Episode 156 - Dr Lindsey Reece

Welcome

00:00:01Scott Trickett: Last week we left you on a cliffhanger. Who is going to be my co-host this week? I won't leave you waiting any longer. Let's find out in episode 156 of the parkrun adventurers.

00:00:08[music]

00:00:12[21 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:00:33Melissa Erbacher: Can you tell who it is just from my ta-da?

00:00:37Scott Trickett: I can. I wonder if the listeners can.

00:00:40Melissa Erbacher: I think you might also be able to tell from the fact that you knew ahead of time anyway, Scotty.

00:00:46Scott Trickett: Yeah, I had a couple of other giveaways. But you're back, Mel. I thought you wouldn't last much longer, but here you are, one more week.

00:00:55Melissa Erbacher: Hey, look, Scotty, you... It was you. It was my obstetrician. It was my yoga instructor. Everybody thought I wouldn't be here this week. So I buck the trends. That's what I do. And, hey, I'm going to bring something to everybody's attention because I did have a couple of concerned people get in touch with me after the podcast last week to see if I was feeling okay because I sounded terrible. I hope you do. Yeah. I had to explain to them that – We actually recorded early in the morning last week, and obviously you're a morning person and you still have your stellar morning voice, whereas I just sound sick. And you, being my co-host, should have brought that to my attention, so I could have gone and had a drink of pineapple juice or something to warm up the larynx. But this week, you sound a bit poorly, Scotty. What's going on?

00:01:52Scott Trickett: Oh, look, it's been an absolute crap couple of days for me. But let's not dwell on that. Let's not dwell on that. A bit under the weather.

00:02:02Melissa Erbacher: And when I say you sound poorly, I mean, the voice is still pretty good. It's just different.

00:02:07Scott Trickett: Good.

00:02:08Melissa Erbacher: So I think we can make it work for you. But I'm sure you'll get some messages telling you to feel better anyway.

00:02:14Scott Trickett: Look, I'll tie this into the tales of the weekend because it all went downhill around – for me anyway, particularly after juniors, but on Saturday. I went down to Berwick Springs, parkrun. Shall we do this now?

00:02:31Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Please tell me about your weekend.

00:02:33Scott Trickett: Yeah, well, last week we said I was going back to Berwick Springs after a six-year gap. Not much has changed. Park's still there, still looks beautiful. Community's still intact and loving parkrun. Michael was celebrating his 250th parkrun, and I think he was at the first event at Berwick Springs that I was at. So there was some nice synergy there. But we were there celebrating the Medibank parkrun hero, Tim. And we dressed him up, made him look a bit silly, put him in a cap and a bandana and made him look like a superhero that he is. And everyone else got buffs. You might have seen these on social media, Mel. If you haven't, you need to get along to – first, you need to nominate your parkrun hero. And then hope that they come to your event because we're giving out these Medibank parkrun buffs that I think will be pretty popular.

00:03:22Melissa Erbacher: Cool. Always handy through the winter.

00:03:24Scott Trickett: Yeah, yeah. And I had some great chats with some volunteers there, the Event Directors and the ambassadors for that area. It's always good catching up. But after that, I had a bit of a rough old day on Saturday, fronted up to juniors on Sunday, not feeling well. And then after that, it just all went tits up for me. And I did end up in the hospital. Didn't want to, but I went in for a bit of a checkup because things weren't working. And they said, you need to get to ER. pretty bloody quickly.

00:03:57Melissa Erbacher: Does anybody really want to end up in hospital?

00:04:00Scott Trickett: No, no. And it's a frustrating experience, Mel, because you just, you wait. You spend a lot of your time waiting. Then they test and then they scan and then they take bloods and then they tell you that nothing's wrong, basically. Or something's wrong, but they don't know, so... Go away and hope for the best. Okay. So it's going to put a little bit of a limit on my running over the next couple of weeks potentially.

00:04:27Melissa Erbacher: Okay. Well, you know, there's a difference between having a few weeks off and taking things easy to ease back into running and then going all out and dying and therefore you can't ever run again. So I think let's err on the side of taking things easy.

00:04:46Scott Trickett: Yeah, as much as I love running, I like living a bit more at the moment. So I'm going to err on the side of living.

00:04:52Melissa Erbacher: Yes, let's do that. For the next couple of months. And look, you cannot – I know I'm female. However, I have witnessed enough man flu. I'm actually surrounded by it in my own home at the moment. It's taken down both the men in my house. One's a toddler and one's a full-grown one, and they've both been very man flu-y. So, you know, you can't underestimate the power of man flu. And if that's what you've got and or anything else more serious, then, you know, you've got to take these things seriously. Okay.

00:05:24Scott Trickett: Look, I hope to God it's just man flu at this stage. But give me some good news, Mel. Did you have a great parkrun day?

00:05:32Melissa Erbacher: Good news. Yes, I did have a good parkrun morning. This was – well, you know, Wesley was sick, but Adam wasn't sick by that stage. But it wasn't too cold or anything like that. I was volunteering. However, I did – Did you go to Yarrabilba?

00:05:49Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:05:51Melissa Erbacher: Why would I go to Yarrabilba? Did I mention going to Yarrabilba last week?

00:05:55Scott Trickett: Yeah, you were sleepy last week. Yeah, you said you were going to go there.

00:05:59Melissa Erbacher: Did I?

00:06:01Scott Trickett: Yeah, when they were having their anniversary.

00:06:03Melissa Erbacher: Oh, they were having cake, weren't they? cake yeah obviously didn't entice you that much well no the thing is I am erring on the side of not being too far away from the hospital where I'm hoping to deliver my child at the moment so that's a good idea yeah so everybody's erring on the side of some kind of caution at the moment and and that's my cautionary tale is let's not go too far away from the hospital where I would like to deliver the baby because um If you end up finding yourself in a hospital that's further away from home, it's not as convenient for anyone, basically. So, yeah. Okay. So, no.

00:06:44Scott Trickett: So, you're back at home at Kawana.

00:06:46Melissa Erbacher: Stayed close to home, volunteered, did the first-timers briefing and got to welcome all. We're getting a lot of tourists still. I don't know what's happening. Like, it's not particularly – it was last weekend.

00:06:58Scott Trickett: That wasn't – Tourism's big, Mel. Tourism's big. There's this podcast that promotes it a lot. And I think it's just taking off. People want to tour all year round. It doesn't have to be a seasonal thing.

00:07:09Melissa Erbacher: No, it doesn't have to be a long weekend or any other kind of excuse. I mean, it was Mother's Day weekend, maybe –

00:07:16Erin: Maybe that had something to do with it.

00:07:18Melissa Erbacher: I don't know. I just feel like there's a lot more adventurers adventuring out and a lot more first-timers. Even though the weather is cooling down, I don't know about you guys, but it is getting a bit cooler up here. You know, jumpers and flannelette pyjamas have all been cracked out and everything. You know, we've had to buy new winter pyjamas for Wesley because last year's winter pyjamas only reach his elbows and his knees. So that's all going on at the moment. But I'm really impressed with how many people are still showing up at parkrun for the first time, even though it's cooler.

00:07:56Scott Trickett: I can ask you a question about – so you did the first-timers briefing. So this is a new role. I think we've talked about it a little bit before. But can you tell us about – there's a few more roles that have been introduced into the volunteer roster of late and encouraged teams to do. One of them is the first-timers brief. So tell us why – and you did it – why we should do it.

00:08:17Melissa Erbacher: Why we should do it. Well –

00:08:19Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:08:21Melissa Erbacher: There's a few reasons. So, I mean, we've always done one at Kawana, whether or not that's been the Run Director doing it or we had a dedicated volunteer, which we kind of embraced several months ago now, actually. Because for starters, it's a nice way to introduce some people to volunteering. It's a role that doesn't require technology, which can, I understand, scare some people. So it's a nice gateway role from that perspective. But it's also an opportunity for people who might not feel comfortable talking in front of big crowds to still have a chat to small groups of people. Some people are more sociable, so that's just kind of a role that would suit them more anyway. But You always get the people who it is their first time either at parkrun 100%. They've never been to one at all. And I don't know if you remember back to your very first parkrun, Scotty, but I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I was nervous. I needed a little bit of guidance and a little bit of reassurance and having a dedicated team, briefing for the first-timers that didn't involve the whole crowd, just to let us ask questions if we needed to, to allay any fears, wonder what the hell we were doing with this little piece of paper that had a barcode and our name on it. You know, do I need that at the start? Do I need that at the end? Like, what's the course like? And all that sort of thing. It can be really quite nerve-wracking.

00:09:55Scott Trickett: I like the idea that it appears on the roster too. So if you are a first-timer and, you know, if you're really anxious about going and you look at the website to death, to cover all angles. And then you see that there is somebody there who's going to give you the first time as briefing. I think that's going to allay some of your anxiety and, and hopefully make it a welcome place. I mean, I've, I've, I think I've talked about my, my first parkrun wasn't great. The very first time I went to parkrun, I liked it enough to start my own event. Um,

00:10:26Melissa Erbacher: But there was a bit of a gap between those two things happening, though, wasn't there?

00:10:30Scott Trickett: There was. And there was a bit of a gap in what should have been a great experience on the day and what actually happened on the day. And I reckon through the years and the experience of parkrun, we're filling in that gap, hopefully, so that the first-time experience for a lot of people is a lot more enjoyable. I'm sure we've all heard stories of first-time experiences have gone wrong.

00:10:54Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. Well, look, and I mean, we're never probably going to get it 100% right, but I think it's a big positive step in the right direction to have a dedicated volunteer. And you're right, people who do do things for the first time often do a bit more research on the website. And yeah, seeing the dedicated role there, that will also be a help and an encouragement. But it's also true, you know, it's really nice to be able to welcome adventurers and tourists from other places and things like that. And that's part of what the First Timers Brief does as well, you know. It makes people feel comfortable away from their home event and makes them realise that, while every parkrun is different, you know, essentially we're all the same as well. So, and it points out, you know, a lot of the safety things about the courses and things like that. And yeah, like I said, it gives people the opportunity to ask questions where they might not feel comfortable and it might not be appropriate in the general big brief that gets done before the event. So, plus, you know what I love about doing it is, is you get to see the faces and, you know, clock the people and go, oh, that person, okay, they're wearing this shirt from that run club or, you know, they're in those shoes. And then when you see them finish afterwards, you can actually ask them how they went and you have a lot more freedom, I guess, to – to be able to identify those people and it's not just, oh, who don't I know? I'll go and have a chat to that person. But if you're the person who's performing that role and has introduced people to your course, then it's a lot easier for you to cheer them over the finish line and then grab them when they, you know, can breathe again and actually ask what they thought of the course and did they enjoy themselves and, you know, hopefully have a chat and get to know some new names.

00:12:56Scott Trickett: Now, for some of our other listeners, our keen parkrunners who love to run every week, there's another role that we're encouraging people to do?

00:13:05Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, there's another new role, which is a bit cool, which is also something that I think has happened a lot in different places for safety reasons as much as anything. Another role that's probably been performed largely by Run Directors as well as part of their role. And that's the... The pre-event course check is – I'm not sure if that's the exact title of it, but that's effectively what it is, is somebody who goes and checks the course out before the event in the morning. So often we have people who do this anyway because they have to go mark up the course. You guys do it at Westerfolds. You've got to go put signs and things like that out. We don't have signage that we put out at Kawana, but we do – you know, check the course to make sure that there aren't fallen branches or things like that. Often in the past, it's probably been done more just following inclement weather for a lot of events, but it's standard at the majority, I would expect. So it's another opportunity. And see, this is another beautiful thing about both these roles. People can perform these volunteer roles and they can still run or walk or jog. And so they'll get credit for both.

00:14:24Scott Trickett: Yeah, what I like about it is that we're broadening. So we're sharing the load. So some people just don't want to time keep and scan and finish tokens. It's not what they want to do, but they can definitely see themselves running around the course beforehand, doing their warm-up if you want, but also helping out by just checking the course and making sure everything's okay. And I like this, the fact that now it's going to be open for everybody. So it's not just the onus is on the Event Director and the event team or the Run Directors to perform that role. Let's put it out to the public. Let's put it out to the parkrun community and say, who wants to do this? And I reckon it'll be a popular role. And it's good that it's being done every week because, yeah, I reckon there's a few events that send people off down the path and they're not really sure where they're sending them.

00:15:13Melissa Erbacher: Or they don't realise that there's a tree branch down across the path halfway along and things like that.

00:15:20Scott Trickett: Yeah. Yeah. So there you go. There's a bit of news for you. Thanks for that, Mel. Still making you work even though you're on –

00:15:30Melissa Erbacher: maternity leave yeah well you know you can't you can you can take the uh what's the what how can I express this you can take the volunteer out of parkrun but you can't take the parkrun out of volunteer no that's probably not quite right that's baby brain I know what you mean once a volunteer always a volunteer

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Interview Dr Lindsey Reece — parkrun Global (Academic) Research Board member, Australian representative;…

00:16:08Scott Trickett: If you go back to season one of the parkrun adventurers, we caught up with Dr Steve Haake, who was the head of the parkrun Global Research Board. Four years later, we're going to inject a bit of an Aussie influence into it with Aussie Dr Lindsey Reece. Welcome to the parkrun adventurers, Lindsey.

00:16:26Dr Lindsey Reece: Hello. Great. Thank you for having me.

00:16:30Scott Trickett: That's a very unique Aussie accent. Thank you. You're on the Global Research Board, but you're based here in Australia, but you are British as well.

00:16:42Dr Lindsey Reece: I am, yes. Sadly, my accent gave me away. I actually used to work with Steve Haake back at Sheffield Hallam, who hosts the Global Research Board. So it's great that I can kind of feed on from his podcast way back when.

00:16:55Scott Trickett: So when we talked to Steve, it was a fascinating talk about research and what role it plays within parkrun. Can you just give us a refresher for everybody who wasn't listening four years ago? What is the role of the Global Research Board?

00:17:11Dr Lindsey Reece: So the Global parkrun Research Board essentially has been set up to help support parkrun globally globally, talk to the academic community and I oversee kind of high quality research that happens around the world which kind of put simply is about all the kind of data and all the stories that come through different countries and that engage your parkrun how we actually use that to tell the parkrun story and Steve Haake chairs that research board and that research board is kind of it's made up of a range of different people some of them academics and research geeks like myself but we've also got kind of practitioners and clinicians on there as well to really get like a real broad a broad skill mix. And I kind of sit on it from the Australia's perspective. And the benefit of having that kind of influence from different countries is that obviously there are certain stories that you want to tell that are more relevant to some countries than others.

00:18:07Melissa Erbacher: And how do you get involved, Lindsey? Like at what point did you join the research board and how did that all come about?

00:18:17Dr Lindsey Reece: Yeah, great question. So essentially I actually worked at Sheffield Hallam where the chair of the research board sits a couple of years ago when the global board was much smaller and when it was starting building momentum. And then through some other research I was doing around kind of health and well-being and the role that physical activity plays in like helping people live healthier lives. I was invited to be a part of it to kind of help them tell the parkrun story. And I guess the individuals all came together at different points and And then last year, we actually had a bit of a refresh and a bit of a stop take. And that was led by Steve to kind of say, is the board operating as we want it to be? Have we got the right people around the table? So we were invited back on last year. And that's where that kind of coincided with my move to Australia, which was very exciting. So I could kind of have the benefit of seeing how it began in England. And then obviously with my role here in Sydney, it was really great to then still be a part of it to kind of share some of the Australian stories, which I found really, really fascinating.

00:19:16Scott Trickett: So, Lindsey, the idea that parkrun plays this role, it's a 5K run every Saturday morning. Why do we need a research board and what impact is that having beyond parkrun? Can you elaborate on that at all?

00:19:32Dr Lindsey Reece: Yeah, for sure. So there's a lot of academics and clinicians out there that kind of work with individuals on a daily basis that have different chronic diseases or are kind of wanting to become more physically active. And I guess parkrun is a real great example of probably one of the only community led physical activity programs. events that happens globally around the world and within that there's many of us that are really interested to explore what role parkrun has in helping people live healthier lives and we know that people if you're kind of inactive or if you're from different areas of the kind of countries um it's actually harder for you to come become more physically active and also some people don't always realise the benefits of being active and kind of moving in your everyday life and the impact that can have on health and well-being so the benefits that parkrun have is yes I'm sure those people turn up on Saturday morning and get involved for their own individual reasons and actually it's all those kind of individual reasons that we're really interested in exploring because if parkrun can really help people come together, meet people in their local area. And it kind of has so much broader benefits than just being seen as a 5K walk or run. People, and I'm sure like all the different stories we've heard around the world, people saying, I've made friends. I feel better in myself. People that have had a cancer diagnosis saying it enabled them to kind of build up after treatment. There's all those powerful stories. And the reason the research is so important is that anything that can help us contribute to the knowledge and evidence that clinicians use every day or anything that can kind of be used to help people become more active, that's really powerful.

00:21:07Melissa Erbacher: And how does the research, like the particular topics and the things like that that gets focused on, how does that get arrived at? As the research board, do you guys like keep an eye out for people who are working in particular fields? Are they approaching you? Is it 50-50?

00:21:25Dr Lindsey Reece: Yeah, so essentially the board has a cut. So parkrun globally decided there was a couple of priorities in this space. And that kind of comes from a lot of evidence and a lot of insights that tells us that there are certain factors in life that influence whether somebody is physically active or not. For example, we know that people from communities where English isn't a first language from communities that are quite disadvantaged and deprived, disabled people, we know that there are certain barriers in place that stop them from being active. So some of the priorities around where we should research and where we should be focusing some of our efforts in working with those communities to get them more active, they really drive our priorities. So within that, children and young people are really critical, engagement and the impact on parkrun in reaching some of those communities that I just mentioned, and also kind of exploring some of the value, kind of what value is parkrun giving back to communities, whether that's social value, whether that's economics. So I guess we've got a few priorities that, as an organisation, parkrun have kind of prioritised. And then what we do is obviously we have very clear processes. So if any academic or researcher or clinician wants to do research with parkrun, they complete an expression of interest form that comes to the board and then we review those applications. So we've kind of set priorities that parkrun are proactively pursuing. And then we also get individuals coming to us to say, I've got an area of interest or I've got significant expertise in, for example, volunteering in sports, can I kind of do a piece of work on this? So it's a little bit of like, it's a 50-50, I would say. And we really encourage people to get in touch with us if they're interested in doing research. And then we have those processes in place, which kind of help us then guide our resource and then help us kind of select which research we support and which ones we don't.

00:23:17Scott Trickett: So with all these applications coming in and you're reviewing them, you must come across some that are a bit like,

00:23:24Dr Lindsey Reece: left field outside of the box thinking can you share any of those with us like the ones that parkrun hasn't thought about already but somebody wants to do some research on oh that's a really interesting one so nothing really comes to mind I guess we sometimes get very specific projects that are um very very kind of in a very niche area so some people do kind of phds on very very um targeted research whether it's you know a certain way the knee moves or um you know a really finite um area of like knee osteoarthritis so we do get some quite technical um technical projects in um but you know what nothing really left field comes to mind I have to say um The majority I've had lately have kind of been around volunteering. So sometimes you see kind of waves. You see kind of trends of projects coming through. And I think in Australia particularly, there's a real trend to look at volunteering. I think more and more we're kind of looking at the benefits of volunteering, the benefits of volunteering can give you against health and wellbeing and, um, social connectedness and meeting new people. That's an area that is actually fairly under-researched. Um, and through some work that we've kind of done with sport, we see some sports really struggling to recruit volunteers yet parkrun it's purely delivered by volunteers. So I think we've seen probably more volunteering proposals coming through maybe in the Australian setting. Um, or I've definitely had more conversations where they've actually translated into, into a application. I'm not sure. Um, But yeah, you definitely see kind of like trends and peaks and troughs of certain areas coming through. But no, sorry, I can't think of a really crazy left field one.

00:24:59Melissa Erbacher: We must have a lot of sane people who want to get into the research and things like that. Lindsey, you're a doctor. I'm not even sure what you're a doctor of, but you got the PhD or the DR or the MD. Well, no, you probably don't have an MD because I'm assuming it's academic. But what is your field of expertise and why are you particularly interested in

00:25:25Dr Lindsey Reece: in the research that we do around parkrun itself yeah so um again definitely some might say not a real doctor um yes why didn't my PhDs are still real doctors you just don't have to get up when somebody's you know choking on a plane do you want the plane the plane example always comes up because I know the plan like we've got a doctor on board um My PhD was actually in working with teenagers who are severely obese, um uh back in England um and that's actually a few years ago now and was actually working to kind of help them kickstart weight loss to kind of prevent them having weight loss surgery so that kind of sounds um a little bit kind of a bit removed from parkrun but essentially my interest has always been throughout my career in different jobs is always the the role that physical activity plays in improving health and that sounds really broad but um I guess it's kind of looking at the health and well-being outcomes like physical activity I think we all have um stories I think that's where parkrun is so powerful um have stories about how it's helped us in one way or another or a different time of life um so my passion all the way through has been like what role we can use or how we can use physical activity to um improve people's lives and then also we know that some people aren't as active as others and for me it's about how we can raise awareness and we support them to become active And that was my real engagement. What I loved about parkrun was that it was so simple. It was so easy. It's in the local community. And it just brings people together in a way that you barely see every single week. And I think it's probably one of the only examples where it's delivered the same all around the world. And I find that really fascinating. And just kind of going to different parkruns myself. And the amazing people that you meet in the stories just always reinforce how important it is that we keep people moving. So that's kind of what's driven my career is how I can kind of keep people moving in a way that they enjoy. And I think what I love about parkrun is just seeing the smiles on people's faces. And I actually only started volunteering for parkrun a couple of years. So I actually broke my ankle last year and I've always kind of jogged parkrun. And then after breaking my ankle, I was silly enough to fall off a bike. I actually started volunteering and kind of walking. So in the last year, I've kind of engaged with parkrun in a different way. And yeah, it's been really, really helpful for me.

00:27:53Scott Trickett: I was going to ask you about that, Lindsey. So tell us a bit about Lindsey, the parkrunner, because you did. You had a really rough injury. I've seen you walking around in crutches and a moon boot. So you haven't been running as such. So what has parkrun given to you during that time of your injury?

00:28:09Dr Lindsey Reece: Yeah, so I was silly enough to fall off my bike last July. And yeah, I was kind of... Is that while your ankle was broken?

00:28:17Melissa Erbacher: Because the way you said it before, it sounded like you broke your ankle and then you were silly enough to fall off a bike. It's like, well, if you're silly enough to ride a bike with a broken ankle, I think the second thing's going to happen.

00:28:29Dr Lindsey Reece: No, sorry. So, yeah, I had an accident on my bike where I fell off and, yeah, really busted my ankle quite badly. I had to have an operation, have some screws and plates put in my ankle, which meant I was not weight-bearing. So I couldn't – I was basically sitting down for a couple of weeks, so six or eight weeks. And I did actually get a mobility scooter, which is one of those ones that looks like a kid's scooter, where you kind of put your bad leg kind of on the top and then you kind of use your good leg to kind of wheel you along. So they get kind of raced by some kids. But what that enabled me to do was actually get out of the house. And that was the biggest thing that parkrun enabled me to do. I've always kind of walked and jogged and loved being outside. And that's been really critical for me. And having an accident like that where you sat inside and your world shrinks quite quickly, parkrun really allowed me to get out of the house, feel I was still part of something and still help others while I was kind of on my crutches and on my scooter. And actually what's been really nice is people at my local parkrun have seen me like get better. So first of all, I'd kind of go down on my scooter. Then I would kind of be in my moon boot on crutches. And I managed to go back to parkrun about a month ago where I'm kind of like walking and doing like a little bit of a shuffle in between. And now it's really helping me kind of give me a goal each week to kind of strive towards and kind of keep me focused. And yeah, so it's been a different way to engage with parkrun, I have to say, because before that I would turn up and I would just jog. Where the volunteering aspect and feeling a part of something was really powerful for me personally. And I've thoroughly enjoyed the volunteering side of it. And yeah, it was a huge help to me. And still is because I'm still not running or jogging.

00:30:13Melissa Erbacher: Do you think your personal experiences might sway you a bit towards, I mean, I know you said that there's already a big focus on volunteering, but volunteering for people with injuries and how that can help their uh recovery because I know I I either hear it one way or the other people come along and volunteer while they're injured because they don't want to miss out on that community aspect but then there are a lot of people who get injured and they just can't cope with seeing all the fit and able people running and they want to get out and do that so they kind of stay away for the same reasons

00:30:48Dr Lindsey Reece: yeah that's a that's a that's a really interesting question and I have to say like yeah it's definitely not easy um and it definitely kind of was in the even and I guess now when I'm kind of going down and I'm kind of walking and jogging it's really hard to kind of think actually and you kind of you know you look um I kind of wear trainers I haven't got my ankle brace on so now when I go down externally it looks like everything's okay um so yeah, I guess it, I find it probably a little bit harder now, um, because it's still trying to find my place if you like. Um, but I totally understand people that when they're injured, wouldn't like to go down and cause you know, they're jealous and it kind of, they want to be a part of it and it kind of highlights what they're missing. But I think based on like my personal experience where I genuinely felt it helped, um, Don't get me wrong, the first few times you go down, you might be kind of thinking, I wish I was out there and wasn't injured. But I would really encourage people to give it a whirl. And I think in terms of volunteering aspect, it's definitely opened my eyes up to probably a different side of parkrun. And even just chatting to the volunteers, every volunteer has got different aspects. So sometimes I hear people, they engage with volunteering first and then they start kind of participating themselves because they're a bit scared to take part. But then actually volunteering was a way to get involved in parkrun and then build up the confidence to actually take part, whereas I've also heard people do the other way around where they walk and jog um at the local parkrun and then they really want to be a part of the team that helps deliver that each week so they've kind of done some volunteering after that so yeah I think there's there's mixed reasons but that for me is what makes the parkrun community so special is that everyone's whether they like I share it with other people or not everyone's kind of got their own reasons for going down um and I guess for me linking that back to the research is how we then use that to really like tell the stories of people that engage a parkrun to help us learn how we can continue the improved parkrun but also like how we can understand which bits work like how we get people engaged and how it helps them in their own lives, and then use that information to help us either set up new parkruns in communities that don't currently have it, or use those stories to really share with other industries, other clinicians, other chronic disease, to really kind of help them integrate that to help get more people moving. Because the sad fact of the matter is most people around the world are not active enough. So anything that we can use to inform people policies, strategies, governments, health sectors, transport planning, anything we can do to share that back to kind of say this is how we can get more people moving is really powerful.

00:33:15Melissa Erbacher: Couldn't agree with you more. I think you guys are doing a fabulous job. And we really appreciate the fact, Lindsey, that you're volunteering in this capacity on the research board as well. We know you bring a lot to the table and that everybody involved is doing a lot of good for parkrun behind the scenes. It's just another one of the cogs in the big wheel that people don't realise are turning all the time. So thanks. Thank you for doing that and thank you for joining us on the podcast this week to share a little bit of what's involved from the Australian perspective.

00:33:47Dr Lindsey Reece: It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you very much for having me. Thank you.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Gary Murphy — Lancefield parkrun

00:33:59Gary Murphy: Hello parkrun adventurers and parkrun listeners. We are at Lancefield's first anniversary parkrun and the parkrun is underway and I'm standing here with Erin, who's the Event Director who got all this going, with Duffman, Brendan Foster. No, Brendan Zock. Who's Brendan Foster? Who is Brendan? Oh my God, yes! Sorry. Congratulations by the power invested in me by parkrun.

00:34:29Alison: parkrun marriage.

00:34:31Gary Murphy: And also here with Alison. Fantastic. Erin, how has the first 12 months been for Lancefield parkrun?

00:34:37Erin: Way better than we thought it was going to be. It's awesome. We have so many volunteers. And in winter it's really cold, but in summer it's lovely. Yeah, it's just great.

00:34:48Gary Murphy: Has that been the highlight, do you think, the volunteers?

00:34:50Erin: Yeah, definitely, I think. The way that the runners, they come every week and then they kind of... Just go, oh, you know, I might actually give volunteering a go. And they end up loving it and wanting to volunteer every week, which is pretty awesome. And coffee afterwards. Coffee afterwards is really good. A lot of people, we have a real little community out here now, which is lovely.

00:35:09Gary Murphy: And I noticed the statue or the carving of the megafauna out on course. Do you know much about the megafauna?

00:35:15Erin: Yeah, a little bit. Alison probably knows more than me. I know nothing. So they found a megafauna of fossils actually on our course at the back there near the equestrian reserve. So they found them, I think, in the 70s. Don't quote me on that. I might be wrong. And yeah, there's been a lot of research papers and stuff written about them.

00:35:37Gary Murphy: So I think every parkrun is great and every parkrun is good, but we can officially say that Lancefield parkrun is mega.

00:35:43Erin: Yeah, mega. We have dinosaur bones. Megafauna bones. Sorry, not dinosaurs. Megafauna bones. They came after the dinosaurs. Did they?

00:35:57Alison: Closer to our timeline, I should say.

00:36:00Erin: So we have giant kangaroos.

00:36:01Gary Murphy: So Alison's the person to speak to about the megafauna.

00:36:04Alison: I just know it's politically incorrect to call them dinosaurs.

00:36:09Gary Murphy: And so you come on as an RD, Alison? Run Director?

00:36:13Alison: Yeah. Yes, I've done it a couple of times, absolutely. Helped out where I can, whatever needs doing, I'm happy to help.

00:36:20Gary Murphy: And how did you hear about parkrun?

00:36:22Alison: I got roped in, yeah, roped in in the early days by Erin. And, you know, it's a fantastic opportunity to get our community out and about, get everyone moving. Totally different people are here than volunteering in all the other capacities. And we've created a real beautiful community here and I love it. It's great.

00:36:41Gary Murphy: Yeah. Excellent. And do you get a chance to get out and have a run yourself?

00:36:46Alison: Or a walk? Yeah, walking at the moment, unfortunately. Not as often as I would like. You know, I've got family and work commitments and all that, so I don't get here as often as I would like to. But, yeah, it's great to know it's here and get here as much as I can.

00:36:59Gary Murphy: Great. And Brendan, so today's theme at Lancefield parkrun is superheroes. And we have Duffman, and he's looking the superhero. He's got little holders here for cans, but they're cans. Cans of carbohydrates, surely. How long have you been parkrunning for?

00:37:15Brendan: This is my third year.

00:37:16Gary Murphy: Yeah.

00:37:17Brendan: Started in Bendigo and I've done many in Highlands.

00:37:21Gary Murphy: Okay.

00:37:21Brendan: With the great Gary. And then found Lancefield, my closest one. So I found it on Facebook and here I am. Yeah. And you've also been doing some run directing here? I have. Awesome. She's done pretty much all of it from the start for about six months. And she said, could you do it one day? And I did.

00:37:38Gary Murphy: Fantastic, mate. Good on you. Thanks for your help. That's really great. And we're standing here in front of some amazing cakes. Erin, who made our cake?

00:37:47Erin: So Nadine made our cakes. She spent a whole week Making cakes and capes because we have our capes. Our Lancefield capes.

00:37:56Gary Murphy: So before the briefing, the event team stood up and they've all got their superhero capes on. And each member has a different letter that's spelled out Lancefield. So that was fantastic. And the cakes have all got happy birthday on them. And what's that? Like a violet crumble cake.

00:38:14Erin: It looks like it. It looks amazing. Nadine's one of our regular volunteers. She ran every week, and then she got injured, which was terrible for her, great for us, and she's volunteered every week since. We're very lucky to have her, and Bryce. Bryce was our parkrunner of the year, so that's Nadine's partner.

00:38:30Gary Murphy: And John Nightingale. Everywhere I go, I hear about John, and he's done a really great effort this year in helping out.

00:38:36Erin: Yeah, so this is his 46th, um volunteer I don't think he'd heard of parkrun before we started this I'm not quite sure how he got involved I think I was just talking about needing volunteers one day and he's oh come help out I'll do photos and um yeah I think he's missed too so he's pretty awesome yeah it's pretty good well thanks Erin for getting this all off the ground and congratulations thank you good luck for the the next 200 300 whatever it may be and um happy anniversary thank you

00:39:08Gary Murphy: All right, now, we're still at Lancefield parkrun, and we're in the afterglow of the finish of parkrun, and I'm standing here with John, your surname, John?

00:39:16John Nightingale: John Nightingale.

00:39:17Gary Murphy: John Nightingale, and John was our photographer for today, and everywhere I go when I talk about Lancefield parkrun, John, I hear about the legendary photographer from Lancefield parkrun, so I'm finally glad to meet you. So how did you get involved in parkrun?

00:39:32John Nightingale: Well, I've known Erin for years and years, and... I was one of the many that watched Erin think about starting parkrun, then actually deciding to do it. And somehow or other, she got the funds to do it, and she started it. And it was a single-handed job, and it was magnificent. And I came along, and I thought, what the hell, why do they start at 8? And by the second week, I thought, this is brilliant, because it's 8 o'clock, It's pretty much all over by nine. You've got the whole day in front of you. It's brilliant. Yeah. And one of the main things I like about it is how friendly everybody is. Yep. How many visitors there are. And fairly early on, we had a guy down, flew all the way down from Brisbane. Outstanding. To Lancefield to do his 170th different parkrun. Yep. And I thought, that's brilliant. And I saw... Another day, something that really grabbed my heart, which there were two girls running very close together. And then I noticed they were actually chained together. And then when you saw them going away, you saw that one was sight impaired or blind, I'm not sure which, and the other one was a guide. And I thought, what a wonderful thing that was.

00:40:58Gary Murphy: Outstanding. So someone from the Achilles helping a blind athlete. That's terrific. Really good. Yeah. And so you take the photos most weeks. Do you get a chance to go out and have a walk here and there and then?

00:41:09John Nightingale: Well, I walk during the week with my dog. Okay. And that's good enough for me. Okay. Yeah.

00:41:15Gary Murphy: Are you thinking about having a look at other parkruns and travelling around to see what other parkruns are about?

00:41:19John Nightingale: Not particularly. Yep. One of the things for me is it's like it's a community service thing that I can do. And I haven't done that a lot, in my past, so it's nice from that point of view. I got invited to do the photography for Macedon Ranges Running Club's seasonal 10-kilometre run the other day and that went all right, so maybe other people will ask and then I can think about it.

00:41:50Gary Murphy: Well, thanks for talking to me, John. That's fantastic, mate. You're welcome. Appreciate your story. Thank you for your awesome contribution to Lancefield parkrun.

00:41:57John Nightingale: Well, good on parkrun. Yeah. Thanks, John. Okay, thank you.

00:42:00Gary Murphy: It's still happening here. I heard some laughter and chattering over in the corner and I wanted to join in on all the fun. So I've come over and I've introduced myself to... Ashley.

00:42:02[laughter]

00:42:10Erin: Hayley. Cindy. Jodie.

00:42:12Gary Murphy: Narelle. And how did the parkrun go this morning for you ladies? good I think maybe a new PB wow there was lots of PBs this morning I think it was the superhero capes might have helped out a bit faster and how did you go I ran the whole way which was good wow yeah always a good thing and what's your favourite thing about parkrun uh just getting out and being able to be by myself with without kids and then catching up with friends and the catch-ups are great thanks for letting me join in and how did you go this morning pretty good I did exercise before so I was a bit tired so I just walked good on you that's fantastic what did you do this morning uh a 20 minute hip workout wow fantastic and how did you start in parkrun um slowly how did you hear about it maybe it's a better question how did I hear about it um probably just Facebook okay is how I heard about it yeah and what do you love about it

00:43:05Unidentified speaker: Same as Hayley, I can get out without the children. Although I don't always, so sometimes I do have the kids with me. I try to push them in the pram.

00:43:14Gary Murphy: What's your favourite part of the course?

00:43:17Unidentified speaker: The finish line.

00:43:18Unidentified speaker: That doesn't take much thinking. But I was talked into this from one of my daughters and her friends. Yeah. So they've got me inspired.

00:43:27Gary Murphy: And do they parkrun here or are they from another parkrun?

00:43:30Unidentified speaker: From here. Okay. Yeah.

00:43:31Gary Murphy: Great. Well, thanks for talking to me, ladies.

00:43:33Unidentified speaker: Thank you very much.

00:43:34Gary Murphy: And thanks for coming to Lancefield's first anniversary, and I like your muscles oh thank you I worked for minutes on those all right now before they run off I'm here with Nadine and Bryce now Nadine has made an awesome cake for us today because at anniversaries you know there has to be cake And what was it?

00:44:02Nadine: It was a Golden Gaytime cake. So it was a white chocolate mud with a malted buttercream, chocolate ganache and honeycomb.

00:44:09Gary Murphy: Wow. It was spectacular. Thank you. And there were a lot of PBs today and we reckon that having that at the finish line was a great incentive.

00:44:16Nadine: Yeah, you've got to run for cake.

00:44:19Gary Murphy: So thank you very much for that, Nadine. That was awesome. And you've been a Run Director at Lancefield now?

00:44:24Nadine: I have, yeah, about four times and I'm run directing next week.

00:44:27Gary Murphy: Good on you. How have you found it? Good?

00:44:28Nadine: I like it. Um, it's helped with the public speaking as well. Cause I've always been terrified of that. So having such a good community, you can kind of get up and talk to everyone and no one's judging you and it makes it really good. Yeah.

00:44:38Gary Murphy: Oh, that's good. And yeah, it's a good, um, a good crowd to do public speaking out cause everyone's on your side.

00:44:43Nadine: Exactly.

00:44:44Gary Murphy: And Bryce, how did you go today, mate? Good. Yeah. I think I'm going to PB. So good morning for it. Yeah. Now you can help me because on the podcast, I haven't put in a course description. So can you give me a rundown on what the course is? Oh, How thorough do you want me to be? No, it can be simple or it can be elaborate.

00:44:59Bryce: It's up to you. We run around the outside of the park, then we do three laps over that way. I know you can't see where I'm pointing. That's okay.

00:45:06Nadine: In the equestrian area.

00:45:07Bryce: Yeah. And then we run back again. So three laps is a good number. Yeah. Sort of keep it in your head. And for new people, any more than three laps is probably a little bit hard to keep track of where you are. Okay.

00:45:15Gary Murphy: Yeah. And it's pretty flat?

00:45:17Bryce: Very flat. Yeah. It's perfect. And there's plenty of shade as well in summer, so it keeps you cool.

00:45:21Gary Murphy: Yeah. And all on gravel, right?

00:45:23Bryce: Yeah, a nice granitic sand. It's great to run on.

00:45:25Gary Murphy: Yeah, yeah. Cool. And at the pre-run briefing this morning, you got an award for... Yeah, parkrunner of the Year for Lancefield.

00:45:35Bryce: Congratulations, mate. Yeah, I was pretty pumped with that.

00:45:36Gary Murphy: Well done, buddy. Thanks, man. Thanks for a great contribution to Lancefield. Oh, no, it makes you feel good. And you've been run directing too?

00:45:41Bryce: No, no, no, no, no. I'm just a lackey.

00:45:43Gary Murphy: We'll work on that. We'll work on that. Maybe one day. We'll see how we go. Course set up. Yeah. Well, thanks very much, guys. Thanks for talking to me. Thank you. And all the best for the future parkrun. Yeah, you too, Gary. Thank you.

00:45:54Scott Trickett: Thanks, Gary Murphy from the Great Estate, visiting Lancefield parkrun, which, Mel, I'm going to put that on my hit list. I'm going to put that right at the top. I want to get there soon. It's close enough to me. It's not quite my NENDY, but Gary's made it even more enticing for me to visit.

00:46:09Melissa Erbacher: What is your NENDY these days, Scotty?

00:46:12Scott Trickett: I think it's a little event called KM Reedy, which I heard a little bit about at Berwick Springs on Saturday and makes me super keen to get down to visit that as well.

00:46:22Melissa Erbacher: Okay, cool.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:46:24Scott Trickett: Now, anniversaries. No, let's do launches because we talked about this last week. Got a few people excited. Whitemark Wharf in Tasmania, but really Flinders Island.

00:46:35Melissa Erbacher: Yeah.

00:46:36Scott Trickett: Well, I guess Flinders Island is Tasmania.

00:46:38Melissa Erbacher: It is. Well, it's an island off the coast of Tasmania, classified as in the Tasmanian state. This is a funny one. I don't know if you've seen chatter about it in the forums on social media, Scotty, but people seem really confused and think it's a lot more difficult to get to than it actually is. And they're all talking about, you know, flights and chartering planes and stuff. But it's like, guys, you can just catch a ferry across, you know. I'm not sure they realise they can catch a ferry across. Yes, there are limited ferry times, but it's, yeah. So there's heaps of people who obviously are keen to go. New event in Tasmania. It's been a little while since we had a launch down that way. And it's in a beautiful location, of course.

00:47:26Scott Trickett: I'm going to look at chartering a flight.

00:47:29Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, you're going to like hire a plane and share it with 10 other people.

00:47:34Scott Trickett: I think so. This is the next Westerfoldian road trip down to Whitemark Wharf parkrun. Nice. It's going to be an awesome weekend.

00:47:42Melissa Erbacher: Okay.

00:47:43Scott Trickett: Yep.

00:47:44Melissa Erbacher: I can't wait to hear all about it.

00:47:45Scott Trickett: So we look forward to hearing about that. Yeah, well, on next week's show, we're going to do – here's another tease for next week. We're going to do a State of the Nation update.

00:47:53Melissa Erbacher: It's been a while since we did one of those, hasn't it?

00:47:55Scott Trickett: It has. So we're going to be super keen to hear from Chris Timms, who would have – been to Whitemark Wharf, and she can tell us all about it on next week's pod.

00:48:04Melissa Erbacher: Yes. She's been there once already. I'm not sure. She must be heading back again for the launch.

00:48:10Scott Trickett: Anniversaries this week, we've got Cobar in New South Wales, Coburg in Victoria.

00:48:15Melissa Erbacher: Euroa in Victoria and Jubilee Way in South Australia.

00:48:20Scott Trickett: Portland, Victoria. Roma, Queensland.

00:48:23Melissa Erbacher: Taree in New South Wales and Varsity Lakes in Queensland.

00:48:28Scott Trickett: Varsity Lakes, home of my parkrun PB.

00:48:31Melissa Erbacher: Is it? It is, yes.

00:48:34Scott Trickett: The old home of parkrun. But fond memories for me because that's where I've got my PB.

00:48:41Melissa Erbacher: I should have a crack at that course at some point, you know, when I'm not carrying an extra several hundred feelings of kilos. Yeah, because if you can get a PB there, maybe I could get a PB there.

00:48:58Scott Trickett: Yeah, you should come back, Mel. You should come back as the new Sinead Diver. You know, she started when she was in her late 30s, I think, coming as a mum, as a running mum. Maybe this is your future.

00:49:09Melissa Erbacher: Maybe I'm going to be a really speedy athlete. Is that what you're trying to say? Yeah. You know, it's really cute. Wes is learning so many words at the moment and his latest thing to do is run around the house screaming, fast boy, fast boy. It's so funny because what he thinks is fast is just so cute. And, yeah, it's not going to be much longer that Adam's going to be able to keep him in the pram at parkrun. He's going to want to get out and get on the crowns and go for it. Really? Yeah, definitely.

00:49:40Scott Trickett: Good. I still think he's a bit young for 5K. Well, I agree.

00:49:43Melissa Erbacher: He's not quite two yet. He's too young for a barcode. So, yeah. Yes, challenges are on the way, but it's fun.

Sign-off

00:49:52Scott Trickett: It doesn't stop some people, you know. No, it doesn't. Let's wrap 156 here, Mel. The cliffhanger for next week's episode is, well, I've already given it away. It's State of the Nation, so we're going to be hearing from all around the country, speaking to all our awesome ambassadors who are going to give us a lowdown on new events coming up, any special events, anniversaries. Anything of interest coming up? Still looking for that elusive X parkrun? Yes. We'll see if we can unearth it next week. We're going to be speaking to the ambassador at Malaysia, so we'll get an update there. I wonder if they've got any X parkruns. I mean, they've got some funny names over in Malaysia, so maybe.

00:50:32Melissa Erbacher: Well.

00:50:32Scott Trickett: Who knows?

00:50:33Melissa Erbacher: You never know. You never know, Scotty.

00:50:38Scott Trickett: But...

00:50:39Melissa Erbacher: That's it.

00:50:40Scott Trickett: Let's say goodbye.

00:50:41Melissa Erbacher: Thank you for dragging yourself. I'm assuming you've spent some time in bed over the last few days. So thank you for dragging yourself out of bed to record a podcast with me. I appreciate your dedication and I will remember it when I deliver a baby and decide whether or not I can podcast immediately afterwards.

00:51:04Scott Trickett: Okay. Okay. Look forward to it. Speak to you next week, baby.

00:51:09Melissa Erbacher: could be fun hey you know they've got wi-fi at the hospital so