Episode 81

Episode details · 351 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:12Scott Trickett: It's a sad old week in the parkrun Adventurers office this week, Mel.

00:00:19Melissa Erbacher: Tell me why.

00:00:20[music]

00:00:20Scott Trickett: As you can hear, I've brought my own violins. I've got a sad, sad tale to tell. And it's your job this week not to make me laugh. If we could do that, I'd really appreciate it.

00:00:38Melissa Erbacher: Not to make you laugh. Well, you know how funny I am, so I can't make you that promise. But why am I not making you laugh?

00:00:47Scott Trickett: I'm back in the stack club.

00:00:50Melissa Erbacher: Oh, my goodness. Scotty, we talked about this.

00:00:55Scott Trickett: Yep. I know we talked about it, but there's words and then there's actions, and my actions are They're a disgrace on the trails. So I have vowed to retire from trail races. And I'm seriously considering never running trails again.

00:01:17Melissa Erbacher: What?

00:01:18Scott Trickett: But I have 100% ruled out trail races.

00:01:23Melissa Erbacher: And to what do we owe this disgraceful behavior?

00:01:28Scott Trickett: Well, I've had another fall on Sunday.

00:01:32Melissa Erbacher: Just the one this time? Last time there were three.

00:01:34Scott Trickett: Last there were three, but they were all little ones. And I knew they were happening, so I braced myself.

00:01:40Melissa Erbacher: You didn't know this fall was happening? Definitely not. Definitely not. Okay, talk us through it.

00:01:48Scott Trickett: 23k trail race down on the Anglesea on Sunday. Didn't treat it as a race. Ran with my mate Barney. And we had a bit of fun. Neither of us were looking to race it. And we're having a grand old time. And at about 20km in, nice real steep downhill on some steps. But steps made out of rocks. And I made the really smart decision early on a Sunday morning not to wear my trail shoes. Because having done this race last year, I remember it being quite tame. And thought, no, we'll just wear the flats, the road shoes.

00:02:28Melissa Erbacher: What do we need extra grip for?

00:02:29Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:02:31Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, okay.

00:02:33Scott Trickett: And I needed that grip as I transitioned from steps to, you know, sometimes on trails there's the steps and then alongside of it there's like a half well worn out path.

00:02:47Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, that people have sort of taken the short track.

00:02:50Scott Trickett: Yeah, so I tried to go from steps to that path and it all went wrong. And I fell over and I really hurt myself. And it was one of those times where, I mean, I've fallen a lot on trails and trail runners are really good because they stop and they say, you're right. And, you know, look after you. But this time that happened and the lovely young lady who was following me said, are you all right? And I said, no, I'm not. Because I really wasn't. I was really winded. I thought I couldn't breathe and I had a real moment of panic. And it just really hurt. This one really hurt.

00:03:28Melissa Erbacher: Did you cry?

00:03:29Scott Trickett: I didn't cry.

00:03:31Melissa Erbacher: See, then it can't have been too bad. That is how I gauge every stack. If you don't cry, then it's not serious.

00:03:40Scott Trickett: Okay, well, so maybe I've got to try harder.

00:03:43Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I think so. Don't retire yet.

00:03:46Scott Trickett: But I tell you what, the remaining 3K weren't fun either.

00:03:50Melissa Erbacher: But you finished this time.

00:03:52Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:03:52Melissa Erbacher: You didn't DNF.

00:03:53Scott Trickett: Well, I was so close to the finish that it would have been 3K walk back to my car. So I might as well have walked, run it.

00:04:04Melissa Erbacher: And you were capable of running it or walk running it?

00:04:07Scott Trickett: It was pretty sore, but it was also one of those instances where I just wanted to be over with. I just figure once it's over with and you sort of you're back and you're sitting down, whether you're in your car or, in my case, in the VIP tent, you just feel better about yourself. So that's what I wanted to get through.

00:04:26Melissa Erbacher: Is a VIP tent reserved for people that stack it?

00:04:30Scott Trickett: No, it's reserved for VIPs, Mel.

00:04:33Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, but how did you get in?

00:04:36Scott Trickett: Well, it was a competition and we won. Oh, okay.

00:04:42Melissa Erbacher: It wasn't an invitation.

00:04:44Scott Trickett: No.

00:04:45Melissa Erbacher: You were like the wild card entries.

00:04:47Scott Trickett: Yeah, but I tell you what, it's the first I've ever heard of it and it's a really good idea. So the Northwest Trail Series down here in Melbourne, they've run throughout their series, they've given a VIP tent to just a random team entry. And the Westerfoldians won this VIP tent. And in the VIP tent, you had a hamper and you had some chips and chocolates and Coke, but you also had a massage if you wanted it.

00:05:13Melissa Erbacher: Nice.

00:05:14Scott Trickett: So I made sure I joined the queue for that.

00:05:18Melissa Erbacher: After you'd had your stack.

00:05:19Scott Trickett: Well, see, that also came with complications because if you ever have a massage, you've got to lie down on your front.

00:05:27Melissa Erbacher: Well, that depends on the massage, but yeah, okay.

00:05:29Scott Trickett: True. Well, I had to lie down on my front. And it was my front that's really sore. So I was caught in two worlds. Do I put up with the pain of lying down to receive the joy of the massage on my legs? Or do I forego the massage altogether?

00:05:46Melissa Erbacher: So tell me, you obviously broke your fall with the front. Did you break it with your face? Are we looking like Rocky Balboa these days?

00:05:54Scott Trickett: No, no, no. It was full, full, caught the full brunt right on my chest. So right on my sternum and left... Left side of my rib cage.

00:06:03Melissa Erbacher: So what? You stick your chest out and you put your head back and your arms back? How does that even work?

00:06:11Scott Trickett: I don't know. I wish I had a camera there to see it. But I didn't, unfortunately. I'll have to ask the woman behind me.

00:06:18Melissa Erbacher: You would be replaying it so often if you had video footage of that. And I bet you would be pissing yourself laughing.

00:06:25Scott Trickett: Oh, no doubt. No doubt. Because you know what? I'm a sucker for, you know, I used to love Australia's Funniest Home Videos. And I only liked it to see the kid get hit in the face with a ball.

00:06:36Melissa Erbacher: Or stack it. Fall off the trampoline face first. You know, get taken out by a swing. All those sorts of things.

00:06:46Scott Trickett: There's a really bad show on 7mate, Fail Army, and they've got a Facebook page. And I quite often get stuck in loops of just watching people fail. It's hilarious.

00:06:58Melissa Erbacher: This hurts. Next time you have a trail race, you should totally wear like a GoPro on your head so you could have like that sort of footage but from the first person perspective.

00:07:12Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:07:12Melissa Erbacher: And you should give one to the Barneys of the world so that they can catch you from either behind or in front.

00:07:19Scott Trickett: Yeah. Well, see, I obviously made an impact because Barney was ahead of me. He was a little bit ahead of me. And there was a guy in between us. I heard you go down, didn't you? Well, no, the guy in between us stopped Barney and said, Barney, I think your mate's had a fall. So Barney's come back and rescued me. And again, to prove the point that runners are great people, Barney finished the race with me.

00:07:50Melissa Erbacher: Oh, that's hilarious. Did you ruin your shirt?

00:07:54Scott Trickett: No, so remarkably not much blood or grazing. Shoulders a little bit sore, but apart from that, not much blood this time.

00:08:06Melissa Erbacher: So it's all like internal.

00:08:07Scott Trickett: Yeah, well, so when I'm asking for sympathy or seeking sympathy, it's hard to get because bruised ribs doesn't look like anything. It's just, it's there.

00:08:17Melissa Erbacher: You didn't even break anything.

00:08:20Scott Trickett: No, it could have, but if you crack ribs or break ribs, there's nothing they can do anyway. So I'm not going to spend time sitting in a hospital to tell me there's nothing they can do.

00:08:30Melissa Erbacher: Well, no, that's not what you go to the hospital for. You go to the hospital for validation that, yeah, you broke your ribs and, yeah, you deserve those violins and sympathy. Well, I deserve them.

00:08:44Scott Trickett: Trust me on this one. Take my word for it.

00:08:46Melissa Erbacher: Okay. Okay. I will try not to make you laugh for the remainder of the podcast.

00:08:52Scott Trickett: So tell me about Main Beach, which is where you visited on Saturday.

00:08:57Melissa Erbacher: Well, Main Beach was awesome. So I had been hoping to head out that way because my brother was planning on running his 50th parkrun there on the weekend. But then other things transpired during the week that we thought it wasn't going to happen. And then last minute on the Friday... It was go. It was all go. And so we did get to go up. We went and stayed in Brisbane on Friday night. We packed the whole car full of all of Wes's things. And then Adam and I squeezed our little bag in the side somewhere. And we headed down south. And, yeah, it was a really wonderful morning. I felt very at home at Main Beach.

00:09:41Scott Trickett: Well, it is the home of parkrun.

00:09:43Melissa Erbacher: Well, yeah, it is, and the spiritual home, and also I can see why it was the first. It's just a gorgeous spot. We were unreliably told about the course. So Adam has Freedom Run at Main Beach before, and I haven't even done that, but he told my brother and sister-in-law that... Oh, yeah, you can't actually see the ocean. And he had told me that there were all these big sandy bits and it wasn't suitable for a pram. So Wes was in the carrier, which is a lot more difficult than a pram. I get there and the sandy bits he's talking about are like nothing. Our pram would have eaten them and I could have had a much faster, easier time of it and not had a sore back for the rest of the day. And, you know, we get to the turnaround and come back and there's all these gorgeous ocean views and you see the waves rolling in and it's just like, were you even paying attention? Were your eyes open when you did this freedom run? Because it's nothing like what he described.

00:10:53Scott Trickett: He didn't do the right freedom run.

00:10:56Melissa Erbacher: Well, he did it after dark, so I think that must be, you know, the difference. Big difference. He obviously didn't see the ocean and wasn't really paying attention to how deep the sandy bits were when he ran through them either, so.

00:11:10Scott Trickett: Well, look, I mean, the ocean is hard to spot. I mean, if you don't look left coming back, you're going to miss it.

00:11:17Melissa Erbacher: If you have your eyes closed coming back, you're going to miss it. You don't even need to look to the side. It's all in your peripheral vision.

00:11:28Scott Trickett: There are some trees or bushes, and if you're focused on the bushes, you might not see the ocean.

00:11:35Melissa Erbacher: you'd have to be very focused on like an individual leaf to the right of you not to see the ocean. But that's okay. But this is one of the reasons why I felt so at home because obviously my home parkrun is right. beside the beach and runs up and down beside the beach and this one does of course yeah it was gorgeous and the volunteers of course were very welcoming and very lovely which is always nice and so yeah we had a great morning out um nicholas ran his 50th parkrun with adam and michelle and his daughter rowan his daughter his son rowan i ran um his daughter lani ran with me After, well, we walked and after 500 metres she decided she really wished we could run and I had to explain to her, well, we can't run because I can't run with Wes and a carrier. And so I think she regretted her decision for the next three kilometres until we got to the final stretch where her parents came back to meet her and she could run in. But Rowan got a PB. He smashed it by about... Oh, more than a minute he took off his time. He ran his first sub-30 parkrun, 8-year-old, doing pretty well, and he ran the whole way as well, so that was awesome.

00:12:45Scott Trickett: He's been foxing. He hasn't been trying hard enough.

00:12:48Melissa Erbacher: Well, his little sister ran. She beat his PB the previous week, so I think he had a bee in his bonnet about that, and he was like, right. Can't let my sister, who's two years younger than me, beat me. So, yeah, but everybody had a really great morning. Wonderful breakfast afterwards at the pavilion as well, which is always a winner. You want to have a good breakfast after parkrun, especially when you're out on a tourist jaunt. I thought you were two ahead of me on the most events list, but we're even again.

00:13:20Scott Trickett: Yeah, this was your mistake. I tried to tell you I was only one ahead of you. But you convinced me, and I've known better to try and argue with you.

00:13:31Melissa Erbacher: Okay.

00:13:31Scott Trickett: But we're even again, which is exciting.

00:13:35Melissa Erbacher: It is exciting.

00:13:37Scott Trickett: For many, many people, not just you and I.

00:13:39Melissa Erbacher: Yes. The graph will be updated, I've no doubt, either by Christopher Hill or by Mark Connolly. One of them will update the graph for us and we'll have to share it with everybody.

00:13:49Scott Trickett: Great. So everyone can keep tabs of what's going on.

00:13:53Melissa Erbacher: Yes.

00:13:54Scott Trickett: But I've run Main Beach too. I've run it a couple of times. Freedom ran it and officially ran it. It's like the perfect parkrun course. It's It's got a little bit of a mix of surfaces. It's got a little bit of mix of going up and down. And it's an out and back, but you actually don't go

00:14:13Melissa Erbacher: You don't cross back on the runners. Yeah. It's sort of a really skinny loop, which is great because, I mean, yeah, it's nice to see people coming back. But I didn't even realize. I came 275th and I had no concept that there were that many runners out there on the morning because they all weren't, you know, bearing back down on us as we were sort of heading out. So, and I think that's kind of nice to have that extra little bit of space. It helps... Reduce congestion and all that sort of thing. So, yeah, great.

00:14:46Scott Trickett: Great. So the parkrun Adventurers officially give Main Beach the tick of approval.

00:14:53Melissa Erbacher: We do. Two thumbs up.

00:14:54Scott Trickett: We should start licensing that out.

00:14:57Melissa Erbacher: The parkrun Adventurers tick of approval.

00:14:59Scott Trickett: Yeah. Okay. That's quite some adventures by the Adventurers this week.

00:15:08Melissa Erbacher: And more to come next week. But we won't go into that because we'll save that for a future podcast.

00:15:27Scott Trickett: We are the parkrun Adventurers, so when we have guests on the podcast, we like to find other adventurers. And we found one, Mel. Welcome to the podcast, Emma Timmis, who is on a crazy adventure where she's on an elliptical traveling from the furthest point of our country, in the western point of our country, to the furthest eastern point. Welcome to the podcast, Emma.

00:15:50Emma Timmis: Thank you very much for having me.

00:15:51Scott Trickett: Now, firstly, before we get to details, well, actually, let's go to details. What is an elliptical?

00:15:57Emma Timmis: Okay, so if you are someone that's familiar with going to a gym, then you would know about a cross trainer or an elliptical bike. So an elliptical is basically the same as that, but outdoors. And if you're not so familiar with going to a gym, then maybe you can imagine in your head a bicycle that doesn't have a saddle. So you have to stand up the whole time and you're kind of pedaling while you're standing up. That's essentially what it is.

00:16:25Melissa Erbacher: And so what is the benefit of having it apart from the fact that, you know, normal bikes have really hard seats and give you a sore backside? What's the benefit of running on a bike and not just on the ground?

00:16:37Emma Timmis: Yeah, well, so like you just said, that's what it is. It's running on a bike. So they were originally designed for injured runners to be able to train the same muscles that you would be training while running but with no impact going through your joints. So that was how they were kind of – that's how the idea came up. And actually, when you have a go on an elliptical, it's such a great feeling. So I'm just staying here with some friends in Mandurah in Western Australia. And just this evening, I let them both have a go on the elliptical. And they love it. It's funny that the minute that you put somebody onto one of them, they have a massive smile on their face. The way that the movement that it creates in your body just instantly makes you feel really good. it's it's really it's a really great thing to have a go on any anybody should have a go and see how you feel about it now are you still going to feel the same way after how many kilometers are you planning on traveling on this thing yeah so so altogether my my estimate of the journey when i've done a rough plan on the internet has been 8 000 kilometers i mean it could end up slightly longer it could end up slightly shorter but it's roughly 8 000 but um i think I don't want to speak too soon, obviously, but I think I will still feel the same way. I mean, I've been training on it for quite a few months now. Back in the UK, I was training on an elliptical, and I've been kindly given one to use out here by ElliptiGO Australia. So I spent quite a bit of time on it, and I actually missed it as soon as I had to give the one back in the UK. I actually really missed being on it. It really does give you a really good feeling when you're on it, but maybe this is because I'm a runner, so... I love running myself and unfortunately have had injuries over the past few months. So being able to train on an elliptical has been a lifesaver really for me. And it just, it feels so nice. You get like all the fresh air around you and the environment. And when you go downhill and that feeling that you get when you're on a normal bike and you go downhill, you get that even more because there's so much more of your body exposed. You're not sat down. It's a really great feeling.

00:18:52Melissa Erbacher: I'm trying to imagine what it must look like to run on one of these things, Emma. And so far, I'm thinking you must only be able to go a certain speed in terms of how fast you can run on it without stacking it or falling off. Does that make sense?

00:19:10Emma Timmis: Yeah, I can see how people would think that. But actually, when you're on it, it doesn't feel like that at all. There might be a slight difference between the different models. So The model of elliptical that I was using in the UK was an eight speed. So you did kind of, if you're someone that's quite fit, you got to a point where you couldn't use a high enough gear, your legs would just spin. And I think that's maybe what you're kind of thinking about. And there wasn't enough that you could push harder and harder. But the one that I'm using now in Australia is an 11 speed. So it's got much higher gears. So you can keep that motion going and still keep increasing your speed. um, yeah, I've not had any problems that, you know, I've got to a point where there's not enough gears now and I'm just spinning around.

00:20:00Melissa Erbacher: Okay. So it works in the way a traditional bike with speeds works then, you know, you, you put a certain amount of effort into it and, and it propels forward sort of faster.

00:20:10Emma Timmis: Yeah, definitely. So, um, you could, you could be in a really low gear and get a really high cadence with your legs. So your legs are spinning and spinning and spinning, which is great for, for when you're going up hills, like, people over here keep saying to me, there's no hills around here. The roads are really flat. But I tell you what, when you're towing a trailer, you feel like there's hills. There's definitely hills in Western Australia, whatever people say. So I've been using the really low gears and just like spinning, getting really high cadence with my legs. But then I have the option that if I'm going downhill or I'm on a flat and the wind's behind me, I can choose a really high gear and kind of pedal less, but have more resistance behind me. push forward faster so yeah it's exactly the same as a bike in terms of the gears and you mentioned there you're carrying a trailer with you so you're doing this entire journey by yourself yeah exactly so it's uh solo and self-supported and i've got a trailer which i mean it's very very fortunate that um so today is day 10 and I started in Denham and i've traveled back down south to where my friend lives. So I came to my friend's house originally and got all my kit together and got organized, then got a coach up to Denham and then I've traveled back down. So now it's really nice. I've come back to my friend's house and I've actually been able to go, you know what, my trailer is way too heavy. I've got to get rid of this. I've got to get rid of that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I've been sorting out all my kit and hopefully, I'm really hoping I've lost about 10 kilos of weight out of my trailer because it's been really hard actually my trailer has been way too heavy I've got my tent my food my water my cooking equipment all my clothes I need everything everything that basically you need to survive I've got in the back of that trailer and it's been too much I've had lots of spares for the elliptical as well because I wasn't sure what might get damaged and what might need replacing so I've come back here and I've had a reorganisation of all my kit and hopefully when I leave tomorrow morning to continue the rest of the trip, hopefully I've got a lot less and it's going to get a bit easier. Fingers crossed.

00:22:23Scott Trickett: That was a handy bit of planning. You had a preview of what you were in store for.

00:22:28Emma Timmis: I'm just very fortunate that that's how it's worked out. I'm very, very lucky.

00:22:33Scott Trickett: Now you're doing all this to raise awareness and some funds for the One Girl Foundation. Yeah. Do you want to tell us a bit about that?

00:22:41Emma Timmis: yeah so one girl is a charity that's based out of melbourne and they give education and empowerment to women in uganda and sierra leone where statistically the girls are more likely to be sexually abused than they are to go to high school and for me that's it's just an unacceptable statistic really um I'm very fortunate that I come from a very comfortable background I wasn't we weren't rich but we weren't poor when I was growing up I had a loving family I went to school I had a house I had water food etc all the things that a human being needs and I feel that girls in these countries that don't have that I feel we we should help them you know we're all human beings on this earth and apart from geographically where we are there's no difference between us and The fact that these girls in Sierra Leone and Uganda are more likely to be sexually abused than to go to high school is absolutely shocking to me. So I really want to make a difference to those lives out there. And the charity has got really nice projects set up that they're not a case of just giving money and saying, here you go, this is it, do something with it. They're setting in programs to educate and to empower and to teach women to have their own businesses and pass on skills rather than just saying, here's the money for one item and then you go and use that. It's setting in foundations to create education and to create foundations for the future.

00:24:15Melissa Erbacher: Sounds like a fabulous organisation. Emma, where does, I understand, I want to raise awareness for this, but where does the idea come from that you travel from the westernmost point to the easternmost point on an elliptical in Australia come from?

00:24:32Emma Timmis: Oh, well, that's quite a long-winded story, I suppose. So I've done lots of different things, lots of different adventures throughout my life. I think I kind of get itchy feet every now and then. I always think I'm going to settle down and have a normal civilised life and then I get an idea in my head and then one thing leads to another and off I go. So back in 2014, I ran across Africa and And then so I left my job and my career to be able to do that. And then from then on, I just kind of had like seasonal jobs, earned some money and then went off and did another adventure and then got another job and some money went off to another adventure. And then I realized that all of these adventures I've done were all very inland. I never I never saw the ocean. So, for example, running across Africa, I started in the ocean. I was inland for three months and then I saw the ocean at the end. And I had a bit of a thought in my head that I really wanted to explore a beautiful coastline. And obviously, Australia has an absolutely stunning coastline. So this was part of an idea in my head. And around the same time, a friend of mine came to my house to deliver something on an elliptical. I had a go on the elliptical. And I'll be absolutely honest with you, I was terrible. I was really, really awful. My mum had a go on the elliptical on that same day. And she doesn't do any exercise. And she was way better than me. It was quite embarrassing. She's twice my age and she was absolutely brilliant on it. And I was terrible. But after having a go on it, I just, you know, the idea stuck in my head about obviously I'm a runner and these things are designed for injured runners. I've done a lot of cycle touring, really enjoy the idea of traveling somewhere by human power. All these ideas just came together. And yeah, it just kind of grew from that experience. really, that I wanted to go somewhere and explore a coastline on an elliptical. And at first I looked at Perth to Sydney. Lots of people cycle Perth to Sydney. That's relatively common in terms of endurance sports. But I didn't feel that it challenged me enough. So somebody actually said to me, oh, if you cycled that, if you did the elliptical cycle, Perth to Sydney, would that be the hardest thing you'd ever done? And my answer was no. I didn't think it would be the hardest thing that I'd ever done because it would probably take me two months. And I was thinking, well, I ran across Africa. That was three months. This is all very random thoughts just in my own head. So then I thought, well, it's Perth to Sydney. Is that the furthest west or the furthest east? And I looked at it. It wasn't. And I thought, well, that adds on probably 1,500 kilometers being the furthest west or the furthest east. So I looked at that and not many people do it. So I thought, well, maybe I'll give that a go. And the idea went from there really just exploring the coastline furthest west to furthest east on the elliptical bike, which as soon as, uh, as soon as I started using it regularly, absolutely fell in love with riding it. And that was it. And then, and that's when I added in the parkrun thing as well, because, um, people say that if you ride the elliptical bike, if you ride an elliptical regularly, your running fitness will improve without actually doing any running without having the impact through your joints. And I thought, well, surely there's gotta be a way to test this out. So I could do with some kind of, um, some kind of way of measuring it over the time. So I thought, well, if I start my elliptical ride and do, uh, a parkrun at the beginning, and then if I do them throughout and do one at the end, then surely I'll, I'll see. Well, I'll see what happens basically, whether my fitness does improve or, or whether it stays the same or, or goes less. So I wanted to incorporate parkruns as well. But unfortunately, I did actually get injured a few months ago. So until yesterday, I hadn't done any running at all for about six weeks.

00:28:30Melissa Erbacher: Oh, this story raises so many questions for me. So first start. No, that's okay. This is good. For starters, I love the fact that, you know, it wasn't hard enough, so you needed to add extra levels of hard. You mentioned earlier that your trailer is too heavy and you've just taken 10 kilos off it, but you said to me coastline, you wanted to do coastline, and coastline in Australia tends to be quite windy. How do you cope with the wind when you're on an elliptical? Well...

00:29:04Emma Timmis: This is where my stupidity comes into it because I just never, you know, you have this image in your head when you're sat at home, probably inside a building, not like related to the environment at all. There's no wind. There's no rain. There's nothing. You're sat inside a building, very, very comfortable. And you think, oh, I've got this image in my head. I'm going to be in Australia. Basically, I'm on a beach. The sun's in the air. Like I'm wearing a bikini. I'm really warm, blah, blah, blah. But that's not reality, is it? Like you said, you know, the coastline is very windy. So the past nine days when I've been on the elliptical, I've had like a headwind pretty much all the time. And I've had rain. I wasn't expecting that. When I was in Geraldton, I bumped into someone that said they were having the worst rain in like 10 or 20 years. I don't know what he said exactly, but I can guarantee you it was awful rain. I think there was a hailstorm in the night while I was in my tent. So I hadn't really factored that in, but I'm one of those people that I always try and look on the most positive side of things that I possibly can. And while I've been battling against the wind and the rain heading south through Australia, I've just been thinking, you know what, it's only going to make me stronger. Like this trailer is ridiculously heavy and I'm going up hills and I've got a headwind and it's raining. It's only going to make me stronger. Just stick with it. Keep going, keep going, keep going. I'll just try my best to be as positive as I can.

00:30:35Scott Trickett: Now, I'm no meteorologist, but I think you should have some tailwinds for the rest of your journey because I think the wind comes from the west.

00:30:43Emma Timmis: So one of the reasons that I wanted to do it at this time of the year was that I was told that crossing the Nullarbor is one thing that keeps coming up time and time again. Everyone's really interested in it, and I personally am really interested. crossing the Nullarbor it's going to be a huge challenge and it's going to be something that's quite unique and not many people get to do it people don't do it in a car let alone on a bike but I was told that crossing the Nullarbor you're going to get winds but at this time of year the wind will be behind me if I'd have done it at the opposite time of year the wind would be against me so that's a major factor in why I'm doing it this time of year.

00:31:19Scott Trickett: Let's go back to parkruns, speaking of something positive You want to link in as many parkruns as possible, and you've already started one. You hit up Applecross parkrun. So you're running. You're real running for the first time. How did that go?

00:31:36Emma Timmis: It went really well. I didn't want to push myself. So it was actually really quite nice and quite relaxing because I'm a runner that has previously suffered with anxiety because I put too much pressure on myself, which I'm sure I'm not alone in this. I bet a lot of people do it that, you know, you get to a certain level with your running and then you just, you feel like you have to improve, improve, improve, improve all the time. And it gets too much pressure and perhaps you start to stop enjoying running. So I've experienced that in the past, but actually doing a parkrun yesterday was, it was great because I haven't run for six weeks and I'm not in the best condition for running, but I do feel quite fit after being on the elliptical. So I just, I just ran. and went, went slowly. I actually stopped and took photos at some points and it was really nice just to relax and enjoy that feeling of running. And especially after towing a trailer for the past few days, it was quite nice to not be towing something behind me and not pulling and having a massive weight. So actually it was just the whole experience was really nice. And the Apple cross parkrun is lovely. Everyone that was there was so friendly, really, really nice environment, beautiful, absolutely stunning scenery. looking across the water at Perth at the buildings there and oh absolutely stunning definitely recommended to anyone so that was your first parkrun in Australia altogether uh no it was my second so I came to Mandurah where I am right now visiting my friend I came in January and did oh I can't actually remember the name of the parkrun but it's the one that's near Mandurah it's not called Mandurah parkrun um Not entirely sure what it is, but that was also a really good one. Really, really friendly bunch of people.

00:33:26Melissa Erbacher: How long is the whole trip expected to take you?

00:33:30Emma Timmis: So I estimate and I really hope that it's no more than 10 or 11 weeks. So that would be, I mean, I've estimated that the whole distance is 8,000 kilometres and I would like to cover on average 100 kilometres a day. So 80 days. I actually, as I'm a foreigner in this country, I only have a three-month visa, so it really can't take much more than that, otherwise there's going to be some problems at the airport.

00:33:56Scott Trickett: But you've got a good excuse.

00:34:02Emma Timmis: Oh, yeah. I mean, I was travelling on an elliptical trying to raise money for charities. They've got to be good to me.

00:34:10Scott Trickett: Well, Emma, good luck with the whole adventure. I think it sounds... It sounds...

00:34:16Emma Timmis: exciting but it also sounds like you've set yourself up for quite a challenge um make sure you look us up i'm in melbourne make sure you come and visit some of the parkruns in melbourne when you get here you are coming through melbourne yeah i am i'm actually i'm going to be that's the only place i'm going to be stopping for two days because the the charity that i'm raising money for is based in melbourne and also I've got some great ElliptiGO contacts in Melbourne, I don't know if you guys have seen many ElliptiGO riders or you've been out and about, but I think there's quite a few in Melbourne.

00:34:47Scott Trickett: I can't say I have, but Melbourne's a big city.

00:34:53Emma Timmis: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Have a look out. Try and find some. Have a go.

00:34:57Scott Trickett: I will. I will now that I know all about it.

00:35:00Melissa Erbacher: I'm in Queensland, so we certainly don't have any this far up. But if, you know, you get bored at the end or you find yourself, you've got a few extra days, then, yeah, feel free to keep going north. We've got some gorgeous coastline up here. I can show you some beautiful parkruns.

00:35:17Emma Timmis: Yeah, I'll just ignore immigration. I'll just keep going and going and going.

00:35:24Scott Trickett: We'll just hope you get a parkrunner as the immigration officer and explain the whole story and you'll be right.

00:35:29Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:35:30Scott Trickett: We're pretty laid back here in Australia.

00:35:32Emma Timmis: Fine, no problem.

00:35:34Scott Trickett: But seriously, good luck with everything, Emma, and thanks for joining us on the podcast this week. Oh, thank you so much. It's been great.

Meet the ED

00:35:42Melissa Erbacher: There are not many people, or I should say there are many people, who can blame themselves. a certain individual for getting them into running and for causing them to do all sorts of adventures. That person for me is our next guest. She hails from Nambour parkrun where she is the event director and her name is Melissa Taylor. Melissa, welcome to the parkrun Adventurers podcast.

00:36:17Melissa Taylor: Thank you, Melissa.

00:36:19Melissa Erbacher: So yes, I do blame you directly for being the person who instigates a lot of my adventures. How do you plead?

00:36:29Melissa Taylor: I'm totally guilty and I have to say my biggest success yet is getting you to do your first marathon, which you swore you'd never do.

00:36:41Melissa Erbacher: Your success, my monkey on my back because I have to go back. That's okay. Everybody's got a different perspective. But tell us a little bit about Nambour parkrun.

00:36:53Melissa Taylor: At the moment, we call it the toughest parkrun in Australia. We've got one or two hills, maybe a few more. It depends if you count the downs as well. We are 100% trails. We're not big because you're not going to smash out a 5k PB if you come out and visit us. But, yeah, we get a few tourists come out and try it out.

00:37:21Scott Trickett: So on that, Melissa, we have a lot of guests come on the podcast and they nominate their top three parkruns. Nambour has been mentioned a few times. But every time it's been mentioned, the hills have been mentioned. But I think it's working for you. I think everybody's coming to visit Nambour parkrun to experience the hills, not the opposite that some might think. Have you found that to be the case?

00:37:44Melissa Taylor: I think so. I think they want to see if it's earned its reputation. And we've only ever had three people crack the 20-minute mark and it always happens when I'm not there. So I think the general rule is that, An annual parkrun course record gets broken when I'm not around.

00:38:04Scott Trickett: Okay, so on average, how many minutes do you think it adds to your average parkrun time? Five. Five?

00:38:14Melissa Taylor: Well, for me, five. Maybe I take it a bit easy. I'm at slot case when I'm doing it. But, yeah, between three and five minutes, I'd say.

00:38:26Melissa Erbacher: That's a decent average, I think. And I don't think it's only the fact that you've got hills that slows people down. I think it's possibly because you're on a loop course and those faster runners, if they don't know where they're going, potentially might get lost. Have you lost too many people out there?

00:38:44Melissa Taylor: Yes, not too many. No, we haven't lost too many. We've lost two or three. That's not a lot. And they were all found eventually, so that's 100% success rate.

00:38:58Scott Trickett: In the same day?

00:39:02Melissa Erbacher: No, no, no, no. Nambour also has a reputation for some scrapes, and you guys have your very own stack club, of which you are president of the Sunshine Coast chapter, I understand?

00:39:16Melissa Taylor: Absolutely, yes. I'm president of the Sunshine Coast Stack Club. And it's not exclusive to Nambour parkrun. You don't need to be on trails to have a stack. So we welcome roadrunners into the stack club as well. But Nambour, if you have a stack at our parkrun, you do earn a badge and a place on our roll of honour.

00:39:40Scott Trickett: So this is right up my alley, Melissa. I've had a decent old stack on the weekend on the trails and I've sworn off trail running forever.

00:39:50Melissa Taylor: What's wrong with you?

00:39:52Scott Trickett: Well, it just hurts. Do you find when you fall over it hurts? That's my biggest problem.

00:39:57Melissa Taylor: It does, it hurts, and it's kind of embarrassing. It depends how you do it. You can turn it into a commando role. It kind of looks hardcore, but, yeah, it's not always glamorous, no.

00:40:12Scott Trickett: Yeah, look, I'm not too worried about the aesthetics and trying to maintain my composure because that's just never going to happen. I'm really focused on every time I fall over, I manage to hurt myself and it stops me running. But I'm willing to be convinced otherwise. And maybe I need to visit Nambour parkrun to visit the president of the Stack Club to change my mind.

00:40:35Melissa Taylor: Well, absolutely. I think you should. But... You can't go out and deliberately try to earn your Stack Club badge. We don't just give them out willy-nilly. You do have to earn it.

00:40:48Melissa Erbacher: I'm pretty sure Scotty doesn't deliberately try to stack. He's just a bit vertically challenged when he's on the trails.

00:40:55Scott Trickett: I'd be surprised anybody does go out and try and earn it. It must be an impressive badge then.

00:41:01Melissa Taylor: Well, we're pretty happy with it. We're pretty proud of it, yes. Sarah, one of our run directors, designed it and created them. We keep them in our first aid kit.

00:41:11Melissa Erbacher: The most appropriate place to keep them, I think, because people have to present the evidence of said stack before you hand out a badge. Absolutely. Now, Melissa, you have done a bit of travelling around and you've been to some different parkrun events and things like that. Can you give us your top three?

00:41:29Melissa Taylor: Oh, actually, when we went to New Zealand this year, we went to a little tiny parkrun event called Millwater in Auckland. And the people there, I think the people who make the parkrun, they were just absolutely beautiful, fantastic, just a little family. It was only a small parkrun, but they were just awesome people. So I think just the parkrun spirit, Millwater parkrun in Auckland, Bunyaville, I used to put Bunyaville up there, Again, small park ground, but really welcoming. When we were looking at setting up Nambour, we popped down there for a visit and they were so helpful to us and gave us a lot of ideas and hints. And yeah, I love the trails. So yeah, Bunyaville's right up there. Ginninderra down in Canberra. I like that one. Yeah, I think those ones. I don't want to pick any of the Sunshine Coast because I don't want to play favourites, but Nambul.

00:42:31Melissa Erbacher: Well, that's always our disclaimer. You're not allowed to choose your own parkrun.

00:42:35Melissa Taylor: Oh, okay.

00:42:36Melissa Erbacher: Well, I didn't hear the disclaimer. Well, I didn't give it to you this episode.

00:42:41Scott Trickett: Melissa, how did you get involved in running and what was the motivation for starting up Nambour parkrun?

00:42:48Melissa Taylor: I used to run at high school and then as soon as I left school, I just stopped and became a couch potato like you do. Then I started a boot camp. Okay. thinking we'd just be doing a couple of push-ups and maybe throwing a tire or something around. And they had this other idea that we were going to be running around football fields and getting fit. And I don't run. I said, I haven't run since high school. And they said, we better start now. So I had to start running. And I was doing this boot camp with a couple of friends and We got from the stage running around a couple of football fields thinking that we could actually run 10k and that was a huge shock to my system. But I got there and from there it just kind of escalated, just became addictive. And Rambo parkrun, well, Melissa got me involved in Kiwana and one day one of the guys there said, You know, people, you better step up and help Melissa out and put your hand up to be a run director. She can't run this on her own. Public speaking is one of my hugest fears. And I thought I'd confront that fear by becoming a run director. So I became a run director at Kawana. And then maybe a year later, I got a call from Darren at the Anytime Fitness gym in Nambour looking to set up a parkrun in Nambour. And... It was kind of an embarrassing phone call, very awkward. He phoned me up and said, oh, I hope you don't mind this call. I'm Darren from Anytime Fitness Gym in Nambour and your phone number was given to me by Neil. And I got a bit snappy thinking he was a telemarketer and said, I already have a membership with the gym, thank you. And he said, yeah, yeah, that's fine. I just wanted to ask you about parkrun. So anyway... He had the idea of setting up a parkrun in Nambour, so we looked at all the parks around Nambour and couldn't find anything that would be suitable or attract people to Nambour because it's got a bit of a reputation. And we even drove all the way out to Bli Bli and we're driving back from Bli Bli this one afternoon and I'm looking up at Radar Hill where I go out running. And said, there's one more place I can think of, but there's no way in the world they're going to let us hold it there. And he said, oh, why not? And I said, well, it's in the bush. There's no toilets. There's no water. It's really rough. And he goes, well, show me anyway. So I took him on a tour around this core. And he said, this is awesome.

00:45:25Emma Timmis: We've got to have it here. We've got to have it here.

00:45:28Melissa Taylor: I said, oh, well, see, I'll put in the... could ask the question and see what happens. And then that's it. Here we are.

00:45:36Scott Trickett: Here you are going strong. One of the most famous parkruns in Australia. You're about to clock up a hundred runs, which is quite an achievement as well. I want to just go back quickly to, you mentioned you had a fear of public speaking, but now you're an event director. You do it regularly. How have you found that whole public speaking side of parkrun?

00:45:54Melissa Taylor: It does not get any easier. I, get up there to do the run briefing and I still feel like a thunderbird, like I'm having an out-of-body experience or something. No, it's not easy for me still.

00:46:06Scott Trickett: But you keep coming back and doing it. So do you have any advice for people who have that fear? Because I think there's some great run directors and event directors out there who this is stopping them from taking that step. Have you got any advice for those people? Just do it.

00:46:21Melissa Taylor: Just jump in, both feet, and have a crack at it. I get tongue-tied, probably blurted out a few things that maybe shouldn't have, but yeah, absolutely have a go. It's so rewarding, honestly.

00:46:38Melissa Erbacher: For somebody who thinks they look like a thunderbird or have thunderbird moment, I have to say, I've been on the receiving end of many of your pre-run briefs and you do a great job. So you hide it very well if you feel like a puppet.

00:46:56Unidentified speaker: Thank you.

00:46:57Melissa Taylor: So you don't know the pieces. sweat on my forehead and hot flushes.

00:47:03Melissa Erbacher: Not at all, not at all. You wear it like a pro. Nobody would know any difference, I'm sure of it. Last weekend, you had a bunch of Bunyaville runners, the Bunya Bells, come to enjoy your course and afterwards, you took them out on a bit of a magical mystery tour. I did, yes. We just went out and did another

00:47:25Melissa Taylor: A few extra Ks, just to introduce them to a few more hills in case they didn't get enough for the first time round. And they were most impressed. We missed out on Mongrel Hill, but they got to meet his little sister. They really loved to meet her.

00:47:39Melissa Erbacher: Well, so they're very lucky that they didn't get to meet Mongrel because they might not come back after that. It's hospitable to take people out for a little bit of an extra run if they've still got energy in their legs. But I think introducing anyone to Mongrel On the first date, it's possibly not the right way to go.

00:47:57Melissa Taylor: Oh, I see. I guess that's man-built for you. Like I said, the town's got a bit of a rough reputation, so as first dates go, that would be right up our alley, really.

00:48:11Scott Trickett: I tell you what, I'm coming up to the Sunshine Coast in a few weeks' time. I want to be introduced to this mongrel hill.

00:48:19Melissa Erbacher: Oh, Scotty.

00:48:20Scott Trickett: Really? I've spoken too soon.

00:48:22Melissa Erbacher: You'll regret that. It's too late now. You said it.

00:48:25Melissa Taylor: I think your love affair with trials is about to start up again, Scott.

00:48:28Unidentified speaker: Okay.

00:48:29Scott Trickett: Well, that's what I need. I mean, I've only been off them for a couple of days, so I can be easily convinced.

00:48:35Melissa Erbacher: We'll get Melissa to bring a badge just in case.

00:48:37Scott Trickett: Well, that's not helping things, Mel.

00:48:44Melissa Taylor: Is this a good time to mention that we probably hold the record for the most rolled ankles on our course as well?

00:48:49Melissa Erbacher: Well, you haven't done your ankle in yet, have you, Scotty? That's one limb that's still intact.

00:48:56Scott Trickett: No, so that's good. Something to look forward to. Melissa, thanks so much for joining us on the podcast. We've always wanted to hear about Nambour parkrun and you've done that. Congratulations on making 100 events. That's two years of putting on parkrun, which is quite an achievement.

00:49:14Melissa Taylor: It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you.

00:49:17Scott Trickett: And thanks for coming on the parkrun Adventurers and chatting to Mel, who you do all the time, but me this week.

00:49:23Melissa Taylor: Nice to find a chat to you, Scotty. And I look forward to our date with Mungrel in a few weeks' time.

00:49:31Scott Trickett: Yeah, put it in your diary. Can't wait.

Roving Adventurers (roving reporter crossovers)

00:49:47Ricci McGreevey: Hi, my name's Rikki McGreevy and I've just arrived at Collin Glen parkrun in Northern Ireland. I came here last week as well so I know the course already. It's very beautiful. But I'll just give you a bit of information about parkrun in Northern Ireland. There's 25 parkruns, which is quite a lot for, you know, it's a fairly small area. Collin Glen is typical of all parkruns. It's organised by a lovely bunch of volunteers. Everyone is really friendly and welcoming. And there's a huge range of people who come, walkers, runners, varying ages and paces. Collin Glen though I think is a bit different because it's situated in this beautiful green woodland and it follows the Collin River. A lot of work has gone into this area to rejuvenate the area. Basically it was a dumping ground in the mid-1980s and now it's just stunning and there's quite a few things that you can do in the park itself. There's several marked trails and walks, there's mountain biking, a sky rope course and there's a Gruffalo trail for the kids which is really great. Yeah, so the hills here are massive. It's, yeah, they're never ending. But if it wasn't for the really scenic route to distract you from the hills, I think you'd be really dying. Anyway, I'll see who I can chat to. Okay, we've just finished parkrun. It is so hilly. It's really, really hard. The way down is brilliant though. It's quite exhilarating on the way down. So I'm here with Gerard Devine. He's a regular here at parkrun. How are you?

00:51:35Gerard Devine: Hi, not too bad. How are you?

00:51:37Ricci McGreevey: Yeah, good. So this is your 50th parkrun today?

00:51:40Gerard Devine: It is, yeah. 50th parkrun. And it's still, it feels like it's the first one. It's something different every week. Something completely different every week. Different community, different faces, but all the same friendly faces, if you know what I mean. It's hard. Different people, same friends.

00:51:56Ricci McGreevey: So have you done all your parkruns here at Collin Glen?

00:51:59Gerard Devine: The vast majority would be here but I have sampled maybe five or six other parkruns and it's the same sort of thing you know but we preyed ourselves on Collin Glen here because we are the toughest

00:52:11Ricci McGreevey: I agree. This is definitely the toughest I've done before as well. So what do you reckon parkrun means to you? Why do you like coming back?

00:52:19Gerard Devine: Well, I sort of feel that parkrun clears my head, keeps me ready, puts me on a level. sort of feeling a level pitch for the weekend, opens up the weekend for me, and has my full Saturday, it's a great way to start the weekend. And it's sort of a power boost to keep you into the weekend, you know, after a hard week's work. It's a bit of escapism more than anything else, but great friendship.

00:52:44Ricci McGreevey: Yeah, and especially in escapism through that beautiful forest, I reckon, too. So here we've got Paula Burns. This is her 106th parkrun. How are you going, Paula? Tarred, but I'm good. So you haven't done all your parkruns here at Collin Glen. Where else have you done your parkruns?

00:53:02Paula Burns: So I've done the first 50 in a parkrun just down the road, the Falls parkrun, which is hilly as well, but not quite as steep as this one. And then I've done the rest of them here. So this is your home parkrun now? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, without a doubt. And what do you love about parkrun then? Again, like Gerard said, it's getting up on a Saturday morning, and I don't know about anybody else, but I wake up with a feeling of dread of, oh, my God, I have to do those hills. But once it's done, you have a real sense of achievement that sets you up for the rest of the day. And the great people here have made some great friends here. Proper friends just outside of this. So, yeah, it's great.

00:53:33Ricci McGreevey: Yeah, it's a lovely community you've got here. And thank you for talking to us.

00:53:37Paula Burns: You're very welcome. Thank you.

00:53:40Ricci McGreevey: Okay, next I'm here with Aisling McAleese, who is also my wonderful sister-in-law.

00:53:46Aisling McAleese: Hi, Ash. Hi, Rikki.

00:53:48Ricci McGreevey: Can you tell me what wonderful human got you started into parkrun?

00:53:52Aisling McAleese: Oh, there was this fantastic human. She's my sister-in-law as well, called Rikki from Australia.

00:53:57Ricci McGreevey: Woo, that's me. What do you love about parkrun? This is your second so far. Do you think you're hooked?

00:54:03Aisling McAleese: This is my second so far yeah and what I liked about coming around this time is I kind of started the run thinking I need to beat myself from last week so that was quite good I like that I thought I would yeah maybe been a bit competitive with other people but I'm just competitive with myself which is probably better.

00:54:16Ricci McGreevey: Yeah and that's what parkrun is all about really just being trying to you know better yourself and beat your own time so will you be back?

00:54:22Aisling McAleese: Yeah I'll definitely be back I wouldn't mind trying out some of the other parkruns across Northern Ireland as well but yeah I'll definitely definitely be back.

00:54:28Ricci McGreevey: Great, thanks Ash. Bye. Okay, next I'm here with Tracey McCulloch. Did I get that right? Yes. She's a volunteer here. How are you today? I'm great, thank you. So are you always a volunteer or do you run as well?

00:54:42Tracey McCulloch: Well, I did start off running at Colin Glen and then I volunteered and I have been volunteering for now almost two years. Oh, very good. I enjoy the volunteer role. What do you like about volunteering? Oh, I love it. I love meeting everyone each week. I've got to make really good friends every week at Colling Lane and I just love the community spirit here. It's just, it's worth getting up on a Saturday morning for.

00:55:02Ricci McGreevey: Oh, that's so lovely. And there are a lot of friendly people here. I've been really welcomed into the group, so it's lovely.

00:55:09Tracey McCulloch: It's a really friendly parkrun. Everyone gets on and everybody has made friends and you see it every week, everybody getting to know each other. It's great. Yeah, that is great.

00:55:17Ricci McGreevey: So what's your favourite volunteer role?

00:55:20Tracey McCulloch: My favourite volunteer role is the scanner. Me too. Because you get to chat to everyone, right? In fact, they used to call me Scanner Tracy, but I do enjoy doing the scanner. But any job, really. I also like volunteering marshalling at the lake. I'm known to bring my music up there and blast the music and have a bit of fun up there.

00:55:38Ricci McGreevey: I like to have a bit of fun up there. That sounds fun. Yeah, definitely. Now, one thing that is quite different here to probably most Australian parkruns is that you have an indoor room where you kind of meet and gather. We normally just are outside in a barbecue area or something. But what's the advantage of having the room, do you reckon?

00:55:54Tracey McCulloch: Oh, it's fantastic. That's a real benefit to Collingley Inn, especially in the colder weather, obviously. But not only that, it actually gets people to speak to each other rather than just getting their barcode scanned and heading home. here they get scanned and they come in and you can see friendships over even over the past two years I've been here you see friendships starting to grow you see people starting to come and meet on a Saturday to try and help each other out getting PBs it's fantastic it's just great to have everybody together in the one place speaking to each other it's great great community atmosphere and great fun actually great fun yeah and that's what parkrun is all about really That's what parkrun is to me, fun. I'm not a runner, I'll be honest. I normally just power walk. I'm not a great runner, as you can see. But parkrun to me is about fun. I love the fun element of it.

00:56:38Ricci McGreevey: Definitely. Well, thank you so much, Tracey.

00:56:40Tracey McCulloch: Thank you very much. It was lovely to meet you. Bye. Thank you.

00:56:43Ricci McGreevey: Alright, and here I'm with Shauna, and she is the Run Director for today. How are you, Shauna? I'm fine on this lovely morning in Belfast. Thank you for coming. Thanks for having me. Just a few questions about Colin Glenn now. How long has it been running for?

00:56:59Shauna: We will be running two years this October, so we're still fairly new, fairly fresh, but two years this October. Oh.

00:57:05Ricci McGreevey: Congratulations, that'll be good. Was it a difficult event to set up? Did you get a lot of support from local government?

00:57:13Shauna: We did get support, we got support obviously from parkrun UK and then we're very lucky in that we're part of a separate trust so this would be Collin Trust and Collin Trust would get a lot of funding from the neighbourhood and we're lucky in that they allow us to use their facilities and use this building. So we're lucky in that sense of a way, not only did we have parkrun UK, we also had a number of very good people who would have started other parkruns in Belfast and they came up then to start this run so there was plenty of help.

00:57:42Ricci McGreevey: Oh that's really great. What kind of numbers do you get?

00:57:46Shauna: Our numbers vary. In the beginning we had some weeks where we only had maybe 10 to 15 and we weren't sure if we were going to be able to continue with the run. Now we vary anywhere between 50 and 100 each week. We also have what we call takeover weeks. We would have a lot of GAA clubs, which are the Gaelic Athletic Association clubs in the area. So there are weeks when they will come and take over parkrun and then the numbers will be exceptionally higher than normal. And we get great help out of that. They also get great help and it encourages more and more people to come to parkrun.

00:58:21Ricci McGreevey: That's great to hear you have a good relationship with the local athletics clubs. Yeah, we do indeed. So the course, I mean, the course is amazing. Do you get many tourists as a result?

00:58:34Shauna: We do. I think what happens is there are ones, you've seen yourself this morning with yourself. We'd also carry Fergus, who brought a crowd with him, because we would be one of the more sort of woodland areas within Belfast. Belfast is the main city, obviously, in the north of Ireland. So because we have a woodland that's sitting in the middle of such a busy area, a lot of people come and do it once and they're so amazed. at the lake and the waterfall and the Gruffalo Trail and obviously the general woodland that they then encourage other people to come. So we now do have a reputation for being one of the most beautiful parkruns in Belfast.

00:59:14Ricci McGreevey: Absolutely, I think that. I've never done any other of the Belfast parkruns but I'm happy to go along with that.

00:59:20Shauna: Yes, you'll have to try them and make up your own mind but I think you'll still agree with us that this is the most beautiful parkrun in Belfast. Absolutely.

00:59:27Ricci McGreevey: Now my last question, what is it like in winter?

00:59:33Shauna: Now, winter can cause us some problems. We have on some occasions had to close, not necessarily to snow. We wouldn't get an awful lot of snow here, but we would get a lot of ice. So obviously, whenever it's icy, it's too dangerous, at which stage we have on maybe... a handful of occasions had to close the parkrun but we're very lucky in that someone does a pre-run every morning so we do give plenty of notice to the runners which then allows them the opportunity to go to one of the other parkruns in Belfast. The other parkruns would be maybe five or ten minutes away from this run so there's always one that they can go to if we have to close. But apart from the ice, there is nothing stops us, Colin Glen parkrun. That's great.

01:00:18Ricci McGreevey: Thank you so much for having me. And thank you so much. I've really enjoyed my time here. Thank you. Okay, I just had to speak to two people, Nicola, who is on her 100th parkrun, and Bobby, who is on his 20th... Sorry, 200th parkrun. And you've chosen to come here to Colling Glen. Why did you choose to come to... Colling Glen for this milestone?

01:00:45Nicola: Basically because Colling Glen, although it is a very tough course and there's a huge hill in it, the scenery is beautiful. It tends to get a smaller group because it is such a tough parkrun, but really I love it for that and because people are so friendly. So for that reason I came along and did my 100th here.

01:01:03Ricci McGreevey: Great. And you've done most of your parkruns at Carrickfergus, is that right, Bobbie?

01:01:09Bobby: Yes, we live at Carrickfergus, so we've done most of our parkruns there, although we like to travel around and do as many different ones as possible.

01:01:17Ricci McGreevey: And you've done all of the ones in Northern Ireland?

01:01:20Nicola: Yes, there currently are 24, so we've been parkrun tourists. Last year we did a 24 parkrun challenge and we're going to go to the inaugural 25th parkrun in Northern Ireland, which is down in Castlewellan on the last Saturday in September.

01:01:34Ricci McGreevey: So is there an exclusive club or anything for the people who have done all of the ones in Northern Ireland?

01:01:40Nicola: Well, certainly as a running club, as Seapark AC, we did the 24 parkrun Challenge, but a number of people have taken it up as a challenge, but it does tend to involve getting up very early on a Saturday morning. That's the main problem.

01:01:56Ricci McGreevey: Absolutely. And what do you love about parkrun? What does parkrun mean to you and how come you keep coming back?

01:02:03Bobby: Well, the atmosphere and the camaraderie at parkrun, the marshals and how everybody's treated is wonderful. I think it's a really nice atmosphere. It's friendly and it's like a family atmosphere. It's not like a race that you go to and we love it. It's great to get out every Saturday morning to it.

01:02:23Ricci McGreevey: Absolutely. Well, congratulations to you both and good luck.

01:02:27Bobby: Thank you very much.

01:02:30Ricci McGreevey: Okay, and lastly I'm here with Claire. She's the Joint ED here at Collin Glen and you took over in January. What do you think is different about Collin Glen parkrun to other parkruns in Northern Ireland?

01:02:46[laughter]

01:02:46Claire: Colin Glenn parkrun, they're laughing at me, sorry. Colin Glenn parkrun is different. We bring the fun into it. It is a community and has a community feeling. We do have a lot of other what we call parkrun tourists who have heard about the atmosphere here and visit, as was seen this morning. We had a crowd over from Carrickfergus. Yeah, so that was really nice.

01:03:07Ricci McGreevey: Yeah, there's definitely a lovely bunch of people here, and I felt, this is only my second time that I've been at Colin Glen, but I felt very welcomed and part of the crowd already. Now, you were talking about you love a good dress-up day. So do we in Australia, so please tell us about it.

01:03:24Claire: We do. We're actually in the process, Deirdre and I, of trying to find a theme for our second birthday, which is the 7th of October, and it also coincides with the 100 parkrun. So we're currently looking for ideas, so feel free to share. Yeah, we're trying to think of a good theme. Someone suggested, as we're in the forest, Robin Hood.

01:03:43Ricci McGreevey: Or maybe you could dress up as the Gruffalo.

01:03:47Claire: We could give that a go. Easter, Christmas, big dress-up times. Last year, Halloween was a scream. It was so funny. The local community were highly entertained when we had to stop at shops to get milk, etc. And we're all dressed up. I think I was a skeleton, surprisingly. But, yeah, it was good. Good fun.

01:04:07Ricci McGreevey: Very good. Well, I really want to thank you for having me. It's been really great. And, yeah, I think I'll pop down again.

01:04:16Claire: Oh, please do. Absolutely lovely. And keep in touch. Great. Say hi to Australian parkruns.

01:04:22Ricci McGreevey: Absolutely. So hi from Northern Ireland to Australia.

01:04:26Claire: Yeah, thank you so much. All the way from Collingland and West Belfast, Collingland parkrun. Have fun. Thank you. Thank you so much, Ricky.

01:04:35Melissa Erbacher: Scotty, don't you just love the sound of an Irish accent? Does it not put a smile on your face?

01:04:41Scott Trickett: It does. It does. It's so funny. They're funny. I mean, they probably think we're funny, but it's a funny accent. Can you have a go at it?

01:04:49Melissa Erbacher: It's not funny. It's musical. Oh, look, I can only have a go at it when I'm trying to be a pirate and I've had too many to drink. No, come on.

01:04:56Scott Trickett: We've just listened to about five or six minutes worth. There's plenty of examples there. You have a go. No, I've embarrassed myself already.

01:05:05Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well, you told me you didn't want me to make you laugh this podcast. So I'm going to refrain from trying to do an Irish accent. Okay. Also out of respect for all the wonderful people that Ricky just interviewed. And maybe another time.

01:05:22Scott Trickett: Now, awesome work by Rikki. Rikki's my gun reporter, and she's delivered again.

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

01:05:28Melissa Erbacher: Now, this weekend, Scotty, we've got a couple of launches. Interestingly, one of them has changed names before it has even launched. So previously known as the Barossa Bush Gardens parkrun is now going to be called Nooriupa.

01:05:48Scott Trickett: No, it's not.

01:05:51Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, it is.

01:05:52Scott Trickett: No. How is it? Go on. Try again.

01:05:54Melissa Erbacher: Nuri Utpa. Really? That's how you pronounce it. Otherwise known as Nuri to the locals.

01:06:00Scott Trickett: Nuri. Okay.

01:06:04[laughter]

01:06:04Melissa Erbacher: Why are you giggling at the way I pronounce it? I've been there. That's how it's called.

01:06:10Scott Trickett: That just didn't sound right.

01:06:11Melissa Erbacher: Well, how do you pronounce it?

01:06:13Scott Trickett: Well, I haven't even tried, but that didn't sound right.

01:06:16Melissa Erbacher: Well, have a crack.

01:06:17Scott Trickett: Nuri. Oh, you're actually probably right.

01:06:21Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, it just sounded funny.

01:06:23Scott Trickett: It was like the Irish. Maybe I was still in the mode of the Irish and talking about a parkrun called Colin Glen. Colin Glen's a lot easier than Noori Utbah or Noori. We're going to call it Noori.

01:06:36Melissa Erbacher: That'll be easier for those of us who aren't local, I guess. And that, of course, is in South Australia.

01:06:43Scott Trickett: Yes, and they're launching on the same weekend that Redcliffe in Queensland is also launching.

01:06:50Melissa Erbacher: And you know what? My money is on that being an absolutely massive launch.

01:06:56Scott Trickett: Why do you say that?

01:06:58Melissa Erbacher: Well, because it's very close to Sandgate, who hasn't had a very close neighbour for like ever, effectively. It's going to be a beautiful coastal course. It's intense. close enough proximity to brisbane and the cbd and their surrounds there and i think everyone is really really chomping at the bit for another event launch in southeast queensland so i i really think it's going to be quite large okay a massive launch that's good we're sending the boss oh excellent so everything's going to be under control massive launch And we also have a couple of anniversaries this weekend, which may or may not have cake and donuts. Where are we celebrating?

01:07:48Scott Trickett: In Victoria, in Melbourne, Pakenham.

01:07:52Melissa Erbacher: Excellent. And in Northern Territory, we've got Palmerston, the second event after Darwin, to be up there. And they're already celebrating an anniversary. That's awesome.

01:08:03Scott Trickett: Well done. Two Ps.

01:08:05Melissa Erbacher: Two Ps on the same weekend. Yeah.

01:08:07Scott Trickett: They lined it up, I reckon. They got together and said, this is the pee weekend.

01:08:13Melissa Erbacher: It sounds terrible when you say that.

01:08:17Scott Trickett: But then Redcliffe and Nuri ruined it all this year.

01:08:21Melissa Erbacher: Nuri?

01:08:22Scott Trickett: Nuri. See, I already got it wrong.

Streaky September

01:08:28Melissa Erbacher: Is it time yet for our Streaky September Roundup?

01:08:31Scott Trickett: I think it is.

01:08:33Melissa Erbacher: Okay. What have you got to report on week two? Are you still streaking?

01:08:37Scott Trickett: Still streaking. It's – no, it's going well. I thought it was – it's definitely a challenge. There's no doubt about that. It's a challenge. But I've been – the pressure's been taken off me a little bit with this injury. And now what I've been doing the last couple of nights is going out with Yvonne and Kasia, and they're just in the 2K build-up mode. We've built up to running 3K, for example, the other night. Fabulous. And yeah, it's a great thing to do. Just go for a walk for 20 to 30 minutes with your loved ones. I highly recommend it.

01:09:17Melissa Erbacher: You actually get a chance to talk away from technology. Isn't it nice?

01:09:21Scott Trickett: Yeah, yeah. So we've decided that we're going to try and continue it. Maybe not every night, but definitely it's going to be a more regular thing for our family. So as far as I'm concerned, Streaky September is already a winner.

01:09:36Melissa Erbacher: Awesome. And have you been throwing any bingo with an E challenges in there?

01:09:43Scott Trickett: Let's go back. How are you going?

01:09:45Melissa Erbacher: Oh, well, I'm still streaking. Streaking is still happening. Some days it has been harder than others. Last night was one of those days where you just sort of got to the end of a really busy day and you went, oh, that's right, we still haven't struck yet. But... Yeah, no, I am doing more streaks in the actual daylight. So I'm getting a little bit more organized. I finally got to bag a parkrun on the weekend. So that was good. I didn't have to worry about it on Saturday night at least. And yeah, no, it is, as you say, it is a challenge. Some days just to go, oh yeah, well, we don't want to break the streak yet. So And since last week, Wes has broken streaks. So the whole family is not still streaking. He does accompany us on most of our outings. However, he's managed to skip a couple, you know, under the guise of sleeping, needing to spend time with his grandma because he was sleeping before when she came to look after him, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, they're all weak excuses, but... You try arguing.

01:11:00Scott Trickett: Can you let him know that he's let me down?

01:11:02Melissa Erbacher: Well, you can tell him yourself this weekend when you go streaking with him.

01:11:06Scott Trickett: It's a bit awkward in person. I like to deliver my messages like that.

01:11:12Melissa Erbacher: Your bad news via other people. Yeah.

01:11:15Scott Trickett: Yeah. It works better for me.

01:11:17Unidentified speaker: Okay.

01:11:20Scott Trickett: And then there's less awkwardness when we meet on the weekend.

01:11:23Melissa Erbacher: Because you can both just pretend like nobody said anything.

01:11:25Scott Trickett: Yeah. He knows I'm disappointed. We don't have to talk about it.

01:11:32Melissa Erbacher: Okay. I'll let him know. But back to bingo.

01:11:36Scott Trickett: Back to bingo. The bingo card was released this week on Facebook, which was good. I just wanted to quickly touch on the E. I was confusing my dingoes with my chigoes.

01:11:48Melissa Erbacher: Okay, what's a chingo? Oh, you don't know. No, I'm not.

01:11:52Scott Trickett: The small tropical flea.

01:11:54Melissa Erbacher: Oh. Yeah. I can see how you would get a large mammal confused with a small tropical flea.

01:12:00Scott Trickett: Yeah. So that's what I was thinking of when I said that.

01:12:08Melissa Erbacher: And how long did it take you to find chingos? What do you mean?

01:12:13Scott Trickett: I don't know. It's very easy to confuse dingoes and chingos.

01:12:16Melissa Erbacher: Well, tell me, how do you even Google, like, did you have to type in what's a word ending in G-O-E? Because it's not like you can type into a dictionary and look something up from the start of the word because it's the end of the word.

01:12:31Scott Trickett: I'm offended. I'm offended you don't believe me.

01:12:36Melissa Erbacher: Okay. You'd be offended. I'll send you a picture of an x-ray of an appendage next time I have a stack and we'll just see. Okay.

01:12:48Scott Trickett: But it's actually really easy. You just Google words ending in G-O-E and there's only three.

01:12:55Melissa Erbacher: What are the other two? You don't remember? I don't remember. They obviously weren't as good as a small tropical flea.

01:13:05Scott Trickett: But I was quite excited when I saw that one of them was a small tropical flea. Okay. So it kind of made sense.

01:13:12Melissa Erbacher: Now, spelling of the challenge title itself aside, have you actually done any of the streaks? How close are you to being able to yell out bingo? Um...

01:13:25Scott Trickett: The contentious one, and I've still said all along that it's going to be the fun one, is the jim jams, the pyjama one.

01:13:32Melissa Erbacher: Yep.

01:13:34Scott Trickett: But I've streaked with a friend. I've done a parkrun.

01:13:39Melissa Erbacher: Yep.

01:13:39Scott Trickett: I've done the selfie.

01:13:41Melissa Erbacher: That's three of the five, not including the bonus point.

01:13:45Scott Trickett: So I've got the freedom run coming up this weekend and potentially the gym jam one coming up this weekend. Depends how much wine we drink in the brewery.

01:13:58Melissa Erbacher: You're bringing your PJs for the weekend. Maybe I should do that. Maybe we should all do that. We'll let the whole party know.

01:14:05Scott Trickett: Yep.

01:14:07Melissa Erbacher: Okay.

01:14:08Scott Trickett: And what was the bonus one? Bonus with a podcast.

01:14:10Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, streaking with a podcast. We didn't actually stipulate that it had to be our podcast. So any podcast would be okay.

01:14:19Scott Trickett: So I've still got that to go. And yourself, how are you tracking?

01:14:23Melissa Erbacher: Well, I have struck with a friend. I dud, dud, I dud a struck selfie. It's that tropical flea must have been biting me and it's affecting my language skills. And I've struck a parkrun. So I'm the same as you. I've done the same ones you've done. I still need to do the Freedom Run. I still need to get the gym jams out. And I haven't actually done one with the podcast yet. So maybe when this gets released, I can listen back to our conversations later in the week.

01:15:01Scott Trickett: So we're on a road trip this weekend. We're both heading to the Barossa. But we're going to try and sneak in some Freedom Runs on the way. Now, have you run in South Australia? I've only done Mount Gambier.

01:15:14Melissa Erbacher: I've done Torrens in South Australia.

01:15:16Scott Trickett: Okay. So we're not virgins when it comes to South Australian parkruns.

01:15:21Melissa Erbacher: Not entirely, no. And we've chatted to quite a few different event teams down that way too, just on the podcast. We have. So we've been around virtually the South Australian landscape a little bit.

01:15:35Scott Trickett: Yes. Our number one news reporter hails from South Australia.

01:15:39Melissa Erbacher: He does indeed.

01:15:40Scott Trickett: So we're hoping to catch up with PK.

01:15:45Melissa Erbacher: Yep, that'll be great fun, meeting the Channel 5 News crew in the flesh.

01:15:49Scott Trickett: Yes. So it's going to be fun.

01:15:54Melissa Erbacher: It will. I look forward to reporting on the adventures in the podcast next week.

01:16:02Scott Trickett: Thanks again, Mel. It didn't make me laugh too much. There were a couple of times there, but I soldered on.

01:16:11Melissa Erbacher: Yep, you held it in and didn't crack any of those bruised ribs. Maybe next time. For those of you who didn't catch it because it was not actually said, this has been episode 81 of the parkrun Adventures.