Episode 112 - junior parkrun

Episode details · 312 speaker turns · sound cues from context

00:00:14Melissa Erbacher: It's take two of episode 112 of the parkrun Adventurers podcast. Little known fact, Scotty and I actually recorded an intro last week when we were both suffering from all the maladies of the world, it felt like. voices sounded substantially different. There was lots of snot running, lots of coughing and sneezing. However, we've come back stronger this week for realising that we weren't going to make anybody happy by sneezing into the microphones last week. Scotty, you're here with me?

00:00:48Scott Trickett: I am. I'm back. So you don't think 15 minutes of us talking about how sick we were was interesting fodder for people to digest on their parkrun rotation? No, you don't.

00:01:00Melissa Erbacher: With the high standards that we have, I think it was actually passable. But if I recall correctly, the software also had a bit of a virus last week and it got glitchy in the recording and cut out a whole big chunk of what we were saying. So that was the real nail in the snotty coffin.

00:01:17Scott Trickett: So we just threw up our hands and said, that's it. Too hard.

00:01:21Melissa Erbacher: It's a sign. It just wasn't meant to be. And we went to bed early and got over our various illnesses.

00:01:30Scott Trickett: You touched on it there. We went to bed early. So I know you went through the green snot clear stop phase. My man flu. It was a sneaky man flu. It just made me really tired, but I didn't have many symptoms. So I got even less sympathy than I'd usually get this time around.

00:01:47Melissa Erbacher: Oh, you need the visible symptoms for the real sympathy, don't you?

00:01:50Scott Trickett: Yeah, there was no cough. It was a little bit of a sore throat, but it was mainly that I was just really tired. And I was like wanting to go to bed at five o'clock. And it's just not socially acceptable.

00:02:02Melissa Erbacher: In your household? Yes.

00:02:04Scott Trickett: And my wife judges me. Yeah.

00:02:06Melissa Erbacher: Well, the thing is you do a lot of your running in the evenings too, though, don't you, Scotty?

00:02:10Scott Trickett: I do. I do.

00:02:13Melissa Erbacher: How has that impacted? You've been sick. You're still training for a marathon off in the distant future or maybe not so distant anymore. You've never really divulged where you're hoping to run. How has that affected your marathon training?

00:02:26Scott Trickett: Well, the marathon's getting closer, but my kilometers is dropping dramatically. So I have not done much running yet. for two weeks and what it does is, so I'm inherently lazy. My motivation is lacking most of the time. Even though I love running and I love it once I'm out there, the desire to get up and put the shoes on is never really that strong. And when I've got an excuse, of having the man flu, I didn't run. And it's been a struggle, Mel, to get back, to get back into a routine of doing my runs on Tuesday nights and recovery runs Wednesday. And the little routine that I have is gone. And I wonder if it'll ever come back.

00:03:17Melissa Erbacher: Oh, so you've dropped a heap of your training sessions then. Yes. How is that working on your head apart from the fact that you haven't got your mojo, you haven't got your motivation? What's going on in there in terms of your marathon then?

00:03:34Scott Trickett: Well, I think it's okay because I've still had a couple of runs and I can still do it. My legs still work, my lungs still work. And because I was a bit sick, and had some trouble with Busta that caused me a lot of stress, which meant I didn't eat for like 48 hours. So I haven't had this psychology that I've put on all this weight because I've stopped running, which I usually go through. On that side of it, it's under control, but just the desire, just the desire to run.

00:04:05Melissa Erbacher: But you're feeling okay because I understand the desire not there when your whole body is fighting you and it's like, no, just want to sleep. But you're feeling better now. I am. So that's not your excuse. No excuse. You're just out of the habit basically.

00:04:19Scott Trickett: I'm sitting in my car in a car park at a park waiting to wrap up our recording here so I can go for a run, get back into the groove. Because if I miss this or if we keep recording too long, I'll have another excuse not to go for a run today. And I want to avoid that.

00:04:39Melissa Erbacher: No pressure.

00:04:40Scott Trickett: Yep.

00:04:41Melissa Erbacher: Well, I will try not to keep you too long then, Scotty.

00:04:43Scott Trickett: So I've got nothing to talk about from my parkrun week. You know, I went to Studley, great day, lots of fun, nothing exciting happened there. Did you have something exciting happen on Saturday?

00:04:52Melissa Erbacher: Well, I went somewhere exciting on Saturday. There was a new event launching not too far from me, actually, where my Nana lives. You didn't go, did you? What do you mean I didn't go, did I?

00:05:04Scott Trickett: We were on the same amount of events. We were back even again. I enjoyed it.

00:05:09Melissa Erbacher: Even again? I haven't looked. Oh, that is very exciting.

00:05:12Scott Trickett: Don't tell me you haven't looked. Of course you've looked.

00:05:16Melissa Erbacher: I didn't – well, see, the thing is I was still technically under the weather last weekend. So I'm not – or at least I wasn't at my normal parkrun form of, you know, checking in to see where I rate on the scale of is Scotty beating Mel on the most events list.

00:05:35Scott Trickett: Mm-hmm.

00:05:36Melissa Erbacher: You've just really put some wind in my sails, Scotty. I'm excited now because you know what? I'm headed off somewhere new this weekend too. Yes. Yes. But last weekend I was at Woodford parkrun, which is up north. It's sort of inland and uphills, sort of hinterland area of Queensland. Beautiful rural sort of farming type community up there. As I mentioned, my Nana lives there. I didn't pop in to visit her as I would have done normally because I was still a snot fest and it's not generally considered good farming. form to walk into a nursing home full of elderly, delicate people when you're a raging bag of germs. So I didn't do that. I have been back to visit her, though. You'll be happy to know since I got over the illness, which is good.

00:06:34Scott Trickett: How is Nana?

00:06:35Melissa Erbacher: She's great. Good. She's wonderful. Gets a kick out of seeing Wes every time she sees him, so that's always nice.

00:06:42Scott Trickett: Well, he's an entertainer, so that's obvious.

00:06:44Melissa Erbacher: He is and he's a ladies' man. He's a very charming young gentleman. But I digress, as is often the case. Woodford parkrun was beautiful. It was very brisk. It made me realise winter's actually here. We came back from New York where, you know, it was a bit hit and miss with the temperatures. It was a bit cold one day and then the next day it was really hot.

00:07:08Scott Trickett: So what, are you in jumpers? Are you wearing long sleeves or what's brisk?

00:07:12Melissa Erbacher: Right now I'm wearing long sleeves and long pants and socks in my house and a scarf.

00:07:18Scott Trickett: Wow.

00:07:19Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, so that's brisk for me. I actually wore fingerless gloves to parkrun on the weekend and I walked the course with Wes in the carrier because it's a – It's a cross-country course, sort of trail-y cross-country. It's all on grass, so not amazing for prams. Prams can do it, but it's, you know, it's just slow, heavy-going kind of thing. So I decided to walk it with Wes and the carrier, and I was also tail walking. And it worked out well because he was a lovely little hot water baby to keep me toasty as much as I was keeping him toasty. So that was great. Yeah. Yeah, but I won't go too much into it because we actually have some roving reports from our Channel 5 News crew this week, one of which is Lyndal, who was at Woodford parkrun's launch. So I'm going to let her fill you in on a whole bunch of the rest of the fun. Heaps of roving reports today. Very exciting. We've had a couple of weeks off, so... It's good to have the team coming back in full force.

00:08:20Scott Trickett: It was good, wasn't it? We put the challenge to them, and my God, did they deliver. So we've got a lot coming up. I know Simon Mackley asked for a two-hour episode this week. We might give it a nudge, Simon, making up for last week.

00:08:34Melissa Erbacher: And if we don't, just play us at half-time speed. There we go. If you slow us down to 0.5, we will go for longer. I don't see this... Right now, revolutionising parkrun Adventurous podcast.

00:08:57Scott Trickett: So, Mel, 112 episodes in. I've had some feedback personally that I do. I talk very slowly, so people like to speed me up. And then it's hard to tell when I'm excited. But that's why I keep telling all you guys that I'm excited, because you can't tell through my voice. But... I'm excited for Sunday this week, Mel. This is the Junior parkrun episode.

00:09:22Melissa Erbacher: It is, because what's happening on Sunday, Scotty, in your neck of the woods?

00:09:26Scott Trickett: We're launching. I say I'm launching. We're launching Westerfold's Junior parkrun that has gone through a few different forms. But it's finally emerged and evolved into what is going to become the most awesome junior parkrun in Melbourne, mainly because it's going to be the only one. For 12 months. And I'm... I'm a little bit nervous, a little bit excited. Excited because when I... I think I've told this story on the pod before, but I'm going to tell it again. When I got involved in parkrun and bringing parkrun to Westerfolds to begin with, it was because I wanted to have the Saturday morning habit with my daughter, Kasia. So now we've got to the point a few years into the journey where she hasn't loved it as much as I hoped she would. And it's purely around... the five kilometer distance, I think. I think she just doesn't enjoy 40 to 60 minutes of exercise. She'd much prefer 10 to 15. She's really good in the first K, but then peters out quite a bit. So, and she's old enough now to recognize that in herself. So she's now looking forward to junior parkrun on Sunday, which is very weird. To have Kasia in the house, excited.

00:11:21Melissa Erbacher: She's excited about it.

00:11:22Scott Trickett: She's excited because she knows it's for her and she knows that it's only 2K. So she only has to run 2K and she can do that easy. You know, her school cross country is 2K and she smashes that out. She's humble brag, but she's won the local fun run, which was longer than...

00:11:38Melissa Erbacher: 2k and she did that easy so i really think they psh had a great idea with 5k but then when they flipped it for kids and said i think 2k is enough i think he got that right too okay so i'm interested obviously uh or maybe it's not so obvious people wouldn't know yet because it's not so common our junior parkrun kids are allowed to participate on their own without their parents but parents can also run or walk with them as well if they choose to I'm assuming you guys are letting Kasia take the lead in terms of deciding whether or not she goes solo. What's the plan? Does she want – you'll be run directing, so you can't run. But will Vonnie be accompanying her or does she want to do it on her own?

00:12:23Scott Trickett: Well, she didn't have the choice because as you remember, when you're event director with a new event, it's all hands on deck. So Vonnie's on the tools. My mum's on the tools. All my friends that I would trust with Kasia are on the tools. Yeah, so Kasia doesn't have a choice. But she's also at that age now where she's seeking a lot of independence, where she wants to do things by herself. So the idea that, yes, she owns this and she's going to run with it and she's going to go at her own pace. and she can stop for a walk whenever she wants to, I think that genuinely excites her and gives her the motivation to be excited for Junior parkrun.

00:13:04Melissa Erbacher: Well, I can't wait to hear what she thinks of it after she has her first crack.

00:13:08Scott Trickett: Yeah. Let's continue the flavour. Let's catch up with the head honchos who have also been involved in bringing Junior parkrun to Australia and find out a bit more. Junior parkrun is ready to launch for me on Sunday, but it's already launched on the Gold Coast. And the woman responsible for bringing Junior parkrun to the Gold Coast is Renee Gimbert. She's been on the podcast before, and she's back. Welcome back, Renee.

00:13:44Renee Gimbert: Thanks for having me, guys.

00:13:46Scott Trickett: First off, you were there when it launched on the Gold Coast. Can you explain the day, the morning, your feelings before and after the event?

00:13:56Renee Gimbert: Most definitely. The event was fantastic. It was organised chaos for 202 children and about 150 adults. So it was an exciting morning. Lots of happy kids. A couple of tears. which we dealt with, but most of all excitement, lots of smiles and people just feeling great that they had a great achievement.

00:14:26Melissa Erbacher: So tell us, Renee, after you had finished crying and you wiped away those tears, what was the highlight of the day for you?

00:14:33Renee Gimbert: I think the highlight was the fact that we were going to do it all again the next week. So whilst there was hype for this first event, It's an event that will continue and has continued for the last five weeks. And that's the best part is we do the same thing every week, same time, same place.

00:14:51Scott Trickett: Can I take you back to the days beforehand? Were there nerves? Were there fears? What were you going through leading up to the launch?

00:15:01Renee Gimbert: To be honest, there were nerves before our trial. Once we actually, Tim was down on the Gold Coast a couple of weeks before and we ran a trial. There was only a handful of kids at that event. There was about 20 kids. And I think I was more nervous going into that than I was going into the actual day. The trial made us feel at ease. It made us comfortable with the course, seeing kids on there and having marshals and volunteers in position. So that was exciting. But, yeah, I'd definitely say more nerves at the trial. then going into it. So in saying that, Tim's going into his trial this weekend, so he's probably feeling quite nervous.

00:15:45Melissa Erbacher: Now, there are a lot of children participating. You've been going for a few weeks. How have you found the progression of the event has been over the time? Has much changed over the weeks?

00:15:59Renee Gimbert: The numbers have been fairly steady. They've dropped off in the last two weeks. There's been other events on the Gold Coast at the time. So we started off with 202. Our numbers went up to 220. And the last two weeks we've seen them drop to 130 and 160. So Mother's Day was in the middle of that and the Mother's Day Classic Fun Run. And then also last weekend we had another popular Gold Coast running event, which drew a lot of people away as well. To us, it's not about numbers. We, you know, having 160 or 130 kids there is a great environment. But, you know, I think the more people that want to participate, the better.

00:16:41Scott Trickett: Let's bring Tim into it. Tim, you're having your unofficial trial this weekend. I've chosen not to do trials at Westerfolds. How are your nerves going?

00:16:53Tim Oberg: Yeah, I wouldn't say I'm nervous. Hi, guys, by the way. I wouldn't say that I'm nervous. I'm more, what's the word? I'm really curious to see how it's going to go. My situation is a little bit different to both yours and Renee's in that You know, you're putting on the juniors event in the heart of very well-established parkrun regions. So in terms of numbers of participants, i.e. kids, you know, there's hundreds if not potentially thousands within striking distance. But more so from a volunteer perspective, you've got a lot of, Very experienced, highly trained parkrun people who are going to be able to put their hand up to get involved with your events. Whereas it's a bit different here. We've got obviously just the one event, Airlie Beach parkrun, that's local. Bowen's an hour away, so I'm certainly not banking on having any regular volunteers from there just because of the distance. So really it's a case of this community is going to pull together, this small community is going to pull together to put this event on for the kids every week. But we have the same volunteer kind of requirements, I guess, as the events in the larger towns, larger cities. So it's going to be much more a case of, the parents who are specifically coming for this event and the local community really putting their hand up to keep it going. And so that's what's really interesting for me at the moment is going through that process of recruiting parents and recruiting locals to get involved to get us on our feet.

00:18:38Melissa Erbacher: Tim, your young family has grown up never knowing any different than parkrun days every Saturday. They've participated in prams. Jack has run quite a few 5Ks with you now. How are they feeling about the birth of Junior parkrun coming to their neighbourhood?

00:18:57Tim Oberg: Yeah, it's contrasting emotions, actually, because, as you say, Jack, who's a very outgoing five-year-old and has already done, I think, 13 or 14 5K parkruns. So for him, it's just a run in the park with his mates. He'll get out there and have a bash and... It'll be nothing. He'll do it easy and he'll just have a good laugh with his friends, whereas Evie, who's four, is a much more introverted personality. She has no interest in getting out of the pram at 5K parkrun. I push her in the double with baby Archie. So, yeah, she's got no interest in 5K. So Nikki's been sort of subtly... letting Evie know that on Sundays very soon we're going to be doing Junior parkrun, which is just for kids and you can just walk and she can just walk with her friends and walk with mum and all that sort of stuff. And Evie's sort of coming alive to the prospect of that, which is really nice. And I think as much as I love seeing Jack fly around like a madman, I think I'll probably get – more satisfaction from watching Evie come out of her shell because I think it's going to be more of an achievement for her to walk 2K in a parkrun environment than it will be for Jack to go out and probably run 2K in 10 minutes or something like that. So, yeah, it's going to be really interesting from that regard and I'm very excited and hopeful that Evie does take to it.

00:20:33Melissa Erbacher: Junior parkrun has been in the works for a very long time and much anticipated for a very long time. These three events at the Gold Coast, up at Airlie Beach and also down in Victoria are the flagship events, if you will, in Australia. There is going to be a 12-month trial for these three events. Tim or Renee, would one of you like to explain to people what that trial is all about?

00:21:00Tim Oberg: I'll happily do that, Mel. So the biggest challenge we've had in preparing to get Junior parkrun off the ground is understanding our responsibilities and the requirements around working with children and child safeguarding. Very different to 5k parkrun where children are the responsibility, they're the sole responsibility of their parent or guardian whereas at junior parkrun we assume that responsibility from the parent or guardian for the duration of the time that they're on the course. So we've had to understand what our responsibilities are in the scheme of things. And each state has different legislation. It's similar, but they're all different enough to make it a little bit of a headache to understand what we need to do to comply. So we spend near enough on 12 months studying and understanding what all the requirements are in each state. And where we've come to is a realization that every single volunteer at Junior parkrun will require a working with children check. And not only that, but in states such as Queensland, for people who already have a working with children check, which is called a blue card here in Queensland, well, that's not actually good enough. You need to have that blue card then linked to parkrun Australia. So there's still multiple steps. I think a lot of people are just assuming that they've got a blue card so they're okay. But that's actually not the case. They have to link it. So the reason we're having a pilot for 12 months with three events is because that period, we will be able to understand what the – I guess how much work is going to go into us managing the working with children registrations, you know, understanding when our volunteers' registrations have expired and informing them that they need to – get new ones, et cetera, et cetera. And ideally, we're going to build our own sort of internal database that's going to manage that process for us. So initially, it's all going to be done manually, but as the months go by, we'll understand what we can automate. And then once we get to a point where we feel our systems can handle having, you know, hundreds of working with children checks getting processed, you know, on a daily basis and whatnot, then we'll be able to roll the junior parkrun concept out nationally. So that was all a bit of a mouthful, but, yeah, that's the explanation as to why we are taking a very steady approach to it.

00:23:38Scott Trickett: So some of our observers or critics might look in and say, well, we don't have to go to that effort to be involved in our local footy club or even our local little athletics club. Why is parkrun going so overboard in this regard?

00:23:52Tim Oberg: Yeah, mate, great question. And this is something that I guess we debated as to how do we want to position ourselves in this space? And what we decided after lots of conversation and lots of advice was that we want to and we need to position ourselves as the absolute leader in child safety in a sort of sporting context. Now, I'm not going to name names, but there are plenty of organisations that publicly talk about, you know, the fact that they safeguard children and so on and so forth. But then they devolve that responsibility to the local clubs. And I can... pretty much guarantee you that a lot of those local clubs just aren't resourced to take on that responsibility. So we don't want to be put in a position where we are finding out through secondhand or through third parties that there are volunteers at Junior parkrun who don't have working with children checks. We need to be able to, at the push of a button, look at our systems and say, well, we can tell you that on Sunday, last Sunday, every single volunteer had a Working With Children check and here's the list and here's all their registration numbers and we can show that from a central position. We're not going to devolve. We're not going to push that responsibility down the chain. So, yeah, we've taken a position that's probably – greater than what the law said we had to. But we want to be better than what the law says. We want to be the leader and really set the bar as to what expectations parents can have about how their children are going to be protected at Junior parkrun.

00:25:39Melissa Erbacher: You look like you're about to chime in there, Renee.

00:25:43Renee Gimbert: No, no, I will add that exactly what Tim said, we want parkrun to be the safest possible environment for children to participate in activity. And I can see from my event, because we talk about this at Southport Juniors as to why we need so many marshals and why we need the checks. And every week we talk about it, all the parents are nodding, agreeing, like we're comfortable. They're comfortable to bring their children along and let them run on their own because of the lengths that we're going to. And I think that's a really positive point that families are feeling so comfortable around what we're doing.

00:26:25Melissa Erbacher: Have you had many opportunities to get feedback directly from the kids? Because Junior parkrun is for the kids. And yes, it's great that the parents are happy to bring their kids along, but they're the audience, they're the consumers. How are they feeling about it?

00:26:41Renee Gimbert: All the feedback I've had is extremely positive, high fives, lots of smiles, you know, excitement in the air. It's, you know, I've spoken to a number of kids. They, you know, I hear them telling their parents, I want to come back and we come back next week. And we also see on social media people tagging themselves or tagging a friend saying, come along next week, bring your kids next week. So they're actively out there promoting it and trying to get other kids to come along. So it's exciting. What's great as well is seeing the next week when someone brings a friend along and they're trying to tell them how the course works or what to do. It's a really fun environment.

00:27:23Scott Trickett: And what impact has it made on your life, Renee? You're the only one who's doing it so far. So your parkrun weekend is now Saturday and Sunday. So you could effectively say your whole life is parkrun.

00:27:36Renee Gimbert: That's very true. And I won't lie, there's certainly a lot involved in being a junior parkrun event director. But I also feel that there's a lot of work involved in being a 5K series parkrun event director. And part of the 12-month pilot allows us to see what's involved in an admin what admin way to see what what we need to do with working with children checks but it also allows us to see firsthand what goes on and that way we can refine our processes so we're confident knowing that the events that then move on to launch a junior event in their area that those people we know exactly what they're in for we're not Setting them off and being, you know, shocked at the amount of work they're putting in. We know we've experienced that firsthand. So I think it's a really, really positive thing. But as you say, I've gone from my parkrun seven days a week. But what better could you do? It's such a fun thing to do. So I love it.

00:28:41Melissa Erbacher: Now, I'm sure having these flagship events on the way and happening is drawing a lot of attention to junior parkrun Australia. Have there been an influx of people asking to start parkruns in their area, junior parkruns? And are we starting to create a list to get back in touch with them in 12 months' time?

00:29:03Renee Gimbert: Yes, there's been a lot of questions. And no, we're not collating a list at the moment. And that's because if we re-look at this in six months or 12 months time, the circumstances may have changed. So there's a handful of people that we know are very keen on having an event. And we're going to actually move in a really slow manner to roll out new events. So people that have had experience in a junior event previously in another country, for example, we're going to look at ambassadors that are fully across our parkrun guidelines and have them involved. You know, when we get to launching in an area, we will put out a call or we will speak directly to the ambassadors or the event directors in that area that we feel would be a great fit for being an event director of an event. And as I said before, there is a lot of work in being an event director. And obviously we don't want to scare people off, but we want people to know up front, you know, that this is very different to the 5K parkrun.

00:30:12Scott Trickett: So we've already mentioned that Junior parkrun is a little different from 5K parkrun. One task that we've added to the volunteer roster is the warm-up leader. And Tim, you've been the warm-up leader. You were the warm-up leader at the launch. This looks like a little bit of fun. Something different?

00:30:31Tim Oberg: That's it. Yeah, you are speaking to the inaugural warm-up leader for parkrun Australia, for Southport Juniors. But yeah, look, it's super fun. And the first time I went to Junior parkrun was actually over in the UK when I took my nephew and niece to their local juniors. And They did the warm-up and I wasn't expecting it. And it's basically a volunteer who gets up in front of all the kids and they take them through a series of exercises, you know, touch your toes, high knees, butt flicks, that sort of thing, star jumps. And it is just hilarious because the kids – you've got kids of all kind of coordination levels. They're doing it and they're – You know, they're fumbling around and they're laughing and giggling and whatnot. And it's, yeah, super fun. And I think that's one of the things that, you know, when Junior parkrun gets up and running, people are going to really remember that it's going to be a real take home from juniors is just how much joy the children are having during that warm up, getting ready to actually go out there and walk or run the 2K. So really, really unique and super fun part of juniors.

00:31:37Melissa Erbacher: Just before we go, Tim, do you have any tips for Scotty who will be – well, I don't know if he's going to lead the warm-up this weekend, but any tips on particular maneuvers or outfits, Olivia Newton-John physical type thing is what I'm thinking.

00:31:54Tim Oberg: Well, it was funny because, you know, I went to juniors that day to volunteer but basically dressed as someone who was going to run. You know, I had my trainers on because I knew I was going to be doing the warm-up. So, you know, typically I'd probably wear, you know, normal shorts and a flip-flop and a polo shirt or something. So, no, I did wear the gear. But I think the one tip that we actually didn't do that day but Renee has told me is since then what they're doing is there'll be one adult who gets up and leads it but a whole lot of adults will actually get up and do the warm-up in front of all the kids. So, you know, you've got a lot of kids watching a lot of adults do it and it just gets everyone in the spirit of it. And I'll be doing that when we launch here with Cannonvale Juniors. I'll be making sure that, you know, a lot of adults are engaged and participating in with the children in the warmup as well. So, so I think that's my tip, mate. Get, get as many parents as possible up touching their toes and star jumping and whatnot.

00:32:50Melissa Erbacher: Sounds like a lot of fun. Thank you for joining us today, Renee and Tim. And we've got Scotty too. You know, it's a monopoly on all the junior parkrun event directors in Australia. It's very exciting times to have the kids getting out there running 2K on a Sunday morning. So thank you for all the work that you're doing to make that happen. And it was lovely chatting to you both. Thanks, guys.

00:33:14Tim Oberg: You're most welcome. And, Mel, the word is triumvirate, the three of us. It's a triumvirate.

00:33:19Melissa Erbacher: Oh, I'm getting educated. Thanks, Tim.

00:33:22Tim Oberg: Google it.

Channel 5 News Crew

00:33:32Paul Kitching: G'day Scott and Mel and all parkrun Adventurer podcast crew. It's PK here, Paul Kitching, checking in with another roving report from South Australia. This time we are heading along to the launch of Jubilee Way. Finally, we have a J in South Australia. Jubilee Way is in Wynn Vale, which is about 20, 25 minutes north out of the city of Adelaide north near Golden Grove beautiful part of the world yeah it's going to be a great day I've just got here a bit early so I'm sitting in the car keeping warm it's a bit of a chilly one today may get a bit of rain but lots of people here I reckon the car park's just about full I reckon they'll get over 200 should be good numbers I reckon quite a few familiar faces, lots of people keeping their statesmanship up. I see, um, a few people dressed up. I reckon there's a monkey. I see there's, um, some people with, uh, tiaras on whether or not that's for the Royal wedding. I'm not sure. Megan Markle's here. I think not, not really. Well, someone, I think she's dressed up as Megan anyway. Um, and familiar faces also, which I reckon that's, is that day? No, it's surely it's not. Anyway, look, I'll, uh, I'm going to try and track down some of these people that I can see. I'd better get out of the car and get going, actually. The run's about to start, so I'll get over there and see if I can chat to some crew Before the run, looking forward to another awesome launch here in South Australia.

00:35:02Kieran: Okay, well, we are here, as I said, and I'm here with Matty Barter.

00:35:06Paul Kitching: Not Matty Barker from Mount Barker, but Matty Barter from... Where's your home run, Matty?

00:35:10Matty Barter: I live at Athelstone.

00:35:11Paul Kitching: And where's your home parkrun?

00:35:13Matty Barter: Lochiel Park, so...

00:35:14Paul Kitching: Lock Hill, fantastic.

00:35:14Matty Barter: Good to try something different.

00:35:16Paul Kitching: And you love getting out and about, mate. You're a fit man. That's it, definitely. So you rode your bike here, I believe?

00:35:23Matty Barter: Yeah, I rode from Athelston, so probably about 11, 12km, mainly hill work.

00:35:28Paul Kitching: Fantastic, good on you, mate.

00:35:30Matty Barter: Not expecting a PB today.

00:35:32Paul Kitching: That's alright, mate. Well, it will be because it's your first one. Yeah, that's true. So it looks like, have you seen the course? Have you checked it out yet?

00:35:38Matty Barter: I did the trial a few weeks ago. Okay, and what's it like? The first kilometre's got a nice surprise for you. Oh, good.

00:35:44Paul Kitching: Thank you. Should be good. Pretty good turnout. It looks like they've got good people here. How long have you been doing parkrun? What's your story?

00:35:51Matty Barter: Just over a year now.

00:35:52Paul Kitching: Great, so what are you up to then? Probably 30, 40? I'm not sure, about 25 or 26 or something. You get out and do a lot of other activities as well, don't you?

00:36:01Matty Barter: Yeah, a bit of a gym junkie as well. I do cycling and water skiing, all that sort of stuff.

00:36:06Paul Kitching: And what does parkrun mean to you?

00:36:08Matty Barter: I just love the atmosphere. You know, people, you can either be competitive if you want, which is great for people who want to be competitive, or if you don't want to be, it's a social run. So it caters for everyone.

00:36:18Paul Kitching: Brilliant, mate.

00:36:19Matty Barter: And you meet lots of new people.

00:36:20Paul Kitching: Well, Matty, it's always good to see you out and about, mate. You're a friendly face to see when you're out running. So have a great run, mate. And we'd better go. I think they're about to get ready.

00:36:29Matty Barter: Good to see you, mate. Yep, better get ready to run. Good on you, Matty. Good on you, mate.

00:36:32Paul Kitching: Well, we've done the run and the event, I should say. It was a run. It was a bit of a walk, a few hills, but beautiful, fantastic. I'm here with Kieran, who's pretty shy, doesn't like getting dressed up very much and isn't fit. Actually, I lied about all of that. How are you, Kieran? I'm good, man. How are you doing? Yeah, really good, mate. I see you're just taking off the monkey outfit and the tutu. Yes. And getting changed. You're not shy of a dress-up?

00:36:58Kieran: No, I don't mind dressing up, man. It's always good to have a laugh.

00:37:00Paul Kitching: And that's what parkrun is about, isn't it? Yeah, it is, mate. It is. Now, you're well known in the local parkrun circles for encouraging others and getting dressed up and having fun. But you've got a bit of a... What's your story? I mean, obviously, it's very obvious once you're getting changed here that you've got a little bit of a story there on your chest.

00:37:18Kieran: Oh, the zipper?

00:37:19Paul Kitching: The zipper. The zipper club. Yeah.

00:37:21Kieran: That's from a double heart bypass seven months ago. Wow. On the 17th of October last year.

00:37:25Paul Kitching: Oh, my God. So it's easy to remember. 17, 10, 17. Oh, wow. And you've obviously come out all right on the other side. There's a few things that need to fix, but I'm getting there. Well done, mate. Congratulations. How do you feel right now?

00:37:38Kieran: Good, good, because it's good to be around in the social running community. Of course.

00:37:41Paul Kitching: And that's what you need in life. Absolutely, mate. We do, don't we? You've been doing parkrun for a while then, before the operation?

00:37:47Kieran: Yeah, I've been doing parkrun for the last four years. Great. Good on you.

00:37:50Paul Kitching: Excellent. And any reason for the outfit or just because you just... Why not, mate? Why not, mate? I have seen you in a stormtrooper outfit. I'm trying to think of something.

00:37:59Kieran: Spider-Man's the fastest. And then there's the drag queen.

00:38:04Paul Kitching: Awesome. Nice work. And then there's the vampire.

00:38:07Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:38:08Paul Kitching: Well done, mate. What did you think of the course today? It is a good course. It's a bit hilly. Yes.

00:38:11Kieran: And it's more like a trail, a bit of a trail scenery. I love the trail part. Yeah, it's a good mix.

00:38:15Paul Kitching: Really good, isn't it? And I'm lucky I just caught you. You're heading off to No Doubt to do more crazy things today?

00:38:21Kieran: Yeah, I've got to massage a football team. Is that right? I'm trying to be a massage therapist. Oh, brilliant. I have to massage a football team and hopefully they might win a game. But the problem is they keep passing to the wrong team. Oh, no. I swear by the colour blind.

00:38:34Paul Kitching: Well done, Kieran. Good work today, mate. And great work as being part of the parkrun family. Thank you, mate. Cheers, buddy. Cheers, buddy. It's good, that. No worries, mate. And I'm here now with Keith. G'day, Keith. G'day, how you going? Yeah, good one, mate. Keith was one of the photographers today. You and Gary were out there, but this is your first official parkrun? Yeah. And the first official parkrun as a volunteer as well. Yeah, that's right. Well done, mate. So what got you involved in parkrun?

00:39:01Keith: Well, I just really wanted to be able to give back to the running community because I know how much the volunteers put into all of these and wanted to be part of that.

00:39:08Paul Kitching: That's a beautiful thing, mate. I could have written that script. Well, anyone could have written that script for you. That's the kind of stuff that we love hearing. Everybody loves hearing. But it just shows how it's pretty easy to be, well, not easy when you're a professional photographer like yourself, but it is pretty easy to put your hand up and volunteer because, as we know, parkrun does run on volunteers and it exists because of volunteers. So how did you hear about parkrun then?

00:39:33Keith: Well, I've heard about it through other parkruns. Lochiel Park's my local one. Oh, nice. But I know that one's very well volunteered and supported. So, yeah, I just put my hand up to see where else I could help out. So you've done Lockheel a few times?

00:39:47Paul Kitching: No, I haven't actually made it down there myself. So have you run any parkruns?

00:39:51Keith: Not in parkruns myself, but... Yeah, that's so great.

00:39:53Paul Kitching: I thought that was because I was thinking, hang on a minute... Am I talking to an experienced parkrunner here? But obviously you know of parkrun, but you've never actually done it, which is more than fine. My God, there's so many people out there that do that, you know, that they actually want to get involved by helping out, which is, you know, fantastic. parkrun, you know, idolises people like you, mate. Well done, Keith. And so you're a photographer yourself? I could use that term pretty loosely, but sure, why not? Looking forward to seeing how the snaps turned out. What numbers do you reckon they got here today?

00:40:26Keith: There were quite a few.

00:40:28Paul Kitching: What's your guess going to be?

00:40:29Keith: I reckon we must have got a couple of hundred at least.

00:40:31Paul Kitching: Yeah, I reckon mine's 277. Not because I love the number seven. Well, actually it is. But 277 is my guess. And yours is? Let's say 213. Okay. Well done, mate. All right. Well, I might even wander over to the token people and see where they're at and what number they've got. Well done, Keith. Good work, mate. Thank you. Congrats on everything. I look forward to seeing you out in another parkrun soon. Absolutely. Good on you, mate. Good on you. All right. I'm just going to keep on wandering and chatting. Well done. Looking good. That was there, one of the organizers. She's really, really done a smashing job this morning. Bit wet out here, but people are enjoying it. And I'm just going to wander over to the person hanging out the tokens. You're doing a mighty job. What number are we up to?

00:41:14Sue Jones: We're up to 275.

00:41:15Paul Kitching: Oh, I guess 277. So only two more people are allowed to go over the line. Okay, no. You've done well. Congratulations on volunteering today. Sorry, I just totally just wandered up. Sorry, I'm actually recording this conversation. I probably should have let you know. I'm PK. Sorry, what's your name?

00:41:30Cherie: Karen.

00:41:31Paul Kitching: G'day, Karen. Thank you for volunteering today. You're doing a mighty job.

00:41:34Cherie: You're welcome.

00:41:35Paul Kitching: Now, I'm a little bit nervous about talking to these people. I can hear them chatting away in the background, because they're experts at doing what I do, or try to do, because they're my joint roving reporters. Hi, Greta.

00:41:47Greta: Hello. How are you going, PK? Great to see you.

00:41:49Paul Kitching: And is this the legendary Dave Moss? Is that the Dave Moss?

00:41:53David Moss: The not-so-legendary.

00:41:54Paul Kitching: Ah, come on, Dave.

00:41:55Greta: I'm not convinced, because he's got shoes on. Can't be him.

00:42:02Paul Kitching: Now, this is pretty special to have three of us roaming reporters in the one place. I think it's actually in our contract, you know, that massive contract we signed. Actually, we have to at one point.

00:42:12Greta: With that huge pay rise?

00:42:13Paul Kitching: The pay rise, yeah, that we have to actually at some point have a threesome. So I'm just checking. I'm just going to go through this fine sound of looking through papers, Scott. Looking through the papers. Here it is. Oh, sorry, it says a three-way. Well, a three-way chat. I'm so sorry, I got that wrong. Okay, so we're actually ticking that one off the box. We're fulfilling our contract. Yeah, we're fulfilling our contract by having a three-way chat. Dave, what... As a triad. As a triad. What brings you to sunny, not so sunny, South Australia?

00:42:44David Moss: Multiple things. One of them was to actually do the letter J, which is Jubilee Way. Oh, well done. So I actually hung around for three weeks in glorious Adelaide. I come from Adelaide originally, so it's actually great getting back here. Nice. Multiple excuses, but more than anything else, it's great to actually get to Goolwa, which had just started. Oh, yeah, lovely one. What was the one last week? Cleland, which is one of my favourite courses. The wildlife is fantastic and all the courses around.

00:43:08Paul Kitching: There you go, John. See, people do love Cleland. They do.

00:43:11Keith: Did you see a kangaroo?

00:43:12David Moss: I did see a kangaroo, a koala, the sulphur crested, and the view from the turnaround point is one of the best anywhere. And I'm biased towards my home course, which is Kawana, which also has a fantastic turnaround by a lighthouse.

00:43:25Paul Kitching: Wow. I didn't realise that. Gosh. And what brings you?

00:43:29Greta: You should listen to the podcast.

00:43:30Paul Kitching: I should, yeah. Is there a podcast about parkrun? Yeah, there is. Oh, look, I'll send you the link. Oh, far out. I don't like parkrun very much, or podcasts, or talking. No, I know. Did we have fun today?

00:43:41Greta: It was awesome. It's just such a beautiful course. Yeah. And such a great atmosphere. Everyone was so happy. Lots of dogs, as we've heard.

00:43:50Paul Kitching: And 300 and... Yep, we're still recording. 303 people. For those playing at home, we were trying to guess how many. 303, that's awesome.

00:43:58Greta: I reckon that actually might be a record launch for South Australia.

00:44:02Paul Kitching: Brilliant.

00:44:02Greta: I was talking to John Laurie before and he said it never cracked the 300. No.

00:44:06Paul Kitching: A lot of happy people. It was a perfect day for it. Yeah, wasn't it? A lot of people, I reckon, and a lot of first-timers, hopefully.

00:44:12Greta: Yeah, let's put the hand up during the speech.

00:44:15Paul Kitching: And a lot of locals, hopefully, as well. So it's great. Obviously, this is the 27th, did we say, parkrun? And more to come. Port Augusta and others, so... it's um it's taking off it's all happening isn't it no we're loving it we're loving it well then guys well um we better go and do that thing we do after parkrun collapse oh no have a coffee Alrighty, this is your three roving reporters signing out.

00:44:39David Moss: Goodbye. Bye. Bye. See ya. Jubilee Way parkrun, we've just completed, and I'm speaking to... Karen. Karen, tell me, is this your first parkrun?

00:44:49Karen: No, it's not. This is my second time at Jubilee Way. I came to one of their trial runs, and this is their launch day, so I'm here today. But I've been parkrunning since Torrens started in Adelaide about four years ago, I think.

00:44:59David Moss: Excellent. And tell me, what did you think of this particular run?

00:45:04Karen: I liked it. It's very pretty. There was a couple of sneaky little undulations at the start, which always make it hard to get going, but it was lovely. It had a bit of bike path, some trail, some grass. So yeah, pretty good. I liked it.

00:45:17David Moss: Yes, there did seem to be quite a few undulations I found on the course.

00:45:21Karen: Yeah, they're always a bit nasty. It sort of makes your time a little bit slower than some of the flatter courses, but it's all fun.

00:45:27David Moss: And what got you into parkrun?

00:45:29Karen: Well I started running about 11 years ago and very quickly moved into ultra marathons and being a fairly typical ultra marathoner speed is not my focus it's more endurance so parkrun actually is my weekly speed session Oh really? Yes I would not run this fast in an ultra but something about all the crowds and getting that weekly time and being able to look at my splits it encourages me yeah and I like to really thrash it And what's your favourite distance? Favourite distance probably 100km

00:46:00David Moss: Right, not much more I need to say there. I will ask one other question though. Out of all the courses you've done, not including Jubilee Way, what would be your favourite parkrun course?

00:46:10Karen: Oh gosh, I really like Carrisbrook here in Adelaide because that's all trail and then you can't go past West Beach for the beach views.

00:46:20David Moss: Beautiful. Okay, thank you very much Karen. You're welcome David.

00:46:23Greta: Right, so I'm here with Elise and Matthew. How are you guys going? Good, thank you. How are you going Matthew? How did you like the parkrun today, the brand new parkrun? It was really good, so nice and close to home and great to see lots of people out here. Yeah, and is this your first parkrun? No. No, you've done parkrun before?

00:46:41Renee Gimbert: Yeah.

00:46:41Greta: Yeah, where do you normally parkrun?

00:46:43Renee Gimbert: Mawson Lakes.

00:46:44Greta: Lawson Lakes, so that's nice and close. Is this one closer to home?

00:46:49Cherie: This one's much closer to home, so hopefully we'll be able to jog down here as our warm-up and then do the parkrun and walk home.

00:46:55Greta: Oh, nice. What a nice start to the Saturday morning. Perfect start to a Saturday. And we're standing at the finish line here and people are still coming over and you guys look like you're waiting for someone. Yeah, we're waiting for our friends, Paula and Archie, who are doing their first parkrun today. Their first one ever. We're going to cheer them on, aren't we? We're going to cheer Archie on. Excellent. How old's Archie? Is he your friend?

00:47:13Deb: Yeah, he's eight or nine.

00:47:17Greta: Wow, I hope he likes his first parkrun. Well, thanks for coming along to Jubilee Way launch and I hope you'll come back again. We'll certainly be here.

00:47:26Deb: Thank you.

00:47:26Cherie: Thank you.

00:47:28Greta: All right, so I'm now here with the event directors for Jubilee Way parkrun. Cherie, how are you going, Cherie?

00:47:34Cherie: I'm fantastic. Fantastic.

00:47:37Greta: Now that the launch is done. And Deb, how are you going, Deb? Great.

00:47:40Deb: Head is spinning, but it's been great.

00:47:42Greta: It was a fantastic launch, guys. Congratulations. Really well done. So tell me a little bit about the course and a bit about the journey for getting Jubilee parkrun up, Jubilee Way, I should say, up and running.

00:47:55Deb: Sheree and I have been friends for some time now. Got together back in January. Sheree said, parkrun, Tea Tree Gully Council. I went, yep, I love that. I'm going to hang on to your coattails and let's do it. And we started the journey back in January and here we are on the 19th of May. We're up and running, literally. Yes, we've launched. And it's been a really exciting journey. It's been an interesting journey. I've learnt a lot about paperwork. More than you've ever wanted to know about paperwork. Probably more than I've ever wanted to know, yes. But, no, it's all been great. And the people who've helped us along the way, we cannot thank them enough.

00:48:34Greta: And so you've worked really closely with Tea Tree Gully Council on this one?

00:48:38Cherie: Yeah, the council has just been fabulous. So we started off with a lady called Paula Lewetham. She was our first point of contact. She let us know all these other people. We met with them. They're enthusiastic from the word go. They have come and put the sign on the course. As soon as we ask them to remove trees, they remove them. They fix up bits of it. We just cannot thank him enough. And then the mayor came today and did his speech, so it's just been fantastic. That is great, isn't it?

00:49:03Greta: And look, it is such a beautiful course. It's a lovely course, beautiful to run, although could you remove some of those hills? LAUGHTER

00:49:10[laughter]

00:49:11Cherie: I got the grader out, but I couldn't quite remove them. It's actually a challenging course. A lot of it is like... Do you want to just describe the course? Yep. So a lot of it is like bike paths, cement tracks for the first probably one and a half Ks. There's a bit of a climb. Then you go around the Wynn Vale Dam, which is just picturesque. There's ducks and pelicans and... Horses. Yeah, there's horses to pat. Well, maybe you shouldn't pat them, but I like to pat them. It's just glorious. And so that's a bit like kind of like Dolomite gravel sort of course. And then it goes all the way across the creek. When you go around the dam, it follows back along the creek and then you reverse it. So you get the whole view twice. There's koalas. It's just a beautiful, beautiful course. It is gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.

00:49:53Greta: And you guys have been involved with parkrun for a little while. What's your parkrun story, Deb?

00:49:59Deb: parkrun, I'm really late to parkrun actually. I don't know how I missed it because I love running. But I started down at Mawson Lakes. That was my home parkrun. Sorry guys, but I'm now making this one my home parkrun. You can always go and visit. Oh, I will visit. Don't you worry. um so yeah i just love the concept of parkrun that we're getting people out there who wouldn't normally be out and about i mean i understand these crazy people that i hang out with we love our running but it's the other people that we want and they're the people that were out here this morning and it was just to see their the smiles and the kids and the families and and that's parkrun i love it yeah and the runners and the walkers lots of walkers today wasn't that fabulous fantastic yeah fantastic it's just yeah couldn't have wished for anything better

00:50:45Greta: Well, welcome to the role of event director and thank you for everything that you've done to get this one off the ground.

00:50:49Cherie: Thanks, Greta.

00:50:50Greta: And Cherie, what about you? What's your parkrun story?

00:50:53Cherie: I did a few parkruns at Lochiel Park when it sort of was at the beginning stages, but I was just a regular runner. I wasn't serious into the parkrun. But then when Mawson Lakes was up and running, I was already part of the northern running group and I did a couple of the trials there and then I became run director and it all snowballed from there. And I didn't realise there was parkruns everywhere, so then... It just got exciting. And I was so much wanting a parkrun in this teacher gully area, so that's where it all came from.

00:51:20Greta: So this one's closer to home for you? Yes.

00:51:23Cherie: I'm only two kilometres away. And I'm hoping to encourage all the local school families from my school, which is an Art of 12 school, so there's a lot of older teenagers. So you're a teacher? Yes. So I'm hoping to encourage families and things to come here.

00:51:36Greta: so yeah yeah fantastic well well done ladies that's it was such a beautiful course great launch really great atmosphere great numbers congratulations well done thank you thank you very much thanks Greta thank you

00:51:50Lyndell Murray: Good morning parkrun Adventurers, it's Lyndell reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew and today I'm at the launch of Woodford parkrun. Brand new parkrun just northwest of Brisbane is where Woodford is. Woodford is part of the Moreton Bay Regional Council and famous mostly for its folk festival. It has a really massive folk festival here over the new year period and Look I tried to do a little bit more research about Woodford and the other interesting fact I found out is that up until 2010 Woodford was also famous for its fruit shop. It had a fruit shop called Elvis Parsley's Grape Lands. Apparently it's on Wikipedia so it must be true. Now we're about to start here I think so I'll head off and do the run and maybe I can track down some locals and find out some other interesting facts about Woodford. All right, I've found a group of semi-locals. They're not quite from Woodford. What's your name and what's your home parkrun?

00:52:53Unidentified speaker: I'm Andrew from North Lakes.

00:52:54Lyndell Murray: Marie from North Lakes.

00:52:56Unidentified speaker: Yeah, g'day there. I'm Michael from Nambour.

00:52:58Lyndell Murray: Nambour. So how did you find the course today?

00:53:00Unidentified speaker: Fantastic. It was a little bit rough underfoot. The terrain's a bit uneven, but aside from that, really, really nice track. It's something unique in southeast Queensland, I feel. There's not many like this. Maybe North Harbour as well. You know, you've got a nice field, a gentle slope. It's a nice park to run in, definitely a nice field to run in.

00:53:22Lyndell Murray: And not as hilly as Nambour, so that's also a win or not as interesting?

00:53:25Unidentified speaker: Oh look, not many are as hilly as Nambour. Ocean View, they gave us a run for our money last week, they're a bloody good track too. Everybody should get out and see Ocean View I think. So what was the question?

00:53:36Lyndell Murray: Okay, so the other thing I want to know is, since you live kind of in the local area, does anybody have any fun facts about Woodford? The correctional centre down the road. Oh, there's a correctional centre here? Yes, drop the kids off if they're misbehaving. And have you ever done that, Maria?

00:53:55Judy: No.

00:53:56Lyndell Murray: But it's a good threat on a road trip? Yes, definitely. Awesome. Anybody else got a fun fact about Woodford? Not for me. Okay, that's enough. Look, we're finding a lot about the local community. Thanks very much, guys. Thanks for talking to me on the podcast.

00:54:10Unidentified speaker: Sorry, thank you.

00:54:11Lyndell Murray: Thank you.

00:54:11Unidentified speaker: My pleasure. Thank you.

00:54:13Lyndell Murray: Alright, I've found a couple of Diagula locals. Now, Diagula is the neighbouring town to Woodford.

00:54:19Geoff Jones: Three kilometres away.

00:54:20Lyndell Murray: Three kilometres away. And what's your name?

00:54:23Geoff Jones: Geoff Jones.

00:54:24Lyndell Murray: Sue Jones. Excellent. And now, you were first-timers today at parkrun. How did you go and will you be back?

00:54:30Geoff Jones: Be back and liked it very much, yeah.

00:54:33Lyndell Murray: What did you like most about it?

00:54:35Geoff Jones: Just that we're out in the fresh air again and doing a bit of exercise for sure, yeah.

00:54:39Sue Jones: And how about you, Sue? We've been walking around the suburb of D'Aguilar to get practice doing the 5Ks, but it's nice running in the bush and the bellbirds singing, or whipbirds or whatever they are. They're beautiful.

00:54:49Lyndell Murray: I noticed them too. How beautiful were they?

00:54:51Sue Jones: Yeah, I hope they stay. I hope they don't start leaving on Friday night because they know the parkrunners are going to stay.

00:54:57Lyndell Murray: head for the hills i hope not my home parkruns bunyaville and there's bell birds there and they stay they don't they don't clear out for us yeah oh let's hope they're here next time they give you courage to keep going oh yeah the birds are still there oh it's beautiful excellent now the other thing because you're locals i'm looking for some fun facts about woodford can you help me out with anything there

00:55:17Geoff Jones: Yeah, we're at the local Woodford Bowls Club. We have a play it. It's an open mic session every Thursday night. It starts about 6.30, goes to 9.00. It's a nice early night. A lot of the people travel from Brisbane actually up to play there and sing their songs. We have a big mix of different music. It's really, really exciting. And then we have our bowls, of course, weekly events. And we're having an open bowls day tomorrow to try and encourage more people to come and play bowls.

00:55:53Lyndell Murray: Excellent, what would a country town be without a bowls club?

00:55:55Sue Jones: How about you Sue, have you got anything to add about fun facts about Woodford? My favourite fun fact is the drumming circle that runs on a Tuesday morning at 9.30 at Binnabi Place which is in the main street. We've got a group of mainly retired people that are learning how to djembe drum and then we've got some people from a respite centre that come and join in and we've got the residents from Embracia Nursing Home who walk down the road, wheelie walkers, wheelchairs, whatever. And they're all loving and they shake shakers and drum and it's one of the highlights of their week. They really look forward to it. So that's a great community thing that we do in Woodford every Tuesday.

00:56:30Lyndell Murray: Alright, so it sounds like, because everyone knows about the Woodford Folk Festival, it sounds like you're really embracing the music and the culture here in town.

00:56:38Sue Jones: Absolutely. A lot of people have moved to Woodford over the last 25 years when the Folk Festival moved here. As they've decided where to live, they've chosen to come up here in Woodford. And so now they give back to the community. This afternoon there's music at the cafe in town, Jealous Cafe. Everywhere you go there's music happening and a lot of that's to do with the folk festival and the good vibes that it gives out and the type of people that are choosing to live here now.

00:57:02Lyndell Murray: What a great story. That's excellent. Well, thank you very much for just shedding a bit more light on the local area here. Well done on your first parkrun. And hopefully I'll see you out adventuring at another parkrun soon. Thanks, guys. Oh, yeah, thank you. Thanks very much. Thank you. Judy, you're apparently a new resident of Woodford. How long have you been here? Oh, 28 years. And that's new? It is in the country communities, yeah, very definitely.

00:57:27Judy: And you did your first parkrun today. I certainly did and I haven't done any running for such a long time. It was great just to be able to walk the parkrun. That's it. Well, parkrun is welcoming to anybody. You can walk, run, jog, whatever you like. That's exactly it. Otherwise, I don't think I would have come if I felt as if I had to run.

00:57:46Lyndell Murray: So would half the people. Anyway, so we've talked a lot about, I've talked to a few other people about fun facts from Woodford and lots of cultural things and things like that. Is there anything else in Woodford like parkrun?

00:58:00Judy: Not that I'm aware of. I did see something on the Facebook about some boxing thing on at the Delaney's Creek Hall, but it happened to be on a Tuesday night when we do our African drumming.

00:58:14Lyndell Murray: I've heard about the African drumming. So you think something like parkrun that gets people out exercising is going to be a good addition for your community?

00:58:21Judy: Oh, brilliant, brilliant. I was a latecomer into the community for about 20 years. I lived here but worked in Brisbane. So I didn't know too many people in town. until I went to Gila's Cafe on a Saturday afternoon and realised they had music there. And so I got my husband to come along and we started to meet people, which has progressed to all sorts of wonderful adventures. And the fact that this exercise program is coming into it is just an absolute godsend. I wish there was more, but unfortunately we can't always come because we all have grandchildren, or I do. And my time commitment sometimes doesn't allow me a routine exercise. But a Saturday morning parkrun I think will be great. And you can bring your grandkids. That's right. I'm even trying to convince my husband to come. Oh, he'll be here in no time.

00:59:17Lyndell Murray: I can just tell that you're quite persuasive. Yeah.

00:59:22Judy: He's a bit of a hard edge.

00:59:24Lyndell Murray: All right, well, thank you for talking to me on the podcast. Thanks for having me here in Woodford, which sounds like just a real community here.

00:59:30Judy: It's an absolutely fantastic community. I'm so grateful.

00:59:34Lyndell Murray: Wonderful. Well, thank you very much, and we'll see you another time at parkrun. Will do. Thank you. Bye. Okay, so now I've tracked down Kelly and Kelly is the event director here at Woodford. How are you going today? How did the launch go?

00:59:47Kelly: Oh, the launch went excellent. It is cold. So I was very excited to see so many people get out of bed, which was great. So I think we had about 100 people. So that's great.

00:59:57Lyndell Murray: Excellent. And do you know there was a few people from surrounding areas and also some locals?

01:00:01Kelly: Yes. Yes, apparently there were people from over Ipswich and there was people from Redcliffe and we do have a few locals here. So yeah, it was nice to see them all. Excellent. And how did you go setting up the parkrun here in Woodford and what was the demand like? We started in September with an email that I sent to parkrun about how do I bring parkrun to our community and it just went from there. So talking to the show society out at the showgrounds here in Woodford then Melissa from parkrun she met with me and told me what I would need to do I was told it would be a long journey but it's been really good and so yeah just putting out there on social media about finding out how much interest and things like that would people have about it coming here and there's been an abundance Joe and Zara have come on board as run directors and they've been amazing. So without them, it'd be good.

01:00:58Lyndell Murray: Excellent. So it sounds like you've got the running community.

01:01:03Kelly: Thanks, guys. Coffee shops in town to warm you up.

01:01:07Lyndell Murray: I'm just saying goodbye to some of the locals. Sorry. No, no. So what was I saying? Oh, it sounds like you've got some local support and you'll have some volunteers moving forward.

01:01:17Kelly: Yeah, definitely. Today we had all the volunteers that put their name down turn up. So that was great. We've got a roster over there. So hopefully people have popped their names down for the following Saturdays to come. Yeah, so lots of interest. Excellent. And how did you get into parkrun? So I got into parkrun starting at Central Lakes in Caboolture. I just decided that to combat my anxiety that I have, exercise seems to be the key. So I just went from there. Wow.

01:01:47Lyndell Murray: So you started running to help you get over your anxiety and you just have then volunteered and thought, I'm going to give this a quack.

01:01:56Kelly: Yep. Okay. Yes, I did. Definitely. And it has helped immensely. So I just decided that there's obviously other people out there who also suffer from anxiety and things like that. And that, yeah, it'd be a good idea to bring it out to my hometown and give people an opportunity to socialize with each other and be healthy. Excellent. And you did have a few local first-timers here today, which is awesome.

01:02:18Lyndell Murray: Yeah, definitely. It was really, really good to see. Excellent. Well, so you mentioned Caboolture. And just to give people an idea, you head north from Brisbane, turn left at Caboolture. So there's Central Lakes at Caboolture. You can now stop at Woodford.

01:02:35Kelly: And your next one basically is going to be Wandi? Wandi. So we have one at Ocean View which is up near Mount Mee heading towards Dayboro and that's with Adrian and that team up there. That one just started last week. Yes, that launched last Saturday and from there I'm not sure to be honest where the next parkrun is, the closest one from here.

01:02:56Lyndell Murray: Yeah, I think if you keep heading out on the D'Aguilar Highway you eventually end up at Wandai parkrun so that's a bit of a hike so excellent. Well, thank you very much, Kelly, for talking to me.

01:03:07Kelly: Thank you so much for setting up this parkrun. No, that's okay. Thank you very much for coming out and bracing the cold weather this morning. Thank you and well done. Thank you.

01:03:15Scott Trickett: Okay. Remember us. This is... I'm Scott and Mel. Welcome back, Mel. Thanks, Scotty. That was... Well, Tim's been teaching us words. Give me a word for overload of roving reports.

01:03:31Melissa Erbacher: Oh... See, we can't outdo Tim's word. It's a very big word.

01:03:37Scott Trickett: And we're not good when I put you on the spot. And vice versa, I've got to say.

01:03:42Melissa Erbacher: Well, if you can think of a word, go for it.

01:03:44Scott Trickett: No, that's why I put you on the spot. Okay. But we didn't have the episode last week, so let's acknowledge the events that launched, and we've heard from some of them there. We've heard from Woodford and Jubilee Way, but there was also one at Cobar in New South Wales. Tiny little town, but they had a good turnout to their launch, which was great.

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

01:04:10Melissa Erbacher: Well, that's awesome to hear. There was also one in Euroa in Victoria. Yeah. I'm hoping I spelt it correctly when I typed it out, but I'm hoping I pronounced it correctly.

01:04:22Scott Trickett: You did. Euroa. Looked like a cracker as well. I think I'm going to head up there. I think that's one of the ones where I think I'm going to go on an adventure to Yoroa.

01:04:30Melissa Erbacher: You can start trying to catch up to your co-host.

01:04:34Scott Trickett: Well, are you going to North Sydney this week? Because they're launching.

01:04:38Melissa Erbacher: I am not going to North Sydney this week. I don't always go to launches, Scotty.

01:04:41Scott Trickett: Okay. But that's it. They're the only ones that are launching this week.

01:04:46Melissa Erbacher: They are. New South Wales gets to have one, which is very exciting, another Sydney parkrun. But we do have a whole bunch of anniversaries happening, and they're going to kick off with Ballina Coast in New South Wales.

01:05:00Scott Trickett: Castlemaine in Victoria.

01:05:02Melissa Erbacher: Devonport in Tassie.

01:05:05Scott Trickett: Highlands in Victoria.

01:05:07Melissa Erbacher: Looks like Victorian ones are every second one. We've got Mawson Lakes in South Australia.

01:05:12Scott Trickett: And you guessed it, Mount Beauty in Victoria.

01:05:15Melissa Erbacher: Then there's another mountain. We've got Mount Penang in New South Wales.

01:05:19Scott Trickett: And Penrith Lakes in New South Wales.

01:05:22Melissa Erbacher: And we're going to round it all up with the ponds in New South Wales.

01:05:27Scott Trickett: There we go. So tell us, where are you going this week? What's the new event? Let's announce beforehand that you're going so they can make a big fuss.

01:05:37Melissa Erbacher: So they can make a big fuss. I think there's probably only one person in that state or territory that listens to the podcast. Hi, Mark. How are you doing? I'm headed back to the Northern Territory this weekend.

01:05:49Scott Trickett: Oh, this is a real adventure. I thought you were just going to Yanindi or something.

01:05:54Melissa Erbacher: No, no, no. I've got a New Year's resolution to chase down. And it's not getting any easier, so... I'm headed to the Northern Territory to grab myself another compass point.

01:06:09Scott Trickett: Okay. So you've done Darwin.

01:06:11Melissa Erbacher: I have.

01:06:12Scott Trickett: So you're not going back there?

01:06:13Melissa Erbacher: I am not, no. You know which one's the northernmost parkrun in Australia now, right? I've got no idea. We've had this discussion. I wasn't paying attention. It's Nightcliff. Nightcliff. Also has a very cool name.

01:06:28Scott Trickett: Yeah, that's all I remember about Nightcliff. The cool name. And Knight Rider. Kit. David Hasselhoff.

01:06:35Melissa Erbacher: Well, I will be able to tell you all about it next week.

01:06:39Scott Trickett: Well, it gives me something to look forward to. I was a bit worried about episode 113 because I am superstitious. So I thought we might skip that as well.

01:06:48Melissa Erbacher: I'm pretty sure 113 is not an unlucky number. Yeah.

01:06:50Scott Trickett: Well, it's got the 13 in it, so.

01:06:52Melissa Erbacher: Okay.

01:06:53Scott Trickett: We should skip it altogether.

01:06:55Melissa Erbacher: And just go straight to 114? Yep. We've got some very exciting guests for next week.

01:07:01Scott Trickett: Do we?

01:07:02Melissa Erbacher: Super true adventurers, yes. But we shouldn't give away too much more because we did promise. In fact, I think we hinted at who they might be a fortnight ago when we had episode 111, but we haven't given it away yet. And, yes, we'll be talking to them next week.

01:07:22Scott Trickett: Okay, because they were going to be on this week, but we bumped them for juniors and also because they're real adventurers. They're hard to pin down.

01:07:29Melissa Erbacher: They are. Well, you know, they had a little case of being in Italy when we were originally going to talk to them. So, you know, it was talk to the parkrun adventurers or go to Italy for a parkrun adventure. And to be honest, I can't hold it against them.

01:07:46Scott Trickett: I can.

01:07:48Melissa Erbacher: You sound a little bit offended.

01:07:50Unidentified speaker: Well.

01:07:51Scott Trickett: I mean, I've never met them.

01:07:52Melissa Erbacher: If it was between listening to our podcast or going to Italy, if it was between recording our podcast and going to Italy, no problem. I would record our podcast in Italy.

01:08:04Scott Trickett: Let's wrap up this because otherwise next week's interview could be a bit awkward.

01:08:11Melissa Erbacher: Well, thank you for joining me. I'm glad you're feeling better. I hope you get out on that run and that we didn't talk too long.

01:08:18Scott Trickett: Well, it's getting dark. No excuses. I've only got a few more, maybe 15 more minutes of daylight, and I don't have my head torch.

01:08:28Melissa Erbacher: Scotty, legs don't know if it's dark, okay? They still work. Just no more excuses. Go get it done.

01:08:36Scott Trickett: What else is happening in your world, Mel?

01:08:39Melissa Erbacher: Get it done.

01:08:43Scott Trickett: Got any new recipes? We always talk recipes.

01:08:48Melissa Erbacher: I'm hanging up now. I'll talk to you next week after you have a run or two or five.