Episode 57

Episode details · 168 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:08Scott Trickett: to another edition of the parkrun adventurers podcast my name is scott joined as always by mel hi mel hey scotty we are in autumn now you could have fooled me though it's a it's a tops off podcast this week not in queensland it's not no no we are fully closed this week in queensland Well, that's an unusual twist. But I, this week, I'm sitting on my deck in the sun and it certainly doesn't feel like autumn. The world's gone mad.

00:00:44Melissa Erbacher: Well, I wouldn't say it's gone mad. But I would like to say at this point, thank you to everyone who congratulated me on the new upcoming parkrunner that will be entering the world. in June this year. However, Scotty was a little bit coy last week when he mentioned that he had a new job and didn't actually reveal that he is the third full-time staff member for parkrun Australia. So I think you might have missed a few kudos there for getting your job, Scotty. Minor details. Because it's a bit of a big deal. Yeah. It is.

00:01:22Scott Trickett: Look, I'm beyond excited to finally get to work for parkrun. I've turned my passion and hobby into my job.

00:01:32Melissa Erbacher: And you get to work on the deck?

00:01:34Scott Trickett: Yes. In shorts.

00:01:39Melissa Erbacher: Didn't you used to work in shorts at SBS anyway?

00:01:41Scott Trickett: No, they wouldn't let me.

00:01:44Melissa Erbacher: That's why you left, isn't it?

00:01:46Scott Trickett: It was ongoing discussion with me and my manager for many years. But I understand there's dress codes and there's regulations with every job. And luckily for me...

00:01:57Melissa Erbacher: The regulations at parkrun are a little bit looser. Yeah.

00:02:01Scott Trickett: I think we might institute a shorts rule with the parkrun staff.

00:02:08Melissa Erbacher: It's probably already an understanding. Do you need to make it a rule?

00:02:11Scott Trickett: Well, I don't often see a shirt on my boss. So that was a good starting point.

00:02:20Melissa Erbacher: He does live in tropical North Queensland.

00:02:22Bronwyn Bell: He does.

00:02:24Scott Trickett: And I'm telling you what, Melbourne feels tropical this week. It's hot, but it wasn't hot. Enjoy it while it lasts. Yeah, it wasn't hot on the weekend as such. I enjoyed 12 months celebration for Studley parkrun. We had an under the sea theme, which I will admit is a bit of a challenging theme.

00:02:44Melissa Erbacher: That's a great theme.

00:02:45Scott Trickett: It's a great theme.

00:02:46Melissa Erbacher: It's very back to the future.

00:02:48Scott Trickett: Yeah, my girls got really into it. They showed up as a couple of jellyfish.

00:02:53Melissa Erbacher: I saw that looking fabulous.

00:02:56Scott Trickett: I went for above the sea, so I was a surf lifesaver, which didn't require a whole lot of effort. I had the t-shirt and I have red shorts. But again, another great morning at Studley. We made it to a year and I'm very happy.

00:03:14Melissa Erbacher: Awesome. Were there a lot of other costumes?

00:03:17Scott Trickett: I wouldn't say a lot.

00:03:18Melissa Erbacher: I haven't seen the pictures.

00:03:19Scott Trickett: No, I wouldn't say a lot. And that's why I said it was a challenging thing.

00:03:22Melissa Erbacher: Ah, okay.

00:03:24Scott Trickett: But I have a parkrun reclamation project. I finally managed to get one of my good friends of over 10 years, I've known this guy, to come down to parkrun. And the ironic thing is, I've worked with this guy for 10 years and he's never come. So it's taken me to leave my former employer for him to come to my new employer.

00:03:46Melissa Erbacher: Oh, he must have missed you.

00:03:49Scott Trickett: After one week, maybe.

00:03:50Melissa Erbacher: Yep.

00:03:51Scott Trickett: But it was good, you know. He got it. After talking to him for, you know, at least the last four to five years about parkrun, he never wanted to come. But then when he gets there on Saturday, he goes, oh, this is pretty good. Everyone's really supportive. I think I might come back.

00:04:11Melissa Erbacher: Well, that's awesome. Was there a little bit of I told you so?

00:04:15Scott Trickett: No, I never gloat, Mel.

00:04:18Melissa Erbacher: Never? Okay.

00:04:19Scott Trickett: Try not to.

00:04:20Melissa Erbacher: I'll remember that.

00:04:22Scott Trickett: But moving on. So that's news. But our other bit of news is the news is gone.

parkrun news bulletin

00:04:28Melissa Erbacher: Yes. Well, to be honest, we just really don't have a very good attention span on this podcast. And, you know, we get a little bit itchy-feeted, bored, doing the same thing all the time.

Club Corner

00:04:42Scott Trickett: Remember Club Corner? The thing is, we try things. Some work, some don't. Some work and we stop them. Some don't work and we keep doing them.

00:04:57Melissa Erbacher: Hopefully not too many of that, too much of that. Possibly, but hopefully not.

00:05:02Scott Trickett: So there's no news. It might come back, but just not this week. So what's news, Mel?

00:05:10Melissa Erbacher: Well, I thought we just said that there was no news.

00:05:13Scott Trickett: Should we crack on with the rest of the podcast?

00:05:15Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, let's do that.

00:05:17Scott Trickett: Mel, did you know there's only one parkrunner in Australia who has their own club named after them?

00:05:22Melissa Erbacher: I did know that.

00:05:24Scott Trickett: The name of the club is the Peel Club. The name of the parkrunner is Brendan Peel and he's joined us for a chat on the parkrun Adventurers this week.

00:05:30Brendan Peel: G'day Brendan. G'day Scott, good to be on parkrun Adventurers.

00:05:35Scott Trickett: First question, do you know the history of the Peel Club? Who gave it the name and how did it come about?

00:05:41Brendan Peel: Yes, on the previous incarnation of What's Yourself and Mel do, the parkrun show, which was Russ and Robbo, it was mentioned that Alan Burrell, which as we all know as a professor, he sort of just put it out there that the first person to do the lap of Australia, if you would call it that, gets naming rights of the club. So I was the first person to do that. And now, I'm not sure how many there is now, but there's quite a few and quite a few with only one or two events to go.

00:06:13Melissa Erbacher: So you say the prof actually put it out there and that was before the club existed. So you took that as a challenge, Brendan, and you went after it. Is that correct?

00:06:25Brendan Peel: Possibly. Before parkrun, I haven't travelled very much anywhere. I have left my suburb occasionally, but crossing the Yarra used to be a big trip for me. So just one of those things, once you start travelling, you sort of start doing a bit more of it. And it's funny, the parkrun show with Russ and Robbo, is probably very responsible for, you know, as a propaganda tool to get people out there and adventuring. Yeah, so I already had about, I already had, I think, six events done and I sort of hadn't been to Darwin, so I went there and then there was just Queensland left and I thought, well, I've just about done all that, so I might as well finish it.

00:07:03Melissa Erbacher: And so which was the final event that got you to be the first person in the club then?

00:07:09Brendan Peel: The last one, I went to Logan River. And the reason I went to Logan River and not a bigger one is I'd already met Sarah, Sarah Logan and Fiona, who's a territory director there, at different runs, like Sarah at Point Cook in Melbourne and Fiona at Launceston. And for me, parkrun, the main thing about it is the social component. And that's a good enough reason to, in fact, yeah, I've been to a few parkruns to catch up with some people I've chatted with on Facebook and so forth.

00:07:37Scott Trickett: So is that the Brendan Peel philosophy for parkrun now and for adventuring? Do you go where you've met people previously and you think it's about time you visited their parkrun or do you plan out your parkrun adventures?

00:07:51Brendan Peel: I don't. Probably compared to some people, even though I'm up to, I think, 113 or thereabouts, I don't think I'm quite as obsessive as some and I don't plan that far ahead. Like, at the moment, I've only got three... Three trips in the pipeline, so Quins this week and Underwood Park the week after. And then sort of pretty much after that, you know, things that just sometimes something pops up, takes you fancy, and you think, I'll just go there. So I don't plan months and months and months in advance. It's just, yeah, something pops up and it seems good and I'll just go.

00:08:30Scott Trickett: And let's get to it straight away. Give us your highlights of all these events. How many have you done, 113 or something?

00:08:37Brendan Peel: Yes, yes.

00:08:38Scott Trickett: So give us your top three. Give us the Brendan Peel top three.

00:08:41Brendan Peel: Top three. Pretty easy for a top three. I can't separate... I'll go for a dead heater. I can't separate Shellharbour and Mount Clarence. Both are just really, really stunningly beautiful ocean courses. Different. Shell Harbour's a loop course, partially on the beach, partially on trail, a bit on grass. And Mount Clarence is a sealed path... a lot of boardwalk, which you'd love if you ever got over there, and the last 15 metres on the sand. And then the third one, I'd go to the beaches because on a nice day, you know, a bar beach on a beautiful sunny day is quite spectacular and it's completely unique. There's no other parkrun in Australia that's completely on the beach. Beyond that, I reckon there'd be 20 I'd be thinking about for the fourth one. So thanks for only making me name three.

00:09:36Melissa Erbacher: So the beach is when it's high tide or low tide?

00:09:40Brendan Peel: I only did it when it was – well, I ran on the hard sand. But I'd do it any time. I mean, it's one of those ones you do for fun. Some days it'll be harder than others. But if you get the chance to go there, I thoroughly recommend it.

00:09:55Melissa Erbacher: I like how you've given a couple from opposite sides of the country, just so, you know, you've catered to everyone's geographical delights in that respect.

00:10:09Brendan Peel: Yes, you can't, it's funny, Australia is such a, you know, it's quite a big continent, there's some big gaps in it. And it's funny, every parkrun community is, you know, similar but different. The WA community is lovely, but it's different to Victoria and it's different to South Australia. I'm very lucky that I've been able to get out and about and run heaps of courses and meet heaps of people. I'd like to keep doing it while I still can.

00:10:40Melissa Erbacher: Now, Brendan, on your travels or at your home parkrun, you've also got quite the impressive volunteer record. We love adventurers, but we love adventurers even more when they volunteer. What's your favourite role?

00:10:56Brendan Peel: If you check on my profile, you'll notice Timekeeper pops up quite a lot. One of the things I like about that is, number one, it's one a lot of people are scared to do, and it's very necessary. You can... make do with a lot of things to park on but you can't make do without a timekeeper and I just like just I like shouting out numbers and being part of the part of the atmosphere as everyone crosses the line and I've been run directly a few times at Shepparton which is a hike from where I live at the moment but I originally come from there so anytime there's a you know a birthday or essentially anytime I'm up there and there's a spot available I'm quite proud to do that actually because I'm very glad Shepparton's got a parkrun in so

00:11:39Scott Trickett: So your home is Albert, and you mentioned, well, I mentioned to you that your closest parkrunner is actually Studley. And you said that you've run there a few times, three times, but it's one of the few events that you have run more than once. Do you miss that element, visiting the same event a couple of times?

00:11:57Brendan Peel: Yeah, look, the thing is, parkrun on so many levels, I honestly love it all. It's funny with Albert, my first time back this year will be in April when I do my 225th volunteer on the one day. So I'm going to tail run. But yeah, of course. But then there's other ways of... It's funny, as more and more parkruns grow, quite often I run into people from Albert who don't live in the inner city at different parkruns. Like, say, for example, on the weekend, I'll just name drop, Amber Erickson, who, along with her son and her mother, they'll... be getting to 250 parkruns really, really soon. And they've been in the parkrun newsletter and stuff before, live a couple of hours away from Melbourne now. So they've got a new home in Newborough and, you know, you get to catch up with them there and you catch up with people, you know, in other runs. So it is a big family, a big family. You don't always catch up with the same lot of people every week in a particular parkrun, but there are other ways of skinning a cat, I suppose, is one way of putting it.

00:13:06Scott Trickett: And do people recognise you at parkruns now?

00:13:09Brendan Peel: Yeah, pretty much. And I'm flattered. I really am. Because, look, I was a younger bloke. I used to go okay. Whereas nowadays I'm probably a 27-minute runner. So roughly the middle of the pack. But the beauty of parkrunning is that no one cares if you run 20 minutes or you take an hour. It's just the people you meet along the way. and the reception you get, like even it's great going to an interstate run where people call out your name that you don't actually know. It's just, yeah, it's just, just such a really kind and warm environment that it's just, it's very addictive and it's very hard to get out of your system. So, um, yeah, I'll just keep doing what I still can.

00:13:51Melissa Erbacher: Brendan, I haven't done my research. Everything I know about you is all on Facebook or hearsay. So forgive me for asking the question, but have you ever done an international parkrun?

00:14:06Brendan Peel: No, I haven't. But if I did, I would be probably tempted to not go too far, just go across the ditch. And that, Is it Porirua or something a little bit similar to that? That's probably the one thing that really sparked a bit of interest. But I imagine once I finally get over there, I'll probably... Want to do the whole country. Well, that's quite possible. Who knows? That's something you can do. So, yeah, we'll watch his face, I suppose.

00:14:38Scott Trickett: Now, what about your bottom three, Brendan?

00:14:39Brendan Peel: You going to share that with us? Bottom three. Oh, well, it's so controversial. One thing that, as you all know, because you're both adventurers yourself, is that some courses have spectacular scenery, some are great surfaces to run on, some are in great climates, but every parkrun has something going for it. Sometimes it might be a course that's a bit drab and nothing special about it, but the people are what makes it special. So it's a roundabout way of saying I refuse to name three courses that that I'd put to the bottom because everything's got something going for it. There's probably, I suppose, there's courses that don't suit you. Like, I mean, say, for example, Nambour is beautiful, but it is very, very hard and it wouldn't suit everyone. The Beaches is beautiful, but, you know, a lot of people don't like running on sand. So I don't have a bottom three. And I'd like to get back to all the Victorian ones if I could, but realistically, that's going to be very darn hard.

00:15:44Scott Trickett: I'm going to get a bottom three out of someone before we round up this podcast business, but you're very diplomatic, so thanks for that. Brendan, thanks for coming on and sharing your travels with us. It's great catching up with a real adventurer.

00:15:58Brendan Peel: Thank you very much, Scott and Mel. It's been fantastic to talk to the pair of you.

00:16:00[music]

00:16:16Melissa Erbacher: We're lucky enough to be joined two weeks in a row by some people from the West, although this young lady harks from the East to begin with. She is the event director at Maylands Peninsula and her name is Bronwyn Bell. Bronwyn, welcome to the parkrun Adventures podcast. Hi Mel, thanks for having me. I understand you have been getting up to some adventures lately. What have you been doing?

00:16:41Bronwyn Bell: Yes, so I love adventuring and going to other parkruns, and on the weekend that's just been, I was at WA's newest parkrun. So I went out to Moora, which is in the wheat belt area of WA, and I went to their parkrun.

00:17:00Melissa Erbacher: WA's got a wheat belt.

00:17:02Bronwyn Bell: WA has a very large wheat belt. What does that look like? A lot of wheat-graining paddocks.

00:17:11Melissa Erbacher: So does Moora run through the wheat paddocks or near the wheat paddocks?

00:17:16Bronwyn Bell: No, it's right in the town. So their course starts at the Apex Park, which is a lovely green patch of grass right in town, and it runs up and over the Moore River, and it's all trails, so you'll like that, I'm sure. Yeah, through some bush along the – they have this cockatoo park – and walk, so it runs along that trail, and then you turn around and you head back towards the oval again. So, yes, it's a very nice parkrun. I think it's probably WA's only true trail run. Like, there's none of it's on an actual made path or bitumen or concrete or anything like that.

00:17:56Scott Trickett: You did all this to regain your Stateswoman title in the WA.

00:18:00Bronwyn Bell: Yes, I did.

00:18:01Scott Trickett: So, which means you've done every event in WA. Yes.

00:18:05Bronwyn Bell: Yes, and that means that every time a new parkrun opens up in WA, I have to try and make my way to it, even if it means I have to drive for two hours after work on Friday to get up tomorrow so I can be there nice and early on Saturday. I have found that because I do spend a bit of time as an RD and volunteering that every now and then events will launch in WA and it will take me a few weeks to – not be volunteering to actually be able to get up to them but um so it was week three for mora on the weekend and yeah so it was excellent so mora just in case people aren't aware it's a pretty small town so that area has less than 2 000 people in it and so i suspect it's probably one of the smallest towns in australia to actually host a parkrun maybe you've got a fact checker who can fact check that for me

00:19:02Scott Trickett: Sounds like a job for Ian. We need to have Ian on this year.

00:19:04Bronwyn Bell: Yeah, because I thought beforehand, because WA also has one out at Manjimup, which again is a very lovely parkrun and it goes around the King Jarrah tree. I thought Mandjimup was one of the smallest towns to have a parkrun, but Moora is definitely smaller than Mandjimup.

00:19:23Melissa Erbacher: So what kind of numbers, if they've got a town population of 2,000, what kind of numbers of locals actually showed up? When you were there, I mean, you were there event three, so hopefully the word's getting out there now. It's not all just adventurers on the first week.

00:19:39Bronwyn Bell: So at Moora on the weekend, they probably had, I think there was about 45 of us maybe, and of those maybe about 30 were actually local people. So it is actually quite impressive how many local people they've had get involved so quickly and maybe they're part of that rural country town sort of. community thing happening there. The event director there, her name is actually Bronwyn as well, so it was quite funny. So we had Bronwyn and Bronwyn. And she's got quite a few of the local mums out there. And so when we were out running, there were actually quite a few ladies there pushing prams and running and having breakfast afterwards is a very big part of their day as well.

00:20:01[laughter]

00:20:22Melissa Erbacher: So we all headed off to the local cafe afterwards.

00:20:25Bronwyn Bell: So I think they'll quickly get a lot of good local support and the other advantage they have is their parkrun is quite an easy course so they don't really need a lot of volunteers it's not like they've got traffic control issues or you know they don't need like two barcode scanners who are separate from the other people so they only need four volunteers every week so that's quite lucky for them as well yeah and I'll tell you a funny story about because it was a really nice parkrun, one of their run directors, he's actually quite a fast runner. So to help make sure that no one gets lost, part of his briefing is that you just follow him and he'll run really, really fast for the first lap so that no one actually gets lost and then he can sort of back it off for the second lap and that's exactly what he did. And so he led us all around the loop and so no one got lost and that was really good. And it was quite a small parkrun. It's kind of cosy and it was really quite fun. And it's a trail run, so no one's really necessarily expecting to get a ripper time. Yeah, so it was quite a good day. So I'd recommend it. If anyone flies to Perth and they've done already all the Perth ones or they want to try something a bit different, you know, head up to Moora.

00:21:45Scott Trickett: Well, you recommend Moora. What about Maylands Peninsula? You're the ED there.

00:21:50Bronwyn Bell: Maylands, yes, is the best. in Perth Metro.

00:21:54Scott Trickett: That's all we like.

00:21:57Bronwyn Bell: No bias or anything.

00:21:59Scott Trickett: No bias whatsoever.

00:22:01Bronwyn Bell: So, Maylands parkrun is on the Swan River and we're actually about five kilometres out of the heart of the Perth CBD. So, the one that's right in the Perth City area is called Claisebrook Cove, which I'm sure a lot of people are familiar with. But about a kilometre as the crow flies from the Claysbrook Cove turnaround. That's where our parkrun starts. So we're just a little bit further along the river. And I would call it an undulating course. So it's not flat, although people often think it will be flat because it is on the river. And it's a double lap out and back course, which I think worries some people. And maybe they don't want to come and give it a go because they don't like the idea of a double lap. But it actually makes it really quite fun. because you get to see everyone lots of times and you get to high-five lots of people as you're going. It's nearly all in the shade along the river and we actually run past, there's this house, it's called Tranby House, so it's on the National Heritage Trust and it's the oldest residential house still standing in WA. So that's kind of cool. It was built in 1830 and it's just very, I would say it's very picturesque. So I quite like it because I quite like, you know, the river and the trees and the plants and,

00:23:19Melissa Erbacher: You know, there's lots of birds around and that sort of thing. That was going to be my question. What kind of wildlife have you got on the Swan River? You've got swans, presumably.

00:23:28Bronwyn Bell: There are swans. We get lots and lots of birds along there. So every now and then I do get tempted to take photos of all the different birds and have like a bird watch species ID sort of card thing going for the Mainlands Peninsula parkrun. Sorry. We don't get snakes like a lot of the other parkruns in WA, so that's quite nice. But we do get a lot of, at the moment, black cockatoos. So black cockatoos are an endangered bird species in WA. You might be able to work out I'm an enviro by trade. And so I do notice when we have rare wildlife flying past our parkruns. So, yeah, I think it's very pretty. And we're kind of one of the quieter parkruns in Perth as well. So we probably get about maybe like 50 people each week or, you know, we've had in a good week we'll have about 60 or 70 people. At our launch we had about 160, but that was quite unusual. But, yeah, so nice friendly crew and we always go out for brunch afterwards. So there's heaps of coffee shops in Maylands. And so that's why our parkrun is so I can go for brunch. So, yeah, it's good. Sounds gorgeous. And, you know, we're actually the nearest parkrun to the Perth airport. It works out. So we have had some people from over east who have arrived with their suitcases because it works out you can do our parkrun and still make the whatever flight it is to New South Wales afterwards on Saturday morning. So, yeah.

00:25:06Scott Trickett: You've mentioned that it's the best parkrun in Perth. Give us your other top three parkruns that you've visited because you've done a bit of adventuring. as we've already alluded to, and you've been around the country as well.

00:25:16Bronwyn Bell: Yes, I have been to quite a few in the country. So my family's from Queensland, so I've got lots of relatives and family over east, and my husband's family's from Victoria. So that does mean I get the chance to visit different parkruns on both sides of the country. My favourite in Queensland is actually Nambour. um we should start keeping a record and scoring them again that's probably because I really like the bush and it was it is one of my worst ever parkrun times because it's so hilly and it had been raining heaps and so it was quite slippery and muddy but I loved the trail and I loved being out in the bush and there was the creek and stuff and

00:26:01Melissa Erbacher: Did you do the B course, Bronwyn?

00:26:03Bronwyn Bell: I did the B course, yeah.

00:26:06Melissa Erbacher: So you got the hardest version of the hardest parkrun.

00:26:09Bronwyn Bell: Yes, and I remember that hill, but I ran all the way up that hill and I didn't stop. So I was very happy with that. But I will have to go back at some point when the A course is on and give that a go. So that's my favourite Queensland one, but I haven't tried them all and there's so many in Queensland, so hopefully I haven't upset anyone. But my problem with a lot of the Queensland ones is I end up doing them over summer because I'm normally back there around Christmas and it's often so very hot that that makes me not necessarily enjoy them so much. But yeah, and in WA, I think one of my favourite, oh, I've got too many. I actually quite like the Mount Clarence one as well. And that's really nice. So if people are coming to WA, if you get down to Albany, you should definitely do Mount Clarence. Again, it's quite hilly. You go up Mount Clarence, then you come back down Mount Clarence, then you go back up Mount Clarence, and then you come back down Mount Clarence. But it's such a spectacular view. So that's really nice.

00:27:14Melissa Erbacher: And then Kalgoorlie is really good because you run through the bush again.

00:27:18Bronwyn Bell: So that's what they call the Great Western Woodlands.

00:27:24Melissa Erbacher: area out there so um there's lots of really spectacular trees and plants to look at while you're running so and how can you explain how long it takes to get to Kalgoorlie because I've seen where it is on the map and it just seems so far from everywhere but it's got that gorgeous red earth and I really want to get out there and run it yeah so um if you were to drive I think it would probably take something like about eight hours I have driven back from Kalgoorlie once

00:27:51Bronwyn Bell: But the easiest thing actually to do is just catch the train. So we have the Prospector train here. And so I've been to Kalgoorlie and run the Kalgoorlie parkrun a couple of times. They also have this event out at Kalgoorlie called the Kalgoorlie Pipeline Marathon. So that's quite a cool running festival to go to. So you can just catch the train down on the Friday and then you arrive late Friday and then you do the parkrun on the Saturday and you do the Pipeline running festival on the Sunday and then you catch the train back Sunday afternoon at about two o'clock and you know the whole time you're on a train greeting or watching movies or whatever and I think I don't know personally I quite like that as a way to get to Kalgoorlie if you fly it's only like maybe like an hour ten it's not that far to fly but it costs a lot of money the train's much cheaper And Kalgoorlie's a nice town. There's some really good cafes in Kalgoorlie. So there's some excellent places to go for breakfast afterwards. So, yes.

00:28:54Melissa Erbacher: Always an important factor on parkrun day. Yeah.

00:29:00Bronwyn Bell: Yes, very much so. Yeah. So I've done... 42 different parkruns in Australia so far. I'm hoping to get to 50 by the end of this year, so we'll see. It is a little bit hard, I think, if you live in WA because you need to find an excuse to be flying somewhere over at least.

00:29:19Melissa Erbacher: But you found an excuse to fly somewhere soon, haven't you?

00:29:24Bronwyn Bell: Yes, I have actually now. That's a very good segue. Thank you. I can see you've done this before. We're actually taking off... in April and we're going to Europe, which is very exciting. And unfortunately we arrive in Sweden and it's not a Saturday, but we are in Denmark for the Saturday. So the plan is we'll do a freedom run and pick up the Swedish one, which is called Haga or Haiga, I don't know how you say it, as a freedom run. And then on Saturday, we're actually in Copenhagen

00:30:01Melissa Erbacher: And they have a parkrun there. And ice cream. Yes.

00:30:05Bronwyn Bell: Yes, so I'll get my second international parkrun.

00:30:09Melissa Erbacher: Fantastic. So you're only away for two weeks to Europe? No, we're away for a bit longer, but Norway's parkrun hasn't opened yet. Somebody needs to get on to them. They haven't got much time.

00:30:22Bronwyn Bell: There was a guy here, Henrik, who used to run out at Claysbrook Cove. He's Norwegian. So he's gone back to Norway now and he's trying to get their parkrun up and running again. And they've got a Facebook page, but they don't yet have the parkrun actually up and running. So he's on a tight timeline. So we'll see how he goes. He's got about six weeks to sort that out.

00:30:41Melissa Erbacher: That's enough time. It's enough. He can make it happen.

00:30:46Bronwyn Bell: We'll see. Maybe I'll just do like a test parkrun of where they're looking at doing if they don't have it up and running in time. But yeah, so we're there for a couple of weeks. But unfortunately, the only country we're in on a set day that has a parkrun is Denmark. So next overseas trip, I will have to make sure that we plan it a bit better. My husband did the booking for this one and he's not quite as obsessed with parkrun tourism as I am, so.

00:31:15Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, you got to watch them. My husband keeps trying to take me to Japan. It's like, no, they don't have parkruns there yet. We're going to have to wait. Do you go, Singapore has parkrun, let's go there. Yeah, that sounds a little bit too toasty even for me at the moment. I'm not sure what's the best time of year to go to East Coast parkrun.

00:31:36Bronwyn Bell: I think any time of year is going to be the same. Yeah.

00:31:40Melissa Erbacher: It's going to be humid. You're from Queensland. You should be okay with humidity. I should be. It's true. Have you been to Weeper parkrun? No, see, that's another one that's challenging a lot of people who did have statesman status in Queensland and then Weeper happened. So it's on my list for sure, though. Yes. Yeah, I used to live in Weeper, so I was very excited when they opened up the park right there.

00:32:09Bronwyn Bell: I was like, oh, I'm going to have to go back now and see where Weeper is going, their little parkrun.

00:32:14Melissa Erbacher: I think it's cool that Oh, it's not the most northern, is it? Because Darwin. Darwin is still, yeah. Yes, it's pretty damn close on the, what do you call the latitude and longitude? We had to look at all the little degrees of it and it's very close, but it's not quite Pip Darwin.

00:32:33Scott Trickett: Oh, you should still do it. Bronwyn, we've loved chatting to you. Sounds like you'd make a great roving reporter on your trips over to Denmark. If you've got the time. Just if you've got the time, we'd love to hear a report from your adventures over there. Thanks for coming on the pod this week.

00:32:49Bronwyn Bell: All right. Cheers. Bye.

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

00:32:58Melissa Erbacher: Well, it's a relatively quiet one on the launches and anniversary scene this weekend. There will not be cake or donuts. If you're looking for them, you're going to have to BYO to whichever parkrun you're attending. However, Queensland is adding another trail run to our portfolio with White Rock launching. That's going to be an exciting one.

00:33:23Scott Trickett: Love a trail parkrun. So they don't have one in Brisbane, do they? This is going to be their first.

00:33:29Melissa Erbacher: Well, Bunyaville's not very... Yeah, Bunyaville's like an outer suburb of Brisbane.

00:33:34Scott Trickett: Good.

00:33:35Melissa Erbacher: Good. So they do. But now they'll have two.

00:33:39Scott Trickett: Is that the only launch this week?

00:33:41Melissa Erbacher: That is the only launch this week that we're allowed to report on.

00:33:45Scott Trickett: Sure. And no anniversaries.

00:33:48Melissa Erbacher: No, no anniversaries.

00:33:51Scott Trickett: So that's it? We're done?

Book club

00:33:54Melissa Erbacher: Well, except that we need to talk about books.

00:33:58Scott Trickett: Yep, so I started Born to Run. I'm not going to give my review. I'm about two-thirds of the way through.

00:34:07Melissa Erbacher: So we'll stay tuned for that one for next week?

00:34:09Scott Trickett: Stay tuned. It's not going as well as I'd hoped.

00:34:12Melissa Erbacher: Okay, well, that's interesting. But yeah, I look forward to having a more in-depth conversation with you about that next week. I haven't had any time to read anything myself this week, but I'm going to make time before next week. In the meantime, we did have a recommendation come in from an adventurer. On Twitter, Ross Pentland suggested Shoe Dog, which has got nothing to do with a rapper. I believe it's the memoir from Nike founder Phil Knight. And he said it was his last major read. Fascinating story on how Nike came to be.

00:34:52Scott Trickett: I'll add that to my list. Not my parkrun list. My book list.

Dad joke

00:34:58Melissa Erbacher: Now, Scotty, dare I ask, do you have a dad joke for us this week? Because Adam has been diligently taking notes in preparation for impending dadhood.

00:35:12Scott Trickett: Okay. So has he committed them to memory?

00:35:15Melissa Erbacher: Well, no, he's been taking notes. He's been writing them down. I don't, yeah, I guess that's a thing, I suppose, is it? You have to know them. You have to remember them.

00:35:25Scott Trickett: You just need a repertoire of dad jokes to just pull out, you know, whenever you want. Okay. But I've been testing the feedback and getting the vibe of the room and I've done a bit of research.

00:35:41Melissa Erbacher: Oh, okay. So you're actually prepared this week. Your to-go-to repertoire is not cutting it. Is that what you're saying?

00:35:49Scott Trickett: Knock, knock.

00:35:50Melissa Erbacher: Who's there?

00:35:51Scott Trickett: No bell.

00:35:53Melissa Erbacher: Nobel who?

00:35:54Scott Trickett: No bell, that's why I knocked.

00:35:58Melissa Erbacher: That's not a dad joke. That's a crappy kid's joke.

00:36:02Scott Trickett: Well, I googled jokes.

00:36:05Melissa Erbacher: Knock-knock jokes aren't dad jokes.

00:36:08Scott Trickett: Okay. I didn't think that was going to cut it. See, that was not part of my repertoire. So I don't think it works when you research jokes.

00:36:17Melissa Erbacher: It doesn't cut the mustard joke. It's got to be tried and true, something that has made people cringe in the past.

00:36:25Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:36:25Scott Trickett: Knock, knock.

00:36:27Melissa Erbacher: No, I'm not even going there. I'm not interested in your knock, knock jokes.

00:36:31Scott Trickett: Okay. Well, then I got nothing. That's it for episode 57. It's about time we did some adventuring.

00:36:40Melissa Erbacher: It is long overdue for an adventure.

00:36:43Scott Trickett: I'm off this weekend. I'm off for an adventure. I have something to report on next week.

00:36:48Melissa Erbacher: Oh, well, I'm not going to ask you where it is so you can save it as a surprise. Yeah, don't spoil the surprise.

00:36:54Scott Trickett: Until then.

00:36:55Melissa Erbacher: Thanks for joining me, Scotty.