Episode 162 - Lee Troop

Welcome

00:00:21Lyndell Murray: Episode 162 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. Welcome everybody. I'm Lyndell standing in for Mel and I'm here with Scotty. G'day Scotty.

00:00:33Scott Trickett: G'day Lyndell.

00:00:35Lyndell Murray: You nearly called me Mel again. I did.

00:00:39Scott Trickett: Isn't it funny? It's habit. So we're three weeks in and you're much more than a stand-in, Lyndell. I don't think Mel's listening. I don't think she is. So we can say whatever we want.

00:00:49Lyndell Murray: Oh, I'm sure she's gone right off parkrun. Yeah. Yeah, that's a real possibility. Yeah.

00:00:55Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:00:57Scott Trickett: But no, Lyndell, Lyndell, Lyndell, it's great to have you back for 162. And you know what? I was listening to With Me Now during the week, as you do, and they mentioned a little stat that there was 186 episodes of the parkrun show. So I made a little mental note that I'm now making an audio note. that our goal is to get to 187 episodes of the parkrun adventurers. So we can say we are the longest running parkrun podcast in existence.

00:01:33Lyndell Murray: That's a good goal, Scotty. That's not too far away.

00:01:35Scott Trickett: No, we've only got to get through a couple more months and we're there.

00:01:39Lyndell Murray: Or even sooner, we could just smash out a few more podcasts.

00:01:42Scott Trickett: To a week?

00:01:43Lyndell Murray: To be weekly.

00:01:46Scott Trickett: three times a week you know my favourite podcast they're they're in a little bit of a quiet spot now and I only get one podcast a week and I'm having really I'm having a hard time consoling it because it's like I used to do three a week I'd get it every second day it just fed my need and now I'm asking random people for podcast requests I'm searching trialing all these different podcasts in there maybe maybe we just need to do three a week next week

00:02:14Lyndell Murray: Well, for us to do that, I suspect that because parkruns only once a week.

00:02:20Scott Trickett: Yes.

00:02:21Lyndell Murray: We might have to make sure that we're running more than just parkruns. So last week, Scotty, we talked about how you'd made a commitment to run four times a week. And I jumped in and foolishly, maybe in retrospect, said, that's a great idea, Scotty. I'm going to do the same thing.

00:02:39Scott Trickett: Good, good. So you've joined me because I'm right on track.

00:02:43Lyndell Murray: You're on track. That's fantastic news.

00:02:45Scott Trickett: I'm in week three of four weeks of consistent running and you are?

00:02:54Lyndell Murray: Well, one out of two of us isn't too bad. That's a pass rate, right, if one of us is doing it?

00:03:00Scott Trickett: Yeah, it is. Did you get through one week?

00:03:03Lyndell Murray: Look, I've park runned. I'm sorry to admit it. I feel very ashamed of myself, but... No, you should never feel ashamed of parkrunning, Lyndell. Oh, I'm not ashamed of parkrunning. I'm ashamed that I didn't run another time when I said I'd run another three times.

00:03:21Scott Trickett: It's okay. We've talked about this. Life gets in the way. Life is busy. It's okay. It's okay. I went through 12 months of it, just parkrunning, so... I'm really chuffed.

00:03:35Lyndell Murray: And that didn't do you any harm.

00:03:37Scott Trickett: Look at you. Oh, it did.

00:03:39Unidentified speaker: No.

00:03:40Scott Trickett: It did. Well, I tell you, I went on my run tonight and we've coined a new phrase that I'm going to start tagging all my runs with, which is it's the tight around the tummy. So a lot of my shirts are tight around the tummy now. So if you see the hashtag tat, I'm giving the tat a new meaning.

00:03:58Lyndell Murray: Well, I think I should hashtag everything that I ever post on social media at the moment with that hashtag, Scotty, because everything's tied on me at the moment.

00:04:07Scott Trickett: Let's make a trend. Let's make a trend.

00:04:10Lyndell Murray: Well, maybe we should not make a trend. Maybe we should make a trend of trying to not have to post that hashtag.

00:04:16Scott Trickett: Well, to get around that, you know what I've done? I've… I've really brought into – my mate Barney who I bagged out last week on the podcast and he's taken me to task that I told him off. Remember, he ran early and I had to tell him off.

00:04:29Lyndell Murray: Yes.

00:04:30Scott Trickett: Well, he took off and I had to tell him off.

00:04:32Lyndell Murray: Yes.

00:04:33Scott Trickett: But I'm going to give him some kudos here because he set up these weekly challenges on Garmin Connect. Now, I'm not sure running what you've got, but I'm veering away from Strava. Since the partnership ended with parkrun and Strava, they're a bit on the nose with me. It's very busy. There's lots happening on Strava. And it doesn't give you that much information. And I'm going towards Garmin Connect. And he set up these weekly challenges, which is just a step challenge. We've all done them, but there's a little group and it's actually really motivating me and it's highlighting how inactive I am during the day. Like I sit all day because I work from home. If I go for lunch, I walk down the hallway. To your kitchen. That's it.

00:05:17Lyndell Murray: Yeah.

00:05:19Scott Trickett: I didn't even walk out of the building, go to the cafe, pick up a sandwich, whatever. I walked 20 metres down my hallway. Yeah, wow. And this is scary at the end of the day.

00:05:29Lyndell Murray: Yes.

00:05:29Scott Trickett: So what this challenge is motivating me is to get a bit more active during the week. So thanks, Barney, for that.

00:05:38Lyndell Murray: See, Barney, you've redeemed yourself. Good on you, my friend.

00:05:41Scott Trickett: Well, I've redeemed myself in his eyes for telling him off.

00:05:44Lyndell Murray: Fantastic. That's a great story.

00:05:47Scott Trickett: So this is what you need to do, Lyndell. Do you wear a Garmin? I do.

00:05:50Lyndell Murray: Yes, I have a Garmin.

00:05:51Scott Trickett: Okay. Okay, well, I'm going to add you to our challenge. You're going to be with all these people that you don't know, but it doesn't matter. It'll motivate you to not be last, which was my motivation in the early days, and I'm trying to sit about mid-table these days because there are some crazy people in there who do half marathons on the way to work.

00:06:12Lyndell Murray: Yes, yes.

00:06:13Scott Trickett: Who does that? Not me, I don't. The commute is 21K.

00:06:19Lyndell Murray: Right, well, I'm certainly not doing that at this point in time. All right, Scotty, you're on. You can add me to your group and you can see how few steps I'm doing at the moment.

00:06:30Scott Trickett: Okay, good. But should we just recap on parkrun? Everyone was waiting to see where we went last week. Well, maybe one person. Maybe.

00:06:41Lyndell Murray: Maybe you were wondering where I was going and I was wondering where you were going.

00:06:45Scott Trickett: Yep. So where did you go?

00:06:47Lyndell Murray: I went to St Lucia parkrun. St Lucia is just west of the Brisbane city. It's a parkrun on a university campus, a university that I won't name because I work for the other university in town. So I'm not giving them any free publicity. Look, it's a lovely spot to run on a sand track there. Lots of trees. It was a bit chilly. There was a couple of us touristing from the northern suburbs of Brisbane over to St. Lucia. And we were joined by a few other, I'm going to call them parkrun orphans from South Bank parkrun. So South Bank parkrun, which is right in the smack bang in the city of Brisbane, had to cancel last weekend because there was maintenance in the city botanic gardens. So there's a few orphans there at St. Lucia.

00:07:42Scott Trickett: A few? South Bank's a massive event, so there would have been like hundreds of orphans. I wonder where they all went. They didn't all go to St Lucia?

00:07:50Lyndell Murray: They didn't all go to St Lucia. I think they divided and conquered.

00:07:53Scott Trickett: Okay. What's the crowd like at St Lucia? So being on a university campus, I'm hopeful that it's a bit younger. Do the university crowd get out and about on a Saturday morning?

00:08:06Lyndell Murray: Well, it's pretty mixed. I mean, there's a lot of people around that area anyway that are running and cycling and being active. There's a tennis centre there and there's an aquatic centre. So there's plenty of active people around the vicinity of parkrun and lots of walkers and runners out just doing their own thing there, independently of the parkrun as well so there's heaps of people around um I actually I don't know from the results how many you know I don't know maybe a hundred ish I'm could be entirely wrong on that but maybe a hundred or so um a week at St Lucia parkrun that's good that's good and Scotty where did you go

00:08:48Scott Trickett: Where did I go? I went back to Darebin, which I've been doing a bit of lately, so not terribly exciting. I broke my streak of tourist runs. This was my longest streak of different events, which was I got to 12. So what's that? That's like three months of a different event every week.

00:09:06Lyndell Murray: Yeah.

00:09:07Scott Trickett: It's been three months since I've been back to Darabin.

00:09:11Lyndell Murray: That's pretty impressive. Yeah.

00:09:12Scott Trickett: Yeah, I was pretty happy with that. I was pretty happy with that. And no particular reasons, just my mates were going to Darabin. It was really cold as well in Melbourne.

00:09:21Lyndell Murray: So it didn't matter where you went. It was just going to be cold everywhere.

00:09:23Scott Trickett: Yeah, pretty much, pretty much. But I did get Darabin up to eight. So my P-index is making some great progress. I think I'm one event away from increasing my P-index, which...

00:09:34Lyndell Murray: So am I, Scotty.

00:09:36Scott Trickett: Are you? I am. Are you on eight? No, I'm not on eight. Okay. Okay.

00:09:41Lyndell Murray: But I just need to do one more to make it six.

00:09:43Scott Trickett: Six is pretty impressive too.

00:09:45Lyndell Murray: Yeah, it's not bad. I'm pretty happy with that stat. Yeah.

00:09:49Scott Trickett: Well, let's coordinate our P index increases.

00:09:53Lyndell Murray: Let's do that.

Interview Lee Troop — Three-time Olympian and distance-running coach, Boulder, Colorado

00:10:02Scott Trickett: From time to time, we like to check in with the elites and find out how they're doing. And one of our really fast guys from back in the day joins us all the way from America. Welcome to the parkrun adventurers, Lee Troop. Thanks for having me, Scotty and Lyndell. We're in different time zones. Lyndell and I are up in the morning, but it's nice in the middle of the afternoon for you there. And I'm going to throw one at you completely left field, Lee, here. I know you've just been for a run. I follow you on the socials. And you've been for a run. For Gabe Grunewald? Yep. You went for a run with your daughter?

00:10:36Lee Troop: That I did. That I did. So it was good to actually have a reason to get my daughter to come and join me. So it was good.

00:10:46Scott Trickett: Do you want to tell the listeners a bit of the story about Gabe and what her legacy is?

00:10:51Lee Troop: Yeah, so Gabe, originally from Minnesota, unfortunately has had four fights with a serious cancer. And, unfortunately, about a week ago, I think, or maybe 10 days ago, she succumbed and passed away. And everyone has known about the fight that Gabe has had with cancer. She's somebody that, while in treatment, has still tried to get out and train, has still tried to race. I was fortunate to meet her in 2016 at the US Olympic trials through an athlete that I was coaching, Sara Vaughn. And she was just a delightful, delightful person. And her husband seemed like a really, really good lad as well. And I then followed more of them after I'd met them through 2017, and obviously 2018 and just the, the struggles that she'd had and, um, and what she had to deal with. And I think the, the thing that resonates with a lot of people was just her resilience to, to fight every day, not to give up. Um, you know, a lot of people could say, Hey, look, you know, you have cancer, you need to take care of yourself. But she saw it as a challenge to just keep pushing herself and seeing what she could do. And, um, Yeah, in Minnesota as of today, today's her birthday, and it's known as Gabe Grunewald Day, which will be forever. And her favourite number was 1,405. So they were asking everyone to run 1.405 miles. And so I encouraged my daughter to come out today just to do a 20-minute run where we ran for five minutes, walked for two, and we did that for three kilometres. So... I mean, it's a sad story, but, you know, it's one of those ones that is certainly turned for good and people are using it as motivation and inspiration. And I think her legacy is going to live on for many, many, many more years to come.

00:12:46Scott Trickett: Yeah, I think you're right there. I think she resonated with people because she was so lovely and she was a fighter. I'm interested, how did your daughter, did you get an opportunity to talk about Gabe on your run or was it just a father-daughter bonding experience? How was that like?

00:13:02Lee Troop: My daughter's seen the videos that have come out of Gabe. So she is familiar with her. I mean, I don't know her personally, but I know obviously her plight and everything that's been put together and, you know, watched everything and read everything. About three or four years ago, my father actually had stage four brain cancer. So, you know, we've been on that journey. So she's familiar with, you know, how cancer unfortunately doesn't discriminate and, you the impact that it can have and the damage it can have, but then also importantly how it can bring people together to unite and to fight and to be on a common path and common cause way together. So I'm sure like she's 13, she understands, but I don't think she doesn't feel the emotions that a lot of other people and particularly I guess adults have felt and people that knew her.

00:13:57Lyndell Murray: What a fantastic story. It sounds like she's made a real impact on people. And just using that running story to bring people together. And I guess, you know, Scotty and I would say that that's what we live every week at parkrun, that feeling of just bringing people together. I guess the other thing that resonated for me with your story about Gabe is that there's just different things that running can bring in a life and different experiences that you have through running. Lee, you've made the transition from being an elite athlete through to now coaching athletes. So what's that been like for you and has that been an easy transition?

00:14:36Lee Troop: Um, it started out, uh, relatively easy. Um, you know, I, I really didn't have any desires to coach. I was actually still trying to make a fourth Olympics myself. And, um, a couple of athletes asked if I'd coach them, which I was reluctant to do. And, um, after probably four to six weeks of being pestered, I really went with the, with the Moneghetti rule of thumb, where I just basically said that, uh, you know, I train at eight in the morning and, five at night and if you want to jump in and train that'd be great and this is what I'm going to be doing and you know three strikes and you're out type of scenario and you know I started coaching a couple of people and then that grew and then I guess over time you know I was coaching 20-25 elite athletes and I'd set up a track club here known as the Boulder Track Club which you know a at any given time we had 300 to 400 members as part of that club from youth group to middle school group to recreational runners and then professional athletes. And things were travelling along fine up until last year where unfortunately one of my top athletes took his life. He battled with depression and that created just a catastrophe of just... events where by the time I'd got to October he'd unfortunately taken his life in February but by the time I'd got to October I was mentally physically emotionally just spent and I had to take a bit of time out of coaching to just try and get myself back on track which I've just started to do. I wouldn't say that I'm, um, I'm completely out of the woods at the moment. I'm not at a point of travelling to races. Um, you know, when you travel to races, it becomes a circus with coaches and agents and everyone wants to ask me how I'm going. It's like, everyone's got 10 set questions that they have to ask me repeatedly. Um, but, you know for the for the short term at the moment I'm just enjoying being out there coaching five athletes and they're young athletes I also have a big recreational group of about 30 athletes from beginners to you know athletes that run like seven eight minute kilometre pace and working with them so yeah I've finally put one foot back in into the water again and don't have both feet completely put in the water but back to enjoying it and investing into people and you know, coaching's a, there's that symbiotic relationship with the athlete where it's not necessarily about writing out the training programs. It's, you know, being on this emotional and mental journey that they're on, whether they're wanting to lose weight, run a personal best, or try to make the Olympics. A lot of athletes handle their sport differently. And And as a coach, your job is to not have a cookie cutter where everyone's the same, but working with them individually with their needs and their wants. And when they're high, try to sort of bring them down a little bit. When they're low, try to build them up and make them feel like they're moving in the right direction. So it's certainly been a different... um uh journey that I've been on as a coach um I guess you know as an athlete I was uncoachable I coached myself for a lot and I'd always bounce ideas off Steve Moneghetti so going from not really having had I guess coaches myself to then now be becoming a coach it's been a um it's been a different ride that's for sure um I I started off with just me and two people we built it up to 10 20 30 so I was coaching like a sub elite group in the morning that would have 20 30 people in it then I'd be coaching the elite group um after that and then I brought in another coach and then we brought in a trail coach so I ended up bringing in four or five other coaches in and around me and we built the club up that we would have you know a committee with a president and a vice president and secretary and treasurer and So that over the time, I could start to wind myself out of the club and have the club function fully with, I guess, volunteers, like five to six different volunteers making the club work. But as we know, it's tough to get volunteers and committed volunteers and volunteers, people that are on the same page as what was the club set up for? What's the vision of the club? What's the mission of the club? Where do we need to drive it? Now, I always say many hands make light work, but when you do get a group of people that come in that may think differently and act differently and have different agendas, sometimes that makes it hard for the club to continue on the journey that had been set for it. It was just unfortunate that last year everything came at the same time. I was coaching a big group of elite athletes and I needed time out from that. I had a running store, which unfortunately was a forced closure for me. I wanted to get out of the running store that I was in. It was part of a franchise and I wanted to open an independent running store and That didn't go down too well. And my daughter had gone through a spate of bullying at her middle school. And, you know, and then unfortunately with John, you know, passing away. 2018 was certainly a year of testing the very physical and mental and emotional strengths that I had. taking time away from that and also from the club has just given me a little bit of a different perspective on things. And, you know, the club is still functioning well. As I said, you know, you rely on volunteers to help keeping moving things in the right direction. But now that I've sort of come out of that hiatus that I've been in, looking forward to getting back into the club and obviously coaching elites, I don't think I'll go back to having a big group. I think I'll keep it rather small and personal, and enjoy the recreational group of athletes that I'm coaching. I mean, that sub-tier of people have jobs, have families, you know, they're 40, 50, 60 years of running and their reasons for running are certainly a lot different than elite athletes. You know, running is just an extension of what they do. It isn't the only thing that they do. Whereas with elite athletes, you know, this is their job. You're on a knife's edge. They're trying to make Olympics. They're trying to get sponsors. And, you know, that just seems to have a little bit more vulnerability and it's a different rollercoaster ride that you're on.

00:20:53Lyndell Murray: So with the elite athletes, you touched on it there a little bit, it's their life and, you know, their income depends on it. They're trying to get sponsors. What's your role as a coach in Because you talked a little bit then as well about the well-rounded life of an athlete. Do you have a part to play in helping them with all of that or do you really just concentrate mainly on the physical training?

00:21:20Lee Troop: No, I mean, for me, like every coach is different. I don't say that any coach is wrong. And for me, my coaching is taking in their whole lifestyle, you know, like what they do for work, their family background, their collegiate background, you know, influences that may have a physical background, mental impact, positive and negative, and trying to put things in place. As I said, every athlete's completely different and you need to look at them as a whole. And you end up becoming more of a psychologist than a coach. The training's easy. You put one foot in front of the other and you run as hard as you can for as long as you can. And if you're in a race, whoever crosses the finish line first wins. So That metric there is not a complicated process, but it's the pathway to get there and then what the athlete is experiencing mentally and emotionally. Some of them have had tough college backgrounds and they were injured through college and They've come out of college, you know, not knowing whether running is what they want to do. Some of them were fantastic athletes in college, but, you know, you've got a full ride at college. You know, you've got your accommodation paid for, you've got your food paid for, you've got your education paid for. When you come out of college where you've been spoon fed, all of a sudden you've got to become an adult and it's hard for athletes to transition from being a college athlete to then wanting to pursue a professional career. And particularly if you don't have sponsorship and you've got to work. And in Australia, it's a little bit different because we don't have that glorification of professional sport that they do have here in the US. So when you come out of college, you would get a job. And you know that you're going to work at least part-time and still run. Whereas here, there's this mythology that when you come out of college and you want to be a professional athlete, you have to be a full-time athlete and that's the only thing you can do. And that's really incorrect. I try to encourage all my athletes to work a minimum 20 hours a week. And even if it's just a part-time job and in any career that they don't foresee a future in, it still gives them 20 hours a week of not thinking about running and it gives them a different outlet and it gives them different people to connect with that aren't necessarily all running focused. Because I think if you live it, breathe it, you know, like you're analysing, you're overanalyzing, you're psychoanalyzing everything about running, then that's when we start to see that mental breakdown, which then starts to become a bit of a physical breakdown with fatigue and pressure. And then we see the emotional breakdown that comes after that.

00:23:48Scott Trickett: Hey, Lee, should we reminisce a little bit? I'm not sure all our listeners would be familiar with the Lee Troop story. Going back, you broke onto the scene in the 5K on the track, the parkrun distance, and then progressed to marathons where it's fair to say you probably made your name. Do you remember back into those early days, back in Geelong?

00:24:09Lee Troop: Oh, absolutely. It's like it was yesterday. So they're all the, that's what we call the glory days. But I obviously had started out at not running marathons. I was running 5K and 10K and cross country. And, you know, I started running just because my dad wanted to lose weight and I played a whole myriad of other sports and I got a junior college scholarship back in 93, 94 in Texas. And so, you know, there was all these little things along the way of running where I just ran with my dad to lose weight. I did some local fun runs. I did school cross country and school athletics to the point where then I got a collegiate scholarship and I come over here and I think that's where all of a sudden my eyes were open to the possibilities of what could come from running if I was prepared to actually take it much more seriously. And I came back to Australia after 18 months here and that's where things really turned around. I moved from Geelong to Ballarat to train with Moneghetti and um I'd made uh world cross country in 96 which was in Cape Town in uh sorry it was in Stellenbosch South Africa and then I made the Commonwealth Games in 98 which was in Kuala Lumpur for the 5k and the 10k and 99 I was fortunate enough to break Ron Clarke's 5k record that had been there for 33 years and then that led to the London Marathon um in 99 where I I ran 2.11 on debut. When you look back on things, there wasn't one distinct thing that was the reason I started to get success from running, but there was a whole heap of things that all came together. I was lucky that I didn't have injuries. I ran purely because I loved it. Success and winning wasn't the priorities for me. It was more about obviously doing my best and I'd always wanted to be a marathon runner. I grew up idolizing Deek de Castella. And for me, even though I was running 5K, 10K cross country, that wasn't like that was the end for me. It was always that would be what would then propel me into being a marathon runner. So those early years were obviously those formative years. And certainly what I look back on where there was just, it was just innocent, innocent running. It wasn't complicated running. And, you know, there was running, running with purpose, you know, running with friends and running for the clubs that are with Athletics Victoria Championship meets and just trying to get as high up as I could. And that led to then making the Olympics in 2000.

00:26:43Lyndell Murray: Lee, you've talked about a basis of fun being the basis for your running and running for pleasure and for a purpose. So I guess, and, you know, you've reached the real heights of elite running. So what is your fondest memory of running or what's your fondest time that you look back on, whether it's on the track or off the track from that time of being an elite athlete?

00:27:11Lee Troop: Yeah. It's probably a hard one to answer because I had so many wonderful opportunities that were given to me. If I was to look at, you know, maybe just a couple, I think certainly going to the US in 93 to a junior college. And being taken out of my comfort zone where running when I first got there wasn't that fun. I was in the panhandle of Texas. I had no friends. You're a foreigner in a country and you're very far away from home. And so when you're used to travelling around Australia, so then all of a sudden being on a plane and stuck in the panhandle of Texas. It certainly changed my perspective of things. And I remember my mom, they'd sent me over with a one-way ticket and they said when it was time for me to come home to let them know and they would give me a return ticket to come home. And I was only there three days and I called my mom and said, look, no, this isn't for me. It's time to come back home. And my mom quite bluntly turned around and said, we knew you'd say that and you're there for a minimum six months and hung up the phone. And That period, despite being extremely difficult, I think really set the foundation for me to be able to travel the world and do what I did. Because if I could handle living in the panhandle of Texas with no family and friends, I'm pretty sure that I could travel the world and run and race and make new friends and obviously travel with friends as well. So that was certainly one thing that I look back on that was a strong catalyst for my running. And then definitely, you know, being in Ballarat and training with Moneghetti and seeing what the very best do and realising that, you know, there are certain sacrifices that you need to make. And that comes at the cost of, you know, sometimes friendships and family, you know, with certain events that they may have where you've got to prioritise, you know, what's important with running. And, you know, for some people, you get one shot at trying to make the Olympics. For me personally, I was fortunate that I made three. But that comes with a lot of sacrificing and prioritising what's important. And it's hard because if you're travelling a lot for training and for racing, you miss out on things like weddings and births of children and birthdays and special events and When you do come home, you try to pack it all in, to catch up with people. And some people take it personally, that you're such a good friend and yet you weren't there for a wedding or you weren't there for a birthday or you weren't there for the wetting of the baby's head. And it's tough to get them to realise that, the sport that they see you doing is actually a job. It's your life. And they don't see that. They just see running just as a sport that you can pick and choose whenever you want. And so those two timeframes were things that I look back on that were challenging, but at the same time, learning to navigate through that certainly helped propel a lot of the great things that came throughout my career and I don't look back on that with anything negative. I look back on that with like a lot of joy and delight that someone like me, who's an extrovert in a distance guy's body, was able to really calibrate himself to do what was needed to be done to then set up the 20-year career that I had.

00:30:34Lyndell Murray: It's amazing, isn't it, sometimes when the times are toughest, you come out the other side and a different person or with a different attitude that can just really change your life. What an amazing story. Thanks for sharing that with us, Lee. Yeah, the other thing I just wanted to recap on, you said earlier in the interview that you were going through a tough time and was it last year and people would ask you all of these questions that you didn't really want to answer. So I guess I just wanted, you know, before we wrap up with you to have the opportunity to ask you what questions you would like to be asked and whether we have asked them of you.

00:31:15Lee Troop: Yeah, look, obviously, as I said last year, it wasn't a great year. And primarily, you know, it just features around, you know, people not knowing what to ask. And all of a sudden they become like a psychologist and always wanting to check on you. And it's one of those ones where I call it a Captain Obvious moment that, you know, Things aren't great and, you know, you're dealing with the death of an athlete and you're trying to support the family who are affected by this and then you have athletes that are affected by this. And, you know, it wasn't like it was a case of that the wrong questions were being asked. It was just when you're not in a particularly great place yourself, it's hard to continually get out there and put a smile on your face to continually and repeatedly answer the same questions. And even though they might be different in the way that they're directed, they're still somewhat the same questions that you're just repeatedly giving the same answers. So for me, I just... really had, it wasn't anyone's fault. I just had to take some time out and just hide in a hole for a little while until I felt that, you know, I could get back out there and, you know, be more positive, obviously be more engaging and have a, a normal smile on my face as opposed to a forced smile on my face. So look, it's all good. These are the things that we go through in life. And if we can come out the other side, they certainly, they may change us, but they make us better. And I don't look on my experience last year than any of the learning experiences I got early on in my running career. Like I said, it was just a case of being able to just take a step back and look at things a little bit differently. And then once I'd sort of got through that, then work out what I wanted to do. And I certainly love coaching. I certainly love working with athletes. And I certainly like trying to make a real positive difference in their lives. And I also know that, you know, for these kids, you know, some of them may achieve it and a lot of them won't. But it's all about the journey. And I'm sure that once they finish their running career and they'll look back on it, hopefully there'll be things that they've learned here in Boulder and particularly under my coaching that was a life-changing moment for them that they can then take into the next phase of their life to be a better employee, a better son, better daughter, better husband, better wife. I mean, it's all life skills that we're trying to develop along the way. And for me, I hadn't gone through what I'd gone through last year. So again, it just was a challenging way of looking at a different life skill set that I feel like will make me a much better person as we move along.

00:33:52Scott Trickett: Lee, how are you enjoying your time in America? Do you miss Australia? It sounds like you're going through some challenges over there.

00:33:57Lee Troop: Certainly. I mean, at the end of the day, I mean, everything had been fantastic up to last year. We've been here over 10 years. So I can't really judge, you know, one year for the other nine. But in saying that, I miss Australia a lot and I love what Australia has to offer. And when I came over here, there were just certain challenges that, you know, motivated me, to really throw everything into the US and see what I could make from it. And I had been doing pretty well. I had a successful running store and I was coaching some elite athletes. I mean, my top athlete had run 225 at London and a few of them had won some national titles and family was all happy and I was managing athletes. So life was progressing along fairly well and Then in the blink of an eyelid, all of a sudden everything fell apart. But I guess the moral of the story is I could probably have packed up and come home and reset and start it again. But there's a challenge for me now to try and just rebuild again and build some things up and get back to a point where I feel like I'm back in control of my destiny. And we've certainly talked about potentially coming home at the end of 2020. my daughter will have finished middle school at that stage. And before she would progress into high school, we could come home and she could just start year nine back in Australia. So we're certainly having those discussions. And with the fact that my dad was so ill three or four years ago, and, you know, my parents and my wife's parents getting older, you know, probably a good time to come home so they can spend some of that time with their grandkids. It's always a It's a fiesta whenever we head back to Australia once or twice a year. And, you know, my parents spoil my kids rotten. So we're talking about it. But, yeah, for the moment, being where we are, we're in Boulder. And, you know, Rob de Castella had lived here. Steve Jones, world record holder. Frank Shorter, Arturo Barrios. I mean, some of the world's best athletes still live here. And so I see them quite regularly. And, you know, you don't even – feel that you know gee whiz we've been here x amount of years or we've been retired from our sport x amount of years because whenever we catch up it's always you know reminiscing about the good old days and enjoying each other's company so that hasn't waned quite at the minute but I'm sure once I got to that point it would be time to get on the plane and come back. But, you know, Australia certainly and where I'm from in Geelong, you know, I miss the beach, miss friends, you know, miss running through, you know, the Otway Forest down that way. And even though I'm here, I get back a lot and we're looking at putting a running festival on in Geelong next year and looking at trying to contribute something different to my hometown, just like with what I'm doing here in Boulder with the races that I'm doing and the athletes that I'm coaching.

00:36:41Scott Trickett: You must miss the troop loop down near, well, it's near Balyang Sanctuary parkrun. I'm curious. I want to hear your thoughts on parkrun. You've done a couple. Your good mate Mona loves parkrun. He goes along and volunteers every week. So there's something in it for even Mona getting. But it hasn't really taken off in America like it has in other countries. It's taking a long time. It's just starting to grow. Have you got any insights why you think that might be, having lived over there for 10 years?

00:37:13Lee Troop: Yeah, I mean... Here in the US, there's races every weekend. They're everywhere and they're races that people have been doing for 10, 15, 20 years. So for all of a sudden this event to just pop up where you don't pay an entry fee and supposedly there's no timing or there could be timing but we're not racing for times, I don't think that concept sort of really fits in with the Americans and the American culture because I They want to pay an entry fee and they want chip timing and they want results. And, you know, they're running for age group awards and, you know, and they're running for charity to raise money for charity. So just the mindset's a little bit different. We do have one here in Boulder. It makes it hard because they're doing it on a trail and you're not allowed to have any more than 35 people on a trail and you're not allowed to do timed events. So those restrictive pieces make it hard, but they are growing and I'm seeing a splattering of the parkruns in and around the US. Obviously, there's been a huge boom in Australia and obviously in the UK, they're everywhere. And athletes that I coach, even through my program of Marathon Guru, When they're preparing for marathons, whether it's Melbourne or Sydney marathon, Canberra marathon, I'll always say to them, you know, like two weeks out, like look for a parkrun and do a parkrun 5k and just use it as a really good hard hit out to help you for your marathon. And you know that, you know, that they've been measured and they've been marked and people that turn up to those races are all there pretty much for the same reason just to create this community within a community and to run hard push hard and then socialise afterwards it reminds me of the old Sri Chinmoy races that I did as a kid when we were growing up they were always at eastern park and you would race two laps around eastern park and then afterwards you'd sit around having fruit and drinking orange juice and so the parkruns got that that similar feel um in saying that I feel like parkrun might have taken a step too far to the left this year when, particularly in the UK, they started talking about parkrun World Records. And I know that hasn't gone over with a lot of people very well because it's actually taken away from why parkrun was developed initially, to begin with and I think if it stays within its lane of why it started and what its mission is and how it brings people together and it's not elitist I think it's got every reason to just keep continually to grow which I think is a great thing for health and fitness and participation which that's the most important facet of why people do what they do so for me it ticks off all the all the boxes that are really important.

00:39:57Lyndell Murray: great to get your insight into parkrun Lee and thank you so much for your time this afternoon or this morning for us and thank you for being not only really open about your life as an elite athlete but also your life now in colorado and even the tough times as well it's a really special thing to share that with you Lee

00:40:17Lee Troop: Thank you. And I guess my biggest dilemma when I come back home to Geelong is what parkrun am I going to do? It's out at the You Yangs. It's around the Balyang River. Like I think there's like three now. So it's going to be going to be tougher when I get home to pick which one.

00:40:30Lyndell Murray: You'll have to just be a tourist like Scotty and Mel and I.

00:40:33Lee Troop: Try and hit all three, get all of them it works for us no like I said I I think it's fantastic and a lot of people that you know I haven't seen for a long time that I went to school with you know 25 no 30 years ago it's been awesome to see them get involved in things like this and bring their families and you know and a lot of them will say to me that they didn't know running would could be so joyful I guess because you know when you're in high school it's forced upon you to do physical education but you the people that are doing parkruns are simply and consciously just making a choice to better their lives and better the communities and come together and enjoy something that everyone can enjoy together. So, as I said, I love it. And going down there, like I... Last year when I was down there, I took my daughter down there and it was awesome. Like it was just great for me now that I'm in a different phase of my life to actually share something with my daughter that is... similar to what was shared with me and my father. So what the opportunity that you're creating, as I said, there was just a lot of synergy of, I used to go to these Sri Chinmoy events with my dad and run with my dad and my brother would come and you've got parkrun that I can just take my daughter down to and enjoy her company and everyone else's company as well. So thanks for rekindling something that has a little bit of sentiment to it.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Tony O'Connell — Port Fairy

00:42:03Tony O'Connell: Howdy parkrunners, this is TOC reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew. Today, Jack and I ventured down to the lovely seaside town of Port Fairy, where once again, it's a little bit chilly. The water's coming straight off Bass Strait, the wind, sorry, coming straight off Bass Strait, and it is chilly. Port Fairy was a town established back in the 1840s as a whaling town. It was originally known as Belfast and then they changed their name back in the 1870s to Port Fairy. Nowadays it's known as one of the larger fishing towns in the Southern Ocean and quite well known for its tourism, including the Port Fairy Folk Festival, which is held in March every year and is quite a large festival in the area. For those that follow the AFL, of note uh John coleman who the coleman medal for the most goal kickers is named after also came from Port Fairy so we're just having a look look at around the course it's a three looper um we'll get back to you once we've had a run cheers howdy parkrunners it's TOC we've just finished the sensational Port Fairy parkrun and I'm here with three generations of a family although Jenna looks like she's going to run away from me so I've got Kate the ed Jenna and hester Kate, Port Fairy is a beautiful parkrun. You've got sea views, you've got views down through the, what do you call it, the lake or the river down through the bottom. A couple of laps so you get to see everyone. I love the lap courses. Tell me a little bit about the Port Fairy parkrun.

00:43:34Kate: Oh, it's fantastic, parkrun's best kept secret, I hear. Look, really, we're a small parkrun. We had just over 30 today. In the summer we get a few more, but we absolutely love our parkrun. We've got a really core group of fanatical locals that turn up every week.

00:43:50Tony O'Connell: Yep, and you've got great facilities here, you know, with the barbecue shelter and the toilets right at the start line, so you're well protected for the elements. Yeah, no, it's lovely. I walked around with your mum today, Hester. Hester, say hello. Hello, everyone.

00:44:06Hester: We had a great chat out around the course. We did. I enjoy parkrun. I mean, sometimes I don't want to get out of bed and today was one of those days, but I'm glad I did. The weather's really kind today, so it's been a good walk.

00:44:21Kate: Hester's one of the ones, when we started parkrun, I said to Hester, look, you're going to just come and volunteer for me. And it wasn't long and she was a participant and she's here every week.

00:44:30Tony O'Connell: It's great. And given Port Fairy's history back in the 1800s being a big whaling town, I'd imagine at this time of the year, from part of the course that we've just come up on the hill, you probably get the odd whale sighting?

00:44:42Kate: Absolutely. In fact, word on the street is there has been a few whales swimming past in the last couple of weeks, but definitely we're always on the lookout because they're definitely there.

00:44:50Tony O'Connell: Yeah, no, congratulations. It's a lovely little course and I'd encourage everyone to come down and have a run around it.

00:44:55Kate: Absolutely. Port Fairy is a great, great place to visit. It's beautiful.

00:44:58Tony O'Connell: And come down in March, come for the Folk Festival.

00:45:01Kate: One weekend of the year, we don't actually have parkrun. They use their course for car parking.

00:45:07Tony O'Connell: Oh, that's terrible.

00:45:07Kate: So if you come that weekend, then you go and do Warrnambool or Portland or Hamilton.

00:45:11Tony O'Connell: Come for a week, do the parkrun the week before, then come to the festival next week. Absolutely.

00:45:16Hester: There are plenty of reasons to come to Port Fairy for the parkrun. You can also go for a ride on the rail trail after you've done parkrun. Yes.

00:45:24Tony O'Connell: There's actually, it's a fairly big tourism industry around Port Fairy, so there's plenty to see and do around the place.

00:45:30Kate: Yes, yes. We are a tourist town, a destination town, they call us.

00:45:34Tony O'Connell: And amazing natural resources with the ocean out to the blowers.

00:45:38Kate: Yes, we're very lucky.

00:45:40Tony O'Connell: Well done. Great parkrun.

00:45:41Kate: Thanks very much, TOC.

Roving report Gary Murphy — Karkarook

00:45:43Gary Murphy: Morning, Lyndell and Scott. It's Gary Murphy reporting in for the parkrun adventurers from Karkarook parkrun in Melbourne South East. All right, so now we're standing here at the finish line of Karkarook parkrun, lovingly known as Karky Parky. Yes. And I'm standing here with Chris, who's an RD at Karkarook, and Simon. Well done, boys. How did you go today?

00:46:01Chris: Oh, yeah, good. Yeah, got under 25, which I was very happy with.

00:46:03Simon: Yeah, well done. Yeah, very nice this week, about 28 minutes, so quite happy with that. Yeah.

00:46:08Gary Murphy: Now there has been some discussion on some pages that I've seen about unique ways to get to a parkrun and Chris I believe you can tell me about a unique transportation device that's been at Karkarook parkrun.

00:46:19Chris: Yes we have had some hot air balloons arrive at Karkarook I don't know that anyone got out and actually did the run but yeah they arrived during the run and we could see them it almost felt like you could reach up and grab them as they were coming in and they'd come overhead on one side of the course and then come around the other side and you'd see them land. So that was great.

00:46:38Gary Murphy: That's fantastic. It would have been a real unique experience to have all those people coming in. It was amazing.

00:46:44Chris: And when you see the balloon coming overhead and you just hear the flames coming from the hot air balloon, it's pretty special. It really does feel like they're going to land on your head.

00:46:53Gary Murphy: Did anybody yell out and cheer the parkrunners on as they were coming overhead? Not that I heard.

00:46:58Simon: I didn't hear anything like that.

00:46:59Chris: No. I think they're a bit stunned to see so many people in the park at that hour of the morning.

00:47:03Gary Murphy: A welcoming committee for them when they arrive. Yes. And Simon, how long have you been parkrunning for, mate?

00:47:08Simon: Since the start of this year, I've been going pretty serious about it. I did a few runs before that, but I had an injury, so back into it now. Okay.

00:47:16Gary Murphy: And how did you find... So recently, I know that Karkarook has changed direction. You used to go clockwise, and now you're going anti-clockwise. How have you found that?

00:47:23Simon: I found it a lot better this way. The... Downhill is a lot slower, so instead of having like a 90% of the run going uphill, like you just got a couple of small uphills and a long downhill which is a lot nicer for me. Yeah, cool mate.

00:47:40[applause]

00:47:40Gary Murphy: And you can probably hear in the background there's lots of cheering going on and everybody's still finishing. It's a beautiful morning here. It's the shortest day of the year, so that's good. And it's quite calm here. How would you describe the course, Chris? It's a two-lapper?

00:47:54Chris: A two-lap around a lake, which I think is a man-made lake. I think it used to be a quarry here, but you wouldn't know it now. So, no, it's a lovely course. I really like it. It's very flat. I used to run at Jells, which is not flat at all. So this is a really nice change, and I keep coming here because the team's terrific. They've always been just super friendly, and it's really, yeah, it's a great place to be. Yeah. Yeah.

00:48:19Gary Murphy: And what about you Simon? Have you travelled around to many different parkruns?

00:48:22Simon: I've been to Jells a couple of times and I've been to Frog Hollow but this is the best one that I've been to.

00:48:30Gary Murphy: Well thanks boys, that's been a great morning. Thanks for talking to me and all the best with your parkrun adventures into the future. Thank you. Thank you. All right, so now I've found some more parkrunners and they've got a bit of a story to tell because they've been adventuring around different parkruns, ticking off their alphabets. So I'll get everyone to introduce themselves.

00:48:49Unidentified speaker: Hi, I'm Kath.

00:48:50Gary Murphy: And where are you from, Kath?

00:48:51Unidentified speaker: Highlanders. Hi, I'm Kay from Highlanders. I'm Debbie and I'm from Highlanders. And I'm Tracy, also from Highlanders. Who knew? Highlanders.

00:49:00Gary Murphy: Unbelievable. Now, I was talking about an adventure. So what have you guys been up to in the last few months, weeks?

00:49:07Unidentified speaker: Months, yeah. We've been travelling around Victoria trying to get our alphabet done.

00:49:11Gary Murphy: Outstanding.

00:49:12Unidentified speaker: As best as we can, yes.

00:49:13Gary Murphy: And how far in are you?

00:49:15Unidentified speaker: We've got eight left.

00:49:16Gary Murphy: Eight left.

00:49:17Unidentified speaker: Including we've booked into Queensland. Queenstown. Queenstown.

00:49:21Paul Kitching: Yes, New Zealand.

00:49:22Gary Murphy: Wow, that's so good.

00:49:24Unidentified speaker: Cool, eh? Nothing like getting a holiday in.

00:49:28Gary Murphy: And what's been a highlight of travelling around? What is it? What's the best bit about travelling?

00:49:33Unidentified speaker: I think it's just seeing the different parkruns and some of them are just so pretty. And the people are really lovely. And you can do a different parkrun every week and run into the same people that are also doing... And the good part about it is when you run, you don't really know how long it is.

00:49:54Unidentified speaker: Because it's a new course.

00:49:56Unidentified speaker: But I have to say, Debbie's an expert at getting lost. Yes, that I am.

00:50:02Unidentified speaker: Not enough signage. Not enough signage for Debbie anyway. We're all right, but not Debbie. I tend to run into the oncoming traffic.

00:50:15Unidentified speaker: Too much chit-chat.

00:50:16Gary Murphy: Chit-chat's good. Chit-chat's good. So how have you been picking the parkruns? Has it just been alphabetical?

00:50:23Unidentified speaker: We're just going through the alphabet to see where we have a coffee. We get the list up and figure out what we haven't done and what we're going to do the next week.

00:50:31Gary Murphy: So where are you off to next week?

00:50:32Unidentified speaker: We haven't had our coffee yet.

00:50:35Gary Murphy: I've got to listen to the answer when I ask a question.

00:50:38Unidentified speaker: We'll know in another hour or so. When we find a nice coffee place around here.

00:50:43Gary Murphy: So what's the furthest you've been?

00:50:48Unidentified speaker: Kay has done... Kay and I have done New Zealand. We've done Lower Hutt in New Zealand.

00:50:53Unidentified speaker: I've done a few in Queensland.

00:50:55Unidentified speaker: Kirra and Main Beach.

00:50:57Unidentified speaker: Tracey's done...

00:50:58Unidentified speaker: I've done Mount Gambier, yes. So that was very nice.

00:51:02Unidentified speaker: I did one in South Australia.

00:51:04Unidentified speaker: And you're also booked in for Bushy Park. So...

00:51:09Unidentified speaker: So Kay's off to the UK in... Six weeks, August, early August, and Bushy Park's on the list.

00:51:17Gary Murphy: Oh, outstanding. How good is that?

00:51:19Unidentified speaker: So we're all jealous of that one. The interview's over now. I'm going.

00:51:23Gary Murphy: I can't talk to anybody.

00:51:24Unidentified speaker: I'm going next year, and I'm going to do Berlin and Prague. Oh!

00:51:29Gary Murphy: Well, that is outstanding, girls. Well done. Congratulations and all the best for your future adventuring.

00:51:33Unidentified speaker: And it was fabulous today because I saw you run past us. Couldn't believe it.

00:51:37Gary Murphy: It was such a surprise we didn't even plan it.

00:51:41Unidentified speaker: I recognise the hat.

00:51:44Unidentified speaker: It's the hat. And I think that's the fun thing about parkrun as well. You don't plan these things, but there's people that you meet up every week and think, oh, they're here, they're here, you know, and it's a surprise. Thank you.

00:51:58Gary Murphy: Well done legends.

00:51:59Unidentified speaker: Thank you.

00:51:59Gary Murphy: Thank you Okay, so now we're in the Karky Parky rotunda and we're with some volunteers doing the scanning and I am with Tom Tom. Tom. Hey, Tom. I'm Angela, Tom's mum.

00:52:14Tom: And I'm Greta.

00:52:16Gary Murphy: Hey, Greta. You guys are volunteering today. Thank you so much. Is scanning your favourite role?

00:52:22Tom: I don't really know because this is my first volunteer.

00:52:25Gary Murphy: Oh, good on you, mate. Congratulations. That's really good. How did it go?

00:52:29Tom: It's going pretty well. Yeah? Yeah.

00:52:31Gary Murphy: And you're using the mobile app on your phone. How did that go?

00:52:35Tom: Yeah, it's working pretty well.

00:52:37Gary Murphy: Yeah?

00:52:37Tom: Yeah.

00:52:37Gary Murphy: And did most people have Barcode Scanners or tokens?

00:52:42Tom: Yeah. Yeah? Yeah.

00:52:43Gary Murphy: Good on you, Tom. And Greta, you were the official token person taking the tokens off Tom and Mum. Is that right?

00:52:52Greta: No.

00:52:53Gary Murphy: You ran! How'd you go?

00:52:57Greta: Good. Yeah?

00:52:58Gary Murphy: And how long have you been parkrunning for?

00:53:01Greta: This is my eighth.

00:53:03Gary Murphy: Eighth? Oh, so you're nearly up to the 10 club.

00:53:05Greta: Are you looking forward to that? Yeah. Yeah.

00:53:08Gary Murphy: And what's your favourite thing about Karky Parky?

00:53:11Greta: The view.

00:53:13Gary Murphy: The view. It is a very pretty parkrun. And have you got used to going around the other way yet?

00:53:17Tom: Yeah. Yeah? Better? Yeah. Yeah.

00:53:22Gary Murphy: And how did you go today, Mum?

00:53:23Angela: Yeah, good. I'm not very good with the technology. That's why I had my helper, Tom, with me today. But we're all... volunteered so Greta could catch up with us and we're all going to do our milestone together. Tom and Greta will be 10 and I'll be 50, so we're looking forward to that.

00:53:38Gary Murphy: Fantastic. That's so good. So how long have you guys been parkrunning for?

00:53:42Angela: I started parkrunning when Karkarook started in 2016, I think it was. We'd usually take the winter off for hockey season, but we're running through hockey season this year and now my kids have started running and I'm lucky Tom's turned 11 because I can no longer keep up with him.

00:53:58Gary Murphy: Have you volunteered much?

00:54:00Angela: I'm most ashamed to say that this is my very first time volunteering, but we certainly plan to do a lot more because it's good fun.

00:54:06Gary Murphy: And it's a great event. No shame in that. You're looking brilliant in your orange vest. Thank you. I've got to say. And have you travelled around to many other parkruns?

00:54:14Angela: Tom and I have both done Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills. Okay. Yeah, that's the only one we've done.

00:54:19Gary Murphy: Well, thank you so much for volunteering today, guys. And we'll see you again somewhere else.

00:54:24Angela: Yeah, thank you.

00:54:27Gary Murphy: All right, we're just about packed up here at Karky Parky. And I've found Amanda Kwong. And Amanda was timekeeping today, so thank you, Amanda, for timekeeping. But Amanda is also the... What would your title be, Amanda, at Achilles?

00:54:39Amanda Kwong: El Presidente. El Presidente. Look out. [Spanish: "The President."]

00:54:42Gary Murphy: And...

00:54:43Amanda Kwong: you brought uh achilles to Melbourne the Melbourne chapter that's right and how's it been going it's been amazing it's uh growing from strength to strength um we've got about 30 people with vision impairment um involved in running and walking now um and about 10 of them at parkrun they are absolutely obsessed and they love it so I should say for people that oh no I'll get you to say so for people that don't know what achilles is what what does achilles do So Achilles pairs people with vision impairment with sighted guides so that people with vision impairment can go for a run without having any hazards or tripping over or anything like that. Yeah.

00:55:19Gary Murphy: Yeah. And it's a worldwide organisation, isn't it?

00:55:21Amanda Kwong: That's right, yeah. So it started in New York back in the 1980s or 70s. Came to Australia in Sydney first about 20 years ago and hit Melbourne about three years ago.

00:55:33Gary Murphy: And so where would people go online to find out about Achilles if they wanted to get involved?

00:55:39Amanda Kwong: If they want to find out about Achilles, it's www.achillesaustralia.org.au forward slash Melbourne.

00:55:46Gary Murphy: Awesome. Well done. I'll put Amanda on the spot here, so that's extremely well done. So is this your local parkrun?

00:55:52Amanda Kwong: This is my local parkrun, yes.

00:55:54Gary Murphy: And how many times have you volunteered? Was today your first time on the stopwatch?

00:55:58Amanda Kwong: It's a really good one. Today was the first time at the stopwatch. It was my 24th volunteer. Oh, outstanding. And the 25th volunteer, we've got a little something special happening with Achilles and parkrun. Hopefully we'll get a whole bunch of Achilles people volunteering at my local parkrun for my 25th volunteer.

00:56:16Gary Murphy: So can you reveal anything here about what's happening?

00:56:18Amanda Kwong: That's basically it. We're just going to try and get Achilles as all of the volunteer roles at Karkarook parkrun. We're still figuring out the date and the logistics of it, but that's the... Sort of planned, loose planned.

00:56:29Gary Murphy: Oh, that's brilliant. I can't wait to hear about that. That's really exciting. Good on you.

00:56:32Amanda Kwong: No worries.

00:56:33Gary Murphy: Well, thank you for today and thank you for bringing Achilles to Melbourne. Thanks, Gary. And all the best for the future.

00:56:38Amanda Kwong: Thank you. Cool.

00:56:40Gary Murphy: All right. Okay. So now I'm with Annie and Annie was the Run Director today. How did that go, Annie?

00:56:46Annie: Yeah. Always, always good. Yeah.

00:56:48Gary Murphy: And how long have you been parkrunning for?

00:56:50Annie: I actually started at Park Brook, so only about two and a half years. Yeah. And I started as a Run Director.

00:56:55Gary Murphy: Okay.

00:56:55Annie: So I kind of, I think I ran direct. Yeah. Is that the past tense? We can make it up. To run direct before I ran.

00:57:02Gary Murphy: Okay. Yeah. Wow, good on you.

00:57:04Annie: Yeah.

00:57:05Gary Murphy: And so how did you hear about parkrun then together? Anita. Okay.

00:57:07Annie: Yeah, I've been friends with Anita for a while. We were trail runners together.

00:57:10Gary Murphy: Yeah.

00:57:10Annie: And yeah, she just dragged me along.

00:57:12Gary Murphy: So Anita's the Event Director. She's the Event Director. And the Co-Event Director, Mark, as well. So thank you guys for bringing Karky Parky to Karkarook Park.

00:57:21Annie: It's awesome.

00:57:22Gary Murphy: It's a ripper parkrun.

00:57:23Annie: It is a ripper parkrun.

00:57:24Gary Murphy: So we noticed your kilometre post today. Yes. How long have they been in for?

00:57:29Annie: What have they been about?

00:57:30Kylie Ross: Beginning of this year.

00:57:31Annie: Yeah, about the same time as we reversed the course. Okay. So, yeah, about maybe six months.

00:57:36Gary Murphy: Yeah. And it's at Victoria Park? It is. Yeah. So I saw that the ranger was there today.

00:57:42Annie: Yes, he popped by to say hi. Yeah. Which he does, and I think he's actually participated too. Okay, fantastic. Which is amazing. Yeah. Get everyone on board.

00:57:49Gary Murphy: Thanks to the rangers for being part of that.

00:57:51Annie: They're great. They're very supportive. And if we've got any issues, we just let them know and they fix it. So we had some overgrown branches and stuff. As soon as we let them know, they've done it.

00:58:02Gary Murphy: So good. That's good to have that support for such a great event.

00:58:06Annie: And they actually do a call-out every now and then for runners to do work days. Like working days. Come along and do a working day. Oh, that's great. Which I think is awesome. It's part of it.

00:58:16Gary Murphy: And you get quite a few people coming?

00:58:17Annie: Yeah, we get some people staying behind. Oh, that's great. Always want more, don't you?

00:58:20Gary Murphy: Now, tell me, who does your run reports?

00:58:22Annie: Mark.

00:58:23Gary Murphy: Mark. Yes. Mark's not here today, is he? No.

00:58:25Annie: He's at Albert.

00:58:26Gary Murphy: Well, we'll give Mark a shout out because I had a look at his run report last week. They're good, aren't they? Oh, my God. So good.

00:58:30Annie: Yep.

00:58:31Gary Murphy: So, Mark, congratulations on your run reports. Yes. They're outstanding.

00:58:35Annie: He's at Albert because his son, I think, is doing his 250th.

00:58:38Gary Murphy: Oh, terrific. How good is that? Yeah. I spoke to Chris about the balloons, the hot air balloons.

00:58:45Annie: Oh, amazing. Were you there when that happened? I was. Yeah, what was that like? And I've actually hot air ballooned over the top of Karkarook. Oh, no way. Yeah, there was a photo on our Facebook page that was of the park from above that I took when we were coming over. So we landed at Moorabbin Airport.

00:59:01Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:59:01Annie: And we went right over the top and it was just the most amazing view. Oh, so good. Yeah, yeah, it was such a special... part of the honey balloon yeah and so you had about what this morning about 150. no we had nearly did we have 200 how many did we have this morning 200 and about that come on you were you were talking about 210. yeah

00:59:07[crosstalk]

00:59:23Gary Murphy: Wow, that's great. And I think the average is about 150 parkrunners?

00:59:27Annie: Yeah, we're slowly creeping higher and higher.

00:59:30Gary Murphy: Yeah, yeah.

00:59:30Annie: Which is awesome.

00:59:31Gary Murphy: Yeah. Now, well, you've got a great parkrun.

00:59:34Annie: We have a great parkrun.

00:59:35Gary Murphy: So thanks for today, Annie. Great job.

00:59:36Annie: Yeah, no problem at all.

00:59:37Gary Murphy: Thanks to your team of volunteers.

00:59:38Annie: We've got an amazing group of volunteers. We're so lucky. Yeah.

00:59:42Gary Murphy: And probably in the podcast, I haven't heard it yet, or in the interview, but in the background when I was talking to Chris, you could hear the support and everybody at the finish line. Wasn't that amazing?

00:59:50Annie: Yeah, we do have an amazing... And in fact, I think today we had almost all our Run Directors running.

00:59:55Gary Murphy: Oh, wow.

00:59:56Annie: Other than myself and the two Event Directors, I think pretty much everybody else was running today.

01:00:00Gary Murphy: Yeah. Oh, terrific.

01:00:02Annie: Yeah.

01:00:02Gary Murphy: Oh, thanks, Annie.

01:00:03Annie: Thanks for talking to me. Pleasure.

01:00:04Gary Murphy: And well done today.

Roving report Paul Kitching — Charleston

01:00:05Annie: Thank you.

01:00:06Paul Kitching: Ahoy me hearties, this is PK with a really dodgy accent, tuning in, tuning in, checking in. Gosh, it's early. From one of the seas in South Australia. Yes, PK doing a roving report from South Australia. G'day parkrun adventurers. Hope you are all well. It's been a while I know but we're out on the road and I've just headed out of Adelaide about 30 minutes out from the toll gate up the freeway and we are in beautiful Charleston where it is a balmy minus two degrees. It was minus one before so anyway lovely morning isn't it Ez? Yeah It sure is. I've got my daughter, Es, here. And, yep, we're doing one of the C's. So there are a number of C's in South Australia. I'm going to try and reel them off. Carisbrook, Cleland. Christie's. Christie's. Well done, darling. I can't remember if there's another. Someone's going to kill me. Someone will know. Cleland. Cleland. Did I say that?

01:01:06Unidentified speaker: No.

01:01:07Paul Kitching: I can't remember. Anyway, we've done Reynella, the R of the Pirate Club. But, yep, we're doing Charleston today. So... Just got here, got the seat warmers on and not getting out there until we have to. 7.47 at the moment. Beautiful drive up through the Adelaide Hills, the Onkaparinga Scenic Drive. What are some of the towns we roll through, Ez? Oh, yeah, the Onkaparinga Valley, you're right. So, Balhannah, Oakbank, Woodside, far out, Hahndorf. Well, we turned left at Hahndorf. Anyway, just some of the gorgeous towns here in the Adelaide Hills. Anyway, we're here. We're going to go and check it out. Charleston is relatively new, parkrun, I know that Greta did a report from the opening of Charleston a while back. But we've just seen some of our crew turn up, so we're going to go and say g'day and get chilly with the crew. Bring it on. All righty. We have just done the awesome Charleston parkrun. Didn't see anyone doing the Charleston, but may come to that later. But it was fantastic. Dodgy dad joke. I know, right? What a beautiful course. We, of course, decided to come on the coldest day it has ever had. And I think the course record may even have been broken as well. But anyway, we'll find out about that. But we're now at the Woodside Providore, which is their go-to cafe for the parkrun coffee afterwards. And I happened to meet Mel. Mel Cox, you're the EA for this area, I believe.

01:02:39Melissa Cox: Yes, that's right.

01:02:41Paul Kitching: Well done, Melissa Cox. I'm chatting with the Melissa Cox. Mel, tell us, what's your background with parkrun? When did you start and how did you get involved and all that?

01:02:51Melissa Cox: Oh, thanks Paul. So I got involved in parkrun in June of 2015. Murray Bridge is my home parkrun. Awesome. I was invited along one day after recently moving to the town. I've ran 128, 129 different parkruns since June 2015. Wow. I am a Run Director at Murray Bridge parkrun. I've been a Run Director since about August last year, August, September.

01:03:20Paul Kitching: I hear Murray Bridge is beautiful. Need to go and check it out.

01:03:22Melissa Cox: Yes, you do. We have pelicans. We have two bridges and a beautiful boat that always docks just in time for parkrun.

01:03:30Paul Kitching: Nice.

01:03:32Melissa Cox: So, yeah, that's my journey. And I've been an EA since middle of May this year. I've taken over a number of parkrun events around this area.

01:03:42Paul Kitching: Beautiful.

01:03:43Melissa Cox: And I've got some really big shoes to fill.

01:03:46Paul Kitching: With credit? Oh, no, mate. I'm sure you're doing a beautiful job already. Charleston's a beautiful course, isn't it? Far out. It is. I mean, stunning. I mean, it's a bikeway. It's flat. But this morning, a bit chilly.

01:04:01Melissa Cox: oh my god a sea of ice it was just amazing and that turnaround point when you did the turnaround and then the sun just hit you in the face it was like getting kissed by the sun yeah um yeah thank god there was some um warmth in there because it was chilly yeah I don't know about you but my toes are still cold oh yeah I'm very happy to be uh here in the cafe uh having coffee so um parkrun yeah what does parkrun mean to you Community and probably inclusion. Yeah. Inclusion. I love it. I mean, how many people get out of bed at, what, half past seven, quarter to eight in the morning to run at minus two at Charleston? I know, right?

01:04:39Paul Kitching: Exactly. Up in the Adelaide Hills. And then, I know, and then come and have coffee, as you can probably hear in the background, all the rowdy Mount Barker crew. But, yeah, you're right. It is a massive thing to do, isn't it? And, yeah, good turnout this morning for a pretty chilly morning. So, yeah. Yeah.

01:04:54Melissa Cox: Agreed.

01:04:55Paul Kitching: I love it. Well, thank you. Let's get some breakfast and probably find Kylie and some other crew to chat with. Thanks, Mel. Thank you so much. And thank you for everything that you do for parkrun.

01:05:03Melissa Cox: And thank you to you.

01:05:04Paul Kitching: No worries. Love it.

01:05:06Melissa Cox: Awesome.

01:05:07Paul Kitching: G'day. Yes, well, now we're still at the Woodside Providore. Pretty awesome breakfast. What do you reckon, Tracy?

01:05:13Tracy: Yes, had a lovely eggs benny.

01:05:14Paul Kitching: Eggs benny, and I smashed the smashed avo with the side of poached eggs. What did you have, Serenity?

01:05:20Annie: And the breakfast focaccia.

01:05:22Paul Kitching: Breakfast focaccia. Beautiful. Yes, so we're still here in sunny Woodside after chilly Charleston. What did you think of Charleston, Trace or Tia?

01:05:36Tracy: Or either. Either or. Either or. I think Charleston's smashing it on every count. Every count. All the cows, the path.

01:05:45Paul Kitching: Yeah, how good were those cows? Beautiful view.

01:05:50Tracy: And the fog, as the morning fog lifted, mist. I missed it. Yeah, frosty ground. Frosty ground. It was gorgeous.

01:05:58Paul Kitching: Yeah, stunning photos.

01:05:59Tracy: And beautiful breakfast, lovely coffee. What more can I ask for?

01:06:02[other]

01:06:02Paul Kitching: Well, what you could ask for is those cows to stop mooing in the background. But no, the Adrian cow.

01:06:09Annie: It's inherent.

01:06:10Paul Kitching: Inherent. What was I going to ask? Oh, yeah, but there was no one doing the Charleston. I was just disappointed.

01:06:17Tracy: Yeah, yeah, no one did it along the way. We could have. We were going slowly.

01:06:21Paul Kitching: Do it now for the podcast.

01:06:22Kate: Oh, here you go.

01:06:26[music]

01:06:26Tracy: Did you get all that?

01:06:27Paul Kitching: Yeah, thank you. That was, for those playing at home, that was the soft shoe shuffle of Tracy Asiruni and Sam singing in the background. Anyway, we're having lots of fun. More cows in the background. Yes, it is the, some of the Mount Barker crew are up here. We visited Charleston. I don't know what numbers. I reckon they probably got about 30 something. 40 something even. About 40, which is pretty good.

01:06:49Tracy: I think Lily got a 36 or something.

01:06:52Paul Kitching: Oh, there you go. And also, yeah, Rhys, I reckon he may have broken the record. I'm about to go and ask Kylie. She might be able to tell me that. Actually, can someone go on whilst we're chatting and have a look? Sam, one of you. Anyway, we'll go and see if the course record was broken by the time I finish this chat, by the time we get over to Kylie. Anyway, yabbering away, good times. Why do you do parkrun, Tracy?

01:07:15Tracy: Love it. Love it. Get to hang out with my family and friends every Saturday morning. Go for a little drive. Get me up and out for the day. And a bit of exercise.

01:07:25Paul Kitching: Loving it. And breakfast. And breakfast. Yes, indeed. Coffee. Hurrah. Well, it's awesome. Beautiful up here in the Adelaide Hills. Please come and check out Charleston. We're going to have a chat to Kylie now.

01:07:33Tracy: And I got to add to my pirate club challenge today with the sea at Charleston.

01:07:38Paul Kitching: Loving it. Arr. You sure did. Well, the sea. One of the seven seas.

01:07:42Tracy: Loved it.

01:07:43Paul Kitching: Loved it. Thank you. All right. As hoped, I'm now with Kylie Ross. G'day, Kylie.

01:07:48Kylie Ross: Hello. How are you?

01:07:49Paul Kitching: Awesome. Kylie is one of the EDs. You're the ED here for Charleston. We're still at the Woodside Providore, loving it. Congratulations. What a beautiful, beautiful course or event you have.

01:08:04Kylie Ross: Thank you very much. I love it.

01:08:05Paul Kitching: Yeah. How long has it been going for?

01:08:06Kylie Ross: So this is event number 38. It started on October 6th last year.

01:08:10Paul Kitching: Brilliant. Yeah, I know that Greta came to the opening and I'm sorry I wasn't able to get here, but she talked it up on the pod for everyone. How was it set? I mean, obviously Greta probably spoke to you about setting it up. How's it been since then and the reaction to the parkrun and...

01:08:28Kylie Ross: everything it's been absolutely heartwarming it's a lovely community and it's like a lot of local people live around the area out to mount Torrens and birdwood and lobethal but we've had a number of locals who become regulars regular volunteers regular runners and a lot of them share that the love of parkrun out into their communities as well it's beautiful isn't it yeah it was a it was a really good feel today we um there's a few of us who came up but

01:08:54Paul Kitching: It was lovely just to meet and see some people that we'd seen at Mount Barker as well, because obviously nearby. And it's lovely that you get... I love a small parkrun. Seriously, what, you had about 40 on today?

01:09:05Kylie Ross: We usually average. I think there was 37 today. We average about 30, sometimes up to 50 on a lovely warm day. And I think our most was the actual launch, which was 117. But since then... It's been about 30 each week.

01:09:18Paul Kitching: And well supported by volunteers, which is great.

01:09:22Kylie Ross: Yeah.

01:09:23Paul Kitching: Which is amazing, isn't it? And the course itself, did you choose that? I mean, it's beautiful.

01:09:30Kylie Ross: So the reason the course came about is because Naomi Armstrong, who is actually my co-ED, but not in winter due to sport, she and I ran and trained for our first half marathon on that track and spent a lot of time wondering whether we could set up a parkrun there. And then... Two years ago, I started the process and with some dipty and Amy Gillett and the Adelaide Hills Council, we had a bit of trouble connecting all those things to get it permission. Otherwise, it might have started earlier, but yeah.

01:09:59Paul Kitching: Well, it's beautiful. And what I love about it is that it's, you basically, yeah, you wouldn't know it's a parkrun course at any other time kind of thing, which is, you know, which is beautiful. I mean, so it's really, it is just taking... like as we know a lot of the parkrun courses out there you're just basically taking um taking over an element of nature for you know a period of you know an hour or so and then it goes back to being normal and um yeah it's beautiful now well done we we absolutely loved it up here um I believe uh you got a new course record today yes so 17 minutes and 10 seconds Rhys survived he did just there's a photo of him on the web page if you want to have a look at it collapsing afterwards. Well done, Rhys. No, that's great. So, yeah, awesome. Loved it. I hope more people can come and check out Charleston because it is a beautiful part of the world. Gorgeous. We're going to go and wander around some of the shops now in Woodside and, yeah, support the locals.

01:10:55Kylie Ross: The parkrun with the cows.

01:10:57Paul Kitching: parkrun with the cows. Indeed it is. So we took some great photos this morning of the cows and of the frost. And the sunrise. And the sunrise, yeah. Look, seriously, gorgeous parkrun. Please come and do it and, yeah, get out there. Thank you so much, Kylie. Well done. Thank you. Cheers. Yep, I think that's enough of me. But we've certainly had a great time up here in the Adelaide Hills in Woodside, for the breakfast afterwards and a bit of shopping at a bakery, taking some excellent baked goods home. Can't wait to get back here and check out some of the op shops and salvage stores, et cetera, when we've got a bit more time. Charleston parkrun was amazing. Definitely come and check it out. And yes, for those people at home who have wanted to become a pirate, I know there is a sea that I forgot. Of course, in South Australia, you can either do Carisbrook, Charleston, Cleland, Christie's Beach or Clare Valley. Indeed, I forgot Clare Valley. So that is the fifth sea that you can do here in South Australia if you wish to become a pirate. There are two R's. There's Renmark and Reynella East. But for those who wish to become a pirate and probably already are, you have to have gone interstate to get your two other C's or any of your C's. That's it. What a great morning. And I hope everything is good back in parkrun HQ, parkrun Podcast HQ, Scott and Lyndell. And, yep, I hope to check back in soon with another adventure. PK signing off. See ya.

01:12:29Scott Trickett: A trifecta of roving reports from TOC at Port Fairy. And you guys all know this because you've just heard them, but let me go through the motions. Gary at Karkarook and PK at Charleston. Peel back the curtain, Lyndell. We haven't heard them. But we know they were great because they are three of our best.

01:12:47Lyndell Murray: The Channel 5 News crew are rocking it.

01:12:49Scott Trickett: Yeah.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

01:12:52Scott Trickett: So, but let's roll straight into the launches because we've got another new event, cool sounding name, Charlie's Creek up in Queensland. And Lyndell, you're going to give us the history of Charlie's Creek.

01:13:05Lyndell Murray: The history of Charlie's Creek.

01:13:06Scott Trickett: Wow. Just let us know where it is.

01:13:08Lyndell Murray: Well, there's no parkrun history at Charlie's Creek, so I'm not sure that there is a history at all because they're just about to start writing their history because parkruns only just come to town, Scotty.

01:13:19Tom: Yep.

01:13:21Lyndell Murray: But it's out at Chinchilla, which is west of Brisbane. It's probably three and a half, four hours drive, so our statesman will be heading out that way this week, I'm sure. Schultzy will be there.

01:13:35Scott Trickett: Schultzy will be pumping some money into the regional economy.

01:13:38Lyndell Murray: You bet. Which is great. You bet. Which is great.

01:13:43Scott Trickett: So good luck to Charlie's Creek crew. We have three anniversaries.

01:13:48Lyndell Murray: Logan River, Mirawar in New South Wales.

01:13:52Scott Trickett: And Atherton in Queensland, so it's a very State of Origin feel. I'm trying to make it relevant to our Queensland and New South Wales listeners. Yes. So State of Origin, if I just mention that.

01:14:06Lyndell Murray: Everyone's happy when you mention State of Origin.

01:14:09Scott Trickett: Good. State of Origin. Go State of Origins. You know what I want to talk about? Your mate, and now my mate, Tracy, messaged me during the week, and she reminded me of a chat we had at the Palm Listener meetup that never made it to air because I cocked up the recording. But we had a chat about the other. So Tracy's one of those, or one of the very few people in Australia, maybe the only, who has done every volunteer role on the roster. The volunteering roles are ever-evolving, so she's going to be ever-chasing that. But we talked about the other role, which is this quite mysterious role within the parkrun WebFMS system. Yes. And, like, what roles you have performed to achieve that other? And she had a weird one. Hers was downloading photos for the photographer. It's completely random, but an essential task if the photographer doesn't have access to the internet, I guess.

01:15:14Lyndell Murray: Or to the Facebook page.

01:15:15Scott Trickett: Yeah, or he's really good at just pressing the button, but not so good at plugging things in.

01:15:20Lyndell Murray: Yeah, maybe.

01:15:21Scott Trickett: Yeah.

01:15:22Lyndell Murray: I thought of a couple. I actually haven't done the other role, but I thought of a couple of options as to what that might be.

01:15:31Scott Trickett: This is just Lyndell's made-up random ideas? Yeah. Yeah, okay.

01:15:35Lyndell Murray: So, like, on an anniversary, if you were the cake cutter and server, would that count as an other?

01:15:41Scott Trickett: It's a big job. It is a big job. If a lot of people are there and you're cutting up the cake, it can be a big job.

01:15:48Lyndell Murray: Yeah. Do you reckon that'll pass muster?

01:15:50Scott Trickett: Yes, yes. Okay, nice idea, Lyndell. I'll pay the cake cutter and server idea. But I think we need to hear from our listeners on this one. We don't ask them much, and when we do, it usually fails miserably for a bit of, what is it, user-listener interaction. We want to hear how you've got your other volunteer credit or ideas for... the other role.

01:16:13Lyndell Murray: Yes, because I haven't done my other. I need ideas. I need to be able to go to a Run Director and say, I need my other. Can you let me do X, please?

01:16:23Scott Trickett: Look, I have it on my roster, but I couldn't tell you what I did for it. Right. I can't remember what I did for it. I might have even given it to myself one day. I was just doing something that I couldn't find a role for, so I put myself down as other.

01:16:41Lyndell Murray: Have you been to Nambour?

01:16:43Scott Trickett: Not officially. Not officially.

01:16:45Lyndell Murray: Because I'm thinking that if you went to Nambour, you could be the emu whisperer and that could be your other role.

01:16:51Scott Trickett: The emu tamer.

01:16:52Lyndell Murray: The emu tamer. Well, they don't need taming. I think they're pretty tame.

01:16:56Scott Trickett: Yeah.

01:16:56Lyndell Murray: The emus at Nambour, they're just happy to see people.

01:17:00Scott Trickett: Yeah, they made the news this week. I did see that. I saw that. Yeah, they're trying to get rid of them.

01:17:05Lyndell Murray: They're trying to get rid of them. That's a very sad situation. It is. I wonder if there's some kind of petition we can sign. I'm sure there is.

01:17:15Scott Trickett: But isn't it, isn't it? So you think about it. Here's a wild animal, effectively. Apparently it's been hand-fed, so hand-raised, is that what they say? So that's why it's approachable and it's good with humans. But it's now been released in the wild. It's in the bush. It's in a conservation park. And people are trying to get it removed because I'm not sure why. Where are they going to take it?

01:17:40Lyndell Murray: To another conservation park?

01:17:43Scott Trickett: Of all the places you want emus to be, this is where you want them to be.

01:17:46Lyndell Murray: You don't want them hanging out at the supermarket or, you know.

01:17:50Scott Trickett: Some miserable person has said no.

01:17:52Lyndell Murray: Yeah. I don't know. I don't get it. I don't. That's on my list to get back to Nambour before the EMUs are removed. I want to go and hang out with them again.

Sign-off

01:18:04Scott Trickett: Where are you going this week?

01:18:06Lyndell Murray: I don't know, Scotty.

01:18:08Scott Trickett: Another cliffhanger.

01:18:10Lyndell Murray: Another cliffhanger. Got to keep people entertained, Scotty.

01:18:16Scott Trickett: Yeah, we do. We do. Tune in next week.

01:18:19Lyndell Murray: What about you, Scotty? Have you got plans?

01:18:22Scott Trickett: I've got plans, yeah. I've got plans, but I haven't locked them down. I'm going for a run with someone, and I'll tell you all about it next week.

01:18:30Lyndell Murray: All righty. Sounds like a plan.

01:18:31Scott Trickett: I'm 100% sure, yeah. So it's been a long episode. It's been a really long episode. Great chat with Lee. Thanks for sharing his story and spending time with us and all the roving reports that we haven't listened to. I'm going to go back now and listen to them when I put all this together. Lyndell, great chatting to you. At least one more week. At least one more week.

01:18:50Lyndell Murray: One more week. Excellent.

01:18:53Scott Trickett: I'll be here. Check in with Mel and see how she's going and see if she's ready to return and if I'm ready for her to return. But until next week, happy park ride.