Episode 86

Episode details · 181 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:08Melissa Erbacher: My favourite secret agent of all time was Agent 86, and we are up to episode 86 of the parkrun Adventurers podcast. How are you doing this week, Scotty? Are you psyched? Are you amped for 86?

00:00:23Scott Trickett: Always. But I'm curious, who is your second favourite agent?

00:00:28Melissa Erbacher: Oh, that would be tough. It could – I think it would probably be a tie between Inspector Gadget and James Bond.

00:00:35Scott Trickett: Oh, see, I asked you thinking you wouldn't know more than one agent. But Inspector Gadget, you've touched on something there. I loved Inspector Gadget.

00:00:46Melissa Erbacher: That was my – How good was he?

00:00:48Scott Trickett: Go-to cartoon, run home from school, Inspector Gadget, loved it.

00:00:53Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, we used to play Inspector Gadget when I was a little girl. I would draw, you know, the computer things in the pages of an exercise book and make my little brother run around pretending he was brain. It was great fun.

00:01:06Scott Trickett: Yeah, so he was resourceful, he was inventive, but he was also funny. He was cracking jokes.

00:01:11Melissa Erbacher: He was.

00:01:12Scott Trickett: The whole episode.

00:01:14Melissa Erbacher: Exactly, and just quietly, there's a connection there to Agent 86 as well, so... All the best agents are very smart, let's say.

00:01:27Scott Trickett: Let's not give away the connection. Let's let our listeners think about that. But yes, I'm amped. I'm pumped. Busy week, Mel. Lots of adventuring happening over the weekend.

00:01:39Melissa Erbacher: I know. I heard this on the grapevine. Where did you head to on Saturday?

00:01:44Scott Trickett: Well, I went up to Bowral. Now, firstly... Have you ever, you've heard of Bowral. Do you know where Bowral is?

00:01:53Melissa Erbacher: It's in New South Wales. And you know what? Bowral first came to my attention in the parkrun AU100 video because it looks absolutely stunning in that video. And I was like, oh my God, where is this place that I've never even heard of before this? So that was my introduction to it.

00:02:10Scott Trickett: And I bet you've never heard of any or met anybody who's been to Bowral either. No.

00:02:14Melissa Erbacher: I don't think I have.

00:02:16Scott Trickett: That was my experience as well. But let me assure you that the course is gorgeous. I know what you're thinking in the video, and if you haven't watched it yet, have a look at yourself because it's a great video and it was released a long time ago. But in the video, they've got a shot of the start, which is a grass field and it's mowed, so there's a And that is the course. I've been there. I've experienced it now. And that is awesome. But it goes downhill and then it gets on to just a regular bike path, walking path.

00:02:50Melissa Erbacher: It goes downhill in a good way.

00:02:52Scott Trickett: It does. It does. And the bike path itself is gorgeous too because it basically winds along a river and then out through farming land. So you run past horses. I think we ran past horses and some cows and lots of tall grass and Lots of green, country air. Gorgeous, gorgeous parkrun. But the reason I was there is because I went there to do a little bit of a story on Norma Wallet. Norma Wallet is 88 years old and is still running parkrun. Actual running. She's a runner at 88 years old and she did 100 parkruns on Saturday, making her the oldest parkrun in the world to get to the 100 milestone. We thought that was worth celebrating. So I went out there.

00:03:40Melissa Erbacher: The oldest, the oldest, oldest or the oldest female?

00:03:43Scott Trickett: The oldest female. The oldest female. Because as we know, your mate up there, Norm, he ticked off that box.

00:03:52Melissa Erbacher: Well, he's the oldest male. Yeah.

00:03:54Scott Trickett: But yeah, it was a real treat. So I flew up there and spent Friday with Norma and got to know her and had a chat to her. And anyone who is still running... when they're 88, is remarkable. And Norma doesn't see herself as being remarkable. She just thinks it's something that everybody does, something she's always done to keep active. But she actually, well, actually, she started running when she was 40. Okay. Did her first marathon in her 70s. So if you're still on the fence about this running caper and you think, here's it for me, we've got plenty of time. Because Norma discovered it in her 40s.

00:04:34Melissa Erbacher: Well, she sounds phenomenal. Was it a great morning?

00:04:37Scott Trickett: It was. It was. It was a really good morning. Lots of people showed up to support Norma. You know, Bowral's one of those events, not a massive one. They get 50 to 60 every week. And on Saturday, I think they might have nudged 90-odd. So it was great to see that people came out to support Norma and celebrate the occasion. A few people travelled up from Canberra. Just a great morning. Another great parkrun morning, celebrating someone who's done something remarkable. But also... I chatted to a couple of people who came to parkrun for the first time, wondering what the hell's going on. Why am I running around with a camera? Why is there cake?

00:05:16Melissa Erbacher: Is it like this every week? Yeah.

00:05:19Scott Trickett: I lied. I said yes.

00:05:20Ricci McGreevy: Yeah, I'm here every week filming.

00:05:23Scott Trickett: And cake is mandatory. No, I didn't. But I also spent Friday night with the crew from Bowral. having dinner in the local pub, and that was lovely too. It's always great to get to know people you don't know, but parkrunners in general, so you get to hear everyone's parkrun story. And the parkrun story in Barrel is slightly different to the parkrun story that I'm used to down in Melbourne.

00:05:51Melissa Erbacher: Do you care to elaborate? Like, why is it slightly different?

00:05:54Scott Trickett: Well, because when you're in Bowral, the only event you've got is Bowral. So your only exposure to parkrun is Barrel parkrun.

00:06:02Tim Oberg: So all your stories and all the people you know are from that one event.

00:06:06Scott Trickett: Whereas you and I, Mel, we've got the luxury of visiting a different parkrun every week. And we call ourselves adventurers because we like to adventure to different parkruns. So when you flip it and you hear what we call passionistas, parkrunners who have only experienced their one event, it's a different story.

00:06:27Melissa Erbacher: I can see, yeah, okay. I can see where you're coming from. So what is Boweral's closest parkrun, do you know, off the top of your head? Have you looked at the map?

00:06:36Scott Trickett: There are a couple of hours, maybe an hour and a bit from Canberra, so they've got a selection in Canberra. Illawarra, so Illawarra's an hour away, and Sydney is an hour away, so Campbelltown's close. But yeah, I just think it's more of an effort, and when there's not the culture of adventuring to other parkruns. People don't.

00:06:59Melissa Erbacher: It's a completely different experience, isn't it? Not a worse one or a better one, but just a different one. Yeah.

00:07:05Scott Trickett: So that was my morning. Now, you had the privilege of adventuring to another parkrun on Saturday. I did. And I'm guessing you were swept up in our interview with Kelly and you went along to a cops and robbers run.

00:07:19Melissa Erbacher: I was. I admit that the imagination started ticking over with the nice and simple costume opportunities to get dressed up as robbers and obviously the um chance to to get in another relatively local I think Petrie at that stage was my NENDY um it's it was it's only about roughly an hour's drive from where i live so i thought oh I could do that. I could arrange to meet up with my brother and sister-in-law, my niece and nephew. And that's nice smack bang in the middle of where we live. And we could all get dressed up as cops and, well, robbers because obviously none of us are police officers. And yeah, go and get some parkrun adventures happening at Petrie. And it was awesome. It was such a good morning. For the first time, Adam took Wes with the pram. And I was child-free, relatively speaking. And I still only walked the event because I wasn't prepared for the running. And I wasn't sure then at that stage whether or not I might have been participating in another running event later that day. So I needed to save my legs, potentially. But I'm really glad that we did walk because if we had run, we would have missed out. on a koala crossing the footpath and climbing to just above head height in a little tree, like right there where we were. And so we had to stop and have a selfie taken with the koala, which was awesome. My first koala on a parkrun event and it happened in Queensland. I was super expecting that to happen in South Australia. Because that's where I always see the koalas. But nope, Queensland, Petrie, an hour away from my house. And Kelly informs me that she very kindly arranged for that to happen. So thank you, Kelly. I really appreciated the koala experience at your event. And it was awesome though as well, all the police officers that got involved and all the runners that got dressed up as the robbers. You know, everybody fully embraced it. There was police vehicles with sirens going off and runners running around with plastic handcuffs on and things like that. And it was just a really great morning. Everybody got very involved. Some of the volunteers dressed as police officers had super soakers and were squirting. us as we went past as well, which was a nice touch on a warm morning. So also a really great course, you know, a few undulations, but mostly shady and very green because of all the rain we've been having. The rain fortunately held off till just after we finished and we were about to get in the car. So that was well-timed as well. So it's one of those mornings where everything just lines up, all the stars align and everything just happens perfectly. Which is ironic because we almost missed it because I slept through my alarm after having a not very good night's sleep with Wes and waking up essentially five minutes before we were due to actually leave instead of waking up 45 minutes before we were supposed to leave. So all pulled it together at the end though. Good morning.

00:10:41Scott Trickett: I've done that plenty of times. You didn't speed there. You didn't speed to get to parkrun, did you?

00:10:47Melissa Erbacher: No, I'm starting to learn that I need to add a buffer in for having an infant. So the normal time it takes you to get places, add like 50% again, and then that's the time that you should be leaving. So because I had added in all that buffer, and fortunately we didn't actually need that. So he didn't need a feed because he'd been awake all night eating anyway. So that worked in our favor. And we were able to use that extra time to very quickly get dressed before we left and know we didn't have to speed.

00:11:20Scott Trickett: Awesome. I saw some photos from the Cops and Robbers run and it looked like tons of fun and well supported. So I think that might become a bigger thing next year. Here's hoping anyway. And the koala, wild koala, Kelly didn't bring one in and stage it for you. It was a...

00:11:38Melissa Erbacher: No, no. I think she has contacts locally in the trees. Okay.

00:11:43Scott Trickett: She's connected.

00:11:44Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. Yeah.

00:11:47Scott Trickett: Good-o. Sounds like a great, fun morning. And you're not ready to run yet? Still walking?

00:11:54Melissa Erbacher: Well, no, it was a little bit of a walk run because my niece Lani was there too. So she realized too late that she should have gone with her uncle Adam or my brother Nicholas because they were both running. And she was like, oh, why aren't we running? And we said, well, we're just not. But we ended up walk running a little bit with her because the walk is just getting a bit too slow for her these days, the poor cherub. Yeah. Yeah, no, I'm thinking with this training program, we're going to talk about a little bit later with some special guests heading towards Christmas. I think more running is definitely in my future. We're going to skip down to Scotty's neck of the woods to have a chat to our next guest. We haven't been to Ballarat parkrun before. But we've had adventures, roving adventures from a lovely young lass named Ricci. And now we've got Ricci on the podcast talking to us live-ish. Hey, Ricci, how are you doing? Hi, thank you for having me. Thank you very much for being here. Now, Ricci, let's talk about Ballarat to start with because I've never been there and I have no idea even where it is geographically, let alone what the course is like. Can you give us a little bit of a rundown?

00:13:21Ricci McGreevy: Yes. So Ballarat is about an hour and a half drive from Melbourne. It's known for the gold rush era. So... A lot of our parkrun, so we had our second year anniversary recently and it was a gold theme because of the gold rush. And the course is at Victoria Park, which is sort of just across the way from Lake Wendouree, which is the Steve Moneghetti track. Pretty famous. Most people will go for a run around Lake Wendouree if they're in Ballarat. And the parkrun course is sort of a smaller loop first and then a bigger loop with an out-and-back section. And then, yeah, you finish up at a barbecue area and a playground area, so it's good for families and, you know, for hanging around afterwards.

00:14:16Scott Trickett: Ricci, I've visited Ballarat a couple of times. Unfortunately, both times I've been, it's been bitterly cold. But that's the thing with Ballarat, isn't it? It's always cold there.

00:14:28Ricci McGreevy: Yes, it is cold. Well, I feel like we have extreme weather. So in winter, it's really cold. And in summer, it can be really, really hot. So winter, yeah, you've got to layer up, definitely. I've been to... you know, running in places like Sydney or even in Queensland, and people actually wear gloves and hats, and I feel like running up to them and tearing it off them and saying, you do not need those things. It is not cold. Yeah, so it's pretty cold. It's very cold volunteering. I use those hot hand warmers and put them in my pockets. And then, yeah, we've had a real...

00:15:13Scott Trickett: couple of times during summer where it's been really hot and yeah i don't think anyone got a pb but i imagine you've had some fast pbs there because ballarat is also known as a bit of a hotbed for running in this country it is the home of Steve Moneghetti do you get some fast boys and girls come down from time to time

00:15:37Ricci McGreevy: Yes, we do. Steve has got a, he comes to parkrun probably every second week and he, I think he's only run once, maybe twice. The first time he ran, he was the male winner and the female winner was none other than me. But I came in about maybe 10 minutes after Steve, but that's my claim to fame that I've been first female and he's been first male. But yeah, he has... I'm not sure if he really coaches them or if he just sort of mentors a couple of runners in Ballarat. So they come down from time to time. Yeah, and they set a cracking pace.

00:16:23Melissa Erbacher: Well, as they go, that's a pretty special claim to fame, I reckon. Ricci, how did you hear about parkrun or get involved in the first instance?

00:16:33Ricci McGreevy: I think... I joined RMA, Running Mums Australia, and that was a really great connection for me to other runners because I was a solo runner and I never ran with other people. I was just on my own. And Running Mums Australia was a really good way to connect. And people on the forum were saying about parkrun this, parkrun that. And I was thinking, I don't know what parkrun is. What is it? And then I heard that parkrun was coming to Ballarat and I was so excited. And I put it in my calendar and I said to my husband, this is the start of parkrun, and from now on, every Saturday morning, I will be busy forever. So don't schedule anything in on a Saturday. That's it. And Ballarat parkrun started on the first day of winter, which I think, like a little odd, I think, because it doesn't really encourage people to get there, being so cold. But it was great for me because it kept me going for winter, and it really changed everything. So much about running for me. I've now made heaps of friends. I run with groups. We go away together. We just went to Melbourne Marathon. We stayed together and went out for dinner together. So it's become a really social thing. And it's made a huge impact on my life.

00:18:05Scott Trickett: Well, I've just realized, Ricci, we've run together. Because I went to event number one at Ballarat parkrun when it launched. So we've got a connection.

00:18:14Ricci McGreevy: Yes, there we go. There's always a six degrees of separation somewhere, isn't there?

00:18:21Scott Trickett: You also helped me out with the newsletter. You've been writing some articles lately, and there's some cracking articles. And you've written an article this week around international parkrunners, something that you've just experienced by visiting Ireland recently.

00:18:39Ricci McGreevy: Yeah, it was great. My husband is Irish. He came here when he was about 23. So we've been back to... He's from Belfast, so we've been back to Belfast a couple of times, but this is the first time we've been back and parkrun has been established there. And the parkrun that I went to is literally 300 metres from my parents-in-law's house. So it... You just, it was just the best. I just would walk to parkrun. And, of course, at Colin Glen, I did a podcast from there. It was just amazing. It was so different to anything I'd ever done before. Really, really hilly through a wooded glen is what they call it. So very different environment to what we're used to here in Australia. But what made me think about writing the parkrun article about being so international is that when I was there, we were there for five weeks, so I had the opportunity to go to five different parkruns around Belfast. But I went to Colin Glen and everyone was so wonderful. I just wanted to keep going back because... you know, you start making friends and connections with people. So I didn't do any other parkruns in Belfast, so maybe I'm not a very good parkrun adventurer, but it did make me think about how many people have perhaps moved overseas and found that by joining parkrun in their local community, it's made the move easier. So we put the call out to find some... event directors here or over there or wherever who were expats and yeah, I think their stories are really interesting and I think on the whole, parkrun is definitely helping people re-establish themselves in new places.

00:20:49Melissa Erbacher: I love the fact that you went there and you went to the event the first week and you loved it so much that you just wanted to go back. It's like you get to have two home parkruns on two different continents. And there are a lot of people who have talked about sister parkrun events, so parkruns that launch on the same weeks, you know, and they share the same birthday and they're twins and things like that. Do you think there's a lot of opportunity, you know, you could have a home parkrun in every different country, Ricci?

00:21:20Ricci McGreevy: That, you're giving me ideas for the articles for the newsletter, Mel. I've never heard of having like a sister parkrun before, but that's a, it's a really intriguing idea. I think that, yeah, like the idea of having several home parkruns is great. And the people in the article this week did talk about having their home parkrun here in Australia and then a home parkrun in Scotland or England or wherever it may be. Yeah, I just think that there are so many interesting stories that come out of parkrun. And whether it be over there or here, wherever it is, there's so many interesting stories that are just waiting to be told.

00:22:09Scott Trickett: And you're the person for that. How have you enjoyed writing for the newsletter? Because you've written quite a few articles recently.

00:22:18Ricci McGreevy: Yes, I have. I really enjoy it, actually. And I feel it's sort of an extension of my volunteering. Yeah, I just come up with ideas, I suppose, normally when I'm running. And I quickly jot them down. And then I usually email you, Scott, and say, who do we know who does this or who does that? But yeah, as I said, I just think that there are so many stories. You know, parkrun is every single morning, or sorry, every Saturday morning around the world in so many different countries and so many people participate. There's just got to be so many great stories in there. And people, you know, people do capture my attention. Everyone has a different story to tell. And I think that a lot of people don't realise how special their stories are. And so I know that, you know, you ask event directors to give us story ideas and some of them aren't very forthcoming, but I think that they just underestimate how special all their parkrunners are. Or maybe they don't realise maybe that people keep the story to themselves, but definitely everyone's got a great story.

00:23:36Melissa Erbacher: Well, thank you for sharing your story, Ricci, and for sharing the stories of all those people, both in the newsletter and when you send in the roving reports on the podcast. We really appreciate it and we look forward to hearing a lot more.

00:23:48Ricci McGreevy: Great. Thank you. I look forward to writing them. And the one thing I do like about writing is that I can sit at my laptop and normally I sit there for at least 15 minutes before I put something, you know, any words down. And it's a lot less intimidating than writing speaking to you and having to think of something else. So I'll get back to the newsletter. Thank you and thanks so much for having me.

00:24:25Scott Trickett: Now, if all our listeners were reading the parkrun newsletter that came out last week, they would have read an article from the boss, Tim Oberg. He wants to get faster in time for Christmas, and he hasn't been on the pod for a while. So welcome back, Tim Oberg.

00:24:41Tim Oberg: Thanks, Scott. Great to be here.

00:24:43Scott Trickett: It's extra special. when you're joining us this week because who you've roped in to help you with your goal to get faster is none other than Eloise Wellings. So welcome to the parkrun Adventures for the first time, Eloise.

00:24:56Eloise Wellings: Hi, thank you. Thanks for having me.

00:24:58Scott Trickett: Now this is exciting on a lot of levels because I think it's the first time we've had a four-way interview. So we'll see how that goes. But, Tim, all you want is to get fast in time for Christmas. Tell us what that's all about.

00:25:14Tim Oberg: Yeah, sure, mate. So I've had a really – I kind of wrote this in the newsletter, but I'll rehash it because it's a good story. So I've had a really good year of running, but I actually haven't entered any races for the last couple of years because we all know parkrun's a run, not a race. So I do parkrun every week, but I actually haven't entered any running events. So no Olympics for me. So I've just been training and doing parkrun, et cetera, et cetera, which I love. You know, I train for fun, train for health. I love the banter. I love the friendships. And that's training for me. But I sort of thought, well, I just sort of feel like I need a little bit of something to give me some focus, give me something to work towards at this time of year. And I thought, well, you know, the obvious distance to train for is 5K because that's Like most parkrunners, we're all knocking off 5K every week. So I had this little concept in mind that I would do a 5K, a 10-week training block leading into Christmas and the nearest... Obviously, we have parkrun on Christmas Day, but tradition up here in Airlie Beach is that I actually run direct on Christmas Day. So I thought, when's the next nearest parkrun to Christmas Day? And it's the 23rd of December. So I thought, right, I'm going to plan a 10-week training block around... running a fast 5K on the 23rd of December. And then whilst I was in the midst of doing that, Eloise contacted me about her Love Mercy Foundation project that she's got going on. So I'll throw it over to Eloise to tell that story and then we can talk about how it all came together.

00:26:56Eloise Wellings: Yeah, so thanks, Tim. I had a chat with Tim about a challenge that we're running at to raise money for our foundation. It's called the Love Millions Challenge, and what we're trying to do is get a bunch of runners to run a million kilometres before the completion of the Commonwealth Games in April next year. So yeah, basically you join the group on Strava and also on our Love Mercy Foundation website and you donate your kilometers. A runner will donate their kilometers every day of the week or however many times you run. per week. And then with those kilometers, yeah, we're trying to get to a million and trying to get some sponsor partners involved. We have already got some sponsor partners involved, but we're definitely looking for some more. And we're trying to raise $50,000 for our foundation. Basically, the sponsor partners do all of the donating in terms of monetary wise. It's for the runner to donate their running kilometers. I think it's a great way to add purpose to our running from here or for the next six months. We've got 874 from last count people in the group. It's exciting that people have been so supportive and have jumped on board. Hopefully, we're communicating the message. It means that we're communicating the message well that your day-to-day running can mean more than just getting fit, I guess.

00:28:38Melissa Erbacher: It's certainly a fabulous way to stay motivated during the week between parkruns. Now, Eloise, when Tim had this discussion with you and he said he wants to get fast for christmas you're a bit of a handy runner you you run you run some good speeds but did you already have like a training program created to you know to to fit this 10 week block or did you do it specifically for this purpose

00:29:04Eloise Wellings: Well, it's pretty specific in that it's 10 weeks long. But I mean, for any 5K, like if you want to increase your fitness over 5 or 10K running, there's three components. You need a long run, an interval session, and a sort of a steady state run, which is what the Saturday run is. And then the runs in between, if you can fit in more than that's great. But if you're a three to four time week runner and then there's another there's actually another session in there with a with some strides which actually help with technique and leg speed which is what you need for, especially for the end of a 5k race. So yeah, I, you know, the basics are always there and it's what we do. It's the sort of the foundation that my, my coach follows. And yeah, and then it's just about tweaking it. So obviously trying to coach beginner and intermediate and trying to kind of suit all levels.

00:29:59Scott Trickett: And that's a good point because by saying we want to get fast, fast is very relative. So this group is open to absolutely everybody, isn't it?

00:30:09Tim Oberg: Yeah, open to everyone. And one of the things that I guess was slightly a concern for us as parkrun talking about this is we didn't want it to be presented to the parkrun community as it is a program for the fast people to get faster. We wanted to make sure that this program is relevant whether you're running like me, if you're running about 20 minutes and you want to get into your sort of low 19, or whether you're running 40 minutes and you want to do 38 minutes. The principles are the same. And so we've seen that in the Facebook group that we've created. Most of the people who are in there talking about what their PBs are and so on, it's in sort of the high 20 minutes, the 30 minutes. And so it is sort of, You know, typical of parkrun where the average time within a parkrun is, you know, about 30 minutes for a 5k. So I'm glad that it's average parkrunners who have felt like that this was for them because that was certainly the intention.

00:31:04Melissa Erbacher: I do like how you mentioned that it's for the regular parkrunner, Tim, because I'm in the group and I've been running sort of, or when I say running, I've been wogging the high 50s with Wes lately. But I would be keen to get down to, you know, sub 35 would be amazing for me. It's not even beating my PB, but it would just be awesome. So Eloise, I'm coming back to running after having a little boy four months ago. And I'm thinking for the purposes of this, it's a lot of moving that I'm not quite used to. So I think I might halve all of your sessions and just do it that way, but still have the different things. Would that work for me?

00:31:47Eloise Wellings: Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, that's the beauty about the training program. If you still have those three key components, you know, a longer run, and I mean, it's, It's going to be a little bit different for everyone, depending on where you're coming from and what foundation you've got. And obviously, you're just coming back from having a baby, so you've probably not been doing a whole lot. So you'd start out much easier than what the program says, and then you would progress. So if you started out at 50% and use the general rule that you wouldn't add more than 10% in kilometres per week and go from there, then you should definitely get fitter and by the end of the 10 weeks, you should be feeling more yourself.

00:32:34Scott Trickett: And you'll be adding the kilometres to the Strava group. Tell us a bit more about that, Eloise, and tell us about Love Mercy because I've heard of it before and I've seen some of the stuff you do. But can you just elaborate for those that don't know?

00:32:47Eloise Wellings: Yeah, so we run community development projects in northern Uganda to help people back on their feet after the war. And I started the foundation with an Olympian, a Ugandan Olympian, Julius Achon. We met and became friends back in 2008. I was over in Portland training for the Beijing Olympics and trying to recover from a foot injury I had. Yeah, just became really good friends with Julius and we ended up going to Uganda to his wedding to his wife Grace. Yeah, my husband and I and my parents-in-law were there and we just saw, you know, a real need for people that had been suffering through the Civil War. And I guess we felt like we had a responsibility to do something with what we'd seen. And, you know, we started Love Mercy Foundation in 2009. And, yeah, we run... Two key programs at the moment, we have a medical clinic. We've just started a temporary maternity ward within that clinic. And the clinic services 20,000 people in a remote area in northern Uganda, including Julius' village that he grew up in. And we run another program called Cents for Seeds, which is a microloan farming program run primarily with women to help them create their own livelihood and basically get themselves out of poverty. And we started Cents for Seeds with 300 women in 2010. And we're running Cents for Seeds with 10,000 women this year. And it's been incredible the impact that just $30 can make. It costs $30 to sponsor a woman to go through the Cents for Seeds program. She receives agricultural workshops and a loan of seeds to grow on her land. And then with those seeds, the results that we've seen from this season, because it's been a really good rainy season there, is that a 30 kilo loan of seeds has harvested over 300 kilograms of food. And that can obviously make an incredible difference to a family living in poverty.

00:34:58Tim Oberg: It certainly is. That sounds like a serious impact.

00:35:03Scott Trickett: You must get a lot of benefit and joy out of seeing this grow over the years.

00:35:09Eloise Wellings: yeah for sure um yeah we have a like i have a huge um i have a small team with huge hearts and uh yeah with big vision and we hope to have 20 000 women in that program by 2020 and to do that we need to raise around a million dollars and so the 50 000 dollars that we're raising as part of the love millions challenge will go towards, um, towards Cents for Seeds as well as the the maternity ward that we're hoping to build in the next sort of 12 months, hopefully.

00:35:44Scott Trickett: Good luck. Well, hopefully we're going to get a few parkrunners behind that and adding their kilometres to this challenge in the next 10 weeks. I'm not going to let you go. We've got an Olympian on the podcast. I'm not going to let you go without finding out what you've been up to lately. I saw you in Melbourne for the Melbourne Marathon Festival on Saturday and Yep. What have you got planned and what are you aiming for at the moment?

00:36:09Eloise Wellings: Well, we've got our Commonwealth Games trials coming up. So firstly, the 10K trials, which is at the Zatopek in December. And then, sorry, my little girl just got home from preschool. And then we've got the 5K trials in February. So, yeah, really looking forward to those. And I'm just doing a bunch of road races to prepare for This weekend I'm in Tassie for the Burnie 10 and then the Noosa 5K and then after that we're heading to Uganda for a couple of weeks. We're taking a team over there and then I'll come back, do some altitude training and then at Falls Creek with my group and my coach, Nic Bideau, and then I'll head down to Melbourne to run at the Zatopek Trials.

00:37:01Melissa Erbacher: Well, it sounds like you're staying very busy, Eloise. We also have a very special person on the podcast in that we have a Commonwealth Games baton bearer in Mr. Tim Oberg. That's all been announced this week. So how exciting is that? You're going to be part of the Commonwealth Games baton relay and Elsie's going to be at the Commonwealth Games. Don't jinx Elsie.

00:37:25Tim Oberg: She has to get through the trials first.

00:37:27Melissa Erbacher: I'm confident in the baton.

00:37:31Tim Oberg: I mean, I'm going to be there no matter what.

00:37:34Eloise Wellings: Let's just say that. I'm going to be there no matter what. If something happens, I'm going to be there watching for sure. I couldn't be cheering for my teammates if that happened.

00:37:45Tim Oberg: Yeah, but look, it's exciting. Obviously, it was announced today, the baton bearers, announced yesterday rather, the baton bearers for the Commonwealth Games. And it's been quite a long process. I was nominated yesterday. um by renee russell who's uh our event director down at varsity lakes which is um on the gold coast obviously where i used to live so um renee very kindly nominated me for for that and um so i've i've known since then uh that's probably been at least six to eight maybe eight months ago that that was and then you go through a process where i think they must um they must call people at various stages of the process so you receive an email saying you know you've progressed to the next stage and and so on and I think about two months ago, I got to the point where they said, we're now, you know, you've progressed to the point that we're going to do background check, police checks and that sort of stuff on you. And I thought, okay, well, if that's where it's at, that's probably looking quite good because I knew I'd get through the police check. So, yeah, to find out officially last week, so I got an email last week saying that you're through, but that it's top secret, confidential. No, you can't tell anyone until... the 18th, which was, was that yesterday? Yeah, until it was announced yesterday. So, yeah, it'll be great. I know one other lady who's doing it up here in Airlie Beach, so we've already had a joke that hopefully we get to pass to each other. And lots of other parkrunners have been recognised today too. I think it's at least half a dozen or so who have been nominated for their contribution. They've made the parkrunners volunteers. And so I think, you know, certainly for myself and I'm sure for the other volunteers, when you get recognised like this, I see it as a massive compliment to the whole organisation because when people, you know, when Renee nominates me, it's because she loves parkrun. And so it's a tribute to everyone who's, I guess, enhanced Renee Russell's parkrun experience and likewise those of, you know, all the other people that nominated people from parkrun. It's because of the experience they've had with parkrun. And so, as I say, that's a tribute to all the parkrun staff, all the volunteers and all the participants that were recognised in this way.

00:39:52Melissa Erbacher: It's okay. It's the police check. That must be where they knew I wouldn't get through. Tell us truthfully, Tim, this whole want to get fast for Christmas situation, it's really you want to get fast for the Commonwealth Games. You don't want to make, I'll not use colourful language, but you don't want to make a donkey's behind of yourself, do you, when you've got that baton and that's what you've got Eloise involved in.

00:40:16Tim Oberg: The 5K trials are in February, the 5,000 metres, so you never know. If I have a very successful 10 weeks and take about seven minutes off my PB, then I could be... You know, I could be in with a shot. So, yeah, see how those sessions go. Elsie, you'll be pleased to know I've done nothing this week. I came down with man flu on Sunday. So my week one of the 10-week training plan has consisted of absolutely nothing at this point. So I'm going to be condensing it into a nine-week plan when we look at it. But hopefully everyone else is getting their sessions in.

00:40:50Eloise Wellings: All good, all good. I think there's still time. Nine weeks is still plenty of time.

00:40:55Tim Oberg: Yeah, that's what I reckon.

00:40:57Eloise Wellings: Better at this side of the plan than at the end, I think.

00:41:01Tim Oberg: Yeah, I agree.

00:41:02Scott Trickett: I like that advice because I'm with you, Tim. Haven't touched. Well, actually, I did the first one, the easy jog to start the week, but that's where it stopped. But we'll get back on track. Thank you both for coming on the podcast and having a chat about this challenge. Pleasure. Your plans. Good luck, Eloise. I'm pretty confident you'll get the Commonwealth Games on the track.

00:41:24Eloise Wellings: Thank you.

00:41:25Scott Trickett: And Tim, as always, thanks again.

00:41:27Tim Oberg: Oh, yeah, thanks, mate. Yep, yep. Thanks for having us, guys, and continue your great work with the parkrun Adventures. It's fantastic.

00:41:35Eloise Wellings: Yeah, thanks, guys.

00:41:50Scott Trickett: There's a hole, there's an empty hole in my life this week, Mel.

00:41:55Melissa Erbacher: Oh, and what is creating this void, Scotty?

00:41:59Scott Trickett: Well, I kind of got used to having roving reports every week. We had a really good stretch there.

00:42:07Melissa Erbacher: We did. We've been having amazing roving reports. Have we got none? Nothing. Oh.

00:42:13Scott Trickett: Nothing this week. But that's okay. That's okay. I've moved on.

00:42:20Melissa Erbacher: Maybe next week. Fair luck next week.

00:42:22Scott Trickett: Well, there's lots happening this week in the parkrun world, so there's lots of opportunities to get some roving reports. Where do we start? What's happening?

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

00:42:31Melissa Erbacher: Well, we've got no launches, so that's not what's happening. But we do have some anniversaries. I'm going to be headed someplace for cake this week. I'm going to Brightwater in Queensland for their third anniversary.

00:42:43Scott Trickett: This is anniversary season.

00:42:46Melissa Erbacher: It is.

00:42:47Scott Trickett: Because we've also got Grafton. in New South Wales.

00:42:51Melissa Erbacher: Gungahlin in the ACT. They only get a couple of anniversaries in the ACT every year, so there's one to skip along to.

00:43:00Scott Trickett: Kingscliff, just in New South Wales.

00:43:05Melissa Erbacher: And Mosman, who are also in New South Wales.

00:43:09Scott Trickett: Murray Bridge in South Australia.

00:43:12Melissa Erbacher: And Orange. Orange is also in New South Wales. That's a pretty uber weekend for anniversaries. Cake and donuts, fancy dress happening all over the place.

00:43:23Scott Trickett: Okay. Now, that's not the only exciting thing happening this weekend.

00:43:29Melissa Erbacher: No. What else?

The Perlustration (annual listener survey)

00:43:30Scott Trickett: Your opportunity to fill out the parkrun Adventurers 2017 Perlustration.

00:43:36Melissa Erbacher: Oh, have you filled it out yet, Scotty? I don't think I'm allowed. Why not? I would be – oh, no, but see, it's anonymous, so it's not like I would know what your feedback is anyway. It would skew the results.

00:43:48Scott Trickett: It would. But we didn't stress that last week, that it was completely anonymous.

00:43:54Melissa Erbacher: So people can be honest.

00:43:55Scott Trickett: Yep. No fear of repercussions. Tell us like it is. Just come at us. I've had a quick glance at the results, Mel.

00:44:04Melissa Erbacher: Oh, how are we doing? People are getting them in, I hope.

00:44:07Scott Trickett: They are. Well, I'm pleased to say we have got more response already this year than we had in total last year. So that's encouraging. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. There's been a good early response.

00:44:21Melissa Erbacher: Good job, Adventurous.

00:44:23Scott Trickett: Yeah. Should I tease you? No, I'm not going to say anything. I'm not going to say anything.

00:44:27Melissa Erbacher: You're not even going to tell me. But you get to have a look. Come on, just tell us a little bit. Something. Something. Give me something.

00:44:36Scott Trickett: Look, I've been really... There was a great question in there, if you could interview anyone, because that's given us some great ideas. Because with you and me, Mel, there's only two brains. There's only two brains in action here. So we just sometimes run out of ideas, but... We've got like a hundred new ideas to go through. Now, some of them are dead.

00:44:58Melissa Erbacher: Oh, that's awesome.

00:44:59Scott Trickett: Yeah, some of them are dead. That's okay. That's going to be a challenge.

00:45:01Melissa Erbacher: I know a lady with a Ouija board. We can make plans.

00:45:04Scott Trickett: Yeah, I'm not sure that'll work, Dad. Ouija boards aren't really an audio thing.

00:45:10Melissa Erbacher: No, this is true. This is true. We might have to have somebody translating. It could still happen. But we've got some interesting ideas. Did you hear that?

00:45:19[other]

00:45:19Scott Trickett: That was me on the Ouija board.

00:45:23Melissa Erbacher: You got one right there. It didn't work, did it?

00:45:26Scott Trickett: It's a travel Ouija board. It didn't work. What are they saying?

00:45:30Melissa Erbacher: Okay, well, let's park that idea for now. So the dead people notwithstanding, I mean, I'm still interested in those people anyway because that's an insight into who people are interested in. Even if they aren't currently living, you know, it's an idea and we could find somebody who might be similar. Can you give me a couple of examples? Put you on the spot now, haven't I?

00:45:57Scott Trickett: Who's Sophie Monk? What's a Sophie Monk? Who is she?

00:46:01Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. Isn't she an actress?

00:46:04Scott Trickett: Well, somebody wants us to speak to Sophie Monk.

00:46:08Melissa Erbacher: Okay. Fair enough. Well, we might need to do some research and look into that.

00:46:13Scott Trickett: There's a couple of other names on there that I'm not 100% sure on, but there's a good opportunity to search for them, do a bit of research.

00:46:24Melissa Erbacher: We'll get our Google fingers happy. All right. So let's move on. But we do – we still – obviously, the Perlustration is going to be open for a couple more weeks. Two more weeks. So we are keen to get everybody on board and filling that in because, yes, the questions might not be the normal kinds of questions that you see in surveys. But we are not the normal kinds of people who write surveys, are we, Scotty? No, we're not.

00:46:53Scott Trickett: As clearly evidenced by this Perlustration. So even if you haven't gone, just go on for a laugh. There's a couple of chuckles in there.

00:47:00Melissa Erbacher: Exactly.

00:47:02Scott Trickett: But yeah, two more weeks. We're giving you two more weeks to do it. And next week we're going to really give you an incentive, hopefully.

00:47:15Melissa Erbacher: But that doesn't mean don't do it this week. Does it?

00:47:20Scott Trickett: No.

00:47:21Unidentified speaker: No.

00:47:23Melissa Erbacher: Okay, cool.

00:47:25Scott Trickett: I think we're done. All right, well.

00:47:26Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I think we're done now. I know you don't like me mentioning it every week, but I did try to equal you on the most events list last week, and it didn't work because you foiled me with your little exploits in New South Wales. I'm going to be at home or visiting events I've already been to for the next couple of weeks, so you have an opportunity to get ahead of me again, Scotty. Have you got any adventures planned?

00:47:52Scott Trickett: You know I do. Do I? Yeah. You know because it's inevitable these days.

00:48:01Melissa Erbacher: It's inevitable. Well, it's your only opportunity to get ahead of me for a while because, yeah.

00:48:08Scott Trickett: You're coming at me after. Well, look, I have my flights are booked. I am heading on another adventure this weekend.

00:48:16Melissa Erbacher: Oh, actual flights. I'm on a plane. Yeah. Ooh, interstate? Yep. I'm assuming.

00:48:24Scott Trickett: Yep.

00:48:25Melissa Erbacher: But what I did do during the week... Are you chasing down the Peel Club?

00:48:27Scott Trickett: No, no, I'm not in that game. But I went on... I flew from Canberra to Sydney during the week.

00:48:36Melissa Erbacher: And I went on one of those... How long did that take, like 10 minutes?

00:48:39Scott Trickett: It takes 35 minutes.

00:48:41Melissa Erbacher: 35 minutes. Did you have propellers?

00:48:44Scott Trickett: Yes, it was on one of those planes.

00:48:46Melissa Erbacher: Did you have to bend over when you were walking down the aisle so that you didn't hit your head?

00:48:50Scott Trickett: It was tighter than normal and the luggage was jammed really hard into the overhead lockers.

00:48:58Melissa Erbacher: Okay.

00:48:59Scott Trickett: But yeah, up and down. They barely had time to hand out all the goodies, the snacks.

00:49:10Melissa Erbacher: So they were probably doing it all sideways while you were still going up.

00:49:15Scott Trickett: Almost, almost.

00:49:17Melissa Erbacher: Almost.

00:49:17Scott Trickett: But there's something, I'm a little bit nervous when you can actually see the propellers spinning out your window. I'm not used to it. But I survived, I'm here.

00:49:27Melissa Erbacher: And it was an adventure. It was an adventure. Was it parkrun related?

00:49:29Scott Trickett: Well, I was going to a sort of a parkrun related event, yeah.

00:49:35Melissa Erbacher: Okay, cool.

00:49:36Scott Trickett: I was hanging out with some parkrunners on the flight. As you do. Yeah, so it was good. Anyway, I'm back. I'm on a big plane. I bloody hope I'm on a big plane this week.

00:49:48Melissa Erbacher: Can you give us like a state that you're traveling to or is it a surprise for next week? You know, I'm sure you've got a gaggle of fans out there who want to know where you're going so they can arrange to be there.

00:50:01Scott Trickett: Do you think it's a gaggle?

00:50:03Melissa Erbacher: It is a gaggle. As in, isn't that what they call gooses? It's a gaggle.

00:50:09Scott Trickett: Thanks, Mel. On that note... I'll speak to you next week.