Episode 174 - Stanthorpe parkrun

Welcome

00:00:24Grette Wilkinson: Welcome parkrun adventurers to podcast number 174. It's Greta here and I'm joined by my special co-host today, Mel.

00:00:33Melissa Erbacher: Mel, how are you going? I'm great, thanks Greta. How are you doing this week? I'm very, very well. It's a real pleasure to be here on the podcast with you this week.

00:00:45Grette Wilkinson: Thank you so much for having me on.

00:00:47Melissa Erbacher: Thank you for coming. It's always nice to have another one. And, of course, everybody is going to recognise your voice because you are the famous Greta from Mount Barker parkrun who has been on the Roving Reporter Channel 5 news crew for quite some time. Another one of our awesome prolific reporters and very excited to have you here. So thank you for coming. Big time thank you.

00:01:11Grette Wilkinson: Thank you very much for having me. So, Mel, where did you park?

00:01:16Melissa Erbacher: This weekend, just gone, I chuffed off to a little place that people might be familiar with from last week's parkrun Australia newsletter. Completely unbeknownst to me, it was getting profiled in the newsletter last week and I had already planned to be going there. I went to Ocean View parkrun in Queensland. Have you heard of this one? I haven't. I haven't. No, you didn't read the newsletter last week?

00:01:40Grette Wilkinson: Well, I'm a little bit behind.

00:01:41Melissa Erbacher: I won't tell Scotty. No, that's all right. He won't listen. Ocean View parkrun is one of the few parkruns in Australia that's actually run in a vineyard, in a working winery. Sounds like one to add to the list. Yes, definitely. If you want an opportunity to run through, literally through the vines, I know that doesn't happen a lot in South Australia. They don't even like you to walk through a lot of the vines because of... Is it Botrytis? Is that the name of the nasty stuff that gets into the... Yes, I think so. We've got to clean our shoes.

00:02:19Grette Wilkinson: We do. And even though we do have a parkrun that is near vines, it is near vines and not through vines.

00:02:25Melissa Erbacher: Apparently, there's something about these vines up here in this particular spot. That means they're tolerant or resistant to disease and you can run through them. So literally, there's one section of the course where if you look at it on Strava, it looks like fingers of a hand because you're running up and down and up and down through the vines. And it's really, really quite pretty. And of course, it's right at the top of the hill as well. So many vineyards like to do, they plant their vines around the hills and the lay of the land. Not a flat course then? No, no, definitely not a flat course. There was lots of elevation. I haven't actually looked. I should look at my Strava to see what it was. I was told it was something like 120 metres deep. of elevation over the whole course. But then somebody who I spoke to on Saturday said they got 140 plus or something like that.

00:03:22Grette Wilkinson: Take the 140.

00:03:23Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well, that sounds more like it to me really too. It certainly felt like that. I had Emmett in the carrier and – It was very slow going. I think it was possibly my third slowest parkrun event ever. I was the Tail Walker, but the people who I was tailing were well ahead of me as well. But it was a great, beautiful, beautiful course and lovely views. No views of the oceans. I was going to say, of the ocean, no? No, well, unless I was looking in the wrong direction or possibly the estate was named after another section of the actual estate that we didn't get to run on. I'm not sure. It's got the, I always want to say vinery instead of vineyard or winery. I don't know why my brain wants to mash the two up. But they open up for breakfast straight afterwards and you can have a champagne breakfast. So I did partake of some bubbles for the first time after a parkrun ever for me. I made sure Emmett got his milk in before I had my breakfast and then I got to celebrate with some bubbles afterwards.

00:04:28Grette Wilkinson: We're worth celebrating.

00:04:29Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, absolutely. And it was very lovely, very relaxed. Adrienne and Kelly, the co-EDs, massive, massively welcoming. I bumped into Adrienne's daughter, Charlotte, out on the course, actually. She was a Marshal and she escorted me a lot of the way home. We had a great chat and she was very friendly as well. So big shout out to Charlotte. And bumped into Craig and Thomas from Rocks Riverside. Craig's a long-time listener of the pod and it was nice to finally meet him in person. And also bumped into the Murrell family. Craig's an event ambassador there. who has been around for a couple of years now. And it was great to, once again, not planned at all, but it's always lovely to bump into old parkrun friends that you don't expect to see places when you travel. All in all, we had a wonderful morning. Sounds like a great morning. Where were you this weekend, Greta?

00:05:26Grette Wilkinson: Well, we went to Cleland parkrun.

00:05:29Melissa Erbacher: So you had some decent elevation too. Yeah.

00:05:32Grette Wilkinson: Yeah, so I think Cleland, Cleland is one of those courses that sort of, you know, whenever anyone's having a debate about what's the hardest parkrun in Australia, you know, Cleland always sort of gets a bit of a mention. But it's, so it's a trail, it's a trail parkrun, and it starts at the top of the hill, goes down to the bottom of the hill where there's a lookout, and then you've got to turn around and do it all again, but this time in reverse and uphill.

00:06:00Melissa Erbacher: So it's pretty tough, actually. The lookout's at the bottom of the hill?

00:06:04Grette Wilkinson: The lookout is at the bottom of the hill. So you're sort of starting right up above Adelaide in the Adelaide Hills, going down to the bottom of the hill, which is on another hill that then overlooks the city. Ah, okay.

00:06:15Melissa Erbacher: Gotcha.

00:06:16Grette Wilkinson: The views are spectacular and were quite nice on Saturday because it's been quite sort of wet and windy and cloudy here. But Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day, top of about, you know, 25. Gorgeous.

00:06:30Melissa Erbacher: Clear, sunny. The view was clear. It's just beautiful. I am baffled and intrigued that I knew it was like 2.5K up and 2.5K down, but I always assumed you go up the hill to look out because the turnaround, I've seen pictures. Oh, this is the picture of our halfway mark at Cleland. And I always thought, oh, isn't that beautiful? You run up to this lookout and then you get to run downhill all the way home. But you don't. You get to do the easy part first. No, you don't. Wow. I want to do it even more now. Yeah. That sounds really cool.

00:07:05Grette Wilkinson: Well, you should come and do it. Come and do it. Yeah. Come and do it. And so we had, we took, obviously took the kids as we always do. And my daughter, Jess, was particularly unimpressed that we decided to to do Cleland parkrun. Probably, so Mount Barker, people probably from its name think it's got to be hilly, but it's probably the flattest course in South Australia. So the fact that we were not going to Mount Barker, but in fact going to one of the hilliest courses in South Australia was not really sort of Jess's idea of a good parkrun morning. But to her credit, she actually did a brilliant job. She decided she was going to enjoy her morning and actually ended up running a PB.

00:07:48Melissa Erbacher: good on her a course PB or an all-time PB course PB our owner so they actually did a great job they're worth their weight in gold they are they're few and far between and see we were having this chat about hilly courses and things like that on the weekend because there were quite a few hills Adam had Wes in the pram and because it's a cross-country course the owners of the estate do a great job they actually mow the course out through the grass every week and they have all these red arrows permanently stuck up so you You can't get lost, though. I did a good effort at trying. Didn't get lost, but I almost did. But, yeah, so I think Adam was the third person ever to have done it with a pram. And it was challenging. He did a lot of walking and things as well. But – I love hills and I'm keen to get back there another day when I'm not carrying eight kilos in a carrier in front of me I think one day we're just going to leave both the kids with someone responsible and we'll just go when I'm back to running fitness so that I can have a really good hit out because yeah there's just something about hills I love not just the challenge of the uphill but the fun and the freedom of the downhill parts you know you get to run like a kid again yeah And there's not a lot of opportunities in our adult lives where you feel free enough to run like a kid. But I think downhills are always, always those opportunities.

00:09:11Grette Wilkinson: Sounds like a plan.

00:09:11[15 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Meet the ED

Interview Jen Morgan and Glen Brunckhorst — Co-Event Director, Stanthorpe parkrun

00:09:27Melissa Erbacher: Coming to us from the coldest place in Queensland, although I don't anticipate it's particularly cold down there in recent weeks. We have got the co-hosts of an event which holds a very special place in my heart. The event itself is approaching its 250th event. They're on 249 at the moment. So this coming week, they're going to hit the magic green shirt for their parkrun. It is Stanthorpe parkrun and the co-EDs are here to chat with us today. We've got Jen Morgan and Glen Brunckhorst. Welcome to the parkrun adventurers, guys.

00:10:01Glen Brunckhorst: Hi, guys. Thank you. Thanks for having us.

00:10:03Melissa Erbacher: Thanks, Mel. Very, very excited to have you. I did mention that, yes, you are from the coldest place in Queensland, very proudly, and you have events to that effect during the year, but it hasn't been so cold of late. Can you give us a bit of insight into what's been going on in Stanthorpe the last few weeks?

00:10:22Glen Brunckhorst: Yes, well, where do you start? It's been quite an event last weekend, of course, with the recent bushfires in town, which have really turned a lot of things on their head for a lot of people involved, including Jen, of course, who had to evacuate from her home late on Friday night. And, of course, the water situation as well. We're not too long before the town does run out of water from their main reservoir or main holding facility. So, yeah, there's those two negatives, I suppose. But apart from that, it's a beautiful place to come and visit and plenty to do and see. But, yeah, pretty much, yeah, quite an eventful few weeks.

00:10:54Grette Wilkinson: I understand that things escalated quite quickly on the Friday night before parkrun. Can you talk to us a little bit about what you were thinking and what was happening on the Friday night leading up to parkrun Day?

00:11:06Glen Brunckhorst: Yeah, look, there was a small fire that had started just outside of town and it never really sort of occurred to me at that point that there was going to be an issue. Of course, it's extremely dry and the winds we've had over that last weekend were quite horrendous. Therefore, it didn't take too long to escalate into just complete madness and mayhem for a couple of days, two or three days. The Friday night was late and I spoke to Jen and she confirmed that we thought parkrun's a good thing for everyone to come and just socialise and chat about things but there was a threat to where the course was as far as the fog is itself and the air quality as well was not great so it was just a choice we had to make late on Friday night to cancel parkrun unfortunately. Only our third time over 249 events which is not bad I suppose, you'd never like to cancel but yeah for the safety of others it was paramount I guess.

00:11:58Melissa Erbacher: Now Jen Glenn has mentioned that you personally had to evacuate from your home on the Friday night so the fires must have come quite close.

00:12:07Jen Morgan: Very very close Mel. I first noticed the smoke at 10 to 3 and I thought oh there's a fire, I wonder where that is, and looked it up online and realised it was only five kilometres away. And by 4.30, we were out of there and into town. And I think the fires came through our place, I don't really know, around about six, but then the big damage was done at about 2am. And so we're all on five acre blocks out here and of bushland. So we've always known it's a risk. And now there have been a few houses lost, but we're all just surrounded by black. It's quite extraordinary what it looks like.

00:12:49Melissa Erbacher: It sounds really scary. We've recently had fires up here on the Sunshine Coast too, and they're, you know, watching the QFRS website for, you know, the alerts and the evacuation call outs and things like that. And a lot of the messaging is, you know, if you've got a fire safety plan, make sure you start following that or make sure you put that into action now and I'm just thinking, oh, my goodness, it's not even something we would have considered. Do you have a fire safety plan yourself and is that knowledge that you widely have in your community down there?

00:13:23Jen Morgan: We sure do. We have a box that has all the passports and birth certificates and we've had fire drills over the years where one child runs around and closes all the windows and another one lets the chooks out and loads the dog into the car, that sort of thing. We have sprinklers on the roof. which we put there for this very event. We always hoped we'd never need to use them. So we actually had a conversation because we're so low on water. Will we turn the sprinklers on? I now can't believe we had that conversation because it's probably the reason we have a house. So we turned the sprinklers on and got out. And I believe the fire planes also blew over, I mean, flew over and dropped some water on the house, which helped as well.

00:14:10Melissa Erbacher: One of the things that happened was that the event, Stanthorpe parkrun, the kit was lost in the fires because it was being stored by one of your Run Directors in a shed that I understand was lost. When did you find out about that and how did that all play out?

00:14:26Glen Brunckhorst: Yeah, look, the RD in question is a mate of mine. And yeah, he for a while was staying at home and thought he was okay as far as the winds and everything goes. And it was about half past 10. I kept messaging to see if it was all right. Mind you, the parkrun gear was not a thought. It was obviously safety for Peter and his family, this instance and um yeah half an hour later he he said um look the fire has come and said look change you've got to go um so they jumped in the car and and uh took off and it wasn't until uh the next morning when um when he did contact me just said look mate so I could park under gear I was in the shed and the shed shed was lost and the shed is only I would only be say three metres off the house and it's So, yeah, it's just one of those freak occurrences where the house really shouldn't be there. It's out of the shed. It's just absolutely, yeah, it's gone. There's nothing left and everything in the shed, which is a lot of personal items, of course. It wasn't until early Saturday morning, but obviously we cancelled before that late on Friday night anyway, so it didn't really affect parkrun anyway. So, yeah, everyone was safe. That was the main reason. And, yeah, lucky for parkrun Australia to sort of help out getting new kits out to us straight away.

00:15:34Jen Morgan: We have been one of the last parkruns to store people's barcodes and we've been trying to get rid of that for a while. 13th of July was meant to be the last day of the barcode box, but we're too nice and people would turn up and say, have you still got the box? So we'd get the box out so they could retrieve their barcodes. And Pete has finally put an end to that. It was funny because Glen joked about it when the fires were burning. Hey, Pete, you should throw that barcode box onto the fire.

00:16:02[laughter]

00:16:05Glen Brunckhorst: It wasn't intentional.

00:16:10Melissa Erbacher: Pete took you to heart.

00:16:13Glen Brunckhorst: It did bring up a few laughs in the following week, I must admit, but that wasn't the intention.

00:16:17Grette Wilkinson: How great that you could get a new kit so quickly so that you could all run the event the following week. I know that one of the things that we all love about parkrun are the people we meet in the community that forms around parkrun. So does the parkrun community play a role in keeping people going through the drought that you've all been through and that continues and the recent fires?

00:16:38Jen Morgan: It's all still very recent. So we've only had the one event since the fire. But we have had a lot of support. Warwick parkrun rallied up their troops and have donated quite a few goods to affected families from out here in terms of food items and they just wanted to do something to help so that was really lovely. We are encouraging visitors to come and support us and to come and see our Great parkrun to keep the businesses in town going.

00:17:10Glen Brunckhorst: The visitors are probably most important to us as far as The town goes in general, especially parkrun. We get a lot of parkrun tourists from all over the place, I suppose, whether it's a check-off, the coldest parkrun in Queensland as such, or just visit the wineries and whatever else is around town. Pretty much donations are great, but business-wise, certainly that's on top of the list to keep the town ticking over and keep spirits up.

00:17:34Grette Wilkinson: And maybe for all those people who are thinking of coming and visiting, perhaps tell us a bit about your course. What's your course like? I hear that you have some bridges, which would make Scotty happy.

00:17:43Glen Brunckhorst: Yeah, well, it's a nice flat course. So I'd assume it's pretty quick for some. There's no hills, a couple of little minor things, but nothing to worry about. We've not long got a new concrete path for part of our parkrun, thanks to the council, the local council here, which has supported us and and markers and everything so it's yeah it runs along Quart Pot Creek it's a loop course there's two loops down around the creek area which is which is nice uh it's still nice even though it's brown and not much water in the creek it's uh it's still a lovely place to walk or run um or just yeah just go for a chat so it's yeah it's pretty good it's pretty good it's even better when it's when it's uh green but um we'll take it in again so it's all good.

00:18:20Melissa Erbacher: It'll come back to green there's uh that's one thing you've got to give our environment in Australia is its ability to come back after fires you know there's a lot of our local flora that is built to regenerate specifically with fire you know that The seeds and the nuts don't open unless they have extreme heat and things like that. So I'm sure it'll all come back beautiful again and hopefully not too long into the future for you. You mentioned parkrun tourists form a big part of your event and you had pretty, you know, average numbers, I guess, last Saturday coming back after the fire. Yes. And I know I've been down to Stanthorpe myself. It was actually the 20th different event that I ever did. So, it's the event that's responsible for putting me on the most events list. And hence, will always, you know, go down in memory. Also, it was a shocker of a morning because it was wet and woolly and none of the locals wanted to go. Yeah. I think there might have only been 13 people show up and I was second female overall and that never happens at the speed that I go. Wow.

00:19:28Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:19:29Melissa Erbacher: Very memorable morning for me. But I was going to say, what kind of breakdown do you think was there on Saturday? Did you actually have visitors from other places or was it mostly your local community? And what was the atmosphere like?

00:19:46Jen Morgan: I think we probably only had about, eight visitors out of the 55. I was expecting that we would have more visitors in terms of there are quite a few services in town at the moment for community recovery and insurance and stuff, but we didn't have any of those visitors. They were all tourists.

00:20:08Melissa Erbacher: Plenty more to come too, I've got no doubt, especially since there's a lot of Beautiful things going on in Stanthorpe in terms of food and produce and stuff like that. I know there's amazing bakeries in town and all the food is so fresh and yum and delicious. We actually ate very, very well. We stayed the whole weekend when we came down to visit, so...

00:20:32Glen Brunckhorst: Nice, yeah, good one.

00:20:34Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. All right, well, let's steer it a little bit more towards you guys personally. Jen, how did you get involved with parkrun? How did you first hear about it and start volunteering, et cetera?

00:20:47Jen Morgan: My sister was visiting Stanthorpe for the weekend. She's a runner. She's like a really good runner. And so she said, come on, we've got to go to parkrun. And I was like, what's parkrun? So she signed me up and printed me a barcode and all the rest and it rained all the Friday night and so on the Saturday morning we nearly decided not to go and then I realised that if I didn't go while she was visiting I was never going to go so we went along and there were only about 18 people there which suited me and went for my run I hadn't run for about 10 years and I was sore until Thursday And because I was sore until Thursday, I just thought there's no way that I'm going to do all that for nothing. So I went back the next week and kept going.

00:21:41Melissa Erbacher: Love it. Sucked in by family.

00:21:43Jen Morgan: I know. I know. And so probably volunteered after about eight runs. And yeah, that's probably my parkrun history.

00:21:53Grette Wilkinson: And Jen, how did you come to be Event Director? Did you start run directing and that just evolved?

00:21:58Jen Morgan: I was really reluctant to be a Run Director, but I used to do, as in I still do, but I took on the role of organising the rostering and calling for volunteers and that role quite early on and I did that for probably a year and a half before we realised that I was gradually taking on more and more of a 2IC role anyway. So just before we did a big project with the council organising the new gazebo and paths and things, I officially became an Event Director with Glen so that we could share that project.

00:22:36Grette Wilkinson: Glenn, it sounds like you've been Event Director for a while now. What's your parkrun story? How did you come to parkrun and how did you come to be Event Director at Stanthorpe?

00:22:44Glen Brunckhorst: Yeah, well, I guess it's a small country town and it was an event that ticked off, you know, a free community event that I went along to one day. Yeah, my wife... She was at the event probably, I don't know, 20 or 30 times before I even started. I just thought it was crazy to get up early on a Sunday morning and go down when it's freezing or like. But yeah, that's how it started pretty much. I went down and pretty much from that day, that was early 2016, pretty much from when I started, I just got hooked and it wasn't until, it was not long after that, but yeah, I Kirsten had asked me to be a Run Director, and then not long after that, she decided that she was moving on and looking for someone to fill a role, and I thought, oh, yeah, that'd be sort of something I'd be interested in, and that's how it all started. So, yeah, no, look, I love it now. I sort of enjoy more, say, the volley work down there than actually going down and running most weeks. I do like to run. I run a fair bit through the week. It's... Just seeing different people turn up and people that wouldn't normally turn up for a run or walk turning up and enjoying the morning. It's very rewarding.

00:23:52Melissa Erbacher: You've obviously built quite the strong local community around your events. How important has it become in your life on a weekly basis? Do you find yourselves walking down the street in town and you know half the township?

00:24:09Glen Brunckhorst: It's funny. As I said, it's a small town, I suppose, but it's, yeah, look, everything, people stop me in the street. It's generally, it's a parkrun question first or just how things are going and how many people we get there each week and, yeah, just community-wise, even if they don't go, you know, because we get a report in the paper every week, which is great, from the local paper here. So that certainly gets a message out there for us as well.

00:24:31Melissa Erbacher: That's wonderful support. Not all events, or not many events, I should say, have that kind of support from people. From the local media in the community, so that's very cool. Have either of you done much adventuring yourselves? We are a bit of a podcast that likes to hear about adventures and et cetera. Have you been anywhere exciting parkrun-wise?

00:24:53Jen Morgan: My husband accuses me of booking accommodation on Friday nights that is quite near a parkrun. It just happens to be very near a parkrun.

00:25:02Melissa Erbacher: I'm going to take that as a yes then, Jen. Where have you been? Which parkruns? Or can you give us a top three?

00:25:11Jen Morgan: Putting me on the spot. Look, I love going to the Dalby parkrun, but that's not really a holiday destination. That's where my mum and my sister are. The event team there are fabulous. And the breakfast is amazing. We always love to hear about good breakfast spots.

00:25:25Melissa Erbacher: And it doesn't matter if a place is a conventional kind of holiday destination or not. You know, every parkrun has something of its own. Have you been there? No, I haven't done Dalby yet. It's on my list.

00:25:37Jen Morgan: Oh, you should go there just for the breakfast. The breakfast is incredible.

00:25:40Melissa Erbacher: I'm sure the parkrun's great too.

00:25:43Jen Morgan: The parkrun's good, and like I said, the locals there and the event team are all really, really lovely and welcoming, so it's worth a visit. In terms of scenic parkruns, though, I do like Bargara. Ooh, that's another one that's on my list. And earlier this year, a group of girls from here, we did a hike over in the South Island of New Zealand. And because I was in charge of booking, we flew into Queenstown on the Friday night. Love your work. So that we just happened to be somewhere where there was a parkrun on the Saturday morning. And that was beautiful going around the lake there. It was a very fast parkrun. I would encourage more walkers to go there because they didn't have a whole lot of walkers. We had some walkers in our group, but otherwise they were all done and dusted pretty quick.

00:26:28Grette Wilkinson: So, Glen, are you a bit of a parkrun tourist? Have you sort of visited other parkruns?

00:26:34Glen Brunckhorst: Well, it's certainly not as flash as Jen's list of parkruns, I guess. I don't really go away too much, I suppose. I've done only a handful, probably six or seven for once. And again, it's a bit like Jen. It's based on, you know, if you're going somewhere for a holiday, certainly for a Saturday morning, you're going to make a parkrun one way or the other. The recent ones, Sandgate parkrun for We went out to Chinchilla for the launch there not long ago as well, which was fun. And Kawana, Kings Beach, those sort of places, you know. But, yeah, don't get away too much. I do like our event here as far as that goes. But, yeah, certainly for the holidays, you're going to find an event that's close.

00:27:11Melissa Erbacher: Oh, there's plenty of opportunities to have adventures at your home parkrun. And I'm constantly having adventures at home. And you get the benefit of having adventurers come to visit you as well and hearing all their stories and things like that. So that's always cool.

00:27:26Glen Brunckhorst: Yeah, sure. Yeah, absolutely.

00:27:28Grette Wilkinson: Well, thank you so much, Jen and Glenn, for joining us on parkrun adventurers podcast and talking to us about your event and what you've been experiencing with the drought and the fires and the strength of the community to help each other through what is no doubt a very difficult time. So thank you very much for joining us.

00:27:46Jen Morgan: Thank you.

00:27:47Glen Brunckhorst: Thanks, Greta. Thanks, Mel.

00:27:48[19 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Sarah and Rita — Phillip Island parkrun

00:28:08Sarah: Hi, it's Sarah and Rita from Highlands parkrun. We've just completed the Phillip Island parkrun as we're down here for the Phillip Island Running Festival. And we have run into some very famous Westerfoldians. Who have we got here? Adelina.

00:28:23Mel: And Stephen.

00:28:24Sarah: And why are you guys down here this weekend?

00:28:26Mel: For the running festival.

00:28:27Sarah: Oh, what are you doing? I'm doing the 50. Oh, the 21. And have you guys done Phillip Island parkrun before?

00:28:33Michael: No, first time. Awesome course.

00:28:35Sarah: Yeah? What did you like about it?

00:28:37Unidentified speaker: Oh, apart from the beautiful scenery that you run around the seaside and you get to see some wildlife along the way. Did you see that flock of pelicans that were flying above us at one point? No, it must have been so fast I didn't see them.

00:28:51Sarah: Well, we were ducking for cover because we were running with my little one, so we were sort of trying to duck for poo cover. Yeah.

00:28:59Unidentified speaker: It's a great course. The community here is just so friendly. They're always welcoming tourists and I'm so happy that we came and have the double opportunity to come and take part in the Phillip Island Running Festival, which is their inaugural event tomorrow.

00:29:11Sarah: Fantastic. We look forward to seeing you there because we'll be there too. So you guys have a great rest of Saturday, parkrun day, and we'll see you tomorrow. Awesome. Thank you very much.

00:29:20Unidentified speaker: Thanks.

00:29:21Sarah: And we have found some other tourists that are touristing, some other familiar faces. So who do we have here? I'm KB. Paula.

00:29:28Robyn: Sally.

00:29:29Sarah: And what did you guys think of the Phillip Island course?

00:29:32Unidentified speaker: It was beautiful. The only problem was we were so busy gas bagging and catching up that we kept forgetting to stop and enjoy the view.

00:29:37Unidentified speaker: So we did try our best. I've done it a number of times before, so I didn't need to look.

00:29:43Sarah: So clearly you must love it because you've come back a few times. Yes, yes. Oh, fantastic. It's great. Yeah, what's the favourite part about this parkrun? I just love the scenery.

00:29:52Unidentified speaker: Yeah. And the run. The run's good. Oh, good. Fantastic. How about you, Sal? I love the animals and the scenery.

00:29:57Sarah: Yeah? Yeah. And what were you guys all gasbagging about? That's what I want to know.

00:30:01Unidentified speaker: parkrun goss? We were talking about parkruns and different parkruns we've been and recommending favourite parkruns that we've been to recently to each other. So, yeah, it was good.

00:30:10Sarah: And did you guys all know you were coming down together?

00:30:12Unidentified speaker: yes yeah planned it yeah so we're all here for the running event running festival tomorrow so fantastic fantastic and what would you if people were thinking about touristing down here what would you tell them what would you get them to come down and visit um at the island um definitely the penguins if you're going to come down you've got to do the penguins amazing things is fun we were talking quite a bit about the uh high ropes course and stuff that you can do there so I'd recommend anybody do that if they can get off the first level yeah I don't think I'd get off the first level no I I

00:30:40Unidentified speaker: I got up there. Fantastic. Look, there's the walks. There's some fantastic walks. You don't know. You go down the rail and all around there's great walks.

00:30:50Sarah: Oh, fantastic. Fantastic. Well, I hope you girls have an enjoyable weekend. We will see you out and about tomorrow at the running festival as well. And hopefully we might catch you here again at Phillip Island parkrun.

00:31:00Unidentified speaker: Excellent. Thank you.

00:31:02Sarah: And we're here with the Run Director for today at the Phillip Island parkrun, and her name is Robyn. How are you, Robyn? I'm good, thank you. How are you? Very well, thank you. So what can you tell us about your parkrun here? It's a beautiful course.

00:31:13Robyn: Yeah, it's a pretty special course. We are in a nature park, and, you know, there's fantastic vibe, lots of animals, lots of greenery. Yep. We get a bit buffeted by the ocean breeze sometimes, but it's pretty nice. And do you... Do you get quite a few tourists down here? Yeah, we do. Absolutely. Especially through summer and all those lovely long weekends, we get lots of runners down.

00:31:35Sarah: Well, fantastic. And if there was one thing that you could tell people who are thinking about coming down to your parkrun and doing it, what is the biggest draw card that you think and what makes your parkrun so unique?

00:31:47Robyn: I think probably just the scenery. It's a little bit like a trail run, you know, it's all lovely and gravel and undulating and some of those hills surprise people a little bit, but it's just a really nice vibe too. Oh, fantastic. And how long have you been a Run Director here? About three years. Yeah? Yeah. Is that your favourite volley role or...? Yeah, yeah. No, it's a pretty good one. And all our volleys are pretty friendly and helpful. So it's a pretty cruisy task, really.

00:32:12Sarah: We got lots of high fives out on course by the Tail Walker. Yeah. And your photographer was encouraging us to do a jump shot, which was always fun. Yes, it was heaps of fun. Fantastic. Thank you so much for being so hospitable to us today. No worries. And hopefully we'll be back again to parkrun soon. Sounds fantastic. Thanks.

Roving report Mark Scarborough — North Sydney parkrun

00:32:29Mark: Good morning parkrun adventurers, this is Mark reporting in from North Sydney parkrun today in sunny Sydney and here at North Sydney parkrun they're doing their 70th parkrun event and it looks like it's going to be a reasonable turnout with a lot of tourists here for the Sydney Running Festival which is on tomorrow. This parkrun It has an average of 140 parkrunners per week with an average time of 29 minutes and 22 seconds. And it's basically running around the park land here in North Sydney. So we'll have a chat to a few runners and report back in. So I'm here with Chris and Jamie who are from Queenstown parkrun who are also the Run Directors there.

00:33:13Chris: Yeah, we've come over this weekend for the Sydney Half Marathon and decided to get a compass point and an N to add to our parkrun Challenges badges. Excellent. And how's some Queenstown parkrun going?

00:33:27Jamie: It's going great. We've had about 65 events now and we have a good core group of people and volunteers that come out every week and we enjoy it. We have a good time.

00:33:36Mark: And what's your course like?

00:33:38Jamie: Our course is scenic. We have a little bit, we have a small hill and we go through the forest bit and then we go around the lake and you get all of New Zealand scenery that you can see. The mountains, the lake, the forest, it's beautiful.

00:33:56Chris: And are you getting many people coming visiting you for the Q? Yeah, it's one of the things. I think there's only like six Qs in the world. So we definitely, I mean, Queenstown is a touristy town as it is. And the amount of parkrun tourists on any given week, we could have 50% of the people that are running are parkrun tourists from all over the world. And yeah, definitely the The Q is the main prize that I think they go for. But then they end up loving the course because as Jamie just described, it is one of the most scenic courses in the world with the beautiful Remarkables Mountains and Lake Wakatipu around.

00:34:31Mark: Yeah, nice.

00:34:32Chris: And is this your first parkrun in Sydney? No, we used to actually live in Sydney and started parkrunning in Sydney. And I used to frequent St Peters parkrun quite a bit when we lived in the eastern suburbs. But then we moved over to Queenstown and had a void of parkrun in our lives and ended up starting parkrun when we moved there. Yeah, excellent. Well done.

00:34:52Mark: Well, best of luck for tomorrow.

00:34:54Michael: Thanks a lot.

00:34:56Mark: So I'm here with Michael who's from the UK. Where's your home parkrun?

00:35:00Michael: Uckfield. We only started it about last July.

00:35:03Mark: Okay, and what's brought you to Sydney? I'm doing the marathon tomorrow. Excellent. And do you get out and do much parkrun adventuring?

00:35:11Michael: Yeah, I'll go around and do some of the premier ones in the UK that's starting up and just around the South East and London area and up as far as York.

00:35:21Mark: Okay, and are you planning on doing many parkruns here in Australia while you're here?

00:35:26Michael: I'm doing this one today and then maybe the Centennial one next week before I fly home on the Sunday.

00:35:31Mark: Just make note that some of these parkruns around here do start at 7am, so make sure you check that first.

00:35:38Michael: Oh, yeah, there was. I was hoping to do the Centennial one at 7 and then another one at 8 o'clock, but it turns out it's about 7km away, so there's not much chance of getting a double in.

00:35:48Mark: Yeah, and you wouldn't get the second one recorded either.

00:35:51Michael: Well, no, that's that annoying fact as well. Yeah, but you can always log that as a freedom run. True.

00:35:57Mark: All right, well, thanks for the chat and best of luck for tomorrow.

00:35:59Michael: That's OK. Thank you.

00:36:01Mark: So I'm here with one of the Event Directors at North Sydney. Matt, morning Matt, how are you?

00:36:06Matt: Going very well. Happy that we've got such a big turnout on this nice sunny spring morning.

00:36:12Mark: It is a beautiful day here in North Sydney and it is certainly a large turnout for the Blackmores Sydney Running Festival on tomorrow. And you're volunteering today as Tail Walker?

00:36:23Matt: Yes, I normally don't put myself down as a Tail Walker, but I thought I should give it a go. So, yes, I'm here with my two-year-old son, Lachlan, and he's having fun in the pram while I'm walking.

00:36:33Mark: Is he happy with the pace that we're at at the moment?

00:36:36Matt: He prefers a faster pace. He did once come third when I was taking it seriously and pushing him in the pram and going hell for leather, so he did enjoy that experience as well.

00:36:45Mark: That'd be pretty impressive, pushing a stroller at that pace around here.

00:36:49Matt: Yes, it does present some challenges and I think some people probably look at people like me pushing a pram and going at that pace and think we're nuts.

00:36:59Mark: So we were talking before, you've got some interesting characters here. So you were talking about one particular gentleman who just joined recently in a certain age category?

00:37:07Matt: Oh, yeah. Well, I guess for me, the most important thing about setting up this event is creating a sense of community and stories like Adrian's. So Adrian is a 93 year old who did his first parkrun last year. And the great thing about Adrian's stories, he came, but he kept coming. And I think that's the important thing, which is that there's a sense of community and that people come, know each other's name and and feel welcome and and you know it's just a great thing to do every Saturday morning build that sense of community well it's the inclusivity that you know is about parkrun as well as that community isn't it that's right um and you know we have such a diverse group of people and I the thing that I like the most is you know when we go for coffee after the event the number of people that come along and the volunteers has just grown you know week on week and we now have a core group of maybe 20 or 30 regular volunteers and and people that you know know each other and would call each other friends which I think is a really good thing it is good and what would be some of the the highlights for you over the last couple years Well I guess getting it off the ground so anyone like yourself who's been through the process of getting a parkrun from you know just an idea to a reality knows that it can be a bit of work in terms of getting the approvals so launching it in May last year and then I guess just seeing it grow so regularly having around 150 people having recognition from the council that this is you know something that's good for the community all those things are really really important and And also, you know, we've made adjustments to the course to make it better for vision impaired runners and people that are less mobile. So I think the fact that we're responsive to that and making our event inclusive to people of all ages and abilities is a really important aspect.

00:38:57Mark: That's really good. And so for our listeners, how would you describe your course?

00:39:03Matt: Well at the moment it's not ideal because it's a five lap course because we're quite constrained. Anyone who knows North Sydney being so close to the city there is limited open space. So we're in the area of North Sydney Oval where the mighty bears play but there isn't actually that much room so we've got a five lap course at the moment, and it's a bit undulating but we're working on a solution to create a three lap course so that's actually waiting for approval and I think in the next few weeks we'll be able to transition across to that three lap course which uses more of the path here which I think would be a good thing. People will enjoy the fact they only have to run up that hill three times instead of four.

00:39:45Mark: Excellent. Well, thank you very much for your time, Matt. And it's been great to be here at North Sydney parkrun.

00:39:50Matt: Oh, and thanks a lot for visiting North Sydney parkrun, Mark. And congratulations on everything that you do to promote parkrun as well. Well, I'm happy. Thanks, mate.

Roving report Gary Murphy — Windsor Precinct parkrun

00:39:59Gary Murphy: Good morning Mel and excellent co-host whoever that may be because they're all excellent. I'm lucky enough this weekend to be at Windsor Precinct parkrun in Launceston, Tasmania and I'm standing here with Mel who's the Run Director for today and Dean? Yes. Dean is a Run Director here also and Dean and I are going to start a movement, the propeller hat movement. So we're going to get him online and get a Facebook page going maybe I think. Mel's a fan of the propeller hat.

00:40:24Unidentified speaker: Yep.

00:40:26Gary Murphy: So, Mel, it's a double out and back course. How would you describe it as double out and back?

00:40:31Mel: Sure would. Yep. So two laps out and back. Halfway is the finish line. So once you get there, you've got one more to go.

00:40:39Gary Murphy: And it's a great course for high fives and cheering everybody else on as you go around. You get to see everybody you like.

00:40:43Mel: Yeah, because you get to see everyone twice almost. Especially if you're a little bit of one of the slower runners or the walkers. So you get the fast runners twice. And the kids, good to high five all the kids on the way past.

00:40:54Gary Murphy: Yeah, and an excellent start and finish area with a really good shelter. And I don't know if everybody can hear in the background, everybody standing around talking. It's a really beautiful scene here with blue skies and green grass. It's awesome. We won't say that. It's not a visual medium. It's like this all the time. And so how long have you been parkrunning for and where did you start?

00:40:57[crosstalk]

00:41:15Mel: I started parkrunning in Kalgoorlie about, jeez. A while ago. We've been here nearly four years, probably over, so probably eight years ago, roughly.

00:41:28Gary Murphy: Yeah. Yeah. So one side of the country to pretty much the other side of the country.

00:41:32Mel: Pretty much. Chalk and cheese too. So everyone thinks Kalgoorlie is a nice flat place, but there is two massive hills in their parkrun. Yeah. So, which you wouldn't think of. We're here, it's nice and relatively flat. So, yeah. And different topography, the light area is just so different. Yeah. Yeah.

00:41:49Gary Murphy: Oh, thanks for today, Mel. You did a great job as Run Director. Thanks. It was really, really great. Nice to meet you. Thank you.

00:41:54Mel: Yep, you're welcome.

00:41:55Gary Murphy: And Dino, how long have you been parkrunning for, mate?

00:41:57Dean: Well, I've been parkrunning now, I think it's about three years, four years. Yeah, about three to four years, somewhere in between there, so... Yeah, it's been good fun. Sometimes we used to get the whole family out, my daughter and that, but as she gets as an older teenager, they don't like it so much anymore. But my wife and I generally try and get along when we can. Were you a runner beforehand, before parkrun? Well, actually, yeah, I was, but I had a back injury and I was out for a long period of time and then started running again when I was allowed to, which was great. And yeah, now I got back into parkruns and got going, trained for a marathon, broke my foot, and I ended up volunteering a heap. So that's how I got to become Run Director, was by heaps of volunteering. So yeah, it's been great though. It's a great course, this one.

00:42:42Gary Murphy: What's your favourite thing about volunteering?

00:42:44Dean: You meet everyone. You sit there and you encourage everyone through. You meet such great people. We've got Wayne there who does a barcode scanning. Never done a run. I think he's up to about his 78th volunteer in a row.

00:42:59Mel: Norman is like 80 and still running around. We all aspire to be Norman. And then you get the little young kids, you know. 10 year olds running around. Such a diverse thing, so you know, it's good.

00:43:18Gary Murphy: Well, thanks for talking to me today, guys, and thanks for an awesome parkrun. No worries. And all the best for the future. I'll definitely put it on my list to come back to. It's turning into a big list, don't you know?

00:43:29Dean: We'll have to get these propeller caps going.

00:43:31Gary Murphy: Yeah, get the hat and I'll come back. I'm done. All right, guys, thanks again. All the best. Have a good night. All right, now I was just speaking to Mel and Dean and we were talking about Wayne. Now I'm standing here with Wayne. Now, Wayne, what's your story? I've heard you volunteered a bit, mate.

00:43:47Wayne: Yeah, it's over 12 months ago. My wife was coming to parkrun regularly and I was just sitting at home and she had to volunteer one weekend and couldn't do it so she dobbed me in so I came and did it. Got to know a few people and so I said, oh, I could do this every week. Being as that I can't walk or run very far, I can't run at all. So I've been sitting on this bench doing scanning now for 77 times or something so far.

00:44:16Gary Murphy: That's fantastic, mate. That's so good. Just imagine how many barcodes you've scanned in that time.

00:44:20Wayne: I'd hate to think. Although, we only average sort of in the 60s. Yep. But when nonsense joins us, of course, we have 300 or something. So we have two going then. Yeah. Yeah. No, I enjoy it. Get to know everybody by name. Get to welcome the... Visitors and particularly younger children, I congratulate them for beating dad and all that stuff. Yeah, no, it's good fun.

00:44:46Gary Murphy: And so would that be your favourite part, do you reckon, meeting the people that come up to the scan?

00:44:49Wayne: Yeah, it is. Because up until I joined parkrun, I really didn't have much community contact with people. I was in an organisation that we were sort of busy within the organisation of the church. And I didn't have that much contact outside that.

00:45:04Gary Murphy: Yeah.

00:45:04Wayne: Whereas now I've got, you know, there's probably 120 people I know by name. Wow. On and off of Sundays.

00:45:12Gary Murphy: Yeah. Yeah. And it's such a beautiful park. And you got here and you had a great set up. You're undercover.

00:45:16Wayne: Except when it's been very cold. That bar on the roof over here ices up. I know. And then as the sun comes out, it thaws, and so I get dripped off. So who's the Barcode Scanner? Oh, just a drip.

00:45:32Gary Murphy: Wayne, thank you so much for all your volunteering, mate. Pleasure. It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you. And all the best for the future in parkrunning. Yeah, thank you. Appreciate it.

Roving report Melissa Ellis — West Coast parkrun

00:45:40Melissa Ellis: Good morning, parkrun adventurers. It's Melissa here, and I'm coming to you from Singapore. Now, Mel, I didn't make it to Bishan as planned. So we've had a bit of drama because there's bad air quality in Singapore and Malaysia at the moment, and we nearly thought that we were going to have cancellations. So anyway, I've ended up at West Coast. And I'm here with one of the dirty cheaters, Dorota. How are you? I'm very well, thank you. A bit sweaty. And I think I was going to lose my ears if I hadn't turned up here today. Dorota's travelling as well with her husband and little Josh. So how did you find the parkrun today? it was awesome it was a bit more moist than the regular parkrun but yeah worth the trip it was and we found a lot of Australian tourists there were some Zoolanders. Yep, they were from WA. We had friends from Brisbane. Yeah, New Farm, parkrunner from New Farm. And there were some guys from the UK. Yep, plenty of UK people. Lots of tourists. Someone from Scotland. So yeah, one big figure eight loop around the West Coast Park. Very humid and yeah, we enjoyed it. Yeah, it was 5k surprisingly. Yeah.

00:47:09Unidentified speaker: What a coincidence.

00:47:11Melissa Ellis: I know. How did it work? And squirrels everywhere. Little squirrels. Very cute. Anyway, that's it. Signing off from West Coast parkrun. Thanks, Dorota.

00:47:20Unidentified speaker: And see you again soon. Yep. See you. Bye-bye.

00:47:22[15 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:47:37Melissa Erbacher: More and more roving reports coming in and some new voices this week, Greta. It was very cool to have contributions from Sarah and Rita this week who were at Phillip Island parkrun.

00:47:48Grette Wilkinson: Great to hear some new voices.

00:47:51Melissa Erbacher: It was. Nice work on the debut there, ladies. Then we also, of course, had Mark who was travelling to North Sydney for the running festival on the weekend. I don't know about you, Greta, but my social media news feed definitely filled up on Sunday from people who were at the running festival.

00:48:09Grette Wilkinson: Absolutely. Looks like it was a great day.

00:48:12Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. And you know what? I think it's one I'd like to do in the future too, because running between or across or around two icons of the country, that's a pretty big deal. And I reckon the bling must be pretty nice too. Yeah.

00:48:24Grette Wilkinson: Add it to the list.

00:48:25Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. But meanwhile, speaking of the Roving Report, so... He spoke to the RDs at Queenstown who were visiting as well. And I was interested about this because they mentioned that they think there's only about six Qs in the world and I'm not going to go and check the numbers on that. But it sounds legit. It sounds like there wouldn't be that many. Have you done a Q? Are you an alphabeteer or chasing it?

00:48:50Grette Wilkinson: I've done a Q. Do you know what? I'm not actually chasing it, but I have thought I really need to sit down and develop my list. But have you done a Q?

00:48:58Melissa Erbacher: I have not. However, I will be this coming weekend as it turns out. Less for my own wanting to chase the alphabet as my husband's because Adam is keen to get all the letters. And actually, incidentally, Ocean View was our first O last weekend as well. So I think we're edging ever closer to the end of the alphabet in Australia.

00:49:21Grette Wilkinson: You are ticking them off.

00:49:22Melissa Erbacher: I couldn't tell you how many I still need though. I think it's something like six more or something like that but Yeah, so Kew is on the list and going to be had this weekend. And Queenstown is definitely one I want to get to.

00:49:36Grette Wilkinson: That would be a lovely one to do, I must admit. That one's on my list. And what I loved about that was, you know, parkrunners from Australia who, you know, moved to another country, to a place where there was no parkrun, so why not start one of our own? Yeah. How brilliant is that?

00:49:53Melissa Erbacher: Exactly. Spread the love. I like it. Next up we had Gary who was at Windsor Precinct in Tassie and speaking to the Run Directors down there. And I do love that Dean is going to join Gary and join a propeller hat movement. So I think everybody should keep an eye out for that coming on Facebook because I'm in on that action, definitely.

00:50:16Grette Wilkinson: You're in. You're in. And I loved him chatting to Wayne. How committed is Wayne? 77 volunteers.

00:50:24Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, that's pretty awesome. And I do love how Wayne, by volunteering at parkrun, he's increased connections in his community and, you know, knows so many more people now just as a result of that. And last but not least, former co-host or most recent co-host of the parkrun adventurers podcast, podcast Mel Ellis was at West Coast Park in Singapore yes for her moist parkrun I got a chuckle about that look I was just glad that it wasn't cancelled because there it was it was touch and go there for a couple of days the air quality gets monitored very closely in Singapore and there's a national governing body of air quality control or something like that that gives out the readings and says when it's safe and when it's not safe to be outside doing activity and yeah it wasn't looking good for Saturday but as it turns out it cleared up from late in the week and uh It was all go ahead. So I'm glad to hear that Melissa got her Singaporean flag. Excellent. Well done, Melissa. Congratulations.

00:51:29Grette Wilkinson: Glad it cleared up and you could do your parkrun on parkrun day. Absolutely.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:51:35Melissa Erbacher: Now, launches. We do have a launch this week, Greta. Do you want to tell everyone where it is? We do. We have a launch in Tassie, Kingston Park. I need to head back to Tassie, of course. And that one's on the eastern coast, Kingston Park as well, a little bit south of Hobart, I believe.

00:51:52Grette Wilkinson: Now, have you been around Kingston, Kingston Park area?

00:51:55Melissa Erbacher: I'm pretty sure I've driven through it on my way to Geeveston.

00:51:59Grette Wilkinson: Oh.

00:51:59Melissa Erbacher: My ill-fated Geeveston trip.

00:52:02Grette Wilkinson: Shall we move on?

00:52:04Melissa Erbacher: We probably should.

Streaky September

00:52:06Melissa Erbacher: We probably should. Hey, so, Greta, are you doing Streaky September this year?

00:52:11Grette Wilkinson: Well, yes. I am exercising every day of September, but not necessarily running or walking.

00:52:18Melissa Erbacher: Oh, that's okay. You know, you can do your own version. That's all right. Not quite the sackable offence as co-host, so you're doing well.

00:52:29Grette Wilkinson: How is your streak going, Mel?

00:52:30Melissa Erbacher: Well, my streak is still intact, I'm very happy to say. Over the halfway mark now, we're on day 16 as we record, so... And I managed to get in the barefoot one yesterday. I'm playing streaky bingo and trying to check off those little challenges as we go. And last week, I also happened completely by accident across a gnome. So I got a gnome selfie, although the gnome was quite small in the background because I was a little bit shy of the fact that it was in somebody's front yard. And I just didn't quite feel comfortable taking my two-year-old in. into the middle of someone's front yard and having a photo with a gnome without asking them. So I think I'm going to try and pluck up the courage to actually go and knock on their door and ask them if they would mind whether or not I could have a photo with their gnome. But I was delighted because that was one of those days where I was just doing anything I could to squeeze the streak in and walk to pretty much from my home to the local school and back with Wes. And, yeah, so I was very excited to stumble across that gnome. And how were the boys enjoying their streaky September? Well, Emmett's probably completely oblivious, I think, but Wes is really enjoying it. And he's doing a lot of the streaks on foot himself, which is, you know, slowing things down for me. But... I'm pretty impressed actually that a two-year-old wants to do that much walking and he's starting to get a bit obsessed with pushing the pram around. I got home, I did a streak with Emmett alone today because we went out to dinner and I was trying to squeeze it in before podcast so I walked home from dinner and Adam drove the car home with Wes and when I got home I put the pram inside and then After his shower, Wesley's running around the house naked, just pushing the pram around from room to room. And we had some trouble extricating him from the pram to get dressed into his pyjamas and have bedtime stories. But we got there in the end. So, yeah, he's just loving it. Which is... Yeah, which is nice. It puts him in good stead for being 5K ready by the time he's four, that's for sure.

00:54:47Grette Wilkinson: Well, if he's going to keep up with those twins from Mount Barker, he's got to be ready.

00:54:51Melissa Erbacher: Yes, exactly. And before we move on from Streaky September, though, I would like to shout out to Heather, who is streaking with us at the moment, and she struck her way into the Pirate Club at parkrun on Saturday. When she sailed her seventh sea and she did it in wonderful style, dressed as a pirate with a friend of hers who was also dressed as a pirate for the occasion. I love, this is my favourite club. Like hands down, the pirate club is my favourite. Of all the unofficial clubs there are. I think that's the one that everybody should be aiming for.

00:55:26Grette Wilkinson: I think I've got two more Cs and then I'm in.

00:55:29Melissa Erbacher: Have you got enough Cs in South Australia or do you need to travel?

00:55:33Grette Wilkinson: Yeah, we do have quite a few Cs, but yes, I do need to travel for those last couple.

00:55:37Melissa Erbacher: Oh, well, that sounds like a good excuse for an adventure to me. It does. It does.

00:55:41Grette Wilkinson: Congratulations, Heather. I'd like to also do a shout out to Will and Lou Gardner. So I don't know if you saw this, Mel, but on the weekend we had a parkrun wedding. Did you see that on the socials?

00:55:54Melissa Erbacher: Was it at parkrun? I did see something about a wedding. It was actually at parkrun.

00:55:59Grette Wilkinson: It was at Newy parkrun. So congratulations to them.

Sign-off

00:56:03Melissa Erbacher: And while we're on the shout-out bandwagon, we definitely have one more very special one to do, and that is a massive happy birthday to our mate TOC, who is celebrating the anniversary of himself today as we record. Happy birthday, TOC. We hope this brings a smile to your face when you listen to it this week. Now, it's all happened very quickly, Greta, but we're coming to the end of another episode of the parkrun adventurers podcast. But before we go, I would like to know where you're heading off to parkrun this week.

00:56:37Grette Wilkinson: Ah, so this week I'm going to be at home back at Mount Barker, which will be lovely. Jess will be very happy. And I'm going to be Run Director. So it's been a long time since I've been Run Director because we have such a large team at Mount Barker. I'll have to remind myself how to do it. So, yeah, run directing at Mount Barker and not running, resting up for a big run that we're doing on Sunday.

00:57:04Melissa Erbacher: So, like, it is the big run or it's a big training run on the lead up to something else?

00:57:09Grette Wilkinson: Oh, no, it is the big run on Sunday. So it's the Yurrebilla Trail run on Sunday through the Adelaide Hills. So hopefully it's not as warm as it was last weekend. So this is like the only time that I'm going to be hoping that it's not warm weather. But yes, resting up on Saturday.

00:57:27Melissa Erbacher: So when we're talking about this being big, like what kind of distance are you doing? 56km. Have you done many ultras before?

00:57:37Grette Wilkinson: Well, actually, we've done – so, yes, we've done a couple before. This year we've done three so far this year. There's a kind of a series in South Australia at the moment called the 550s. So that's five 50K runs or five ultras in a year. So we've done three. This will be the fourth of the fifth.

00:57:59Melissa Erbacher: Wow. And so when is the fifth one?

00:58:02Grette Wilkinson: Are you doing the fifth one? That's the plan. That'll be in October, so late October, and that's the Heysen run. So that also has a slightly shorter distance as an option and also a 105. So we've got some friends doing the 105, which will be quite an undertaking. But we're not doing the 105.

00:58:23Melissa Erbacher: Far out. Yeah. No, you're going to tell me you're doing inverted commas just the 50 or something like that, aren't you? You're all overachievers. It makes me tired just thinking about it.

00:58:38Grette Wilkinson: Where are you parkrunning on the weekend, Mel?

00:58:43Melissa Erbacher: Where are you? Well, as I kind of referred to a little bit earlier in the pod, that I will be getting my Q. So I'll be at Queen Elizabeth parkrun in Casino, which is northern New South Wales this weekend. So it's an overnight stay, this one. It's a little bit too far to want to get up that early on parkrun day and drive. So we're going to head down and make a couple of days of it and head off early on Friday and take in some sights and throw our tourist dollars the way of the northern New South Walians. So they've been suffering from some droughts and things down there and they've also had some fires, which has been a bit nasty. But there's also going to be a little bit of a special challenge that I've made a deal with someone about this, for this coming weekend but I'm not going to divulge the details you'll have to listen to episode 175 to hear all about that but I'm looking forward to it it will definitely be an adventure but Greta it has been so wonderful having you join me this week thank you thank you thank you thank you so much for having me it's been fun and I look forward to doing it again sometime sounds good thanks Mel

01:00:25Unidentified speaker: Thank you.