Episode 187 - PKRUN

Welcome

00:00:24Melissa Erbacher: Welcome to episode 187 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Mel. My surname is Erbacher. I am joined by another Mel. Her middle name is the parkrun adventurers podcast number one fan, self-proclaimed, and her surname is Ellis. Mel, welcome back to the podcast.

00:00:45Melissa Ellis: Thank you, Mel. Nice to be here again. And I've dodged the intro again, which I'm always happy about.

00:00:52Melissa Erbacher: I think I need to plan it better in future that you're here for an even episode. Or if you'd like to have a go at just redoing my intro, you're more than welcome.

00:01:00Melissa Ellis: No, no, you did well. Okay.

00:01:02Melissa Erbacher: I'm glad I've got your approval. Thanks for that. Mel, I hear you had a bit of an adventure on the weekend to regain a certain status of sorts. I did.

00:01:17Melissa Ellis: I did. So... I have been up until recently a statesperson in the state of Victoria, in the greater state, but we had a recent spate of launches down here. So one particular weekend we had three launch on one day, and sadly I had to work that day. So I was absolutely devastated, missed all three, and I've slowly been catching up. So while my family went off to Aurora, A few weeks ago, I ventured out there on Saturday to get my title, to get my crown back.

00:01:57Melissa Erbacher: Your crown. There's a crown? There's a crown with statesmanship?

00:02:00Melissa Ellis: Oh, you know, it's like a tiara, whatever.

00:02:04Melissa Erbacher: Oh, I need to get me one of those. So what does it take to become a statesperson in Victoria these days? How many events are we talking?

00:02:10Melissa Ellis: 80. We're up to 80. Notwithstanding, obviously, the prison parkruns, but we don't count them because they're not open to everybody. We just go with the regular events. And, yes, we've got 80 now in Victoria. So we're sitting a few behind Queensland and New South Wales, I believe, which you've got 104 or so up there in Queensland, I think, and 91 in New South Wales. But we're catching up. We've got a few on the card. Yeah.

00:02:43Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. For a state though, and I've long had this argument with Scotty that for the state that he claims to be the greatest and that's where all the runners come from, etc., etc., third on the scale of the amount of parkruns in Australia I know you did a good job of trying to catch up last year and you made some excellent ground this year everybody slowed down just a little bit interesting though that you had three launches all in one week yeah that sent a few a few um few states people into uh into a spin yeah nothing like the kind of tizzy where you go where you don't know where to go but this is I know first parkrun world problem exactly spoiled for choice which is always wouldn't we just all want to have three new events we could go to every week three launching every week that would I'm doing my best to catch up to the ones that already exist so that would put me way behind insert cliche here

00:03:43Melissa Ellis: Due to the delay, I actually picked up a Wilson Index number by venturing to Event 6 at Aurora. However, I still haven't got a 5, so it hasn't really helped greatly.

00:03:56Melissa Erbacher: And when you get a 5, what will that bump you up to then?

00:03:59Melissa Ellis: 10!

00:03:59Melissa Erbacher: Woo! It's hard. I got a Wilson Index last weekend, but it was something random like 284. I did check before I went to see whether or not it would contribute to my long game. And it did, which is always nice, but obviously not the major motivating factor because just like Victoria and Queensland, we don't have a lot of new events going around. So the lower numbers are a lot harder to come by. But that's okay.

00:04:31Melissa Ellis: Yeah, you need to wait for an event to launch that's close to home and then you can just hit it every few weeks when you need that number. But then that interferes with your touring schedule. So like you said, first world problem.

00:04:46Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well, that's the thing. Don't want to break my tourist streak as well. So all these interconnecting challenges messing with each other.

00:04:55Melissa Ellis: How are you going with your tourist streak?

00:04:57Melissa Erbacher: I think I'm up to 24. Nice. And that has been more than over 12 months, I think. So it's kind of like run streaking where you're doing a mile a day. You get to a certain number and it's taking you such a time to get there that you don't want to break it because then you would start back from zero again.

00:05:18Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

00:05:19Melissa Erbacher: But anyway, did you have a good morning when you regained your tiara?

00:05:24Melissa Ellis: I did there was other there was other tourists Victorian tourists there that I got to catch up with which was lovely and there was a couple of other ugly singlets Bruce Purdy was there wearing his and I believe Fiona Davies was there I didn't get a chance to really chat with Fiona sorry Fiona I did intend to but I think you you um wandered off while I was uh had my back turned but next time next time and uh I went on my own um Paul was off chasing his own Wilson Index numbers at Campaspe. And Zoe had a week off. She's having a rest before the busy Christmas time, so getting a bit tired at the end of the year for a 10-year-old.

00:06:07Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well, that's understandable.

00:06:09Melissa Ellis: Yeah. And what about you, Mel? I saw a reference to a bobsled or something on your blog.

00:06:17Melissa Erbacher: Instagram and your Strava so what's going on with that well the time has come in fact the time was probably well overdue that we upgraded from two single prams one of which was not a running pram it was just a little lightweight compactable travel pram that didn't cope very well with some of the rougher courses upgraded to a double a side-by-side double pram which is the size of a small trailer Or, yeah, it's just I need one of those signs that says wide load and maybe an orange flashing light or something like that. It doesn't, unless I collapse it, it doesn't fit out my front door. So you can't just wheel it in and out of the house. And I can't just wheel it in and out of the garage unless I open the garage door that you use for cars. So it's, yes, very large. It's a little bit hilarious actually because I did try to fit it out the front door and then I said to Adam when he got home, oh, can't get it out the front door. We're going to have to take the wheels off to get it out. And he's like, why don't you just collapse it and carry it out? Oh, my goodness, I was just having such a mum brain moment when I thought, oh, I'm just going to have to take the wheels off to get it through. Yeah, it wasn't my finest moment. Sleep deprivation I think is playing a part in my life a lot of late. Anyway, yeah, so we've upgraded to the double pram and I was super excited to try it out because this is an investment in my health and exercise because when I'm at home – Yeah, I can take the boys out in the car and we can go for a walk or whatever, but it's very slow going because Wesley Pace, two and a half year old, not very far or fast. And if he wants to get in the pram, which is usually the case after a certain distance, then I have to put Emmett in the carrier and like nine, nine and a half kilos in the carrier while you're pushing another 15 in the pram. It's not much fun. So, I pretty much don't get much exercise during the week and now I can, although it had its trial run on Saturday morning and the pram itself weighs 16 kilos, the bobsled. It's a Bob branded pram and it reminds me of Cool Runnings. I don't know. I think, were we podcasting when there was an 80s theme at Kawana parkrun? I think it was about three years ago. I think we were. Yeah, no, we must have been because Wes was around and he didn't come along till after we started podding. So long-time listeners might remember that my whole family got dressed up as the Jamaican bobsled team from Cool Runnings. And we have the one-piece lycra outfits and we had a little Wesley-sized version and we dressed up our single pram as the bobsled with a Jamaican flag and everything. Went all out. It was great fun. And... I love the movie Cool Runnings and very excited to have a bob now that I can call a bobsled because there's this – I don't know. You've seen the movie?

00:09:38Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah, and I vaguely remember the photos too. My mind's racing now back when you did that.

00:09:44Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. So in the movie there's one of the characters is having a bit of a crisis of faith in himself and his own abilities because he's not a runner, you know, he's – or a... Or a bobsledder. Skater, or a bobsledder. He's not an athlete. He makes go-karts in his little village and races go-karts, and that's how he got into it. He was going to be the driver in his head, but then he was told, no, no, you're not going to be the driver. You're going to be one of the other guys. And so he was being given a pep talk by one of the other athletes who was a runner and looking in the mirror and saying, His mantra, which he has to repeat over and over is, I see pride. I see power. I see a badass mother who won't take no crap off of nobody. And so for me, it's just like, yes, these are all powerful. Go push this 40 kilos worth of pram and children up some undulations and hills out on 5K course, even though you've got spaghetti arms and your legs haven't done any exercise in six months beyond a bit of a

00:10:56Melissa Ellis: And it's so wide that you just knock everybody else off the path.

00:10:59Melissa Erbacher: Yes. Well, I didn't have to worry about that this week because we got to parkrun a little bit late and they had just started. And so we had to do a bit of racing to catch up to the Tail Walkers to overtake them. So I didn't have to worry about knocking other people off the course yet. And I will always be very conscious of sticking to the back or where I'm, you know, appropriately timed for a finish time, et cetera. So we're not going to, be a hazard because realistically a double side-by-side pram is it is a wide load but anyway um yeah so it's going to be called the bobsled and it had its first outing I was sore for two days arms and back and quads my quads must have got a bit of a workout with some of the little undulations that um were on the Berrinba course that's where we were we were at Berrinba having an adventure out that way for the first time, which was very cool because it's one of the rare beauties that is a single loop. course it's not an out and back it's not a multi-lap you just start in one spot and you don't retrace your steps at all and you just go around a big loop through some wetlands which was really nice and um very well signposted which was an extra bonus given the late start and having to catch up to people there's uh some permanent arrows on the concrete footpaths around the way. So whenever you have come to a junction and you might not know, you just look at the ground and you, you're directed where to go. So that was great. We had a really good morning. And I mean, apart from Wes may have asked several times if he could get out and walk. So I'm not sure how often at parkrun he's, Like I'll be pushing the pram purely and simply because I don't think my speed at the moment is sufficient to satisfy him. I think he thought his walking would be faster than me pushing him in the pram. Yeah. So there might be some creative negotiating in the future. If anyone has any tips for how to keep children in a pram happy for, you know, 50 minutes to an hour without letting them get out and walk, please let me know what they are because I can use all the help I can get.

00:13:23Melissa Ellis: Or what I always did with my kids basically is you just never let them get out. So they don't know it's an option that you can get out. So it was just always go to the shops, get in the pram, do all the shopping. Come home, back in the car, whatever.

00:13:35Melissa Erbacher: Yeah.

00:13:36Melissa Ellis: We never walk. So they didn't even question it. They didn't even like, oh, this is a thing we can get out and walk.

00:13:41Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I think that's definitely going to be a factor. And I didn't let him get out and walk. And I don't think Adam ever has yet either. It's just like when I take him to the plaza or wherever and, you know, those kiddie rides that you can put $2 in and they'll spin around for a minute. Wesley doesn't know that those things move. So... I've seen you post about that. Yeah, he is perfectly happy to sit in them and just pretend to drive the steering wheels and, yeah, it doesn't need to move. And somebody said, oh, you know, you can get an app that you don't have to use cash. You just, like, pay the app and it goes direct to your credit card and you get two free rides if you sign up to the app. And I'm like, yeah, but... The second he knows it moves, that's what he's going to ask for every time and then it's going to cost money, whereas right now he's happy. So as long as I can keep that illusion up, I will do so. But anyway, it was a wonderful morning as usual at parkrun.

00:14:42[18 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:15:00Unidentified speaker: Hello we've just finished the Gawler parkrun in Adelaide and I'm with Neil Sanders Co-Event Director and Jules Reid and it was a beautiful day here in Adelaide and Neil you're the Event Director how long has this course been going for?

00:15:20Neil Sanders: It started here in July 2017 so we've just done a 127th run today

00:15:29Unidentified speaker: Okay, and were you one of the people who started up the course here?

00:15:34Neil Sanders: No, the original event founder was a lady by the name of Cheryl McKibbin, who has now moved on to, she started up another parkrun at Stebonheath. So myself and Jules came on as Co-Event Directors in December, January, 12 months ago.

00:15:52Unidentified speaker: And what got you into doing the directing?

00:15:58Neil Sanders: I've been a regular volunteer previously and just really enjoyed it. When I started doing parkrun here, it was really a case of wanting to run, but I soon got the idea that I was actually enjoying volunteering as much as the running. So when somebody needed to come in and help out, quite happy to do so and you just get to know so many people and it's just got a really nice friendly vibe to it all around. It did come across as being extremely friendly today. We're pretty proud of the friendly atmosphere and we've got a fantastic bunch of volunteers.

00:16:32Unidentified speaker: And Jules, how long have you been running for?

00:16:36Jules Reid: I really don't know. I just did a, Gawler used to have a 5k thing around the town and I did that one year that was years ago and

00:16:47Unidentified speaker: and then yes found parkrun and then have been coming coming ever since ever since ever since yes okay and our uh Run Director of the day is Jeff and Jeff how many uh times have you been Run Director I'm not sure probably yeah but maybe eight to a dozen something like that okay it was very well done this morning and you do seem to have a pretty good mob of people there

00:17:17Jeff: Yeah, it is. It's an excellent parkrun. Friendliest bunch of people you could meet.

00:17:21Unidentified speaker: I'm biased. I do like Gawler. For our listeners, my father was born here. I've got sentimental attachment to the place and the people do seem really good. Okay, and Neil, one of the things I did like was your cars, the number plates. Could you describe your car number plates for the listeners?

00:17:40Neil Sanders: Well, we're very proud at Gawler that we've got twins, as we like to put it. So we have PKRUN1 and PKRUN5. So that's Jules' car and my car. And we do try and park next to each other most weeks here. And there's been a few comments from visitors regarding those number plates. I did love that actually. And the other one is, I believe it's a significant run for you today. Yeah, there was rumours that it was my 100th birthday today, but I'd like to just quash that. It wasn't my 100th birthday, it was actually my 100th parkrun, so I thought I'd better dress up a little bit for the occasion. So I thought a black suit, white shirt and a bow tie might be the order of the day.

00:18:25Jules Reid: You'd dress up every day if you could. Yeah, that's true.

00:18:28Unidentified speaker: He's a serial dresser, which I believe is another feature of the residents of Gawler but we'll leave that side as well. Neil was superbly dressed, it was one of the nattiest suits on a runner I think I've ever seen and you were flying which is quite amazing, I was impressed with that. Another question I might ask is from our Run Director for the day, could you describe the course?

00:18:54Jeff: It's a nice course, plenty of shade, it meanders along a creek bed with some lovely little uphills.

00:19:03Unidentified speaker: A surprising little uphill at the turnaround.

00:19:06Jeff: Yeah, a nice leg tester at the turnaround and a leg tester at about 600 metres to go.

00:19:14Unidentified speaker: And anything to add to that, and Neil?

00:19:17Neil Sanders: Well, we do try and warm visitors when they come. We always sort of, if people come along to the first-timers brief, we always sort of say to them that yeah just look out for the hills and just think the fact that near the start you've got a nice downhill soon after the start but just remember as you're coming to the finish you're going to have to run back up that so just plan ahead.

00:19:36Jules Reid: Although the reactions are quite funny when you they don't get warned they come back to the finish so they go oh don't tell me about the hills.

00:19:44Unidentified speaker: The other one I did like was the helipad there so I don't know if you've ever had calls to get the ambulance in no very good I'm glad we try to sort of keep the flyers on the course rather than uh rather than sort of take them anywhere else I I think that's about it it's an enjoyable mob mob of people uh except for that hill at the end I've got to admit I did enjoy the course I loved it I do recommend if anyone happens to be in this part of the world give a go at the Gawler parkrun very good and by the way there will be a Christmas event here for any south Australian listeners or visitors

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Tony O'Connell — Portarlington parkrun

00:20:17Tony O'Connell: okay thank you very much folks thank you thank you howdy parkrunners TOC reporting in for the channel 5 news crew today Jack and I ventured down to the seaside town of Portarlington down on the Bellarine Peninsula about an hour south of Melbourne I'm with Yvonne the Event Director today and the Run Director today Yvonne how would you like to describe your course for us

00:20:41Yvonne: Oh, it's a perfect course for running. It's beautiful, straight out 2.5km along the bay and then 2.5km back. It's beautiful and the temperature's perfect.

00:20:50Tony O'Connell: And the course itself is a granitic sand that's really well packed, so it's actually really good to run on. Yes. During your run brief, you mentioned a wind and I run the first 2.5km out thinking, I don't know what she's talking about. I got about half a km back, come around a corner and thought, oh, what on earth is that? LAUGHTER But, yeah, it is a bit of a headwind on the way back. But it is a lovely course. You look out to sea, you can see Melbourne in the distance across Corio Bay. And you've got quite a few runners out there today. How many do you think you've got on course?

00:21:08[laughter]

00:21:23Yvonne: We've got about 30 to 40 runners, which is normal for us. And it's just lovely to see the young people here as well as we've got all the generations coming through. It's a really friendly parkrun. We're very lucky.

00:21:34Tony O'Connell: Yeah, you've got an interesting mix. There's a few locals in there as well as a couple of tourists. We've got a couple of runners coming in now. Oh, one's having a burst up the finish line. There you go. Well done, young man. Through the finish.

00:21:50Yvonne: Yeah, through the finish. Well done, good job.

00:21:53Tony O'Connell: All right, well, we might wrap it up there. We might head up for coffee fairly shortly.

00:21:58Yvonne: Yeah, we're very blessed with coffee places as well.

00:22:01Tony O'Connell: Excellent. Thanks for your time today, everyone. Thank you. Cheers.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Sarah — Cohuna parkrun

00:22:06Sarah: Good morning, parkrunners. It's Sarah here. I'm in Cohuna this morning, just putting... I thought I'd submit a roving report. Just up here doing a bit of touristing with the family. Cohuna is in the northern... area of Victoria, not far from the Murray. What I know about the course is that it is a two-lap course or two-and-a-half-lap course on the Gunbower Creek. There's a few people gathering here as we speak. So let's see what this run's about, and I'll check back in with you a bit later. Hi, parkrunners. So we have just finished at Cohuna, and I'm here with our Run Director today, Kirsten. Kirsten, how long have you been RD at Cohuna parkrun?

00:22:50Kirsten: Hi Sarah, I've been RDing for about two years, so Cohuna parkrun's been going for three years, and I've been Run Director for about two of those.

00:22:59Sarah: And has this been your home parkrun since it opened?

00:23:03Kirsten: It has been, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we've just celebrated our third anniversary, and yes, we've been here right from the start.

00:23:09Sarah: Fantastic. Now, the course is a three, well, two and a half lap course, and I love the big tree right down the bottom of the course. Yes. What other things, what other little icons or things around Cohuna that you can tell us about, about the course and why people from, you know, parkrun adventurers would want to pop up here and have a tourist? Oh, they'd love it here.

00:23:27Kirsten: They'd love it here, apart from the atmosphere. We've got this beautiful creekside walking track. So we start off in Garden Park, beautiful green park right next to the creek, across from the shops. And you wander through, you wander through some parkland, Gill Rule Park. If you're into rock hunting... There's a lot of those little rocks, those coloured rocks that kids can look for on their parkrun. Yes, and so the creek is just, it's a stunning, stunning area. It's just beautiful scenery. So suitable for all types. You know, we've got a lot of people who use prams, suitable for them as well. It's just a beautiful atmosphere.

00:24:04Sarah: It is a beautiful course. It's relatively flat. There's a couple of little undulating areas, but predominantly flat. And obviously the path changes a couple of times. You go from concrete to bitumen to, as you said, the gravel. There's so much bird life. I was really surprised how much bird life. I was running with my six-year-old and although I did have the music going, I could definitely hear all the birds. Do you get any other wildlife around the course?

00:24:28Kirsten: around the park? No, generally not. So it's mainly the birds. We've got a lot of ducks around today. A lot of ducks and the cockies and everything. But no, we don't usually have any other wildlife around here.

00:24:40Sarah: Other than just parkrun people? parkrun people. Thank you so much for having us today. And I love the fact that your cafe is literally right across the road.

00:24:48Kirsten: It is just across the road. It is. It is. And, you know, we all go over there. And I'll tell you, our Cohuna parkrun family, we are a real little community. We've formed some great friendships here. Oh, beautiful. I hope you found it really welcoming. It was fantastic. Lots of high fives, lots of hellos, good jobs on the way around the course. It was great. Yeah, yeah. So everyone really fits in. You know, there are people here who we might not cross paths with in other areas of our life around town, but we've made really good friendships here. Oh, fantastic. Fantastic. How many do you think were here today? Because it looks like maybe, I think last week you got about 40-odd? Yeah, there may be about 30 here. Around about 30, which is average for us. Yeah, yeah. Oh, fantastic. It does tend to build up over summer when more people come. We're a big tourist area here, so we have a lot of people come over summer. So, yeah, our numbers do increase over summer. Fantastic.

00:25:35Sarah: Well, I will definitely be back. And parkrun adventurers, you need to put Cohuna on your list of parkruns if you haven't already. Thank you so much for your time. You're welcome. Thanks. Hi parkrun adventurers, I'm back again. We're just at the finish line here at Cohuna parkrun and I've found one of the front runners today and I'll just get him to introduce yourself.

00:25:54Shannon Tracy: Morning Sarah, my name's Shannon Tracy. I'm from Cohuna, how are you?

00:25:57Sarah: Good, and I hear you're the husband of the ED here?

00:26:02Shannon Tracy: That is very correct, yes, yes. Go ahead. You're not a co-ED or anything? No, I'll let Ames take that. She definitely did it. I can still remember the night we sort of decided we were looking at doing a parkrun. We were both in bed looking at things to do. We both wanted to sort of get something more active in Cohuna and felt we come across parkrun just online. Awesome. Ames sort of asked me, you know, Sham, what do you think of this idea? And I said, and we'd sort of just started doing a bit of running. And we thought, yeah, absolutely. Why not? This sounds amazing. And Ames sort of went with the managerial side of things. And I went more with the course design sort of thing. Oh, fantastic. So we sort of shared the load there. But again, let's be honest, Ames did all the hard lifting. I didn't. So, yeah, that's how our parkrun started here.

00:26:43Sarah: Good way to start. Good way. And Ames listens to this. She's going to be like, yes, thank you. Thank you. Absolutely, hon.

00:26:47Shannon Tracy: I'll put a good word in for you.

00:26:48Sarah: I love it. So how did the course come about?

00:26:51Shannon Tracy: So basically, as we know with parkrun, very stringent specifications you have to have there. Can't go on roads, et cetera, et cetera. This was the best area for us in Cohuna. There were other areas we considered doing it, but start and finish is right in the centre of town. We want it to be visible to the community. and also passerbys. Just again, we want everyone doing parkrun, don't we? Not just in Cohuna, but everywhere. Absolutely. So we thought, let's make it visible. And as I said, we're right along the creek. It's a beautiful course, this one in Cohuna. It is fantastic. So yeah, it's nice and flat. Great course to come and do. So it actually was pretty obvious in the end to have it here.

00:27:26Sarah: I know, I love the fact, I just said to Kirsten, I love the fact that the cafe is right across the road. It's such a beautiful course. It's that three, that two and a half laps. It's really good. And you get to say, as we were running past, everyone at the barcode and skating tab was cheering us on as we went and did our couple of laps. So it's a fantastic atmosphere, a very community event, isn't it?

00:27:43Shannon Tracy: Absolutely. Spot on, Sarah. Fantastic. That's well said.

00:27:46Sarah: Oh, brilliant. Well, as I said before, guys, if you haven't been to Cohuna, you need to put it on your list.

00:27:50Shannon Tracy: Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you, Sarah.

00:27:53Sarah: Hi, parkrun adventurers. I am with the amazing marshal that we had today, and his name is Wooly, and I've been told to talk to him because I hear he's a bit of a character, which I have now seemed to see that, yes, I can see why he's a bit of a character and a bit of a larrikin. So, Wooly, what's brought you to parkrun?

00:28:12Wooly: More or less to help the town out and the public and anyone that comes along.

00:28:17Sarah: Yeah.

00:28:18Wooly: That's the main thing. And to make everyone have a happy morning getting out of bed.

00:28:23Sarah: Well, you definitely put some smiles on our faces this morning with that cheeky grin yourself.

00:28:28Wooly: You get a lot of comments. Act on whatever they say to you. You might have a five cent and you make it into a two dollars. That's what you do. And you just pump women up. There's more women coming back. Yeah. So you pump them up, make them feel good, make them want to come back. I know I nearly get some slaps across the faces, but what comes out of my mouth sometimes. Because you act on the way they run or the way they walk or the way their arms are... moving or whatever or how they look or how they dress.

00:28:56Sarah: All the things that get you in trouble.

00:28:58Wooly: All the perfume they put on you because some of that scent gets right stuck up your nose. Oh dear.

00:29:06Sarah: And so what else do you love about parkrun besides staring up everyone? That's a lot of likes. That is a lot of likes. That's a lot of likes.

00:29:12Wooly: That's a lot of fun. Once you get out of bed, me personally get out of bed on a Saturday morning because I It starts a good day. It does, doesn't it? It starts a good day. If you put a smile on a little kid's face or a woman's face, you're halfway there.

00:29:26Sarah: Oh, look, I get it. And I loved my oldest, Mr. Campbell, was quite impressed when you said to him on the second lap, now, when you come back again, I'm going to send you through a shortcut. And I did get a whole, mummy, a shortcut's allowed at parkrun. He was very concerned. And I said, no, buddy, it's actually the course, but he's just having a bit of a joke with me.

00:29:44Wooly: Two and a half laps. That's what it's all about.

00:29:46Sarah: It is, isn't it?

00:29:47Wooly: Yeah, you've got to have a bit of fun. But no, it's good. No, it's really, really good.

00:29:52Sarah: Well, you've definitely lightened up our day today and I hope that many people come and cheer you and give you some high fives.

00:29:57Wooly: I do get some comments from women. They don't know how to take me sometimes, what comes out of my mouth. But in the end... When they get across the finish line and come and see me, come and meet me, they love it. Yeah, it's good fun. They love it. They nearly give me a kiss before they go, honestly. It's just awesome. You're lucky I'm bloody married. I reckon parkrun's the biggest way of meeting nice ladies.

00:30:22Sarah: It is, isn't it? Well, there has been a few parkrun weddings come out over the last few years.

00:30:26Wooly: Well, I can tell you.

00:30:27Sarah: Where people have met at parkrun.

00:30:29Wooly: Yeah, well, my brother-in-law was just one that walked away.

00:30:32Sarah: Oh, wow, there you go.

00:30:33Wooly: Yeah. Yeah.

00:30:34Sarah: Wow.

00:30:36Wooly: Yeah, I called him Goanna. It's just the way he runs. I have a special word for certain people. And he kind of runs like a goanna who struts with his head going sideways.

00:30:47[laughter]

00:30:47Sarah: Oh, that is brilliant. That's hilarious.

00:30:49Wooly: So I've got lots of names for certain people.

00:30:51Sarah: Oh, funny.

00:30:51Wooly: I love it.

00:30:52Sarah: Well, thank you so much for making our morning very entertaining. And I hope you go across the road and have a coffee.

00:30:58Wooly: We are.

00:30:58Sarah: And we'll be back. We'll be back to Cohuna another time. Wow.

00:31:03Wooly: That's awesome.

00:31:04Sarah: That's Sarah signing off here today, guys. Thank you very much for your time. And we hope to see you out on the touristing somewhere soon. Thanks.

00:31:12Melissa Ellis: So Mel, how good are our volunteers? The Event Directors that have the matching rego plates at Gawler, that's pretty passionate. And our cheeky marshals. At Cohuna parkrun, I just love everybody's passion.

00:31:27Melissa Erbacher: I don't know about you and your home parkrun. I know you're not there very often, out there chasing the world of statesmanship and whatnot, but we've got one particular cheeky marshal who, well, he's not always a Marshal. He's a cheeky volunteer, but he loves marshalling because he finds himself out on a spot on the course where people pass him twice and he gives so much lip to everybody, but they all love it too, so. He only gives what he gets. And it really adds to the ambience of the event, you know, the friendliness. And I wonder sometimes if people come from overseas and then they parkrun with us and he's cheeky with them on course or whether or not the Australian humour translates very well to people from other parkrun countries and whether or not they appreciate or understand that we are just being tongue in cheek. I don't know. What do you think?

00:32:22Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I think that we're pretty unique in Australia with that kind of thing. Going around all the Victorian events, I can't say I've come across a lot of it. I've got some standout people that are very well known at their individual parkruns. Rosebud's got one in particular that has been featured, Bev, that she likes to stand and give high fives and gives a lot of support and they're great. They're so supportive and I just love meeting all those characters as I go around and visit all the parkruns. But, yeah, I'm sure people know that the Aussies are really laid back and it's just part of our culture so I'm pretty sure our tourists wouldn't get too offended. Fingers crossed.

00:33:07Melissa Erbacher: Any of them that are listening to the podcast anyway. I mean, if they've got used to my humour over all these years.

00:33:13Melissa Ellis: Hey, I still don't really understand the Derek Zoolander kind of club but, you know, I embrace it. It's fine. I don't get it. What's not to get? Well, maybe you need to see the movie.

00:33:29Melissa Erbacher: Oh, you haven't seen the movie?

00:33:30Unidentified speaker: No.

00:33:31Melissa Erbacher: Okay. Problem number one. You haven't seen the movie. I know what I'm going to send you for Christmas. There's a massive gaping void in your life and you don't even know that you have this massive gaping void. You need to watch it.

00:33:49Melissa Ellis: Can we have a Love Actually Club?

00:33:58Melissa Erbacher: You might get sort of some interesting characters in that club possibly. Yeah.

00:34:05Melissa Ellis: Yeah, well, you know, I'm in the Christmas spirit.

International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day

00:34:08Melissa Ellis: I'm all ugly singleted Christmassed up at the moment.

00:34:12Melissa Erbacher: You and a lot of other people. It just absolutely makes my day or my hour every time I see a new singlet picture being posted or whatever on Facebook or Instagram. It's awesome. They're everywhere. Yeah, yeah, they really are. It's very exciting. And weird at the same time. Weird that people have embraced this little ugly singlet that we designed. I noticed Bruce, and you may have mentioned it earlier, I can't remember, it was many, many minutes ago, Bruce Purdy was wearing his Ugly Christmas Singlet on the weekend and He was. When you saw him. He actually also sent us a message during the week in relation to last week's pod where we were talking about the Staying Alive Club, Lyndell and I, and that we think Redcliffe needs to be included somehow honorarily in the unofficial club. And he had a great suggestion. Bruce said that maybe committed Bee Gees... people would include the first names of the musicians as well so as well as getting the three b's and the three g's they could also get an r for robin an m for maurice and a b for Barry so an extra r and m and a b and then next level I know you like a level up challenge the truly committed Bee Gees or the Staying Alive Club members would make the r happen in Redcliffe

00:35:43Melissa Ellis: So that's a bit cool. Okay, that's a bit of a pilgrimage, isn't it?

00:35:48Melissa Erbacher: It is. I would like to say that, you know, I'll go and pursue this now, but I'm pretty sure I've actually already got the extra R, M and B and my R was at Redcliffe. So that would make me still in the Staying Alive Club with the Level Up Challenge completed.

00:36:03Melissa Ellis: Wow. Oh, you're an Uber Bee Gee.

00:36:07Melissa Erbacher: I'm an Uber Bee Gee. But you know what I was thinking? There are so many Ugly Christmas Singlets out there and there needs to be a collective noun for them. So you might be able to help me come up with one or maybe some people could give us some suggestions. But I thought, okay, well, what's the collective noun for koalas? And I Googled it. There's no collective noun for koalas.

00:36:29Melissa Ellis: Really?

00:36:30Melissa Erbacher: Really. I know. Well, the thing is they're very territorial and they're not herd animals. They don't live in packs or anything like that. They're quite sort of aloof koalas in general, not unlike their cousins, the drop bears. Okay. So I thought, okay, I will Google the collective noun for pineapples because they're grown in rather large crops and things like that. And what's the collective noun for pineapples? Don't have one. Oh. So once again, the English language is letting us down. So can't take any kind of inspiration from a collective noun for koalas or pineapples. I don't know. What other elements are on – I mean – Is there a collective noun? Maybe we should call it a tinsel. Maybe a tinsel could be the collective noun for Ugly Christmas Singlets.

00:37:21Melissa Ellis: I like that. I do. I like that. It's a tinsel of ugly singlets. The only thing that came to mind for me was calamity. I don't know why. It just popped in my head.

00:37:32Melissa Erbacher: I do like calamity. Calamity has got to be a collective noun for something like naughty ponies or something. Oh, maybe. Something random like that.

00:37:39Melissa Ellis: But, yeah, I like tinsel. A tinsel of ugly singlets.

00:37:46Melissa Erbacher: I think it makes sense because it's gaudy and Christmassy and one of my favourite smells in the world, you know, that's the smell of Christmas to me is tinsel.

00:37:55Melissa Ellis: I don't know that Australian ugly English singlets after they've been around a parkrun would smell very tinsel-y.

00:38:05Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I'm not going to test the theory. I'm not going to do any research to find out.

00:38:10Melissa Ellis: It might be more like a whiff of Ugly Christmas Singlets.

00:38:13Melissa Erbacher: Well, maybe that's, yeah, a whiff or, yeah, a calamitous whiff. Yeah. Anyway, there definitely needs to be a collective now. And so let's go with tinsel for now. And if we get any better suggestions during the week, because a whiff could just relate to pretty much anyone, any parkrun and post-parkrun.

00:38:36Melissa Ellis: And it's going to be next Saturday, Mel, Ugly Christmas Singlet International Day.

00:38:42Jules Reid: I said that wrong.

00:38:42Melissa Ellis: It is. You did. I can't wait. Hopefully we get lots of big groups of people out there. There's probably been people that have just been sitting on their singlets like yourself, waiting for the day, not wearing them yet.

00:38:54Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, waiting to crack it out for the big one. But I did mention last week that there is going to be a Make Your Own Ugly Christmas Singlet segment on Facebook, which we will share in the event group. But there is also now an International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day Facebook page. It is a Facebook page dedicated entirely to Ugly Christmas Singlets and the day. Am I on that?

00:39:20Melissa Ellis: I have no idea.

00:39:21Melissa Erbacher: There is only one person on it at the moment and that's me. If you want your claim to fame to be I was the second person to ever like the page, then feel free to look it up on Facebook and go like it. I'm hoping it gets a couple more likes after the pod goes out. I might have more, a scoop on that and that's where all all the future Christmas singlet days will be promoted as well specifically on that page and of course we'll we'll share them on our socials too however you know it's bigger it's bigger than the pod international Ugly Christmas Singlet Day it's going to be a massive going to the future I think it's it's bigger than all of us it's bigger than a tinsel of Ugly Christmas Singlets it's taking over the world yes yes it is But now I want to come back to we didn't actually dive too deeply into the States people thing and I'm keen to know a bit more background because this is something that I have been, let's say, passively chasing for a few years now and I'm keen to know, Melissa, when did you start? How did the obsession and the specific goal of knocking off all the Victorians ones start for you?

00:40:35Melissa Ellis: Well, so previously I used to live and go to Berwick Springs parkrun. That was my home parkrun. And I had some very good friends, which they're still my friends, Paul and Michaela Curtin. And Paul was, he was on the event team out at Berwick Springs. And whenever there was a new event coming up in Victoria, back then in 2000, probably 2015, we're talking, we didn't have a lot of events and parkrun wasn't as popular as it is now so Paul would like to go out to all the new events to support the new event team you know and to and just to help out and his lovely wife Michaela would go too and I was friends with them and they'd say do you want to come with and so I'd say yeah sure and I started travelling around to you know whenever new events popped up with them so probably 2015 didn't didn't do a lot there was just a few um but then 2016 I suppose then it started to become a bit more of an obsession and I started you know wanting to start to tick off all the existing events that we already had as well um and at this stage was that when your spreadsheet was born probably um and at this stage I just started going to the anniversary so whenever one of the um One of the parkruns was having an anniversary and I had never been there. I thought, oh, I'll go along because it's a party and I like a party. A little parkrun for cake? Well, see, I don't eat cake but I like a party. Anyway.

00:42:10Melissa Erbacher: You are partial to a fancy dress.

00:42:12Melissa Ellis: I am, yeah, and that's exactly the thing. They were always fancy dressed so I got to wear tutus and dress up and so I just started going to all the anniversaries through the year. and tick them all off. And back then, Paul wasn't really parkrunning. He wasn't interested. And he was like, meh, go off and do your thing. Go with your friends. That's fine. And I did. And then once I finally achieved it and I got to all my events, and it might have only been about 40, 44, something around that number of events at the time in Victoria, he sort of went, oh, that was cool. I might do that too. I thought, really? You're really party, Paul. Because – Right? And they're quite remote. You know, there's a lot. It's not as bad as Queensland, but, you know, a lot that you have to travel quite substantially to get to. So, okay, off we go again all around Victoria. So Paul could do it. And then he gets. Heaven forbid.

00:43:10Melissa Erbacher: What a terrible dilemma. You have to go to all the parkruns.

00:43:13Melissa Ellis: I know. I know, right. So I would just go back and try for the PB, of course PB, every time he'd be like, let's go here. Okay, well. You can walk with Zoe because I need to get a PB. And then he went around and he did all his and then we realised, well, between all my trips and all his trips, Zoe's nearly done them all as well. So we sort of just thought, oh, well, she's only got so many to go. So then we went around so she could achieve it as well. She got a bit of a kick out of that and felt a bit special and we left. We left her last one because that's the thing, Mel. You've got to be really careful. You've got to leave a special event to last.

00:43:48Melissa Erbacher: A special event.

00:43:50Melissa Ellis: Yeah, yeah, where you want to go to achieve your statesmanship. You want it to be somewhere where your friends can travel to that's not too remote, not too far away, somewhere where you can be surrounded by, you know, have a bit of a party, surrounded by your friends. Make it all about me. Yes. So we specifically left Zoe's last event to be Highlands because, you know, what's not to love about Highlands? I do remember this, yeah. Yeah, and a lot of our tourist friends travelled on the day and she had a little theme, she wanted to be blue and, yeah, it was fabulous. So it's just about making it fun and enjoying it.

00:44:28Melissa Erbacher: Oh, that's interesting. I'd never really considered having like a party and sort of a big celebration about finally getting there. I mean it's going to be a labour of love over a very long time so it does make sense that you... Want to make it a big deal when it happens.

00:44:45Melissa Ellis: You do because it's a big achievement.

00:44:48Melissa Erbacher: You know, so you're now a States person. You must be running out of challenges to keep you chomping at the bit to get out. I mean, obviously adventures are always fun anyway, but it's nice to have something to aim towards. We're nearing the end of the year. I've started thinking about my New Year's resolutions and that was actually kicked off by the – the 100 parkruns video which celebrated another anniversary back in November started me thinking about different things have you got any general vague thoughts about potential new year's resolutions for 2020 not really look I think you know I want to start a new juniors event out my way um and so I've sort of um

00:45:42Melissa Ellis: made that decision that probably touring will take a back seat next year while I get a new event up and running and it's going to be a bit more time at home. And I'm happy to do that. I think I'm ready to do that. I'm ready to step up and take a more active role in one actual event. But having said that, you know, there's always little things in the background. And juniors are on Sundays. Well, that's right. So you can still go away as long as you come home Saturday night.

00:46:12Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. Yeah. So maybe just not like the really far reaches, I guess.

00:46:16Melissa Ellis: Yeah. So I still haven't completed bingo. I've got one elusive number that's just driving me insane. I think it's probably going on a year. I've been trying to wait to get that. So that's always a little bit of excitement every Saturday morning, just waiting for that results email, like maybe it's this week.

00:46:35Melissa Erbacher: Do you fix yourself? You sort of think, okay, if I run – six minute, 20 kilometres over the whole course, then I'll be within a few seconds of it. Do you kind of, I mean, I don't want to say call it manipulation, but I think pacing to try and achieve a particular time is not cheating.

00:46:56Melissa Ellis: No, I run flat out. I run as fast as I possibly can every single week. Do you really? And I just pray for the gods that maybe this week it's my turn to get, and every event I go, I think to myself, well, maybe Aurora will be the lovely event that gifts me my last number and then it's not. So next week I'll go.

00:47:14Melissa Erbacher: You run flat out every week. What's that like?

00:47:19Melissa Ellis: Well, it's slowing down, I have to say, because I'm not doing events so much or training for long distances anymore. So my parkrun time is dropping but, you know what, it's fine because I'm not really worried anymore. But I still always try and do my best and I still – you know, have that person in front of me in my sights and I still try to catch them, yeah, just to motivate me along, just to motivate me to keep my fitness and, yeah. But no, no big goals for next year. But what about you? Have you got resolutions in place?

00:47:58Melissa Erbacher: I don't want to give too much away but I too have a spreadsheet.

00:48:04Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:48:06Melissa Erbacher: Good old Google Sheets, they are quite handy for trying to collate information and and see things visually all on a page. And I have got one that is called The Original 100. And, I mean, obviously there's an event in there, Heirisson Island, which you can't do anymore because it's no longer active. But there are 99 events on that list and I have done 30-something of them and I want to have done more. So maybe, I don't know, loosely thinking maybe try to tick it off so that I'm up to 50 of the originals because that's another way to give yourself a criteria for how you're going to choose the next one, especially when you've got a large amount of them all roughly same distance away from you, which we find ourselves in that situation at the moment. So when it comes down to it and you've got three or four to choose from, how do you choose? Then it might just be, Okay, well, this one is also on that list, so maybe we'll do that one first. Yeah, ticks a couple of boxes. Exactly, exactly. But nothing's set in stone just yet or, you know, written on ink, as it were. So we'll hopefully have a little bit more time to think about that when we head away over Christmas, New Year's and get some more parkrun adventures in South Australia.

00:49:38Melissa Ellis: I also have said first 100 parkruns on my Google spreadsheets. But I've only got 25, so you're doing well. You win. I'll let you have that one.

00:49:50Melissa Erbacher: Oh, it's not a competition. It's only a competition with Scotty.

00:49:54Melissa Ellis: So what I really need to find out is how many has Scotty done? He can write in and tell us.

00:50:00Melissa Erbacher: He won't, though. He's too lazy for that sort of thing.

00:50:05Melissa Ellis: There's the challenge. Prove me wrong, Scott.

Sign-off

00:50:09Melissa Erbacher: Melissa, it's been fun having you on board again as always, the podcast train. Thanks for joining me and I hope you'll listen in next week. I don't know who the co-host is yet. We'll have to sort that out. But it will be the final episode for 2019. There's always special stuff included in the pod when that happens. I'm not going to say I don't know what that stuff is because I have a vague idea. I'll get everybody organised by then to make sure it is a wonderful pod as always to round out the year.

00:50:45Melissa Ellis: Thanks for having me, Mel, and thanks for having me in the co-host seat for the three times that you've had me. I've really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to Christmas. Ugly Christmas Singlet Day. Can't wait. It's going to be fun.

00:50:58Melissa Erbacher: Yes. And everybody, I mean, Ugly Christmas Singlet Day, the first, the inaugural international one, it's all about you guys getting out there and Loving this crazy concept of wearing this weird design that we came out with at parkrun and having fun and doing it with friends and being festive. And it's going to be successful because of you guys. And we cannot wait to see the pictures okay make sure you get lots of pictures of yourself at parkrun or you know what just wear the singlet all day long I don't mind if you take a photo of yourself in the grocery store doing your last minute Christmas shopping or whatever I want to see it please share it on all the socials Facebook Instagram twitter if you are so inclined to use twitter And just make sure we see it because we want to see it and we want to share it with everybody and share the love. If you haven't joined the Facebook event yet, go do that. It's the only event that parkrun adventurers is hosting at present. And if you want to go and join the Facebook page for International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day, that is the name of it on Facebook. Look it up and give us a like and be part of the shenanigans, have an amazing international Ugly Christmas Singlet Day this parkrun day everyone we'll see you out there

00:53:23Unidentified speaker: Thank you.