Episode 166 - Social Prescribing
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Episode 166 - Social Prescribing · 2019-07-24
Enhanced transcript — Produced by an automated editing pass — speakers named, sound described, segments marked. NOT yet checked by a person.
Speaker names appear only where they could be established with confidence; others are shown as “Unidentified speaker”. Non-speech sound is in [square brackets].
Source: https://log.5kadventures.net/transcripts/ep166.html · The Adventurers Log · An independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by parkrun.
Welcome
Melissa Erbacher: Welcome to episode 21 away from being more episodes than the parkrun show. My name is Mel. I am co-host of the parkrun adventurers with Scotty Trickett. Scotty, welcome to this episode.
Scott Trickett: Thanks, Mel. 21 to go. That's my goal at the moment. I tell you what, I didn't get a flood of emails looking to replace me last week.
Melissa Erbacher: You didn't? No. I had a couple of direct messages with some ideas for other replacements, but they're not the kind that I really want to pass on, and you might be offended.
Scott Trickett: No. Now I'm really interested. What did they say? Let's air our dirty laundry.
Melissa Erbacher: No, no. I don't want to crush you in front of all our listeners. They weren't complimentary, but I would like it noted for the record that I was staunch in my defence of you as a co-host, Scotty.
Scott Trickett: Okay. Well, we are definitely picking this up off air, and I'm still going to record the conversation and put it at the end of this episode for those who are interested. What a great way to start episode 166. Yeah.
Melissa Erbacher: Well, all it says to me is that you need to stick around, and somebody obviously still listens all the time anyway.
Scott Trickett: Jeez, I'm shaking. I'm shaking.
Melissa Erbacher: No need to be shaking.
Scott Trickett: I know I've got enemies, and I know people don't like me, but to plot behind my back and to approach my co-host, my friend... Mel Erbacher.
Melissa Erbacher: Well, you just put it out there that you had some suggestions. You were looking for suggestions.
Scott Trickett: So if you're brave enough, come to me. Don't go behind my back, people. Anyway, let's move on from this. Let's move on to this. To more positive news, Mel. Give me some.
Melissa Erbacher: More positive news? Well, Scotty, positive news is for you that I am not an extra notch up to the most events list behind you. I was at home. And look, even though I had intended to increase my V index, I wasn't able to because of a late deadline, last minute switcheroo on the roster so I ended up doing something that wasn't going to contribute towards it so let's go back to you where were you on parkrun day on Saturday well look I've taken full advantage of you not being able to visit new events and participate in parkrun and for another what five more weeks four more weeks well yeah yeah I think I might start walking them anyway
Scott Trickett: Okay. Yeah. Ignore doctor's orders. Always good. Always good advice.
Melissa Erbacher: Hey, I'm a runner at heart. You know, isn't that what we all do? We ignore doctor's orders and then prolong our recoveries and returns to running. Yeah.
Scott Trickett: Yeah. Every time I go for a run at the moment, afterwards, my ankle is on fire. But I'm just, everyone's saying, go see a physio, go get a checkup.
Melissa Erbacher: If you do that, they'll tell you not to run. So just don't do it.
Scott Trickett: Yeah, well, that's my thing. It goes away. The pain does go away.
Melissa Erbacher: Do I want to know how long it takes or what you have to do to make it go away?
Scott Trickett: About 24 hours.
Melissa Erbacher: Okay.
Scott Trickett: Yeah, and then I'm ready to run again and so on. But I tell you what, I went – so I took advantage of you and I took – Myself, all by myself, out to Sunbury parkrun. The thinking behind going to Sunbury is that my family had already been there. So it was always this bone of contention when we were planning new events because it's almost my NENDY. But we could never go there because Yvonne and Kasia had been there. But this week I knew.
Melissa Erbacher: And didn't want to repeat.
Scott Trickett: Exactly. Exactly. So they weren't coming this week because of various illnesses and injuries. They're sensible. And I headed out to Sunbury. And let me tell you, Mel, it was an absolute cracker. I really enjoyed it. One of my better parkrun mornings I've had for a long time. Great course, great company, lots of parkrunners there that I knew. Well, not lots, a few. So there was lots of parkrun chat to be had. But here's my thing. I'm going to have not a rant. I'm just going to have maybe a whinge. This is going to be Scott's whinge. So the locals down here in Melbourne, when they talk about Sunbury, It's a bit like Westerfolds. The first thing you hear is, oh, they've got a hill. Oh, if you run Sunbury, you've got to run up the hill. And my whinge is for people to stop mentioning the damn hill because the hill goes for about maybe 100 metres. Let's be... generous and say 200 metres. So for 200 metres, yes, you are running uphill. For 4,800 metres, you've got a beautiful parkrun to experience. I don't know why people keep focusing on this hill.
Melissa Erbacher: Well, one might argue for 5,000 metres, you've got a beautiful parkrun experience because they're not afraid of hills.
Scott Trickett: You do. You do. I'm running up it and I had to ask one of the locals. I said, is this the hill? It's a hill. It's an incline, but it's not brutal. It does have – it goes around the corner and has a little bit of an extra kick at the end, but it's okay to walk. I was cruising. People were walking. I stopped for a walk up the top of the hill because that just seemed to be the thing to do where I was, and you get up to the top of the hill. You've got this great view over Sunbury, which is a little bit regional, so you can see countryside. You can see the township below. There's a you go into this little there's a little nook so you veer off into do this extra loop obviously to make up the distance but it's really clever because you run by a homestead and some a lake and there's some wild geese who I think they were eyeing me off they saw me and they thought I'm going to go for this bloke I'm going to miss the 50 people that had run before and they made a beeline for me but um they were too slow on this occasion But there's ducks and it's really nice. The rest of the course is on a trail, shared bike path sort of situation. And you finish on a bridge. So you come up a little, the rise that you go down at the start and then you finish on this nice fancy stone, blue stone bridge.
Melissa Erbacher: Ticks all the boxes for a ticket.
Scott Trickett: It was a great course. I'd go far as saying one of the best courses I've run in terms of just going out for a run.
Melissa Erbacher: Oh, there you go.
Scott Trickett: Yeah. High praise. Well, it's interesting because all I heard about Sunbury was the damn hill and nobody had actually talked about how beautiful the rest of the course was to run. So that's what I want people to stop focusing on. We get it at Westerfolds. We do a beautiful lap around a park filled with kangaroos running alongside a creek surrounded by greenery. All you hear is birds chirping and all I ever hear about people talking about Westerfolds is the hill.
Melissa Erbacher: Do you think though that's just kind of human nature? Like you can have a magnificent day. You've just had nothing but positive experiences and exchanges with people and one person, you know, says something nasty or – is an idiot on the roads and it can just really tarnish the whole rest of your day and that's what people tend to focus on. We focus on the negatives instead of the positives.
Scott Trickett: Of course it is, Mel. Of course. We all do it. We all do it. We put a Facebook post up. We get 400 people saying how awesome it is but we focus on the one person who's complaining about something. We all do it. I'm not saying that it's not human nature. I'm saying we need to just flip our thinking a little bit And always think of the positives, which is what I'm trying to do in life at the moment. So we need to flip our thinking.
Melissa Erbacher: Okay. So what you're saying is that this morning when I baked banana muffins and I forgot to put the milk in and didn't have quite enough banana, it's okay because they still are edible. Technically, I'm not going to poison anyone.
Scott Trickett: You're not. And you've got maybe perhaps a beautiful crumble to work with that maybe you could spread over something like a
Melissa Erbacher: Or I could crumble through ice cream.
Scott Trickett: Exactly, exactly. Who wants banana muffins? For a bit of crunch. I'd much prefer banana crumble through ice cream or over an apple and rhubarb sort of pastry thing. That sounds nice. All the fruits.
Melissa Erbacher: I'm getting hungry now.
Scott Trickett: Anyway, that was my whinge for the week. My takeaway is people, if you're in the vicinity of Sunbury, go there. Don't be put off by the hill and go back if you enjoy it.
Melissa Erbacher: Especially if it means you get one more event up on Mel on the most events list.
Scott Trickett: It's next to a winery as well.
Melissa Erbacher: Ooh. Yeah. You had me at next to a winery. Why didn't you lead with that, Scotty? You needn't have mentioned the hill.
Scott Trickett: Yeah. Look, I didn't go to a winery. I ducked off and had a coffee and savouries in a local cafe, but –
Melissa Erbacher: That was probably more responsible, especially as you were on your own.
Scott Trickett: Yeah. It's 8.30 in the morning too.
Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, that's okay.
Scott Trickett: I like the idea of it being next to a winery.
Melissa Erbacher: It's 10 a.m. somewhere in the world.
Scott Trickett: This is true. This is true. So that was my parkrun morning.
Melissa Erbacher: Well, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it. And, man, you're making me – I'm going to have to work for it, aren't I, the rest of this year?
Scott Trickett: You are, yeah. Yeah.
Melissa Erbacher: That's all right. I do like a challenge.
[14 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]
Scott Trickett: We're all parkrunners and we follow the news religiously and we might have heard the term social prescribing pop up in the last year or so. What does it mean? Well, let's find out what it means.
Interview Andrea Lung — GP (general practitioner), Albert Melbourne parkrunner
Scott Trickett: So we're going to chat to a keen parkrunner, Dr. Andrea Lung from Albert Melbourne. Welcome to the parkrun adventurers.
Andrea Lung: Thank you for having me, Scott.
Scott Trickett: Now, just to get the qualifications on the table first, you are a proper real-life doctor.
Andrea Lung: Yes, I am. I'm a qualified general practitioner. Great.
Scott Trickett: And you're a doctor who has been socially prescribing already. Can you explain what exactly that means?
Andrea Lung: Well, I think everyone knows about... prescribing in the general sense. I think everyone recognises that GPs generally write prescriptions for certain conditions. Social prescribing to me is more about building social connections for patients by referring them to various social and physical activities of which parkrun fills that brief perfectly.
Scott Trickett: So this is moving away from the traditional, I go see a doctor, you write me a script to go get a drug to make everything better. What does it actually look like when you socially prescribe something to a patient?
Andrea Lung: Well, it's not something I actually think about at the time, but it's obviously something that comes up in conversation when I'm talking about various therapies on how to manage a condition. I mean, as I've already said, that generally patients sort of think that they go to a doctor to get prescriptions to treat their conditions. But I'm into practicing holistic medicine and feel that traditional therapies or Western-based medicines aren't the only way to treat certain conditions. I think that lifestyle interventions have just as important a role to play in managing many health conditions out there, including improving cardiovascular conditions, mental health, cancer, you name it.
Scott Trickett: And what do your patients generally think when you suggest they go to parkrun?
Andrea Lung: Well, I am a little bit selective about talking about parkrun. I think you've got to choose your moment and choose your patient. Generally, I think I just get a sense of what... might be important to them. For example, if they're feeling a little bit socially isolated, I think parkrun is a really good opportunity just to build on social connections. If they're sort of a little bit unfit or, you know, trying to lose weight because they've got diabetes, for example, I might refer them to parkrun as a way of actually increasing their physical activity. But as I said, I am quite selective. It's not something that I sort of bring out at every consultation. It might not be appropriate, but... you know, it does come up reasonably frequently. I mean, a lot of my patients know that I'm a runner myself. So, you know, and I like bringing that into some of my consultations. And I think it's always a perception that, oh, you don't know what you're talking about. You don't, you know, because you're not overweight. And, you know, but I explained to them that I actually do run quite a lot. And that keeping fit is really important for my physical and mental health. So I think that just comes, that comes up naturally in my consultation. And then, Sometimes it can springboard into something like talking about parkrun.
Scott Trickett: And what about in your practice and amongst your colleagues? Is there much awareness of this or...? About social prescribing or parkrun? Yeah, no, no, more specifically social prescribing.
Andrea Lung: Look, I probably think that most doctors, when you ask them, would say that they do socially prescribe, but not necessarily parkrun. I've got a couple of colleagues who go to parkrun quite regularly, so I think they talk about it amongst their patients. But, yeah, it's not something, as I said, I think a lot of doctors would say that they socially prescribe to other, you know, activities, but not necessarily parkrun, but I'm changing that at the moment. I've been doing a little bit of promotion at work at the moment about parkrun. I've been a little bit more vocal in trying to promote parkrun to my colleagues and anyone I know, basically.
Scott Trickett: Love it. What can parkrun do to help in this area? What do you think parkrun needs to do to help other GPs start prescribing it more regularly?
Andrea Lung: That's an interesting question. I've been thinking more about what can I do as a GP to try and... I think you'd be surprised at the amount of doctors who actually do go to parkrun. And I think parkrun should be raising awareness like they have with me about... I mean, it's not hard to convert doctors who already go to parkrun and actually talking about parkrun because we're actually already passionate about it. So I think we should be garnering, you know, a bit of interest amongst the doctors who already go to parkrun and get them to maybe speak to their local bodies or official bodies. I've been doing a bit of reading actually about the experience in the UK and that's essentially what happened. A lot of doctors who are already going to parkruns were, you know, with this parkrun initiative were then actually encouraged to go and speak to doctors their practices or hospitals or whatever to actually partner with parkrun. So I just think, I suppose from a parkrun's perspective, just be open to establishing these relationships with GP practices or hospitals. Make it easy for patients to actually come along and make them feel welcome.
Scott Trickett: And this Saturday you're doing a bit to help the cause amongst your colleagues and you're going to do a takeover down at Albert Melbourne. What is that going to look like and what are you expecting to happen on Saturday?
Andrea Lung: I'm hoping that by taking over Albert Melbourne parkrun that we'll in general just raise awareness about the benefits of parkrun and also raise awareness about social prescribing. So... To that end, I've done a bit of a social media campaign. I'm hopefully going to be in my local paper and I've just been lobbying anyone I know basically through work, through my connections, through my local primary school to try and come along and just support, trying to get a lot of newbies along as well just so that they, you know, will see what it's like and hopefully be surrounded by a lot of my friends who are both medical and non-medical friends and speak to them about just, you know, how amazing parkrun can be. I mean, I just love that. It's a, you know, a free weekly community event that just brings people together from so many different backgrounds. So, and as I said, I feel that if someone just gets to parkrun, they, it will be hard for them not to come back. So as I said, I've managed to get a lot of people that I know who've never been to say they're going to come along. So just hoping, uh, Yeah, as I said, just want to raise some awareness. So managed to get, I mean, Albert's quite a big parkrun, so I think we need about 20 volunteers at least. So I've managed to... I managed to, in about two days, get 20 people on board. So that just shows you, I think, a lot of my friends who are just as passionate about parkrun, who just wanted to really spread that message.
Scott Trickett: Do you talk about – so one of your patients comes in and says, no, I can't do 5K. I can't even walk 5K. Do you talk about the other – how they can be involved in parkrun and the benefits that they can get from volunteering and –
Andrea Lung: Absolutely. I think, as I said, I think when I think about it, some of the best things I love about parkrun is just the social connections that I've made. I love volunteering, actually. I'm actually up to 14 at the moment. And yeah, I just love volunteering. I think it's a great way to meet other people. Yeah, it's a great way to make social connections. So, and I As I said, you don't even need to run or walk. You know, I really like telling people it's not about running. You know, you can walk it. We have Tail Walkers. You're never going to be the last person. I also love the social catch-up afterwards. I mean, Albert's so big, so we tend to have different places where people go, but there's still that opportunity for new people to go and –
Scott Trickett: speak to other like-minded individuals so I often if I know that someone's new to the area and just trying to you know build some social connections I'll often recommend the local parkrun the president who's in charge down there at Albert Melbourne, he said don't forget to ask Andrea about her running because she's quite an accomplished runner someone who's who has run at four major marathons and looking to tick off the all of them you've done a bit of running
Andrea Lung: Yeah, I have done a bit of running. I also did have an extended break. I think I had about a six- or seven-year break while I was trying to get pregnant with my now five-year-old daughter. So, yeah, I started running quite informally, actually, probably, a while ago, um, didn't run my first marathon until about 2004. Um, and then slowly clocked up a few, but majority of my marathons have been run since 2015. Um, and that was, uh, probably a couple of years after my daughter was born. Um, and, uh, I always, I think even when I first started running, I always thought about running New York. I think it's always the one that people think about when they think about doing one marathon. Um, And I was successful enough to – I got through a ballot entry, and I was sort of hooked from that time on trying to run the majors. So I think in a very short period of time I ran New York, Tokyo, Berlin, and I've just completed Boston in April. So I've just got two more to go, and, yeah, no. I think big city marathons are just, until you've done one, yeah, you're just hooked because they have the most amazing atmospheres, you know, thousands of people on the side cheering your name. I often describe it as being like one big run party. Yeah, so, yeah, I just love it.
Scott Trickett: So you've got two more to go. So you're missing Chicago and London. I'm guessing you've already made plans to tick them off?
Andrea Lung: Informally, I've told my husband. I like to give him a bit of warning that I'm going to be doing these things. I've occasionally given him a bit of a surprise. You know, I've entered a couple of ballots and just thought, oh, well, if I don't get through, I won't tell him. But this time around I've given him plenty of warning. So, yeah, I've tentatively told him I'm planning to run Chicago next year and London the following year. So I know I can get a guaranteed entry for Chicago and London I think I'll just – I'll pay to run that one because I think everyone tells me that London's probably one of the best that you can run.
Scott Trickett: Well, it'll be the end of the journey. It'll be well worth it. Andrea, thanks so much for coming on, having a chat to me this week all about social prescribing and your running, and good luck on Saturday. I'm sure you'll have a great time and help spread the word of parkrun far and wide.
Andrea Lung: Thank you so much, Scott, for allowing me to talk about social prescribing. Thank you.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew
Roving report Lyndell Murray — Gainsborough Greens parkrun
Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers. G'day Scotty. G'day Mel. It's Lyndell and I'm reporting in today back on the front lines. I'm out on the coalface again lodging a roving report this morning from Gainsborough Greens parkrun. Now Gainsborough Greens is south of Brisbane, north of the Gold Coast in a little pocket of southeast Queensland that's really coming ahead with lots of new housing development. So now I've logged up here on Kids Takeover Day so I'm going to go for a run And chat to some of the volunteers afterwards. All right, now I've been for my run. Now I'm going to say a special thank you to Alyssa, who was the Run Director today because she did a briefing. And she did such a good job, I didn't get lost. So well done, Alyssa. What's your secret?
Alyssa: Well, I just... It was my first time, so I just wrote it all down and made sure I had, like, everything I was going to write. But I was, like, really, really nervous.
Lyndell Murray: You didn't look nervous.
Alyssa: Oh, well... I just smile.
Lyndell Murray: That's a good trick. Now, I have it on good authority that you practiced as well.
Alyssa: Yeah, so last night I was practicing in front of my mum and she just kept videoing me.
Lyndell Murray: I'm like... Oh, so there's evidence. Yeah.
Alyssa: So, like, I did one practice and then she videoed me and I'm like... Yeah, just like, I don't know.
Lyndell Murray: Well, the practice worked. You did a great job. Now, Bella, what was your job today?
Bella: I was barcode scanning, which was kind of hard because there's so many people coming in and out through the table. I have to scan your card and then the other card, and it's hard to figure out which card to go first. It's actually challenging at first to do it, but I got through it.
Lyndell Murray: I reckon you did. And it feels hard because it's important, right?
Bella: Yeah, it's very important because you don't want to mess up at all, which I didn't. You don't want to mess up someone's results.
Lyndell Murray: No. You know what I always think to myself when I'm volunteering? If I stuff it up, you can just give everyone's money back.
Alyssa: but you don't they don't have to pay money yes yeah so you just give them a smile sorry yes I think that's a big smile goes a long way doesn't it yeah all right now what have you enjoyed about today volunteering maybe like I like helping out with people like because it's
Bella: You can help people out, like, with, like, a little smile or, like, a big thing with a group of people. And I had fun because then, like, it's like a little job that you can, like, go home and be part of to help people out.
Lyndell Murray: Excellent. And what about you?
Alyssa: I really enjoyed it because, like, it was a new experience, like, standing up in front of everybody coming. It was like, hi! Like, it was hard. Yeah. Like, standing up in front of everybody and talking.
Bella: Yeah.
Alyssa: Even though I like to talk, it's still hard.
Lyndell Murray: Yeah. But you guys both did it, so high fives. And thank you for talking to me this morning. Well done. Thank you. Good job, beautiful people. Good job. All right. I have caught up with our Tail Walker from today. Her name's Jess. How are you going today? Good.
Jess: Very good. I'm puffed out.
Lyndell Murray: Pardon? Puffed out.
Jess: You're puffed from tail walking? Yeah, I am a bit. Do you usually come to parkrun? Yeah, pretty well every week, whether I'm helping or whether I am running or sometimes I'm just here socially.
Lyndell Murray: Socially, ah. So what do you like about parkrun socially?
Jess: I like... I like everyone's support and I like talking to people.
Lyndell Murray: Excellent. And what did you like about tail walking today?
Jess: I'm not sure, but I think I like cheering people on. Yeah, and did you get lots of people saying g'day to you out there?
Lyndell Murray: Yeah, normally. And you must like that if you like the social aspect of parkrun.
Jess: Yes, definitely. And so when you run, do you like running? Yes, I've gone a bit slow in the running recently, but I'm picking it up now.
Lyndell Murray: Well, that's because it's winter, it's cold. No one can move in the winter. Yeah. All right, so what's next for you on parkrun Front?
Jess: I'm not sure yet, but something. I can't remember exactly.
Lyndell Murray: More volunteering?
Jess: Yeah, probably.
Lyndell Murray: More running? Yes. And more tail walking? Maybe. What do you like volunteering that's not tail walking then?
Jess: Normally it would be barcode scanning or token giver-outer.
Lyndell Murray: They're good jobs too, hey? But you tried something different today, so that must have been fun.
Jess: Yeah.
Lyndell Murray: All right, well, thank you for talking to me today. High five for volunteering. And I'll see you another time.
Jess: Thank you.
Lyndell Murray: Alrighty, last but certainly not least, I'm talking to today's photographer, Daniel. How are you today? Good. And how did you go today? I think I did well at taking photos of people that finished. Well, we'll know pretty soon, won't we? It's a very public role, a photographer. Yeah. Because everybody goes on Facebook and looks for their photos, hey? Yes. So good on you for giving that a go. Have you volunteered before here? No, I haven't.
Daniel: So how did you like it? It was fun.
Lyndell Murray: Something different?
Daniel: Yeah. And you usually run here? Yeah, I usually run here. And what do you like about running? I like running because it's fun and it's something that you can do a lot.
Lyndell Murray: So you come here every week?
Daniel: Yeah.
Lyndell Murray: Drag your mum and dad along? No. No. They drag you along? Sometimes.
Daniel: Alright, and what do you like about parkrun? Well, I like the course on how it's not just straight lines and it's not got massive hills, so it's not really hard, but it is a bit challenging.
Lyndell Murray: That's a really good description of the course, hey? And it's two laps, so lots of high fives. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you very much for talking to me today, Daniel. And thank you so much for photographing us all today. High five. I'm pretty confident that the photos are going to be awesome. Okay, thank you. Alrighty, Scotty, Mel, this is Lyndell. And I'm calling out a wrap from Gainsborough Greens parkrun on Kids Takeover Day. What a terrific day to be here. So much fun. That's it. That's Lyndell out reporting and checking in for the Channel 5 News crew.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew
Roving report Tony O'Connell — East Coast parkrun
Tony O'Connell: Howdy parkrunners, it's TOC reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew. We're at East Coast parkrun today in hot and humid Singapore. It's another day of stupidity. We're just walking up towards a parkrun after a bit of a taxi debacle where our taxi driver had no idea which way to go. But we think we've found the parkrun. There's... Looks like some people gathering up ahead, so hopefully we've made it there in time. We'll check in later after the parkrun. Cheers, guys. Howdy, guys, it's Toc. We're at the end of the East Coast parkrun. I've got to tell you, I'm with a bunch of sweaty runners. It is so hot out there. I'll let them introduce themselves.
Peter: Hi, I'm Peter.
Tony O'Connell: I'm from London.
Lynn: I'm Lynn from Newy, Australia.
Rosalind: Rosalind from London.
Stuart: Hi, Stuart from Huntington in England.
Tony O'Connell: Well, guys, what did you think of the course out there? To me, it started off pretty nice with a bit of shade, but when that sun came up, man, oh, man, what do we think?
Peter: So I'm used to a flat parkrun, so I'm glad it was flat, but I couldn't believe how long it was to get to the flags to turn round. So that 2 to 4K was an absolute killer. It was until you hit the shade of the trees in that last K, which helped a bit.
Tony O'Connell: So give us a bit of your parkrun background. Where are you from and where did you get into parkrun?
Rosalind: I'm from North East London and I've been doing parkrun for two and a half, three years. I've just done my 111th one today. Arbitrary. But I'm a slow runner but I just want to keep going and today I'm amazed that I actually managed not to stop. You actually look like you're running along pretty well. How many different courses have you done? About 20, 20 around the UK, but this is the first one overseas and Singapore.
Tony O'Connell: A little bit of an adventurer.
Stuart: And Stuart, how about yourself? Hi, I started parkrunning five years ago. My particular madness is that I'm a run streaker. So today is my 1913th day of running 5k every day. So yes, I am completely bonkers, oh wow do you do a lot of freedom runs in that a lot of freedom runs any excuse to go out and do another parkrun when people aren't around it's very easy to find the courses and just go and run around parks great fun and I'm tipping you've done a couple of countries as well uh this is my third country apart from the UK and Scotland which doesn't really count my other one is in Denmark which a very similar course to this except it was a bit colder
Tony O'Connell: And coming from Newy, the home of Robbo and Mossy and all the crew down there, what did you think of the course?
Lynn: It was flat. I'm used to a flat course, but yes, I think it's like the worst Australian summer today. So very hard running, particularly that last k.
Tony O'Connell: Yeah, we ran Newy in about April and it was a beautiful little course around the lake but I imagine when it's warm it's still fairly dry whereas this is very humid and oppressive.
Lynn: Yeah, it certainly is. There's a few places that you dread and once you get past you get a bit of a breeze usually.
Tony O'Connell: Yeah. And how about you? What's your parkrun history? How'd you get into parkrun?
Peter: So I saw some holiday photographs of myself about four years ago and thought, that can't be me, I need to be a lot slimmer than that. So I stopped having the odd glass of wine and that's when I started parkrun. And how many parkruns have you done? I think today's 125, I think, something like that. And Roslyn, who's my wife, like me, is the first one abroad. Well done.
Tony O'Connell: And you picked a nice, hot, sweaty one to do abroad. All right, guys, thanks a lot for the chat. We'll talk later. Howdy parkrunners, Toc again. I'm still here at East Coast. This time I've got a group of locals with me. I'll let them introduce themselves and give us a bit of your parkrun history. How many runs have you done and how did you start parkrun?
Nayana: Hi, I'm Nayana. I think this is my 56th parkrun. And we're like Philippa here. I think I got into parkrun through my school cross country coach. So we used to come as a team and then now it's just been something which we do almost as a family every Saturday morning.
Tony O'Connell: Cool. It's a great family activity, isn't it? Yeah.
Charu: Hi, I'm Charu. I'm Nayana's mum and I got inspired to join parkrun because both my daughters were doing it.
Tony O'Connell: And how many runs have you done?
Charu: I'm close to 50 now. So you're close to the red shirt.
Tony O'Connell: Your daughter's got the red shirt or it'll be on its way once they open it up.
Charu: It's on its way. On its way.
Tony O'Connell: And have you done any other than East Coast?
Charu: No, we haven't. Actually, we tried in England and they didn't.
Nayana: No, they had it, but it was off that one weekend for a festival. It was annoying.
Tony O'Connell: You haven't done like Bishan or West Coast? No.
Katja: No. Hi, I'm Katja. This is only my fourth run. So I'm a newbie and I'm just happy that I finished. So, yeah.
Tony O'Connell: It's pretty warm out here, isn't it?
Katja: It is very warm. You see the sweat running down.
Tony O'Connell: And looking at your top, I reckon that's probably a running club or something, is it? Or a school club?
Unidentified speaker: Yeah, so Nayana and I, well Nayana has graduated, but we were both training with the same team, so the school team. I think this is probably my 14th or my 15th run, so I'm not as committed as some people, but I try to come when I'm waking up early enough and
Tony O'Connell: And is it like this every week here? Is it this warm?
Unidentified speaker: Yes. More or less. Okay. You did Perth a while ago.
Katja: Yeah, I did a parkrun in Perry Lakes in Perth.
Tony O'Connell: Oh, Perry Lakes, yep, yep. Been over to there. Well done. And so the number of tourists here today is about standard. When they called out for tourists there were people from Australia, South Africa, the UK, New Zealand.
Nayana: Quite normal. Usually in fact there's more locals than there were today.
Tony O'Connell: last week there was a huge amount of tourists I think that was the first time that I think tourists might have surpassed locals but I think this was pretty standard I thought with the football one this weekend there might have been a few more tourists in town for that yeah we did one in New Zealand last year with the world cup on for rugby and when they asked for tourists it was just like the whole crowd put their hand up Oh, guys, it's a lovely little run. I love the out-and-back bit and seeing people coming back. But, man, I'll be happy to get back to eight or nine degrees next week.
Katja: And I make it. Good luck. Thanks, guys. Thank you.
Scott Trickett: Great to hear Lyndell's voice again after so long a week and talk. Good old TOC. He struggles in the heat, doesn't he? He went over to Malaysia and Singapore. And I think he's probably looking forward to getting back to Inverloch.
Melissa Erbacher: But it's really muggy over there. Like the temperature notwithstanding, it's difficult to run in that sort of humidity. But you know what? And this is something I've heard a few times before. People getting dropped at the wrong spot by their taxi drivers for East Coast parkrun. Do you reckon the taxi drivers there are all savvy about it now and do it on purpose?
Scott Trickett: To milk the tourists out of some extra coin?
Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, or just to be, well, just to be cheeky.
Scott Trickett: I'm not sure if parkrun has infiltrated the taxi driver culture just yet. Like whenever I get into a taxi these days or an Uber, I always try and bring parkrun into the conversation. And I don't think one driver has ever said, oh, yeah, I know about parkrun. Maybe one, but I think we need to do a better job communicating to the taxi drivers in the world and that demographic.
Melissa Erbacher: I don't get in an Uber very often, but the last time I did, I was in Melbourne and he was from South Africa originally and he knew all about parkrun. But yes, like you, I do try to get it into the conversation somehow.
Scott Trickett: And parkrun's big in Melbourne.
Unidentified speaker: Yeah.
Scott Trickett: Almost you could say it's the centre of parkrun in Australia.
Melissa Erbacher: Oh, really? Who would say that?
Scott Trickett: But if I keep saying it, it might be true.
Melissa Erbacher: It might be true eventually.
Scott Trickett: And talk it up with some tourists. So we've got some British voices on there for our British listeners so they can feel at home this week.
Melissa Erbacher: Say that 10 times fast. British listeners, British listeners.
Scott Trickett: Okay.
Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"
Scott Trickett: And I think we should have a drum roll, Mel.
Melissa Erbacher: for the very final call-out for launches and anniversaries. Or are we still going to call out the launches?
Scott Trickett: Yeah, but this is just – this is it.
Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, we'll still do launches.
Scott Trickett: For anniversaries, yeah.
Melissa Erbacher: Okay. All right. Well, we don't even have any launches this week anyway, so that makes it more special for the anniversaries. All righty then. Are you going to put a drumroll in or do we have to go the ba-da-ba-da-ba-da-ba-da-ba-da-ba-da-bing?
[music]
Scott Trickett: That was good, but this is better.
Melissa Erbacher: All right, so Bathurst in New South Wales are celebrating this weekend.
Scott Trickett: Christies Beach, South Australia.
Melissa Erbacher: Cleland, also in South Australia.
Scott Trickett: Cleland? Cleland.
Melissa Erbacher: Cleland. Well, it's only got one E. I'm saying Cleland. Okay. Maybe it's Clayland, like the Leyland brothers, or is that spelled differently too? Okay. They're old enough now we should know how it's pronounced.
Scott Trickett: I just think we needed to mispronounce something in the last time we do this. Coomera in Queensland.
Melissa Erbacher: Maryborough in Queensland.
Scott Trickett: And Weipa in Queensland. And what a tragedy, no Victorian anniversaries this week. Maybe we might drag it out one more week. No, we won't. So I can mention an event from the greater state.
Melissa Erbacher: Maybe not. Well, you mention one of those pretty much every week because that's where you always go, Scotty. So I wouldn't be worried about that. You're still going to get the coverage for Victoria.
Scott Trickett: The centre of parkrun.
Melissa Erbacher: Okay, moving right along. Hey, so you put the call out for people to nominate new potential co-hosts to replace yourself. I put the call out for people to remind me what was the name of the television show that I couldn't remember that had an Emmett in it. And I did get a couple of people contact me, one of whom was Danny Norman himself from With Me Now. And he was indeed correct. It was keeping up appearances. And for those who haven't seen the show, and I'm still one of those, but I do have every intention of watching it, the character Hyacinth Bucket or Hyacinth, no, I feel like there should be an extra N in there, Hyacinth, but that's not correct. Hyacinth Bucket, pronounced bouquet, I understand, or that's how she pronounces it because she's all posh like uh her next door neighbour Elizabeth has a brother Emmet who moves in with her however he doesn't spell it exactly the same way he only has one t and we have two on our emmett's um but I forgot to mention one of the other movies that somebody um brought up was the lego movie Chris pratt's character um he plays a guy named Emmet too Once again, only with one T. But I haven't seen the Lego movie. Scotty, you have a child who is of an age who you may have seen the Lego movie. Have you seen it?
Scott Trickett: We did. I have seen the Lego movie. I haven't seen that other one, Keeping Up Appearances. Okay. So I can't help you there. But Lego movie, yeah.
Melissa Erbacher: So Everything is Awesome means something to you?
Scott Trickett: It does. Yeah, it does. Taco Tuesday means a bit more to me. I think that's from the Lego movie.
Melissa Erbacher: Oh, Taco Tuesday is just what happens in my house.
Scott Trickett: Well, it's from the Lego movie now.
Melissa Erbacher: Has somebody – oh, you know what? That must be the computers and the cameras and the recording. They're just listening to me talk while I'm walking around in my house.
Scott Trickett: Look, I think it is.
Melissa Erbacher: It's stealing my ideas.
Scott Trickett: Let me just Google it. Carry on.
Melissa Erbacher: Because that could be awkward.
Scott Trickett: Yeah, but we did want to see Lego Movie 2. That didn't make it to – That didn't make it to your view list? No, no.
Melissa Erbacher: Have you seen the Lion King remake yet?
Scott Trickett: No. No.
Melissa Erbacher: Oh, well, my little Emmett got to see his first – well, he didn't get to see it because he slept all the way through it. We went to the cinema yesterday to catch up on the Lion King and see what was different and how it was, and it was really good. I would like to report.
Scott Trickett: I can confirm Taco Tuesday was mentioned in the Lego movie, but I'm not sure if that's the origins of it.
Melissa Erbacher: Origins of it, okay.
Scott Trickett: Sorry, you were saying I was Googling Lego movie? No, Lion King. We're doing a quick review.
Melissa Erbacher: Lion King, the remake. Yes, it was good. Go see it. There were some laugh out loud moments, even if you've seen the original before, which I'm assuming everybody in the world has. It was still good and it was nice to see the little differences that they popped in there as well.
Scott Trickett: I was eyeing off Toy Story 4, but again, I got told that, no, Daddy, we're a bit too old for that, which left me a bit disappointed.
Melissa Erbacher: Far out. It's not about you, Kasia.
Scott Trickett: I know. How can she be too old for it, but I can't be? It makes no sense.
Melissa Erbacher: Yeah.
Scott Trickett: So I'm going to have to wait for that to come on iTunes or whatever, Netflix.
Melissa Erbacher: Maybe when you're up for conference in August, we can go see it.
Scott Trickett: Together. Yeah.
Melissa Erbacher: Because, yeah, I have every intention of seeing it. I don't have a child that's of an age to watch it yet, but I'm going to go anyway, and I'm sure it'll still be showing by then.
Scott Trickett: Yeah, I hope so. I hope so. That's a month away. Countdown to our conference. We had Timmy on a couple of weeks ago, giving us the lowdown on the UK conference. Go back and listen to that episode, people. One of our most popular. If you haven't. One of our most popular episodes. So I need to go on public record that I quite often joke about the episode where I was replaced as the co-host, bite him and it didn't do as well as we'd hoped in the downloads that's not that's not an indication of success people that just tells me how many people downloaded and listened to it but to rectify that situation episode 164 or whatever I think was our most downloaded episode for a long time So either people would really wanted to hear about the UK conference or love having Timmy back or it just fell in that sweet spot of release time, people having more time. Who knows, Mel, the mysteries of...
Melissa Erbacher: The ups and downs of the downloads.
Scott Trickett: Yeah.
Sign-off
Melissa Erbacher: Yep. So I think that might be it for all the fun that's been had this week, Scotty.
Scott Trickett: Okay, okay. Now let's pick up a point where we talked about earlier in the episode. Who was this mongrel backstabbing me? Would it help if I played the outro music and then you can tell me?
Melissa Erbacher: I'm not putting it on record, Scotty. I, yeah, maybe we'll have a conversation at a later point. Look, I wasn't even going to bring it up at all except that you remembered and you never remember what we say in previous episodes and we're always forgetting to follow up on stuff that we sort of put out there and, yeah, trying to be a bit more conscientious with that nowadays. But still, I think we just need to move on. I think you need to stay as my co-host and not talk about replacing yourself and then everything will be dandy.
Scott Trickett: How's our Insta account going?
Melissa Erbacher: I haven't posted from there in a while. You know, I think I actually posted on my personal one for the first time in about six months the other day. So maybe we should work on that.
Scott Trickett: I love Instagram, so I think we should – let's post on Insta this week.
parkrun adventure challengelistener challenge
Scott Trickett: Here's a challenge. Let's throw back to our old challenges. Let's everybody flood Instagram with – parkrun love. parkrun adventurers. Yep, parkrun adventurers love, so make sure you tag parkrun adventurers because we don't know how much each one is loved now because they've taken away the like count.
Melissa Erbacher: Oh, no.
Scott Trickett: Yep.
Melissa Erbacher: How are we going to be able to validate ourselves?
Scott Trickett: Well, I think the user can still see, but the public can't. So we know how many people liked it, but others don't.
Melissa Erbacher: All right. So what does this mean? On Saturday, you and I will each post one thing and we'll see who gets more likes.
Scott Trickett: Oh, yes.
Melissa Erbacher: You and I will see. Is that what we're doing?
Scott Trickett: Yeah, let's do that. Old-fashioned Mel versus Scott. I'm yet to win one, so come on, people. Support me.
Melissa Erbacher: I do. Well, see, this is the thing, Scotty. I've got the double-barrel cuteness of Emmett and Wes now, so...
Scott Trickett: But I've got something cooking for this Saturday where I think I might be able to pull off a nice Insta shot.
Melissa Erbacher: Okay. Okay. You bring on your Insta game and I will try my best to remember to take a photo and post it.
Scott Trickett: Well, if you don't, that means I'll win by default. And that's fine by me. I'll take any win I can.
Melissa Erbacher: That's a good attitude to have, Scotty.
Scott Trickett: See, I'm always thinking of the positives. That's what it's all about. You are. Yep. Turn a negative into a positive.
Melissa Erbacher: And that's the way it should be.