Episode 61

Episode details · 194 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:07Melissa Erbacher: Take it away, Scotty.

00:00:11Scott Trickett: Am I doing the intro?

00:00:13Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, it's your turn.

00:00:14Scott Trickett: I might just use that one because that was a good one. And I have. I've used that one. Welcome to the podcast, Mel.

00:00:25Melissa Erbacher: That's cheating.

00:00:26Scott Trickett: For those that haven't picked up, we take it in turns to do the intro and it's the worst part of my week. No, it's not the worst part of my week. It's the most challenging thing.

00:00:34Melissa Erbacher: It's the worst part of your fortnight. Yeah. Because you don't have to do it every week.

00:00:41Scott Trickett: To come up with that exciting intro. And you did it for me this week. But welcome. Welcome back to episode 61 of the parkrun Adventurers. An episode where we're going to lament our lack of running. Because I haven't been for a run for five days.

00:00:59Melissa Erbacher: However are you managing?

00:01:01Scott Trickett: I feel disgusting. And I want you to talk me through it. because what are the extenuating circumstances what's stopping you from running have you injured yourself again i haven't really injured myself i've got a little niggle and i thought i'll rest it for a couple of days so it doesn't turn into a big niggle yeah but that's all it took for me to sort of lose my all my motivation and i haven't run on the weekend i parked walked what do we call it wogged no we didn't even know it's it's wogging when you walk jog No, Kasia and I didn't do that. We just walked pretty much the whole way, which was great, again.

00:01:44Melissa Erbacher: Nothing wrong with walking. I walked on Saturday. Because basically... And it's still a walk at this stage. Somebody mentioned something about it being a turbo waddle. But I don't think I waddle yet. Okay. I'm not at that point of waddling.

00:02:01Scott Trickett: Is there a tipping point? Is there a weight to...

00:02:04Melissa Erbacher: There is definitely an imbalance around my middle that is affecting my center of gravity. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I went for a walk. I had the marshals on course telling me to stop. They're like, no, don't run. So I don't know what I was looking like, but they must have been worried that I was going to tip over or something. It's not that big of a belly yet, guys. Okay, I still, I haven't stacked it quite yet. I still have most of my faculties. But yes, I have also, not for the same reasons as you, my niggles are different. But yes, I'm reeling back in on the running.

00:02:49Scott Trickett: So how are you coping? How are you coping mentally? Because I know nothing physically hasn't changed. I feel like about 10 kilos heavier. But I know that's not true. But mentally, I just feel...

00:03:01Melissa Erbacher: I think mentally I've just been cranky and taking it out on my husband.

00:03:05Scott Trickett: Oh, I admit.

00:03:06Melissa Erbacher: And you, I haven't been taking it out on you.

00:03:08Scott Trickett: A little bit.

00:03:11Melissa Erbacher: Oh, poor diddums. Suck it up, princess. It's only going to get worse for the next few months.

00:03:17Scott Trickett: That's what we look forward to.

00:03:19Melissa Erbacher: Exactly.

00:03:20Scott Trickett: Can't wait to catch up with Adam in a couple of weeks, compare notes.

00:03:26Melissa Erbacher: well you try seeing how much you like it if somebody just looks at you every day and just says look at that belly you know it's just like yeah anyway um what i actually have been doing is i have been going to pregnancy yoga on saturdays so my i get to parkrun and volunteer or wog or walk at parkrun and then generally have to race off to get to Pregnancy yoga, which is a bit of a distance away, but the lady who takes the class has been doing it for something like 36 years or something ridiculous. And she really knows what she's doing. And it's hard. Have you ever done like normal people yoga?

00:04:09Scott Trickett: I did yoga many moons ago and didn't enjoy it. So I haven't gone back to it.

00:04:15Melissa Erbacher: So you did it just the one time?

00:04:17Scott Trickett: Maybe a couple.

00:04:19Melissa Erbacher: Maybe a couple.

00:04:20Scott Trickett: I'm not the most flexible person and I just remember feeling stupid most of the time in class.

00:04:25Melissa Erbacher: Okay. Well, you should try doing that with a class full of ladies with various sized bellies who are, you know, trying not to topple over. I kind of feel like it's a bit of cheating yoga because we don't do a lot of the hard stuff just because we can't and because bellies get in the way when you try to bend in certain directions and stuff. And apparently squishing the belly is not a good idea. So we avoid those sorts of poses. But it's still hard. It's just, you know, by the end of it, I'm ready for a nap and a lie down. And in fact, she actually lets us have a lie down at the end, which goes for about 15 minutes. And we all get these lovely little like bolster things. I can't remember what she calls them. And you put one between your legs and the other one you use as a pillow. And it's just like nap time in kindergarten where everybody lies down on their mats. And I love it. I love that last 15 minutes. But oh my God, the 90 minutes to get there. far out i just keep telling myself that it's just like training for a marathon all these little training exercises now is going to make that big marathon effort at the end not hurt so much that's that's what i'm telling myself hopefully that is what happens yeah now this yoga is also impacting your adventuring it is yes because it's um It's keeping me very close to home. Needing to be someplace close to home at 10 a.m. on a Saturday means I can't realistically get up and travel two hours to an event someplace else.

00:06:07Scott Trickett: So we weren't adventurers this week. I was back at home only about for the second or third time this year.

00:06:14Melissa Erbacher: Second or third time this year you were at home?

00:06:16Scott Trickett: Yeah, I think so.

00:06:17Melissa Erbacher: I think you are underestimating how many weeks we've already had this year.

00:06:22Scott Trickett: Hmm, maybe. Anyway, it was good to be back home.

00:06:27Melissa Erbacher: Are you going to go for a run tomorrow or the next day to break this five-day spell and crack yourself out of the cranks?

00:06:37Scott Trickett: Hopefully by the time everyone is listening to this podcast, I have gone for another run. It has to have happened.

00:06:44Melissa Erbacher: Especially at the rate you edit these days.

00:06:49Anthony Smith: See what I mean? You just keep taking shots.

00:06:52Scott Trickett: Yeah. I've got nothing else to do. I'm just watching March Madness at the moment. You've got March Madness fever. Yeah. I reckon we're going to have our own version. Might be a May Madness kind of thing once I get my act together.

00:07:07Melissa Erbacher: Given it's quite late in the month to start a March Madness thing.

00:07:11Scott Trickett: And if you don't know what I'm talking about, get your brackets ready. parkrun March Madness in May. It's coming. Maybe. Maybe.

00:07:21Melissa Erbacher: And it's going to be contentious.

00:07:23Scott Trickett: That's why the maybe's there. We'll workshop it through April.

00:07:28Melissa Erbacher: Speaking of April, do you know of any events that are doing any April Fool's jokes this weekend?

00:07:35Scott Trickett: I don't. Do you?

00:07:37Melissa Erbacher: Well, I think if you don't know about it, then chances are the joke's going to be on you.

00:07:42Scott Trickett: It usually is. So I look forward to it. I look forward to being made fun of.

00:07:55Melissa Erbacher: Joining us now on the podcast is a very special young lady all the way from Ireland. Her name is Katie Cooke. She's 19 years old. And a few weeks ago, the BBC shared some news, a news story about her, which attracted a more than 26,000 likes on their Facebook post. It has been shared 10,983 times and has had more than 2.5 million views online. So that's a bit impressive. Katie, welcome to the podcast.

00:08:33Katie Cooke: Hi, thank you for having me.

00:08:35Melissa Erbacher: Now, Katie, could we get you to just share a little bit about what your story is about? Why it has just blown out all over the world like that in just a few short weeks?

00:08:47Katie Cooke: Well, it was actually really overwhelming how it happened because I'd actually done different videos and stuff before. In Ireland, I've worked with RTE, which be our national television and national radio And I've worked with TV3 and I've been on the radio and I've done podcasts. So when the BBC came along, I didn't really expect anything of it. I kind of forgot how big the BBC was. Because I was used to working with RTE. I was like, I'll just be the same. So they flew in over from London and still didn't register with me. And then they texted me that night and they were like, oh, the video's going up. And within about 20 minutes, I have had 20, like just 20 messages from random people all around the world. So I don't think I realized until the next day, like how big it was going to be.

00:09:53Scott Trickett: So Katie, your story is interesting because you suffer from chronic epilepsy. And for those that didn't see the story, this person, interferes with your running a little bit.

00:10:05Katie Cooke: Yeah, so, like, for those who, like, don't know anything about me and haven't seen the video, yeah, I have chronic epilepsy. I have three types of epilepsy, which a lot of people don't think can happen. So, one of the ones of my epilepsy is particularly bad. It's in my left central lobe.

00:10:28Melissa Erbacher: And, like, I would suffer from a lot of my seizures would be hallucinations.

00:10:33Katie Cooke: uh um so on like on a day like on a normal day I would have 16 seizures and that can range anything up to 16 to 100 like it just depends like it's just on average I have 16 um so yeah like you could say it interferes with normal life running going to the bathroom having a shower all that sort of thing

00:10:58Scott Trickett: But the practicalities of it when you are out for a run, say you're going out for a couple of five, six-mile run preparing for your marathon and you feel a seizure coming on, what actually happens?

00:11:11Katie Cooke: Like I'm really lucky if I feel a seizure coming on. Like that's the thing. Like when I get a warning sign, again, for those who don't know what a warning sign is, it's usually like an aura. Most people with epilepsy would get it. maybe 10 minutes an hour a second a minute before their seizure and i get mine in my head and but yeah i feel blessed that i get warning signs because those that when i don't get them like i'll be running and i'll fall over and obviously cut myself and all this sort of thing and so when i do get one and i'm like even if it's a race i'm usually with colin So I will be like, Colin, I'm going to have one. And I'll just automatically sit down wherever I am, even if it's in the middle of the road. Or sometimes I'm really stubborn about it. And I'm like, no, I'm going to power on through. Maybe it'll go away. It usually does. It's kind of a bad decision.

00:12:10Melissa Erbacher: Is the epilepsy something that you were born with or something that has developed over time?

00:12:16Katie Cooke: No, it developed when I was eight years old. And then I was diagnosed when I was nine. So, like, there is obviously arguments to say that I could have possibly born with it and I just developed it. But, like, who knows, really? They don't really know a whole lot about the brain. But, yeah, like, I developed it when I was eight.

00:12:38Melissa Erbacher: Have you always been a runner or is it just something you've started in recent years?

00:12:44Katie Cooke: I was actually a pro water skier for most of my life. So I water skied from the age of three. Up until I was 13. And I was really properly thinking that as a career. Because I was entering in competitions and all that sort of thing. But I did kind of do running on the side. I would do it as a stress reliever and all that sort of thing. But it wasn't a serious kind of sport of mine. So I suppose I did it but I didn't do it as serious as I do it now.

00:13:26Melissa Erbacher: And did you give water skiing away at age of 13 because of the epilepsy or how did that happen?

00:13:33Katie Cooke: So 13 was kind of the age where I came into impact with how bad my epilepsy was because when I was diagnosed, once the seizures were under control, my epilepsy was fine and it was like great I would have maybe a seizure maybe every three months which for me was like fantastic and so I was still able to continue water skiing and but at the age of 13 and probably to do with hormones and all that it's when my epilepsy gradually just got worse and worse um And so I knew that I couldn't continue water skiing. The doctors were like, look, it's just too dangerous.

00:14:19Scott Trickett: And what did the doctors say about you running and epilepsy? Did they say it was too dangerous? You shouldn't do it? Yeah.

00:14:26Katie Cooke: I mean, yeah. Like, the thing is, like, obviously Colin supports me on the running and all that sort of thing. Like, Colin's my neurologist. But... Like there have been doctors that have thought I'm a literal crazy person and Colin's a literal crazy person. Like there's no studies to say that running helps me on my epilepsy. But obviously everyone knows kind of what sports do for your mental health and they can actually help you improve physically and help your illness. But, yeah, there has been doctors that have looked at me and been like, what you're doing is ridiculously dangerous. I just can't even express that. Like, my recent marathon that I did, I had some serious injury to my bowel during it. And when I went into hospital, like, straight afterwards, because I didn't stop the marathon. I finished the marathon and went straight to hospital. The doctor... Like, he didn't really have anything to say. He was just shaking his head. So, yeah, there has been doctors that advised against it.

00:15:39Scott Trickett: Okay. Let's put aside the bowel injury. Has running in general helped you physically and mentally?

00:15:47Katie Cooke: Yeah, it definitely has. Like, running has helped me physically and mentally. Like, I don't know how to explain it, but... But yeah, like as in it helps me, like with my mental health, it helps me get through days. And I find days that I don't run, like as in I'll feel a little groggy and tired, all that sort of thing.

00:16:09Melissa Erbacher: Now, I can't get over the fact that you're only 19 and you did your first marathon two years ago. Have you done more than that since then?

00:16:18Katie Cooke: Yeah, I've done two marathons.

00:16:21Melissa Erbacher: Oh, my goodness. Okay. And so how does a 19-year-old train for a marathon, especially when you need to obviously run with your training partner, Colin, who's also your doctor?

00:16:36Katie Cooke: Well, I don't actually train with Colin. Me and Colin do races together only for the reason I'd be doing them by myself. But it's because I get pulled out of races regularly. like, the paramedics, as soon as they see a seizure, they, like, a lot of them don't understand because they don't, like, some seizures can be really severe. They can, you know, obviously cause, like, brain hemorrhages and all that sort of thing. So as soon as they see a seizure, they're like, oh, my God, like, put her on a stretcher, straight to hospital. And then when I wake up, they think that I'm in a post, like, ictal state. which is basically what a lot of people get after seizures. It's kind of like you're confused. So as soon as I get up, I'm like, oh, I can run. They think that I'm just confused. They're like, if you're not continuing, no way. So it's very uncommon for someone to have as many seizures as I do, and I'm fine afterwards. But Colin, no, he doesn't train with me on a day-to-day basis. I run myself. I'll go off on a run by myself. It's just for races that I don't get thrown out of them.

00:17:48Melissa Erbacher: That's a pretty awesome doctor.

00:17:50Katie Cooke: Yeah, Colin definitely goes over above the doctor status, and I love him for that. He is absolutely amazing. I can't express it, how he has changed my life.

00:18:05Scott Trickett: Hey, Katie, I reckon you're kind of amazing. You've overcome the epilepsy thing, but you're an active teenage girl. That's a rare thing these days. What's been your motivation to stay active? Have your friends, are they as active as you are?

00:18:25Katie Cooke: Well, my boyfriend is like a very, very good runner. I like to slag him a lot because I've beat his 5K and 10K times.

00:18:35Belinda Smith: So I like to be like, I'm a better runner than you.

00:18:40Katie Cooke: But yeah, no, my boyfriend's a very, very good sprinter. and then yeah one of my best friends she's a runner so I do know a lot of friends that would be quite active and obviously from like when I was running skiing I know people who did that and so yeah it's not uncommon for like you know my friends to be like inactive but obviously I do like to compete quite a lot so I don't know a lot of people that would kind of pursue it in a like competing aspect

00:19:10Scott Trickett: So your social circle of friends are an active bunch. That always helps.

00:19:14Katie Cooke: Yeah, yeah. It does help.

00:19:17Scott Trickett: Now you've also, speaking of social, you've done a parkrun.

00:19:21Katie Cooke: I've done a few parkruns, actually. That was the parkrun that they did with BBC. That was, I think, my 10th one. I used to do it every Saturday morning. I didn't know. It's kind of embarrassing. I can't believe I'm admitting this on radio. But I didn't know that they recorded your time. So I'd always wear my watch. And then, yeah, I finally were like, oh, we can record your time if you just sign up online. So I did that with BBC, but I didn't do that for the 10 others. And yeah, I've done a few. It's just difficult because it's morning time. And so I find it really difficult to get up in the morning consistently. because I have like 10 seizures at night time and like I get zero sleep usually. So yeah, I tend to not go to them most mornings.

00:20:19Melissa Erbacher: The parkrun you did was Cabin Teely parkrun for the BBC, which looks like an absolutely stunning place. Can you tell us anything about the other parkruns you've done?

00:20:31Katie Cooke: So the other parkruns I've done would have been exactly in Cabinteely because it's local for me. Um, it's just down the road. It's about like, I would say four kilometers away from me. Like you can walk it, you can run it, you can get the bus, whatever. Um, and I would have done it like exactly there. I would have gone to Cabinteely on Saturday morning at nine o'clock. Um, the only problem with Cabinteely now is it's very hilly. Like it's very, very hilly. Like you're like running up a steep, um, it is only 5k. So that's great. Um, um, But yeah, they would have been relatively like what I did with BBC.

00:21:12Melissa Erbacher: Awesome. And would you encourage other people? Have you encouraged other people to get along to parkrun as well?

00:21:17Katie Cooke: I do have a best friend that is, she wouldn't be into running that much. And I'm kind of the annoying active friend. They'd be like, come on, go for a run with me. And I have dragged her on a few runs. But no, I don't think she would make it all the way to a parkrun. She'd probably kill me. So I'll just leave it for myself for now.

00:21:39Scott Trickett: Katie, thanks for coming on and telling your story.

00:21:42Katie Cooke: Thank you so much.

00:21:43Scott Trickett: Thank you. We like the Irish. I've got a running mate who's Irish. I like running with the Irish. So if I ever get over to Ireland, I hope we can have a run together.

00:21:53Katie Cooke: You can come run with me. Yes, I would love that.

00:21:57Melissa Erbacher: It sounds like you're too fast for me though.

00:22:01Katie Cooke: No, like my speeds have gone down. a little, but I'm hoping to get back up there and get faster. So I would say that we're going to be the same speed for a little while now.

00:22:12Scott Trickett: Fantastic. Can't wait. Thanks, Katie. Thanks for joining the podcast.

00:22:15Katie Cooke: Thank you so much.

00:22:25Scott Trickett: Okay, Mel and I are in party mode, and I know a couple of others who might be in party mode as well. This week we're going to catch up with Anthony and Belinda from Lismore parkrun. Welcome to the pod, guys.

00:22:37Belinda Smith: Welcome. Yay. Party time.

00:22:40Scott Trickett: Are you in party mode? Are you getting ready for this weekend, your first anniversary?

00:22:44Belinda Smith: We are. Our household is buzzing with getting things organized and making sure our kit's all ready and that we've got extra tokens in case we get a big turn up. Not sure how many people. But, yeah, we're, yeah, no, yeah, we are. Our children are quite excited, so, or our teenage daughters are quite excited, so they keep saying, can't wait till Saturday, can't wait till Saturday. So, yeah, it's going to be good.

00:23:13Scott Trickett: Well, this in itself is quite unique, that you've got teenage daughters excited about parkrun. You've managed to get them along all year. What's your secret? How did you do it?

00:23:25Belinda Smith: I don't... Can't answer the answer.

00:23:28Anthony Smith: No. They just enjoy the atmosphere. They've got a few of their friends that turn up. That are starting to come as well. It's a social outing.

00:23:40Belinda Smith: And a following.

00:23:41Anthony Smith: So they enjoy fitness.

00:23:44Belinda Smith: And I think they see how excited we get. I know I get excited and I don't stop talking. A lot of our run directors know that I have a bit of a babble and I'm I guess it brushes off on them. And they've also done some run directing stints when we've had kids take over. So they're always the first ones to put their hands up and say they want to either run direct or timekeeping are the two positions that they love the most. So we're pretty excited about that. And if we have anyone ever that's unable to volunteer, the girls are always the first ones to say that they'll fill in for us. Yeah. Yeah, we've got a good team here.

00:24:27Melissa Erbacher: Because it's going to be your anniversary this weekend, you've got a fancy dress theme. Do the girls get involved in that as well?

00:24:34Belinda Smith: Yes. Yeah, we've been – we actually got our outfits during the school holidays in January. So, yes, we are ready.

00:24:45Melissa Erbacher: Wow. You've been planning for a little while. See, my teenage nieces, they get all funny about they're too cool to get dressed up. And I'm like, no, you're not cool unless you get dressed up. Exactly. So what is your theme?

00:25:02Belinda Smith: It's a fluoro fun run and it's socks and... wigs, braces, tutus, shorts, t-shirts, anything, earrings, whatever you can find, fluoro, which is easy. We wanted it to be easy. We didn't want it to, we want to start off, you know, just do things simple and just keep it that way. So we thought that was the easiest one to go with. So, yeah, so we went with that.

00:25:34Scott Trickett: Yeah, no, it's a great thing. Everybody's got a bit of fluoro. Of course. Even the guys out there.

00:25:40Belinda Smith: That's right. I was just about to say, even Anthony, he hasn't had to buy anything because he's got bright singlet. So he's set. I've just got some extra little bits to add that he doesn't know about yet.

00:25:54Scott Trickett: I'm sure I will now. So how have you found the first year? It seems like it's been a big success. Have you guys enjoyed it?

00:26:02Belinda Smith: Yeah. Yeah, we've got a great run directing team, so I'd like to say a big thanks to them. They'll be listening. So our team, including us, we've got seven, but we've just recruited two more, so we've got nine. Our parkrun roster's been filled six weeks in advance, and I don't know, that probably sounds like I'm skiding, but I'm really excited about it. that we've built a really good volunteering base here and people actually come to us and our tail walker or tail runner positions filled until June so it's crazy so um yeah no look we've had a great great lot of support and um and we've made lots of lots of friends and made new connect running connections and running groups and things like that so it's been yes just a Our lives are so different from 12 months ago and it's been such an amazing thing. So, yeah, and we all know how great parkrun is.

00:27:02Scott Trickett: Now, the Smith name is pretty common. There are a few Smiths running around the parkrun circles. Are there any relations?

00:27:10Anthony Smith: Yeah, my brother's the ED down at Barrel.

00:27:14Scott Trickett: And is that how you got involved in parkrun?

00:27:17Belinda Smith: Kind of.

00:27:18Anthony Smith: Yeah, between my brother and Belinda's sister.

00:27:21Belinda Smith: My sister and her brother and her husband are the event directors at Towers Seaside. And we got involved by going to parkrun in 2014. We were told you must print a barcode and you must bring it with you. And we're like, what? Anyway, we did it. And we went to Brightwater and that was our first experience. And from there we just kept going and then later, I think in 2015, our mum started to go to parkrun or park walk and parkrun. She used to walk it. We used to go to Brightwater and everyone was clapping and really friendly and we're like, wow, this is weird. This is, you know, unusual. And then unfortunately my mum had cancer and she, Mel and everyone rallied behind mum with her fight and at Brightwater we used to run for Flo and be Fabulous Flo Fighters and wear t-shirts and pink flamingos because she loved flamingos from so I think from there the beautiful community that surrounded our mum and helped her um be strong and be positive during the the days of fighting cancer um really really shook me and and it just made it so beautiful what what a great community of people that we didn't really know and they used to come and come up to us and give us hugs because they all knew that we were Flo's family and and um yeah it was just really mind-blowing and from there we used to just we started to travel to Yamba and and then um I think in 2015 or In December I said I was sick of travelling and we need to start our own parkrun. So then the rest is pretty much history. So, yeah, but we've made a lot of friends from the Sunshine Coast parkruns up there and they've been a wealth of knowledge when I've needed help in the initial days before even starting parkrun. And, yeah, I think the community of people just, Supporting is just amazing. So I think that's why we really started parkrun. It was more about we wanted to start a community event that would help people and running is definitely a good thing for your mental and for coping with people, you know, passing away and grief and things like that. So that was the ingredient as to why we wanted to start parkrun. And I've been told to stop talking.

00:30:10Melissa Erbacher: Well, by all accounts, I mean, you've seen the examples other places and you've brought it to your own community, which is always awesome. I love the fact that you guys all do it as a family. You know, you and Anthony, you're co-EDs and you take your girls and you take your dog. Anthony, I... I know you have a job that means you work night shifts sometimes and you've been known to show up to a parkrun with little or no sleep. How do you manage that?

00:30:40Anthony Smith: Honestly, I don't know, but sometimes on an hour, an hour and a half sleep, I actually do my best times.

00:30:48Melissa Erbacher: So this is an insider tip. Anyone looking for a PB needs to not sleep the night before?

00:30:53Anthony Smith: Don't sleep. Yeah, I was looking forward to last week, but I thought, Missed out on a run last week, but there's always the next time I run. But no, I enjoy it. Some mornings I don't want to get up. My body's telling me to stay in bed, but I've got the bug, so I get up and participate. And then you go back to bed. I go back to bed. Go back to work that night.

00:31:18Melissa Erbacher: Well, I find I often want to just go back to bed. And I'll be at parkrun and think, it's all right, I'll have a nap when I get home. And then by the time I get home, I'm too awake and I don't go and actually have the nap. What are some of the highlights you guys have had since you started your own event?

00:31:37Anthony Smith: I think just a lot of them have been just some of the reactions or the changes in people that have been turning up. The very noticeable ones is the confidence. They turn up and once they do it a couple of times, their whole outlook on life is changed. And then obviously you go to the physical side of things where, you know, basically their appearance is changing, they're losing weight, things like that. But I think it's just people come up and they just want to say thank you. Thank you for bringing parkrun to Lismore. I think they're certainly, they're the good ones to have.

00:32:14Scott Trickett: You guys have travelled around, you just alluded to, you've been to Yamba and such. Have you got a top three between the two of you? Top three parkruns that you've visited?

00:32:24Belinda Smith: We've been to Yamba, and that's flat, fast, friendly. Yeah, we like that one.

00:32:31Anthony Smith: I went to Newcastle. I did Blackbutt, and it's a hilly course, that one, I discovered.

00:32:38Melissa Erbacher: That's what we hear.

00:32:39Anthony Smith: If you like hills, it's certainly one to do.

00:32:41Scott Trickett: Did you like hills? Did you enjoy it?

00:32:43Anthony Smith: I'll go back and do it again.

00:32:45Belinda Smith: But not in the summer.

00:32:46Anthony Smith: Yeah, not in the summer where it's fairly warm. No, certainly I enjoyed it all.

00:32:51Melissa Erbacher: look forward to next time i'm down that way i can hopefully do it again i like I like Towers Seaside and Brightwater and Yamba. They're my three. cool now um before we we head off and let you guys get back to planning for the event this weekend have you got anything special planned yeah we're um we're fortunate enough to have a um

00:33:16Belinda Smith: One of our volunteers is a professional photographer, so he will be our photographer this weekend, Richard Johnson, and he's made some suggestions about the time and the lighting and things like that and suggested for us to all have one glow stick to show for our one-year anniversary. so um he'll have some special lights on either side of our group to light us up a bit because it's the darkest morning of the year um and because we have daylight savings here it's really really dark i don't know if you know scott how dark it is but it's it's like night time at the moment so um it's six o'clock when you're setting up so um yeah so we'll have um We'll have Richard organising that.

00:34:08Anthony Smith: Richard doing that. So it should be nice.

00:34:10Belinda Smith: And everyone's dressed in fluoro fun parkrun gear. So we've just done, and we've also organised a little, we've made a slideshow to put onto our page to thank all our volunteers because we've had 790 volunteers over the course of the 12 months that we've been running. So we just really. Want to thank our volunteers. Yeah, and thank our run directors as well because they've all given up a lot of time to help and support us as well. So, yeah, it's been good. It's been a great year actually. We've had a really positive, fun year. So it's been good, onward and upward.

00:34:51Scott Trickett: Well, thank you too. Thank you too for putting on Lismore parkrun for the first year and thanks for coming on the podcast and telling us all about it this week. Good luck for Saturday.

00:35:02Belinda Smith: Thanks, Scott. Nice talking.

00:35:04Scott Trickett: Thanks, Mel.

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

00:35:13Melissa Erbacher: What week in a row is this that we have zero launches, Scotty? Too many. Is this number four?

00:35:19Scott Trickett: Something like that.

00:35:21Melissa Erbacher: Have we had zero launches for March? That can't be true.

00:35:25Scott Trickett: Been a long time. That's all I'll say.

00:35:26Melissa Erbacher: Talk about March madness. It's March dryness.

00:35:32Scott Trickett: They're coming.

00:35:32Melissa Erbacher: We do have anniversaries.

00:35:35Scott Trickett: We do.

00:35:35Melissa Erbacher: So there could be cake or donuts.

00:35:37Scott Trickett: Yep. There's a couple of first anniversaries. We've already talked to the crew at Lismore. We know they're excited. I wonder if Kedron can match their excitement because they're also celebrating their first anniversary.

00:35:52Melissa Erbacher: I reckon they can. And also in Queensland, we've got Main Beach who are celebrating their sixth anniversary. Wow, that's six years of parkrun in Australia.

00:36:03Scott Trickett: Yeah. That crept up on us.

00:36:07Melissa Erbacher: It did.

00:36:08Scott Trickett: We've also got Traralgon celebrating their second anniversary.

00:36:13Melissa Erbacher: So happy anniversary, all those anniversararians.

00:36:18Scott Trickett: We also welcomed, we may not be welcoming new events into the parkrun family, but we're welcoming new parkrunners.

00:36:26Melissa Erbacher: Or future, future parkrunners. Future, well...

00:36:30Scott Trickett: How old do you have to be to be a parkrunner? I know you're officially four.

00:36:34Melissa Erbacher: However, you can participate in a pram for a long time before that.

00:36:38Scott Trickett: Yes. So congratulations to our boss, my boss, the CEO of parkrun Australia. And his wife.

00:36:45Melissa Erbacher: And... Who actually did all the work.

00:36:51Scott Trickett: Yes.

00:36:51Melissa Erbacher: Well, most of the work. Some of the work was his. But the rest of it, pretty much all Nicky. They had a little baby boy this week.

00:37:02Scott Trickett: In trying circumstances, it's fair to be said.

00:37:06Melissa Erbacher: So now team Oberg numbers five, and we are soon to see three gorgeous little Obergs in a pram of some well-known. Now that Jack's running, I guess it'll be Evie and the new little Bubba Archie in the pram.

00:37:21Scott Trickett: It was good timing. For Jack to start running.

00:37:24Melissa Erbacher: I wonder if that was premeditated. They pushed him out of the prayer. Tried to make him think it was his own idea so there wouldn't be jealousy. You never know.

00:37:38Scott Trickett: He's a smart one. Now, there could be. Remember Lyndell from a couple of weeks ago? She gave us her cracking roving report when she visited Nambour. Now, Lyndell is heading to New Zealand and she's faced with the prospect of going somewhere on a Saturday morning without a parkrun. Crazy. So she's going to do it.

00:37:59Melissa Erbacher: Bad planning.

00:37:59Scott Trickett: Yes. Out of her control, it's fair to say. But she's going to do a pop-up parkrun in New Plymouth this Saturday. So if you are in New Zealand, if you are of the triathlon persuasion, you might be in the area. Join Lyndell for a pop-up parkrun, New Plymouth.

00:38:18Melissa Erbacher: And triathletes are always fairly keen for a short hit out the day before a big event. So it's not too much to ask, I don't think.

00:38:29Scott Trickett: We will share the details of the location on our Facebook page. But let's make that a thing.

00:38:36Melissa Erbacher: A thing. As in a pop-up parkrun thing.

00:38:41Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:38:42Melissa Erbacher: With Lyndell?

00:38:43Scott Trickett: Yeah.

Strava Club update

00:38:44Melissa Erbacher: But this brings me to a question, Scotty. which we asked in the Strava group earlier this week. And I think we need to encourage more people to respond. Obviously, if Lyndell could have a parkrun in New Plymouth, an actual official parkrun, she would. But because there's not one there, she has to do a pop-up. But are there any places that, you know, don't have parkruns yet that we think it would be really good to have one?

00:39:15Scott Trickett: I've got one for you. Can I kick it off? Go for it. I'd like to see one, like, in the high country. I know we've got some trail parkruns, we've got some hilly parkruns, but I'd like to see one, like, on the top of a mountain, like in the snow fields, something like that.

00:39:32Melissa Erbacher: So, like, men from Snowy River kind of situation.

00:39:36Scott Trickett: Well, just somewhere where you can go in winter and it's going to be snowing, or you can go in summer and it's just going to be bush, hilly, that sort of run.

00:39:48Melissa Erbacher: Okay, so you need one in Dinner Plain.

00:39:50Scott Trickett: Something like that, yes. Jindabyne, I'd even go to New South Wales, Thredbo, something like that.

00:39:58Melissa Erbacher: Cool.

00:39:58Scott Trickett: That would be my dream location, my dream adventure at the moment. Yours?

00:40:04Melissa Erbacher: Well, I think I would probably have to be almost the opposite to that, as much as I would love to run in the snow and go home with frozen feet that actually were completely soaked through as well at the same time. I would love one in the Red Centre. I would love a parkrun out in the Northern Territory, Alice Springs area, you know, somewhere out that way where just the entire environment is different. I mean, I love my beach parkruns and we do a lot of them around here, obviously, on the Sunshine Coast. But, yeah, just something absolutely different in terms of the environment that you're running through.

00:40:47Scott Trickett: You were just thinking – That's what I would like to do. Like red, dry, hot.

00:40:52Melissa Erbacher: Yes, but like – so kind of like Kalgoorlie Boulder, but in the Northern Territory so that we're sharing the love a bit. And there's something in the centre of Australia for people to stop over and, you know, get their parkrun fix if they're on one of those through the centre of the country type adventures.

00:41:10Scott Trickett: Mm-hmm. You know, there's a massive gap. We don't have anything in Western Australia, in Northern Western Australia. I'd like to see something up there as well. I've never been there, but I'd love an excuse to go.

00:41:23Melissa Erbacher: Absolutely.

00:41:25Scott Trickett: We both need an excuse. But if you've got a suggestion, head to Strava and join the club discussions where we have asked for your dream parkrun location. And while you're there, you can check out the recent activity. You can check out the club leaderboard. You can try looking for Scotty's runs that he hasn't done this week. Yep. Wasn't on the leaderboard last week. I can tell you that.

00:41:49Melissa Erbacher: Don't worry. I'm not sure I've ever been on the leaderboard. You're in good company.

00:41:55Scott Trickett: So it's good. It's good motivation to see people, how much people run and how often they do. It makes you feel really bad. Or inspire.

00:42:05Melissa Erbacher: I wouldn't say that. Some people are just busy in different ways.

00:42:10Scott Trickett: Exactly. So that's what's happening on Strava this week. And on that note, Mel, you have a fantastic parkrun day. I'll try and do the same.

00:42:20Melissa Erbacher: And I'll chat to you next week.