Episode 170 - Linda Coombes

Welcome

00:00:20Scott Trickett: Episode 170 of the parkrun adventurers is here, and I'm back. It's great to be back. Welcome, Mel. Sorry, who are you? Oh, Scotty Trickett, co-host of the parkrun adventurers podcast. We've been doing this for a number of years now. I know I've been gone for a couple of weeks, but I hope you haven't forgotten me.

00:00:41Melissa Erbacher: Oh, maybe. Maybe I still vaguely remember the sound of your voice.

00:00:47Scott Trickett: Yep. Did you have a good time?

00:00:49Melissa Erbacher: Welcome back, Scotty. Yes. Well, it was fun to have while you weren't here, but it's a different kind of fun.

00:00:55Scott Trickett: Yeah? Yeah. It is. It's good to mix it up. So, you know what I went through when I forced your break, and then I forced another break.

00:01:04Melissa Erbacher: Of a different kind.

00:01:05Scott Trickett: Despite rumours that you started circulating.

00:01:07Melissa Erbacher: Oh.

00:01:09Scott Trickett: I did listen.

00:01:10Melissa Erbacher: Well, the thing is, when the cat is away, the mouse will play.

00:01:16Scott Trickett: Yep.

00:01:17Melissa Erbacher: You gave me carte blanche. You can't expect me not to take it.

00:01:22Scott Trickett: And that's perfectly fine. That's perfectly fine because this, Mel, is your podcast just as much as it is mine. But I have a feeling this is going to be a big episode. What do you reckon? It's going to go bananas. Absolutely bananas. Because we've got Linda Coombes coming on. Talk about jealousy. My God, we'll get to that in the interview. Hopefully, all our parkrun Tragics have been following along the news that why we're having Linda on. Won't spoil it for that interview. But I thought we'd lead episode 170 with a bit of news.

00:01:58Melissa Erbacher: You're going to tell everyone where you've been.

00:02:01Scott Trickett: Before we get to that, because even though I've had a break from the podcast for a couple of weeks, I can't have a break from parkrun, Mel, and we'll get to that. But what I can have a break from is the parkrun adventurers podcast.

Scott Trickett's final episode as co-hostfarewell

00:02:15Scott Trickett: This is going to be my last episode as co-host of this wonderful creation that I've created with you, Mel.

00:02:25Melissa Erbacher: And this is Scotty telling the world.

00:02:29Scott Trickett: Yes, this is my way of – I thought we'd just, like a Band-Aid, we'll just rip it off, deal with the news that 170 is going to be the last that I'm going to be hosting with my good mate, Mel, and then we'll carry on with the rest of the show. I thought we'd – You know, maybe go through some of my highlights over the years. So, we've done – this is 170 episodes. I've missed three. I've worked it out. There was the infamous episode that Tim replaced me. There was the last two weeks. Am I – No, no.

00:03:02Melissa Erbacher: You've missed four. Oh.

00:03:05Scott Trickett: My calculation is already off. Which was the other one?

00:03:08Melissa Erbacher: Oh, well, no. Technically, one of the ones that I co-hosted with Lyndell, you did join me for the outro. So, yeah, count that one or not okay three and a half you've missed three and a half episodes okay I've missed three and a half but I'll miss a few more uh going forward because yeah so so full disclosure Scotty decided not to tell me this on air yes yeah so I could compose myself and not be sad

00:03:42Scott Trickett: Yeah, because Mel's sad, and I'm really sad, but should I maybe explain the reasons why this is going to be my last podcast, and it is absolutely nothing to do with Mel.

00:03:56Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, you explain, because it'll give me a few minutes to wipe the snot off my face.

00:04:01Scott Trickett: Okay, so... Let's take it right back. Let's go back to four years ago when I love parkrun. We all know that I love parkrun. And I love parkrun so much that I want to talk about parkrun all the time. And there was this podcast and there was one in the UK that I was listening to and it was awesome. I could go to parkrun on the weekend, get my fix there, but then I can also do it during the day by listening. And then Robbo and Russ created the Australian one, and that was even better because they were talking my language and accents that I could understand and events that I knew. And then they stopped, and then there was this void of nothing, and I wanted to replace it. So I set about coming up with an idea of a new parkrun podcast just for parkrunners in Australia that soon expanded to around the world. And I'd met this cool chick. She was really funny. We got on really well through the parkrun scenes. And I asked her, and that cool chick is Mel. And we created this podcast together. And it was an amazing year. I'm going to talk about a couple of my highlights of the past four years. And I think some of them are those early days, Mel, like the first episode we ever recorded. I'm really reluctant to go back and listen to it because, yeah, I think it would just be painful to listen to. But my memories of doing that, the nerves, just creating something with you is a really fond memory. And are you still with me?

00:05:35[other]

00:05:35Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I've just muted my microphone so you don't have to hear the crying in the background. Please continue.

00:05:46Scott Trickett: But as we went by, I was lucky enough to be in a position to get the job with parkrun. And then soon, parkrun, which was on the weekend and intermittent moments throughout the week chatting with you, Mel, parkrun became my life 24-7. I often joke with my colleagues and all the volunteers who come, who know me within parkrun now, that parkrun is 24-7 for me. And maybe I'm just starting to realise that maybe, just maybe, you can love something too much and that I need a bit more balance in my life. And that's what I'm going to try to achieve by taking a step back from the podcast and and handing it over to the real star of the show, which is Mel. And I've got evidence to back this up. You know, there's a reason why we did a poll specifically asking the question. There's a reason you are the people's favourites because Mel is the star of this podcast.

00:06:41Melissa Erbacher: Disagree.

00:06:42Scott Trickett: So Mel will hopefully continue it on, past episode 170 but this is it and can I can I talk about a couple of the highlights Mel should we should we go there before we get on to what we did this week yeah let's let's talk about some happy things happy things um I'm assuming your highlights aren't sad things no they're not they're not good good because I need cheering up so that's your task for the rest of the episode Scotty Okay, think back to the palms we've had, Mel. We've had two of them. The first one at Shellharbour, I'll look back with, you know, immense fondness, the people that we met there that day, the fact that the recording worked is always as a bonus. But then just going to, like, the first one was an idea. The second one when there was a bit more planning behind it and we got to really enjoy that. So the palm, the listener meetups that we've had, They've been great. The other ideas we've had, I know madness sits in a funny place with our listeners, but I love madness. I love the idea of queers. I love the idea that we just have fun with our parkrun audience. I've always enjoyed madness. If we could, I'd have madness every second week on the podcast. Streaky September, another idea which is coming up, which I've already started talking about that I'm going to set as a goal this year. And it's the interviews. So you look back through all the episodes. We've always tried to carry an interviewer or a guest in almost all of our episodes. But it's the people that, like the parkrun people, the chats that we've had with the people that really do get parkrun. So from time to time, and I'm sure our listeners are all aware of this, we get some big names on. And because big names get the downloads, it's the click bait. They see the big names. Oh yeah, I'll download that episode. But sometimes I don't do parkrun. Sometimes those interviews are a bit, eh, it was a good chat, but they just don't do parkrun. So it's more the chats with parkrun people that I've enjoyed. And peel back the curtain. One of my sayings is that, you know, we've already done the interview with Linda and it was awesome. It was great because she's a parkrun person. So that's the kind of thing that has been a highlight over the years. For me, the Channel 5 news crew. You know, those people are awesome too. Now I'm getting emotional. So this is it. So these are the highlights. And it's always been for parkrun. It's about the people. It's about the friendships. You know, these people that just help us along the way. And they become our friends. And then my best friend is you, Mel, the person that I've done this for years with. And so I thought about it.

00:09:33Melissa Erbacher: It's supposed to be a happy thing, Scotty.

00:09:37Scott Trickett: It's happy emotion. It's happy emotion. So I thought about why am I continuing to do this? I should have stepped away a long time ago. There's a lot of pressure on me in my role to step away, and there's been times over the past couple of years where I've acted dumb throughout. I'm sorry I'm peeling back the curtain a bit more for our listeners. I've known a lot more than I've let on. about what's going on behind the scenes. I'm in a position now with my role with parkrun that affords me things. So I'm under pressure on that. And I keep saying, so why am I doing the podcast? And it's to talk to Mel about parkrun every Monday morning. And I realised I can still do that. You guys can't hear it. You guys aren't going to hear it, but I'm still going to call Mel. And I'm going to say, Mel, how was your parkrun week?

00:10:27Melissa Erbacher: And I might answer.

00:10:29Scott Trickett: And you might answer, I hope you do. And I probably realised it like a couple of months ago when I forced you to have the break. And you know what I missed? And what did I do, Mel?

00:10:44Melissa Erbacher: You called me.

00:10:46Scott Trickett: I called you and we had a talk about how was your parkrun day. And none of our listeners heard it. It was still awesome. So really selfishly, that's the reason that I'm making this decision to step away. But step away forever. Like, you can't get rid of me.

00:11:02Melissa Erbacher: Well, I would hope not entirely.

00:11:05Scott Trickett: Yeah. Yeah. So, we'll see how it goes. You know, I might be back every week just annoying you.

00:11:10Melissa Erbacher: You might turn into a roving reporter.

00:11:15Scott Trickett: They're pretty cool. They've got these badges. They're awesome. If you make your way into the Channel 5 news crew, you get these badges, which is your idea, Mel.

00:11:23Melissa Erbacher: But the thing is, you know, you've got to earn your place amongst the roving reporters, Scotty. So if you're hoping to join the League of Extraordinary, then that's, you know, we're going to make it hard for you.

00:11:36Scott Trickett: Yeah, okay. Okay.

00:11:39Melissa Erbacher: Just prepare yourself if you're willing to take on that challenge. It's not going to be easy.

00:11:43Unidentified speaker: Yep.

00:11:45Scott Trickett: I'm up for challenges. So, hey, Mel.

00:11:49Melissa Erbacher: Hey, Scotty.

00:11:50Scott Trickett: How was your parkrun on the weekend?

00:11:52Melissa Erbacher: Oh, well, you know, let's – this is good. Let's talk about something else and then I will get distracted. I had an adventure this week, Scotty. I visited – No way. Yeah, I know, right? Just when the adventures are starting to happen again. I visited my NENDY, which was a bit exciting. I have previously been there to volunteer before. We got Wes up not too early because obviously it's my NENDY. It's only about 20 minutes away. Got Wes up on a Saturday morning and said, hey, Wes, do you want to go to parkrun? Of course, he gave us the normal yes, very excited. And we told him where we were going. And he's like, Wesley, go a gingerbread parkrun. And we actually went to Mudjimba Beach. But for him, Mudjimba Beach sounds like gingerbread park. So, Gingerbread parkrun is what I'm going to call it from now on. We're going to Ginger, Mudjimba, Ginger. So, super cute. Very, very cute. And it was event number 49, so it contributed to my Wilson Index. Let's just tick off all the little things here.

00:13:04Scott Trickett: Yep.

00:13:05Melissa Erbacher: There was cake, which I didn't know about ahead of time. An excellent member of the parkrun community. Danella Taylor and her husband, Jerry Taylor, who have been parkrunning with their children for a long time. Their son, Jack, who is going to appear in this pod a little bit later on, which I haven't told you about, but it's going to happen. He was doing his 50th parkrun at Mudjimba Beach on Saturday morning. So they brought along cake, which was awesome. Cake should always be had for breakfast on parkrun day, in my opinion. And And, yeah, it was great. It was my second venture out onto a course since Emmett was born. Emmett's third parkrun because he parkran with somebody else at Kawana last week. It's a nice, flat, gentle course, so I don't have to worry about hurting myself too much, though. Bits and pieces were still suffering later on in the weekend after the efforts. Yeah.

00:14:11Scott Trickett: How are we going there? Are we still defying doctor's orders? Well, obviously we are. Or as the doctor said, all good.

00:14:18Melissa Erbacher: I've got more doctor follow-up stuff to go along. The doctor hasn't said all good yet, but, you know, adventures must be had. So... They're going to be had. They'll just be had very slowly and, yeah, we'll see how that goes.

00:14:32Scott Trickett: The commitment is real. The commitment is real.

00:14:34Melissa Erbacher: It really is real. I did take some time off my last time from a couple of weeks ago, though, so I'm going to see if I can do that. I'm going to see if I can just increase my time every week or decrease my time, I should say. But it was a spectacular morning, you know, beautiful sunrise. It was crisp but not too cold. The course runs out sort of parallel to the beach, not unlike Kawana, but you don't actually see the beach from the course. But it runs in front of, there's a section of it that runs in front of all these apartments, you know, these holiday apartments and things like that, which would be amazing to stay at because, like, they're ripe. On the beach, the path is between the apartments and the beach. And I noticed that there was nobody out on the verandas of all these apartments. And I thought, oh, that is just such a shame if I was here. If I lived in these sorts of places or I was staying in these sorts of places, then I would absolutely be up watching the sunrise from the apartments out on the verandas. But then I thought, you know what, maybe they're all at parkrun. So I can't make assumptions like this. But you know what happened, Scotty? Could you believe it? I forgot my barcode.

00:15:51Scott Trickett: No.

00:15:52Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. Like, really? I got to the finish and I got my token number 125 and I went over to the scanning table and then – I realised, oh, I don't have my wristband on. I took my wristband off in the later weeks of my pregnancy because everything was swollen and I was worried that somebody would cut it off me in the hospital. And also, I get claustrophobic about these things. I don't know. It's a thing, I think, getting claustrophobic about, like if my shoes are too tight. Or I don't think I'd be able to get them off quickly. And it was the same with this wristband. It was just like, oh, what if I can't ever get it off? So that makes me claustrophobic or if there's another word, I don't know. But I wasn't wearing my wristband. And then I looked at my shoes and I'm wearing my new shoes and the tag is on my old shoes. And then I thought, oh, I left my wallet in the car. which was parked some 400 metres away. I thought, I should have one in my wallet. I don't think I took it out. Wesley has this habit of taking out my cards and spreading them all over the house and then I have to play hide and seek. Or have I found them all is what I actually have to play with my cards. And it was in my car. So, I sent Adam back to the car. I said, can you just go check in the car? I looked at my key ring and I've got two bent logic things on my key ring that are not actually my barcode. People won't know, but… When you purchase or not purchase, you know, when we place orders for replacement finish tokens, they actually come in a stack. And on top of the stack is a token, but it has your surname on it so that you know like who it's for or it's got the event on it. So I've got one that says Erbacher and I've got one that says Kawana and they're both on my key ring. Neither one of them is scannable for my barcode. So it's a bit useless really. And so Adam went back to the car. And he came back after an excruciatingly long time. Everybody else had already left. The Barcode Scanner was just standing there waiting for me. And I said, I'm really sorry. I'm sure he won't be much longer. And he got back and he said, he didn't have my wallet. And I said, you're supposed to bring my wallet back. He goes, oh, well, I looked through it and it wasn't in there. So, I just left it in the car. I was like, oh. He said, yeah, you don't have one in your car. And I was like, oh, my God. Okay. I said, oh, well. And so I gave the token back and I said, oh, that's all right. I'll just have to come back. And Adam, thinking he's absolutely hilarious, goes, but fortunately I had one in my car. So, we bought separate cars this week because he had to go straight to work from parkrun and I didn't even realise he had a spare one in my car. But I've literally like printed off a sheet and have cut out and laminated new barcodes and put them every single possible place that you can imagine because… But you know what's funny? I was really surprised at actually how okay I was with it, that I'd forgotten my barcode. I was like, oh, okay. Well, I forgot it, so I don't get a time this week. That's all right. I'll just come back. And I think he was disappointed, actually, because he was doing that whole fake you out thing where he tells you that you don't have it to see, you know, you melt down and have a real problem. And I was like, oh, okay. So, I think he was disappointed that he didn't get a stronger reaction before he decided to reveal that actually he saved the day. Yeah.

00:19:36Scott Trickett: The showman delivers. He always does. Yes.

00:19:38Melissa Erbacher: And he's like, at the end, he said, I'll take that back and I'm putting it back in my car.

00:19:42Linda Coombes: I said, yeah, that's probably a good idea.

00:19:44Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:19:47Melissa Erbacher: So, that was long-winded, but it's been a few weeks since we knew where you were, Scotty. So, tell us, how was your parkrun day?

00:19:56Scott Trickett: Um, so a couple of weeks I spent at home, which we know is awesome, but not many adventures were had. This weekend I was in adventure. I was in Sydney. I was back in Sydney. And like, I'm, I'm great that my legacy from this podcast is that I've established, I've clearly established that Victoria is the greatest state, but I could easily be swinged to move to Sydney because it is just gorgeous up there. I had a, um, an amazing weekend in in Sydney, beautiful weather. I was being a bit groovy, went out to a concert on Saturday night. So I was really in holiday, happy parkrun mode as well.

00:20:31Melissa Erbacher: Live music.

00:20:33Scott Trickett: I know, I know. But before that, I went to parkrun at Curl Curl, which I've never done before.

00:20:40Melissa Erbacher: Ah, dirty cheaters. Did you cheater ear up?

00:20:43Scott Trickett: I didn't. I left that to my colleague, Mr. Tim Oberg, who did. Excellent.

00:20:48Melissa Erbacher: At least somebody's representing.

00:20:51Scott Trickett: Yes. But, yes, I've heard a lot about Curl Curl parkrun, and it's been around for a long time. It's in a beautiful area in the northern beaches of Sydney. It's a 7 a.m. start, and they get a good crowd. So we were there welcoming our newest partners, Blackmores, into the parkrun family. So this is sort of where it crosses over, Mel. So I was there working. I was working all weekend, making sure that everyone had an awesome time at Curl Curl parkrun. It was great because we got to have dinner with the event team beforehand, got to have a chat to lots of podcast listeners on the morning. Some woman came up to me. So I hadn't listened to the episode by the time parkrun Morning comes up. So this woman just comes up to me and she goes, found you.

00:21:45Melissa Erbacher: Like, where's Wally? Yeah.

00:21:47Scott Trickett: Basically, and then a little bit of small talk ensues and then she walks off. So at the moment, at the time, I didn't have any idea what she was talking about. It's like, yep, you found me. Bye.

00:21:58Melissa Erbacher: I'm Scott. Who are you?

00:22:01Scott Trickett: So hello to whoever that was. I hope you're listening. Oh, that's brilliant. Yeah. And a couple of other adventurers come and say hello, which is always nice. Caught up with Aaron. Aaron's a real parkrun adventurer. He's right up there on the list. So, I mean, our competition probably ends, Mel, but I got a new one up today, and I know you'll be across the actual numbers.

00:22:22Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. Well, we're still equal, 77 each in Australia, and then you've got two more international than I do.

00:22:29Scott Trickett: So we're even on Australian events? Yeah. What a perfect place to finish.

00:22:34Melissa Erbacher: On 77? Yeah.

00:22:35Scott Trickett: No one's a winner.

00:22:38Melissa Erbacher: No, see, this is the thing, Scotty. I'm racing you to 100 whether or not you're a podcast co-host or not. You don't get out of it that easily. If this is what you thought was going to happen, oh, well, too bad. You made your bed, buddy.

00:22:53Scott Trickett: Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, Curl Curl. Another C. So now I'm focused on the Pirate Club. Excellent. I think I'm getting really close. I'm going back to Sydney in a couple of weeks and I'm eyeing off Cook's River.

00:23:07Melissa Erbacher: Nice, nice. You've done a freedom run of that at another point.

00:23:11Scott Trickett: I have. You got lost. Yeah, I have and I enjoyed it. No, I didn't get lost. I was just, I had frustration that we kept running past all these bridges that we didn't cross.

00:23:19Melissa Erbacher: Oh, okay.

00:23:21Scott Trickett: Unless they've changed the course or unless they want to change it in the next couple of weeks. So when I get there for the Sydney Running Festival, we run across those bridges, just putting it out there.

00:23:31Melissa Erbacher: Okay.

00:23:32Scott Trickett: I approve it. So yeah, that was my parkrun morning. Great morning at Curl Curl parkrun.

00:23:40Melissa Erbacher: Well, it's nice that you had an adventure this week.

00:23:42[20 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Interview Linda Coombes — Event Director, Warwick parkrun (Queensland)

00:24:02Scott Trickett: Everyone who's listened to the podcast over the last four years know that I have a particular fondness for bridges and running over bridges. So it's a dream of mine to one day to run over or walk over the Scott Trickett Bridge. Someone who can actually do that now is our next guest. Welcome to the parkrun adventurers, Linda Coombes.

00:24:23Linda Coombes: Thanks very much, Scotty.

00:24:25Scott Trickett: Now, I need to explain it a little bit, Linda. You're not going to be walking over the Scott Trickett Bridge. You're going to be walking over the Linda Coombes Bridge.

00:24:32Linda Coombes: Well, it's just called the Coombs Bridge. Oh, yeah.

00:24:36Scott Trickett: Okay. That's still pretty cool.

00:24:38Linda Coombes: It is pretty cool, yes.

00:24:41Scott Trickett: Tell us how it came about.

00:24:44Linda Coombes: The council have just recently put a new footbridge over the Condamine River where we do our parkrun course and apparently they called for people to nominate a name. I didn't see that. I didn't know there was any naming to it. And four names of the bridge were nominated and each of the other three got one person nominate them. And Coombs Bridge got 15 people nominate to have the bridge named Coombs Bridge.

00:25:14Melissa Erbacher: Wow, that's a little bit, I bet it was embarrassing, but also an honour too, Linda. How do you feel about that?

00:25:24Linda Coombes: Well, I've had a bit of time to take it in now. I had a phone call from a reporter from the Daily News wanting to talk to me about it and I had no idea. So I was a little bit flabbergasted. And then the mayor rang later that Thursday. So I'd had a little bit of time to take it all in by then. I guess I was very honoured, obviously, but a little bit overwhelmed and a little bit I guess not embarrassed isn't the word, but I just sort of feel like parkrun's such a team thing. And, you know, it's my name that's on the bridge. So, yeah.

00:26:02Scott Trickett: Hey, Linda, I get that. And that's a mark of the person you are to think like that. But I think it's okay to enjoy your contribution to Warwick in particular. I want to know about the morning. Mona? Was in charge of the whole morning?

00:26:18Linda Coombes: He was, yes.

00:26:20Scott Trickett: Who was the celebrity on the day? Was it yourself or was it Mona?

00:26:23Linda Coombes: I think it was him, yeah. Really? Yeah.

00:26:28Scott Trickett: If you walk down the street of Warwick, who do they point to, Linda or Steve?

00:26:32Linda Coombes: I think they'd point to Steve.

00:26:38Scott Trickett: But was it good having him there and helping him open the bridge?

00:26:41Linda Coombes: It was really great and he was really great at opening the bridge and then he was doing a lunch, talking at the Mayor's Leadership Lunch and so I was given an invitation to that as well and he was just amazing to listen to, a very inspiring man.

00:27:02Melissa Erbacher: And what was it like on parkrun day to go – because the parkrun course does actually go over the bridge, doesn't it, the Warwick parkrun course?

00:27:12Linda Coombes: The Warwick parkrun, of course, does go over the bridge twice. So I'd run over it before it was named and then I'd run over it once after I knew it was being named Coombs Bridge, but it didn't have a sign on it. And then they put the plaque there or unveiled the plaque last Thursday. So it was pretty cool to run over the bridge. And then our photographer took photos of everybody running over the bridge. So that was a lot of fun.

00:27:38Melissa Erbacher: Did you take a little, you know, polish cloth and things like that just to – is that what you're going to carry with you every week now just to make sure that it's a nice, shiny, clean plaque?

00:27:49Linda Coombes: I might have to because it's so dry and dusty here that it'll be very dusty, you know, within minutes. So I might have to carry a little polish cloth in my backpack. Okay.

00:28:01Scott Trickett: And Linda, here's your chance to boast about the parkrun that you've created in the community there. Can you describe Warwick parkrun to us and what you've built there?

00:28:11Linda Coombes: So Warwick parkrun is a two-loop course, two-lap course around the Condamine River. So the Condamine River is the start of the Murray-Darling River system. Not a lot of water in it at the moment. We need a lot of rain. So it's very picturesque, I think. It's very pretty. It'll be prettier. It is prettier when there's more water. and it's very flat except for when you've got to go up to go over the main bridge into town. You don't have to go. There's no hill before my bridge. It's nice and flat.

00:28:44Melissa Erbacher: My bridge. Love it. I heard that too.

00:28:48Linda Coombes: Love it. All my friends have been going, oh, I saw such and such at your bridge, so I just decided I'd call it my bridge as well.

00:28:58Melissa Erbacher: Oh, hey, I would be owning it. Absolutely. Absolutely owning it. Linda, can you give us a bit of a background? So Warwick parkrun's been going for quite a while. You're just about to celebrate your anniversary in a couple of weeks with a very cool theme. Can you give us a bit of a background about how it all came to be?

00:29:17Linda Coombes: Well, we're coming up for our sixth anniversary and in about the April or May, a friend of mine, Kath Jones, said, we need a parkrun. And I said, well, what's a parkrun? What's a parkrun? And so I Googled it and I went, that looks pretty cool. That'd be great to have here. So I emailed, you know, followed the little link and emailed and got all the paperwork sent to me, by Tim Oberg. And when it arrived, I went, oh, that looks a bit hard. I don't think I can do that. And so I put it aside for a couple of weeks. And then I went, I might just give it a go. I reckon maybe I could give it a go. And one of my friend of my husband's he was on the council so I spoke to Glen Rees about how I would go about negotiating with the council and so I sent all the paperwork off on the June long weekend and then we just had to wait for the 7th of September to launch so that was really exciting. So I went off to a couple of parkruns after we had decided we were going to have a parkrun and I'd done all the paperwork, but I had the flu so I didn't get to run at either of them. So I went to Gatton and had a look at Gatton and then I went to New Farm Park and had a look at their parkruns and went, oh, yeah, I think I can do that. So then we just had to wait for our parkrun to launch.

00:30:45Scott Trickett: And you've been to a few more parkruns since. You're a real parkrun adventurer. You're a proud owner of our Ugly Christmas Singlet. I am. Well, scanning through your results, you've done the pilgrimage as well. You visited the UK and ran at Bushy Park.

00:31:00Linda Coombes: I did run a bushy park. That was really cool. When we planned to go to the UK, I said to my husband, who is not a parkrunner, I'd like to go and run a parkrun in the UK when we were there. And he said, I don't think you're going to fit it in. But seeing that I was the tour director, funnily enough, I did fit in three parkruns out of the four Saturdays that we were in the UK for and got to do bushy on the day that we were leaving. We weren't staying that far away from bushy it was only about half an hour's drive from where we were staying so it was just like well if you're going to be in London on a Saturday you've really got to go to bushy So there was a deer who was the funnel marshal, making sure that nobody ducked out of the funnel because he was right near the funnel. And my husband had taken a few photos of him while we were off running. And he also took a video of the start. And I think he felt a little bit like Simba with all the wildebeests sort of running towards him because there were just people running everywhere until they sort of thinned out. So it was really cool.

00:32:05Scott Trickett: How would you describe the bushy pilgrimage? I mean, I'm sure you don't have any regrets doing it, but would you encourage people to make it a part of their European trip? Would you go out of your way to do it, to experience the home of parkrun?

00:32:20Linda Coombes: I think that you have to do it because it is the home of parkrun and I think it was special because it was the home of parkrun. Probably my favourite parkrun in the UK was Conwy parkrun in Wales because you were running towards this beautiful castle, which we just don't get in Australia. But I think, you know, the home of parkrun, you've got to go visit there if you can.

00:32:48Melissa Erbacher: Being in charge of the itinerary, I guess, and you say you managed to get three parkruns in over the four weeks while you were away. Did you choose locations for the other two based on roughly where you wanted to go or did you look for parkruns you wanted to do and then build your itinerary around that?

00:33:09Linda Coombes: No, we planned our itinerary around going to the Edinburgh Tattoo. And so it just so happened, funnily enough, that each of the Saturdays we only had a fairly short drive after parkrun. So when we were planning on where we were going to be staying or when I was planning on where we were going to be staying the night, I did look around to see what parkrun was nearby. But it... If I hadn't been able to fit it in, I guess I wouldn't have, but I was really pleased that I was able to.

00:33:45Scott Trickett: Have you got a couple of other highlights for us, Linda, of other events you've visited, maybe a top three amongst that?

00:33:51Linda Coombes: A top three. Well, I did like the beaches when we went for the parkrun adventurers get-together this year. That was pretty good. That was fun, wasn't it? It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed that. It was very tough running on the sand. It was a fairly slow time. What other ones would I say that I've really enjoyed? Australian top three or overseas top three?

00:34:21Scott Trickett: You can include the overseas events.

00:34:23Linda Coombes: Yeah, so, well, obviously I think Warwick parkrun is number one and then I would probably go Conwy parkrun in Wales and then I would go the beaches in Newcastle.

00:34:38Melissa Erbacher: Sound like a good top three to me. Warwick is one I haven't managed to get to yet. Can you give me like a really good time of year to visit Warwick parkrun, Linda?

00:34:49Linda Coombes: Well, if... If you want cold fingers and toes and nose, July, August is a good time. It's been fairly mild this year. We haven't had many below zero, but we rival Stanthorpe in the coolest parkrun in Warwick. We have the occasional Saturdays where we're a bit cooler than them, but usually they're one or two degrees colder. So frost on the ground and misty runs would be winter and Probably spring is a nice time for Warwick in general because there's lots of lovely flowering plants. So, yeah, I'd say spring or winter if you want a cold run.

00:35:37Melissa Erbacher: Well, I'm not a huge fan of the cold runs, but spring sounds like a good time to me. I think I just really need to avoid the desperate heat sometimes.

00:35:48Linda Coombes: Yeah. Look, if you come in the last weekend in October, that's always rodeo weekend. So the town looks pretty good for rodeo weekend. So that's a good weekend to come to Warwick. And if you come in winter, jumpers and jazz is a good time. All the trees have got jumpers on in the main street, including a parkrun tree.

00:36:11Melissa Erbacher: I love your parkrun tree every year. So can you give us a little bit more context about the jumpers and jazz?

00:36:18Linda Coombes: So the Jumpers and Jazz Festival is 10 days towards the end of July every year, and I guess they're just embracing the cool weather. And so the people can decorate a tree in the main street. There's a lot of trees in the main street, so they need to have a jumper on when it's so cold and they've got no leaves. So they have different themes. This year was Connect, which really parkrun really wanted fitted the bill for that I think quite easily um and then there's just jazz playing in the main street even during the week but on the weekends it's pretty big there's some lots of um there's a car show with lots of old cars on one of the weekends and markets and things like that it's a good weekend a good week good 10 days

00:37:12Scott Trickett: Hey, so many reasons to visit Warwick parkrun, Linda. I think the number one reason now is to run over the Coombs Bridge.

00:37:19Linda Coombes: Yes, it'll be a cool bridge.

00:37:22Scott Trickett: Yep. Congratulations and thanks for coming on the parkrun adventurers this week to tell us all about it.

00:37:27Linda Coombes: Thank you very much for having me.

00:37:30[music]

00:37:30[the recording continues here — the words are not reproduced]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report David Moss — Fælledparken

00:37:41David Moss: Hello, we've just run the Copenhagen, or one of the Copenhagen... Yeah, Fælledparken. And I'm with... Jonathan Sydenham. And Jonathan, you started the parkruns here, I believe.

00:37:51Jonathan Sydenham: I did. I used to run parkruns quite a lot in England, and I got to know quite a lot of the people involved. Paul was one of them, and Roger, and quite a lot of the other crew who started them. And over here, I missed them, you know. When I was over here, I couldn't run a parkrun, and so I decided that I would try and... I would try and start one here and we and Paul agreed and Roger agreed and at first we were just going to have one in Copenhagen for my sake and for my running club but then actually Paul got the brilliant idea of saying okay if we're going to do it one we might as well do more and he went to great lengths to make sure that I could start as many as you know as many as I could actually in the first period And it was fairly easy to find people to start them. And it's just gone on from there. Now we've got some here in Copenhagen, we've got some in Jutland, and there are other people interested in starting more. So it could well be that in the near future you're going to see quite a few new parkruns in Denmark. How many does Denmark have at the moment? Well, I think we've got eight, and we've had nine. There was one, probably the toughest parkrun course in Scandinavia, actually, in Hillerød, north of Copenhagen, but unfortunately I couldn't, I'd intended to man it myself and be Event Director there for as long as I could, but we moved to another city and so that died actually, but it's actually a fantastic course and if anybody wanted to start one there, they'd be most welcome. And when did this first one start? Well, the first Copenhagen one celebrated its first anniversary, 10th anniversary this year. And this one you've just run is today was its 409th running. And we pride ourselves in Denmark that we have never cancelled. We do not cancel. We do not cancel in weather. We do not cancel when it's slippery. We do not cancel when it's windy. It's partly because there are differences between the insurance systems in Britain, for example, and Denmark. But we're really proud of the fact that we've never cancelled. So that's 409 on the trot, with a couple of extras thrown in because of course we do doubles at Christmas and and and this year in fact you can run two parkruns on New Year's Day if you if you feel so inclined yeah so uh And that's a bit of, yeah, flagellation, I think. But there we go.

00:40:21David Moss: Yeah. So that's... Look, I thank you very much. Well, it was great to see you.

00:40:25Jonathan Sydenham: I'm sorry the Run Director today didn't say welcome to all the Australians, you know.

00:40:31David Moss: I have a feeling there was a minimal number of Australians here. There were no...

00:40:35Jonathan Sydenham: Quite a few from Great Britain. I mean, I always think the tourists are really the guests of honour here, because they mean an awful lot to the Danish parkruns.

00:40:42David Moss: I actually thought it was really good to see a lot of locals. Okay.

00:40:45Jonathan Sydenham: You're not used to seeing lots of locals in Australia?

00:40:48David Moss: No, Australia, yes, but coming up through a few of the other countries, a lot of them have a large number of tourists there.

00:40:55Jonathan Sydenham: Okay, well, that's, you know, that's... I mean, I think perhaps this one has the most... the most tourist on a regular basis but when people come over for the ironman and the copenhagen marathon and the the copenhagen half marathon a lot of them also find the ways out the way out to amar fellow which is a beautiful country kind of course but I I the most unusual course we have here is actually on the beach at amar strand park which is spectacularly beachy um and and when people from abroad have done two or three of the ones here then and they start comparing then they they do say that's the most unusual because this this could be bushy I mean you know in a way well no this one's a little bit no I don't mean I don't I don't mean in the size but I mean the flatness yes the fact that you run around in a circle quite a fast course yeah it is actually um well there are lots of courses like this but I mean it's it's great for someone like me who's a plodder and who would rather not do too many hills at the moment. You know, if we'd had hills, if it had been Amager Fælled, that would probably have been two minutes slower. But at my stage, I don't count time, really. I just like doing it.

00:42:10David Moss: Here for the social side.

00:42:12Jonathan Sydenham: Yeah. And I like to see people enjoy themselves, and I like to see all those tourists. I think it's brilliant that we can also offer that to people, you know, also from Australia.

00:42:22Scott Trickett: And we thank you. You're welcome. Thanks, Mossy. Our Mossy, he's doing a great job while he's overseas, visiting so many different countries. Bit of envy.

00:42:35Melissa Erbacher: Oh, big time. Big time, FOMO. I want to get to Denmark and do some parkruns, that's for sure. Not that I can pronounce any of their names, but that doesn't matter. You don't need to be able to pronounce the names to go to them.

00:42:49Scott Trickett: Yeah. Where was he this week? Just for...

00:42:53Melissa Erbacher: I think you should pronounce it, Scotty.

00:42:55Scott Trickett: He was visiting Copenhagen and he visited the parkrun in Copenhagen. So, thanks. We'll see. One of the constants of the podcast is, of course, you and me, Mel, but it's also Buster the dog. It is Buster. I've talked about Buster the whole time. So here's his opportunity to make his first appearance on the podcast.

00:43:11[other]

00:43:23Melissa Erbacher: Did you hear it? Yes, yes. That was not Scotty. That was definitely Buster.

00:43:31Scott Trickett: That's his contribution. And so I put him to sleep most weeks. And so I think that's a sign that it's time to go. He's so sick of me talking that.

00:43:42Melissa Erbacher: That's what Scotty means by putting him to sleep, by the way, everybody. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not the other kind. They're also extremely sad kind. Yes. Yeah. It is the nice, he lulls him to sleep.

00:43:56Scott Trickett: Yes.

00:43:56Melissa Erbacher: The sound of his voice.

00:43:58Scott Trickett: My world would completely fall apart if Buster was put to sleep permanently, but no, he's just asleep now. So hopefully he don't mind his snoring.

Nonsenseunscripted outro

00:44:07Scott Trickett: Over the last time we do the outro together that we call nonsense on our run sheet because we have no plan. It's just you and me talking. Nonsense. Talking nonsense. Yep. And this week on the nonsense, we've got a couple of points. So we do have some sort of plan.

00:44:25Melissa Erbacher: We do.

00:44:27Scott Trickett: One of them says milkshake the cat.

00:44:28Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, and before we actually talk about this, we need to go to some audio that I grabbed at Kawana a fortnight ago and completely forgot to put in the podcast last week. Well, didn't forget, but there was a little bit of a discrepancy in talking about it in the intro and then actually using the audio and then discussing it again later. Needless to say, people, this is Milkshake. Hello. I'm here at Kawana parkrun's finish line with Jack Taylor who has finished parkrun and he's got a special little friend who's come along. Jack, can you tell us who you brought to parkrun today? Milkshake, our cat. And is this Milkshake's first parkrun? Third. Third. So where has Milkshake parkrun before? She's been to Brightwater, um here and Mudjimba wow she's a regular parkrun adventurer and does she like travelling around doing the different parkruns sort of sort of how can you tell she's pretty quiet yeah probably because she's listening to the birds ah she's enjoying the great outdoors well I've got a very important question for you Jack have you seen Scotty no milkshake have you seen Scotty She just looked at me imperceptibly. I'm going to take that as a no. So that's it from Kawana parkrun. We've got the first known parkrunning cat that I'm aware of, Milkshake, who is probably going to become a celebrity in her own right. She does look very comfortable and very happy about the whole situation. So we might have to get her a barcode.

00:46:11Scott Trickett: Hey, further proof, Mel, that parkrun is inclusive to all.

00:46:17Melissa Erbacher: I know. And look, this is my hot tip, Scotty. Milkshake is going to be the next parkrun celebrity a la Grumpy Cat. But not Grumpy Cat. It's like Happy Cat at parkrun cat. But this brings me to think, you know, obviously dogs, you see dogs at parkrun. Now I've seen a cat. Have you ever seen any animals, you know, not of the ordinary, not what you'd expect to see at parkrun? At parkrun.

00:46:48Scott Trickett: You've put me on the spot.

00:46:50Melissa Erbacher: Well, this kind of thing would stick out in your memory, I'm expecting.

00:46:53Scott Trickett: Yeah. No, I can't say I have. I can't say I have.

00:46:57Melissa Erbacher: So, because apart from milkshake, I think there are some chickens that participate at Sandgate parkrun.

00:47:05Scott Trickett: Okay. Chickens that are brought along by other parkrunners or just rock up from the wild?

00:47:09Melissa Erbacher: No, no. Like domestic chickens. There's a lovely lady named Milk. who she's quite the parkrun adventurer. I'm not sure if she is a listener of the pod. But, yeah, she's got like one of those little, I would call it a doggy pram, but I think it's maybe it's just a pet pram because she has chickens that she walks around the parkrun course with sometimes.

00:47:33Scott Trickett: Okay. How fast is a chicken? Because I've seen them on Survivor and stuff, and they go really fast but then stop. That would be kind of annoying.

00:47:43Melissa Erbacher: Well, these ones are in the pram, so they don't get out of the pram.

00:47:46Scott Trickett: Oh, okay.

00:47:47Melissa Erbacher: They don't require harnessing or being kept on a short leash because they're pram participants, I guess.

00:47:55Scott Trickett: So where to from here, Mel? That's what we want to know. So everyone's been listening. Scotty's leaving. I've had time to deal with it, which for some was like five seconds. Hooray. Thank God he's gone. Others maybe a bit longer. But now where to from here?

00:48:14Melissa Erbacher: You're asking me like you didn't just tell me a couple of hours ago that you were leaving the pod and like I've had some time to think about it.

00:48:21Scott Trickett: Yeah. Well, give us your gut feel. Okay. Can people tune in next week to episode 171 of the parkrun adventurers podcast?

00:48:30Melissa Erbacher: Well, yes.

00:48:32Scott Trickett: Yay.

00:48:35Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. Whether or not they're going to want to because who knows who's going to be co-hosting with me next week. Yeah. Look, I'll do my best to find somebody fabulous. Maybe it's time to ask the Channel 5 News crew. We've had a couple of them co-hosting so far already. Lyndell and Gary have both done stellar jobs. Maybe we'll ask the rest of the gang if they'd like a turn and we can enter a bit of a caretaker period until we can find a new co-host for the adventurers.

00:49:05Scott Trickett: I love it. I love it. I love those people. And you heard it when I talked about them in the intro. That's when I got emotional. Yeah. You have these ideas, and I'll explain it to you now, Mel. You have these ideas. We've had these ideas. And just when another human being gets it and then comes along and helps support it, which is exactly what the Channel 5 News crew does, it's a really great feeling, isn't it?

00:49:30Melissa Erbacher: It is. And when they bring their own ideas,

00:49:33Scott Trickett: stamp their own mark to it as well the creativity you know they just they just run with it and um yeah they're very valuable contributors we love them all so I would love to putting my cap on as the marketing communications guy this podcast serves a great service to our audience I would love to see it continue and I'd love to see it become the voice of the community within parkrun and no better than starting with our channel 5 news crew I love that idea

00:50:04Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, but how do you replace Scotty Trickett?

00:50:07Scott Trickett: Very easily. Very easily. You know, I've got no more stories to tell. I'm sick of hearing my own voice. For years, so I got into this, my professional career started always behind the scenes. You know, I always wanted to push the buttons. I always wanted to tell people what to do. I always wanted to craft things but have other people say it and be the stars of the show.

00:50:34Melissa Erbacher: And somehow… You became a star instead.

00:50:37Scott Trickett: I wouldn't. No, I wouldn't go that far. But I became the voice of this podcast. But it never sat comfortably with me. So I think I'm going to be really happy in my retirement. I'm going to be really jealous as well, which is what I've probably got to deal with moving forward. Like when you start talking about these great adventures and you have all this funny banter with your new co-hosts and it's not me.

00:51:05Melissa Erbacher: Well, this is the thing. We're going to have to find somebody who's not quite as funny as me. It's not going to be easy, Scotty. There are lots of people out there that are funnier and that will never do.

00:51:16Scott Trickett: Yeah, yeah. And I fitted that bill perfectly.

00:51:23Melissa Erbacher: Well, everybody has their strengths. Everybody brings something to the pod. What are you going to do with all this spare time balancing in your life?

00:51:36Scott Trickett: That's a great question that I don't have the answer for just yet.

00:51:43Melissa Erbacher: Is this what you thought the last episode would be like? When we started, Scotty, did you think how many years it would go or would it end or When it ends, how would it end? Did you kind of envision this would be the way?

00:51:59Scott Trickett: No, I didn't. No, because I probably never thought about it, how we would finish off together as a team. So no is the short answer. I guess you never think about the end, do you? You always think about the next week and continue it going. And I know we've joked, you and I have joked, and I've probably threatened a few times that I would leave.

00:52:24Melissa Erbacher: Have I done that on air or have I done that off air? No, you've done it on air. I've had people ask me if you're okay. What's going on? Is Scotty leaving the podcast? But no, you know, you tend to do it at the end of the calendar year. It's like, will we be back? I don't know. You know, just maybe that's you just trying to be the cliffhanger episodes.

00:52:51Scott Trickett: Yeah. Yeah. And I wanted to see the podcast get to 180 people. Seven episodes. And that's still on the cards. That still has to happen.

00:53:04Melissa Erbacher: It has to happen. You can't make it happen if you're not co-hosting, buddy. No.

00:53:09Scott Trickett: I can't anymore. I can't anymore.

00:53:14Melissa Erbacher: Well, I can promise you we'll be here next week.

Sign-off

00:53:18Scott Trickett: Awesome. Great news. So for one final time, Mel, I won't see you next week. I will speak to you next week, and I'll find out all about your parkrun day, and I'll also be listening. to the parkrun adventurers podcast to find out more about your parkrun day. So thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for initially coming, saying yes. You said yes immediately. You've never wavered. You've been the best co-host I could ever imagine. So thank you dearly for that. Thank you to everyone who has ever come up to me and said hi at parkrun. I can imagine that that's really daunting at times because I probably wouldn't do it to someone that I've been listening to on a podcast. But trust me, if you're ever in that position to go up to Mel, do it. Mel's lovely and she'll want to have a conversation with you and she wants to have that conversation with you. So I keep continuing to do that. And thank you to everybody who did come up and say hi and message me throughout the four years. All the friends that I've made just by doing this podcast. So thank you to them. Thank you to Ivona and Kasia for putting up with me, disappearing into the study for a couple of hours to talk to this other woman. for hours on end. You know, the early days, Mel, took us forever. They were shockers.

00:54:46Melissa Erbacher: Monday nights, like from 5 o'clock right off. We went out there having dinners with our families. We were just talking for five or six hours. It was ridiculous.

00:54:57Scott Trickett: Yeah. But also it was fun and it formed our friendship that we carried on throughout this podcast.

00:55:03Melissa Erbacher: Well, Scotty – I think I probably speak for a lot of listeners when I say that I feel a little bit gypped that you didn't give us the opportunity to give you a going away party.

00:55:18Scott Trickett: But Mel, you know me. You know me better than most. I don't want a going away party. I want you all to just continue having an awesome time at parkrun and with the podcast and talking parkrun in your groups, in your secret groups that I don't know about. I've heard about a couple today.

00:55:35Melissa Erbacher: Well, you've got to have secret groups if you're trying to surprise your co-host, don't you?

00:55:40Scott Trickett: Yep. So, yeah, there's no need for any going away because I'm not going anywhere. Just not co-hosting with you.

00:55:49Melissa Erbacher: Okay. Well, we do expect you to come back from time to time.

00:55:52Scott Trickett: I'm coming to Palm 2020. And I'm sitting in the audience watching you guys record it properly. Can't wait.

00:56:06Unidentified speaker: Oh.