Episode 76

Episode details · 279 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:10Melissa Erbacher: It's time for episode 76 of the parkrun Adventurers podcast and we have got a good one in store for you today. Everybody, welcome my co-host Scotty to the episode. Scotty, welcome.

00:00:23Scott Trickett: Hi everyone.

00:00:24Melissa Erbacher: Are you excited about this week's episode? I know we get excited a lot but I feel like we've got some good stuff happening this week.

00:00:31Scott Trickett: Lots happening. Lots happening this week. Lots of people to talk to and lots of roving reports.

00:00:38Melissa Erbacher: Which is awesome. Obviously, people are listening to us.

00:00:41Scott Trickett: And they've stepped up. We said we wanted more and people delivered.

00:00:45Melissa Erbacher: And especially we've got Lyndell coming back with another Channel 5 news team report, which is always good.

00:00:53Scott Trickett: So the threats worked.

00:00:55Melissa Erbacher: I wonder. Nothing like a bit of peer group pressure.

00:00:58Scott Trickett: Yeah. Well, how did it work on Adam? Because there were a few threats thrown around.

00:01:04Melissa Erbacher: Let's not call them threats. Threats is a very strong term. It was interesting actually because when they started coming through and I think one person actually tagged him and that's what brought his attention to it because he hasn't listened to the podcast yet. Why would he? We had friends over for dinner on Saturday night and he's like, what? I'm getting tagged on the Adventurers page and people are telling me to man up. What's this all about? And I said, oh, well, you'll have to listen to the episode. But eventually he got it out of me that everybody is trying to encourage him to wear the costume to the Sunshine Coast Marathon. And I think we're wearing him down, people. So if I could just get a little bit more encouragement, a little bit more of a push, I think we'll get him over the line. But sneakily, I'm planning on quietly registering him for the event and not telling him about it this week anyway. So your help is still appreciated.

00:02:07Scott Trickett: Okay. Because I was on the illusion that it was the weekend just gone. But it's next weekend.

00:02:14Melissa Erbacher: No, no. The event is at the end of August. Well, it's the second last weekend of August. So we've still got time.

00:02:20Lyndell Murray: We've got plenty of time. Yeah, yeah.

00:02:24Scott Trickett: Bring it, people. Keep coming. Because...

00:02:27Melissa Erbacher: Nothing like a little bit of peer group pressure. Exactly.

00:02:30Scott Trickett: Exactly. And he has to get in shape. Costume shape and running shape.

00:02:34Melissa Erbacher: Oh, this particular costume he doesn't really need any shape for. So... But that will be revealed if I can manage to get everybody on board.

00:02:44Scott Trickett: Good-o. Now, what else has happened, Mel?

00:02:47Melissa Erbacher: What else has happened? I heard somebody got a course PB on Saturday.

00:02:53Scott Trickett: I got a PB at my home event. Interesting development. Four, almost five years in, finally cracked a Westerfolds PB. And it's interesting because I can't ever really recall going out at your home event to run really hard. I'm sure I did in the early days. It's where I set my PB. But on Saturday, I got new shoes.

00:03:18Melissa Erbacher: Okay. Are they those light, those really light ones that people wear for racing?

00:03:23Scott Trickett: Yeah, they are a bit lighter, but more importantly, they're fluoro. They're a really bright green-yellow combination. Awesome. And they stand out.

00:03:32Melissa Erbacher: And they obviously are PB-worthy shoes.

00:03:35Scott Trickett: Yeah. So I ran pretty well. Westerfold is a really tough course, as you would know. You just cannot get into a rhythm. And I've been doing so much running on the flat lately that I'm no good on the hills.

00:03:49Melissa Erbacher: And so how long has it actually been since you PB'd at Westerfolds?

00:03:54Scott Trickett: I reckon we'd go back to year one. I wouldn't even know.

00:03:57Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, because I'm 2013 for my Kawana PB, which is my overall PB as well. And that's four years.

00:04:07Scott Trickett: Yeah, I'd be similar, I think.

00:04:09Melissa Erbacher: You're giving me hope that it is possible to, even after such a long period of time, going to parkrun every week, that it's still possible to get a home. parkrun PB or a PB on any course, you know. And I think it's important for adventurers to remember that, you know, the more you go to all these different courses, the more PBs you can get.

00:04:31Scott Trickett: More opportunities for PBs.

00:04:32Unidentified speaker: Yeah, that's a good point too.

00:04:34Scott Trickett: You know how I did it? I also tried, you know, the run streak thing, how people try and run every day?

00:04:39Melissa Erbacher: Yes.

00:04:40Scott Trickett: And our coach has been doing it for something ridiculous, like three years.

00:04:43Melissa Erbacher: 800 plus days, yep.

00:04:44Scott Trickett: Yeah. And there are a few other people who have tried to do it every day for the year. And I know that's worked. I tried every day for August.

00:04:52Melissa Erbacher: Okay. And how's it going? You haven't broken it yet?

00:04:56Scott Trickett: Yeah, broke it. Three days.

00:05:00Melissa Erbacher: Oh, dear, Scotty. Yeah. But that's okay. You can just start another one.

00:05:06Scott Trickett: I'm going to try for September.

00:05:07Unidentified speaker: Okay.

00:05:08Scott Trickett: Because I want to round it out to a nice month. So I'm going to start again on September because I've already missed Monday as well.

00:05:15Melissa Erbacher: Do you think that's a little bit of a cop-out?

00:05:17Scott Trickett: What do you mean?

00:05:18Melissa Erbacher: Well, every time anyone – I hear it a lot. I haven't personally been one of those people who tries a whole bunch of different diets. But people always start their diets on Monday. And if they miss Monday, then they're like, oh, well, you know, that's the rest of the week. Screwed up. You know, I can't start again until next Monday. Do you feel like this streak thing, you know, it's a bit of a cop-out, you broke it three days in August, so now you have to wait till September? Like, seriously?

00:05:47Scott Trickett: I'm looking at the rest of August to get myself ready to start in September.

00:05:54Melissa Erbacher: Well, why don't you practice streaking by starting now?

00:05:59Scott Trickett: This feels like peer group pressure. I'm on to you. I've heard this before.

00:06:06Melissa Erbacher: This is a friend challenging you to step up yourself because that's just a little bit, you know, you can do better.

00:06:17Scott Trickett: We'll see. We'll see. I'll try, but I still want to set my next goal from September 1st and I want all adventurers to join me.

00:06:25Melissa Erbacher: There we go. Oh, okay. The challenge, to run streak in September.

00:06:30Scott Trickett: Yep.

00:06:31Melissa Erbacher: Okay. Streaky September.

Streaky September

00:06:34Scott Trickett: That's it. We've even got a catchy phrase for it.

00:06:38Melissa Erbacher: Yep, we can use that as a hashtag.

00:06:40Scott Trickett: Okay, so you will join us too, Mel.

00:06:43Melissa Erbacher: I will. And I'm not going to start earlier than that because my doctor says I shouldn't. Really? Yeah. It's a pelvic floor thing, apparently. things have moved and stuff or things are not what they were pre-pregnancy let's look at it that way and i i have been told not to overshare so i will not overshare this time no more too much information doctor uh no it may have been some feedback that i received sorry i should be your um what's the word valve Filter?

00:07:21Scott Trickett: Filter. That's a better word.

00:07:22Melissa Erbacher: You should be my valve.

00:07:24Scott Trickett: No, valve. What I let through and what I don't. I've got a wide range with a valve. With a filter, it's just too much attention to detail. With a valve, it's like on or off.

00:07:37Melissa Erbacher: Okay. Fair enough. Let's leave it at that, shall we? Let's get to some parkrun adventuring.

00:07:45Scott Trickett: Let's go. Should we have a look and listen to all our roving reports first up? We usually have them at the end, but I'm keen to see how our Channel 5 news crew is coming together.

Roving Adventurers (roving reporter crossovers)

00:07:55Melissa Erbacher: I am too. We've got an anniversary, we've got a launch, and we've got an event that's happening all the time. So let's get to it.

Channel 5 News Crew

00:08:05Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun Adventurers, G'day Mel, G'day Scotty. It's Lyndell, I'm back for the Channel 5 News crew with a roving report this morning from the launch of Greenbank parkrun to the south of Brisbane down in Logan City. Now, just before I get into that, can I just do a quick shout out to the folks at Coomera parkrun. I've got an apology to make to you guys. I interviewed a few of you for a podcast roving report a few weeks ago but had a bit of a technological fail so Mel and Scotty that might answer for you also where I've been and what I've been up to but certainly to the to the guys at Coomera my apologies guys and thanks for your patience in talking to me hopefully this one will work out a bit better and let's just see how we go now Greenbank it's a lovely rural setting here this morning You may be able to hear the birds chirping in the background. Greenbank parkrun is pretty much cross-country from what I understand. The course description says it's on grass and trails so looking forward to it. With my home run being Bunyaville it might be a nice flatter version of that. So let's see if I can track down some people to chat to and I'll see how I go. Okay, so I've found Tracy. She's looking fantastic in her lovely rainbow tutu. She's making me feel good about being in my purple tutu as well. So Tracy, whereabouts are you from? What's your home parkrun? My home parkruns Ipswich. So what's brought you to Greenbank?

00:09:40Unidentified speaker: The launch. I go around and try and get to all the launches. Okay, cool.

00:09:45Lyndell Murray: Okay so we're post run now and I've found Adam who's looking fabulous in a rainbow hat and tutu. So Adam how did you find the course today?

00:09:54Adam: It was pretty rough out there. It's the first sort of rough trail that I've ran before. I'm used to running on the paths but no all in all the run was really nice. It was good to see all the people out here and all the kids just having fun.

00:10:05Lyndell Murray: It's always fun at parkrun, isn't it?

00:10:07Adam: Yeah, it is, yeah.

00:10:08Lyndell Murray: And so is this your local parkrun or are you touristing today?

00:10:12Adam: No, I'm touristing. So Augustine Heights is my local. I sort of alternate between Augustine Heights and South Bank, but I've got a mate that lives out here, so I thought I'd come down and do the run with him.

00:10:20Lyndell Murray: Yep, great idea. Okay, I've tracked down Sylvana, and Sylvana, you're telling me that you're a local here from Greenbank?

00:10:27Sylvana: Yes, I am. I've been living in the area for about five years now, and this is my first parkrun. First ever parkrun, that's wonderful. Yes, it is, and I've been kind of looking forward to having one in the area, and I was wondering why there never ever was one, but yeah, I heard about it a few months ago and signed up, and definitely here. I'll be here as many weeks as I possibly can, so...

00:10:48Lyndell Murray: Excellent. So what does it mean to finally have a parkrun in your home community? Well, it's nice.

00:10:52Sylvana: You get to meet new people. It's always nice running with other people. It's a real good community spirit. Everyone's running for their own times. No one's racing against each other, but it's just, yeah, everyone's got their own goals. Some people run, some people walk. I love running, but yeah, it's just, that's the good thing about running compared to other sports. It's all about yourself as well as being with other people.

00:11:13Lyndell Murray: Excellent. I can't agree more. Thanks so much. Okay, so the question always comes up at parkrun launches. Are there any statesmen? And does that mean we have no statesmen now? I've managed to track down our three remaining statesmen who have maintained that status today by coming and doing the launch at Greenbank. So I've got Michael.

Statesmen update

00:11:36Unidentified speaker: Hello.

00:11:38Lyndell Murray: And Rasheen. Hello. And Alan.

00:11:41Unidentified speaker: Hi.

00:11:42Lyndell Murray: Now I have it on good authority from Alan and Rasheen that they're also doing their 100th different Australian parkrun today. So amazing, right? I'm going to ask each of you, how much effort does it take to maintain that kind of status and keep up the travel required to do this?

00:12:01Unidentified speaker: It's very difficult because we're quite involved in running parkruns with territory directors, event directors and run directors. So a lot of our time is taken up with parkruns where we have to be. So actually getting to launches is difficult, but it's fun. We always enjoy it.

00:12:15Unidentified speaker: Excellent. And what do you like most about it, Rasheen? Meeting different people and the excitement that people have of setting up a new parkrun. It brings me back to when we started ours first. And which one did you start? Wynnum parkrun, along by the bay in southeast of Queensland, of Brisbane.

00:12:33Unidentified speaker: We're coming up to our fifth anniversary next month, so we just celebrated last week our 250th Wyndham parkrun, and by some strange coincidence, that was also my 250th run in parkrun, Australian parkrun.

00:12:49Lyndell Murray: Wow, you guys have spent a lot of time running. Now Michael, you are a statesman and you're one of the celebrities of Brisbane parkrun. Everyone knows you. So again, what's it been like and how much commitment does it take to keep that status?

00:13:05Michael: Well, since I got made redundant at work, it's been very easy to keep up with things. I've got the time to be able to do a lot of travelling to get to all these runs, so a lot easier than what Alan and Racine have.

00:13:22Lyndell Murray: Yeah, excellent, excellent. And what do you like most about travelling around to the different parkruns?

00:13:28Michael: Just good to do different parkruns.

00:13:30Lyndell Murray: Yeah.

00:13:31Michael: Like this one here at Greenbank is very much different to almost every other parkrun around.

00:13:38Lyndell Murray: Appearance today here at Greenbank from the Hummingbird Heroes.

00:13:41Sam: So I've got... Sam, Spider-Man. Batman. Flash. Coven. Green Lantern.

00:13:49Lyndell Murray: I think Kevin's dressed up as the Hulk. He's being a bit shy. So, Sam, what was your role here today and what do you do as the Hummingbird Heroes?

00:13:58Sam: Well, we started this little team probably three weeks ago now for a charity run at River 100. This week we found out at the opening here that young Owen with cerebral palsy was trying to make his first parkrun. So we got the guys together and decided that we'd come down and try and help him do that, which he's never made it past one lap so far, but he's made it today, so that was good. And seeing him walk himself over the line was really good. So that's what we're just trying to do is just help some kids and do what we can.

00:14:26Lyndell Murray: And be their heroes.

00:14:27Sam: That's it, yeah, if we can.

00:14:29Lyndell Murray: Well, judging from the reception here today that you got, I think it's fair to say that you are lots of people heroes and you've done such a great job. There's tears in people's eyes today and everything. So well done, guys.

00:14:40Sam: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's all fun.

00:14:44Lyndell Murray: All right. So I'm with the event directors, Chrissy and Stuart.

00:14:47Chrissie: How are you and how did today go for you? Good. It was great. It was fantastic seeing the community come together and do exactly what it was that we were trying to achieve in starting parkrun.

00:14:58Stuart: I've been testing to see so many people at two degrees.

00:15:02Lyndell Murray: Two degrees? Nobody told me that. What was I doing here?

00:15:06Stuart: When the ground's crunchy underneath you, it's not warm.

00:15:08Lyndell Murray: No, we saw some frost out there, that's for sure. And the course, it's basically a cross-country course, this one.

00:15:15Stuart: That's exactly what we're trying to promote. It is a cross-country course. It is a true parkrun. So, yeah, the event is, there's no undulating hills, there's no big divots, but there is definitely the ability to watch for your feet and keep your footing correct and enjoy the day.

00:15:30Chrissie: And a lovely setting. Yeah, it is beautiful. We're blessed to have the lagoon and the creek throughout the course. And then the kids have got the playground and the basketball courts and football courts to wait if they're choosing not to run while mum and dad participate. Excellent.

00:15:45Lyndell Murray: So now just finally, how did you... Get into parkrun. What's your parkrun journey? Did you start running and how did you get into volunteering and run directing?

00:15:55Chrissie: I started running because the kids at Augustine Heights, because that's the kids' cross-country course for school, and that allowed them to train each week. My eldest represents school in quite a few running activities, so it was more for him. From that, I found I loved it and have just gone from there. And when I tore my calf, I was sitting at home going, I can't run, what can I do? Or what's involved in starting parkrun? I put a post on Facebook, and Stuart and I connected, and from there it's just been guns blazing. Excellent. And how about you, Stuart?

00:16:24Stuart: Much the same. We have the ability from where we live here to travel 25 minutes in either direction to gain access to three parkruns, but it's 25 minutes either direction. The pulse came up for somebody looking to join a parkrun event. Oh! Fantastic. So, you know, Chrissie and I met six months ago now. It's a long process to get to where we are today, but you've got two enthusiastic people on board, so it's fantastic.

00:16:49Lyndell Murray: Definitely enthusiastic. I think this is a great event. You've done such a great job today. The community really came together and there's some really lovely moments this morning. So well done and thanks for having me. Thank you so much for coming.

00:17:01Stuart: Thanks for coming. Here's to more parkruns.

00:17:03Lyndell Murray: Okay, Scotty and Mel, that's it. That's a wrap from me from the launch of Green Bank parkrun on behalf of the Channel 5 News crew. 251 parkrunners this morning. And it looks like a whole heap of first timers as well. So if you laced up your running shoes for the first time at a parkrun today, good on you. Some fantastic highlights today. There were superheroes. There were statesmen, three people who kept their Queensland statesmanship today. And look, if you're looking for something a little bit different, a cross-country style run instead of the usual path, you really can't go past Greenbank. It's a beautiful event, well run in a fantastic little place. So lovely bush sitting. That's it from me. See you next time.

00:17:52Gary Murphy: G'day Mel and Scott and all the parkrun adventurers. It's Gary Murphy reporting in with a roving report. This week I was lucky enough to head to Chelsea Bicentennial parkrun in the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne. I was chasing some pirate treasure for Pirate Club Induction and I certainly did find some treasure. A sparkly event team, shiny volunteers and a plethora of parkrunners tackling the out and back course. Starting from Chelsea Bicentennial Park, we followed the map north and then south to just before the Patterson River, where we turned around and headed back towards where X marks the spot. Collecting some more treasure on the way back with plenty of high fives on a super flat course. The numbers theme was great, the cake was great, everything about this parkrun is great, so if you're ever in the area, make sure you tick it off your list. Blue skies, happy parkrunning! We're at Chelsea Bicentennial parkrun's first birthday, and I've got Peter Wragg with me. And what event number are we at, Peter?

00:18:47Peter Wragg: Number 52, so our first birthday.

00:18:49Gary Murphy: And so you're the founding event director?

00:18:51Peter Wragg: I am, yes.

00:18:52Gary Murphy: And so today's your first birthday, and the theme is numbers. Numbers, yes.

00:18:56Peter Wragg: So parkrun numbers. Well, we decided to make it inclusive. Some people don't like to dress up, so it was a matter of everyone can relate to a number, so it might be their PB. it might be how many times they've run parkrun it might be how many kilos they've lost or the time distance between when they started and where they're running at now so everyone's number tells a story about their relationship with parkrun so some of the stats here we've got 33.19 that's the average time of all the parkruns here 90.15% I can't remember what that stat was. 1904 is the fastest woman and 1523 the fastest man. We've had 212 volunteers over the past year and of course many of them done it multiple times. And 26 families have volunteered and that's what's great to see. generations working here in one family the grandparents the kids and the grandchildren all run so that's just fantastic that's brilliant and I noticed that you've got a lot of your family volunteering here today I couldn't have done it without my family so the kids have stepped up and they've never run I've run for the last however many years so to see them here and they've been running they've walked it and volunteering yet they've been a terrific backstop so yeah

00:20:12Gary Murphy: And that's some brilliant numbers. And there's a lot of people wearing numbers that are important to them. Yes. And it's so great to see everybody getting involved with that. And I've heard a rumour that it's Peter's parkrun. How true is that?

00:20:24Peter Wragg: Well, my grandchildren call it Peter's parkrun, yes. That's brilliant. And my surname's Wragg, so it's worked. They were calling it Rag's Run with a W in front of the run. But really, it's Chelsea Bicentennial parkrun.

00:20:36Gary Murphy: And who came up with the idea for the numbers theme?

00:20:39Peter Wragg: My daughter-in-law and I, Taryn and I, thought of that because we were trying to think of a way of making it inclusive for everyone and it was sort of not as scary as dressing up. And to celebrate numbers because thought of it yeah oh that's brilliant Peter well thanks for talking to the parkrun adventurers you're welcome we'll get around and talk to a few more people thank you thanks for joining us Gary and I'm glad to see what's the dog's name Flynn oh good on you Flynn so Flynn's done 100 yeah he's um he's done 100 parkruns so he's very proud to wear his 100 parkrun vest oh I like his vest who made his vest one of our volunteers at um Highlands oh terrific oh fabulous oh well thank you for joining us for our first birthday thanks Peter okay see you later

00:21:23Gary Murphy: I'm here with Ben Skirker and Ben's just finished a Chelsea Bicentennial parkrun and it's the numbers parkrun and Ben's got about 12 numbers pinned to his shirt. Tell me about your numbers Ben.

00:21:32Ben: Okay yep so these are all the numbers that you know I'm proud of most of them and yeah a few of them not so much. So down the bottom here which I was trying to hide I've got the failed start from last week when the hooter didn't go off so everybody gave me it for that one and the shark man costume which a few people said looked very unfortunate for one of our runs as well so... some of the numbers that i guess i'm more proud of on here uh i've got the the 13 which is with millie which is our dog and that's not her saying hello in the background um yeah so i've got the 13 here which is um the runs that i've been able to get the dog out i really love getting involved in that um my pb which is 22 45 um and also i guess the number of volunteering that i've done for the one year which is 12 and the parkrun directing which is three so Yeah, they're the ones I'm really proud of on here and the wife gave me the costume.

00:22:22Gary Murphy: How many volunteers have you done? I'm credited for 12. Oh, there you go. It's on your shirt right in front of me.

00:22:28Ben: That's a real mixture of being a pace runner, the director. I haven't done timekeeping yet. That's on the agenda for this year. But I've done most of the other roles around here. It's great getting involved and getting a bit of different experience.

00:22:41Gary Murphy: What's your favourite role of volunteering?

00:22:45Ben: I love parkrun director. You just get to meet everyone and you just get to, you know, the other things you get involved as well, but you just get people coming up to you and telling you interesting stories or things like that. And just, you know, the vibe and things like that around here, you know, last week we had, and the thing is you can never account for what's going to happen. You know, last week the wind was up here, as I guess it was at every event. So we had to move, you know, where the people were scanning and everything like that because everything was blowing away. And so when everybody crossed the line, I had to make sure that I was greeting them all and then pointing them towards the other area because everyone was a bit confused. So just, you get thrown these interesting things and you've got to think on your feet sometimes. But yeah, I just love it.

00:23:24Gary Murphy: Yeah.

00:23:24Ben: Good on you, Ben. Thanks for talking to me, mate.

00:23:26Gary Murphy: Thank you. Cheers. So now I've found four awesome parkrunners and introduce yourselves to us. My name is Mitchell Fly.

00:23:34Unidentified speaker: I'm Julie Fly. I'm Susan Northover. And Jackie Penry.

00:23:38Gary Murphy: Great. We're sisters.

00:23:39Unidentified speaker: Yeah, we're sisters and my son.

00:23:41Gary Murphy: Except for me.

00:23:42Unidentified speaker: No, he's my son.

00:23:43Unidentified speaker: Mitch kept me honest in the run he was uh I was chasing him and then I got past him and then he was pushing me all the way home so thanks for that Mitch I appreciate it so the numbers run tell me about your numbers oh my numbers are a collection of any runs triathlons tough mudder so anything I've done like that and I've just stuck them all together like a bit of a dress

00:24:05Gary Murphy: You've got some great ones there. Great Ocean Road, Run for the Kids, Nissan, what was that one?

00:24:10Unidentified speaker: That BRW Triathlon, my first half marathon.

00:24:14Gary Murphy: And run Melbourne.

00:24:15Unidentified speaker: Yeah, and then at the back I've got a tough mother, the dirty one. So, yeah.

00:24:20Gary Murphy: That's authentic, that one. And tell me about your numbers.

00:24:23Unidentified speaker: So my numbers is my number of parkruns, 39. That was before today, so now it's 40. Number of PBs is 23. Number of PBs in a row is 11. And my PB is 36 minutes, 16 seconds.

00:24:36Gary Murphy: Outstanding. And what numbers have we got?

00:24:38Unidentified speaker: My numbers? 24. That's how many parkruns I've done. I've had six PBs in a row. I've beaten my best from the first time I ran to my PB now. 21 minutes off my time. And I've done... 13 PBs in total.

00:24:54Gary Murphy: Outstanding.

00:24:55Unidentified speaker: Yeah, and sometimes we have 12 family members come, our mum comes, there's four sisters, couple of brother-in-laws, nephews, and at the end the boys always cheer us on and Mitchell often comes and meets us with about 100 metres to go and pushes us to get over the finish line. Terrific. Helped get quite a few PBs by a couple of seconds.

00:25:17Gary Murphy: So how did you all get started in parkrun?

00:25:20Unidentified speaker: Our sister Kerry was the first one to come. She's not here at the moment. She's been in Europe for the last few weeks. They ran in Copenhagen.

00:25:27Gary Murphy: I was just going to say we've got to ask, did she do?

00:25:29Unidentified speaker: Yeah, they ran in Copenhagen. And they weren't the only Australians either. Get out. No, yeah, and there was another Australian from Canberra and she'd also done this parkrun here at Chelsea. Oh, how great. Yeah, so she started coming with her husband and three kids.

00:25:44Sylvana: Yep.

00:25:44Unidentified speaker: And then Jackie here started coming with them so that she could run with the youngest one. And then we just gone, oh, okay, we can do that too.

00:25:53Unidentified speaker: So Julie and I started coming as well. But Susan and I walked the first few and Jackie said, you should run. And we said, don't be stupid. We don't run. And now Susan calls herself a serious runner. But I did hear a gentleman behind me say today when he was running, he said, we're all winners out here today. Yeah. i love that that's yeah that's just perfect yeah it's seriously isn't it and i i heard him say that and i thought i must remember that because that was really yeah we're all here for ourselves yeah exactly and we all we're all here we're not here to beat anybody else we're all here to do this for ourselves yeah absolutely yeah have you done any other parkruns uh jackie and i did one at hastings so the morning to peninsula park one the week that this one wasn't on so that's the only other one we've done okay yeah and are you hoping to get to any other parkruns around or

00:26:42Unidentified speaker: Hoping to. I will. I'm next year travelling around Australia in the caravan, so I'll be going to parkruns for sure. Outstanding. Terrific.

00:26:51Gary Murphy: We'll look out for the sisters when they're on their tourism jaunt.

00:26:54Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:26:55Gary Murphy: Thanks for talking to me, guys. Well done today.

00:26:57Unidentified speaker: Thank you. Thank you very much.

00:27:00Gary Murphy: Now I'm here with Roger Lancaster, the Territory Director for this area. Southeast, yes.

00:27:04Roger Lancaster: Southeast. How did it go today? Today was great. I love these events because they just have so much fun. Dressing up today, I was dressed as a barcode, which obviously you can't tell over the podcast, but a basketball umpiring jersey comes in very handy. So they didn't scan me, unfortunately. But no, it was good fun. Really good fun. Well, that's disappointing that they wouldn't scan your time. No, they wouldn't even try. So I had my number and my name was freshly printed. I tried to laminate it, but that didn't work. So maybe next time. So how many parkruns have you got in your territory? I look after five. So I have Karkarook, Wilson Botanic Park, Chelsea, Berwick Springs and Frog Hollow. So I've actually got a busy day today. I've got two more. I've got to go measure one and I'm going to have a meeting with some other people about another one. So I'm hoping to have two in the area, so from the coast to the Dandenong, so we'll see how we go.

00:27:53Gary Murphy: Outstanding.

00:27:53Roger Lancaster: How good is that? Just being here today in this atmosphere here, to create that at another two parkruns is just terrific. It is, and look, lucky I look after Casey Council. A lot of my area, they list the events on their websites. They're big parkrun people, so I think they'll have probably eventually maybe five, but they've only got three. There's definitely one I'm working on in the future. There's another, we'd love to have one at Casey Fields. We just can't quite find a course. It's just great for the community and getting people out exercising. And as I said at the launch today, in my little five second speech, was 95% of people here wouldn't know someone else only because of parkrun. You've got all these new friends, so it's fantastic.

00:28:30Gary Murphy: Yeah, that was really good. At the start, we all turned to the person next to us as well to ask what their number was about. So that was really great to meet people that you previously haven't met. How did you start into parkrun?

00:28:40Roger Lancaster: i uh i just went running one uh i think it was new year's eve out at barrack springs and saw a little sign saying parkrun and uh i went home and thought i wonder what that is and googled it and was quite surprised they had about 200 people on the saturday so the following saturday i went and that was three and a half years ago so i think about 130 runs and 30 volunteers later i'm here so outstanding it's going well so oh well thanks for being territory director not a problem well done today so

00:29:05Gary Murphy: And thanks for talking to us. Anytime.

00:29:07Joanne: Greetings from Albert Melbourne. Mel and Scotty, this is Joanne sending in a roving report. Normally your reports focus on inaugural launches or anniversaries. Today we have a different inaugural event at Albert Melbourne. The debut of two new run directors, Tanya and Yvette. They're both super keen parkrunners. Yvette reached her 100th milestone last month and today really nicely will be her 25th time volunteering. Tanya joined slightly later and has run an impressive 70 parkruns and today is her 17th time in the orange vest. They're both committed to a ratio of every time they do four parkruns, they volunteer once, which is a fantastic contribution to our community. Despite being very experienced, the number of text messages and Facebook messages I've received this week from them suggests a few nerves. But they're also super enthusiastic. All our run directors start the morning by picking up the gear from a storage cage at our apartment. Scott and I only live literally 400 metres from the start line. I had to very gently point out that whilst they might be morning people and want to get a head start, 7am was far too early to come to our place to pick up the gear. Collecting the gear from our house is the first test of a run director's skills and the many skills they require for this role. And in actual fact, the key skill here is, can you play Tetris? Because the gear has to come out of the cage and fit into a variety of different car sizes and get packed in a different way. So we're heading downstairs now to get the gear.

00:30:45Yvette: Okay, we're in my garage.

00:30:46Joanne: They have successfully broken into my house and into the cage.

00:30:49Yvette: How are you feeling this morning, Yvette? Very excited. I feel like a cat burglar.

00:30:54Joanne: Mel and Scotty, I had great plans of interviewing people during the run, of interviewing Yvette and Tanya as the run went on. But like a lot of you on a Saturday, I got totally distracted by talking to people. At one point, I ended up being the photographer. At another point, I ended up doing some scanning and then chasing down volunteers for next week. So imagine there's been a great buzz. The run has gone really successfully and we're all finished and packed up and we are now at the cafe. Okay, so we are at coffee and Yvette and Tanya are doing the results. So, introduce yourselves ladies. Say hi. Hi, I'm Tanya. Hi, I'm Yvette.

00:31:30Tanya: And tell me, what made you decide to become run directors? For me, I'm a bit competitive so it's got to do with trying to do every volunteer position on the roster and so it sort of came about because of that.

00:31:46Yvette: I want praise so when I got to my 100th run I wanted to be at 20 volunteers I think and then it just snowballed and I thought I use all my experience now to run direct.

00:31:59Joanne: Fantastic. Okay, so they have just successfully processed their first set of results. So Tanya, Yvette, what was it like being run director?

00:32:09Tanya: Being run director was interesting and it was something that we were sort of working into and we thought, wow, speaking in front of a crowd, that would be a bit nerve-wracking, but the advice was it's not about speaking in front of the crowd, which I realised last week when I was handed over the coveted red backpack with all the tokens, stopwatches, barcode scanners, and having Jane left me with it, I was like, I can't believe I've got this backpack. I think that's when it really hit that I was run director.

00:32:37Yvette: Yeah, it went very smoothly today, run directing, and I think it's a credit to the volunteers and how well everything is documented that people know what they're supposed to be doing. And we're really just there to make sure that any gaps get plugged, I felt like. But yeah, Tanya, you were all over it. That primary school teacher came out, it was like everyone was in grade two and nobody was going anywhere.

00:33:00Joanne: Okay, I thought it went really well. I'm really interested, how did you hear about parkrun and what's made you keep coming back to Albert Melbourne?

00:33:08Yvette: A mutual friend of ours introduced me to parkrun. I was flatting with her and she asked me every week, come to parkrun, come to parkrun. I said, no, no, no. And then eventually I came and I never stopped. It was, I think it was the motivation of building the tally at first. 10 runs and then 20 runs. And then when I got the 50, I knew I wanted the 100. So yeah, that's what's kept me coming back, that sense of community and building something every week. Yeah. And Tanya?

00:33:39Tanya: For me, I think I ended up joining a few months after Yvette and our friend Judith. And I was often at the pool and I would end up meeting them for breakfast after their parkrun. So I heard about it. But something that happened to me, I think one Sunday morning, it was about eight o'clock and I went for a run around the lake and I think I was running in. So parkrun runs in what direction? anti-clockwise and I was running in a clockwise direction and nearly got bowled over I'm like what is this group of people and I think I asked Yvette and Judith and then I found out about parkrun by nearly getting bowled over so what are your best memories from parkrun or the ones that stand out the strongest to you

00:34:15Yvette: All my best memories are from volunteering. As soon as I started to volunteer, that's when I really started to love parkrun. So I was always a token sorter and scanner, which Mark Champion tells me is the ass end of parkrun. So I started at the bottom, but now I'm at the top, Mark. Now I'm at the top.

00:34:34Tanya: I think I'd agree with Yvette that parkrun, I guess, truly comes to life when you volunteer and you get to be part of the community. It adds to just doing a lap around the lake. And one of the things I realised is once you do it a few times, how much people are actually tracking each other and I'm going to call it friendly stalking but I'd like to name and shame Monica Wong for rivaling me in the initial stages and eventually becoming a great friend and support and it was wonderful for her to support us today which was awesome and I think the community is unbelievable and it's so unique in that everybody is so friendly and we were thinking about it one day that you could go anywhere in the world and have this community that is so welcoming. And I just, I don't think there's anything else that has that spirit.

00:35:30Joanne: Thanks Mel and Scotty for your podcast. I hope you've enjoyed this roving report from Albert Melbourne. I'm sorry about some of the background noise at the cafe. i promise in future reports to get better at working out where i am and who's talking that's dr scott's voice you can hear murmuring in the background but we finally got him to stop talking by moving him to another table i look forward to next episode of the parkrun adventures

Meet the ED

00:36:02Scott Trickett: We're back in Victoria. We're going to visit Castlemaine, one of the prettiest parkruns going around. And this week we're joined by Luke Kneebone, the ED from Castlemaine. Welcome to the podcast, Luke.

00:36:14Luke Kneebone: G'day guys, thanks for having me.

00:36:16Scott Trickett: Castlemaine, I was involved with you at the very start. How long have you been going for now? It seems a while.

00:36:24Luke Kneebone: Yeah, we're up to, oh, just over two years. We're up to about 117, I think, 118 coming up. And yeah, going really well. still slowly growing.

00:36:34Scott Trickett: And everything tickings along there. What sort of numbers do you get at Castlemaine?

00:36:38Luke Kneebone: Yeah, our average has crept up from, I don't know, mid-40s to about 60 now. I think our biggest might have been our second anniversary, our 100th run, actually, and it was about 123. We drop off during winter. I think we've had 40s and 50s last few weeks, like probably most southern parkruns. But, yeah, averaging about 60, still climbing, I think.

00:37:05Melissa Erbacher: And what's your course like, Luke? Can you give us a breakdown for those who've never visited before?

00:37:10Luke Kneebone: Yeah, it's a three-lapper, which puts some people off, I think, but probably until they get there, because it is... Yeah, we're so lucky to have access to run around the Castlemaine Botanic Gardens, and it's, yeah, a beautiful gravel track, and it's great all year round, so... You know, it's probably my favourite time is autumn. But then in summer, it's beautifully shaded, but it doesn't get too hot. And even in winter, there's something great about being down on those crisp mornings as well. So, yeah, it really is. A lot of the visitors say it's one of the more beautiful courses they've run.

00:37:51Melissa Erbacher: Sounds gorgeous. I always love hearing about the ones that are run through or around Botanic Gardens because, you know, you guys have definitely got the cultivated nature to really show off your course. How did you get involved with parkrun, Luke? What's your parkrun story?

00:38:10Luke Kneebone: Yeah, I guess I've been just a keen amateur runner for a couple of years since finishing footy. I've never heard of parkrun until a mate from work mentioned that he'd been to one or seen one, I think, down in Melbourne. Unfortunately, he got injured just as I was looking into it and He became a cycling fanatic after that, but he hasn't actually even been to a parkrun, even though it was probably his idea that got me interested in looking into it, I guess. And, yeah, I was probably travelling, you know, up to Bendigo to do runs and down to Melbourne and stuff, and I just thought it'd be great. I knew we had a great community here that would probably get behind it and that would be great as something local.

00:38:59Scott Trickett: You're nice and fast, Luke. You said you're an amateur runner. And Castlemaine's pretty fast as well. It's nice and flat. Have you seen some quick guys come down, guys and girls, and have a real crack at it?

00:39:12Luke Kneebone: We have. I think our record's still from our first or second run. I think he's only been once, down at the 16-minute mark. And I think our female record was recently broken and down around the 19. So, yeah, it is a quick course. And it is flat, although you think it's perfectly flat until you're doing your third lap up towards the finish line. And it is a slight, probably 200-metre climb that surprises most runners.

00:39:41Scott Trickett: Now, you've got something special happening this weekend too. Do you want to explain what you've got planned and how it came about?

00:39:49Luke Kneebone: Yeah, we do. We've got a cultural day at our normal parkrun time. And I guess it's just to... look at where we run, which is beautiful, but look at it from a different perspective, I guess. It's an urbanised area and it's a botanic garden so there's lots of European bush and plants and stuff. But yeah, we're interested in learning and listening to what it used to be like, I guess. So yeah, we've got involved with some local Indigenous leaders and explained to them what we do and and invited them down to share some of their stories and culture and history about the place. Yeah, so we're really excited that they were more than willing to get involved and it should be a really special morning, I think.

00:40:44Melissa Erbacher: What was their initial reaction when you approached them? Do you have any Indigenous members of the community that already participate at your parkrun, Luke?

00:40:53Luke Kneebone: No, we don't and that's probably another aim and motivation for for holding events, we probably are a pretty, even though we're really inclusive and we've got diverse personalities, obviously, down at parkrun, we're probably not culturally very diverse. So, yeah, if we could engage some of the local Indigenous community and at least tell them we're there and what we offer and hopefully out of it we might get it, you know, we might get a few guys come down and have a good time as well.

00:41:25Scott Trickett: This is something we're starting to see a bit more at parkruns. I've been to a few parkruns where they do an acknowledgement of land. I've done it myself before. Do you do that at Castlemaine? I presume you'll do it this weekend.

00:41:38Luke Kneebone: Well, yeah, Aunty Julie will do it for us this weekend, which would be great. But probably one of the reasons that led us to thinking about this day was when we did do that at our launch, it sort of dawned on us that... we'd engage with the council, we'd engage with the botanic garden staff and ticked all the boxes that we needed to with parkrun as well but once we went to do that acknowledgement or plan what we were going to say it kind of dawned on us and we were a bit embarrassed that we hadn't actually spoken to the traditional custodians of that place where we were going to be running each week and ever since then I guess we spoke as a group and we really wanted to get in touch and Yeah, and talk to them and engage with them. And it's taken a couple of years, I guess, with everything that's been going on in parkrun and in our lives. And we were hoping to do it for NAIDOC earlier this year, but we didn't quite get there. But I don't think it matters. There's always different days. And this week is actually, there's International Day of the World of Indigenous People. It fits in nicely there as well.

00:42:49Scott Trickett: Can I ask you, around your thinking about why you did it at launch. Why do you think it's important for parkrun events to acknowledge the land that we're running on?

00:42:58Luke Kneebone: Yeah, I guess that's a pretty, it's a big sort of question. It's topical at the moment, but to me personally, it just seems a little bit silly that we got permission off, you know, the council of obviously caretakers of that part of the the land now but they have only been for such a short amount of time so it'll be interesting to see if other new park owners look at it in the future that for me I think it's really important that we speak to the local traditional custodians as well and it could be and it's going to be interesting on the weekend we could be running past really significant cultural sites or places where things have happened that are really important both good and bad to indigenous people and And just from speaking to Kath and Aunty Julie, I've already got a couple of little glimpses or stories of how they view, you know, the creek that we run past and a little bit of remnant bush at the other side of the creek and things like that. So, yeah, I think it's going to be great for everyone. And, yeah, I think it's important as well just to know where we... You know, we go there so often. We're there week in, week out. And, you know, we hate to be offending anyone or... or not paying the respect that we should be to the area, I guess.

00:44:16Scott Trickett: Look, I'll put my cards on the table. I couldn't agree more. Look, as I said, I've done it before. I encourage it. I think it's a real part of our community and our culture that we need to learn a lot more about than I think if parkrun can be leaders in this area. I can only see it as a good thing. So I applaud you for what you're doing. And you're right, there's lots of little stories if you start to get involved. You could be walking past an area that has really significant historical stories to tell that you would never know. And I think we can all be better off for learning about this stuff. So I hope you have an awesome morning.

00:44:54Luke Kneebone: Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I'm sure we will.

00:44:56Melissa Erbacher: So, Luke, are you going to be starting the event a little bit early this week? Do you have some special ceremonial-type things that you'll be doing?

00:45:04Luke Kneebone: Yeah, we are. We're starting a little bit earlier. We're going to start at quarter to eight. That'll give us time for Aunty Julie to do an acknowledgement and also we're going to do a smoking ceremony as well, which should be fantastic. And then as runners come in... There's going to be some food using Indigenous ingredients and some coffee available. So we're hoping everyone will stick around and have a bite to eat. Bring some change because they're going to be selling a little bit of food there. It'll be a great way to support the group and Eldoran. And also while we're having a bite, there's going to be a few more stories and cultural activities taking place. And then everyone's invited to take part in a cultural walk, which you'll walk through the gardens and we'll get to learn about some of the history and the culture and the stories.

00:46:03Melissa Erbacher: Sounds fantastic.

00:46:05Scott Trickett: Now, we are the parkrun Adventurers. Do you get around to a few other events?

00:46:09Luke Kneebone: Yeah, I've been lucky enough to get to a few, mainly just that I'm working in different places or occasionally I'm and I ran into you a couple of weeks ago down at Parkville, which was fantastic.

00:46:21Scott Trickett: Another great event.

00:46:25Luke Kneebone: Gave you a head start.

00:46:26Scott Trickett: Yeah, you did. Didn't you know it started at 8 o'clock?

00:46:30Luke Kneebone: I just couldn't get off work quick enough.

00:46:32Scott Trickett: Good excuse. But you're in Melbourne, so you're an opportunity to partake in some Melbourne parkruns while you're down here. Have you got any planned?

00:46:42Luke Kneebone: Not immediately, but yeah, I'd definitely like to give, obviously, Albert Park's fairly iconic I'd like to give that a go, and possibly Coburg as well, which is pretty nice, which would be good because I've only really done the regional ones, I guess, close to us, Bendigo, Ballarat. I've been over to Inverloch a couple of times visiting family. So, yeah, it would be good to check out some of the city ones.

00:47:09Melissa Erbacher: Well, Luke, enjoy your adventures in and around Melbourne and perhaps further afield into the future and have a fantastic weekend on Saturday. We look forward to hearing all about how you went.

00:47:22Luke Kneebone: Yeah, thanks, guys. Thanks for having me on and hopefully get a few tourists there on the weekend. It'd be great to see some new faces. Thank you.

00:47:38Melissa Erbacher: There's a bit of a big deal going on in the world at the moment with some championship athletics in London. And who better to tell us all about it than one of our favorite guests. Back on the show, it's Dave Robbo-Robertson.

00:47:53Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Hey guys, how are you going?

00:47:56Melissa Erbacher: Really well, thanks, Dave. What's going on in London?

00:48:00Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: London, well, a lot of things are going on in London, but in particular, for the running and athletics fans right around the world, we have the 16th edition of the IAAF World Athletics Championships. We're in the thick of it at the moment. They've been going since Saturday just gone, and they'll continue for almost another week or so. So, yeah, we're in the thick of the action at the moment, and... The Aussies have sent, I think it's the biggest team ever actually. About 62 athletes are over there running, jumping, walking and chucking their little hearts out. And yeah, it's been great to follow it so far.

00:48:39Melissa Erbacher: So what's been good? Give us some of the highlights.

00:48:42Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Well, I mean, I'm always biased as you guys and your listeners and the listeners to the podcast are on the running events. And I've got to say, hands down, the best thing that's happened so far from an Aussie perspective has been the women's marathon and parkrunner and guest on parkrun adventurers, Jess Trengove. She got a, got herself in the, in the top 10 in the women's marathon on the weekend. And that was super exciting. She actually found herself in the lead at, at about the 30 K mark. And that's, kind of unheard of these days in an era when East African distance runners usually dominate the men's and women's marathon races. But there she was and was able to hold on. The pace sort of picked up and she wasn't able to go with the surges, but she was able to hold on to top 10. She moved into ninth, actually, with a little sprint finish at Tower Bridge in London. So for Australians to finish in the top 10 at a world champs. Rob de Castella, who won it in 1983, and then Steve Moneghetti, So she's in some rare company there, and that was super exciting. And in that same women's race, other Aussies, and current parkrun Australia record holder, it must be said, Sinead Diver, she finished 20th, and Milly Clark, 24th. And the men's marathon happened a little bit before that, and we sent, I guess we were blooding some newcomers there, and Jack Colreavy was the best of the Aussies. He finished, I think it was 45th or 47th. He moved through the pack pretty nicely. And Brad Milosevic, a little bit behind him in the 60th position. And unfortunately, Josh Harris, he had to pull out. He's a Launceston boy. He's done parkrun down there a bunch of times. But he pulled out with what is actually a stress fracture in his foot just before 30K. So a bit of a shame for Josh. But yeah, in the marathon, it was pretty exciting.

00:50:29Scott Trickett: On the marathon, a three-lap course for a major race. That's a bit unusual, isn't it?

00:50:34Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Tough gig, I think, Scotty. Yeah, great for the crowds. And I would have loved to have been over there. It looked like a great day. I think it actually ended up being a four-lap course and a bit of a hill each time as well. And all those turns that you've got to make certainly would knock it out of you. That added to the heat of the day. So it was sort of around 20, 21 degrees, which doesn't sound much when you live in Australia. But that's pretty warm to be running a marathon in. The women's race was actually at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Yeah, tough conditions, which makes Jess's run all the more impressive, and her time especially. She ran two hours 28.59. And, yeah, I think the stats all over the place, but that's the quickest an Aussie female has ever run at a World Champs marathon. And, yeah, it wouldn't have been easy, but she really, I guess, found a good rhythm and was able to sort of continue on and finish strong.

00:51:31Sam: So, yeah. Yeah.

00:51:33Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Interesting to see how she's gone. And she's obviously, you know, you put that run on a Gold Coast marathon flat, fast course. It's probably even a 2.26 or 7 I might envisage. So, yeah, great run.

00:51:46Scott Trickett: Great job by the girls and the guys. What about if we move inside the stadium? How are the Aussies faring inside the stadium?

00:51:53Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: It's not as good, is it? Not quite as good. Last night, actually, and yesterday, we saw another couple of top 10 finishes. Now, the women's javelin, Kelsey-Lee Roberts, she finished in 10th in the final there. So she's a young Canberra thrower. She got a bronze medal in the Glasgow Comm Games, and she'll look good, I think, for when the Gold Coast Comm Games roll around. And the other one was in the men's pole vault, Kurtis Marschall from South Australia. He finished 7th, and he's only 20 years old. So that was a fantastic result for him as well in a lot. a lot of these athletes have an eye on the upcoming Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. So they're kind of building for that. But, yeah, we've had probably some disappointments on the track, right from our shorter sprints up to the distance events. On the first day, we had the men's 10,000-metre final, and we had the Aussie, Pat Tiernan, in that. And he was kind of looking pretty good for a while, but he's ended up – a lot slower than what he can do, almost two minutes slower than his personal best, so 29.20, which for us listening is not mucking around, but unfortunately put him back to the back of the field. Winning that race was Mo Farah, and he's a big parkrun advocate himself. He's done parkrun over there in London at Bushy a number of times, but he took it out, and that was his third straight World Champs 10,000 metre title, and he's going for actually the triple-double and the men's 5,000 metres, if he can win that, he'll have, yeah, six consecutive 10,000 and 5,000 metre gold medals, so an amazing career for Mo, and this is his last races on the track, so yeah, pretty cool experience for the Aussies to be sharing that, I guess, with him, but yeah, other, I guess, results on the track, we had our women in the 1,500 metres, Zoe Buckman made it into the semi-final there, but wasn't able to progress, and The women's 10,000 metres. parkrunners Eloise Willings and Madeline Hills. They finished a bit back down the field, 22nd and 26th. So, yeah, probably a little bit off where they would have liked to have been. But, yeah, both of them have plenty more to offer as well. So, yeah, it's been certainly pretty lean on. No medals for the Aussies yet. But Sally Pearson is going to come out on the track soon. We've got our what I call the parkrun World Championships heating up with the men's heats tonight. So we've got three Aussies in that. So it's going to be pretty exciting to see what can happen from here. And I reckon, don't rule us out, I reckon we're going to come home pretty strong for the last, you know, final section of the World Champs.

00:54:37Scott Trickett: Can I take you back to the winner of the women's 10K event?

00:54:41Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Yes.

00:54:41Scott Trickett: She lapped the field. She nearly lapped the field. This was a bit unusual, isn't it?

00:54:47Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Outstanding run. It's raised some eyebrows. As a Listeners might remember, she's the same runner that won the gold medal in Rio, Scotty, in the 10,000 metres in what was a huge world record run over there. Now, she was about a minute off that world record this time because they started out pretty conservatively. But she ran some incredible 5k. The second 5k was ridiculously fast. You're right. There wasn't many runners in that race that she didn't lap. Yeah. And, yeah, very close to lapping the runners in second and third position. I think there was about 300 metres gap from first to second in the end. So, look, she's... Yeah, Almaz Ayana is her name. She's from Ethiopia. Look, I don't want to get too controversial on this show, but, yeah, there's certainly some people that have some vested interest in the sport, raising their eyebrows around her performance. There's been some issues around the doping issues controls and the the setup of the anti-doping agencies in Ethiopia not being maybe as as efficient and as uh you know well organized as they could be and the other thing it's a bit unusual is that she hasn't raced at all this season um which you know read into that whatever you like but yeah we haven't seen much of her this season so it's kind of hard to know what sort of form she was going to bring in but um yeah she's clearly you know a fantastic runner and she just It was, you know, gold medal was locked in pretty early on in that race and it was just, you know, fight for the minor medals in that one. So I reckon, you know, tough for the Aussie girls as well because, you know, you've got someone like that out in front and that suddenly they start to put that surge on and pull the field along. You're probably using a bit more juice than you would have liked to. So, yeah, interesting race. Interesting, you know, interesting... set of circumstances to come out of it, but I don't want to, you know, put a dampener on it. Great run. And yeah, you know, I just hope everyone at these championships are clean and they're all doing the right thing. Anything other than that would be immensely disappointing for a sport that really is, you know, in the spotlight and needs to rebuild itself.

00:56:57Melissa Erbacher: Robbo, you mentioned the temperature for the marathon was a bit challenging. Has the weather sort of impacted times in general? Have they been slower? Have we seen any world records?

00:57:10Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: No, we haven't. I was just on a run this morning with a mate talking a little bit about that. And yes, the times have been a bit slower, Mel, on the track. Hearing some reports that later on in the evening sessions, it's been a bit chilly. The 400 metre men's world gold medalists last night, Wayde van Niekerk, who's also the world record holder and Olympic champion, he actually mentioned how cold it was and he felt like he couldn't get going and couldn't get his momentum going because it was so chilly. So, you know, and he was about a second or so off what he can run. We saw in the men's 100 metre final and the semis, you know, they weren't quick times. They were only just getting under 10 seconds. So, you know, Usain Bolt with his world record well and truly under 10 seconds and he was only able to sort of just scrape under on his way to getting the bronze medal behind Justin Gatlin. So, yeah, I wonder if the track is playing a bit of a role. The Mondo surface on the track, when they're laid, they reckon they've got a lifespan, a really good lifespan, a quick lifespan of only a few years. So that was 2012 for the London Olympics. You'd have to assume it's been kept in pretty good nick. But I wonder if, yeah, if the conditions and the track are are causing some of the not quite as fast times as we might have expected.

00:58:27Melissa Erbacher: So what's left to go? We've still got another roughly week.

00:58:32Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Yeah.

00:58:32Melissa Erbacher: What can we look forward to?

00:58:34Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Yeah, look, I think you're going to find the medal, best medal chances, well, in particular, one of them in the walks. Unfortunately, news has just come through in the last 24 hours that probably one of our red hot gold medal favourites, Jared Tallent, has had to pull out of the 50K walk where he was, you know, he was a big favourite there. So, He won't be in that, but Dane Bird-Smith, who got a bronze medal in the Rio Olympics in the 20K walk, I'm going to book him in for a medal, hopefully the goldest, shiniest one. And then Sally Pearson, that's going to be super exciting to see how she goes as well. A big comeback for her. She's been running really, really well. That will be on Friday evening. We'll see her, our time, see her in the heats, and hopefully she can make her way through heat semis and into a final, and she could definitely get a medal there. So really exciting to see how Sally can go. And then I'll probably circle out the men's 1500 metres. Ryan Gregson, who made the final of the Rio Olympics, he's a big chance of doing so again. And, you know, anything can happen in those 1500 metre races when they're tactical, and he certainly could get himself in the mix for a medal there. So I'd love to see how well he can go. But, yeah, I guess a soft spot for us is the men's and women's 5,000 metre races and those heats will kick off like I said before on actually on Thursday night Australian time Thursday morning sorry Thursday morning Australian time for the men and then Friday morning Australian time for the women so you know that's that's going to be pretty exciting to see how we go we've got full fields three in each and I'm calling it the parkrun effect you know there's not many events where we've got three men and three women in those events but the parkrun distance. We're there waving the flag. So hopefully they can do well and make us proud.

01:00:25Scott Trickett: Indeed. Robbo, you always make us proud. Come on and keep us informed about what's happening over in the athletics world. Thanks for doing it again. And we might have to get you back on again next week for a complete wrap up of the parkrun championships.

01:00:42Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Absolutely guys. Not a problem. And yeah, thanks. Thanks for the interest in, In the athletics world. And, yeah, hopefully we've got plenty of good news to report next time.

01:01:01Scott Trickett: Now, Mel, I know you haven't been as plugged in to the World Champs so far. You've still got a few more days. Are you excited now after hearing Robbo?

01:01:12Melissa Erbacher: He's just got that way about him, doesn't he, Scotty?

01:01:15Scott Trickett: He does.

01:01:16Melissa Erbacher: He sucks you in. Makes you want to sit down right away and watch people running around in circles on a track.

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

01:01:23Scott Trickett: So there's plenty happening still over in London this weekend, as are launches and anniversaries. Where are we going for cake this week, Mel?

01:01:35Melissa Erbacher: Well, if you want cake, you're most likely to get it at the anniversary, which is just Wishart this weekend. Wow. In Queensland.

01:01:44Scott Trickett: That's a quiet one for cake.

01:01:46Melissa Erbacher: It is. And it'll be doubly as noisy next year because we've also got a launch at Torquay in Victoria.

01:01:56Scott Trickett: Torquay. This is a big one. Torquay. Is it? You've heard of Torquay, haven't you?

01:02:01Melissa Erbacher: I've heard of it, yes. But is it going to be a big launch?

01:02:03Scott Trickett: I'm not sure. I just think it's a big event for us Melbourne folk, us Victorians. Torquay is quite iconic. It's the beach town. It's Bell's Beach Surf Festival, all that sort of stuff.

01:02:18Melissa Erbacher: Does it bridge a geographical gap in the parkrun map?

01:02:22Scott Trickett: There is. Yeah, so it's a very popular part of Victoria, particularly in summer.

01:02:28Unidentified speaker: And there's lots of good trails running around that area.

01:02:32Scott Trickett: So getting a parkrun in Torquay is very exciting.

01:02:36Melissa Erbacher: Oh, and there's another one not too far from you to pop along to.

01:02:40Scott Trickett: Yes. Yeah.

01:02:41Melissa Erbacher: As I said, it's a couple of hour drive, but... Well, that's not too far.

01:02:45Scott Trickett: No.

01:02:46Melissa Erbacher: Not for an adventurer.

01:02:47Scott Trickett: No. But I'll just warn you, next couple of weeks, a couple of new ones coming up in metropolitan Melbourne.

01:02:55Melissa Erbacher: Oh, really? And I hear you're going to get a new Queensland event in this weekend too.

01:03:00Scott Trickett: I will. I will. So we'll be even and then I'll jump ahead for the next couple of weeks. So that's good.

01:03:06Melissa Erbacher: Oh, well, you're making a lot of assumptions there. You don't know what I'm doing in the next few weeks.

01:03:10Scott Trickett: This is true, but I know what I'm doing and the pressure's on you, Mel Erbacher. Okay.

01:03:18Melissa Erbacher: We'll see.

01:03:19Scott Trickett: Yes.

01:03:19Melissa Erbacher: We'll see.

01:03:21Scott Trickett: But we're running together this week. So remember that bit I said last week how we weren't going to have a pod next week? I'm just teasing you all because I think we'll have one. We might do it together.

01:03:33Melissa Erbacher: In the actual presence of each other? Yeah.

01:03:35Scott Trickett: Let's try for something like that.

01:03:37Melissa Erbacher: Okay. That could be weird. We haven't done that since Melbourne last year.

01:03:41Scott Trickett: Yeah. No promises, but that's the plan.

01:03:46Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

01:03:46Melissa Erbacher: Could be fun.

01:03:47Scott Trickett: Yep.

01:03:48Melissa Erbacher: All right. Well, it's been a mammoth episode this week, so we should let everybody finish their runs. They're all probably exhausted.

01:03:55Scott Trickett: Thanks for joining us. See you all next week.