Episode 52

Episode details · 121 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:09Melissa Erbacher: It's episode 52 and it's coming at you from Victoria and Queensland and who knows where else by the end of the show. My name is Mel. I'm joined by Scott.

00:00:22Scott Trickett: Good morning, Mel.

00:00:25Melissa Erbacher: Well, good morning, good evening, good afternoon.

00:00:27Scott Trickett: Oh, we're in morning mode. The first time ever we've recorded in the morning.

00:00:33Melissa Erbacher: Well, recorded us in the morning. We've recorded interviews at sparrow's fart before.

00:00:37Scott Trickett: We have, yep.

00:00:38Melissa Erbacher: So, adventures on the weekend. That's how I'm going to kick off this episode. I had an adventure to Wondai.

00:00:46Scott Trickett: Tell us all about it.

00:00:48Melissa Erbacher: Well, there was a new launch, which we will actually get to talk to the event director a little bit later in the show, so she'll give us more details. I don't want to ruin all the fun, but I will say that the usual suspects were there, the adventurers from across Queensland who tend to show their faces at these sorts of things, And remarkably, one of them, Gary Nisbet, managed to recruit four newbies on Friday night where he was staying at the hotel. And they all showed up. He managed to get them their barcodes and everything printed. And they all showed up on Saturday morning. So kudos, Gary. Good recruiting job there.

00:01:28Scott Trickett: Good job, Gary. I had the pleasure of meeting Gary. And Schultzy, was Schultzy there?

00:01:32Melissa Erbacher: Schultzy was there.

00:01:34Scott Trickett: They came to New Year's Day down at Westerfolds, so I got to experience the box of Maltesers.

00:01:40Melissa Erbacher: Nice, because you were volunteering.

00:01:42Scott Trickett: Well, he gives it to the event team, and so we shared it with all the runners. So it was Maltesers for breakfast on New Year's Day for us.

00:01:50Melissa Erbacher: Or protein balls, as we like to call them.

00:01:54Scott Trickett: But anyway, continue on.

00:01:55Melissa Erbacher: It was a great little event in terms of tourism coming into the town because all the accommodation in town was booked out, which is just brilliant. So people ended up having to also stay in Kingaroy and Murgon, which is a little bit further out. Still a reasonable distance to get in to parkrun on parkrun Day. But that's a nice thing to be able to tell the local government who are supporting the event afterwards that, oh, well, all the accommodation was booked. Personally, I walked the course with the tail runner, Debbie, who pretty much knew everybody I didn't. So between the two of us, I think every participant got a cheer by name. That's one of the benefits of these beautiful, small, local communities. You know, Debbie was able to tell me who all the people were that I didn't know and, you know, their husbands and their wives and how she knew them and, You know, we had a good natter for the 50-odd minutes. In fact, I haven't even looked at my time from the weekend, and my watch died again before the end. I should look that up. But it was a great morning. Really, really good fun.

00:03:06Scott Trickett: You were a tail runner, so you got to record a run. I was secretly hoping. Sometimes as a TD, when you go to launches, you have to volunteer, and you don't actually get to run.

00:03:15Melissa Erbacher: Well, I wasn't the tail runner officially. I just walked with her. But yes. Yeah, no. Actually, I messaged Roz earlier in the week and said, oh, look, I'll be bringing along my spare barcode scanner in case you get lots of runners and you need to have another barcode scanner. And she said, oh, thanks, but I was really hoping you'd be able to run. And I said, oh, I'll be running. Actually, in my message, I wrote back that one of your fasties will – We'll be able to pick up the barcode scanner after they finish. But then autocorrect changed it to one of your fatties. And I was mortified. I was like, no, I didn't mean to say fatties. I meant to say fasties. And which my husband pointed out, fasties isn't actually a word, which is probably why autocorrect changed it. although autocorrect does all sorts of interesting things from time to time. But as it turns out, we didn't need the extra barcode scanner, which was fine. But yes, no, it is often the case that I volunteer at a launch. I was lucky to get a run in, as it were, on the course and check it all out for myself again. Obviously, I've seen it all before, but it was nice to do it officially on parkrun day.

00:04:34Scott Trickett: Good-o. Another event in Queensland, Wandai. Nice rural event. So you said we're going to hear from Ros later on in the episode. So how about we go to some parkrun news?

parkrun news bulletin

00:04:49Melissa Erbacher: Good plan. Let me find the news. Global attendance numbers were down this week, largely due to icy conditions causing multiple cancellations across the United Kingdom on parkrun Day. 178,649 parkrunners still managed to get out there for a 5 or 2k fix this weekend, hosted by some 14,098 volunteers.

00:05:19Scott Trickett: Australia was boasting some colourful and diverse running events for adventurers keen to test themselves over other than parkrun distances, in other than parkrun apparel for other than parkrunning reasons. Adventurers with a sweet tooth headed to Tasmania to participate in the Cadbury Marathon events, with distances ranging from 1K Caramello Mini Marathon to the regular marathon distance. Chocolates and purple Map of Tassie shaped medals were on offer to all finishers.

00:05:50Melissa Erbacher: For those looking for a bit of trail scenery and offbeat fun, Victoria hosted the Two Bays Trail Run. Runners who qualified for this event were given the option of running one way across the Mornington Peninsula from Dromana to Cape Schanck at a distance of 28km and those wishing to skip sitting on a bus full of sweaty runners back to the start line could choose to do the 56km return trip on foot. Preferred start rules stipulate that entrants clad in board shorts, Hawaiian shirts or swimwear are entitled to assemble at the front of the starting area. The event also had a fallback date in case of a Code Red fire warning and the first finished token in the 56km event was taken out by King parkrunner Tash Fraser.

00:06:37Scott Trickett: In South Australia, adventurers could run with most of their kit off in the Undies Run for Bowel Cancer in Adelaide. Frequently asked questions for this event importantly included, how will I receive my undies? And what undies sizing and style options are available for participants? In true Aussie fashion, team names such as We've Got the Runs and Lockie's Sphincter Sprinters were among the top five on the fundraising leaderboard.

00:07:06Melissa Erbacher: In Western Australia, adventurous parkrunners took on Sandman 2, a beach-running Leukaemia Foundation fundraising event hosted by the Margaret River Trail Running Club, with 6km, 12km and 25km distance options. One runner reportedly drove his car to the finish line of the event at 1am, ran the 25km in reverse to the start line, had a short break and then ran the course in the intended direction with everybody else in the actual event. Upon completion of Sandman 2, he drove back to Geograph Bay in time to make his weekly parkrun. Apparently, if anyone is aiming for a 22-minute parkrun, all you need to do is a 50-kilometre beach run warm-up.

00:07:50Scott Trickett: 50-kilometre beach warm-up.

00:07:52Melissa Erbacher: If that was me, I'd be fading away. That's for sure.

00:07:56Scott Trickett: And that's guaranteed to get you a time for 22 minutes of parkrun? Oh, look, I... Is that what you're saying?

00:08:01Melissa Erbacher: I'm not going to guarantee anything, but you have to try it yourself to see if it works. It's got a 100% success rate at the moment. To go back to Two Bays though, I am super impressed that they get preferred starting for people who are in board shorts and Hawaiian shirts or swimwear. I think more events need to give preferred starting to costumed people. Would you agree?

00:08:27Scott Trickett: I would agree. It's a nice touch, isn't it? It is. It does encourage people to get dressed up. There were lots of people running in board shorts. I contemplated it. But, you know, 28K is a long – because I did do two bays. 28K is a long way to run in shorts that you've never run in before.

00:08:50Melissa Erbacher: This is true. Perhaps they should make a range of running shorts that look like board shorts.

00:08:56Scott Trickett: Or maybe you could start in the boardies and whip them off just around the corner.

00:09:01Melissa Erbacher: Well, I also read that for any of the top finishes, you know, the first three or whatever in each of the categories, that if they do it in board shorts or that sort of apparel for the full distance, they get a $50 bonus as well as the rest of their prizes at the end. But they have to definitely do it at the start and finish and there will be you know course photographers out there making sure that they're also wearing it throughout the entire event so you have to be committed if you want that extra 50 i did also see a story somebody ran the 56k event in a pair of crocs oh god i think they did really well like top 10 Seriously? Maybe they just carried them most of the way. What was the trail like? What was the actual terrain?

00:09:57Scott Trickett: Look, it was pretty tame. I didn't wear trail shoes. I just wore my normal runners. It's a beautiful run. I've never done it before. And the reason I did it this year is so that I could say how I've done it. Because so many people have done it and said it's the best event in town. And I'd go a long way to agreeing with them. It's a really good event. You start going up all elevation, so the first three kilometers is all uphill. And then it's pretty much all downhill, which is a great way to run 28Ks. And it's a mixture of a bit of gravel, boardwalks, trail, nothing too gnarly. I didn't fall over.

00:10:37Melissa Erbacher: That was going to be my next question. Any stacks to report?

00:10:41Scott Trickett: Plenty of people did. I had a stumble, but I managed to stay on my feet.

00:10:48Melissa Erbacher: That's almost as good as a stack if somebody else gets to see it because it's still funny.

00:10:52Scott Trickett: Yeah. I think the key this time was I was just treating this one as a training run. Just out there to experience it, taking it pretty easy. And I think that's the secret to not falling over. Don't try and run really, really fast.

00:11:09Melissa Erbacher: Interesting concept.

00:11:10Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:11:12Melissa Erbacher: That could be why I've never had a stack. It's the whole not running too fast situation.

00:11:20Scott Trickett: Well, they are races. They're supposed to be races. So I just assume that you run them as fast as you can. But this time I didn't. And I didn't fall over. And it was a beautiful day. Not too hot. Everyone's scared about it being really hot. Oh, it's January in Melbourne. It's going to be hot. But... It wasn't. So it was great. I picked the right year to do it.

00:11:42Melissa Erbacher: Excellent.

00:11:43Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:11:44Melissa Erbacher: Nice to have a new adventurer on the board.

00:11:46Scott Trickett: Yep. And lots of parkrunners out on the course getting lots of support. On my bib, I called myself Adventurer Scott. And I got a few chuckles, but unfortunately, I don't think many people saw the connection.

00:12:02Melissa Erbacher: Oh, that's all right. We'll get there. I think we should do that on all our future events.

00:12:07Scott Trickett: Maybe if I stopped and talked to them and they heard my voice, they'd go, ah. But alas, not this year.

00:12:17Melissa Erbacher: Maybe they were all just so out of breath that they couldn't catch up to you and tell you that they love the podcast.

00:12:26Scott Trickett: Maybe. Maybe. So that was my adventure over the weekend. Shall we hear? You went to Wondi, right? Shall we hear from Ros? I'm keen to hear more about this new parkrun in Queensland.

00:12:40Melissa Erbacher: Let's do it. Last parkrun day, I had the privilege of attending the launch of parkrun Australia's event number 203. It happened in a little town called Wondai. And its event director or co-event director's name is Ros Heit. And Ros is here to join us on the podcast. Welcome to the parkrun Adventurers, Ros.

00:12:48[music]

00:13:11Ros Heit: Thanks, Mel.

00:13:14Melissa Erbacher: Now, we had a fabulous morning on Saturday. Do you want to tell our listeners a little bit about it? Sure. It was fantastic.

00:13:21Ros Heit: Because Wondai is only a little country town. And we had 129 people come to our launch. So we were super stoked with that. And the parkrun people, we got probably about 50-50 of locals, quite a few people walking. Quite a few very speedy runners. And then the other 50% was sort of seasoned parkrunners who came from different areas. And they were all really – everybody was wonderful. The seasoned parkrunners said they loved our course and they were so friendly and chatty to everybody. And the new people think that it's all marvellous. So, yeah, the only trouble is it was a tiny bit hot, wasn't it?

00:14:04Melissa Erbacher: I'm pretty sure that it was like that across the country. So you can't claim that as being – Wandai specific.

00:14:12Ros Heit: But no, we were really happy with our launch.

00:14:16Scott Trickett: So I'm from Melbourne. I imagine everywhere inland Queensland is hot all the time. Is this true and is this going to be a problem for you guys moving forward?

00:14:27Ros Heit: I don't want to put anybody off, but if anybody wants to come to a Wandai parkrun in June, July, it could be below zero. So it we do have fairly extreme temperatures. But the good thing we do have is quite low humidity. So I actually find it sometimes much easier than the coast because of that lower humidity. And we often get quite a dry breeze. So it makes it more pleasant for walking or running. And it was exceptionally hot on Saturday. And usually our weather is better than that. We usually have a couple of We had a week in December and then a week last week when it was very hot and I think we nudged 36, 37, 38 sort of temperatures. But that's not usual for us. That is a little bit extreme. So we're certainly hoping that it comes down. And also there is quite a few trees on the course already and there's quite a lot been planted. So as time goes on, there will be more shade, which will be good.

00:15:32Melissa Erbacher: I would definitely agree with the shade and the humidity as well. The shade is excellent on your course, especially for that time of day. I wasn't really sure because it is on a rail trail and you've got tall sort of eucalypt type trees both sides. And if the sun's directly overhead, then obviously they're useless. But at that time of morning, it's perfect because you've got them casting long shadows. So it was quite comfortable. I was much more comfortable at Wandai last weekend than I was on New Year's Day.

00:16:04Ros Heit: Oh, really?

00:16:05Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. Yeah. And I was in Brisbane on New Year's Day. Now, Ros, I think I counted up 20 odd parkrunners who went, you know, you were talking about the seasoned versus the brand new ones. Yeah. There were more than 20 there that had done at least 100 runs. So it's big kudos to you that they travelled so far because Wanda is not easy to get to for a lot of people that live in Brisbane or coastal areas. Can you give us a bit of an idea about where it's situated geographically?

00:16:41Ros Heit: It's about three hours northwest of Brisbane. There's actually a couple of ways you can go. Some people, like the Sunshine Coast, would come through Gympie and then west and then slightly south. Brisbane people can either come up the Brisbane Valley through Esk and then through Blackbutt, Nanango, Kingaroy to Wondai or from Chermside you can go like Caboolture Way and again come up that way through Kilcoy. So there's a couple of ways to come but it's probably two and a bit hours from the coast and three hours from Brisbane.

00:17:19Scott Trickett: Ros, what led you to bringing, what was your inspiration to bring parkrun to Wandi?

00:17:25Ros Heit: Well, it's a bit of a long story, and a couple of things sort of work together, but I guess for me it sort of starts with a bit of a personal story of mine, so I might start with that. Having been a fairly sort of healthy person most of my life, in August 2015 I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and as a result of that had to have a mastectomy, an axillary clearance, six loads of chemo, 25 fractions of radiation, the whole box and dice. And then I also had an infection and had seven weeks on IV antibiotics. But by May of last year, 2016, I was finally completed my treatments and getting on with my life. Many people will know that there's a lot of evidence coming out that diet and exercise can reduce the chances of cancer and breast cancer coming back. So, you know, like most people in this situation, I don't want it to come back and I will do anything to stop it coming back. And I guess also from the mental point of view, I needed to sort of throw myself into something. So I thought I'd start running. So June the 1st last year, I started the C2 5K program, the couch to five kilometers. I think it's meant to be an eight week program to get to 5K. It actually took me quite a lot longer than that. But we got to about August. So I've been doing about eight weeks and was in Brisbane and visiting my friend Marie-Louise. And I was telling her how I've started running. And she said, oh, you should go to parkrun. Is there one near you? And I said, what the hell is parkrun? Anyway, after that, I then looked it up and thought, wow, I think parkrun would be good for me personally, but I'm also a local government councillor. So I'm always sort of keen to look for things that would be really good for our community. And I could see that this would be fabulous for our community. So I was pretty keen about a parkrun. About this time, which is what, August last year, I then, because I could now run about two kilometers, I joined a couple of local running clubs, the Go Getter Girls and the Kingaroy Nutters, and sort of tentatively said to these, because these are real runners, they actually have done running before, said, what do you think about a parkrun? And they said, we'd love one, but we can't find a decent course. Well, this is where the next thing came in, which sort of had the stars aligned to make things happen. is South Burnett Regional Council was given some money to convert an old railway line into a rail trail. So we had a bit of a meeting, about 15 of us, in Wandi on the rail trail. And we all sort of agreed this would be a perfect location for a parkrun. So we thought, great, let's pursue this. And Mel, of course, is our territory director. So I think this is when I sort of started ringing her saying, hey, you know, how do we start a parkrun? And so we started looking for that. And then the other thing we needed, of course, was the start-up money. And through the council, the state government was given some money, some drought support money, we called it, which was through the Department of Communities, and it's to build community resilience in rural areas when they've been suffering from drought. And we thought that parkrun would be perfect because it builds social connection. Of course, it's exercise and it's regular. So we spoke to the Department of Communities people and they agreed. So everything came together. We had a group of people who were keen. We had a course. We had the money. So bingo, we were ready to fire up. So yeah, and that was probably November. But quite funny, I still hadn't actually done a parkrun. But I think it was middle of November. I was in Brisbane or I may have the point of going to Brisbane, leaving here about 4 o'clock in the morning to actually do a parkrun. So we'd actually set up this parkrun and I still hadn't actually done one. But anyway, it's come together. We've got a lovely group and I'm pretty confident that it's going to go from strength to strength.

00:22:04Scott Trickett: It's a great story. You brought parkrun to the town. Is the town excited to have parkrun there on the new rail trail?

00:22:11Ros Heit: Oh, absolutely. We got huge community support and a lot of people from Wandai, you know, came and joined in and I'm sure they'll continue to do so. There's also things like once a month there's Wandai markets and, you know, Wandai has, you know, coffee shops and, you know, small supermarkets. So I think it will be great for the community when people come. We've also got one of those free 48-hour caravan parks and hotels. So I am hoping that, you know, we get a fair bit of park-run tourism and bring people to the area to do park-run. But probably most importantly, I think it's just so good for people's um, wellbeing to be getting out and exercising once a week. One of the ladies on our committee, um, is the local diabetic educator and she's really keen on parkrun and she's keen to get a lot of her, um, I'm not sure if they're patients or clients. I'm not quite sure what the proper term is, but she's keen to get a lot of people coming. She actually didn't come to our, um, our launch on Saturday. She had some rather feeble excuse. I think it was, uh, getting married or something and she thought that was a good excuse not to come to parkrun but she has promised that next week she's got a honeymoon but then she will definitely come so yeah it will be good to have her on board she'll regret it once she starts coming she'll wish she had made the effort on her wedding day before all the makeup melted off and all that sort of thing yeah it was actually quite special at the launch is my friend Marie-Louise and her husband Bruce from Brisbane, the ones who told me about parkrun last August, is that they actually came up to our launch. So that was a bit special too.

00:23:59Melissa Erbacher: Ros, you, because you're in such a remote area and it is a big deal for you to get to other events, I'm very impressed that you have done quite a bit of parkrun adventuring just since, you know, November last year, October, November. Can you tell us a couple of the events you've been to and any highlights that you've had at those?

00:24:18Ros Heit: I've been to seven. I was quite excited. I was in Brisbane for New Year's Day, well, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day. So, of course, I managed to do three in the weekend. So I did New Farm and then the Chermside Kedron Doubler on New Year's Day. But I think they've all been a highlight.

00:24:37Vic Pisano: I've been amazed because...

00:24:40Ros Heit: because I'm still learning a bit about parkrun, is that each of the ones I've gone to, I've sort of rocked up to the organisers at about quarter to seven and sort of said, look, we're thinking of starting one. Do you mind if I hover and look at what you do and sort of get a few ideas?

00:24:57Vic Pisano: And everybody's been so welcoming and they've said, oh, that's great.

00:25:00Ros Heit: You're fabulous that you're starting one. And you pick up a few little sort of hints on how people sort their tokens and how they set up different signs. And so it's been good to go to sort of seven different ones because you pick up a few ideas on what might suit us and what might not suit us. I mean, obviously, a lot of those. Oh, I went to South Bank as well. And that's fairly huge and fairly different because, of course, it's right in the middle of Brisbane and there's lots of other people. you know, we're a little bit more, I don't know if remote sounds terribly, there's a lot more remote places than us, Mel, but we're definitely regional, I suppose. But yeah, a lot of them were different. So I think they've all been highlights. I've enjoyed them all. And I've particularly enjoyed the parkrun community. But I do have to laugh that there's definitely quite a few parkrun tragics out there, aren't there?

00:25:54Scott Trickett: You're speaking to a couple.

00:25:57Ros Heit: Yes.

00:25:59Scott Trickett: Ros, it sounds like you've got lots of fun ahead of you with your new event. Thanks for coming on and sharing the experience of launching an event in Wondi with us. Pleasure. I'm adding it to my list. It sounds exciting.

00:26:13Ros Heit: For anybody else who's listening, we would love you to come up to Wondai and enjoy our parkrun.

00:26:25[music]

00:26:25Scott Trickett: Okay, as you all know, if you've been listening to the podcast, we're massive fans of technology. And we discovered something a couple of weeks ago. There's an app called Run Group, and it looks interesting. So we thought we'd get the man behind that on the podcast. Welcome to the parkrun Adventurers, Vic.

00:26:42Vic Pisano: G'day, Scott. Hello, Mel. Thanks for having me.

00:26:45Scott Trickett: Vic, tell us all about this app that you're behind.

00:26:49Vic Pisano: Well, the Run Group app, look, it's basically, you know, It's all about getting people together to discover and meet new running groups through finding, joining, creating and making your own sort of running groups. So it sort of came about, long story, I sort of started my running journey a few years back with a good friend of mine. We had a bit of a running... bromance and we eventually sort of built up kilometers and got to the point where we ran a half marathon together and then he was told by his doctor he'd had a persistent injury since his football playing days and he was told by his physio or doctor that after looking at some x-rays that he had to give up running or that basically have to fuse his ankle together. that was the catalyst. It was at that point where we built up a great friendship and everything and I wanted to keep running and running with another person, you get all that motivation, that accountability, friendship and just increasing your fitness through running with somebody else just changed my life. So I wanted to keep doing that after I lost my my running partner, so I thought there's got to be an app for that. There's an app for everything. And this was about five years ago. And there wasn't an app for that. So I came up with the stupid idea that I'd make an app for that. And it sort of all went from there. I sort of came up with the idea in my head. I had a friend who was a designer. We mocked everything up in a form that we could then give to a developer. put it all together but you know basically the app is about finding like-minded running groups or runners in your area that fit your pace your timetable your distance and you go from there it's as simple as just putting in your address and then running groups will pop up in that area and the other great thing about it as well but that we wanted to sort of expand on is the idea of using it as a, as a traveling companion, like parkrun, I guess, you know, people use, uh, when they're traveling, they will look up their nearest parkrun and they'll know that pretty much most cities that they'll go to, uh, well, not most cities and a lot of cities that they'll go to, they'll find a park on Saturday somewhere. Well, with run group, it works in a similar way that you might rock up in, New York and think hey I want to go for a 5k run so you can just put in Central Park or something and as the develops you'll find there'll be a group running 5k's in Central Park and it's as simple as hitting join and you can join that group the next day and go for a run with them so running community you know all that kind of stuff it's easy to use no bells and whistles it's not about competitions or posting your how far or how fast you ran on your social media. It's just about finding, joining and creating running groups.

00:30:34Melissa Erbacher: Vic, I'm a little bit surprised that your running buddy didn't want to go for the option of fusing his ankle. I know a lot of runners who would have gone down that track rather than give it up altogether. But it's nice that it has inspired you to create something that is for the benefit of many more people than just yourself, which is exactly what parkrun is as well.

00:30:55Vic Pisano: Yeah.

00:30:56Melissa Erbacher: I'm not very technologically minded, so I do have a phone and I have about two apps on it. Is your app available just from normal app stores or can people get it on their computers? How does it all work?

00:31:10Vic Pisano: Yeah, look, it's absolutely free. Just get onto... Google Play or your Apple App Store and type run group, one word, R-U-N-G-R-O-U-P, and it will pop up and it's free. You just load it up and you're away. And it will ask you for a few details like your pace, your preferred pace, your preferred distance, whether you regard yourself as a beginner, an intermediate or an elite runner. Um, and that will sort of be your filter, but, but basically after that, it will take you to a page that, um, um, we'll just ask you for an address. And if you enter in, um, you know, Adelaide, um, a heap of groups will pop up. Um, and if you want to join any of them, you just touch that group and then another screen will pop up that says join group and you can join that group. And then you're in a, once you've joined the group, you're in a little closed, community um where you can send messages to each other so if there's a major storm happening somebody can just um the the leader of that run group can just say sorry runs off tomorrow or you can send a an encouraging word to somebody saying great run yesterday something like that um so it's yeah it's all pretty easy with it's not um uh it's easy to get around in and that's the whole idea we don't We don't want to compete with the established Stravas or Facebook or anything like that. This is all just purely about getting people together and having that first contact. And you guys would know yourself, the irony is for a lot of new people starting running, they're intimidated by running groups. But that's probably the best thing you can do when you're starting running because it forces you to keep going. You make friends. Your friends ask you where you were last week. And, you know, parkrun is the best example of that. People just are looking forward to that. The whole idea of community brings people together. And, you know, and I want to, I hope, the app grows to a point where people use it to begin their running journey as well as sort of keep going with it. So that's kind of, you know, I guess a big goal of mine is to have people, you know, have life-changing experiences like I have just through discovering running with people, yeah.

00:34:00Scott Trickett: And are you reliant on the community to create those group runs?

00:34:05Vic Pisano: Yeah, pretty much. When I first started the apps, I was contacting established running groups and asked them to sort of register on the app. So there's quite a few on there. And then there's a lot of people that have just joined the group organically as well. There's groups that have joined that I've asked them. And then there's people, for example, last week a whole heap of groups popped up in India. which was fantastic, you know, that have just sort of discovered it and thought, oh, that works for us. And when the first week the app, the first group that joined the app was a group in South Africa who are obviously, you know, running's a big part of their culture and it's a huge recreational sport over there. So they just sort of found it and thought, oh, that works for us. You know, hopefully it's... something that people would discover it's a great communication tool within their group so it's kind of yeah that that's it's the calling card for people uh for for established groups but it's also the the other great thing is that it's something for for somebody that might be a slow runner or a fast runner or you can even create one-off groups if you want to do a new year's eve midnight run you could create that group on there for somebody to just you know, that might be looking for a New Year's Eve run might find it on there in their city. And it's like, wow, you know, I want to join that and go for a run with these guys.

00:35:41Scott Trickett: Well, we need to get parkrun on there. Would parkrun fit the model of the run group?

00:35:47Vic Pisano: Absolutely, yeah. We've got – look, what I'd love parkrun to do, and I think it would – I think it could be great for parkrun because the great thing is that it offers parkrun as – a way to extend their running friendship on the non-parkrunning days, the Sunday to Friday. You know, obviously everybody meets on the Saturday and there's so many people there. There's such a great community spirit. People find people that they're running with that are of a similar pace every week. A great way for them to, you know, perhaps beat their PB is to be running with somebody that may be slightly ahead of them or even, running with somebody that they've been running with in parkrun for a while or whether it's a whole group of parkrunners that decide, okay, we're going to have a Wednesday group that gets together on the parkrun track to have a bit of speed work there or just a recovery run or whatever. The options are endless for that kind of filling in your days between the parkruns and you don't have to necessarily decide join one of your established groups it could just be a small group that you limit to maybe four people or two people or something yeah well you got a parkrun pb on the saturday because you attended your very first parkrun you obviously enjoyed it yeah oh it was brilliant it was you know um Unlike most people's experience losing their virginity, I had an awesome experience. I loved it. I've been running for a long time now, and most of the people I run with have done parkruns, but unfortunately, my wife, her morning exercise day is that Saturday, so it's been it's been a bit of a hurdle that I've had to get around. And finally we were away on holidays and I convinced her to leave at 6 in the morning so I could get back and do the park, do the Torrens parkrun. And we got back in time, which was fantastic, and got on there. And the guy that runs it is Ojo Dojo. He's hilarious. He's brilliant. What a great way to start the day. He probably should have his own stand-up comedy show, I think. But, yeah, I'm super keen to do more, and hopefully I might convince my wife to come along and bring our kids. The problem is we've got two young kids, so we can't kind of leave them home. And they're too big for prams, so I can't really run with them in a pram. So... Yeah, unfortunately. But, yeah, I'm definitely locked in for more. We're going overseas in July to Europe, so I'm hoping to get a few in over there.

00:38:54Melissa Erbacher: Some international events will make a great adventure.

00:38:58Vic Pisano: Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, super keen.

00:39:01Melissa Erbacher: Vic, thank you very much for coming on the podcast this week. We appreciate you giving us an insight into Run Group and how it all works and what it can do for parkrunners and parkrun adventurers out there. So thanks very much.

00:39:15Vic Pisano: Thanks, Mel. Thanks, Scott.

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

00:39:28[music]

00:39:28Melissa Erbacher: Well, there was a lot of cake at Sirromet last week. Where will you find cake this week?

00:39:33Scott Trickett: Just on that, for those that don't know, Ciramay did not break the attendance record. Apparently it was a stinking hot day.

00:39:42Melissa Erbacher: I can vouch for that. It was a ridiculously hot day. I think it was a ridiculously hot day across the country.

00:39:47Scott Trickett: No, not down here. No, we had a cool one. We had good numbers around Australia, though. We're still in that sweet spot of high attendances.

00:39:57Melissa Erbacher: That's because Queensland is still hardcore. Yeah. Despite the fact that it was hot, people just, instead of going for a trail run, decided to stay close to home and run in the shade instead.

00:40:10Scott Trickett: If you were looking for a new event to attend in Queensland this week, you're out of luck. Because we've got two new parkrun events launching. One in Victoria, at the cute little town of Port Fairy. And where's the other one?

00:40:26Melissa Erbacher: The other one is at Lithgow in New South Wales. But I want to know more about Port Fairy. Would they be likely to have fairy penguins? Is that why it's called Port Fairy?

00:40:35Scott Trickett: Ooh... testing my history of rural coastal Victorian towns. I don't think they've got penguins. I have no idea why they're called Port Fairy, but it is a lovely part of Victoria.

00:40:50Melissa Erbacher: Well, somebody needs to get on putting some penguins down there.

00:40:54Scott Trickett: Yeah, I think it's one of these towns that is also growing. It's part of a sea change movement. Lots of people have moved into Port Fairy over the past few years. So it's great that they've got a parkrun now. and a great adventure destination.

00:41:11Melissa Erbacher: We've got a few anniversaries on the list this week. We also had Pioneer on the list last week, but due to some local council works, that event didn't happen. Their anniversary didn't happen, so they're celebrating it this week instead in WA for their third.

00:41:28Scott Trickett: Point Cook are also celebrating a third anniversary in Victoria.

00:41:33Melissa Erbacher: And just on the quiet... St Peter's is celebrating their fifth. And I say on the quiet because I do know that Paul Wilcock also always encourages people who perhaps don't like crowds to use it as an opportunity to pop along somewhere else on an anniversary because they tend to have quite big numbers there on their anniversaries.

00:41:55Scott Trickett: Paul Wilcock, who is our longest serving ED, five years at the helm of St. Peter's. He's also the one guest who has rejected us on the most number of occasions to come on the podcast. So happy anniversary, Paul. Did you hear my subtle reference to get us a sponsor last week? I dropped the Zooper Dooper name, and I was hoping the Zoopa People would get in touch with us and come at us with a big sponsorship offer, but they didn't. So this week I'm drinking H2coco coconut water.

00:42:30Unidentified speaker: Oh, gosh.

00:42:32Scott Trickett: I've discovered coconut water this summer.

00:42:34Melissa Erbacher: It's great. You're on the coconut water bandwagon.

00:42:39Scott Trickett: I'll see how long I last. I'll last a lot longer if somebody wants to sponsor us. I'll drink it all year if I have to, but it's actually really good. Have you ever jumped on the coconut water bandwagon?

00:42:52Melissa Erbacher: I was literally offered some for the first time on the weekend and I politely declined. Yeah, I'm not a huge coconut fan. I like my coconut on lamingtons and that's about it. Even pina coladas are a little bit too coconutty for me, so I end up having to go for the daiquiris.

00:43:13Scott Trickett: Do you know they make pineapple flavoured? Coconut water, which is what I'm having this morning for breakfast.

00:43:20Melissa Erbacher: Pineapple flavoured coconut water? Yeah. Well, how are they flavouring it though? Is it like a proper, is it an actual natural pineapple in there or is it just some kind of flavouring which is, you know, not unprocessed and natural?

00:43:38Scott Trickett: It's all natural. Coconut water is all natural and pineapples, yeah, I'm not sure.

00:43:43Melissa Erbacher: I eat a lot of pineapple chocolate, but that doesn't mean it's natural.

00:43:48Scott Trickett: Well, maybe combine the two now. Pineapple coconut water, pineapple chocolate.

00:43:55Melissa Erbacher: That's a well-balanced diet right there.

00:43:58Scott Trickett: It's time to go, Mel. You literally have to go to do your paid job. We have to go so people can continue on with their lives because I know that everyone stops doing what they're doing to listen to this podcast.

00:44:13Melissa Erbacher: This is very true.

00:44:13Scott Trickett: Yep. So carry on with your lives, everyone. We will be back next week.

00:44:18Melissa Erbacher: Try and have an adventure in the meantime.