Episode 75

Episode details · 207 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:11Scott Trickett: Welcome back to episode 75 of the parkrun Adventurers. Welcome Mel Erbacher.

00:00:20Melissa Erbacher: Thanks Scotty, good to be here as always.

00:00:23Scott Trickett: I'm trying to get excited, trying to get excited for the pod this week because I'll let you in on a secret. I'm crashing a little bit.

00:00:31Melissa Erbacher: You're crashing?

00:00:32Scott Trickett: I'm crashing.

00:00:33Melissa Erbacher: That's no good.

00:00:34Scott Trickett: No, there's no chocolate in the house.

00:00:38Melissa Erbacher: Oh, this is emergency level situation.

00:00:43Scott Trickett: I'm trying to generate some excitement because sugar usually does it for me and it's not today. Because I got a pro tip from my work colleagues. They have this thing where they hide chocolate. So you surprise yourself because you'll find chocolate around the house when you start crashing.

00:01:02Melissa Erbacher: So they hide it from themselves? Yeah. How does that even work? I'm not sure. How do you forget where the chocolate is?

00:01:10Scott Trickett: I think you do over time.

00:01:12Melissa Erbacher: Okay.

00:01:13Scott Trickett: So I tried it.

00:01:14Melissa Erbacher: Yeah.

00:01:15Scott Trickett: And Kasia found it.

00:01:19Melissa Erbacher: You need to find some better hiding places.

00:01:23Scott Trickett: You're right, because in the back of my mind, I knew the chocolate was there all along. But it was kind of out of sight, out of mind.

00:01:31Melissa Erbacher: Okay. You should come to my house and I could hook you up with some tropical pineapple, which I'm still going with. I'm pretty sure I've got an expiry date at the end of this month for the last 10 blocks and I'm not sure I'm going to make it.

00:01:46Scott Trickett: Listeners who have been with us for a while will remember the tropical pineapple chocolate phase. And I get excited when you go into an IGA or one of those old supermarkets and you hope to see some leftover stock of the tropical pineapple. Because I don't see it in my Woolworths or my Coles. It's long gone.

00:02:05Melissa Erbacher: No, you're right. And I do have my little safety store, which is lucky because you can't find it anywhere anymore. And that's exactly why I have a little surplus.

00:02:18Scott Trickett: Yeah, well, I've run dry. So what are you excited about? Excite me.

00:02:24Melissa Erbacher: Oh, I'm really excited about, I don't know if you've heard this, but there's going to be a little conference for Territory Directors in a couple of weeks. So I'm excited about that. It's the first time parkrun Australia's had a conference. It is.

00:02:40Scott Trickett: It is very exciting for those involved. Unless you're organising it and putting it together. Not as excited, so give me another thing. LAUGHTER

00:02:49[laughter]

00:02:52Melissa Erbacher: Well, of course, I'm always excited about the Barossa. Yes. Which is happening not too far away. Now that we're in August, it's going to be happening next month.

00:03:02Scott Trickett: Yeah. Did you set up that countdown clock? Last week we talked about getting some sort of countdown, official countdown.

00:03:10Melissa Erbacher: To figure out the days. No, I haven't yet. Okay. No. I'm lucky to look at my diary these days on a daily basis. It might get a weekly look in. But now that I'm not actually... At a day job and counting down the days until I don't have to be at said day job, yeah, there's not a lot of need for me to look in my diary anymore.

00:03:32Scott Trickett: We need to work on that. I'll tell you what I'm excited about. I'm excited about the Barossa too. Because you need a holiday. My wife is always on me about. She needs to know where we're going next. Otherwise the dredge and the misery of day-to-day life catches up with her. So I'm glad we've got the Barossa in a few weeks. I've got a haircut. I'm excited about getting a new haircut. Ah!

00:03:58Melissa Erbacher: And tell me, is this haircut to enhance the running performance? Are you more streamlined now?

00:04:04Scott Trickett: No, I've actually gone the opposite. Because for years, I have just gone into the barber, the cheap $10 clip, in and out, 5-10 minutes.

00:04:16Melissa Erbacher: So you're telling me you've got hair extensions?

00:04:18Scott Trickett: I haven't got hair extensions, but I... got a proper haircut so it flows in the breeze because i'm i'm thinning a little bit on top not sure if you noticed but apparently when when people who cut your hair as a profession they take it a bit more seriously than the people in just the chop shop who just go in 10 minutes so they've left a bit of length on the top of my head and i've i've actually got more hair not really but the illusion of more hair so i don't think it's going to help my running night oh okay Give me, I don't know, six to 12 months and I'm pretty sure it's all going to be gone anyway.

00:04:56Melissa Erbacher: Six to 12 months?

00:04:58Scott Trickett: It's going pretty quick.

00:05:00Melissa Erbacher: Okay. Well, there you go. That's a couple of seconds off your PB that you can look forward to.

00:05:06Scott Trickett: Okay. So I'm excited about that. Not so excited about going bald. A couple of seconds off the PB, more excited.

00:05:12Melissa Erbacher: There's always a silver lining.

00:05:15Scott Trickett: NFL season's starting up. I'm the only one in Australia who cares about that. So that's good to have those conversations with myself. Keep trying to slip it into conversations like this on the podcast.

00:05:29Melissa Erbacher: Doesn't get much of a response.

00:05:31Scott Trickett: Nope. Nope.

00:05:33Melissa Erbacher: I keep wanting to say the words like, how did the draft go or something, but I'm not sure that's the correct terminology.

00:05:39Scott Trickett: Yeah, not quite. Draft was a few months ago. Fantasy draft, which is another level of sadness. That's all, that's cranking up. That's in the next couple of weeks.

00:05:49Melissa Erbacher: Ah, and who's organising that?

00:05:51Scott Trickett: Oh, some bloke in America.

00:05:53Melissa Erbacher: You did quite well in that last year, didn't you? I did.

00:05:55Scott Trickett: Cleaned up. You remembered.

00:05:57Melissa Erbacher: I do.

00:05:59Scott Trickett: So defending champ. So a lot of pressure, a lot of pressure, a lot of study, focusing more time on that than necessary, but. We need to have hobbies.

00:06:11Melissa Erbacher: We do. You've got game to keep up.

00:06:14Scott Trickett: Are you excited? Game of Thrones. Everybody wants to talk to me about Game of Thrones. I've never watched it. Do you watch it?

00:06:20Melissa Erbacher: I do.

00:06:21Scott Trickett: So are you excited about that?

00:06:23Melissa Erbacher: I am excited about that. I have a direwolf t-shirt. In fact, my dog is a direwolf. And if you've never watched it, then you don't know what that is.

00:06:30Scott Trickett: It means nothing to me. How about we should have a conversation where you just talk about Game of Thrones, I talk about NFL. It might actually make sense.

00:06:41Melissa Erbacher: Okay. We could see how that goes. I'm sure there are particular strategies in there that might mesh.

00:06:53Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:06:54Melissa Erbacher: You start.

00:06:56Scott Trickett: We've got the Seahawks.

00:06:58Melissa Erbacher: You've got the seahawks. Yeah. Okay.

00:07:01Scott Trickett: What did you say? Dire wolves.

00:07:03Melissa Erbacher: A dire wolf. Yeah. But there's also dragons, which would take out your seahawks no trouble, especially now that they're fully grown.

00:07:12Scott Trickett: Right. But we would come at you with our giants.

00:07:15Melissa Erbacher: Oh, we've also got giants, and we've got white walkers. So that's undead giants. So you can't kill them unless you've got dragonglass.

00:07:25Scott Trickett: No. Packers. Don't know what a packer is, but we've got a packer. They can come at you. We can just make it up. Dolphins.

00:07:35Melissa Erbacher: Who would win in a showdown?

00:07:38Scott Trickett: Distract you with the cuteness of the dolphins.

00:07:41Melissa Erbacher: Oh, no, that wouldn't work. We've got, well, we don't have, we've got the Iron Fleet, but they seem to not be doing very well lately because they're killing each other. They've split down the middle and taken two different sides. My money's on Danny's. side to win eventually, but we'll see how we go. I can't believe you've never watched Game of Thrones.

00:08:00Scott Trickett: Watched the first episode three times.

00:08:02Melissa Erbacher: You were in the minority. You've watched it three times. Actually, I haven't got to the end of it. That's where you're going wrong.

00:08:06Scott Trickett: You need to watch the second episode after the first one. No, but I've never made it through the first episode in three attempts.

00:08:13Melissa Erbacher: Are you watching it at the wrong time of day? I mean, you managed to get up in the middle of the night to watch the football. Surely you can stay awake for some some king action no not really not really and i think i've given it a fair shake three times and not one minute bit of interest in any of those minutes watching it okay i i do know that it's very difficult to get into i had read the books prior to the tv show so Adam was very confused for about the whole first season about who anyone was because I guess in a TV show you don't say people's names all the time when you're talking to them and things like that because that would just be really staged and awkward so he was constantly having to ask me who that guy was and who he was related to and all that sort of thing so if I hadn't given him the um the running commentary on the first season, he might not have stuck with it either. So I think well done to anyone who just, you know, stayed with it in the first season, not having read the books before it started. Because, yeah, I wouldn't have known who the hell half the people were either. And it's very confusing because a couple of the characters have very similar names. So it might take a little while for people to realise that it's not just two people pronouncing their names differently. Because that happens as well. But I think I would be just as lost if I started watching the football. In fact, I watched The Blind Side yesterday. And obviously, that's a football sort of movie.

00:09:52Scott Trickett: It's a true story.

00:09:54Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, it is. And it's a very touching true story as well. Some incredible people in this world.

00:10:00Scott Trickett: He's still playing. Is he? He is, yes.

00:10:04Melissa Erbacher: Good on him, Michael.

00:10:06Scott Trickett: Might be his last season.

00:10:09Melissa Erbacher: Well, that's all right. He must have had a good long run.

00:10:11Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:10:13Melissa Erbacher: I mean, athletics and all that sort of stuff. Professionally, I'm sure people don't have a very long shelf life, generally speaking. And I know they wear all that body armour and things like that. So when they tackle each other, it probably doesn't even hurt. But still, you know, there's some big people in that game. And if they came at you, I don't think even with all the armour on, I might survive.

00:10:37Scott Trickett: Right. Well, I don't think the arm actually helps. I reckon they should take it all off. I think it does more damage than it's good. But you know what, Mel? People tuned in expecting us to talk about parkrun.

00:10:52Melissa Erbacher: Well, for those who are way, way hardcore, we've probably lost the whole two of you. So that's fine. I'm sure everybody else is interested.

00:11:00Scott Trickett: The beauty of podcasts. Just fast forward.

00:11:03Melissa Erbacher: Exactly.

00:11:04Scott Trickett: Well, maybe we should get back to talking about parkrun. Yeah, the next 20, 30 minutes is all about parkrun.

00:11:21Melissa Erbacher: We're heading back to the Northern Hemisphere this week to have a little chat to a gentleman named Sean Sutherland-Kirby, who is a parkrunner at Canons Park parkrun. Now, Sean has volunteered more than he has run. completed the course and we're keen to have a chat to you all about that sean welcome to the parkrun adventures podcast thanks for having me guys now as as i just mentioned you've heavily volunteered before you jumped into participating at your local parkrun can i just ask how you first heard about parkrun and how you got involved with volunteering uh well i first heard about parkrun through my husband uh my husband's a teacher at a school um

00:12:09Sean Sutherland-Kirby: And he came home one day and said, oh, by the way, I'm going to be running this weekend with, uh, Chris, who's, uh, one of the assistant heads at his school. And I was like, oh, okay, fine. Um, you know, that, that was just kind of it. And then, you know, a few weeks later it was, oh, I'm running again. It was okay, fine. Um, you know, that went on for a few weeks and, uh, And then it turns out Chris, who's a fellow Aussie, by the way, was setting up Cannons Park parkrun and was doing the kind of initial set up run and needed volunteers. And Andrew said, oh, I've been running this thing called parkrun and we need volunteers and you're doing it. great okay um what is this thing and just showed me the website and I went on and had a look and I was great I have to be at a park in October at 7 30 in the morning to go and have a look around this course and you know he knew how to get me down there he promised me breakfast at the cafe afterwards um so you know I went down there had a look around and uh I just volunteered that first time and and I just enjoyed being down there and meeting new people. And, you know, at the time I was, we were living in a flat, um, that didn't have really good access. I'm, uh, in a wheelchair. Um, so, uh, I was pretty much housebound at the time. So Andrew was working full time. Um, I was stuck at home. I'm working as a, uh, an artist from home. Um, so I was just sat at the computer. It was me and the cat. And, uh, And that was really my life. So parkrun came up and it was a chance for me to kind of get out and meet new people. And it's been great just kind of getting out and each Saturday and seeing new people and kind of having this group of people to go to each Saturday. And yeah, it's been a new challenge and adventure each week. It's been brilliant.

00:14:29Scott Trickett: You allude to parkrun through breakfast. Yes. Exposed to the active lifestyle, but you volunteered for quite a few months until the weekend recently where you took part in your first parkrun in a wheelchair. How did that go?

00:14:45Sean Sutherland-Kirby: Yes. It went really well. The day that I did it was actually the day after the anniversary of my accident, so I actually did it as a way to kind of um take my mind off of the the fact that you know i was constantly thinking about that um and i posted online you know hey guys any advice for doing this because uh you know do i need to wear a helmet and you know any other guys doing in wheelchairs or you know any advice for me um i mean i got like 500 likes and loads of comments saying well done and and I really wasn't expecting it and the online community has been great with it. Um, I mean, I go to the gym and I work out a bit when I can and, and I, all of the other guys that are down doing the parkrun always look like they're having so much fun and, and I love doing the volunteering side of it. Don't get me wrong, but, um, I've always wanted to just kind of get in and get stuck in. And as soon as I got my new wheelchair a few months ago, um, which is much lighter than my old one, um, I've wanted to actually tackle the course. Um, and it just seemed that the perfect time to go ahead and do it. So I set that date as a kind of, I'm going to go ahead and do this. Um, so we got down there and no, we, we set off and the first, seven or eight minutes was very British, you know, excuse me, excuse me, I'm coming through, coming through, trying to weave through people. And the Cannons Park course is brilliant. It's a three-lap course, and it's kind of split into two halves. So the first half is what I would call typical English park, where it's lovely pavement, fields either side, there's a playground and you know some dog walkers and everything. It's really great you know I was whipping through, overtaking people and then the second half is what's called the spinney, it's a wooded area and it's a little bit bumpy, a slight incline but the track on that area is kind of compacted sand and gravel and dirt so as soon as my front casters hit that it was like hitting treacle it was like running through honey so I just almost stopped dead and it was a real workout but I really enjoyed it and people were saying to me oh once you do one you'll catch the bug and you'll want to do it again and I think I did the course in 45 09 i mean i wasn't smashing any records by any any means um but i i got got to the finish line and um people were cheering and you know it was that that real you know parkrun family you know warmth and uh i got my token and did my scanning and everything and um i just wanted to do it again you know it's really hard to explain um When you're volunteering and people are finishing and they're like, oh, that was great. I want to do it again. And you're just thinking you are mad. You are insane. It's Saturday morning. How can you say you want to do that again? And then you actually do it and you're thinking to yourself, yeah, I want to do that again. That's great. You know, you actually understand it. And yeah, I can't wait to do my next one.

00:18:27Melissa Erbacher: I love that you were volunteered to volunteer by your hubby. I think we've all probably volunteered, various family members and significant others, to get along to parkrun. But I'm impressed that you went and you kept coming back because... If you're not that person who's – the majority of parkrunners are there to run and participate. And so once they've had their, you know, fix of doing that, then they decide, okay, yeah, well, we should give back and we should volunteer. But you had the opposite. I guess now, obviously, you're going to participate a little bit more than just volunteering every week. Were you nervous ahead of your first? Because obviously you knew all the people there, but I guess, you know, they of course know you as well. And so maybe there was a little bit of, oh, is everyone going to be watching to see how I go?

00:19:22Sean Sutherland-Kirby: Yeah, I was actually, I was really nervous. Quite a few of the regulars there were saying to me, are you going to be doing it soon? You know, every week it's like, are you going to be doing it soon? And quite a few that had been going from the very start, um, knew that I was waiting for a new wheelchair. Um, when we very, when Cannons Park first started, I was in a wheelchair that weighed about 20 kilograms. Um, and I'd been in that for about two years, uh, which is really heavy. I mean, I got my new wheelchair about two and a half months ago, three months ago, um, which weighs about eight kilograms. which is a massive difference. Um, and you know, I can fly around on it. Um, so as soon as I got this wheelchair, people say, you got your new wheelchair, you're going to be hanging around on it. And you know, they, they were kind of every week is, is this the week? Is this the week? Um, so they knew that it was going to be coming up. Um, so I was a bit nervous of kind of say, yeah, this is going to be the week I'm doing it. Um, and it was, it wasn't really the, the expectation. It was more myself of kind of, am I going to be able to do this? Cause you know, I go to, I said, I go to the gym fairly regularly just for kind of physiotherapy really. Um, and there are times when I'm on the hand cycle, um, and I've been like the resistance things and I do like a 20 minute training program and I'll just kind of close my eyes halfway through and I'll open my eyes and it's seven minutes left to go and i close my eyes again i'm sweating bullets then i open my eyes six and a half minutes left to go six minutes 25 left to go 6 21 left to go gradually opening your eyes and watching the you know it's it's horrible but um i think the the difference with the parkrun is that you can you've got the scenery and everyone else so you know it's it's such a different atmosphere it's yeah, it's, it's a lot different than going to a gym and you don't have to pay for it, which is a huge bonus.

00:21:35Scott Trickett: Sean, can I just ask a bit of your history about how you ended up in a wheelchair? Is it a recent thing for you?

00:21:43Sean Sutherland-Kirby: Um, it's not, no. Um, I've been in a wheelchair for, um, four and a half, nearly five years. I actually had a motorbike accident in 2009. Um, and, uh, after that it was found that I was born with, um, spina bifida. Um, but I, I didn't have any symptoms when I was born. Um, but the accident, uh, kind of started the symptoms on and, uh, cause some, uh, cysts on the spinal cord. Uh, so that's a degenerative condition. I also, um, bruised, uh, my brain, which caused a condition called functional neurological disorder, uh, which causes a lot of, um, neurological symptoms, which, uh, things like, uh, finding hard to find words, um, tremors and, uh, functional, uh, weakness in the limbs and things, uh, particularly in the legs. Um, so yeah, they're both degenerative conditions. So it was a gradual thing. Um, so I, after the accident, I was, uh, had a walking stick and then from that went to crutches. Um, then to a wheelchair kind of part-time and then gradually full-time in a wheelchair. So it became a gradual thing and an adjustment. But, you know, you get dealt cards and you just deal with it, don't you? And you learn to adjust.

00:23:14Scott Trickett: So how would you say pushing yourself around the parkrun course in a wheelchair compares to running it in terms of physical output? Because I could imagine... It would be a bit tougher to push yourself around in a wheelchair than just going for a run. Or am I completely wrong?

00:23:33Sean Sutherland-Kirby: Oh no, it's a lot tougher. It's using all the wrong muscles. Your legs are designed to kind of carry you along. Your arms are not. But the wheels really assist because once you push you kind of get you get that forward momentum um so when i as it's really weird as i was going around the course i said you kind of got that um at cannons park that kind of uh the course of of two tracks really so um some of the runners as some of the kind of uh middle runners um as we were going around on the the tarmac kind of side of it I was flying past them. Um, you know, I was just like a speed demon and I was loving it. Um, and then I was getting into that kind of compacted gravelly bar and it, it was, it was like doing a weight session at the gym. It was, it was great. I loved the, the kind of the, the challenge of it. Um, but then these people that were just going at a steady pace were then overtaking me. Um, and then we get back to the tarmac and then I'd overtake them. It was like tortoise and hare. Um, I I'd really like to go to a kind of all tarmac flat course just to see what I'd be like there. Um, I've actually been signed up, uh, to do, uh, one of the guys at our parkrun, um, decided to put me forward for, uh, a neurological charity in East London called Headway East London. We're looking for people to run the Parallel London charity event. They do like a 1K, 5K and 10K thing at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. So I'm doing that. I'm doing 5K in September to raise money for that charity. so it's just kind of snowballed. So, yeah, it'll be interesting. That's going to be a complete tarmac thing. So I'm going to raise money for a charity by doing another 5K, so that'll be fun. But, yeah, like I say, it's completely different muscles, but it's, I don't know. What was the question?

00:26:09[laughter]

00:26:09Unidentified speaker: LAUGHTER

00:26:11Melissa Erbacher: I think you answered the question right at the start when you said, yes, it's definitely harder. So we're all soft if we can't manage it on our legs when you can manage to get around using your arms.

00:26:23Sean Sutherland-Kirby: You should give it a try one day, Scotty. Find someone that's got a spare wheelchair and go and find a nice flat course and just do one lap. See if you can do one lap in a wheelchair.

00:26:33Scott Trickett: You know what, Sean? I've actually thought I wouldn't mind having a go at it. Sometimes you see them at the major races and they're miles in front and they look like they're cruising, but it also looks like a lot of hard work on your shoulders and arms that runners aren't familiar with.

00:26:50Melissa Erbacher: And they also have race chairs in those sorts of races too. You go around, Sean, in just a normal chair, don't you?

00:26:58Sean Sutherland-Kirby: Yes, I do, yeah. Because, like I said, I posted on the Facebook, kind of parkrun community thing um just for some advice and someone said to me oh you're doing a day chair or a race chair and i was like yeah i can't afford a race chair are you serious um but there's a guy that that's actually added me on facebook has been giving me advice and stuff he's going to be coming down to our parkrun and doing the course in his day chair He's invited us down to his in Southend, um, to go and try out his track and stuff. He's doing the parallel London, um, a guy named Eddie. So, you know, I've actually made a new friend and stuff through, through Facebook and through parkrun, um, which is all great as well. Um, I've also, um, met, uh, a girl, uh, parkrun who's, um, fundraising through her company to, uh, to hopefully get a freewheel for my wheelchair, which is a third wheel for the front of the wheelchair, which raises your front two casters. And kind of, not really a race chair, but it makes it easier to go over different terrains. So make grass and those kind of gravelly paths a little bit easier, hopefully. So yeah, that'll be great.

00:28:25Melissa Erbacher: I love the idea of Scotty having a go. I think more people, we should have an organized event where, you know, it's bring or take your friend's wheelchair to parkrun Day. And then those of us who think we're having it hard on our legs can try it with our arms instead.

00:28:47Sean Sutherland-Kirby: Definitely, definitely.

00:28:49Scott Trickett: Sean, tell us about Cannons Park. I'm just having a look at it on Facebook at the moment. It looks quite pretty. what's the course like and what are the people that cannons park like?

00:28:59Sean Sutherland-Kirby: Uh, it is a really pretty park. Um, it's really friendly. It's such a diverse group of people. I mean, Chris did the kind of head RD. Um, he, as I said, it's a, a fellow Aussie. Uh, he's actually out in Australia at the moment. Um, So he's kind of handed the reins over to the rest of us. Um, he he's really welcoming and friendly. Um, he was the one that said to Andrew, uh, you know, get Sean down. Um, I, I need more people and, you know, he'll be great. And he was the one that was like, you can do this, Sean, come on. He just believes in people and always sees the best in people. Um, We also have the friends of Cannons Park who are kind of a small group of people who look after the park. They've got a little cafe there and they always come down and open up on a Saturday morning so people can get drinks and treats after the run. We've got a real diverse group of people that come down and actually run. So we've had... We like to... different runs for, for different times of year. So we had like April 4th run where we, we ran the course backwards, which was really fun. Uh, we had an Eid run recently. So a lot of our, um, Muslim runners were, um, fasting throughout Ramadan. Um, so at the end of Ramadan, um, We had an Eid run where at the end of the run, we had a lot of food laid out and some of the ladies were doing henna on people. We have an autistic runner who runs every week. We have a partially sighted runner who runs. Everyone's just really warm and welcoming. And because we have kind of a few core runners who run, of the time and volunteer all of the time you get to see those people who started out running you know nearly an hour who were walking the course who are now running 45 minutes or 40 minutes and you know you can see that they're losing weight and you can see the achievement on their faces as they're finishing crossing the finish line and you can see how happy they are when they're being cheered by the marshals going around. It's such a welcoming place for them. Yeah, it's great. You can't really describe that sense to people. I guess that's all parkruns really, not just Cannons Park, but that kind of

00:32:01Scott Trickett: cradle of of warmth um yeah you really have to to see it to experience it sean thanks for coming on the podcast i love meeting parkrunners like yourself and hearing stories about how you were introduced and have learned to love parkrun and thanks for sharing it with the australian audience uh thanks for having me thanks guys We're going on a little adventure down my neck of the woods. We're down in Victoria this week to catch up with the Traralgon ED, Tanya Rong. Welcome to the parkrun Adventurers, Tanya.

00:32:45Tanya Rong: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

00:32:47Scott Trickett: Now, a little bit chilly. I've been out to Taralgon. Can get very cold. Is it cold at the moment?

00:32:53Tanya Rong: It is cold. It is four degrees and overcast and not a bit of sun in sight this morning. Oh, it's lunchtime now, so it's afternoon, isn't it?

00:33:03Scott Trickett: I had a quick glance at your Facebook photos and I see lots of white. So there's lots of frost about on a Saturday morning.

00:33:10Tanya Rong: Lots of frost.

00:33:12Scott Trickett: How's that going with the hardcore parkrunners? Is it keeping some people away?

00:33:17Tanya Rong: Yeah, numbers are still around 100 participants and that's a good number for us. So while it might be driving... A few away, it's certainly our hardcore parkrunners who come rain, hail or shine, it's not keeping them away. All I can say is the volunteers do an amazing job to stand out in the frosty, cold grass and do their stopwatches and barcode scanning. So we love our volunteers very much.

00:33:48Melissa Erbacher: Tanya, I'm not particularly familiar with whereabouts Terrelgan actually is. I'm fairly geographically challenged. Can you give us sort of a bit of a placement on a map and a bit of a course description?

00:34:01Tanya Rong: Sure. So Terrelgan is located in Victoria, like Scott has mentioned. So we're in Latrobe Valley down in Gippsland. So we're about two and a half hours drive south from Melbourne. which is a nice drive down and we sit down towards, I guess, in the middle of nowhere, really.

00:34:25Melissa Erbacher: That's exactly where you need the parkruns.

00:34:30Tanya Rong: Yeah, we're a regional centre and we're surrounded by rainforests and beaches and about half hours drive from everywhere. So we're pretty lucky with that.

00:34:42Melissa Erbacher: And so what's your course like? It's not coastal then? It's sort of country, Victoria?

00:34:49Tanya Rong: It is. It's very close to the middle of the town. So we're lucky in that we're quite central. We have a two-lap out-and-back course. We start at a footbridge, which is in the middle of our local netball courts and local tennis clubs. So we've got good parking there and good facilities with water and toilet, which is fantastic. And we've also got an amazing cafe that we go to, which as all parkrunners know, that's the most important thing, breakfast and coffee after parkrun. So we're just a two lap, very flat course. A lot of people like to come to our course to get their PBs. So when we have pacer week, it's a very popular time to come along because I think even our visitors say that our trail and parkrun course is where they hold their fastest time. So we're a nice little flat course.

00:35:41Scott Trickett: Tarelgon's got a good reputation and they've got a good running scene there. You've got the Tarelgon Harriers, you've got the Athletics Club. Have you seen good support from the running community in Tarelgon?

00:35:54Tanya Rong: Yeah, we do. We have a lot of the Harriers turn up on a Saturday morning and also the Triathlon Club as well. So we sort of support each other. Being a smaller town, it's really important that we all support each other and try and get attendance. So we've got some of our parkrunners who started out parkrunning with us and Harriers being a running club, people are a little bit tentative to join running clubs initially because you think you have to be really fast and be able to run really well to be able to join running clubs. So it's got that reputation as, you know, you have to be an amazing runner. So now that parkrun and Harriers have much more of a friendship and a crossover, some parkrunners go on to run with the Harriers and support those local events that happen on Sundays here. And in turn, we have Harriers that also turn up and they love the parkrun for the social aspect of it too.

00:36:49Melissa Erbacher: Tanya, how did parkrun start for you? Where did your parkrun story come into it?

00:36:54Tanya Rong: Well, I wasn't involved in the initial setup. I was involved in the Harriers. I was on the social club there. So I had a good working relationship who was the president of the Harriers who also started the parkrun here with a few other people. Sarge was one of the people that set it up down here in Terrelgan and he's since moved on. And so I was sort of nominated to step into the event, the run director and then stepped up to the event director role when he moved back to the sunny parts of Brisbane, which seems pretty appealing right now, I think. Yeah.

00:37:32Melissa Erbacher: moved north for a sun change.

00:37:35Tanya Rong: Yeah, absolutely. So it was a bit of a natural progression for me to join the team as the run director and I think I'm a nurse by profession, so I'm a pretty good organiser and like to keep on top of things and so I think that was seen as by the other team members and thought, yeah, she can become the event director. I was the one that was responding to the emails and jumping on the Facebook page and doing that anyway. So I think that's how I sort of landed in the event director role. And I share that role with Paul Rowlandon. So we sort of complement each other and work together, which is amazing.

00:38:17Scott Trickett: A natural progression. That's good. That's a good way to ease into it.

00:38:21Tanya Rong: Yeah, I think so.

00:38:22Scott Trickett: We've just been chatting to Sean, who's a run director over in the UK, and he's also a wheelchair participant. Now, this is something that you've faced at Taralgon. You've previously had a wheelchair participant run your course or roll your course.

00:38:39Tanya Rong: Yeah, I think initially we had challenges in general, just our location. When we first started, we were the first ones down in Latrobe Valley to start a parkrun, and so we had up nearly around 300 participants each week, which was too many for our course and it just wasn't coping. So that along with a wheelchair participant gave us quite a bit of stress and a lot of problem solving. And each week we'd sort of meet up beforehand the event team and we would try and problem solve and introduce new roles and such as, you know, funnel manager and we'd have a lot of support and communications person because it was like managing quite a big event every week. And luckily, I guess for us, now new parkruns have started around the area and taken that load off, which is really good for us. But the wheelchair side of it, just with the course congestion, we had to be really mindful with our safety briefing and also on the turnaround points because we're an out-and-back two-lap course that could get quite dangerous. And additionally, it's going to seem like it's probably pretty obvious, but dogs and things and prams with wheelchairs is another safety hazard that we have to be particularly careful with.

00:39:57Melissa Erbacher: What would you say to adventurers who might want to check out a parkrun course in Gippsland to get them along to visit you guys?

00:40:07Tanya Rong: I would say that if you want to have the friendliest run, feel like a part of the parkrun family, we welcome everybody and We are known for our friendly, encouraging, supportive nature out on course. We love a high five. So there's lots of high fives along the way. And we absolutely brag. And I think, I don't know whether we should win the award, but we're pretty close to winning the award of the best breakfast and coffee after the parkrun. So I think that's a pretty appealing award. sell of why you should come to Tarelgon parkrun.

00:40:50Melissa Erbacher: We should organise some sort of national ranking for the breakfasts, I think, post-parkrun breakfasts, and get people to vote on them and give them scores out of a certain amount as they travel around.

00:41:03Scott Trickett: Yeah, that's a really good idea. I've heard about this cafe, Tanya. What's so good about it?

00:41:08Tanya Rong: You have.

00:41:08Scott Trickett: I have, yeah. Taralgon Cafe is well known.

00:41:12Tanya Rong: Yeah, Foodco. Foodco on Franklin. So it's a relatively new cafe, actually. It's only been open, I wouldn't even say 12 months yet. And before then, we were sharing our parkrun around the town. So every month, we would nominate a different cafe and go around and try and spread our our love locally and support local businesses. But as you probably know, with that, we would have people, as soon as they leave the location, so they leave our parkrun, they just wouldn't come back for coffee and you'd have numbers drop off. And then, of course, you enter into the town and it's hard to get a car park, so then it's just easy to go home and get your coffee at home. So we sort of had some problem with numbers coming back post-parkrun. So this cafe is literally a walk across the car park, which is fantastic. very very appealing and it's also very um the food's amazing and the coffee's great but they also treat us like a big family too so we're pretty lucky here certainly sounds like it it's a big part of the parkrun morning should never be underestimated so you guys are lucky at taralgon yes and they give free coffees to our volunteers so again we're we're very appreciative of that and They have a little dog stop that you can park your dog and, you know, bike racks and outdoor area to sit. So it is, it's a really lovely location and, you know, we have lots of followers come back now. So we pretty much take over the whole cafe.

00:42:42Scott Trickett: Awesome stuff. Ticking all the boxes. Thanks, Tanya. Thanks for coming on and sharing your tales from Taralgon with us this week.

00:42:49Tanya Rong: Thanks for having me. It's been great to have a chat about Taralgon and I hope we see you all Come and visit us.

Roving Adventurers (roving reporter crossovers)

00:43:04Scott Trickett: We have a new roving reporter. A new up and comer. By the name of Timothy. Take it away, Timothy.

00:43:12Tim Oberg: Hi Scott and Mel, it's Tim here. I'm at Airlie Beach parkrun and I'm with Nicole Sanday, whose home parkrun is Cooma on the Gold Coast, but she's just done her 100th parkrun today here in Airlie Beach, which is 50 at home and 50 away. Nicole, welcome. How are you?

00:43:28Nicole Sanday: Good, thank you.

00:43:29Tim Oberg: And Nicole, you're a bit nervous, so I'm going to go easy on you. But tell me about this 50 at home and 50 away. How did this come about?

00:43:37Nicole Sanday: I started a couple of years ago and I sort of started going to Coomera and then I went to Mudgeeraba and I decided I'd try and do a few locations and 50 later, here I am at Airlie Beach.

00:43:49Tim Oberg: That's unreal. And were you sort of 25 and 25 when you got your 50 parkrun t-shirt that you're wearing proudly now or is this something that's evolved more recently?

00:43:57Nicole Sanday: That's evolved after the 50. So I got to 50 and then I decided I'd start the locations and the alphabet and the... Yeah, the Peel Club and all that stuff.

00:44:04Tim Oberg: Oh, my word.

00:44:04Nicole Sanday: I'm still working on those.

00:44:06Tim Oberg: So, yeah. So, and look, tell me about this alphabet scenario. Where are you up to in the A to Z?

00:44:11Nicole Sanday: I've only got three to go.

00:44:13Tim Oberg: Which are?

00:44:14Nicole Sanday: The hard ones. O, E and J.

00:44:17Tim Oberg: Orange, orange parkrun. Yeah, orange.

00:44:18Nicole Sanday: I've got family in orange. Yeah, and then E is going to be Emerald or Chickamoana. E is going to be a mission, yeah. And J is Jells in Melbourne.

00:44:24Tim Oberg: Oh, gels. Well, that's a big one. Yeah. All right. So we've got to book some cheap flights. That's what this is all about. Yes, basically, yes. Okay, fantastic. Well, great to have you here in Ely Beach today. Thank you. And good luck in your pursuit of the alphabet. And I guess now you're on your journey to 250 parkruns. Yes. So good luck.

00:44:39Nicole Sanday: Thank you very much.

00:44:40Tim Oberg: Bye.

00:44:41Melissa Erbacher: Well, what a great roving report. I do love the unsolicited ones we get. And if the CEO of parkrun Australia can send us an unsolicited roving report, I think we can get them from more people. That's who it was. If you haven't sent us a report before, we would love to hear from you because we always love to hear all the different voices and the different stories from parkruns across the country or the world. I'm also interested in international roving reports. So if you're listening to this overseas, you know, have a crack. Send us some audio.

00:45:17Scott Trickett: Me too. I want to hear some of those, more of those British accents. They're very fancy. You know, Sean just, he sounds really polite and professional. I'm sure he is, but it's the accent. So let's hear more of it.

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

00:45:31Melissa Erbacher: Now, where is the cake this week, Scotty?

00:45:35Scott Trickett: Let's have a look. Anniversaries, quite a few. Blackbutt in the Region of Runners. They've had a rough trot, so they'll be in full party mode, I reckon, on Saturday.

00:45:44Melissa Erbacher: Rough trot with cancellations.

00:45:46Scott Trickett: Yeah, they had a whole month off. Maybe more.

00:45:49Melissa Erbacher: They must be super excited then.

00:45:51Scott Trickett: Chelsea Bicentennial down in Victoria. They're celebrating their first anniversary.

00:45:58Melissa Erbacher: Cool. We've got them all over the country at the moment because Claisebrook Cove in WA is celebrating theirs. And Victor Harbor in South Australia as well.

00:46:08Scott Trickett: Nearly cover the country. Yeah.

00:46:10Melissa Erbacher: Queensland next year will have an anniversary because we've got a launch in Greenbank this weekend. So that'll be good too.

00:46:19Scott Trickett: Yeah. Do you know anything about Greenbank?

00:46:22Melissa Erbacher: I know it's in Brisbane. So it's another one that isn't too far away for me to get to eventually.

00:46:30Scott Trickett: Cool.

00:46:30Melissa Erbacher: That's pretty much the extent of my knowledge about Greenbank.

00:46:33Scott Trickett: Well, hopefully we will learn more over the coming months. Last week I did jinx the cancellations.

00:46:39Melissa Erbacher: You did?

00:46:40Scott Trickett: Yeah, sorry.

00:46:42Melissa Erbacher: We need to be more careful about what we say on podcasts. Obviously we have a lot of input into the universe and how things run, so we've got to be more careful.

00:46:51Scott Trickett: We had a couple of events cancelled through lack of volunteers, which was even a bit sadder.

00:46:58Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, it's very disappointing, isn't it? Hopefully the communities involved realise what they're going to miss out on if they don't all put their hands up to help out every now and again. And it won't happen again in future at those events.

00:47:10Scott Trickett: That's it, isn't it? They're missing out. Not only are they missing out on the run, Sailor V, missing out on volunteering.

00:47:16Melissa Erbacher: That's the big missing out that people don't realise.

00:47:19Scott Trickett: Indeed, indeed. Okay, that's a wrap. Three weeks in a row we've put out a pod. I think I told you last week we might have next week off, but I'm going to shock you here. We're going to have a podcast next week.

00:47:31Melissa Erbacher: Oh. Yeah. Were you expecting me to show up for that recording? Would you like to?

00:47:37Scott Trickett: Please do.

00:47:38Melissa Erbacher: I think I could fit it into my schedule.

00:47:41Scott Trickett: So putting that on record, there will be a podcast next week.

00:47:44Melissa Erbacher: And we might have a week off after that, shall we?

00:47:46Scott Trickett: That could be on the cards. Got anything exciting happening this week? We were excited at the start of the show. Can you leave me with anything exciting?

00:47:55Melissa Erbacher: I can leave you with something exciting. It's all about me, but that's okay. Well, not all about me. I just purchased fabric for Wes's first ever costume. And I'm very excited about that because it's going to be, he's going to have it, he'll be wearing it at the Sunshine Coast Marathon 2K Family Fun Run, which I do every year in costume anyway. But this is the new, the new, what do you call it when you do something every year? Tradition. Use your words, Melissa. This is a new tradition is that we're going to do this event every year, Wes and I, and if we can, suck Adam into it then hopefully he'll join as well sometimes I haven't quite convinced him so we've got sort of matching costumes Wes is going as the son and I'm going as the mother of a very famous family and I'm trying to convince Adam to go as the father in said family but he's not having it so If we could get a whole bunch of people to just message in and say, Adam, you need to man up and wear the costume that your wife wants you to wear, that would be fabulous. But that's currently what I'm very excited about, making Wes's first costume because he's going to look super cute. Okay.

00:49:14Scott Trickett: And I like the idea of using the parkrun Adventurers audience to pressure your husband into doing something he doesn't want to do and he feels uncomfortable about. So let's do it. Let's all get behind Mel's idea. Please do. Adam, man up. Is he running? I mean, is that something he still does?

00:49:33Melissa Erbacher: He still does run, yes.

00:49:35Scott Trickett: Okay, but is he running on Sunday?

00:49:37Melissa Erbacher: Two kilometres won't be too far for him to run. Sunday? What's Sunday?

00:49:43Nicole Sanday: Oh, it is a Sunday, the Sunshine Coast Marathon Festival.

00:49:46Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, yeah. He hasn't registered for any of the other events, so he's got no excuse about having tired legs or anything like that. Okay. He'll come along to cheer, which he did last year as well. But, yeah, I would like him to do the 2K with me and Wes. That would be very cool.

00:50:04Scott Trickett: I look forward to the report next week to find out what sort of man you've married.

00:50:14Melissa Erbacher: Whether or not he can put up with any more costumes. I have to give him fair kudos, you know, because... He has worn a lot of things that have made him feel uncomfortable in the past. But I just don't think he realizes the cuteness level of us all dressed as a family in this costume.

00:50:32Scott Trickett: Well, he's used to it. His excuses are running out fast.

00:50:39Melissa Erbacher: Exactly. And what are you excited about in the coming week?

00:50:46Scott Trickett: parkrun, of course, always.

00:50:47Melissa Erbacher: Back at the Folds on Saturday. Nice.

00:50:50Scott Trickett: That's always good fun. The girls are volunteering. I'll be available for signings from about 8.25.

00:51:00Melissa Erbacher: Coming so high. Or are you signing people up to fantasy football?

00:51:06Scott Trickett: Well, there's an idea.

00:51:07Melissa Erbacher: You could do your own draft at parkrun.

00:51:11Scott Trickett: So, yeah, that's about it for me and the conference, as we talked about. That's going to be very exciting, heading up to the Goldie.

00:51:16Melissa Erbacher: You'll be able to get some sunshine and some warmness.

00:51:19Scott Trickett: Yeah, and be able to talk parkrun for three days with people who like talking parkrun.

00:51:28Melissa Erbacher: People whose eyes don't glaze over when you mention it yet again.

00:51:31Scott Trickett: Yeah, so that's fun. But we'll speak to you next week, Mel.

00:51:37Melissa Erbacher: You will, indeed.