Episode 180 - Myths & Legends

Welcome

00:00:23Tim Oberg: Hear ye, hear ye! Welcome to episode 180 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. Yes, that's 180. I'm Tim. I am the guest host this week and beside me is the real host, the wonderful... Melissa Erbacher. Mel, how's it going?

00:00:42Melissa Erbacher: It's good, Tim. I'm only virtual beside you, unfortunately, as much as I would love to be in Airlie Beach today enjoying what I'm sure is spectacular weather, because it always is.

00:00:54Paul: It is.

00:00:56Melissa Erbacher: But no, I'm really great. Thank you. And thanks for joining me as co-host this week. It's exciting to have you back. I mean, It's long been said that you are my funniest male co-host ever.

00:01:09Tim Oberg: Long been said by me that I'm the funniest male co-host ever. But yeah, I mean, I haven't been on for a little while and, you know, a lot has changed here at the podcast in that time, hasn't it?

00:01:20Melissa Erbacher: It has, yes. All the better. Well, it changes every week, you know. We don't know whether we're coming or going these days.

00:01:27Tim Oberg: Yeah, well, look, it's exciting to be back now. Am I allowed to mention the words, ST? Can you still talk about him?

00:01:37Melissa Erbacher: Absolutely. We don't spit when we say his name. Okay.

00:01:41Tim Oberg: So we are allowed to say the word Scott Trickett on the podcast? Yes. Okay, okay. Excellent. Well, Scotty, I hope you're out there and you're listening and I'll be after some keen critique, some feedback from the former king once this one goes live.

00:01:59Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, so I'm sure he won't hold back. He's always very forthcoming with constructive criticism.

00:02:05Tim Oberg: Yeah, and he's always quite happy to let me know that when I have been on in the past, the downloads have actually never been good. I'm always like, so, you know, how did the downloads go this week? And he's like, no, no, no, no good. What? So I say, yeah, well, no, no, like when I'm on, like there's no boost or something, you know.

00:02:26Melissa Erbacher: I think perhaps he was just trying not to inflate your ego because he always told me the opposite, that the Tim episodes always do really well.

00:02:32Tim Oberg: We'll see. We'll see how this one goes.

00:02:35Melissa Erbacher: Look, to be honest, I'm too scared to look at the downloads since he's left because I might only have three listeners and I just don't want to know about it. So I haven't looked.

00:02:45Tim Oberg: I think given the big announcement that you've got at the end of today's episode, the downloads are going to be massive. But we'll just leave it there. We won't talk about that any further.

00:02:56Melissa Erbacher: Except if they don't know to listen, then they're not going to hear the announcement. So it's a little bit of a tricky situation. But anyway, I'm very glad to have you back on, Tim. And I'm keen to know, what did you do last parkrun Day? Any highlights from the weekend?

00:03:13Tim Oberg: Yeah, last parkrun Day. Well, look, I'm going to not talk about me. I'm going to talk about my dad. And my dad is 82 years old and disabled. He's always been my sort of, I guess you'd say, running or even health inspiration. As a kid growing up in Brisbane, my dad was always a runner and always a jogger. In the days before, running and jogging was actually a thing. Like we might take it for granted today that everyone's out, you know, keeping fit and whatever. But back in the 80s, well, even before I was born in the 70s, my dad was out there going jogging. He reckons people would stop their cars and say to him, what are you doing, mate? Do you want to get in? Do you need a lift? Like they just didn't understand. He's deadly serious. He says people used to stop and like literally wonder what he was doing because he'd be out running. Wow. And so as a kid growing up, I remember Dad was always out jogging and always, you know, keeping fit. And so I guess that has subliminally influenced my life. And so obviously with parkrun starting up here and becoming a what it has I've always sort of had a little thing thought I wonder if dad's ever gonna kind of do it and he's more of a walker these days he's uh he's had knee calf issues and various other things over the last kind of decade of his life uh and he he volunteered at New Farm parkrun event one which was back in September 2011 so our second ever event launch but other than that he's never actually participated at parkrun he's He is a frequent walker before Sandgate parkrun. So he'll walk sort of essentially the Sandgate parkrun course and then he'll watch it. He'll watch everyone go by and I think he gets a bit of a kick out of it. But anyway, so long story short is that a couple of dad's friends said to him two weeks ago, they said, Terry, his name's Terry, they said, Terry, there's this single parkrun We're going to go. Do you want to come along? And Dad said, well, yeah, I've heard of it. And anyway, he decided here we go. So he rang me all excited saying he was going to go to his first parkrun. And then anyway, it happened on the weekend. He went to Sandgate parkrun. Funnily enough, his friends who invited him didn't go. They ended up having prior engagements. So Dad went by himself, um and I I got him a wristband I ordered him the wristband so he's all you know he's geared up ready to go uh and he did his his first parkrun at the age of 82 I think he did it in about 54 minutes I from speaking to him he said he had a great time Sandgate parkruns a fantastic event big event I think he came 400 or 400th or something like that uh but yeah 54 minutes and he had a ball and he's going to go back next week so I was that's brilliant I was stoked and um As you know, Mel, and as I'm sure some of our listeners know, we've got a specific project going on right now called Better Ageing, which is about encouraging more older Australians to participate at parkruns. So I'm pretty excited. My dad's now going to be one of the statistics that we end up reporting on once that project's complete. So, yeah, really, that was definitely my parkrun highlight from the weekend was my dad doing his first parkrun at the age of 82.

00:06:39Melissa Erbacher: Oh, massive congrats to Terry. That's awesome.

00:06:42Tim Oberg: Yeah, thank you. He's not a podcast listener yet, so that might be the next. Oh, wait for it. Yeah, exactly, exactly. But what about you, Mel? What was your highlight?

00:06:50Melissa Erbacher: Well, I went on a little bit of an adventure last weekend. We went to our NENDY, which the NENDYs are all getting a little bit further away. Our nearest event's not done yet. And this week it was Yowie, which is only an hour's drive, so that's not too bad. We were very excited to head out that way, and see if we could see any of the mythical creatures ourselves and check out the event, which has been going close to a year. They were up to event number 38, which was quite handily a number I needed for my Wilson index. Are you a challenge, a running challenges chaser?

00:07:25Tim Oberg: Yeah, it's a funny, I mean, okay, I would say I'm not. However, you know, in the past when I've loaded up the old Google Chrome extension and had a look at things, it's certainly good fun and interesting to see all those things.

00:07:38Melissa Erbacher: See where you're at.

00:07:38Tim Oberg: Yeah, exactly. And look, just because it's not my thing doesn't mean that I don't think it's great because I think, parkrun is one of these things that you can engage with in so many different kinds of ways. And for some people, these challenges are absolutely the motivator. And so I think they're great for what they are, although they're not really something that drive me.

00:08:02Unidentified speaker: Although I did have...

00:08:04Tim Oberg: parkrun bingo without even trying I remember I loaded it in I've already got it I'd already got my you know 160 damn you see I've been chasing my last two bingo numbers for months and I always seem to come in about 30 seconds away from either of them because they're both quite close together as well so now look I want to get back to Yowie. I would ask you, so is Yowie in Queensland where this mythical creature comes from, the Yowie.

00:08:35Melissa Erbacher: No, no. Well, I mean, who knows? Who knows where the actual Yowies are from? It's Yowie Park, which is why it's called Yowie parkrun. So it's in Kilcoy.

00:08:45Tim Oberg: Oh, right. So that park is not where it's... said to have come from because my understanding was like an Indigenous folklore sort of story. Is this correct?

00:08:55Melissa Erbacher: Well, yeah, it is. In the town park there is a statue which is a bronze replica of the original wood carving done by a local artist of a Yowie. There's also a very cheesy billboard kind of thing where they've got the face cut out of one of the Yowie so you can go stick your face in it and have a photo, which, of course, we did. We all did. I was going to say, you have to. Yes, I do like a bit of cheese with my parkrun. So we did that. But I don't know in terms of local history whether or not there have been particular sightings there. There's certainly the course itself runs alongside a creek, which has got very dry, sandy riverbeds at the moment. And so it's quite possible that they had local sightings of Yowies there in the past. I didn't do any research to see if that's where the park got its name or if it was just a whim based on something from the local folklore. I mean, if you go to Murray Bridge parkrun in South Australia, they have a Yowie, like a replica of a Yowie built underneath the bridge there that you run straight past and things like that. So I'm pretty sure Yowies aren't localised to anywhere in particular in Australia. They're just kind of everywhere. Well, that was my understanding.

00:10:12Tim Oberg: Yeah. Now, I think as we've been talking, Mel, I have referred to Wikipedia and the Yowie statue in Kilcoy is featured on Wikipedia. So for all the listeners out there that want to hear what Mel's talking about. But interestingly, where it says history of sightings, there was an interesting one in Queensland. So Springbrook in southeast Queensland near the Gold Coast says it's had more Yowie reports than anywhere else in Australia. In 1977, former Queensland Senator Bill O'Chee reported to the Gold Coast Bulletin he had seen a Yowie while on a school trip. O'Chee compared the creature he saw to the character Chewbacca from Star Wars. He told reporters... He told reporters that the creature he saw had been over three metres tall. So there you go.

00:11:01Melissa Erbacher: That's a bit impressive and also scary. I'm a definite believer in Yowies, you know, these things, folklore and stuff. It comes from somewhere.

00:11:09Tim Oberg: Or Star Wars maybe. Yeah. Anyway, it's the Aussie Bigfoot basically, isn't it? That's what we're talking about.

00:11:16Melissa Erbacher: It is, yeah. If you know about a Yeti or a Sasquatch for our international listeners, then a Yowie is the Australian equivalent effectively. Hasn't got white fur, though. It's supposed to be dark fur, apparently dark brown.

00:11:30Tim Oberg: In New South Wales, did you know that in 1994, Tim the Yowie Man claimed to have seen a Yowie in the Brindabella Ranges?

00:11:38Melissa Erbacher: I did not know that.

00:11:41Tim Oberg: It's my namesake. Anyway, look, enough about Yowie's. How was Yowie parkrun? Talk to me about that.

00:11:46Melissa Erbacher: Yowie parkrun was great. It was a small crowd, which is nice. Adam's kind of working up towards getting a very low finish at a particular parkrun at the end of the year. And I think he had his lowest ever finish. He came in third finisher.

00:12:01Tim Oberg: Did he? Yeah, he was. And what time is he running to get a third at Yowie parkrun? Roughly.

00:12:07Melissa Erbacher: I don't know off the top of my head. I think it was 26 or 27 minutes something. Okay. But for him pushing the pram, that's not too bad.

00:12:15Tim Oberg: Yes, that's not bad at all. There we go.

00:12:17Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. And, of course, because the pram is just week by week getting heavier as Wes grows. So it's like he's sort of plateaued at his fastest time. So I think that was one of the faster times he's done.

00:12:30Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:12:31Melissa Erbacher: And he was quite proud because there were another couple of gentlemen with prams as well and he was the first person male pram pusher to finish yeah I can see so 26:31 Adam Erbacher from the Derek Zoolander Centre for Kids Who Can't Run Well there you go and I was somewhere in the early 30s but I think there were only about 35 finishers all together Esther, who is one of the co-EDs there, was Run Director for the morning, and she did a great job. All the volunteers were very welcoming and friendly, which is what you would expect, you know, with the small country towns, but also, I guess, parkrun volunteers everywhere. And the course was a double sort of loopy out and back, if that makes sense.

00:13:13Tim Oberg: We've got one of that.

00:13:14Melissa Erbacher: Yeah.

00:13:15Tim Oberg: Airlie Beach is a double loopy out and back.

00:13:17Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well, it's quite similar to that, actually, only not on the beach.

00:13:21Tim Oberg: It's in the park.

00:13:23Melissa Erbacher: In a rural Queensland country town alongside a creek sort of thing. But, yeah, no, so it was a very pleasant morning. I think it was possibly my fastest parkrun time for a year and Terry might be happy to know that it was about 54 minutes or something like that too.

00:13:39Tim Oberg: Yeah, so 53.42 you did, Mel. I'll have you know.

00:13:43Melissa Erbacher: Oh, I broke the sub-54 barrier, which I've been aiming for for a while. Still felt a little bit sore the next day. But, yeah, no, I had a great morning.

00:13:52Tim Oberg: Fantastic.

00:13:53[16 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Redcliffe parkrun

00:14:09Lyndell Murray: Good morning parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell and I am checking in this morning from Redcliffe parkrun. Now Redcliffe parkrun is along the waters of Moreton Bay in the Moreton Bay Regional Council area and it's north of Brisbane, maybe 30km's I'd say, north of Brisbane. It's a lovely run, I've been here before. We're just heading down to the start of an adjusted course today, so I'll check it out and see what I can do in terms of a few interviews after the run. Alrighty I've decided to start this morning at the back of the pack and I've caught up with Berenice who's tail walking today. How are you going today?

00:14:50Berenice: Very well thank you and at this pace we should get a bit of exercise too. Absolutely that's what parkrun's all about as well as the community.

00:14:59Lyndell Murray: Are you a regular here at parkrun Redcliffe?

00:15:02Berenice: Yes I am and I enjoy it. I come most Saturdays.

00:15:07Lyndell Murray: And do you volunteer or walk or run?

00:15:09Berenice: I've done a few times volunteering, Tail Walker and marshal. I tried my hand at token...

00:15:20Lyndell Murray: Giving outering? Token giver-outer? token zapper oh zapping the token um scanner you think you better cut that bit out no I won't cut that out we're a very friendly and informal podcast it's all right Berenice it's no problem at all

00:15:40Berenice: and what's today like at Redcliffe today's a little bit dull so it should be good for for running should be it does get quite hot here in the summer doesn't it certainly does put the sunscreen on before we start yep And it's good for dolphin spotting here at Redcliffe? It is, yes. I've seen a few of them at different times and other people have seen dugongs as well. Oh, dugongs. I don't know what they look like, but I'm, you know.

00:16:06Lyndell Murray: I saw a dolphin this morning. Oh, wonderful. I haven't seen it yet. Well, he's out there. It's funny. I was standing there with another lady and we were pointing out at the dolphin and there was a couple having a cuddle right in front of the dolphin and then we got all a bit embarrassed because maybe the couple cuddling might have thought that we were pointing at them. That's right. That's a bit embarrassing for you. I don't think they were focused on us, just quietly. Is there anything else you can tell me about Redcliffe parkrun today?

00:16:33Berenice: Very friendly people they are too and it's a lovely picturesque path to travel. No, I can't think. That's enough. That sells parkrun to most people. Friendly, picturesque, nice spot.

00:16:54Lyndell Murray: and I'm always amazed at the the front runners how quickly they go at the turn around pace and then come back yes yeah it's pretty fast course nice and flat nice and just a concrete path not too many twists and turns no no it's great all right well thanks for talking to me today Berenice and I think you better keep this lot in front of us in order for the rest of the run they look like trouble All right, I'm at the northernmost turnaround with a bit of a, you turn around here. I'm helping Paul Marty out with his duties as a Marshal because he's already multitasking by marshalling and photographing and now I want to interview him. So I don't know how that's going to go. How's your day going today, Paul?

00:17:40Paul: It's pretty good. A bit cloudy and humid this morning, but nice day anyway down at the beach. It is. And you're regularly here at Redcliffe? I alternate between Redcliffe, Sandgate and a fair few tourists.

00:17:54Lyndell Murray: Oh, so you're a bit of a tourist. Fantastic. Well, you're right at home here on the parkrun adventurers. There we go. Getting some thank yous from the passers-by, which is always nice. I might leave you with it, Paul, since we're already trying to do three things now. But thanks for volunteering, mate, and I'm sure I'll see you at a parkrun soon.

00:18:16Paul: We'll see you around somewhere.

00:18:17Lyndell Murray: Yeah. I'm back at the start finish. I haven't finished yet. I've still got another loop to do. But I've caught up with Paul again, and now he's only got one job, so maybe we can have a chat while he's just photographing. Let's see how we go. That's right.

00:18:32Paul: Yep, we'll try.

00:18:33Lyndell Murray: Righty-o. So, you said that you're a bit of a tourist. Yes. What's your favourite non-home parkrun?

00:18:39Paul: Ooh, that's tough. Mount Clarence, WA, was pretty spectacular.

00:18:46Lyndell Murray: And what was so great about it?

00:18:47Paul: Just friendly people there, and even though it was a cold, partially wet day, it was still a spectacular course looking out over the harbour. Well, there we go.

00:18:57Lyndell Murray: There's the hot tip. And...

00:18:59Paul: Ocean View.

00:19:00Lyndell Murray: Ocean View, one of the locals here. You better take these photos, Paul. There we go. He's clicking away. So Ocean View is a local course with a spectacular course.

00:19:11Paul: Another very interesting course through the winery and a great breakfast afterwards in the winery.

00:19:17Lyndell Murray: You bet. That's all important. Sure is. Well, thank you, Paul, for having and finishing this chat and thank you for volunteering today.

00:19:26Paul: No worries.

00:19:27Unidentified speaker: Thank you.

00:19:29Lyndell Murray: Alrighty, I'm now at the Southern Turnaround and I'm here with Warren. What's your parkrun story? Why are you here today?

00:19:35Warren: Because I love doing this and it's good for me. Even though I do marshals, I try and... Do you want to take a photo of these ladies? I've got those, yeah. Nice one.

00:19:43Lyndell Murray: We're going to jump in.

00:19:46Warren: Thank you. Not a miss, that one. Just I love the exercise. You walk your own pace. You do what you want to do. You don't have to compete with anybody. If it takes you 20 minutes, good for you. If it takes you an hour and a half, it doesn't matter anyway.

00:20:01Unidentified speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:20:02Warren: And it's good for your muscles, good for your heart, and it's good socially as well.

00:20:07Lyndell Murray: Yeah. And you can multitask. You can marshal. You can take photos. You can have a chat to a crazy roving reporter.

00:20:13Warren: Exactly right. And that's what I like about it because you set your own pace. If you don't feel like you want to do a fast walk, you can go slow walk. If you feel like you want to marshal next week, you can do that. And it just depends on your situation, how you feel week to week.

00:20:27Lyndell Murray: You can always be involved, though.

00:20:28Warren: You can always be involved in some way or the other. You can stay and don't walk at all. You can do tokens. You can do timekeeping and so forth. So I marshal probably out of the probably 50 times I've been here, around about, I've probably marshaled about 15, 18 times, and the rest has been walking at my pace.

00:20:45Lyndell Murray: Yep. Fantastic. And is there other parkruns that you go to if you're not always here?

00:20:51Warren: Yes, I go to the Grafton parkrun and in fact my fastest time is at Grafton, even though it's a hill, it's on grass and I have a reasonable time there. My time's around about 46 minutes at the best, but at my age, nearly 73, I reckon it's okay.

00:21:06Lyndell Murray: I reckon it's okay too, my friend.

00:21:08Warren: Yes, yes. And I'm glad my son got me involved in this because it's been really good for me, especially with my health and that. And I've had heart issues and other issues, but I feel a lot better about doing this and I feel better for it.

00:21:20Lyndell Murray: That's wonderful. Terrific. That's such a great story. Well, thank you. I better let you get back to your duties. You've got another person here that needs a photograph. Thanks for talking to me and enjoy the rest of your parkrun day.

00:21:34Warren: Thank you very much. And it's been a pleasure too. And I really love this. Especially on the bay. It's beautiful.

00:21:39Lyndell Murray: It is, it's a nice spot here. Have you spotted any dolphins here today?

00:21:42Warren: Not today, but normally I do, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But not today. All right. It's a beautiful day and we've got good representation today. Here we go, more photos. All good for the weekend. Yep, I'll leave you to it. Thank you very much.

00:21:55Unidentified speaker: Thank you.

00:21:58Lyndell Murray: Now I've tracked down Amelia, today's Run Director. Amelia, I probably owe you a bit of an apology because I think I've been distracting your volunteers today.

00:22:05Amelia: I don't think so. Most of them are locals and volunteer a lot. So you chatting to them is probably not going to distract them. They've done the job a few times before.

00:22:16Lyndell Murray: Excellent. I think it was all okay. Now, Redcliffe parkrun, how long have we been going here?

00:22:22Amelia: We've just had our second birthday about, it was last month.

00:22:27Lyndell Murray: Okay, so two years in, how's it all going?

00:22:30Amelia: Really, really well. Surprisingly, when all of our Run Directors started, none of us were locals and we've pretty much been able to rope in a few locals and pretty much I think half of the run directing team are Redcliffe locals now, which is really, really good.

00:22:45Lyndell Murray: That's fantastic. So it's grown over time, which is always a good thing. It seems like that's how you build strength over time.

00:22:52Amelia: Yeah, definitely. I think, yeah, the local community's really gotten around Redcliffe parkrun. The closest parkruns used to be over the bridge at Sandgate or North Lakes. So it was a bit of a drive for anybody that wanted to do parkruns. So I think they really enjoy having something really close.

00:23:07Lyndell Murray: And so what sort of numbers are you getting here?

00:23:10Amelia: At the moment, it's anywhere between 150 and 200, depending on the weather. Nobody likes to run in the rain. So last week we were a bit down. But yeah, otherwise, yeah, we have a pretty good solid number, just under 200.

00:23:22Lyndell Murray: Fantastic. And what about you, Amelia? How did you get into parkrun and run directing?

00:23:27Amelia: parkrun, I started at Sandgate back in 2016, I think, when they started. And then just the guys that I used to run with at Sandgate, they decided to start Redcliffe and I was friends with them, so I just started run directing. yep and how have you enjoyed it yeah it's really good um it's really nice to have a good chat to people that love running and just love being part of the community yeah and look parkrun generally becomes part of whatever community it's in so that's always a really nice thing about parkrun too it really is and it's really nice coming down and seeing the same familiar faces all the time it's not a new group of people that the same people are supporting it which is really nice

00:24:09Lyndell Murray: Fantastic. Is there anything else you'd like to add about parkrun Redcliffe?

00:24:13Amelia: No, not really. Sorry.

00:24:16Lyndell Murray: Did you see any dolphins today?

00:24:18Amelia: No dolphins today. I saw there's some stand-up paddle boarders, but yeah, no dolphins.

00:24:23Lyndell Murray: And not as blue today as it often is here, but it's still a lovely spot. Yeah, definitely not as blue.

00:24:27Amelia: Very, very overcast. Normally you get a nice sunrise, but I think the guys probably enjoyed having the sun behind the clouds today.

00:24:35Lyndell Murray: Definitely. Yeah, it's a bit muggy. Yeah. Well, thank you for your time and thank you, Amelia, and all of the run directing team for all the work that you've done here and, yeah, the contribution that you make to the community.

00:24:46Amelia: Excellent. Thank you very much.

00:24:49Lyndell Murray: Alrighty, well, I think we can say that that's a wrap from me from Redcliffe parkrun. A bit of a change of plan, well, probably within 30 seconds of me introducing myself and starting this roving report, I decided to try and see what I could do during the parkrun. So that's what I did. I've interviewed all of the on-course volunteers, the Tail Walker, the photographer slash north end marshal, The South End Marshall, who was also doubling as a photographer. And as always, I always like to catch up with the Run Director. So that's it. Hopefully everyone from Redcliffe parkrun gets a time today. I mean, I didn't talk to the Timekeeper or the token hander-outer. So look, I think the... You know, the main parts were probably covered and not distracted, so I feel confident that there'll be an email in my inbox when I get home with the time. So that's it from me. This is Lyndell signing out for the Channel 5 News crew on the parkrun adventurers podcast.

Roving report Sarah — Aurora parkrun

00:25:46Unidentified speaker: Good morning, parkrun adventurers. We are doing parkrun today, and it's not a Saturday. Today is Sunday, and we're heading to a trial of a new parkrun in Melbourne. We're in the northern suburbs of Wollert, sort of on the border of Epping, and we are going to try out Aurora parkrun. It's a four-lap course. I know that much. And other than that, I don't know too much about the course. So we'll report back in a little bit later. Thanks. It's Sarah again. We're just here at Aurora. We're getting ready to start. But before we do, I'm just going to ask, I've just run into a couple of people that, a couple of familiar faces. So please tell me where you're from and what your name is.

00:26:30Unidentified speaker: Hi, I'm Stacey and I'm from Highlands parkrun. I'm Ninka. I'm from Highlands parkrun too.

00:26:35Unidentified speaker: And Georgette from Highlands parkrun. Fantastic. So welcome, guys. What brought you to come and try out Aurora today?

00:26:42Unidentified speaker: I thought it would be fun to try something new, help them get their parkrun started. And I've never been to a trial before, so I thought I'd give it a go. Fantastic. Just to go somewhere different and run with these girls. Awesome. Likewise. Stacey. Stacey made you come.

00:26:58Unidentified speaker: So Stacey made you come. Oh, Stacey made you do it. I get that. Yes. Yeah, that's good. Sorry, I have the same relationship with Rita. We blame each other for everything. It's always Rita made me do it, Sarah made me do it. So hopefully the guys will get started soon. It looks like they've finished doing all their preparations. So have a good run. Might check in with you after. Then you can give us a bit of a lowdown of the course and what you thought was what you liked about it, you know. So, yeah, thanks, guys.

00:27:21Unidentified speaker: All right, thank you.

00:27:23Unidentified speaker: Okay, so we've just completed the Aurora parkrun trial. So I'm just here with the girls I was with earlier. So what did you guys all think of the course?

00:27:32Unidentified speaker: Yeah, it was good. Nice and scenic. I liked hearing the frogs by the lake. A bit lappy, but that's okay. It's still good. Yep. I've only ever done one other venue or area, Craigieburn. So, yeah, this is good. Awesome.

00:27:47Unidentified speaker: So you guys are coming back for the launch, is that correct? Yes, I'm going to, definitely. Awesome. Yeah, I'll come back. Potentially, yeah.

00:27:53Kaino: I can fit it in. Awesome.

00:27:55Unidentified speaker: Well, thank you for your time, girls. Go and enjoy your coffee, and I'm sure we'll see you soon. No worries. Thanks. Hi, it's Sarah again, and we're here at Aurora parkrun with the co-EDs. We've got Bec and Crux. So guys, tell me, how did Aurora parkrun all come about?

00:28:11Unidentified speaker: Well, December last year, so almost a year or 10 months in the making, the running club we're a part of, Laylaw Running Club, applied for a grant through our local council to start up a parkrun in this area. Awesome. So the president of the running club, Belle, who started up Laylaw, she kind of approached us and said, would you guys be interested in being... Event Directors and we were both Run Directors at layla at the time so we were really keen to get something a little bit closer to home awesome um so that was really the start of the process so we had five thousand dollars secured which was a great you can walk here that's awesome Yeah, so that was really the start of the process. And I guess we started looking at, you know, locations in the area. This park came up on our radar, but it didn't actually open until Easter.

00:29:01Amelia: So we were sort of hanging out the day before Easter.

00:29:05Unidentified speaker: um yeah they had a little Good Friday event here and that's when the park opened so we were hanging out for it to open so we could get in and kind of measure it out and make sure it could work for us but um that's really where it all started was it was the Easter bunny here Oliver did you find Easter eggs yeah oh that's awesome

00:29:25Unidentified speaker: Oh, they were throwing Easter eggs. So you love coming here because it's nice closer to home, do you? Awesome. And you've been our awesome volunteers. Is that your little brother? Volunteers today doing the tokens. So thank you very much for doing that. And so you guys are launching on the 9th of November? Yep, 9th of November. And how many people are you expecting to come down and celebrate your first parkrun?

00:29:49Unidentified speaker: I don't know. We'd be happy with any numbers.

00:29:53Unidentified speaker: 70. Oliver's going 70?

00:29:54Unidentified speaker: No, he said infinity. Oh, infinity. Sorry, sweetie. Infinity. He's six years old and infinity is his favourite number. Look, whether it's 100 or 200, that'd be nice. I'd be happy to kind of cap it at 200. But no, we won't.

00:30:11Unidentified speaker: We'll welcome anyone that comes. Awesome. Fantastic. Well, it was lovely today. I've been talking to a few people who've been participating today, and they said they loved they could hear the frogs down there. It's a nice scenic course. You're back onto the back of the primary school, so there's lots of open spaces. So good luck with your launch. I hope it all goes well. Thank you very much. And thank you so much for letting me borrow you guys for a bit of a chinwag. Good luck. Thanks, guys. Bye, hi guys I'm still here at aurora we've finished our trial and I've rallied together a couple of runners so I'll get you guys to all introduce yourselves good morning I'm Paula I'm Clint and Melissa and where are you guys normally parkrunners where do you usually parkrun I'm a rd at laylaw so normally at laylaw awesome normally at laylaw as well yeah at laylaw or moondah fantastic and what brought you out here this morning

00:30:58Unidentified speaker: I live 200 metres away. Oh, nice. So I thought I'd just roll out of bed. Can't wait for this one to start because when I feel really lazy on a Saturday morning, I'll get to about quarter to eight and go, I should have went and now I can just roll out of bed and come round.

00:31:12Unidentified speaker: Oh, I'm so jealous right now. Yep. How about you, Paula? I've come through as part of the Layla Running Club trial for today to help the guys out. So it's been a great course. I'm really happy with it. Fantastic. How about you, Millie? I heard there was doughnuts. Oh, me too. Anyone who knows me knows that we love doughnuts. But yes, I know. Is there a local doughnut shop? Is there a cafe? I think there's a cafe around there. Okay. So when everyone comes here for the launch on the 9th, do you know which cafe everyone is going to be rallying to?

00:31:40Unidentified speaker: I'm pretty sure that diletto is the cafe of choice yeah do they have doughnuts um not 100 sure because doughnuts aren't my favourite thing over here does and they make them in a wood-fired oven oh okay I'm going okay so I'll be here every week it's a little bit further from my local but that's okay doughnuts I will run for doughnuts

00:32:02Unidentified speaker: Fantastic, guys. So you'll be coming back for the launch or you'll come back and visit again soon? Yeah, I'll be volunteering for the launch. Oh, fantastic. What volley roll? I think Barcode Scanner. Fantastic. And why do you like volleying? I get to rest. And you get to do lots of high fives and say hi to everyone. Fantastic, guys. Thanks for your time. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday. And don't we love that on the weekend we can parkrun on Saturday and Sunday when there's a trial? Absolutely. So enjoy the rest of your weekend and we'll see you soon. Thanks. Bye. Thank you.

Roving report Nadine Crawford — Swakopmund parkrun

00:32:33Nadine: Good morning parkrunners, this is Nadine. I hail to you from Rosebud parkrun in the greater state of Victoria. This is my first roving report and I'm coming to you today after a little bit of a parkrun drought. I've had two weeks of no parkrun as I've travelled around Africa but today I get parkrun redemption. I'm here in Namibia and today I'll be doing Swakopmund parkrun. A little bit of information about Swakopmund parkrun. It is today event number 133, so I guess it's been going for about a year and a half, something like that, maybe nearly, oh yeah, about a year and a half. And just for a little bit of the faster runners among us, the course record here at Swakopmund parkrun is 14 minutes and 38 seconds. So I can tell you right now, I will not be running anywhere near that time but I will be here having a lot of fun and I have definitely got my parkrun spirit with me even if I haven't got my african running legs I will check in with you after the run when I find out if I can find some people to talk to cheers parkrunners

00:33:43Kaino: adventurers I'm here with kaino kaino is a local woman here and she's here at her second ever parkrun welcome kaino thank you very much tell us about why you've come along to parkrun you know um late last year I got a baby and then I picked up so much weight and my weight started bothering me I got to a point where even when I stand up from my bed I started feeling my weight in my feet so I decided okay I'm going to go on a sort of a health journey program I joined an exercising group and the Saturday before last Saturday I came for my first parkrun and I enjoyed it I must say it was really fun I was beating myself because I got to a point where I was just being lazy and I walked so I finished it in 38 minutes and today and last Saturday I couldn't come because I travelled out of town but today I was like I'm gonna come back again and I'll come back more often and today I want to do it in 30 minutes

00:34:40Nadine: Wow, that's fantastic. I reckon 38 minutes for your first ever parkrun is fantastic. Yeah. Did you feel amazing afterwards? Yeah, very much.

00:34:48Kaino: Really. You know, you feel so refreshed, energetic. And, you know, when you get home and take a nice warm shower, you just... You feel so nice.

00:35:00Nadine: Yeah, that shower after a run can't be beaten, can it?

00:35:03Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:35:04Nadine: Well, good luck today. I'll check in with you afterwards and see how your run went. But it's lovely talking to you. And welcome to the parkrun family. Thank you so much. Hi folks, we've just finished our run here at Swakopmund parkrun and I'm here with Julie. Julie, tell us about your run this morning.

00:35:23Julie: It was a little bit difficult this morning for me, but the sun is beautiful, the weather's also beautiful, but it's my 24th parkrun. Fantastic. It was good.

00:35:33Nadine: Yep, so you don't look like a typical Namibian person.

00:35:36Julie: Where do you hail from? No, I'm from Windhoek, actually. Is that right? I stay now here for 25 years. Okay. Yeah, right. I'm a registered nurse. Yeah, that's a good profession. I'm also a registered nurse. Oh, nice. So we improve our people.

00:35:50Nadine: Yes, absolutely. Thank you. So tell me about parkrun for you. Have you made some friends?

00:35:55Julie: Is it a community?

00:35:56Nadine: Oh, yes.

00:35:57Julie: It's a very friendly community here in Namibia, Swakopmund. You just look at people's faces and say, hi, and then they ask, what is your name? And actually then we can get on a WhatsApp page and then we get friends. That's awesome. Thanks for talking to us, Julie.

00:36:11Nadine: And here's Elenia. I know I'm saying her name wrong. I keep saying it wrong, but she's going to forgive me anyway. So, Elenia, tell us how you became involved in parkrun.

00:36:21Unidentified speaker: dragged into it by my husband and my kids. You wouldn't be the first one with that story, I'm sure. And the whole admin thing was dumped on me, so yes, yes. But you do it with a smile on your face and willingly. We do. We moan in the week and then weekends we smile.

00:36:36Nadine: Right, good, yes.

00:36:37Unidentified speaker: Tell us about the course here. Yeah, it's a lovely one. It goes all the way down to the sea and then you run on a little walkway all along the beach, which is absolutely wonderful, I think, for the runners. I'm usually up here. You can talk to Barbara. And we are among the 10 top parkruns, no?

00:36:55Unidentified speaker: Top 10 parkruns in the world?

00:36:57Unidentified speaker: Yes. Is that right? Yeah. What, you know,

00:37:00Nadine: because of our beauty yeah it is now we have the sun today sorry about this that's all right I only got the sun in the last one kilometre so it was really nice thank you for talking to us we loved your parkrun yeah come back we will thank you I am here with the Run Director today and he has done a fabulous job have you had any problems today no today it was nice and smooth yeah nice and fantastic what what what sort of number are we up to

00:37:27guest: I think we are now at about 150, so it will be 155 more or less participants today.

00:37:34Nadine: Fantastic.

00:37:35guest: I think our average is about just over 100, so it was a good turnout today.

00:37:39Nadine: Yeah, good. It's a beautiful day here. It started off a bit overcast, but the sun's come out now. So can you tell me about how Swakopmund parkrun started and how you got involved?

00:37:50guest: It started in April 2017 by our indoor sports centre, the Dome. They organised it. But the Swakopmund running club was part of it, the Swakopmund Striders. And I'm part of the running club. So, yes, it was a sort of a combined effort. And we as striders, sometimes we participate, but sometimes we also volunteer.

00:38:26Nadine: Yeah, fantastic.

00:38:28guest: But I personally am not part of the organising. Yeah. But I've been a volunteer for more than 30 times now.

00:38:38Nadine: Fantastic. We've done a great job this morning, and we can hear the community in the background encouraging some of the runners into the finish line, which is fantastic. Would you say we've got a good community here at Swakopmund parkrun?

00:38:50guest: Yes, it is a good community and I think we can see the purpose of the parkrun to get people moving. So I think many of these 150 participants otherwise wouldn't do anything today. So there are some serious runners but I think at least 70% are just social and I think many of them wouldn't do anything today.

00:39:19Nadine: That's fantastic.

00:39:20guest: And we can also see that many who start with a parkrun actually become fairly serious runners otherwise. Yeah, that's right. That's really good to see.

00:39:29Nadine: Well, thank you so much for talking to us and for welcoming us to your beautiful parkrun here. And hopefully we'll see you in Australia one day.

00:39:36Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:39:37Nadine: Thanks for talking to us.

00:39:38Unidentified speaker: It was a pleasure.

00:39:39Nadine: And that is a wrap from me from Swakopmund parkrun. It's been a beautiful morning here and we're very excited to tick off another country and a new parkrun event. We have absolutely loved it and I hope you've enjoyed listening to this roving report from Africa.

00:39:56Melissa Erbacher: Cheers. As always, awesome roving reports from the crew. We had the three of them there from the girls this week. We do actually have one from Dave or we don't quite have one from Dave, who was at Coldham's Common parkrun in the UK last weekend, but we're having some trouble receiving the files. So I'm going to have it handed to me in person this week at parkrun so everyone can listen to it next week. But Lyndell was at Redcliffe parkrun, which is an awesome event that I've done. Have you done Redcliffe, Tim?

00:40:25Tim Oberg: I was at the launch. Yeah, it was a crack, a very big launch that we did when we had Medibank down activating. So yeah, it was a Pretty amazing day, that one, and beautiful parkrun.

00:40:36Melissa Erbacher: It is a beautiful parkrun. And I like, they talked about a lot of people see dolphins. We see dolphins and whales at Kawana, but Berenice mentioned that they see dugongs sometimes. And I was a bit excited because we're big on dugongs in this family. We've never seen them in the wild, but Wes has got a book called Is It a Mermaid, which is about a dugong that thinks it's a mermaid. It's a very cute book, but yes, the cows of the sea. Have you ever seen a dugong?

00:41:03Tim Oberg: Yeah, they're not the prettiest of animals.

00:41:05Melissa Erbacher: Oh, they're beautiful.

00:41:07Tim Oberg: What are you talking about? I mean, you know, they're cute. They're cute in that kind of ugly kind of way. But no, we have dugongs up here in Airlie Beach. In fact, we have a statue, dugong statues out on the water and if you go to Airlie Beach in the town, yeah, out on the sort of Airlie Beach Lagoon, there's some beautiful dugong statues there. And, yeah, even from my office where I'm looking at at the ocean right now, I can you might be able to see a dugong on a good day. So, yeah, they're definitely out and about.

00:41:36Melissa Erbacher: I'm very jealous. Yeah, I'll have to look out for those next time I head to Redcliffe. But I liked Lyndell's style this week, doing all her roving reports on the course too and interrupting the volunteers. I'm glad to hear that she didn't adversely impact results processing or anything like that. And then we had Sarah, who was at the Aurora parkrun trial, getting a bonus in this week. Got to love that. It's been a long time since I've been to a trial on a Sunday.

00:42:05Tim Oberg: Oh, yeah. I couldn't tell you the last time I did a parkrun trial. It's been many years, but it's always good to get a sneak peek of what's to come.

00:42:12Melissa Erbacher: It is. It is. And very excitingly, we had Nadine submitting our first roving report from Namibia. And I'm going to let you pronounce this one, Tim, because I struggle.

00:42:23Tim Oberg: Oh, you can't put me on the spotlight. That's just because I'm married to a South African. Well, you know. But look, it is interesting. I mean, I haven't been to Namibia for parkrun. I've done a few in South Africa and I see that there's three there now. And, you know, it's fantastic to see the growth of parkrun all over the world. But of course, in Southern Africa there, it's... you know, doing fantastically well. So I say pretty exciting to have a roving report coming to us from Namibia.

00:42:48Melissa Erbacher: Absolutely. And I do love that the stories, they're just like the stories that we hear here. You know, the accents are a little bit different, but people being dragged along by husbands and kids and, you know, everyone gets into parkrun in slightly different but slightly similar ways as everywhere else in the world. It's always nice.

00:43:08Tim Oberg: Yeah, and it sort of takes me back to what I said at the start of the episode with my dad and, you know, the number of times we've reported in the parkrun newsletter or here on the podcast about people in their 80s starting parkrun and loving it. And now here I am seeing my dad do that same thing. So, yeah, it doesn't matter where you are in the world, parkrun, the gift of parkrun is one that just keeps giving and giving in the same sort of ways. It's amazing.

00:43:32Melissa Erbacher: Now, last week we mentioned that we might have to put the challenge out for Cam to join the parkrun adventurers Channel 5 News crew. And the roving reporters on the crew have been putting their heads together to come up with a challenge because I told everyone I was staying out of it this time. But I guess, you know, ask eight people to decide what to get one person to do and that's going to take a little bit longer than just one person trying to think of it. So... We don't have the challenge for you yet, Cam, but I hope to have it for you next week. Now, another challenge that we put out last week, Tim, and I'm not sure if you heard about this one, was what could anyone do in 2 minutes 50 seconds or 3 minutes 18 seconds? And do you know what happened, Tim?

00:44:22Tim Oberg: Tell me what happened, Mel.

00:44:23Melissa Erbacher: It totally bombed Scotty. So Scotty was always saying we need to stop asking people to send us in their thoughts on this or that or, you know, people never get in touch with us and, yeah. I think this is going to be my final failed experiment because the only person who wrote in to me was Lyndell, our wonderful Lyndell from the Channel 5 News crew. And she said, Mel, I went to the gym this morning and did an average of 231 steps on the stair climb up per three minutes 18. She also reported that she did exactly zero burpees in that time.

00:45:03Tim Oberg: Well, I love her commitment. That's disappointing from the listeners. I mean, come on, listeners. Episode 180 and you're still not giving back. Come on, give Mel something. Somebody give Mel something between now and next episode.

00:45:21Melissa Erbacher: It's okay.

00:45:22Tim Oberg: She's crying out for it.

00:45:24Melissa Erbacher: I'm not going to be offended because I do appreciate people listen to the pod in places where they're away from computers and things like that and then they'll forget. Life gets busy. Nobody cares. You know, these are all good excuses. So I'm going to move on. I'm going to move on.

00:45:40Unidentified speaker: Okay.

00:45:40Melissa Erbacher: Oh, you know what I wanted to talk about? We were just briefly before talking about how parkrun's the same everywhere in the world. And that got me thinking about symmetry. And Adam had a little bit of a revelation on the weekend. You talked about the fact that you've already got all your bingo numbers for your challenges without even trying, as does he. He's got all his bingo and I'm still chasing it. But he realised he's also got Groundhog Day, which is one that I don't anticipate will ever happen for me. But not only has he got his Groundhog Day, which for those who don't know what it is, it's running at the same event two weeks in a row and also achieving the same official time. So Adam did this in 2017. He's had it for a And the second of those weeks was the 28th of January.

00:46:37Tim Oberg: How is that? That's just weird. So it doesn't have to be the same finished position. It's just time.

00:46:42Melissa Erbacher: Just time, yeah. I mean, I don't know what the odds are of getting the same finished position as well as time, but I just thought that was beautiful because it had all the same numbers, basically.

00:46:53Tim Oberg: Yeah. Well, I've got a nice little bit of symmetry in my life, and that is that I did my first ever parkrun at Wimbledon Common, on the 24th of July, 2010. And Nikki and I had our first child on the 24th of July, 2012, Jack. So therefore, the 24th of July, very important date in my life.

Ugly Christmas Singlets

00:47:18Tim Oberg: Oh, so good. Now, Mel, I'm hanging for this big announcement. The big announcement? I talked about it at the start. Have I jumped the gun? No. It's the big announcement. No, I don't think you've jumped the gun. Let's do it. Do it. I'm excited.

00:47:30Melissa Erbacher: Okay. Well, a little bit of background story. Those who are following our Facebook page and any of our socials, Instagram and Twitter, will know that the Ugly Christmas Singlets for 2019 are now out. They're in the wild. Well, they're not in the wild. The ordering is open. for them to be ordered and then produced and then delivered. We are very excited about this, obviously, but it brings us to, we wanted to up the ante on the celebrating of the Ugly Christmas Singlet. Last year, there wasn't, Really, like a set day, people wore them on Christmas Day, yes. Other people wore them to Christmas Day parkrun events, yes. It was all a little bit of a mishmash. So we looked a little bit more into the history of ugly Christmas, well, obviously, we are the beginners of Ugly Christmas Singlets, but ugly Christmas sweaters, as they're known in the US, or jumpers, as they get called in the UK. And I came up with the fact that in the early 2000s in Canada, they actually hosted an ugly Christmas sweater party. And I think there was about 30, 35 attendees all showing up in their ugliest Christmas best. But this has become a really big thing at that particular party. So it's something they celebrate every year now and to raise funds for a particular charity. And last year, I think they had about 1,000 people attend this party. Which is just incredible. And it got me thinking that we need to definitely create a day where everybody can wear their Ugly Christmas Singlet. This year we did Ugly Christmas Singlets Christmas in July. Oh no, we didn't do it in July. We did it in August. A little bit contradictory in Australia because... they're singlets you know the whole purpose of us creating them was because we can't wear sweaters in summer at Christmas time in our climate so we made singlets and then we got everyone to wear them at Christmas in August which was cold so that didn't make any sense so what we're going to do is we're going to kind of get a little bit in line with how they celebrate in the US and the UK and those guys celebrate ugly Christmas sweater or ugly Christmas jumper day and on the third Friday in December. Now, Fridays don't mean anything to us in parkrun world. It's all about parkrun day. So, we are going to proclaim that the third Saturday of December, every year from here on in, is Ugly Christmas Singlet Day.

00:50:05Tim Oberg: Oh, I mean, I mean, you've totally sold me. And to be clear, I wear my Ugly Christmas Singlet, the one from last year, I wear it all the time, just randomly. I don't care if it's Christmas or not, or if it's a set day, because it's actually a great singlet. So, But yeah, I'm totally in for Ugly Christmas Singlet Day in December. Sign me up.

00:50:25Melissa Erbacher: Awesome. It'll be the 21st of December, just to be clear. We'll create an event for it and we're going to want to get everybody to send us photos. And the benefit is that this year, because the orders are opened earlier, they're going to be closing a bit earlier, produced a bit earlier. Hopefully, that means all our international parkrun adventurers will be able to get any orders they purchase before Christmas this year. That's been the whole intent and reason behind it. I know a lot of people are like, oh, it's October. Why are we talking about Christmas? But you've got to get ready for these things, especially when you've got a production run on X amount of items. Ugly Christmas Singlets it all takes time people so we're not jumping the gun we are planning for an epic festive season 2019 and I'm very excited to hear that you wear your Christmas singlet so often Tim well it's a nice singlet it always sparks a bit of conversation brings a smile to people's faces and uh look I'm looking at the design for this year and

00:51:21Tim Oberg: and that is definitely going to make people smile. So I'm all for it. And I don't think October's too early. In fact, Mel, did you know, I'm sure you do know this, that friends of the show, Vanessa and Dean Gibson, Event Directors at Sandgate parkrun, They put their Christmas tree up every year on the 1st of October. Did you know that?

00:51:38Melissa Erbacher: Well, they got it up in September last year, I think. Was it September?

00:51:44Tim Oberg: Yeah. I thought it was October.

00:51:46Melissa Erbacher: We had Ness on the show last year because she also co-hosts a podcast about Christmas called Christmas Potting.

00:51:52Lyndell Murray: Christmas Potting, right. I know.

00:51:53Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, and I've been listening to that one of late. I'm catching up to make sure that I'm all up to speed. I didn't realise they released an episode in February and June this year as well. I missed those. My subscription obviously wasn't doing its job, so I've been catching up on those episodes. in recent weeks.

00:52:10Tim Oberg: Well, they're addicted to Christmas. And do you know, my first date movie with Nikki was Love Actually at Christmas time when it was actually at the movies.

00:52:19Melissa Erbacher: That's a pretty perfect date movie, isn't it?

00:52:22Tim Oberg: It was. We got married, so it did the job. It's a Christmas miracle. Hey, what do you say?

00:52:30Melissa Erbacher: Nothing. It's just, you know, the magic of Christmas, bringing loved ones together or soon to be loved ones, as it were.

00:52:37Tim Oberg: Yeah, it did.

Sign-off

00:52:38Tim Oberg: It worked.

00:52:38Melissa Erbacher: Anyway. Well, I think that probably just about wraps it up for this week, Tim. Thank you so much for coming to join me as a co-host this week. It's been a good fun.

00:52:48Tim Oberg: Well, you know, every time I come on the show, whether it's as a co-host or as a guest, I really enjoy it. I love the podcast. I love what you do. And great to be able to continue supporting it.

00:52:59Melissa Erbacher: Now, we will also need to have you back on the show as a guest in the coming not too distant future because you've got a little bit of a different role title and you don't actually work for parkrun Australia anymore. So we're going to want to talk to you about that and find out all the ins and outs of what it means to be the Strategic Director of Asia Pacific.

00:53:19Tim Oberg: Fantastic. Can't wait.

00:54:22Unidentified speaker: Thank you.