Episode 87

Episode details · 349 speaker turns · sound cues from context

Memory lane reminiscing (parkrun party week special)

00:00:18Scott Trickett: Greetings, listeners of the parkrun Adventurers podcast. I won't tell you my name because hopefully you all know it after 87 episodes. Welcome to my co-host.

00:00:30Melissa Erbacher: Who's also not going to tell you her name because you should know that as well.

00:00:34Scott Trickett: After 87 episodes, hopefully all our listeners know a little bit about the two of us. But this week, you're going to learn a little bit more.

00:00:45Melissa Erbacher: We're going to reminisce, Mel. We are. It's time to look back on a bit of a journey.

00:00:52Scott Trickett: Yeah, because coming up on parkrun Day for both of us this week, it's party time.

00:01:00Melissa Erbacher: It is. It's going to be cake and or donuts if you're at Westerfolds, I'm assuming.

00:01:04Scott Trickett: I hope so. Isn't it great that we managed to synchronise our anniversaries?

00:01:10Melissa Erbacher: Before we even ever met.

00:01:11Scott Trickett: I know. How cool was that?

00:01:16Melissa Erbacher: Yes, it's pretty cool having sister events.

00:01:21Scott Trickett: So it's party week at the parkrun Adventurers podcast. We're going to reminisce about some of our highlights. I've been in this caper for four years. You've been in it a bit longer than me.

00:01:33Mark: Just a little.

00:01:34Scott Trickett: You're a bit more grizzled vet.

00:01:36Melissa Erbacher: Oh, thank you. I like to think that five years in parkrun does not make somebody grizzled.

00:01:45Scott Trickett: Well, prove me wrong, Mel. Give me five years anniversary at Kawana. You were there at event number one.

00:01:52Melissa Erbacher: No, I wasn't. I was there at event number two. That's right. I missed the first one. And I can't even tell you where I was that week, but I know I was – well, I was in Brisbane. I don't know why, but I know I wasn't at Kiwana parkrun when they launched with about 40 other runners.

00:02:11Scott Trickett: So we might have done this a little bit throughout the past 87 episodes, but take us back, Mel. Take us back to the very beginning.

00:02:21Melissa Erbacher: To the super very beginning? Yeah.

00:02:24Scott Trickett: So how did you find out about parkrun?

00:02:27Melissa Erbacher: I found out about it – at my workplace. I work for local government and they were, for lack of a better word, well, I mean, they put the funds up, I think, to launch the event or at least part of the funds to launch Kiwana parkrun. So they were keen to get everybody along and as they do whenever council does anything in the community, they send a big email out to all staff letting us know what's happening and that we should get along and support it. And I was sitting across the partition from another Melissa who's also in the parkrun world and we were both, oh, that sounds a bit all right. Free, 5K every week. At that stage, I'd only done maybe two formal events. My first formal event ever was a 3K fun run. That was the Twilight run at St. Lucia. They don't even offer the 3K event anymore. They've changed it to five. But my first event was the 3K and... Obviously, I had to pay for that. And I'd also paid for the first Sunshine Coast Marathon, which was a 5K event. And the idea that you could go every week and run 5K and get a time and you didn't have to pay for it, that was awesome. So I was like, yep, I'm in on that action. I'm going to get registered. And the rest is history.

00:03:51Scott Trickett: So at the time, it was the only event on the Sunshine Coast. So you were far from an adventurer, I imagine, for a long time.

00:04:00Melissa Erbacher: It was the very first event here. So our closest event at that time would have been one of the Brisbane ones, which is, you know, 100 kilometers away. So, yeah, no, it took a long time. I can't even remember when my first adventure was probably. I don't know if it was. No, it wouldn't have been to Wynnum parkrun. Oh, you know, I need to go back and have a look and figure out where the first place I ever went was. It may very well have been Golden Beach parkrun when that launched about 14 months later on the Sunshine Coast. I think that might have been the first one that I went to that wasn't my home parkrun.

00:04:41Scott Trickett: It's all a bit hazy.

00:04:43Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I am a bit hazy. It took a while. Kiwana is the 15th event to launch in Australia, so it took a while before there were other ones close-ish to tempt me away. And, you know, you're in that honeymoon period when you first go to parkrun and you're just starting to meet all the people there and you're super excited about the whole concept and you're running PBs and you're improving your time and it's just that big love fest phase in that first year. What about you, Scotty? How did you – well, I know how you got involved, but for our listeners who haven't heard the story –

00:05:23Scott Trickett: Yeah, I heard about it really early on when parkrun came to Australia. Luckily, Albert Park was the third event to be launched in Australia, and I knew about that before it was even launched. I remember chat rooms, remember blogs, those sorts of things, before Facebook arrived, I think. It's before Facebook. I don't know. It's so long ago. I was in running community chat rooms, and there was talk of this thing called parkrun coming to Albert Park. But as I've explained before, Albert Park's almost an hour from where I live, so I never really went, but I registered. And I'm really glad I registered, so I've got a low parkrun ID. But it took me a few months to go, and my very first visit to Albert Park was very underwhelming. But there was something in it that just kept eating away at me, and I wanted to go back and explore this parkrun thing. And in the end, I just decided to start my own, close to home, because that just seemed like the logical thing to do. And I ended up visiting Highlands, and that's one in my four-year journey with parkrun. That's almost one of my highlights. throughout the time is those first few times when I visited Highlands, when they had just started up. And there was hardly anybody there. I think the first event I went to, we had about 12 or 16 people show up. And I never even thought that there's only 12 or 16 people. I just thought, it's cool. There's 10 other people. There's 16 other people here who are interested in doing this with me. And then after that, we started Westerfolds. And I remember those first three to six months very fondly. I was discussing this with my wife last night about the past four years. And I still go back to those first three months. Particularly the first three months when it was just me, Yvonne, my mother, sister, and one of my good mates, John, who got the event up and going. We didn't have anybody else. We didn't know anybody else. And... I vividly remember the first time there was a parkrunner coming along. Her name was Naomi. She was coming every week and it takes a few weeks to get to know people. You chat to them after the run very briefly. But one week she volunteered with me and we just got chatting and she mentioned, I mentioned that I wouldn't mind having a few extra people help me out. And she said she would help me out. She said she'd be interested in becoming a run director. So she was my first non-family, non-friend person who had stepped up to want to be involved. And I gave her a hug. It was just a really happy moment that someone else is coming along for the journey. And then it just grew from there, remembering, watching the results every week, processing the results every week, looking at the names, hoping they'd come back, probably obsessing probably a bit too much over people coming and would they return and would the numbers grow? Because in the early days of Westerfold, the numbers were really low. I remember it was like 20, 30, and it wasn't until Christmas Day. in our first year, which was only about 10 events in, that I think we cracked about 50. 50 people came to Christmas Day the first year we held it. It was the first time we'd had a Christmas Day parkrun in Melbourne. And I dressed up as Santa. It was, it was a hot morning, but this is one of those times. See, parkrun was a bit different back then. I wasn't aware of the rules as I am now. And I'm very much aware of the rules now. I should preface this, but I think I was run director. Maybe I was co-run director with someone. And I had a run on Christmas Day in the Santa suit. It was very hot. But the good thing about Christmas Day is that it brought a few people from Albert Park. And it brought a few people from Berwick Springs who hadn't been yet. So there was this very early days of the parkrun community in Melbourne joining together on that morning. And from Christmas Day, the first year, our numbers sort of took off. It seemed like word had got out. Westerfold's parkrun grew.

00:09:54Melissa Erbacher: Isn't it funny how you, you know, when the event is new and you're in that honeymoon period, all those little sort of milestones are a big deal. Like I can remember when we first had 100 runners, it was just like, oh my God, we broke 100. But even in the weeks leading up to that, when you knew you were sort of pushing it and the numbers had increased and, oh, are we going to break it this week? And even things like when we got 500 likes on Facebook, we made cake. You know, we were that excited.

00:10:23Ros: Yes, the likes.

00:10:25Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. We literally made – well, it was three cakes. There was five and two zeros. And they were covered with M&Ms. And we took them to parkrun. It was just like, yeah, we got 500 likes on Facebook. And, you know, because to us that meant we probably had 500 registered runners. Yes, we didn't have that many showing up every week, but – you know, our community was growing and we were so excited, so excited. And then the numbers got out of hand and we were like, okay, let's everybody settle down a bit. It's getting a little bit squeezy on the course. Everybody needs to behave. Otherwise, you know, council aren't going to be too happy with us if we keep knocking people down, even if it's an accident, you know, play nice. So, but yes, it is always, it's fun to look back on those times.

00:11:18Scott Trickett: Do you remember the first anniversary? I mean, was the cake extravagant at the first anniversary at Kiwana?

00:11:25Melissa Erbacher: I have got it written down that Tim Oberg said that the cake at our first anniversary was the best parkrun cake he had ever seen. At that stage, I'm sure there's probably been Many stellar cakes to eclipse it since then. But I was very particularly proud because I made that cake. Or at least I should say I decorated it. We got this massive sponge donated that was like a metre long and 70 centimetres wide. And I created a topographical version of the Kalana parkrun course in buttercream icing. And yes, I was very happy with that cake, as were everyone who ate it. So it was a big cake. It was very, very momentous. How about Westerfolds? Did you guys have giant donuts?

00:12:13Scott Trickett: No, no. Again, we were very synchronized in our cake celebrating. We had a topographical cake for our first anniversary. One of my run directors at the time, Cecilia, she made it. And it was a good cake. I think Tim Oberg also said ours was the best cake he'd ever seen.

00:12:34Melissa Erbacher: I'm pretty sure he's probably said that at any anniversary he's ever been to when the cake maker was standing anywhere within earshot. He's a good man.

00:12:44Scott Trickett: He's never visited Westerfolds. Hasn't even come out for a Freedom Run.

00:12:49Melissa Erbacher: Obviously, you're not selling it properly. Yeah.

00:12:53Scott Trickett: I remember our first anniversary that we had a onesie theme, a pajama onesie theme. And again, I was looking back through the photos this week.

00:13:01Melissa Erbacher: Is it not a bit hot for that?

00:13:03Scott Trickett: No. So it's... October in Melbourne.

00:13:05Melissa Erbacher: Okay.

00:13:06Scott Trickett: It's not hot.

00:13:06Melissa Erbacher: Our first one was Hawaiian, so we were all in grass skirts and having a luau. Yeah. But please continue with your story.

00:13:12Scott Trickett: Well, I just look back that I stood up in front of 100 and 150 people, literally in my pyjamas at that first anniversary. Ivona was standing next to me in her hair rollers and dressing down.

00:13:27Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:13:28Scott Trickett: It's amazing the evolution from not knowing anybody and 12 months I'm comfortable enough to stand up in front of all these people in my pyjamas.

00:13:38Melissa Erbacher: Fancy dress is a great equaliser, you know. People leave their embarrassment glands at home and their inhibitions at the door and you just have a good time.

00:13:52Scott Trickett: We have a green theme this year. What are you going with at Kiwana?

00:13:58Melissa Erbacher: Ah, this year it's an 80s sports athletes theme.

00:14:02Scott Trickett: Awesome.

00:14:03Melissa Erbacher: Which sounds a little bit random, I know, but it was actually voted on by the people. So we gave them all a bunch of choices. Our run directors all got together and we brainstormed some ideas and then we took three of those ideas and by a show of hands, I'm told it was unanimous. And yeah, everyone apparently wanted to do 80s sports athletes. So... That has in turn created a little bit of, well, frantic Google searching and trying to figure out, because I was a child in the 80s, not huge on the sport. Pretty much the only things that I really remember are Wally Lewis and I don't know, was Hayley, you know that swimmer, Hayley somebody? Was that in the 80s or was that early 90s?

00:14:52Scott Trickett: I think that's early 90s. Hayley Lewis, you're talking about?

00:14:55Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, that's the swimmer. So, you know, apart from watching cricket and not knowing even the names of the cricketers or anything like that, yeah. My childhood was mostly spent outdoors in the dirt, running around in the yard with my brothers. So, we didn't spend a lot of time indoors or watching sport, things like that. So, yeah, it's... Instilled in me a lot of Google searches in the last few days, but I've found something. It's going to be good. I'm not going to give you any details, but wait till you see the photos.

00:15:31Lyndell Murray: It'll be great.

00:15:32Melissa Erbacher: And green, that's an awesome theme as well, because you guys can get so creative with that. Or you can just wear green shirts.

00:15:39Scott Trickett: Yeah, it's another one of those nice, easy themes, but you can go crazy with it. And it's green because Westerfold is a very green park. I think the local running club that has formed out of parkrun, the Westerfoldians, are pretty proud of their fluoro green outfits. So yeah, I've got to put a bit more thought into my outfit. What have I got? A couple of days to go.

00:16:03Melissa Erbacher: You could go, oh, do you need ideas? Yep. Always open to ideas. You could go as a frog. Kermit the frog. He was green. Not my favorite type of frog, by the way, in case you're wondering. Well, I was wondering, who is your favorite Muppet?

00:16:21Scott Trickett: Muppet or frog?

00:16:23Melissa Erbacher: Well, no, he's a Muppet as well. So who's your favorite Muppet?

00:16:29Scott Trickett: That's a complex question, Mel, because I grew up with the Muppets. So while most people grew up with, I don't know, Sesame Street or whatever, I grew up with the Muppets and Master of the Universe.

00:16:42Melissa Erbacher: See, if it were me, I would, at a guess, I would say either Fozzie Bear for you or Animal.

00:16:48Scott Trickett: Animal just because as a kid he was funny, but he didn't have much personality. He never spoke. So I don't know the real Animal.

00:16:55Melissa Erbacher: He's a strong silent type.

00:16:57Scott Trickett: Yeah. Yeah.

00:16:59Melissa Erbacher: On the inside, obviously, you know, he's a drummer. He's not that silent, but.

00:17:04Scott Trickett: I always thought Gonzo was funny. Gonzo was the gag man. He was always delivering the jokes and that appeals to me. But we digress. We're not having a Muppet theme.

00:17:15Melissa Erbacher: No, you're not. You're having a green theme. And we should probably talk about favorite frogs at some stage as well. Kermit's not your favorite frog, so maybe not a frog. How about, what else is green? You could go as an alien, but that's making assumptions that aliens are green.

00:17:35Scott Trickett: I've never met any. I'm based in fact.

00:17:39Melissa Erbacher: You're based in fact.

00:17:41Scott Trickett: That's too much of a leap for me.

00:17:43Melissa Erbacher: All right. Well, the fact is I'm looking forward to finding out what you end up going as this weekend. I'll be keeping an eye out for the photos. On Instagram, in fact, is where I will keep an eye out for the photos because it would be great if you could share that on the Adventurous Instagram page.

00:18:01Scott Trickett: Okay. We're both going to be active on Instagram this week.

00:18:07Melissa Erbacher: I'm the official photographer at Kawana this weekend, so I will have to have multiple devices so I can do that, but I'm sure we can manage.

00:18:16Scott Trickett: Good. Mel, I've enjoyed reminiscing. We're going to reminisce a bit more, but let's find out about another event.

00:18:26Melissa Erbacher: Okay. What other event? What are we talking about?

00:18:31Scott Trickett: Well, let's find out. is a parkrun podcast, but I also like to think of it as a travel podcast because we get to go to places all around Australia. And this week, we're going to a place that I don't know a lot about, Dalby in Queensland. So welcome to the podcast, the ED from Dalby parkrun, Myf Schenk.

Meet the ED

00:19:04Myf Schenk: Thank you very much. It's good to be here.

00:19:07Scott Trickett: It's great to have you, Miff. Tell me about Dalby itself, the town. All I know is that I think you had a cyclone a few years ago.

00:19:16Myf Schenk: Oh, no, not us. We're a bit too far inland for cyclones. We're a very flat town. We've got about 12,000 people in it. We're a bit of crossroads for all sorts of places that come through Queensland. Yeah, a little country town, but it's great out here. Definitely no cyclones.

00:19:40Scott Trickett: Where did I get that from?

00:19:40Melissa Erbacher: I don't know what town you're thinking of, Scotty. So it's a country town, effectively, 12,000 people. How has launching Dolby parkrun there impacted the community?

00:19:53Myf Schenk: Oh, look, it's been absolutely wonderful. We were all a bit worried at the beginning that it wouldn't take off. Dolby is not known for being the most exercise-enthusiastic place in Australia. But the reception that we've had has been wonderful. We've got people who come as much as they can and they talk about how wonderful it is. And I actually met somebody the other day who said that they'd been desperate for one to start. They just weren't game enough to start it themselves and they were very happy that I'd come along and actually got it going.

00:20:25Scott Trickett: Do you have any parkruns close to you?

00:20:28Myf Schenk: We have a couple about an hour away. So I think we've got five different ones, but you have to drive to an hour in any given direction. to reach one.

00:20:38Scott Trickett: So most of the people coming to Dolby are just experiencing Dolby parkrun or have you got a few adventurers that like to get out and about as well?

00:20:46Myf Schenk: I think I'm starting to get a couple of people keen on adventuring. A few of our people that will take holidays and they come back from their holiday and go, you know what? I was there and I was on a Saturday and I thought, why not try a different one? So they're getting a little bit more enthusiastic. But so far, I'm the one that goes, oh, there's a launch. Let's go to that. And they're getting there.

00:21:08Melissa Erbacher: And can you give us a bit of a rundown of what your course is like?

00:21:12Myf Schenk: OK, well, it's very flat. We've got about a, I guess, two metre rise at one point. Our runners like to call it Heartbreak Hill. They're the ones who haven't toured anywhere else to see a real hill. But we have our own little hill. It's three laps around the creek that goes through the middle of town. About 90% of it is underneath tree cover and it's really nice and shady. And because it's on either side of the creek, you can always see somebody else running the whole way around and it feels nice and cosy.

00:21:49Melissa Erbacher: Sounds like a very, what's the word I want to use?

00:21:53Myf Schenk: It doesn't feel like five kilometres when you're running it. It feels a lot smaller. Yeah.

00:21:58Melissa Erbacher: That's always good. Sociable. It sounds very sociable. Now, I like that you've got a little heartbreak hill. I ran last weekend on a course that I previously thought was flat, but it turns out when you've got a pram, every tiny little undulation is massive, and there was a heartbreak hill at the end of that parkrun, so I wasn't too impressed with that. What kind of people do you get participating? Do you get families with prams, or do you get sort of older people?

00:22:28Myf Schenk: We've got a bit of everything, actually. We've got a whole bunch of young kids who come along who are working on improving their cross-country times. Then we've got families with prams, yes, and then we've got a couple of ladies, one in particular. She's our oldest participant and she's always saying, come on, let's get all these walkers to come. I want more people to come and walk with me. And she's fantastic because she's started running a lot more than she's walking. So she's really... She's really keen and it's great to have her coming along.

00:23:01Scott Trickett: And what about you, Miff? You've got some young kids in tow. What's your running story and how did you get involved in parkrun?

00:23:11Myf Schenk: Well, let's see. I was down in Brisbane a couple of years ago and mum was going to parkrun at that time at New Farm and she encouraged me to come along. I wasn't keen at all. I hadn't run since high school. But I went along and I had so much fun. And I did it again the next time we were in Brisbane. And then after that, I thought I need to do something where we are. So I got the process started. And we're 35 events in now here in Dolby. I've run nine times at our Dolby event. I think I actually have more volunteers than parkruns under my sleeve at the moment. It's about 26, 27 of each all up now. And my boys, I have five boys. Three of them are parkrun age. and two of them have their 10 shirts, and the third is almost there, and I think they like it almost more than I do. They get disappointed if they can't come along.

00:24:06Scott Trickett: And you mentioned your volunteering stats. Tell us about the volunteering. Do you enjoy it as much as running?

00:24:14Myf Schenk: I do. I wasn't expecting it, but I'm almost sad some weeks when I have to get out there and run, and I can't be on the timekeeper and cheer everyone else across the line. Volunteering is just wonderful. I really, really enjoy it. Lots of it is because I'm doing the run directing. It took a little while to get a team going out here because it was so new to everybody. I had to wait for other people to fall in love with parkrun before they'd come on a team. So I did a lot of directing at the beginning and now I almost don't want to give it up because I love just seeing everyone's faces as they cross the finish line.

00:24:53Scott Trickett: In those early days, how did you go forming your team? Did you have lots of help from family and friends or was it just the Myf show for the first few months?

00:25:02Myf Schenk: I tried really hard to not make it the myth show because I'm really good at doing that in life. So I consciously tried to not put the spotlight on me. I wanted to make the spotlight on parkrun. My husband, Chris, he was invaluable for the first couple of months. He did a course set up for me and he volunteered almost every week for a while there. I did have to ask a couple of friends to come along and help out, but it didn't take long at all before people were putting their hands up and I actually had a couple of people come to me and offer to help run direct rather than me having to approach them. So that was wonderful. And I've got a really solid team behind me now.

00:25:42Melissa Erbacher: It's always great when people get on board. I do know that in the early days and even, you know, ongoing, partners are the unsung volunteer heroes of parkrun because they don't usually get the credit but they're usually out there just as many hours as the rest of us. So well done, Myf's husband. Good job. He'll be happy to hear that.

00:26:03Myf Schenk: Sometimes he's a bit grumpy and would prefer to sleep in but I appreciate his help every time he comes.

00:26:10Melissa Erbacher: Now, Miff, you mentioned, you know, you've been to New Farm. Have you been to very many other events as well? I have been to 12 different parkruns.

00:26:19Myf Schenk: I love touring. I wish I had the resources to do more of it. I'm currently working on my alphabet and I'm a bit pleased that I managed to get to the only J when I was down in Melbourne last year.

00:26:32Melissa Erbacher: Nice work. Yes, I went to Jells. So I've got the J under my belt.

00:26:37Myf Schenk: And I'm also working on doing volunteering touring as well. I've only got three of those around the place, but that's 23 to go.

00:26:47Melissa Erbacher: So a volunteer alphabet. That's right. That should be a thing. We should call it the Myf thing because I think that's the first time I've heard anyone wanting to do a volunteer alphabet. I like it. Now, of the ones that you've run, have you got a top three for us?

00:27:07Myf Schenk: I was thinking about this and I was thinking about why I like the places that I go to. And it's honestly, it's all about the people I have. Wishart is my absolute favourite place to go to other than Dolby. It's where my parents and sister run in Brisbane on the south side. The event director there, Adrian, he was absolutely invaluable in helping me set up out here. He answered all sorts of questions. And I know a couple of people there and I really enjoy running. It's a beautiful course there as well. I also like Highfields just near Toowoomba. They've got the most friendly bunch of people ever. You have to visit Highfields. I've never been so welcomed at a parkrun as I was at Highfields. And then I think I really loved Gels down in Melbourne. It finishes on an uphill and that is horrific and it was not much fun at all. But it was a really beautiful course and I hope to get back there one day. Well, I have to if I'm going to volunteer there as well.

00:28:12Scott Trickett: You will. I'm glad to hear you say GELS made the list. It's one of my favourites too. Why did you choose GELS? Was that specifically for the J or were you local to the area?

00:28:24Myf Schenk: It was the closest to where we were staying, yep.

00:28:27Scott Trickett: So it was convenient. You got your J as well.

00:28:29Myf Schenk: Yes.

00:28:30Scott Trickett: Miff, thanks so much for coming on the podcast this week. and sharing your tales from Dolby. I hope you've enjoyed being on the parkrun Adventure. I have.

00:28:40Myf Schenk: Now I get to listen to myself later on when I have to get my parkrun Adventuristics.

Roving Adventurers (roving reporter crossovers)

00:28:53Greta: Hi Scott and Mel, it's Greta here and I'm at the Murray Bridge parkrun today. So Murray Bridge are celebrating their third anniversary today and I'm here to help them celebrate and help eat cake. So we're about to head off on our run and today I have a special little helper with me today. I have my assistant Jess who's going to help me with the roving report today so you'll hear a little bit from her a bit later on. Hello, it's Greta and I'm here at the Murray Bridge parkrun third anniversary and I'm here with Rose, who's the run director today. How are you going, Rose? I'm doing very well, thank you, Greta. Congratulations on your third anniversary. Thank you very much.

00:29:29Rose: It's great to see a lot of people here. Yes, it's a wonderful day. And tell me a little bit about the course here at Murray Bridge. Our course is fairly flat. We have a slight rise but it's really good because we have a course where we do two laps and we head out on our run right next to the river so we actually have the joy of watching the boats and anyone else coming through and enjoying the river and we go under our bridges. Haven't seen any trains too much today. I think one went through earlier but we have lots of things to keep ourselves amused with as we're going around.

00:30:02Greta: Yeah, it's an absolutely beautiful course and here at the start-finish line there's lovely lawns going down to the river and what I've noticed about Murray Bridge is there's lots of kids.

00:30:13Rose: We have lots of children, we have lots of dogs, we have quite a few walkers, yes, but our kids like to come out and enjoy the walk. It's good to see and obviously today they're enjoying the cake. But yes, it's nice to see so many kids out and just getting fit and Sometimes it's a struggle to get our kids to keep active and this is one thing that they love to come and socialise and enjoy and we're getting to know a lot of the families around here.

00:30:38Greta: And I suppose the kids make friends with other kids and that encourages them to come out, doesn't it?

00:30:42Rose: It certainly does and also it's actually funny, kids are quite competitive, they'll try and beat each other. So, yes, it's nice to see them getting going and I love to see the little ones coming through. And as I said, we've got a few new babes here as well, a few weeks old.

00:30:57Greta: We do, yes. It's good to see the mums out.

00:31:00Rose: So that's our future walkers and runners.

00:31:04Greta: And tell me a little bit about Murray Bridge, the town.

00:31:08Rose: What can I tell you about Murray Bridge? We're a little bit out from Adelaide. Yes, we're about 86km from Adelaide. Obviously, we're classed as a rural city, so it's very country, but at the same time, it's big enough to... you know do our shopping and everything that we need to but I find that Murray Bridge is becoming more and more friendly as in the way of lots of community events on and we are very very diverse Murray Bridge would have to have a lot of cultures coming through with all the different businesses that bring them from overseas And I guess because of the river, we have lots of boat people coming down. We have a lot of people that like to get out in the mornings and just go for walking and running around. So, yeah, if you actually are polite and say hello to a lot of people, you can meet lots and lots of people.

00:32:01Greta: Yeah, that's one thing I noticed running the course. There was a lot of people that weren't parkrunners out using the park, using the path.

00:32:09Rose: Yeah, it's great. I love Murray Bridge and I've lived all over Australia, but Murray Bridge seems to be my stomping ground, I think. I think I'll be staying here for a long time.

00:32:19Greta: Oh, lovely.

00:32:19Rose: But yeah, I love it because it's not a fast pace, but it's also not a slow country pace. So it's, yeah, it's great. I love it.

00:32:28Greta: And you have a very interesting attraction on your course and you're probably the only parkrun in Australia and possibly the world that can boast to this. What have you got on your course?

00:32:40Rose: Are you talking about the bunyip? I am. Yes, with our bunyip, which actually you can put some money in and it comes up and growls and carries on at you. It tends to scare the kids a lot until they actually realise it's just a papier-mâché, what do you call it, statue or model. But, yeah, it's actually quite funny. But, yes, that's our bunyip and it's really good to actually show people for the first time. They're like, what on earth is that? LAUGHTER But the bunyip is obviously a folk legend for the Aboriginal Dreamtime, where they actually believe that the bunyip lives in the river. So the council actually made one. We used to have a mum and baby, but the baby slowly broke away and they had to redo it, so we've only got one in there now. But it's good. It's something very, very unique and different. Yeah, I know.

00:33:10[laughter]

00:33:34Greta: Well, congratulations on your third anniversary and thank you so much for volunteering for parkrun. We love volunteers at parkrun. So thank you for all the time that you give to parkrun and building your community here at Murray Bridge.

00:33:46Rose: Thank you very much. And as I said, I don't know if you can hear all the chatter in the background, but this is what it's all about, just the social time. and everyone just getting together and connecting afterwards. So, yeah, we tend to meet together and go to the davery. We have a place where we like to go as well. But, yeah, a lot of people like to hang around, and as the weather warms up, I'm sure there'll be more and more people coming. So, thank you. Thank you.

00:34:09Greta: OK, I'm here at the Murray Bridge parkrun, and I'm here with Monique. How are you going, Monique?

00:34:14Monique: Yeah, good, thank you. How was your run today? I ran with my daughter, Helena, and so she was a bit tired today, but she still ran around 40 minutes, so we're pretty happy with that.

00:34:25Greta: Oh, well done, Helena.

00:34:26Monique: How'd you go today, Helena?

00:34:28Greta: How'd you go? Good. You're good?

00:34:32Monique: And you often run with Helena? Yes, not so much in the winter. She likes to stay home, but now that the weather's getting better, we've been out trying to hit some PBs, haven't we?

00:34:42Greta: Yep. Yeah. And you also do a fair bit of volunteering here at Murray Bridge.

00:34:48Monique: Yes, we're a small group here, so volunteering's an important part of what we do. And the kids also love it. It's a good way for them to learn about that volunteering's a good thing to do and it makes them feel good. Yeah, it gives back to the community. It sure does. Yeah.

00:35:02Greta: Yeah.

00:35:03Monique: And you also do a bit of trail running. Yes, I love the trails. My role at work is part of an environmental group, so... Running the trails, you get to see the animals, see the trees and discover new places. I love it.

00:35:18Greta: And do you do some of the trail running with your kids?

00:35:21Monique: Yes, here in Murray Bridge we've got a conservation park called Kinchina and there's probably a bit over 11km worth of trails there. So the kids have been up there, they've helped me actually mark some of the trails, put out some drop bags for people who are out there and they can learn a bit about the park. And we've also done some videos about the park that the kids have helped out with. So we do it as a family. Oh, fantastic. Fantastic. parkrun is a very family-oriented event as well, isn't it? It sure is. At one point there, I remember some stats being done about parkruns and Murray Bridge was the toughest parkrun in Australia at the time. And it was really just related to the fact that we had so many kids that come out and walk parkrun. Our times were very slow. So, you know, it's for everybody. Don't think about it as a run. Think about it as an adventure. day to get out with friends and enjoy a 5k and yeah the social aspect that goes with that and the kids love it because they all get together and play and so it's exercise that's a lot of fun that's right and that's what I noticed on the on the course is there's lots of there was lots of kids and you are volunteering next week I hear

00:36:34Jess: Mum, I haven't signed up yet. There's no finished tokens.

00:36:40Greta: Oh, well, so here we're looking... So here we're looking for volunteers for next week, and Monique, your kids are here and they're pretty keen to volunteer, so that's awesome.

00:36:50Monique: Yeah, I think what we'll do is it's a close group, so if tokens are gone for the kids to do, we'll see if we can do a swap so that they can do the finished tokens.

00:37:00Greta: Oh, that's great to see that everyone's so supportive. Thank you so much for talking to me today, and congratulations on all the work that you do with trail running and bringing your kids out to parkrun.

00:37:09Monique: Thanks very much, and thanks to all of the team at parkrun that make it happen for us. So thank you. Thank you.

00:37:15Jess: Hi, I'm Jess, and I'm here at the Murray Bridge parkrun third anniversary, and I'm here with... Sakshi. How many parkruns have you done? Around 30. Okay, so you're nearly at your 50th.

00:37:28Unidentified speaker: Almost there, Jessie. How are you doing today? How did your parkrun go today?

00:37:32Jess: Good. I think I came first junior. That is so cool. How are you feeling? I'm feeling good.

00:37:38Greta: Sweet.

00:37:40Unidentified speaker: So where are you from? I'm from Sydney and I've just moved down to Melbourne about three or four weeks ago.

00:37:47Jess: Really?

00:37:48Unidentified speaker: So where are you staying at the moment? I'm staying in Parkville near the Melbourne Zoo.

00:37:55Jess: Okay.

00:37:57Unidentified speaker: It's a really pretty run in Parkville. So how long have you, is this your first parkrun in South Australia? It actually is. Like, I've never done a parkrun in South Australia. I actually didn't really know many parkruns here either. I was just kind of moving to KI, Kangaroo Island, and I was here on the way, and I figured I'll be here just around 8, and I was like, yeah, let's do this. And this has been an awesome run. It's really pretty, and the river is just beautiful, just really beautiful.

00:38:26Jess: serene and calm run bye hope you enjoy parkrun thank you thanks for the talk jesse you're awesome i'm now here with ross and we're at the murray bridge parkrun third anniversary how many parkruns have you done ross this was number 204 so i've run a lot of parkruns yeah you have

00:38:47Ros: My first one was nearly five years ago at Torrens when parkrun first came to South Australia. So that was my first parkrun. And since then I've run mainly at Mount Barker.

00:39:00Jess: So Mount Barker's the one you've done most of the parkruns at?

00:39:04Ros: Yes, Mount Barker's my home parkrun. Did you like the run today? I love the Murray Bridge course because it's got so much of interest. It's got the houseboats and the train line and the old engine and a turnaround point in the middle of nowhere. It is the funniest turnaround point I have ever seen. And there's so much happening along the course. Like there's another event out here and there are canoeists. And you can see the big bridge over the Murray with the freight train just went over. Love the Murray Bridge course.

00:39:39Jess: Yeah.

00:39:41Ros: It is a nice course. Yes. And it's good to see you here today too, Jess, wearing your 100... parkrun t-shirt that is so good i didn't know they made them small enough but Thank you.

00:40:00Jess: I hear you ran a half marathon lately.

00:40:03Ros: Yes, I ran a half marathon yesterday to see if I could still do the distance because in December I'm going to Cambodia and running the Angkor Wat half marathon. So I had to make sure that my legs could do the distance. And it's the furthest I've run for over two years, so I was really pleased.

00:40:25Jess: Wow. Thank you for... Thank you for talking, Ros.

00:40:31Greta: You're welcome. So we are now at the coffee shop after Murray Bridge parkrun, having our coffee, and we're at the Davery establishment in Murray Bridge. And I'm here with Michelle. How are you going, Michelle? Yeah, great. Thanks, Gret. How did you find the run today?

00:40:49Michelle: Yeah, really good. Yeah, I'm really just trying to push and get my speed up. So, yeah, I'm focusing on that at the moment. Awesome.

00:40:58Greta: And I saw that you were being very encouraging to the other people on the course today.

00:41:03Michelle: Oh, yes, I love it. Basically, since I've been going for about two years now, I try and encourage everybody because they've encouraged me, and particularly the kids. My friend's got four kids, so I always tap hands with them, give them a high five, and they love it. It just inspires everybody. Yeah, and you've got quite a challenge ahead of you tomorrow, I hear. Yes, I'm doing the, it's called the bloody long walk. Well, I'll be running hopefully, so 35 kilometres and doing it with a girlfriend and it's going to be along, part of it's going to be along the beach, so hopefully it should be really good weather and we'll have a good time. Lovely. And so where does that start from? I think it starts at the top of the hills and then we go into the city and then along the river and then we finish up running along the beach.

00:42:01Greta: Oh, great. Well, good luck for that tomorrow. It sounds wonderful.

00:42:03Michelle: Oh, that will be great, hopefully, yep. And is that a fundraiser? It is. I think it's fundraising for mitochondria. So, yeah, that was another thing I thought, well, it's for a good cause. So, yeah, I'm happy to do it as well.

00:42:20Greta: Fantastic. Well, good luck tomorrow. Have a great run. And I'll probably see you at a parkrun nearby sometime soon. Yeah, great. Thank you, Gret.

Channel 5 News Crew

00:42:29Lyndell Murray: Good morning, parkrun adventurers. It's Lyndell here, and for something different, I have loaded myself into the Channel 5 News crew chopper. I am international parkrunning today, and I'm in Singapore. So in Singapore, there's a choice between two parkruns, East Coast Park, West Coast Park. I've chosen East Coast Park, and here I am. We're about to head off on the run, so I'll see you on the other side and see who I can track down and have a chat to. I'm standing here with Priscilla. She apparently is a bit of running royalty around Singapore. She has her own five-star blog. She goes to all of the runs and she's a regular parkrunner. Welcome to the podcast, Chris. Hi, thank you. You're very welcome. Now, tell me a bit about your running. How did you get into parkrun?

00:43:17Priscilla: Well, I heard about East Coast Park parkrun from some online sites and I found out that there was this kind of new running event in Singapore and it was at East Coast Park which is very near to my house so I decided why not check it out. And so when I came down here, I guess I enjoy the atmosphere and everything. It's a 5KM time trial, but then people are not overly competitive. And I also like the social aspect afterwards, so that's how I got coming here more regularly. So it's a highlight of your running week? I usually look forward to every Saturday morning, so yes.

00:43:56Lyndell Murray: And are you training for any other events at the moment?

00:43:59Priscilla: Yes, I am. I'm actually training for the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon, which takes place in the first week of December. Excellent. And how's training going? I hope that it's going well. I'm basically running a few times a week, including parkrun. So hopefully I will get there on race day and I will do well.

00:44:20Lyndell Murray: I hope so too. Thank you for your time today and keep on running.

00:44:25Priscilla: Thank you, no problem at all.

00:44:29Lyndell Murray: Okay, Mark, so you're from South Africa, correct?

00:44:33Mark: Yeah, Mdoni is my home run.

00:44:35Lyndell Murray: And can you tell us about that run?

00:44:37Mark: Oh, it's very beautiful. It's like a South African tropical... Rainforest really, but it's not as warm as it is here. What is it here today? 30 something? 39?

00:44:48Lyndell Murray: I don't know. It's very, very hot.

00:44:50Mark: Over there it would be 20 something and it's in the shade and it starts at 8 o'clock over there.

00:44:55Lyndell Murray: Okay. And so how would you rate East Coast Singapore parkrun in your list of parkruns that you've done?

00:45:02Mark: Oh, it's very good. It's nice that it's flat, but I mean, the humidity here is just so overpowering. Yeah. You know, it's just overwhelming. I'm used to doing Durban as well, and they get 2,000 runners often there. I think it's probably the biggest one in the world, you know, but Durban is known for its humidity, but it's nothing like here.

00:45:20Lyndell Murray: Yeah, it's a hot one, hey?

00:45:21Mark: Yeah, hot, hot, hot.

00:45:23Lyndell Murray: All right, thanks for your time, Mark.

00:45:24Mark: Okay, thanks very much. Thank you.

00:45:26Lyndell Murray: So Brent, I understand this is your first time at a parkrun?

00:45:30Brent: Yes it is, yeah. Hot day, but yeah, I'm enjoying it. Brought the kids down, two young kids, and yeah, it's well organised, well set up.

00:45:38Lyndell Murray: Excellent, and so you live in Singapore, do you?

00:45:41Brent: Yeah, just been here for 10 months, moved over, and yeah, it's something the family can do together.

00:45:47Lyndell Murray: And from New Zealand, is that where you're from?

00:45:49Brent: Yeah, New Zealand, that's right. Certainly, yeah.

00:45:53Lyndell Murray: And so first time at parkrun, you'll be back?

00:45:57Brent: Oh, most certainly, yeah. The kids enjoyed it. It's a bit of fitness for us all. Yeah, a good family activity.

00:46:03Lyndell Murray: Excellent, thanks for your time today.

00:46:05Anna: So, Anna, local here in Singapore? Yes, I've been living here for 13 years now, and I actually live fairly close to the start of East Coast Park, so I can cycle down here, so it's very convenient. Excellent. So you're a regular parkrunner? Fairly regular. It's quite good at the moment. My kids have just got into it. So today I was running with Casca and it's her fifth run today. And I think we did really well because it was particularly hot. Yes.

00:46:37Lyndell Murray: It sure is. It is really hot. But as we were running around, I noticed that there's lots of running groups around the course here. You share the course with a lot of runners. What's the running community like here in Singapore?

00:46:48Anna: Oh, it's massive. Running is getting really popular in Singapore, and particularly at this time of year. The main running event in the Singapore calendar is the Standard Chartered Marathon. That's the first week of December. So lots of people come down to East Coast Park because it's a 10km stretch which can actually be extended to about 30km of non-stop footpaths without any cars to sort of block you. So a lot of people come here to do their long runs at this time of year so there's quite a good atmosphere really for runners.

00:47:27Lyndell Murray: Excellent. Now East Coast parkrun we're at today. There's also a West Coast parkrun in Singapore. Have you been to that one before?

00:47:35Anna: Yes, I have. I've only actually been once at the test run. So I was invited to test run the course with a group of friends that are into running as well. Yeah, it's a great course. This is probably the easier of the two. The other one's slightly more twisty, turny. Yeah, they're both great, though. Excellent. Well, it's a parkrun. What's not to like, right? Yeah, exactly. They're the same all around the world, actually. I've been to a couple in England, and it's amazing how basically everyone's just nice, aren't they, and welcoming wherever you go.

00:48:12Lyndell Murray: Absolutely. Well, thanks for your time today, Anna. So today's run director at East Coast parkrun is Daryl. How are you going? Hi, I'm good.

00:48:20Daryl: How are you?

00:48:21Lyndell Murray: I'm great. I loved your run. It's a bit steamy, but apart from that, awesome place to run.

00:48:25Daryl: Yes, it's very hot and humid in Singapore. So people generally don't run as fast over here. But it's okay. It's a nice park, I feel.

00:48:34Lyndell Murray: It's a beautiful park, and I'm very glad that you've given me an excuse for my slow time, that I can blame the humidity, yeah?

00:48:40Daryl: Yeah. Well, you know, it's a... I don't know, what can I say? No one comes here expecting to run a really fast time sometimes.

00:48:51Lyndell Murray: No, but it is a beautiful course. And there's lots of runners out today, so the running scene in Singapore is a pretty strong one, would you say?

00:48:57Daryl: It's very strong. And again, East Coast Park is one of the few parks in Singapore where you've got a long stretch of road where you can run without any traffic lights, I guess. A lot of people come over here. And it's nice and breezy as well sometimes.

00:49:13Lyndell Murray: Yeah, there was a bit of a breeze today, that's for sure. So this is one of two parkruns in Singapore. There's East Coast and also West Coast.

00:49:23Daryl: Yeah, the West Coast parkrun is... It's over on the west side of Singapore, obviously. It's a slightly different course from the east coast. That one has a little loop. I think we like to compare who gets more runners every weekend. They tend to get a bit more, maybe because of the location. But our course is definitely a faster course if you want to get a PB in Singapore.

00:49:47Lyndell Murray: Definitely, nice and flat, straight out, straight back, no mucking around. It is a really great course. Now, Daryl, parkrun obviously runs with volunteers such as yourself. How did you get into volunteering and run directing through parkrun?

00:50:03Daryl: Well, I started three years ago because I lived in Melbourne. I did uni in Melbourne. And then when I came back to Singapore, I was looking for a group of people to run with. So I joined a running group and some of them were involved in parkrun. And basically, that's how I ended up coming to parkrun. And I really enjoyed it. A lot of familiar faces, a lot of regulars and friendly competition. And I really enjoyed coffee afterwards as well, catching up with... people who just like running you know coffee afterwards is always a highlight yeah and so you've got a nice little community here at East Coast parkrun yes and we're getting more and more tourists dropping by I think also because of our location it's a lot of people from Australia like yourself going to the UK yeah we've been seeing quite a number of tourists come by recently it's quite nice it's refreshing

00:51:01Lyndell Murray: Yeah, and today there was someone from Canada and also South Africa. Yeah, so a bit of variety.

00:51:06Daryl: Yeah, I guess it's probably because they have parkrun in Canada and South Africa as well.

00:51:12Lyndell Murray: Yeah.

00:51:12Daryl: So it's nice. It's nice to meet people from different parts of the world.

00:51:15Lyndell Murray: It sure is. And you can go to a parkrun anywhere, any Saturday, anywhere in the world.

00:51:20Daryl: In fact, I was just in, three weeks ago I was in Copenhagen. I did a parkrun in Copenhagen. That was quite nice in Denmark.

00:51:29Lyndell Murray: Wonderful. What a great experience.

00:51:30Daryl: Yeah, it was nice. It was lovely. The weather was a lot better than this, but it was nice.

00:51:36Lyndell Murray: Excellent. Well, thank you, Daryl, for the contribution you make to Park One here in Singapore. Thank you, Lyndell. I've had a wonderful time here, and thanks for talking to me on the podcast.

00:51:46Daryl: Thank you.

00:51:47Lyndell Murray: There you have it, parkrun Adventurers. If you ever find yourself in Singapore, check out one of the two options, East Coast Park or West Coast Park. Both guarantee you a hot, steamy run, with East Coast Park maybe just a little bit more straightforward and straight out and back course. Both will, I'm sure, offer you a very friendly welcome, a reasonably small park one community here in Singapore, but a very vibrant and friendly one, and nestled in amongst a really great running culture. So that's it, Singapore Tick. That's over and out from me, and I'll see you next time.

00:52:25Scott Trickett: Great to see the other members of the parkrun Adventurers staff. We're out and about doing their job, parkrunning over the weekend, adventuring to new parkruns. Murray Bridge from Greta. And Lyndell was overseas. She's a bit fancy.

00:52:43Melissa Erbacher: She's getting some international action happening in her most events list.

00:52:47Scott Trickett: In Singapore. Now, we didn't touch on it in the intro, Mel. Where did you adventure to on Saturday?

00:52:53Melissa Erbacher: Saturday, I was at Brightwater for their third anniversary. There's another three years that's gone super fast.

00:53:00Rose: Wow.

00:53:01Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, they were having a hat trick theme. So I wore a giant leprechaun hat, as you do. And Wes was in the pram and he wore a giant top hat. So a top hat that was big enough for the pram.

00:53:16Scott Trickett: Now, Brightwater...

00:53:17Melissa Erbacher: He pulled it off.

00:53:19Scott Trickett: Brightwater, you were the founding event director. Is this correct?

00:53:23Melissa Erbacher: I was, yeah.

00:53:24Scott Trickett: So that's another one of your babies. That's the one you started up from scratch.

00:53:29Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, a long time ago now. It feels like a long time ago. But that's another event that's just gone from strength to strength. The event team there and the volunteers in the community, it's all another close-knit community. And it was great.

00:53:47Scott Trickett: catch up with them it's always lovely to to pop across and see them often even after parkrun i'll pop across to their post parkrun cafe and just say hey and you know see how things are going so so how do you feel when you adventure back there is it still your home so i consider i think i've got four unofficial homes westfold studley coburg and gels a home of such do you still consider brightwater as one of yours

00:54:15Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I do. Well, no, I don't want to say it's one of mine because, I mean, the event's never really ours. We're just the custodians. Absolutely. But it's a member of my family. Let's look at it that way. Definitely a member of my family and all the runners there are members of my family. Yeah. I actually got to spend some time on the course. I did offer to volunteer, but they didn't need me. So Wes and I went out. I think this was his eighth different parkrun. And I had him in the pram this week instead of the carrier. Yeah. Because, you know, the carrier with a hat would have blocked my vision. It doesn't work so well. And I mentioned it a little bit late. No, I mentioned it earlier in our interview with MIF that every little undulation feels like a hill. when you're pushing a pram. So I always had respect for the people that pushed prams, you know, with one or more children in them, and I have a lot more respect for them now that I'm starting to do it myself. So, yeah, but yes, definitely a home away from home. And where were you this weekend, Scotty?

00:55:29Scott Trickett: I was at event number 47 for myself, a different event. I ended up at, yeah, 47, and ended up at Parramatta. which I was really happy and lucky to be going there because it's one of those events that I'm not sure if I'd ever sort of get out to Parramatta unless I had a specific reason to attend, and I did on Saturday. But again, lovely community and always good to do things a little bit differently. Nothing wrong. Worked beautifully on Saturday morning, but nice flat out and back along the river. Got to meet the event team there. Phil and Melvin doing a great job. Jonathan as the ambassador. And we had some filming there, which is always a bit exciting. And it was great that the local parkrunners embraced the filming. Sometimes I've been in this my whole working career, being around cameras and media and such. And sometimes you get a situation where people shy away from cameras or microphones. They couldn't run away fast enough. But the crew... at Parramatta on Saturday. Loved it. Loved getting involved. The camera crew asked them to do some things that weren't maybe natural or weren't part of the parkrun morning.

00:56:49Melissa Erbacher: Weren't natural. What kind of things were you filming?

00:56:55Scott Trickett: It was unnatural to the parkrun morning. Like it didn't follow the script of you get there, you chat, you run, you chat, you go home. We just asked them to do a bit of extra running. Formation running and stuff like that. High-fiving. I don't do a lot of high-fiving at parkrunning. I should do a lot more. But, yeah, it was a great morning at Parramatta. 11.47, just so.

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

00:57:22Melissa Erbacher: Well, speaking of numbers of events, we've got – Three launches this weekend, all of them going to be special. But what's extra special is they bring parkrun Australia up to a very special number. Where are we launching this weekend, Scotty?

00:57:41Scott Trickett: It's a pretty eclectic mix of trio, isn't it? It is. We're launching in Cloncurry in Queensland, challenging the title of one of the remote locations within Australia to get to.

00:57:56Melissa Erbacher: Yes, that's definitely one for the super hardcore and potentially more financially comfortable adventurers, let's say.

00:58:07Unidentified speaker: Yes.

00:58:09Scott Trickett: We're also launching out at Kangaroo Island in South Australia. Again, another one that I can't imagine is easy to get to. I don't think there's a big bridge over to Kangaroo Island.

00:58:20Melissa Erbacher: I think you have to take a boat. Yeah. I'm not sure. That could be wildly inaccurate. I do know it looks wild and beautiful on the island. I'm sure it's going to be a great run.

00:58:34Scott Trickett: And I'll leave the last one to you.

00:58:37Melissa Erbacher: Because it's event number 250 in Tasmania, we're launching Railton parkrun.

00:58:45Scott Trickett: Interesting fact about Railton. Is it Toporeri? Topiary? Topiary. How do you say it?

00:58:54Melissa Erbacher: Topiary, if you're talking about what you do with the plants when you're clipping them into the right shapes. Otherwise, we could be going to Tipperary.

00:59:02Scott Trickett: No, no, it's that Topiary capital of Australia.

00:59:06Melissa Erbacher: Is it?

00:59:07Scott Trickett: It is. And now they've got a parkrun, and it is the 250th parkrun in Australia.

00:59:15Melissa Erbacher: So, wow. Massive. Massive. Massive. And we have got some adventurers that are going to be on the ground next weekend. Oh, great. Getting the action from Railton parkrun. So that's pretty exciting too.

00:59:29Scott Trickett: You know what we should do?

00:59:32Melissa Erbacher: Tell me.

00:59:33Scott Trickett: Let's make a video celebrating 250.

00:59:37Melissa Erbacher: 250 events in Australia?

00:59:39Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:59:40Melissa Erbacher: What a novel idea.

00:59:41Scott Trickett: Let's do it. You and me, Mel.

00:59:43Melissa Erbacher: Let's do it. Let's do it.

00:59:46Scott Trickett: Butters Party Weekend. And my God, do we share party time with a few other events?

00:59:53Melissa Erbacher: You know what? After the launches that happen this weekend, next year, we are going to have an anniversary in every single state or territory except for the ACT. ACT, guys, get on board. You need to launch something on this weekend next year. Where have we got them? We've got Bunbury in WA.

01:00:15Scott Trickett: Darwin in the Northern Territory.

01:00:17Melissa Erbacher: Highfields in Queensland.

01:00:19Scott Trickett: Kiwana, which is also in Queensland, as we know.

01:00:22Melissa Erbacher: Mudjimba. Did we have this trouble last year? Probably.

01:00:27Scott Trickett: I reckon it's Majiraba.

01:00:29Melissa Erbacher: Majiraba, that's it. Majiraba in Queensland.

01:00:32Scott Trickett: Port Macquarie in New South Wales.

01:00:34Melissa Erbacher: North Lakes in Queensland.

01:00:36Scott Trickett: Shelley in WA.

01:00:38Melissa Erbacher: And Westerfolds in Victoria. the only one in victoria so all the limelight down here is on westerfolds i'm pretty happy about that you don't have to share your adventurers who are looking for cake or donuts with anybody else and i'm pretty happy about those uh cloncurry kangaroo island and railton coming on to party weekend that's a good group that is a good group it's very very good group so there's a lot of cake candle donuts happening but what else is going on this week scotty

The Perlustration (annual listener survey)

01:01:10Scott Trickett: Perlustration, final week for the perlustration to be open and for you to fill that out for us.

01:01:19Melissa Erbacher: If you've already filled it out, thank you very much. We love your work. I'm looking forward to breaking down all the results with Scotty. Will we break them down next week or we'll have a week after that that we break them down?

01:01:31Scott Trickett: Let's do it the following week after.

01:01:33Melissa Erbacher: Okay. And have we got any kind of incentives for those people who haven't? Already. Didn't we talk about we were going to have some incentives last week?

01:01:41Scott Trickett: We did. What can we do, Mel?

01:01:45Melissa Erbacher: Did we figure that out yet?

01:01:46Scott Trickett: What can we do? Tell you what, one of the major partners of parkrun, TomTom, they've got this really cool watch called Adventurer. Now, it's in dispute whether it was named after us. Who's disputing the fact? I'm fact-checking with the company itself. But until that has been resolved, I'm claiming it. So TomTom have named this watch after our podcast. So I think it's only right that we put one of these watches on one of our adventurers.

01:02:17Melissa Erbacher: Ooh, I like where you're going with this. That's okay. And... That's a giveaway.

01:02:24Scott Trickett: We're having a giveaway.

01:02:25Melissa Erbacher: But they have to... How do they have to qualify for said giveaway? We want to make it easy. Yeah, incentives.

01:02:32Scott Trickett: Incentives. So if you've already done the Pearlustration, you're in the box seat. If you haven't done the Pearlustration and you want to win the watch, well, you've got to do the Pearlustration because...

01:02:43Melissa Erbacher: Well, see, the thing is, Scotty, we don't know who's already done the perlustration. So we need to figure out a way that they can also be in the running for the watch. So how about... It's got to be something question-related.

01:03:01Scott Trickett: Yes. There's lots of answers in the perlustration. Maybe we can do something there.

01:03:07Melissa Erbacher: All right. So obviously the perlustration is anonymous for very important reasons. It's... A very personal survey. There are lots of hard-hitting questions involved. Very sensitive.

01:03:19Scott Trickett: Touched on a lot of controversial topics.

01:03:23Melissa Erbacher: And people might not feel comfortable with divulging their answers in particular because obviously if they want us to know who they are so they can go in the drawer for the watch, they might not be comfortable giving away answers to a particular question. So maybe let's let them choose. If they get in touch with us with one of the answers from the whole survey, surely out of all the questions, there's something that they're not sensitive about or they won't mind that we know that that's their answer.

01:03:53Scott Trickett: That's very fair, Mel. People call you a lot of things, but there's one thing they can't call you is unfair.

01:03:58Melissa Erbacher: They call me a lot of things, do they?

01:04:01Scott Trickett: Well, I've heard. But that is a great competition.

01:04:05Melissa Erbacher: Okay.

01:04:06Scott Trickett: And how you do it. Let's email. So everybody's on email. So you've got to email your answer in to theparkrunadventurers at gmail.com.

01:04:16Melissa Erbacher: There's no the at the beginning of the email address. There's not. Just in case you're wondering. It's just parkrunadventurers at gmail.com.

01:04:24Scott Trickett: And you've only got a week. So this competition is only open for a week. So again, all those people who haven't. We're listening, catching up, suckers.

01:04:33Melissa Erbacher: You know what? In a couple of months' time, we're just going to get some random email from somebody who's just going to say, blah, and this is the answer to a question, and that's all they're going to say. But it's going to happen in a few months when they've actually caught up.

01:04:47Scott Trickett: Yes.

01:04:48Melissa Erbacher: The watch will already be gone. Sorry, guys.

01:04:51Scott Trickett: So there'll be terms and conditions, and we'll put them somewhere on the Facebook page. But thanks, TomTom. They are awesome.

01:04:59Melissa Erbacher: We can't forget to do that.

01:05:00Scott Trickett: They're giving us a watch.

01:05:03Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, that's awesome. Thanks, TomTom.

01:05:05Scott Trickett: Yeah.

01:05:06Melissa Erbacher: Now this, if I'm not mistaken, this watch is, is it orange? It is. It's parkrun orange. Which leads me to orange you glad people want to meet up to see the podcast recorded.

01:05:20Scott Trickett: What a great idea.

01:05:20Melissa Erbacher: Do you see what I did there?

01:05:22Scott Trickett: Yep, I did. Nice, nice segue.

01:05:27Melissa Erbacher: So this week we had a fabulous idea from Gary about meeting up or arranging for a listener meetup perhaps once a year. He got the idea from another podcast that he listens to, which now that I think of it, what was it called? Airplane Geeks?

01:05:48Scott Trickett: I think so.

01:05:49Melissa Erbacher: I think I'm going to have to look that up because that sounds intriguing to me. Does it? I would like to know what they talk about. Yeah, I mean, obvious, you could assume, maybe it's not obvious that they talk about airplanes, but you know, if they're taking it to the next level, I'm interested. But I digress. Yeah, his idea was to organise a listeners' meet-up, and so we actually put this out to you guys this week on the Facebook page, if you'd be interested in doing that, and if so, where would you like to meet? And we've got a variety of answers, which are very interesting. Scotty, what do you think about this whole scenario?

01:06:33Scott Trickett: Well, I mean, I love it. I mean, we've talked about the Contiki Tour, the parkrun Adventures Contiki Tour, in the past, and that's still... going on. The wheels are in motion in the background on that. But this is a nice little intro. I'm all for it. By the way, happy birthday, Gary. It's his birthday this week, and I know Gary's listening this week. Great idea, Gary, and great to join me celebrating birthdays in October. All the good people are born in October.

01:07:03Melissa Erbacher: Which brings me to another thing. I've started a new tradition, but it's only a tradition when you do it more than once, because if you'll recall last year, I also forgot to wish you happy birthday on the week of the podcast, and it wasn't until I realized after the podcast was released that, damn it, I forgot to say it.

01:07:24Scott Trickett: It's okay. It was a theme this year. Everyone forgot my birthday this year, so you fitted in with the crowd.

01:07:30Melissa Erbacher: Oh, Scotty, we'll have to get the violins out for you. Do you have violins on your soundboard?

01:07:34Scott Trickett: I haven't played the soundboard yet.

01:07:40Melissa Erbacher: So, happy birthday, Scotty, for last week. Now that it's an annual thing, I'm sure you'll realize that next year, when I don't wish you happy birthday on the week of your birthday on the podcast, that I'm doing it intentionally and I'm saving it up for the following week.

01:07:57Scott Trickett: That's okay. That's okay.

01:07:59Melissa Erbacher: And your presence in the mail.

01:08:01Scott Trickett: Great. Can't wait. Must be with all the others. But I tell you what, a great birthday present for me next year would be to meet up with all our listeners in Orange or Main Beach or Dubbo, any of the suggestions. I'm up for any of them.

01:08:19Melissa Erbacher: I've already run Main Beach, so... Well, maybe we need to put it back on the listeners to get them to organise it.

01:08:26Scott Trickett: Oh, that's a good idea. Yeah.

01:08:28Melissa Erbacher: And then we can, you know, we can just show up for the party, the podcast party.

01:08:34Scott Trickett: Yeah. Great. Let's see where this goes. I'm all for it. I think they're going to be disappointed, one of the things Gary mentioned or somebody mentioned, to see the podcast be made live.

01:08:51Melissa Erbacher: Ah, so they can get, yeah, that's right, get the behind-the-scenes scoop on what it's like to record the podcast and how that all works.

01:08:58Scott Trickett: That is going to disappoint. I can guarantee that.

01:09:02Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, it could be a bit anticlimactic for everyone. But, you know, if we're both in the same place at the same time, on location, it could be a different kind of fun anyway. We have a good time. I'm not sure it's a spectator sport, but I guess we can find out. A live studio audience, that could be pretty fun.

01:09:28Scott Trickett: Okay, one more thing we have to do, Mel. The show's not over. November Madness is back.

November Madness

01:09:34Melissa Erbacher: Yes, we talked about this in September, that it would be coming back in November, and we also mentioned at that time that we will not be nominating anyone anymore to participate in we would like people to self-nominate or potentially nominate somebody else that you know would be interested. And that way we can get you guys who want to test your knowledge and are keen to take on our carryover champ, Melissa Ellis, who is happy to come back.

01:10:03Scott Trickett: One rule, one rule, because this is a state versus state-based competition.

01:10:08Melissa Erbacher: Ah, okay, so no Victorians.

01:10:09Scott Trickett: No Victorians this time. Until you knock off Melissa... You know, Victoria's the king or the queen, if you want.

01:10:17Melissa Erbacher: Well, I think Victorians can get in touch now so that we can have, you know, a waiting list. Oh, good point. For the madness.

01:10:24Scott Trickett: Good point. Waiting list. That's always good.

01:10:27Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. Then we know who to tap in next. I mean, assuming Melissa ever is decrowned.

01:10:34Scott Trickett: Highly unlikely, but there's that possibility. So we need to plan for that possibility.

01:10:40Melissa Erbacher: Yes. She might just need somebody to sub in for her one week if she can't make it. But yes, please let us know. You can do that by any of the social medias that you like, that you want to be involved in November Madness. And we look forward to having applications flooding in.

01:10:58Scott Trickett: No TomTom watches we're giving away for the winner of November Madness. You just get the glory.

01:11:04Melissa Erbacher: The glory. But not bad. What price the glory, Scotty? What price?

01:11:10Scott Trickett: Priceless, Mel.

01:11:11Melissa Erbacher: Absolutely priceless. And I think that's about it for this week.

01:11:15Scott Trickett: Yeah, I think we've had enough. Short and sharp. Maybe not. Lots of us this week. So I hope you enjoyed that. And we'll be back next week. Chock full of guests. They're already all lined up waiting to go. That's exciting. An old favourite returns. I hope we get some roving. Well, we know we're getting some roving reports. We do. You've already said it. That's a big statement. So someone's been in your ear. Obviously.

01:11:43Melissa Erbacher: Oh, I've been in somebody else's ear.

01:11:46Scott Trickett: Jeez, the pre-planning, Mel. It's great. It's fantastic. Thank you for joining me this week.

01:11:53Melissa Erbacher: Oh, you're very welcome, Scotty. It has been a pleasure. And have a fabulous time at Westerfolds. The anniversary of them is almost like celebrating your birthday. So, you know, at least there'll be a party involved and people happy to be there.

01:12:09Unidentified speaker: Yep.

01:12:10Scott Trickett: And same to you. I hope it's everything you hoped and dreamed it could possibly be for your fifth anniversary. And I do eagerly await the Instagram photo to find out what 80s sports star he came up with.