Episode 150 - Lloydy

Welcome

00:00:18Melissa Erbacher: I need to figure out another word for welcome. And whatever that word is, that's what you all are to episode 150 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Mel. My co-host name is Scotty. How are you doing this week, Scotty?

00:00:35Scott Trickett: Arigato, Mel. Now, I don't think that is welcome. I don't even think that's hello. [Japanese: "Thank you, Mel."]

00:00:44Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, it's hello.

00:00:46Scott Trickett: Is it hello? I think it actually might even be thank you.

00:00:50Melissa Erbacher: Konnichiwa, it's hello. [Japanese: "Konnichiwa [good day / hello], it's hello."]

00:00:53Scott Trickett: There you go.

00:00:55Melissa Erbacher: But it's definitely not welcome. I think bienvenue, is that welcome in Spanish? [French: "bienvenue = "welcome" — French, not Spanish, as Scott corrects at [00:01:02]."]

00:01:02Scott Trickett: That's French.

00:01:05Melissa Erbacher: I don't think it is. Bonjour is French, but it's not welcome. [French: "Bonjour = "good day / hello"."]

00:01:10Scott Trickett: Geez, you're off to a good start. While we're staying on theme, have you heard we're launching parkrun in Japan?

00:01:15Melissa Erbacher: Well, yes, we did mention it in the podcast a couple of weeks ago.

00:01:22Scott Trickett: Now, by the time this episode's out, everyone will know when it's launching and where it's launching.

00:01:28Melissa Erbacher: Are you sure?

00:01:30Scott Trickett: Yep. But I'm not going to say in case something happens in the next day or so.

00:01:36Melissa Erbacher: That's probably wise.

00:01:39Scott Trickett: So let's talk about it on episode 151 because there is some significance to the parkrun adventurers and the Japan launch.

00:01:48Melissa Erbacher: Is there?

00:01:49Scott Trickett: Yeah. You'll find out next week.

00:01:51Melissa Erbacher: Looking forward to finding that out. Cool. New country coming on board.

00:01:59Scott Trickett: But this week we're all about celebrating 150 episodes, which is really only 149. Yeah. But we've given it the label of 150, so it's party time.

00:02:12Melissa Erbacher: It is party time. And we are going to get out the scissors and the sewing machine, cut our 100 shirts and 50 shirts in half so we look like some sort of version of the court jesters with half black and half red. So we have a nice 150.

00:02:29Scott Trickett: Hey, you mentioned 150 shirt there. I want to take this off on a tangent that's somewhat related. Okay. This is one of the good things about parkrun, right? Everyone is treated equal. So as you all know, well, maybe you don't know, but a couple of weeks ago, I ran my 250th parkrun. And when you reach such an illustrious milestone such as that, you get a t-shirt. So I went through the process of waiting for my email and then going through the ordering.

00:03:00Melissa Erbacher: Waiting for your email? Do people even get emails anymore?

00:03:04Scott Trickett: Yeah, you get an email saying, congratulations, you've achieved your milestone. You can now order your shirt. And this is what I'm saying, Mel. Despite working for the organisation, no privilege, I've got to wait. And I went through the process, put my order in, and it's in pre-order. So I've got to wait a couple of months for my shirt. But you know what I also did?

00:03:25Melissa Erbacher: Tell me.

00:03:26Scott Trickett: I don't fit into my old shirts anymore. So I was tempted to order the large, thinking that way at least I'll fit into it and I'll be happy to wear it. But then I thought, well, I've got a couple of months to wait for it. Maybe that could be my motivation to actually get moving for the next couple of months so that when my shirt does arrive, I'll actually fit into it.

00:03:46Melissa Erbacher: So it's like you're the bride who has bought A couple of sizes smaller than she actually fits into in the hope that she will lose weight before the wedding.

00:03:57Scott Trickett: Yep. I'm that bride.

00:03:59Melissa Erbacher: Okay.

00:04:02Scott Trickett: So fingers crossed. I've got about, according to parkrun Global, I've got about two months to wait. No. God, it's longer. I've got to wait three months.

00:04:10Melissa Erbacher: Okay.

00:04:11Scott Trickett: Before it arrives, which is fine. I might actually do something.

00:04:15Melissa Erbacher: Well, it's a good way as we enter into autumn and winter to keep you motivated, I guess.

00:04:21Scott Trickett: Yep. And I started on the right track on Saturday.

00:04:24Melissa Erbacher: Okay. Where were you parkrunning?

00:04:27Scott Trickett: We went down to Frog Hollow parkrun. I visited Frog Hollow for event number one, their launch five years ago, and returned for their 251st, event on Saturday. And the reason we were there is because as a coach now, I'm not sure if you're aware, but I'm an accredited coach. I've been coaching up my Westerfoldian buddies. We did a six-week program on the track on the proper athletics track to try and improve improve our running and we all headed down to Frog Hollow which is the known one of the known courses in Melbourne if you want to go and get a PB because it's dead flat it's got a good reputation for running quick times So, en masse, the Westerfoldians hit up Frog Hollow in search of our parkrun PBs. And I'm glad to say that a few of the Westerfoldians got an actual PB. A lot of them ran their fastest time in a number of years, including my beautiful wife. And I, yeah, it was a successful, happy day. And I ran with Kasia. And it is a fast course because Kasia and I, we ran really well for 2K with the introduction of Junior parkrun. That's kind of it for Kasia. It's like, no, two Ks enough. Let's just walk the rest of the time. That was fine by me.

00:05:50Melissa Erbacher: So I'm impressed that some people that you coach actually have improved. You're taking full credit for this, I'm assuming.

00:06:00Scott Trickett: Absolutely. Yep. Yep. Yep. Some may think it was a team effort. I didn't take every training session, but I'm taking most of the credit. And they did all the work and they achieved all the results.

00:06:15Melissa Erbacher: Team effort.

00:06:16Scott Trickett: Team effort. But I'm very happy. I'm very happy for them, for everybody. It was a good morning.

00:06:21Melissa Erbacher: Awesome.

00:06:22Scott Trickett: How was your parkrun morning?

00:06:25Melissa Erbacher: My parkrun morning was fairly quiet. It was a bit overcast, nothing super exciting to report home about. I volunteered again at my home event, so everybody's been there, heard that. We don't really need to go into it. Adam didn't steal any tokens this week, so I'm taking that as a win.

Interview Gregory "Greg" Lloyd ("Lloydy") — Ginninderra parkrun (Canberra) regular; daily-run streaker and global parkrun tourist

00:06:55Scott Trickett: Now a little story popped up on my social feed a couple of weeks ago and it was a little story coming out of Malaysia where one keen globe-trotting parkrunner had visited a few different parkruns in a few different countries and we thought we need to speak to this gentleman. So welcome to the parkrun adventurers, Mr Greg Lloyd. Hello, it's nice to be here. It's great to have you. It's a very formal intro, Greg, or we might just go with. What are you, Greg? Are you Lloydy? Have you got a nickname?

00:07:24Gregory "Greg" Lloyd ("Lloydy"): There's a funny story about that. My name is Gregory Lloyd, but I prefer to go by Greg. But I, a couple of years ago, got some parkrun shirts done with my surname on it. And so about half of my home parkrun call me Lloyd, I think as a joke now.

00:07:40Scott Trickett: Right. Okay, well, let's go with that. You're Lloyd to us. But Lloyd, you went to parkrun eight weeks in a row, but the unique thing about it is they were in eight different countries. That's right. Remarkable feat. How did you orchestrate it?

00:07:56Gregory "Greg" Lloyd ("Lloydy"): Well, I guess I first had to go on holiday. So I went on quite an extensive six-week holiday to Canada and the USA and to Europe. And I just made sure that I was in a parkrun city every Saturday. And it wasn't too hard. Each of those countries has a parkrun nearby. I made sure, of course, to be in a city that had multiple parkruns in case there was a cancellation. And then I guess it just sort of all happened. It all worked out quite well to get to each of those countries in that holiday. Now, then I got back to Australia and I saw on my Facebook feed somebody by the name of Tony Jennings from Sydney had just taken sort of a record, as it were, of seven countries in a row. And I thought, well, I'm not going to be outdone. So I booked a holiday to Auckland and I booked a holiday to Malaysia over the subsequent weekends. And so that brought me to eight countries in total.

00:09:00Melissa Erbacher: It's a pretty impressive number. Did you specifically not extend, I mean, obviously time and money are always a factor in these things, but did you not just want to like smash the record and go for 10 or 12 and just make it really difficult for other people?

00:09:18Gregory "Greg" Lloyd ("Lloydy"): Life gets in the way. I had to go back to work at one point. So that would be trying the friendship to take even more leave. So I had considered heading to Singapore for the weekend, but after Malaysia, it was pretty tiring to sort of leave work on a Thursday afternoon and be in a Southeast Asian country for the Saturday morning. So I decided that maybe I'll just leave that one for my next holiday.

00:09:45Scott Trickett: Can you recap the eight weeks for us, Greg? Like what countries did you go to and which parkruns did you visit?

00:09:51Gregory "Greg" Lloyd ("Lloydy"): Yeah, sure. So the first was in Canada and it was a really nice parkrun in a sort of a forest area called Duffins Trail outside of Toronto. It was extremely cold, minus 11 degrees and just snow and ice everywhere. But I came first. I was very excited. I think that'll never happen again. Uh, then I went to, uh, Washington DC, uh, one of the parkruns, the one that I wanted to go at Roosevelt Island was actually cancelled. And so. Because of the government shutdown. So I went to Anacostia, which was nice. It was a wonderful parkrun. Um, that was along the river. Uh, very nice and really nice people as well. So that was great. And then we went on to Sicily, uh, in Italy, uh, in a town called Palermo. Uh, the park on there is called Foro Teleco, uh, and that was on the sort of seaside. Very nice, a big long stretch of the ocean. Again, great people. I guess this is the common theme about parkruns. Everybody is just so generous and kind. Then after that, Copenhagen at Amager Strandpark, which was sort of on the ocean again. It was a bit of a blustery day, but they were very hospitable there. Then down to Nida parkrun in Frankfurt. And so... The Germans, they don't have such a great reputation for being friendly, but these guys were extremely friendly. They were wonderful people. Then it was back home to my home parkrun of Gin and Dera. Gin and Dera, I've run it, I think, about 190 times now. So I really, really like it and it was probably my favourite of the eight. But I won't tell everybody that except on a podcast. And then it was across to Western Springs in Auckland. That was really quite an interesting parkrun. It was next to the zoo. There were lots of ducks. There's a whole corner of the parkrun that you run past twice that is just completely saturated by duck poo because there are about a billion ducks in the area. And then on to the Malaysian parkrun at, I'll probably butcher this name, but I think it's Taman Udu Pudu or something like that. And that was extremely hot, but in quite a nice park that's been built up in the middle of the city. So that's the eight in a row. And I don't want to pick any favourites other than my home parkrun.

00:12:15Melissa Erbacher: Oh, you're sabotaging my questions. Well, okay, you don't need to pick favourites. However, I am going to pick out Sicily. How did you find that one? Because it's one that my hubby has recently highlighted. He loves to window shop. I don't like looking at things that I can't have anytime soon. But he loves to go and check out all the things that we could do or could see and that sort of thing. Were you in Italy for very long and specifically Sicily? And what else did you do while you were there apart from parkrun?

00:12:51Gregory "Greg" Lloyd ("Lloydy"): Yeah, so I was in Sicily for I think five days. Overall, you know, it was a lot of museums and the nature, dreaded cathedral that everybody has to go to in Italy and Europe more generally. There's always a cathedral to visit. And so a lot of that was about the antiquities of the area. Sicily is quite interesting for all of that. And the old town of Palermo particularly is quite nice. As a holiday destination, absolutely go there. It was great. We also spent some time in Milan, which also has a parkrun, but we didn't get to because we were there midweek. And Milan is also an excellent holiday destination. I think the whole of Italy probably is a great destination.

00:13:38Scott Trickett: I want to take you back to your Canadian parkrun. Now, I don't want to destroy the glamour of coming first, but how many people ran? Was it Diffins, Duffins Trail that day? Duffins Trail. Duffins Trail. Yeah.

00:13:52Gregory "Greg" Lloyd ("Lloydy"): So it was a snow day in Toronto and a lot of the other parkruns in Toronto had been cancelled as a result of what was expected to be really bad weather. And Duffins Trail went ahead and we got, I think, 10 people. So there was some competition. I think it wasn't that I blitzed the entire field, but it was a fairly small field.

00:14:15Scott Trickett: So the experience, very foreign to us in Australia to be running in those sort of conditions. Like, is it super cold? Is it slippery? How does it work running in the snow?

00:14:26Gregory "Greg" Lloyd ("Lloydy"): Interestingly, if there is a good bed layer of snow, it's actually quite easy to run on. It probably has the consistency of gravel when you're running on it. So I did quite a bit of running on my holiday in other parts that weren't parkruns.

00:14:42Melissa Erbacher: Easier than duck poo?

00:14:45Gregory "Greg" Lloyd ("Lloydy"): Certainly, yes, I'd say so. So the snow itself just sort of crunches underneath your feet and you're all very good. If there's ice, it's quite sort of treacherous in that sense. And sometimes ice is hidden by the snow. So you have to be a little bit careful. But I went hell for leather on Duffins Trail because... I knew there was nobody in front of me.

00:15:04Melissa Erbacher: Were you knackered when you got home? Because that is a big effort. And to do two more weekend trips as well afterwards, I'm tired just thinking about it, to be honest. I love a good adventure, but that's huge.

00:15:22Gregory "Greg" Lloyd ("Lloydy"): I personally wasn't tired just from the holiday and certainly not from the running. I am a streak runner, and that doesn't mean that I run without clothes. That means I run every day. So regardless of parkrun or not, I cover at least five kilometres a day. So overall, the holiday didn't really tire me out. Getting to Auckland and back in essentially 24 hours and getting to Malaysia and back in about 48 hours was fairly tiring. It was very difficult to sleep in the aircraft. And so that sort of made me think that perhaps that was enough.

00:15:58Scott Trickett: Okay, Lloydy, tell us about this streak, because it's an impressive streak. We've spoken to a few streakers in the past, but yours has stretched out for more than one year, more than two years. How long have you been going?

00:16:10Gregory "Greg" Lloyd ("Lloydy"): I've been going since mid-2014, so it's coming up on my fifth sort of birthday for that in a couple of months.

00:16:19Scott Trickett: Which equates to how many days streaking?

00:16:22Gregory "Greg" Lloyd ("Lloydy"): Mate, I'd have to check my log, but I think it's at 1,748 days for me now.

00:16:28Scott Trickett: God. And why did you start? Do you remember the reason why?

00:16:32Gregory "Greg" Lloyd ("Lloydy"): I don't recall, to be honest. I think I just wanted to challenge myself to begin streaking, sort of seeing if I could run every day and, you know, avoid any of the pains and aches of the day off. And I just kept going. So a bit like Forrest Gump.

00:16:53Melissa Erbacher: Kind of on the theme of being a streaker, but not exactly. One of the challenges, one of the running challenges that exist for parkrun adventurers such as yourself, Lloydy, it's called Groundhog Day. And it's not easy to accomplish. You can get a Groundhog Day by doing two events in a row, two weeks in a row, and achieving the same finish time. You've done this three times, which I'm pretty sure is the record. There's like X amount of people who've done three Groundhog Days. And I don't believe there's anyone who's done four times. Was that intentional? Did you even know you had three Groundhog Days? You're just a really consistent runner? Talk me through it.

00:17:42Gregory "Greg" Lloyd ("Lloydy"): Right. Well, to be honest, I've never heard of this until now. So it's probably just a matter of being a consistent runner and getting basically exactly the same time each week. I haven't even sort of considered that. I know there are lots of challenges out there, like the second challenge and the alphabet challenge, but I don't really head in for those very much. But I'll be looking at parkrun groundhog days just to sort of see which ones they were and how I got them.

00:18:14Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well, you did – so you did the first two at the beginning of 2016, in January 2016. Then you did the second two – well – It's the second Groundhog Day, I guess, the two runs in a row at the end of 2016. And then you did another one in the middle of 2018. So... There you go. Yeah, there you go. I was just impressed because I would never even be able to do one, I'm pretty sure, two in a row. So, yeah, to have three... I mean, there's another record for you to go for because nobody else has got four. So... If you play your cards right at Jindy, you can just run the same time two weeks in a row. But obviously it's tricky because you have no control over the person who is volunteering as the Timekeeper and whether or not their response to you crossing the finish line is going to be exactly the same.

00:19:11Gregory "Greg" Lloyd ("Lloydy"): I guess I could aim for the patch and hope that they click at exactly the right time.

00:19:17Melissa Erbacher: You could. Some people might call that manipulation, which is what I try to do with the stopwatch bingo. But I think it's legitimate and fair play.

00:19:30Scott Trickett: Hey, before we let you go, Lloydy, tell us, we haven't had anybody on from Ginninderra, but it's one of the very first events started up in this country. Tell us a bit about your home parkrun.

00:19:40Gregory "Greg" Lloyd ("Lloydy"): Yeah, so I didn't realise that it had been set up, as I sort of explained earlier, when it had sort of started. And I sort of wish I'd got in sort of that half a year earlier than I did. But essentially, it's a parkrun that's at a local park. We have an artificial lake, like all of the lakes in Canberra, called Lake Ginninderra and we meet at the John Knight Memorial Park down here in Belconnen. And the course takes us along a bike path that goes around the edge of the lake and then over into sort of a reserve peninsula next to the lake, which has sort of great gum trees and other sort of forest area. And so I really like getting out there on a Saturday morning and running with everybody around the lake. It's the same lake that I run most mornings, except I get to do it at 8am when the sun is shining. It's a really great group of people and we're really hitting high numbers at the moment here in Canberra. So we're seeing sort of 300 plus parkrunners, but it still feels like a really nice little community.

00:20:51Melissa Erbacher: What's next, Lloydy? You've got the record in the world for most consecutive events in different countries. Where do you go from here? What's the next big adventure?

00:21:04Gregory "Greg" Lloyd ("Lloydy"): Well, I think definitely I'm not going to stop going to other parkrun countries. So I am very eager to get to South Africa and Namibia and Eswatini to check out their parkruns. If I can build that into a nine week streak or into maybe a 10 week streak, then perhaps I should do that. But I think I might just play it cool for a bit and just try some Australian tourism for the rest of this year.

00:21:35Scott Trickett: We need to find out from Ian Hay, our stats man, whether anyone has visited every parkrun country in the world. So I think that's a goal you might be able to aim for. lloydy but well done on the recent streak thanks for joining us on the parkrun adventurers this week it's been a great treat thank you my pleasure

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Melissa Ellis — Rosebud

00:22:04Melissa Ellis: Good morning, parkrun adventurers. It's Melissa here. I'm coming to you from Rosebud. Now, I'm sitting here in my car because I don't want to look like a dill wandering around talking to myself. But before I start, I just want to congratulate our very own parkrun adventurer, Channel 5 News crew, Tony O'Connell, a.k.a. TOC, who this morning will be completing Run Down Under. Now, Tony's completing it down at Sunny Inverloch, and I'm very sad I couldn't be there this morning. So all my thoughts are with you this morning, Tony. I've sent Paul and Zoe, so Team Ellis is represented. I hope you have a big crowd and you have a really lovely time. You're always so supportive of everybody else in everything they do. So I hope you get a bit of love and, yeah, have a great time. But meanwhile... I put my hand up to volunteer down on the peninsula, so I'm at Rosebud parkrun. Rosebud's been featured on the podcast before, so I had to do a bit of research, listen back to the recordings, so I made sure I didn't repeat anything that had been said before. Rosebud is about 75 kilometres south of Melbourne, and it's the biggest town down here on the southern peninsula. When I was growing up, Rosebud was the popular summer holiday destination. It's got many caravan and camping grounds around, and the foreshores actually... quite well known for its camping area, which still exists, and it's one of the largest camping areas around on the peninsula. Also, Rosebud has been known as being a popular sea change destination for retirees down in Victoria. It's also home to many young families now, so suburbia is spreading and, yeah, it's no longer... the tiny little seaside suburb. And, yeah, so I'm going to go and see who I can have a chat to. Okay, I'm here with Ian Crawford. Ian's lovely wife, Nadine, was on the podcast last week sharing stories of your recent New Zealand adventure. What I want to know, I know that you guys travel around here. You've converted a little van for camping and that.

00:24:23Ian Crawford: We have.

00:24:23Melissa Ellis: You couldn't take that to New Zealand. Well, I tried.

00:24:27Ian Crawford: I tried, and I found, look, we only went for two weeks, so it wasn't really possible, but if I could have got it there, I would have done. So we had a van very similar to that one, and we did the South Island of New Zealand, and yes, people last week would have heard all about our adventure.

00:24:42Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I expected that you might have done that holiday camping thing, and those... little camper vans that you hire. Yes. So I know you from Berwick Springs. So way back.

00:24:53Ian Crawford: That is going back a little bit, isn't it? Wow. Yeah. It's right back at the start of the parkrun adventure.

00:24:58Melissa Ellis: Yeah. But then you guys moved and you ended up running at Hastings.

00:25:04Ian Crawford: Yes, Nadine and myself moved to Rosebud. Well, it'll be four years in July, in fact. So for the first nearly three years, we crisscrossed the peninsula every Saturday morning. And occasionally one of us wouldn't want to get up, but the other one would egg them on and say, no, we're driving. So it's a half hour drive over to Hastings from Rosebud. And we love Hastings. But yes, we clocked up a few kilometres, hence why Rosebud came into being.

00:25:34Melissa Ellis: Yes, and I actually noticed your first tourist run was Kawana.

00:25:39Ian Crawford: Kawana up in Queensland. Is it really?

00:25:41Melissa Ellis: Yes.

00:25:43Ian Crawford: Thanks Mel, I never would have remembered.

00:25:45Melissa Ellis: Well, I just thought that was relevant being that our podcast co-host is from Kawana. Absolutely. So there's the connection and she is also a Zoolander and I believe you're a Zoolander.

00:25:54Ian Crawford: I am a Zoolander. If I can just get my hands into the Z, I'll give the special sign later.

00:25:59Melissa Ellis: You'll have to do it today for Tony because he's at Inverloch. He's a Zoolander.

00:26:04Ian Crawford: He's a Zoolander as well.

00:26:05Melissa Ellis: And he's completing Run Down Under this morning.

00:26:07Ian Crawford: Fantastic.

00:26:08Melissa Ellis: Anyway, so anyway, you guys came here and you are co-EDs, founding EDs of Rosebud. That's right. Just quickly describe your course.

00:26:17Ian Crawford: So the course here is for people that don't like hills. It's extremely flat, so it runs along the bayside for its entirety. So we've got a little bit of a mixture here, mostly asphalt paths. There's a little bit of boardwalk and just a little bit of dirt at either end as well. But it's a very friendly parkrun because you actually pass the start and finish line twice on your way through because it's a two-loop, essentially, of the same thing. So you're never on your own on this parkrun, which is a little bit nice for people that feel lonely. There's always someone around.

00:26:54Melissa Ellis: With the older demographic down at Rosebud, that fits in really nice with the government's push to get more older Australians active. Do you notice that you have an older demographic running?

00:27:06Ian Crawford: Oh, we've got a large mixture here. We do have the Peninsula Masters who have made this their own, and that's a group of the southern part of the peninsula here, and they get up to all sorts of athletic endeavours. They're here week in, week out, rain, hail or shine. Those guys are always here. So, yeah, they're older guys. We do have a huge mixture from families upwards, though. It's a great mixture. But I guess the older guys, they really like the community. And that's something we've tried to do down here at Rosebud, is build the community.

00:27:36Melissa Ellis: Now, here's the big question. Is there room on the peninsula for another parkrun?

00:27:41Ian Crawford: There's always room for another parkrun, Mel. You know that.

00:27:43Melissa Ellis: I do. No talk of one? No.

00:27:47Ian Crawford: There's rumours. There are rumours. I've heard Frankston is quite likely. Frankston's at Northern Peninsula. Mornington's talked about too. I've even heard Arthurs Seat whispered about, but no-one's put one of these on the table yet. I believe Frankston is the most likely, but no-one has actually started.

00:28:05Melissa Ellis: Then again, it took a long time for it. Lots of talking about Rosebud for a long time before it got going. We'll just have to hope.

00:28:14Mark Scarborough: We're hoping that.

00:28:15Melissa Ellis: Thanks very much for talking to me today, Ian. Thank you.

Roving report Mark Scarborough — Gungahlin

00:28:19Mark Scarborough: Hello parkrun adventurers, this is Mark from Canberra and today I'm back at my home parkrun in Gungahlin after adventuring for my last 11 parkruns. For those playing along at home and listening to last week's podcast, today is Gungahlin's 287th event, which I believe is a Wilson Index Scott and Mel have not yet collected. Gungahlin is a region located in the northern side of Canberra. Gungahlin is an Aboriginal word meaning Little Rocky Hill. Gungahlin has seen dramatic growth over the last couple of years. From the 2011 census, the population grew from 46,971 to 70,871 in 2016, making it one of the fastest growing areas in Australia. As the population has grown in Gungahlin, so has the Gungahlin parkrun community. From when Gungahlin parkrun started in late 2013, getting under 100 attendees each week, we regularly see around 300 attendees each week now. The last time I ran Gungahlin was on New Year's Day when a total of 599 people took part, breaking the previous record set on New Year's Day 2018 with 519 that year. Gungahlin also holds the record in Canberra for the most number of participants at a parkrun in Canberra. On New Year's Day people could run the double at Gungahlin and then at Tuggeranong. Of the 599 people that participated at Gungahlin, 324 made the trek to Tuggeranong in South Canberra to achieve the double, along with another 268 others, making it 592 running at Tuggeranong. That record of 599 is way above the average number of finishes per week of 185. Last year, even during the winter months, Gungahlin did not drop below 100 finishes. The lowest number of attendees was 55 at event number 11 in 2013. Of my 135 parkruns, I've run 105 of them here. This is way up on the average number of runs per runner of 8.1 at Gungahlin. The person with the highest number of runs at Gungahlin is Brendan Brady, with a total number of 207 runs. Brendan is also the original Event Director at Gungahlin. Gungahlin parkrun is a nice flat loop course around Yerrabi Pond. Being such a flat course it is also a quick course. The average run time at Gungahlin is 31 minutes and 12 seconds. The male record holder is Olympic marathon runner Martin Dent with a time of 14 minutes 25 which he set at event number three back in November 2013. That is also Martin's fastest ever parkrun of all 90 that he has completed. He holds the course record at a number of other parkrun events. Martin completed the 2012 Olympic Games coming in 28th with a time of 2 hours 16 minutes and 29 seconds. The female record holder is Paige Campbell with a time of 16 minutes 08, which she set only last month on her first visit to Gungahlin, breaking the previous record by 56 seconds. The top 24 fastest times are men, and that is Paige in 25th place. It's not until you get to the 60th fastest time when you find the next female, which is Marnie Ponton. Paige also holds the course record at Orange and Dubbo. Paige will certainly be somebody to keep an eye out and could one day be representing Australia on the international scene. Here at Gungahlin, the first parkrun day of each month is PB Day, where Pacers set out to encourage people to challenge themselves for a PB. This month on PB Day, Gungahlin had the biggest crowd excluding the last two New Year's Day runs, with 389 runners. On that day, 96 people achieved a PB. That is 25% of those who took part on the day. With a total distance run here at Gungahlin of over 265,000 kilometres, that puts us 70% of the way to the moon. Next time you're in Canberra, join us at Gungahlin parkrun to help us get closer to the moon. I guarantee you'll love it here at Gungahlin parkrun. I'm here with Rose, and Rose is visiting us from international. Where are you from, Rose?

00:32:14Rose: I'm from Vancouver Island, British Columbia and Canada.

00:32:17Mark Scarborough: And what brings you to Australia?

00:32:19Rose: Well, this is a country we've always wanted to see and we also have family here. So it's been nice to be able to see them here and enjoy their country.

00:32:29Mark Scarborough: Now, and I've been told that this is your second parkrun and second parkrun at Gungahlin.

00:32:34Rose: Yes, and the first one was here as well. And what a beautiful run it is.

00:32:39Mark Scarborough: It is a beautiful run. Now, you're a visually impaired runner, I believe.

00:32:42Rose: Yes, I am. I am a B2 athlete, which is... The type of restriction of vision I have, I have about 5 degrees vision, which most people have about 175 peripheral, so I don't have any peripheral vision. And also I'm partially deaf as well.

00:33:00Mark Scarborough: And you've been able to find some local people here at Gungahlin to act as a guide for you the last two weeks.

00:33:05Rose: Yes, it's been incredible. The support here is just amazing. Both guides, Victoria and Sophie, have been awesome. And for Sophie, it was her first time, and it was as if she was pro.

00:33:19Mark Scarborough: Now, you're also part of a group that does reach out and support each other, other people who are visually impaired, so what's that group?

00:33:26Rose: Yes, my husband, I met my husband in a running club and we both qualified for Boston, so I wasn't going to run it because I was afraid to do it with my vision loss, and my partner had volunteered to guide me. And it was an amazing experience, and it was something that I was unfamiliar with, and my husband is familiar with guiding, so he decided to start up a club or a Facebook page called Running Eyes. And the idea was to pair visually impaired people runners to guides wherever we go if we want to travel or some somewhere we can meet and run it could be for an event or training even triathlon training and stuff so it's been amazing yeah that is um that's good that you know there's that support network out there and you said it is in an international group as well so people all continents

00:34:26Mark Scarborough: That's good. So everybody can get out there and experience running. And how awesome is that you got to do Boston? That's something that I don't think I'd ever get to do, but it would be a fantastic experience.

00:34:36Rose: It is. I mean, it's every runner's dream, really. And funny enough, it was my worst run ever, my slowest marathon. But you know what? That didn't matter because the hard work was paid off just getting there.

00:34:49Ian Crawford: Yeah, what an achievement.

00:34:51Mark Scarborough: Well, thanks for coming to Gungahlin and enjoying parkrun with us here and good luck with all your running.

00:34:56Rose: You're most welcome. Thank you for having me here.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:34:58Melissa Erbacher: Scotty, I feel like I've been foiled. Well, I thought we were setting a hard task for Mark because it can't be easy. It can't be easy to join the Channel 5 News crew. Like Melissa had to go hunting. She had to take doughnuts and pineapple chocolate, you know, to lure a Mel and a Scotty to the events that she was attending. And what has Mark done? He's just happily happened across a Wilson index. And see, this is the thing. I don't think we – I think – I don't want to use the word cheat because it wasn't a cheat. He played by the rules. I actually really enjoyed listening to all the information about Gungahlin. So nailed that. Totally nailed that. But I think to make things fair – the Wilson index number needs to be under 100.

00:35:59Scott Trickett: Right. So I think what you're saying is that we didn't really think it through properly.

00:36:03Melissa Erbacher: Oh, I know.

00:36:04Scott Trickett: Because if we did, it's pretty obvious what he could have done, and that's exactly what he did. But I give him credit because in last week's episode, Mark said he's actually taking a break. He said, that's it. I'm done. You won't hear from me a while. So he's gone out and submitted another roving report. Well, he didn't have to, and he caught up with an international parkrunner, and we learned a lot about Gungahlin. So I just want to go on record that I'm okay to admit him to the Channel 5 News crew. Okay. But there is some internal debate here.

00:36:38Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I'm not okay with this. It's not supposed to be.

00:36:42Scott Trickett: It's just on the record that you're the bad guy now.

00:36:44Melissa Erbacher: Well, Mark, here's the thing. You know, this is supposed to provide us with content, and banter stuff for weeks and weeks to come, okay? You know, it's, ah, could you just, I mean, come on. Okay, so yeah, no, I'm not okay with this. I'm a pregnant woman. It's my prerogative to change my mind and change the rules, and I'm calling it, Scotty. You call yourself the boss of the podcast, but maybe I could be the boss of the Channel 5 news crew. And, Mark, we're upping your game. The Wilson Index has to be under 100. And maybe we need to make him find a Mel and a Scotty wherever he is too.

00:37:31Scott Trickett: Is that it? Well, no, I'm not going to question it. I'm going to leave it up to you. And, look, I hope Mark's coming to the Listener Meetup in a couple of weeks.

00:37:41Melissa Erbacher: I hope so too. It would be awesome to meet him in person.

00:37:44Scott Trickett: I am, and Melissa Ellis was down at Rosebud chatting to Ian, following on from our chat with Nadine from the previous week. You know, Nadine was great, but Ian, what a voice.

00:37:58Melissa Erbacher: He's got a voice for podcasts.

00:38:00Scott Trickett: And Melissa Ellis also gave a shout out to TOC, who completed Run Down Under. I don't know if you can get your head around that. He ran a long way. Like, it's a long way. A few people have done this run down under thing, and it's remarkable. But Toc averaged 80 kilometres a week was one of the stats I read.

00:38:21Melissa Erbacher: For more than four years. That's crazy.

00:38:24Scott Trickett: I would like one week of 80 kilometres.

00:38:28Melissa Erbacher: I'm quite happy not to have 80 kilometres. But yeah, kudos to you, Toc. That's just incredible. It really is. And I don't know whether or not you're planning on running around another country now, because I do know you can run around Europe. If that's going to be the thing, but I'm sure you're not going to stop. So more power to you.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:38:54Scott Trickett: Let's tackle, it's a bit of a quiet one on the calendar this week, Mel. So no launches again, but we have two anniversaries. One of them's close to home for us, sort of. Remember PK? I mean, when he entered the Channel 5 News crew, he didn't have to jump through hoops or submit challenges. He was just lucky enough to be the first member. But are we putting him on notice? Because we haven't heard from him for a while.

00:39:21Melissa Erbacher: Well, see, that's the thing. He was quite prolific when he first started reporting in for us and did quite a bit of adventuring around and stuff. But, yeah, PK, what's going on?

00:39:34Scott Trickett: Well, here's his perfect opportunity because his home event, Mount Barker, is having their anniversary on Saturday. It would be great to hear from it, hear some of the fun and festivities. Yeah. So maybe, maybe, PK, if you want to remain in the Channel 5 news group.

00:39:56Melissa Erbacher: You know what, Scotty? I don't know if he even listens anymore. Do you reckon? He might hear this in like six weeks' time and go, damn it.

00:40:05Scott Trickett: It would break my heart. It would break my heart if we lost PK. But also, St. Lucia is celebrating their first – I reckon it's their first – No. Yeah, I reckon.

00:40:16Melissa Erbacher: Aren't we up to number two already in St Lucia?

Flashbacks

00:40:19Scott Trickett: Let me Google it. While I Google it, let's go to the Flashbacks. No. Flashbacks is over, Mel.

00:40:27Melissa Erbacher: There's no more living in the past, Scotty.

00:40:29Scott Trickett: No.

00:40:31Melissa Erbacher: What do we do now?

00:40:32Scott Trickett: I don't know.

00:40:34Melissa Erbacher: Well, I'm Googling St Lucia because I'm sure it's got to be at least two years. Ah, I stand corrected. It will be event number 53. There you go.

00:40:46Scott Trickett: Now, we were going to talk about iTunes reviews. We got a couple. And we're going to put it in the Facebook post this week. Remember, we had that controlled scientific experiment. So we're going to ask for more iTunes reviews. We got a couple. Not happy with one of them.

00:41:00Melissa Erbacher: Not happy with one of them.

00:41:02Scott Trickett: Not happy at all. Well, I think there was a five-star comment. I read them, people.

00:41:08Melissa Erbacher: What were the comments?

00:41:10Scott Trickett: Well... If you want to, go and read it on iTunes. I invite you all.

00:41:16Melissa Erbacher: Okay.

00:41:19Scott Trickett: Palm's coming up in a couple of weeks' time.

00:41:23Melissa Erbacher: Have you been practicing? I would be lying if I said no. No, no, definitely not. Do you want to practice that?

00:41:37Scott Trickett: I think it comes in now. Ready? Go.

00:41:39[music]

00:41:40Melissa Erbacher: You know what I'm struggling with? I don't think I've got that one. Is the baritone dropping my voice? Yeah, it could be quite interesting or embarrassing. We might have to embargo people who want to record it. A little bit nervous. Have you been practicing, Scotty?

00:42:07Scott Trickett: No. Well, yes and no. It's come on a few times and I've tried to sing along. But, yeah, I might have dutted myself a bit because Bradley Cooper is an actor who sings, so he's only got a couple of lines. Lady Gaga is a singer who acts. She does. So she kind of carries the song. And unfortunately, I've nominated myself to play her part.

00:42:37Melissa Erbacher: I can't wait.

00:42:38Scott Trickett: We'll see how it goes. We'll see how it goes.

00:42:41Melissa Erbacher: Only a few more weeks.

Sign-off

00:42:43Scott Trickett: How long have we got? Three weeks. Yeah, Jesus Christ. Okay, I've got to go and practice. See you, Mel. Chat to you next week.