Episode 209 - parkrun is Coming!

Welcome

00:00:23Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 209 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Melissa, not Erbacher, Ellis, and I'm joined by my regular sidekick, Ollie, not a Scott, Spake. Hi, Ollie.

00:00:38Oliver Spake: Hey, Mel. How are you? And hi, everyone.

00:00:40Melissa Ellis: Yes, yes. Hello, everybody out there. Hello, streakers. Coming to you on the cusp, the very exciting cusp of the relaunch of the Northern Territory parkrun in Australia.

00:00:52Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah. It's so close you can almost taste it.

00:00:57Melissa Ellis: It is very exciting.

00:00:59Oliver Spake: Yeah, look, I'm not a Scot, but I'll do my best. Absolutely.

00:01:03Melissa Ellis: We seem to have a lot of Scots around in parkrun World. I think there was early on in the podcast days, Ian Hay did the figures of how many Scots versus Mels. I wonder if that's changed over the years. Maybe we have to revisit that.

00:01:19Oliver Spake: Yeah, well, you might be the one to talk to the statistics on how many Scots and how many Mels are at parkruns across the country and across the globe. But yeah, I guess you can never have too many Scots and too many Mels, of course.

00:01:36Melissa Ellis: We need to find out how many Ollies there are.

00:01:39Oliver Spake: Yeah, good question. Haven't researched it. Feel a bit vain researching it. But yeah, maybe one for the Google habits later on.

00:01:49Melissa Ellis: So, Ollie, what have you been up to parkrun-wise, not parkrun-wise?

00:01:54Oliver Spake: Not parkrun-wise, yes, yes. Not parkrunning, of course.

Streaky September

00:01:58Oliver Spake: I have, of course, joined the streaking. I've continued the local not parkrunning and, yeah, just been enjoying the slightly warmer weather and slightly more civilised daylight hours available.

00:02:13Melissa Ellis: Are you logging not parkruns?

00:02:15Oliver Spake: I am logging a weekly (not)parkrun, just snail's pace in terms of my logging of them. But it's kept up the motivation, absolutely. So, yeah, I've had a couple of PBs, which is nice. It's been a long time since PBs. I finally beat Chris, which was also very nice. I'm sure he's vastly outdoing me on the averages, but it's been good fun. And what about yourself, Mel? How's the Ellis Palace parkrun event going?

00:02:47Melissa Ellis: It's evolving, Ollie. It really is. So I can't remember. It's been a while since we spoke. I think I had my selfie frame back then. Yes. On the last episode that we recorded together. So it's progressed a little bit since then. We've really embraced the themes. I had a Christmas in July. We adopted a country. We've had a 70s Pizza Hut-themed week, Alice in Wonderland, a circus, a Where's Wally. I've got a mascot now. Ellis Palace parkrun's got a mascot.

00:03:22Oliver Spake: Oh, yes. Yes, tell us about your mascot.

00:03:25Melissa Ellis: Yes, it's a magpie, of course. So over the years of Streaky September, I've been known to call it Swoopy September because I have some rather... friendly magpies that swoop in my area. I've tried to feed them over the years and make friends with them. That hasn't worked at all. It's just encouraged more magpies in my street that swoop me. Anyway, so of course our mascot couldn't be anything else but a magpie. And his name's Brett, which is, you know.

00:03:54Oliver Spake: Michael Goodback, boss. Yes. Yep. Where did Brett get his name?

00:03:57Melissa Ellis: Well.

00:03:58Oliver Spake: It's a he, I'm assuming. Yes.

00:03:59Melissa Ellis: Yes, it is.

00:04:00Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:04:01Melissa Ellis: He's named after our chief medical officer here in Victoria, who we see every day on the media guiding us through the pandemic, Brett Sutton. Yep. So I thought, you know, I want my little magpie, my little mascot to be looking out for me. Just like Brett does, looking out after Victoria. So it's strange the way my mind thinks. But anyway, this week just gone, we had a luau. We had a Hawaiian luau. I'd been hanging out to do this theme because I thought it would be fun. And I put the call out to the streaky group and asked who wanted to join the fun with me virtually. And a few people... came out wearing their Hawaiian leis and Hawaiian shirts on Saturday, which that was a lot of fun. And you did too, Ollie.

00:04:46Oliver Spake: Oh, look, I dressed up. I will admit it wasn't much of an effort. One left from previous Hawaiian-themed festivities. So, yeah, no, thanks for picking an easy theme in terms of my little one's dress-ups. It wasn't anywhere near as impressive as the pictures I did see. And importantly, how was brunch?

00:05:05Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah, it was pretty good. So we had pina coladas for breakfast. So, yeah, that went down quite nicely. I really enjoyed that. Of course, Zoe had non-alcoholic. She just had pineapple juice and coconut milk. Yeah, it's been fun trying to do these themes. In lockdown, when all the shops are shut, the mail service here in Victoria is not very reliable. So you can't really rely on trying to mail order things. So I just have to get by with what I've either already got. Luckily, you know, with my children I've got – nearly 30 years worth of dress-ups in the dress-up box and years of craft supplies. So I'm managing to throw some things together along with what I can source from the one sort of shop in Meltown that's still open that has party supplies. Yeah, but we throw it together and I dress up my little Buddha at the front door. His name's Daryl.

00:05:57Oliver Spake: Yes. So we've got Daryl, we've got Brett.

00:05:59Melissa Ellis: Yeah, yeah. So he gets dressed up every week and I'm not really sure. I'm starting to notice more people walking past my house on the weekends and I'm wondering if Daryl's drawing some attention. So I've started to leave him dressed up for a few more days just in case he's getting some tourists.

00:06:17Oliver Spake: Yeah, you'll be the key attraction of Meltown. And I'm obviously very impressed that you are single-handedly supporting the party dress-up industry in Meltown.

00:06:29Melissa Ellis: I'm waiting for the police to come around and say, like, we've had reports that you're buying a lot of party supplies and you must be having illegal party gatherings. I'm sure they wouldn't believe me if I said, no, that's just me, my husband and my daughter, every Saturday morning having our own party. But it's fun. And now I get comments on social media that people are enjoying it. And so I kind of can't stop because I'm getting PMs, people asking me, what's the theme next week? And if I'm bringing a smile to somebody's face, even if it's one person, then, you know, it's all worthwhile.

00:07:02Oliver Spake: It's exactly right. It's good motivation and it's nice to have that camaraderie whilst circumstances are a little bit different. It's that sense of being part of a special parkrun or not parkrun related dress up, which everyone needs in their life.

00:07:17Melissa Ellis: Yeah, well, it's probably what I've missed the most.

00:07:20Oliver Spake: Yes, yeah. No, look, absolutely right. And given that, we'll have to ask you a bit later for a few insights around what dress-ups are to come so we can all get a little more prepared and I can do better than a single lei.

00:07:32Melissa Ellis: Well, I saw you haven't spoken about...

00:07:35[crosstalk]

00:07:35Oliver Spake: I was going to do a a pretty good run this week a saddleback mountain you ran up a mountain Ollie yeah it's named a mountain and it's a hill absolutely but um oh that sounds really impressive maybe you shouldn't have told me that no well yeah it's absolutely a mountain uh really steep really really hot um Yeah, I'm fortunate that obviously in the local area, we live by the sea, but we've got a beautiful escarpment behind. And like many of the parkrunners from around here, I love to go running in the escarpment. Some of them find some fantastic spots that I'm yet to explore, but Saddleback's lovely. It's got plenty of horses in the paddocks just to cheer you on and to win you as you come down, perfectly timed with the music. And yeah, it's just a nice way to spend that time of the morning.

00:08:28Melissa Ellis: And you're actually not a bad runner yourself. I don't believe you've really, we've spoken about this before, but you want to share what your parkrun PB is?

00:08:36Oliver Spake: My parkrun PB, well, it's been that long. I can barely remember what it is, to be honest.

00:08:40Melissa Ellis: Oh, I bet you can.

00:08:43Oliver Spake: It's under 20, which was the goal. Yeah, I think it's about, I'm guessing, I think 1940-ish, which would have been, it would have been Curl Curl.

00:08:53Melissa Ellis: Oh, nice.

00:08:54Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah, way back when. A bit faster than the time we did the longest run there and slightly less painful. But, yeah, look, those days are a little while ago and I've very gradually been getting in thanks to the extra motivation, thanks to the streaking regularity and, you know, just an odd run with one or two other people. My co-ED here, Brendan, is always fantastic for a bit of motivation and he organised a virtual event Oh, no, he organised a Shellharbour city to surf, the virtual one, the official one still to come. But, you know, Brendan's organisational skills are second to none. So he had us leaving from College Street and finishing at the surf.

00:09:36Melissa Ellis: Wow.

00:09:37Oliver Spake: In Shellharbour at the surf club. So that got me going and, yeah, just enjoying it now.

00:09:42Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's really good. So you are streaking.

00:09:44Oliver Spake: Yes, I am streaking. I am doing probably more... 9.30pm, 10pm, sometimes 8pm, 2k walks than I had originally planned. But yeah, that's what it's all about. I think just seeing everyone just give it a go and do it in our own way is really motivating. What about you, Mel?

00:10:05Melissa Ellis: Yes, I'm going out every day. It's funny about when you're told that you can only exercise for an hour a day. And so I am using every single minute of my hour to get out there, and I'll do a 5K, usually a walk. I'll try and run a couple of days a week, but I'll usually do a walk, stop at 5Ks, log my (not)parkrun, and then continue on, of course, for the rest of my hour until I get home. But I tell you, I'm getting, because of our lockdown, which obviously Scott discussed last week in the podcast, uh we can't go further than five kilometres away from home so I'm just going around around the block which I'm really sick of looking at my Strava map because it's so boring it's driving me insane so I've taken to buying myself purely for amusement buying myself colourful patterned socks and taking photos of my feet so that I just have a different picture every day on my Strava mix it up yeah because it's just I mean our block isn't exactly very exciting I don't have any horses to take photos of and our our little wetlands is more of a swamp that's under construction so anyway you gotta you gotta amuse yourself somewhere don't you well that's that's right have you got enough pattern socks to uh to keep you going on the streak Well, maybe not. I have put in an order already because, you know, how Facebook hears your thoughts and they start to direct market you. So I'm getting bombarded with patterned socks at the moment.

00:11:35Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:11:36Melissa Ellis: We'll see how we go. I might have to delve into Zoe's sock drawer and see what she's got in there.

00:11:41Oliver Spake: I'm sure she'll appreciate that. Yes, absolutely.

00:11:44Melissa Ellis: But anyway, everybody's going really well on the streaking page.

00:11:47Oliver Spake: Yeah, it's fantastic. I mean, we're getting close, obviously, getting close to the end of week three now, or I suppose we're still week two. There's still a lot of people still streaking, hopefully still lots just getting the motivation to start too. So well done, everyone.

00:12:05Melissa Ellis: It doesn't seem to have hurt the fact that I misspelt the name of the page. So I'll have to put my hand up for there. And that was me and my fat fingers that typed in streaky sept meba by mistake. And of course, lovely Facebook won't let me change it for 28 days. I think the general consensus is, although very ridiculous, it is a testament to 2020 and the disaster of a year that we're having.

00:12:32Oliver Spake: Well and truly.

00:12:33Melissa Ellis: But anyway, I do apologise to everybody for that, for messing that up. But yes, streaky sept meber it is this year. And we're getting people joining still. So it hasn't stopped people finding us, which is really good.

00:12:45Oliver Spake: That's right. So yeah, please search in Facebook Streaky Sept Bieber and join in and start streaking if you haven't already.

00:12:53Melissa Ellis: Are you doing bingo?

00:12:54Oliver Spake: I have great plans to continue doing bingo. I've started in earnest. I'm nowhere near as progressed as some of the streakers out there that I've seen. But true to style, I'm probably going to be cramming at the back end of the month.

00:13:11Melissa Ellis: I had a walk with a friend the other day. Now, this was a unique walk with a friend because it was on Saturday morning when we were doing parkrun and Pippa, Pippa White from the UK, she waited up all day and she virtually walked with us as we did our parkrun. So that's my walk with a friend ticked off.

00:13:32Oliver Spake: No, well, that's a fantastic way to do it. And always great to hear from Pippa. Nice to see her encouraging fellow streakers no matter where they are.

00:13:42Melissa Ellis: She is. And actually, speaking of Pippa, this week she is our special streaky correspondent from the UK. So let's have a listen to what Pippa's been up to.

00:13:53Pippa White: Hi, it's Pippa from the UK, part of the Streaky September group. I started streaking with the group at the beginning of September in 2019, fully expecting just to do one month. Yet here I am and I've tipped into year two. So why do I do it? Initially, it was a challenge to get out once a day and just to walk or run at least two kilometres. It sounds really simple, and it is, but it's brilliant to get out and know that other people around the world are doing it, particularly as in the UK, we were coming towards autumn and winter rather than spring. Worked brilliantly for the first two thirds of the month. And then some people remember I had an accident and I was out of action for a little bit. All I could do, though, at that point was walk. So I kept on streaking just two kilometres a day. And it was just two kilometres a day at the beginning and slowly built up back to being able to walk 5k and walk a parkrun and then finally to be able to run, which was fantastic. So in a sense, I did my first lockdown last September to Christmas when I couldn't really leave my area because I was restricted to walking, which meant lockdown was even harder when it started again back in March. But where's the group come into this? It has been a ridiculously and relentlessly positive experience to be part of this group. We cheer, we support. We accept it when people go, oh, I can't quite manage it today. We encourage people out to just do that two kilometres. And I've kept going all the way through all my lockdowns, all the way through living by myself, all the way through having to learn to work from home. Just two kilometres a day. It doesn't matter, rain or shine, just get out and do it. And I have made these amazing, brilliant and wonderful friends at the same time. It has been truly fantastic. So I'm looking forward to finishing off this year. I'm looking forward to a new Ugly Christmas Singlet. And I'm looking forward to... Getting to the 31st of August 2021 and going, that's two years done.

00:16:01Oliver Spake: Thank you, Pippa. It's lovely to hear what streaking means to some of our streaky family out there. And it's obviously very contagious. I know some of us can't always keep it going and for good reasons, but the encouragement and the camaraderie clearly helps, particularly with so many of us still doing this in some form of isolation or lockdown. And it's also very impressive that some streakers have kept this going for so long.

00:16:29Melissa Ellis: I know we've got a few in the group, Ollie, haven't we, that are continuing into their second and third years. And we've got returning streakers.

00:16:37Oliver Spake: Yes, yep.

00:16:38Melissa Ellis: So I put out a question on the streaky group this morning. In retrospect, maybe should have been a poll, so rookie mistake. However, we did have some people respond. And my question was, are you a solo streaker or do you streak with family and friends? And I was actually surprised. So most people of the comments that we got, most people are streaking on their own.

00:17:04Oliver Spake: Yes, and definitely agree with some of the comments. It's always nice to catch up on a podcast and obviously score a bingo challenge there.

00:17:14Melissa Ellis: Yes, and Janet mentioned that she's a lone streaker in the real world but with a fantastic group of friends in the virtual world. So she enjoys that connection that the streak brings in the group, which is really lovely.

00:17:31Oliver Spake: Yeah, and then, of course, some of us reaching out and having a regular or a semi-regular streak, both in person and obviously remotely in some cases, with other streakers.

00:17:43Melissa Ellis: Yeah, Pippa and Christine over in the UK, they streak together on a Saturday morning, but then solo through the week. So, yeah, really good, bringing our little community together.

00:17:54Oliver Spake: That's fantastic. And, yeah, look, it's lovely to see a lot of the pictures and a lot of the streaking experiences still coming through on the page. Definitely feeling for those that have sort of recently introduced the regularity of streaking to their routine. So keep it up. And of course, to those that have had to give it up, well done. There's always a good reason to give up a streak. And yeah, you can always restart at the right point in time.

00:18:24Melissa Ellis: And I'm seeing photos of Spoonvilles.

00:18:27Oliver Spake: Yes, yes. So Spoonville continues to take off.

00:18:32Melissa Ellis: And I started my own Spoonville.

00:18:34Oliver Spake: So tell us about your Spoonville, Mel.

00:18:36Melissa Ellis: Well, I thought it would be a good idea because I'd been seeing it all on social media all around Victoria, as has previously been referred to. So I thought, oh, we'll do that. This will be a fun activity for Zoe and I. I think it was more exciting for me than it was for Zoe. And then I dragged her on one of my streaks so that we could plant our Spoonville and I made an elaborate sign and I went every day. So it's on my parkrun course, of course.

00:19:05Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:19:06Melissa Ellis: So every day when I go on my streak, I walk past and I was – sort of walking past all excited and then there'd be no spoons added and I'd be oh okay maybe tomorrow and then I walked past the next day oh still no spoons so of course the first day that I walked past and there'd been an addition it was very exciting so now we've got maybe probably 10 10 is good around around 10 yeah so it's growing it's taking a while but anyway it's a little bit of fun and is there a dress code or is there a particular style or flavour that your spoonville has brought or is it rather eclectic it's very eclectic there's some metal spoons and there's some plastic spoons and there's a very inclusive that's good Okay. So opening the door to let the chihuahua back in proves to be a mistake.

00:20:01Oliver Spake: Again, very inclusive.

00:20:03Melissa Ellis: Damn it. That's Bambi, for those listening at home, who was previously scratching at the door the whole time I was recording to come back in because he's like, hey, how come the door's shut? I'm usually allowed in here. So I thought, oh, I'll let him in. Don't know why he's barking anyway.

00:20:05[other]

00:20:20Oliver Spake: There's something about that, isn't there? Animals and podcasts, they want in. Yeah.

00:20:26[other]

00:20:26Melissa Ellis: Now you can probably hear his little toenails going trip, trip, trip, trip, trip on the floor.

00:20:31Oliver Spake: Yep, that's good rhythm.

00:20:34Melissa Ellis: So, yes, my little Spoonville, we've even got a little glass jar full of coloured sand. So that's how inclusive we are. Okay. In the Meltown Spoonville.

00:20:42Oliver Spake: And correct me if I'm wrong, Mel, that's not a spoon. No.

00:20:48Melissa Ellis: it's really random I've got no idea why that's there okay uh but yeah like you said inclusivity we accept everybody people are just doing what they've ever they've got and to be honest I think there's actually a wooden spoon shortage oh no so you're perpetuating a wooden well obviously metal and plastic is trying to address that and spread the resources but Yeah, people are just getting whatever they've got in their cupboard.

00:21:11Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:21:11Melissa Ellis: Just so they can join in. But anyway, it doesn't matter. It's a bit of fun.

00:21:15Oliver Spake: Hence the jar, yep.

00:21:16Melissa Ellis: Actually, I got Paul out on a walk with me today. He came on my streak with me today and we walked past Spoonville and he was quite impressed. He's like, oh, look, there's quite a few. I'm sure he thought I'm like, I'll just humour her when I asked him to make me this sign that I could put in the ground. No one's going to do this, I'm sure he thought. Yeah, and he was quite surprised, so.

00:21:37Oliver Spake: And lo and behold. So does Paul have any plans to add to Spoonville now?

00:21:42Melissa Ellis: No, I don't think so. I do have a spare spoon.

00:21:45Oliver Spake: Okay.

00:21:46Melissa Ellis: And, yeah, he's getting back on the streak. He's joined me for parkrun this week and I've worked it out because, of course, being the good parkrunner that I am, I've got a spreadsheet for my (not)parkruns. And so he'd missed eight. So the last eight, which had been the whole time we'd been back in our second lockdown, I'd been streaking on my own and, of course, usually would say do you want to parkrun with me tomorrow and he'll go no anyway so this week he just out of the blue I hadn't even asked and he mentioned something about getting an early night and I'm like oh how come he's like because I'm going to get up and parkrun so I was very surprised but it was nice had company

00:22:28Oliver Spake: That's excellent. I hope Team Ellis Palace parkrun continue to enjoy the streak and the (not)parkrun and obviously Pina Coladas. I mean, if you can tie in another thing with Pina Coladas, that's part of the motivation. Though I'm sure that Paul just wanted to get back involved and onto the spreadsheet.

00:22:46Melissa Ellis: Yes, let's go with that. And it's nothing to do with that he stood on the scales.

00:22:50Unidentified speaker: Yes.

00:22:51Oliver Spake: No, that wasn't my motivation either.

00:22:55Melissa Ellis: But what we really need to be talking about, Ollie, is this excitement coming on the weekend. Now, have you ever been to the Northern Territory? Have you done these parkruns they talk of?

00:23:04Oliver Spake: I wish. I'm not one of those fortunate people that have been up to the beautiful Northern Territory. Definitely on the bucket list. But yeah, very excited for our Territorians.

00:23:14Melissa Ellis: I actually had in the back of my mind this new year of a trip up, obviously won't be happening now because Victorians have got the lurgy and we're not allowed to go anywhere. But, yeah, that had sort of been in the back of my mind to go up there and do a couple of parkruns over the holiday season. So, yeah.

00:23:33Oliver Spake: Hold that dream. We never know when things will change. But for now, yeah, we can absolutely enjoy it a bit virtually for sure.

00:23:41Melissa Ellis: So in honour of the relaunch of the parkrun in the Northern Territory, we have, of course, an interview. I have outsourced the interviewing duties this week, and I think that you might just recognise the voice. So let's have a listen.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Interview Mark Connolly — parkrun Australia Northern Territory Event Ambassador; founding Event Director, Darwin…

00:23:55Tony O'Connell: Howdy parkrunners, TOC reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew and today I'm really excited. We can see some light on the horizon and the lights in Australia and it's up to the north. With me today I've got Mark Connolly, the event ambassador from the Northern Territory. Welcome Mark.

00:24:12Mark Connolly: Hey, TOC, how you doing?

00:24:13Tony O'Connell: Yeah, look, we're going really well down here in Victoria. We're seeing the right side of lockdown and hopefully we'll be out of it soon. And you're right out of lockdown. You're up and running again as of this Saturday.

00:24:25Mark Connolly: Yeah, yes, we are. It's got a little bit of excitement around the place up here at the moment, everyone getting ready to go. I think a few people looking forward to a few PBs in the first run. So see how we go.

00:24:35Tony O'Connell: And not only are the eyes of Australia on you, Mark, the eyes of all around the world, because you're going to be one of the only events, the three events in Darwin that will actually be running next week or this weekend. So that's going to be really exciting to have the biggest parkruns in the world. All three of them, first, second and third, all based in the Northern Territory.

00:24:55Mark Connolly: Yeah, yeah. The Falkland Islands had to come in and ruin our plans of being the only ones, but it's good to have them on board too.

00:25:01Tony O'Connell: Yeah, no, it's really great to see them in as well. And with the announcement that the UK is going later in October, we're hopefully going to see a few more in the world open up.

00:25:10Mark Connolly: Yes, yeah, the more people are better, of course.

00:25:12Tony O'Connell: Mark, the announcement that Northern Territory is back online, how's the feeling being up around the Northern Territory? I mean, you're carrying the hopes of the world, and I think there must be some building excitement up there. People must really be looking forward to getting out and getting the barcode scanned again.

00:25:27Mark Connolly: Yeah, I'm actually surprised at how many people are keen, not just here, but around the world to see what's going on. Give a little bit of hope to everyone that we can come back eventually. So yeah, we're looking forward to it. We don't have to make too many changes to get going, just enough to keep us a little bit safer. But it's really looking forward to it.

00:25:42Tony O'Connell: I think it's really good that those changes are coming through and we're getting to test them out a little bit. I think they'll go pretty smoothly. A lot of the events are running on things like virtual volunteer already. So I don't think for a lot of people it's going to be a big change. Your volunteers, how are we looking for volunteers up in the Northern Territory?

00:26:00Mark Connolly: Yeah, yeah, we're ready to go, I think. We've had lots of people put their hands up earlier on, even just to say months ago, to say, whenever you're ready, let me know and we can help out. And just things like all the core group of volunteers, all the IDs, they said, we don't mind, we'll do whatever we need this weekend to get going. So, yeah, it's looking really good, actually.

00:26:15Tony O'Connell: Yeah, I think that's going to be the way it goes all around the world. I think people are just going to be that happy to be back out in the fluro again. I think that volunteers aren't going to be an issue anywhere. So in the last week or so, Mark, has there been much preparation needed to ramp back up for parkrun with us being on pause for six months, you know, dealing with council or anything like that?

00:26:35Mark Connolly: Yeah, just had to get back to all the stakeholders and let them know we're going again, passing our safety plan to them as well. Had to get approval and passing that information to them. So there's been a bit of contact around. We have a few departments of the NT government to work with as well and the councils, a couple of councils. We've had just a little bit of contact, a little bit of paperwork, but nothing too strenuous, just enough to keep us on our toes.

00:26:55Tony O'Connell: Excellent. And the weather, how's your weather looking up there for next weekend?

00:27:00Mark Connolly: We're kicking off just in time to have the really nice muggy build-up weather up here. Really lovely, steamy, 90% humidity weather. Really looking forward to it.

00:27:09Tony O'Connell: I note that Saturday you're expecting a top of 33. I look back in our weather records here. Our last 33 was on the 16th of February. So, yeah, I think it's going to be a hot one for you. But I guess living in Darwin, you'd be fairly used to that sort of weather.

00:27:25Mark Connolly: Yeah, that's just normal for us. We just accept it. We don't really – I don't think you get used to it. You just accept that that's what's going to happen for half the year. You're going to be hot. You're going to be muggy. And you just slow down a little bit just so you don't hurt yourself.

00:27:36Tony O'Connell: They're pretty tough up in the Territory.

00:27:38Mark Connolly: We have to.

00:27:39Tony O'Connell: Mark, you look after three events up there at the moment. Average, I've sort of been doing a little bit of stalk. The average is about mid 300s across the events. How many people do you reckon you'll get out this weekend?

00:27:51Mark Connolly: um I'm expecting you know maybe another 100 or so extra people than usual that kind of what happens when we have little peak periods so I don't expect to be huge um but enough to be a little bit more than normal and then it'll slot back to normal rates again after that I think yeah fairly fairly quick back into the standard up and running mark your history with parkrun you're the event ambassador for the Northern Territory how long have you been involved with parkrun up there Just over six years now. So I was the founding Event Director of Darwin parkrun, which was about almost seven years old now. And that was my first real experience with parkrun. I did do a visit to Claisebrook Cove before we started just to make sure I understood what parkrun was about. And so, yeah, almost coming on seven years now.

00:28:35Tony O'Connell: It puts a whole different perspective on things when you start to talk about visiting what's probably your nearest parkrun and it's three or four thousand kilometres away.

00:28:43Mark Connolly: Yeah, I think Townsville or Cairns might be my NENDY now at the moment, which is, yeah, like you say, about 3,000 k's drive.

00:28:50Tony O'Connell: Yeah, it's a long way. Just reflecting back, our trip up to the Northern Territory, we were up there a couple of years ago. I reckon it must have been about 200% humidity. It was like running on a mattress. Hopefully it's not going to be like that this weekend. Hopefully you get a great start to the parkrun up and going again. And, yeah, really looking forward to seeing the results.

00:29:12Mark Connolly: Yeah, I think it might have been a Mel Erbacher, actually, who likened it to running with a wet blanket over your shoulders or something similar to like that. Or the stupid humidity, actually. The stupid humidity, she calls it as well.

00:29:22Tony O'Connell: Stupid humidity, yep. I think when we ran it, it might have been in a onesie for your Darwin's anniversary up there. That was a few years back now.

00:29:30Mark Connolly: Yeah, your lovely Teletubby that was up here.

00:29:32Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:29:33Tony O'Connell: Yeah, Teletubby got out for Inverloch's anniversary this week as well. Yeah. Well, Mark, well, thanks for joining us on the parkrun adventurers and all the best for Saturday. I'm sure things are going to go brilliantly up there and we're really looking forward to seeing some results, emails come out. Really looking forward to seeing parkrun kick off in Australia again. And, yeah, have a ball.

00:29:54Mark Connolly: Yeah, I'm super excited and I'll keep in touch and let you know if anything exciting happens out of the ordinary up here. Cheers, Mark. Thanks. Cheers, mate. See you. Thanks, TOC and Mark.

00:30:03Oliver Spake: It's a very exciting time for our Northern Territory parkrunners, and it's great to hear the enthusiasm for parkrun in Australia once again, obviously with many enthusiastic volunteers, naturally. We hope it's a great parkrun day, Mark, and all of our parkrun family up north enjoy that warmer weather. You'd like that weather down in Melbourne right now.

00:30:25Melissa Ellis: Oh, I would. But how exciting just to be dusting off the barcode. Yes. That's just one thing you can't really simulate at your home fake parkrun. But, yeah, all the best, everybody. Wonderful. What are you going to be doing this weekend, Ollie?

00:30:39Oliver Spake: This weekend, amongst keeping up the streak, I may do some unofficial not parkrun tourism activities. Try and check out a course that I haven't been to at a different day and time other than parkrun, of course. Other than that, yeah, more streaking. And look, it's an exciting time in our household over the next few weeks, a sad time as well because we're going to be saying goodbye to Misty the cat on happy terms, but sad to say goodbye.

00:31:12Melissa Ellis: Hang on a minute. Is this your cat? Why are you giving a cat away? Is the cat going on holidays? Please explain.

00:31:19Oliver Spake: Yeah, so Misty the cat has been living with my eldest, Hannah, actually, my ride and run buddy, Hannah. And back in March when lockdown happened, of course, we all remember that some of our Shellharbour parkrun RD family, Amanda, one of our RDs and her daughter Holly, were headed off to the UK. And unfortunately, Misty couldn't catch the same flight. So Misty's been living and keeping Hannah company. She does her uni from home. And, yeah, I think despite the slightly grumpy cat vibes that Misty gives off, I think we've discovered that she's actually a big softie. So it'll be sad to see her go. But, yeah, look, they've been trying for a while to find out when pet transport can resume across to the UK. So Misty the cat is genuinely off to London, not to see the Queen, to be reunited with Amanda. Yeah, and a slightly cooler climate. And what about you, Mel? What are your plans for this weekend and beyond?

00:32:27Melissa Ellis: Oh, do you want to know the theme of this week?

00:32:30Oliver Spake: Yes. Yeah, give us some insights into themes so that we can support our local costume shop businesses.

00:32:36Melissa Ellis: I'll give you a clue, okay? Come aboard the Ellis Palace pirate ship as we are swabbing the decks and polishing the yard arms for International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

00:32:46Oliver Spake: Arr! It'd be not pirate run weekend.

00:32:51Melissa Ellis: Yes. Yes. So, yes, so it's pirate themed. So Google tells me that it is International Talk Like a Pirate Day on Saturday, the 19th of September, which also happens to be my wedding anniversary. So I'm not quite sure what sort of an omen that is. But anyway, yes. Guess how I get to spend my wedding anniversary, not in New Zealand like originally planned, but having a pirate party.

00:33:18Oliver Spake: And isn't that just marriage? That's fantastic.

00:33:21Unidentified speaker: Yes.

00:33:23Melissa Ellis: My lucky husband, I tell you. So we do have already pirate outfits from when we joined the pirate club previously. Yep, with parkrun so we'll be getting those out of the dress-up box and seeing what else we can add and I guess I don't know what uh food we might have what do pirates eat Ollie maybe you can give me some tips I think maybe Paul would enjoy some rum uh yes yep that carrying on the the pina colada sort of line of thinking yep yeah yeah I don't know about food oh my kids would say the gold coins the chocolate gold coins oh oh good point

00:33:31[crosstalk]

00:33:56Oliver Spake: I'm sure you can rustle up something a bit more hearty than that.

00:34:00Melissa Ellis: Oh, I need a treasure chest.

00:34:02Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:34:02Melissa Ellis: Oh, now I've got to make a cardboard treasure chest for Daryl. Oh, my life's so complicated. Anyway, costumes. Costumes. But, hey, how do you like this for a throw? Not unlike the costumes in The Masked Singer, Ollie. Oh.

00:34:16Oliver Spake: I see what you did there.

00:34:18Melissa Ellis: Do you like what I did?

00:34:19Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:34:19Melissa Ellis: Especially Cactus.

00:34:21Oliver Spake: Cactus.

00:34:22Melissa Ellis: Now, you do have the Masked Singer up in Shellharbour, that's correct?

00:34:25Oliver Spake: That's right. We have the Masked Singer. My Masked Singer fans in the household, my fellow Masked Singer fans, I'm really struggling with those words. Amongst us, we are a couple of episodes behind. But, yeah, please tell us about the famed Cactus performance.

00:34:43Melissa Ellis: Oh, I got very excited the other day, well, the other week actually when we were sitting there and I was actually on a video call with some other parkrunner friends and we have a regular Monday night catch up and maybe I was a little bit grumpy because I was missing the Masked Singer so I had it on in the background and then the cactus comes in and starts singing Bonnie Tyler, Total Eclipse of the Heart, got so excited. Yeah. And, of course, regular listeners will know the Channel 5 News crew made a terrible job of singing that as the final Christmas episode a couple of years ago. I bet it was pretty funny. And now that song holds such a dear place in my heart and I get very excited whenever I hear it. And it was on the telly.

00:35:23Oliver Spake: That's wonderful.

00:35:24Melissa Ellis: even better the cactus uh who was unmasked that night was Lucy durack who is one of my most favourite theatre performers because I'm a big uh wicked fan I've been seen wicked about three times if you know that live show that's based on the wizard of oz I have seen that one I have seen Lucy yes

00:35:41Oliver Spake: yes lucy's brilliant so there you go there's my little um off the beaten track and managed to get that cactus reference in yay well done and I won't hear it the channel 5 news crew were spectacular with their performance and I'm sure Lucy studied that for hours in preparation look forward to another rendition sometime

00:36:02Melissa Ellis: Okay, so I don't know how to link into International Ugly Christmas Singlet or Shirt Day from that.

00:36:09Oliver Spake: Well, it's spectacular dress-up. That's the common thread here.

00:36:14Melissa Ellis: It is, and you and I are both proud owners of both the previous versions of Ugly Christmas Singlets.

00:36:19Oliver Spake: Yeah, you've got to have hot fingers to get them in time, but absolutely.

00:36:24Melissa Ellis: You do. But what I love about it, Ollie, is I love going to those parkruns around once they've been released and spotting all the singlets because you know that they're podcast listeners. And when you're a roving reporter, it makes it really easy to find somebody to interview. I love it. I love that we have our own little community of Ugly Christmas Singlet enthusiasts. And we've had a sneak peek.

00:36:47Oliver Spake: Yes, yes. So you've seen the sneak peek?

00:36:50Unidentified speaker: I have.

00:36:51Oliver Spake: So for the listeners, this is a sneak peek on the Facebook page. So you can look up the Facebook page for International Ugly Christmas Singlet or Shirt Day. Of course, that day being the 19th of December. And check out the sneak peek. So do you have a hunch what it could be, Mel? I'm still guessing.

00:37:12Melissa Ellis: I've got a hunch.

00:37:13Oliver Spake: Okay.

00:37:14Melissa Ellis: I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag. Let's let the listeners head over to the website and have a look for themselves. I think it'll be quite obvious once they see. It could be. And I can't wait for the release. I'll be one of the first people waiting up to get myself one of those. Yes. I might go the T-shirt this year, Ollie. Okay.

00:37:33Oliver Spake: Oh, yeah, that's really going to make the decision-making process quite difficult. I wonder if many people will get both. As Mel and Scott said last week, stay tuned on the Facebook page for International Ugly Chrysalis Singlet or Shirt Day. I misspoke again on that one. Sorry, everyone.

00:37:52Melissa Ellis: We need an acronym.

00:37:53Oliver Spake: Yes. I ask OZD. Being the official acronym there. But yeah, as Mel and Scott said, coming up before the end of September will be the release. So stay tuned, everyone. And remember that it is just for a limited time.

00:38:09Melissa Ellis: Yeah, you've got to be quick. They go like hotcakes.

00:38:11Oliver Spake: They do.

Sign-off

00:38:12Oliver Spake: They do.

00:38:13Melissa Ellis: Oh, I think we've talked enough rubbish. Do you think, Ollie?

00:38:17Oliver Spake: Possibly so. But yeah, it's been nice to get the chance to have another parkrun chat. Thank you, Mel.

00:38:23Melissa Ellis: Thank you. I guess we hand back over to real Mel for next week.

00:38:28Oliver Spake: To Melissa, not Ellis, Erbacher, yes?

00:38:32Unidentified speaker: Yes.

00:38:33Melissa Ellis: Thanks for letting us fill in again, Mel, and reins handed back over to you. Good luck, Northern Territory. We will be with you in spirit and, yeah, happy parkrun Day, everyone.

00:38:46Oliver Spake: Exactly. Stay well, everyone. Bye. Bye.

00:38:48[music]

00:39:45Unidentified speaker: Thank you.