Episode 80

Episode details · 202 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:13Melissa Erbacher: This is episode 80 of the parkrun Adventurers. If you pressed play and that is not what you were expecting to hear, then you've got the wrong podcast. Scotty, we're in the 80s.

Streaky September

00:00:27Scott Trickett: Mel, we are in the 80s. Love the 80s. Sick of the 70s. Glad to be in the 80s.

00:00:33Melissa Erbacher: Yep. It's all going to be big hair, bad clothes from here on in for the next 10 episodes.

00:00:38Scott Trickett: Now, you were born in the 80s, weren't you? I was born in the 70s, so I'm glad that's over.

00:00:45Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, 80s were a good time. Good times.

00:00:49Scott Trickett: This is going to be your stretch. So we're going to come into your own. You've had 79 episodes to warm up. Now we're going to find the true Mel.

00:00:59Melissa Erbacher: So you're expecting me to bring my A-game now, like after all this time? Just for the next... I have to be some sort of professional?

00:01:05Scott Trickett: Just for the next 10 episodes. That's all I ask.

00:01:09Melissa Erbacher: Then you can go back. I will try.

00:01:10Scott Trickett: Then you can go back. Once we hit episode 90...

00:01:14Melissa Erbacher: Because the 90s, then it's free for all.

00:01:19Scott Trickett: You know, last week I said I was a kid of the 80s because I have memories of being a kid in the 80s. But I think I was in my prime in the 90s. So I'm going to be a bit meh for the next 10 episodes.

00:01:33Melissa Erbacher: Oh, and then you're going to hit your stride on the way to 100.

00:01:36Scott Trickett: If you could carry us for the next 10, that would be great. Some would say I've already carried us for the first 79, so it would be nice if you could chip in for 10.

00:01:49Melissa Erbacher: Okay. I will try to do my best since I've obviously been slacking all this time.

00:01:56Scott Trickett: How's your body holding up?

00:01:59Melissa Erbacher: In relation to streaking or in relation to I haven't slept for more than two and a half hours in three months?

00:02:05Scott Trickett: Mel, I don't care about your sleep patterns. I want to hear about your streaking.

00:02:11Melissa Erbacher: My legs are feeling it. And it's ridiculous because I'm just, I mean, no disparity to walking two kilometers because it's a distance. It is.

00:02:24Scott Trickett: Coming off a base of nothing.

00:02:26Melissa Erbacher: Coming off the base of nothing, it's, yeah, my legs are like, what do you mean we're going out again? We did this yesterday and the day before and the day before. So, yeah, everything else seems to be coping okay, although one of my walks already kind of turned into a little bit of a walk-run situation where I was a little bit worried about wetting myself, but, you know, these things happen.

00:02:52Scott Trickett: Was it raining?

00:02:54Melissa Erbacher: It was raining, yes. Thank God for that. But that's not why I was talking about wetting myself. Just to clarify. It was the running that was going to make that happen. You will be pleased to hear that I didn't, but you just never know. I wonder if my running gait was like somebody who's worried on the way to a toilet. They're just sort of shuffling as fast as they can, but their legs are kind of being held a bit together. I don't know. It was dark and there weren't very many people around by that stage because it was raining and they were all smart and they were indoors. But Wes didn't like it. He was screaming his head off, so I had to get him back to the car so we could hide until Adam finished his run.

00:03:39Scott Trickett: Okay. So, but the whole family's still streaking?

00:03:43Melissa Erbacher: Yes, we're all streaking together. We're all on the streak. Nobody's missed a day yet.

00:03:50Scott Trickett: Good. Good.

00:03:51Melissa Erbacher: How about Team Trickett?

00:03:52Scott Trickett: No, I'm still on track, which is better than last month. If we recall, I lasted three days in August, which is how this all started. But I'm still at it.

00:04:00Melissa Erbacher: You've eclipsed August already.

00:04:03Scott Trickett: Yeah, we have. Excellent. And it was touch and go on Monday night, I've got to tell you.

00:04:09Melissa Erbacher: Which was day one.

00:04:10Scott Trickett: No, no, no, we started on Friday.

00:04:11Melissa Erbacher: No, no, Monday night, not Friday night. Yeah, this is true. Okay. Touch and go on Monday night. What happened on Monday?

00:04:17Scott Trickett: Well, yeah, no, it was touch and go Friday as well. So Friday night we went out really late. But again, the whole family got involved. So we were out shopping, came home late. And it just had to be done. So we went up to a trail up near where we live and it was nice and dark. Kasia brought her torch. So it was a real adventure. So Kasia and Yvonne walked two kilometers and I ran four up and back around them. Kasia really liked it because it was dark and the animals were out. So it really was a bit of an adventure for her and she's stuck to it. She's mildly excited about streaking.

00:05:00Melissa Erbacher: Mildly excited. That's a lot for a child her age.

00:05:03Scott Trickett: Yeah. And on Monday night, it was, I just didn't want to do it. You know, there's a reason we admire these people that do this. It's because on Monday, I didn't want to.

00:05:14Melissa Erbacher: Do you think it's because, like I don't know about you, but do you sort of plan, okay, I know I have to do a run this day, so look at it the day before and decide when will be the best time frame to do it? Or you just got to Monday and you went to work and you did all your normal stuff and then it got to be later in the evening and you thought, oh crap, I've still got a streak and I haven't done it yet.

00:05:35Scott Trickett: That's pretty much it, yeah.

00:05:37Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, this is where I'm starting to have some troubles as well. So I think I'm going to have to be a bit more proactive with the planning. So for example, Tuesday, I lined up a Tuesday streak in the evening. So I was definitely, you know, there was a time and there was a place and a person that I was going to do it with. So that's all going to make it happen. Thursday, I've got a course recce to do somewhere else. It's like, all right, that'll be my streak for Thursday. So You know, parkrun day is the most obvious one where everyone's like, all right, well, I'll do parkrun and then that'll cover my streak. I volunteered last week, so that didn't work for me. That was actually my hardest day. It was Saturday, you know, it's just like, oh, when am I going to get out and actually do some exercise today? It's – yeah, I think I'm going to have to be a bit more careful about planning in advance. Otherwise, I'm going to be like you and get to the end of the day and go, oh, I've got to go out and walk up and down the street in the dark for two kilometers.

00:06:35Scott Trickett: Which is exactly pretty much what we did on Monday. But we're only a week in, Mel. We've got three to go, three and a bit to go. I'm a little bit worried at this stage. I'm confident that we can both do it, but I'm a little bit worried.

00:06:50Melissa Erbacher: I think – I think we need to add some extra excitement to the streaking. Yes. And make it not just be about the everyday. I think we need to send out those challenges and maybe make some streaky bingo or something where, you know, there's a whole bunch of different things that people have to do by the end of the month and they can choose when to do them. But it's just going to add some variety to their streaks.

00:07:12Scott Trickett: Well, should we start it? Because you were going to do a pajama run.

00:07:16Melissa Erbacher: I was, but you know what? It's got really hot up here. Has it? Yeah, spring happened.

00:07:22Scott Trickett: Were you summer nighty?

00:07:25Melissa Erbacher: I might be more inclined to get arrested for wearing what I wear to bed in summertime than I would for wearing flannelette pyjamas.

00:07:32Scott Trickett: Well, that is the other problem, isn't it? Some people don't have pyjamas.

00:07:36Melissa Erbacher: Exactly. So... Yes, but, so I don't know if that's going to be possible, that particular one, a pyjama streak.

00:07:45Scott Trickett: Well, should we make it simple? For this week, it's got to be a freedom run. I'm already helping you out because you're going to do a course recce on Thursday, so you can count that.

00:07:56Melissa Erbacher: But that course isn't launched yet, so. It doesn't matter. I can't log it as a freedom run if it doesn't exist.

00:08:03Scott Trickett: Okay. Okay.

00:08:04Melissa Erbacher: Because don't you have to choose the course, to select the course when you're logging Freedom Runs? It's been a while since I've done one.

00:08:11Scott Trickett: I think you do. But I think as long as the web page is up and active, it counts.

00:08:17Melissa Erbacher: No, they're not that. It's early in the development stages. All right. Well, can we park that one and just make that one you have to do it sometime during September? Everybody's got to do a Freedom Run? Sure. And not actually allocate it to a particular week? Sure. Okay, cool. Um, I've already done a night time one and that probably wouldn't motivate me to get out and actually do it is having it at night time because that's when I'm tired.

00:08:46Scott Trickett: How about we crack on with the rest of the show?

00:08:49Melissa Erbacher: And maybe by the end we'll have to do something.

00:08:51Scott Trickett: I mean, we're going to interview a couple of people just while that's happening. Think up, you know, interview's not important.

00:08:58Melissa Erbacher: No, we never pay attention to our guests while we're talking to them anyway.

00:09:00Scott Trickett: Nope.

00:09:03Melissa Erbacher: All right, good plan, Scotty.

00:09:04Scott Trickett: Except for the next one. There you have our full attention. And I'm excited to chat to our next guest, shall we?

00:09:14Melissa Erbacher: You're excited, aren't you? I am excited.

00:09:16Scott Trickett: Can you tell him my voice?

00:09:21Melissa Erbacher: I can. Good. I'm picking up the excitement tones.

00:09:24Scott Trickett: I hate to give the impression that I'm excited when I'm not, but I definitely am, so let's crack on. Over the past couple of years, I've become a little bit of a fanboy of this event that happens over in Europe called the UTMB. It's growing every year, and this year, one of the Aussies did really, really well, so we thought we'd get Kellie Emmerson on the podcast and have a chat about her race. Welcome to the parkrun Adventurers, Kelly.

00:09:43[music]

00:10:03Kellie Emmerson: Hi, guys. Thanks very much for having me.

00:10:05Scott Trickett: Now, you tackled it this year, and you did really well, being the first Australian to

00:10:10Kellie Emmerson: I did, thank you. Yes, it was probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.

00:10:15Scott Trickett: I can imagine. So let's go back. Let's take it back to basics. Explain for our listeners who don't know what it is, who aren't fanboys like myself, what did you put yourself through over the weekend?

00:10:26Kellie Emmerson: Yeah, so the UTMB stands for the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc. It is the biggest trail running race in the world, or ultra distance trail running race in the world. It's about 170 kilometres with over 10,000 metres of elevation gain. To throw into the mix of that, we had the most terrible conditions that they've had in 15 years. We had blizzards, snow, crazy wind. It was about minus 10 overnight, I think, and probably during the day as well. So, yeah, it was pretty intense.

00:11:02Melissa Erbacher: I love this description from Trail Run magazine that they say that it's effectively like running four marathons in thin air while running up and down a 3,500-storey building. You've been there and done it. Can you clarify whether or not that's exactly what it's like?

00:11:20Kellie Emmerson: Yeah, that's really good. Yeah, look, it's hard. There's sections that are nice and runnable, which is great, and then there's other times where the climbs just go on forever and ever. It's nothing like that. running in Australia. It's completely different. And I felt about the cold. That was probably the biggest challenge for me was the cold.

00:11:39Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, we were discussing this a little bit earlier, Scotty and I, about the fact that we, in terms of terrain, we don't really have what you must have been facing while you're running around over that 28 plus hours. The people that finished a little bit ahead of you, you came fifth overall, but the ladies who finished ahead, they're from Spain, Switzerland, France, Japan, you know, they all have mountain ranges that they can possibly train in. How do you prepare for something like this?

00:12:12Kellie Emmerson: Yeah, look, it's challenging trying to compete against these girls when I come from Australia. I live at the base of the Dandenong Ranges and so that's my home training grounds. and it's just getting out and doing lots of hiking and doing lots of repeats of every steep hill that I can find in there. But it's also about trying to have some weekends away. We can get away from home and away from all the distractions. We did a recce of the Hutt to Hutt course through the Big Alps, and probably the biggest lead-in race was doing the Kokoda Ultra Marathon, which ended up being the perfect lead-in race because... Just the technicality of both courses. There was so much mud at UTMB. It was more mud than that Kokoda and the tree roots and things. So that gave me a lot of good strength on legs over, you know, we did 96Ks over three days on that course. Yeah, so just finding different ways of getting that hiking and that strength in.

00:13:16Scott Trickett: They call it a race, but over 170 kilometres and the distance and the terrain that you're travelling. Are you able to race it? I mean, it took you 28 hours. Are you racing for 28 hours?

00:13:28Kellie Emmerson: It's a good question. I went into it ranked fairly highly from the ITRA points, the International Ranking System. But... I didn't really see myself as being able to compete with those girls because exactly what you pointed out, they live in the mountains. Most of them had done 100-mile races before. This was my first one. So whilst I just wanted to run my own race and, you know, the ultimate goal is to finish and finish well, but I guess, you know, right at the start I found myself in front of Caroline and Nuria, who are the best runners in the world, Um, and quickly realized that I probably shouldn't be there, but, um, you know, I didn't fall too far off the pace once we started climbing. And, um, I guess the other girls were always in the back of my mind, but it was, it was more about survival than anything, especially going through those really cold, um, high sections on the mountains. Um, and then it, I guess it really, for me, it turned into a race in the, in the last section. Um, where I managed to overtake Anne-Marie from Great Britain in the first part of the last section. And then with about 4Ks to go, I got told that I was closing in on one of the other girls. And so I went for it. And I've never actually run that hard in my life, let alone at the end of already running 160Ks. So, yeah, it was pretty bonkers.

00:15:00Scott Trickett: I can only imagine. You touched on the coldness there. Can you describe how cold it actually gets? Because the footage that I've seen, you start out, everybody's nice and happy and looking warm, but we don't see much footage of you being freezing cold up in the mountains.

00:15:18Kellie Emmerson: No, so the first 30km of the race, so the race starts at 6 o'clock at night, and the first 30km of the race, there are people lining the streets, but just everywhere, 10 people back. Like, it's just the most incredible thing you'll ever experience in your life. But obviously then you... get into the night and you head into the dark and the cold and up a lot higher. And people don't follow you all the way up there. There's about the odd few that do, the odd enthusiasts that climb up. But yeah, most people don't really see what's going on in the middle of the night at the top of those mountains. And I have never been so cold in my life. That night was really freezing. I was really glad that I took extra kit than what was required in the mandatory gear list. you know, often people are trying to get away with as minimal as possible, but, um, I wouldn't have survived unless I'd taken extra stuff. And I actually had to stop in the top of the mountain and get someone to help me, um, you know, get some more warm layers on. Cause it was just, I couldn't feel my hands. I couldn't, you know, you didn't want to eat or drink because you'd have to uncover your face. And, um, yeah, I'm sure it would have been minus 10 that night. It snowed at least four times. Um, But then the next day was probably even worse. I got stuck in a blizzard and there was nowhere to go. There was no shelter. You just had to keep moving and try and get down the mountain as quick as you can.

00:16:45Melissa Erbacher: It sounds insane. Kelly, can you take us through, you said you have to carry your kit with you and everything that you're going to need, clothes and hydration, et cetera. What goes in your bag and how heavy is it?

00:16:58Kellie Emmerson: The kit for this race is pretty reasonable and after doing Kokoda and Nothing seems very heavy anymore because that was about a 10-kilo pack. So for this race, you obviously need to have your pack. You need to carry a litre of water, a thermal top and a wind jacket or a thicker jumper. You have to carry a beanie, a fur or a headband, thermal gloves, waterproof gloves. Spare food, and you've got to remember that you could be without seeing your crew for at least eight hours at a time, so you need to make sure that you've got enough fuel for that time. You need to carry a phone, survival blanket, whistle. I think that's about it. Oh, no, raincoat, waterproof pants. That's probably about it. Yeah, it sounds like a lot of stuff, but we needed it.

00:18:03Melissa Erbacher: A litre of water does not sound like a lot of water.

00:18:07Kellie Emmerson: No, it doesn't, but it is pretty well aided. There's a lot of aid stations out there. You might go for a few hours at a time without seeing anybody, but I guess when you compete this often and you're used to doing these sort of things, you know what you can cope with. I know that I don't drink a whole lot. Some of the blokes who sweat a lot more might, you know, have to think about that and make sure that they're carrying more than that.

00:18:40Melissa Erbacher: Okay. And so you're awake for more than a day, like 24 hours plus, you know, extra, extra, extra. You start at 6 o'clock at night. So you've already been awake for a day effectively. I need a nap by morning tea most days. How do you stay awake when you're moving around?

00:19:00Kellie Emmerson: uh that's a really good question as well that was my main fear um going into it because i had never run a hundred mile race let alone one that was this difficult um so i was really worried about the fatigue um i went off caffeine for the three weeks leading up to the race and um that was pretty awful that's pretty awful withdrawal headaches um but it turned out to be a really good decision um the day of the race i i didn't really go out i went for a really short little walk. And then I just stayed at home and tried to put my feet up and rest. And then as the race started, you know, you've got the energy of the crowd. You're not really thinking about being tired at all until you start losing that crowd and you're, you know, in the middle of the night. And that's when I started with some Coke. And for the rest of the race, it was, you know, a little bit of No-Doz and some Revvies strips, just trying to keep the caffeine and sugar up. to keep me awake. But I was, you know, I really think that the going off caffeine for the three weeks really helped because I never really had any real sleepy moments, maybe mildly as the sunrise came up on the following day. But yeah, it wasn't a problem and I really surprised myself. So it was worth it.

00:20:17Scott Trickett: Okay, so you've gone through all that. I want to talk about the finish. This event's now being described as the Tour de France of trail running. The finish, and you mentioned the start, looks phenomenal. Like lots of people turning out to cheer you on. How did you go crossing the finishing line and having all that support? It's a bit unusual for trail running.

00:20:39Kellie Emmerson: It's totally unusual for trail running. We don't see anything like it in Australia. It's just... So overwhelming. It's so exciting. You just feel like a rock star running through some of these towns. It's just crazy. It's really hard to describe without having experienced it. So yeah, the start line and the first few towns were just crazy. And you've got people that climb up to some of the mountains with their huge cowbells and everyone just gets so into it. So crossing the finish line was especially because of the way that the finish happened with a bit of a sprint finish. It was just an amazing, amazing experience. And luckily I came through early enough that there were still lots of people out and about. And yeah, the crowd was going wild. So it was a really amazing, amazing feeling.

00:21:33Melissa Erbacher: That was going to be my next question. You came in at fifth, just beating the sixth person who is Canada's Alissa St Laurent. by – was it like 45 seconds or – no, less than 40 seconds. How do you – where do you find anything left in the tank after you've done that kind of event to have a sprint finish?

00:22:01Kellie Emmerson: Yeah, I don't know. It's amazing what the mind and body can do. As I said in that last section, initially I went into that in seventh position and – My crew kept telling me where the other girls were and I just didn't want to know about it.

00:22:16Marina Woodward: I just wanted to run my own race.

00:22:18Kellie Emmerson: However, then I caught Anne-Marie in sixth and we were flying down a really technical descent and I just had all this energy and this adrenaline and I just went for it and then stupidly didn't realise that I had to climb all the way back up again. So that was a pretty tough climb going back up because I felt like I wasted a lot of energy and I wasn't really focused on eating or drinking anything at that point, despite that section probably taking a good three and a half hours. And then as I started the descent, it's eight kilometres from La Flégère back down to Chamonix. And I got with about four k's to go and a friend from back home had climbed up the mountain in the middle of the night. and let me know that I was gaining on Alyssa and just told me to go for it. And I don't know, some little switch in my brain just went off and I just sprinted down the mountain and it was crazy. My watch had died by that point, but Alyssa on the road clocked a 318 kilometre and I was moving quicker than that and I would have been full pelt for at least 4K, so... I've got no idea how my body did that after running for that long.

00:23:35Scott Trickett: Must have been good training, Kelly. You're part of Brendan Davies' crew, good friend of the podcast. What sort of training did you have to go through to get ready for this event?

00:23:46Kellie Emmerson: I'm an athlete of Brendan's and I also coach for Up Coaching as well. I don't think you can train specifically for an event like this. I think this was an accumulation of Eight years of running and racing and hiking and I think all of those experiences led to this. In particular, I guess in the last few months, it was finding the right races at the right times as lead up events. It was just getting out and doing a lot more hiking than I normally would and getting lots of good leg strength. Occasionally wearing a weight vest, practicing using poles because I don't often use poles. We don't need them really in Australia. And trying to practice more of those technical descents and things as well. I really hate training through the Melbourne winter. I don't find it enjoyable. So that was quite a challenge. But it probably put me in a really good stead for the conditions of this race.

00:24:48Melissa Erbacher: I know quite a few other Melbourneites who are complaining about the weather during the winter and going out for runs. So I'm sure you're in good company there.

00:24:55Scott Trickett: She doesn't understand, Kelly. She's from the Sunshine Coast. It's brilliant. And it still is. So you're lucky you're over there because it's freezing at the moment still.

00:25:04Kellie Emmerson: Yeah.

00:25:07Melissa Erbacher: Kelly, we're all about the parkrun adventures. You've been to parkruns yourself. Where would you normally parkrun?

00:25:15Kellie Emmerson: Yeah, so my home parkrun is at Lillydale Lake. That's only a few k's from home. It's a nice flat course around the lake there.

00:25:24Melissa Erbacher: And has parkrun played any part in preparing you for like your sprint finishes at the end of UTMB?

00:25:30Kellie Emmerson: Oh, 100%. You know, I think it's really important to do speed work and to be fast in order to be a better runner at the longer stuff. You know, lots of people overlook speed work because they think that they're running, you know, 50, 100 k's and it doesn't matter. But But, you know, if you can remain fast and be able to do the longer distances, it's going to really help. So, yeah, I think parkrun's great for all distances.

00:25:59Scott Trickett: I mean, this is why running's so great. Some people would see parkrun as their long run for the week, but you treat it as your speed work for the week. So it's all relative, I guess. What's next for you? What's next for you, Kelly? You're obviously taking some time off. You're still staying over in Europe.

00:26:16Kellie Emmerson: Yeah, it's been a pretty big year. I did Tarawera in New Zealand in January and then I had world champs over in Italy in May, I think. Done Kokoda and now I've done UTMB with, you know, a few other 50k races amongst that mix. So I think it's time for me to have some downtime for at least a month or two. And it's really easy in Australia not to do that. It's really easy to get caught up in racing all the time. But that's what's going to lead to injury and just fatigue, mental fatigue. So, yeah, I'm just going to have some time off for a while and soak it all in. And I am hoping to get into Western States next year, which is one of the biggest races in America. And, yeah, we'll just see what happens there.

00:27:13Melissa Erbacher: I'm a trail runner. I obviously don't do anything remotely like the distances you do, but I do have a lot of friends who are entering, they're tiptoeing into the ultra world, doing their first 50s and 100s this year. Have you got any favourite Aussie events that you just absolutely love and you would recommend other people would do?

00:27:32Kellie Emmerson: Yeah, I guess my two favourite events are the Surf Coast Century, which is happening this Saturday. Um, I love this event, um, not only because I've won it three times, but, um, also because there's, um, you know, a range of distances and a range of ways that you can tackle it. So you can, you know, go into it as a team for the first time. Um, and then the following year can, you know, work your way up to the 50 and then work your way up to the hundred. There's lots of, there's lots of options and it's a pretty nice introductory, um, ultra run. Um, that's not too hilly compared to some of the others around. And my second favorite event is the Ultra Trail Australia. That's probably the biggest event that we have in Australia in terms of competitors and people coming to watch. And it's just like a big, it's a big festival. They get a few more international runners and it's, you know, it's a beautiful course. It's challenging with all the steps. It's a little bit different. So yeah, that'd be my second favorite too.

00:28:34Scott Trickett: Well, it's a shame you're missing out on Surf Coast Century this weekend, but you've got a good excuse for being away.

00:28:41Kellie Emmerson: Yeah, I'm a bit sad that I'm not there to see some of my runners take it on and, of course, not running it myself. But I think being in Europe over here definitely makes up for it. So it's all good. But I wish everyone all the best who's tackling it this weekend.

00:28:56[music]

00:28:59Scott Trickett: And Kelly, thanks so much for joining us on the podcast this week. I was so happy when I saw your result flash up. It's a great result for Australia. We did really well and you led the way. So thanks for joining us on the podcast this week.

00:29:11Kellie Emmerson: No problem. Thanks very much for having me, guys.

00:29:28Scott Trickett: Time now to catch up with one of our partners in parkrun. We've recently partnered with Bravehearts, who are going to help deliver some important initiatives or some important training to help us deliver junior parkrun here in this country. So we thought, let's find out exactly what Bravehearts do. So welcome to the podcast, Jason Oxenbridge from Bravehearts. Thanks, Scott. So Jason, let's start there. Bravehearts, what exactly do they do? Yeah, so Bravehearts,

00:29:54Jason Oxenbridge: is a holistic child protection organisation that deals specifically around the issue of child sexual assault. And we educate kids around empowering them with knowledge and equipping them with skills to how to stay safe in a whole raft of situations from cyberbullying to bullying to sexual assault. And we deliver that program right around the country and it's tailored for children aged between three and eight, so lower primary and childcare centres. and this week I'm very proud to say we've now seen our 750,000 750,000 kids are now educated with that prevention program and of course we also drive support programs that help to build child safe communities and offer training as you say For adults who have a duty of care to protect children, we offer specialist training for them as well. So we've worked with the likes of Little Athletics Australia, a bunch of schools right around the country, just to ensure that child protection policies are in place. And also that adults have a duty of care to protect kids, know how to respond appropriately and accordingly should a child disclose that something has happened to them.

00:31:10Melissa Erbacher: Now, Jason, you have got a White Balloon event coming up this weekend. Can you give us a bit more information about that?

00:31:17Jason Oxenbridge: Yeah, we sure have. White Balloon Day is the country's number one child protection initiative. As you say, 21 years it's been going. That's a wonderful legacy of protecting kids, two decades. And it's happening on Friday, September 8th, which is this Friday. And that's during Child Protection Week. And we're rolling out a whole bunch of really cool initiatives right around the country. One of which is a chalk campaign, a chalk art competition for kids. So they can grab a piece of chalk and draw white balloons on cement or concrete in the schoolyard. And then they upload those photos and we share them across our digital media networks to help raise using the hashtag, let's chalk about this and chalk it up. So we think that's a really cool way to be able to amplify the message. Kids can get involved as well, parents, teachers, et cetera. And yeah, so get amongst it. The other thing is that we're doing that's quite interesting is a cyber balloon race, which we're launching from Parliament House in Canberra on Friday, White Balloon Day. And that is people can go online to the White Balloon Day website. Just jump on there. It's $10 to buy a balloon. All the money goes to the education programs that we deliver around the country. And you can track your balloon depending on the weather pattern and whereabouts it's moving up and down the coast. And we think that's a really great way as well. It's eco-friendly. We know that physical balloons, we don't endorse the release of physical white balloons. We know that they can be detrimental to the habitat and environment. So this is a really eco-friendly, cool way that people can get involved in White Balloon Day.

00:32:57Scott Trickett: It's one thing we want to get right. the safety of our children. Once you get involved in it, you realise that it is really important. So thanks for helping us out. I also like the idea of the let's chalk about it because I reckon we might have a bit of chalk up going on on parkrun on Saturday. Would Saturday be too late to still enter this competition?

00:33:17Jason Oxenbridge: Absolutely not. We're encouraging the chalk it up and let's chalk about this campaign to run for the next week. And so until next week, we'll still be getting people sharing across digital media platforms and a parkrun one down. I'm going to hold you guys to that. Let's see how many balloons you can get drawn into the man's on the Saturday.

00:33:39Scott Trickett: I know. It's a challenge. I'm putting it out to our parkrunners, our listeners. I want to see some chalk art on the paths this Saturday.

00:33:49Jason Oxenbridge: Can I ask you guys a question? How many kids are involved in the parkrun?

00:33:53Scott Trickett: Look, it's a hard one to say, Jason. That's the very reason why we'd like to launch Junior parkrun. So there is a parkrun that is accessible for kids because sometimes 5K is just too far. And I think we like the idea of a two-kilometre run. But there's definitely kids. There's definitely kids at parkrun, no matter which parkrun you go to every week.

00:34:16Jason Oxenbridge: I remember seeing you guys and some of your parkrunners at our final leg of our Bravehearts 777 race. At Kingscliff on the northern New South Wales coast, there was a couple of parkrun people there, which was fantastic to see for our second last leg of the Bravehearts 777 this year.

00:34:33Scott Trickett: What sort of stuff does that do for Bravehearts and the awareness? It's a big thing. It's a big effort for those people involved to run seven marathons in seven days in seven states. But what does that mean for an organisation like Bravehearts?

00:34:46Jason Oxenbridge: Well, it's massive. And, you know, we use the analogy that These people are taking big steps to help protect little kids and run a mile in the shoes of the children who you're helping to support and to protect. From a publicity perspective, it's fantastic because it's just such a hard exercise to achieve. I mean, you know what it's like to run one marathon, 42Ks. Imagine jumping on a plane, flying to a new city, And waking up and doing that again for seven days in a row, it's like Groundhog Day.

00:35:25Melissa Erbacher: It's a fantastic thing you guys do, Jason, and we are very, very proud and happy to have you involved with Junior parkrun Australia and helping us keep our parkrun kids safe. And hopefully that helps spread the message further afield beyond parkrun as well.

00:35:40Jason Oxenbridge: Yeah, well, thank you so much for your support. I mean, you know, protecting kids is everyone's business. And let's work together to... make Australia the safest place in the world to raise a child. Who doesn't want to be a part of that?

00:36:05[music]

00:36:05Melissa Erbacher: Last year, NSW was responsible for launching the most events of any state or territory in Australia. This year they are doing their best to keep up the good work and last week we had a new event launch in New South Wales called Inverell. Joining us this week to tell us all about it is event director Marina Woodward. Marina, welcome to the parkrun Adventurers. Hello, thank you. Now tell us, brand new event director, brand new event, how was your launch? Was it great?

00:36:37Marina Woodward: Our launch was awesome. We had 121 parkrunners and walkers. Everybody was extremely enthusiastic. It was fantastic. It was really, really good. Very successful. Everybody was incredibly happy with it. We've gotten a great deal of extremely positive feedback both online and verbally since the event. Everybody's looking forward to us keeping on going. It's brilliant. It's fantastic.

00:37:03Scott Trickett: Now, I alluded last week that I think I've been to Inverell. Can you just confirm that I have been to Inverell? Can you tell us exactly where it is? Because it's not a big town, is it?

00:37:12Marina Woodward: No, it's not. Our total population is probably a little shy of 15,000. We're not a highway town. Glen Innes is the nearest highway town to us in the New England area of New South Wales. We are 65 kilometres west of Glen Innes. 130 kilometres east of Moree and 100 or so kilometres south of the Queensland border, with Texas being the closest thing to a border town near us. So we're inland, we're in the hills, we're 130km or thereabouts from Armidale, which is probably the best-known New England town, and a good two hours and 20 minutes or so from Tamworth.

00:38:02Scott Trickett: And my recollections of visiting... Inverell? It was very green. What's the industry and what's the area of Inverell like?

00:38:12Marina Woodward: Yeah, it is. It's a really pretty town. The main industry that we rely on for employment is probably an abattoir. We also have a large steelworks engineering business, retail, a lot of retail. There are Farms in the area, we're not an irrigated farming area so much, more grazing and probably a few small crops. But we've got the beautiful McIntyre River that runs through town and it is like decent rainfall. We're not a dry area. I don't know exactly what the rainfall is, but it is largely green except for winter when we get a lot of frost and everything burns off. It's cold in winter.

00:38:55Scott Trickett: Was it cold on Saturday?

00:38:57Marina Woodward: Yes. But you still did a good turnout. It wasn't as cold as it has been. Yeah, we did. And it was really good, actually. There was frost on the riverbank. My probably not so reliable... telephone and watch told me it was two degrees, but I don't think you get frost on the riverbank at two degrees. But it was a beautiful sunny day as well. And that's what the beauty of our winter is that we can get down. I have run doing training runs at minus nine. But later in the day, you might max out at 18 or 19 degrees. So while we do start quite cold in the early mornings, we have beautiful clear sunny days that follow the frost. And it's lovely. And Saturday was one of those dates Right along the river, our entire parkrun course is parallel with the river and obviously closer to the water. It's a little bit cooler, but you soon warm up if you're at a brisk jog. So everybody was pretty happy with that. So yeah, it was good. It was cool, but it was good.

00:39:59Melissa Erbacher: Marina, so you mentioned earlier that Armidale is probably the most well-known, closest town in New England area. What's your closest parkrun?

00:40:13Marina Woodward: Armidale, and so I registered for parkrun a few years ago and Armidale was my home run when I registered. Since then, Moree has also started. They're the same distance from us on the road. So they're both about 130 kilometres away, but Armidale was our closest parkrun when I registered a couple of years ago. So we were the fifth event to launch in the northwest of New South Wales and those parkruns are Tamworth, Narrabri... Moree, Armidale and Nowar.

00:40:43Melissa Erbacher: The fact that those events were so far away, is that what got you involved? Is that what got you launching your own event?

00:40:51Marina Woodward: Yeah, I think that certainly had something to do with it. I have personally participated in parkrun at a number of different locations, but mostly coastal when I was on holidays. I'm co-event director with another woman whose name is Nikki Webb and it was, I think, a large factor for her. It was initially her who went, come on, let's get this started in Inverell, and then between us we got the work underway. She was travelling frequently to parkrun in Tamworth to take part down there with family in that area. And yeah, I think it was just a, come on, we need to do this closer to home. And we did. We, yeah, went from there.

00:41:34Scott Trickett: How did you find the whole process of getting a parkrun up and going? Sometimes it can be a bit laborious and there's a few challenges. Did you come across any?

00:41:42Marina Woodward: Yeah. Yeah. And well, a few minor challenges, but I mean, it's mostly fundraising related and in a small community, it's not always easy to get what are also small businesses to contribute financially. But I mean, really, we started in March and we launched in September. So it wasn't a long road for us. I know of places that have taken much longer time wise to successfully get to launch. So I think everybody's been really positive in terms of being willing to offer support and the businesses who have financially supported us to get us to launch are also businesses that focus on wellbeing and promoting that. So for us, that part of it was, it went fairly smoothly. There were a few minor roadblocks, but nothing that was extremely difficult to overcome.

00:42:41Melissa Erbacher: So now you've had an opportunity to update your home parkrun to Inverell. Can you tell us a bit about some of those other events that you've mentioned that you've travelled to? We love to hear about people's adventures.

00:42:53Marina Woodward: Okay, the first parkrun I participated in was at Single Bay in the Port Stephens area, which is, it was just absolutely beautiful and gorgeous. We were on holidays, so, you know, life was easy. We were staying in Nelson Bay and it was a couple of coves south and off you go along the beach. It was fantastic. I've also, I've run a couple of times at the Gold Coast, at Kirra and at Main Beach. And, I mean, basically, you can't fault a coastal parkrun. It's pretty hard to find something wrong with. My sister was a run director, or probably is still, sorry, a run director at Lismore parkrun, which launched last year. So I've run there a couple of times. And Yamba, I've run at a couple of times. And all of them. Like parkrun, one of the fantastic things about parkrun is that wherever you go, you're greeted by a group of, enthusiastic supportive friendly welcoming people who are just going to go out and do what you're about to do and run 5k's with a bunch of other people that like getting out there and it's just it's awesome you know wherever I've been I've had good stories to tell I was one of those people that was intimidated the first time I went because I went all by myself and as soon as you get there and you turn up and everybody's welcoming all of that goes away

00:44:08Scott Trickett: Now, what are you looking forward to or what are you expecting for event number two? Once the fuss of the launch is all over with, the real parkrun starts to emerge from event two onwards. You're looking forward to that?

00:44:23Marina Woodward: Yes. Yeah, we are. I worked out, and I don't know entirely because obviously a lot of the people that came to our launch were tourists, and I think that probably was about 30% of our runners. So 30 or 40 people had come from away, which leaves, and it's like a process of elimination a little bit because the large majority of people who are on the results page for our first run have only run one parkrun. So they're kind of the people that I assumed are close to here. That leaves us with somewhere around 80 people who attended last week who are either here or close by here. I've no idea what to expect in terms of numbers, but if we regularly get, oh, I don't care, anywhere from 20 upwards runners, if we regularly get those people out and socialising and moving along the river and, you know, getting into it, it's only going to be good. And we will. Like, we're probably expecting numbers-wise somewhere between 50 and 70 most weeks. So... Yeah, no, we'll keep going. And, yeah, now that we've started, we're off and racing. It's, yeah, it's very exciting. I think everybody who's involved with it is very excited. We've already, our volunteer base has already started to grow just after one event. So everybody's into it. It's good.

00:45:52Scott Trickett: That's a great sign. I think I'm going to put it on my list, Mel. There's something about Inverell that jumps out at me. So, Marina, thanks very much for joining us on the podcast this week and telling us all about your wonderful parkrun.

00:46:04Marina Woodward: Not a problem. Thank you very much.

00:46:12Scott Trickett: I'll tell you what, Mel. It fills me with hope, that chat with Marina. Do you remember going back to the very beginning and all the new friends that they're going to make at Inverill parkrun? It's a, dare I say it again, it's an exciting time and I'm a little bit envious of all these new events that we've got coming up.

00:46:33Melissa Erbacher: Maybe you need to start something new yourself, Scotty.

00:46:37Scott Trickett: It's funny you should say that. I think I will. Yeah? I was on a secret mission last week at parkrun, so I think stay tuned for that one.

00:46:49Melissa Erbacher: Ooh, I'm intrigued.

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

00:46:51Scott Trickett: But new events this week. Just the one. North Wollongong.

00:46:59Melissa Erbacher: New South Wales is still going strong with their launches, aren't they? They are.

00:47:02Scott Trickett: And this will be the second event in the Wollongong area, which will be good for the people of Wollongong. I know they've got Shellharbour and Sandon Point. I think they're pretty close together. But North Wollongong. Look out.

00:47:21Melissa Erbacher: And we've got some anniversaries as well. One of them in New South Wales, one of them in Victoria, and one of them in Queensland. So if you're in New South Wales, you can go to Bega.

00:47:32Scott Trickett: If you're in Victoria, you can head down to Always Sunny Inverloch.

00:47:37Melissa Erbacher: Oh, that'll be a nice one. And in Queensland, it's Wynnum's anniversary. Happy birthday slash anniversary to all those events. Yep. Now, Scotty, we promised last week that we were going to do a roundup of our streaky Septembers thus far, giving analyses of our runs, including the splits, etc. Yep. Have you got some exciting splits to share with everybody?

00:48:06Scott Trickett: No.

00:48:07Melissa Erbacher: No? Mine, well, I think so far my best time was at about 10 minutes. 50 kilometers or something like that so i might see whether or not i can continue to improve every day toward next week and and see if i can report back on some kind of speed progression for everyone if there's if there's some sort of a pattern yeah well mine might have been all over the shop not a pattern at all but i can break down my run on sunday

00:48:38Scott Trickett: But, you know, Sunday's traditionally the long, slow run day. You tend to do a longer run on Sunday. It's usually in the morning. Not for me this week. It was Father's Day. So I wasn't going to spoil my Father's Day morning by going for a run.

00:48:55Melissa Erbacher: Well, I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't have thought it was being spoiled.

00:48:58Scott Trickett: No.

00:49:00Melissa Erbacher: But go on.

00:49:03Scott Trickett: So I pushed out my Sunday run to Sunday afternoon and called up two of my good mates, and this is where I'm going. Runners are good people, Mel. So I went out for the run. I got a headache about an hour before I went out, but I'd committed to my mates. In fact, I'd dragged them out to go for this run. And we got halfway through, which was three and a half Ks, and I was just, I was ratchet, really struggling. Because, you know, one thing that is not good for a headache is pounding up and down on a pavement. Just a pro tip.

00:49:37Melissa Erbacher: It just gets worse. And halfway through, so you got that far.

00:49:43Scott Trickett: Yeah, so halfway through, I just said to these boys, you boys go ahead. I'm turning back.

00:49:48Jason Oxenbridge: I don't want to do this anymore.

00:49:50Scott Trickett: It's all too hard. But they both said, no, no, no, no, stuff this. We're walking back with you. And that's what I mean. Runners are really nice people in that, you know, maybe kayakers would have kept paddling down the river and gone, oh, stuff Scott. Or maybe bike riders might have said, no, no, no, he can wheel back by himself. We're going to keep riding. But not runners, mate. They stick strong. And I think that's why I like them.

00:50:27Melissa Erbacher: They're pretty good people, aren't they?

00:50:29Scott Trickett: I think so. There's something to do with the personality of someone who's attracted to the sport of running and being a decent person.

00:50:37Melissa Erbacher: Oh, look, and there's so many stories you hear, isn't there, from even organized events where so-and-so broke down and they weren't going to make it to the end and somebody else sacrifices their life Probably faster finishing time to make sure that person finishes. It happens a lot.

00:50:54Scott Trickett: Yeah. Because you can always go for another run. And I know my mate Chris who I ran with, he clocked up 100 Ks for the week. So I'd know he'd done enough running. And my other mate Barney has basically not run for August. So I kind of knew that he didn't miss not going for a few extra Ks. But it's beside the point. It's just the gesture. And I really appreciated it. And I think that's a better analysis of one of my runs than my splits or my cadence or whatever.

00:51:28Melissa Erbacher: So you went streaking with some friends.

00:51:30Scott Trickett: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that's a good lead-in to our challenges.

parkrun adventure challenge (listener challenge)

00:51:38Melissa Erbacher: Yes, the ones that we were thinking about while we were talking to guests earlier.

00:51:42Scott Trickett: So hit me with them. What did you come up with?

00:51:46Melissa Erbacher: Well, we're going to stick with the streaking in PJs. I'm going to just have to suck it up if it's a particularly hot day and still get out there in the flannel at PJs anyway.

00:51:55Scott Trickett: Is it hot in the morning? I mean, surely the sun goes down at night and it's cooler in the morning. So I think there's plenty of opportunities. You're looking for excuses there, Mel, to get out of that one. I'm not going to let you. Carry on.

00:52:06Melissa Erbacher: I never look for excuses. There's going to be a whole bunch of people who haven't done this one yet, but they need to do a parkrun sometime this month. Streak it parkrun.

00:52:19Scott Trickett: That's easy. I've already done that.

00:52:21Melissa Erbacher: You haven't. I haven't. So that's going to be one for me to check off. Another one which I think I'm planning on checking off when we get to South Australia is Streaking a Freedom Run.

00:52:39Scott Trickett: I'm looking forward to a few Freedom Runs in South Australia as well. But there's plenty of opportunities to get out during the month and Freedom Run another course. Or your own course. You can Freedom Run your own course.

00:52:56Melissa Erbacher: Any course. It's not parkrun time. It's worthwhile Freedom Running. And then we've got two more. We want to see some streaky selfies. Yes. So I've been taking them after my runs. I think I might have to start taking one during a run. So it's a possible, yeah, a streaky selfie. But absolutely want to see more from everybody else. And please share them in the Facebook group or hashtag Streaky September on Instagram or Twitter so we can find you when we search you because we want to see that you guys are out there every day. Cool.

00:53:30Scott Trickett: Okay. And one more. We've got one more.

00:53:32Melissa Erbacher: And one more. Well, I think the last one is probably something to do with what we were just chatting about.

00:53:39Scott Trickett: Streak with a friend.

00:53:41Melissa Erbacher: Yes.

00:53:41Scott Trickett: That's an easy one too. So if you're one of those runners that always runs alone, you're not going to win Streaky September Bingo doing that. You have to find a friend to run with. Just once. Just once.

00:53:54Melissa Erbacher: There are five challenges to check off during the month and those are they. Yes. And I would be really interested to see how many people are actually going to get all five because I think streaking in PJs is probably going to be the one that breaks a lot of people. In fact, if you can... No, I think that's the fun one.

00:54:11Scott Trickett: I think that's the one that everyone's going to try.

00:54:14Melissa Erbacher: It is possible to do four of these all at once. Okay. You can streak in your PJs, take a selfie while you're with a friend, either doing a freedom run or at parkrun. Okay. So I'm keen to see if anybody manages to do four in a one-up.

00:54:30Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:54:30Melissa Erbacher: Bonus points for the people doing four in a one-up. I reckon that's cheating a bit. No, it's not cheating.

00:54:35Scott Trickett: No, because we've got a long month to get through. We've got to drag this out. But if you want to cheat and do it all at once, cheat and be miserable. But, yeah. Mel, you've got 30 runs to get through. You don't want to pack all the fun into one.

00:54:51Melissa Erbacher: There's only 20 – we're in the 20s. There's only 20-something left to go.

00:54:56Scott Trickett: True, true. But you get my point.

00:54:59Melissa Erbacher: I do, yes.

00:55:00Scott Trickett: Spread out the fun.

00:55:01Melissa Erbacher: Don't have all the fun all at once, people.

00:55:04Scott Trickett: It's like we do. We've spread out the fun over 80 episodes of the podcast. How would it have been if, like, episode 36 was where it was just the best and it was all fun? No, no. We're distributing that fun.

00:55:20Melissa Erbacher: This is a valid point.

00:55:23Scott Trickett: I hope you picked up on a little bit of fun that we distribute through this episode. I noticed it, but the fun's over. Mel, we've got to go.

00:55:33Melissa Erbacher: Maybe we should have told people to streak with a podcast.

00:55:38Scott Trickett: That's the secret extra points.

00:55:42Melissa Erbacher: But yes, it's time to go. Yep. That's bingo with an E. Where does the E go?

00:55:50Scott Trickett: At the end. Bingo. Like dingo. No, you don't spell dingo underneath?

00:55:57Unidentified speaker: No.

00:55:59Scott Trickett: What do you spell? I'm sure there's a word that is G-O-E. Let me think about it. Let me think about it and I'll get back to you in episode 81.

00:56:09Melissa Erbacher: You do that. I'll talk to you then.