Episode 110 - Paul Freyne

Episode details · 356 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:07Melissa Erbacher: Welcome to episode 110, that's 110, more than two years worth of the parkrun Adventurers podcast. We've decided to do something a little bit different this episode and split up the continents that we're in. Usually we're in different states, but we thought we'd go one better because we're adventurers. So where are you, Scotty?

00:00:40Scott Trickett: I'm in Melbourne, Australia.

00:00:42Melissa Erbacher: You're in Melbourne, Australia. And where am I? That's also a question for you, Scotty.

00:00:49Scott Trickett: Okay. Let me guess. New York, New York?

00:00:56Melissa Erbacher: New York, New York. I am in the U.S. of A. Yee-haw!

00:01:01Scott Trickett: Howdy, partner! Is that it? Are you getting a lot of that?

00:01:07Melissa Erbacher: No, I'm really not. Is that your attempt at an American accent? Because you just sound like a cowboy.

00:01:12Scott Trickett: Yeah, I think I'm probably a bit too south of New York.

00:01:15Melissa Erbacher: Okay. And possibly west.

00:01:19Scott Trickett: I'll be west. You know, New York is my second favorite city outside of Melbourne.

00:01:26Melissa Erbacher: I did not know that.

00:01:27Scott Trickett: This is my two favourite cities coming together.

00:01:29Melissa Erbacher: Well, there you go. What a random happenstance.

00:01:33Scott Trickett: The only thing it hasn't got going for it in New York is that it doesn't have parkrun there.

00:01:39Melissa Erbacher: It doesn't yet. I still hold out hopes for the future that one day we'll creep into the city.

00:01:46Scott Trickett: So how did you get your parkrun fix then?

00:01:49Melissa Erbacher: Well, I wasn't actually in New York last parkrun Day. I'm here for a little bit of a holiday with my hubby and my son. And we were allowed to book this holiday, or I should say Adam was allowed to book this holiday on the proviso that I got to get a parkrun in somewhere in the country. And so we had a little side trip planned for the weekend and we went up to Washington, D.C., Down to Washington DC. I think you went down, yeah. Apparently. Yeah, we went down. I'm having the fingers with the arrows pointing southwards. I could have sworn that on Google Maps the arrow was always pointing up, so I'm going to maintain my geographical... fogginess, let's say. So you drove there? We did. We drove. We drove to Washington, D.C., which freaked some people out. I think it's roughly about four and a half, five hours or something like that. But, you know, it was on the wrong side of the road. I did it once. Freaked me out. Yeah, it takes a little bit of getting used to, doesn't it? Yeah. And I didn't do any of the driving. Ironically, the only time that Adam was on the wrong side of the road, we're like approaching this white van. And I'm like, babe, are you on the wrong side of the road? He's like, oh, yes. And you know who it was? It was the NYPD. I was just like, oh, my God. Of all the people to be coming in the opposite direction on the right side of the road, it had to be the police department. But fortunately for us, I think they must have realized that we were just stupid tourists who didn't know what the hell we were doing. And we got out of the way before any harm was done.

00:03:39Scott Trickett: Have you got that look about you?

00:03:42Melissa Erbacher: I'm pretty sure even the way we drive conveys that look in this country. Okay.

00:03:49Scott Trickett: Yeah, I guess being on the wrong side of the road is a giveaway too.

00:03:53Melissa Erbacher: Generally speaking, you don't see that happen too often. But yeah, we adjusted after a couple of days of doing it in Washington, so that was good. We have since safely returned the car, didn't hit anything with it the whole time we had it, which was awesome. Nothing hit us, also good. Always a little bit of a worry when you're on a holiday that it could get very expensive. But yes, so the adventure was to Washington. And while we were there, we took in Roosevelt Island parkrun. We had a few to choose from.

00:04:32Scott Trickett: Well, that was my next question because that's where parkrunning is booming. In the US. Yes. It is.

00:04:38Melissa Erbacher: They love us. They love us there. And you know what? I actually really liked the city. I'm not into politics and I certainly don't have any love of the current American president. But the city itself is really beautiful and there's so much to see and do. And everybody was very friendly and welcoming and helpful. So that always is good when you're travelling any place. And specifically at parkrun, wow, we got such a warm welcome. And once again, it's that whole sticking out like a sore thumb. Obviously, people knew we weren't locals or regulars because we had... the volunteers come straight up to us and welcome us to their event like the second we got to the park and saw the flag so um but that was really nice that was really good so lots of tourists yeah it was it was um i wouldn't be able to tell you off top of my head like what the proportions were but There were tourists there from Scotland and from South Africa as well. So I think it's pretty common for them to get quite a few tourists. We actually also got welcomes by some Aussies who are actual locals now. They've been living here for six months, but previously they came from Gungahlin in Canberra. And it's funny listening to the Americans. They say Canberra. But they probably think it's funny listening to us the way we pronounce things too. Yeah, so they had quite a few first-timers who were, you know, first-timers from other places. But they also had a bunch of first-timers that were just actual proper first-timers, which is also very cool. So we kind of blended in with all of those, I think.

00:06:33Scott Trickett: So is it the same experience? Is the run briefing the same but a little bit different? Explain some of the differences between an Aussie parkrun and a US parkrun for me.

00:06:45Melissa Erbacher: It is pretty much the same. Like the rules are the same. Everything that gets covered is the same. I mean, obviously they don't thank the sponsors that we thank in Australia because they're different. But everything else was, yeah, it was just cookie cutter stuff, which is awesome because there's that whole familiarity. And it's different because obviously when I was at Malaysia a couple of weeks ago, it was brand new. So it was an inaugural event and they were doing everything for the first time and you know, taking a lot of cues from us in Australia while they do it. So obviously that was going to be very familiar. But these guys have been doing this for a long time already. And it's just good to see that everything's same, same, but different. So the only real differences were the accents that were delivering the run briefings and the first-timers briefings. And... basically the course description, which is just like when you travel to any new parkrun, you don't know the course. We actually had the benefit of doing a brand, brand new course for Roosevelt Island because their plan A course, their normal course was flooded. Or no, there was some boardwalk work happening. There was some rotted boardwalks that had to be fixed and their plan B was flooded. which is what they usually alternate to. And so they had to come up with a third different option, which they had done during the week. And we got to run that, which was beautiful. This is what I love about different countries as well, is the different flora and fauna. We didn't really get to see too much fauna out on the course, although there was a squirrel running around and you don't see those every day in Australia, but just the trees. are a different color and it's spring here. So everything's just getting that new growth back on it. It's starting to warm up, but it was still cool. I actually ran the whole way this time.

00:08:52Scott Trickett: I saw this because you're on Strava. So how was that?

00:08:57Melissa Erbacher: That was really good. I'm trying to think, but I'm fairly confident and I wouldn't be able to figure it out properly. But I think it's the first time I have ever finished ahead of Adam at parkrun really yeah like ever even when he runs with Wes in the pram he always finishes ahead of me but this time because it's not um a super pram friendly course it's a trail uh and we've only got a little um light travel pram with small wheels we don't have our normal running pram with us um he had him in the carrier so I finished about five or six minutes ahead of him, which is bizarre.

00:09:39Scott Trickett: Good. And because of the intense training you've been going through.

00:09:43Melissa Erbacher: Oh, yeah, and the cracking speed that I broke out with.

00:09:49Scott Trickett: No, but in all seriousness, it must feel good because I saw that you ran the whole 5K and is this like the start of something?

00:09:58Melissa Erbacher: Well, I had the intention of running the whole 5K at the outset and... I will admit that while I was going, I was thinking back to our Shellharbour adventure where you didn't run with me and I ended up having to run 45 minutes because my Strava failed me. I thought to myself several times during the run on Saturday, it's okay, I can do this. I ran for 45 minutes in March. I can run for less than 45 minutes today. So that got me through, which was good. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't as hard as I remember either. And literally, the temperature was just magic. There was zero humidity, and it was nice and cool. So it was a very comfortable running temperature.

00:10:43Scott Trickett: Well, I'm very excited for you, Mel. It sounds like a great adventure.

00:10:50Melissa Erbacher: Thanks, Scotty. It was a great adventure and we got to have coffee and breakfast with a whole bunch of the other adventurers, some of whom will be coming up on future episodes of the podcast. Everyone can stay tuned for listening to those. Not going to happen this week, but just in the future. But you had a massive adventure on the weekend too. Where did you go and what were you up to?

00:11:11Scott Trickett: I did. Look, not all of us can spend our weekends travelling around the world to Malaysia one week and New York, Washington the next. But I had something comparable. I headed to Goolwa in South Australia, which –

00:11:27Melissa Erbacher: That is comparable, definitely.

00:11:29Scott Trickett: Yeah. Well, hear me out, because I didn't know a lot about Goolwa. Bit of a funny name, but it's sort of like the coastal town. I think it's the holiday town for Adelaide folk. It's very close to Victor Harbor, and they launched their first event on Saturday, part of our Seven in Seven. First time any country has ever launched seven events on one weekend. We were breaking new ground.

00:11:57Melissa Erbacher: Awesome. History in the making.

00:11:58Scott Trickett: Yeah, yeah. And I just, I had a super morning. Nice smallish crowd for a launch. So we had 150, which I've always said is almost like the sweet spot for a parkrun because once you sort of start getting a bit bigger than that, you lose touch with everyone and volunteers come easy once you've got about 150 people. I'm not sure they'll maintain it, that same number next week, but he's hoping that they will grow to that number in future. But it was a really nice mix of runners, walkers, adventurers, some locals, some first-timers. And what I did notice is that I would say maybe 40 to 50% of the crowd were walkers or 40 minute plus parkrunners. I haven't delved into the figures or whatever. That's just my observation. And it was really nice to see.

00:12:55Melissa Erbacher: That's awesome.

00:12:56Scott Trickett: Yeah, yeah. And then I followed that up with a real adventure. So PK was in town. So we hooked up and I had the joy of spending the rest of the afternoon with PK driving around and visiting a couple of other parkruns in South Australia. And we did a couple of freedom runs. So we started at Strathalbyn. And we've spoken to the guys from Strathalbyn on the pod before. James, the event director, co-event director, and a few of the run directors came down and ran with us at Strathalbyn. And Strathalbyn's one of those out and back, out and back courses, but in a really nice setting. And one thing I didn't know about Strathalbyn is that it's actually a country town. I sort of assumed it was an outer suburb of Adelaide, but no, it's a real country town. um it's a really old old town old in buildings and it's been around for a while but the population is a bit older so i got a little bit of a history lesson on the town of Strathalbyn from the locals which was lovely then we ventured up to pk's home and i got to visit mount barker which mel i think i've been thinking and i think this we need to have a we need to have a contiki tour to mount barker i think We need to put it in our diaries pretty soon that you and I have a weekend at Mount Barker because the course is an absolute cracker.

00:14:24Melissa Erbacher: It is. I've done a Freedom Run at Mount Barker.

00:14:26Scott Trickett: Have you? Yeah. So it's really nice, isn't it? It's nice and flat and it's around this wetland lagoon. I took a bit of a detour. So it's an out and back at Mount Barker.

00:14:38Melissa Erbacher: And you kept going before you came back?

00:14:40Scott Trickett: No, no, no. I got to the turnaround point and then I started coming back. But then there was a little path leading me off and I knew that that path went around the lake and I figured I'd already run one side of the lake going out. So I didn't need to see it on the way back. So I took a detour and ran around the lagoon, I think it is, not a lake. Okay. Is there a difference? I'm sure there is. They've got different names.

00:15:05Melissa Erbacher: It's probably the size.

00:15:06Scott Trickett: Probably. As I said, nice and flat, but in the bush, across boardwalks, over water. And I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed my run at Mount Barker. And then we finished up and we went to Cleland. And again, we've had John, the event director at Cleland, on the pod before.

00:15:26Melissa Erbacher: You made it to Cleveland.

00:15:28Scott Trickett: Yeah, we've heard a bit about Cleveland, haven't we? You know, we were supposed to Freedom Run there when we were in Adelaide last time.

00:15:34Melissa Erbacher: In September last year, yeah.

00:15:36Scott Trickett: Yeah, yeah. And I tell you what, I'm glad I've done it now. And I don't know, sorry, John, I'm not sure if I'm going back.

00:15:44Melissa Erbacher: Oh, really? Less pressure on a non-parkrun day, do you think?

00:15:48Scott Trickett: Yeah, it was so tough. It was Nambour tough. Yeah.

00:15:54Melissa Erbacher: There you go.

00:15:55Scott Trickett: It's two kilometers downhill.

00:15:58Melissa Erbacher: That sounds awesome.

00:15:59Scott Trickett: Yeah, that sounds awesome. And it's pretty steep down here.

00:16:02Melissa Erbacher: Is that at the start or is that at the end?

00:16:04Scott Trickett: Well, two kilometres down, then you have a little bit of a climb up to this fantastic turnaround lookout point where you see this amazing view of Adelaide. And I think it's like the best view of a city you'll ever see because Adelaide is really laid out like they've thought about it when they designed the city. And so you can really see the entire city from the beach to the mountains. And it's just an amazing view. But then you've got to turn around and go back up two kilometers. And luckily we were just freedom running it. So we decided to walk and enjoy the view. Get a bit of that flora and fauna. So we had kangaroos and echidnas to keep us company. Oh, cute. On the way back, yeah. Yeah, it was really, it was a treat. It was a treat, and that's why I said I'm really glad I've done it. It's a freedom run, and probably no need to rush back and run it on a Saturday. Can I say that? I've said it.

00:17:10Melissa Erbacher: Well, you can say it. I would still like to go check it out on a Friday.

00:17:15Scott Trickett: Oh, absolutely. It's a great parkrun. You know, it's a great course. I'm just saying it's a tough course and it's a trail course and you know how I go there. But stayed on. You stayed vertical. Stayed vertical. So all good. And yeah. It was just a super-duper Saturday afternoon.

00:17:36Melissa Erbacher: So you ran 20K on Saturday. I did. Was that part of your marathon training? Did you use that instead of your long run on Sunday?

00:17:44Scott Trickett: I was just getting in preparation for the longest run. Oh, okay. No, it was just fun. I just ran for fun. Sometimes you can do that, Mel. I was tempted. I then had to head out to the airport and catch up with a friend who was near West Beach parkrun, which is near the airport. And I was really tempted to see if I could sneak one in before my plane took off. But the legs were a little bit tired.

00:18:10Melissa Erbacher: Yes, I can imagine.

00:18:11Scott Trickett: Yeah. And I, yeah. So save that for next time.

00:18:16Melissa Erbacher: Good plan. Well, we were thinking about doing a couple of Freedom Runs when we were in Washington too since there were extra events there. But there were so many museums and monuments to see that we thought we might trade off and walk the extra kilometres instead around all those sorts of places. Plus it gives us an excuse to come back. Music Joining us today on the podcast, we have an Uber adventurer. He comes all the way from the UK and to tell you himself about some of the adventures he's done, I'd like to introduce you to Paul Freyne. Paul, welcome to the parkrun Adventurers podcast.

00:18:35[music]

00:19:02Paul Freyne: Hello, thank you for having me. It's good to hear from you.

00:19:06Melissa Erbacher: It's awesome to have you. Now, let's start, Paul, with giving people a bit of an overview of just how many adventures you've had. Can you give us your stats?

00:19:17Paul Freyne: Okay. As of today's date, I have done 450 programs at 406 different locations. I can give you a list of the countries if you want.

00:19:32Melissa Erbacher: Please do. Okay.

00:19:32Paul Freyne: So, England... Poland, 40. Wales, 23. Denmark, 7. Scotland, 5. Northern Ireland, 3. Did I say Ireland? Ireland is 5 as well, sorry. Russia, Italy, and Sweden, 2 each. And then America, France, Norway, and the Channel Islands, I've done one. one in each of those locations, so that's 406.

00:20:05Scott Trickett: Okay, Paul, that's a lot of parkruns. How long have you been parkrunning? When did you discover parkrun?

00:20:15Paul Freyne: I discovered parkrun in the summer of 2007. I was entered into my second Berlin Marathon, which was September 2007, and I was looking for inspiration to help me with my training, and I was looking through the runner's world UK magazine and at the back had a list of races and there was these races called the Bushy Park Time Trial as it was known back then and they also had Wimbledon Common Time Trial and they were the only two of what are now called parkruns that actually existed back then so I thought I would go along and give it a go and yeah I've been doing it ever since

00:20:59Scott Trickett: So you started at Bushy. How many years did you stay at Bushy before you started adventuring?

00:21:06Paul Freyne: I started at Bushy in June 2007, and I got to September 2010, and I was talking to one of my colleagues at work who was a run director at Bedfont Lakes. And I just thought I'd go along there and give that a go. It was maybe... three or four miles from my house, the same as Bushy Park. So I thought I'd try a new parkrun out. And I did that one. And then I went back to Bushy Park for a couple of weeks. And then I was playing around on the website and I saw this new thing called the Most Events Leaderboard. And I looked at it and the leaders had done maybe 25 different parkruns at that time. And I thought, wow, they've done 25 different parkruns. And I looked at the bottom and it said seven was the minimum you had to get different parkruns to get on the leaderboard. So I thought, okay, I've never been on a leading leaderboard before. I'll spend the next five weeks doing a different parkrun each week because by then there was about 50 or so. And just so I could see my name on the bottom of the leaderboard. So I did that. And then after I got my result in week for the seventh parkrun, I looked at the leaderboard, the Most Events leaderboard, and they'd only made it a minimum of 10. So I still wasn't on there. So from that point, I just kept going, really.

00:22:34Melissa Erbacher: And how many other people were on the leaderboard at that time, Paul?

00:22:38Paul Freyne: Well, I could only see those that had done seven upwards, and it was probably about 15 or 20 people.

00:22:46Melissa Erbacher: So we're talking right, right at the very beginning. How exciting is that?

00:22:50Paul Freyne: Yes, yes. There was probably about 40 parkruns in the world, most of them being in England. And yeah, one of the guys or two of the guys were in the 20s and yeah, I just took inspiration from them really.

00:23:05Melissa Erbacher: And how long was it after you had started? tripping around to the different events that you made it to your first international parkrun.

00:23:14Paul Freyne: Okay, that was... I'm just trying to remember now exactly when that was. I know I went to Denmark quite early on. I think it was actually Belfast. I went to, well, if you call it Belfast International, I'm at Northern Ireland. It was the first time I did one outside of sort of the mainland England, you know, United Kingdom. And I did Belfast Victoria Park. And it was kind of nice. I'd never been to Northern Ireland before, so I get to see all of Belfast, went up to the North Coast, saw the Giant's Causeway, had a really nice weekend. And then a little while after that, I went over to Denmark and started. I think that was the only other country or one of the very few international countries that had parkruns at the time, so That's where I went first. I think it was a Vegen. I don't know how you pronounce it. V-E-G-E-N. That's one of the first ones I did.

00:24:16Scott Trickett: Paul, so what's the attraction? What's the allure? Are you a collector outside of parkrun in your everyday life or do you just love seeing different parkruns?

00:24:25Paul Freyne: Well, I've always been someone who likes travelling. Not like going off for six months with a backpack kind of travelling, just I spend a lot of time in America on holidays and traveling around Europe, you know, city breaks, that kind of thing. So I just saw this as an opportunity to do two things I like a lot, you know, two of my main passions, and, you know, do them both together. And, you know, I've been to see so many amazing places and met so many amazing people as a result of it. It's just, you know, it's hard to think about ever giving up it.

00:25:00Melissa Erbacher: Well, I'm certainly in awe and very jealous of the amount of countries you've been to. What has been, have you got a favourite country? Like obviously, we usually ask people for a top three or if they could parkrun anywhere in the world, where would that be? But you've been to so many already, you must have more highlights than you could tell us about. I'm not going to ask you to try and give us a top three individual events, but have you got a top three countries?

00:25:31Paul Freyne: Well, I do have actually top three parkruns.

00:25:36Melissa Erbacher: Oh, well, feel free to go for those as well.

00:25:39Paul Freyne: They're all actually in Ireland. I can't sort of say this one's my favourite because I like all three equally, but the first one is Portrush, which is on the very north coast of Northern Ireland. And I don't know if you've heard of the Giant's Causeway, a very famous part of Northern Ireland's coast.

00:26:00Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I visited years ago.

00:26:02Paul Freyne: You've been there?

00:26:04Melissa Erbacher: I have, to the Giant's Causeway.

00:26:07Paul Freyne: Yeah, it's about four or five miles down the coast from there, and it's on a big sandy bay. And it's an out-and-back course around this bay, all on sand. And the closer that you can run to the sea as the waves come in, you know, the tighter your racing line is. And that's just a really beautiful course and just brings back lots of happy memories. And then there's another one, a very memorable one, on the south coast of Ireland called Bere Island, spelled B-E-R-E. And I think we flew in, I went with some friends, and we flew into Cork. And then it was about an hour's drive, an hour and a half's drive down to the south coast of Ireland. And there was this really old, rusty car ferry. that you had to drive on. And it took three cars. And you had to reverse your car down this slope with the sea about a metre to your left and reverse onto the car ferry. And then it took you across the water about maybe a half an hour trip into Bere Island. And I think there's about 200 people live there. And wherever you went, everyone knew about parkrun. It only just started when I went there. And it was a one-lap course, and it was quite hilly. So when you got to the top, you could see the whole of the Atlantic Ocean and the rugged Irish coast. And, yeah, it was amazing. Everyone was so friendly there. And everyone on the island seemed to be involved in the parkrun in some way. And then the third one was another one down on the south coast called Castlehaven. And it was just, I went to the inaugural there. It was on my birthday weekend, and it was just starting. It was just the most amazing scenery, coastal scenery I've ever seen. It was just so beautiful. It's hard to describe, but that just really sticks in my mind. And everyone's so friendly wherever you go, but those are the three that really stick in my mind as much, three sort of outstanding ones.

00:28:13Scott Trickett: Well, you're a fan of Irish parkrun, so I guess that answers that question of your top country.

00:28:18Paul Freyne: Yeah.

00:28:19Scott Trickett: I want to know, Paul, how much planning goes into your weekly parkrun adventure? Because we've got adventurers here who have got spreadsheets, who've got whiteboards all planned where they're going. I imagine you're taking it to another level as well.

00:28:34Paul Freyne: Well, I can usually, I mean, you know, the spreadsheet is the saviour of the parkrun tourist, I think. Yeah. So, yeah, I've always had a spreadsheet. And usually, on average, I'd say if you're looking at a three-month period, I probably could tell you eight to ten parkruns I'm going to do, you know, on certain dates during the year. It's a little bit more tricky in the winter because we get – it's very easy if we get a little bit of frost, a little bit of cold weather, they could easily count some hundred parkruns on a Saturday day. But in the summer, yeah, I've got maybe 8, 10, you know, booked in the next 12 or 13 weeks. In the summer, I try and do parkruns that are a bit more isolated from other parkruns, you know, ones that are not close by any others. And then in the winter, I try to do parkruns where there's like a plan B or a plan C if one gets cancelled in the morning.

00:29:37Melissa Erbacher: That was going to be my question. Do you have a plan B for those cancelled ones? Most of the time. Have you got very many? So what would you classify? What is your nearest event not done yet or not yet done? Because I imagine you start to run out after you've done as many events as you have.

00:29:57Paul Freyne: There's been a few times over... the years where I've maybe had two parkruns within 100 miles that I haven't done. And so you kind of start panicking. What if something happens to my car? What if I need to be somewhere quick? So I try, when new ones start, I try to sort of avoid them, you know, close to home so that I've always got backups kind of thing. In case of an emergency, you know, that kind of thing. At the moment, I'm just looking at the parkrun tourist tool, and I've probably got 14 within 50 miles, and I've got two within about five or six miles that I haven't done. And the two within six miles have only been going since the start of this year. So there's new ones popping up all the time, luckily. Otherwise, yeah, I don't know.

00:30:54Melissa Erbacher: So I love the in case of emergency parkrun. It's like in case of emergency, break glass and go to this parkrun.

00:31:05Paul Freyne: Yes. I've put myself under a lot of pressure in some ways earlier this year. I don't know if you've looked at my record or anything. I was in Moscow recently.

00:31:18Melissa Erbacher: We knew you were in Moscow, yes.

00:31:20Paul Freyne: Yeah, that all started on an incident that happened in Milan about 18 months ago. I'd been to Milan for the parkrun there, and I was just leaving to go back to the hotel, and I saw this guy with a photograph, a picture frame, and I thought, what's he got there? Why is he showing everyone that? And I went over, and he was from Russia. and he had a photo of the parkrun he's a run director at, a big group photo, and he'd come to Russia with his wife, and he was just so proud of his group and everything, his parkrun, he wanted to show everyone. And I became Facebook friends with them and kept talking to them, and they quickly said, you must come over to our parkrun, come and do our parkrun. And I said to them, I will come to your parkrun when it's my 400th different run. And I met them in October 2016, and February 2018 was the date, 24th of February. But what happened was, I booked my tickets in October 2017, working out that it was going to be the 24th of February, it was going to be 400. If I did every Saturday, plus two on New Year's Day, plus one on Christmas Day, So I got the visa, got the flight sorted out, and then I suddenly realized, you know, if I miss one now for whatever reason, an injury, my car breaks, there's a problem with the timing at a parkrun, anything, then when I get to Moscow, I'm going to be on 399 or something.

00:33:00Melissa Erbacher: Zero wiggle room.

00:33:02Paul Freyne: I felt kind of tense every week. You can't exactly, you know, if it was something else important, you could just change the flight maybe. But because in Moscow you have to name... the exact days you're going to be there to get a visa. You know, it would have been crazy. But you made it, Paul. Luckily, there were no problems. Yes, just, yeah, I made it. And, yeah, a relief afterwards.

00:33:26Scott Trickett: So how was event number 400 in Russia?

00:33:30Paul Freyne: It was fantastic. They met us. Their names are Yana and Alexander. And they came to the airport, met me. made sure I got I've been to Moscow before but it was nice so you know they put a lot of effort in they came to the airport met me took me to the hotel and then spent two days showing me around Moscow and then we came come to the day and went to the parkrun and they'd made all these little kind of medals out of ribbons and bread these round bread roll kind of things and just as a memento for everyone to wear and They were just like a big family. They had loads of food to eat. They had really good facilities. Everyone every week bought hot drinks and cakes and things. It was an amazing place to run. I think the temperature, according to my phone, was minus 15, and it felt like minus 19.

00:34:31Melissa Erbacher: Because you can tell the difference between those two temperatures.

00:34:35Paul Freyne: Yeah. Well, the thing was, I'd been in Red Square the night before, and and it was minus 12 and I didn't even I didn't have gloves on and the people I was with didn't have gloves on we didn't even feel like we needed gloves on although it was minus 12 it wasn't that cold a week later I was back in London it was minus 1 and I had my gloves on it was completely kind of different kind of air it was really dry there it wasn't moist like it would be in London but yeah it was a great day and one I'll never forget

00:35:10Scott Trickett: Now, you've got 400 events, 406 that you've been through. I've scanned through the list, and I don't think I saw any from Australia. That's obviously on your to-do list. I'm hoping it's one of the events you want to get to soon?

00:35:26Paul Freyne: It is. Yeah, I mean, it's somewhere I've always wanted to go. My cousin lives in Perth, and he's always inviting me to come to Perth as well. But it's just the only thing is it's the amount of holidays I feel like I'd need to take to come and have enough time to do a really good job out there and see it as much as possible. So, yes, it's in the plans, but I just don't know when to do it, and it's quite frustrating, really.

00:35:56Scott Trickett: I can imagine. I mean, we've got almost 300 events here, so there's plenty for you to tick off. Everywhere you go, there's going to be somewhere new.

00:36:02Paul Freyne: Come over in five or six years, yeah. Yeah. But I've heard that some of your tourists just drive, you know, go crazy distances from one part of Rome to the other, even further than it would be for me to fly somewhere. So, you know, they must have some amazing stories as well to tell.

00:36:18Scott Trickett: Yeah, we've got some travel challenges. There's no doubt about that. Lots of our adventurers do lots of driving, I think, and lots of checking for cheap plane flights. That's obviously something you don't have to do as much because you can drive everywhere in the UK.

00:36:33Paul Freyne: Yeah, there's, you can get, if you drive around the UK, it's quite easy to get budget hotels or something and just spend some time on Friday afternoon driving two, three, four hours or get up early on Saturday morning and do the same. You know, there's so many parkruns in a real tight area here, it's nothing like it would be for you guys, yeah. But when I go, I've been to Poland, I've done 40 parkruns in Poland, so that will involve flights as well, so sometimes British Airways to to Warsaw and other times you've got Ryanair or another budget airline like that. It's just if you can book ahead, you can get the better deals. So that's why it's always good to book ahead as far as you can if you know you're going to certainly go somewhere.

00:37:19Melissa Erbacher: Of all the countries that you've visited, Paul, have you had many challenges with things like language barriers and other things like that to actually getting to the parkruns?

00:37:32Paul Freyne: No, not really. Everything's been pretty good. I've been to Moscow twice, and that's the only one with a language that you can't really understand. But both times, the first time I was with John Matthews, he's third on the Tourist's Most Event Leaderboard, and he spends a lot of time in Australian museums, actually. He went with me to Moscow, and he'd already been, so I just sort of sat back and let him do all the sort of guidance and then this time had two friends in Moscow waiting which was amazing. Anywhere else I go it's fine just get the map on your phone and the parkrun map comes up and no I always try to be at parkrun an hour beforehand just in case there's any problems but I haven't had any so far and I've been really lucky.

00:38:20Scott Trickett: You mentioned John Matthews there. I've actually met John Matthews. He came to the event I started. In the very first year, we had Christmas Day. But at the time, I had no idea that he'd done so many events and who he was. Do you experience that? Like you rock up to an event and they have no idea that you've done 400 events previously? They just assume you're a normal parkrunner visiting?

00:38:45Paul Freyne: Yeah, I'm very happy when that happens.

00:38:47Scott Trickett: Are you treated like a rock star sometimes?

00:38:50Paul Freyne: I mean, sometimes people, you know, people I know, other tourists, would tell the event director, you know, that I'm there, and they would just announce beforehand, you know, Paul's here and he's done this many events, and just put up my hand and say hello, and they announce other people as well in the same way, that's maybe getting their 50 or their 100 shirt, you know, that are local to their event each week. Yeah, so I'm happy to go there and just, you know, blend in with everyone else. But on the other hand, in Moscow, for example, everybody knew I came and they were inviting everyone from all over Moscow to come. So, you know, it was completely contrasting to what I'm used to. But it was nice to be, you know, part of it.

00:39:35Scott Trickett: I want to know, Paul, you've been parkrunning for 10 years, a bit more. How has parkrun changed over the time? Are you seeing a change happen?

00:39:45Paul Freyne: Well, the main change is... so the technology that's involved when I first did Barcodes in 2007 there was none of the barcodes involved I ran at Bushy Park and when you finished you got a little metal round disc with your finishing position on and then you would go and stand in a queue and there would be four tables and people sitting at each table with a laptop and there would maybe be a 15 or 20 minute queue And when you get to the front, you give them your disk number with your position on, and they ask you your name. And then they tie it down to the position on the laptop. So that's how it used to go, and now it's just a quick scan and off you go. Also at the time, they liked, when a new event starts, they liked, it was good to go to the inaugural because you could sort of, they didn't have ambassadors back then, so you could see things that were going wrong potentially and just sort of, you know, tell them about it before it became a problem. The main one was the people doing the scanning or the taking the names down would be too near the finish line. So when you've got a big group of people finishing, they weren't actually crossing the queue for the you know, to have your time taken, started before the end of the run. So quite a few times I got hold of the person or, you know, just went up to them and said, can we move back maybe 20 metres or so? And then the whole queue moved back and it kind of freed up the finish line again.

00:41:22Melissa Erbacher: I'm sure there are a lot of events that have benefited from your experience in their early days.

00:41:29Paul Freyne: Nowadays, yeah. Nowadays, there's so many ambassadors around, you know, everything. If anyone ever goes to the first parkrun in Norgal, then, you know, there's never going to be any problems.

00:41:41Melissa Erbacher: It's a good way to be. Paul, before we let you go, I have to ask, if money was no object, time was no object, where in the world would you parkrun? One single event. Have you got a genie list?

00:42:00Paul Freyne: Is it a parkrun that actually exists or one that's not been created yet?

00:42:04Melissa Erbacher: Well, if you've got one of either, we'd love to hear both.

00:42:07Paul Freyne: I think I'd like to go to San Francisco. Crissy Field, I think it's called. I've been in America. I've been in 28 states. I've been to California, but I've never been on that to San Francisco, only Los Angeles. So I've always wanted to go to San Francisco. And so I'd love to go there. But I wanted to do it because I believe that if you time it right, you can fly from, is it New Zealand? You can do a parkrun in New Zealand and then fly to San Francisco and do one there.

00:42:39Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, you can get the two-in-one 24-hour period.

00:42:43Paul Freyne: So I don't know if that would be allowed, but money was no object. That would be something I'd like to do anyway, even if I only counted for one. It would be just nice to do something rare and unique like that. Speaking of two countries, have you heard about the parkrun on the southern border of Poland that actually part of the parkrun goes into the Czech Republic?

00:43:06Melissa Erbacher: We did speak to the Polish country manager. Is it Cieszyn? Is that the name of... Yeah, yeah. Cieszyn's the name of the parkrun. Yeah, that's on my to-do list, definitely.

00:43:18Paul Freyne: What happens is there, there's a river, there's a narrow river that splits the two countries and on both sides of the river there's a tarmac path that runs parallel to the river. So you run about 600 or 700 metres on the Polish side from the start, cross over the bridge into the Czech Republic and then you run back parallel to the river and And then suddenly you've run about maybe a kilometer and a half. And I looked to my right. I heard all this cheering. And there's all the guys by the finish in Poland. And they're only about 20 or 30 meters away. But it's just a weird feeling to think they're in a different country. So, yeah, so you do about maybe two kilometres in the Czech Republic or Czech in how it's called now, and then back over the bridge, and there's another out-and-back loop on the Polish side, and then you go back to where you started from to finish. But that was a really nice one. Definitely a good one to have on your list if you're ever in the area.

00:44:18Scott Trickett: I think it's one that's on both Mel and I's list. Paul, thank you very much. I know we've got plenty of listeners in Australia who would have loved hearing about it. your tales over your parkrun life. So thanks for joining us on the parkrun adventures this week.

00:44:34Paul Freyne: No, my pleasure. And can I just say, if anyone in your, in Australia is thinking of coming to the UK, please just contact me on Facebook. If you want any advice on parkruns or anything else, I'm happy to help. Yeah. So, you know, anytime.

Channel 5 News Crew

00:44:56Tony O'Connell: Good morning parkrunners, it's TOC reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew down at the launch of the Ocean Grove parkrun. We're sitting here beside a stunning inlet, the sun's out, it's shining off the water. The parkrun course is amazing. It follows a granitic sand path right along the inlet and along the water course. looking out there are so many swans there are so many birds flying around we've got a great crowd here for our parkrun launch including the victorian purple 2-2 crew so we'll get out we'll have a run and we'll grab a couple of people to talk to after cheers guys Down at Ocean Grove, the sun's out, the course is absolutely stunning. You've got to do this. This one compares with Geographe Bay and Victor Harbor right along the water. It's just an amazing course. I'm here with some of the Medibank crew and they're handing out gear left, right and centre. They're making it a really fantastic part of the day and a real fun part of the day. And I've got Claire here with me that's running the Medibank crew today. Claire, how have you found today?

00:45:58Claire: Hey, I'm so glad to be here. Sun's out, guns out. I'm down here with the Medibank Free and Active crew. We work with parkrun on a whole lot of events. So we've just hit our halfway point with 40 new parkruns. So it's a big weekend for us today with seven new events.

00:46:15Tony O'Connell: There's seven events. That's a world first. That's just amazing. It's amazing support from Medibank. And just the way people have jumped on board today. There is a sea of red out there with the Medibank singlets out on the course. And that's really good. That'll spread the message and hopefully get people out and more active. And that's the goal of the whole program.

00:46:36Claire: Yeah, absolutely. So with Medibank Free and Active, we're all about free community activity. So we're stoked to be down here today working with parkrun and seeing, as you say, a big sea of red. We've got a light brekkie, we've got coffee cart firing, we've got merchandise giveaways. So yeah, we're just happy to be down here supporting the new parkrun.

00:46:57Tony O'Connell: And how often do you get to go to something like this? It's only 40 metres from the water, in the sunshine, not a cloud in the sky. It's absolutely glorious.

00:47:05Claire: Yeah, it's definitely a nice, nice change of scenery. I've got to say it certainly beats being at my desk. But no, it's great being down here. Perfect morning, no rain, not a cloud in the sky and lots of smiling walkers and runners. So yeah, hopefully a successful parkrun launch on all counts.

00:47:23Tony O'Connell: Oh Claire, thanks for the support from Medibank and we'll leave it there.

00:47:27Claire: Awesome, thanks so much. Cheers.

00:47:29Tony O'Connell: Howdy parkrunners. I'm here at Ocean Grove still and I'm with Yvette. We're at the barcode scanning. Yvette, you've got a couple of young fellas helping you out today. That's great to see the family for the launch.

00:47:39Yvette: I've got my two boys, Jem who's 10 and Archie who's 6.

00:47:43Tony O'Connell: And I was sitting with Archie before and he's doing a sensational job on the scanning.

00:47:47Yvette: They've been very responsible. Yeah, they've been great today. It's wonderful. I had to drag them out of bed to be here, but they're both keen to join in and run next week.

00:47:54Tony O'Connell: No worries. And what's your parkrun background? Have you done any parkruns before?

00:47:58Yvette: the second event I've ever been to and I've never run in a parkrun but I was keen to get the Ocean Grove one started for personal reasons because I wanted some motivation to get started myself so I thought well let's just get our community happening and actually get one started and we put the call out I think in November 2017 and here we are in April 2018 and we've got it started.

00:48:17Tony O'Connell: Well done that's a sensational effort that's actually really quick to get a parkrun up and running and it's a great reason so what's the other one that you've been to?

00:48:25Yvette: I went to Balyang in Geelong just to check out the process because I had no concept of how it actually worked.

00:48:29Tony O'Connell: And so you've gone from this being your second parkrun to next week I believe you're going to be run director.

00:48:36Yvette: Yes, yes. But you know what? The way parkrun is organised, it's so efficient. There's so much information and support that let's just go for it. It'll be fine. What can go wrong?

00:48:47Tony O'Connell: It's actually really easy.

00:48:48Yvette: It is easy. And you know, it's volunteer-led, it's free, all the participants know what to expect, there's no great prize money, so, you know, the worst that can happen is, there's no worst. We can overcome anything.

00:49:02Tony O'Connell: Exactly, and as you'll find out, the software is just so easy to go through and fix up.

00:49:07Yvette: I'll work that out today, actually, because I've not seen it either.

00:49:12Tony O'Connell: So well done on getting along to your second parkrun, volunteering and for bringing the kids along and for their volunteering as well.

00:49:18Yvette: Now we've just got to join in. Hopefully that's the week after.

00:49:20Tony O'Connell: You'll have to get a run in. That'll be great.

00:49:23Yvette: Thank you very much, Tony. Thanks, Yvette.

00:49:26Greta: Good morning parkrun Adventurers, it's Greta here and I'm at the Goolwa parkrun launch today. So Goolwa is on the coast in South Australia and it's probably about an hour, hour and a half maybe from Adelaide near sort of Victor Harbor down that way and at the moment we're on the river here at Goolwa and the sun's shining and I can see the bridge and it's an absolutely beautiful morning and there are people arriving, pretty excited about the launch. So I'm now here with Sputnik, how are you going Sputnik?

00:49:55Sputnik: Oh, I'm a bit puffed out, actually.

00:49:57Greta: Are you? Yeah, we've just run the parkrun. How did you find it?

00:50:00Sputnik: Oh, look, it was absolutely beautiful running along the mighty Murray River. How good is that? And it was mostly flat, which I'm kind of partial to, so it was nice.

00:50:09Greta: Yes, it was a lovely course, wasn't it? Very forgiving.

00:50:11Sputnik: Very cruisy. There were a couple of little bumps along the way, but I knew that on the way out, if it was a tiny little bit of up, then it'd be a little bit of a roll downhill back to the finish line.

00:50:20Greta: So that's always good for the mental, isn't it?

00:50:22Sputnik: Yeah, it's not so good when you...

00:50:23Tim: I mean, when I say up, I shouldn't... We'd probably describe that course as flat, wouldn't we?

00:50:28Sputnik: I think it's pretty flat. I mean, there's a river next to it. Rivers can't really be too up and down, can they?

00:50:32Greta: No, no. And it was a lovely view over the river, wasn't it?

00:50:35Sputnik: Yeah, and nice and breezy. Not windy, but, you know, nice and, you know, kind of lots of fresh air and good views all along the way. No weird bits. Like, probably one of the nicer courses I've run in a while, I would think.

00:50:46Greta: And are you a regular parkrunner?

00:50:49Sputnik: I just cracked my 50 the other day. Oh, congratulations. I actually started when the city first started and then stopped for a few years.

00:50:55Greta: Oh, down at Torrens.

00:50:55Sputnik: Yep, yep, but then stopped for a few years. So I'm a little bit behind. I've got some ground to make up.

00:50:59Greta: Yeah, yeah. And so you've done a few around South Australia?

00:51:02Sputnik: Yeah, I've done, well, no, I can't even say that now because now there's so many new ones I haven't done so many. I used to say, oh, yeah, I've done a few of them. But, yeah, no, I'm chipping away at them. So I thought I'd come down today and now I'll go for a paddle out on the river in my little kayak. So, yeah, make a little morning of it.

00:51:17Greta: So you brought your kayak down?

00:51:18Sputnik: I did, but remember, when it's cold, you can't have your kayak and heat it too.

00:51:25Greta: Thank you very much for talking to me. Have a lovely kayak.

00:51:27Sputnik: Thank you. Cheers.

00:51:30Greta: So I'm now here with Tim, and Tim, you've just done the Goolwa parkrun, and I noticed that you were walking today. Do you normally walk?

00:51:38Tim: I have for about the last six months.

00:51:39Greta: Yes, yes.

00:51:41Tim: Before that, I was running.

00:51:42Greta: Yeah, because you look like you've got a running background.

00:51:45Tim: Yeah, I'm one of the few parkrunners that's probably done more marathons than they have parkruns.

00:51:50Greta: Right, yeah, okay. So, but you're walking at the moment?

00:51:53Tim: Yeah, I had a few health problems, and so it became more and more difficult to run, so I changed into a walking group.

00:52:01Greta: Into a walk? And that's the great thing about park riding, isn't it? Because I know it's got park riding in the name, but you don't have to run.

00:52:07Tim: No, you can do whatever pace you like. And with the walkie, it's probably actually better for me than running, less stress. I still want to run a bit though.

00:52:18Greta: I saw you out there about to break into a run a few times.

00:52:20Tim: Yeah, held back and stayed walking.

00:52:23Greta: Yeah, well done.

00:52:24Tim: Your doctor will be proud. Very happy with me.

00:52:28Greta: And it means you can get out and enjoy these beautiful courses and enjoy the social aspect of parkrun as well.

00:52:34Tim: Yeah, well, there's a lot of friends from probably all the parkruns in Adelaide here this morning being the first one.

00:52:40Greta: Yes, and it's a beautiful morning, isn't it, for the launch?

00:52:42Tim: Absolutely glorious. It's the weirdest weather for end of April, but I'll take it.

00:52:48Greta: Our Indian summer is lovely.

00:52:50Tim: Exactly.

00:52:50Greta: Well, thank you for talking to me and enjoy your park walking. Thank you.

00:52:55Paul Freyne: Thank you.

00:52:58Greta: Okay, I'm now here with Jill. Hi. And Julie. Hello. And we've just done the parkrun. And you guys are from around here, aren't you? You're local. No, Victor Harbor. Oh, that's not local.

00:53:11Unidentified speaker: Well, South Coast.

00:53:12Greta: South Coast, just down the road. Down the road. And you normally run at Victor Park? Normally run at Victor, yeah. And is this a little bit different? This is a bit different to the Victor Park one, isn't it?

00:53:21Unidentified speaker: It's an out and back, but it's flat, but it just felt a bit faster today than Victor, but maybe because it's on the river rather than the sea. Yeah, you're saying there's no wind. No wind today, so it was lovely.

00:53:33Greta: Yeah, so Victor can, if it is windy because it's right on the coast, it can be quite windy. It can be, but I mean that's good endurance anyway.

00:53:40Justin: You've got to work hard.

00:53:43Greta: And you were trying to get all the Victor people together for a photo. I'm trying, yes, but there's so many of us down here today, so it's really good. I don't know what's happening to the Victor.

00:53:52Claire: Really? Yeah. Oh, they're coming over now to take the photo.

00:53:58Greta: So how many have you got down here from Victor, do you think? I'm not really sure. Yeah, I'd say a fair few. There's a dozen and a 20. Beautiful day for a launch, isn't it?

00:54:08Jo: It's absolutely gorgeous. Yeah.

00:54:10Greta: Sensational. You better go before you lose your opportunity for the photo.

00:54:14Jo: Lovely talking to you. Thank you. Enjoy parkrunning. Thank you.

00:54:18Greta: Thank you.

00:54:19Jo: Thanks.

00:54:19Greta: Bye. I'm now here with Justin and Justin you've just run the parkrun and how did you go?

00:54:25Justin: Good, thank you. It was a good first Google parkrun and I ran my best time in quite a while.

00:54:29Greta: Oh, that's fantastic. How fast did you run?

00:54:31Justin: 21 minutes, 21 seconds.

00:54:33Greta: Oh wow, you were flying.

00:54:35Justin: Moving through it, so yeah, getting better.

00:54:38Greta: Oh, that's good. And so do you normally run parkrun?

00:54:41Justin: Yes, most times at Mount Barker there, most weeks, but I try and get out and try the other runs as well.

00:54:46Greta: Yeah, well, we've got so many now in South Australia. There's so many to visit, isn't there? What other ones have you done?

00:54:51Justin: A number, so Murray Bridge, Strathalbyn, Torrens. So, yeah, getting around trying a few of them for sure.

00:54:56Greta: Yeah, no, it's great fun, isn't it, visiting other parkruns?

00:55:00Justin: Yeah, just to see a bit of the rest of the state and a few of the other runs and, you know, it gets you out and about on a Saturday morning, that's for sure.

00:55:05Greta: It does. It's a great way to start the weekend. Yes, absolutely. And how many parkruns have you done?

00:55:10Justin: 32, I think. Yep.

00:55:11Greta: Okay, so we're coming up on the 50. Coming up, getting there slowly.

00:55:14Justin: Planning to get there soon.

00:55:15Greta: Fantastic.

00:55:16Justin: Yeah, only a few more months for that.

00:55:17Greta: Yeah, well, enjoy your parkrunning and thanks for talking to me today. No worries.

00:55:21Justin: Thank you.

00:55:23Greta: Okay, so I'm now here with Jo. Hi. And Louise. Hello.

00:55:27Jo: And some Mount Barker crew who are sort of shyly standing over there. Hello.

00:55:34Greta: So I've talked to the Victor crew, now I'm talking to the Mount Barker crew. How did you... How did you go today? I do believe I got a new PB.

00:55:42Unidentified speaker: It was a beautiful course, nice and flat, great, great scenery. Really fantastic. And they turned on the weather. It was just beautiful.

00:55:48Greta: It is lovely, isn't it?

00:55:50Unidentified speaker: Yeah, very good. So new PB today. New PB. Hopefully maybe broken the 40-minute mark. And since I've only been jogging for about less than three months, I'm feeling quite proud. So, yeah, it's really good.

00:56:03Greta: And you were telling me about the first time you ever did parkrun.

00:56:05Unidentified speaker: Yes, I actually was with my friends the day before and they said they were doing parkrun and I went, can you walk? And they went, yes. And I went, oh, well, maybe I can do it. So New Year's Day, I got up early and I went and did parkrun and it was the best thing I have ever done. So your first parkrun was New Year's Day? Yes, this year. So here I am, I think my first time was like 47 minutes and I was just in awe and I just thought it was fantastic. I went home and crashed, didn't realise how unfit I was. But since then I've been coming nearly every week and I just really do enjoy it and it's a great way to start the weekend.

00:56:41Greta: Lovely. What a lovely story.

00:56:42Unidentified speaker: Yeah, I know. I love it. And I tell so many people and I know I get so excited and hopefully I can encourage a few other people to come along as well.

00:56:52Greta: And how about you, Jo? How did you go today?

00:56:54Jo: You've brought some family and some friends. Yes, yes. Who have you brought with you today? I actually walked with my sister, who it was her first time, and we're trying to hook her in for, I say, years. And she has resisted, and she just didn't want to do it. She's blocked it. But we're coming down the home straight, and she said, I want to pass those people.

00:57:17Greta: Oh, my God.

00:57:18Jo: And so we passed them and then we passed another lot and nearly to the end, she was exhausted, we passed them. So I think there's a glimmer of hope there. You reckon you've got her?

00:57:28Unidentified speaker: Yeah, I think so.

00:57:29Jo: She's doomed. She's sucked in, as we all are from the first one. which is such a good thing.

00:57:36Sputnik: It is, it is.

00:57:37Jo: But, yeah, so... And who else did you... So you've got your sister. Yeah, my other sister, who has got the navy cap on, she does Torrens and we have a bit of a tussle. We privately train and say, oh, no, I think I'll take it easy this week. And it is a fight to the... who gets the best. LAUGHTER I've been overtaking her lately and she doesn't like it. I bet she doesn't. No, she doesn't. She's going to sneak in a few more training sessions, isn't she? I've heard she has, but it doesn't matter anymore because I'm now a half marathon girl. How are you?

00:57:57[laughter]

00:58:14Greta: I don't care.

00:58:15Jo: When did you do your first half marathon? In March, end of March, we did Brave Runners, Brett and I, half marathon, and then last weekend we did the Clare half marathon. Wonderful. Well done. Yeah, and conquer the summit. And that comes from starting off in 2014, just not being committed, and then Brett came along, my husband Brett came along, and since then we've just loved it. And it's something we do together that I think is the best. It's rebooted us, and someone, it's probably not the time or the place to say this, but we have had a few jokes about what it's better than. Oh! Well, this is a PG-rated podcast.

00:59:00Greta: I know, I gather that.

00:59:02Jo: We'll just let people use their imaginations. So, winners are grinners.

00:59:08Greta: Oh, that's wonderful, guys.

00:59:10Jo: Well done.

00:59:12Greta: Thank you so much for talking to me about how much you both... really love parkrun it's so nice to it's so nice to hear and thank you so much for coming to the launch and supporting parkrun and i also know that you are both very um good volunteers as well yes definitely definitely it's a great way to meet people and be part of more of seeing other people along the track on when you're going and you can say hello and you can actually say hello because you know them it's brilliant it is it is lovely so Now, I'm here with Kane. How are you going, Kane? Good. And you've just done a park ride, but you've also pointed out something to me that's on the river. What's on the river? Swans.

00:59:47Unidentified speaker: Oh, look at that.

00:59:49Greta: How many are there? Four. Four, and they're black swans, aren't they?

00:59:55Jo: Yeah.

00:59:56Greta: Yeah. Are they cruising along the river?

00:59:59Jo: Yep. Yeah. So there you go. Come along to Goolwood parkrun. You might get to see some swans.

01:00:05Greta: That's right. So I'm now here with James. How are you going, James?

01:00:09James: Good, how are you?

01:00:10Greta: I'm good, and you're the event ambassador for the Goolwa parkrun. How did it go this morning? Happy with the launch?

01:00:15James: Absolutely awesome. We had 157.

01:00:18Greta: I was going to ask you, because you're counting tokens at the moment?

01:00:21James: Yeah, I am, yeah. 157? 157 in sleepy little Goolwa. We've certainly woken the place up this morning.

01:00:27Greta: Yeah, and how did you go? Did everyone pass their token in?

01:00:30James: Oh, we're still going through that. I think we might be chasing a few people down, but that's all right. parkrun Police will be out shortly.

01:00:36Greta: Oh, yeah. You said that. Oh, two. We're missing two, are we? Yeah, okay. Hello, how are you?

01:00:41Claire: Good, thanks. How are you? And you were scanning today? I was. Thank you so much for scanning. No worries.

01:00:45Greta: We love volunteers here at parkrun. It's actually my first volunteer. Well done. Thank you. Did you enjoy it?

01:00:51Claire: I did.

01:00:51Melissa Erbacher: It was good. It was really good.

01:00:53Greta: Do you think you'll do it again?

01:00:55Claire: Yes, definitely. Yeah. Well done. Thanks for volunteering. Thank you.

01:00:59Greta: So we're now at Post parkrun Coffee and we're at Cafe Lime and I'm here with Paul. And Paul, you're the run director. Congratulations on a very successful launch today.

01:01:09Paul: Thank you. It's been a really fantastic morning and quite humbling with the numbers that we've achieved here. So I'm very happy. Yeah.

01:01:15Greta: And so you've now launched this parkrun at Goolwa. Are you a Goolwa local?

01:01:20Paul: I am. I live in Goolwa, work in Goolwa. So I've been here for 19 years or so. So almost a local anyway.

01:01:27Greta: Almost, almost, not quite. Yeah, that's right, yeah. And what inspired you to start the parkrun here at Goolwa?

01:01:34Paul: Well my wife got me into it actually she she got us out to the Victor Harbor parkrun on New Year's Day last year so 18 months ago and Yeah, it's just we've been fairly regular down there since then and then the guys down there actually approached me saying that Medibank wanted to launch one in Goolwa and they needed someone to run it and Somehow they chose me. Obviously. I was the one that looked most gullible at the time

01:02:03Greta: And how did you go about finding the course?

01:02:06Paul: The course was pretty obvious to me really. Where we go along Liverpool Road there, Council made that track for us, well not just for us, a few years ago.

01:02:17Greta: It's a lovely track.

01:02:19Paul: It is a good track. It's fairly new, it's level, it's relatively flat. We've had a few complaints about some people having to climb a hill today of about one metre. Yeah.

01:02:30Greta: A hill. Yeah, that's right.

01:02:31Paul: A lump. Mild gradient. Yeah. Yeah, so along the riverside there, and it just seemed like the most natural choice.

01:02:38Greta: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely beautiful, isn't it? And it's surrounded by really lovely council-maintained facilities, lawns, and there's a playground just down the path. It's really lovely.

01:02:47Paul: Yeah, we've got full facilities there. We've got a cover and a table with the barbecue shelter there. There's toilets next door. It's just everything's all there for us already. It's perfect. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:02:59Greta: And so do you think you'll sort of get back to Victor parkrun occasionally now that you've started Goolwa?

01:03:05Paul: Absolutely. Once I've gotten into this, give it probably a couple of months to establish a bit of a team, get some run directors happening and that sort of thing and I can hand over the reins to somebody else. So I think I'll be busy for a while but I'm happy to do that and then I'm happy to hand it all over and let other people have a go as well.

01:03:24Greta: Fantastic. Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for everything that you do for parkrun and for putting in your time to launch Goolwa parkrun. And congratulations on a really successful launch today. Well done.

01:03:35Paul: Absolutely my pleasure. Thank you.

01:03:36Melissa Erbacher: Thank you. Massive thanks to Greta and TOC for being at the launches of Goolwa and Ocean Grove and bringing us all the happenings on the ground at the weekend. As always, awesome effort from the Channel 5 News crew. Speaking of launches, Scotty, we got a bit of a message earlier in April from one of our parkrun adventurers. Nicole Sanday got in touch on the Facebook and said she was off to Gainsborough Greens' launch. And it was going to be her 15th, which got her thinking. How many launches have we been to? Do you know, Scotty, how many launches you've done?

Astronaut club (17-launch adventurer club)

01:04:18Scott Trickett: Well, look off the top of my head, Mel. Let me think. Maybe 16?

01:04:24Melissa Erbacher: That's a very specific number off the top of your head.

01:04:28Scott Trickett: Do you know?

01:04:28Melissa Erbacher: Is it accurate?

01:04:29Scott Trickett: Yes, it is. It is because it's more than off the top of my head. I did some thorough research. Because I knew this question was coming. And I learned that I'm one-off an astronaut.

01:04:40Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, you did. Astronauts. And this is the thing, see. I wasn't sure about the origins of the astronaut club. I think it is the astronaut club. That's what they call it. It's an unofficial club, obviously, as many of the adventure clubs are. And you have to have 17 launches. And do you know why it has to be 17, Scotty?

01:05:09Scott Trickett: Well, I'm guessing Apollo 17 has some connection. Would I be right?

01:05:14Melissa Erbacher: Well, that's my assumption also, which is backed up by the fact that At the weekend, I went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and learnt all about the 17 Apollo space missions. So I thought, yep, 17. You need 17 launches to be an astronaut. That makes sense to me. So if there's another reason why it's 17, I don't know what it is. But I'm going to put two and two together and say they make 17.

01:05:40Scott Trickett: But how many have you been to? Because I don't think it's as many as 16.

01:05:47Melissa Erbacher: Well, no, it's not as many as 16 because it's, well, let's just start right here with saying it's not a competition, Scotty. Not everything between you and me is a competition unless you're winning, in which case I'm thinking you want to make it a competition because it doesn't happen very often. I have been to nine launches in Australia and one overseas. So I've attended. Ten I have attended in total.

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

01:06:14Scott Trickett: So we have one launch this weekend in Australia. It's a bit of a drop back from seven from last week, but it's in the town of Nulkaba. Nulkaba?

01:06:27Melissa Erbacher: I've always pronounced it Nulkaba.

01:06:29Unidentified speaker: Okay.

01:06:29Scott Trickett: We'll go with one of those. And it's in New South Wales and it's in the region of runners, I do believe.

01:06:34Melissa Erbacher: It is. It's going to be the 13th event and the newest for a long time in the region of runners to launch. Meanwhile, just to keep the weekend festive, we've got quite a few anniversaries happening all over the globe, or I should say all over the country this weekend, starting with we've got Applecross in Western Australia. Can you believe that's already been a year?

01:06:57Scott Trickett: Yes. Very exciting for that. Town? Town. Is it a town? I don't know. Apple Cross. I think it's a suburb. We're going with a suburb. It's a suburb of Perth. Okay.

01:07:08Melissa Erbacher: Very exciting for the Apple Cross parkrunners. That's going to be followed, well not followed because WA follows everybody else, but it's going to be preceded by Batemans Bay in New South Wales.

01:07:19Scott Trickett: Cleveland in Queensland.

01:07:21Melissa Erbacher: Echuca Moama in Victoria.

01:07:23Scott Trickett: Ginninderra in the ACT.

01:07:25Melissa Erbacher: Queanbeyan in New South Wales.

01:07:28Scott Trickett: And Rhodes also in New South Wales.

01:07:31Melissa Erbacher: So lots of reasons to get along and get festive and celebrate some wonderful milestones for some great events in the country.

01:07:39Scott Trickett: Now, I know, Mel, you've got some challenges about getting to a parkrun this weekend. Let's not spoil it. Let's find out next week what happens. I've got a couple of challenges as well this weekend. Not sure where I'm going.

01:07:54Melissa Erbacher: Okay, you've got some logistical issues coming up.

01:07:57Scott Trickett: Yeah, juggling some time and some airport pickups. So I hope I get to a parkrun. It could be touch and go. I'm dependent on the international flight, people coordinating flights and doing their job properly.

01:08:14Melissa Erbacher: Okay, or even Australian customs. Customs, yeah. Not letting dodgy people into the country.

01:08:20Scott Trickett: This is true. This is true.

01:08:22Melissa Erbacher: Anybody you know must be a little bit suspicious.

01:08:24Scott Trickett: Related to me.

01:08:26Melissa Erbacher: Related to me. Well, the level of suspicion has just gone up.

01:08:30Scott Trickett: Hey, my phone's ringing, Mel.

01:08:33Melissa Erbacher: Saved by the bell.

01:08:34Scott Trickett: Yep. What do they say on the streets of New York when it's time to say goodbye?

01:08:39Melissa Erbacher: I don't know. I haven't said goodbye to any New Yorkers yet.

01:08:43Scott Trickett: I assumed you've talked to New Yorkers by this stage?

01:08:46Melissa Erbacher: Yes.

01:08:47Scott Trickett: Do they understand you?

01:08:49Melissa Erbacher: I think so. They seem to be able to answer my questions okay.

01:08:53Scott Trickett: Okay, so you're having conversations?

01:08:55Melissa Erbacher: Yes. Okay.

01:08:56Scott Trickett: Because the last time I was in New York, the first day I was there, I was speaking to a guy on the street. And he asked, he said, sorry, mate. He didn't say sorry, mate. He said he couldn't understand me. Like he gave up talking to me because he couldn't understand me. And I thought, welcome to America. But of course that wouldn't happen now because it's great again now. It has... That bloke in charge, he's made it great again, hasn't he? It's great.

01:09:28Melissa Erbacher: Been seeing some interesting t-shirts around.

01:09:30Scott Trickett: Okay.

01:09:31Melissa Erbacher: Is that how you do it? Let's leave it at that.

01:09:32Scott Trickett: Is that how you make a country great? By making t-shirts?

01:09:36Melissa Erbacher: Well, I'm pretty sure the t-shirts that I've seen are not supporters of his.

01:09:43Scott Trickett: Let's save that for next week, shall we? Our deep dive on American t-shirt culture.

01:09:50Melissa Erbacher: Well, I was hoping we could talk about the draft next week.

01:09:52Scott Trickett: Oh. Can we? Can we talk about it now?

01:09:56Melissa Erbacher: Now?

01:09:57Scott Trickett: Has it consumed your world for the past few days?

01:10:01Melissa Erbacher: Oh, Scotty, there's nothing like being in America during draft, I can tell you that much.

01:10:07Scott Trickett: Oh, and on cue, there's Wes. Okay, we'll save that for next week as well. Episode 111, American T-shirt culture, NFL draft, maybe some parkrun talk if we've got time.

01:10:21Melissa Erbacher: It's going to be a cracker.

01:10:22Scott Trickett: Speak to you then.