Episode 44

Episode details · 158 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:12Scott Trickett: Welcome to the parkrun Adventurers podcast. I'm joined by Mel Erbacher on the Sunshine Coast. Hi Mel. Hi Scotty. How's your South African?

00:00:25Melissa Erbacher: We don't talk about that on the podcast.

00:00:28Scott Trickett: Let's hear your best South African impersonation.

00:00:31Melissa Erbacher: Oh no, I will just offend a large population of people if I even try.

00:00:36Scott Trickett: Nah, I think people enjoy it.

00:00:41Melissa Erbacher: That was a little bit more Irish than South African.

00:00:46Scott Trickett: So we're having a South African episode this week. But before we do that, let's listen to some news. parkrunners from all over the world converged on New York City to participate in the New York Marathon. With the iconic city yet to boast its own parkrun, Many parkrun adventurers partook of a pre-marathon parkrun day warm-up in Central Park.

In the news

00:00:52[music]

00:01:16Melissa Erbacher: Numerous parkrunners volunteered at the Perth 2016 World Masters Athletics Championships over the weekend in support of all the countries participating in the marathon and half-marathon events. While parkrunners also participated themselves, it's testament to the spirit of parkrun that so many were out there supporting the event, their peers and other athletes.

00:01:38Scott Trickett: Nneka Okontar joined the Peel Club at Burley Griffin in the ACT, becoming only the 14th parkrunner in the world to do so. There are currently 18 parkrunners who have completed seven of the eight Australian states and territories.

00:01:55Melissa Erbacher: And the man for whom the Peel Club was named also joined a new club on the weekend. Brendan Peel completed his 100th different parkrun event at Karkarook parkrun's launch in Victoria to join the Cow Club on Saturday.

00:02:08Scott Trickett: Infamous social running club the Westerfoldians dominated at the Run for Fieries over the weekend. Run for Fieries is a fun run to aid the local CFA and it includes a 4k, 6k and 10.6k options. parkrunners Alison Nucky and Simon Too won their respective events while the Westerfoldians took out the team title for the second year running.

00:02:36Melissa Erbacher: Sounds like those Westerfoldians need to get themselves a bigger trophy cabinet.

00:02:40Scott Trickett: It's certainly growing. This is our third event where we've taken out the title.

00:02:45Melissa Erbacher: The third Run for Fireys event or just the third event, different event for teams?

00:02:50Scott Trickett: Third event. We've done Run for Fireys twice and a couple of weeks ago we took over the Sweat vs Steam title as well. We're a force.

00:03:00Melissa Erbacher: Good job.

00:03:01Scott Trickett: Yeah, good day. Also in the news... We mentioned the Karkarook launch that I went to, and I shared Brendan Peel joining the Cow Club. It was a nice launch, nice and flat two-lap course, a bit windy.

00:03:16Melissa Erbacher: I think everywhere was windy on the weekend.

00:03:20Scott Trickett: But we got cold in Melbourne too. It was like this arctic blast coming through the park. I think I can hear your fan on. You want me to turn it off? No, but I've got the heater on still down here. Getting completely jack of it. And I'd hate to think, you know, a lot of people go to parkrun launch and they probably never go back. And so I'd hate to think that's people's memories of Karkarook, this freezing cold Arctic wind. Because I think it's a really nice run and it'll be a great event. But I do feel sorry for launchers that have terrible weather.

00:04:03Melissa Erbacher: Well, the only way is up, isn't it? This is true. Unless you live in Victoria. Quite possibly it could be worse next week. Stick with it, Karkarook parkrunners. I'm sure it's going to be awesome.

00:04:14Scott Trickett: Any adventures for you on the weekend?

00:04:17Melissa Erbacher: I actually did have sort of a parkrun-related adventure. I was... What's the word? I'm going to use the word blessed. I was blessed to attend a bit of a parkrun wedding on Saturday afternoon and evening. And in line with the South African theme, the bride is actually South African, also Australian, but of South African heritage. And I learned a new word. Have you ever heard of lobola?

00:04:49Scott Trickett: No. Any relation to Labumba?

00:04:53Melissa Erbacher: I don't think so. Labola in Zulu... is the term given to property that is in cash or kind, as in often like herds of cattle, that a prospective husband gives to the head of the prospective wife's family. So Kelly, being the bride of South African descent, her now husband was expected to give Labola to her mother and her mother's family. Whether or not he's going to pay that off over time, it's yet to be determined. But I say it's a parkrun related wedding because Kelly is the person responsible for essentially my involvement in parkrun because she is the founding event director of Kiwana parkrun and she brought it to the Sunshine Coast and opened up a whole new world for to me and basically changed my life. So it was really beautiful to be able to go and see her marry her gorgeous, sweet, loving husband on Saturday and be a part of the celebrations of that new union.

00:06:07Scott Trickett: That is big news. Congratulations. Kelly. She's a big name.

00:06:11Melissa Erbacher: And Christian.

00:06:12Scott Trickett: And Christian. She is a big name in parkrun. Without her, it may not be as big as it currently is.

00:06:19Melissa Erbacher: It certainly wouldn't be.

Global Adventures

00:06:27Scott Trickett: It's time to continue our global adventures. And we're heading to another country where parkrun is massive. In fact, it's probably the country that parkrun is growing the most at the moment. We're heading to South Africa, and we're speaking to Bruce Fordyce. Welcome, Bruce.

00:06:45Bruce Fordyce: Hi, Scott. Yes, hi, Mel. Can I just start off by saying one of my favorite parkruns in the world is Claisebrook Cove in Perth, and I'm particularly fond of Perth because that's where the South African cricket team have just won the first test. That's the only time I'm going to tease you guys, and now we can get on with it.

00:07:05Scott Trickett: parkrun in South Africa, it really is massive, isn't it?

00:07:10Bruce Fordyce: Yeah, in South Africa we've had phenomenal growth. And there are a couple of reasons for that that I can discuss with you. But just to give you a rough idea, we started this Saturday, by the way, is our birthday, and we turned five. We started with one parkrun, as all parkrun countries do, one parkrun in a park in Johannesburg called Delta Park, and 26 people came along. And shortly after our birthday on Saturday, we will reach half a million registrations. Obviously, they don't all run every single Saturday, but we're getting between 28 and 30,000 people running every Saturday. And we're now up to about 88, 89 parkruns, and that's taken five years.

00:08:01Scott Trickett: Can we go back to 28 runners at Delta parkrun, the first event? How did you actually bring parkrun to South Africa? Because you are famous, you've got a fantastic running record, but how did that lead to bringing parkrun to South Africa?

00:08:19Bruce Fordyce: Okay, so the connection to parkrun is that Paul Sinton-Hewitt, the founder of parkrun in the UK, is a good friend of mine. And in our big marathon that we have, it's actually an ultra marathon here in South Africa called the Comrades Marathon, but it's 90 kilometers. Paul was once my second in that race. He was bringing my drinks and, you know, giving me information, all the stuff that kind of an aide or a second or a pacer, as they call them in America, does. And I went across to run the 2011 race. London Marathon and Paul heard that I was there and asked me please, he came along to a talk that I gave and then asked me please to come along to Bushy Park where it all began and have a run and to be brutally honest with you I didn't really want to because it was a Saturday, I didn't feel like running a 5k when I had a marathon to run the following morning but he was very persuasive and I went along with my wife Jill and we ran And it was a lovely, lovely morning at Bushy Park. All the deer were out. There were probably 700, 800 runners. And I saw the magic immediately. And then said to Paul, well, we both said to Paul, we've got to start this in South Africa. And he said, well, that's why I invited you. And as with all things, we went back. That was April 2011. And you procrastinate and you spend a bit of time thinking about it and other things interfere. And we finally found this park that we could do it in called Delta Park. And by the time we had all the permissions, and we did about six or seven dress rehearsal runs because we were so nervous. And so we started in November 2011. So it took us a few months to get going. And as I say, 26 South African pioneers came along to the first one. The following week, I think there were 17 because it was raining and nothing very much happened. As with all parkrun growth, I think nothing very much happens for a while. And then the graph of the growth is not really, it's not a sort of a linear upward climb. It goes off like a Saturn V rocket suddenly. Somewhere along the line, word of mouth, I don't know what happens. And our numbers just started doubling at Delta Park, started doubling every single Saturday. From then on, one of the guys who came said, it's a bit far for me to come. Can I start a parkrun at my part of Johannesburg, which was a suburb called Roodepoort? And he started there. And then the third one started in a suburb called Benoni. And amazingly, our fourth one started at the coast in a little coastal town called East London. And from then on, we just kept growing.

00:11:06Melissa Erbacher: Five years on the parkrun global board, how many events are you growing at? Like what's the rate of growth at the moment, Bruce? How many events do you launch on average each month?

00:11:20Bruce Fordyce: Okay, so we looked at Australia sometime and Tim in Australia is going much faster than us in terms of events. And I think each country has its own pattern and its own way of doing things differently. We are very keen, and obviously we have a smaller country. I mean, Australia is vast, so to get around is a major task. But we have a very hands-on approach, so we like to be present, if we can, at the launch of every single parkrun in South Africa. So that if you had to say to me, Bruce, tell me about Uvongo parkrun, or tell us about... Kwamashu parkrun or whatever, I'd be able to tell you all about it, what the course is like, who our event director is. And so we have that approach to it. So we're quite slow in starting new ones. So we probably average about two a month. I'm looking at, say, a month where we might have four, but then we'll get a month like January because of summer holidays where we might only start one.

00:12:28Melissa Erbacher: That's still not a low average.

00:12:29Bruce Fordyce: Yeah, yeah. But it's, you know, it's, we think it's manageable and we might change and we might end up going a bit faster, but we like to have a certain amount of control and to check that things are still okay. You know, with the best intentions, sometimes parkruns and the teams can be a little bit naughty and the next thing it's, you know, it's a bit of a dangerous route or it's not quite 5Ks and that kind of thing. So we just like to know what's happening and if somebody asks us about a parkrun, we can tell them.

00:13:07Melissa Erbacher: Well, that's, I think, probably evidenced by your personal parkrun record. You've done 233 parkruns altogether. Have you run all of the events in South Africa?

00:13:19Bruce Fordyce: I've actually done 101 different events now. And of those... 88 of them will have been every single South African parkrun. And then the others are because I'm traveling around a bit and I'm quite fortunate to travel and I absolutely love the way that it's uncanny, the way that parkrun, the model works, no matter where you are. And you can be running Parramatta parkrun. We went to the inaugural Parramatta parkrun and Apart from the strange Australian accents, it's exactly the same. But then we've run Gdynia parkrun in Poland. And apart from the fact that everything is in Polish, your barcode works, it's 5Ks, you get your results, you get the same warm welcome. In fact, more of a warm welcome if you're a visitor from another country. And it's just amazing how it works.

00:14:18Scott Trickett: The South African parkruns, you've got a couple of really large events, haven't you? I think you hold the record for having the largest attendance at a parkrun. How do your local event teams handle the larger numbers attending your events?

00:14:32Bruce Fordyce: Well, yeah, Scott, to begin with, I think that we learned a little bit from Bushy. We looked at... Some video footage of Bushy when they have large numbers of over 1,000. But our teams have just got really good at handling that sort of thing. They've become practiced. And luckily, I'm looking at the biggest in the world, which is North Beach, Durban. Luckily, it took them a while to get there. So they had a gentle learning curve before the Saturn V rocket took off. And so they were able to cope. They've got wonderful volunteer teams, and they've got a lot of people who are keen to volunteer. And they've got the systems in place. And they're very good when, I call it the bell curve. When the bell curve arrives, that's when the most number of people are crossing the line per minute. Yeah, they seem to be quite slick at it and there's a lot of learning from everybody. And we won't let a new parkrun start unless the people at that parkrun have volunteered and helped and done a number of the key jobs at another parkrun, first of all.

00:15:41Melissa Erbacher: Now, when you say the biggest event in the world, what numbers are we talking?

00:15:46Bruce Fordyce: Well, North Beach, now they would, in the pouring rain, they get 1,200 people. In May last year, it was the day before our major marathon. I'm trying to think of the equivalent in Australia, but I don't think there really is one. But our major ultra marathon comrades is the same as a Boston or a New York or a London. And so the day before, it's run on a Sunday. On the Saturday, they had 1,800. because they also had all the visitors who were over to run the big one on the Sunday, but they all want to tick a Durban parkrun, so they walk or jog very slowly the day before just to be able to add that particular one to their CV. But we've got a number now. We've got about 11 parkruns that can get over 1,000 people. The key, and I know it's changing, but my experience of a parkrun in the UK, and I'm talking a year or two ago, was that it was more like a race and more like a time trial. That's how parkrun began. It began initially as UK time trial. So there are faster, slicker, more athletic people lining up, whereas in South Africa At least half our people, half our parkrunners don't even run. We should be calling it park walk. They walk, and they take a long time. And so our back markers can take an hour, an hour and a quarter. Probably the bell curve of our parkruns is somewhere around 45 minutes. So typically, if I look at Durban North Beach, we've got a couple of really quick lads there who do it, and some of the girls as well. Guys will run North Beach in 45. This is just an imaginary character I've invented. A large Afrikaans lady, I've invented her, called Tani Labaskakni. Tani Labaskakni will take an hour and 15 minutes to get across the line. Or Tandi Zililu, a large Zulu lady. She will take an hour and 20 minutes to get across the line, and we wait for her. And we give her her time, and she is over the moon two weeks later when she knocks 10 minutes up off it. And so we have found that our parkruns are very welcoming for non-athletic types and people feel no one's going to laugh at them. They will, as long as they bought their barcode, they will get their time, they will get their result and they will be welcome. And so that's where our growth has really exploded.

00:18:21Melissa Erbacher: I love that you... You sound obviously very proud of the fact that you've got 50% park walkers. We're also very encouraging of that in Australia. I haven't had the pleasure of experiencing a parkrun in the UK yet. But yes, it's great to see the walkers.

00:18:38Bruce Fordyce: I'm talking about the UK a couple of years ago. I mean, they definitely are moving in this direction too, because I think that's where the greatest contribution that parkrun can make lies, you know, because an elite athlete who can get around at 5k in 15 minutes or the ladies in 16 or so, you know, they're running anyway. And if parkrun didn't exist, they would be running anywhere. They'd be representing their in South Africa, their province or even their country or getting medals in major road races. It's the fact that these other people who can't find an environment where they are welcome and they can do their own thing. That's where I think our greatest contribution lies across the globe in bringing people in, improving their health and letting them have a wonderful Saturday morning. I mean, I can give you this one because it's It gave me goosebumps. We have a parkrun in a place called Mashishing, which is in a province called Mpumalanga. And I went there. So what we also do is we go back occasionally to visit our other parkruns. So we never like to go to a parkrun once. It's getting harder and harder. But if we can, we go back and visit and see how they're getting along. And we went back to Mashishing and I ran and I ran for me quite a good time. chatting to everybody and the volunteers and long time after I'd finished a lady crossed the line and as she crossed the line she punched the air and she let out a big whoop of happiness and I said why are you so happy she said because for the first time in my life I've broken an hour and I thought that that was just really wonderful that to me was what parkrun is about she broke her own goal she is never going to frighten anyone in Nairobi and But she ran a great time for her.

00:20:26Melissa Erbacher: What a wonderful story. And we do get a lot of those sorts of stories as well. Now, Bruce, we've talked about your biggest events. In Australia, we also enforce the fact that we don't consider the success of an event to be about numbers. What would you say is the smallest event that you guys have in South Africa?

00:20:49Bruce Fordyce: Mel, by the way, I completely agree with you. Numbers, it's gratifying to see that a lot of people are going, but it also, as you touched on, brings with it its problems of how you cope with those numbers. Parking issues with the people who live around, they get quite irritated. There's a lot of stuff that comes with it. And to me, the most important thing is the contribution to the local community. So it can be a small parkrun. If it's making a difference in a small area, We're delighted. So I'll give you one. Summerfields. It's not really a great place because it sounds like a kind of an English parkrun in a Lincolnshire country or countryside or something. Summerfields actually borders the Kruger National Park. It's about a few kilometers outside the Kruger Park. They, on occasion, have to cancel or move their course to a B route because there are hippos lying on the side of the river that they run on, and you don't want to tell a cow hippo that she must move out the way because we're doing parkrun. You'll get flattened. So Summerfields at times has had fewer than 10 people because it's in a small little, it's almost a village called Hazyview, right near the Kruger National Park, and they just don't have a big community. But if I had to go to Andre van Heerden, the event director at Summerfield and tell him, Andre, it's not really worth it. Let's close it down. He would jump on a plane to come over here and break my nose because he loves it, the community there love it. And obviously at times they have bigger turnouts than that. And because they border on the Kruger Park, they get an enormous number of visitors from around the world. because people are en route to go into the park or on their way back. These are parkrunners, of course, so they think, oh, well, it's a Saturday morning. Let's time it to go and run Summerfield's parkrun. And we have quite a few like that. A parkrun right in the Northern Cape called Springbok, they have 30 people occasionally gets as big as 50 for them, but on a freezing cold winter's morning, they can get down as low as 10 or 15 people, but we would never say that that's not a success.

Top three parkruns

00:23:11Scott Trickett: Bruce, one of the things we like to ask our guests is for their top three parkruns. But we have a disclaimer that they can't include their home parkrun. And I think it's safe for you to consider South Africa as your home. Have you got a top three of parkruns you've done overseas?

00:23:30Bruce Fordyce: Okay, so I've done, I think, 13 or 14 overseas. What did I love? Wow.

00:23:37Melissa Erbacher: Top one from each country, perhaps.

00:23:39Bruce Fordyce: Yeah, well, I've only done one in Poland, but we loved Gdynia because it was so Polish. And we happened to run it, amazingly, on May Day, the first, when it's a national holiday. And in the distance, you can see the great big cranes that were part of the whole Solidarity movement, that whole thing with Lech Walesa and everything. You could see they have left these old cranes there, So it's quite a historic place. It was May, so it should be summer, but it was freezing. And if you look across the Baltic, you can see Russia. The Polish parkrunners we met were so welcoming and great to be with. And it's flat. It's completely flat on concrete. It's just alongside the edge of the docks. But there were swans swimming in the sea. So that also made it quite... amazing wow I'm trying to think I think you know I'd have to put Bushy because that's the high cathedral that's where it all began and we ran Bushy as our very first parkrun with no idea what we were doing and what parkrun was about I didn't even know why do I have to have this barcode and how does it work it was all done for me by Paul but that was lovely with the deer and the antlers an Australian one I think yeah I loved Mosman running in amongst the yachts. Even though it's a three-lap run, you can get a bit confused. So Mossman was great. We did a freedom run at Ginninderra in Canberra. That was also a lovely one to do. Yeah, you know, I've got my bucket list of parkruns that I want to do around the world. It's going to be extremely expensive. But I've got a few that I've got to do. In South Africa, I'm You know, I'm not going to, the politics, my various event directors and teams would kill me, but we have some, you know, that are so African that you just love them. In Kumasi, on the border of Mozambique, it's Cannibal's Cave, which is a Zulu parkrun. You look at the Drakensberg Mountains, which are just majestic while you're running. This is all the huts around, and the youngsters... burying you, completely destroying you barefoot because they've got no shoes. That's a great parkrun. And then the one that I call the Monaco Grand Prix of parkruns is Century City in Cape Town. Don't tell Paul and Tom and Nick and the guys, but part of it runs straight through the shops. It's the only way they can get that. So they open the door. So it's exactly like Monaco. So you run alongside the, it's like the Rascasse and everything that you get in the Monaco Grand Prix. You run alongside these yachts and then you're running alongside a canal and over a bridge underneath you there's people paddling because there's a lot of great paddlers in South Africa and they're training. And then in order to get from the one section to the other, you've actually got to dive through the shopping center. So they open the doors and you run through the shopping center. And as you run past, the people are sitting on the left-hand side having breakfast. So as you run past, you say, listen, 15 minutes, I'll be back here. Order me a cappuccino. See you now. I love that one.

00:26:57Scott Trickett: Yeah, that's pretty unique. I haven't heard of that before.

00:27:00Bruce Fordyce: Yeah, we've got some really wonderful... The one I mentioned, Springbok, it's up in the Northern Cape, which is kind of semi-desert. We've got quiver trees, and if you go there in October, September, October, all the Namaqualand flowers are out, and it's just a riot of color. It's absolutely beautiful. If you run Fort Trekker Monument parkrun in Pretoria right this Saturday, it goes up a steep hill and you look down and because of our jacaranda trees, the whole of Pretoria is just mauve. It's completely purple with all these trees have turned purple. So that's also a gorgeous idea. And then we've got Route 44, which is through a vineyard. That's a fabulous parkrun. But, you know, they're all close to my heart. They're beautiful. They're really great. Mofolo Park in Soweto, that's an iconic run. Not the prettiest. South Africans have a national sport called littering. So you can run through quite a lot of litter. But it's just, it's Mofolo Park and it's right in the center of Soweto. So it's a very iconic parkrun that's also great.

00:28:07Scott Trickett: You're getting me all excited, Bruce. Mel and I have talked about doing a parkrun adventures tour. I think our first tour has to be to South Africa.

00:28:15Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I'm pretty keen.

00:28:18Bruce Fordyce: Let us know when you're coming and then you've got to do a week in Kruger because then you can do a parkrun either side on the Saturday.

00:28:26Melissa Erbacher: And who doesn't want to dodge hippopotami?

00:28:29Bruce Fordyce: Yeah, yeah. Look, that's so rare. But, you know, animals and nature are part of South African parkruns as I'm sure they are in parts of Australia, you know, I'm sure. Our favorite one, by the way, I can tell you this story. It's a divine story. I'm I'm going to forget the actual name of the English parkrun, so they mustn't sue me. But it was something like Huddersfield. And it was the middle of December. And we were starting our Nkomazi parkrun, which is just outside Kruger Park in this township called Nkomazi, as I said, bordering on the Mozambique border. And we were just picking up the various tweets and messages coming through. And so we got this message from Huddersfield that arrived and said, come on, everybody. It's a beautiful winter's morning. It's only minus five. And there's no black ice. There's no black ice. So it's safe the whole way around. And somebody thinks they saw a badger. So we replied. So we instantly had to reply. Come on, everybody. It's the opening of Inkumazi parkrun. It's plus 35 degrees. And we're going to have to delay the start because several of us are held up by three lions lying in the road. And we got a rude message back from Huddersfield. This is a family program because I can't tell you what they said to us.

00:29:23[laughter]

00:29:58Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, but badgers are gorgeous.

00:30:01Bruce Fordyce: No, of course they are. And by the way, the lions, I don't want you to suddenly think the risk assessment must be interesting. At Nkomazi, the lions were in the Kruger Park, but because people had come down to lots of South Africans, we have a huge number of tourists that I can chat about. The tourists travel around doing as many different parkruns as they can. And so when Nkomazi was starting, a lot of them booked into the various lodges and camps in the Kruger Park so that they could drive through, do the parkrun, and then go back into the park. And they couldn't get out of the Kruger Park because there was a pride of lions lying across the road, and they were messaging us desperately. Please hold up the start. Please. You also can't jump out your car and tell the lions to move.

00:30:41Melissa Erbacher: I have to ask, is it somebody's job to go check the course for hippopotami and other such animals that have come out of the park? Or does somebody drive around to do that? Or is somebody out there on foot?

00:30:56Bruce Fordyce: You know, I'm really exaggerating, so I don't want you to think that that's a common occurrence. That would be something that would happen. Once in a blue moon, you know. So all our parkruns have been chosen to be safe.

00:31:09Melissa Erbacher: Okay. I have a thing about large animals that can eat me. And I'm not a fast runner.

00:31:17Bruce Fordyce: No, there's nothing that's going to eat you. I won't mention the Mozambican spitting cobra.

00:31:26Melissa Erbacher: Snakes I can deal with.

00:31:28Bruce Fordyce: I've seen photographs of snakes at some of your parks. In fact, when we did Main Beach, my wife, Jill, came around the corner and there was a very large, very long brown snake lying there.

00:31:39Melissa Erbacher: Yes, we've had eastern browns on my home parkrun. And we've actually also had a snake attack a dog that was parkrunning as well. So these things happen.

00:31:51Bruce Fordyce: And they've got badgers. No, in fact, they've got deer. When I ran Richmond parkrun, which is another one I love, Have you ever seen Fenton the Dog? Go and Google Fenton the Dog. It's about a dog who, it's a real, really, really happened, who tried to herd all the deer in Richmond Park.

00:32:12Melissa Erbacher: Oh, I have seen that, that YouTube video. And his owner is calling out to him and he just never came back.

00:32:20Bruce Fordyce: Yeah, yeah, YouTube, but not Google. Yeah, so Fenton. So now you know what I'm talking about. And the poor owner's going hysterical because Fenton's is herding all the deer and pushing them onto the main motorway. He's desperately trying to get Fenton. Fenton's a sheepdog, so Fenton's doing what he's been bred to do. And he's looking at the deer's heels and getting them all to be in a neat little group, all 150 of them, and then herd them across the highway. So I was running Richmond parkrun and doing it seriously. Once you get into the older age categories, the competition can be quite intense. The moment I see another balding, gray-headed guy, there's no way I'm going to let him go past me. We've got a group of about five or six of us hurtling along as fast as we can in our age category. Suddenly, right through the middle of us, five deer just went bounding right through the middle of us. If they'd hit one of us, they'd have knocked us out. And anyway, everyone said, watch out, look out, look out. And then we carried on racing. And suddenly it came back into my mind. How am I going to get rid of these guys who I'm racing with? So I just shouted out, Fenton! Fenton! And they all started laughing so much that I got away from them because they couldn't breathe. They were laughing so much.

00:33:33Melissa Erbacher: Well played.

00:33:34Bruce Fordyce: Yeah, great. I'm cunning.

00:33:38Scott Trickett: Hey, Bruce, before we let you go, it's your birthday this weekend. What are the plans for your 5th?

00:33:44Bruce Fordyce: No, 3rd of December.

00:33:46Scott Trickett: Oh, third of December.

00:33:47Bruce Fordyce: Oh, my birthday. Sorry, you see I'm being so selfish. Oh, yes, it's parkrun South Africa's birthday. Absolutely. On my birthday, I'm going to go, it's a Saturday, I'm going to go and visit one of our parkruns that's within range from Johannesburg with something just to go and do one of the ones we haven't done before. No, we're having a birthday party with a cake and a few of our sponsors will be there and we are overcome with a sense of dread because we have a feeling that there's going to be a very large turnout. And you touched on it, you know, it's not all about size. And, yeah, it could be quite a big one at Delta Park. But the birthday will also be marked and noted at all our other parkruns, obviously. But they tend to save their own celebrations for their own individual birthdays.

00:34:40Scott Trickett: Well, I hope you can still enjoy it with masses and masses of South African parkrunners this Saturday.

00:34:47Bruce Fordyce: Oh, yeah. We get lots of visitors, too, and we love seeing them. And we love welcoming them to our parkruns. Johannesburg parkrun is tough, by the way. We have hills and we have another ingredient called high altitude. So you suddenly notice that your heart is banging away inside your chest and you're going nowhere. That's because it's high altitude and thinner oxygen. Our parkruns in Jo'burg are quite hard.

00:35:14Scott Trickett: Well, that sounds perfect for me, right up my alley. So I can't wait. After speaking to you, we're definitely putting South Africa on the list to visit.

00:35:24Bruce Fordyce: No, you must. So when you're coming.

00:35:26Scott Trickett: Thanks for joining us on the pod this week, and happy birthday for Saturday.

00:35:29[music]

00:35:29Bruce Fordyce: Yeah, and good luck in the second too.

00:35:50Melissa Erbacher: A gentleman who's just been on some wonderful adventures to South Africa is now joining us on the pod. You will recognise his voice. He's been here before. Welcome back to the parkrun Adventurers, Robbo.

00:36:05Dave Robbo: Thank you very much, guys. G'day, Mel. G'day, Scott. And g'day, listeners. And great to be back on the show. Thanks for having me.

00:36:12Scott Trickett: And back on Australian soil. Tell us all about your trip to South Africa. What did you get up to?

00:36:18Dave Robbo: Thanks, mate. Yeah. Australian soil and almost back on the Australian eastern daylight saving time zone as well. But yeah, went out to South Africa for a three-week family holiday, Scotty, and it was a fantastic time. I've enjoyed a few trips over there. My wife, Gabby, her sister, actually lives in Cape Town. She's been there for well over 10 years, and so we've enjoyed a few trips over there and enjoyed a few running adventures along the way, but took our young Daughters over there this time. Grace is four and Emma's coming up to two. So it was a bit of a different trip with a couple of young girls in tow. But still got time to get around to some different runs. And, yes, snuck a couple of parkrun adventures in over there in South Africa, which was fantastic. So really enjoyed the trip. It's probably not a popular or overly popular travel destination for a lot of Aussies. And I guess a lot of people are security conscious there. But I've got to say, it's a beautiful country. The Rainbow Nation, there's plenty of colour and activity. And Cape Town in particular is a stunning city. And yeah, the South Africans, as you'll know from speaking to other guests on this week's show, I believe, are just running mad. And so it's great to see the way they've embraced parkrun. And it was great to get a little taste of that while we were there.

00:37:37Scott Trickett: Well, Bruce has just gone through all the parkruns in South Africa. They all sound great. Which ones did you get to?

00:37:45Dave Robbo: Yeah, mate. So I was running a different trail event on the first Saturday we were there on the garden route called the Otter Trail. That was an undertaking that was pretty serious in another way. It was about eight and a bit parkruns that one. So unfortunately, I missed the parkrun day that day. But we got back to Cape Town and we headed down to Greenpoint parkrun, which is a very central location down there under the shadows of Cape Town Stadium, the stadium that was built for the 2010 Football World Cup. And funnily enough, I'm claiming this one a little bit, guys, because on our previous trip to South Africa in 2012, Gabby and I ran around Greenpoint Park with Gab's sister, Bec, and I tweeted in jest at the time and tagged in PSH and Bruce. saying I've just run the course for the proposed Greenpoint parkrun. Well, in my opinion anyway. And anyway, a few years later on, they actually did kick off a parkrun in that exact location. So I had to go and do that one and it felt like I had a little tiny 2% of something to do with getting that one up and going. But it's taken off and we were in the, I've got to say, the flogging down rain. It's one of those classic situations where the crowd assembled. We had our first time as briefing. It was some light drizzle. It was coming in sideways, a lot of wind. And then right before the gun goes, it absolutely pelted down. When no one can go anywhere, you've got everyone there. They can't run away. And all you can do is just suck it up. So within the first few minutes, everyone was soaking wet. But that just adds to the fun of it and adds to the adventure of it. And yeah, it's a flat course, a fast course. And unfortunately, the scenery of Table Mountain and the other surrounding mountains around the place weren't Wide as clear as they might be on a sunny, clear day, but still a great course nonetheless. And I pushed the pram around. My daughter Grace was in the pram. We were lucky enough to be, I think, the first pram finishers on the day, the pram pushers. So we held up the flag for the Aussie pram pushers at Greenpoint parkrun.

00:39:47Melissa Erbacher: Did you introduce yourself to the Greenpoint parkrun ED and tell him the story about how you're responsible for his parkrun?

00:39:54Dave Robbo: We didn't have a direct discussion on the day. He was a bit flat out and I did offer to help out. with some volunteering if needed as uh after we got scanned but yeah just because it was really weird and things were a little bit hectic with the weather didn't eventuate to have a face-to-face conversation but i did drop the hint a few times on social media on their facebook page and on their twitter account as well so i think they got the message and um yeah hopefully they could enjoy the fact that these mad aussies were out here and felt like they had something to do with the event. So, yeah, one of the big things I'm blown away by, and I guess not that surprised, I should say, but even in that rain, in what would be described as pretty miserable, challenging conditions, there was the best part of 600 or 700 runners there, and they get 800, 900, even 1,000 runners some weeks at that event. I think it was its 161st event. So it's an established event in Cape Town, obviously nice and flat and fast and very central, and right in the middle of town. So, yeah, that was a good one to do. And then the following Saturday, just before getting on a flight to Joburg, before we came home, managed to sneak in a very different South African parkrun experience out at a parkrun called Durbanville Hills parkrun. Now, that's set at the beautiful Meerendal Wine Estate. And they do wineries very nicely over there in South Africa and especially around Cape Town and out towards Stellenbosch. And they've set up a number of parkruns on these locations. So it was my first ever parkrun adventure at a winery. Haven't done Sirromet here in Australia yet. So this was to be my first one. And yeah, very much off road, very much a lumpy course up and down and in and around all the vineyards. They had to actually set us up on an alternate route. And yeah, I ran around, actually had the phone with me that day and did a few little videos along the way. Had the lead bike out there, got a few selfies with him. and managed to even bag an Aussie first finish at that event too. So I'm claiming the B course course record, and that might stand for a little while unless they have someone come along and take it out on another day when they do that alternate course. But, yeah, a lot of fun there. Unfortunately, we didn't get to stick around and taste the beautiful South African wines afterwards because we had to bolt to the airport. But another great adventure. And, again, you know, 600 or 700 runners easily attending that event On an average Saturday morning, nothing too spectacular to be celebrating, but just strong numbers and great to see so many runners and walkers of all abilities and all ages turning up. And they've certainly got the parkrun bug in South Africa, that's for sure.

00:42:35Melissa Erbacher: Nice work. Now, you mentioned that the first weekend you were there, you didn't do a parkrun because you had another event, your otter run. Obviously, if somebody's going to sacrifice a parkrun, it's got to be for something good. This one looks pretty grueling to me. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

00:42:56Dave Robbo: Yeah, well, fortunately or unfortunately, I jagged an entry through my sister-in-law who lined it up many, many months ago. And I jumped at the opportunity, not really knowing a hell of a lot about the event. And a month to go, I thought, I better just suss this out. And yeah, I was sort of hearing a little bit of research that was telling me this was a pretty serious undertaking. It's an amazing trail, guys. So it's called the Otter Trail. It's actually a hiking trail. And in South Africa, if you want to get on there and actually hike it, it's a five-day hike. There's set huts along the way that you stay in. And there's actually a waiting list. And you go on that and you can wait for up to a year to get approved to actually get your crack at trying to hike the Otter Trail. So it's very, very famous and very prestigious, I guess. And it's known just for how tough it is as well. So a couple of days a year, they've been running this event now for about eight years and they have a trail running event. And the runners of South Africa are lucky enough to come and actually run on this pretty sacred and hallowed trail there on the beautiful coastline on the Garden Route. So it's pretty dramatic. It's very, very scenic, I've got to say. It's a bit hairy in places. You're running along on some single track and, you know, three metres to the right, you can be falling off a cliff. some 80 metres down into the Indian Ocean. So, yeah, you know, it's interesting to see not a lot of the safety concerns that we probably have here in Australia where you'd have barriers and ropes and things to protect people there. And I was chatting to a few of the locals. They said, hey, this is Africa. That's the way we roll. If you don't like it, you know, don't enter it. So, you know, it was a bit of rock climbing at times. There was a creek crossing and just more stairs than I could begin to count. I think over 7,000 upstairs, and that again coming back down too. So for those that like their elevation stats, I think a bit over 2,600 total metres of elevation. So by halfway, 20-odd k's. The whole thing's about 40, 42 k's. By halfway, it was easily the hardest thing I'd ever done, and I just had to find something inside me to keep going. But, yeah, it just kept being, I guess – awestruck by the beauty and the scenery of the place and it felt a bit rude to actually be running through it you wanted to sort of stop and have a picnic and enjoy the scenery at all these different places which due to a bit of cramp i was actually forced to do which was in a way quite nice but um yeah for the event that i did there was an eight hour cut off i scraped through in i think seven hours 54 so um just getting under the the cut off and bagging that metal so yeah it was it was an amazing experience and not an experience i think many aussies have done so hopefully Some of the listeners to the pod today are hearing this and might get interested. Check it out. It's the Otter African Trail Run. And yeah, on each year. So I definitely think it's one for Aussie trail enthusiasts to check out and get amongst.

00:46:00Scott Trickett: Sounds tough. If you did it in seven hours, you're a handy runner. You mentioned, I know you mentioned the safety of the trail, but what about the safety of holidaying around South Africa? I think that might put a few people off. It obviously didn't put you guys off.

00:46:17Dave Robbo: No, and look, Scotty, we were lucky to be there and we had everything laid out for us with my wife's sister who, as I say, has lived there for a number of years and her partner as well to sort of steer us around and make sure we're staying in the right areas, especially around Cape Town. I think it's like any big city. You can find trouble and you can find some less desirable parts of town in any probably big city, but Yeah, you know, the whole time we were there, we had two young girls there with us and our daughters and, you know, didn't feel unsafe at all. And it's probably something that, yeah, holds a lot of Aussie travellers back from going over to South Africa. But, yeah, you know, it just literally, it could be an extension of Australia at times. Some of the countryside is very similar. They've even, you know, even got a lot of, eucalyptus trees there. It's similar climate. It's a similar outlook on life. There's a number of social challenges as we face here in Australia as well. But yeah, on the whole, very safe experience and one that we look back fondly and our daughters look back on fondly as well. And they've come back with, that's the first time they've done that sort of travel and they've come back with a whole newfound confidence and And I think they want to move back there. That's how much they loved it. They were spoiled by their auntie the whole time. But no, they fell in love with the place and the people were very friendly and a bit of a novelty to have the Aussies over there. But yeah, I get your point definitely, Scotty, and probably why they haven't seen more Aussies particularly maybe in that event. Yeah, I guess I'd love to sort of, by sharing discussions around the event and our experience there, hopefully get a few Aussies keen. The exchange rate, as much as anything, is a good reason to get over there. It's pretty healthy for the Aussie dollar at the moment. Unfortunately, the South African rand isn't all that strong, but it's great for Aussie travellers if you want to head over there. So, yeah, a lot of positive things to say about a trip to South Africa.

00:48:19Scott Trickett: Well, stay tuned for the parkrun Adventurers South African tour bus we're going to put together. Perfect. Now let's bring it back to Australia. Over the weekend, Nitro Athletics was launched. You're a big athletics guy. What's your feelings about this new endeavour that AIA came into?

00:48:38Dave Robbo: Yeah, this was an interesting one, Scotty, and it's been brewing for a little while. Athletics Australia has hinted that they've been angling towards this new, exciting format of track and field and I guess likening it to a 2020 cricket style of athletics, short and sharp and fast and exciting. And my take on it, Scotty, it's a bit like if some listeners might remember back in the day, it's a knockout. It used to come up on a Friday night, I think, and they might have shown reruns on a Saturday morning at one point, pitting state against state. So, you know, they're going to look to have a team-based competition, men and women. They're going to have able-bodied athletes. They're going to have Paralympic athletes in there as well. and have a real mixture, but have some marquee athletes there as well. And they've gone straight to the top and have somehow lured, I think there's a little bit of cash involved and a bit of sponsorship dollars, but they've lured Usain Bolt, none other than the great Usain Bolt, to come and be the figure, the face of this Nitro Athletics. And he's vowed that he'll be here coaching one of the teams and leading the charge and and competing as well. So we're going to see Usain Bolt for three nights in Melbourne in February on a Saturday, a Thursday and a Saturday. The format is a bit unknown at this stage. They're talking about a few sort of, you know, variations on traditional athletics events, 150 metres, 300 metres, some hurdle relays, various sort of fun, interesting plays on traditional athletics. And yeah, they're trying to really breathe a fresh breath of air into the sport here in Australia and, Who better to help with doing that than getting a fellow called Usain Bolt, who's still at the peak of his powers. It won't be him in his prime in terms of preparation for the season, but still he's looking to come out and inject his brand into the sport. It's going to be great, I think, for athletics in Australia. Interestingly enough, at Lakeside Stadium in Melbourne, where the event will be held, Albert Park is nearby, as we know. Albert parkrun on the Saturday mornings can we get Usain Bolt to a parkrun or at least scanning the barcodes I'm on a bit of a personal mission to try and get Usain parkrun and barcode compliant and he might be able to set some free 5k's up in Kingston and Jamaica at some point so that's the big game for me that I see with this one Scotty Do you reckon Usain can run 5k? It's only, what is it, 500 lots of 100 metres? Or 50 times 100 metres, I should say. It's only 50 reps. So, you know, if you give him a bit of a rest in between, what's 50 times 9 seconds, 10 seconds? It wouldn't take him too long, even with a bit of a rest in between. So, look, I don't know if he's run a lot more than a full-blooded lap of the track. But, you know, like a lot of people out there, They didn't know they were a parkrunner until they did a few of them, and they fell in love with it. So maybe his real calling is over the 5K, and he just hasn't tried it. I think he's an athletic guy. He'd have no troubles managing the 5K. And if it was a little bit too much for him, well, of course, we could get him on the funnel, managing the funnel, or, of course, scanning those barcodes. I think he'd go pretty well with that.

00:52:09Scott Trickett: Well, he's finished his sprinting career, so this could be the next evolution. Over the Bolt machine, the 5k.

00:52:16Dave Robbo: Perfect.

00:52:17Scott Trickett: World domination of parkruns.

00:52:19Melissa Erbacher: Robbo, you mentioned relay hurdles. Is that already a thing?

00:52:25Dave Robbo: Look, I've never witnessed it and I've never taken part in it. I believe there's a thing called a shuttle hurdle relay. So that's hurdles in a straight line, back and forward, back and forward. I don't exactly know how that works.

00:52:39Melissa Erbacher: Do they have to carry a baton? Because I reckon, you know, people could be taking down the hurdles with batons because they're an extension of your arms and that just must throw you completely off.

00:52:51Dave Robbo: I can't really comment with that much authority on it, sorry, Mel. The other one I thought they were alluding to was more your 400 metre hurdle relay as well. So... a bit more like a traditional 4x400 relay, but with the hurdles to overcome. But yeah, you're right. It's hard enough thinking about jumping over those high hurdles, let alone having to carry and control a relay baton at the same time. So who knows? It just might be part of this approach of trying to make it all a bit interesting and a bit curious and exciting. So we'll wait and see exactly the details of what's going to come out. But yeah, that's one thing I'm told is on the schedule is hurdle relay. So we'll see what comes of it. I'll be egg and spoon relays next. You never know.

00:53:34Scott Trickett: I think it all sounds like fun. I'm looking forward to see what they come up with. Thanks for coming on and sharing your adventures with us again, Robbo.

00:53:41Dave Robbo: Absolute pleasure, guys. Thanks for the opportunity. And happy adventuring, all the listeners out there. And you guys keep up the good work, and we'll catch up with you again soon.

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

00:54:00Melissa Erbacher: We've got one launch coming up this weekend, and it's another New South Walian event. We've got Nepean River launching on Saturday.

00:54:09Scott Trickett: And we have three anniversaries. So you may or may not find cake at Diamond Creek for their third, Geograph Bay for their second, and Launceston celebrating their fourth. Will you be at any of them, Mel?

00:54:27Melissa Erbacher: Not this weekend, no. None of those say Queensland, so I won't be anywhere there. It's been a while since I had a bit of an interstate adventure though, so I should probably get another one of those on the books soon.

Club Corner

00:54:40[music]

00:54:40Scott Trickett: Let's go interstate for Club Corner! For Club Corner this week, we're going to go fast because red is synonymous with 5.30 runners and red is synonymous with going fast. I'm not sure if that quite works, but welcome to Club Corner, Matt Raschke.

00:55:05Matt Raschke: Hey, thanks, Scott.

00:55:06Scott Trickett: So tell us the history behind 5.30s. What does 5.30 stand for?

00:55:13Matt Raschke: Well, 5.30 runners stand for helping people achieve a goal of running five kilometres in 30 minutes. because we believe it's something that most people, if they put their mind to it, could actually achieve. And it kicked off in about September 2012 at Newey parkrun when Dave Robbo and Gary Wells got together and were having a chat about how we could be a bit more inclusive about helping people at the back of the pack or walkers wanting to start running or people doing couch to 5K, how you could help them feel more part of it and not feel overawed by all those elite runners at the front of the pack. So that's where they got the name, 5.30 and 5.30 runners. It doesn't mean get up at 5.30 and go for a run, although many do. But yeah, 5.30 runners. Let's run 5Ks in 30 minutes.

00:56:00Scott Trickett: So what happens when you can run 5K in 30 minutes? Are you kicked out of the club?

00:56:03Matt Raschke: Well, it's funny. Yeah, it's funny, you know. We have 5.30 runners who run 5Ks in under 18 minutes and we have 5.30 runners... who are walking parkrun in an hour with no desire to ever run in 30 minutes, but they all proudly wear the shirt. We do have members in the group who will not get themselves any of our merchandise until they've achieved that goal of going under 30 minutes for their five kilometres. They see that as sort of a badge of honour, but we happily push the kit, push the merchandise to people, help them feel part of the group wherever they go, where they travel for parkrun. And it's very, it stands out. And, you know, when you go, I turned up at Albury Wodonga parkrun one day, and there was a local 530 runner there. I talked on Facebook. I'd never met her. Went up and had a chat, and now we're part of a family. It works well on that front.

00:56:53Melissa Erbacher: Do you know roughly how many members you have in the club, Matt?

00:56:57Matt Raschke: I actually did my homework after I talked to Scott earlier. I knew it was over 1,500. We actually have, as of today, and it grows every day, about 1,718, as of this afternoon, members. Now, about 70% of those would be in a sort of wider Hunter area in Newcastle. But we also have a large group in Warwick, Queensland and in Brisbane and a small but dedicated group down in Geelong and others spread out. We even have a member in California and we have one in the UK. So, you know, we're everywhere.

00:57:30Melissa Erbacher: And do you have a Facebook group where you, you know, all meet to share your 530 stories?

00:57:37Matt Raschke: we definitely do and that's really what that's really what 530 runners is all about it's a it is a social media thing it is it is facebook we have a group and and it is a it is a group that you can you can ask to join and we um as long as you're a real human being not a robot and you know you're obviously interested in running we'll we'll include you in the group because many people use 530 runners as a way to meet people and to go to social gatherings But a lot of other people, they just use it for advice for running, help, motivation, support, that sort of stuff online. So we have members who don't live anywhere near a parkrun, but this is their way of connecting with other runners, and they love that. Yet others go every week at the same time on the same day, sometimes at 5.30 in the morning, and they'll have a running group. They're a little splinter. We call them splinter groups or tribes that are sort of cropping up all over the place. But 5.30 is what bands them together.

00:58:32Melissa Erbacher: One of the things I do love about running clubs that have merch is that you are easily identifiable, which means that other people can just cheer you on at various running events, wherever you are, you know, and they know that they're cheering for you. Was that part of the motivation of getting that started?

00:58:51Matt Raschke: Oh, for sure. And I can remember when it first started, I wasn't part of it in the beginning, and I was one of those people that thought, well, I'm running five kilometres in 21, 22 minutes. Why would I want to be in that group? But I saw them having so much fun. So I went over one day and just spoke to Gary and said, what's it all about, mate? And that's what happens. Typically, people who aren't part of it will see the camaraderie and they'll come over and say, hey, what's this all about? And then sooner or later, they buy a singlet and away they go. So, yeah, it's a big part of it. The kit is a very big part of it.

00:59:22Scott Trickett: Certainly stands out. I always see one at pretty much every parkrun I do now. How do you guys use parkrun now with the 5.30 runners?

00:59:32Matt Raschke: I'll give you a really good example of how that works. On a Saturday morning, usually on a Friday night, Friday afternoon, anytime around 4 o'clock Friday on, which probably people at work wrapping up for the week or whether they've gone home and they go, they'll post and say, okay, where are we parkrunning tomorrow? And Within an hour, you'll see over 100 responses to that. And it's all over the country. So it is, and people go, oh, you know, this parkrunner's having their third birthday and someone's putting on cake. Let's go and meet there. Oh, this person's doing their 50th or their 100th run. So a lot of runners will go simply to provide support to either a person or to a parkrunner. So parkrun really is the glue that bonds this group together. Even though there are people in the locations that don't do parkruns, it really is the glue that bonds us.

01:00:20Scott Trickett: Now, I'm going to veer from the script a little bit here, from our Club Corner script, because I know you love adventuring. You're high up on the most events table. Someone who's done a lot, give us your top three parkruns.

01:00:33Matt Raschke: Yeah, okay. That's a really, really good one. You know, it does actually change for me. But being a trail runner, I'd have to put... The top one for me would be Nambour because of just its sheer toughness and the fact that it... It truly is trail. I find that a really big challenge. I love Albert Park, even though I've only run it as a parkrun event once. I just think that lap around the lake with the backdrop of the city buildings, it's just beautiful. That's just a fantastic parkrun. My third one, you know, it's a funny one. It's sort of a bit out of the box, Taree parkrun. I think that's an absolutely beautiful stretch of river there, the Manning River at Taree. And it's a two lapper, so you can actually see the ridge and you know you're running down to that and then back twice. But I could name another six a lot like that one, but those three really are big for me. I didn't even include the one I helped create, which is Blackbutt. But it'll always be in my top five or six. But yeah, as a traveller, part of what I love about it is travelling to that parkrun. So I don't have to travel to Blackbutt, it's around the corner.

01:01:45Scott Trickett: I like Taree. We haven't heard about Taree. So...

01:01:49Matt Raschke: Good to hear. It's a cracker. Well, it's a real river. It's not like a creek like a lot of Australian rivers. It's a really big, wide river. You get a feeling it's a bit like the Mississippi or the Amazon. It's a really big, wide river. I think it's really impressive. As a kid, we used to stop there. We'd leave to go north for holiday, and we'd stop there and get something to eat after two hours leaving Newcastle. So it has fond memories to me anyway. I get to fill my stomach. But, yeah, it's a lovely run. Going back there in a couple of weeks.

01:02:18Scott Trickett: Thanks for coming on Club Corner and telling us all about 5.30 this week.

01:02:23Matt Raschke: Thanks for having me on board. Appreciate it. Happy travels.

01:02:32Scott Trickett: Is that quickly becoming your favourite segment, Mel?

01:02:35Melissa Erbacher: I'm really enjoying it. I love learning about the clubs because I do think they're a very important part of the parkrun experience and I love that we can share that with everybody.

01:02:44Scott Trickett: And are you on board the parkrun Adventures tour bus? If we get this up and going.

01:02:50Melissa Erbacher: Who are you asking? I'm asking you. You are asking one of the parkrun Adventurers if I'm up for an adventure. I'm slightly offended that you even need to vocalize that question.

01:03:02Scott Trickett: Are you happy with South Africa as our first destination?

01:03:06Melissa Erbacher: Hell yes. Let's do it. Let's go to SA.

01:03:09Scott Trickett: Do you reckon any of our listeners will join us?

01:03:12Melissa Erbacher: I think there might be one or two who would put their hand up and say, yep, they're ready for an adventure.

01:03:17Scott Trickett: Okay. Start saving now, people.

01:03:19Melissa Erbacher: Because we're going to have to.

01:03:20Scott Trickett: Yeah.

01:03:22Melissa Erbacher: It'll be a while before we're able to afford to get there. But this is your notice. This is everybody's notice. Start putting those pennies away.

01:03:30Scott Trickett: South Africa. South Africa, here we come. Mel, thanks for joining us, joining me this week.

01:03:37Melissa Erbacher: You're welcome, Scotty.

01:03:39Dave Robbo: One of my favorite episodes.

01:03:41Scott Trickett: But it's time to say goodbye.

01:03:43Melissa Erbacher: How do they say goodbye in Afrikaans?

01:03:47Scott Trickett: Good to boy. I'm pretty sure that's not it. Any interest in the cricket?

01:03:53Melissa Erbacher: That's the one with the red ball, right?

01:03:56Scott Trickett: Well, I think they have a white one too. Pink one?

01:04:00Melissa Erbacher: I can't keep up with these things.

01:04:02Scott Trickett: I think there's a pink ball now.

01:04:04Melissa Erbacher: Why would there be a pink ball?

01:04:05Scott Trickett: I think they do a short version where it's all dancing girls and rah-rah music.

01:04:12Melissa Erbacher: Are you sure you've got the right sport?

01:04:14Scott Trickett: I think so.

01:04:16Melissa Erbacher: Okay. I'll take your word for it.

01:04:20Scott Trickett: Okay. So during the week, start saving for the South Africa tour and learn a bit more about cricket. Now you can say goodbye.

01:04:28Melissa Erbacher: You really just want to prompt me every week, don't you? I have to say the G word. Goodbye.