Episode 56

Episode details · 190 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:13Melissa Erbacher: Zuka to episode 56 of the parkrun Adventurers. If my sources are reliable, Zuka is the Dutch word for welcome or possibly for house of old people. Apologies to any Dutch who may or may not be listening to the podcast. I'm joined by my partner in crime as always, Scotty. Scotty, welcome to the podcast.

00:00:40Scott Trickett: Thanks, Mel. I would say zupa, zaka.

00:00:44Melissa Erbacher: Maybe we should actually look up different languages to welcome people to the podcast every week and get somebody to explain to us how to pronounce them. But episode 56, that's only like 44 away from 100.

00:00:59Scott Trickett: Yep.

00:00:59Melissa Erbacher: Nice, right?

00:01:00Scott Trickett: That's good. Yep, we're getting closer. We are getting closer. Do you think we're going to make 100 this year? Things change.

00:01:09Melissa Erbacher: It's been a busy start to the year, which has already seen a lot of late releases and weeks off and quality control. So it would be great to get 100 this year, but it might just tip over into 2018. We'll have to see how we go.

00:01:28Scott Trickett: Well, I've taken care of Errol.

00:01:32Melissa Erbacher: You've taken care of Errol?

00:01:33Scott Trickett: He's gone.

00:01:34Melissa Erbacher: Oh, I hope he's gone to be released into the wild.

00:01:39Scott Trickett: He's just gone to find another job.

00:01:41Melissa Erbacher: Okay.

00:01:44Scott Trickett: I couldn't work with him.

00:01:46Melissa Erbacher: He was too demanding? Yes. Fair enough.

00:01:52Scott Trickett: I got into this business on the proviso that there would be no quality checks. And to introduce Errol so late in the piece, you know, it was either him or me.

00:02:03Melissa Erbacher: Okay.

00:02:04Scott Trickett: And I'm still here.

00:02:05Melissa Erbacher: Gotcha. Note to self, don't take Scotty on if you're a koala. Poor Errol.

00:02:13Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:02:15Melissa Erbacher: But it's a week of new stuff without any news this week. All sorts of exciting things are happening.

00:02:22Scott Trickett: Yeah. Yeah. I've got a new job. Not sure if you knew about it.

00:02:26Melissa Erbacher: I did hear something along the grapevines that, yeah, you're working not where you used to be and you started this week. How did your first day go?

00:02:36Scott Trickett: First day was great. Quite a change to what I'm used to. But I'm prepared to adjust.

00:02:46Melissa Erbacher: Okay.

00:02:47Scott Trickett: And looking forward to the future. Not looking back. Definitely not looking back. I also had a new event. On the weekend, we launched Darebin on Saturday.

00:03:00Melissa Erbacher: Awesome. And how was that?

00:03:02Scott Trickett: It was very smooth. Everything worked really well. Got a crack event team there who were on top of everything. It's a nice little out and back course. No problems.

00:03:15Melissa Erbacher: Great launch. And did anybody ask if there were any first timers there?

00:03:22Unidentified speaker: No.

00:03:23Scott Trickett: Yes, I did. Oh, you did? I did, yeah. I like to speak at these things. I know the parkrun audience of Melbourne is entirely sick of me, but...

00:03:34Melissa Erbacher: I hope you asked everyone where they were from.

00:03:37Scott Trickett: I did. Eventually.

00:03:39Melissa Erbacher: Eventually.

00:03:40Scott Trickett: Yeah, we had lots of adventurers. As you do at launches, you know, people come out from all around to try a new parkrun event.

00:03:48Melissa Erbacher: You did eventually because I was told.

00:03:50Scott Trickett: Oh, you got your spies there. I'm going to narrow down your spies because I'm working off a list.

00:03:59Melissa Erbacher: I was told that you didn't ask where anyone was from. Oh, maybe I didn't. And that a few people said, but you're a parkrun adventurer. And you're letting down the team, Scotty.

00:04:10Scott Trickett: I'm embarrassed. I was going to get to it. And maybe Tess, my ED, got to it before I did.

00:04:18Melissa Erbacher: Right, okay. You're on notice, young man, just so you know. You represent the both of us when you're out at these launches. Keep that in mind.

00:04:29Scott Trickett: Okay, so I thought the launch went really well, but your spies tell me that otherwise.

00:04:37Melissa Erbacher: I'm sure the rest of the launch was great. Maybe you should stop talking at these people's launches.

00:04:42Scott Trickett: Okay, I'm out. I'm out of the TD game, so there's a good chance that might happen.

00:04:47Melissa Erbacher: So new TDs making ways through as well, which is always awesome to see.

00:04:52Scott Trickett: Yep. The parkrun family just continues to grow. This parkrun thing is going to take off. Trust me.

00:04:59Melissa Erbacher: It's going to be big.

00:05:00Scott Trickett: It's going to be big, and we need more people to make sure that the machine keeps going. What else is new?

00:05:06Melissa Erbacher: Have you got a new friend?

00:05:07Scott Trickett: Did you catch up with a parkrun podcast legend over the weekend?

00:05:14Melissa Erbacher: Yes, I was very lucky to be able to catch up with Nicola Forward from the parkrun show, the original from the UK. She's out here having some adventures in Australia and has been to New Zealand as well with her daughter Poppy and we had a lovely day catching up, comparing podcast notes, what her co-host used to do versus what my co-host currently does, all those sorts of things. Yeah, it was very enlightening. I learnt a lot of things and I think she may have learnt a few things as well. So we're going to have Nicola on the show when she gets back to the UK so she can give us a recap of her adventures and things like that and we can have a good chat to her in the not too distant future, which will be awesome.

00:06:03Scott Trickett: Yeah, I look forward to that. I reckon our UK listeners will be keen to hear what Nicola's been up to as well. Any other news? Because we're not going to have news this week.

00:06:12Melissa Erbacher: No, the news is all about us and all about all the new things. So we've got a new job and we've got some new friends and we've got a new launch. And I'm working on a new parkrunner.

00:06:25Scott Trickett: Yeah? Tell me, because there's a rumour. My spies have told me that you look a little bit different lately.

00:06:32Melissa Erbacher: Oh, really?

00:06:33Scott Trickett: Yeah. My spies, they're not sure... But they think something's going on.

00:06:39Melissa Erbacher: Like I've washed my hair this week.

00:06:40Scott Trickett: Underneath. No, it's not to do with your hair.

00:06:44Melissa Erbacher: Yes, I'm sporting a little bit of a podge in the baby area of the belly.

00:06:51Scott Trickett: So it's not too much pineapple chocolate. It's actually babies.

00:06:56Melissa Erbacher: Well, singular baby, yes. So that's happening.

00:07:00Scott Trickett: Well, this is very exciting news.

00:07:02Melissa Erbacher: Thank you. Weird. It's very weird talking about it on the podcast. So we can move on.

00:07:09Scott Trickett: Okay. But yay for Mel and Mel's baby. Is this going to affect our podcast? Am I going to have to find a new co-host? What's Nicola doing in a couple of months?

00:07:20Melissa Erbacher: This is actually something I asked Nicola about. Because she fell pregnant with Poppy, her daughter, about three months after she started working on the podcast in the UK. And she said, Totally fine. As long as you don't go into contractions on the day, you'll be able to get back to it the next week and it'll be all good. So hopefully there won't be any blips on the horizon. I will try to time the contractions to occur when it's conveniently around podcast.

00:07:50Scott Trickett: But I'm flexible. I don't mind if you do have it while we're recording.

00:07:55Melissa Erbacher: Oh, okay. That's very generous of you. Is that inappropriate? generous good that's better i'm not sure how the sound quality might be with the um you know regular screams every few minutes but yeah thank you i appreciate that that's an option that you're willing to leave open for us good make great radio great podcasting i can adjust the volume if you scream or you can bleep it out with crickets or something Maybe it could be like a pig squeal. That would be funny. Or a goat. Or a goat, you know, a bleh, whatever, bleat. That's the word I'm looking for.

00:08:35Scott Trickett: Oh, you mean that's what I've got to cover your screams with, not the noise you're going to make? Okay.

00:08:40Melissa Erbacher: No, no, I'm not going. I'm not sure I'll be able to control the noises that I make.

00:08:46Scott Trickett: But again, that would make for great radio or podcast.

00:08:51Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, we'll see how we go.

00:08:52Scott Trickett: Mel's doing impersonations of farm animals. And having a baby.

00:08:57Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, the hospital staff won't know whether or not to admit me or commit me.

00:09:03Scott Trickett: Fantastic news. We've got a new adventurer on our way. Lots of people are crazy for alphabet touring lately. So we thought we'd catch up with Shirley Treasure, who's the ED at Quinn's Rocks parkrun. Welcome to the pod, Shirley.

00:09:30Shirley Treasure: Hey guys, thanks for having me on.

00:09:32Scott Trickett: Now let's first get to the queue part of your parkrun. Was this strategic from your point? Did you see an opportunity in the market and say, I have to name my parkrun Quinn's Rocks? Just for the cue.

00:09:47Shirley Treasure: I live in Quinns Rocks. I had no idea that alphabet touring was even a thing. So it actually borders on Mindarie. So we run through, we start at Queen's, we run through Mindari and back through Queen's and finishing Queen's again. So A lot of people were saying, are you going to call it Quinns Mindarie? Like there's a surf club that's Quinsmondari and a lot of things are Quinsmondari around the area. And I said, well, you know, I think it's got to be a Quins because, you know, we live in Quins. This is our local area. It's Quins Rocks Beach. You know, everything on our side where we've got like the cafes and, Where we hang out and where we do the barcode scanning is Quinn's Rocks. And to keep it shorter as well, I just said Quinn's Rocks. And lo and behold, we're the only queue in Australia, which is pretty amazing.

00:10:46Scott Trickett: And have you had lots of adventurers come by in your first few weeks?

00:10:50Shirley Treasure: We've had a few. We've had a few come and some that have done a queue in England or other places. So they've already gathered their queue runs, but we've had a few who are now starting it up going, well, look, I've pushed further in my alphabet touring and I've got the Australian queue done, which is pretty cool. We've had a lot of tourists, actually. The numbers have, like, been really phenomenal because we're only a new parkrun. We've got seven runs in and lots – I thought we'd have like, you know, smaller numbers. The numbers seem to be steady every week between, you know, 100, 120. But out of that, there's always 30 to 40 new people running Quinns Rocks parkrun as a tourist. So it's got that potential there to be like a really, really, really good traveling one because it's by the beach. It's got beautiful views. And yeah, I think we've got it all here.

00:11:56Melissa Erbacher: And you mentioned before that Quinns Rocks is a beach, so I'm assuming you're a coastal-based run. Can you explain your course to those of us who haven't been there?

00:12:05Shirley Treasure: Okay, so our course starts on the foreshore of Quinns Beach and runs south with a few out-and-back hilly areas through Mindari. It's a conservation beach area, which is absolutely beautiful because of the undulating run by the beach. you get the most beautiful sights of the Indian Ocean with views of Mindari Harbour as you're running to the south and then north to the beautiful Western Australian sandy coastline with rocky outcrops to the north. It's the most amazing. I live here every day. I run down by the beach and it just blows me away. We live in such a beautiful, beautiful, pristine part of the world. It's gorgeous. And everybody that comes to Queen's Rocks, To do parkrun, they keep saying, this is the prettiest. This is the prettiest parkrun. This is the most beautiful parkrun in WA. Sorry to all the other WA parkruns, but I think we really have it all up here. So much so that we had recently a tourist come for a few weeks from South Africa. And he was touring around, wanted to do lots of different parkruns. in, um, in WA and he did one other and then Quinn's and then did Quinn's four times in a row because he said, why, why else would I travel anywhere else when this parkrun has it all for me? It's, it's absolutely beautiful. And on a beautiful sunny day, it gets everybody out. They can go for swims afterwards. You know, we hang about on the, on the beach. It's so beautiful in the winter time, which we've only just, we're only new, but because we run down there all the time. it's going to be tricky because it's got, it's got the wind it's got, you know, it'll have nice. I think, I think the little open back hilly sections will be a bit, a bit of a challenge in the winter time, which, which I love. I love winter running. And I think that it'll, it'll have a different perspective of what, what running will bring and the weather elements in the winter time. I think it'll be, It'll be for the hardcore runners, but I think all the other parkrunners will take on the challenge too.

00:14:24Scott Trickett: Well, speaking of hardcore, you like a bit of ultra running. How does an ultra runner get involved in parkrun, which is just 5K? It must be a doddle for you.

00:14:34Shirley Treasure: Oh, I wish, I wish. Well, all my family are ultra runners, even including the kids. They like to do their... ultra running kids runs, which is normally like, you know, five to 10 K run for the little kids. So, um, yeah, um, I got into running a few years ago and then because I'm not a fast runner, I think I just liked to take on different adventures. So it ended up being much to go the longer one. Um, so I've done more ultra running than anything else. So, but 5K is, that's everybody's run. I think that's our universal run. That's why I think parkrun has taken that on board. It's the distance for everybody. We can incorporate it into our morning run so we can run before, afterwards, or just take it as like a slow, steady day, take the legs over day. Yeah, so... It can work in well to training in that with our Queen's Rocks parkrun that we've got nice little kind of undulating hills so that we can run down from home, do the parkrun and run back or add a few trails in as well later on in the day or do two or three runs in the day and take it over like that. So it works in with our training as well. So that's pretty cool.

00:16:05Melissa Erbacher: You say you like to do the adventures. You've travelled around to a few other parkruns, Shirley. Can you give us a top three that don't include, obviously, the stunningly beautiful Queen's Rocks?

00:16:17Shirley Treasure: I think I've only done, as I said, I'm really new to parkruns. So I think with our seven runs here and getting involved in the event team, I've probably volunteered more than I've run now. I've done beautiful Carine Glades in WA. I've done Aveley and I've done Joondalup, which was my local one before I set up Quinn's Rocks because that was the most northern one. They're all beautiful. They're all beautiful. Joondalup is like flat and fast, out and back. Same with Averley, fast, flat. Um, actually Carine Glades goes around, um, uh, like a circuit. So it's two lap course, which is nice. I do like the laps. Um, the more laps, the better for me. I like, uh, just repetitions quite good, you know, cause it gives you something to kind of concentrate on. Um, but ours is slightly different. Quinn's rocks there. I mean, they're, they're all, all the runs that I've done. I haven't done much south of the river. But all the ones north of the river, they're all beautiful. I like the bushy ones so that you get nice shade. We don't have any shade where we are. So if anybody's coming to us in the summertime, please, please, please bring lots of sun cream. In the wintertime, we're going to have the wind elements. But I think our one's good in that it's slightly different. We've got more of a track with ours. So there's four or five out in back sections So lots of turnarounds, you know, it makes it interesting because it, you know, keeps all the people who like the hills happy, keeps the people who like to go fast happy, keeps the, you know, the walkers happy because it gives a little bit of different element to their parkrun on a Saturday morning.

00:18:19Scott Trickett: Shelley, we were talking off air about some track running and you mentioned you've only been on the track once and it was for a 24 hour run. What on earth would inspire you to run on the track for 24 hours?

00:18:34Shirley Treasure: I think running mixed with a lot of crazy. Um, yeah. Um, That was the – there's a 24-hour track ultra in WA. It started two years ago, so that was the inaugural one I participated in. It was my first and only one last year. I really wanted to do it again, but I was injured. Hopefully that it's going to be my next big one again this year. I'm doing a couple of different ultras again this year, but aiming to do my – run on the track for the second time that's what that's my aim is to get to my 24 hour again if the body holds up so um yeah I like I like the long stuff I'm not a fast runner so I'm not um I'm not up there with the fasties I'm always like mid-pack um I'm a relatively new runner so I've only been running for a couple of couple of years like four years um So for me, running is an adventure and I've always taken on new different adventures. So when the track ultra came to WA, I was like, yes, I've got to give it a go. Because before that, my husband was traveling over east to all the ultra events. And yeah, and I did pretty well. I actually just, you know, went slow and steady as you do in an ultra. It's not fast. It's about speed. It's about actually who it's, you know, the hare and the tortoise. It's who keeps going at a steady pace and finishes the event and I ended up coming third female.

00:20:10Melissa Erbacher: How many kilometres do you have to run in 24 hours on a track to come third female?

00:20:16Shirley Treasure: Okay, so I completed 146 kilometres, which is 146 kilometres Kilometres. Which is a long way.

00:20:34Melissa Erbacher: I don't even know. Yeah, that is a lot of laps. You have to what? Is it 400 metres around the track or is it? Yeah, it's a 400 metre track.

00:20:44Shirley Treasure: A lot of the 24-hour events are a little bit different. Some are three kilometre tracks, like three kilometre loops. Some are on limestone track. This was actually a 400 metre athletic track.

00:20:56Melissa Erbacher: Okay, so multiply the amount of Ks by 2.5, I think, if my math is correct.

00:21:02Shirley Treasure: And, yeah, so you did run a lot of laps. Yeah, and, you know, a lot of people say, when do you sleep? You know, you don't sleep. Well, some people do, I suppose. Some people take a break. I didn't take a break. I started it in total unknown going, if I run two, walk one, let's see how far I can get. And I did that for 17 and a half hours.

00:21:25Melissa Erbacher: Wow. And is there a certain amount of coffee that you ingest in this kind of event?

00:21:32Shirley Treasure: There's a lot of coffee. Yeah, a lot of coffee. There's a coffee machine or a coffee. Actually, we've got a lot of crew there because a lot of our friends come and hang out. So they make you coffees and you drink a lot of coffee, a lot of them. Do you drink it hot? Do you drink hot coffee while you're running? Yeah, you can walk. So normally if I was drinking a coffee, I'd stop and have a coffee at the side of the track or something like that. Yeah, but you eat, you step off, you have a snooze. But once you step off the track, you have to step back on where you stepped off.

00:22:07Melissa Erbacher: Wow, that's very impressive. Congratulations on doing that one and more power to you for... Intending to do it again. Are you hoping to get longer distance this time?

00:22:21Shirley Treasure: Yes. Yeah. That's the aim. Like with my running events, I've always wanted to do like an adventure. I always think of everything as an adventure that I do. So if I was doing it again, because the first time I did it was because it was new. And that was a new adventure. So yeah, I've got to try and make it longer. Like last year, I was hoping to get to do my first 100 miler, but I didn't quite make it. So I'd really like to kind of go to do 100 miler or the 24 hour. And I'm like, I could maybe do 100 miler on the track. That would be pretty cool. I'd like to get to there. um but i do love my trail running so i maybe i want to keep that and just do that as an adventure bush race but um yeah definitely definitely i i'd go in with the aim of a certain amount like that that particular race i went in with the aim of i want to get to 100 kilometers and anything else is a bonus and i had a 46 bonus case so that was that to me was brilliant and i was really happy with that

00:23:36Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, if I was doing the 100-miler, maybe I'd like to do that in the bush.

00:23:40Shirley Treasure: So there's another couple of WA events coming up this year, a couple of 100-milers. I've got such a choice now with all these beautiful events. Yeah.

00:23:51Melissa Erbacher: Indeed. Well, Shirley, good luck with your adventures. We obviously are big fans of adventures and – You started a great one over there with Quinn's Rocks as well as your own personal running adventures. I'm not an alphabet tier or an alphabet tourist or whatever they call it, but you had me with your description of your course. So I will be making my way over at some point in the future.

00:24:19Shirley Treasure: Love to see you guys over here. Definitely when you come, come hang out. It's just so beautiful. You'll love it. You'll love it.

00:24:34Melissa Erbacher: Joining us now on the podcast, we have a very avid adventurer. If you're a member of the parkrun Tourism AU group, you would have seen his posts pop around and his crazy exploits and what it takes to get him to different parkruns all over Australia. His name is Tony Jennings. Tony, welcome to the podcast.

00:24:56Tony Jennings: Hi, great to be here.

00:24:58Melissa Erbacher: So let's start, Tony, with how did you hear about parkrun in the first instance?

00:25:04Tony Jennings: About four years ago, I was doing a bit of cross-country running and I was also a member of a group called Cardiac Athletes, which is a support group for people who have had cardiac surgery and cardiac problems. And I met a bloke called Craig Welsh and I did a bit of running with him and chatted to him a few times about heart issues and that. And he mentioned to me about this thing called parkrun that was happening at Kaurana. So in March 2013, I thought I'd come along to see what it was about. And yeah, I've been doing it ever since.

00:25:43Scott Trickett: Tony, you mentioned there you heard about it through cardiac athletes. You've got a special story around your heart. Do you want to share that with the audience?

00:25:56Tony Jennings: Yeah, I've always been a fit. active person involved in lots of different sports, mostly sort of surf life-saving, kayaking, triathlons, multi-sports, cycling, and running has been sort of a part of all those things. I've never been sort of a standalone runner. And then in my early 40s, I found out that I had a quite serious problem with cardiovascular disease.

00:26:25Scott Trickett: And at 43, in 2006, I had to go on a road march. And I found out that probably the only thing that had kept me alive for many years up to that was the fact that I was into endurance sports and I did a lot of training and I grew protective collateral vessels around the damaged arteries and damaged areas of my heart.

00:26:54Tony Jennings: So it sort of became apparent to me that carrying on doing active exercise including running was important and not long after I had my surgery we learned that my oldest child my son at 21 became very ill with a completely different genetic heart problem and then a few years later one of my granddaughters was born with another completely different congenital heart problem and so spent the last few years um in the family trying to use exercise as part of our overall treatment for the different conditions that we had alongside of medication surgery and those sorts of things parkrunning sort of became quite quite a big part of that um a lot of the other people that belong to this web-based support group cardiac athletes We're also parkrunners in other places like in England, in the United States. And so we all shared our cardiac stories along with our parkrun stories and other activities over the time. So yeah, parkrunning became part of my therapy.

00:28:18Scott Trickett: You've got one option, I guess. I'm thinking you've got one option when you have a heart attack. You could either take a break from exercise, but you're saying you're going the other way. You're saying more exercise, make the heart stronger. Is that right?

00:28:32Tony Jennings: I am, to a point. When I had all my tests after I had my surgery and that, it turned out that I'd probably had about 50 heart attacks in my lifetime, but I'd never noticed any of them, so I had quite a bit of damage. However, my condition... from what I've learned over the years, responds well to exercise. So to get collateral artery growth around the damaged arteries, exercise kind of forces the pressures in the tissue in order to create new pathways. So doing vigorous exercise is a good thing. However, I've also learned that my son's condition completely different strenuous exercise is actually detrimental to his heart condition so even though he was a parkrunner in the early stages when I was his condition has got to a point now where he actually can't go running anymore he can't even go jogging he has to find other ways to keep himself active without stressing his heart so in the world of cardiac problems there are different types of problems and exercise when you're looking at exercise, whether you're using it therapeutically or whether you have to avoid it for therapeutic reasons, there are lots of factors that need to be taken into consideration because any mistake can mean death. So although I, for many heart conditions, I advocate that the fitter you are, the stronger you are, the stronger your cardiovascular system is, exercise is good, but there are some conditions that becomes problematic and even dangerous.

00:30:11Melissa Erbacher: So how do you feel about parkrun Australia's campaign to get a defib to every parkrun event in the country by the end of 2017?

00:30:19Tony Jennings: It's always been something that's been on my mind and it's something that I have always thought is a really good idea. And I guess the only thing stopping us was the financial side, the cost of it. But I think having defibs at parkrun Australia It's absolutely a no-brainer. I think it's very, very important. It bothers me that when I go to parkruns myself, that if I have a cardiac arrest or a heart attack on a run and there's no defib there, that I'm in trouble. And I'm always weighing that up in my mind. It is problematic, but I think that if we can have defibs at every event, that would be absolutely fantastic because the number of people that are doing events, it

00:31:04Tim Oberg: pretty plain that we are going to have incidents where they're going to be needed and if we do have these fibs then we're going to be able to save lives.

00:31:12Melissa Erbacher: Something else that's also very close to your heart Tony, last year you created an endurance event on the Sunshine Coast and this year will be the second running of that event but it's undergone a little bit of change. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?

00:31:30Tony Jennings: Yeah, for many years now I've been involved in charities raising money for children's health charities. Even before I knew about my granddaughter's heart condition and my own son's condition and that sort of thing, I was involved in doing endurance cycle rides for a group called 1200 Kilometers for Kids where we raise money for hospital equipment and research and that sort of thing. Then I've always been interested in mountain running and So a couple of years ago, I decided that I'd like to invent some sort of unique mountain running challenge that would be not only just a challenge for the participants, but also a way to raise money for these hospital charities and children's health charities. So I came up with an idea of running some sort of ultra distance event, but on a short course, whereas most ultra distance events, you hardly ever see anybody because you're racing over 50 or 100 kilometres and you don't see anybody, the idea I had was to find the hardest, steepest piece of mountain around, just a short section of it, and do many laps of it over either eight hours or four hours. So a couple of years ago, I had a chat with the local Queensland National Parks people, and they invited me to use Mount Cooroora, which is where the King of the Mountain is run every year. And so last year, we had the first event, Mount Korora Endurance Challenge, We had 25 participants and it was really, really successful and people really loved it and we had a great day. And so I decided I'd try and make it an annual event. At the time, my family were mostly my support crew, my children and their partners and some friends and my grandchildren. And my youngest grandchild was there on the day with his brothers and sisters and they were going up and down the mountain as other people were. Fortunately, three weeks after the event, my youngest grandchild, Hendrix, died from SIDS in his sleep, which was obviously a very traumatic and tragedy for our family. As we were coming to terms with that, we wanted to do something in his memory to keep his memory alive and to keep his spirit alive.

00:33:54Tim Oberg: And given that the event was all about endurance,

00:33:59Tony Jennings: about overcoming hardship and about raising money for children's health and for research into children's illnesses and health, I thought I would rename the event and make it a memorial event to my grandson Hendrix. So this year the event is actually called the Hendrix Mount Korora Endurance Challenge and the entry's open a couple of weeks ago and they're already starting to fill. The event's on on September the 17th and The idea is we want to try and make this event an iconic event that people from far and wide, hopefully internationally, will come to and challenge themselves over four hours or eight hours up and down this very, very steep, tough bit of mountain. And hopefully, eventually, it'll just become the Hendrix. People will hear the name of it and know where it is and what it's all about. That's a wonderful thing.

00:34:52Scott Trickett: You're doing. I've got a lot of respect for people who do stuff. A lot of people have ideas and think about stuff, but you're doing stuff by putting on the Hendrix. So good luck with that. I hope that it does become big and successful. And it's on my radar. I'm going to look it up. And thanks for coming on the podcast and sharing your story with us this week. We're going to catch up with the boss again, but we're not going to ask him questions this time. We're just going to get him on to have a chat about the Defibs for parkrun campaign, our very first crowdfunding fundraising campaign to help all our events get defibs. Why are we doing this, Tim?

00:35:41Tim Oberg: Yeah, thanks, Scott. Thanks for having me on. I want to talk about this because it's a really important topic and this has never been done anywhere in the parkrun world. So not just Australia but nowhere in the parkrun world or parkrun universe has a country ever taken a single issue or identified a single issue and said we're going to raise some funds to fix that. So I guess this is something that has been building over a number of years. We've had, tragically we've had a couple of deaths at parkrun in Australia due to heart related conditions. And we've had a number of others overseas as well. And so globally, we've spoken of the importance of parkrun events having access to defibs. And I just thought it was time that we made this a priority in Australia. So much so that we've made it our goal that by the end of this year, every event in the country will have access to a defib. And it's important that people understand that access doesn't mean every event has to buy one. because if we have a parkrun event that's situated next to a gym that has a defib or next to a surf lifesaving club that has an accessible defib, then that's fine because defibs should be community assets. They should be available to everyone to use if they're required. So we've made it our goal that every event in Australia will have access to a defib. In many cases, this means we will purchase a defib for that event and that is why we are raising funds through the Australian Sports Foundation. It's been a great success so far. It's still early days, but we've raised, for example, in the last seven days, we've raised $25,000. Overall, we've raised over $100,000 at this point. Our goal is around about $400,000, which is, as everyone knows, we've got 206-odd events around the country. A defib costs $1,900, so we're looking to raise around about $400,000 so that our existing events and, of course, We're launching a new event every week, so we want to make sure those events have got defibs as well.

00:37:43Scott Trickett: So other parkruns around the world, in the UK, South Africa, haven't gone down this road. How come we're doing it in Australia?

00:37:51Tim Oberg: Look, I think it's just we're the right size to be able to do it. I think if you look at parkrun in the UK, we're there over double our size to have a goal to say every event is going to have a defib. It's a much larger project to be undertaken. And I guess we're trying to do this all in one bang. We have this one campaign, let's work on it for six months, and hopefully at the end of that six months, every event's got a defib. Whereas in the UK, they've been chipping away for a number of years to ensure that a high percentage of events have defibs. So we were starting, I guess, on a low baseline, a low number of events that had access. In the UK, there's already a high number of events that do. So as such, They haven't had the need to have a single large campaign around defibs the way that we are doing now. In South Africa, to be honest, I'm not sure what the lay of the land is with defibs. But certainly, you know, we've identified it as a priority here, and so we're really going for it.

00:38:52Scott Trickett: And is this going to remove the free element to parkrun? We promote it as a free weekly timed 5K run. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:39:01Tim Oberg: And it is, and it is, and it always will be. And no parkrunner should feel obliged to donate to this campaign. You don't have to donate to the campaign to parkrun. However, of course, we'd like to think that because we do offer this free event week in, week out, that some people will... think that you know there's value in it for them to to contribute to our defib campaign uh because i guess you don't know who who it's going to be that the defibs will end up saving it could it could be anyone you know heart attack he doesn't discriminate necessarily uh so we've seen everyone from uh tina i think we had it we've had a teenage a teenage girl uh have have heart issues at parkrun, right the way through to elderly gentlemen. It's the sort of campaign that we think can touch everyone. The ideal scenario with defibrillators is you never have to use them, but the reality is that we know we will. In fact, on the Saturday just gone, we had a minor heart attack at one of our parkruns in Western Australia. pleased to say that, you know, it's been a good outcome and the person involved is doing well. But as we get bigger and bigger and we have more people participating, there is going to be more need for this.

00:40:20Scott Trickett: And everything's tax deductible, correct? This is all legit? That's right. It's a proper donation.

00:40:27Tim Oberg: Yes. That's it. So we've partnered with the Australian Sports Foundation and also with a company called Physio-Control, who are the manufacturers of the defibs that we are purchasing. And one of their Australian distributors is Guy Leech, who many people would know as a famous Ironman. And we're also working with our official first aid supplier, first aid accident and emergency based on the Gold Coast. So we're all working together to try and achieve this one goal. And because of our partnership with the Australian Sports Foundation, it means that all donations are tax deductible. So as we're heading in towards June 30, which isn't that far off, you know, it's something that people can use to, I guess, bring their taxable income down is through donating to parkrun in this campaign.

00:41:14Scott Trickett: Okay, one final one. Just say, I'm not that good with computers. I'm not that tech savvy. Can I just give some cash to my run director on the weekend and say, here you go. Here's some money for your defib.

00:41:30Tim Oberg: Oh, trick question, Scott Trickett. Well, as you know, we have a no cash handling policy at parkrun. And so what we don't want is people turning up with wads of cash and giving them to any of our volunteers. I would say if you are someone who has issues with computers, that please speak to a friend or a family member who can assist you to make your donation online. We want to keep everything done in a streamlined manner and online.

00:41:56Scott Trickett: Well, luckily I am good with computers, so I had no problems donating.

00:42:01Tim Oberg: Very good.

00:42:02Scott Trickett: Very good. Thanks for coming on, Tim. Thanks for having me, guys. All the best.

00:42:07Melissa Erbacher: Always great to hear from Tim and what a fabulous idea getting defibs out to all our events. We're all big fans. And how good is that, Scotty? You got to catch up with your new boss during a work day when some of us were earning our livings elsewhere.

00:42:23Scott Trickett: Or some of us were on the windy beach and couldn't join the conversation.

00:42:29Melissa Erbacher: Hey, when you've got to pick a place to be, a windy beach is not so bad.

00:42:34Scott Trickett: Yeah. Well, it is if you want to record a podcast interview.

00:42:38Melissa Erbacher: This is true.

00:42:38Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:42:39Melissa Erbacher: I'll be in there for the next one, hopefully.

00:42:42Scott Trickett: I'll tell you what. I'm pretty certain there are no beaches, windy or otherwise, down at Newborough where we're launching a new parkrun this weekend.

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

00:42:52Melissa Erbacher: Okay, well I'm glad you've said that because I have no idea geographically where Newborough is. I'm assuming inland, Victoria.

00:43:00Scott Trickett: It is. It's near Moe, if I'm right. And I think I am this time. So well done, Newborough.

00:43:08Melissa Erbacher: And we've got some anniversaries coming up too if people want cake or donuts. Or I think the latest craze is an ice block of a brand name specific type.

00:43:20Scott Trickett: That shall not be mentioned because they refuse to sponsor us.

00:43:26Melissa Erbacher: So if you're looking for any of the sweet things to have after your run, you could head to Panania in New South Wales who are celebrating their first anniversary. That's a bit exciting. Who else is turning one this weekend, Scotty?

00:43:40Scott Trickett: Studley. Turning one. Remember that old event? Not four-year-old Studley, as the newsletter has been telling us. It's one-year-old Studley. It's been 12 months.

00:43:52Melissa Erbacher: Can you believe it's already been 12 months?

00:43:54Scott Trickett: Yeah, I can. I've lived it, and I'm looking forward to celebrating it on Saturday. As are the people of Tuggeranong, who are celebrating their fourth anniversary. They have been around for four years.

00:44:07Melissa Erbacher: And anniversaries are far and few between in the ACT who haven't got as many events as a lot of other states or territories. So I'm sure it will get a very big crowd.

Dad jokes

00:44:19Scott Trickett: The dad jokes have been going off. Lots of great feedback.

00:44:24Melissa Erbacher: Everybody loves your terrible jokes.

00:44:26Scott Trickett: Not quite.

00:44:26Melissa Erbacher: Is that what you're trying to tell me? But there's been lots of great feedback.

00:44:30Scott Trickett: I don't think many people got the joke last week. Particularly when I had to explain it to a few people. That was the giveaway that they didn't get it. Yeah.

00:44:42Melissa Erbacher: Oh, gosh. Well, I guess it's one of those ones that's a little bit… Like, if you don't know what Velcro is.

00:44:52Scott Trickett: Yeah, I guess so. Well, I've got a joke about paper this week. Everyone knows what paper is, yeah?

00:44:57Melissa Erbacher: Well, you can only assume. But go on. Give it to us.

00:45:02Scott Trickett: Never mind. It's terrible. Terrible. Was that it? Oh, my God. It gets worse. Maybe it's in the delivery. Yeah.

00:45:18Melissa Erbacher: I don't know how, but you manage to reach new heights each week with the atrocity of the level of these jokes. We have had some people send in some dad jokes. We love receiving those and encourage it. So please, if you've got some that you think can outdo Scotty's, please send them in.

00:45:43Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:45:43Melissa Erbacher: Because I think he needs some help. Yeah.

Book recommendations

00:45:47Scott Trickett: Well, if the dad jokes don't do it for us, have you got a book recommendation for us, Mel? I'll tell you what, because in my new job, see, one of the things I've done for the past few years, and I'm sure we all do it, is we make the excuse for an alarm clock. We turn our mobile phones into an alarm clock. Do you do this?

00:46:07Melissa Erbacher: No, I actually have a dedicated travel alarm clock. So it's not even a clock radio. All it does is tell me the time. And beeps at whatever time I set it to.

00:46:19Scott Trickett: Right. Well, I'm getting there. I'm getting there. But I have been using my phone. Bad idea. Yeah. Well, the trap is that with the phone is that you check it before you go to bed and it's replaced a book for me. So, in the new job where there's not the pressure to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning, I've put the phone in the lounge room.

00:46:40Melissa Erbacher: Nice. Yeah. Yeah.

00:46:41Scott Trickett: But it's left me bored to death or trying to fall asleep at night. So I've replaced it with a book.

00:46:47Melissa Erbacher: I need a book. Yes.

00:46:49Scott Trickett: So give me a recommendation.

00:46:51Melissa Erbacher: Got one? Running or otherwise?

00:46:55Scott Trickett: We are the parkrun Podcast. I do like a run. So I'm up for a running recommendation. Books or books about running.

00:47:03Melissa Erbacher: So my favorite running book of all time that I have read personally so far is Christopher McDougall's Born to Run.

00:47:14Scott Trickett: I have that.

00:47:15Melissa Erbacher: You have that. You've read it?

00:47:16Scott Trickett: I haven't read it. I brought it a while ago.

00:47:19Melissa Erbacher: Now you can put it on your nightstand.

00:47:22Scott Trickett: Yes, I will.

00:47:24Melissa Erbacher: Pick it up and actually look at the words inside. Born to Run. Very, very worthy read.

00:47:33Scott Trickett: Okay. Good. I'll read that this week.

00:47:37Melissa Erbacher: I like that you brought that up because you're a very good reader. You'll have it done. You'll have a review for us next week.

00:47:44Tony Jennings: Yep.

00:47:45Melissa Erbacher: Okay. Excellent. But that's a really good point. I love getting recommendations for books because I don't have a lot of time to read, so I certainly don't want to waste my time on something that's just a bit trash. So if any of our parkrun adventurers – have any recommendations or actual reviews, send us your reviews and we'll start reviewing one book a week in the outro and then not like a huge long review, just a couple of sentences about what you thought was good. It can be running related or otherwise. We may have to pick and choose what we share with everyone depending on if you're some of those people who like to read those books about all the types of grey or whatever it is. I don't think we'll go there. However, no, probably not. Send us in all your different interests. It would be wonderful to see what adventurers get up to in the literary world. And it doesn't just have to be written word. Audiobooks are completely awesome as well, especially because you can listen to them while you're running, which makes them Doubly beneficial.

00:48:57Scott Trickett: Great. So we want some recommendations. And if we don't get book recommendations, more jokes. I'm working on this one about construction.

00:49:05Melissa Erbacher: Do you want to hear about it? Oh. You're working on one about construction.

00:49:11Scott Trickett: Don't worry. I'm still working on it. So I have it next week. So you either have book recommendations or more of that. That's a threat.

00:49:20Melissa Erbacher: Yes. People, please, books, books, books, books.

00:49:25Scott Trickett: Good pod this week, Mel. Thanks for joining me.

00:49:28Melissa Erbacher: Thanks for joining me. I introduced you this week, Scotty.

00:49:32Scott Trickett: Okay. My turn next week and I'll reuse this outro next week.

00:49:38Melissa Erbacher: Good plan.

00:49:39Scott Trickett: Yep.

00:49:40Melissa Erbacher: Save some time.

00:49:42Scott Trickett: Look forward to it.