Episode 182 - Ian Shaw

Welcome

00:00:23Mark Scarborough: Hello, parkrun adventurers. This is episode 182 of the parkrun adventurers. I'm Mark, your co-host for today. And of course, we have the illustrious Mel Erbacher.

00:00:36Melissa Erbacher: Oh, I'm not sure I've ever been illustrious before. That's a bit exciting. Thanks, Mark. You should come on to do the introductions every week. I look forward to hearing the adjectives you could come up with for me.

00:00:49Mark Scarborough: Maybe I could host the Price is Right even, or be the voiceover for Price is Right. Yeah.

00:00:54Melissa Erbacher: Well, what people can't see is me doing all the arm movements, the gestures of, well, no, it's not Price is Right. I'm thinking of Wheel of Fortune with Adriana Xenides doing, turning the letters around and then doing the swish. Or Sale of the Century. They do that on the Sale of the Century too, don't they?

00:01:10Mark Scarborough: You're showing your age now.

00:01:11Melissa Erbacher: I was just about to say that. Am I showing my age? All these really old game shows that nobody knows about anymore.

00:01:18Mark Scarborough: Yeah, look, some of the audience may have no idea about. Adriana and Wheel of Fortune.

00:01:26Melissa Erbacher: Well, certainly not outside of Australia because she is an Australian icon, that one, I think. Have you had a good week, Mark, so far?

00:01:38Mark Scarborough: Yeah, look, it's been an interesting week here in Canberra. We've had some interesting weather. We've had just... wind gusts going on for a good week and the weather plummeting again. We had five degrees on parkrun Day, which was a bit of a shock, you know, walking over to the start line in T-shirt and shorts in that kind of weather when we'd had some warm weather beforehand. So, yeah, it's been a bit of an interesting week here in Canberra and, yeah, no, it's been great. We had the Canberra Times Fun Run on Sunday. We had lots of people out and about there that I recognised, which was just great to see.

00:02:13Melissa Erbacher: Doesn't the ACT know it's summer now?

00:02:16Mark Scarborough: Oh, look, you know, I think that Canberra does get a little bit confused about the weather, but usually around November it has sorted itself out. Like we are well known for having what we call fake spring where, you know, it does get warm and then people get excited and throw out the winter clothes and get the doonas off the beds and things like that. And then we'll have a cold snap for another good couple of weeks.

00:02:36Melissa Erbacher: Mother Nature's like, gotcha.

00:02:38Mark Scarborough: Oh, yeah, that happens every year. But normally, right now, it's really confusing for five degrees on Saturday. But, yeah, looking better now.

00:02:48Melissa Erbacher: Was it PB weather? Did you participate? Were you running or walking at parkrun on the weekend? Where were you? Tell me all the things.

00:02:55Mark Scarborough: Well, look, there's been some excitement, I suppose, happening here for us here in Canberra. We've got a new parkrun event in Gungahlin that's called Wagi Bridge. So that's now my new parkrun event. So it's a little bit closer to home. It's a good distance to run there if I want to, which I did a couple of weeks ago. And it's not too far from my old home parkrun of Gungahlin parkrun. So that's our new home, and I'm now part of the event team there, which I'm really pleased to be part of. And so this was event number three for Wagi Bridge and my second event there with the family. It's been good actually having the family coming out more and more with me to parkrun. And so I've been running with my son, James, who is... quite a fast little runner. Um, my wife's worried that she won't be able to keep up with him. So I've, I get to run with him. And, um, for the last two weeks, we've actually posted some pretty fast times. And, um, obviously week number two was our first event, um, running at Wagi Bridge. And we obviously posted a best time then for the first one. And then, um, We got another PB again on Saturday and it's his fastest 5k time ever. So I'm really proud of how he's been going and how we're running together.

00:04:12Melissa Erbacher: That's awesome. Great to hear that you're getting time in with your family and especially making special moments and memories like that with your son. I can't wait till we can start proper parkrunning with Wes where he's going to be participating in the course obviously I'm not trying to wish away the years either it's quite nice that he's in the pram and I don't have to push it at the moment but I'm sure the time will come and so have you popped into your profile and actually changed your home parkrun to Wagi Bridge no you know what I haven't done that okay so it's not real yet then Until you have a few clicks of the button on the internet, it's not quite real.

00:04:53Mark Scarborough: Yeah, no, look, I should do that. I should commit. But I do think that when it comes to, I have looked at ordering an apricot shirt and I think I still will get a Gungahlin and a Wagi Bridge one though because, you know, I think that there is still some endearing love back towards your original home parkrun. Every time I go check out the apricot shirts, they don't have my sizing stock. So I've been having a hard time.

00:05:18Melissa Erbacher: Well, as soon as they come in stock, I mean, you can never have too many anyway, can you?

00:05:22Mark Scarborough: No, that's true.

00:05:22Melissa Erbacher: It's especially not through the summer when everything gets so sweaty and you can't really wear them more than once in a row.

00:05:27Mark Scarborough: That's right. And what about your parkrun day? Where did you end up?

00:05:32Melissa Erbacher: Well, we did have an adventure planned. There was a bit of a get-together happening at Gatton parkrun in Queensland and we were going to head that way. It's about a two-and-a-half-hour drive, from where I am. However, it turned out that the boys got sick during the week and we decided that it would be better for us if we let them rest a bit more and just parkrun a little bit closer to home and kept the sniffles away from the people. So that's what we did. We stayed home at Kawana. I ended up volunteering. And so here's the thing. Yes, I volunteer a lot at Kawana, but I'm on a tourism streak and I don't want to break it. So, if I run at Kawana, that's it. My streak gets broken. And I know it's been a while since I ran there, but it would halve my streak, I think. So, such is the way things are. I was barcode scanning, which is great. It's always good to barcode scan every now and again because it's nice to way to refresh your memory of names of people that you might not have quite remembered because you had a baby and are forgetting things a little bit more easily. Great morning, beautiful weather. Emmett volunteered with me and he fell asleep promptly to which everybody made hilarious comments as they do. They all of them, they make the same joke. repeatedly. But it was fun. It was a good morning.

00:07:05Mark Scarborough: I have to admit, I actually haven't fulfilled the Barcode Scanner role as yet. How have you found going to the app and have you had any kind of issues with that?

00:07:16Melissa Erbacher: Not at all. I love the app. Every time I use it, barcode scanning in particular is a lot easier. I mean, obviously it's barcode scanning or timekeeping on the app, but because there's so much more feedback, you've got the visual feedback and It vibrates in your hand when it does it as well, which is always nice. And it's a lot more accurate too. You don't have to worry about if you're hearing the other person's. Yeah, love it. Love it. Very easy. And I think you're going to be training people on how to use it. Have you had a little practice at home, even though you've never used it in the flesh yourself in the volunteer role?

00:07:54Mark Scarborough: Yeah, so I did download the app and I've had it on my phone for a while and I've had a bit of a play with it. And it's pretty easy to use, which is, I think, really convenient for people. And I think that the good thing is that, like we talked about podcasts last week, is that if there is a large number of people are struggling with barcode scanning, is that anybody can just jump in and then just lend a hand. You don't have to worry about having a barcode scan or any other infrastructure. So, yeah, I think that that's a really cool thing to have.

00:08:20Melissa Erbacher: Absolutely. Now, I alluded to it because you didn't mention it yourself, Mark, but this coming week is going to be your first time out run directing at Wagi Bridge. And see, okay, we need to talk about this right now. I say Wagyu, you say Wagyu or Wagyu, or I think I heard you say Wagyu Bridge. Like, isn't that a kind of beef thing?

00:08:44Mark Scarborough: Um, no, there is, uh, there is an indigenous interpretation for it. I did look it up a while ago. I can't remember what, what the meaning was. You put me on the spot now. Um, but it is Wagyu Bridge and yes, you're right. Um, this weekend is, um, first time run directing ever, um, Our Event Director, Ian, is off to run a marathon over in New Zealand with a bunch of other parkrunners from Gungahlin and Wagi Bridge, which is really exciting. So he put the call out to the event team a couple of weeks ago and asked who could fill in. And I'm like, well, if I look at my Wilson Index challenge tracker that I've got going, I can actually volunteer that week. So I've got number four, which is our event number this week. So I put my hand up and throw myself in the deep end and give it a go to help out the team. So I'm a little bit nervous, but I'm looking forward to it. I'm confident there'll be plenty of people around if anything happens to go wrong with results and things like that. There'll be still some people, you know, in the area that can help me if I need to. And obviously you can ring up the support line, things like that. Yeah. I'm pretty confident that everything will go well. I actually put the call out to my gym today and also invited them to come along for people that are interested in parkrun that hadn't been before. So I know sometimes it can be quite daunting going to parkrun for that first time. So I thought by offering to my gym that, you know, hey, there's a familiar face there. I'll welcome you. I'll talk you through the process, make sure you don't get lost. And then you can also come and have breakfast with us afterwards. So it'll be interesting to see how that goes.

00:10:17Melissa Erbacher: Oh, I really like that. Sharing your first time as a Run Director with a whole bunch of first time parkrunners. Have you got anything extra special planned for your pre-event brief?

00:10:28Mark Scarborough: Yeah, look, one of the things that I actually really like that Ian has initiated for Wagi Bridge is that we do the briefing on one side of the bridge and then we go across the other side of the bridge to the start line. And what Ian's initiated is that anybody that's celebrating a milestone gets to lead the pack across the bridge, which I think is really neat. I think it's a really good idea. kind of way of celebrating a milestone by getting that honour of leading the pack. But, yeah, looking forward to the opportunity this weekend.

00:10:59Melissa Erbacher: Well, good luck. Have fun. I'm sure you'll be brilliant.

00:11:04[16 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Meet the ED

Interview Ian Shaw — Event Director / Run Director, Wagi Bridge parkrun (Gungahlin, ACT)

00:11:20Mark Scarborough: So this week's guest is Ian Shaw, who is the Run Director at Wagi Bridge, a new parkrun here in Canberra. Thanks for joining us tonight, Ian. Not a problem. So Ian, I'm quite interested about how Wagi Bridge came about. How long ago did you start the whole process of getting this new parkrun up and running?

00:11:41Ian Shaw: Probably about 18 months in the making. Running's pretty big in Gungahlin in the north of Canberra where Wagi Bridge is run. Gungahlin has gone from probably 60, 70 during the winter months up to, these days, up to 250, over 300 during summer. And Great community, but the course gets very congested during the peak months, so we're looking at another option for the Gungahlin runners for their Saturday morning run. Yeah, about 18 months ago we started looking around for other options in the Gungahlin area.

00:12:17Mark Scarborough: And what was, I suppose, the process from there, from the initial idea to getting a parkrun up and running?

00:12:25Ian Shaw: Well, it actually all started when I ran with the Run Director at the time from Gungahlin just doing the rail trails out in Victoria. And I was training actually for my first marathon there that I tried through my 20s and late teens and never actually got through the injuries to get a marathon done. So here I was post-50 running the rail trails in Victoria with the Run Director or Event Director from Gungahlin out of Victoria and just toyed with the idea of, okay, we've got congestion on the course. I've got some thoughts over how we can maybe reduce that congestion. Like we're getting some emails in the inbox saying, Just nothing major, but just people getting frustrated with the numbers and the congestion on the course. And I just ran the idea by him that, yeah, what do you think of the idea of running a second parkrun in Gungahlin? Give the Gungahlin runners a second option on a Saturday morning.

00:13:23Melissa Erbacher: And how close are the two courses?

00:13:26Ian Shaw: I actually live between the two. So I'm 1.6 or 2.3 kilometres away from Gungahlin and it's about 1.6 kilometres away from where Wagi Bridge is from where I live. And between the two, I think it's about 2.3, something like that, the gap between the two.

00:13:44Melissa Erbacher: That's nice. You could almost squeeze another little parkrun in between the two of them if you wanted to.

00:13:49Ian Shaw: I run direct the way Wagi Bridge is being set up. I'm just wondering how long that'll be my NENDY because on the weeks that I'm not going to be doing it, I reckon I'll probably be venturing off somewhere else. So I just wonder how long I'll have my NENDY is 1.6 kilometres away. It should be interesting.

00:14:05Mark Scarborough: Yeah, well, the weekend just gone was event number three, and this week you're away doing a marathon over in New Zealand, which is exciting. Yep. And you'll be back run directing the following week, and we have spoken in the event team about making sure we're making ourselves available so that you can knock that NENDY off, which is literally on your doorstep.

00:14:26Ian Shaw: Yeah, yeah. I'll do it eventually, but, yeah, I'm thinking at this stage – Because prior to Wagi Bridge opening, I think my closest parkruns, probably one of the Sydney parkruns. So, yeah, I well and truly got onto the ones that are within driving distance on a Saturday morning. But, yeah, now got Wagi Bridge launched, yeah, just down the road. What were some of the challenges in getting Wagi Bridge up and running? Not a great deal of challenges. Like there's because running so strong in Gungahlin, there was a lot of support for it. So when I mentioned it to the event team at Gungahlin, I had straightaway some people that were happy to come on board and help me out with the planning process. There's also a Facebook group, the Gunrunners, in Gungahlin as well. So I sort of toyed with the idea of some of the runs, organised runs through Gunrunners and, you know, there's plenty of people that wanted to come on board and to support and help out. And just going through the fundraising efforts, some of the challenges of getting some of the businesses to support just looking for avenues to finance the operation, we then got to the stage where we were able to put up a crowdfunding page. And just to give an indication of the popularity and the interest in running, within the first couple of weeks of that crowdfunding page being set up, we'd raised $2,000. So, yeah, it's... A big pastime in Gungahlin.

00:15:56Melissa Erbacher: I'm keen to know. I mean, obviously, the event's only been going for a few weeks. But with the idea in mind that it was going to reduce the congestion at Gungahlin, I anticipate it was not much of a secret that you were launching in the area, especially with how involved everyone's been. And so I'm imagining event number one probably was very well attended, but how has it actually impacted on the event at Gungahlin in terms of reducing the numbers over there?

00:16:25Ian Shaw: Early days, I'm keen to see and just map events The attendance at both. I don't know yet what our numbers will settle to. We got three, just under 350 on the launch day, which is people from the surrounding New South Wales areas have come across to have a look at the launch. There was the Yass parkrun that launched the week before us and got similar numbers at that one. Yeah, it's hard to say because we got 100 the last two weeks, but we just wonder what, once the numbers sort of stabilise and settle, what will actually be because compared to Gungahlin, it's a much more challenging course on an undulating sort of hill section around the Centenary Trail in Canberra. Yeah, so I anticipate the numbers will grow too over time because where we've got it located, it's in an ideal setting of a new development that's happening in Gungahlin. So there's... To the north of the Wagi Bridge area, there's a whole new suburb that's still yet to open up. So, yeah, who knows? We may end up having similar numbers to what Gungahlin currently experience.

00:17:34Melissa Erbacher: Have you noticed amongst the attendance numbers a lot of first-timers as well, like brand-new first-timers to parkruns?

00:17:41Ian Shaw: There's a few. I've had a couple of parkrunners come up to me and ask before the events actually started on the day, before the run brief, that runners have come up to me just asking how it works. We got the Gungahlin Community Council on board to help us with the funding. So they're going to be helping out with some of the volunteer roles and some of the people that are involved through the council have also come along to do the run for the first time. So word of mouth is spreading that way. Yeah, I looked down the list of the results and there's quite a few first-timers and whether that's first-timers to our run or first-timers to parkrun in general, there's a few there that have actually got onto parkrun through the launch.

00:18:22Mark Scarborough: Now, Ian, many parkruns in Australia have icons or things that are attracted to them. We've got the emus up in Nambour and Albert in Melbourne have got the black swans. What's unique to Wagi Bridge?

00:18:37Ian Shaw: Well, there has been some rumours. Like it's the bridge that's been built. I work at the school, the high school across the ovals nearby. And the bridge was originally built to connect the communities of Moncrieff and Amaroo. When that suburb was being developed, the residents in that area were pretty much isolated from public transport, from the shopping centre, from the school, from the oval use. So the bridge has gone up and has actually connected the communities together. So the date we've launched the parkrun, it's actually been ideal timing for, yeah, just getting that connection going between the communities. And to establish a Saturday morning community is, yeah, I think it's going to pay dividends for the growth of that area. But, yeah, since it's launched, the bridge itself is on a frost-resistant platform. And as the runners... trap across it it makes a bit of a racket so there's some rumours going around that there's a troll that lives under the bridge and as the parkrunners go through we can hear sort of the grumbling and moaning from this troll happening from underneath the bridge and the very first photo that was taken as the runners took off um they seem to have a greater pace happening than what they do at a regular parkrun so we just wonder whether we've disturbed the slumber of this this troll that lives under the bridge

00:19:59Melissa Erbacher: I would love some audio recorded of that, please. Send it in, Ian.

00:20:03Ian Shaw: Oh, stay tuned.

00:20:05Melissa Erbacher: I was certainly hoping that's where you were headed with that, that there was going to be something under the bridge.

00:20:10Mark Scarborough: So Wagi Bridge, it is a bit of a different course to Gungahlin parkrun, which is, as we've alluded to, only a couple of kilometres away. How would you describe the course of Wagi Bridge?

00:20:22Ian Shaw: It actually caters for all sets of the community, which is what the goal was. When I was exploring options for the track, I'd actually gone through a lot of the courses in the Victoria area, places where I like to run. And one of the locations I went to was Castlemaine parkrun, which is a nice smallish community. And their course is on a three-loop circuit. And talking to the Run Director of the day, He said that sort of set up is ideal because it means that those that aren't up to running the full five kilometres on their first attempt can build up to it. So they quite often would have parkrunners that would turn up, they'd register, but wouldn't log their first actual parkrun until maybe a month into coming along. It just meant that they could do... Yeah, one or two laps. And then once they've built up the fitness, they could then do, you know, walk or jog the three laps and get their first parkrun registered. So when we were looking at the area, there was a number of options, an out-and-back option, looking at the loop around the Wagi Bridge circuit itself, and that was the preferred option from the event team. With that in mind, that people new to parkrun that were maybe looking for a change in life to get themselves fit again and active, that... The pressure's not there to actually complete the 5k until they're ready to. And that's the general feedback we've received already that for the seasoned runners, it's a challenging course if they push themselves. Like there's a lot of undulations on the course. But for the casual walkers who just enjoy that Saturday morning stroll and walk around the track, yeah, they've come back to us with feedback on the views across the Gungahlin area at the top of the far side of Wagi Bridge. So, I mean, one side it's undulating. It's got probably one steep descent, but nothing over-challenging in that you can be just a casual runner and it's an easy course to run. But having said that, Gungahlin down the road is a completely flat circuit around Yerrabi Pond. Yeah, so in comparison, it's a slightly harder course. But yeah, there are challenges there for the runners who really go out and try to push themselves.

00:22:34Melissa Erbacher: It sounds awesome. And you've been previously involved with Gungahlin parkrun, Ian. So can you tell us a little bit about your parkrun story? How did you first get into it?

00:22:43Ian Shaw: Oh, through a teacher friend. Just saw her post on Facebook where she was putting up photos of herself or tagged herself in photos from the Gungahlin parkrun. And I just kept seeing that it appeared in her feed every Saturday morning and saw that it was a regular thing. So I queried her on it and that's how I found out and how I got into parkrun, just through the social media. So, yeah, 2014 is when I first got into parkrun and the Gungahlin Park parkrun at that stage I think was up to about number event 23 or 24 or something. So, yeah, I've run pretty much every weekend or volunteered ever since.

00:23:20Mark Scarborough: And you have done a bit of adventuring yourself. So where are some of the other parkrun events you've been to?

00:23:26Ian Shaw: I'm biased. I say that Gungahlin's still my favourite course, but I love going through Victoria. There's some really good runs in Victoria. I've got a weakness for the Murray River, so I like all the events along the Murray River. Bairnsdale, I remember travelling down to Bairnsdale at the time the river was was in flood so the course of the event was closed on the day so I had to get up early and then drive an hour down the road to Sale and that one sticks in the memory because I messaged the Event Director the night before and um yeah got involved with the chat and a really really positive nice community that one so yeah that one really stands out as one of my my favourite ones

00:24:03Mark Scarborough: When you're describing Gungahlin, before you intimated about the, obviously Gungahlin's got a reputation for being a fast parkrun course, on the weekend we saw a bit of a record maybe being set at Gungahlin?

00:24:18Ian Shaw: Yes, that's the thing about parkrun too. I've made so many connections with other people that I wouldn't normally have connected with, including people across Canberra. The group that I run with had one of their friends from the south side come across and he was told that Gungahlin's a flat course, it's fast. He was after a fast parkrun himself. So he came across and trialled the event. And he's got the coach, Brad Croker, who lives in the area, who does a lot of the Mulligans Flat running, would come out and just watch him and give him tips before he went for a personal best on the course itself. And through his coach's running feed, he can see, he saw the areas that he'd run. He said, oh, I'd like to explore some of those areas. Can you take us for a tour through your local running tracks? Which we did. And from that, we set up a messenger group. And what turns out to be an elite runner has joined that messenger group in Matt Robbie. And he's been... training with the intentions of pushing for a pram run record or just a fast pram run. And last weekend or just last Saturday gone was the weekend that he decided to go for it. So, yeah, that was a big event on the Saturday. And I've had my messenger go off all weekend ever since. So what time did he run Gungahlin in with the pram? 15.29. So he comes from Wagga where he's got the course record there and he runs – from memory I think he's about a 1450 runner on that course so he's got the course record for Wagga and our messenger group had just been spurring him on said oh no I'm an outsider I've come I've moved to Canberra I don't want to take other people's times off them but we said no you've lived here long enough you're a local yeah spurring him on and got him to post his runs through social media and start to take some of the crowns around the area and He said, oh, but I'm treading on someone else's space. But no, we've worked on him and that sort of morphed into developing because he goes with his daughter, runs around the neighbourhood with his daughter and we often joke that the pace he runs pushing the pram, which for him is just a tempo run, is a run we do, a parkrun flat out. And he's then shown us that he can go much faster with a pram pusher running pram. And it sort of grew from there that we'd send him world records for marathon pace, half marathons. And I think there was a lady recently that ran with three toddlers in a pram doing a 311 marathon. So, you know, some of the banter on our messenger group has spurred him on to give the Gungahlin track a run with his pram. So he was away from camp for about a month and trained up with his pram. And came over during the week last week with all the strong winds that were happening in Canberra and still managed to smash out a pretty fast 5k around the circuit. And then Saturday was the day and he pushed out the 15.29.

00:27:06Melissa Erbacher: That's just incredible. I think we'll have to have a chat with Matt about his experiences sometime in the future. I certainly could use some tips. My pram experiences at parkrun tend to be of the walking variety category. I guess in the elite world, there's not really a lot of opportunities for participating with your child in a pram. You know, there's no pram Olympics, is there?

00:27:35Ian Shaw: No, and Xena, his daughter, loves it. That's her nap time during the day when he goes out running. So, yeah, he'll often post that he's gone taking his daughter for an extra 10 kilometres because she's fallen asleep. So he's extended the time she could sleep. That's one way to do it. It's fascinating to watch and sort of follow his progress.

00:27:54Melissa Erbacher: There's a whole other podcast, I think, right there. But that's pretty exciting when you have those sorts of things happen. It's one end of the spectrum that you don't necessarily expect as well, a fast pram runner at an event. It must have been very exciting for everybody.

00:28:08Mark Scarborough: And Coach Brad is also the host of the Inside Running podcast, which is another fantastic running podcast to check out as well.

00:28:16Melissa Erbacher: Very cool. So Ian, you mentioned earlier the Gun Runners and I'm assuming that's, you know, your running club that's obviously based in Gungahlin. Was that a club that came out of parkrun or has just been really supportive of parkrun because obviously they see the community benefits of it?

00:28:37Ian Shaw: It's not an official club. It's actually, it has come as a result of Gungahlin parkrun being established in Gungahlin. Um, so I first heard about it. I joined Gungahlin parkrun when I was about at event number 23, 24, around, around that time. And maybe after about three or four months of running on social media, I think there was a group that posted, um, who's, who's wanting to come out midweek to, to do some training runs and, um, just sort of a training, shared training group started up through the Gungahlin parkrun. I didn't join it initially because I'm an evening runner rather than an early morning runner. Um, With my teaching, I often need to get to work to set things up in the morning. So I didn't really join the Gun Runners back then, but I knew it was there. But that would have been about half a dozen to a dozen people initially, and they just then, instead of doing just one run a week, it then grew to a couple of runs a week. Then they established a social media website for just people to put up and post runs that they were going to do. That's grown from half a dozen, a bit like parkrun itself, it's grown from a small number to it'd be over 500 people that have signed up to or joined the Facebook group.

00:29:53Mark Scarborough: Yeah, I'm part of the gun runners as well, Mel, and it's been amazing for me to have that, yeah, particularly online support to answer questions and things like that through the group.

00:30:04Ian Shaw: the support you get and it really is a social kind of a group and a wide variety of different runners it's um it's been amazing and um I certainly appreciate the the support that um that I've gotten out of um out of that group yeah the stories that have come out of it too I mean I've I've mentioned earlier that um I've looked to run a marathon in my late teens early to mid 20s and um Just the level of training I was putting myself through that my body would always succumb to injury. So I never got to run that marathon that I was going to. And I gave up the idea. And it wasn't until I joined the Gun Runners that I saw people posting, you know, they've run their marathon for the first time or they've – Yeah, similar to the parkrun stories, people have gone from a sedentary lifestyle to an active lifestyle through, you know, the support of the gunrunners. And, you know, what you're finding in parkrun communities around Australia when you visit them is you get that same level of support. And gunrunners is no different. It does the same thing. And from that... I then set a goal of running half marathon and I succeeded with that one. And then, you know, someone on a group run, you know, I told them the story about, yeah, I was going to do a marathon in my 20s and I never got around to it. I tried about three or four times to succumb to injury. And just a simple comment from one of the other gun runners saying, oh, you're up for it, you can do it. And I thought, well, what if I try one more time? And since then, which was about July last year, I've now clocked up, Queenstown will be my fifth marathon and I've done one ultra marathon. So it's a very powerful group, the social running, that people are so supportive and motivating. And just to read the stories that what people go through and the exhilaration they feel when they run the marathon for the first time, it's been an amazing group to be a part of.

00:31:54Melissa Erbacher: It's wonderful to hear that you've got such a supportive community around you in Gungahlin and in general with parkrun and your local club, even if it's not an official club. We're all about the unofficial around here. Ian, thank you so much for joining us this week. It's been lovely chatting to you and hearing all about Wagi Bridge. I think I need to add it to my list and get down that way and visit to see the troll or at least hear him.

00:32:24Ian Shaw: I wonder whether Scott will come out and visit. I know how much he loves bridges, but this one, yeah, would be up there as one of the better bridges in parkrun.

00:32:31Melissa Erbacher: He listens, so I'm sure he's probably made a mental note if he's not added it to his big wish list that he's got. He's got like a human-sized wish list at home.

00:32:40Ian Shaw: Very good.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Tony O'Connell — Inverloch

00:32:53Tony O'Connell: Howdy parkrunners, TOC reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew. Today I'm down at the lovely sunny Inverloch. We started parkrun today in blue skies and by the end of parkrun I think the sun might have been up above the clouds and the rain was coming in horizontally. I've got a couple of lovely ladies with me today that are touristing down at Inverloch. Ladies, would you like to introduce yourselves and say where you're from?

00:33:17Louisa: Hi, I'm Ailsa and I'm from Essex in the UK. And I'm Louisa, I'm originally from the UK but living in Melbourne.

00:33:25Tony O'Connell: Beautiful. And you've come down to sunny Inverloch today. I can only assume possibly for an I for the alphabet or is it just you were down this way today?

00:33:33Louisa: Yeah, yeah. Had a holiday house down here. So spending the weekend in the sunny and rainy weather.

00:33:41Tony O'Connell: If you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes. It'll change. So from Southend in the UK, where's the normal home parkrun?

00:33:52Ailsa: Southend parkrun.

00:33:53Tony O'Connell: Yeah. And today's numbers at Inverloch, you came in maybe a little bit lower in the numbers than normal?

00:34:00Ailsa: Yeah, my highest finishing number, normally somewhere in the 300s, so getting 76 was one of my tops.

00:34:08Tony O'Connell: Well done, top 100, cruising it in. That's it. And the Home parkrun, describe it. Is it around a track or what is the Home parkrun?

00:34:17Ailsa: So it's on the seafront, but it goes around a park on the seafront. So I like my seafront runs.

00:34:22Tony O'Connell: Okay, so seafront to seafront. Yeah, absolutely. Probably the wrong time of the year for like another month and you could wander about 50 metres down and have a swim in the ocean.

00:34:31Ailsa: Yeah. None of that going on at home.

00:34:34Tony O'Connell: Yeah, yeah. And not recommending it here today either, just quietly. So how many different parkruns have you run at?

00:34:41Ailsa: This would be my probably sixth different parkrun, but number 30 something.

00:34:47Tony O'Connell: Okay, so working towards the red shirt as a start?

00:34:51Ailsa: That's it, 50 next year hopefully.

00:34:53Tony O'Connell: Yeah, beautiful. And how about yourself? Where would you consider to be home?

00:34:57Louisa: Oh home, Studley Park probably but I've only done about three or four parkruns in my life so definitely not a regular like all these other people but giving it a go.

00:35:08Tony O'Connell: Beautiful, our bridge is much smaller than Studley Park's bridge.

00:35:12Louisa: And it's a lot flatter on track.

00:35:15Tony O'Connell: We ran Studley about a month ago, it was beautiful. Oh well, enjoy the rest of the day and I hope you enjoyed Inverloch.

00:35:23Louisa: Wonderful, thank you.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Augustine Heights

00:35:26Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell. And today I'm checking in from Augustine Heights parkrun. I've made the probably about half hour drive west of Brisbane to keep my tourist streak running and to get my NENDY. Just as I've rolled up, it looks like a nice little community of runners here. I was just standing and just saw a couple of runners making friends and introducing themselves to each other. So what a surprise, another friendly parkrun. I'm going to check out the briefing, go for a run and try and catch a few people on the other side. Okay, post parkrun, I've caught up with Sam or she's caught up with me. Sam, you followed me around the course today. I did.

00:36:08Sam: I was making lovely comments about your butt the whole way because it was so motivating. It was awesome.

00:36:13Lyndell Murray: Okay, a motivating butt. I haven't heard that before, but thank you. Claim it. Just claim it. And it was your first time that you'd run the course today.

00:36:24Sam: Yeah, so normally I was saying to you on the way around, normally I get to the first hill, which I think is about one and a half. And it's a colossal hill and I just look at it and go, I can't run that. And so I stop. And that's the beginning of the end. Like from there I run a bit and I stop a bit and I run a bit and I stop a bit. And I always make the course, but I've never run the course. Never made it the whole way.

00:36:42Lyndell Murray: And today's the day.

00:36:43Sam: Today is the day. I made the whole course. And I had to because it was your fault because at about the three-kilometre mark, you're like, you have to do the whole thing now. I was like, no, you're right, I have to. Like, how disappointed would I be if I've made it 3K and 4K and 4.5K and I don't make it to the end? Exactly. So I'm glad I could help. I'm so grateful. Thank you so much, Lyndell.

00:37:01Lyndell Murray: You're very welcome. Now, how did you get into parkrun? And is this your local parkrun?

00:37:07Sam: Yeah, so this is my local. I've known of parkrun for a long time. They used to run past a house I lived in at 7 o'clock in the morning. You're trying to sleep in on a Saturday and you can hear all the feet and the boardwalk. Doof, doof, doof, doof, doof. So I've known of it for years. But I just had baby number four recently. And after four kids, I kind of went, I need something. And this gives me an excuse to get out of the house and leave all the children at home with dad. And I've got a legitimate excuse to leave without them. So this morning, everyone was crying. And I went, goodbye, I'm going to parkrun.

00:37:32Lyndell Murray: And I left. And it was wonderful. And so how long do you want to do this interview for? For a little while so that you don't have to go home just yet? Yeah, you've got like an hour or so, right?

00:37:42Sam: A coffee, maybe a lunchtime drink. I mean, how long have you got?

00:37:47Lyndell Murray: All right, so parkrun's been a really great part of your life and have you made some connections and friends here in the community with parkrun?

00:37:54Sam: Yeah, there's a couple of people who I've had a chat to, a lady who I bumped into just this morning who I've, again, I've seen the back of her many a time and today's the first time I had a chat to the front of her. But I think that's the thing about parkrun, you don't necessarily even need the names but you've got the friendly faces and the smile and you bump into someone. I ran past someone in my local street the other day and I saw him today at parkrun. So, you know, parkrun people are everywhere. They are. We're infiltrating society. They really are.

00:38:19Lyndell Murray: My husband calls it a park cult, so, you know.

00:38:23Sam: It really is for you. I mean, you go around hunting cult members. I've never quite thought of it that way.

00:38:29Lyndell Murray: Maybe there's something wrong here. All right, Sam. Well, thank you so much for talking to me. And congratulations on running your first 5Ks. Thank you so much for being the motivation to get me there. Anytime. Now, I've tracked down Andrew, the Run Director for today here at... Now, tell me what this place is called. Augustine or Augustine?

00:38:51Andrew: People say it all different. I say Augustine Heights. I say Augustine Heights. A lot of people say Augustine Heights.

00:38:57Lyndell Murray: Well, that's what I said in my intro. I don't know whether I'm right or not, not sure question time parliament you say potato I say potato it doesn't really matter we know where we are sure um so this morning you had a few extra visitors a couple of the other local parkruns have closed

00:39:17Andrew: through to possible bushfires is that right yeah just to reduce the hazard there's plenty of smoke in the air today plenty warm enough and so um Greenbank shut and also White Rock and so some visitors from there but numbers were down still I think the heat's kept them away yeah it's a pretty hot one it was hot yesterday it was plenty warm enough yesterday and I've travelled from Brisbane to the Western suburbs where it's hotter on a hot day how's that for commitment it's that's good that's good it's always hotter out here yeah it is

00:39:44Lyndell Murray: All right, so Augustine, Augustine Heights, Augustine, whatever you want to call it. Tell us about that. How long have you had this parkrun going?

00:39:54Andrew: Yeah, so this parkrun started in 2013, April, I think. And so we've been running since then there. We've had a few runs, a few events cancelled due to huge downpours. And so sometimes the course can get flooded a little bit with some water over the course in places. But, yeah, every weekend we're here.

00:40:16Lyndell Murray: Excellent. Like every parkrun, every weekend. How about you? How did you get into parkrun and volunteering?

00:40:22Andrew: So I started running. I was a hockey player and then gave that away and thought I can do something in my own time. So I started running with some inspiration from a guy called Clay Dawson. Some people might be familiar with him. And so he encouraged me to come along to Augustine Heights parkrun. And so that's it. And so I'm on.

00:40:43Lyndell Murray: The rest is history. And you started volunteering?

00:40:45Andrew: I started volunteering, I think, after my third parkrun. I thought, I've done three. I need to volunteer. I've got to put in and help. And then I've done plenty of volunteers. And then Phil Cutcliffe, one of the Event Directors for a time here, he hooked me into being a Run Director.

00:41:05Lyndell Murray: And it's easy, right?

00:41:06Andrew: It's not that hard.

00:41:09Lyndell Murray: And lots of fun.

00:41:10Andrew: Yeah, yeah, it's good. You meet lots of people. It's just good to encourage people. It's actually nice to have a day off running, especially a day like today when it's so hot.

00:41:18Lyndell Murray: Yeah, so you timed that well, didn't you?

00:41:19Andrew: Yeah, yeah, it was perfect. I wasn't disappointed.

00:41:23Lyndell Murray: Alrighty, well, thank you so much for talking to me today. Thank you for everything that you've done and the other Run Directors have done here in building this community parkrun. It's a really nice little course. How would you describe it? A few hills in there, yeah?

00:41:37Andrew: It's, depending on your pace, it can be like 40 seconds to a few minutes slower than a flat parkrun. Yeah, there are some hills. It's a two-lap course. And so you get through the hills once and you've got to set off again.

00:41:52Lyndell Murray: Yeah, I decided after that big hill, I ran it up at the first time and said to myself, you run up at the first time, you can walk the second time. And then I found another lady who was pacing off me and I thought, I can't walk, I've got to run. No, no, no.

00:42:06Andrew: Keep running. The last 500, you've got a good downhill for the last 500 metres. Yeah, we do. So you can finish strong.

00:42:12Lyndell Murray: This is the good thing about hills. For every uphill, there's a downhill.

00:42:15Andrew: Yeah, you never get back.

00:42:18Lyndell Murray: All right. Well, thank you again. Thanks for hosting me here today at wherever we are. Augustine Heights. Augustan Heights in Ipswich, west of Brisbane. Thanks very much, and I'll see you again another time.

00:42:29Andrew: No worries.

00:42:31Lyndell Murray: Now, I've caught up with Simon. Simon, you have just scanned in for the 100th time at parkrun.

00:42:36Simon: Yes, my local parkrun here. I do this majority of the time, but we do travel quite a bit, so I do a couple of other runs around the country.

00:42:43Lyndell Murray: All right, so you're a bit of a tourist. You're in the right place. This is the parkrun adventurers podcast. Tell me a little bit about that.

00:42:50Simon: We travelled a couple of years ago. I've done Darwin, Kununurra, Kalgoorlie, some through there. Only when you're travelling, being somewhere on a Saturday, that it actually happens. Kaobar recently, and then a way back after years, I went to D'Ambril, of course, because that's the only E in Queensland.

00:43:05Lyndell Murray: Oh, yes.

00:43:07Simon: So I've got 20 out of 26 letters in the alphabet that I've been working on.

00:43:14Lyndell Murray: So did you know that there's only 25 letters, so you've actually got only 5 to go?

00:43:19Simon: Well, yeah, so I guess X is the one missing, but it's not even next to New Zealand, so there's not much point going there either. So it's Exmouth, but that's an E. Yeah, yeah. No, that's right.

00:43:29Lyndell Murray: And you've already got your E. I've got my E, yes, yes.

00:43:32Simon: That was one of the main things of travelling last year, yes. We did 11,000 kilometres to get the E. I mean, that was, well, two things had to happen on that trip, you know, get to Ayers Rock and Emerald. And Emerald. So that was fine, yes, yes. So two ticks. Two ticks, yes, yes. That was good, yeah. So I've only got a few to go, and I've got three earmarked just around here, so that'll happen shortly. I only want them done before I change age brackets, but that's not going to happen either. Right.

00:44:00Lyndell Murray: You can't have everything.

00:44:02Simon: No, you can't. I've got my 100 in before I change age brackets, so that's all fine anyway.

00:44:06Lyndell Murray: That's great, 100 parkruns. Obviously, you've done a lot of them here and a lot of them away.

00:44:11Simon: A lot here, a lot away, but White Rock, just so from us as well, is handy as well. So sort of mix and match between here and White Rock, really. But they're the two normal ones I go to, but try and do as many other like ones as possible.

00:44:28Lyndell Murray: And you volunteer a bit too, I hear.

00:44:31Simon: Oh, that's crept up, yes. I think I got 30 odd volunteers as well. So that's just because, yeah, because it happens, that's fine. So that's all good.

00:44:39Lyndell Murray: It's part of parkrun.

00:44:40Simon: It's part of parkrun, yes. I always say if it weren't volunteers, it wouldn't happen. So that's fine. And I think just about every volunteer, I mean, parkrun I've been to, they end up with enough people at the last minute. Someone will fill the spot. But yeah, no, it's good.

00:44:53Lyndell Murray: Now, you were also outed in the speech this morning when we acknowledged the milestones. You were also outed as the phantom lawnmower of Augustine Heights as well.

00:45:06Simon: Yeah, the top part of the parkrun, the grass grows on winter when it's dewy, sort of ankle high, and it's a pain of a morning. when you run and get your shoes all wet. So I used to try on a Friday to, well it was at least once a month, I actually had to mow a couple of other things at the time, so I used to sneak past here. But actually in the meantime, my son has confiscated all my mowers, so I can't do that sort of thing anymore. He's confiscated your mowers? Yes, because I was doing a little bit of that sort of stuff that he didn't, not necessarily here, but some other jobs that I shouldn't have been doing. Right. But anyway.

00:45:40Lyndell Murray: Well, is he going to become the phantom lawnmower at Augustine Heights?

00:45:43Simon: No, no, I'll still keep doing it. It's okay. So I can go and borrow a mower once a month or whatever when I need to. It's okay. It's not so bad now, but yes, it's good. But so we travel a fair bit, so there have been a few times that have been missed, but it doesn't matter anyway. We get there.

00:45:59Lyndell Murray: You get there. I mean, look, wet shoes, you know, you can deal with that. But how lovely. What a really nice little touch that you do for your parkrun friends here.

00:46:09Simon: Well, actually, there's sort of three people in hierarchy in the park, one here, one around, said, yeah, you know, sort of, you know, knew it well, sort of knew about it, but, you know, didn't do it because, yeah, because, yeah, they were helpful.

00:46:20Lyndell Murray: Yes. Yeah, but somebody said to me this morning that they even said to you one day, oh, someone's mowed this, isn't that nice? And you kept it mum and didn't let on.

00:46:29Simon: I said, yes, somebody has mowed it, yes. They didn't say, did you mow it? No, somebody else mowed it, yes. The question was, yeah, has it been mowed? Yes, it has. LAUGHTER

00:46:37[laughter]

00:46:39Lyndell Murray: Oh dear, well good on you.

00:46:42Simon: But I got into parkrun actually a bit bullied, my four older children were doing it and of course Abel dropped out but my grandson that's his out running Warao so he was left so I kept bringing him Warao so yeah we sort of grew from there but until he turned 11 he had to walk with me which is a A bit of a pain for him, he's fine now. A few years ago, yeah, but no, it's been great fun, it's been good. I mean, and very sort of social too, you know, this is a good light here. I mean, other parks, I sort of, I don't run, but I walk fairly quickly, so I'm usually in the middle of that bunch, um parkruns that recently I mean by the time I got back everybody gone it's quite amazing actually but other places you go to you know they're still around for an hour later so but it's just great fun you know good travelling all good people all out for the same you know sort of reason and you know getting out the door is fine 5k sort of everybody should be able to do 5k somehow you know so that's good so my and my time's been consistent for the whole, every time, but I mean, I did a couple of personal bests back then, but I mean, the time's consistent, so I'm happy with that, that's fine. Get you out every week? Every week, what else? Yeah, it's good, it's good.

00:47:50Lyndell Murray: Get you around to Emerald and Ayers Rock and all sorts of places?

00:47:54Simon: It's just to be somewhere on a Saturday when parkruns on, so that's the hardest thing, but no, it's good, it's all good, so take a couple more letters off yet and I'll be right. You'll get there. Don't have to start somewhere else, yes.

00:48:03Lyndell Murray: Yeah, you'll have to find something else. There's lots to choose from and I'm sure you'll find one. Well, thank you so much and congratulations again on your 100 parkruns. It's a big achievement and, yeah, obviously a big part of the community here at Augustine Heights, Simon, so well done.

00:48:19Simon: That's been very good. Yeah, I've enjoyed it. I'm going to keep going too. It's all good. Thank you.

00:48:25Melissa Erbacher: Two old faves back reporting in from their localities. TOC was at Inverloch and Lyndell at Augustine Heights this week. Thanks, team. I say old in terms of not your age, but how long we've loved you.

00:48:44Mark Scarborough: Radio silence from Cam, though, after the challenge was thrown down last week. No roving reports from him this week?

00:48:51Melissa Erbacher: Not yet. Not yet. But I don't know how fast Cam listens to the podcast. He may not have even heard the challenge was out yet. Or he may just be creatively conspiring behind the scenes to take on the challenge and make Mel Ellis a little bit unhappy with how quickly he sorts it out.

00:49:10Mark Scarborough: Surely he can't do a Bradbury.

00:49:11Melissa Erbacher: Well, it's too late for that, isn't it? If he'd done a Bradbury, it would have been this week.

00:49:17Mark Scarborough: We'll be checking out next week then and see if we hear from Cam.

00:49:20Melissa Erbacher: Yes, but there can be only one Bradbury, Mark. You know that.

00:49:25Mark Scarborough: Well, Mel, it's been a big couple of weeks in particularly New South Wales and Queensland with bushfires already starting quite early in the bushfire season. And tragically, we have seen already loss of life and property in these affected areas. And last week, we saw a number of parkruns rightfully cancelled so that everyone could focus on their own properties and allow people to volunteer in their different roles within RFS areas.

00:49:52Melissa Erbacher: style um facilities so um yeah it's uh it's it's already been a big couple of weeks um this early in the bushfire season we're just having catastrophic times with bushfires of late it's just pretty devastating actually obviously everybody's safety is paramount and whether that be safety on the course or safety trying to get to the course you know These are our parkrun communities and the fires are affecting people's lives all over the place and at all times. It's not just parkrun day. So thoughts are going out to the event teams who are cancelling and to the communities that are being affected by the fires. But happier thoughts, Mark. Every time you co-host with me, there seems to be terrible things happening. So let's move on to some more happy places. New beginnings for you. You're starting as a Run Director this coming weekend. So that's exciting. We talked about that a little bit earlier. But did you know, and you probably don't because I had a week off and forgot to mention it last week, I actually stood down as Event Director of Kawana parkrun a fortnight ago.

00:50:59Mark Scarborough: Oh, wow. How do you feel about that?

00:51:02Melissa Erbacher: Oh, it's a bit of a mixed bag, to be honest. It's, you know, five and a half years of being the Event Director there, or at the least a Co-Event Director, sharing the role with some pretty amazing people. I didn't think I was going to get emotional about it because I absolutely thought it was time. And it was time. Definitely was time. But I did get emotional about it when I acknowledged it and told everybody it was happening. Because I kind of sprung it on the parkrunners, on the community. They didn't know it was coming. And, yeah, so I think it was a bit of a shock to some of the crowd. I got heaps of hugs. It was a lovely huggy morning. I did get a little bit choked up and I had thought through my head all the things that I would say and all the people who I'd thank and in the end I just blurted it out and spent about 20 seconds telling everyone and that was it and then I had regret about not thanking Adam for all his support behind the scenes and things like that but It's, well, absolutely liberating to have handed it over to somebody else. Ian Wilson is the new Event Director. He's going to be brilliant. He already is brilliant. He's very organised and much loved among the community and has been a long-term Run Director as well on the event team before taking on the ED role. So, I have every faith and confidence that the event is under fantastic custodianship. And of course, it was never my event, you know. We're all just custodians and people taking care of these wonderful community events for whatever period of time it is. So, it was nice to hand it over, a little bit sad to hand it over, but yeah.

00:52:52Mark Scarborough: Was there a symbolic ceremony like a passing over of like a barcode scan or something like that to Ian?

00:52:59Melissa Erbacher: Well, that's the thing with the app now. All those things are kind of archaic. And I'm not going to give him my phone, am I? Because it's my phone. And technically, you're not supposed to, when you're run directing, you're not supposed to let anyone else use your phone to scan or time keep because you need it available for emergencies. So, I did think about that ahead of time, whether or not, like, what could I do? But like I said, in the end, I just kind of blurted it out. And probably to the casual eye, it was like I, spur of the moment, decided to do it because it was that bad.

00:53:37Mark Scarborough: But you're not hanging. We're over this completely, so that's okay.

00:53:41Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well, look, I'm still on the team. I'm still run directing. I'm run directing this coming weekend, actually. And there are a lot of assumptions, I think, that people have made. It's probably more than anything that, people have made the assumption that, oh, she's got two small kids now and she just can't handle it anymore or doesn't want to handle it or whatever. And I would like to unequivocally put that concept to rest because at no point has having both my boys been a barrier to be able to perform my role as an Event Director. It's not about having the kids and taking too much on in that respect. It's just that it was You know, people talk about a tenure and things like that. And well, it's three years a good time. It's five years a good time. I think it really varies depending on the person. For some people, a year is enough. For others, they like to do things a little bit longer. And I think the event will benefit from having somebody fresh to the role. Of course, I'm still there to support Ian. And yeah, it's not because I couldn't. I'm a firm believer that anyone can do anything, but they can't do everything. And so this is one of the things that I've chosen to step away from so I could do other things.

00:55:03Mark Scarborough: Yeah, well, I think that that's your right. And it is important to have that balance across everything that you're doing. So, you know, it wouldn't have been an easy decision to make and well done for making it.

00:55:14Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, and I mean, time for some more adventures. Something we chatted to Ian about a little bit earlier in the interview, Mark, was about marathons and how he thought he would never do a marathon and things like that. And I've actually got the... perspective that your running career can go for a really long time. And my experience of this is based purely and simply about parkrun and meeting people who didn't do their first marathon until they were in their mid-60s and things like that. And I think, oh, wow, okay, I've got plenty of time. You know, I don't have to rush and I don't have to do a marathon this year or next year or in five years because you could do it when you're 70 or 80. And as an example, last weekend, the fine gentlemen Simon Nash and Hamish Campbell were down at Rhodes parkrun, organised the Sydney chapter of the octogenarian meetup for 2019. And they had 20 parkrunners who were over 80 years young coming along from around Sydney, the Central Coast and the Wollongong area to participate at parkrun and have a general octogenarian natter, which I just think is awesome. Have you got plans to be running until you're in your 80s or 90s, Mark?

00:56:41Mark Scarborough: Look, that would be amazing. I think that that's the thing about running, isn't it? You know, the more you run, it's buying you years from what I keep reading. So, yeah, why not? You know, what an amazing group, though, that they had there at Rhodes. They even had Adrian, I think, who actually normally runs at North Sydney. He's 93 years out there as well on the day. So... What a great initiative that they did out there at Rhodes.

Sign-off

00:57:06Melissa Erbacher: Indeed. And I would love to be present at one of these octogenarian events at some point. I know they had one in Queensland down at Cleveland parkrun a couple of months ago. I think it was in August. And yeah, a wonderful initiative. And I'm sure all the participants, young and old, and whether or not they're in the age bracket or not, really have a good time and take a lot of inspiration from it. So well done, event teams, for getting involved on those sorts of things. And yeah, like I said, I really hope to be at one in the future. Well, Mark, you're coming up on your first ever Run Direct this coming weekend, but you've just nailed your second time out at co-hosting the parkrun adventurers podcast. How do you feel?

00:57:52Mark Scarborough: Oh, look, it feels fantastic. It's good to be on the podcast and support what parkrun adventurers is all about.

00:57:59Melissa Erbacher: Well, thank you for having – I was going to say thank you for having me.

00:58:05Mark Scarborough: You're welcome. You can come back again next week, no?

00:58:09Melissa Erbacher: I can come back again? Excellent.

00:58:16Mark Scarborough: Free parkrun for you this weekend as well. Event of your choice.

00:58:20Melissa Erbacher: Awesome. I'm going to take you up on that offer. And thanks also for chatting to me, Mark. I really appreciate it.

00:58:29Mark Scarborough: No problems at all. More than happy to jump on the podcast and have a chat with you and, you know, share stories with the parkrun adventurer listeners.

00:59:27Unidentified speaker: Thank you.