Episode 203 - In the Dunny

Welcome

00:00:22Melissa Erbacher: Welcome to episode 203 of the parkrun adventurers Podcast. You may not have realised it was episode 203 because we did the whole episode 202 without actually introducing the episode. Whoops, we forgot to say what number we're up to. But yes, no, this one is definitely episode 203. My name is Mel Erbacher. I am joined by the wonderful Dave Moss in the same room as me this time. We've managed to hopefully, fingers crossed, figure out how to do the technology with us being in the same room. Dave, welcome back to the podcast.

00:01:01David Moss: Thank you very much, Mel. And I've got to admit, it's very nice to be here on this, the last day of the financial year. Yeah.

00:01:09Melissa Erbacher: Yes, it's an end of financial year podcast. We've got all the stock take sales happening. Well, that would work if we actually had merchandise, which we don't.

00:01:20David Moss: There are no more ugly Christmas T-shirts.

00:01:23Melissa Erbacher: Oh, there will be more. There will be more Ugly Christmas Singlets.

00:01:26David Moss: No, they were jumpers, weren't they?

00:01:27Melissa Erbacher: They were singlets, Dave.

00:01:29David Moss: Oh, okay. I've never been very good on clothing.

00:01:32Melissa Erbacher: Get your merchandise range correct before you make comments.

00:01:37David Moss: Okay, there goes the marketing area.

00:01:39Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. But, no, I'm happy you bring that up, actually, because I have been toying with starting the design a little bit earlier this year and – Hopefully we'll get some time in the next couple of months to get that sorted. So keep an eye out. Ugly Christmas Singlet version 3.0 coming soon.

00:02:00David Moss: Okay. That'll be something that I'm sure people are queued up and waiting for. And if it's a limited production, as it has been in the past, they could become collector's items.

00:02:10Melissa Erbacher: Oh, definitely.

00:02:11David Moss: They have been collector's items.

00:02:12Melissa Erbacher: They are. And look, 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, bushfire slash...

00:02:19[crosstalk]

00:02:19David Moss: locust plague edition it could be an interesting kind of ugly Christmas okay I'm hoping that's not a disaster t-shirt since everything else has been disasters yeah it's one way of putting something slightly different on the COVID t-shirt no

00:02:37Melissa Erbacher: No, no, we certainly won't be saying words like that. No. We're going to turn the year around, Dave. The Ugly Christmas Singlets are going to redeem 2020. We are, right.

00:02:47David Moss: We're into the second half of the year, which is going to be compensating for the first half. Yes. So we'll call it karma, yin and yang. The first half of 2020 was a very big negative here, so the next half will be a complete positive.

00:03:02Melissa Erbacher: Yes, it's going to be the redemption. And speaking of redemptions, I don't know about you, Dave, but I have been doing Not parkrun, which is the best thing to come out of parkrun since parkrun. It is.

00:03:21David Moss: There aren't too many things that have come out of parkrun since parkrun, but yeah, not parkrun. I don't know how many people actually know about it. It's been in the newsletters, but I don't really know how many people have been participating or what their plans are.

00:03:36Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I don't know. To be honest, I'm not following it too closely. I know the first week they had almost 19,000 participants across 20 countries.

00:03:46Unidentified speaker: Oh, really?

00:03:46Melissa Erbacher: Which isn't too shabby. And I'm sure as word gets out, it's going to grow week on week. And I've seen that happening just at our home parkrun, which is Kawana.

00:03:57Unidentified speaker: Mm-hmm.

00:03:57Melissa Erbacher: And I can't remember exactly how many people were on the first week. I think it might have been eight. We might have had eight in the results for the first week, but we made it into double digits for the second week.

00:04:06David Moss: I'm glad to say, yes, I have done it. And I have been listed in each of those and will be for the third one too this week.

00:04:14Melissa Erbacher: Excellent. I'm still planning my (not)parkrun outing for this week. I have actually been doing them on the Saturdays. And I know you can do more than one. You can do them every day of the week if you want. And... Look, I got a PB last week. I'm pretty excited. Somebody, a good friend of mine, you may recall, his name is Scotty. He asked me earlier this week how I managed to wrangle a PB. And I, look, I just said to him, you just have to go a bit faster than the week before.

00:04:48David Moss: So when you say a PB, Mel, do you mean a (not)parkrun PB or an overall parkrun plus not parkrun PB?

00:04:58Melissa Erbacher: No, no, I mean a (not)parkrun PB. Ah, okay. So this is the beauty of it.

00:05:03David Moss: So out of the two parkruns you've done, the second one was faster than the first.

00:05:07Melissa Erbacher: Yes, I'm faster every time. So fast.

00:05:10David Moss: Okay. Well, I can say snap to that. Yes, mine increased as well, but...

00:05:15Melissa Erbacher: Or decreased, as it were.

00:05:16David Moss: Okay, yeah, the time decreased. But I don't know about yourself, but since parkrun ceased back in, when was it, March?

00:05:25Melissa Erbacher: It was March, mid-March. It's been a long time.

00:05:28David Moss: Okay, that decade ago. I have certainly lost fitness going by my results.

00:05:36Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, the COVID kilos are piling on.

00:05:38David Moss: Yeah, lifestyle can be conducive to Olympic medal proportions by any means.

00:05:46Melissa Erbacher: No. And so I think that's the beauty of not parkrun. We get to start fresh. You know, that very first week is the benchmark by which the rest of them are measured and

00:05:56David Moss: So for anyone who starts off doing not parkrun, we should emphasise, try not to put too much effort into the very first run. That way you're almost guaranteed to get a PB the following week.

00:06:07Melissa Erbacher: Walk the first one if you can. You know, I'm a little bit angry at myself. I took more than three and a half minutes off and that's a lot of lost PBs in the middle along the way. And now that puts a lot of pressure on week three.

00:06:20David Moss: Did you do your run actually at Kawana at your home course or did you do it somewhere else?

00:06:25Melissa Erbacher: No, I did both of them. I'm doing the same course that I've set for myself, which is just a little loop around Palmwoods, where I live. Looks a little bit like a toilet on Strava. Not the course itself. When you get out on the course, it's quite scenic. We've got ponds, there are ducks involved, run past a school and through lovely leafy suburbs. Yeah, the course itself does not look like a toilet, but on Strava, the map of it resembles a bit of a toilet shape with an open lid. In fact, the lid is kind of semi, it's on its way to soft closing.

00:07:03David Moss: I'm glad we didn't actually choose you to sort out the astrological symbols of the stars.

00:07:09Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, yeah.

00:07:10David Moss: Capricorn, Virgo, toilet, it just doesn't really... Yeah.

00:07:17Melissa Erbacher: Yes. So where have you been running? You're not parkruns, Dave. Have you actually been doing physical courses or just – Where was it?

00:07:23David Moss: The first one was in – oh, I have to have a little think now. Brisbane? Oh, that's right. The Boondall Wetlands. So a group of half a dozen of us went down to – this is northern Brisbane – and ran a five-kilometre course there. Well, actually, it was more like six or eight, and I just took the first five kilometres off that. And so that was the very first one. And it was actually quite an enjoyable course. And last week we went down and jogged the Mansfield course in Brisbane. And so that's the one I've used. But as Kawana is the home course, that's where I just left it to go up there.

00:08:02Melissa Erbacher: Oh, of course. That's what you do. You wouldn't change it each week because that would just get confusing. And I'm sure all your (not)parkrun results, if you change your home parkrun each week, it would change all the results for all the weeks.

00:08:16David Moss: We don't know.

00:08:17Melissa Erbacher: That might be a question we should have asked somebody.

00:08:19David Moss: Something to try.

00:08:20Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. Or no, I'm not going to try it. I'm going to leave my home parkrun as it is.

00:08:24David Moss: It's like changing football teams. You've got your home parkrun. There's nothing quite like the home one.

00:08:32Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, that's 100% true. And yeah, it's been awesome seeing the familiar names popping up on the list. And there are a few of us who participated for the second time in the second week. So there were a couple of PBs happening, which is cool to see. And yeah, I would be interested to find out where everyone else is actually doing their five kilometre runs or walks because it's Yeah, this is the first time I've really thought about, well, yeah, we are. And I know that seems bizarre because obviously we're all doing it in different places and different times. But I'd be interested to hear where everyone else is doing theirs. Maybe we should ask them.

00:09:11David Moss: Yeah, probably the best possible feedback.

00:09:14Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. Now, you got a PB this week.

00:09:16David Moss: I did.

00:09:17Melissa Erbacher: By how many minutes, seconds?

00:09:19David Moss: Yeah, I've forgotten. No, it'd be – oh, I honestly don't know. Minutes? No, sorry. I have to go and look at the results.

00:09:28Melissa Erbacher: You're not going to – hey, actually, here's some results that I prepared earlier. Let me have a look.

00:09:33David Moss: I hate to say it. I can't even remember what my best time is for the normal parkrun results.

00:09:39Melissa Erbacher: No.

00:09:40David Moss: How many ones have gone? It's all gone, mate.

00:09:44Melissa Erbacher: I'm a bit foggy on those details too. I think I'm about up to 179, maybe 169. I don't know. David Moss, where are you? So this week your PB, you did 2130. Oh, okay. That's your new PB. What did you put down for week one? You popped down. 25.09. Ah, there you are. There you go. That's more than three and a half minutes. It's close to four minutes.

00:10:13David Moss: There may have been a bit of walking involved.

00:10:16Melissa Erbacher: Okay. The first week, you took it easy, representing the Leo Wanker Academy of Fitness.

00:10:22David Moss: A fine group of upstanding gentlemen, oh sorry and ladies I was gonna say is it only gentlemen no no it's uh it's one I'm sure the academy is is has gender equality going on there it does where uh we have hit the where are we 21st century at a flying run or walk as the case may be excellent excellent well I yeah I'm

00:10:25[crosstalk]

00:10:46Melissa Erbacher: like I said, I'm a bit annoyed at myself because now this does put the pressure on me for the week and I'll admit it's because I'm not great at maths. I was trying to do an average that would garner me a PB but I was just not capable of actually adding up those numbers on the run. And so I thought by the fourth kilometre or the fifth kilometre that I could do a 10-minute K. I could slow down to that much if I wanted to comfortably, but I wasn't 100% sure, so I just didn't risk it. And as a result, I, yeah, knocked off way too many minutes.

00:11:19David Moss: You weren't trying to also complete your stopwatch bingo, or have you already done that?

00:11:25Melissa Erbacher: No, I've still got a couple of bingos to go, actually. And here's the point. Do all the challenges. Start afresh for not parkrun. That's a question for Andy and Laura.

00:11:38David Moss: Yes.

00:11:39Melissa Erbacher: Of running challenges. We might have to put that to them. That would be pretty cool.

00:11:43David Moss: I'm trying to get a parallel challenges. Parallel set going on. Not the stopwatch bingo. Yes.

00:11:52[crosstalk]

00:11:52Melissa Erbacher: or whatever they are yes the the the not I love that the not stopwatch bingo maybe I'll have more more luck with the not stopwatch bingo than I've had with the actual stopwatch bingo well okay well there's a question that there is a no stopwatch bingo because there's no stopwatch

00:12:09David Moss: Okay, true, true. Because you submit your own results, you could actually… Oh, you could fudge them a little bit.

00:12:17Melissa Erbacher: It's an honour system.

00:12:18David Moss: Not that anyone would do that.

00:12:19Melissa Erbacher: No, you're only cheating yourself.

00:12:22David Moss: For that 11-minute 5K, that would be… There's a possibility.

00:12:28Melissa Erbacher: Oh, I have 11-minute 5Ks. Oh, no, no. I was thinking 11-minute kilometre. No, I certainly don't have an 11-minute 5 kilometre at any time.

00:12:39David Moss: I understand the lords and Masters of the results page, they have yet to decide what's actually going to go on with the not the parkrun page, whether it's going to continue once parkrun continues again.

00:12:56Melissa Erbacher: Well, yeah, I mean, I'm not 100% sure. Obviously, it's not parkrun. So when parkrun returns, it's just the holding. The virtual runs are just the holding thing. I mean, at any given time, we already have freedom runs that people can log. But of course, those are actually dedicated catered to a particular course so you have to nominate the course that you do you can't just do a freedom run of your own toilet bowl section in Palmwoods to to log one of those yes you do you should come and do it at some point because it's it's a wonderful event

00:13:38David Moss: Because I guess if every country starts up their parkrun again in different weeks or months, if they did decide to stop it, then the (not)parkrun would also stop.

00:13:51Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. So, for example, I don't know what the decision has been with New Zealand. So New Zealand are launching or relaunching again this weekend. They're returning after the pause, which is amazing. However, they've also had two weeks and this is the third week of not parkrun results. So I'm not sure whether or not it's going to stop there or if it's going to, as you say, run in tandem.

00:14:15David Moss: Should we mention at the moment that possibly everyone is green with envy of New Zealand, by the way? Leave that to later.

00:14:24Melissa Erbacher: No, no. Look, let's talk about New Zealand because I'm excited for them.

00:14:28Unidentified speaker: Oh, I think it's marvellous.

00:14:30Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. I'm going to be living vicariously through them, as I know many other parkrun adventurers are all over the world.

00:14:37David Moss: New Zealand passports look very much like Australian passports at first glance too.

00:14:43Melissa Erbacher: Maybe we should test that out at the border control. We haven't got our little trans-Tasman bubble up and going just yet. Hopefully it's not too far away. Yes, we were planning a trip to New Zealand, which I hope to still manage by the end of the year. But, yeah, I'm excited for New Zealand.

00:15:03David Moss: Absolutely. Brilliant for them.

00:15:06Melissa Erbacher: Definitely. And you know what else they're doing? In a really, really lovely gesture of solidarity with the rest of the world, a whole bunch of the New Zealand events have adopted a country, a parkrun country specifically. Wow. So parkrun operates in 22 different countries in the world. And from that list, more than 22 New Zealand events. So there's a couple that are actually doubling up on countries because we've got 30 events in New Zealand. They've adopted a country to basically represent they're going to be celebrating with us from afar. They're going to be wearing the colours and tagging the events and choosing all sorts of different ways and shapes and forms to interact with the country of their adoption, just so that we can all feel a little bit involved. And I think it's really nice.

00:15:57David Moss: I think it's great. Does that mean somewhere in New Zealand, they'll be eating pavlova to celebrate? Or is that a bit too controversial?

00:16:05Melissa Erbacher: Yes, don't bring up the pavlova debate, Dave. So maybe lamingtons are a more... more appropriate oh the kiwis have got everything sorted they really do parkrun not the least of all those things white wine they do well on not so good on the red but yeah they've got they've got all the hobbits they've got yeah there will be a lot of Facebook stalking happening from from my house I can tell you that much not in a creepy way but there will be lots of uh photos checked out after the event and did you know um you may have heard that with me now our Friends of the podcast from over the other side of the planet are organising a Facebook. Well, I don't know if it's a Facebook live. It's a live cross anyway. It's a live cross to New Zealand. They're going to be checking in with the team at Pegasus parkrun.

00:16:12[crosstalk]

00:16:57David Moss: Okay, and whereabouts is Pegasus?

00:16:59Melissa Erbacher: Pegasus – oh, Dave, now you're going to get me in trouble. I am getting up to speed with my New Zealand event geography. Fairly confident Pegasus is on the South Island. Okay. Yeah, and – Hannah Oldroyd, who has been interviewed for our podcast as well, is going to be part of that live feed. Whether or not Hannah is actually taking people for a run around the course, I think she must be, which would be great because, you know, I think that's possibly the fastest I would have ever seen a parkrun run because she is much faster than I am. So if anyone is keen to check in on that, head over to With Me Now podcast Facebook page, and I'm sure all the details will be there.

00:17:42David Moss: Okay. And for those who don't know, which is us, Pegasus is just north of Christchurch.

00:17:47Melissa Erbacher: Well, there you go. That's South Island.

00:17:49David Moss: It is. It's South Island.

00:17:50Melissa Erbacher: So we did know. We did know.

00:17:52David Moss: You did, yes.

00:17:53Melissa Erbacher: Well, we had a good hunch. We were fairly confident. Yeah.

00:17:57David Moss: Okay, so they're tuning in over from the UK. So that must be almost, what, 11 or 12 hours apart.

00:18:03Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, so it'll be Friday evening for our friends in the Northern Hemisphere, which will work out nicely for them. They can get their parkrun fixed on a Friday evening. And then when it's time for them to get their (not)parkrun in on Saturday, they've got the whole day free to do it.

00:18:18David Moss: Ah, it'll be beautiful. As I say, I think very good on New Zealand and the rest of the world will be extremely envious.

00:18:25Melissa Erbacher: They will indeed.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Melissa Ellis — Ellis Palace parkrun

00:18:27Melissa Erbacher: Now, speaking of envy, we have got a roving report from Melissa Ellis from Ellis Palace parkrun. She has submitted another one this week. She's had some adventurers. Oh, and I shouldn't say this week because… Bless her. She submitted it several weeks ago when she had the visitors. I've been watching the progress of Ellis Palace parkrun and they have had many special guests in recent weeks. But this one harks back to a couple of weeks ago earlier in June where she had Brendan Peel and Renee Jackson from Wyndham Vale parkrun head along to visit. And let's have a little bit of a listen, shall we?

00:19:07Unidentified speaker: Okay.

00:19:08Melissa Ellis: Good morning, parkrun adventurers, and welcome to Event 14 at Ellis Palace parkrun Unofficial. We've had some tourists here this morning, very proud to welcome. Friend to the podcast, Brendan Peel, known to you all. Good morning, Brendan.

00:19:23Brendan Peel: G'day, Mel. Lovely to be here, mate.

00:19:25Melissa Ellis: And new to the podcast, she is a Run Director at Wyndham Vale parkrun and a very good friend of mine, Renee Jackson. Welcome. Good morning, Mel. Thank you for having me. That's okay. We had attendance record here today at Ellis Palace parkrun. Paul joined us, so that made four. all socially distanced and we had a lovely run. That rain overnight made me a bit nervous but the skies cleared so Meltown was nice and sunny for our run. Now I want to start with you first Renee because we haven't spoken to you before. You are from Wyndham Vale parkrun. Tell us how you got into parkrun.

00:20:05Renee Jackson: Well, it's a lovely story, actually. I had a friend of a friend who started stalking me for quite some time. And she contacted me one day and said, there's a parkrun opening in your area and I would like you to come. And so that just gave me the confidence and for that I thank you Mel because it actually changed my life and I have really, really enjoyed becoming part of parkrun and it's all thanks to you.

00:20:37Melissa Ellis: Oh, you're welcome. I didn't wish for that at all. But you came back, you see. I might have got you there, but you kept coming back. And how many events now have you done at Wyndham Vale?

00:20:49Renee Jackson: I'm up to 120-something, I think, at Wyndham Vale, and 160 all up. And you went on to the event team. Yes, I'm Run Director at Wyndham Vale, part of a wonderful team, actually. Our Run Directors are a lot of fun. And our Event Directors are fantastic. And we've got a really, really good community spirit going at Wyndham Vale.

00:21:10Melissa Ellis: I can remember turning up on your 50th with a tutu and balloons and fairy wings. They all looked at us really strangely and kept wishing you a happy birthday.

00:21:21Renee Jackson: That was a really fun morning, actually. And I tried to get the fairy wings to stick. I actually made multiple people wear fairy wings for their 50th run for a little while. But then the... The wings went AWOL, I think, and we moved on to capes, which has stuck very well. Everyone loves the capes.

00:21:38Melissa Ellis: And, of course, Cluck Norris.

00:21:40Renee Jackson: And Cluck Norris. Oh, my goodness. He's very – he's famous. He's fun. The kids particularly – actually, no, I think the big kids enjoy Cluck Norris' company a lot more.

00:21:50Melissa Ellis: No, it's a thing. You've got to get a selfie with Cluck Norris when you visit Wyndham Vale. So, okay, what I wanted to ask is how have you coped in the pause?

00:22:00Renee Jackson: To be honest, at first I didn't really. I sort of went into a bit of a lull and I wasn't running at all. I really missed it in that first month, I think, of not having the Saturday morning routine. But I noticed my kids were sort of feeling a bit... little bit lethargic and they were struggling a bit with the isolation and missing everyone so it was them that sort of encouraged me to get moving again and instead of running we were often cycling trying to get out every day on our bikes so there was a bit of substitution for a little while um So, yeah, I just found other ways eventually once I got through my little isolation blues. But, yeah, no, I'm very much looking forward to parkrun coming back, impatiently waiting.

00:22:54Melissa Ellis: And you've already logged your (not)parkrun today? I did. I did. Straight out of, like, first thing. Well, thank you for coming over and being a special guest at Ellis Palace. Thank you for having me. Thank you for the morning tea as well. Oh, you're welcome. Now, Mr Brendan Peel.

00:23:10Brendan Peel: Mel, lovely to be here.

00:23:11Melissa Ellis: I'm sure that a lot of people out there, being that you're such a big tourist and you're probably one of Australia's most prolific tourists, how have you coped?

00:23:21Brendan Peel: Well, I just went back to pretty much normal before parkrun. I was away on Kangaroo Island hoping to do Kangaroo Island parkrun when the lockdown happened and that was just a little bit higher. Then just things went back to normal. I got vouchers for all the things I had booked. I actually did some domestic duties. I mowed me lawns and pulled out weeds and done all the stuff that was being neglected. I haven't sort of got too excited with the virtual events, to be honest. And I sort of haven't been for a couple of runs. But just probably happy with really small things. Like even coming here, it's definitely not a parkrun, but it's still really damn good to see some people you haven't seen in ages, to have the sunlight beaming through the window when you're just sitting out in a cuppa with your parkrun friends. It's good to appreciate the simple things in life instead of rushing off all over the country parkrunning.

00:24:21Melissa Ellis: And you said earlier you've rediscovered your local area as well a bit.

00:24:26Brendan Peel: Yeah, a little bit. Like I've realised that I've hardly spent any time in this suburb over weekends. So I found out, you know, the old paper mill, I live in Fairfield, so the paper mill estate where the paper mill used to be has got all these houses built that I've never seen. Everyone's out and about, you know, walking their dog, riding bikes with their kids like Renee was saying. So many people out and about in the local area. And effectively, the whole community is just basically forced to live simply, pretty much how we would have many years ago. So there's a certain beauty in that, even though, don't worry, I'm chopping the bits I get out and about again. But yeah, life's just simple and it's still pretty darn good.

00:25:08Melissa Ellis: Have you got a fake parkrun?

00:25:10Brendan Peel: Tell us the name of your fake parkrun that you've... Yeah, it's got a great name, but it's got a very poor track record. It's Peelsville Sanctuary parkrun. So popular the name is that there's even some wildlife park that's copied the name a little bit. Unfortunately, though, it's struggled with numbers, it's struggled with the course, it's struggled with volunteers. It's got a big enthusiasm. They're struggling with that too. But I'm sure in the future at some stage they might get their first run done at some stage. So while there's light, there's hope.

00:25:40Melissa Ellis: And how did you find the course today?

00:25:42Brendan Peel: No, it was good. It was good. Suburban footpaths, road crossings. Instead of having a tail runner, we had a lead runner by the name of Paul, that charming young husband of yours. He was great. He pointed us in the right direction. You know, we all would have got lost without him. Stopped us from tripping on the builder's mud from all the new housing sites and stuff. And it was good this morning. A couple of spits of rain overnight and beautiful sunshine. You know, you couldn't ask for any better, could you?

00:26:10Melissa Ellis: I don't think so. And I certainly was excited last night when I went to bed, knowing that I had a couple of friends come in to join the morning with me. So I thank you very much for that.

00:26:19Brendan Peel: Oh, an absolute pleasure, Mel. Thank you.

00:26:21Melissa Ellis: Yeah, attendance record. Did I say that earlier? I did. Alrighty. Thanks, guys. I really appreciate you coming over this morning. I hope we get back to real parkrun soon. Enjoy finding new ways to keep parkrun alive. Active in your life and I shall see you around again shortly.

00:26:42Brendan Peel: Thank you. Thank you.

00:26:44Melissa Erbacher: Bye. Well, wasn't that awesome listening to Melissa chatting to her guest at Ellis Palace parkrun again? It's nice to see the adventurers are still getting out there and doing the rounds, as it were.

00:26:58David Moss: It is indeed. I'm also sort of – I do like Brendan. I'm just sort of laughing a little bit that he didn't get to do Kangaroo Island.

00:27:07Unidentified speaker: Oh.

00:27:07David Moss: Simply because Kangaroo Island was the very last one that I managed to do before they all shut, which is a great shame. And it's great to get there. It takes the effort, but I guess it's been a few months now and we're all in the same boat.

00:27:22Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, look, personally, I think that, Brendan, I share your Kangaroo Island curse, obviously. I went and it did not end the way that I had hoped it would end. So maybe one day we'll all get back to there together and can get that one under our belt as well. Lovely also to hear from Renee Jackson from Wyndham Vale parkrun. It's always cool to hear the origins of another Run Director's parkrun story.

00:27:48Renee Jackson: So thanks, Melissa, for sending that in.

00:27:50Melissa Erbacher: And I should mention Melissa Ellis and Olly Spake will be back next week for episode 204 of the parkrun adventurers. They're going to take over the show again. They didn't completely rock the boat last time, so we're going to let them have another crack.

00:28:05David Moss: No, I thought they did very well.

00:28:06Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, they did. They did. Now, Dave, we've had some news this week that has, speaking of rocking the boat, has been received with mixed emotions and responses across the parkrun landscape. And that is, of course, that the New Year's Day Double, which has been a bit of a fixture of the adventurer calendar, for the past few years is now a thing of the past.

00:28:32David Moss: Yes, when the double becomes a solo event.

00:28:36Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:28:37David Moss: I'm glad they're still having at least one run on the day. It's nice to have that on New Year's Day. But yes, we're down to one, so I know a lot of people will be a little bit disappointed there.

00:28:50Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, that's understandable. The disappointment is understandable. Hopefully, everyone can appreciate the reasoning behind it and understand it to at least a certain extent. As you say, it's wonderful that we still get to do one. It's still an additional day outside of a normal parkrun day that we get to do a special event, which is great. And what better way to start the new years than at a parkrun, even if it's just the one?

00:29:16David Moss: Just the one, but at least I can also think after the occasional large New Year's Eve, one may be all that.

00:29:24Melissa Erbacher: One might be enough. Indeed, one might be too much for some people.

00:29:30David Moss: The early ones. Over in the UK or in Europe where you start at nine o'clock for the first run is a lot easier than that. I seem to recall doing one or two here, well, one or two, doing them in stinking hot weather. And by the time you start the second run, you're already dehydrated partly from the consumption of the wrong liquids the night before. But after the first run, you had enough and you're sort of dragging your way through it to make it through the second run.

00:29:58Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, 7am start times are a bit challenging sometimes, aren't they?

00:30:05David Moss: Like most parkruns, it's nice having the social aspect.

00:30:08Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. And look, let's just hope that 2021... There are enough countries that we can actually have a parkrun on the 1st of January. Yes. It might not even be a thing next year at all for some places. Let's just really hope that it is.

00:30:23David Moss: Well, when you talk about things like anniversaries as well, it's been so long. When was the last time we had cake?

00:30:28Melissa Erbacher: Oh. Far too long since we've had cake at parkrun. That's a good point. What are you missing, Dave? Or no, let's rephrase that. Let's have a little bit of a daydream about what we're looking forward to most when we come back. Let's pretend the rest of the world is in the same situation as our lovely siblings over in New Zealand and we're coming back this weekend. What are you looking forward to most?

00:30:52David Moss: I have to say actually catching up with people that I know and like, catching up with friends. And I say that not knowing exactly where I'll be running. I know my home course is Kawana, but I don't seem to get there very often. So depending where I actually am at the time, One of the good things about doing the – as a parkrun adventurer, if the actual travelling is going to some odd town in the middle of nowhere and just bumping into someone that you know on a parkrun day. And that's the sort of thing I really enjoy. How about yourself, Mel?

00:31:24Melissa Erbacher: It's a bit of a tricky one. Every now and again, Adam – will go out for a run. More frequently, Adam will go out for a run because let's face it, I just have not been running. I've barely been walking since parkrun went on pause. The (not)parkrun has actually got me back out there and completing the five kilometres again, which has been amazing. And it's nice to have that motivation to start getting moving again. So I'm very grateful that they have instigated that initiative. But yeah, as I mentioned, every time Adam goes out for a run and Wes asks where daddy is and I say, oh, he's just gone for a run and he'll actually say, oh, daddy's gone to parkrun. And so it's been three months and that's a long time in a three-year-old's life. So the fact that he still remembers it Every time I put on a T-shirt that's got the logo on it or the bird, he sees the bird in the garage on a selfie frame or something, he'll twig that that's parkrun. This means parkrun. And he'll ask if we're going to parkrun. And we've had to say to him several times, well, no, obviously we're not going to parkrun. So I'm looking forward to that first time that I get him out of bed early and and have him ask me, are we going to parkrun, that I can say yes. Yes, we're going to parkrun.

00:32:44David Moss: I would have actually thought that you were missing out on wearing costumes. I don't know what to do in your personal life at home. Oh, I don't. There is outfits. Okay. No, no. So if you suddenly put on a big bird outfit, Wes will think, ah, parkrun. But he doesn't.

00:33:02Melissa Erbacher: Well, no, the costumes are less, I guess, associated with parkrun for him than they are just with me. So they're more associated with me in general. I mean, you are sitting in the same room as a giant panda head on the floor, at the moment yes okay and that made an appearance at a staff meeting last week so you know the costumes are still getting a little bit you're not wearing them down to woolies or whatever it is this is your mask no I did consider back when we were doing the whole social distancing thing like fairly strictly and to be honest I actually just wasn't going out at that time But when I did consider going out, I do have that Slimer costume from Ghostbusters, which is an inflatable costume that makes people stand at least two metres away from you because it just makes you much larger than you actually are. And I thought about going shopping in my Slimer costume. But the peripheral vision's not great in the costume. And I did worry that if somebody coughed into the mouth opening... that literally the virus would be circulating in this plastic bubble that I would be trapped in. So yeah. The germaphobe in me didn't allow me to go out in my Slimer costume as much as I was tempted.

00:34:12David Moss: I better not mention my Mr. Hanky costume on this show, but I'm sure that would keep people at their distance, but we'll leave that one.

00:34:23Melissa Erbacher: Oh, but you know what we did do? Oh, my goodness. We went out last weekend for the very first time with both the boys. Emmett is walking now, and so... When we take him out to public places, mostly it's been fine. We've been at home. He just walks around barefoot. But we're thinking, oh, now he's going to want to walk in, parks and on paths and things where there could be glass or rocks or other things so we really should get him some shoes so we took them to the shopping centre to get some shoes and Wesley chose that time when he was sitting on the step that they have for the shoes to to start coughing and I was like Wesley cover your mouth when you cough and then every time you tell him to cover his mouth he actually covers it and then makes himself cough more just so that he can cough into his arm and Emmett has started copying everything we do. So, of course, Emmett sees Wesley coughing and so he starts fake coughing too. And I just could have died right there because all these people were like, I'm sure they were looking at us thinking, why have you bought these children that are coughing to the store? When Wes just, he coughs if he runs, if he gets excited and he runs too much, it just makes him cough. And that's always been the case. And, yeah, so they have not got the virus. I've taken them to the doctors and established that fact before we went out. And, oh, my goodness, yes. But I'm digressing a lot. We were talking about costumes and now somehow we're talking about my boys having shoes and coughing in shopping centres. But, yes, no, I'm not missing the costumes. I am missing the people. I am really missing the volunteering. I've been quite down, repeatedly and I couldn't pinpoint why and I've just come to the realisation that that's why we truly are social animals Well, yeah, I didn't expect to be missing it as much as I am. And it's the same with not parkrun. I mean, we've talked about it earlier in the episode, but we didn't explain, obviously, the rules. We're kind of working on the assumption that most people know how to do not parkrun. And if you don't, please look it up on the website and all the details are there. There are frequently asked questions and everything on the parkrun website. dot com website as well about not parkrun but yeah seeing the names in the results that very first week even though it wasn't a real event I was really surprised at how much it got me. I got a bit emotional about it and I just wasn't expecting that because I'm not competitive. I don't usually look at the results most weeks unless I'm checking to see if somebody was there that I missed or Adam and I are talking about it afterwards and he says, oh, so-and-so did really well and then I go and look up the results and things. So I don't usually look at them for my result and it wasn't about seeing my name there but it was about, oh, These are names that I haven't seen for months literally and they're in the results and so they're still out there and they're still doing things and I miss those people and I do miss the connections on a weekly basis I guess because for us by and large our social life is parkrun. We don't see too many people outside of that. So as much as I'm a homebody and my lifestyle itself didn't changed too much with the restrictions that got put in place, the not going to parkrun has been a big deal. And not least of all, oh my gosh, for my fitness. Far out. The COVID kilos are a real thing. And as evidenced by my (not)parkrun times, at the moment they're sub 50 minutes, but they're not sub 40 minutes. And so they're not fast by any means, but it's a start.

00:38:05David Moss: No, I found parkrun was a very good motivation to stay at least moderately healthy, behave a bit on a Friday night and, yeah, actually go out and, yeah, do the odd run during the week.

00:38:20Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, to help improve.

00:38:22David Moss: Yeah, winter doesn't help. When we're trying to isolate a little bit as well, yeah, things have changed. So I am looking forward. My body is looking forward to parkruns starting up. LAUGHTER Yeah, not just the mind, but the actual body could certainly do with a little bit of...

00:38:33[laughter]

00:38:39Melissa Erbacher: I think my wardrobe is looking forward to it because there are a lot of clothes that are not seeing the light of day at the moment because they don't fit around the body at the moment.

00:38:49David Moss: I think, okay, that's one of the disadvantages actually of going for a jog. Mine tend to get smelly and sweaty, the clothes.

00:38:57Melissa Erbacher: The clothes, yeah.

00:38:58David Moss: Negative with a whole lot. Well, it's not just the clothes. It's me.

00:39:01Melissa Erbacher: Well, yeah. But, you know, that's what showers are for.

00:39:04David Moss: They are. And, yeah, there's something very nice about having hot shower after going for a long run.

00:39:09Melissa Erbacher: There really is. You've earned it.

00:39:13David Moss: Okay. The other thing I think a lot of people are looking forward to is the potential of some new runs coming up too. So parkrun is still alive and well. It's just in a bit of a hiatus at the moment. But knowing that there will be new runs, especially for people who want to get out there, the parkrun adventurers, new places that they'll have the opportunity to go to. It may take a little while after the parkrun starts up again, but with a bit of luck, people will be able to see new areas, new places by running.

Sign-off

00:39:43Melissa Erbacher: Absolutely. As we heard from Tom Williams when he was on the podcast last episode, the new events that were set to launch before the pause happened, they're all still lined up, waiting to go. Their event teams are excited and looking forward to it. And I'm excited to report that the event I did mention earlier in the year I've got itchy feet to start a new event myself and things are progressing slowly probably more slowly than I would like but some funding is already allocated to the event we've managed to have some success with a small grant application which is awesome so there's still some work to do in that area and some work to do with the course and things like that but yes, things are moving forward slowly. So who knows? I mean, we don't know how long it's going to be until parkrun's back in Australia. Maybe my new event will be ready to go when the time comes. Excellent. Well, we should probably leave it there for this week, Dave. Thank you for coming out to little old Palmwoods to join me. Not on the toilet run this time, maybe next time.

00:40:53David Moss: Oh, looking forward to it. Aborting all the tons and things that go with that, but yes.

00:40:59Melissa Erbacher: Yes. Well, you yourself have once recorded in a toilet, so I don't think you would be averse to that situation anyway.

00:41:08David Moss: No, I'm not saying anything. I'll leave that out, yep. Yep. Okay. And on that note, I think that'll pretty much do it until whenever the next podcast is, since there's no set date.

00:41:20Melissa Erbacher: Yes, that's it from Palmwoods this week. Thanks, Dave.

00:41:24David Moss: Thank you very much for having me.

00:41:25Melissa Erbacher: And happy adventuring, everybody out there.

00:41:27David Moss: Stay healthy.

00:42:22Unidentified speaker: Oh.