lot of the black shirts, like any of the milestone shirts, you don't see a lot of them on because most of the women up here run in singlets and so they haven't previously been milestone shirts in singlets and the only parkrun shirt you can get are the wallaby gold slash apricot ones so and and we are seeing more of those now but generally the gentlemen who do run in t-shirts they end up having those t-shirts in in one hand by the time they come through the finish line i don't know at what point they get too hot while they're out on the course and manage to take their shirt off while they're running But generally speaking, yeah, there's a large proportion who have got a shirt in their hand by the time they finish. I'm not sure if that's standard across all Queensland events, but I've certainly noticed that on the Sunshine Coast. You wouldn't like it.

00:10:35Scott Trickett: Tops off, no. It's not a Melbourne thing. Look, Melbourne fits really nicely with a 100 shirt, so that's good. I'll be wearing mine for a few years. But how was your celebration? Was it a good party? Did the cakes turn out okay? Did they all get eaten?

00:10:53Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, it was lovely. Very low-key, this is the first anniversary that I haven't also been at least co-run directing. one of one of the run directors Dave he did a fantastic job and just took the reins and took care of everything so I actually ran without volunteering on the same day and all the previous ones even if no that's pretty much it I've always I've always volunteered so I got to just sit back and enjoy a nice chilled morning I ran with my nephew Rowan who had a stack about 3k in bless him he tumbled down and was straight back up in two seconds telling me he was okay and then you know the blood started pouring from the grazes and things like that and then i think he sort of thought for a second oh wait am i okay but then he recouped and we carried on and um he was such a trooper he made me run a lot faster than i wanted to Because he's much faster and obviously fitter on those young legs of his.

00:12:07Scott Trickett: With blood streaming down his face?

00:12:09Melissa Erbacher: No, no, he didn't. He managed to save the face. Okay. So, he took out the elbow and the hand and the knee and the hip. He did a good job, actually. But he managed to save the face. So, in true Zoolander style. And he still managed to throw a couple of excellent Zs for the photographer. Yeah. um after this had occurred so he was in good spirits and um he he was a little bit frustrated at how slow I was going and that I kept telling him to slow down because he had to stay with me but um no he was great company I was very lucky to have him there and my brother and my niece as well who were coming a little bit behind us because my niece has been sick recently so good morning how about you good cake at Westerfolds did you eat any of the cake or did you partake of some of the other fare

00:13:01Scott Trickett: I partaked in some of the other fare.

00:13:04Melissa Erbacher: You partook. Partook.

00:13:07Scott Trickett: Thanks for correcting me.

00:13:09Melissa Erbacher: You're welcome.

00:13:11Scott Trickett: Yeah, good morning. I tell you what, what we did have, sourdough lemon curd doughnuts.

00:13:18Melissa Erbacher: That is a very specific kind of donut.

00:13:21Scott Trickett: Yeah, it's a delicious kind of donut. And I knew there were only 50. And so I had to kind of make sure that I finished in the top 50. But to my surprise, I didn't finish in the top 50. When I came back from my run, the donuts hadn't been opened. They were still in the container. Wow.

00:13:38Melissa Erbacher: Donuts sound more sugary than cake to me. We also had watermelon. So most of our runners got into the watermelon and then after they had had their fruit slash hydration fix, they got into the cake. But you had one of these sourdough lemon curd donuts.

00:13:55Scott Trickett: I highly recommend them. And I opened the containers. I had the first one. Delicious. Turned around to talk to someone. I was only talking to them a couple of minutes, turned back around to get a couple more, all gone.

00:14:09Melissa Erbacher: All gone. Well, it's lucky that nobody else had the foresight to open the container before you got back.

00:14:16Scott Trickett: My wife and daughter may not have been as happy that I didn't manage to grab one for them.

00:14:23Melissa Erbacher: Husband fail, daddy fail.

00:14:26Scott Trickett: But it was another great morning at parkrun and at Westerfolds. And I'm back. I'm back as the event director at Westerfolds from Saturday. So that's all.

00:14:35Melissa Erbacher: You are the event director.

00:14:38Scott Trickett: I am. I am now.

00:14:40Melissa Erbacher: Oh, that explains a lot.

00:14:42Scott Trickett: So I said thanks to Rowan, who was the existing event director. Got a little bit emotional, but held it together better than I did at Studley. But it just shows how much parkrun does mean to me and the people that I've met through parkrun. So that was a really nice part of the morning. And we will continue for many more years to come.

00:15:04[music]

00:15:04Unidentified speaker: Music

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

00:15:13Melissa Erbacher: It's been far too long since we've had him on the show. We've missed him. He is the big head honcho of parkrun Australia and his name is Tim. Tim, welcome to the podcast.

00:15:25Tim Oberg: Great to be back. And as you say, it's been far too long. So wonderful to be back speaking with you guys.

00:15:31Melissa Erbacher: Now we've got a whole bunch of questions that our adventurers have sent through today. So I'm going to start with one from a gentleman named Will.

00:15:40Tim Oberg: Will would like to know, we're just jumping straight in here, Tim, so I hope you're ready.

00:15:44Melissa Erbacher: Will has said that he has a bit of a love-hate relationship with parkrun and he was pleased to see your article recently addressing anxiety. He wants to know how have you addressed this and is any of it a product of attending parkrun every week and the pressures that involves?

00:16:03Tim Oberg: Great question. So thanks, Will. Where do I start with that one? So, look, a couple of things, I guess, was that my anxiety that I've written about was nothing to do with, I guess, things like low self-esteem or anything to do with emotion or anything like that. It was simply I was burnt out from work and the pressures, I guess, of the parkrun job. And that's not to say that it's harder than the jobs that a lot of people have out there. It was more to do with the way I was structuring my days and my weeks. And what I wasn't doing was giving myself any sort of really clear time off work, be it in the evenings or weekends. You sit up at night on the laptop watching telly, answering emails and same thing on weekends and so on. So for me, the biggest changes I've made since starting work again have been all around that sort of stuff. So, you know, as an example, I think the time now that we're recording this is probably about 5.45 p.m. or something like that. And I've got a pretty strict nothing after about 5.30 rule. So we're actually breaking my rule, but that's fine for, you know, because this is a special occasion. But, you know, certainly when we get off this call tonight, what I'll be doing is switching off my smartphone and it won't come on again until tomorrow morning, probably about 9 a.m. Likewise, laptops and so on. So, So, yeah, that's been the biggest change I've had to make has been just around disconnecting from that sort of 24-7 work cycle that I was in. And it's had a huge impact already in the short time I've been doing that. So, that's the biggest change I made. But I guess in answer to the second part of the question about attending parkrun, I wouldn't say that my anxiety came from attending parkrun, but Whilst I was in, I guess, the worst part of my anxiety, I stopped going to parkrun for a couple of weeks because I – and not just parkrun. There were times I didn't really want to leave the house. Like I remember I was trying to – I was doing something with the family and we went to a kid's play area and I just sat there freaking out because I just didn't want to be there. I just – you just sort of feel – off and really uneasy and so I had a couple of weeks off going to parkrun and then when I did actually go back to my first parkrun I was really nervous about going just because I hadn't been and you know what was anyone going to ask me any questions that I didn't want to answer and so on and and of course what happens when you go to parkrun as we all know is everyone's just smiley and happy and glad to see you no matter what's going on and And so I very quickly sort of got back into my parkrun groove after that. But, yeah, I certainly can appreciate that sense of anxiousness about attending a parkrun because, yeah, I did feel that when I was first getting back into it. So, yeah, but anyway, as I say, pleased to say, though, that everything's back on track and, yeah, really loving getting back into my home parkrun up here in Airlie Beach.

00:19:05Scott Trickett: Thanks, Will. Good question. And come at us, Will. Yeah, great question. I'm not sure about this love-hate thing Will's got. He's got a hate about not knowing anyone at parkrun. Mel and I are going to address that at a later episode. Next question from Peter. Peter wants to know how many events does Australia have now? But he's also more curious about what have we got in the next 12 months after we've had our year of consolidation? Where might we be 12 months from now?

00:19:37Tim Oberg: Yeah, great, great. Another good question. And look, I don't know the exact number we're on right now because – We're in the 180s somewhere, I think. But obviously, what happens when new events, websites go live on parkrun.com.au is they start being listed as a live event, although the event itself may not have started. So we're sitting around, I think, the high 180s. Mel or Scott, can either of you confirm? Am I close? I think we are. Yeah. So we're sitting in there somewhere. Obviously, by the end of the year, we'll be close to... Well, we'll be in the 190s. I'm not sure we'll hit 200. We're growing at a rate of about one a week. And so, you know, looking at about 50 a year. I don't see any reason why that will change either more or less next year. So I'd assume we'll probably launch another 50 next year. The one thing that may change is if we launch Junior parkrun or when we launch Junior parkrun because we will launch it. And then that, of course, will... be more event launches on top of the existing ones that we're talking about, the existing 50.

00:20:49Paul Rainbow: So I would say this time next year, we'll probably be sitting on around 250 parkruns on a Saturday.

00:20:54Tim Oberg: And junior parkruns, if they're launched, who knows what they'll be on. But we'll probably grow them at a slower rate, I think, because we want to make sure we get those right. So yeah, this time next year, I'm going to say 250 park of our Saturday parkruns and maybe a half dozen junior parkruns. So there you go. You heard it here first.

00:21:15Melissa Erbacher: Awesome. parkrun Australia is heading for the green T-shirt by the end of 2017. That's it. Our next question we've got from another Tim. It's not yourself writing in to ask questions that you want to hear about. It's a different one. And he would like to know that as we're all parkrun adventurers, whether we're running or volunteering, Is it possible to have where, as in the locations, where we volunteered in our stats like we have with our runs?

00:21:44Tim Oberg: Oh, wow. I don't think we've ever been asked that before. I think, like anything, it's all possible. And whenever we put in requests for this kind of stuff, it essentially goes on to a priority list with our developers and volunteers. I don't know where, I mean, to be honest, that would be quite low on the list because there's a lot of other pressing things. But what I can say is that in the first quarter of next year, all of the parkrun websites are going to be redeveloped. It's a work that's currently in progress. And what I'm told is when the new website platform launches, so maybe around Easter next year, that things like that, development and things that countries specifically want are going to be a lot easier to do than they are now. The way our websites are set up now, it's quite a task for us to look to create, I guess, new developments that are country-specific and so on. So, yeah, I guess the answer is it is possible. Will it happen? Probably not yet. anytime soon, but could it happen once we switch over to the new web platform, then I think that's much more likely that we'd be able to do those sorts of things then. So maybe rain check that question to Easter next year.

00:23:09Scott Trickett: Tim, did you know we're international now? We've got international listeners.

00:23:15Tim Oberg: You've had international listeners for a while. Wasn't there someone in Mongolia or someone listening to you that we were wondering who it was?

00:23:21Scott Trickett: We had a stat from Mongolia. I'm not sure if we had a listener. We had a downloader.

00:23:27Tim Oberg: But you've got an international lister who's actually engaging. Is that engaging with the program? Is that what you're telling me?

00:23:34Scott Trickett: Yeah, we've got a few. And one of them is George. All right. Okay.

00:23:37Tim Oberg: Hi, George.

00:23:38Scott Trickett: How closely do you work with Helen, Tom, Nick, and PSH and the team at parkrun UK?

00:23:45Tim Oberg: Yeah, this is a UK – Based parkrunner, I'm guessing, George, seeing his name dropping the names. So I work very closely with Tom Williams. Tom is the global head of operations. So effectively, I report to Tom. Tom and I are great mates. Tom was the country manager of parkrun UK. So he and I used to do the same thing. But he has been in his new role for about a year now. And yeah, Tom and I speak at least once a week, if not more, and pretty much every day on the emails and so on. So yeah, and then Helen Hood, who is the head of event delivery in the UK. I don't have as much to do with her directly because our equivalent here in Australia, who's Renee Gimbert, which is our national operations manager, She speaks to Helen all the time. So I guess where I would talk to Tom a lot, Renee would talk to Helen. Nick Pearson, the CEO, I think he was mentioned. Nick and I don't have too much to do with each other on a day-to-day basis, although he's very accessible. If I needed him for anything, certainly I could. and you know i've certainly known nick well we've we've met at all the any time we've gotten together from a parkrun global perspective uh you know nick's running the show now and he's a great guy with with bags of experience uh and Paul Sinton-Hewitt uh you know i know really well i think a lot of you probably know the story that parkrun australia came about because paul and i met up and had a cup of coffee and uh when i was living in london and you know, the rest is history. So Paul, you know, his day-to-day role now with parkrun is really that he is, you know, the founder. That's almost his job is that his job is to be that, you know, that person who promotes parkrun to the media and, you know, goes to events and parkrun in the UK has started winning quite a lot of awards for its contributions to the community. And so Paul's obviously there and, you know, certainly we'll be hoping that Paul will visit us out here at some point, probably next year. He's told me he's planning a trip, which is great. So, yeah, that's really what Paul does now. He is the founder and gets to travel around and do that.

00:26:00Scott Trickett: And what will the future relationship between the parkrun countries look like?

00:26:04Tim Oberg: Well, I'm... I sort of help out really with the countries that are close to us here. So parkrun Singapore, I oversee Dominic in Singapore, who's the event director at East Coast Park, parkrun, but is now really taking on that sort of country manager role and looking to launch new events there as well. Um, I'm also helping out the Nolan Leanne in New Zealand and helping them with some growth. So I guess, uh, you know, as countries, we really try and work together and help each other. Um, and ultimately we all sort of report in or fall under the umbrella of what is parkrun global. So, um, so I think, you know, obviously people like myself who've been involved for a while, it makes sense that as new countries come on, we look to share, our learnings and we're quite a way down the track at the moment with parkrun Malaysia and I'm assisting the team there. So yeah, I think as time goes on, certainly I'd be wanting to assist countries as they come on and from a geographic perspective, the ones that are near to us here will be the ones that I would be more involved with. But ultimately, yeah, we all sort of report into parkrun Global, which is Tom and Nick

00:27:23Scott Trickett: Tim, I'm going to push it. I've got one more question.

00:27:26Tim Oberg: It's come from Sunny Inverloch. Sunny Inverloch. That almost sounds like a person's name. Sunny Inverloch.

00:27:36Scott Trickett: It's not. With the rising numbers of parkrun across Australia, do you see any potential into the future for major running events to offer exclusive discounts for parkrunners?

00:27:49Tim Oberg: Oh, yeah. I mean, this already happens, really. Like, we... We had a really great response this year to a promotion we did with the Blackmores Sydney Running Festival where parkrunners – I can't remember what the discount was. It might have been 10% or something like that. But there was a promo code that was set up. And I think we had 580 or something like that parkrunners or people used the parkrun code anyway. And – that's come about because of our great relationship with Athletics Australia, who actually own the Sydney Running Festival. So through that, we were able to get that code for parkrunners. So I think it's a great benefit to parkrunners to be able to get discounts and other exclusive things like that with our partners. Obviously, Medibank, who are one of our national sponsors, they are also the naming rights sponsor of the Medibank Melbourne Marathon. So I think we had a competition, a great competition for parkrunners this year to win flights and accommodation and entry into that. So, yeah, we definitely look to engage with running events. And generally speaking, you know, as parkrun, we want to just promote running clubs, running events. And so we do so where we can, where we can help out. We like to do that. And obviously, if there's benefits to parkrunners to be had through that, then that's even better.

00:29:13Melissa Erbacher: So many awesome questions tonight and lots of variety there for you, Tim.

00:29:17Tim Oberg: I know, it's brilliant.

00:29:19Melissa Erbacher: Thank you so much for joining us again. We're very conscious of your curfew and we don't want to step over the line, so we'll let you go. But thanks again for joining us on the podcast. It's been great having you.

00:29:32Tim Oberg: Great to be here and, yeah, big shout out to all the listeners. Thanks for supporting Mel and Scott and the parkrun Adventurers.

00:29:48Scott Trickett: People often ask us, how do we get on the podcast, Mel? How do we get to be one of the interviewees? Well, it's quite simple. You come to one of our parkruns, run at one of our parkruns, and create a really cool running club that we want to be part of. So this week, welcome to the podcast, Paul Rainbow from Curl Curl parkrun and Dirty Cheaters fame.

00:30:09Paul Rainbow: Thanks, Scott. Pleased to be here.

00:30:13Melissa Erbacher: So Paul, you just recently have had adventures all over the place, which have involved marathons. And today we are celebrating our 42nd episode, which is effectively a marathon of podcasts. So we want to talk to you about marathons. How many have you done?

00:30:30Paul Rainbow: I've officially done two marathons. One in a few months ago and one last weekend. So a few months ago I did the Medoc Marathon which is over in France and you get dressed up as whatever you want. I was dressed as a drop bear and you run for about six hours so it's quite slow but you have to be drinking wine and eating cheese and eating ice creams and steaks and stuff like that as you run. So it's not a normal marathon. It's certainly quite different, but it was fantastic. It's something that, you know, I'd recommend to anyone.

00:31:09Melissa Erbacher: And that was your first marathon in Medoc in France.

00:31:13Paul Rainbow: Yeah. So I had to sort of warm myself into it. And then I had thought, well, if I'm doing that, I might as well sign myself up for a, you know, inverted commas, real marathon. So I signed up for Melbourne.

00:31:28Melissa Erbacher: I like how you use the inverted commas because Medoc was my first marathon and I have not yet done a inverted commas real marathon. I'm not sure I'm cut out for it because, you know, how do people do marathons without drinking wine every two kilometres at chateaus in the Bordeaux region of France? How is that possible?

00:31:53Paul Rainbow: It must be quite hard. And for me, I was doing a lot of training for the Melbourne Marathon, so I felt quite prepared for it.

00:32:04Scott Trickett: Well, tell us about it. How did you go?

00:32:06Paul Rainbow: Well, as I said, I did a lot of training. I trained with a friend, Vicky, who decided... two weeks before the marathon to run her foot over with a shopping trolley and broke a toe. So my quest really was to make sure that she got over the line at the end of the day.

00:32:28Scott Trickett: And how did you go? How did you enjoy the Melbourne course?

00:32:31Paul Rainbow: I really enjoyed it. I was expecting it to be hilly for some reason or a little bit more hills than it was um it had that hill at the end after 37 k's or so but um i really enjoyed it you know we did it a lot slower than i was hoping to do it but um um it was it was great you know we um had a lot of support out there there's a lot of people cheering so you know that was all good and you came down to melbourne to celebrate a birthday your birthday and you got a bit of a surprise while you were down there down here Yeah, I got a great surprise from my two friends, Mary and Dorota, my two cheetahs. They came down and we went to Studley parkrun and they were just around the corner and jumped out with a big new sign, a dirty cheetah sign. So it was fantastic to see them down there. I wasn't expecting them at all. It was a big surprise.

00:33:26Scott Trickett: And how does Studley compare to Curl Curl, where you run every week? Describe Curl Curl for us.

00:33:33Paul Rainbow: Curl curl is quite flat. It is pretty much a single loop, and it's got a small rise on it. It is nice in terms of being in a park, but Studley was fantastic. You know, really, I, you know, Curl Curl has always been one of my favourites, but Studley was definitely, you know, on par with Curl Curl because it was such a nice course with the bridge and the running through the, along the river for most of it. You know, I really enjoyed it. Definitely one of the best ones I've been to in Australia. I've been to about 25, so... Haven't been to as many as some people that have been tourists or adventurers, but yeah, it was fantastic.

00:34:14Melissa Erbacher: 25 is still a healthy slathering of events. Have you got a top three among those?

00:34:20Paul Rainbow: Well, it would probably be up there. You know, I really did like it. Curl Curl is definitely there as second, or in first or second. I'm probably a bit biased. I'm not sure about third. I haven't really thought about it. But yeah, I did really love doing one in Paris when I was over there after the Medoc. We were just running around Paris and we stumbled across one in a park in Paris. So that was a great experience to go and do that.

00:34:54Melissa Erbacher: You stumbled across it. You didn't know they already had one there?

00:34:57Paul Rainbow: No, it only started in February. So when we were planning our trip, we looked it up and it wasn't there. So I didn't I didn't look again before I left. So it was just literally we were doing a tourist running around the city of Paris doing a tourist run for 26Ks, of course, just for the training for Melbourne. And we came across someone in a parkrun volunteer vest. It was like, oh, there's a parkrun around here. Or, yeah, yeah, it starts in eight minutes. It's just up the hill. It's like... We went up there and there was about 40 people waiting to start, probably about 35 of them were English tourists. They were just over there for the weekend.

00:35:40Melissa Erbacher: How's that for magic timing? Did you have your barcodes on you?

00:35:43Paul Rainbow: Of course not.

00:35:44Melissa Erbacher: Oh, you need one of those wristbands.

00:35:49Paul Rainbow: I know. I do have one of those wristbands, but I didn't bring it.

00:35:53Melissa Erbacher: Oh, I never take mine off. I actually had somebody ask me last week if I'd been in hospital a lot and they didn't realise what it was. I had to explain. It's a good conversation piece.

00:36:05Paul Rainbow: Yeah, well, my one says can't turn left on my wristband as my medical condition.

00:36:12Melissa Erbacher: Mine also says I'm not an ambi-turner.

00:36:16Scott Trickett: So, Paul, you were a Zoolander. but now you're a dirty cheater. Or are you still a Zoolander who's a dirty cheater?

00:36:24Paul Rainbow: Well, I actually feel like I'm First off, I now feel like I'm a dirty cheater. But I am the part of, like, probably another three or four different running groups. So now and then I throw on a different T-shirt depending on who I'm running with. So, yeah, I've been running as a Zoolander. I've been running as a Bexie runner, beauty of exercise. I've been running as an Oz squatter. So, yeah, there's quite a few different clubs that I've associated myself with.

00:36:56Scott Trickett: This is perfectly acceptable. I've come to terms with. The more the merrier, I say.

00:37:03Paul Rainbow: Agreed.

00:37:04Scott Trickett: I've got a question. Can we go back to Curl Curl for a minute? Is Curl Curl one of the 7 a.m. start runs?

00:37:11Paul Rainbow: Yes, that's right. There's only a couple in Sydney that are 7 a.m.

00:37:16Scott Trickett: So Sydney's a lot like Melbourne. Melbourne at 7 o'clock in the morning can be really dark and cold. Does that happen in Sydney as well? And does it affect the numbers or the run?

00:37:30Paul Rainbow: For winter, it can do. But we've been pretty good and consistent in terms of our numbers over winter. We generally get – we've been getting about 160 or so to about 180 over winter. When it's really pouring with rain or something like that, we'll still get 80 to 100. And then when it's a nice day in winter, we could even go over 200.

00:37:54Melissa Erbacher: Those are very decent numbers. We only average – 150, 160 in the summer at Kawana now. But that's a result of launching a lot of other events fairly close together so that we can spread the love around.

00:38:10Paul Rainbow: Yeah, that's probably one of the reasons I'd like to start a few more in the northern beaches in Sydney here. There's a new one starting in a few weeks' time in Willoughby on the 5th of November. So that's going to hopefully share some of the load and some people will go from Curl Curl to Willoughby. And there's one also at Galston up a bit further north that there's probably a few people that were coming to Curl Curl going to there now. So we might drop off a little bit at Curl Curl, but I probably doubt it.

00:38:43Melissa Erbacher: Now, this is going to be a little bit out of left field, but have you always been a runner, Paul?

00:38:49Paul Rainbow: No, not really. I really only started running probably about eight years ago or so. I started living with a guy from my soccer team. So he was into running and triathlons and swims and things like that. So I really started with him doing the sort of 10K runs, you know, in the city and that sort of thing. But, you know, I was – with parkrun, I started back in St Peters, probably about two years before Curl Curl started. And it was a bit of a trek to get over there from the northern beaches, but I went over there with a mate a couple of times. And then when Curl Curl started, I was there, you know, week one, keen as mustard to run there. You know, it was a great course. And then later that year, Kim asked me to become a run director there. So, yeah, I signed up to do that and been enjoying that ever since.

00:39:44Melissa Erbacher: And how did the Dirty Cheetahs come about?

00:39:49Paul Rainbow: Ah, the Dirty Cheaters. So the Dirty Cheaters started just over a year ago now. We – We had four of us, who's Alyssa, Mary, Dorota, and myself. And we were signed up to do this event in Canberra, which is the Chinmoy, I think it's called. I always forget how to pronounce it. But there was a race in Canberra that's 100 kilometers. And we do it as a team of four. So we did about 25 kilometers each. And we had to come up with a name. So I was basically rattling off a whole bunch of names and Everyone else was coming up with ideas. And at the end of the day, we decided on the Dirty Cheetahs because of the bit of the pun of, you know, that we could cheat when we're dirty and, you know, we could cheat to do the course or do the run. So it was just a bit of fun at the time. But we sort of did the dress-up thing on the day. We didn't run so much in the full suits like we do now and then now. But yeah, it was a lot of fun and really Mary and Dorota were the main people that continued it on and really started the logos and all that sort of stuff that we've got now, which is really fantastic.

00:41:06Melissa Erbacher: Is it performance enhancing to wear cheetah ears?

00:41:09Paul Rainbow: It does make you run faster. It is actually proven science now. I've definitely only done PBs with my cheetah ears on. I think it cuts through the air somehow. I haven't actually worked it out exactly, but it does make you run faster.

00:41:24Melissa Erbacher: But over five kilometres, can cheetahs sustain that kind of distance and speed?

00:41:31Paul Rainbow: Yeah, well, we're pretty dirty, so we don't have to run the whole five kilometres. We just cut the bits off we don't need.

00:41:41Melissa Erbacher: Fair enough. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Paul. It has been lovely to hear about your marathon adventures overseas and at home and to hear about the Cheetahs and how you guys all started.

00:41:55Paul Rainbow: Yeah, thanks, Mel and Scott.

Social Adventurers

00:42:10Scott Trickett: Mel, have you missed Social Adventuring?

00:42:12Melissa Erbacher: I have missed it a little bit, I will admit. It's, um, I love, I mean, obviously we're still seeing all the posts and things like that, but I do like to share them with our listeners as well, from time to time.

00:42:23Scott Trickett: Let's share them this week. And let's start on Twitter. My favourite. We're Nicola Forward. has just booked a parkrun trip to feel the parkrun AUNZ vibe for herself. She is excited. She's going to be here for four weeks doing a parkrun in Sydney, Cairns and Melbourne. parkrun, every parkrun day we're there. That's exciting.

00:42:47Melissa Erbacher: I think she's going to be here in four weeks, Scotty.

00:42:50Scott Trickett: Okay. Well, it's even more exciting. Nicola, get in touch with us. Get in touch with us when you're in Melbourne.

00:42:56Melissa Erbacher: We want to have a chat to you on the show. And so my favourite, Strava. How's the Strava Club doing lately, Scotty?

00:43:04Scott Trickett: We have a nice even 250 members in the club.

00:43:08Melissa Erbacher: Wow, that's gone up lately.

00:43:09Scott Trickett: So it still continues to grow.

00:43:11Melissa Erbacher: Yeah.

00:43:13Scott Trickett: And a special mention to our mate in Canberra, Will Barlow. 19,689 metres of elevation last week. What's going on? I think there's...

00:43:25Melissa Erbacher: Do you reckon he GPSed it when he took a flight?

00:43:27Scott Trickett: I think he did, yeah.

00:43:32Melissa Erbacher: And then put it on Strava? I'm surprised Strava hasn't set up the red flags for that one. He probably got all sorts of, oh no, he wouldn't have got a whole bunch of crowns because it wouldn't necessarily have been any segments.

00:43:45Scott Trickett: I have seen a Strava run from a plane, so taking off from the runway.

00:43:51Melissa Erbacher: Okay. Okay. And did somebody run on the plane? Is it like the same situation as when there's a cruise ship and somebody goes for a 5K run on the cruise ship? And you would expect the Strava map to be a whole bunch of spirally loops, but it's just actually a straight line, which is really boring.

00:44:08Scott Trickett: Yeah. No, this was just sitting in the seat because they were doing one second Ks.

00:44:16Melissa Erbacher: Well, that's got to hurt the calves.

00:44:18Scott Trickett: Instagram is always our busiest place. social media platform. Over the weekend, Sydney Insta runners, Dirty Cheetahs and M. Botto all posted a group photo from Mosman's animal-themed third anniversary.

00:44:32Melissa Erbacher: Happy birthday to Mosman. And I should mention now as well, congratulations to Simon Mackley, who also ran his 100th parkrun on Saturday. He is one of my two twins, my 200 club twins.

00:44:48Scott Trickett: Well done, Smackley. Sandy Shell's life. I'll summarise. She thinks you're wonderful, Mel, and she congratulated you on your 100th parkrun. She loves your guts.

00:45:01Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I love her guts too. She's a bit of a special lady, Sandy Shell's life. And Jamesy Wamesy was at Westerfold's anniversary on the weekend, and all he said was, he met Scott.

00:45:15Scott Trickett: He did.

00:45:15Melissa Erbacher: So did you meet Jamesy Wamesy?

00:45:17Scott Trickett: He walked past me. He kept walking. Couldn't wait to get away from me, I thought. But he was Jamesy Wamesy dressed up in a Ghostbusters, the full kit, the Ghostbusters outfit.

00:45:30Melissa Erbacher: Excellent.

00:45:31Scott Trickett: But didn't run in it. So next time I want to see him run in it, James. I don't care how heavy it is. You've got to commit to the costumes. Recreating Mel asked the question, how awesome are parkrun volunteers? With some nice chalk drawing on the path at her parkrun.

00:45:49Melissa Erbacher: And Macalicious21 said, would have felt weird not going for a 5k run on this Saturday morning. Unfortunately, Wangaratta parkrun was still cancelled due to water over the course. So he had to improvise with a freedom-ish run. Not even Humphrey could scan his barcode though. Good to see a systems check in for tomorrow's run. A couple of phantom niggles as always.

00:46:12Scott Trickett: Macalicious ran 100k on the Sunday.

00:46:15Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, another overachiever.

00:46:18Scott Trickett: And the Evans High crew, they're still going from strength to strength. A little bit of wet weather didn't stop these guys from taking on the 5k challenge at the Ponds parkrun. Well done to Rachel and Alex, who represented the ERC, and to Juliana, who couldn't get to the ponds, so she ran 5k in her area. You girls did Evans and yourselves proud.

00:46:41Melissa Erbacher: I love keeping abreast of how the ERC are going. They're doing great work. And so from the past couple of weeks when we've missed out on our social adventures, we had one from Hey TJ who said that she was glad she made it to the finish. Turns out running a half marathon is quite hard, but she did it. Oh, and she thanked me for the inspiration. Bless you. You're welcome. And well done. Half marathon is not a little thing to do. So good job.

00:47:11Scott Trickett: Jeanette Campbell, she completed her 100th parkrun. That's 500 parkrun kilometres. Crikey, that is a lot of running. It is. Well done, Jeanette.

00:47:20Melissa Erbacher: I've got another twin out there. Gosh, there's lots of us this weekend. Congrats, Jeanette. And Heather's Happy Snaps was at Tamworth parkrun's second birthday where they had a P-themed cake, 50th run presentations, fun laughter and smiles aplenty. I do like the P-themed. Allows people to get really creative.

00:47:43Scott Trickett: Bit of pirate action.

00:47:45Melissa Erbacher: Pirates and princesses.

00:47:47Scott Trickett: A Kuz. She loves parkrun. She was sporting a new tattoo. I don't think it was permanent. In fact, I know it wasn't permanent. But it was pretty cool nonetheless. And Siren Macy and Chermside parkrun were representing when they had fun times at the Sandgate Sunset Run. It was a cool photo and you saw that in person. That crew from Chermside.

00:48:11Melissa Erbacher: Yep, they did a great job with their costumes.

00:48:14Scott Trickett: On Facebook this week, Steve Batesta. He's quite the parkrun adventurer. He posted a photo of him and Alan Burrell at Wynnum showing off his modified 50 shirt where Steve has listed all his parkruns that he has completed in order on the back of his 50 shirt. Well done, Steve.

00:48:35Paul Rainbow: And Paul Curtin.

00:48:37Scott Trickett: Sorry, buddy, we forgot to give you a shout out. while you were listening during your marathon. I gave you a shout-out in person. I hope that made up for it. But he was off to his Nindi on Saturday, which was Portland, where Michaela and he became Vic Statesmen. Also along for the drive was their trusty sidekick, Mark, who was only three off becoming a Vic Statesman himself. As usual, up and back in the day, an 800-kilometre, 10-hour round trip. Round trip, road trip. It's just how they roll.

00:49:12Melissa Erbacher: That's commitment. Yeah. 800k in one day.

00:49:16Scott Trickett: I hate to break it to them, but there's more events launching in Victoria very soon. So they're going to lose their statesmanship.

00:49:24Melissa Erbacher: Not unless they get to all the launches. When you're that close to being Victorian statespeople or you've become Victorian statespeople, it's a lot easier to maintain than if you're still chasing it and you're like 50% Okay, you guys don't have 50 events yet, but you know, 20 events away.

00:49:41Scott Trickett: This is true. Mind you, one of the new events we're launching is back out near Portland. So it'll be another 800k round for them if they want to maintain it.

00:49:53Melissa Erbacher: Well, hopefully they enjoyed. Yeah, exactly.

Launches and anniversaries ("Where is the cake?")

00:49:59Scott Trickett: But none of those events are launching this weekend. No launches this weekend.

00:50:03Melissa Erbacher: We do have an anniversary though, so... Happy anniversary to Port Macquarie in New South Wales, who are celebrating your first. We hope you have a wonderful morning, full of cake or donuts, as the case may be.

00:50:16Scott Trickett: And that's it for our marathon episode. Not quite our longest episode ever, but we tried.

00:50:24Melissa Erbacher: But it's not that kind. Okay, I think we're good.

00:50:43Scott Trickett: We should say goodbye.

00:50:46Melissa Erbacher: Should we?

00:50:46Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:50:47Melissa Erbacher: You don't think they're going to notice that it's over?

00:50:49Scott Trickett: Just say goodbye, Mel.

00:50:52Melissa Erbacher: Goodbye, Mel. Very difficult. Goodbye, Scotty.

00:51:04Scott Trickett: Goodbye, Mel. See you next week. Probably speak to you beforehand, but if I don't, we're going to be really disorganised.

00:51:14Melissa Erbacher: So I hope you do speak to me beforehand.

00:51:17Scott Trickett: Yeah, but the listeners, next week.

00:51:20Melissa Erbacher: Stopping recording.