Episode 63

Episode details · 137 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:06Scott Trickett: Welcome back to another edition of the parkrun Adventurers podcast. My name is Scott Trickett. Welcome Mel Erbacher.

00:00:17Melissa Erbacher: Thank you Scotty.

00:00:18Scott Trickett: It's been so long since I've spoken to you or seen you. How have you been?

00:00:26Melissa Erbacher: I've been much better actually since I saw you last.

00:00:31Scott Trickett: Well that's good to hear because you were in a bit of pain. When I saw you over the weekend. We spent parkrun morning together this week, which was exciting for me.

00:00:45Melissa Erbacher: Well, we parkrun ran in the same location. I wouldn't say we spent it together on account of you were going for a PB and I was just going to try and get. my sorry, behind around the course without making the volunteers wait for five hours.

00:01:04Scott Trickett: You're just focusing on the run. parkrun's so much more than the run. We chatted beforehand. We went out for coffee afterwards. I look at it as we spent most of Saturday morning together.

00:01:16Melissa Erbacher: Okay. Fair enough. And it was a good morning. I attended Coburg parkrun for the first time, got my adventure on on one of the high C's, so now I think I've only got two more C's to become a pirate. Pretty exciting.

00:01:35Scott Trickett: Do you agree with my judgment that I've officially put it in my top three? It

00:01:43Melissa Erbacher: was spectacular really really beautiful course I can see why you've got it in your top three because it has no fewer than three bridges that you cross as well as just being stunningly set amongst beautiful nature and water and it's got everything that you want in a parkrun it's shady and it was undulating and it was windy and just something different to look at the entire time so gorgeous gorgeous course and very friendly volunteers which of course pretty much everywhere you go they're very friendly volunteers but this these guys were no exception yeah and it's got that the numbers aren't the numbers are quite small you know they're not at a hundred so it does have that really friendly uh i know everybody feel about it there's no queue it was very intimate yes and i did like my top 100 finish even though it took me an hour 12 to get around the course.

00:02:46Scott Trickett: Yeah, I got a top 10 finish, which was very exciting for me. It doesn't happen very often anymore.

00:02:53Melissa Erbacher: And did you get the PB that you were aiming for?

00:02:57Scott Trickett: I got a Coburg PB, which I've got to admit I was pretty happy with. I had my mate along who agreed to pace me. Now, in the back of my mind, I was going for my all-time parkrun PB, but I did tell him, I wanted a Coburg PB, and I told him the time, and we actually ran exactly the time. So I'm pretty chuffed with that. But I've got this thing at the moment, and it's ironic that I've got a little bit of vertigo. I've got a little bit of vertigo going on, and it seems to trigger when I run over bridges.

00:03:31Melissa Erbacher: Oh, no. It's like you're kryptonite.

00:03:36Scott Trickett: It is a bit, so there's a big bridge at Coburg and coming back we hit the bridge and I start to feel all dizzy and I have this desire to throw up and it just ruined my time because I had to slow down to make sure that I didn't throw up.

00:03:52Melissa Erbacher: But how's the irony that the man who loves bridges gets sick when he runs over bridges?

00:04:00Scott Trickett: I'm glad you can laugh about it.

00:04:03[laughter]

00:04:03Melissa Erbacher: I'm laughing with you, Scotty. You might not realize you're laughing, but you are on the inside. No, I am laughing because it's funny. What you might need to do next time you bring a pacer is actually tell them the pacer you want to do. If you've got this in-the-back-of-my-mind pace, unless they've got ESP, they're not going to know what that is. So they're just going to help you get what you actually tell them to get. So what was the difference between your previous and your now Coburg PB? Like what was the time difference that you ended up taking off?

00:04:43Scott Trickett: That's a good question. I don't know. A couple of minutes maybe, maybe a minute. Oh, wow. That's huge. I don't know. I just wanted a good Coburg time because Coburg, it's a pretty tough course. There are some hills in it.

00:04:57Melissa Erbacher: Absolutely.

00:04:58Scott Trickett: And that tends to slow me down a bit. So if I'd gotten a PB at Coburg, I would have been super chuffed. But I've missed it by about 18 seconds or something like that.

00:05:08Melissa Erbacher: You mean if you got your overall PB, your overall parkrun PB? Because you did get your Coburg PB.

00:05:14Scott Trickett: I did. So that's good.

00:05:16Melissa Erbacher: So congratulate yourself on that.

00:05:18Scott Trickett: Did you get a PW?

00:05:21Melissa Erbacher: I don't think so.

00:05:21Scott Trickett: Okay. Well, good on you for that.

00:05:24Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. Well, it was a PB for the Coburg course.

00:05:28Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:05:30Melissa Erbacher: And the only way is up for me when I go back to Coburg. Well, presumably. I could have another shocker of a day, but next time I won't be six months pregnant and having glute issues.

00:05:48Scott Trickett: You're glad you did it, though. You're glad you soldiered on and pushed through it. It wasn't a fast time, and the tail runner was fantastic.

00:05:57Melissa Erbacher: She was a lovely, lovely tail runner, and I also had the pleasure of Ivona and Kasia's company, so can't argue about the company that I got to spend the morning with. No, it was a lovely... It was great because... Yeah, the tail runner, Catherine, she is local. And so she was able to give us all sorts of local knowledge about the event. And she's an avid volunteer as well. And she'd already been for a run before she started. So she was quite happy to mosey along at our pace, which was great.

00:06:32Scott Trickett: So a good morning was had.

00:06:34Melissa Erbacher: Absolutely.

00:06:35Scott Trickett: At Coburg Park, right?

00:06:37Melissa Erbacher: And nice to stretch my legs and have a Victorian adventure again. It's been a year since I've been down your way.

00:06:45Scott Trickett: And we turned on the weather for you, which was lovely.

00:06:47Melissa Erbacher: You did. You turned it off again after the first two days. But that's all right. We don't need good weather to eat our way around Melbourne. And that's pretty much what we did the rest of the weekend.

00:07:02Scott Trickett: And so how long before you moved down?

00:07:06Melissa Erbacher: That depends on how long it takes Adam to work off the three croissants he ate this morning. He still wasn't properly hungry by dinner time. But we got actually, I utilize the parkrun Tourism AU Facebook group. for a little bit of information about the local area and what we should go and see and do and things like that and everybody was amazing with all their comments and we probably knocked off a maybe not 50%, but a good portion of the recommendations for places to eat and things to do and things to see. So if anyone isn't a member of that group yet who listens to this podcast, I would highly recommend you join because it's not just about sharing your parkrun adventures. It's about getting information from other people that are in those areas that you're going to go on adventures to. And everybody is so generous with their knowledge and so much better than doing the normal boring tourist stuff, you know. We got to go see fairy penguins at St Kilda, which a lot of the locals didn't even know were there. So it was very cool.

00:08:23Scott Trickett: Yeah, I must admit. Great weekend. We've been driving down to Phillip Island for years to take our daughter, who loves the penguins. And yeah, we went to St Kilda Pier and they were everywhere. No crowds, didn't have to pay anything. It was great. They literally walk in front of you, across you. Amazing.

00:08:44Melissa Erbacher: Yes. So it might take another couple of long weekends visits before I'm convinced to move down. And they probably need to be sunnier more consistently than 50% of the visits. Because I do live on the Sunshine Coast, and that's pretty attractive.

00:09:02Scott Trickett: Yeah. Well, we offer the contrast, so... And the food. Yeah. Give it a few more visits. I think Adam's already there, so just a few more and you'll be there.

00:09:15Melissa Erbacher: One thing's for sure, I would need to run a lot more so as not to double in size.

00:09:21Scott Trickett: That's my problem.

00:09:22Melissa Erbacher: If I live down that way.

00:09:23[music]

00:09:23Scott Trickett: That's why I run so much.

On the couch with Coach Steve

00:09:35Melissa Erbacher: And back now for the second time on the couch with Coach Steve, we have Coach Steve. Welcome to the podcast.

00:09:44Steve Dinneen: Thanks for having me back.

00:09:46Melissa Erbacher: Now, Coach, this is… We want to talk to you today about some tips for injury prevention. Scotty and I both have some little niggles at the moment and my niggles aren't actually originally from running, but they've, you know, come from other things. So I'm keen to know about injury prevention because I had a very painful parkrun on Saturday and And it's all relating to my piriformis and, you know, sciatic nerve and all those fun sorts of things. So what can you tell us about injury prevention for runners?

00:10:23Steve Dinneen: Yeah, it's a pretty big area. Like most sports, it's about your body adapting to what you do. And part of that is trying to stay on the knife's edge of going too far. So, you know, everyone's different. As you said, for you, maybe an old injury you're carrying from a different sport, from a different past life activity or it might be an injury from your running so really injuries stem from certain areas and the key with injuries and prevention is understanding a few things and the main way I deal with both my athletes and my clients as an osteopath is I look at first of all what they're doing um it's no coincidence that I see swimmers for shoulder problems and runners for leg problems not because of their bodies it's what they do to their body so the first thing I look at is really what are they doing um And the second part is you might get an injury. It might be a knee or it might be an ankle or it might be a hip. But I don't just look at what the injury is. I look at what the cause is. And that's just where generally as an osteopath, we may differ from a physio or a chiro or a myotherapist. As an osteopath, we kind of look at things from a holistic point of view. We don't just try to treat the symptom, e.g. you might have knee pain. We try to look at the cause, what's actually causing that knee pain. And people often ask, what's the difference between a physio, chiro or osteo? Firstly, I'll tell you, I'm very biased in what I say because I'm an osteo. I love being an osteo and I chose to be an osteo over the others. So this is always taking the grain of salt. The way I view most injuries is an osteo will view it as a whole point of view, you know, not just what the symptom is, what the cause is. We use methods like the physios. We can use hands-on, soft tissue, that sort of stuff. We can give some exercises. I myself have got a sports science degree, so in terms of exercise and that, I'm very good at as well for my other degree. Whereas physio, mate, you also use ultrasound. A chiropractor does more adjustments. We've all heard of manipulations, whether it's the back, the neck, the hip, the ankle. As an osteopath, we can also do that. And then a massage, a myotherapist does a lot of massage and needling. From my point of view, as an osteo, I do a bit of what all of them do and combine it with a different theory. Yeah, so with injuries, You've got to understand what the injury is, why it's there. And I guess once you understand why the injury is there, you can work on preventing it from happening or managing it, if that kind of makes sense to you guys.

00:12:47Scott Trickett: It does. Steve, you're big on the drills and not so big on the stretching part to avoid injury. Am I right there?

00:12:55Steve Dinneen: Oh, I'm big on the drills and I'm big on stretching at the right time. So in my first year as a sports scientist, we learned that pretty much if you go out and do a 4K warm-up in Melbourne's winter and then you stop for 20 minutes to stretch, well, you're actually cooling down. They've also done research within stretching. After you've stretched for a period of time, there's actually a small time where your actual muscle's being stretched and it's actually at a weakened point. So that's why I'm more with active stretching and active warm-up as opposed to static where you sit down and stretch. and drills are a beautiful way to actually do two things. Prepare the body for the event by warming it up and getting you through the full motion, but also does it in warming up, stretching the muscles in those things as well.

00:13:41Melissa Erbacher: So just to clarify, what exactly is a drill?

00:13:45Steve Dinneen: That's an excellent point. So drills, you often see athletes before their event, they'll go for a little warm-up, they'll come back, and they often do drills that work out, like maybe high knees, heel flicks, There's all the A step, the B step. There's different drills and probably half of them work on your actual technique of running. So it takes your legs through the biomechanics of the actual movement of running and the other half actually work at range. So things will actually loosen your hips up, loosen your knees, loosen your feet up. So drills either work into the range of motion of your joints to prepare them for the activity you're about to do, e.g. run, or it's also there to actually get the muscle getting faster and quicker so it's ready to handle the load when you take off at 100%. And so you don't just go from zero to 100% without tearing anything.

00:14:37Melissa Erbacher: So is that the same as what you would call dynamic stretching?

00:14:43Steve Dinneen: So dynamic stretching can relate to that in a way, but it's not exactly that. So dynamic stretching is just going through some movements. And I guess that's probably the more basic form of some drills and active stretching, which is what dynamic stretching is. So it's kind of almost like your more basic, simple forms. And it's depending on the athlete, the event, as to what you go through it. An example is a marathoner doesn't need to be quite as sharp and springy before their marathon as a 100-meter sprinter before their race. So you often see sprinters in the short events doing a lot more. They might start off with these dynamic stretches and get to a lot more explosive sort of drills and build up that way. Whereas generally, the longer the distance, you can just go through some ranges and some gentle, more dynamic stuff, if that makes sense again.

00:15:30Melissa Erbacher: It does. The drills sound to me like muscles ready to go twang in the wrong way if you don't know how to do them.

00:15:41Steve Dinneen: You're spot on there. And there's so many different drills too. There's just so many different drills. It depends, you know. what sort of athlete you are, what movements do you need to throw your hips up, your knees, is it a biomechanical pattern you're trying to teach your body? So doing drills are great if you know how to do them properly. It's like most things. Think of jumping in a pool to go for a swim. If you just jump in the pool and start moving your arms and legs, it doesn't mean you're going to go anywhere quick. So technique's really important so you can actually be not just efficient in what you do but you also reduce the chance of injuring yourself. So, yeah, drills are very important to go through regularly And there's a lot of examples of drills on YouTube that a lot of coaches put up, and they're really good just to watch them and then see how it goes. The only problem with that is you watch someone do drills that's very good at them, they look easy. The problem is they're not easy. So, yeah, you've got to get someone to show you and take you through it, and you just build up each week and get better at it, I guess. And a lot of kids start with doing them when they're little, like at Little A's, or they might start when they're at high school. So once I've done them for five years, they're just beautiful to watch.

00:16:45Scott Trickett: So we're talking to runners. What's the number one running injury that you see from recreational runners?

00:16:55Steve Dinneen: I wouldn't say number one. I'll give you three. I reckon each part of the body, often the calf. So you might look at an Achilles calf injury. They seem to grab a lot of runners, especially guys in their 40s, late 30s, they come back and do a calf. So a calf's a pretty common one. Another one we've often heard is runner's knee, and that's got to do with the quads and imbalance through the knee and loading. And the third one's probably to do with your hips and your glutes. So if you picked out the most common one, I'd pick out one for each joint, and it would be the ankle joints more, the Achilles, the calf, the knees more, we call the runner's knee, and then the glutes, sort of piriformis injuries, probably more the one for the hips.

00:17:34Scott Trickett: And are these all just because people get into it too soon, too excited, or is it bad technique?

00:17:39Steve Dinneen: Yeah, spot on. I reckon there's probably about four or five or six or ten different reasons why people can get these sorts of injuries. So an example is poor running technique. An example is wearing the wrong shoes, doing too much running, whether that's in duration, doing too many kilometers too soon, or intensity, all of a sudden you start running too hard too soon. Another example is overload. You've just done too much. You don't get actually injured during the running but it's fatigue. So when you start to fatigue, you biomechanically start to change the way you run and that also sets you up for a lot of these problems. So really anywhere from training to your own conditioning to environments to footwear, all these different little things can add up to little injuries.

00:18:23Melissa Erbacher: Okay, so let's focus on me for a minute here because why not use my podcast to get some personal advice. So my piriformis issue, it's caused not by running, it's caused by other complications of pregnancy and childbirth. sleeping and things like that also i'm told it's already happened i'm in pain now what can i do to um ease off on the paint so that i can actually keep moving and not do parkruns that take two hours perfect so there's a lot of things got a way up there um when you just said how it's come from pregnancy and that um if it was simple as that then every lady that got pregnant would have the same problem so there's obviously another element to it than just simply

00:19:13Steve Dinneen: being pregnant, might be conditioning, might be training. So with piriformis, what you want to be doing is there's a spiky ball. I got a lot of my athletes to use a spiky ball against the wall to self-massage through the glutes and the piriformis. It's the same thing as going to get a massage on someone else. But the best thing about it is you can do it whenever you want. You come home from a run, you don't need to go book in for a massage. You've got your spiky ball. So I use a spiky ball first of all to help loosen the muscles, the piriformis, the glutes, get around towards the TFL, the hip flexors. So you really loosen not just the piriformis but the muscles around the area. So the spiky ball is really good for that. Then you can get on the foam roller and do it through your quads. And the quads really help free that up there. A lot of people use the foam roller for the ITB which connects into the piriformis and the glutes which run through the area. So again, I wouldn't foam roller the ITB. I'd just use a spiky ball through the glutes and the TFL and the piriformis, foam roller through the quad. That's the first thing I'd do. The last two things that I'd do is look at stretching, both the glutes and the quads, along with heat. If you get a lot of heat through your glutes and your lower back, they warm up like an elastic band and they start to stretch more. And I don't know, if you might get a bit of what they call sciatic symptoms down to the back of your leg, And that often comes when the piriformis tightens up and pushes or compresses somewhere near the sciatic nerve. So if you loosen the whole area, that helps. The other part of getting your piriformis sorted out is looking at both your running technique, your gait, and also your strength. Obviously, you've been pregnant, so you want to look out through your pelvic floor, your lower abs, your core. Make sure that's all balanced so when you're running, you're not collapsing through that piriformis out of your body and loading it up too much.

00:20:56Melissa Erbacher: Okay, I like the heat thing because I've been walking around with a heat pack and I literally sat on a train to parkrun for half an hour on Saturday morning with the heat pack freshly microwaved underneath my butt on the way there so that I could get through the morning. And it helped. So that's good. I'm glad that's working. I like all the stuff you're telling me because it's not very expensive to just... It looks a bit ridiculous if you're at work and you're leaning up against a post with a spiky ball and rubbing up and down, but I've got some very understanding workmates, so I'm sure they'll let me get away. It's the crazy pregnant ladies doing weird stuff again, so that all works.

00:21:41Steve Dinneen: It gets you back out there. The key with all the advice I give, people are often looking for that one bit of advice With a lot of these injuries like your piriformis or your runner's knee, it's three or four little things to help fix the problem. It's more of a puzzle. And if you're missing one or two pieces and do the other too well, it often doesn't work. And that's why I was saying the spiky ball along with the heat. And when you're sitting on the train going to work, you can quite easily do a piriformis stretch sitting there. It might look a bit weird, as you said, but at least you'll get out for a run and feel better.

00:22:12Melissa Erbacher: Exactly.

00:22:13Scott Trickett: Now, before we let you go, Steve, last time we had you on the podcast, were you a world champion?

00:22:18Steve Dinneen: No, I wasn't a world champion. Now, are you a world champion now?

00:22:23Scott Trickett: Are you a world champion now?

00:22:25Steve Dinneen: I am an aged world champion. So I won the Masters 35 to 39 3,000 metres world champs indoors a couple of weeks ago. So I wouldn't classify myself a world champion. If you put the words aged world champion, I'd then probably consider yes.

00:22:41Scott Trickett: No, you're focusing on the detail too much, Steve. I'd be walking around saying world champion. And the connection I was trying to make is that we're partially responsible.

00:22:50Melissa Erbacher: Got to take credit for some things.

00:22:52Scott Trickett: In all seriousness, you ran on the indoor track. Yeah, you won your event. How did it go? How did you find the experience of, firstly, the indoor track?

00:23:02Steve Dinneen: One of the best things about parkrun is people go do it and enjoy it and just be part of running. That's why I went to the World Indoors, not because I wanted to win a medal. It's just about being a part of it. And I've never run on an indoor track before. The atmosphere is great. So for me, it was about the experience. Like people get up at 8 o'clock on a Saturday morning, it's about being a part of it and doing something for yourself. And for me, it was an amazing experience. I met a lot of great people out there. The race itself, I was against some really good Spanish guys and it was very tactical. So the race itself was just, you know, it was ideal and I ran it to the best mobility and won, fortunately enough. But like I said to everyone, it's more than the race. The race was itself brilliant, but everything around it was just great. And I was out there watching people in the 90 age group category do a 3,000-meter race. It's just phenomenal. If you want to get inspired, go watch the master races. Don't worry about the 35s, the 40 guys. Go watch the 70s or 80s or 90s. One of the Australian ladies ran the world record for the 73,000 meters in Lavinia. So for me, it was experience, and I get inspired by things like that. I've got some great training partners that represent Australia and go to Rio, and that inspires me on one level. But this inspires me on a totally different level, which is just as worthy, I think.

00:24:16Scott Trickett: How quickly does a 90-year-old get around 3,000 metres? Do you remember?

00:24:23Steve Dinneen: Not that quick. It wasn't that quick. But if you look at the 70s, a couple in the 70-age group were actually moving pretty well. I was quite inspired by a few of the 70-year-olds thinking, I don't think I'll be going that quick when I'm 70. And as I said, they're probably going, the 70-year-old guys are probably going 410 per K, maybe under four minute K posts. That's pretty impressive in my view. If you're at 75 running under 12 minutes or around 13 minutes for 3K, you're pretty good at my books.

00:24:55Melissa Erbacher: If you can do 3K when you're over 90, I think that's pretty damn good. A lot of them can't make it to their letterbox.

00:25:04Steve Dinneen: Oh, and that's it. And there was a couple of guys in their 70s doing pole vault. It's just insane. I'd be happy to be able to jump over a toy box at that age, let alone use a pole vault. They're just inspiring.

00:25:17Scott Trickett: No doubt. So thanks, world champion parkrun adventure coach Steve Dinneen for joining us this week.

00:25:23[music]

00:25:23Steve Dinneen: Thanks for having me once again.

Meet the ED

00:25:34Scott Trickett: Now we're going to chat to a man who's literally just come in from a run. Welcome to the parkrun Adventurers, Mak Sawa from Lillydale Lake parkrun.

00:25:42Mak Sawa: Hi Scott, hi Mel.

00:25:44Scott Trickett: Now Mac, you like to run. Let's set the scene for the listeners. What's your longest run to date so far this year? We're just talking about this year.

00:25:54Mak Sawa: Just this year? Well, that would have been a couple of weekends ago. 198.5 kilometres in a 24-hour event.

00:26:05Scott Trickett: So you're one of those guys. One of those guys who can run for 24 hours straight.

00:26:10Mak Sawa: That's it.

00:26:10Scott Trickett: How did you get to that point? Let's start there. Let's talk about Mac, the ultra-endurance runner, before we get on to Louis Dahl Lake parkrun. How did you become an ultra-runner?

00:26:23Mak Sawa: Well, I mean, I guess my story is similar to a lot of people's. I, back in 2010, went on a holiday over to the US for three and a half weeks, ate and drank my way literally across the US and came back almost 15 kilos heavier than when I left.

00:26:43Melissa Erbacher: So... Super-sized.

00:26:45Mak Sawa: Yeah, that's it. So, to get the weight off, I just thought running would be the easiest option and after, you know, a little while, the weight came off pretty quickly and In the process, I found that I enjoyed running. So I started doing a few events, you know, 5K, 10K, up to half marathon distance. And then I ran six full marathons in the space of two years. And then did another three, which the times were very similar finishing times. And then I thought, well... What do I do? Do I really put in the effort to try and get my marathon time down or do I look for another challenge? And I thought it might be easier to try running further. So I got on to ultra running in that way.

00:27:42Melissa Erbacher: You thought it might be easier to run further.

00:27:46Mak Sawa: Rather than trying to get quicker, yeah.

00:27:49Melissa Erbacher: So this was the path, the lesser of two evils.

00:27:52Mak Sawa: Yes, correct.

00:27:54Melissa Erbacher: And where does that end then? Because, you know, as ultra runners, they are definitely a breed unto themselves. Where does it stop? Where do the kilometers stop?

00:28:09Mak Sawa: I mean, it's never-ending. You can reach higher and further goals. So there are events like 24-hour events and 48-hour events that you can continue to try and run further. So it's as far as your body can take you.

00:28:34Scott Trickett: I get the long-distance stuff, but the not-sleeping stuff... I think that's part of the challenge. How did you go with that?

00:28:41Mak Sawa: Sure. Yeah. I mean, definitely fatigue is one of the big factors in this. You know, when you do 12-hour, 24-hour, 48-hour events, and, you know, it's a timed event. So if you want to, if you feel the need, you can stop. You can run for 12 hours, sleep for two hours, and then get back going again for the remainder. Yeah. Obviously, if you stop, then you won't get the amount of distance. So it's just a matter of trying to stay on your feet, trying to keep moving. There's a lot of Coca-Cola being drank, a lot of food, a lot of sugary food. To keep you awake as well.

00:29:30Scott Trickett: So I was pretty lucky I had some mates come down during the night and they ran a few laps with me So, you know that helped to to keep me awake and keep me focused And let's turn our attention to Lillydale Lake parkrun where you're the event director Lillydale Lakes two laps around the lake You haven't ever thought about doing an endurance event around the lake.

00:29:52Mak Sawa: Have you? No Not at this stage

00:29:59Scott Trickett: So describe Lillydale Lake for us. What's the vibe there?

00:30:03Mak Sawa: Sure. So it's a nice man-made lake. It's two and a half kilometres in distance for one lap, so it makes it easier for us, two laps. And lately we've had some construction going on on part of the course, so we've had to alter it a little bit, but they're just about to finish the construction on that. So, yeah, it's nice, leafy. There's a playground. There's, you know, plenty of scenery, a lot of rabbits, you know, on a cold summer, cold morning. So, yeah, and we're getting consistently 170 to 180 people per week, which is great. We had 205 on the weekend. So we're pushing up around that 200 mark, which is still manageable, you know, too much more and we'd have to start putting on more volunteers. But, yeah, it's a great community, great vibe. We get a lot of good feedback from adventurers saying they love our course and how friendly all of our runners are. So, yeah, it's great.

00:31:15Melissa Erbacher: Mac, it sounds like you've been into this running caper for a little while. So obviously you were doing the much longer distances before parkrun came along for you. Would that be a correct assumption?

00:31:29Mak Sawa: Yeah, that's right.

00:31:31Melissa Erbacher: So what attracted you to parkrun in the first place then?

00:31:35Mak Sawa: Well, I came across it by accident. I used to run laps down at the lake while my wife... did a PT session down there every Saturday morning so I'd go along and I'd just run laps while she had her one hour session and then one day I just saw her sign up saying parkrun starting here so I went along to the launch and I in the past I had basically done all of my training on my own I saw this as something that I can incorporate into my training as a social run, meet some new people, meet some like-minded individuals. And, yeah, so that's how it started. And I find I use parkrun a lot of the time as almost like a speed session, a quick 5K run just to see where I'm at in my training. And, yeah, so that's been really good for that.

00:32:29Scott Trickett: And, Mac, you've wanted to turn running into a career.

00:32:33Mak Sawa: That's correct, yeah. About 18 months ago, I quit my job with 13 years working at a desk job and went and did a personal trainer course. And I've also done Level 1 and Level 2 in the Athletics Australia run coaching courses. So I'm in the process now of trying to get a run coaching business up and going.

00:33:00Scott Trickett: And what inspired you to do that? Did parkrun have any links?

00:33:05Mak Sawa: Yeah, for sure. You know, I love watching everyone's progress at parkrun. And I just want to go, you know, I have such a passion for running. I want to share that with as many people as I can and help people, you know, improve and reach their goals. branch out you know have their 5k parkrun but try and reach for you know their first 10k event or half marathon and yeah help them towards that process.

00:33:32Melissa Erbacher: So it's aimed at pretty much anyone irrespective of the level they're starting at?

00:33:38Mak Sawa: Definitely yep you know I'm still yet to work out the details but things like couch to 5k and you know getting people from you know, being able to run, you know, the full parkrun and then reaching for goals beyond that.

00:33:55Scott Trickett: Now you've got the anniversary coming up in a couple of weeks down at Lilydale. What is that, three years? You've been around for three years now?

00:34:02Mak Sawa: Yeah, so it'll be our third anniversary, so looking forward to that one.

00:34:06Scott Trickett: What have you got planned? Have we got a theme this year?

00:34:08Mak Sawa: We do. We threw a few ideas around, but we came up with being the third... We've gone with the third letter of the alphabet, which is C for those people who don't know. We're hoping to see a lot of people dressed up and make an effort and hopefully break our attendance record, which was for our second anniversary of 258 people. So hopefully we can get close to that 300 mark.

00:34:34Scott Trickett: Well, good luck. Now, you weren't the founding event director. No. Our board member, Matt Fullerton, was, and I just wanted to say that so he could hear his name on the podcast. But thank you very much, Matt. Yeah, I'll be happy to. Yeah, he will. Do the groupies still show up? Do Matt's groupies still show up down at Lillydale?

00:34:54Mak Sawa: Yeah, yeah, occasionally. When the weather's nice. Okay.

00:34:57Scott Trickett: They're fair-weather groupies. Yeah, they are. But we've got Mac. Mac, thanks for joining the parkrun Adventurers this week, and have fun in a couple of weeks at your anniversary.

00:35:08Mak Sawa: All right. Thanks, Scott. Thanks, Mel.

00:35:09[music]

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

00:35:28Scott Trickett: It's Easter this weekend, which means two things, Mel. It means people are on holidays, so they're out adventuring. But it also means that there's lots of chocolate around, which means you have to work that chocolate off somehow. Which means you have no excuse not to get to a parkrun this weekend, where there's a good chance there might be more chocolate to consume at said parkrun. Because lots of events we'll be doing. Easter themed runs. Maybe... They will. Maybe Cottesloe and Mackay, who are having their anniversary this weekend, have worked Easter into their theme. Who knows? We hope Mackay is up and going again this weekend.

00:36:15Melissa Erbacher: They were a little bit wet last weekend, weren't they?

00:36:17Scott Trickett: Yeah. But on that, good to see Hamilton Island and Airlie Beach were back up and running last weekend.

00:36:24Melissa Erbacher: It was, and hopefully it won't be too much longer until the other Cyclone Debbie, etc. affected events actually get cleaned up and running again, which includes Lismore, who are having their third crack at trying to celebrate their first anniversary. Good luck, Lismore. We hope you get to celebrate this weekend.

00:36:49Scott Trickett: We have no launches. There were good reports coming out of George Town last week for Tasmania's fourth event.

00:36:58Melissa Erbacher: Everyone's very excited. And well, they should be. There's a lot of statesmen who lost their title on the weekend. And there are a lot of people who are international statesmen, as in they're statesmen in Tasmania, but it is not their local area. And so there will be some over the straight trips so people can get their statesmanship back. I think a lot of people will be chasing that a lot in Tassie this year.

Statesmen update

Social Adventurers

00:37:29Scott Trickett: I didn't see any photos on Instagram from the George Town launch, but I did see some photos, some cracking ones. I know Robbo was out freedom running at Barrel on his way to Canberra to run another marathon with his top off. I saw Achilles were out and about. It's a trend. Yeah. The Achilles group were out and about at Mossman on the weekend. So we want to see on Instagram this week, we want to see the parkrun adventurers hashtag go nuts for your Easter and adventuring parkruns on Saturday.

00:38:06Melissa Erbacher: Yes. School holidays, great time to adventure and drag the kids someplace else that they're not usually running. get them some adventure marks up on the tourism board and absolutely with the Instagram especially you know we we have had some great ones lately and yes as adventurers ourselves we've been rather remiss to post on Instagram but we do like a lot of Instagram posts that other people do and we do follow what other people are doing so We'll try to post more frequently ourselves as well.

00:38:43Scott Trickett: Mark from Darwin.

00:38:50Melissa Erbacher: We did post this week.

00:38:52Scott Trickett: Okay, that's it for us, Mel. Short and sharp this week.

00:38:56Melissa Erbacher: Yes, a nice sweet one. One thing I didn't mention earlier is that in my trip and all the excitement of going to Melbourne... My cello streak got broken because I didn't travel with my cello and I did not have time to chase down cello stores to play under a ruse. So streak is broken, but a new one has to start. And that may as well be today.

00:39:24Scott Trickett: Okay. You go off. Do your fiddling. And I'll want to report next weekend and hope there's seven more nights of fiddling to report on.

00:39:39Melissa Erbacher: I'm sure I can manage that. Have a good week, Scotty.

00:39:42Scott Trickett: Thanks, Mel. You too.