Episode 46

Episode details · 263 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:12Scott Trickett: And we're back for another edition of the parkrun Adventurers podcast, episode 46. My name is Scott Trickett. I'm joined by Mel. Hi, Mel.

00:00:22Melissa Erbacher: Hey, Scotty. How are you doing?

00:00:26Scott Trickett: How am I doing this week? I'm doing pretty good this week.

00:00:29Melissa Erbacher: Well, I'm glad you answered me honestly. You took some time to think about that.

00:00:33Scott Trickett: Now, have you done your homework from last week?

00:00:37Melissa Erbacher: Remind me what it was?

00:00:40Scott Trickett: I've got a quick couple of questions about cricket.

00:00:43Melissa Erbacher: Oh, crap. What was my homework?

00:00:46Scott Trickett: We were going to study up on cricket, so next time we have Bruce on, we'll impress him with our cricket knowledge.

00:00:54Melissa Erbacher: But he's not back this episode.

00:00:56Scott Trickett: No, he's not. But what about when we go on tour?

00:01:01Melissa Erbacher: Okay, yes, it will be important by then. But you know what? I'm pretty sure that we're entering the cricket season soon. Aren't we? Like with the summertime coming? Okay. Well, so I've got plenty of time and I'm sure I'll have heaps of opportunities to sit bored in front of a television screen for several hours looking at green stuff with little white men dotted about. Or men in white, I should say.

00:01:24Scott Trickett: So I'll give you a few more weeks.

00:01:27Melissa Erbacher: Thank you. I appreciate it.

00:01:29Scott Trickett: Should we listen to some news?

00:01:31Melissa Erbacher: I think we shall.

parkrun news bulletin

00:01:32[music]

00:01:32Scott Trickett: This is where we usually put the news. So let's go with the news. The weather outside is frightful, if you parkrun in certain parts of Russia, that is. parkrunners enjoyed a balmy minus 31 degrees Celsius at Shebelinsk on parkrun day. Pics shared of some of their volunteers illustrated this temperature with icicles on eyebrows. If you prefer a part of the country that's a little warmer, you could try Moscow, who checked in at a tropical two and a half degrees Celsius.

00:02:07Melissa Erbacher: The inaugural IAU 24-hour Asia and Oceania Championship took place in Kaohsiung on November 19th and 20th. 84 open race runners from eight countries ran the 24-hour event and parkrun Australia was well represented with John Pearson from Noosa, Nikki Wind from Berwick Springs and Sharon Schultz from Wangaratta taking podium honours.

00:02:32Scott Trickett: City to Sea took place in Melbourne on Sunday. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Victorian parkrunners pounded the pavements or cheered friends over the 15k course, enjoying the familiar voices of Dave Robertson and Silas Moss.

00:02:47Melissa Erbacher: parkrun events across the world are embracing the Mannequin Challenge. Valley, City Park, South Manchester, Stormont and Beehive Juniors in the UK celebrated Mount Barker in Australia and parkrun Gdansk Poludnie in Poland are among the events having a crack at not moving. Get online to check out the great videos.

00:03:12Scott Trickett: Now Mel, did you get trapped in a YouTube vortex googling mannequin videos?

00:03:19Melissa Erbacher: I may have got a little bit sucked in, yes. They're great. Have you seen any of them?

00:03:24Scott Trickett: I've seen a couple. Our old mate PK shared with us his version from, or Mount Barker's version.

00:03:30Melissa Erbacher: Yes, well, that's where I first heard about them. And I thought, ooh, that's interesting. I wonder if it's been done anywhere else. And then, wow, they're all over the place.

00:03:39Scott Trickett: So how long before we see it at Kawana?

00:03:42Melissa Erbacher: It might be a few weeks, but I think it's definitely something I need to put on the agenda. What's the point of having a hubby who does video production if you can't get him to bring the toys out to play at Kawana sometimes?

00:03:55Scott Trickett: The standard's pretty high in some of those videos.

00:03:58Melissa Erbacher: Yeah.

00:03:58Scott Trickett: So the pressure is on, Adam.

00:04:01Melissa Erbacher: I think it's less about the videographer and more about how good the parkrunners are at being the mannequins. Like some of them are just amazing and it doesn't matter what angle the guy is looking at or the girl if it's a female camera lady. It doesn't matter about the angle. They're just totally switched on. A couple of the videos do have some dogs that don't seem to understand the concept though. So they're not playing the game properly. But yeah, we'll be on to it. How about you guys? Are you going to get one cracking in Victoria?

00:04:36Scott Trickett: Well, if you set the challenge, if you set the standard, we'll try and match it.

00:04:41Melissa Erbacher: I think this is an adventure that we need to do.

00:04:45Scott Trickett: Look out. Any adventures for you on the weekend? Did you get ahead of me on the most events table?

00:04:53Melissa Erbacher: I didn't this weekend. Yeah, no, I actually split my time between two parkruns on Saturday. So I started my morning at Nambour parkrun because it was their birthday and they had all the festivities and fun of a jungle theme going on. There were some great costumes and Melissa has done a wonderful job of bringing that event together and making a wonderful community there. So kudos to her and it was a great start to the day. And then I skipped over to Kawana for the second half of the morning to support some of my parkrunners over that way. What were you up to on Saturday?

00:05:32Scott Trickett: I had a party. I went to Albert Park, one of our first events in Australia. And they made it to five years.

00:05:40Melissa Erbacher: Five years old.

00:05:42Scott Trickett: Yeah, there's a bit of history once a parkrun event gets to five years old. You know, there's lots of friendships. There's lots of stories to be told. It's a good morning, and I went as a dirty cheetah, my first time in costume with my wonderful daughter, Kasia.

00:06:02Melissa Erbacher: A mini cheetah. Did they have a particular theme? No, it was a retrospect, wasn't it?

00:06:10Scott Trickett: It was a flashback five.

00:06:12Melissa Erbacher: A flashback.

00:06:13Scott Trickett: Which is a great theme, because you could go as anything.

00:06:15Melissa Erbacher: Well, cheetahs flash right past you.

00:06:19Scott Trickett: Yep.

00:06:20Melissa Erbacher: There's your tenuous link.

00:06:22Scott Trickett: Well, I just flashed back to the time that we became cheetahs a few weeks ago.

00:06:26Melissa Erbacher: Oh, okay. Gotcha. That was a big retrospective.

00:06:32Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:06:33Melissa Erbacher: And I understand they released a mascot there as well.

00:06:38Scott Trickett: They did. This is another trend in the parkrun world. Your local parkrun may have its own mascot. And we were introduced to Albert the Swan. at Albert, a very realistic-looking Albert the swan that the local rangers were so concerned when they saw the kids playing with Albert the swan that they rushed over and said, what are you doing with our swans? But no, it was just a stuffed toy swan.

00:07:09Melissa Erbacher: They're troublemakers at Albert, aren't they?

00:07:11Scott Trickett: They can be, yep, yep. Don't talk about the rowers either. My goodness.

00:07:16Melissa Erbacher: Oh, okay. I won't ask.

00:07:18Scott Trickett: Yeah, but it was a great morning, and it's such a beautiful setting. You know, sometimes I wonder why Albert Park is so popular with tourists in Melbourne, because we've got so many different parkruns here in Melbourne. But when you get there, you kind of realize why this is one of the parkruns you'd want to come and see and check out, because the lake, you know, if the morning's beautiful and the wind is down, the lake is a great setting for a parkrun. But you know what I did do?

00:07:48Melissa Erbacher: Tell me.

00:07:49Scott Trickett: I hung up my TD polo on Saturday.

00:07:52Melissa Erbacher: I heard that was on the cards. What are you going to do with all this extra time?

00:07:57Scott Trickett: I'm not sure. I'm looking for things to do. Don't know yet.

00:08:01Melissa Erbacher: Might start another podcast. Maybe.

00:08:03Scott Trickett: Well, maybe the podcast could be a two-hour thing.

00:08:07Melissa Erbacher: You're forgetting that some of us are still territory directors.

00:08:10Scott Trickett: Oh, no, the second hour will just be all me. Oh, okay.

00:08:12Melissa Erbacher: Just talking about... That makes perfect sense. And I'm sure our fans will love it.

00:08:19Scott Trickett: Yeah, that general banter.

00:08:20Melissa Erbacher: More Scott. That's what everyone asks for all the time. More Scotty, please.

00:08:24Scott Trickett: But I'd actually run out of parkrun stuff to talk about. So I'd start mixing in my, you know, I have a life outside of parkrun, you know.

00:08:31Melissa Erbacher: And, you know, your love of NFL.

00:08:33Scott Trickett: Yeah, there's a bit of NFL and basketball. And, you know, I'm a bit of a gamer. I like to play some games every now and then. We could talk about that.

00:08:42Melissa Erbacher: We would have two, possibly three times as many listeners, I think, if you spoke more Scotty. Talk more about yourself. and all these pursuits.

00:08:53Scott Trickett: But, yep, what will I do with myself? Stay tuned.

00:08:58Melissa Erbacher: Was it a little bit sad? You know, you've been a territory director for more than two years.

00:09:04Scott Trickett: Oh, no, no, because it was my decision to step down. I want somebody else to have a go at it. You know, somebody else to have their, what's the word? Just have their go at helping out parkrun in Melbourne.

00:09:20Melissa Erbacher: But even when it's your decision, sometimes moving on from things can be sad. You obviously have no regrets. It's like so long, suckers.

00:09:35Scott Trickett: No, not quite. I have really enjoyed my time. It's a great role to do and that's why I want someone else to do it.

00:09:42Melissa Erbacher: Sharing the love. Well, I'm going to be greedy for a bit longer and keep all the love to myself in my area.

00:09:48Scott Trickett: Keep launching events up there. We need more up there.

00:09:52Melissa Erbacher: Working on it. I've got another one coming in January.

00:09:54Scott Trickett: Very exciting. It's not the 200th.

00:09:57Melissa Erbacher: It is not the 200th because I think we've established on the Facebook page during the week that the 200th will not be taking place in Queensland. But somebody did ask me if you would be there. Since you claim it's going to be in the greater state of Australia. So, will you be attending the 200th parkrun?

00:10:17Scott Trickett: Unfortunately, I won't.

00:10:19Melissa Erbacher: You don't want to give any hints as to why?

00:10:22Scott Trickett: Launchers are busy, man.

00:10:24Melissa Erbacher: You're more a week two kind of guy.

00:10:28Scott Trickett: I am. I'm a week two, three, four kind of guy. You know, lots of people there on launch day and it's a big event. I like a low-key event four kind of feel. Gotcha. Something to do in the new year.

00:10:48Melissa Erbacher: So much to do in the new year. There are not enough weekends for parkruns, in my opinion.

00:10:55Scott Trickett: I was looking up flights to see if I could go somewhere on New Year's Day. Flights are really expensive at that time of year. They really are. To fly in the day before and fly out the day after just doesn't work.

00:11:08Melissa Erbacher: Well, maybe give it a bit more of a buffer around the time frame. I suppose it depends on where you're going to fly. New Year's is probably less expensive than Christmas.

00:11:20Scott Trickett: But this is the year to do it because you can go in for a weekend somewhere.

00:11:25Melissa Erbacher: And get three done.

00:11:26Scott Trickett: Yeah, because we've got Saturday, Sunday. And that's what I was going to do because number one on my wish list.

00:11:32Melissa Erbacher: Is on on one of those days.

00:11:34Scott Trickett: It's on on Saturday, yeah.

00:11:37Melissa Erbacher: Well, that's, you know what, it's probably on every Saturday, Scotty, so you could theoretically do it at any time of the year. But I do get what you're thinking because I'm also looking at flights primarily for the following weekend. But then I realized I had actually taken annual leave from my job for the whole week before that. So technically, I could go somewhere and get five in in another state in the one week.

00:12:05Scott Trickett: You know what we need? We need a sponsor. That'd be cool, wouldn't it? To fly us to different events? Yeah. Come at us, Qantas or even Airbnb. I'll cover the flights. Or just the travel agent company. Come and speak to our people. Do you think we can make that happen?

00:12:22Melissa Erbacher: Well, I think we need to flight people to make that happen because I'm pretty sure we can get accommodation with the parkrun community someplace if we're desperate.

00:12:33Scott Trickett: Airlines, come speak to us.

00:12:36Melissa Erbacher: Do you think we've got any airlines listeners? Yes. Okay, good. Then that should be a very fruitful call out.

00:12:53Scott Trickett: Our next guest is not only President of Athletics Australia, he's the former Minister of Sport, but most importantly, he's a parkrunner at St. Peter's parkrun. Welcome to the podcast, Mark Arbib.

00:13:06Mark Arbib: Great to be here. Thank you.

00:13:08Scott Trickett: Now, Mark, first we're going to talk to you as President of Athletics Australia. Okay. And you're the man behind Nitro, a concept that's got everyone talking in the athletics world.

00:13:19Mark Arbib: Yeah, we're working pretty hard at it. We believe there's a great space in the market for a fast-pitched athletics product similar to the Big Bash League and T20 cricket that'll be faster, more exciting, action-packed and ready-made for... an audience ready made for commercial sponsorship and ready made for TV.

00:13:43Scott Trickett: TV was a big part of the decision. Was there a feeling that athletics needed a bit of a kick along, particularly with some exposure?

00:13:53Mark Arbib: Without doubt. TV is a very critical part of what we're trying to do. If we want to bring in more commercial revenue to the sport and we need more revenue so that we can pay our athletes and we can pay our coaches, we need to have more eyeballs and we need a bigger audience. And athletics has not been on Australian TV screens for close to a decade. So the only time you really get to see it is at the Olympics and you get to see it at the Commonwealth Games. So having a domestic competition on domestic broadcast for us, for a board, for Athletics Australia, was absolutely essential. We want young kids and families to be able to sit down or to come out to the... the track and watch the event, watch the spectacle, or to be able to sit down in their living rooms and look at some of Australia's athletes. And they deserve that attention because they are world class. And we need more people to see that and to understand it.

00:14:52Melissa Erbacher: Mark, you say it's a domestic competition. However, you do have international athletes involved, yes?

00:14:59Mark Arbib: Absolutely. So domestic as in it's happening in Australia, but it's an international team's event. So the big difference here is this is a teams-based form of athletics. There'll be six teams competing for points across three nights. And we've got the Australian team, the Australian track and field team taking part, but also we've got some other incredible countries coming out. So Japan, who did so well at the Olympics in athletics and in the relays, they're coming out. China's sending out a team, one of the most powerful athletic countries in the world. We've got England, so the old rivalry between Australia and England being renewed. England's sending a team. Usain Bolt is bringing his own team, which is, for athletics, a first. The Usain Bolt All-Stars, which is going to be made up of athletes from across the planet, including some Australians. And we've also got New Zealand sending a team, and we know how well New Zealand did in Brazil in the athletics, so they did fantastic, so... It's a teams-based event. We've got six stellar teams, so it's very exciting for us.

00:16:10Melissa Erbacher: And how long exactly has this been in the works? I don't imagine Usain Bolt just signs up for something like this after a party or a barbecue on a Saturday afternoon.

00:16:21Mark Arbib: You are so right. From the Board of Athletics Australia and the people that have been involved as the sort of management, it's been 12 months of hard work. not just getting Usain Bolt to come to the country, and I think we all know the work that John Steffensen has done to make that possible, but also to bring in the Victorian government, who are one of our major partners in providing an investment, a big investment, to make this happen. Kerry Stokes and the Channel 7 Network for their support, their financial support, and Kerry personally for his support. And most people probably don't know, but Kerry is a former sprinter at the Preston's Club. He loves athletics and he really has helped out in a big way over the past 12 months to make this happen. And, you know, there's a large amount of organisation that has to go in and we're doing it in a short timeframe. So, I mean, it's a 12-month lead-up, but we're absolutely doing everything possible to get this in place and tickets go on sale this week. So it's a very important week for Nitro.

00:17:26Scott Trickett: Let's talk about some of the events that we're going to see because that's also what's completely different about this. We're going to have stuff like a hurdle relay. We're going to have long jump pits going at the same time. One event that intrigues me is the three-minute run. I reckon this is a cool idea. Who came up with these events?

00:17:44Mark Arbib: Well, there's a team at the Nitro team and management have spent a fair bit of time talking to coaches, talking to people in the high-performance area, but also working with TV broadcasters and looking at successful events globally, what's working and what we can use. And they've come up with something that is quite unique. So some of the events such as, as you said, in terms of the three-minute run, the 60-meter speed sprint, we've got an elimination mile. And also some of the events that really will be exciting is mixed relay. So mixed 4x100-meter relay to me will be probably one of the key events Medley relay where athletes are doing a 200, a 200, a 400, an 800, and then a mixed 4x400 metre run. So this is really men and women competing against each other as part of teams. You don't see it often, but it's something I think that the audience will love. And if it strikes a chord, you're going to see a lot more of it.

00:18:47Scott Trickett: Have you got an event you're particularly keen on?

00:18:50Mark Arbib: Well, look, as a parkrunner, I think that probably the three-minute run, which would be sort of middle distance, is probably my favourite run. I think that's going to have an appeal. But all of these events, they're going to be so, so fast. So even with Pole Vault and some of the field events, we're giving athletes four attempts, four attempts only, to speed the process up. We all love going out to... I mean, I love going out to watch the track and field, but it's a long day. The objective of Nitro Athletics is to provide a product over two and a half hours, which is ready-made for the audience. It's fast, it's exciting, it's got the big bash feel. One of the things that's going to be interesting is the athletes will be sitting in dugouts with their captains and they're going to be mic'd up and they're going to be talking about the events and the point score and what can be done to try and overtake other countries, which is something you never see in athletics where athletes walk out, compete and then walk back to the dressing room. So it's a big change.

00:19:52Melissa Erbacher: Can I just clarify, Mark? So each team is made up of 24 athletes?

00:19:57Mark Arbib: That's right, 24 athletes, 12 men and 12 women in each of the six teams.

00:20:02Melissa Erbacher: And they aren't all going to be doing... So, for example, Usain Bolt is not also going to be having a crack at long jump. He's specifically going to be doing the running events and they'll have... Well, no, no, he's said publicly that...

00:20:05[crosstalk]

00:20:17Mark Arbib: he would look at doing the long jump. And that is something that is super exciting. Yeah, he's saying he might look at it and he might consider running the 300-meter race. And this is the beauty of this concept. As a teams-based event, you're going to be looking for athletes with a bit of versatility, athletes that can go in multiple events. So, you know, someone like Cedric Dubler might fit the bill as a decathlete as well. So, yeah. Yeah. It's very novel and it's been set up that way to try and encourage athletes to move outside their normal.

00:20:52Melissa Erbacher: I do like the fact that it will be an opportunity for people to actually not get inside the athletes' heads as such, but at least have access to what they're thinking. Like you say, they're going to be in the dugouts and they'll be talking about different strategies and things like that. You know, you'll hear from an athlete after they've won a race, but you only ever hear from the winner or the person who comes quite close to winning. And it's about their disappointment or their strategy after the event. So I think it'll be great that you're getting in and amongst it while it's all going on.

00:21:28Mark Arbib: You know, it's very difficult for, unless you are immersed in athletics and track and field, it's very difficult for a spectator to fully appreciate everything that's going on at a track event. Because there's hundreds of athletes. You're watching people running times. Is it a PB? Is it a season's best? And then many of the athletes, the spectators just won't know and be able to appreciate. By setting this up as a team event and having a point score that's running across the three events, it's going to add context, relevance and drama, real drama to the events. And you are going to know what the athletes are thinking. And, you know, now with new sort of camera technology and microphones and high-performance gear, it's going to add a lot more sophistication to our product. And I think it's going to be very appealing.

00:22:22Scott Trickett: I'm excited. I like it. You know, it's something completely new. Yeah, it's new. But what do you say to the critics that are already coming out saying it's just a gimmick? It's reality TV for athletics.

00:22:34Mark Arbib: Well, I'd say to the critics, athletics needs this. And I love traditional athletics and there's going to be a place in it just the same way as cricket has a test match. That's always going to be there. But athletics also needs a new product and needs to be relevant and move with the time. And this is something that even Seb Coe has welcomed internationally and admits that athletics needs to keep up with modern times. And what I'd say to everyone involved in the athletics family is the reason we are doing this is solely to try and bring in more investment and more commercial funds to the sport. The sport is not going to be able to grow, not going to be able to survive in the future if we're not able to bring in corporate sponsors, if we're not able to bring in funds. And this is money that we want to invest back into the grassroots, back into our athletes, back into our coaches. So we're doing it for the absolute right reason. And it's not a short-term sugar hit. This is something we want to do for the long term. It may not be a big money bonanza in year one or two, but over time this thing will turn around the sport. We're confident of it. All the feedback we're getting from the broadcasters and the sponsors is extremely positive. And we're going to back it and do everything we can to make it work.

00:23:58Scott Trickett: I like to hear you say that the money's going to go back into the athletes because that's going to be the key to the sport being healthy. If we've got well-supported athletes, we'll have athletes performing well and that can only augur well for the sport.

00:24:12Mark Arbib: Absolutely.

00:24:13Scott Trickett: Can we move on to the partnership with parkrun? How are you finding that partnership so far?

00:24:21Mark Arbib: Yeah, look, it's good. At the moment, the partnership is very new and we'd be the first to admit that We have to work towards new layers and improve it over time. There's been a number of good events. A number of the states are working closely. All our state associations are working closely with parkrun and there's been some very good events such as the Trackrun event in New South Wales, the 5K on the track, the Blackmores Running Festival. There was a great discount for parkrunners and parkrunners really turned out for that event. And from the Athletics Australia perspective, promoting parkrun wherever possible to try and ensure that Australians understand that parkrun exists. And, I mean, the way Athletics Australia looks at the community, I mean, we have something like 35,000 members and 100,000 little athletics members, but there are 5.1 million recreational runners and walkers out there, and we've got to become relevant. to those recreational runners and walkers. And rather than us reinventing the wheel, parkrun is already doing it. I mean, parkrun is a participation monster that's come out of the community and come out of databases using modern technology. And people love it. So we want to promote parkrun. That's something that we really want to do. And we think as people get more involved in parkrun and really love their running and love their community, then they're going to get more involved with their local athletics clubs and and the clubs will move closer to parkrun you'll have better partnerships you'll have club providing volunteers and then people will start saying well gee i did my parkrun that was great but maybe i can go and run in the masters or run to the local club on the weekend or run their club championships so it's about trying to get everyone working together in the same direction and i think it's going to take time There's a lot of work to do, but at the same time, there's a lot of goodwill and I think people are all on the same page.

00:26:28Melissa Erbacher: It's kind of in line with what you're doing with Nitro Athletics as well, isn't it, Mark, in terms of engaging new audiences and bringing them into athletics?

00:26:42Mark Arbib: 100% right. So it's quite daunting. I mean, I found it daunting when I turned up to my first club run because, you know, you think it's an athletics club. So the people there are very athletic. It's just something you naturally would think. It's just the way your brain works. So therefore, if you're not someone who's doing a lot of running or a lot of walking or whatever, you think it's probably not for me. But the truth is those clubs are set up for everybody. And we want to be the, we have a goal. I mean, the goal of Athletics Australia is to be the largest participation sport in the country. But people aren't going to turn up to the clubs in hordes. We believe parkrun is the recreational gateway to the sport of athletics. People, parkrun is so user friendly and it's so approachable and it's so community focused. It's the way that people should start and get involved in the sport of athletics. Kids, parents, seniors, know disabled people i mean this sport and parkrun is open to everybody and it's been so successful by having you know sticking to its principles on free membership sticking to its principles on when the event happens sticking to its principles on sponsorship and that's why it's so successful people trust parkrun and we want to work with parkrun promote parkrun because we know by doing that we'll bring parkrun will be more successful and so will athletics in this country

00:28:14Melissa Erbacher: Obviously, parkrun Australia is big time on board with that. I mean, we've got the benefit that because we can include people of all ages, you have families, middle-aged parents who are bringing their kids to parkrun now. And I know myself as a child, I was never exposed to athletics. And a couple of years ago, I went to a seminar on women in sport and Alana Boyd was there having a talk about pole vaulting. And I remember thinking, how does somebody get into pole vaulting? Like, at what point does that idea twig in them as a child that, yeah, I want to be a pole vaulter. Let's get me pole vaulting and I will start training for an Olympics when I'm, you know, 10 or 12 or something like that. And I guess the benefit is that you've got parents now at parkrun who are becoming more exposed to Athletics Australia as well through the partnership. And they're perhaps exposing their kids to that, but also through things like Nitro Athletics getting it on TV. It can be what all those reality chef cooking shows are to wanting kids to get in the kitchen. That's going to expose children to things like pole vaulting and long jump and all these sorts of things that they might not be exposed to in their normal schooling lives.

00:29:37Mark Arbib: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And Athletics is the foundation sport for the Olympics. It's a sport of human movement and it's a sport for life. And we want to encourage Australians to get involved in athletics from a very young age through to when they're seniors. And we've got an ageing population. People are living longer and they need physical outlets and they need mental outlets. And that's where parkrun becomes so critical. to what athletics is doing, but also what the government is doing. And I wish the government could actually understand the importance of parkrun to public health. I don't think there is another community health program that has done more for the health of Australians than parkrun. And Athletics Australia will of course help with insurance for parkrunners, we'll help to promote parkrunners, but one of the things that we must do is take the fight up to government so that they understand the role that parkrun is playing and we want government to help fund it and we want government to help expand it out to ensure that it's accessible to more people in more places and I think Australians will embrace it and you will see a greater level of participation and health across the community.

00:31:06Scott Trickett: Hey, we couldn't agree any more. I love that answer. How's your parkrunning going? You've been running at St Peter's and you're a handy little runner.

00:31:16Mark Arbib: I have to be honest and say I have not had a run for a couple of months. My daughters do little athletics on Saturday mornings, so my Saturday morning is normally chasing them around. But whenever we get breaks, I head back to St. Peter's. It's a great course, probably one of the best runs in Sydney, around Sydney Park, and it's fantastic. A lot of good people. I love the catch-up before and the handing out of the the presentation to you know the t-shirts and the volunteers celebrating the volunteers it's great but also whenever I get to whenever I'm travelling around Australia and I've got I can get to a parkrun I do and you meet some incredible people at parkrun and that's why I love it so much I'm heading to parkrun in St. Peter's for the first time in a couple of weeks so I'm looking forward to that they will welcome you with open arms they're great people

00:32:14Melissa Erbacher: You've been a great sport, Mark. Thank you very much for joining us on the podcast, sharing all your insights into Nitro Athletics and what's going on behind the scenes at Athletics Australia.

00:32:25Mark Arbib: Well, it's been great to be here from Athletics Australia. Please keep up the good work. You guys are doing an amazing job and we want everyone to understand the importance of parkrun and that's why this program is so important.

00:32:50Melissa Erbacher: This weekend, there may or may not be cake at Surfers Paradise parkrun in Queensland. They are celebrating their first anniversary and here to tell us all about the event and the anniversary is Davina Harvey, the event director. Welcome to the podcast, Davina.

00:33:07Davina Harvey: Thank you. Welcome. Hello, everybody. And yes, to answer your question, there will be cake.

00:33:13Melissa Erbacher: Excellent. We're always a big fan of cake, or at least I am. Scotty might prefer to know whether or not there might be donuts. He's a bit of a donut fan. I understand that's not traditional for anniversaries, though, so he's a little bit weird in Victoria Town there.

00:33:30Scott Trickett: It's a Melbourne place.

00:33:32Davina Harvey: Yeah, it must be. Yeah, no donuts. No donuts.

00:33:35Melissa Erbacher: What else is on the agenda then for the weekend? It's a big deal celebrating your first anniversary. Congratulations.

00:33:43Davina Harvey: Thank you. Now I'm getting nervous after you've said, yeah, it's a big deal.

00:33:47Melissa Erbacher: Well, no, let's just forget I ever said that then.

00:33:50Davina Harvey: Well, I'm trying to think of things as well because on our anniversary we also have three people doing their 50th parkrun with one of those persons doing their 25 volunteers and we also have another person doing their 100th parkrun.

00:34:06Melissa Erbacher: Wow, you've got some organised parkrunners who've timed things quite nicely.

00:34:12Davina Harvey: Yeah, no, they actually did organise it and timed it very well to be for the anniversary, so it's been good.

00:34:18Scott Trickett: So how have you found the first year, Davina?

00:34:22Davina Harvey: Yeah, not too bad. At first I was probably a bit apprehensive about it and especially having such low numbers all the time. I was like, oh my God, how do we get more people here? But I've sort of just accepted it now that we're a smaller parkrun and So we probably average around 30 to 35 at the moment, and probably a third of those are always tourists. So we do have a regular lot that come every week. Hasn't been too bad. I've enjoyed the experience, and it's been, yeah, pretty good.

00:34:57Scott Trickett: So what is the reason for that? Because I think of surf as paradise. I think it would be massive, and particularly being on the Gold Coast. But it's not. Your numbers have been a little bit low. Why is that?

00:35:09Davina Harvey: Yeah. I think because there's such a variety of parkruns to go to on the Gold Coast and close to us we also have Main Beach, which is the home of parkrun, and also Broadbeach Waters is also down the road. So within a small area there is three parkruns and then obviously not too far from that we have more. So there is a lot of variety to choose from. And I think because it's such a quieter one, a lot of people don't know about it, So that's probably something that I'd want to kind of look into, how do I get people to find out about it.

00:35:47Melissa Erbacher: Can you give us a description of your course, Davina?

00:35:51Davina Harvey: Well, that's probably the downfall as well. A lot of people don't like that it's a three-lap course, but on the upside of that, especially during summer, we do have a lot of shade and a cool breeze because it runs along a river and also a lake. So there is a breeze and a few people over the last few weeks with the hotter weather have said that they'll come to Surfers Paradise, especially over summer, being a cooler, shadier course. You see the whole skyline of Surfers Paradise. We operate behind the Gold Coast Arts Centre in Surfers and, yeah, three lap course, which obviously isn't ideal for a lot of people. But it's just what works in the area that I've got to work with because there's a fair bit of construction going on at the moment. The Arts Centre and the Gold Coast City Council are upgrading the facilities where we currently run.

00:36:45Melissa Erbacher: You know, I think there are a lot of people out there who may turn their noses up at the concept of a two- or a three-lap course just because they think it would be boring. But I would also say that the majority of those people have never actually tried them. And they can't appreciate fully how much fun it can be to, you know, challenge yourself over a multi-lap course because you can go out at a certain speed and then try to go faster the second lap or, you know, try not to kill yourself on the first lap and things like that. I think it's a real pity that people aren't getting out to more of the lap courses. In fact, I think we should set that as an adventure that people should get along to a lap course sometime in the next month.

00:37:29Davina Harvey: Because at first it's definitely a mind thing that you think, oh, man, I've got to do it again and then again. And then, like, now after being there for a year, I'm like, you just get used to it and it doesn't feel, you know, so monotonous or, oh, my God, it's three laps.

00:37:46Scott Trickett: I'm actually, I'm a convert of the lap. One of my favorite parkruns is a three lap because it works really well for families. Do you have a lot of families going there? So, like, the dad or the mom can go off.

00:37:58Davina Harvey: in front and then you can always see everybody on the course yeah yeah we just have one section um so out the front where you can't see um like from the start finish area but obviously if you're lapping you will see everybody all the time but yeah definitely a lot of families come we have a lot of children and they're generally our volunteers nearly every week so that's a real bonus as well but um A lot of people appreciate the three laps. You know, you get your more high fives, more hellos, and you see the same faces. But then, yeah, obviously people – when you do your run brief and you say, oh, it's three laps, oh, that's like, oh, well, you know, enjoy the experience.

00:38:47Scott Trickett: You've got a fluoro theme for this week?

00:38:50Davina Harvey: Yes, yes.

00:38:51Scott Trickett: Fluoro is a great theme.

00:38:52Davina Harvey: A few weeks ago, one of the ladies at one of our regulars actually read – the date wrong and turned up in fluoro and she just looked amazing, absolutely from head to toe in fluoro, the big glasses, bright pink fluoro top and tutu, long gloves on and it was a warm day and then leggings and everything. So we're definitely expecting a lot of people to go all out, especially with the milestones as well. Lots of colour.

00:39:28Melissa Erbacher: I love it when parkrunners get so excited that they read dates wrong and they show up in costume early. It's not the first time it's happened, but it's always great.

00:39:37Davina Harvey: Yeah, it was awesome because on the morning in the run briefing we said, and Melissa's here to give an example of what we need to wear on our fluoro day. Yeah, no, it was really good, really good.

00:39:51Melissa Erbacher: Nice work putting it in the run brief there.

00:39:54Davina Harvey: Yeah.

00:39:55Melissa Erbacher: Now, Davina, your parkrun story didn't actually start with launching your own event. You started somewhere else, didn't you?

00:40:01Davina Harvey: Yes, I originally started parkrun back in – I had to look up my stats when you said you were going to ask me some questions. So I thought, oh, I better have a look. And it was back in 2012 I did my first parkrun through encouragement of my now Territory Director, Gavin. my brother-in-law and also my sister, they were at me to go to Main Beach. And I was like, oh, I sleep in on a Saturday. And then so I went one week and then just, yeah, kind of got hooked there. And then that's when Coomera started. So I was that dedicated. I did the 25-minute drive probably to the furthest parkrun away from where I lived and started Coomera. And then Renee then approached me about starting my own parkrun, which my first question was, what do I need to do more than what I'm doing now? And she basically said, well, you know if you have a problem and you call Gavin? And I'm like, yes. And she said, well, that's pretty much it. When someone else has a problem, they'll call you. And I went, yep, okay. So that's how it all sort of started.

00:41:15Scott Trickett: You've also been quite the adventurer. You've done 15 different events. Have you got a couple of favorites in amongst that?

00:41:23Davina Harvey: Yeah. I don't mind. I've done Fingal Bay. I enjoyed that one.

00:41:32Scott Trickett: We haven't heard much about Fingal Bay. What's the unique attraction about Fingal Bay?

00:41:39Davina Harvey: I think that there's a lot of shade through that course as well. That one I did during summer. It was around Christmas time. I was down in the area and I wanted to try that one out. And it was just, yeah, something different because I didn't really look up the course where I needed to run and I just thought, oh, it's near the beach, so I thought I must be like Kirra on the Gold Coast, which was pretty similar. And it's out and back one way and then out and back twice the other way from memory sorry any Fingal Bay regulars if I've got that wrong but um yeah no I just really enjoyed that course and then it wasn't that long ago I saw someone had posted a photo of a koala actually on the footpath at Fingal Bay and I thought oh man I have to go back there so I can see if I can see the koala as well and then um another one was up at Kawana when we went up earlier this year for the Sunshine Coast Marathon weekend. And, yeah, I really enjoyed that course as well, especially up to the lighthouse and being able to get a really nice view up there.

00:42:54Melissa Erbacher: Good answer.

00:42:56Davina Harvey: Yeah, unfortunately I missed out on seeing a whale, but one of our other friends that was with us at the time said she saw one jumping out of the water when we were up at the lighthouse, so... Might have to go back up there again during while watching season to see if I can see any.

00:43:10Scott Trickett: We've definitely heard enough about Kawana on the pod.

00:43:13Davina Harvey: Yeah.

00:43:16Scott Trickett: We'll cut you off there. Thanks for coming on the podcast, sharing your 12-month adventure at Surfers Paradise. Yep. Good luck on Saturday.

00:43:26Davina Harvey: Thank you. And anyone that's in the area or wanting to come and visit the Gold Coast, please come and visit us at Surfers Paradise parkrun. We're very friendly.

00:43:34Scott Trickett: And you'll be in fluro. Can't miss them.

00:43:37Davina Harvey: No, that's right.

Social Adventurers

00:43:49Melissa Erbacher: We haven't been social adventuring for a few weeks, so let's stop in and see what's going on on the social media. We had some Twitter love from Paul Kitching, who enjoyed our chat with Lavinia Petrie last week. saying that she's inspirational. We certainly agree with that, Paul.

00:44:09Scott Trickett: Scotty Watkins loved the idea from Robbo and us to get Usain Bolt to Albert parkrun. He was asking the question of Nitro Athletics and the president of Athletics Australia. We should have put that to Mark in our interview earlier. If only we read Twitter.

00:44:29Melissa Erbacher: We do read Twitter. And you know what? We're going to start a hashtag that is hashtag BoltToParkRun. So that's Bolt, the number two parkrun. Start using it, people, on all your tweets and your Instagram photos.

00:44:47Scott Trickett: One thing... I got right last week about cricket. Lyndell Murray informed us that they use a pink ball in cricket for day-night test matches. Is that a thing? Yeah. Day-night test matches?

00:44:59Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, the ones that start in the day but it gets dark and they can't change the ball because that's not very fair to the people who played earlier in the day. So I think the pink is visible both in good and bad light. Okay. Or daytime and nighttime light. You said you got this right. You don't even know a day-night test match exists.

00:45:20Scott Trickett: No, I didn't. But red for regular tests, I knew that, daytime tests, and white for shorter games. Everybody knows that. So thanks, Lyndell.

00:45:31Melissa Erbacher: Yes, we did thank Lyndell very much because I'm glad somebody knows which balls are which. And we also had Mildred Labuschagne who blushed hearing their name mentioned on our Aussie podcast. That was in our South African episode also. So, well, you're going to have to blush again, honey. We just did it again.

00:45:53Scott Trickett: She had a cool hashtag, walking myself thin and tanny lappers. I don't know what tanny lappers means, but I like walking myself thin. Tanny lappies? Tanny lappies.

00:46:03Melissa Erbacher: Tanny lappies. That might be her running club.

00:46:08Scott Trickett: They need to be on Club Corner then. Mildred, get in touch with us.

Strava Club update

00:46:13Melissa Erbacher: How are we doing on Strava, Scotty?

00:46:14Scott Trickett: Going crazy. 259 members. Lots of running happening. Lots and lots. People doing ultras that just boost their numbers. It's great.

00:46:25Melissa Erbacher: I think we've entered the triathlon season now as well. So we might start seeing... Not just runs from our parkrun adventures, but also some cycling and some swims. That still shows up on our leaderboard, right? Doesn't matter what the activity is, if they're a member of our club?

00:46:42Scott Trickett: That's a good question. I might have to do some homework on that. I'm not sure.

00:46:48Melissa Erbacher: Over to Instagram and it's been pretty quiet on the Insta front of late. We did have Running Guy Ryan checking in with a big report about Nambour parkrun's first anniversary last weekend, which he attended, dressed as a monkey. I did pick Ryan out of the crowd and thought, yep, a monkey onesie, Nambour in November does not a comfortable parkrun make. However, I believe he beat the gentleman who is dressed as the parkrun warrior in not much more than a little Tarzan outfit. I'm not sure whether or not the bumblebee was ahead of him or behind him. There was a lot of jungle shenanigans going on on the course last weekend.

00:47:34Scott Trickett: I didn't ask you, what did you go as?

00:47:38Melissa Erbacher: I went dressed as somebody on safari who had a baby orangutan. But that orangutan is a puppet. And You have this safari shirt, this long sleeve safari shirt with a false hand and arm so that you can put your right arm in the puppet and make it move around. And the kids loved it. It's actually a really, really uncanny trick. looking orangutan.

00:48:12Davina Harvey: Very cute, quite warm.

00:48:14Melissa Erbacher: I'm a bit relieved actually that I didn't try to run the course in it because having your arm shoved up a puppet probably doesn't make for very good balance on that sort of trail. So yeah, I think I might have escaped joining the stack club.

00:48:28Scott Trickett: That's why I never run with puppets on the trails. Any kookaburras?

00:48:34Melissa Erbacher: You don't need any help stacking it on the trails. I don't recall seeing any kookaburras. There were some butterflies and bumblebees and all manner of other animals. A zebra won the best dressed costume for an adult and a crocodile won the best dressed junior. So there were lots of fabulous costumes about.

00:48:57Scott Trickett: But no parkrun kookaburras?

00:48:59Melissa Erbacher: No parkrun kookaburras this time.

00:49:01Scott Trickett: Do you know, at Westerfolds at the moment, there's kookaburras everywhere. There's such a cute bird. And at the moment, there's heaps of them about. It's very cute.

00:49:12Melissa Erbacher: At where?

00:49:12Scott Trickett: At Westerfolds. Have you heard about it? I run there a lot.

00:49:16Melissa Erbacher: No.

00:49:17Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:49:17Melissa Erbacher: Huh. I can't believe you've never mentioned it before.

00:49:20Scott Trickett: Come on down. You'll see a kookaburra. On Facebook, Tim Baldwin shared a pic...

00:49:29Melissa Erbacher: It's a picture of his brothers running to the finish line at Lismore parkrun a couple of weeks ago with the ED, Belinda Smith, trying to catch them and she is chasing them down with a 50th run photo card. So you know the 50 club t-shirt that some of the events have and They've sort of cut out the nook where the net goes and people hold it up so when they do their milestone runs, it's like they're wearing the shirt before they get the shirt. So yeah, she's chasing them down across a beautiful green open field. I don't know whether or not she caught them up by the time they ran across the finish line, but I'm sure she wasn't far behind. And Tim said that Belinda and her team are super friendly and it's one of the best parkruns they've been to. Good job Belinda, Smith and team.

00:50:18Scott Trickett: Heather Hunter, she's getting inspired to travel the globe. She asks the question, how many years would it take to travel around the world and visit every parkrun? One per week. Imagine how many new ones there would be by the time you finished.

00:50:34Melissa Erbacher: I think it's one of those infinity type things, isn't it? You know, you can never possibly, we're launching more than one a week on average now, I think anyway, so you would never even get across Australia. Unless you'd already had a really good start and probably had 150-odd events under your belt already.

00:50:54Scott Trickett: You'd be busy.

00:50:56Melissa Erbacher: That's my two cents. And there was lots of love for our South African episode, although Tim McKinley said somebody needs to remind Bruce about South Africa's record in the Cricket World Cup. I'm assuming they don't have a very good record.

00:51:11Scott Trickett: Maybe not as good as Australia's record.

00:51:14Melissa Erbacher: But Sheridan Law said, loved the interviews this week, especially the one with Bruce. What an interesting, passionate guy. Really liked what he had to say about the park walkers too. We agree, it was great having Bruce on the show.

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

00:51:26Scott Trickett: We have a couple of launchers this week. Kiama in New South Wales and Forster, also in New South Wales.

00:51:36Melissa Erbacher: It's a double banger.

00:51:38Scott Trickett: Exciting times for them. I think Forster has been in the planning for a long time. So yay for them. And yay for Kiama too. They'll have fun this week. Where's the cake, Mel?

00:51:51Melissa Erbacher: Well, we've already discussed that there will definitely be cake at Surfers Paradise in Queensland who are celebrating their first anniversary. However, if you can't make it to there, you could also try either Cronulla in New South Wales, or the Beaches in New South Wales. They're celebrating their first and second anniversaries, respectively. Or you could skip up to Minnippi, who are celebrating their third, or Sandgate, that are celebrating their fourth, both in Queensland again. You guys in Victoria, you don't get launches or cake this weekend.

00:52:27Scott Trickett: Not this weekend.

00:52:27Melissa Erbacher: Not even donuts.

00:52:28Scott Trickett: No. I might have to go and find my own donuts.

00:52:33Melissa Erbacher: Hmm. Maybe you guys are just saving it all up for the 200th, do you think?

00:52:39Scott Trickett: Maybe. If it's in Victoria. Who knows?

00:52:47Melissa Erbacher: Somebody knows.

00:52:49Scott Trickett: Our Club Corner comes from Victoria this week. Do you want to hear all about it?

00:52:54Melissa Erbacher: I do.

Club Corner

00:53:02Scott Trickett: On Club Corner this week, we're catching up with the Pink Army, as they call themselves. Raring to Run is the name of the club, and Raelene Joyce is joining us to talk to us about them. Welcome, Raylene.

00:53:14Raelene Joyce: Thanks. Thanks, Scott. Hi, Mel. How are you doing? Yeah, doing awesome. That's our tagline. We're always, always, always about the awesome.

00:53:23Scott Trickett: Well, I like the positivity. Tell us more about Raring to Run. I see them a lot down here in Melbourne. How did the club get started?

00:53:30Raelene Joyce: We actually started September 2014. So I was already running at Berwick Spring. And I'd been on a bit of a transformation myself. I'd lost a lot of weight and had started running. And a few friends had said to me, geez, I wish I could do what you've done with yourself. And I said, well, I'll put it out there on Facebook. Does anyone want to learn to run? And I got a few mentors on board. We had about six mentors and 12 members back then. It was very cute. And that's how we started. And we really encouraged people to come to Derrick Springs parkrun because that was still is my home. And we've just grown from there.

00:54:09Melissa Erbacher: How did you come up with the name?

00:54:11Raelene Joyce: Well, it was kind of, you know, everyone was so excited at the start. They were absolutely raring to get running. So that just seemed the obvious thing to call ourselves.

00:54:20Melissa Erbacher: And who doesn't love a little bit of alliteration?

00:54:22Raelene Joyce: Yeah, well, that's me. I'm a bit of a dork in that way.

00:54:26Melissa Erbacher: And colour theme wise, you guys have got club shirts or club apparel. Is that correct?

00:54:32Raelene Joyce: Absolutely. That's why we're called the Pink Army because we are absolutely bright pink. And everyone sort of had a bit of a say in how it was designed. You know, we threw some ideas around and sent it off to the uniform company. And yeah, we really stand out at events. I don't know. You probably wouldn't have seen us because I think you're up in Queensland, aren't you, Mel?

00:54:51Melissa Erbacher: I am, yes. Have you not? Got across the whole country yet. You've not infiltrated the rest of the parkrun ranks.

00:54:58Raelene Joyce: Well, I think we had about 10 people that came up to do Gold Coast this year. So, you know, we get around.

00:55:03Scott Trickett: Now, am I correct in assuming that it's a female-only club?

00:55:08Raelene Joyce: There's only one man we've found who wants to run in pink. Generally, that scares the guys away. So, yeah, we're purely female.

00:55:16Melissa Erbacher: How did you let this poor fella down that he couldn't get in your club?

00:55:21Raelene Joyce: Well, he just has to get over it. He's got his own shirt now, so he's just dealt with it. But we actually found at the start that, you know, women, we're a bit reluctant. The kind of women that we tend to attract are beginning running. You know, they're not necessarily well established. So to have this nice, gentle introduction to running and to parkrun and have it women only, You know, there's no competition. It's very, you know, very touchy-feely, huggy, all that sort of thing. So it's very appealing to women who are starting out.

00:55:54Scott Trickett: And how do you use parkrun?

00:55:56Raelene Joyce: Well, we use it in so many ways. So we actually recruit to parkrun rather than from it. So we like to get what we call newbies and we like to introduce them to running and then bring them, you know, bring them into the family down at parkruns. When we're doing a campaign that leads into an event, like we've got a massive campaign going at the moment leading into the Commons 10K in December, we use parkrun as our tempo run for the week. Or if we're leading into like a longer distance like Melbourne Marathon that we've just come off that campaign, we'll do, we call it a pre-parky and then a post-parky so that people of varying distances, you know, you've still got that common 5K in the middle and you're 10k people can tag on a bit before or after if they're doing half marathon. So the whole group sort of gets together around the parkrun side of it, but we're top and tail.

00:56:50Scott Trickett: And have you got any inspirational stories from some of your members?

00:56:53Raelene Joyce: Well, we've got 118 members and I reckon I could give you about 118 inspirational stories. I can give you a couple of really gorgeous ones. So we've got one of our members, Michelle, is an MS nurse and she's encouraged some of her patients to come along. And we have three of her patients that are in varying stages of MS and two of them have completed a 10K. One of them has completed multiple half marathons. And it's, you know, they spur each other on and then it gives other MS people, you know, the inspiration that they can get out and be active as well. So, you know, there's some beautiful stories there. We've got, you know, girls running their first half marathon. I think we've got about 50 half marathoners now. So when you consider we've only been going for two years, you know, and they've come from a total beginner background, that's pretty cool. About 20 girls have done fulls now. We've got two girls that have done ultras. So we've just got, you know, inspiration all the way through. But I think the chick that probably inspires me the most is we've got a stateswoman in our group. Michaela Curtin and, you know, stateswomen at parkrun, they're a little bit few and far between. So we're really proud of what she's done and she gets out and about and promotes the Pink Army at every opportunity.

00:58:12Scott Trickett: That's one thing I've noticed about you girls is that you are very encouraging and supportive and that's the word on the street. Do you make that a focus, obviously, to encourage others to just participate?

00:58:25Raelene Joyce: Yeah, it's very much... finished lines, not finished time. Most of our members operate in the, you know, 35 minute or probably 30 minute plus parkrun. That's kind of, you know, where we play, 30 minutes to, you know, 45 minutes. We've got members who will take an hour to do parkrun and they're greeted with just the same enthusiasm as, you know, somebody who might do it in 25 minutes. So we've really made that a focus, that it's absolutely participation. And if you want to push yourself to do better, that's fantastic. But that's just not our goal. And we really rarely talk about times in the group. It's very much about just doing the best you can do on the day and, you know, being consistent and making running a part of your lifestyle and, you know, parkrun a part of your lifestyle and then encouraging your family to come down and your friends to come down and be part of that bigger community as well.

00:59:17Melissa Erbacher: You mentioned that you... You recruit to parkruns. So do you proactively, you know, hunt people down who aren't runners? And what are your recruitment strategies? How do you find your new people?

00:59:33Raelene Joyce: A lot of our members have got, we've got these little business cards and they will literally, when they're out talking to people and, you know, it's the same conversation I had with people two years ago. Oh, I wish I could do what you do. And so they pull these cards out and they go, well, here you go. Here's a group. You can join. If I could do it, you could do it. And that's really where most of our people come from is word of mouth.

00:59:55Melissa Erbacher: Business cards is a whole level of organization that I really do love. I know there are other clubs out there who've also got them. You're the first one on Club Corner to mention it. No doubt all the other clubs will be racing out to get some if they haven't already. Thank you so much, Raylene, for joining us on the podcast. We hope you get a lot more ladies and young girls joining your pink army.

01:00:21Raelene Joyce: Excellent, and they're all welcome, no matter what shape, size, speed. You know, it just does not matter with us. Everyone's welcome, as long as you're a girl.

01:00:36Scott Trickett: That's it, 46 episodes down. We're coming to the end of the year. We're going to make it, Mel. We're going to get to episode 50.

01:00:45Melissa Erbacher: We'll have to change our logo back to red right in time for Christmas.

01:00:49Scott Trickett: You know what I want? I've asked a couple of times. I want some iTunes reviews. Now, we haven't pandered to the Apple empire because they've got some stupid system how they rate podcasts, and it's all linked to reviews. Now, we've never, if you listen to other podcasts, they say, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, rate us on iTunes, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We've never really done that. But now I'm doing it. At the end of the episode when, you know, if you've had enough of us, you can turn off now anyway. But I want some reviews. I want to see us.

01:01:24Melissa Erbacher: Only the good ones.

01:01:25Scott Trickett: No, no, no. It doesn't even matter. iTunes only takes the star ratings. So you can, as long as you give us five stars.

01:01:32Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, so you want good stars. You don't want no stars.

01:01:36Scott Trickett: Well, I'd prefer...

01:01:38Melissa Erbacher: If you got no stars, I'm pretty sure Apple's not going to be very impressed by you either.

01:01:43Scott Trickett: No, it doesn't matter. They just want interaction. So you could say, just give us five stars, but in the comments say, their crap, their general banter is a waste of time.

01:01:56Mark Arbib: But as long as you give us a review...

01:01:57Melissa Erbacher: There's only one person who thinks that.

01:02:00Scott Trickett: Yeah, my mate Matt. My good mate, Matt, who doesn't like us bantering. But please, at least one, just give me one review this week and I'll be a happy boy.

01:02:15Melissa Erbacher: Put it on your wish list for Christmas.

01:02:18Scott Trickett: That's it. I'm done. Goodbye, Mel.

01:02:22Melissa Erbacher: Goodbye, Scotty.