Episode 93

Episode details · 197 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:10Scott Trickett: And episode 93 of the parkrun Adventurers podcast is here. It's a Wednesday night, Mel. We're recording on a Wednesday night.

00:00:19Melissa Erbacher: It's been a long time between night time recordings.

00:00:21Scott Trickett: It has. It has. Have you missed it? This is completely irrelevant to the listeners, but we're in after hours mode to start off episode 93.

00:00:32Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I guess we'll be able to judge by the quality of the episode whether or not the brain is as sharp. in the evenings as it has become during the days now um i have not exactly missed the night time recording i'll be honest so when i ever go back to work like yeah we'll have to see what we can do about me just having a day off to do podcasts

00:01:00Scott Trickett: I'll tell you what, not much has changed. I mean, I've still got my work colleague here sitting next to me. But he's snoring now, so he's had a big day. He's clocked off. I'm talking about Buster.

00:01:12Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, but he often snores while we record during the day as well. He's rude, isn't he? He's a bit of a round-the-clock snorer. He is.

00:01:21Scott Trickett: But I tell you what.

00:01:21Melissa Erbacher: It wouldn't be the same without him.

00:01:23Scott Trickett: No, I love Buster. Buster's my shadow. He's my white shadow. I'm going to put a photo of Buster up on the Facebook this week so you can all know what I'm talking about because I've had a rough little time with Buster. I've had a rough couple of weeks, Mel. And it started with a visit to the emergency hospital with Buster a few nights ago. In fact, it was after a parkrun. It was Saturday last week. After we were together at North Harbour, I flew back down to Melbourne and came home and found little Buster in a lot of distress. And as he's prone to do, Buster's been to the emergency hospital a couple of times. They know who he is. And he always manages to do it like on a Saturday night when you can't take him to the vet. It's got to be the emergency hospital miles away. But we sorted him out. So he's doing okay. And then a little Kasia. We've had a little visit to the hospital with my daughter in the past couple of weeks. So, my goodness, it's been a tough...

00:02:27Melissa Erbacher: Frequent flyers to the emergency services for Team Trickett.

00:02:30Scott Trickett: Yeah, a tough few weeks for me. And the only... Good thing to look forward to, I hate to say, is parkrun and my parkrun friends and colleagues to make things right again. And so Kasia's been pretty unwell. And we still took her to parkrun on Saturday. Is that a bad thing? Are we bad parents?

00:02:54Melissa Erbacher: Well, you didn't take her out of hospital to go to parkrun, did you?

00:02:57Scott Trickett: No, not quite. Not quite.

00:03:00Melissa Erbacher: Close. You sound like you've got one of those voices where it was like almost close.

00:03:05Scott Trickett: I was questioning my decision, but we went out to Highlands, which is the friendliest parkrun I've been to. They have a reputation. There's a few. And we're going to speak to one later in the podcast, a friendly parkrun. But whenever you go to Highlands, it's always friendly. The people are always friendly. I know Ivona looks forward to going there because... It's just a good vibe. And it's a three-lap event. I've talked about Highlands before. So I knew that Kasia wouldn't do the whole parkrun. She would duck out after one lap.

00:03:42Melissa Erbacher: Okay, well, so this is good parenting. You know, you went to a place that didn't force your daughter to do five kilometres when she's not been well. No. I did the same thing. My fur daughter, Clover, she only did the first lap of two laps on the weekend, so I didn't force her to do the second one. So I'm going for the voting of this is good parenting.

00:04:04Scott Trickett: Yes, I think it is. You know, I felt she needed to be out in the fresh air, although it was pouring with rain. On Saturday. But that's it. We had a bit of fun. We had a bit of fun trying to dodge the rain. We had this crappy little umbrella that we were trying to hide under. And for 10 or 15 minutes or so on Saturday morning, I got a couple of laughs and smiles out of my daughter, which was lovely, really lovely.

00:04:35Melissa Erbacher: A relief, no doubt. Yeah.

00:04:38Scott Trickett: I hope you had a few more laughs and smiles at your parkrun on Saturday.

00:04:43Melissa Erbacher: Well, before we go on to my story, can we just establish Kasia's okay, though, right?

00:04:47Scott Trickett: Kasia has come good, yes. Touch wood. Okay, good. All right, everybody's... We still have no idea what's going on, but yes.

00:04:56Melissa Erbacher: Okay. All right, well, now I can concentrate on me since... I know that she's okay. Yes, there was more smiles for my parkrunning on the weekend. This is the first time I've managed to take all my children, my two dogs and my son to parkrun. as well as some family met us there, and we went down to Coomera for Adam Gimbert's 250th milestone run. And actually, while we're talking about milestones, I would like to give a shout-out to my good friend Matt Pollock, who is doing his 100th parkrun this weekend, I believe, at Port Mac. I hope he's doing it in a kilt, though I haven't had – any confirmation about what he will be wearing. But if you're listening to this before parkrun Day, Matt, congratulations. I hope you make it around the whole course because otherwise you're going to have to do your milestone again next week. And if you're listening to it afterwards, congratulations, you did it.

00:06:07Scott Trickett: Is he Scottish?

00:06:08Melissa Erbacher: Well, I digress. Ah. Well, it makes sense because, I mean, I don't know if he is or not, but Pollock is actually the first place in Scotland to have a parkrun. So that would indicate his last name's Scottish. I don't know. I'll have to ask the question.

00:06:27Scott Trickett: Well, the obvious reason I ask is because you said he was going to do it in a kilt.

00:06:32Melissa Erbacher: Well, he's run a lot of parkruns in kilts.

00:06:34Scott Trickett: Right. As you do.

00:06:37Melissa Erbacher: As you do. If you own a kilt.

00:06:39Scott Trickett: Okay.

00:06:41Melissa Erbacher: I'm yet to attend one where I've seen a kilted parkrunner. It is one of the bucket list items for me. Go to a parkrun where the men are in kilts. Of course.

00:06:51Scott Trickett: It's everyone's. It's on everyone's bucket list.

00:06:54Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. It's the obvious thing. But I am going way off on a tangent. So I'll bring it back in.

00:07:02Scott Trickett: Let's get back. Was Adam in a kilt? Adam Gimbert.

00:07:06Melissa Erbacher: Adam was not in a kilt, no. He wore his parkrun apricot.

00:07:11Scott Trickett: Adam Erbacher in a kilt.

00:07:13Melissa Erbacher: No, also my Adam was not in a kilt. I have established that I've never been to a parkrun where the gentlemen were wearing kilts. True, I'm not paying attention. So, no, you are not. But it was a very toasty day on Saturday. There was a horse on the course, which... It must just be, you know, it was a full moon last night. I think it's just in my stars at the moment. I had a Shetland pony incident on my street last week. And I don't live where you find Shetland ponies just grazing across the road at 7 o'clock in the morning, usually, until last week. But then on Saturday as well, there was a horse just running around. on the course at Coomera so they kind of stopped the start before it happened just until it got out of the way and then we were off and it was a warm morning and so Clover who was being walked by my niece or run I should say she could only make it one lap because being a little black dog and starting to grow back after her first summer haircut It was a bit toasty for her. I managed to get Inu around the whole course, although he found the only two muddy puddles and did his best to splash it all over himself to cool down. But he managed to get around. And Wes as well, of course. He did it in the pram with his dad this time. So we were obeying all the rules. One pram, no dog versus one dog per person. So everybody was distributed as they should be. And it was a really good morning. Really good morning. A nice little course. I've never done a double out and back before. So that was a new experience for me. And obviously everybody was very welcoming and friendly too. So that was event number 47. What number are you up to now, Scotty?

00:09:16Scott Trickett: I'm at 48.

00:09:19Melissa Erbacher: You still went ahead of me and you didn't even go to a new event last weekend.

00:09:23Scott Trickett: No, I didn't. And I'm not going to go to one for a while, I've decided. I want to wait for you to catch up, Mel. I've got a little bit of pity. Oh! Oh, really?

00:09:34Melissa Erbacher: You've got a little bit of pity.

00:09:38Scott Trickett: Yeah, I don't want you to fall too far behind, so I'm just going to wait for you to catch up.

00:09:44Melissa Erbacher: Oh, that sounds like a cop-out. You must have to be somewhere else, and this is just the facade that you're going to put up. Not at all. You're going to tell people that this is the... Oh, so, okay. Okay. All right. If you say so. You wait. You wait for me. Event number five in Australia is Cura parkrun. And it has been remiss of us to take this long to get to Kirra. So we're headed there this week. We have got the third event. ED to ever take the reins at Kirra parkrun and her name is Em Nicholson. Em, welcome to the parkrun Adventurous Podcast.

Meet the ED

00:10:32Emma Nicholson: Hello Scott, hello Mel. It's lovely to be speaking to you. Huge honour I must say too. I'm a long time listener. I love the podcast.

00:10:40Melissa Erbacher: Oh, well you've just gone straight to the top of the list of our favourite ever guest eds oh thank you now it's it it is really i i wasn't lying when i said it's remiss of us to have not been to kira uh even if virtually on the podcast yet it has a reputation that precedes it for being a fast course and i'd like to talk to you about that but first let's let's jump into the you're the third person to take on the ed role there how did that all come about

00:11:14Emma Nicholson: Well, Kira parkrun started on the 18th of February 2012. And as you mentioned, we are the fifth oldest. Paul Relf, the ED at Main Beach, never lets me forget that fact. He's first on fifth. So Chris Van Hoof started it off. He did it single-handedly for a few years before taken over by Pete Sinfield. And I was an RD under Pete. Pete, very committed to athletics in Australia and had a lot on his plate, so he gave advance warning that he was going to step down and we kind of looked amongst ourselves at a meeting and I kind of shuffled forward and said, yep, I'll do it, I guess. But I've loved it. It really has been an amazing experience being an ED.

00:11:58Scott Trickett: Mel touched on it. You have a reputation for being fast, but you've also got a reputation recently for being very friendly and welcoming.

00:12:07Emma Nicholson: I think we've always been a very welcoming part-run. I always refer to the three Fs at Kira. We're fast, flat and friendly. And I think that comes from being a well-established community. We have a symbiotic relationship with one of the local running groups as well, between towns, runners and walkers. So everyone knows everyone and it does have that feel of being a big family. And You know, we go out of our way too when, you know, we've been contacted by tourists, you know, needing a bit of information or a bit of assistance. We try and go above and beyond to welcome them. And we've organized lifts in the past and things like that. So friendly, definitely a good way of describing Kira.

00:12:49Scott Trickett: And what about the fast part of it? Now, I have run Kira. It was very hot, so it wasn't fast for me. But lots of people come to Kira to run a fast time.

00:13:01Emma Nicholson: Our course is a fairly wide, reasonably straight out and back with a kind of little kilometre on the end before you've crossed the finish line. So we do get a lot of people wanting to come down, especially pram runners who want to give it a decent crack because they feel welcome. It's so smooth. It really is. And as a pram runner myself, I'm very thankful for that, especially when it's hot. We... I believe the professor, Prof Alan Burrell, at one stage had a list of the fastest average times in Australia. I think Kira came second, which was something that made me quite happy to boast about. Kira, we've gone from when I took over as ED or even just joined the RD team, I think we were averaging about 80 times. Each Saturday, I think we're up to, we average about 160 now. So we've attracted a lot of walkers, a lot of pram runners. So I wonder where we'd actually be on the list now. But, you know, I don't mind if we've dropped as average fast time because we've got slower runners and walkers. I think it's fantastic to see walkers out there. And as a bit of a back of the pack myself, it's great that we've got such a welcoming parkrun.

00:14:18Melissa Erbacher: Always wonderful to have a really good mix of people from all different levels. Now, Scotty mentioned that he's run there once, but I'm pretty sure he's shown up in the results a few more times than that.

00:14:32Emma Nicholson: Scott has actually run it, Kira, I think about three times and not even actually been there. So one of the emails that got sent out a while ago to all parkrunners just to let them know about barcode scanning and that we must always have a printed barcode, he actually used an example being his own barcode and a One or two runners took it a little bit too literally and actually printed it out and presented it as their barcode at the end of the parkrun. So Scott, yeah, Scott messaged me just to say, look, you might want to go and check the results. And I think he was a bit disappointed too that it wasn't as fast as what he probably would have run it had he run it himself.

00:15:15Scott Trickett: No, it wasn't the time I was disappointed in. It was the – I've already run it, Kira, so I didn't need the event on my list. Otherwise, I might have kept quiet just to get one up on Mel.

00:15:28Emma Nicholson: Yeah, we did do an appeal to find the runner to sort out what his actual barcode is so that we could credit him the run. One of my RDs even did up a wanted poster, but he never did come forward our random – known with your barcode but it'd be interesting to know who it was whether he was a visitor or a regular curer i couldn't work it out from the photos so well let's hope he's worked it out and he's printing his own barcode now let's hope we haven't lost him to parkrun or just given up given up because he never never got the email with his results yeah

00:16:08Scott Trickett: Now, Em, you mentioned that you're a back-of-the-pack runner. So tell us how you got involved in this running event called parkrun.

00:16:19Emma Nicholson: I work in Coolangatta. Well, I may as well come clean and admit that I'm a police officer. So quite often my weekends shift at 6 a.m. in the morning. So 6 a.m., you know, get ready to go out, get my first coffee, start up at Point Danger and then do the slow cruise up the up the coast patrolling if I didn't have a job to go to. And I'd always go past about 7am, this big mass of people and wonder what the hell they were up to. At that stage, the gazebo had parked on it. So I did a bit of Googling and worked it out and then thought, well, it's interesting. I might go and join in. I gradually worked up the courage over a few months and went to my first parkrun and kind of, snuck in the back and and gazed down at my shoes and didn't really look at anyone it was a bit embarrassed to be there being what I thought extremely slow but um had my first run and and then just I think the bug bit really I just I can't imagine a Saturday not being out at a parkrun whether it's volunteering or being you know a tourist somewhere but park parkrun is just amazing and it can be addictive and for me it really has been addictive um I had my daughter Sophie on a Thursday at Pindara Hospital and it's about a five-minute drive from Broadbeach Waters parkrun and by Saturday I was there in the hospital trying to work out how I could go and sneak out and whether the nurses had noticed me missing if I snuck out to Broadbeach Waters parkrun but probably not a good idea.

00:17:56Scott Trickett: Well, that's up for debate and the addiction is a good addiction. It's a good addiction to have. Let's go back to you. You said it took you a while to build up the courage to go. So what are we talking, weeks or how long did it take before you actually came to parkrun?

00:18:14Emma Nicholson: Look, it took me a few months just to go and finally give myself that kick up the bottom to actually go there because not knowing – I didn't know anyone. Connected to parkrun, I didn't have any friends who already did parkrun. Kira was a bit of a new event back then. It was a few months old and certainly parkrun itself didn't have the exposure that it has now. So, no, it was just one Saturday. I just thought, no, I'm going to do it. I got down there and I did it. And, you know, I went intermittently when work permitted. I think the big turning point was meeting a young lady called Laura Purdy. who at that time was a run director and got to know her and then just gradually got to meet more and more people. And now it's, it's, I know, I know everyone. It feels like it sometimes not just secure, but you know, I can go to a, a random event such as the fast 10 K recently up in Brisbane. And I didn't have anyone that I knew there, but the next thing you know, there's Michaela Wilson, the ED at Meadowbrook. And, and then, um, Chrissy, who's at ED at Greenbank. And it's like you can go to any event and you'll find someone that you know and feel very welcomed by.

00:19:27Melissa Erbacher: Lucky for the rest of the parkrun world that you got up the courage to head along, Em.

00:19:32Emma Nicholson: Now, you're also quite the adventurer.

00:19:34Melissa Erbacher: You've been to several different events over your tenure with parkrun. Can you give us some inside tips on where some of your favourites are?

00:19:45Emma Nicholson: Oh, I finally made the list this last Saturday. I went up to Logan River for the Plus Size parkrunners Dash in the Dress. So that was my 20th. So I am now on the list, which, you know, considering it's taken me five years to get there, I'm ecstatic. For me, like I'm a 530 runner, Northern Division. So for me, Warwick is our spiritual home. So Warwick's up there as a parkrun because of the fact, you know, I've got a lot of friends there. And it's also a lovely run along the river. Oh, God, this is so hard. Kingscliff definitely is very much like Kira. Dawn Courage, the ED there, refers to Kingscliff as Kira Light. But it's, you know, the same sort of nice wide path and fast as well and you get a bit of a sea breeze and the opportunity to have a bit of a dip in the ocean after you run. Oh, God. Main Beach, it's the bushy park of parkrun in Australia, so it's definitely up there as well. I don't think there's a parkrun that I haven't enjoyed in some way, some more than others, but, you know, they're all great and they've all got their different unique aspects and, again, you get to meet a whole new bunch of wonderful people. So, yeah, I can't really nominate too many. above particularly any other one. So can I cop out of that question that way?

00:21:21Scott Trickett: You can. That's a great answer.

00:21:22Emma Nicholson: I'm sorry.

00:21:24Scott Trickett: Now, if you've been listening to the podcast, which you say you have, we've introduced a new question, and that is if money were no object, which parkrun do you think you would head to?

00:21:35Emma Nicholson: Oh, I think, and you'll probably hear this one over and over again, probably Bushy Park. over in the UK, just for the fact that it is the very first event. Can I break – I don't know whether there's news that you guys know about or not, but I have just had a little birdie tell me that there's a parkrun that will be starting up in Aspen, Colorado, next year. I think that'll be a pretty bloody good place to go to as well, especially in winter to do a Christmas parkrun.

00:22:11Scott Trickett: Yeah, it's going to be on many people's lists. It's going to be interesting because in summer it's going to be completely different to winter. I'm not even sure if they're going to be able to run in winter, but they assure us they will, I think.

00:22:27Melissa Erbacher: If they can do it in Russia, surely they can do it in Colorado.

00:22:31Scott Trickett: Well, Emma, thank you for coming on the podcast and breaking all this news. Oh, I'm sorry. No, no, it's great. I'm so sorry. Don't apologize. We need to inform the adventurers. about these new parkruns that they can hope.

00:22:46Emma Nicholson: I got a little bit excited about that because I know that it's been a little bit slow for parkrun to take off in the United States, it seems. So any news breaking of a new event over there, I think, shows that it's very promising over there and plenty of spots in the future for us to venture to.

00:23:04Scott Trickett: And I know lots of Australians and Australians Lots of Americans will be adding Kira to their list. Thanks for coming on the podcast this week, Em, and telling us all about the fun times at Kira.

00:23:16[music]

00:23:16Emma Nicholson: Thank you very much for having me.

00:23:31Scott Trickett: Coast to Kosciuszko is one of the iconic ultramarathons in this country. It's a crazy long way, and last year, our guest managed to win the event. Welcome to the podcast, Kevin Muller.

00:23:45Kevin Muller: Thank you very much for having me.

00:23:47Scott Trickett: Kevin, you're back to defend your title this year, so you're gearing up to run Coast to Kosciuszko again on Friday morning. Are you ready? Are you feeling good?

00:23:59Kevin Muller: Oh yeah, I'm as ready as I ever can be. I'm feeling fit and uninjured but it's such a long event that anything can go wrong on the day.

00:24:09Melissa Erbacher: And how exactly does somebody prepare for an event like this?

00:24:13Kevin Muller: Oh, I think everyone has their own ways of preparing but it's just getting out and doing runs pretty much every day and I like to do a lot of ultras in the lead up to it anyway to Some people go in fairly fresh, but I usually go in having done a lot of races.

00:24:33Melissa Erbacher: And would that include a lot of elevation in those races?

00:24:37Kevin Muller: Oh, yeah. I mix it up a bit. I do flat road races and also the trails and even just runs around athletics tracks. But I have been purposefully doing a bit more elevation in the last couple of months.

00:24:52Scott Trickett: Kevin, we should take a step back and explain exactly what the race is. Can you tell us where it starts and what you do over two or three days?

00:25:02Kevin Muller: Yep, it starts at 5.30am at Boydtown Beach just south of Eden at the mouth of the Nullica River and then it runs mainly back roads all the way up to Mount Kosciuszko and then just another 9km back down to Charlotte's Pass where the finish line is. It's 240km And because it's using public roads and you have your crew vehicles, the New South Wales Police do restrict the numbers. So the fields are normally limited to 50 people.

00:25:36Scott Trickett: And over those 250 kilometres, you're climbing up a lot. And you mentioned you've got crews. So crewing is a big part of ultramarathoning, isn't it?

00:25:47Kevin Muller: Yeah, I mean, I can do simple ones around the athletics track where you can be have a crew or no crew because you can have all your gear and your food on a table that you just run past. But this event, it's a must that you have a crew. And they're stuck in a car together for anywhere from a day and a half to almost two days. So it's important that they get along well with their runner and they get along well with each other without going crazy.

00:26:13Melissa Erbacher: Now, Kevin, this year, 2017, will be your sixth year running. Is that correct?

00:26:21Kevin Muller: Yes, yeah, that's right. I've had five attempts. I've finished four times and DNF'd one.

00:26:29Melissa Erbacher: And when you DNF'd, you DNF'd at 162 kilometres. Can you talk us through that? Because I've I've had one DNF. I actually completed the marathon, but it took too long, so I was outside the finish time. But 162 kilometers, that's insane. I don't know if that would break my heart or if I would, like, how do you react to that and how does that even happen?

00:26:57Kevin Muller: Oh, yeah, that's one thing, a memory for me that I always use as a driving force to to keep going in the other event since then because it really guts you afterwards when you think, oh, maybe I've kept going and it's a really disappointing feeling for the next couple of weeks or, you know, even longer afterwards. But, yeah, at the time on that run, I'd actually broken my leg during the year and I probably tried to get too quick and did team up too soon. I got myself out and, yeah, I just, I got to a point during the night where I was pushing as hard as I can. I looked down and I was watching. I was doing about 10 minutes per kilometre pace and just really, really struggling. I was at the base of the Beloka Range and sort of pushing up that just was too much for me at the time.

00:27:54Scott Trickett: Let's go back to happier times last year.

00:27:57Kevin Muller: Yes.

00:27:58Scott Trickett: Did you go in with the expectation that you could win it last year?

00:28:03Kevin Muller: Not really. I mean, I have... come third a couple of times so you just never know what was going to happen on the day. I thought there was a couple of quick runners that I thought would probably finish in front of me but one of them pulled out after about 80 kilometres and I just had a really good run and didn't have much in the way of bad patches so it ran fairly strong all the way through.

00:28:28Scott Trickett: So running's one aspect of ultramarathons, but the mental side is such a massive part of it too. Have you become mentally stronger over the years of doing these crazy distances?

00:28:40Kevin Muller: Yeah, certainly. I think the first few ultramarathons I did, there's always stages where I'd be struggling to keep pushing through and wondering why I was doing it, thinking this is kind of the last time I ever do one of these long distance ones that Nowadays, I'm finding it's a lot easier to push through and get to the end. I think just your training runs, when you're training on tired legs, it sort of mentally helps give you mental strength and preparation for the run as well.

00:29:15Scott Trickett: Do you sleep during the race?

00:29:17Kevin Muller: Oh, no, no. You haven't got time, have you? No, I worry about if I stop, I'd probably seize up and get really sore and be too hard to get going again.

00:29:27Scott Trickett: So is that another challenge, trying to stay awake for 30 hours? Or is that pretty easy?

00:29:32Kevin Muller: Oh, no, not really. I've done 48-hour track runs and stayed awake the whole way through.

00:29:38Scott Trickett: It's impressive stuff. It really is. And I'm sure you get told that a lot. But it's a little bit inhuman, I reckon, what you guys do.

00:29:46Kevin Muller: Yeah, well, there's a few of us out there, so they're all the same. It's all the same sort of people doing these runs.

00:29:52Melissa Erbacher: I think the nice term is nutters.

00:29:54Kevin Muller: Nutters. Yeah.

00:29:56Melissa Erbacher: I know what gets me back to parkrun every week, and I know what gets a lot of people back to parkrun every week, but you keep doing these really, really ridiculously long distances and these amazing events. Kevin, what sucks you back in to go back again?

00:30:15Kevin Muller: Oh, I just, I like running each weekend, and it's better to run in a group or an organised run than, by yourself all the time. Ultra running is fairly boring when you're out there by yourself. I'm in the army and I got posted to Brisbane three years ago and I was deciding which parkrun I was going to do which was closest to home and then I just thought I'll try them all out and I've managed to do all the parkruns in South East Queensland over the last three years.

00:30:46Scott Trickett: And have you got a pick of all those parkruns? You mentioned you've been to a lot of them around Queensland. Have you got some favourites amongst them?

00:30:56Kevin Muller: Oh, there's... I like... Because I've done most of them only once. But I like Bunyaville because it's the trail and it's nice and hilly, a bit off-road, I think. And then there's some of the beachside ones along with Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast and Rocks Riverside in Brisbane. I mean, there's plenty of really nice ones around.

00:31:21Scott Trickett: But your home is listed as Albury, Kevin. Is that just an anomaly?

00:31:25Kevin Muller: Yeah. Oh, no. I've just changed that on the parkrun [website] because I'm moving back to Albury next week.

00:31:32Scott Trickett: Oh, there you go.

00:31:34Kevin Muller: Yeah, I was in Albury-Wodonga before I moved up to Brisbane three years ago and I've just been getting posted back again.

00:31:42Melissa Erbacher: Albury-Wodonga is a fantastic base for you to be able to get in some Victorian and some New South Wales. Wells Welsh parkruns.

00:31:51Kevin Muller: Yes, there's a few new ones that have started up since I've been away. I haven't done Mount Beauty or Water or Chuka at this stage. I've got family down in Melbourne, so I've done some of the Melbourne ones, but there's still lots out there that I haven't done yet.

00:32:06Scott Trickett: Okay, Kevin, so you've got... the race coming up on Friday. Do you treat it like a race? Are you going in with the expectation to win, to race it, or do you just want to get through it?

00:32:20Kevin Muller: The first priority is to try and get through it because if you try and race it, it'll probably finish you off. You won't get it finished. I usually just go in with a time goal and wherever that gets me in the field, that's pretty much it. I don't try and specifically go for specific placing in the field until probably, once it's about 90% done, then you can think about racing it. But I usually just try and do a PB every time I do a run.

00:32:52Melissa Erbacher: Well, good luck, Kevin. We wish you all the best and look forward to hearing how you go.

00:32:57Kevin Muller: Yeah, no worries. I should hopefully finish sometime on Saturday.

00:33:01[music]

00:33:01Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:33:11Scott Trickett: Now, deep in the inner recesses of your mind, do you have any desire to do a 250-kilometer ultramarathon?

00:33:21Melissa Erbacher: Hell yeah. Oh, really? It's not even that deep. It's just fairly shallowly in there.

00:33:27Scott Trickett: Oh, wow. That surprises me. I learn something about you every week, Mel Erbacher.

00:33:35Melissa Erbacher: Just because I've got a desire doesn't mean it's ever going to happen. I also have a desire to be able to run five kilometers again. Every time I get out there and I start, I'm just like, really? Do I really want to do this? But you never know.

00:33:52Scott Trickett: I don't. That's just too far. I'm getting my head around I'm committing to do a marathon next year. And even that's been a big stretch for me just to get to that stage. But, man, these ultras.

00:34:10Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I guess, you know, it's a really big commitment in time for training for a marathon. You know, it's six months of your life away from your family as much as you want and, you know, just eating, sleeping, running, working. So, but I think, I mean, maybe you don't have that desire because you're faster than I am. And for me, it's kind of like if you're a back of the packer runner, you feel like you should be able to just do that for a long, long, long time. And maybe that's where your strength lies. I'm not a sprinter, so I must be an endurance athlete. I just haven't realized my endurance athletic potential yet. That's my story anyway.

00:35:02Scott Trickett: Okay. Well, it's a theory. It's a theory.

00:35:06Melissa Erbacher: Yeah.

00:35:07Scott Trickett: Well, I look forward to following your progress and your journey towards Coast to Kosciuszko 2018.

00:35:12Melissa Erbacher: Oh, no, no, not 18. You might want to – well, don't you have to do, like, qualifying times to get into those sorts of things anyway?

00:35:22Scott Trickett: I think you do.

00:35:23Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. Yeah, and I'm nowhere near that kind of ballpark at this stage. You also have to do those qualifying – Costa Kosciuszko 2019.

00:35:30Scott Trickett: Look –

00:35:33Melissa Erbacher: I'll let you in on a bit of a secret, Scotty. I've registered for two virtual runs next year. Okay. To get me running again. The first one is in January. It's called New Me. No, not New Me. New Year, New Unicorn. Okay. And I'll give you one guess as to what the medal looks like.

00:35:53Scott Trickett: A unicorn.

00:35:56Melissa Erbacher: You win the prize. And the other one is in March. And I can't remember. I think it's called the Time Lord Virtual Run. And the medal is a TARDIS. Okay. An actual TARDIS. Well, not an actual TARDIS, but it's a very small metal version of a TARDIS. So that's why I'm doing that one in March. But I'm banking on the fact that these two virtual runs will get me back out there properly running again. Because, to be honest, I've been missing something ever since the end of Streaky September. And I just haven't been able to get that motivation back.

00:36:38Scott Trickett: And virtual runs is the way to go. The TARDIS, now I'm going to horrify you here. That's Doctor Who, yeah?

00:36:45Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, there's nothing horrifying about, well, you knew if you'd asked me if it was, you know, something to do with Star Trek, I might have hit you virtually.

00:36:54Scott Trickett: I just wasn't 100% sure.

00:36:56Melissa Erbacher: Okay. Well, you can be forgiven for that.

00:36:59Scott Trickett: Yeah. Did they have a character on Doctor Who called McDreamy?

00:37:04Melissa Erbacher: McDreamy. I think you know very well where McDreamy's from.

00:37:10Scott Trickett: Where's that from? Refresh my memory now.

00:37:13Melissa Erbacher: Are you serious? Of course. Grey's Anatomy. You got McDreamy and McSteamy. And apparently somebody, one of our listeners... has got it into her head that you somewhat resemble McDreamy in some way. Oh, really? I don't know if that's visually or if it's mannerisms or... To be honest, I think Patrick Dempsey's a little bit old to play you. Oh, thanks. I would have gone with a younger actor. But there's no denying his charisma and the animal magnetism of him, so... If I were you, I'd take it as a compliment.

00:37:54Scott Trickett: Yes. Yeah, well, I did. I did. I watched Grey's Anatomy. I really liked it for a few seasons there.

00:38:01Melissa Erbacher: I did too. But have you ever done it on, I mean, it's on Netflix too, but have you ever done a binge watch of Grey's Anatomy, like a season over a few days? Because I tell you. It's got a really high body count and it can be quite depressing watching episode after episode of all these people just dying.

00:38:23Scott Trickett: Well, it's in a hospital, Mel. That's what people do in hospitals. They die.

00:38:26Melissa Erbacher: No, people go there to get better. They don't go there to die.

00:38:32Scott Trickett: I wonder what the mortality rate is.

00:38:34Melissa Erbacher: I don't wonder that. No, neither do I. I am doing a virtual run called New Year, New Unicorn. I like to live in the happy fairy lands. Yes. Please.

00:38:46Scott Trickett: There you go. Well, Netflix didn't come at us with sponsorships on our weekly Netflix.

00:38:52Melissa Erbacher: You're kidding.

00:38:53Scott Trickett: No, they didn't. They didn't.

00:38:55Melissa Erbacher: This is shocking news to me.

00:38:57Scott Trickett: The Netflix execs might be one of those listeners who are a few episodes behind. So I'm going to give them a bit of leeway. They're busy guys.

00:39:04Melissa Erbacher: Give them a couple more weeks.

00:39:05Scott Trickett: Busy guys and girls at Netflix.

00:39:07Melissa Erbacher: It is a silly season.

00:39:10Scott Trickett: I digress again. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I'm back at the gym now. Do you know at gyms now you can watch Netflix while you're on the treadmill?

00:39:18Melissa Erbacher: Before we go on, can you please explain, Jim, to me? Like, why? Why? What is motivating you to do this? It's indoors. And there are things that you have to lift and push and pedal.

00:39:33Scott Trickett: I just need my beach body back, Mel. I need my summer bod back. I think Yvonne is losing interest.

00:39:44Melissa Erbacher: Doesn't she know you look like Patrick Dempsey? How could that be?

00:39:50Scott Trickett: Yeah. Well, she hasn't picked up on that.

00:39:53Melissa Erbacher: Okay. And you're the only one who's joined the gym?

00:39:56Scott Trickett: Yeah, yeah. But you can watch Netflix at the gym now. I haven't been to the gym for a few years, and it's a lot better now than it was.

00:40:04Melissa Erbacher: You know where else you can watch Netflix? At home on your couch.

00:40:07Scott Trickett: I know. I know that. Yeah.

00:40:09Melissa Erbacher: Which is within a short walking distance to the freezer where the ice cream is.

00:40:14Scott Trickett: But right now, but right now it's a gimmick. Like it's a gimmick enough for me to, I know I can watch it on the couch. I know I can watch it in my bed on my phone. But the idea of watching it on the treadmill like is another incentive to go to the gym. I was super impressed. Okay.

00:40:32Melissa Erbacher: And what do you choose to watch when you're at the gym and you're watching Netflix? Have you actually done it yet? Let's not get too far ahead. You're trying to talk yourself into going there. Okay. I've been once.

00:40:43Scott Trickett: I've been once. But in that one visit, I discovered Netflix on the treadmill.

00:40:54Melissa Erbacher: Okay. Can you Strava your gym sessions?

00:40:59Scott Trickett: Well, that's another development. So when you join the gym, you get this app. And this app knows when you're on the treadmill. And I don't know. Like I said, I've been there once. But I'll explore this and I'll report back on the modern. Okay, good.

00:41:15Melissa Erbacher: Because if it's not on Strava, it didn't happen. So I'm not going to believe you're gone to the gym unless I see it on Strava.

00:41:22Scott Trickett: Okay. Keep watching Strava. Now, let's get back to parkrun. They've got these things called launches and anniversaries, and people like to know about them, Mel.

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

00:41:35Melissa Erbacher: They do, and we have something that's launching this week that originally was going to launch last week, but then it didn't.

00:41:44Scott Trickett: And that's Marriott Waters in Victoria. But joining them down in Tasmania is Windsor Precinct. That's a cool name for a parkrun.

00:41:55Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, it is, but always super exciting when Tassie gets a new run because it's only happened a handful of times and there are more and more coming, but still, it's going to make it more difficult for people to become statesmen in Tassie.

00:42:11Scott Trickett: Tasmania's becoming a lot more appealing. I've never been there, but the more parkruns they add... I'm looking up flights to Tassie. More you want to go?

00:42:21Melissa Erbacher: Yep. You should. You're so close. I know. My gosh. I'm trying to convince Adam to let me go next year so that I can do the new Southern Compass Point. I might need some help convincing him that I need to go back. Now, there are a few anniversaries happening this week and I have been... To three out of six of them. I don't know how many you've done, but the first one, let's click it off. Airlie Beach. Done it. Queensland. Done it. Okay. Central Lakes.

00:42:58Scott Trickett: No.

00:42:59Melissa Erbacher: Queensland. No, not yet.

00:43:01Scott Trickett: Would like to.

00:43:03Melissa Erbacher: Menai.

00:43:04Scott Trickett: No.

00:43:04Melissa Erbacher: New South Wales.

00:43:05Scott Trickett: No. Nope.

00:43:07Melissa Erbacher: How about Rouse Hill in New South Wales? I'd love to. You giggled last year when we had this one too.

00:43:16Scott Trickett: Yep. No. I haven't been there either. Okay. This is a bit sad, isn't it?

00:43:20Melissa Erbacher: Stanthorpe in Queensland?

00:43:21Scott Trickett: No. I haven't been there.

00:43:23Melissa Erbacher: Stockton, New South Wales.

00:43:26Unidentified speaker: Nope.

00:43:28Melissa Erbacher: And you call yourself an adventurer. You've been to one out of the six.

00:43:34Scott Trickett: Yep. There's a lot of events in Australia, Mel. I can't get to them all. There's a lot of events and there's only one of me.

00:43:41Melissa Erbacher: Well, I think we established earlier that there's more than one of you, but okay.

00:43:46Scott Trickett: Let's revisit this next week. I reckon I'll do better next week.

00:43:50Melissa Erbacher: Okay. I haven't looked at the calendar for next week yet, so I could be in trouble, but fair call. Well, this week, Scotty, I would like to thank you for joining me because I know you've had a shit time lately and I appreciate it when you can fit recording a podcast into your schedule.

00:44:07Scott Trickett: High priority, Mel, as you know. Saturday morning is a highlight of my week, but also Wednesday night, Tuesday morning, Wednesday afternoon, whenever we record is another highlight.

00:44:18Melissa Erbacher: Well, let's do it all again next week, shall we?

00:44:20Scott Trickett: Let's speak to you then.