— open the full-size coverEpisode 169 - Tabitha Schulz
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Episode 169 - Tabitha Schulz · 2019-08-15
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Source: https://log.5kadventures.net/transcripts/ep169.html · The Adventurers Log · An independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by parkrun.
Welcome
Gary Murphy: Hello parkrun adventurers, it's Gary Murphy speaking and it's parkrun adventurers podcast number 169. I am not Scott Trickett but I'm sitting in the chair and it's very comfortable at the moment. I feel a bit like I've borrowed my dad's car for the first time and I'm either going to crash it or bring it home safely but hopefully we'll bring it home safely. And I'm joined by Mel Erbacher. Mel, welcome to the podcast.
Melissa Erbacher: Thank you, Gary. I do like the metaphor there, bringing home your dad's car safely. It's not going to be like that whole Ferris Bueller situation where, you know, you crash the Porsche out the back of the garage.
Gary Murphy: Well, we want to bring Scott back, so maybe I might crash it at the end to try and convince him to come back. So we'll see how we go.
Melissa Erbacher: If you crash and burn, he might think, no, no, no, that's not going to work for me.
Lyndell Murray: Well, welcome to you, Gary.
Melissa Erbacher: I'm excited to be having you co-host this week. You're the male voice of the podcast.
Gary Murphy: And from the greater state too, we've kept that thing going.
Melissa Erbacher: Oh, the great estate, yeah. I don't know. This could be, you know, where it all went bad with the whole Scotty Trickett being the co-host situation because he just wouldn't let go of that whole great estate thing, you know. People are wondering what's going on behind the scenes and why Scotty's still not back and, you know, has he gone? Has he gone forever? I'll be honest with you, Gary. He's not returning my messages or my calls. So if I've done something to offend him, I'm not entirely sure what it is. But, yeah, I'm a bit concerned. I mean, who wouldn't want to talk to me, really? Who wouldn't want to answer my messages?
Gary Murphy: I can't disagree with that, Mel. Not at all. Maybe he's stuck under some snow somewhere. In Orange, I heard they had a lot of snow that covered their parkrun up there. So maybe when that thaw's all out, they might find Scotty there.
Melissa Erbacher: It's possible. I don't know anyone who was at Orange on the weekend, although I wish I was there because I've never parkrun in the snow before. Have you parkrun in the snow, Gary?
Gary Murphy: No, I never have. And I saw in their pictures, they're remarkable pictures on their Facebook page, they were able to write their name in the snow of their parkrun. And it did get me to thinking, I wonder how many parkrunners have parkrun in the snow before. I have seen some really incredible images from Russian parkruns where it's about three or four feet of snow. be quite a challenge.
Melissa Erbacher: All the faces, like the whiskers on moustaches and people's eyelashes and eyebrows all have like crystallised icicles and things like that. I'm not sure if I could cope with those sorts of conditions myself. I have a hard enough time getting out of bed just on a summer winter's morning and that's when it's 16 degrees. I'm sure there's a whole bunch of people in the UK who are just scoffing at me right now.
Gary Murphy: And I guess it would make it challenging for the event teams to set up their course markings too.
Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well, depending on what they use for course markings. I know some people use flour. So that's, you know, obviously not an appropriate medium to use if you're going to get covered with another kind of dusting of white.
Gary Murphy: And I wonder, with snow being a pretty rare thing at parkrun, who would have done the double? So thinking of the Beaches parkrun? If anybody's actually run on the beach and then done a snow parkrun, that'd be interesting to know if anybody, that could be a thing, couldn't it?
Melissa Erbacher: It could be. It's the two extremes.
Gary Murphy: It's kind of like a surf and turf, but what would it be? A snow and sand? No, that doesn't work. I don't know. We'll have to think of something.
Melissa Erbacher: A snurf and surf.
Gary Murphy: A snurf and surf.
Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, maybe.
Gary Murphy: And how was your parkrun day this week, Mel?
Melissa Erbacher: My parkrun day was really good. I was back at my home event after having a little adventure the last week before. I was run directing again, so I'm edging ever closer to completing my goal for 2019 of rounding up my run directings. I think I had to do 15 this year or something like that to get them to the number that I wanted. And, yeah, it was a really good morning. How about you, Gary? Where did you parkrun this weekend?
Gary Murphy: This week I went to Lancefield parkrun. It's not far from me to go up to Lancefield. It's about half an hour from home. It's probably about, I don't know, 45 minutes from Melbourne. Nice. But we were very lucky this week because Melbourne weather this week was very poor. It was very cold and very wet. And the numbers were way down everywhere this week because it was so cold. We had 13 at Lancefield. I was on the stopwatch. And if I'd closed my eyes hard enough, I was trying to picture that I was at Bushy Park, like the first ever parkrun.
Melissa Erbacher: Oh, nice.
Gary Murphy: So that was really, really nice. But, yeah, we got a good crew there. And Lancefield's not an out and back, but you go out to an equestrian or past an equestrian park, and it's around a swamp. And in the swamp, they found megafauna, which is not dinosaurs. It's actually...
Melissa Erbacher: Very large marsupials, Australian ones.
Gary Murphy: So kangaroos that are about 150 kilos. And apparently, wombats the size of rhinoceros were found in the middle of where they do a three-loop out of the courts and then back to the start.
Melissa Erbacher: Also known as diprotodons. Do they actually have any, like, skeletons on display or models or things like that so you can get what size they would be?
Gary Murphy: Well, several years ago there were some dead trees and they had the Lancefield show, I think it was, and a man came with a chainsaw and carved out the shape of what they would look like in actual size. So, yes, if you look on the Facebook page for Lancefield, Lancefield parkrun, there is – images of what they would look like and around the course at the back part of the course there's actually benches that are cut out with the chainsaw that look like goannas so yeah it's quite interesting a little bit of history for the park around there very cool not not too many places in Australia that have you know deposits of megafauna and things like that so I'm assuming because of the swamp lands things got stuck and perished in the swamp yeah so um They think that Aboriginal tribes may have cut them up there and that's where the bones were found afterwards in the swamp. And it was even about, when was it, 2005 apparently, they were still finding bones there.
Melissa Erbacher: Wow. So you mentioned you're harking back to, you know, the start of parkrun at Bushy and only 13 participants. If you weren't volunteering, Gary, you could have had a top 20 finish.
Gary Murphy: That's right, Mel. I could have. There was a few gaps in between and actually I was very lucky to have some young volunteers that weren't official volunteers pointing out when the runners were coming around the corner. So it was good to be able to talk to people while I was timekeeping but still concentrating on when they were coming through to hit the stopwatch on the app.
Melissa Erbacher: Well done you. I was on the stopwatch a fortnight ago and I created a whole new mistake that I didn't know you could do. So hopefully you did better than me. It sounds like you had a lovely morning all together though.
Gary Murphy: I did. Yes, I did. I'm loving the app. The app is so good to use and so simple and easy to send the results for the team to upload them to the website. Yeah, it was a really great morning and off to the cafe afterwards to chat with everyone and Talk about parkrun and life in general. It was really good meeting new people.
Melissa Erbacher: Awesome. You know who we don't know whether or not he had a good morning or if he went to a cafe is Scotty. And I do want to bring it back to this because I feel like I didn't properly address it last week that he's not here and it's definitely, you know, a completely different... podcast landscape without him. Like, it's great to have you here, Gary. Don't get me wrong. But three and a half years of podcasting with the same person. And then, you know, to have a little bit of a break myself, which was enforced by said person, and then to come back. And it's been quite tumultuous, actually, with different co-hosts and Scotty being on and then off. And then, you know, now he's just... AWOL. It's all quite bizarre. I just wanted to bring it back and tell people that I am treating this seriously. I know last week perhaps I kind of glossed over the fact and I think I was still in shock that he wasn't here. It's all starting to sink in now. I'm still not convinced that He won't be back. I'm hopeful, let's say, that he'll be back.
Gary Murphy: Perhaps we need to send a sort of a search party or something to look for him now.
Melissa Erbacher: I think that's an excellent idea.
Gary Murphy: So I wonder who we could get to do something like that. Who would be people that are out and about and know parkrun and where to go and the places to look? Have you got any ideas of who might be suitable for that job?
Melissa Erbacher: We'd need several and we'd need them to cover as many states and territories as possible.
Gary Murphy: We'd need a lot of people to cover 360, but we can start off small.
Melissa Erbacher: Every journey starts off with a single step, doesn't it?
Gary Murphy: It does.
[16 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]
Meet the ED
Interview Tabitha Schulz — Event Director, Broken Hill Racecourse parkrun
Melissa Erbacher: It's been a little while since we have had a guest Event Director on the pod. And so I thought it was nigh on time that we did. And we've got someone who has a parkrun with a bit of a different story. We're going to head out, I will say west. It's sort of west and south from where I am. To Broken Hill where Tabitha Schulz is the Event Director at Broken Hill Racecourse parkrun. Tabitha, welcome to the parkrun adventurers podcast. Thank you. Now, it's awesome to have you here. You are not a stranger to parkrun. Broken Hill Racecourse parkrun has only been going for a few weeks, but this is not your first venture. Can you give us a bit of a background?
Tabitha Schulz: Sure. So, yeah, we've been going for three events now at Broken Hill Racecourse parkrun. But prior to that, Broken Hill parkrun itself started in November 2017. I was a participant on that first parkrun. And somewhere along the line, I found myself Event Director about a year ago. I was Co-Event Director. And then my Co-Event Director, Dave Cranby, who started Broken Hill parkrun, moved back to the, we call it Sydney, he calls it the Blue Mountains, and left me with it. And then the landowner permission was revoked. And so we had a whole unexpected journey on our hands.
Gary Murphy: And so, Tabitha, is the race course, I don't know anything about it, the race course is active or not active?
Tabitha Schulz: Yeah, so it is an active race course. So there are horses training there every Saturday. So we don't actually run on the race course itself. We use the race course land and the adjoining common, which is called the Willyama Common, which is managed by the Broken Hill City Council. So we use those two patches of land. We're running beside the race course and using their facilities but not actually using the track.
Melissa Erbacher: Now, Tabitha, it's been a little bit of a time lapse in between Broken Hill parkrun closing down and this new event getting underway. What were some of the challenges involved in trying to find a new course?
Tabitha Schulz: Yeah, well, one of the really big challenges is that Broken Hill is a sprawling but small town surrounded by deserts. So we don't have large areas of parkland or anything like that within the town itself that we could utilise So it was quite difficult to find somewhere that was within a reasonable distance of to the town so that we didn't have to worry about wildlife for our Run Directors and volunteers going out early in the morning. And that is a really big consideration out here and somewhere that fit all of parkrun's criteria of not crossing roads and that kind of thing. So we just found it really hard to find somewhere that actually was suitable to run on. And that would be possibly approved by the council, which manages most of that surrounding land around the town.
Gary Murphy: And so how would you describe the new course then, Tabitha?
Tabitha Schulz: So the new course is a lot flatter than our old one. Our old one was quite undulating. The old one had a lot of shale that was embedded in the ground, so it was quite treacherous and fun. If you like trail runs, it was a good trail run. A lot of loose rock and sand. This one is a lot flatter. We're running on tracks that are often used by dirt bikes and other people during the week, not on Saturday when we're parkrunning. So it is a lot flatter but it's still quite sandy because it's very dry here and the drier it gets the softer the ground gets and it's also still got rocks and it's surrounded by the desert salt bush and all of the flora that you would see around here and a lot of sky and it's really quite beautiful.
Melissa Erbacher: Sounds absolutely gorgeous. Broken Hill was on my list before it closed down, so I would like to say that Broken Hill Racecourse is still on the list. I want to get out there at some point, have an adventure in the future. How has the reception been with reopening? Have you got all the previous parkrunners coming back? Have you attracted some new people?
Tabitha Schulz: Yeah, we've had, well, for the three events that we've had so far, we've had pretty steady numbers. We had four for our launch and then 42, I think, the next week. And then last week, I think we had 37 and the weather was really quite poor. So I was not as many people turned up. There were a few tourists in each lot of those, but mostly it was local people, a bit of a mix of the old and the new. We sort of have maybe 20 to 30 people who... We would see in any given month that keep coming back to parkrun, which is really exciting. But we do have a number of people who seem to be new to the parkrun thing that have been showing up consistently, I mean, over three weeks. So it is kind of exciting. We've got one mum who's running with a pram, which we didn't have at our last one. So it means that we've got a whole new demographic, I guess, that it's possible for to be able to participate with the parkruns. I'm really excited about that.
Gary Murphy: That's great to hear, Tabitha, that you're attracting those people that are new to parkrun and they're coming along and being a part of it. Do you get many tourists come? You mentioned the tourists there and many adventurers come out to the parkrun that you notice?
Tabitha Schulz: Sorry, particularly this time of year, people like to come with their camping gear or their RVs. And where we are at the race course is actually a really popular camping ground for people who have camper vans and caravans and that kind of thing. So we're hoping that it's a really good partnership. in that sense. But we've always had, you know, one or two tourists a week. More often than not, people who just want something a bit different. I'm not sure. We haven't really been around much since Mildura started because they started, I think, a month before we finished. So I'm curious to see how that changes the people that come through because people would often go, well, that's the only parkrun, so we'll go through Broken Hill. So I think they might get some of the people that would have come here otherwise. But we'll see.
Melissa Erbacher: Chances are the true adventurers will head out to you anyway as well, Tabitha. Or do both. Exactly. That's what I mean.
Tabitha Schulz: Maybe next week, do Mildura and then do us or either way. There's lots to see in both towns. So I reckon that's a good option.
Melissa Erbacher: Sounds perfect to me. How did you get involved in parkrun? Because obviously, you know, it's not huge in a lot of
Tabitha Schulz: outback type towns and things like that no I was there for the very first one so I was really nervous about going I did I was excited to see that something like parkrun had started in our town I'd um I'd heard about it I think on Facebook you know people would post about parkruns in their place and I remember thinking oh I wish one would start here but also thinking it's just never going to happen we're too far away um you know it's the usual thing who go anyway I wasn't an athlete or anything myself. I was always an active person, but I sort of laughed at runners. What are you doing that for? What's the point? Where are you even going? So a little bit rude, I know. But a couple of years ago after I had my fourth baby, I had a little girl, and then three months later I was very healthy and then I had a heart attack. So that was very surprising. So this was four years ago now. And so in the course of my recovery from that, it was a hormonal event. It was a piece of the lining of my artery tore. So there wasn't any plaque or anything like that. It shouldn't have happened, but it did. And so I had to go to cardiac rehab. The process of doing that made me realise that my body could actually do stuff I didn't even know it could do before. And that made me get more interested in doing things to make sure that I kept healthy from then on, particularly you know getting a bit older and things like that so when parkrun came up I thought well I'm um trying to get fitter I could walk a few k's without problem by then it was about a year after um and I thought I'd just get involved um and see how often I could do that and so that's why I started at parkrun and then I just really enjoyed doing it and seeing if I could get it faster every time I'm still definitely not a runner but um Yeah, just really enjoyed making that a part of every single week.
Gary Murphy: Well, you're a parkrunner, Tabitha, so you're out there having a go. So that's the main thing. And having a heart attack, that's incredible. I'm so glad that you're back on your feet and healthy and back into it again now. That's good to hear.
Mish: Yep.
Gary Murphy: So do you think – is there an active walking and running culture in Broken Hill, or do you reckon parkrun will increase the numbers of people that are doing that kind of thing?
Tabitha Schulz: Look, there are people who do. Our weather in the summer makes it a bit tricky. It's very, very hot with very little shade, so it doesn't really make you want to go for a walk. There are heart foundation walkers around. There are some small running clubs, but they're the very athletic type of people, you know, the people that you look at and you go, okay, why have you signed up for a triathlon? Like that's the kind of really athletic stuff. But in terms of people just going for a walk, not so much. So I grew up in Ballarat, but there's a 6K lake. And it was really normal just to go for a walk around the lake. But there was nothing like that here. So I really am excited about parkrun because it does give a place where it's okay for anyone to sort of just turn up and go, yeah, I'm going for a walk with my friends. And there's somewhere for us to go. There's a place.
Melissa Erbacher: You're a mum of four. So do your children participate? Is it a big family thing or is this kind of parkrun for you is your time out? Good.
Tabitha Schulz: started as my time out so I was like that's my thing I'm doing it see you later I'll come back and then I don't know how it happened but my older girls who are nearly 10 and 8 and a half last year to get involved as well and it's turned into a really good family process especially the the girls my daughter's got her 25th volunteers I think she's up to 30 or something now and she was so proud to get that shirt. And so now my eight and a half year old, that's her goal. She wants to go for that. They're not so big on the 5Ks. Occasionally they'll tail walk, but they don't like the fact that you sort of just have to do it all at once. You can't sit down and do something else and then get back to the walking. So they prefer the volunteering. But it's been really good for us to do together and for us to have a little bit of an equality. I think I really like that. You they're able to actually fill that whole role just the way another adult would. And I like that, working alongside them.
Gary Murphy: Congratulations to your daughter on her 25th volunteer. That's fantastic. And that's a really good point you make about the kids getting involved in volunteering and learning about helping out. It's a really good thing to do.
Melissa Erbacher: I have one more question for you, Tabitha. There's a picture that is, I believe, going to be in the newsletter this week of your finish line. And there's a little gnome that appears to have had better days. Can you give us some context to the story behind that? He's our mascot. We love him. What was his name? Sorry, you just cut out. His name is Kirk. Kirk. Kirk's a gnome.
Tabitha Schulz: Yeah, so Broken Hills Event Director Dave brought him along one day. He comes from Bunnings and he painted him up with a volley shirt and from time to time we add different things to him. He often has a rainbow tutu or we put a hat on him and that kind of thing. It's just a little bit of fun for us. On Saturday it was so windy that he blew over, if that's the photo I'm thinking of. That's the photo.
Melissa Erbacher: He's just head down in the dirt, basically.
Tabitha Schulz: It was so funny. It was just a huge gust of wind. I got hit in the head by a clipboard and that flew off the table and Kirk got felled. And I think in the background of the photo, my daughters are sitting there in sleeping bags at the
Melissa Erbacher: finish line because one was teaching the other how to time keep so yes they look toasty and warm that's for sure yeah but you know get out there every week no matter what the weather is well hopefully kirk is feeling better next week and um manages to stay upright for the whole event thank you very much for joining us this week Tabitha it has been lovely having you on the podcast and we wish you all the best with uh Broken Hill Racecourse parkrun thank you
[17 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew
Roving report Mark Scarborough — Coombs parkrun
Mark Scarborough: Good morning parkrun adventurers, this is Mark calling in for the Channel 5 news crew from Canberra and we've been asked to keep our eye out for Scotty, seeing as he's gone a bit missing it appears. So we've run the statistics and the data through our computer and there's actually a less than 1% chance of Scotty being at a Canberra region parkrun today. However, when we look at his stats and the parkrun challenges extension for Scotty, the most likely parkrun that he would be at in Canberra, if he was to be here, would be Coombs parkrun. So that's where we're at today, at Coombs parkrun. So we're going to check it out and report in. Alright, so we've just finished Coombs parkrun. I'm here with Run Director Amy. Good morning Amy, how are you?
Amy: I'm good, how are you?
Mark Scarborough: Good, thank you. So I was just talking to you about the parkrun adventurers podcast and we're out looking for one of our co-hosts, Scotty. And I don't know what Scotty looks like, I know what he sounds like, but I've been keeping my ear out for him. But I don't think he's here and trying to find a parkrunner amongst parkrunners is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. So Coombs parkrun number 74, how's it been so far for you at Coombs parkrun?
Amy: It's been quite interesting, we normally have an out and back course which is completely on trails but the ACT government is upgrading our course so we've changed it in the last three weeks so this is I think the fourth week of our new double lapper which is the first one in Canberra which is very exciting.
Mark Scarborough: And how have the regulars taken to the change to an alternate course?
Amy: Actually, surprisingly well. In fact, it's sparked a debate whether we go back to our old course or not, which will be quite interesting when that time comes.
Mark Scarborough: Yeah, there'll be some purists that, you know, kind of demand the original comes back, won't there?
Amy: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So it is interesting because we're not 100% sure what the government is actually doing. We know that they're upgrading the track, but we're not sure if they're putting a bike path with it or not. So it'll be quite interesting to see how that works out.
Mark Scarborough: And what's the timeframe then for that?
Amy: That's an excellent question. Once again, that is an ACT government decision. I know that they've started, which is good. An outcome, an end date, I've got no idea.
Mark Scarborough: Okay. So Coombs is in the Molonglo Valley, which is a new development area for Canberra. So you've got quite a new, young, vibrant population here?
Amy: Yeah, we do. What was quite interesting is when we started last year, we thought that we would get a lot of people up from Tuggeranong, which is our closest parkrun. But instead, what we got was 50 or 60 brand new parkrunners that had never run before, which is more exciting. And it's just grown from there.
Mark Scarborough: Excellent. Well, thank you very much for your time. And I'm sure I'll see you again here at Coombs.
Amy: You certainly will. Thank you.
Mark Scarborough: So that's us done at Coombs parkrun. That's my third time there and now the first time on their alternate course, which is, as Amy was saying, a mixture of trail and a bit of bike path with double looper. Quite a good course, quite cold here in Canberra this morning with some snow around on the ranges. But overall, not a bad run. We'll catch you next time on the parkrun adventurers.
[13 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]
Grette Wilkinson: Okay, it's Greta here, and I know I haven't been around for a while, but I reckon I might have found Scotty. It's Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. Have you seen Scotty?
Charlie: You know, I actually haven't seen him. I thought I saw him at the turnaround, but I haven't seen him since. Maybe you should speak to my dad. He might know.
Grette Wilkinson: Okay, all right. Thanks. Scotty! Scott! Scotty! Scott! Scotty! Scotty! Wait up!
Mark Scarborough: Ah, damn. He's too fast. I can't get... Scotty! Ah, he's gone.
Roving report Paul Kitching — Carisbrooke
Paul Kitching: Good morning, parkrun adventurers. It's PK, Paul Kitching, checking in from South Australia. It's been a while, I know, but it's awesome that there are so many other roving reporters out there doing a great job. And I've felt envious of all your travel, so I thought I'd make an effort, get out on a Saturday morning rather than go to Netball and or Mount Barker and head to another parkrun, one that I haven't done. I'm here with a bunch of the Mount Barkerians and we are at Carisbrooke. So Carrisbrook, that's C-A-R-R-I-S-B-R-O-O-K-E, is out in the city of Salisbury. It is, gosh, what, 30 minutes out of town, I suppose? 40 minutes from where I live. But, yeah, it's not far, mate, seriously. It's near Mawson Lakes parkrun. It's a beautiful part of the world. We are about to hear the... um rd talk so I won't yabber for long but um uh it's been some crazy weather here as I know there has been all around most of Australia so um we were a little bit concerned that we'd get swept away but um well everyone's getting excited but we're not it's um it's actually dry touch wood uh no rain so um yeah uh anyway um it's actually Carisbrooke's 100th event as well that's the other thing it's their 100th event so there's an orange theme as you can see see I've got this orange t-shirt on can you see it I've also got my running heroes orange socks on so there you go shout out to the running heroes crew anyway uh I'm gonna go and do the run and then check in a bit later see if I can chat to some of the legends that are here happy parkrun day Well, we've just done Carisbrooke and far out. What a stunning course it is. Undulating through beautiful, beautiful countryside. I'm here with Steve, who I know through the parkrun world. And I remember, Steve, when you talked about setting this up, you came over from Mawson Lakes and you were the co-ED when it first started. Is that right? How are you, Steve? Good, thanks, PK. Yourself? Yeah, great, mate. I loved it. Really nice to see a friendly, familiar face here today. Yeah, tell us a little bit about your parkrun journey.
Steve: Yeah, well I started off, I was at Torrens and I used to help out there and set up and volunteer there and then Mawson Lakes came up and I had a friend of mine on the council so I helped Mawson Lakes get established through my contacts in the council. That was so successful that the council then wanted another parkrun in another area so I came and scoped out Carisbrooke Park and found what a beautiful place it is, amazing course you know family friendly it's got three playgrounds it's beautiful scenery ducks birds everything you want a trail run as well so one of their few trail runs well there's a few more now in South Australia but trail run which is awesome that's right you know so so close in the suburbia and you know people enjoy it the ones you don't like the the bitumen sort of courses you know you come out here and you
Paul Kitching: you get the undulating trails and you get to run on dirt and gravel and you know it's a bit tricky and a bit more on the body so it's not a I wouldn't class it as an easy course but it is a fun course yeah oh it's a it certainly is a fun course and and before you know it you know you've done 5k's um uh good people here today 100th birthday so that's awesome you're one of the rds here then how's it how's the journey been so far
Steve: It's good. We've had a ball here. Amazing group of people. Average attendance is 80, but there's a majority of regulars. We have so many people that regularly volunteer, and everyone wants to help out, and everyone's friendly, and I think everyone pretty much knows each other.
Paul Kitching: I love it, mate. I've noticed that. It's pretty what everything you want from a parkrun. Well, mate, well done. I'm going to go and get a coffee, support the local coffee van that you've got here, which is great.
Steve: Congratulations, mate, and keep loving parkrun. No worries. Thanks, PK. Good to see you again, mate.
Paul Kitching: Good on you. Thanks, Steve. We're still having a lot of fun here at the end of Carisbrooke 100 celebrations. I'm with Patrick. How's it going here? How's your parkrun adventure going so far?
Patrick: Oh, great. Like, I'm really enjoying it. I'm probably hitting peak fitness at the moment. Did a really great PB last week. Awesome. Yeah, it was under 21 minutes. And I set a Carisbrooke PB today. Oh, brilliant. Happy days, mate. Really happy with that. Good on you. About 18 seconds. Awesome.
Paul Kitching: Yes. Gorgeous course. Now, I've got Olivia here, who... caught I caught up with and then she took off how did you go today do you have fun uh yeah um I didn't get a PB but that was okay that's all right but you still loved it you don't like the rain very much though do you no you enjoy it more in the summer right well good on how many parkruns have you done uh 13 awesome well done and Renata sorry how you going did you have fun today
Renata: Yes, really good fun. First time for running in a clown outfit.
Paul Kitching: There were a couple of clowns here, one actually dressed up as a clown. Did it impede your run or did it make you run faster?
Renata: Yeah, no, it may have impeded it a bit because it was very hot and heavy.
Paul Kitching: Ah, right. I did see some people running away from you, so you may have helped them. You may have helped some people get a PB. It may be Patrick here. No, welcome. Thank you so much for coming out. I'm good to chat. It's a beautiful family here at parkrun, Carisbrooke, and yeah, keep doing great things with parkrun. Thank you very much to you all. Thanks, Olivia.
Renata: Thanks.
Paul Kitching: Thanks, Renata.
Renata: Thank you.
Paul Kitching: And thanks, Patrick.
Renata: Thanks, PK.
Paul Kitching: Good on you guys. Cheers. Okay, I'm just with Michael, one of the co-EDs here and Run Director today. How are you going, mate? Good, good. Enjoying our 100th run? Yeah, I know. 100th. Beautiful. You've put on nice weather for it. Just a little bit of a sprinkle of rain there in the middle, wasn't too bad and a nice rainbow yeah well done thank you for switching that on yeah I noticed that yeah you've conserved the energy now you've turned it off but um well done that's pretty impressive to have your own rainbow well we like to like to bring everything to Carisbrooke Park right uh no congrats it is a beautiful I've just been chatting to some of your regulars and far out what a gorgeous course I remember hearing when it was first being set up and um uh and who would know like driving you know along here past the old spot hotel To regulars out there, Adelaide people, we're right opposite the old spot. Beautiful big park here. And far out, it goes, you know, two and a half k's deep. Is that the Little Para River that we're running next to? Yeah, the Little Para River.
Michael: If you actually follow this all the way... Along the path, you can get all the way to Mawson Lakes parkrun as well.
Paul Kitching: That's not bad. Actually, have you guys done the double on New Year's Day?
Michael: Yeah, we do the double with Mawson Lakes. Ah, brilliant. And some people did run from Mawson Lakes to Carisbrooke parkrun.
Paul Kitching: Wow, in between? That's very impressive.
Michael: Because if you run between the two, it's a half marathon, basically.
Paul Kitching: Well, mate, there'd be some crazy people out there doing it. I know. Yeah, up in Mount Barker. There's a few people that have run between Mount Barker and Strath on the New Year's Day double. But anyway, so I've been hearing a little, the claim to fame. What's the claim to fame here for Carisbrooke?
Michael: The claim to fame here at Carisbrooke parkrun is this is our 100th event and we still never lost a finish token. Touchwood?
Paul Kitching: Yeah, Touchwood. It's all right. I've handed mine over. Ben's over there counting them all, so he's been doing a mighty job, and I reckon he's probably making sure that... Yeah, he's one of our Run Directors, so he better not lose money. No, mate, well, I can see the Tail Walkers just coming over the line, so I will let you go. You're a busy man, and we're going to go and enjoy the coffee, but thanks for everything you do for parkrun.
Nick: No worries. Thank you very much.
Paul Kitching: Good on you. Thanks, Michael. Cheers, mate. We're just about done, but I thought I'd better chat with Mike, who I ran most of the parkrun with today. I see Mike out at lots of the different courses. He's done a few more than me. Exactly how many parkruns have you done, mate?
Mike: I'm at 249 and 250 is going to be the big celebration next week.
Paul Kitching: Fantastic. Where are you doing it? Oh, I'm at Jubilee Way. Yeah, that's another beautiful course. Um, so you've been getting around to a few different courses. Do you have, what's your, your favourite, favourite courses out there or do you, do you don't want to be, don't want to be biased?
Mike: No, I do. I do love parkrun. I've been doing it for a long time. Uh, I like the, the off, off road style one. So this one, Carisbrooke Park, Jubilee Way, uh, Cleland Cleland no not really that's just a bit too it's a challenge sorry John we do love Cleland but you know it's a challenge I do like it I have been to it a couple of times but you've got to have been the right mindset to tackle those hills you do but the views are definitely worth it so and the kangaroos rewarded it is well now mate when we were running today you were I was just I was amazed by the the fact that I was just saying to Michael the um rd and coed that um
Paul Kitching: You wouldn't know it. You drive past, you know, along here, Main North Road, and you see it's a pretty big park, but that it goes so far. And Mike was saying that, you know, you can follow the path all the way down to Mawson Lakes, but you as a youngster used to... This is your backyard, yeah?
Mike: yeah that's true this is a beautiful park and it was only on the radio just last week national radio some guy had come down here one of the roving reporters and he's an Adelaidean he's been here all his life but he'd never actually stopped and looked at this park and he could not stop raving about this park and really it is it's a beautiful park you can just see today like how green and iridescent green the grass is absolutely the trees are huge if you want to see big huge gum trees this is the place to come to see it isn't it and it's a beautiful it's a beautiful place for a parkrun it's just just fantastic
Paul Kitching: Yeah, also it's old as well. Like when we were running along, all those old cacti plants and the... the cliffs I suppose, yeah you call them cliffs and you said that you used to climb through them as a kid?
Mike: Yeah so as a young fella I grew up in here and we'd come down here all the time and we'd use this as our backyard escape from our parents and there's just so much to do for young people there's a cliff that runs along the creek, back in the day there used to be rock pools and swimming holes but you know you can come down here and hunt for frogs yeah it's just a fantastic place to play
Paul Kitching: It really is, isn't it? And it's so good that parkrun, you know, well, had it not been for parkrun, I probably would not have come here. Again, like I drive past here going north, you know, or going to visit people up this way, and I probably would not have thought to stop and check it out. So it's absolutely brilliant when parkrun... opens your eyes up to awesome parts of our world like this.
Mike: You've only just got to get out. That's what parkrun's all about. That's it, isn't it? Getting out and experiencing new people, new places and different experiences.
Paul Kitching: You've got it, mate. You've absolutely got it. Well, good on you, mate. Speaking of which, I'm going to go and get some brekkie. Well done. Hope to see you. Well, I'll congratulate you once you've done it, but good luck for your 250.
Mike: Oh, thank you very much. Next week. Thanks for coming out to our party.
Paul Kitching: Oh, no, I love it, mate. Thank you. It's been a lot of fun.
Mike: See you out there again very soon.
Paul Kitching: Good on you, mate. Cheers, mate. Bye. Bye. Well, that's it. I've done Carisbrooke, and it was beautiful, as you probably heard from all the passionate parkrunners that I spoke with. I'm going to head off and have some breakfast now, just sitting in the warmth of the car after... What turned out to be a beautiful morning. It did rain, but hey, we can get dry. It's not that bad. And it is winter and we get to see different parts, different seasons. We did have four seasons in one day. One thing I forgot to mention, of course, that by doing the Carisbrooke today, I've done another one of my C's. So the Keen Pirates out there, this is one of five C's in South Australia. So yeah, get down to Carisbrooke or up to Carisbrooke, depending on where you're coming from. Get over here. Certainly put it on your list of awesome trail parkruns to do in South Australia. Look forward to adventuring somewhere again soon and hearing everybody else's awesome adventures. Be good and be good at it. Cheers. PK over and out. G'day parkrun adventurers. PK here checking in from the cafe after Carisbrooke parkrun. We've had a great morning. Bit wet and cold, but hey, we got out and got out amongst it. Yep, having a coffee. Good one, Ade. But really, we've been chatting about the podcast here with my awesome friends and we've realised that we've been listening in and Scotty, where are you? What's the story?
[crosstalk]
Renata: Where's Scott? I really missed his voice. Scott? Who? Scott! Scott.
Unidentified speaker: Scotty, where are you?
Paul Kitching: We love you, Scotty. Who's Scotty?
Unidentified speaker: Come on, Scotty, mate. Where's Scotty?
Paul Kitching: So really the question, guys, is... Where's Scotty? Sorry, I don't think he can hear you. What's that? Where's Scotty?
Roving report Tony O'Connell — Newport Lakes parkrun
Tony O'Connell: Howdy parkrunners, it's Toc reporting in from a rather brisk Newport Lakes parkrun. It's looking damp out there, the clouds are very low, but I'm with Tim, Tim's the Event Director at Newport Lakes. Tim, I'm looking at your course map, it looks confusing, but talking to everyone that I know that's run this course, they reckon it's really easy to follow.
Tim: What can you tell me about your course? Rest assured Toc, our pre-event guys are on the case every Saturday morning and we've got 36 signs well placed throughout the course listing every corner, every straight and U-turn so that nobody gets lost on our parkrun and we've got a pretty good success rate of getting everyone home thanks to our trusty Tail Walkers. So you haven't got anyone from last week still out there running around obviously? Well, hopefully not. Pre-event guys would have found that if they did. But no, we're lucky here. It's rather a unique course. Up and down, left and right, and some beautiful views of the lake.
Tony O'Connell: So you've got a lake out there. We can't see it from where we are at the start line, but you've got a lake out there. And I hear you've got a few little mounds and rises out there as well.
Tim: Can you give us a bit of a description of the course in general? I always tell everyone to save a bit in the tank. It's deceiving as we sit here and look out of these lush meadows and things, but the last 1.5K is when it gets a bit nasty. You go down into the quarry, and then coming up over those last few rises, there's about three or four hills that can catch you out, and it's always the end there where you haven't got much left.
Tony O'Connell: And today could be a little bit damp underfoot out there. Victoria's going through Stormageddon this week. You say that as we're standing in about an inch of water.
Tim: So yes, yes, I'd say that. So we might get a few slips out there today, but hopefully everyone just takes it easy. It's probably not a course where you're going to set your all-time personal best, but hopefully all the runners have a good time.
Tony O'Connell: Really looking forward to running the Newport Lakes course. Thanks a lot. No problem. Have a good one. Hey, it's Toc. I'm out at Newport. We're nearly at the lake. It's cold, but I've got this marshal in front of me. She's looking a bit confused. Zoe, Zoe, what's the matter?
Zoe: I can't find Scotty.
Tony O'Connell: I can't find him either. We'll have to keep looking. See you later.
Michael: I'm not excited to see you.
Tony O'Connell: Howdy parkrunners, we've finished Newport Lakes. It's chucking the rain down. It's windy. And I'm with Mish. Mish, you've decorated yourself in claret and mud. What's the story?
Mish: Well, it was a tricky course out there. I didn't put my trail shoes on today. I only had my road shoes. And so there was a bit of mud up and downs in the hills, which I do like normally. But there was a bit of a tight turn, fell over in the mud, and put two holes in my new running tights, which was a bit upsetting.
Tony O'Connell: Bummer. The bloke in front of me took a massive stack on one of the corners. He went down like a bag of spuds. It was almost funny. He bounced up. He was all right. He didn't get claret, though. You've got...
Mish: I've got blood on the knees, both knees and hand.
Tony O'Connell: Oh, well, we're tough at Inverloch, aren't we?
Mish: Yeah, and the poor guy behind me, I almost took him out as well when I fell over. But he did stop to help lift me up, so that was great.
Tony O'Connell: So apart from the stack, what did you think of the course?
Mish: I absolutely loved it. Lots of twists and turns. It did stop raining for most of parkrun, so that was really great. Yeah, and well worth the adventure with our run buddies to come over today.
Tony O'Connell: Yeah, cool. It was an early start. I think you guys left at about five, so an early start to get to parkrun.
Mish: Yes, right over the other side of the state, it feels like. But yes, definitely love our parkrun touristy. And I think we'll go get coffee. Yes, can't wait.
[15 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]
Roving report Gary Murphy — Lansfield parkrun
Gary Murphy: No, we can't find Scotty here at Lancefield parkrun. We've been looking everywhere. We've covered about five kilometres. There's no bridges here, so maybe that's why he's not here. We'll keep looking.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew
Unidentified speaker: Hello, we're in Berlin and we've just run Hasenheide parkrun and I'm with Andrew Bull. Andrew, you're English with your accent. What brings you to Berlin?
Andrew Bull: So we were on holiday, and the main part of picking our holiday seems to be if there's a parkrun nearby. So having run Paris and Copenhagen, Berlin had one, so we've decided to come along by trying to get the metro here, trying to work it out.
Unidentified speaker: Yes, it can be interesting. At least the good thing for us is these runs start at 9 o'clock in the morning, so we've got plenty of time to get here.
Andrew Bull: Yeah, yeah, getting up. We had to get up fairly early to try it because we knew the route we'd be taking about five stops and then change and then five stops again. So not too bad in trying to find the actual park because it's by the open air theatre.
Unidentified speaker: Yes, actually it's a beautiful park this one.
Andrew Bull: It is. Nice tree lands and shrubbery around.
Unidentified speaker: It's also got quite a few, I noticed walking in here, quite a few red squirrels as well, which I've never seen them quite as red as they are.
Andrew Bull: I must admit I haven't been looking at the wildlife. We were mainly trying to follow the phone, trying to get it to the start. But yeah, it is certainly a nice park.
Unidentified speaker: And we've probably got, what, a bit over 100 people I think today?
Andrew Bull: Yeah, I'd say a bit over 100. They normally get about that number and some very fast runners at the front of the field.
Unidentified speaker: And what did you think of the course?
Andrew Bull: I thought it was a very nice course, apart from that little sharp steep hill.
Unidentified speaker: I should add that most of this park is fairly level and flat, but there's one little hill that's plonked in the middle of the course, which I walked up.
Andrew Bull: I think we're lucky that you only had to do that once rather than twice a lot of the route. But yeah, it was an interesting, nice course. It's quite hot though, so.
Unidentified speaker: Yeah, it's quite warm. For our listeners back home, I did see Orange had snow today. Berlin is completely different. The humidity's up. It's not all that hot, but by the end of the run, I'm covered in sweat.
Andrew Bull: Yeah.
Unidentified speaker: Okay, look, thank you very much. Brilliant, thank you. And all the best with future runs. Yeah, yeah, thank you, you too. Okay, I'm now with David, and David was another runner at the Hasenheide parkrun. And tell me, what did you think of the course?
David: Slightly tough, but enjoyable. I love the forest atmosphere. You don't see any traffic, so that's good. It's peaceful, a little bit tough in bits, like I said, but it was my first Berlin Hasenheide, my first Berlin parkrun course. I did Munich last week. I'm on holidays, by the way, folks. I've done about 39, almost 40 parkruns back in Australia. So I just thought while I'm on holidays, I'll do one every week.
Unidentified speaker: And have you got plans for any other courses while you're over here?
David: Only this same one because there's only one course in Berlin. So I'll do this one next week and the week after. And then I fly back to Australia. Okay, thank you very much, David. My pleasure.
Unidentified speaker: And I'm now with the Run Director and your name? My name is Susan. And Susan, you can do the correct pronunciation of the Berlin parkrun, which is?
Susan: Hasenheide.
Unidentified speaker: Hasenheide.
Susan: And it means bunny heath. Oh, by the heath. Bunny. Bunny. Bunny, like the bunnies.
Unidentified speaker: Ah, the rabbit. Okay, so I was seeing squirrels, but not rabbits with this one. Okay, thank you. And tell me, what got you into parkrun?
Susan: I'm not sure, actually. I think I read the announcements that parkrun starts in Germany on social media. And me and my family, my husband and my son, we turned up for the very first parkrun here in Hasenheide, in Berlin, and never looked back. Excellent.
Unidentified speaker: So what caused you to become a Run Director?
Susan: First I started running, then I started volunteering and I got to know the other members of the core team better and sometimes they asked me if I want to be Run Director and so I became one.
Unidentified speaker: And look, you seem to have a very good turnout. There's a very friendly mob here today as well.
Susan: Yes, it was. We had exactly 150 people, I think. Okay. Which is pretty good for us.
Unidentified speaker: It's a warm day. Yeah. I think there was a big running event last week, wasn't there, here?
Susan: Last week was maybe Adidas Runners Night. Next week is the 100 Miles of Berlin.
Unidentified speaker: Oh, good luck, yeah. I'm hoping it's a bit cooler for people when that one comes on as well but no this is very enjoyable and how would you describe the course?
Susan: um we are it's an inner city park and it's mostly tarmac um we have it's mostly flat but we have one really good hill one beautiful build in some people say oh it's not that bad and some say oh it's a hot heart attack hill yeah so come to Berlin hasenheide and see what you think
Unidentified speaker: That's good. You get to do two laps, but I'm glad to say you only had to do the hill once.
Susan: Only once, yeah. Sometimes we have people who do not listen at the briefing. They do the hill twice, and that's not so good for their time.
Unidentified speaker: Enthusiasm is great. And you had some very fast runners today.
Susan: Yes.
Unidentified speaker: Is that usual?
Susan: Yeah, yeah. A couple of guys are really fast, and some women too.
Unidentified speaker: Yes, I saw a few of those and congratulated them afterwards. So it's perfect. The park here is really good. In the middle of Berlin, it's actually fantastic.
Susan: And I think it's a good Berlin vibe. You feel how the city works and what kind of people live in Berlin and... We go to a little café afterwards where you can meet a lot of locals and we usually chat with our visitors, parkrun tourists, and give tips what to do in Berlin and something like this.
Unidentified speaker: And I noticed you gave the talk this morning in both German and English. You get a lot of tourists, I take it? Yes.
Susan: Yes. Understandable.
Unidentified speaker: And I do recommend it to tourists.
Susan: We started with a lot more tourists than locals and now we are really proud to be like at 50-50. So more people from Berlin coming to parkrun.
Unidentified speaker: Excellent.
Susan: I just hope it keeps growing and maybe even get another event somewhere in... Yeah, we hope to install some more events maybe next year.
Unidentified speaker: But I do certainly recommend to anyone that this is a good run to come and do. So if you're anywhere near Berlin, I recommend dropping in.
Susan: Thank you so much.
Unidentified speaker: Thank you very much.
Susan: Yeah, thank you so much. And I miss Scotty.
Roving report Lyndell Murray — Kelvin Grove parkrun
Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell. And I've checked in this morning to Kelvin Grove parkrun in Brisbane. Now, I'm on a bit of a mission today. I'm on the lookout for our missing co-host, Scotty Trickett. Why Kelvin Grove, I hear you ask? Well, last time I was here, I'd set up a rendezvous with Mel, and we had a bit of an unplanned rendezvous with a fellow Channel 5 News crew reporter, Mossy. So... You know, we all know that Scotty's not averse to a little bit of FOMO. And I'm pretty sure Scotty has not done Kelvin Grove. So I thought it was a good candidate. FOMO, add to his most events. Why not Kelvin Grove? He could be here. The crowd is starting to gather, so I might just see if I can ask around and see if anybody has seen the missing Scotty. Okay, I've just gotten back to parkrun HQ here at Kelvin Grove. I'm with Phil and Danielle and they are scanning today. So guys, has Scotty Trickett scanned in today?
Unidentified speaker: Well, we haven't seen him so far and the runners have almost finished. So there's not much chance. I think he's still missing in action.
Lyndell Murray: So, you know, are you sure? Like he's a tallish guy, curly hair, pretty funny, pretty serious, could be wearing an Ugly Christmas Singlet, but probably not. Has that helped?
Unidentified speaker: That hasn't really helped. Most people are not that tall when they're hunched over trying to gasp as much breath back into their body at the end of the run. But no, we haven't seen him.
Lyndell Murray: But it is inconclusive.
Unidentified speaker: Well, not all the runners are in, so we'll wait for the last runner, hopefully in about 10, 15 minutes, but who knows?
Lyndell Murray: Who knows? Look, normally he would run faster than me, but you never know. He could still be here. We'll live in hope, hey, Danielle? Fingers crossed we find him. We hope so. Okay, I found a couple of adventurers here, Ali and Shannon. Where are you from? We're from Berrinba parkrun. So you're a little bit away from home. Have you come looking for Scotty as well? Yeah, we've been looking everywhere for him. We've come all the way from Logan.
Tim: We're out here at Kelvin Grove parkrun and we're going to have a bit of a look around here for him. So hopefully we can find him out here somewhere.
Lyndell Murray: Yeah, we hope so. We're missing him, yeah?
Tim: Absolutely.
Lyndell Murray: Come back, Scotty. Well, you are. We're looking for you. Thanks, ladies. Now, Nick, Run Director here at Kelvin Grove, you're a regular listener to the parkrun adventurers. Is that correct?
Nick: Yes, it is. I love the show, listen every week.
Lyndell Murray: And what do you love most about it?
Nick: Well, obviously Mel, but second would be Scott out of the two presenters on the show.
Lyndell Murray: So Scott's a pretty close second.
Nick: Oh yeah, very close.
Lyndell Murray: Do you think that might get him back? We don't know where he is.
Nick: I thought I saw him earlier. Was he not here today? There was a co-host of the parkrun adventurers running at Kelvin Grove today. So was that not Scott?
Lyndell Murray: Well, maybe it was because when I spoke to the Barcode Scanners, they couldn't categorically say he wasn't here.
Nick: Well, we'll have to check the results to see if he scanned in or not today.
Lyndell Murray: Yeah, well, we'll do that. Maybe he was here.
Nick: Maybe.
Lyndell Murray: a bit elusive these last couple of weeks but we do want him back we are on the lookout we hope we find him isn't that right nick yeah of course we do we'd love to see Scott back on the podcast excellent thanks for having me here at Kelvin Grove hopefully Scotty will show up and hopefully I'll see you again at Kelvin Grove yep and we look forward to seeing you back here maybe doing your p index got it in one I'm up to five now at Kelvin Grove yeah well we'll love to see you here and uh yeah everyone's welcome at Kelvin Grove every week Excellent. Thanks, Nick. Come back, Scotty.
Roving report Melissa Ellis — Mosman parkrun
Melissa Ellis: Mel, it's Melissa, self-appointed number one fan of the podcast. Where's Scotty? He can't just leave. There was no Facebook poll on this, no perlustration. We have to find him and bring him back. With Toc and Gary covering Victoria, I've come to New South Wales to enlist the help of some fellow adventurers. Okay, so I'm on my way to parkrun and I'm in the Uber and oh my gosh, Simon Mackley from Mosman. How are you?
Simon Mackley: Good, how are you Mel?
Melissa Ellis: I'm good. I'm trying to find Scotty Trickett. Have you seen him?
Simon Mackley: No, he hasn't been at Mosman and I haven't picked him up in the Uber.
Melissa Ellis: Okay, well I'll have to keep looking. How are we going to find him? I was thinking maybe we need another quiz.
Patrick: Okay.
Melissa Ellis: If you could find some questions, maybe a little bit more geared for Scotty so that he can win.
Simon Mackley: Oh, for sure.
Melissa Ellis: Yep. That'd be great. Well, I did that for Mel last time because she paid me. I don't think we're supposed to tell them that. Oh, okay. All right. All right. Great. Thanks for that, Simon. I'll see who else I can find. Okay. Bye. Okay, now I'm at Mosman parkrun and I've found Chris Fraser, the stat man. Hi, Chris.
Chris Fraser: G'day, Mel.
Melissa Ellis: How are you?
Chris Fraser: I'm good, mate. How are you?
Melissa Ellis: I'm good. Now, I'm in search of Scotty Trickett. Have you seen him?
Chris Fraser: Scotty Trickett? No, no, not for a while.
Melissa Ellis: Okay, so he hasn't been at Shellharbour?
Chris Fraser: No, no.
Melissa Ellis: All righty. Well, I'm trying to think of a plan to entice him back to the podcast. Now, I'm thinking we need to find, being as you're the stat man, we need to find all the stats we can that make him look better than Mel.
Chris Fraser: Oh, stats in front of Mel. Yeah, I could do that. Yeah, yeah.
Melissa Ellis: Oh, great. All right. So that'll work on his ego and make him happy to come back.
Chris Fraser: That's right.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah. All right. Thanks for that, Chris. No problem. All right. Have a good run. Thanks, mate. Now I'm at brunch and I've found Sonja and Peter Pohlman from the Beaches. Now, guys, have you seen Scotty?
Unidentified speaker: No. We came all the way to Mosman parkrun and he's not here.
Melissa Ellis: And you didn't see him on the way?
Unidentified speaker: He wasn't at the Beaches last year? No, we did look. We looked on the way. We looked at the Beaches. We did a look around the Newcastle area.
Unidentified speaker: He was not in my car.
[crosstalk]
Unidentified speaker: We did not see, we seeked him there.
Unidentified speaker: We sought him there. We sought him here.
Unidentified speaker: We sought him there. We sought him everywhere. Do you think maybe the problem was there was no bridges? You know what the problem is? We were saying this on the way. Google Maps took us through the tunnel and not over the bridge this morning. And me.
Melissa Ellis: And me. Yep, last night.
Unidentified speaker: So maybe Scott is in Warwick parkrun.
Unidentified speaker: Maybe near the Coombs Bridge.
Unidentified speaker: the new bridge on Warwick parkrun course named after Coombs.
Melissa Ellis: Well, what I'll get you guys to do on your travels, on your way home, can you just do a pan and scan? Pan and scan. Okay, we'll see what we can do.
Unidentified speaker: We'll keep our eyes open for Scotty.
Unidentified speaker: Okay, because we want him to know that we want him back. Well, what would attract, what do you think would attract him?
Unidentified speaker: Smell of a good croissant.
Unidentified speaker: I don't know.
Unidentified speaker: The smell of a hot steaming doughnut.
Melissa Ellis: Oh, doughnuts.
Unidentified speaker: We didn't check the doughnut shop.
Melissa Ellis: Okay, I'm on it. Yeah. We'll go for elevensies. All right. All right. Thanks, guys. Bye.
Melissa Erbacher: Well, Gary, what did you think of all of those roving reports and other audio snippets from the Channel 5 News crew?
Gary Murphy: How fantastic were they? They were really good. I really enjoyed all of them. I wonder how long it's going to take them to find Scotty, though. They might have to keep looking.
Melissa Erbacher: Well, I don't know. Maybe we need to put a direct message out to Scotty. Do you reckon he's listening to the pod? Like he's not on it, but do you reckon he's still listening just to see what's happening?
Gary Murphy: Well, I think he probably would be. I think I've kept the car on a straight line so far, but we've still got a little bit to go. So I might put a few dings in it before then to make him come back and right the ship, so to speak.
Melissa Erbacher: Right the ship or right the shit, either one. All right. Well, maybe, yeah. I don't know, Scotty, if that whole swag of roving reports wasn't enough to convince you that you're being missed and that you should come back. I'm not entirely sure what will, but I think we should push on, Gary. Now, I do have a very serious question for you. Are you wearing your propeller hat?
Gary Murphy: I have to admit that, yes, I am wearing the propeller hat at the moment.
Melissa Erbacher: excellent how does that work like I'm assuming you're also wearing a headset because I wear a headset and it's you know one of those ones that sort of arches over my head with the the ear things on either side and a little um madonna-esque microphone popping out in front of my mouth is that is that the kind of audio situation you've got going on or have you got some other kind of scenario yes no you've
Gary Murphy: picked it in one, Mel, and I had a bit of an issue putting the headset on. I forgot that I had the propeller on the top of my head and it got a bit tangled up. It's like sometimes when I'm running on it and I just misjudged the height of the lowest limb of a tree and you forget you've got that little bit extra on the top and you catch the bottom of the tree with your propeller.
Melissa Erbacher: Well, obviously, I haven't run in mine enough to have those sorts of experiences. But you know what? Something I did notice that when we were at the Beaches parkrun, your propeller propels. It spins a lot better than mine does. I think it's because of the combination of beads. I've got a bead on top of my propeller and your propeller is right at the very top of all the beads.
Gary Murphy: See, the secret is I've got a little electric motor inside that actually pulls me along. So I charge it before parkrun and that gets me going along a bit quicker than I normally would.
Melissa Erbacher: Oh, so that must make me Tweedledum out of the pair of us then. You must be Tweedledee. I am a fan of the propeller hat. So the last time I wore mine, I was very heavily pregnant and I absolutely resembled Tweedledum.
Gary Murphy: Speaking of dress-ups, kind of a dress-up, my hat, but I wonder how many people got dressed up at City to Surf on the weekend. That was on this weekend, and there was plenty of parkrunners heading up from all over the country to City to Surf. It's a really big deal, isn't it? Yeah, Christmas for runners, they call it. And I know that here in Melbourne, we had some bad weather on Friday night and some people were delayed with flights and some had to actually drive from Melbourne to Sydney to make it to parkrun on Saturday morning and then City to Surf on the Sunday.
Melissa Erbacher: Isn't that insane? What kind of crazy adventurer would do that?
Gary Murphy: A committed, probably a number one fan of the podcast, I'd reckon, would probably do something like that.
Melissa Erbacher: Yes, Melissa Ellis, didn't she? She had, what was it, a nine-hour drive?
Gary Murphy: A nine-hour drive to make it to Mosman parkrun. And I don't think she got much sleep for the whole weekend, but by all reports, she had a great weekend. And someone else that was doing City to Surf this weekend was Em Scholarie, a friend of the podcast from Shellharbour parkrun, did her first City to Surf on the weekend. So congratulations to you, Em. Well done. That was an awesome effort. Have you done City to Surf, Mel?
Melissa Erbacher: Yes, I have actually. Probably I think it must have been about five or six years ago now. It is like a 14-kilometre party, isn't it, like a street party? Because you've done it, haven't you, Gary?
Gary Murphy: I have done it, and I thought that it would be perfect for you. There's so many dress-ups. The Smurfs are always popular, and the rock band on the balcony, I think it's Rose Bay. I'm not sure. There'd be people screaming at me, telling me that's not the right spot. Plenty of people in... They're swimmers. I was going to say budgie smugglers, but that's a bit of a... Budgie smugglers.
Melissa Erbacher: That's a perfectly acceptable term, I think, in Australia.
Gary Murphy: All right, very good. Yeah. So, yes, it's a very popular fun run, and next year is their 50th parkrun. I kept saying parkrun, but it's their 50th fun run next year.
Melissa Erbacher: Oh, wow, that's going to be massive, isn't it?
Gary Murphy: And if you doubled their 50th event for next year, you'd get 100... And Joanne Watkins volunteered the 100th time as a Run Director, and she's only one of a handful of people in Australia to achieve that milestone. So congratulations to Joanne at Albert parkrun in Melbourne. It's a huge achievement.
Melissa Erbacher: Well done, Joanne. And that's just 100 RDs. So I'm pretty sure she's done a whole swag of other volunteer stints as well in her tenure at Albert Melbourne. So congratulations. Hats off to you. Propeller hats off to you, Joanne. Well done. That's awesome. Now, speaking of propeller hats, I want to, as Scotty would say, peel back the curtain just for a minute. I've had a lot of fun recording the podcast with you this week, Gary, and it started before the podcast actually recording started, when I sent you a link this afternoon, earlier today, to the format that we use, the URL that we use to record programs called Zencastr. And I didn't realise until you sent me a message a little bit later in the afternoon, I was very impressed, I have to say, that you logged in to check that everything was working ahead of time. But you sent me a message. What was in your message that you sent me?
Gary Murphy: Well, I logged on and I could hear some voices and thought it was a bit strange. And there was some angelic singing coming from the microphone. And I think it might have been Mel in the background.
Melissa Erbacher: It's very kind of you to say angelic. I think everyone who's heard my attempts at singing on this pod in the past know that that's probably not the case. And Very generous of you. Yeah, so it turns out that I hadn't logged out of being the host of – like when I had sent you the link, I had to be logged in to create the link to send you. And because the computer was open, it was just recording stuff. And this is – isn't this a scary part of the internet that just things can be open and live and just a pathway through to somebody else I mean fair enough that this is an audio program where we can share our audio and have a conversation online together but I'm not embarrassed about the singing I don't have an embarrassment gland in general but it is very nice of you to say that the singing was angelic well I think that's a
Gary Murphy: I think it's a perfect opportunity for Scott. Another reason for Scott to come back to the podcast is maybe to do a duet with you, Mel.
Melissa Erbacher: Oh, no. Well, I mean, I would love to be hearing Scotty's dulcet tones again, that's for sure. But we all know how that went the last time. And actually, you know what, that brings me to something. This is what I would like to say to Scotty, you know, Scotty, if you're listening, the roving reports that we got in today from the whole Channel 5 News crew, you know, it hasn't been since episode 143 since the whole Channel 5 News crew has rallied for a single purpose, you know. And in this case, the purpose is to find you. We want to know where you are. We want to know you're okay. We want you to come back. And I would just like to say on behalf of myself and the whole Channel 5 News crew, Gary, I think I speak for you as well as the rest of them when I say this, that we're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks without you, Scotty. So wherever you've gone, turn around, bright eyes.
Sign-off
Melissa Erbacher: Turn around.
Gary Murphy: What a perfect way to finish, Mel. I reckon you'd have to come back on that, wouldn't you?
Melissa Erbacher: Oh, who knows? Who knows, Gary?
Gary Murphy: Well, let's see. Let's see what happens next week. And everybody, keep looking for Scotty. If you have a sighting of him, let us know. And we look forward to hearing his excellent podcast ability back on the show next week.
Melissa Erbacher: And in the meantime, thank you, Gary, for joining me today. It has been so much fun having you on the pod. Always lovely to speak to a fellow propeller head, even if you are from Victoria.
Gary Murphy: My pleasure, Mel. Thanks for the opportunity. This has been fantastic. But we need Scotty back. We really do.