Episode 71

Episode details · 279 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:09Scott Trickett: And we're back for episode 71 of the parkrun Adventurers podcast. Well, when I say we're back, I'm back. I know that will excite and disappoint many of our listeners that it's just me this week. And I knew it would probably disappoint more than it would excite. So I thought I'd bring in a guest, a guest co-host. So welcome. Welcome to the podcast, Renee Gimbert.

00:00:38Renee Gimbert: Hello, and thanks for having me.

00:00:40Scott Trickett: Renee, this is the first time I've done it without Mel.

00:00:44Renee Gimbert: I know, and I'm actually nervous. I've got big shoes to live up to, big expectations, so wish me luck.

00:00:52Scott Trickett: Yep. Well, this was Mel's fear, and I'm going to put it on the podcast, that she was always scared that when she wasn't here one week, someone would come in and be so fantastic that Mel would never come back.

00:01:04Renee Gimbert: Right. Well... Here's to living out your fears.

00:01:08Scott Trickett: Now, do you know where she is? Because, you know, it's a bit awkward.

00:01:15Renee Gimbert: I do. I do. Yes, I do. And I'm really bummed.

00:01:19Scott Trickett: Because?

00:01:20Renee Gimbert: Timing.

00:01:22Scott Trickett: Oh. For her?

00:01:25Renee Gimbert: For me.

00:01:25Scott Trickett: Oh.

00:01:25Renee Gimbert: I'm bummed for me. No, but I definitely know where she is. Shall we share it with everyone?

00:01:32Scott Trickett: Yeah. So if you haven't guessed already, Mel's quit.

00:01:38Renee Gimbert: And I am the better co-host to take her place.

00:01:42Scott Trickett: Yeah. Well, that's not true because Mel did have her little baby. We've got a new adventurer in the team.

00:01:50Renee Gimbert: We do. A tiny little adventurer. Wesley. A little Wesley Fraser Erbacher.

00:01:58Scott Trickett: We're very excited. I hope all our listeners are very excited for Mel and Adam. We send our best. But I'll peel back the curtain a little bit for you, Renee, and listeners. For the past few months, Mel has been really excited about quitting work. And she had this wonderful grace period of two weeks, I think it was, where she'd finished work and then when the due date was. She had all these plans. She was going to do all these wonderful things, some of them for the podcast, I hoped. And the baby came the day she finished work.

00:02:31Renee Gimbert: Well, not quite.

00:02:32Scott Trickett: Not quite. Well, the day after.

00:02:33Renee Gimbert: Not quite. She finished work on a Friday. And this is what I think is in true Mel style is Wesley came on parkrun day. He really is a little parkrun adventurer.

00:02:48Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:02:49Renee Gimbert: It's great. So why I'm disappointed is because I can't get there to see him. Timing, when he was due, was an ideal time for me to visit. And now I'm not going to see him until his, well, his due date.

00:03:07Scott Trickett: Oh. Not all things can work out. And the reason why the timing's really bad is because, and we're going to have a theme for this week's episode, you're going to Cairns on the weekend to do an Ironman or a half Ironman. A half. We call them half Ironmans? Ironmans?

00:03:26Renee Gimbert: Well, technically it's called a 70.3, but it is. The old name is a half Ironman. Okay.

00:03:34Scott Trickett: So the 70.3 refers to all the accumulated distances? Yes.

00:03:39Renee Gimbert: Correct. There you go.

00:03:42Scott Trickett: And why the number and not the half? Because did they think the half was demeaning in some way?

00:03:49Renee Gimbert: No idea, to be honest. No idea.

00:03:53Scott Trickett: Because 70.3, to those not in the tri-world, is a bit vague, I reckon. Right.

00:04:00Renee Gimbert: Well, that's probably why you need to be in the tri-world.

00:04:04Scott Trickett: Well, after this week... After this episode, I'm going to be fully immersed in the tri world.

00:04:12Helen Hood: How's that?

00:04:12Scott Trickett: Well, because we're catching up with one of our competitors later on in the podcast, and I'm talking to you, and you're going to educate me on all things triathlon.

00:04:23Renee Gimbert: Right. Okay. And do you think that we can convert you?

00:04:29Scott Trickett: I've already been there, but I've threatened to go back a few times.

00:04:35Renee Gimbert: Yep. But the bike.

00:04:37Scott Trickett: Let's deal with the bike. Okay. So every discipline, you've either got a love-hate relationship, I'm guessing.

00:04:45Renee Gimbert: Mm-hmm.

00:04:46Scott Trickett: Which is your favorite? Or which is your least favorite? Give me your least favorite to start with.

00:04:53Renee Gimbert: This is going to sound terrible because let's say it's my worst. Strangely enough, it's running. Right. Yeah. And what do you do for a job, Renee? I know. That's why it's terrible, running. And I suppose it's purely based on injuries that I've had and therefore I have more struggles running than any of the other disciplines. But I still do love running, don't get me wrong.

00:05:27Scott Trickett: Well, for me it was always the bike. Hated it, hated training for it. it hurt okay it all hurts yeah it all hurts but for some reason the bike hurt me more than others it went on the longest and yeah i just didn't enjoy it so if they ever i think they do but is it an aquathon if they ever do a swim run is that what it's called yes yeah if they were swim run yeah if they were big and more popular i think i might have a crack at one of those but

00:06:00Renee Gimbert: But not the bike. Well, you have to have a good relationship with your bike. So did you have a name for your bike? I didn't.

00:06:07Scott Trickett: No.

00:06:08Renee Gimbert: Well, there's your problem. Okay.

00:06:10Scott Trickett: Should I be taking notes? I think I'm going to be taking notes.

00:06:12Unidentified speaker: You should. Number one, name your bike.

00:06:14Renee Gimbert: And then you need to go and get a bike and you need to name it. Right.

00:06:19Scott Trickett: Yes. Okay. They're very expensive, two bikes. Have you paid an exorbitant amount of money?

00:06:25Renee Gimbert: No. You know what? Yes.

00:06:28Scott Trickett: Yes, okay.

00:06:30Renee Gimbert: But someone said to me one day, which is rightly so, that my bike's not worth – if someone was going to put it this way, someone's going to steal a bike in transition, it won't be my bike.

00:06:44Scott Trickett: Okay.

00:06:45Renee Gimbert: So, you know, that's a fair point. But, yes, I thought actually the bike was the expensive part. It's not. That's the cheap part. It's everything else that goes along with the bike that all adds up.

00:07:00Scott Trickett: Please explain.

00:07:02Renee Gimbert: Oh, well, you know, you need to have, like, you know, matching shoes and a matching helmet.

00:07:08Scott Trickett: Oh, okay. The bike accessories.

00:07:10Renee Gimbert: The bike accessories. But then, you know, you need bottle cages. Your bike never comes with the right amount. Then you need, you know, tri-bars or... You need new water bottles, all sorts of things. But then you've got your gear, you know, your clothing, your bib, your jerseys. They're not cheap. It all adds up.

00:07:32Scott Trickett: And the swim? You've got the swim cover, though.

00:07:34Renee Gimbert: Yeah, I don't mind the swim. I'm a very slow swimmer, but I don't care. I call it consistent. I'm a consistent swimmer. And swimming is actually one thing that I don't mind plodding along.

00:07:46Scott Trickett: So you're heading to Cairns. The other question is why? Is this going to be your first?

00:07:53Renee Gimbert: This is going to be my first 70.3. Yeah. And it could very well be my last. Time will tell. To me, it's a similar reason. I had this conversation this afternoon with my physio. It's a similar – oh, actually, there's another expense that goes with on top of the bike. um, your physio when you become injured. But so we had this conversation about why, why I was doing it. And it's exactly the same reason I ran my first marathon, which was back in 2013, I think, um, in Paris, expensive. Um, but it's, it seems so unachievable, which is what made me want to do it. You I then went on to run further distances. And then this, this realization came that actually I could run a marathon and that's what made me want to do it. And I was determined because it seemed unachievable. It seemed like such a massive accomplishment for me to do. It's exactly the same with the 70.3 is, you know, I'm a, I'm not a great swimmer, I'm not a great rider, and I'm not a great runner. So why not add them all together and try and do them all at the one time in the one day? That is a goal. You know, that's the reason I want to do it.

00:09:17Scott Trickett: I wish you all the best. I think we're going to have to check in with you again next week and find out.

00:09:22Renee Gimbert: Yes. Yes, you will. And get an update. Okay. Sounds good.

Roving Adventurers (roving reporter crossovers)

00:09:27Scott Trickett: More roving reports, and we love them. And we've got a roving reporter on debut, Ricci McGreevy, adventured to Ballarat, where, well, I know it's her home parkrun, but she was there for their anniversary, and she got some reports for us. Take it away, Rikki.

00:09:45Ricci McGreevy: Hi, this is Ricci McGreevy. I'm an RD at Ballarat parkrun and I'm here with Lou Bray, who's our Territory Director. It's Ballarat's second year anniversary where the theme is gold. Hi Lou, how are you? Yeah good Ricky, how are you? So your home parkrun is Bendigo. Yes, Bendigo. And there's a bit of a rivalry between Ballarat and Bendigo that probably dates back to the gold rush era. Yes, there is. What do you think of Ballarat so far? It's cold. Yeah. It's very cold. So you're remaining very diplomatic in your answer then, not saying which is better out of... Well, I don't know, but, you know, we did have a gold theme last year and you guys are pulling it up this year, so I know.

00:10:29Jo: Lead by example and all that.

00:10:32Ricci McGreevy: OK, thanks, Bray. Lou, enjoy the morning. Thanks, Ricky. All right, I'm here with one of the event directors... Bruce, how many participants do you reckon there were today? Can you have a guess?

00:10:46Bruce: Look, I'm going to say we had 130, and I'm going to say that for one good reason, because we get an average of 130 every week here at Ballarat, and it's either plus 5 or minus 5, so I'm going to say 130, Rikki.

00:10:56Ricci McGreevy: Okay, I'm going 131. Yeah, right.

00:11:03Bruce: You know, it's been amazing over the two years that we've been running this event. We started off with big numbers, and of course, like every parkrun, we've dropped away a bit. Yep. Our average in the first year was about 75 over the 12 months, and in the past 12 months, it's just simply been 130, 130, 130. Yeah, that's great. It's fabulous to see the growth. And all parkruns seem to be the same, so...

00:11:22Ricci McGreevy: Yeah. What's the record?

00:11:24Bruce: 199, which happened on our 100th event, which was seven weeks ago when we turned 100.

00:11:29Ricci McGreevy: Yeah, fantastic. So I like your outfit today. I just have to describe it. It's a gold vest.

00:11:36Tash Fraser: Yes.

00:11:37Ricci McGreevy: And a gold jester's hat. Shake your bells for us. Thanks for chatting today.

00:11:45Bruce: Thank you. Speaking of bells.

00:11:47Ricci McGreevy: Okay, so now I'm here with Tash Fraser. She's just recently won the 60K event at Great Ocean Road. How are you, Tash?

00:11:54Tash Fraser: Oh, fantastic. Now I'm getting some speed back in the legs anyway.

00:11:58Ricci McGreevy: Good. What do you, I mean, obviously you do a lot of training that would require long distances. What do you like about parkrun or what's the appeal for you?

00:12:07Tash Fraser: I love that it's for all fitness abilities, no matter if you walk or run it. It unites everybody. It's that special distance. It can be a challenge. It can be your speed work. It can be your recovery day. Yep. Or it can be your gentle walk. It's very inclusive.

00:12:23Ricci McGreevy: Yep.

00:12:24Tash Fraser: And I love that about it. It gets the community out and gets us all moving and interacting outdoors.

00:12:29Ricci McGreevy: And it gets us dressed up in ridiculous gold outfits. God, yes. All I could find was socks. You've done well.

00:12:36Tash Fraser: Well, thanks for chatting. Good luck with your training. Thank you very much. So, yeah. It was a bit more relaxed.

00:12:41Ricci McGreevy: Okay, now I'm here chatting to Sharon, Sharon and Jane, and I've just got to describe some of the outfits here. Just think Kylie's hot pants. Need I say any more? I'll start with you, Jane.

00:12:55Unidentified speaker: What do you love about parkrun? The community. It's a really wonderful community. Everybody's really supportive. It gives you a reason to get up on a Saturday morning, even when it's really cold, because you know that you've got people that you meet every week and If you don't turn up, then the next week they're like, hmm, where were you? So, yeah, no, it's just a pretty amazing supportive community is what I get from it. And how did you go today? Oh, I think I did a PB for a long time. Oh, well done. Yeah, so I pushed real hard, not looking at my watch anymore, so I'm just going by feel.

00:13:25Ricci McGreevy: Okay, yeah, good plan. And Sharon and Sharon, you're always partners in crime, I feel. How'd you go today?

00:13:33Sharon: Yeah, pretty good. I'm seconds off my PB, so really happy about that.

00:13:39Ricci McGreevy: Yep, and what do you love about parkrun?

00:13:41Sharon: I think the older you get, the more motivated you are, and this motivates me every Saturday morning.

00:13:46Ricci McGreevy: Yep, yeah, good one. Yep. And the other Sharon, how'd you go today? Yeah, I was quite happy. It's a bit cold, but good. Yeah, a bit fresh today. Not as bad as what they were predicting, though. No, they were going to say negative three, but I think it was like one or something.

00:14:01Tash Fraser: Yeah, warm. And have you done any parkrun touristing before? Yes, I've been in Ballarat, Bendigo, and that was good.

00:14:10Ricci McGreevy: And what do you think? Is Ballarat the best parkrun? Of course it is. Of course. Thank you ladies. You're welcome. Thank you. Okay, I'm here now with John Goodwin who is another event director here at Ballarat and he was part of the team who set up parkrun here. How do you feel about seeing the two year anniversary?

00:14:32John Goodwin: Ricky, it's been an amazing two years really and if we look back at where we started with an average of maybe only 60 or 70 runners each week and then over the two years we've now grown to where we've now had our peak at 200 and regularly 140 or more runners here. It's absolutely fantastic and in particular we've now got babies in prams right through to people who are in their 70s, approaching 80s I think in some cases here. getting up each Saturday, putting on their gear, coming down and putting in 5k and it's good fun and had a lot of fun along the way in the two years. Hopefully we'll have another good couple of years ahead of us.

00:15:09Ricci McGreevy: Indeed. And it was a fun day today. And can you please just describe for us your costume?

00:15:16John Goodwin: Yes, I managed to escape any photos, I think, for evidence. There's still time. I had a nice gold grass skirt and then a beautiful princess from Frozen wig, which just made me look fantastic.

00:15:29Ricci McGreevy: And you did. You looked very beautiful. Thank you, John.

00:15:31John Goodwin: Thank you, Ricci.

00:15:32Ricci McGreevy: Okay, well, that's everything from Ballarat parkrun. We've had a great day. We saw some great gold costumes. Everyone was in good spirits and everyone's off to coffee now. So we'll catch you later. Bye. Bye.

00:15:54Scott Trickett: So we like to talk a lot about running on this podcast, but every now and then we like to speak to people who do running plus extras. And with the Cairns Ironman coming up this week and with Renee on the program, I thought let's chat to one of the elites in this country. So welcome to the podcast, Clayton Fettell.

00:16:13Clayton Fettell: Thank you. Good to be here.

00:16:15Scott Trickett: Now, Clayton, you recently had a lot of success at Ironman Australia. You finished third. How did that event unfold for you? Were you happy with third?

00:16:25Clayton Fettell: Yeah, I was happy with the performance. I finished third the previous year, but unlike last year, everything didn't quite go as smoothly as the previous year. I had a few mechanical issues out on the bike, and I had two chances to change off twice, and broken aero bar so the last 35 kilometers of holding one of my aero bars and just kind of nursing at home back to t2 transition and and get ready for the run so i still had the quickest bike so to be able to do to do that with with what happened to me out on the course i was i was happy to get through that but onto the run i actually started really well the first five six k's and then had a bit of a hurdle with my stomach, had a bit of a nutrition problem where I had some cramping in my gut and actually stood on the side of the road contemplating even finishing in the race. I was kind of walking backwards and forth for a couple of minutes thinking, I'm done, my guts are no good and I started taking, I thought, you know what, I can walk. So I started walking and I walked for about a minute and I thought, I could probably start jogging. I started jogging and And, you know, within a few minutes I was back in the race. I was still leading by a small margin. But I had to get through that really dark patch and I ended up running quite a marathon and hang on for third.

00:17:53Renee Gimbert: So for me, I'm actually at the other end of the scale where I'm one of the slower people. So for me to hear, you know, that you stop and walk and then you still podium, that's is amazing. I love that. But my question is, um, you, you said you had stomach issues. Is that, is that, do you think based on you've done, you've used different nutrition or do you use the same nutrition regardless for all your races?

00:18:24Clayton Fettell: Um, yeah, I mean, getting back to the, um, the pain of Ironman, I think it's all, it's the speed relative, the pain relative to the, to every, everyone's got their, their same story.

00:18:36Gavin Mathieson: Um, As far as nutrition is concerned, I think it's just the nature of the beast.

00:18:42Clayton Fettell: I mean, I do have quite a sensitive gut and I have to try and keep my nutrition really simple. And for me, that's, you know, I've probably learned a million different things. I've tried different diets, different salt concentrations, different carbohydrate contents versus protein. And for me, what works is three gels per hour on the bike. So we ride for four to four and a half hours. And it's, what, 15 gels out on the bike or more, up to 18, you know, if it's a hilly, slower course. So for me, I just stick to shots nutrition. It's simple. It's digestible for me. But I do think that, you know, everyone has a different nutrition plan and that can only be discovered in training. You have to train at race pace and you have to trial different nutrition to find what works for your body.

00:19:34Scott Trickett: And that's one of the fascinating things about Ironman because it's such a long and intense event. You can't really prepare for the race day. Or can you?

00:19:43Clayton Fettell: No, not really. I think what I like to do is I like to try and find a few races leading into the event. You know, because you can't. I mean, if you can, you're going to go a long way in the sport. But I personally find it really hard to go to the same level in training. I think I have to have a race to get that peak fitness hit out.

00:20:04Scott Trickett: Is that why I looked at your calendar? You do a lot of races throughout the year. You're racing Cairns again this weekend. Is that the philosophy there?

00:20:13Clayton Fettell: Yes. I had three big races of the season. I find that I can peak usually twice a year, three times if I'm lucky. I'll sit down at the start of the year and go, I want to be the big goals away, so October. I want to be good in October, which is the Ironman World Championships. And for us as elites, we have to qualify. So I picked two Ironmans. I want to perform well. So for me, that's Ironman Australia and Canada. So I want to be good in June. You've got to work around those picks. So you've got leading periods where you do hit-out races, heavy training blocks. And then on the other side of the races, you need to throw in taper periods as well on the front end of those races. So it's a bit of a jigsaw, but... Yeah, I'm starting to figure it out after 13 years racing professionally.

00:21:06Renee Gimbert: What made you get into triathlon? How did you start?

00:21:11Clayton Fettell: So my parents managed, they still manage a swimming pool. I grew up in Alstonville, a small town on the New South Wales north coast, and I live 15 minutes down the road from there now. So I actually grew up across the road from the swimming pool, hence my swimming being my best discipline.

00:21:29Gavin Mathieson: So I always wanted to be a water polo player.

00:21:32Clayton Fettell: I had a bit of an eye issue in year 12 when I was about 17, 18 and I prevented me from playing complex. I always dabbled in triathlon. I did my first triathlon when I was nine, the Atlantic Head triathlon and I loved it. I did it on a mountain bike and then, you know, from there I went to a hybrid bike and I got a little bit faster and then I begged for a a road bike when I was about 14. And, you know, Dad took me riding and I think he ended up getting a little bit fitter from my hobby. And, yeah, one thing led to the next. And triathlon and water polo have both gone really well. I thought, you know, I'm going to have to pick a sport here. And the eye issue kind of forced triathlon on me. I didn't have the choice. I only had... Triathlon is my only option, so... You obviously do a lot of training.

00:22:19Scott Trickett: What does your weekly workload look like? Like a sample, like a standard weekly training load? What sort of Ks are you doing on the bike and on the road?

00:22:29Clayton Fettell: Yeah, so I try and work off hours. When I was a little bit younger, I used to do big, big hours. I'd do, you know, north of 40 hours a week. Because it is, it is a full-time job. It's nine to five, if you like, in 40-hour weeks. Now I'm getting a little bit older and a little bit more specific with my training, a little bit smarter. I do probably anywhere from 26 to 35 hours per week. And then I have the recovery period, which are nice. After a race, I'll do an 8-hour, 10-hour week and just keep the body moving through so I don't completely shut down before I go into my next workload. But as far as volumes are concerned... Swim anywhere from 15 to 30km a week. Bike can be anywhere from 4, 6, 7, I've done 8, I've done 1,000km a week. But standard week would be about 5, 600km and then the run ranges from about 70 to 90km. And then again, if I have big run blocks, I'll push it north of 100km.

00:23:36Renee Gimbert: I'm in awe of the amount that you train. I am too. I'm training for Cairns myself, but certainly not doing those hours. So as I said before, I'm sort of at a different end of the spectrum to where you are. Looking at your Port Mac time for the full marathon, sorry, the full Ironman, I'm hoping to do somewhere in the vicinity, you know, like an hour quicker than that for a half Ironman. So that gives you some context into what I'm doing. I just want to sort of finish before the cut-off. So what sort of advice have you got for people coming into the sport or first-time people, you know, first-timers competing in, you know, longer distances? I'm going from, you know, an Olympic distance up to 70.3. What sort of advice have you got?

00:24:31Clayton Fettell: The best piece of advice I can say to people doing this kind of race is stick to your plan. It's... You know, it's an individual journey. And even from my perspective in my race, it's my own journey. I can't focus on what the other guys are doing around me because I can't control that. I find once I start worrying about what, you know, the guy next to me is doing, that's when my race, yeah, it ends up going quite bad. So for people doing their first race, don't have an expectation. You have to eliminate the expectation and enjoy the past. So it might just be finishing. It might be making the start line. I find, you know, I might coach a few anxious athletes that decide they want to pull out race week and I take the race out of the equation. I say, hey, let's just turn up at the race site. And I get them to the race site. Let's turn up at the start line. So I get them to the start line. And then I guarantee once that gun goes, they're fine. So sometimes you just have to lessen the expectation and just go with the flow a little bit.

00:25:32Renee Gimbert: Excellent. I'm... both nervous and excited at the same time. And I'm sure that that still happens for pros like yourself as well. Do you find that you get to the start line and you're both excited and nervous at the same time?

00:25:48Clayton Fettell: Yeah, it's funny that question because I go through, you know, bouts of anxiety leading into events and it's usually a fortnight before. You know, I start questioning if I've done the work and, And the reality of it is for us as professionals is it's, for me, it's how I pay them all. It's how we put food on the table. So there's a lot riding on the event. And it's tough, you know, but you have to, it's just reassurance. You have to look back at the training you've done. And with training, it's, you know, it's completion equals confidence. So you have to do your training. You have to trust your coach, trust your journey. And yeah, of course, you're going to be nervous, but I mean, at the end of the day, it's also a nice feeling. Nerves and excitement, you know, they fringe a very fine line of being the same thing.

00:26:41Renee Gimbert: So you say that you do it, you know, you've got to pay the bills. That's how it works as a professional. But do you still love it? You don't find it a chore? You still do it because you want to?

00:26:53Clayton Fettell: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if I wanted to be a businessman, I certainly wouldn't have chosen triathlon. I love the sport. It's... I get by from triathlon. It's not a sport where you make a lot. It's not golf. It's not tennis. I love it. It's especially long course. I think you get something different from every single event. And unlike a lot of professional sports, we get to compete on the same stage as age groupers. So, you know, to see, I mean, it can be frustrating, but at the same time, at the end of the day, I love it. And the journey is exactly the same for me and the guy that goes 17 hours. It's no different. It's hard. It's the same stuff, you know. Wake up early. What do I eat? Did I get enough sleep last night? What time does my wave go? What color cap? What way does the chip go? It's exactly the same and the pain's the same. So to share it, it's a nice experience. And, you know, I love that more so than the racing itself.

00:27:54Scott Trickett: Awesome. Clayton, we wish you all the best for Cairns this weekend. But before we let you go, parkrun has moved into your neighbourhood. Ballina Coast launched a couple of weeks ago. I hope you're going to go and check it out.

00:28:08Clayton Fettell: Mate, I think we are. My wife's putting the hard word on me. We've actually got a baby boy now. He's eight months old and I think he's ready to graduate to the running pram. So I think we might pop down there one morning.

00:28:22Scott Trickett: We're pram friendly. I just wonder, is 5k too short?

00:28:28Clayton Fettell: Mate, my wife's actually a good runner. I did a half marathon with her last weekend and she's a bit of a diesel. I am also a diesel, but I back myself against her over a short distance. I'm quite happy about it.

00:28:40Scott Trickett: Well, we look forward to seeing you at Ballina Coast in the next few weeks. And thanks for coming on the parkrun Adventurers and sharing a bit of insight into the triathlon world in Australia.

00:28:52Clayton Fettell: Thanks for having me, guys. Good luck in Cairns. Thank you for that.

Meet the ED

00:29:01Scott Trickett: Okay, we've got a real Queensland theme to the podcast this week, and we're adventuring over to Coomera parkrun, one of the very first events to launch here in Australia. And welcome to the podcast, Gavin Mathieson, the ED at Coomera.

00:29:17Gavin Mathieson: Hi. Hi, how are you going?

00:29:19Scott Trickett: I'm great. I'm great, Gavin. What's happening at Coomera at the moment? It's been around for a while. Is it still kicking on strong?

00:29:26Gavin Mathieson: It has. It is. No, it's getting bigger and better each week. And we're approaching rapidly our fifth birthday, which is next month. And so we're starting to, me and my run directors are starting to think about whether we'll do a theme for that. And we've done quite a few themes in the past, so it's Trying to top last year's or the year before's, I think, so it's getting a bit difficult to try and get a new theme.

00:29:52Renee Gimbert: What better than having one Coomera event director on the phone? You've now got two. We've got the founding event director of Coomera.

00:30:04Scott Trickett: He was quick to come in with the X there, wasn't he?

00:30:07Renee Gimbert: Yeah, he was. I think he loves getting rid of me, but he can't get rid of me that easily. Gavin, what made you get involved in Cooma parkrun?

00:30:19Gavin Mathieson: Look, to be honest, parkrun I got involved in at the start with Main Beach. I ran there a few times. I knew a friend that ran there. Unfortunately, I got introduced to a couple of people there that were starting up a new parkrun. And at that time, I actually had a little bit of an incident where I'd run my first marathon and had a heart attack. So I wasn't running for a few weeks. So my wife and I headed along to a new parkrun at Coomera, and I volunteered on the very first week. And then the very bossy event directors there kind of got me hooked, and I kind of volunteered week after week, and probably about week three or four, I think it was, we had a discussion about whether they needed a new run director, and I put my hand up, and I was locked in from there in.

00:31:05Renee Gimbert: Gavin, we've got different recollections of the story, I think. LAUGHTER Anyway, anyway.

00:31:09[laughter]

00:31:14Scott Trickett: Can I go back? Did you say you had a heart attack, Gavin?

00:31:18Gavin Mathieson: I did. I did. I was very, like, I trained a lot for the marathon. And probably about a month before the marathon, being the great uncle that I am, I looked after my three nephews, one of which was very sick with the flu, which I very quickly developed. And it probably took about three weeks to think that I got over it. But during the marathon, I was obviously a lot sicker than I thought. And, yeah, I had a little bit of a turn at about 32 kilometres. But I pushed through and finished it and went straight through the finishing line into an ambulance, sirens blaring, everything back over to the hospital. But everything was good. After a night in the hospital and cardiac wards and probably about two months, I think it was, doing not much at all, I was up and running again.

00:32:05Renee Gimbert: What advice would you have for anyone who, that experiences chest pain whilst running?

00:32:13Gavin Mathieson: I would say make sure you get lots of high fives, but keep pushing to the end and then see medical attention.

00:32:22Renee Gimbert: And, right, so that might be running a marathon. Gavin, if something like that happened at parkrun, I hope you would have a different response.

00:32:30Gavin Mathieson: Yes, especially since all of our Gold Coast parkruns have these fibs. And it's something that all event directors and run directors are trained in. So seek help from one of them immediately.

00:32:42Renee Gimbert: What sort of numbers do you get these days at Coomera?

00:32:45Gavin Mathieson: We're kind of around about that 110 to sometimes as much as 130, 140, which is a really good number for us, especially since we've got a few narrow points and bridges, which the ex-event director was always trying to get me to build a new bridge, but I'm not that skilled. And so those numbers are good. And it's great because we're a double loop. So those numbers are good because we always see each other in high five. I'm a great believer of the high five. So, yeah, it's good to see the kids running and doing those loops.

00:33:16Scott Trickett: So you've got a good family atmosphere there. I know you've got two young children yourself.

00:33:20Gavin Mathieson: I do, I do. No, we do. The area's probably about five, seven years old. So it's a lot of new housing around that area. So it's a lot of people that moved in with families. So we've got lots of kids. We've got lots of parents, and it's interesting to see some of the kids grow up as well. The other day we were looking through some older pictures, and you see kids that have grown two or three foot over the five years, and it's amazing to see how far they've grown and how fast they're getting as well, which is a bit scary, especially for us people approaching the 40s that are getting no faster and still trying to chase after that PB that's maybe two, three, four years old. But, you know, it's great to see the kids get on and really enjoy it.

00:34:06Scott Trickett: I mentioned in the intro that you've been around for a while now. Have you still got people coming from like the early days, the first few weeks?

00:34:15Gavin Mathieson: Oh, we've still got people that ran week one. There's probably a handful of them that are still there. And like I said, they brought along the kids that were in strollers and now the kids are five, six, seven years old. that are running themselves. That really, really makes me proud that we can see that the families are involved and that the kids want to do it. They're not the ones that are dragged along crying anymore. They're actually out there dragging mum and dad along.

00:34:44Renee Gimbert: So it's a great community event and I totally agree. I helped build it. But what I want to know is do you get many tourists, many parkrun adventurers coming to visit?

00:34:56Gavin Mathieson: We do. Recently, we've had quite a few people from England. There seems to be a sort of English community there. So people have come across and visiting relatives. They've been there. We've had a few people from Germany. We've had some people from South Africa recently. And also with a few events on the southern Brisbane end have been flooded out with cyclone Debbie. So a lot of them have been coming down to us because we're kind of the next closest south. So a lot of them have come round to us.

00:35:28Renee Gimbert: Anyone coming because you start with the letter C?

00:35:32Gavin Mathieson: We do, actually. Gary Nesbitt, he brought along his grandchildren, I think they were, that had ran the four Cs. So they'd run four events. Oh, no, sorry, seven Cs. So seven events beginning with C. So that happened recently.

00:35:48Scott Trickett: See, I told you, Renee, she didn't believe me. So, Gavin, I was up on the Gold Coast on the weekend, and I had the choice of the entire Gold Coast to go to, and I did mention that maybe we could go to Coomera and sail one of those seas, but we never made it.

00:36:04Gavin Mathieson: You never made it? No. Next time.

00:36:06Scott Trickett: Next time. Well, it's an excuse to come back. Yeah. I'm glad to hear that the Pirate Club is trending, so people are... Have you got your anniversary coming up?

00:36:16Gavin Mathieson: We do. So 22nd of July is our anniversary. So, yeah, like I said earlier, we're trying to think of a theme. In the past we've had superheroes, we've had crazy hair, which is a bit ironic since I don't have a lot of that. Where else have we had, Renee?

00:36:34Renee Gimbert: We did a club. Wear your club colours. Everyone's got club colours.

00:36:39Gavin Mathieson: Yep. And obviously we've done the Halloween themes at Halloween. And Christmas themes, we've got one of our run directors, Mark, who's quite appropriate to dress up as Santa. I'm not commenting on his shape, but we'll just leave that unsaid. So, yeah, Mark always dresses up as Santa and always regrets about probably halfway through the first look that he's dressed in gumboots and crushed red velvet. Especially in December in Queensland, it gets quite hot.

00:37:10Clayton Fettell: But, you know, we do a lot of different things like that when we can.

00:37:14Gavin Mathieson: We did a Hawaiian theme once, Renee. Remember when one of our runners was going to Kona to do the Ironman? We did a Hawaiian theme for her to celebrate her going off.

00:37:26Renee Gimbert: We did, and I love it because we've just been speaking about triathlon. This is brilliant.

00:37:32Gavin Mathieson: I wonder who's doing a triathlon soon.

00:37:36Renee Gimbert: Funny that. Yes.

00:37:39Scott Trickett: The whole theme of this podcast is the Renee Gimbert Hour. So do people still...

00:37:46Gavin Mathieson: I'm sorry, Mel.

00:37:47Renee Gimbert: I love you.

00:37:49Gavin Mathieson: Yeah, having known Renee for six years, the whole six years has been Renee Gimbert Hour.

00:37:53Scott Trickett: Well, that's my next question. So do people still know who she is when she comes back to Coomera?

00:37:59Gavin Mathieson: They do, and she still introduces herself as Renee from parkrun. Okay. LAUGHTER

00:38:02[laughter]

00:38:08Renee Gimbert: What are the options that you've got for your dress-up? What are people, what are the ideas on the table?

00:38:16Gavin Mathieson: Look, we were thinking possibly these rock and roll or music themes. We were thinking of maybe picking a letter. Not sure which letter that would be, but we were thinking of that.

00:38:30Renee Gimbert: W. Picking the letter W. Yeah.

00:38:35Gavin Mathieson: Why W? Yeah.

00:38:36Renee Gimbert: W for Wesley. There you go. I think that's brilliant.

00:38:41Scott Trickett: Gavin's got no idea what you're talking about.

00:38:45Renee Gimbert: Gavin's clueless. So I'm here this week because Mel is with Wesley. Mel's little boy, which we announced earlier on the show, came on parkrun Day. So little Wesley, I think, would be the perfect opportunity to have a Like a Wesley Day for Coomera's fifth birthday.

00:39:09Gavin Mathieson: That sounds awesome. But also parkrun babies are the best babies. My little boy was born on parkrun day. And that particular parkrun day, I was meant to be taking all the flags and tokens down to Barthodee Lakes for their launch day. So at 3 o'clock, I had to send a text message to Renee, very encrypted text message because no one knew that. Seeing everything's at the back, can you please come and pick it up on your way through?

00:39:35Renee Gimbert: So this is what I love about our volunteers, is how committed they are. And Scott and I had talked about this earlier. So Mel, whilst in labour, has been organising parkrun things and even today has been talking to Scott about not being available tonight, which... we knew would be the case. But I love how dedicated our volunteers are that in the middle of, you know, having babies or emergencies, they're thinking about parkrun.

00:40:13Gavin Mathieson: Yes. Or is it just that we're too scared of you and A not to do it?

00:40:19Scott Trickett: I've got no comment on that. I know Mel just loves parkrun. And I'm sure you do too, Gavin. I do.

00:40:25Gavin Mathieson: I do. And talking about loving parkrun, when I was talking to my son just before we put him to bed. And I said, I'm going to get a phone call. We have to hurry up because I'm going to get a phone call just to talk about parkrun. And he said, oh, what are you going to talk about?

00:40:40Clayton Fettell: I said, oh, Rene's going to phone me probably and we're just going to have a chat about what we like about parkrun.

00:40:45Gavin Mathieson: And I said, what should I say? And his things was, well, we go every Saturday, we volunteer, we have fun, and then we go and have breakfast. So that's why he thinks about parkrun.

00:40:58Scott Trickett: He summed it up beautifully.

00:41:00Gavin Mathieson: He does. I love it.

00:41:02Scott Trickett: Gavin, thanks heaps for coming on and sharing some tales from Coomera this week.

00:41:06Gavin Mathieson: Not a problem. Thank you for having me.

Roving Adventurers (roving reporter crossovers)

00:41:17Scott Trickett: Dr Scott, who we heard from a couple of weeks ago, he was in America cracking jokes about With the team over there, well, I don't think he was cracking as many jokes this week, or last week, when he visited Junior parkrun. But he did file us a report, a roving report. Let's see what he found out about Junior parkrun.

00:41:35Scott Watkins: So it's Scott Watkins here reporting in for the parkrun Adventurers once again. And when I last spoke with you, I was in Washington, D.C., Since then, I had a quick trip to India, but have now made it to the UK. And on Saturday, I had the pleasure of scanning my barcode at Bushy parkrun, the first ever parkrun. It was a great experience and it was a beautiful course. I enjoyed a great time. But I thought I couldn't really top PK's report from back there last year. So I decided that here in the UK, what I'd report in on is what I did on Sunday. And that's today. And that's I visited Moormead Junior parkrun. So Junior parkrun is an event here in the UK that takes place on Sundays and it's a parallel series that is specifically for juniors. So this is what I found out about Junior parkrun. So I'm here with Helen Hood who's the head of event delivery for parkrun in the UK. Helen, what's Junior parkrun?

00:42:35Helen Hood: Junior parkrun is basically the younger version of parkrun and it's for age 4 to 14 year olds so they can do it until the day before the 15th birthday. It's a 2K run, walk, jog or volunteer on a Sunday morning always at 9 o'clock and it's incredibly good fun.

00:42:51Scott Watkins: And it looks pretty awesome.

00:42:52Helen Hood: It is, and my favourite thing is to do the warm-up just to get them ready for the morning. And the great thing about it as well, it's all over within about half an hour, so it's not a big chunk of your day. It's a great start to the day, get the kids outside, having a bit of fun, joining in.

00:43:06Scott Watkins: And how slowly did it grow here?

00:43:09Helen Hood: Well it was rebranded as a weekly event I think in November 2015 was it or maybe 2014 and it started quite slowly and I think we're over about 160 events now but I haven't looked this week.

00:43:24Scott Watkins: Wow, that's awesome. Thank you, thanks for talking with us.

00:43:27Helen Hood: It's a pleasure.

00:43:30Scott Watkins: So I'm here with William. William does Junior parkrun every week and what's your favourite thing about Junior parkrun?

00:43:37Unidentified speaker: Doing the sprint at the end.

00:43:39Scott Watkins: And how many junior parkruns have you done?

00:43:41Unidentified speaker: 75.

00:43:44Scott Watkins: 75. Wow. Well done, William. Thanks for talking to the parkrun adventurers. I'm here with Gabriel. Gabriel, how many parkruns have you done?

00:43:56Unidentified speaker: 15.

00:43:56Scott Watkins: 15. And which one's your favourite one so far?

00:44:00Unidentified speaker: Probably this one because I've got an EPB.

00:44:03Scott Watkins: Did you get that today? Yeah. And how fast did you do that today?

00:44:07Unidentified speaker: 9.31.

00:44:09Scott Watkins: Wow, that's very fast. And what's your favourite part about Junior parkrun?

00:44:13Unidentified speaker: Probably because they time you, and I used to do one where they didn't time you, but they just saw how many laps you've done, and I like it because they encourage you, and it helps you break your records.

00:44:31Scott Watkins: And have you made some new friends here?

00:44:33Unidentified speaker: Yes. Why do you need bathroom? I've met old friends and made new friends.

00:44:42Scott Watkins: And you told me before that one of your friends moved to Australia. Did they?

00:44:45Unidentified speaker: Yeah, they did.

00:44:48Scott Watkins: Do you know where they moved to?

00:44:49Unidentified speaker: Sydney.

00:44:50Scott Watkins: Okay, so we're going to hopefully start Junior parkrun soon. Would you like to come out and do a Junior parkrun there?

00:44:55Unidentified speaker: Maybe.

00:44:57Scott Watkins: And what's your friend's name? um annabelle annabelle okay well annabelle gabriel is going to come and do junior parkrun with you in sydney deal yeah great well thanks for talking to us today keep enjoying parkrun so now i'm here with joe and joe what's your role with junior parkrun

00:45:16Jo: Well, I help the teams that want to start a junior parkrun to do that. And I help specifically at Moormead Juniors as often as I possibly can. And I answer any queries from any of the teams about anything to do with parkrun or junior parkrun, really.

00:45:37Scott Watkins: Great. And what's your favorite thing about junior parkrun?

00:45:40Jo: Well, we've got a little saying, which is, it's a run, not a race, with a smile on your face. So I love to marshal here, and I love to congratulate the runners for smiling as well as running as they go round and give them a nice big high five.

00:45:56Scott Watkins: Great. It was a fantastic event. Thanks for everything you do.

00:45:59Jo: My pleasure.

00:46:00Scott Watkins: So I'm here with Claire and Maisie now. Claire, what's your role with Junior parkrun or parkrun in general?

00:46:05Claire: I'm the safeguarding lead for parkrun UK, so that includes Junior parkrun as well.

00:46:09Scott Watkins: So what does that involve?

00:46:11Claire: So making sure all the criminal record checks are processed and in place properly, dealing with all the incidents that get reported in, making sure everybody's happy, making sure all our policies are up to date and that we're all sort of sticking within the law and anything else that comes my way really.

00:46:27Scott Watkins: And what's your favourite thing about the Junior parkrun events?

00:46:31Claire: This is amazing. Chocolate! Is that your favourite thing? The nicest thing about juniors is the look on their faces because they are so happy and it's such a difference to see the adults running around on a Saturday who are looking sort of miserable and tired and the children smile all the way around.

00:46:51Scott Watkins: Great.

00:46:51Claire: Can you say hello, please?

00:46:53Scott Watkins: And Maisie, you're looking forward to starting Junior parkrun next year, are you?

00:46:56Claire: Yeah. How old are you now? Three. And when's your birthday? In September. December. December. Yeah.

00:47:06Scott Watkins: Well, we look forward to seeing you scan your barcode for the first time. Thanks for joining us.

00:47:10Claire: Thanks very much. Thanks. Bye-bye.

00:47:12Scott Watkins: Bye.

00:47:13Scott Trickett: Now, Renee, are you excited about Junior parkrun coming to Australia? Are we ready to announce anything right here on the podcast right now?

00:47:21Renee Gimbert: We can announce that it is coming. We can announce that it's coming this year.

00:47:28Scott Trickett: It's coming.

00:47:28Renee Gimbert: 2017. Really soon?

00:47:30Scott Trickett: Or are we going to have to wait until later?

00:47:38Renee Gimbert: I don't have a date that I can put out yet. But what I can say is it's so important that we get this right. We're dealing with children here that we need to ensure that all of our processes are perfect before we launch. And we are working on those at the moment. And within the coming months, well, actually within the coming weeks, we will be able to launch the details of, you know, a launch and launch a date. But we're still busy working on that in the background. So sit tight for another couple of weeks and then we can reveal more information.

00:48:20Scott Trickett: Very exciting. We're down to weeks, people. So it's coming. Now, what also is coming this weekend, we've got two new events joining the family, Coffs Harbour in New South Wales and Redland Bay in Queensland. Redland Bay, is that anywhere near you?

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

00:48:35Renee Gimbert: It is in Brisbane. It's a Brisbane event, so fairly close to me. It'll be one on my list.

00:48:43Unidentified speaker: You never know, it could be one for me to join the Pirate Club.

00:48:46Renee Gimbert: Well, there's your R taken care of right there. There is. There is. That's handy. And speaking of the Pirate Club, Coffs Harbour, another C. It's a pirate kind of week.

00:48:59Scott Trickett: Is this any coincidence? The Pirate Club was launched a couple of months ago. These events were probably named a couple of months ago. Yeah. I know Coffs Harbour is a big town, but surely that was the reasoning behind it.

00:49:13Renee Gimbert: Most definitely. But I can tell you Coffs Harbour has been a long time in the making. We're talking over 12 months worth of back and forth approvals, courses, that sort of thing. So for the guys down in Coffs Harbour, they've done a great job in, you know, working so hard on this and persisting. to get it to launch stage for this weekend.

00:49:37Scott Trickett: That whole area is doing really well. I mean, we spoke to Clayton. He's got a parkrun near him now with Ballina, with COPS coming on. It was slow to grow, that area, but now they're going crazy.

00:49:51Renee Gimbert: Most definitely. And it's been very well needed, especially for people that drive down the coast, myself included. You know, we used to go for hours before there was a parkrun, and now we're slowly plodding along the coastline there. So it's very exciting.

00:50:12Scott Trickett: Now, what is also exciting are anniversaries. Now, I've been playing around with this the past couple of weeks. We went to not announcing them to just announcing first anniversaries. But I'm going back to telling everyone about all anniversaries this week. So if you want to get up some cake, you will head to Frog Hollow in Victoria.

00:50:33Renee Gimbert: Goondiwindi in Queensland.

00:50:35Scott Trickett: Mitchelton, also in Queensland.

00:50:38Renee Gimbert: Newy in New South Wales. And Shellharbour.

00:50:42Scott Trickett: to round out New South Wales. A couple of big ones there. I knew Newy would be massive. Shell Harbour is one of the most popular parkruns going around. It's an exciting week.

00:50:52Renee Gimbert: Most definitely. There will be lots of cake.

00:50:55Scott Trickett: Now, Renee, thanks for joining me this week. You filled in for this week. We don't know. You might be back next week and the week after.

00:51:03Renee Gimbert: Maybe.

00:51:03Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:51:05Renee Gimbert: Well, look, I'd love to come back. Mel, I'm keeping your seat warm while you're gone. Don't get scared. I will jump out of your seat when you're back on deck. But we hope that you enjoy this time with little Wesley. And until you come back, I'm sure you will be very well missed. But before we go, Scotty, tell me, what are you doing next parkrun day?

00:51:30Scott Trickett: Well, the next one is a bit exciting for me. I'm going to be out of the country, so I'm going to be doing firstly my first international parkrun, which I got to 160 on Saturday, done 160 parkruns. I ran at Main Beach, so I finally ticked that off my list. Brilliant. Going to the home of parkrun in Australia, and then next week I get to go to the home of parkrun globally, and I run at Bushy. Brilliant. Very exciting. I'm hoping to see some deer.

00:52:03Renee Gimbert: You'll see the signs.

00:52:04Scott Trickett: Yep. And, you know, maybe see the tree that's like the parkrun logo and have a discussion with Danny about that. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. I wonder if PSH is going to be there. Don't know.

00:52:17Renee Gimbert: Quite possibly. Quite possibly. Tell me this. How many people do you think will be there? Have it a guess.

00:52:24Scott Trickett: Well, it's an educated guess because I looked it up on the weekend. They had about 1,200.

00:52:29Renee Gimbert: Yeah.

00:52:30Scott Trickett: So that's also going to be exciting because the biggest parkrun I've been a part of was the Nitro parkrun earlier this year. You were there also. I was. And, like, 1,200 or 1,000 is a bit of a different vibe than 150 or 200 that I'm used to. This is true.

00:52:52Renee Gimbert: I've been to Bushy. When I went, there were just under 1,000. I think there was 997. I came in about 500 and something. But it's a wonderful experience. The people that you meet there, I've actually kept in touch with all of the people that I met there and went to breakfast with after and, you know, I love it. It's a brilliant parkrun.

00:53:22Unidentified speaker: Hmm.

00:53:23Renee Gimbert: There's one group of parkrunners that go to Bushy most weeks and after the run they have champagne and I love that. I think that's brilliant.

00:53:33Scott Trickett: Well, I don't like champagne but I love the idea that people – is it a celebration champagne or is it just drunks in the morning?

00:53:43Unidentified speaker: It's a celebration.

00:53:44Scott Trickett: Well, there you go. I love that they're celebrating parkrun every week.

00:53:49Renee Gimbert: Yes, yes. It is definitely a celebration, and if you're not going to have a glass, save me a glass.

00:53:55Scott Trickett: Okay, I will. So that's next week. So again, we're flying by the seat of our pants again next week. I'll be out of the country. I think we're going to have a podcast next week, but don't hold us to it. Just have to wait and see. Keep checking that Facebook page and that iTunes feed for Episode 72.

00:54:27Unidentified speaker: Thank you.