Episode 53

Episode details · 181 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:07Scott Trickett: everyone welcome back to another edition of the parkrun adventurers podcast i'm here again probably to the disappointment of some but mel is with me hi mel to the disappointment of everybody else who's not disappointed about scotty it's episode 53 scotty yes we've long talked about episode 53 and

00:00:32Melissa Erbacher: We have, but we've changed the theme for our pictures, so now we can't use what we've long talked about.

00:00:39Scott Trickett: What about we make one final exception?

00:00:43Melissa Erbacher: I think that's a good idea.

00:00:44Scott Trickett: Yeah. Hopefully you've already seen it and you know what we're talking about.

parkrun news bulletin

00:00:49Melissa Erbacher: The news is absolutely chockers this week. Let's go straight to it.

00:01:00Scott Trickett: 33,520 brand newbies turned up for parkrun last weekend. Add 18 to that number and you have the total PBs obtained across 1,024 events.

00:01:12Melissa Erbacher: Unconfirmed reports have been flooding in about a unicorn sighting at an Australian parkrun on parkrun Day. For the protection of the magical beast, we will not be disclosing the location of the sighting at this time.

00:01:24[music]

00:01:24Unidentified speaker: Music

00:01:27Scott Trickett: That wasn't as chockers as I thought it was going to be, Mel.

00:01:30Melissa Erbacher: It's quality, not quantity, Scotty. I mean, how many other places in the world have had unicorn sightings? Seriously.

00:01:37Scott Trickett: I couldn't tell you. I couldn't tell you. But I use the news when you're reading the news as an opportunity to eat. Oh, do you? And I didn't get through much tonight.

00:01:50Melissa Erbacher: So it was a short-lived snack, was it? Yeah. What were you eating?

00:01:53Scott Trickett: Oh, it's funny you should ask, because once again, the H2coco coconut water people didn't come at me. So this week, I'm going back to an old favourite of yours, Cadbury's Pineapple Flavoured Chocolate.

00:02:09Melissa Erbacher: Ooh, tropical pineapple.

00:02:11Scott Trickett: Tropical pineapple. I found it in the supermarket again, so I thought four blocks is probably enough.

00:02:18Melissa Erbacher: To last this week.

00:02:19Scott Trickett: I'm going to stretch that out because I'm not sure, it's a bit like the unicorn, whether I will ever see it again.

00:02:26Melissa Erbacher: It is. I highly recommend people just scour the shelves for it every time you go to the grocery store because if you do spot it, chances are it'll be once in a blue moon.

00:02:37Scott Trickett: Do you ever have chocolate for breakfast? We've got a famous chef coming up later in the podcast. I'm sure he's going to give us lots of food tips. But how do you go? How do you go?

00:02:49Melissa Erbacher: I may have had chocolate for breakfast.

00:02:51Michael Sharpe: I regularly do.

00:02:52Scott Trickett: What about for parkrun? Do you eat before you go to parkrun?

00:02:58Melissa Erbacher: No. I can't eat before I go to... Well, actually, no, that's a lie. I can eat before I volunteer, but I can't eat before I run at parkrun because... It's still the middle of the night for me. So my belly doesn't know about food until about kilometer two. And then it's like, oh, why didn't I eat beforehand? But if I did eat beforehand, then I would do that vomiting thing that you say you always push yourself towards. And I'm not one of those runners. So no, I don't eat beforehand. Do you?

00:03:26Scott Trickett: No, never. Never. I couldn't think of anything worse.

00:03:30Melissa Erbacher: Is that just because you're running late?

00:03:32Scott Trickett: No, I'm not hungry before a run. Never have been, never will be. It's even before marathons. I won't even have a banana or a bit of toast.

00:03:42Melissa Erbacher: What if you're running in the evenings or the afternoon? What kind of time frame do you need to wait?

00:03:48Scott Trickett: Even worse. So I do a lot of my running at night at the moment. And the problem that that raises is that you can't have dinner beforehand because then you're running around with a big belly full of food. And that feels terrible. Yeah. So then you end up having dinner after you run, and that's like at 9, 9.30 at night. And that's not great.

00:04:10Melissa Erbacher: That's actually pretty standard for me anyway, 9.30 at night. Yeah, without the running beforehand. So it's probably less good for my digestion again.

00:04:18Scott Trickett: Yeah, see, I don't like it. I've never got nutrition right. When I did a marathon a couple of years ago, I had this great idea that I thought I'd juice a few days out.

00:04:33Melissa Erbacher: You'd like a juice cleanse or you'd only drink juice?

00:04:36Scott Trickett: I would only drink juice because I've always had a bit of a problem with my tummy during long runs and stuff like that.

00:04:41Melissa Erbacher: And you didn't try this a couple of days out from training. You tried this a couple of days out from your actual marathon.

00:04:48Scott Trickett: Yeah, I thought I'd go in light.

00:04:51Melissa Erbacher: In that don't try anything new period of time, you decided to trial juicing.

00:04:58Scott Trickett: In my head at the time, it made perfect sense. You know, my body would be cleansed. I wouldn't be carrying any extra weight. The problem was I was really dehydrated. So if you're going to juice, you've just got to drink a lot, I think. I was really dehydrated going in, which then resulted in cramping. And it was, you know, one of my worst marathons ever. In fact, I think it was my last marathon I ever did.

00:05:23Melissa Erbacher: So... Well, you can't say ever did because you're going to do more in the future, yes?

00:05:30Scott Trickett: Maybe. Maybe not.

00:05:33Melissa Erbacher: Okay.

00:05:34Scott Trickett: Hopefully.

00:05:34Melissa Erbacher: Yet to be determined.

00:05:35Scott Trickett: Yeah. Matt will sort us out later in the program. Keep listening. I'm sure he's got some hot tips. Quite often on the podcast, you'll hear Mel and I talk about, we're going to add this parkrun to our list. That list being the events that we want to visit. Number one on my list is the Beaches parkrun. So we thought, our ED this week, who's just had a big week, welcome to the podcast, Michael Sharp from the Beaches parkrun.

Meet the ED

00:06:18Michael Sharpe: Hi, Scott. Hi, Mel.

00:06:20Scott Trickett: Thanks for joining us, Michael. You've had a big Saturday. Tell us all about it.

00:06:25Michael Sharpe: It was our 100th event on Saturday. We were trying to get 100 people. We've only had over 100 people four times before. And our record was on our launch, which was 144 people. And we ended up with 160. So we were stoked about all that.

00:06:45Scott Trickett: Fantastic. It's always exciting breaking your record. But it's fair to say you probably haven't got close to your record since you've been going.

00:06:55Michael Sharpe: No, no, not at all. So our second highest was 117 and our third highest was 102. So to get over 100 is a big deal for us.

00:07:08Scott Trickett: And why is that?

00:07:10Michael Sharpe: Why is it that people run on sand and they don't usually like to come back and run on the sand, so... We're spoilt for choice in Newcastle, the region of runners. We have 12 different parkruns. So usually people come to us, they're doing their Regionnaire status or they're doing some tourism. We're probably a very unique parkrun. We're the only parkrun that I know of in the world that runs the whole five kilometres on sand.

00:07:41Melissa Erbacher: Now, do you think – so you'd have a high incidence of people that run there only once and then don't come back. Do your numbers fluctuate based on the tide all weeks? So do you find you have – because you forecast the tides, don't you, and you let people know what they are ahead of time?

00:07:59Michael Sharpe: Yeah, we definitely do that. It's so much easier to run on a low tide compared to a high tide. So we do pin a post on our Facebook page. letting people know the tides and how difficult the run is likely to be. It's also up on the day, if it's a big swell and windy, that can affect it as well. But a low tide, I'm about five minutes difference between a low tide and a high tide with the same amount of effort that I put into my run.

00:08:34Melissa Erbacher: Do you ever mess with the runners and just like tell them it's going to be a low tide but it's actually high tide?

00:08:41Michael Sharpe: No, we never do that.

00:08:42Melissa Erbacher: Not yet. You do know that April 1st is on a Saturday this year though, right?

00:08:47Michael Sharpe: Oh, I didn't know that.

00:08:52Melissa Erbacher: I'm sure all the beaches parkrunners don't listen to the podcast. So, you know, we can just keep this between us. Mind you, if it is actually low tide, then, you know, you can't fool anybody, can you?

00:09:06Michael Sharpe: But it, If you want a true beaches experience, if you run it on a high tide when it's tough, we have lower numbers, but it's a true beaches experience. Sore calves, slow times. It's nice and tough.

00:09:25Scott Trickett: Okay, so just explain it to me, Michael, because I'm from the bush. So the high tide, does that mean you push further up the beach so the sand is softer?

00:09:36Michael Sharpe: So you're in the... So you're in the soft sand. So the lower the tide, the firmer the sand. I often run in the water because it's harder sand and you can run faster, basically. So if a big wave does come in and you're in the water, that also slows you down. You have to keep an eye on the waves at all times.

00:09:59Melissa Erbacher: Do the majority of your runners run barefoot? I mean, you run in the water, so obviously that's just going to slow you down if you have shoes on as well.

00:10:08Michael Sharpe: Yeah, the majority of our runners run barefoot. About 90% of our runners would. On a high tide, it's definitely more difficult to run with shoes on compared to a low tide because it's nice and firm and compact on the low tide. I have seen people out and back, out and back, two laps, So we have seen people plenty of times run out with shoes on and they're carrying their shoes on the way back. And on the other side of the scale as well, I've also seen people run barefoot and turn up the next week with shoes on and they've run with shoes all the time.

00:10:46Melissa Erbacher: Wow. And so do you know off the top of your head what is the slowest first finisher time you've ever had at an event?

00:10:57Michael Sharpe: I think it's around 32 minutes and something seconds.

00:11:02Melissa Erbacher: That's still faster than my PB. Damn it. Yeah, I was hoping I'd be in for a chance there. That's all right.

00:11:10Michael Sharpe: And the female, 48 minutes and something. I think we only had seven finishes on that day and there was only one female and she finished in 48 minutes. So that might have been a walk or a walk run.

00:11:27Melissa Erbacher: So I need to show up on a poor weather week, is what you're saying?

00:11:31Michael Sharpe: In the middle of winter.

00:11:33Melissa Erbacher: In the winter with high tide. Yeah, gotcha.

00:11:38Michael Sharpe: A bit of rain.

00:11:40Melissa Erbacher: I will try to aim for that.

00:11:42Scott Trickett: And you discovered parkrun via the beaches, but you've since done a few of the other parkruns in the region of runners.

00:11:50Michael Sharpe: So we've got 12 parkruns in our region of Newcastle, and I've done 10 of those 12. We're spoilt for choice. We've got great friendly atmosphere wherever you go. You've got different running clubs at all the different parkruns all the time. And, yeah, I've never been to a parkrun where it hasn't been amazing.

00:12:11Melissa Erbacher: So how close are you in terms of – you're classified as a region of runners event at the beaches. So how close is your closest event?

00:12:22Michael Sharpe: Oh, we've got three events within – three kilometres of each other, but one might be on, one's on the other side of Newcastle Harbour, which is Stockton parkrun, and we've got Newey parkrun, which would be in between us and Stockton parkrun. So we have two right under the doorstep.

00:12:48Melissa Erbacher: So you have quite a small event. How do you get on with having volunteers every week?

00:12:54Michael Sharpe: So we have a good team behind us. We have several different running clubs in the region and whenever we're short, we just put out calls and we seem to always make the numbers.

00:13:08Melissa Erbacher: Excellent. It's good to hear you're well supported by your community. I have a question. We've got a bit of a holiday course at Kawana to deal with congestion issues that we have over the school holiday summer period. And the first kilometre of our course is currently on the beach. We have been posting every week that it could be quite challenging to people with normal prams. However, for the last three weeks, we've had a gentleman with a pram still do the course and he runs it on the beach and he has this little method of getting off the beach back onto the normal path by going backwards and pulling the pram up behind him. Have you ever had somebody complete your course with a pram?

00:13:57Michael Sharpe: We haven't had one completed with a pram, but we have had our other ED, Emily, she did it in a wheelchair. She was pushed in a wheelchair.

00:14:08Melissa Erbacher: That's brilliant.

00:14:10Michael Sharpe: Yeah, this was before I'd found parkrun, but I've seen the pics and I think it was a high tide which made it even tougher. Yeah, that was amazing to see those photos and hear the story.

00:14:25Scott Trickett: Michael, have you ever had anybody rock up who's liked the idea of running on the beach? Maybe they were from England, for example, and they've got there and it's not as idyllic and serene as they perhaps thought it would be and have struggled and have maybe fallen over.

00:14:43Michael Sharpe: I don't know of anyone that's fallen over, but definitely a lot of people on a high tide have gone out too hard in their run thinking that it would be easier, and they've come home really, really slow and really struggling. There's been people that have turned up and only done one lap out and back once instead of two, but that's still better than all those that stayed home in bed.

00:15:12Melissa Erbacher: So is it a lap course?

00:15:15Michael Sharpe: Yeah, there's two laps out and back and out and back twice, so it's four 1.25km legs.

00:15:22Melissa Erbacher: Oh, that's awesome. That must be really social then as well.

00:15:25Michael Sharpe: Yeah, so you get plenty of high fives along the way.

00:15:28Melissa Erbacher: And you've mentioned earlier that you run in the water. Have you ever seen anyone absolutely taken out by a wave that they weren't expecting?

00:15:39Michael Sharpe: I haven't seen it personally, but I've seen photos of people in waist-deep water. We did have one incident that we logged where one lady did get pushed over by the wave and one of our other parkrunners who's on the event team, um, come to aid and, and, and walk the back to the start finish line on, on the first lap. But yeah, but it's, it's pretty rare. It has to be, it has to be big swell and has to be bad conditions.

00:16:10Melissa Erbacher: Alrighty, Michael, we're at the pointy end of the interview and we need to know of the events that you've adventured to. What are your top three, not including the beaches, not including the beaches.

00:16:23Michael Sharpe: So, uh, I'm going to have to put my hand up and say Lakeview parkrun. They helped train me up to become run director at the beginning. So I've got a real soft spot for Lakeview parkrun. And the entrance parkrun, that's where I got my overall parkrun best. It's nice and flat and fast. And my third one is the furthest adventuring I've done. It would be Port Mac parkrun, Port Macquarie.

00:16:52Scott Trickett: We're planning to go away this weekend, and I was, well I was, I looked up flights to Newcastle, and the only reason I've got to come to Newcastle is to run the Beaches parkrun. Didn't get over the line this time, but I guarantee I'm going to get to Newcastle this year, so I expect to have a run with you in person.

00:17:14Michael Sharpe: Yep, yeah, that would be great. Make sure you let us know and it'll be good.

00:17:18Scott Trickett: Will do.

00:17:19Michael Sharpe: Listening to the podcast, I started listening from about 15 and I did hear you say that the beaches was the one that you most wanted to do.

00:17:28Melissa Erbacher: Well, thanks for sticking with us all this time.

00:17:31Michael Sharpe: Yeah, I've still got a couple I'm behind on, maybe three or four, but I'll catch up.

00:17:37Scott Trickett: Thanks for telling us all about the beaches parkrun and congratulations on your new attendance record.

00:17:43Michael Sharpe: Thanks for having me, Scott and Mel.

00:17:53Melissa Erbacher: Many parkrunners would openly admit their primary motivation for running is to eat. Let's face it, if we all ate every delicious thing out there that we wanted to and never moved, we'd need forklifts for personal transportation. If you love your food and you love to run, you're going to love our next guest. He's a South East Queensland son, a runner and a chef. Welcome to the parkrun Adventurers, Matt Galinsky.

00:18:20Matt Golinski: Hey, how you doing?

00:18:23Melissa Erbacher: Really well, thanks, Matt. Thanks for coming on the show. Now, my first question is a very important one. Do you run to eat?

00:18:32Matt Golinski: Yeah, I definitely do. I mean, for me, it keeps the weight off. I'm just getting back stuck into it again. You know, from a couple of weeks ago, I've been running again just to get all that Christmas weight off and mostly alcohol. I run so I can drink, I reckon, more than eat.

00:18:52Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:18:53Melissa Erbacher: That's also a legitimate reason.

00:18:55Matt Golinski: Yeah.

00:18:57Scott Trickett: Well, tell us about your running story, Matt. How did you get into running?

00:19:03Matt Golinski: Look, I think, well, I was working as a chef in a restaurant down in Noosa, and I was doing split shifts every day. And it was too far to go home in my split shift. I'd usually only have a couple of hours off, so I needed something to do other than go to the pub. So I'd just throw the runners on and go for a run. sort of just started doing that and it got in my head that I wanted to do a half marathon. So I just started in my breaks, you know, building up from a few kilometres to, you know, adding a kilometre each week and then end up doing Noosa half marathon about six months later. So by then I was hooked.

00:19:45Melissa Erbacher: Noosa half marathon, that's, was that a flat run?

00:19:50Matt Golinski: Yeah, it's a really flat run actually. It's two laps. So it's actually a beautiful run. I've done it a few times since, but it's one of my very favourites because I'm not a big fan of hills.

00:20:04Melissa Erbacher: Speaking of not being a big fan of hills, you have run Pomona King of the Mountain, which has got a fairly substantial little mountain in that. Do you want to tell us a bit about that experience?

00:20:15Matt Golinski: Yeah, well, I don't mind that hill. I actually live right next to the mountain, so... I've kind of get out there and look at it each day and go, oh, I've got to get up there. So I do that probably, I try to do that two or three times a week. And that's, I mean, you've done it yourself and you know that it's very hard to actually run up the thing. You can run to the base of it and then it's really just a scramble up and then you throw yourself back down. But it's, you know, it's kind of a, most of the locals, a lot of the locals that live around here, you see them all up there all the time. We're all sort of addicted to doing it because it's, as hard as it is as a physical thing, when you get up to the top, it's just amazing. And you get these beautiful breezes coming across and the view's amazing. So it's one of those things. And I mean, the King of the Mountain Race is just a fantastic little community thing to be involved in and actually achieve. Only 100 people allowed in it each year. And you have to get in real fast to get your entry, to get your tickets. but it's great when you're running up and down, running up the street and getting introduced to a little crowd, and it's very fun. You know what it's like.

00:21:26Melissa Erbacher: It was good value. It's actually my top event of all time ever so far.

00:21:31Matt Golinski: Is that right? That's good, yeah. No, I think it's pretty cool. I think I'm going to be doing it again this year.

00:21:37Scott Trickett: Are you going to have time to train for it, Matt? Because every chef I know works ridiculous hours. How do you find time to fit the running in as well?

00:21:48Matt Golinski: Look, I'm busy and I do a lot of travelling. I mean, I'm not in a restaurant as such where I'm stuck in, you know, working on the stoves every day. My job involves doing a lot of travelling around and consulting and writing and all sorts of things. So I pretty much, wherever I go, I take my runners and I love doing, I love, you know, having a chance to actually explore different towns when I'm in them. I'll wake up early and before I'm expected to do stuff and go for a run just to get a feel for a town. And that's probably one of my things. I kind of consider it that I'm collecting towns when I get around the countryside. And it's a great way to get a feel for what the plants are like, the trees, the people. They have the whole vibe of the place. So for me, that's one big thing. I always travel with my shoes. And, you know, when I'm at home, I just make time. I just, you know, it's my, you know, I kind of, I guess I do it more for the escape. And I guess most runners would understand that. It's kind of that solitude of just throwing the shoes on and getting out there and running and having some time in your own brain.

00:23:02Scott Trickett: You've adventured to a few different parkruns around the country as well.

00:23:06Matt Golinski: I have.

00:23:07Scott Trickett: So do you take your shoes and your barcode with you whenever you travel?

00:23:10Matt Golinski: I do. I've got it stuffed in my barcode, stuffed in the back of my diary. And it comes with me everywhere I go. So I've always got that and always take the shoes. But I'll research, especially if I'm going to be there on a Saturday morning and I know that I'm not, you know, if I'm cooking for a breakfast or something that I miss out. But if I've got something on at lunchtime, then I'll get up early. And that's the beauty, I think, of parkrun is you know... It's at 7 o'clock and it's over in half an hour. You go home and, you know, you can get on with the day. But, yeah, I actually was introduced to it by a mad runner friend of mine who does ultras and everything. And he lived in Gladstone and I happened to be there doing a work thing. And he said, oh, come and do this parkrun thing with me. And I was, you know, I was addicted after that. I did Gladstone and then I think a few weeks later I was in Townsville. I did it there. I've done one in Darwin. There's the Noosa one, of course, which I've done a few times. And I've done Nambour a few times as well. And if you don't like hills, that's one's best avoided. That's probably the toughest one that I've done. That's very hilly.

00:24:21Melissa Erbacher: Nambour is actually widely regarded as the most difficult parkrun in Australia out of the 200-plus events that we had.

00:24:29Matt Golinski: Is that right? Really? Yeah, no. I mean, I really enjoyed it. It actually really beat me the first time. I think I went for the very first day they had it and there was hundreds of people there. It was really, really cool. But, you know, I did it and I think it took me 32 minutes or something like that. And I was really annoyed and I went, oh, I'm not going to let this beat me. And I went back the next week and did it in 28 or something. But it is. It's lots of up and down hills and they're big hills. You sort of look at them and go, oh, no, I've got to run up that. And it's kind of loose as well. So you've got to be... you've got to be alert the whole time. So, but it's, it's a really good one. It's a, um, a good challenge.

00:25:12Melissa Erbacher: So you're obviously not afraid of the trails. Have you done many longer distance trail events before?

00:25:19Matt Golinski: Not really. It's something that I'd really like to get into. I mean, I'm this weekend I'm doing the, there's the first of the, the sunshine coast run series. Um, which is the first one's in Noosa. So I paid my fees a couple of weeks ago to lock myself in. So I've got to do it now. Otherwise, I'm wasting my 40 bucks. But I hooked myself up to do the 10K on Sunday. And I think that's a little bit of a trail run, but it's not exactly bush running. But my actual favorite run in the whole world, anywhere I've been, is actually the Noosa National Park. the um the tanglewood track which is about 7k and it's just if ever i'm feeling unhappy um that's my guaranteed way of making myself happy again i just get go get in the car and drive down there and do that one and by the time you finish it if you're not happy you're crazy speaking of getting happy running

00:26:15Melissa Erbacher: A lot of people get happy eating and you've done some long distances. You did your first marathon in 2015. As a chef, do you still eat the gels, those pre-packaged terrible things or have you dabbled a little bit with finding alternatives that are a little bit more whole food-y slash natural, better for the digestion? No? No.

00:26:41Matt Golinski: No, I'd like to say that I do, but no, it's all still packets of gels, bananas and Killer Pythons for me.

00:26:50Scott Trickett: Well, as a chef, you've got an advantage with your food prep. I've always struggled getting nutrition right before a big run. Do you have the same problem?

00:27:01Matt Golinski: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I try to work it out, but I think probably, you know, bananas are probably my greatest savior um you know before a run um and the night before I like to think that I'm doing the right thing by carb loading and all that sort of thing but you know it's it's really hard to tell you get you you know you go out you do those things and you don't know if you're really doing the right thing you're going to feel sluggish or whatever the next day but um you know I The thing is with me with running as well is that I'm not trying to win anything. I'm just trying to reach the end and hopefully beat the last time that I did. So I'm not like some sort of elite athlete or anything. I do it for the sheer joy of completing it and that satisfaction.

00:27:52Scott Trickett: One thing you're also involved in is the slow food movement. This is something I'm interested in too. Can you give us a bit of a background about that?

00:28:01Matt Golinski: Yeah, look, the slow food movement started in Italy as, I guess, a rebellion against... I think that it started when they put a McDonald's at the steps of the Vatican and some of the Italians suddenly just went, hang on a minute, no, this isn't right. And they started up a slow food movement and what it's really become worldwide is... way of preserving I guess the simplest way to put it is it's a way of preserving food culture throughout the world whether that be food cooking techniques ingredients that are becoming extinct because they're not commercially viable to sell in large supermarkets things like that you know food traditions and cultures and and the sharing of that information amongst people all around the world a couple of years ago lucky enough to go to terra madre in um in torino in italy whereas which is where they have every two years a massive meeting of all the convivia from all around the world um and so you've got people from texas and from kenya and from you know vietnam and um it's everyone's food culture all come together in one spot and it's an amazing thing and it's a It really is. They've done a lot of work for improving the lives of people by helping them establish good food standards, I suppose, of agriculture and caring about the land again and doing things well, doing things fairly.

00:29:46Melissa Erbacher: We're all about doing things well and and creating healthier environments and people and bodies at parkrun. So I think it's all part of our ethos too. I'm very interested, Matt, that as part of that you talk about regional food, and I guess that's also sort of seasonal things. You know how to forage for food from just the local – environment that i would just walk past and i'd have no clue that that was actually edible let alone how to cook it is that that's a bit of an awesome skills that i think a lot of our trail runners might like to learn where have you acquired that knowledge i think i've just picked it up over the years i mean working with it in kitchens one of the things that's been really disappointing about the whole bush foods um in inverted commas

00:30:40Matt Golinski: thing that's happened, you know, 20 years ago, probably 25 years ago, I'm getting pretty old now. It was a bit of a push on using bush foods on menus and it kind of became this craze of everyone using, you know, bunya nuts and different things. And then it became almost too much of a craze. And then once it was out, it wasn't cool to do it anymore. You were sort of frowned upon. And so all those things went by the wayside for quite some time. And now recently, probably in the last four or five years, they've come back in, but they've become ingredients that are the mainstream now. And we don't look at them as bush foods. We look at them as ingredients, first and foremost. So they're not a novelty. They are a part of natural food. you know, natural stuff that's just growing out there. And I think, you know, I've, I've done about lilly pillies and bunya nuts and finger limes and lemon myrtle and all those things for a long time. And they, they are all around us. Um, and it's good to know that information, I guess there's literally everywhere at the moment. I just raided a tree the other day and I'm going to make some, um, some jam out of them cause they're beautiful. They've got a beautiful cinnamon clove sort of flavor. Um, but yeah, there's, there's a lot of things out there like that, that, that, um, And I'm no expert at it either. There's guys out there now who've made an entire industry around it. They go out and forage each week for seaweeds and different things and they package them up and sell them to chefs all over the country. So there's a lot of stuff out there.

00:32:22Melissa Erbacher: When you say lilly pillies, I've got heaps of those in my yard. Is it the berries that you're taking off them or the flowers or...?

00:32:29Matt Golinski: Yeah, the pink berries. The pink berries. They're different types. Yeah, yeah. The ones that have got no real seed in them are the ones that you want, or the riberries, as they call them. And, yeah, you just need to boil them up. I usually... grate some apple and put that in a saucepan with the lilly pillies and cook them down and the apple sort of breaks down so you get a bit of body to it, a bit of thickness and everything and then if you wanted to you can add something like cranberry sauce or something like that just to give it that gel so you end up with kind of a jelly sort of sauce and it ends up being like a cranberry sauce basically the berries break down and But they've got a very unique bush food sort of flavour to them.

00:33:15Melissa Erbacher: Yum.

00:33:16Scott Trickett: Yum indeed. All this sounds very healthy. I don't think donuts are natural. They're my weakness. They're my cheat food. Have you got a cheat food, Matt?

00:33:28Matt Golinski: Oh, gee, you know, I like to think I'm pretty good. I do have a weakness for pizza, for sure, but I... When I'm at home, I eat quite well. It's when you travel that it's actually really hard to eat properly and eat healthily because you try getting something that doesn't contain carbohydrates in an airport and you're sort of screwed. So when I'm at home, I try to eat healthy and when I'm away, I just do the best I can. But yeah, I think probably if I had to say anything was my weakness, it's beer. And I try my hardest to be good about that, but I do have my moments.

00:34:11Scott Trickett: Well, you need to celebrate. You need to celebrate your successes. So I think you can make some exceptions from time to time.

00:34:19Matt Golinski: Okay. Thanks very much. I've actually just had a month without any alcohol since the 2nd of January until now. I'm on an embargo on coffee and alcohol.

00:34:30Scott Trickett: Did it improve your running?

00:34:32Matt Golinski: Yes, it has. It's made me lose weight, which is what I do. I sort of bulk up a little bit and then I'll drop five kilos as quickly as I can so I can start running again because I'm not a young fella either anymore. So if I'm 85 kilos and I drop five to be 80, then I certainly feel I'm a lot quicker and I feel it a huge amount on my knees and my ankles and every part of my body actually. So I like running around that 80 kilo mark because I just feel so much lighter. It's like taking off a backpack with five kilos of rocks in it.

00:35:12Melissa Erbacher: Thank you very much for joining us on the podcast, Matt. You've made both of us pretty hungry, I think. So might have to go and get a bit of a snack.

00:35:22Matt Golinski: No worries. Pleasure. I'll see you down at Kawana.

Roving Adventurers (roving reporter crossovers)

00:35:33Scott Trickett: makes me happier than when we get a roving report from our roving adventurers me too that's my favorite isn't it i love it i love hearing other voices and other adventures happening around the country so let's throw to this week's collection of roving reports Not what I was hoping for.

00:36:13Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, maybe they had trouble with the sound quality this week.

00:36:16Scott Trickett: I don't know. Come on, people. Make us happy. We're miserable most of the time. And it just takes a little thing like that to put a smile on our face.

00:36:29Melissa Erbacher: What he's trying to say is, send us some roving reports. We heart them.

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

00:36:33Scott Trickett: Launchers also make me happy. Do we have any this week?

00:36:38Melissa Erbacher: We do. There's one that's going to make a lot of people happy in New South Wales because it's at Mudgee. Not only is the location going to make people happy, but also I believe this is the first event in Australia to be near a brewery. So there could be some interesting experiences after the event.

00:37:00Scott Trickett: Where did you get that fact from? I'm sure there's a few parkruns that are close to our brewery.

00:37:04Melissa Erbacher: Well, yeah, but a brewery that's open. I don't think the brew, the brew, what do they call it? The brew course? No, they don't call it the brew course. They call it the brew. It rhymes with brew, whatever it is in Torrance.

00:37:21Scott Trickett: Crew?

00:37:21Melissa Erbacher: No, it's not the crew. Spew?

00:37:23Scott Trickett: Anyway, Mudgee on Saturday. Good luck, guys. What about cake?

00:37:30Melissa Erbacher: Cake and or donuts may or may not be at. A whole bunch of places this weekend. We've got like five anniversaries. If you want to visit WA, you can stop by Bibra Lake and there may be cake at their second anniversary.

00:37:46Scott Trickett: If you're in the best state of Victoria, you could head down to Churchill for their second. No, for their first.

00:37:53Melissa Erbacher: If you're in New South Wales and you are not attending Mudgee's launch, you could pop by to Cook's River parkrun who are celebrating their second anniversary or the Terrace who are celebrating their first.

00:38:07Scott Trickett: And in Queensland, Tamborine Mountain are celebrating their second.

00:38:12Melissa Erbacher: I'm going to break with tradition here, Scotty. And I am actually going to ask you, what are you planning to do This weekend, this coming weekend, have you got any parkrun plans that differ from the norm?

00:38:25Scott Trickett: Yes, I have.

00:38:27Melissa Erbacher: Well.

00:38:27Scott Trickett: Do you want to hear about them?

00:38:28Melissa Erbacher: Yes.

00:38:29Scott Trickett: I'm going to Renmark. You've never heard much about Renmark, have you?

00:38:35Melissa Erbacher: I think, is that in South Australia?

00:38:37Scott Trickett: It is.

00:38:38Melissa Erbacher: Is it road trip or flight? What's involved in getting to Renmark from where you are?

00:38:43Scott Trickett: Well, we're going on a bit of a road trip. Taking the family on the road. My daughter has said all summer she wants to go on a road trip. We think it's an excuse. I like the idea of it. Well, I think it's an excuse for her to spend a bunch of time on her K-pad, as we call it. But we're all looking forward to it and we're heading to Renmark. So I'll have a report from Renmark next week. A new event for me.

00:39:12Melissa Erbacher: See, you're starting to get itchy feet. And you don't, yeah, you don't want me to get too far ahead.

00:39:19Scott Trickett: No.

00:39:20Melissa Erbacher: You say you're not competitive and then you plan these last minute road trips to South Australia.

00:39:26Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:39:27Melissa Erbacher: I'm on to you, Trickett.

00:39:29Scott Trickett: So you should be. I'm a force. What are you doing this weekend? It seems we've broke with tradition.

00:39:38Melissa Erbacher: Oh, this weekend I will be celebrating the sunshine. And the final week of the beach course at Kawana for this summer holiday period before we revert back to our normal course. So something different for me.

00:39:55Scott Trickett: Have you had many groans? Have you had many complaints about sending them onto the beach?

00:40:00Melissa Erbacher: See, this is the thing. There's groans every week because it's hard. But I think the runners are coming around. And now I'm fully anticipating groans when we go back to the normal course because there will be people that certainly miss the sand. And I have had a lot of positive feedback as the weeks progress from people that are really actually enjoying just that first K, something a bit different, you know, stretching out their legs. And I'm pretty sure the triathlete contingent will all be super grateful that I've given them so much transition practice because they have to train how to run on the sand out of the water when they do their ocean swims and things like that for their tries. And I'm pretty sure I can be held personally responsible for every PB that occurs for the full month of February just because people will be fitter Because of the extra resistance training that I've encouraged them to do by changing the course.

00:41:03Scott Trickett: Yeah. Well, you look, you're preaching to the converted here. You know, the beaches parkrun, your parkrun the last couple of weeks. I can't think of anything more fun to experience. Maybe not every week. You know, I reckon the beaches regulars who do that every week are pretty hardcore. But who knows? You know, it's fun.

00:41:23Melissa Erbacher: And we're all about the fun and all about the adventures. Well, you have a great adventure this weekend, Scotty. I look forward to hearing all about it.

00:41:30Scott Trickett: Me too. We're going to be recording and reporting on the road next week, so hang on, everyone. Next week's episode might not get out until Saturday, but we'll try my best. But that's next week. Thanks for this week, Mel.

00:41:46Melissa Erbacher: Always welcome. Always a pleasure.