Episode 202 - Tom Williams

Welcome

00:00:24Tony O'Connell: Mel, Mel, Mel, quick. It's Toc. Wake up. There's things happening in parkrun world. Hey, are you there, mate?

00:00:33Melissa Erbacher: I'm here, Toc. I'm here. You know I've got small children, right? Like waking up a mother of toddlers who gets sort of dubious sleep as it is, that's a pretty big call. What could possibly be so important?

00:00:48Tony O'Connell: Mel, have you seen the news on the email and in all the chat groups, the social websites? It's gone crazy, parkrun might be coming back in a month, just in New Zealand by the looks of things. It looks like the Kiwis are going to get out in front of everyone else. They've got their COVID under control. This is fantastic news for the world.

00:01:09Melissa Erbacher: This is awesome news. I am so excited for parkrun New Zealand.

00:01:15Tony O'Connell: Yeah, look, it's not set in stone yet. There's no date set, but it's nice after 12 weeks of pause to someone's finger might be just hanging over the play button again. How good would that be out there?

00:01:29Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I mean, have you started making plans to go to New Zealand, Toc?

00:01:35Tony O'Connell: Well, I was googling how far it is to swim and yeah, that's not happening.

00:01:40Melissa Erbacher: No, I am not a strong swimmer. I would not make it past the wave breaks.

00:01:45Tony O'Connell: And at the moment with the 14-day lockdown, when you get there, I'm not sure whether I want to go for 15 days to New Zealand to have one day at parkrun. I think I'll wait till Australia kicks off, which hopefully it's in the future. It's getting closer.

00:02:00Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, look, I think New Zealand is... is blazing the way for the rest of the world. And I don't know about you, but I feel it's, I don't want to say light at the end of the tunnel because that's a very common used cliche, but it feels like the first sort of real hope that's actually tangible, basically. You know, I hate false hope. I hate window shopping. I'm not the kind of person who wants to look at things that I can't have. But the fact that parkrun, there has been no parkrun in the world for three months and now it's not going to be here. It's not going to be in the UK, the birthplace of parkrun, but it's going to be in the world. So the world is going to be a brighter place again because I take a lot of comfort in just knowing that parkrun is going to be there and some people will be enjoying it.

00:02:58Tony O'Connell: It's definitely a good thing to see and, um, You know, we get the regular emails and they've always said that they'll come back when the time is right. And it was such good news to even hear Jacinda Ardern talking on the news, I think, two days ago and saying that all the restrictions were going, the social distancing was going to go in New Zealand. And you just started to think to yourself, maybe there is hope. Maybe we will be running again soon.

00:03:26Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, and I mean, I know we're a parkrun podcast, but it's brilliant news that they're easing their restrictions effectively because they've eradicated the virus from their country. So that's a big bonus and a big plus. And, you know, people aren't at risk. Their lives aren't at risk. And I hope the rest of the world is slowly, if not fast, at least sort of heading in that same direction. And that, yes, it won't be too long before the other countries start to follow suit. Have you got any bets on who might be next? It's very easy for us to say, oh, well, yeah, probably Australia, you know, because we're doing okay. But to be honest, I'm not really across what's going on in all the other parkrun countries with their restrictions and things. I have actual trouble keeping up with the restrictions and And I have been sort of keeping tabs on New Zealand because I'm a big fan of Jacinda and her work and how she's been approaching things and leading her country. So that's kind of kept me a bit in the loop with what's going on with our closest neighbour. But, yeah, it's – you got any hot tips on who you think might come next?

00:04:38Tony O'Connell: No, look, I'd love to see Oz be the next country up and running. And I think – there's a couple of states that you know have had a few new cases and a lot of those have been people coming back from overseas you know returning home but we've also got a couple of states now that have gone two and three weeks without a new case in them so you'd like to think that we're getting closer in Australia as well you know realistically you can see some of Europe's going to take a little bit of time to come back into the fold but you know, they will come back. It's just a matter of time. And, uh, hopefully this gives them a little bit of hope too, that there is light there, that, um, you know, we'll be back out chatting to our friends and, uh,

00:05:20Melissa Erbacher: enjoying all the good things about parkrun again real soon yes one can hope and look I mean you might not be willing to go to New Zealand for two weeks and stay in quarantine while you wait to get out but I don't know do you know anything about the rules are you allowed to be in quarantine at somebody's house or do you have to be in their like hotels and things like that yeah no I don't know if um

00:05:43Tony O'Connell: My last trip to Auckland, if I could quarantine in that hotel for two weeks, I reckon I'd have a crack at that. That was pretty good. I don't know if that's the sort of place that they're putting you in quarantine, though.

00:05:55Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, look, I don't really fancy a hotel room, just one room for a family, even if it's a large room, especially not with the boys at the moment. They climb the walls here and they get to go out every day and play in the backyard, so...

00:06:11Tony O'Connell: At least in a small motel room, the walls are going to be closer for them to climb.

00:06:16Melissa Erbacher: Well, they'd have to do a lot more climbing because, yeah, there would be fewer walls to climb. Anyway, I mean, we've got family and friends over there and we had already been planning a trip to New Zealand before COVID-19 was a blip on the radar for this year. So as soon as – how good would it be if the trans-Tasman bubble became a thing? And we wouldn't have to quarantine between our two countries.

00:06:44Tony O'Connell: Well, I think we just need to get those people up in the northern part of Australia, in Queensland, to let us tourists in. And then we might be able to get a bubble going.

00:06:54Melissa Erbacher: The northern part? What do you mean?

00:06:57Tony O'Connell: We can't still come into Queensland, I don't think, can we? Well, you guys in your so-called Great State...

00:07:03Melissa Erbacher: You're having a little bit more issues down there with illness than we are up here. We've all been behaving and social distancing and isolating and quarantining ourselves to make sure it gets gone.

00:07:15Tony O'Connell: Done very well up there. Yeah. Yeah. I think the whole of Australia has done incredibly well and, uh, We've been very, very fortunate to get through this the way we have. So it's great to see some good news on the horizon. It's not here yet, but it is on the horizon and it's a positive step. It is. The barcodes may be out and the app may get another run very shortly.

00:07:38Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, looking forward to it. And, hey, so you've been up to some fun and hijinks in the last few weeks, not parkrunning, as it were, but you've popped on over for a visit with Danny and Nicola from With Me Now. You did some park faffing a couple of weeks ago. How was that?

00:07:57Tony O'Connell: That was awesome. It was great fun to sit down and just have a chat with both Danny and Nic Nic. On a Saturday night, our time, it was – they've set up their parkfaff set-up as a coffee break after the parkrun time in the UK, which is their morning. But obviously that makes it about eight o'clock at our, our time here, but it was just a great chat. It was, uh, Lovely couple of people and, yeah, really committed to parkrun, diehard parkrunners. It was a heap of fun.

00:08:26Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I watched it and I did enjoy experiencing that feeling of sitting around in a cafe having a chat about parkrun after parkrun without having done the hard work of doing five kilometres or venturing out of my pyjamas to go to a cafe. Yeah.

00:08:45Tony O'Connell: The worst thing was, Mel, at that time of night, it was too late to get stuck into a piece of cake. It was parkrun without cake. What are we going to do?

00:08:54Melissa Erbacher: No, it's never too late to get stuck into a piece of cake. Nighttime is a perfect time.

00:09:00Tony O'Connell: It is a heap of fun. It was a heap of fun chatting. And at one stage, I made the mistake of trying to read the comments that were scrolling on the live feed down the side. And they were just going crazy on the comments. And there's just so many names of people I know. And it was almost like you're having a conversation with all these friends. except it was a massive table of 100 people all throwing comments in and no one could hear anyone and the comments were disappearing because someone had replied to somebody and there was just stuff going everywhere and it was just a great atmosphere.

00:09:35Melissa Erbacher: I've had a few post-parkrun breakfasts that have been something like that. Maybe not 100 people but certainly the cafes have been packed and they've been so noisy and so many people that you want to talk to but you can't get around to everyone. But it's still, yeah, I think I understand what you mean by the great atmosphere.

00:09:54Tony O'Connell: Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it. And I got to introduce them to the Inverloch stump. It was done on a Zoom and I managed to work out how to do a background and I got the Inverloch stump in on the background. So all our friends in the UK and right around the world now have had the Inverloch stump revealed to them.

00:10:14Melissa Erbacher: And you picked a very beautiful, sunny day of a picture to share as well. So they're probably all there salivating over our weather, even though it is summer there at the moment. So they're probably having some pretty gorgeous stuff happening too.

00:10:27Tony O'Connell: It was an awesome summer photo, which was pretty funny given it was about eight degrees here and probably drizzling at the time. But it was a gorgeous summer photo.

00:10:35Melissa Erbacher: I love that you're out there representing. And you were representing the Channel 5 News crew too. You had your parkrun apricot on, I noticed.

00:10:42Tony O'Connell: Yes, very proud of my Channel 5 News crew apricot. I love the way that you can go onto the Pro Direct website now and order an apricot with Pretty well whatever you want on it within reason.

00:10:55Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, up to 40 characters and nothing too naughty. Yeah.

00:10:59Tony O'Connell: And I thought Channel 5 News crew, you know, we love our parkrun adventures and we love getting out there and talking to people at parkrun. So I've now got an official News crew T-shirt to go along with my press pass and microphone that we were presented with.

00:11:14Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, the day that you shared that top, it just made my week. It was so awesome to see it. We love that there's people out there like yourself who've got so much pride for the pod and for your role on the Channel 5 News crew as well. It was very special.

00:11:31Tony O'Connell: Yeah, there's other crazies out there too. It's good.

00:11:35Melissa Erbacher: Speaking of crazies, need to give a shout out to Mel Ellis and Olly Spake who co-hosted episode 201. I can't say last week because it was a few weeks ago now, but they did a great job. They didn't burn the house down. Actually, I need to be serious and say Oliver Spake. How could you? Melissa Ellis, what were you thinking having a party while your parents were away? Yeah, no, they did a great job. And I thought it was a nice dynamic, actually. You know, first time neither myself nor Scotty has been at the helm of the podcast in the last four, almost four and a half years. So, yeah, it was a bit of a weird feeling not being on it, but listening to it. But it was also familiar. So it's... I think we'll ask them back. What do you reckon?

00:12:37Tony O'Connell: Yeah, look, I reckon it was fantastic. Mel's always bright and bubbly when she's on. I reckon Ollie just had a really great new tone. I think it'd be worth getting them back. You just probably want to check under all the tables and chairs and that and make sure they haven't left rubbish there when they had their house party. But yeah, look, if they cleaned up well, I reckon we'd get them back. They were pretty good. Mel, following on from the email that we received, Got about the corona update that we get regularly out of headquarters. It's probably a good chance to catch up with somebody, get a little bit more information on what's going on in the background. What do you think?

00:13:14Melissa Erbacher: I know just the person.

00:13:16Tony O'Connell: Perfect. Let's get them on.

Interview Tom Williams — Chief Operating Officer, parkrun Global

00:13:18Melissa Erbacher: It has been about three months since parkrun was put on hold in Australia and all its other territories across the globe. And while we've been without our weekly parkruns, not everything has paused for parkrun behind the scenes. So we thought we'd have a chat with someone who can perhaps give us a little insight into what's been going on there. And who better to do so than Chief Operating Officer for parkrun Global, Tom Williams. Tom, welcome back to the pod.

00:13:46Tom Williams: Hi, guys. How are you?

00:13:47Melissa Erbacher: Really well. Thanks, Tom.

00:13:49Tom Williams: Fantastic.

00:13:50Melissa Erbacher: Exciting things are starting to happen.

00:13:51Tom Williams: They are. For your side of the world, they are, yeah.

00:13:55Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. So, look, undoubtedly the question on everybody's lips, and this might be a bit big and broad, and I know we have comms that go out every week about it anyway, but I'm going to ask it because it's the question that everybody would probably ask the first opportunity that they got to speak to you. When's parkrun coming back?

00:14:18Tom Williams: well um blimey so I think one of the one of the common things with everybody with probably every organisation in the world is nobody had um uh on their risk assessment what happens if there's a global pandemic and the world shuts down and you can't do anything and so it caught us by surprise obviously like it caught almost everybody by surprise several months ago and and the process of of closing down as you as you alluded to earlier it's been a while now since there's been a parkrun event anywhere in the world and the process of closing down was was really complex but had to happen really really quickly and so there was a period of a couple of weeks where staff were you know some stuff almost working around the clock and and we were trying to understand how do we actually close everything in the right way and so on and that that was really complex and right from the beginning we we understood that we felt that opening would be more complex than closing actually. And, you know, it's not, I'm not really talking about the technical side of how do we, you know, put a message on every website that says this event is now closed, for example, and what do we do about registrations and what do we do about events that have a start date or we're about to get a start date and those kinds of things. I'm talking about the, how do we make the decisions appropriately and safely and so on and actually closing down, you know, happened over the course of two weekends all 22 parkrun countries were closed um it's like and it wasn't a particularly contentious time like most in most cases people agreed with when we were open and they agreed with when we were closed and and um going forwards as we reopen around the world there's there could well be many many many months between the first country reopening which almost certainly looks like it'll be New Zealand we sent our update out this week um with a kind of save the date for july the 4th and we can talk about that a little bit uh if you want um but you know when will the last of the 22 parkrun countries you know I'm responsible for all 22 that we're in and I always think of although I'm based in the UK I always think of them as the 22 countries I'm responsible for all of them um I'll never forget any of them the the gap in time between country one and country 22 reopening could be really really significant and we genuinely don't know how long that'll be you know the the earliest every single parkrun country could possibly be open is probably the back end of this year and that really is genuinely a bit of an educated guess but not knowing how countries are going to deal with the pandemic longer term and not knowing whether there's going to be second waves and things like that you know it could be How long is a piece of string, really? I think you guys in Australia, you're obviously in a really great position. New Zealand has declared, back end of last week, I think, declared the transmission over of the disease. And effectively, they declared themselves COVID-free. There's not any cases happening. There's certainly not any fatalities happening now. And with the border controls in place and the contact tracing in place, It's hard to see how New Zealand could go backwards in terms of the virus at this stage. Obviously, there are complications with how do you let tourists in and there'll be families that are split across the globe and so on. So it's not easy for New Zealand as a country. But you'd think New Zealand's a fairly safe bet to start really soon as we announced this week. And probably that'll be for parkrun largely back to normal. And I wouldn't be surprised. And listeners will know as much as I do in terms of the public announcement of where Australia is. You can't see Australia being a million miles behind because of the impact of the disease in Australia has been fairly similar. The control has been fairly similar. So, yeah, if you're Australian, you're probably going to be parkrunning before you are if you're a Brit. Let's put it like that, shall we?

00:18:23Tony O'Connell: Tom, it's an incredibly complex situation that parkrun have had to deal with, where you've got 22 countries, you've got 22 different sets of regulations. And in some cases, you've got countries that don't have regulation that are allowing a spread of the virus. But technically, you probably could run the parkrun there from a regulatory point of view, how are parkrun approaching and keeping a track of the different countries? Like it's an enormous task to try and keep track of what's happening in Australia. I can't get my head around how you can maintain a grasp on 22 different countries.

00:19:02Tom Williams: Yeah, that's a great question, Toc. And it's been, we're fortunate in a way that actually in the countries that we are in, um, the regulation, and there's been different approaches. So we're in, you know, people know what countries we're in, but, you know, South African, the American, Canada, they're all over the place, Russia, Japan, and so on. Actually, there isn't a country where we could operate under the regulations they have. So things, places like Belarus have allowed football to continue and crowds and so on, and other countries have come completely out of lockdown or never locked down. at all. But actually, even in places like Sweden, where we have events, who have been very relaxed and have had a fairly mild lockdown, so all the shops and bars and restaurants are open and so on, and all the schools are open and there's no social distancing in schools and so on. Even somewhere like Sweden, the regulations would prevent us from putting on events. I think they don't allow public gatherings over 50 people, I think, off the top of my head. So we've been kind of fortunate, actually, that there hasn't been, in the 22 parkrun countries, a controversial country that has effectively, despite there being a spread of virus, parkrun could still happen or events like parkrun could still happen. So that's been good. And we've had this principle from day one of we will close our events where a country, a government, public health guidance requests or suggests. And so clearly, if they say physical... Running events of more than 10 people can't happen. Clearly, that is a clear statement that parkrun cannot happen. Where it might be closer is, so at the moment in Poland, for example, at the moment, the guidance is sporting events up to 150 people can take place with no social distancing requirements at all. Now, we actually have, out of our 60 or so events in Poland, I think three or four that breach 150 participants a week. Only just, actually, but nevertheless, they do. And so, again, that falls within our statement, really, of a request or suggest, well, that's close enough for us to say, actually, we couldn't. really happen so we've been lucky lucky for that that we haven't really up to now had to make any kind of controversial decisions to close countries where the government say we don't have to where public uh opinion might be might might be different your question about how do we monitor them so we have Every morning at 7.30 UK time, we have a strategic meeting, a strategy meeting about what are all the updates. And that's happened five days a week since the start of the pandemic, so about 12 weeks or since lockdown or whenever it was. It's a long time. Everything's merged into one era, I think. But every morning at 7.30, so straight after this call, actually, we are going to a strategic meeting where we say, OK, what are the updates? And that involves... Tim Oberg and Renee Gimbert, who you guys all know really well from representing Asia Pacific, and then a number of staff, including Nick Pearson, our chief exec, and myself, on this side of the world. And we have a general catch-up. And those of us in that meeting take a general interest in the whole thing. We're fairly well updated. At the same time, we have a separate kind of steering group, for want of a better term, which has... the most senior what we might call operating staff I guess from each of the 22 countries um that they speak every day on slack and in meetings and so on and they whenever there's updates in their region they provide those updates to all of us in in kind of real time through our internal communications channels and then that group meets every Friday so every Friday morning that group meets and says, okay, right. So for example, Derry Thomas is our member of staff and he is our territory manager for the Nordics, France and the Netherlands. And so he, I mean, he's actually probably oversees the most countries, actually, that's six countries, I think, isn't it? But so he will keep an eye himself very closely every single day on developments in those six countries that we operate in, in terms of the regulations. He'll highlight them to us during the week. And then on Friday, when that group meets, we go through all of each one of the 22 countries one by one and say, okay, is there any update in such and such or such and such? Now, most of them at the moment, there's no changes. So if we take the United Kingdom as an example, at the moment, there's no change. There's nothing on the horizon. There is no date in the future with any kind of relaxation restrictions where parkrun UK could return. Now, I'm sure it will and things will change. I'm not concerned about that. I don't think it'll be that long. But at the moment, there is nothing. Whereas places like Ireland, to use Ireland as an example, they have a date, which I think is August the 10th, for in their plan in their roadmap for all sports to return including contact sports in fact I think Australia has something fairly similar to that now within that in Ireland and I think in Australia There is also a type of request to maintain social distancing, physical distancing. Now, clearly, you can't maintain physical distancing and play judo or Aussie rules or rugby or football. And so those governments are going to need to answer some of those questions in time before those dates to say, OK, if contact sport is coming back on this date as part of our roadmap, what is our position around physical distancing of participants? For example, now we've seen in New Zealand, there aren't any because they've declared themselves free of the virus. So in New Zealand, as we said in our note this week, we're going to spend a week really investigating it carefully and looking come back next Tuesday with a further update. But at the moment, as far as we can see, there are no social distancing requirements, physical distancing at all. Now, New Zealand and possibly Australia, if it comes back again, or it'll definitely come back again, when it comes back again, might be in that wonderful position of having effectively eradicated the disease, whereas other countries may not be. The United Kingdom may have relaxation restrictions that allows parkrun to come back when there is still uh a base level of infections and and sadly of of deaths at that time and so our positions coming back then when we're allowed to may well be completely different to come back in someone like New Zealand but so we review that kind of daily but every Friday morning we have a formal meeting around Each of the 22 countries where the territory leads in those countries update us, the global leadership team, on any changes, allows us to then make decisions and think about things over the weekend before updating the world on a Tuesday.

00:26:08Melissa Erbacher: So you're keeping a little bit busy.

00:26:09Tom Williams: Yeah. We kind of are and we kind of aren't. And I think one of the things we've got pretty right at the beginning, and I hope, is that we understood right at the beginning that everybody would have a different experience. Some people are homeschooled, so some staff members or ambassadors or whoever are homeschooling and some aren't. Some live on their own, some don't. Some live in big supportive families, some don't. Some are furloughed, some aren't. No parkrun staff are furloughed, but some volunteers are and some staff members, other halves are and some aren't. And so everybody's challenge is completely different. And so pretty much day one, we said to all the staff, um around the world um okay the most important thing is is you right now your health and well-being this challenge is gonna is we're gonna all have a different challenge here some of our lives are going to become much more complex some of our lives are going to become much less complex you know I personally I've got 10 hour 10 hours of commuting on a train back every week so so I've found miraculously found 10 hours of time that I didn't have before because I was sat on a commuter train every day And so we want you all as staff members to prioritise your health and wellbeing and to spend time with your families if that's what you do and whatever it is. And we want you to define what's critical and we need to make sure we get the critical stuff done. And critical for us meant being able to relaunch when the time was right. So New Zealand have announced very, very quickly as a government that everything's relaxing. It looks like we're going to be in a really great position having done the critical stuff in the background, making sure insurance is up to date, making sure landowner permissions are up to date, making sure everybody's got defibs if they have them or timing equipment or whatever it might be. And it looks like we've done the critical work behind the scenes such that New Zealand's going to be able to start pretty much as soon as is safe and appropriate and that was our measure at the beginning and so you know we've tried to encourage staff not to work massive hours if they're spending all day homeschooling their kids they should relax in the evening not uh catch up on on work and not feel like they have to clock in and check hours and you know and so I I don't I Personally, this has been a really, really kind of high pressure time for me, which I quite enjoy that sort of situation. But at the same time, I wouldn't say I've done huge hours. It's certainly not been the most hours I've done in my time, maybe 10 years now at parkrun, because I've tried to lead by example in that sense. And And taking time off. We've taken the kids for a walk every day, for example. And we've not missed a day. Helen, my wife, and I haven't missed a day in the whatever it is, 70-something days of lockdown. We haven't missed a day where we've taken the kids for a walk. I get our neighbours' newspapers from the shops because they're elderly and they're shielding. And I get our other neighbours' prescriptions from the chemist because they're elderly and shielding. And we try not then... backup work so there's a whole load of stuff a whole load of emails I've never replied to a whole load of stuff I've not done but kind of if it wasn't critical don't do it put yourself and your family first and if it is critical let's work out as a team how we do it and hopefully that's that's worked pretty well and the staff are all in good shape and and you know the organisation's in good shape and the volunteers haven't been stressed And that means we'll be able to come back in as soon as it's safe and appropriate in all of the 22 countries and get back to proper parkrun.

00:29:50Melissa Erbacher: Now, you mentioned a couple of the things that would be important in getting events ready to come back and they all need to be lined up, insurances, risk assessments, that sort of thing. A question that I know our adventurers will be keen to get their heads around is there were a whole bunch of events slated to launch in the weeks sort of, are leading up to, well, after the pause happened, essentially. And there are more that are getting confirmed that they're going to be good to go when we come back. How is that going to work? Do you know yet? Has there been sort of a plan formulated with, are we just going to go boom and launch a whole bunch of new ones on day one?

00:30:33Tom Williams: We might do that. Hopefully not literally.

00:30:36Melissa Erbacher: How's it going to happen?

00:30:37Tom Williams: Yeah, so we've talked about that an awful lot from the beginning. And at the very beginning, we said, okay, right, what we'll do is we will just, so anybody with a date will just effectively cancel those. We'll suspend, pause, cancel, whatever you want to say, those events, like an event that had already happened, that was already live. And for any new events that come along, and we have had some prospects and people come along and so on. we'll just treat them like largely like normal. And so we might, I don't know whether the team are giving them, literally giving them dates to start or not, because then we'd just give them a date to definitely cancel it, for example. And we wouldn't want to give them a date, you know, I don't know, June next year, and then they have to wait for six months because we start in January next year. But effectively we've been allowing teams accepting requests for new events and doing all the work required getting them ready to go we've in New Zealand for example I think off the top maybe there's only one event that he had a date I think and was cancelled I think that's right um And as far as I remember, this is only unfolding over the last few days with New Zealand. I think we'll just offer them the opportunity if they want to, to start at the same time everybody else starts day one, whatever that is. It might be the 4th of July, it might not, but hopefully it will be in July. I think in some of the countries, like say Australia, there'll be a lot. I don't know how many there are in Australia, but there'll be a lot. In the UK, there's an incredible amount, I hope. Again, I don't know the number off the top of my head, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was, I don't know, 40 or 50 events in the UK ready to go that either had a start date or would have had one by now. The overall kind of overall position is that we don't want any events to have to have to wait for any material amount of time um and so we we we removed our limit for new events starts a long time ago I think the most events we've started on the weekend in normal times was I think 18 events I think across across the weekend before um I wouldn't rule out starting if there was 10 events in Australia I don't know what the number is I wouldn't rule out starting 10 events day one 10 new events I think the decision on that will largely be around pressure on ambassadors and volunteers at local level. So let's say, for example, you had, I don't know, two events in Sydney that were going to start and they'd been supported by the same ambassador. And let's say the feeling was that events were going to be overrun with thousands of Australian parkrunners. There's really high pressure and the ambassador really wants to go to to support one of the bigger events that's under maybe more pressure and is a bit worried about being overwhelmed on the day of the first APAC. And that means they can't go to either of the two events they've supported. Clearly, we don't want to put any individuals under undue pressure. So in that case, we might delay those two events until a time that we can support them appropriately. At the same time, if there's a great little ambassador network in, in that part of the, of the world. And they're saying, look, we're all super comfortable here. These three events that are existing are all really experienced. And they're, they're really happy for day one, whenever that is relaunch day, these two events, I can go there. I can go there. We'll support it. We'll be fine. We'd support them. So I don't think it will be a reason. We don't know the answer is the short answer, but I don't think it will be a resource limitation. And I, our, our, aim is to get all events that are yet to start started as quickly as possible and I wouldn't rule out starting you know 20 30 40 50 events on a single weekend new event if that was what was required I don't think there's a resource issue. || [00:34:17] SPEAKER_02: Tom, one of the other questions...

00:34:17Tony O'Connell: One of the other questions, I guess, using a crystal ball and looking ahead, week one when a country comes back, do you think we're going to get a lot of people? Everyone's itching to get out to their parkrun. Or do you think there's going to be quite a few people that will want to sit back and just see what happens for a couple of weeks and then come along? What's parkrun's thoughts on that?

00:34:37Tom Williams: Yeah, really good question, TOC we are doing some insight work to try and understand that a little bit so we're doing some survey work effectively writing to parkrunners and saying um two things are you are you a volunteer I mean I'm oversimplifying it but are you a volunteer and how do you feel about coming back and volunteering and are you a walker or runner how do you feel about coming back and walking and running and there's the two issues there one is operationally one is um are we going to have enough volunteers in a given country? And I think in New Zealand, because of that situation, we're really, really comfortable we are. In other places that have been harder hit, we might not be. So we're doing some survey work to understand that and best support people. We also, of course, don't want to be overrun. If we get 10 times the attendance we had before, then we're knackered. And so we're trying to judge that temperature of how likely people to come back. I think... I think everybody has a different opinion on it, but I think we'll probably be roughly in the middle. And I think some people will come back sooner, some people won't. I think we'll see, and it will vary a little bit country by country. I think our bigger worry than the numbers probably, so I think we'll make the right decision and get relaunch events at countries at the right time so that we have enough volunteers and not too many walkers and runners. I think the thing that we're a little bit more worried about, and we're also doing some survey work, so led by Chrissie Wellington and the team in the health and wellbeing team, is the kind of the impact on inequality across the parkrun community. So we've spent 16 years diversifying parkrun and, you know, most of our work is ahead of us still. I'm not saying we're in any way where we want to be eventually, but we've gone from 18 people in the Royal Park in West London to to you know 400 000 people a week across prisons and across south african townships and across you know disadvantaged areas and and and so on we've worked really really hard to do that and a lot of people you know in the hundreds of thousands that have have taken up physical activity when it didn't come naturally to them and they were really, really nervous. And it might have taken people a number of years to come to their first parkrun. You know, we have this conversation often around when does someone's parkrun journey start? It doesn't start at their first parkrun for many people. Some people just turn up in a park and go, what's this? And then do it. And it's great. But lots of people, it is multiple years between them hearing about parkrun and building the courage to come along and take part. And those people are really, really, really important to us. And we've spent, like I say, 16 years developing our knowledge there. And we celebrate that with our slowing finish times every year. So every single year since we were born in 2004, our average finish time has slowed. And that's one of the proudest things that we have, that we're most proud of, one of our worries about, you know, are people going to come back? I'm sure all the keen being 250 club people like me or the people in the 500 club or the 25 club volunteers, I'm sure that most of them will come back. Not all of them. And we're looking at some of the nuances there, but we really worry. I really worry that, um, the people who took, I don't know, three years to build up the courage to come to their first parkrun, came to their first parkrun, and then we shut down because of the coronavirus. And then the coronavirus potentially enhanced the inequalities. Has that knocked that person back three years? Has it taken them all the way back to their parkrun journey, which started three years before their first parkrun? So the health and wellbeing team are already... looking into kind of the evidence behind that and doing looking and setting up some research and they're very excited for the first day back to very quickly analyse okay who came back and who didn't um and actually you know if uh Ironman triathletes haven't come back because actually they've they've got more enjoyment going walking with their family every Saturday morning in their local community then that's fine and that's a great thing and we don't really worry about that. But if the person with multiple underlying health issues who desperately needs community, who desperately needs physical activity, has spent the last 12 weeks or whatever it is locked in their house, um and got out of the habit of being active and social and outdoors if it knocks them back a number of years that's such an incredible worry for us and so we're really spending a lot of time at the moment talking about that how do we understand that how do we understand who's come back and who hasn't how do we make judgments around who should we try and persuade back if they haven't you know so if people who were previously inactive are much less likely to come back and we'll know that soon How do we re-engage with them and hopefully shorten that journey? So it's not three years before they come back, it's three months or it's three weeks. So it's really interesting. And we talked to the team about it last night. We have a biweekly all staff call around the world. So staff from Australia and all the way up to Vancouver. And we kind of update everybody. And we talked about it a bit last night. And I was kind of saying, look, we've done the best we can. The global pandemic was out of our control. If when we come back, we find that the pandemic and the lockdown has pushed us back a number of years in terms of our outreach work into the most in need communities and cohorts and demographics. then we just have to work out where we are and start moving forwards again. And, you know, not beat ourselves up about that, not be down about it. Just simply take the time to understand it and then move forwards again. And we will get back to where we were. We will, you know, exceed where we were. And parkrun will continue to, you know, to be for everyone forever.

00:40:33Melissa Erbacher: Well, we know you've got your daily meeting to get to, so we won't hold you up.

00:40:39Tom Williams: I'll just text them and say, I'm running over. I'm on the adventurers podcast. I'm running over. I hope they're fine with it.

00:40:46Melissa Erbacher: It's been a tumultuous time being in the world ourselves and watching others as we all experience our own new normalities among the backdrop of a global pandemic. Never could have comprehended that this was coming. Hardest deal that we haven't had our beloved parkrun to help us cope. But thank you, Tom, for everything you're doing, everything the staff and volunteers are doing to make sure that we're in the best position to restart when the time's right.

00:41:12Tom Williams: Yes. And we will. I think it's really important, Mel. Sorry to interrupt, but I think we really will. And I know people around the world are in different situations and different personal situations and their countries are in different situations. But I really do firmly, firmly believe that all 22 parkrun countries will come back, and many more in the future, will come back to, not to a new normal, to the old normal that we love, where we're able to high-five and hug and cheer each other on and do all of those things together in areas of open space. I really do, and I follow it so, so closely. And I really do believe that we will get back to our beloved pre-coronavirus parkrun normal.

00:41:58Melissa Erbacher: Really can't wait. I know I speak for everyone when I say that. But thank you also for joining us on the pod this week to give us a little preview into what has been involved and continues to be going on behind the scenes as well. It's wonderful for everybody to get a little slice of time with Tom Williams.

00:42:16Tom Williams: So thanks for that. My pleasure. Thank you very much. And thank you for everything you guys do and the community has been so supportive. So it's been truly wonderful.

00:42:24[music]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Melissa Ellis — Ellis Palace parkrun

00:42:43Melissa Ellis: Good morning parkrun adventurers. It's Melissa here and I'm coming to you from Ellis Palace parkrun. I thought it's about time I did a roving report from my very own from my home parkrun and give you a course description. So Ellis Palace parkrun is a two loop course, in an anti-clockwise direction, does have a few road crossings, so wouldn't classify as an official course in parkrun rules. However, its features include two playgrounds on course, numerous builders portaloos for when you're caught short. We have our very own swamp, And we have been developing... That's enough, Bambi. We have been developing a ritual when we get to a certain point in the course where we can see the Toolern Creek parkrun trail, where we stop and we wave. It's a pretty... It's a pretty flat course. One small rise in the home straight, which I like to refer to as Mel's Mountain. And today was event 10. And to celebrate, Ellis Palace parkrun welcomed its very first tourists, Irene and Parth, who came and joined me this morning at 8 a.m. The weather was a little bit drizzly, but we didn't get too wet. I enticed Zoe out with the promise of cake to be our photographer this morning as we headed off. She took the official photo, so thank you, Zoe. And I just wanted to make a comment about this because I have... I am now feeling that regular parkrun high that I get at a parkrun. And look, in 10 weeks, because event 10 today, it's the first time I've probably had that feeling. I've just, I had a brilliant morning. In Australia, we have had our restrictions relaxed enough that we're allowed to meet in groups of no more than 10 outside. And we are allowed to have at least or a minimum of five guests in our house. So with Irene and Parth coming to visit, we did not break any of the social distancing guidelines. And it occurred to me that... It didn't matter that I didn't scan my barcode. It didn't matter that I'm not getting an official time. What mattered was I caught up with my friends today. I had five kilometres with my friends. We came inside afterwards in my place and we had doughnuts and we had coffee and we spent time together and that is what I've missed. And we don't need official parkruns with barcodes and tokens to get that feeling. Sure, when the lockdown is over, when everything is unpaused, I can't wait for that. But we can get out there in small groups and we can still have that parkrun experience. So thank you, Irene and Parth, for coming to event 10 of Ellis Palace parkrun and experiencing my course. We finished with a jump shot and I've had a brilliant morning. So I encourage everybody to try and just capture some of that magic and stay connected and I shall talk to you again soon.

00:46:33Tony O'Connell: Hey Mel, how good was it to hear about Ellis Palace parkrun? I'm not too sure about Portaloos being near a swamp though. I'm not sure whether one follows on from the other or what the story is there. What did you think of it?

00:46:48Melissa Erbacher: I thought it was great that Mel got some adventurers coming to visit her event. That made me very happy to hear. But yeah, I'm with you on the Portaloos. I've never actually required... toilet facilities during a parkrun. I've been chaperoning a young person who needed to stop in for a pit stop and so I had to sort of wait while that happened. But I don't, yeah, not a thing I've ever had to really worry about. I try to avoid things like curries on a Friday night before a parkrun and things like that just in case because, yeah, you don't want to get a PB because you've done a mad dash to the loo. Yes.

00:47:28Tony O'Connell: and the first first tourists have been there and I've seen on Mel's social media feed that she's had another few tourists since keeping the numbers down of course but it's great to see people catching up with each other and being able to have that chat and a bit of social afterwards as well absolutely I'm

00:47:47Melissa Erbacher: It makes me very happy to see that there are people out there that are still running on parkrun Day because it's not something that I've been doing and I haven't been motivated to do it. But something has happened this week that I think might just get me out there, Toc.

00:48:03Tony O'Connell: Yeah, parkrun are releasing a new thing called Not parkrun.

00:48:07Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I'm excited that parkrun have decided to take this tack and create something that we can do that's going to probably get a lot of events, well, not just the events, but the communities engaged again. in the absence of the real thing. And as the notification or the notice mentioned, it's never going to be a replacement for parkrun. That's not the intention and that's not what it's there for. But it's nice that for those of us who don't live in New Zealand but are still keen to get a bit of a taste of parkrun in our lives, that we've got something to get us out and moving, in in this pause I mean I know you, TOC — I know you don't have any problem getting out and moving but I'm not lying when I say I have not done five kilometres as a single activity since parkrun stopped so I am one of those people who has just 100% lost my mojo without having that I centre to my week, that reset on a weekend to go and if not volunteer, then do five kilometres on the course.

00:49:23Tony O'Connell: I think you'll love this one then, Mel, because it not only gives you the opportunity to do it on a Saturday, but you'll be able to do it on any day of the week. And naturally, because it's not parkrun, it doesn't count towards your run count or your t-shirts or anything like that. It's just a little bit of fun.

00:49:43Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. And you don't have to do a parkrun course. So it's kind of modifying the Freedom Run technology. But at the moment, when you log a Freedom Run, you specify the course that you're logging. Whereas in this circumstance, you just do five kilometres wherever you are, whatever day of the week it is, and multiple times if you want to. And then they pick your fastest result um but it goes it gets allocated to your home event so um I'm assuming Inverloch is still your home parkrun so if you log one then you'll be part of the results at Inverloch and I'll be part of the results at Kawana and that makes me really happy to be part of results at my home event again I'm already planning to to definitely get out there as soon as it gets launched

00:50:32Tony O'Connell: And it wouldn't be fantastic, like I'm really looking forward to it if it logs in as Inverloch, just to be able to see the other people from Inverloch and all those people that I've missed getting out and running with and sitting around at the stump after parkrun and having a chat and then going up to a pieman, pull a pieman for a coffee and a bit of cake. It's going to be great to at least see some of those names out there again. It's going to start to bring us all back together and hopefully warm us up for the main event.

Sign-off

00:51:00Melissa Erbacher: Yes, exactly. I'm a bit excited about it. Well, Toc, it has been awesome having you back along for another stint co-hosting on the adventurers podcast. Thanks for joining me this week.

00:51:14Tony O'Connell: Hey Mel it's been fantastic and uh great news all around I'm feeling much happier about myself and about life just knowing that somewhere out there in the ether there's a chance that a barcode is going to get pulled out in the next month and scanned how good's that?

00:51:32Melissa Erbacher: Yes the barcodes are coming the barcodes are coming back it's awesome.

00:51:37Tony O'Connell: Always great to chat to you Mel and uh Yeah, no, keep safe up there. And one day I hope to see you at a run and be out running with you.

00:51:46Melissa Erbacher: Thanks, TOC. Talk to you soon. Okay, bye.

00:51:48[music]

00:52:43Unidentified speaker: Thank you.