Episode 161 - The Amazing Robbo

Welcome

00:00:21Scott Trickett: Episode 161 of the parkrun adventurers is here for you now and joining us for the second week in a row because I loved having her here last week is Lyndell Murray.

00:00:31Lyndell Murray: G'day Scotty.

00:00:33Scott Trickett: Welcome back as my co-host.

00:00:35Lyndell Murray: Well thank you for having me.

00:00:36Scott Trickett: I've got to ask, what has been the feedback for you? I know what the feedback's been in the socials and in the wider world but your friends and family or your parkrun confidants, what's been the feedback?

00:00:51Lyndell Murray: Oh, pretty positive. My husband has only listened to half of it. I have to admit he didn't get to the other half. But he was very proud of me and thought it was very entertaining. And some of my parkrun friends have also contacted me and said that they love it, that they think I'm a natural person. One of the women has never, ever listened to the podcast and she tuned in just to see how I went. So I thought that was lovely. Yeah. We might win a few more regular listeners for you, Scotty.

00:01:21Scott Trickett: This is good. So this is the real test. Will she listen this week?

00:01:26Lyndell Murray: I reckon she will.

00:01:27Scott Trickett: Yeah? Yeah. Okay. But we couldn't convert your husband. So your husband's a cyclist, which you just confided to me off air. Okay.

00:01:35Lyndell Murray: Yes, he is not an avid parkrunner.

00:01:37Scott Trickett: Yep, which is fine. I've got to accept it. But he could make it through the whole way through. Too busy? Too busy. Okay, good.

00:01:46Lyndell Murray: Too busy. Yeah, you know, just too busy. He's committed. He will get back to the other part of it, I'm sure.

00:01:53Scott Trickett: Good. Now, I'm guessing then he didn't go with you to New Farm parkrun, which I hope you still managed to get to on Saturday? No.

00:02:00Lyndell Murray: I did. I did. I did get to New Farm. I was running a bit late, so I missed the briefing. Luckily, I've been there before and know where it goes. I started talking to another local there who, when he realised I was from Bunyaville, told me I could, in no uncertain terms, that I could keep Bunyaville. He hated Bunyaville. It was too hard. And he was very happy at New Farm. So that was a nice welcome to New Farm for me.

00:02:27Scott Trickett: Did he use the word hate? Hate's such a strong word. He did use the word hate. Mate. Steady on.

00:02:34Lyndell Murray: It's a parkrun. What's to hate?

00:02:36Scott Trickett: Yeah, I know. I've been to a few courses where I've gone, oh, I probably won't come back here in a hurry, but yeah, hate. Anyway.

00:02:44Lyndell Murray: Anyway, each to their own, and that's okay. He was lovely. He was happy, and he was lovely. You know, he didn't throw anything at me or anything. He just said he hated Bunyaville, so... You know, each to their own.

00:02:56Scott Trickett: Well, he was happy because he was a nice and flat new farm. Yes, he was. So did it mean you ran super fast? Did you get a PB?

00:03:05Lyndell Murray: I did not get a PB, but I've been running a bit with one of my friends, Cherie. We're on a bit of a comeback trail together, and she runs a little bit more fast than me naturally, but I'm a little bit more consistent, so we push each other nicely. We run further and faster together, so we've done a couple of runs together. We did New Farm, and we did a time that we were both pretty happy with. Good.

00:03:32Scott Trickett: good baby steps making progress baby steps that's it that's all you got to do we had the coach on last week and um peel back the curtain he's my coach as well so I had a longer chat with him about my running and his his advice to me just baby steps I've got to do for me to get back into shape I've got to do four weeks of just easy running don't worry about all the fancy fast stuff don't worry about Looking at my distance, looking at my pace, just do four weeks of consistent running. And then you can worry about all the other stuff.

00:04:06Lyndell Murray: Well, that sounds like, what's consistent mean? Is that every day or every second day?

00:04:10Scott Trickett: Well, yes, that's all relative too, isn't it? So my coach would say every day. He was a streaker. But I think four days, I think four days a week is good. Three to four is what I'm aiming for. All right. What I'm aiming for.

00:04:24Lyndell Murray: Maybe I should aim for that with you, Scotty.

00:04:27Scott Trickett: Come along for the journey. Four weeks. This is week one. Four weeks, four days. Yep.

00:04:32Lyndell Murray: What day is it?

00:04:34Scott Trickett: It's Wednesday. It's my least favourite day of the week.

00:04:38Lyndell Murray: It's hump day, Scotty. How can hump day be your least favourite day?

00:04:42Scott Trickett: I'll tell you one day. I'll tell you one day.

00:04:43Lyndell Murray: Okay. All right.

00:04:46Scott Trickett: But I started on my plan on Saturday at Rosebud parkrun. I headed down there, as I said I would, and I did a similar thing to you. I called up my mate Barney, and he was in for a road trip, so we drove down to Rosebud, and we just took it easy. I took it easy, just enjoying the views. Rosebud's out and back, out and back, so you run half of it on these boardwalks, which in winter I can imagine will be a bit slippery. So there's no point running fast because you just have a potential for injury. So I didn't. I was sensible Scott and just... Enjoyed the view. Had a good chat with Barney. But the thing is with Barney, so talking about coming back, making comebacks in running, Barney had surgery a couple of weeks ago. He went into the hospital. They cut stuff out and like a proper surgery. So he's on the comeback trail too.

00:05:41Melissa Ellis: Yeah, right.

00:05:41Scott Trickett: But he can't help himself because he was feeling good. And so as we get closer to the finish, he decides to put a bit of effort in. So he tries to get under 25 minutes or whatever we were running. At the end, I let him go because, again, I'm Sensible Scott this week.

00:05:58Lyndell Murray: Sensible Scotty.

00:05:59Scott Trickett: I let him go and he finished ahead of me and he was all proud of himself. I go have a chat to a few people, come back, and there's Barney limping.

00:06:07Melissa Ellis: Oh.

00:06:08Scott Trickett: And I had to tell him off like he was my son, like he was my 12-year-old son, saying, you know what you've done wrong. You knew what you did wrong as soon as you did. You took off, but he just can't help himself. He was feeling good, so he thought he'd stretch it out. So it was a good life lesson. Oh. It was a good life lesson.

00:06:26Lyndell Murray: So, well, take the advice of a coach. He's sounding better and better.

00:06:31Scott Trickett: And when you're coming back into running, just be sensible about it. Never going to reach the dizzy heights that you once were, particularly in my advanced age and in Barney's even more advanced age. You need to be sensible.

00:06:47Lyndell Murray: Good point. Good advice.

00:06:50Scott Trickett: We had a really social morning as well at Rosebud. So sometimes, Lyndell, I've got a confession. We don't always go to the post-parkrun coffee.

00:06:59Lyndell Murray: Right. You look for other alternatives.

00:07:03Scott Trickett: We do look for other alternatives from time to time. But sometimes I think when you're a tourist, see, I'm probably saying all the wrong things. Sometimes you're a tourist and if you don't connect with anybody at the run, sometimes you feel a bit awkward just rocking up to the cafe, hoping to make new friends. I'm sure maybe that's just me, but I don't know. This time we did, and we went to the cafe. It might have been motivated by free coffee.

00:07:30Lyndell Murray: Yes, that's always a good pull.

00:07:33Scott Trickett: Yeah, we went back to the cafe, had a chat to some locals, had a chat to some adventurers who were down there for the day, Nadine, who was the Event Director, She joined us, so it was half an hour. It was a quick coffee and chat, but it really topped off the parkrun morning and reminded me that I've got to do a bit more than that. I think I've let that go. I've been a bit slack on social Scott.

00:07:58Lyndell Murray: Right.

00:07:58Scott Trickett: So I need to combine social Scott with sensible Scott, and we should have a happy Scott in a couple of weeks.

00:08:05Lyndell Murray: I think that sounds like a winning plan.

Interview Dave 'Robbo' Robertson — Recurring guest, "The Amazing Robbo"; Newy parkrun original from its first event, and…

00:08:15Scott Trickett: Okay, it's time to round out our trifecta of regulars. So we're welcoming back one of our faves, the amazing Robbo this week. Welcome back, Robbo.

00:08:26Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Oh, g'day, guys. Great to be back on.

00:08:29Scott Trickett: Now, as well as being amazing, which you've self-titled yourself, you're also the frustrated Robbo at the moment. So where do we start? Tell us why you're the frustrated Robbo.

00:08:41Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Well, I mean, it's timely that we've got Lyndell on the show this week as our standing host because we share a bit of common ground, Lyndell and I, and I'm sure all your listeners will have experienced this. This is the frustration of the parkrun tourist when you're you pick out an event, you're going to be somewhere in the world or in Australia, and you pick out a parkrun event, you think, great, my life has led me to being in that place on that day. This is going to be fantastic. I'll tick off a new event. It'll be great for my most events numbers. But more importantly, if it's an international event, it's a huge opportunity to add something to your your parkrun log and then to only have it taken away due to logistics, timing and the nature of the event that you're actually there for in the first place, be it a wedding or in our case, possibly a sporting event, triathlons that Lyndell and I are involved in so yeah there's a there's a frustration there and I I um I've had to sort of counsel myself a little bit lately Scotty to tell myself no no it's okay the world will carry on oh only just so Robbo It was tough. I really wrestled with it. The most recent one, Lyndell, was an event in Yokohama. So six weeks after the first ever Japanese parkrun was launched in Tokyo, there I was, a mere 20 kilometres to the south. of that parkrun. And unfortunately, yeah, the paratriathlon race I was over there helping my athlete that I work with, Lauren Parker, just happened to clash with it. So that wasn't to be. And then she's got another race coming up in Canada, Montreal. I've never been to Canada. Great opportunity. I look it up. Yep, there's a parkrun smack bang in the middle of Montreal. She races on a Friday. So I'm thinking, great, I can get this parkrun finally ticked. And then I'm booked on a flight home on Friday afternoon. So it's been scuppered once again.

00:10:44Lyndell Murray: Oh, Robbo, I remember you and I finding each other at the Commonwealth Games, I think it was, on the Saturday morning. Same deal, the paratriathlon Saturday morning. We were literally throwing distance from Main Beach.

00:10:59Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: We were. I think we shared an embrace and we had a tear in our eye. We were consoling each other. It was heartbreaking. We were there, obviously, for another exciting event, but it's always tough. So, I mean, yeah, there's not only the fact that you're missing out on, say, a new parkrun, but, yeah, even just missing out on getting your barcode scanned or volunteering on a Saturday just doesn't feel right when you've been doing it for over seven years. But, look, I think... There is hope. Don't despair, folks. Help is on its way and it is okay to miss a parkrun day. I think maybe we need to set up parkrunners Anonymous. Yeah. David, I've got a problem and it is okay to miss a parkrun every now and then. Just hopefully not too many.

00:11:46Lyndell Murray: Not too many. I think I've got one to beat you in terms of closeness to a parkrun. Devonport. You've been to Devonport for the Paratriathlon. Yes. And you know the location of the parkrun is like 50 metres away.

00:12:01Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: I do, yeah.

00:12:02Lyndell Murray: Yeah, I was officiating down there one Saturday morning and saw parkrun happening before my eyes.

00:12:08Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Yeah.

00:12:09Lyndell Murray: Yeah.

00:12:10Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Well, here's what I'd suggest, Lyndell. I mean, so I was there at Devonport last year and the timing was, I think it was a Saturday afternoon race. So it allowed me to do Devonport parkrun. This year they changed the timing and I couldn't do it. So I think basically the heads of parkrun in Devonport globally and the heads of triathlon globally need to get together and on the behalf of you and I and countless others, solve these problems. It wouldn't be hard just to schedule it around parkrun so we can all be happy.

00:12:45Lyndell Murray: Let's put that on a to-do list, Robbo.

00:12:49Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: So, yeah. But no, look, it's fantastic. And I guess the next best option, if you can't be there on the Saturday morning, you try and slide in a Freedom Run, and that's what I will try and do when I'm in Montreal next weekend. So stay tuned. I'll hopefully report back that I can at least log a Freedom Run over there.

00:13:09Lyndell Murray: We'll look forward to that report and we'll have to try our best in August when we're over in Tokyo as well.

00:13:16Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Yeah, that's right. No, that'll be the thing to do for sure. Looking forward to it.

00:13:21Scott Trickett: So, Robbo, you were in Japan and we only had one event in Japan when you were there.

00:13:26Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: That's correct.

00:13:27Scott Trickett: Yeah, so maybe by the time you guys go back...

00:13:30Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: It'll be saturated.

00:13:31Scott Trickett: Yeah, that's the plan.

00:13:33Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Well, as I like to do, Scotty, and you'll know this, you know, I was already planning Yokohama parkrun, beautiful park where the triathlon starts and finishes. So there's a course ready to go if anyone wants to get in touch. And I can point it out. I had mapped it out. So I still – that's the other thing. When you're going to miss an official parkrun, I still do try and get up early enough and just do 5K somewhere and whack it up on Strava and call it Yokohama parkrun. And I get a few people saying, is that for real? Is that launch? So it sparks a bit of discussion. But in my mind, I feel like I'm scratching the itch just enough to keep my sanity.

00:14:16Scott Trickett: We could further your legacy, Robbo. If you've got some ideas for events in Japan, by all means, let us know if you've mapped out a few courses already because, you know, it's in the early days. You'll remember the early days of parkrun. Not everybody knows about it.

00:14:35Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: No, no, no, that's right. So the Yokohama, I don't know how you'd say it, the Yokohamarians, I reckon there's a huge appetite for... for one down their way. So, yeah, that's great.

00:14:48Lyndell Murray: The ripper of a spot. It's a beautiful park there.

00:14:51Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: What's the name of it? I'm just looking it up.

00:14:53Lyndell Murray: Yeah, I can't remember.

00:14:55Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: I'm going to go with Yamashita Park.

00:14:58Lyndell Murray: Yes.

00:14:59Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: We're going to call it Yamashita parkrun, I guess. And it is stunning. The roses.

00:15:04Lyndell Murray: The rose garden.

00:15:06Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Yep.

00:15:07Lyndell Murray: Oh, it's beautiful.

00:15:08Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: So, I mean, let's effectively get Renee on the line. We can launch this now, basically.

00:15:15Scott Trickett: Well, let's commit this episode to memory. So in a few months' time, hopefully, we can go back and say, well, that's where Yokohama, what did you call it? Yamashita. Yeah, Yamashita Park.

00:15:28Lyndell Murray: Yeah.

00:15:29Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Beautiful.

00:15:30Scott Trickett: Hey, Robbo, speaking of, you were back in the early days of Newy parkrun. Seven years ago, you just celebrated seven years at Newy parkrun. And how have you seen it change over the years?

00:15:43Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Yeah, I've seen it change in a great number of ways and it kind of just keeps ticking along. We have this, as all listeners will know, that part of parkrun where you ask at the start, maybe 10 minutes before the start, any new timers any first timers um and some somehow there's still people coming out of the woodwork in here in Newcastle and it's great to see so you know there's still that steady stream of newcomers each week which is fantastic but what I reckon Scotty I've noticed a lot is just when a parkrun reaches a certain age um and I've had this discussion with a few local runners here but Five years and now six and seven years, the levels of experience and levels of ability of the average parkrunner, you throw that sheer volume of running at a human body and it can't not help but get better. Yes, we get a bit injured at times and, yes, our training and our participation might fluctuate due to other things going on in our lives. But on the whole, I think we're all getting not only – we're getting fitter, we're getting healthier, but we're also getting a touch faster as well. And, you know, that pursuit of a PB, I guess, is always a bit of a carrot that's dangling for people, or the age grade percentage, trying to, you know, boost that up. So there's always something to be chasing. And I think, yeah, not that it's a race and not that it's all about, you know, the search for elite competition, but there's certainly a performance element to parkrun. And when an event, yeah, such as our one here in Newy is getting to that sort of age, there's, you know, there's all sorts. It's old enough that you've got – well, you've had an increase in the population. You know, back when we started, some of our current parkrunners weren't even alive. So they've been born into it. I know my second – well, both my daughters – have come along ever since that first event. So there's a couple of new parkrunners. So we've got some young kids who are turning into very fast teenagers and then getting into, you know, very fast early 20s. And we're finding obviously the older adults too, 30s, 40s, 50s. You know, that's the boom. That's when the kids are all grown up. They've moved out of home. I've got all this bit more spare time and I've still got a bit of fitness. And those age categories into the 60s as well are really booming too. So, you know, it's great. I think we sort of pride ourselves a little bit on our longevity here in Newcastle and we see a lot of runners into their 60s, 70s, 80s. We had our very first 90-plus runner in the last few months, um Gordon Wilson was his name he just turned 90 and he came and did his first parkrun to celebrate so he's he's done a few parkruns now and that's really exciting as well so we celebrate our our elder statesmen and women and uh I for one hope I'm still getting my barcode scanned when I'm gordon's age so yeah it's been great been great to see ever since that first event with 77 runners we get a few more than that each each week but uh Yeah, it's still going from strength to strength and people are still hearing about it. I saw Gordon pop up.

00:19:02Scott Trickett: So how do you discover parkrun in your 90s?

00:19:06Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: It's a good question. He made the news a little bit locally because he went skydiving to celebrate his 90th. He said he's got an extreme fear of heights. He wanted to overcome that. So he decided to go skydiving. He told me that he gets scared just climbing a ladder. So he's just full of energy. I tried to get all his secrets out of him on one of the parkruns I did with him. And I asked him, yeah, how did you hear about it? Someone from the school that he used to work at, might have been his daughter as well. It's kind of the old chestnut where you hear about it from a few people and then that kind of gets you curious and then maybe you resolve to check it out. But, yeah, he got into it. And at 90 years young, he's looking, you know, looking at breaking through. I think he's broken through the 50-minute barrier now. He might, as we stand, he might even be one of the quickest 90-year-olds in the country. So, yeah, it just shows he's never too late. He's not a guy that's ever done much running before. I think he's kept pretty fit and active in other ways. But, yeah, there it was, and it's on his doorstep. He lives in Carrington, you know, probably a kilometre and a half from the start line, and he's got this fantastic thing, which hopefully, you know, might keep him going for another 10 years or so. We might have our first 100-plus parkrunner before long.

00:20:30Lyndell Murray: What a terrific story. He found parkrun in his 90s.

00:20:36Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Yep, yep, never too late. So good old Gordon. I don't know if he's tuning into the show. Hopefully he is. He's pretty up-to-date. with his technology. So g'day, Gordon, if you're listening.

00:20:46Lyndell Murray: G'day, Gordon.

00:20:50Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: But, Scotty, my frustrations at the moment, well, they carried over. I wanted to get a couple of sevens in my finish time on the seventh birthday. That was kind of the plan. And I got one in there. I got a 17 but didn't get another seven. So I left a little bit frustrated. And the other thing, I wanted to come seventh, but I missed out on that as well. But anyway, I got over that. I'll work on the eighth for next year.

00:21:14Scott Trickett: But, Robbo, where did you come from?

00:21:17Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: I think it was fifth in the end.

00:21:19Scott Trickett: Now, I'm no expert in running, but did you ever think to just slow down? That's how you would have come seventh, let two people pass you.

00:21:27Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: I have been known to manipulate my finish position or finish time at times. No, not that day. I was too keen to get back to the finish line to get my first dibs on the cake, I think.

00:21:40Lyndell Murray: And, look, just touching back on Lauren and, you know, representing at the Olympics, is she a selection for the Olympics yet? So are you definitely penciled in for next year or has she still got some racing to do to get selected? Yeah.

00:21:57Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Yeah, yeah, no, great question. And for anyone listening as well, I might even just throw in there explaining a little bit about Lauren. So Lauren Parker, she was a former able-bodied triathlete, one of the best in the world. She'd come second in her age group at the Kona Ironman World Championships a couple of years ago. Had a tragic accident on a bike which left her... broken and unfortunately, yeah, she severed her spinal cord and so she's now racing paratriathlon. And she's only very new to the sport, as you know, Lyndell, and so she got the bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games last year after about a year's worth of trying to figure out how to race a paratriathlon, and she's getting better and better all the time. But to answer your question, yeah, from the upcoming race in Canada, in Montreal, I believe that the points are now accrued to qualify you for the Paralympics. So Lauren's actually done so well in her recent races that she's actually ranked third in the world at the moment. So if she maintains that ranking, she should be fine, to be selected to compete at the Paralympics in Tokyo next year. But one easy way to guarantee your spot there is to win the test event, I believe, the race that's going to be in Tokyo in August. I think whoever wins... yeah, in the race that she's in will guarantee their place for the spot at the Paralympics the next year. So that'd be pretty cool if she could get up and do that just to have the peace of mind. But the way she's going, she, well, the goal is to win the world championships in Lausanne in Switzerland this year in September. And she should be getting close to being number one in the world if she can do that and win a couple of other races. So she's, yeah, she's in a great position. She's only new to it. It's a para triathlon and she's getting better and better all the time. And And if I can try and eke out a couple of free seconds by making sure our transitions are a tiny bit quicker, then that's good as well. It's free time that we can peg back. But, yeah, she's going really well. I have challenged her, while we're talking about parkrun, I have challenged her to come down to Newy and get a time on the board. with the wheelchair category. So she hasn't leapt to that yet, but we might find maybe a fast or concrete course somewhere around our region and we'll see what she can do. To put it in perspective, she's running – so she runs a 5K wheelchair, racing wheelchair run leg at the end of her races. So I looked at her times for a while and I set her a bit of a challenge. I said, Lauren, you need to – you need to be getting that leg faster than I can run a 5K. And because she was so new to the racing chair, it took a while for her to pick up that skill. But I had her beaten there for a little while with my parkrun PB, but she's got me covered well and truly now. I think she's down to about 12 and 13 minutes, so she's leaving me for dead.

00:24:50Lyndell Murray: They certainly fly in those racing wheelchairs, that's for sure.

00:24:53Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: It is incredible, yeah. And to think your arms are doing all the work in the swim and then on the hand cycle in the bike and then, yeah, whatever you've got left to push on that chair, it's an amazing thing. So, yeah, they're incredible athletes and Lauren, you know, right at the top in her field. So it's going to be exciting. I'll put it out there now. I can see her doing very well, all going well at the Paralympics next year. So... Get following Lauren Parker.

00:25:22Lyndell Murray: That's it. Follow Lauren and follow Robbo. Look, it's one area in his life where Robbo plays a supporting role. I'm sure there's many Robbo to Lauren. But from my perspective as a technical official, triathlon is a very technical sport and paratriathlon just takes it to a whole other level in terms of teamwork and working together to get those transitions tight and to make sure all of your equipment is up to scratch and in the right place at the right time. So kudos to you as well, Robbo, for stepping up and doing such a really vital role in a really emerging and exciting sport.

00:26:05Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Thank you, Lyndell. Yeah. And if I said I was in it just to try and get my most events up on the parkrun tally, well, we know that's not working out for me. So I'm obviously motivated by more than just that. But no, that's kind of you to say. And it's great to see your face at these events. Always great to see a face you know when you're in a foreign place and there's always high pressure. So seeing your face there is always great as well. So I look forward to our next time we get to team up back in Japan.

00:26:36Lyndell Murray: Absolutely. Well, thanks for joining us this evening on the parkrun adventurers podcast, Robbo, and we'll see you in Tokyo.

00:26:44Dave 'Robbo' Robertson: Look forward to it, Lyndell. Thanks, Scotty, and, yeah, happy running.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Melissa Ellis — Point Cook parkrun

00:26:56Melissa Ellis: Okay, good morning parkrun adventurers. It's Melissa here and I'm coming to you from Point Cook parkrun in Victoria. I'm back home, close to home this week and I've ventured out to return to a run I've done a couple of times before. And I'm here with RD and fellow tourist, Andrew Reynolds. Good morning, Andrew. Good morning, Melissa.

00:27:12Andrew Reynolds: How are you?

00:27:13Melissa Ellis: I'm good, thank you. We have a nice morning here at Point Cook. You've been here for a while?

00:27:19Andrew Reynolds: Yeah, so I've been here about four or five years now. I wasn't here quite at the start of the Point Cook parkrun, but I think number 34 was my first time here and I pretty much haven't missed one since.

00:27:30Melissa Ellis: So describe the course for us, for those who are listening at home.

00:27:33Andrew Reynolds: It's a lovely out and back course. Two and a half k's out and two and a half k's back, as we all know, for a lovely 5k distance.

00:27:41Melissa Ellis: We run sort of along a gravel path. It's a bit of a reserve. There's a bridge out there.

00:27:48Andrew Reynolds: There is a little bit of a hill at a point out there, but it's a very gradual hill actually on the last K back, which is kind of subtle, but it actually catches people out. It has that little bit of extra in them to try and push through for a PB.

00:28:03Melissa Ellis: And what are your numbers usually?

00:28:05Andrew Reynolds: We typically get around 120, you know, obviously weather dependent, but, you know, there's a very strong, healthy group here of core people and then there's a lot of tourists that do come here as well.

00:28:15Melissa Ellis: And can I ask you a question? Is this actually in Point Cook?

00:28:18Andrew Reynolds: No, it's not. It's actually outside of the boundaries of Point Cook. I think initially it was known as Point Cook Truganina parkrun and then they've shortened it to the Point Cook version and, yeah, we're actually across the other side of the freeway from Point Cook, so it's a little bit of a left-field naming for it.

00:28:33Melissa Ellis: Now, I know that you're a bit of a tourist, and I've seen you've got a few countries up your sleeve, haven't you?

00:28:38Andrew Reynolds: I have, actually. I was quite surprised, actually, to find that of all Australian registered parkrunners, I've done the most number of countries, and that's 11.

00:28:48Melissa Ellis: You hook up the parkruns you do with major sporting events, is that right?

00:28:52Andrew Reynolds: Yes, very much so. Last year I was fortunate enough to be in South Africa at the test match where the ball tampering was going on for a parkrun to do a Zed before Zillmere took off. So I'd already had that planned to get my alphabet lined up with the Zed over there. Zandvlei parkrun it is, in Cape Town and then last year I also went to the World Cup and saw Australia play Russia in Kazan. I saw Australia play France actually in Russia. So that was really good to do the World Cup there and yeah, just tying in different events and I'm actually now heading off to South Africa to see Australia play the Springboks in July this year. So another couple of countries lined up with Namibia and Swaziland.

00:29:32Melissa Ellis: Yeah, that's pretty impressive. And you also do the same thing around Australia with events.

00:29:38Andrew Reynolds: That's right. I very much like to try and make a weekend of my trips where I do tourism. So I like to have an event on the Sunday where I either do a half marathon or sometimes a marathon and do the parkrun as well. So get that efficiency there, but also really do get that extra bit of time in the local community.

00:29:56Melissa Ellis: and climbing up the ranks in the journey to become statesman as well. How many left?

00:30:00Andrew Reynolds: I've got eight left to do. Birdsland Reserve I'm doing next weekend works out well for me, a nice local one. Got them all mapped out and I think probably early in January next year I'm looking to perhaps do Nhill as my final one on a road trip to Adelaide.

00:30:14Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's very exciting. Well, all the best with that. No doubt we'll cross paths again soon. And thank you for talking to me today.

00:30:19Andrew Reynolds: Pleasure. Thank you.

00:30:20Scott Trickett: I'm starting to get jealous, Lyndell. All these people that get to travel all around the world and tick off new parkruns. Or not. Yourself included. Or not. Or not.

00:30:30Lyndell Murray: Most of the time.

00:30:33Scott Trickett: So great to hear from Andrew.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:30:36Scott Trickett: We've got a new event coming.

00:30:38Lyndell Murray: Yes, we do.

00:30:40Scott Trickett: And there's always excitement when there's a new event starting with Q. Because we're welcoming Queen Elizabeth, which is where, Lyndell?

00:30:48Lyndell Murray: It's in Casino in New South Wales. Driving distance apparently from Brisbane. I've got a couple of friends who are eyeing that one off for their Q.

00:30:57Scott Trickett: Yeah, yeah. As cool as Q is, and Queen Elizabeth is a very royal sounding name naturally. I kind of like the idea of a casino parkrun as well. Yes. I think we could have had a bit of fun with that.

00:31:11Lyndell Murray: That could have been really fun. Yeah. You might have had to have been over 18 to go to it, and that wouldn't be very good.

00:31:19Scott Trickett: But it's just a name, and this one's called Queen Elizabeth. So welcome to the parkrun family, people of Casino. And that's one of those regional towns again. So they won't have people that are used to parkrun. They won't have the... the people that know all about it, the tragics.

00:31:33Lyndell Murray: Well, not for their first one, but that'll grow and Casino will soon be full of addicts like every other parkrun community.

00:31:41Scott Trickett: Like a few of these who are celebrating their anniversary. Gladstone in Queensland.

00:31:45Lyndell Murray: Hastings Foreshore in Victoria.

00:31:48Scott Trickett: Jells in Victoria.

00:31:51Lyndell Murray: Mount Helena in Western Australia.

00:31:53Scott Trickett: and rounding it out with Port Augusta in South Australia. Now, I know you were down here in Melbourne recently and you went to Jells. I did. We had an opportunity to parkrun together, but it didn't align.

00:32:07Lyndell Murray: It did not.

00:32:09Scott Trickett: How did you find Jells?

00:32:10Lyndell Murray: I liked Jells.

00:32:11Scott Trickett: It was one of my favourites.

00:32:12Lyndell Murray: I liked Jells. I froze. It was very cold is the main thing I remember. So in all the photos of me at Jells, I'm rugged up like there's no tomorrow. But it was lovely. Nice looped course. It is all, I'm not going to say it's all hills, but it is all gradient, let's say.

00:32:33Scott Trickett: Yeah. It's not easy.

00:32:35Lyndell Murray: No, it's not easy.

00:32:36Scott Trickett: Yeah, I was always surprised when I went there, how hard it was. Never really got a good run in there, just could never pull it all together.

00:32:46Lyndell Murray: Yeah. Well, it's one of those ones that is a bit deceiving because it doesn't look that hilly.

00:32:50Scott Trickett: Right.

00:32:51Lyndell Murray: But it's never flat, I don't reckon. I don't think any part of it's flat.

00:32:55Scott Trickett: I love it. Anniversary. Maybe I'll head back there this weekend. Yvonne, can we go to the Jells this week? Because we're free agents this Saturday. We had plans. Plans were cancelled. So I don't know where I'm going to be. Do you know where you're going this weekend?

00:33:09Lyndell Murray: I don't know where I'm going to be either. Oh.

00:33:13Scott Trickett: This is our hook to tune in for next week to find out where we went. So don't say anything more.

00:33:18Lyndell Murray: All right. All right. Well, keep it a secret.

00:33:20Scott Trickett: Well, it is a secret because neither of us know. Yeah, keep it off socials and don't upload to Strava. Let's see if we can keep it secret until next week.

Patient Zero

00:33:34Scott Trickett: But the tease from last week was I asked you about your patient zero.

00:33:39Lyndell Murray: You did.

00:33:39Scott Trickett: Now, I'll quickly explain it. So the patient zero is the first person who planted the seed or who introduced you to parkrun. Who told you about it?

00:33:50Lyndell Murray: Well, I don't – sorry, my patient zero, the person who told me about parkrun was – I love this story actually. At the time, she was a complete stranger, but she is now part of my parkrun family out at Bunyaville. And what happened was I was running a lot. I was training for Ironman at the time, and I'd do a lot of long runs round through New Farm Park. And after a couple of times of seeing all these people there at seven o'clock and a little pop-up and flags and people in orange vests, I plucked up the courage to ask this lady who was marshalling on the course what was going on. And so she told me about parkrun and said, they've only just started, you can catch them. So she obviously had not seen me running and didn't realise that I wasn't a very fast runner and I probably wouldn't have caught anybody. So I politely declined and went on my way. But not long after that, a friend of mine suggested that we go along to parkrun. And so we did go along to New Farm parkrun, and did our very first parkrun and so my patient zero is Tess Odsey who is now one of the Run Directors out at Bunyaville and I've told her that story and I don't think she quite believes me that it was her but I'm very very certain that it was her she was so happy and welcoming and and so sure that I could run fast enough to catch the field that I remembered her and When I lobbed up at Bunyaville a few years later, I immediately remembered and told her that story. So that's my patient zero story.

00:35:35Scott Trickett: Do you reckon you've been a patient zero to a few other people, Lyndell?

00:35:39Lyndell Murray: Oh, probably. I talk to anyone that'll listen about parkrun.

00:35:43Scott Trickett: Yeah. Yeah.

00:35:45Lyndell Murray: Well, my husband's done a few parkruns since I've started parkrunning.

00:35:48Scott Trickett: Okay.

00:35:49Lyndell Murray: Actually, no, yes, I think I have. I've got friends who live up the coast and they are now – they came to Bunyaville a couple of years ago when I did my 50th parkrun. It was also on my birthday, so they ventured down to run with me at Bunyaville. And they are now avid parkrunners and go to Nambour parkrun quite regularly. Okay.

00:36:13Scott Trickett: You've got to plant the seed somewhere. So for you, it was just some random marshal or volunteer on the day who converted you into this now host of the parkrun podcast.

00:36:25Lyndell Murray: Yeah. Look how far I've come.

00:36:29Scott Trickett: Yeah. I don't think I've ever told the story of my patient zero. But do you remember back before Facebook? It did exist. There was a time before Facebook.

00:36:40Lyndell Murray: There was?

00:36:41Scott Trickett: Yeah, there was. We used to get our, like, I won't go back too far. I won't go back to like bulletin boards and stuff like that. But it was sort of a progression of that. You had like message boards or you had chat room sort of things. So if you were a runner back in the day, you were on these running forums and running message boards. And I was following one of them and I Believe it or not, I used to have a blog. So back when blogging was a thing, was even a thing, I used to be one of those nauseating people that wrote about every run they did, similar to what we're doing now, a podcast telling you about every run I go on. But, yes, I had a blog, and when you blog, you connect to other people who blog and so on and so forth. So there was this blogger that I met. Her name was Emma, and I enjoyed her writing, and she was local to Melbourne. So we've followed each other and then she had a friend who I'd have to check. I'm not sure if she was blogging as well. She had a friend who was bringing this parkrun concept to Albert Park and she was trying to help her promote it. So she put this parkrun concept on these message boards and says you should all register, you should all come down and find out about it. Luckily for me, I registered really early and found out about it really early. So it took me a while to actually get there, but she was my patient zero. In a really small world, so that friend of hers was Carol Cunningham, who is now our head of volunteer management, at parkrun is that right it is someone who I call a dear friend who has rejected my many attempts to come on the podcast and tell her story because Carol herself she would be a patient zero to hundreds of people because not only did she start up Albert Park Melbourne she started up Singapore so she's patient zero to a whole country

00:38:40Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

Sign-off

00:38:41Scott Trickett: You know, we poached her from China, but I reckon if we left her in China long enough, she probably would have started parkrun China. So bear with me. I'll keep working on her, but I'd love to hear her story. So on that note, Lyndell, I nearly said Mel, let's wrap up our second episode together.

00:39:05Lyndell Murray: Are you ready to come back next week? I can come back next week.

00:39:08Scott Trickett: Yeah, I think we need to do things in at least threes. So you'll be back for episode 162. And I look forward to chatting to you then.

00:39:18Lyndell Murray: All right. Sounds like a deal.