Episode 212 - Chris Murphy

Welcome

00:00:22Scott Watkins: Hello and welcome to episode number 212 of the parkrun adventurers. I'm Scott and I'm talking to you from Melbourne. And with me in the studio in sunny Queensland is Mel. Welcome along, Mel.

00:00:36Melissa Erbacher: Thanks, Scott. How are you doing today?

00:00:38Scott Watkins: I'm very good. Every day is getting better down here. So lots to be happy about. And what about you?

00:00:45Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, look, I can't complain. Queensland has parkruns back as at last weekend. So It's the dream. I'm living the dream, Scott. But tell me, I mean, you're also living somebody's dream because you guys get to eat a lot of doughnuts down there lately, I believe.

00:01:00Scott Watkins: We have. And I actually did. I think on maybe the second or third doughnut day when people started talking about that really becoming mainstream, I did go and buy a whole pack of doughnuts. For people who don't quite get the reference, as many of you know, we had a very long and severe second lockdown because of COVID here in Melbourne. And when we realised the goal of getting to days where we had zero cases and zero deaths. People on social media started calling them doughnut days, like doughnuts for zeros. And so then we were like, oh, we've had another doughnut day. And that became a thing. And we've now, I think today was like 30 doughnut days in a row that we've had now.

00:01:41Melissa Erbacher: Brilliant.

00:01:42Scott Watkins: Definitely for the first few. Seriously, supermarkets were selling out of doughnuts because I think there was just this sort of collective joy around a target that I think people thought was not achievable. I certainly had my doubts about whether it was the right thing to do or whether it was achievable. But I think having achieved it, there's been a real sense of achievement and sort of happiness that we're in this together and we've got something. And to celebrate that with something nice like doughnuts has been a real nice thing.

00:02:10Melissa Erbacher: Go, Victoria. And, hey, do you reckon this was the brainchild of some really savvy social media person from Donut King or – Krispy Kreme, who was just like, I think I know how we can sell more doughnuts.

00:02:23Scott Watkins: Well, I don't know actually who sort of first started doing it, but I know there's a guy, Anthony Macali, who runs a Twitter account and he very early on set up a website for reporting doughnuts. COVID data very early on in Australia. And he started using it in the graphics doughnuts when other states and stuff were getting it. So he definitely played a big role in popularizing the thing. So I haven't actually seen any brands jumping on that bandwagon. I think they might be a bit hesitant to do that.

00:02:52Melissa Erbacher: I'll be honest. I've bought doughnuts in solidarity with you guys. Excellent. I'm like, if I ever need an excuse to go to Krispy Kreme, this is it. Did you get some pineapple ones? I didn't. Do they do pineapple ones?

00:03:08Scott Watkins: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Pineapple doughnuts.

00:03:10Melissa Erbacher: Oh, my goodness. I think I'll have to go back and check tomorrow.

00:03:14Scott Watkins: Definitely passion fruit is more common. You know, the standard Coles pack with chocolate, strawberry and passion fruit is you probably give bog standard one. But absolutely, there's pineapple ones. I've certainly consumed some pineapple ones.

00:03:26Melissa Erbacher: Oh, I'd be all over the pineapple.

00:03:28Scott Watkins: I'm going to get doughnuts tomorrow now, actually. I thought, you know, I've had a month of sort of doing it, but we can't have this conversation now. You've got me locked onto it.

00:03:35Melissa Erbacher: Everybody who's listening is salivating, thinking, oh, I could really go a doughnut right about now. You're welcome, Krispy Kreme, Mr. Donut. We'll send you an invoice.

00:03:46Scott Watkins: So, you know, we don't have parkrun back here. Maybe we'll touch on that a little bit later. But you do and you got to get out. So while I'm sitting back eating doughnuts, you got to go to a parkrun on Saturday. So let's dive straight into that, Mel. How was that?

00:04:00Melissa Erbacher: It was a bit of a mixed bag, Scott.

00:04:02Scott Watkins: Where did you go?

00:04:03Melissa Erbacher: Well, I was at Kawana, my home parkrun. Everybody in the states and territories that have parkrun back have been encouraged to stick close to home, just go to your home parkruns if you can. Obviously, if you're travelling and you just find yourself in another place and you want to grab a parkrun fix, there's nothing wrong with that at all. But So yeah, I was at Kawana parkrun. I volunteered to do the barcode scanning. It was a fun morning. It was great to be back and out there. But when I said a little bit earlier that it was a mixed bag. I couldn't get the same level of excited of it as I think I would because so many people in the world don't have parkrun.

00:04:44Scott Watkins: Yeah.

00:04:45Melissa Erbacher: I found it really difficult actually to enjoy it as much as I felt like I should have just because I'm so conscious that there are so many who really desperately wish to have it back and they just don't and they can't. for whatever reason their circumstances don't allow in their country or in their state.

00:05:05Scott Watkins: But I think the vast majority of them would want you to enjoy it. It's like if you can do it, there's no point you doing it sort of half measures.

00:05:14Melissa Erbacher: A hundred percent. And look, I've been the same. I've been so excited when New Zealand came back and then we had the Northern Territory. And the other states coming online shortly after Tassie and WA and Japan, all these places have got it back, various individual events in other areas and stuff too. And I have had no jealousy, I guess. I haven't had any jealousy that they've had it back. I've literally just had nothing but joy for them and glad that they could have it and glad that they could experience it. So it has been a bit of an eye-opener for me that I didn't feel when it was my turn that it was okay. I don't know if I'm one of those captains on a ship that's going down and I feel like I have to be the last one off the boat after everybody's got it back. That's possibly the only way that I would 100% enjoy myself. And I'm not trying to be a martyr or anything like that. It's just... yeah conscious that I've got friends who aren't parkrunning so don't get me wrong I had a great morning it was wonderful to see everybody and those familiar faces that I haven't seen in so long and yeah had the warm fuzzies when uh John Taylor fondly known as JT at Kawana parkrun he finished his 350th parkrun so he stopped on 349 and he's in his late 80s now So when he crossed that finish line, there was actually a lot of applause just rippling through the crowd. And that was an emotional moment for me. But apart from that, I didn't have the same kind of emotion as I had when Northern Territory came back, for example, and I was feeling the joy and the emotion for other people. I felt a little bit separated from it. So I'm not trying to be ungrateful.

00:07:02Scott Watkins: Yes. No, look, I can sort of understand where that comes from. You know, we're still uncertain. We're still a little way away from it here. So I can't totally imagine how I'll feel when I get to do a parkrun again. But I can understand where you're coming from. So for those, yeah, for those out there listening, so we've now got more than half of the states and territories in Australia back up and running.

00:07:26Melissa Erbacher: Yes, so five out of eight of the states and territories are back and there'll just be two left after this weekend coming.

00:07:35Scott Watkins: Yes, and that's really exciting. And I think, you know, I'm sure people appreciate the work that's been happening behind the scenes with all of the parkrun stuff dealing with. the bureaucracy in every different state. I think people who live in Australia have got used to the fact that this pandemic has brought out a lot of differences in the way that different states assess risk and handle processes and handle approvals and things like that. And that's certainly, I think, borne out in the way that parkrun's restarted. Speaking as someone that hasn't been able to yet participate, I just think it's great. And I think that not only in Australia, but in the rest of the world. I think particularly with such a large number of events coming back in Queensland, this must give some confidence to other jurisdictions that this, you know, this thing that we love and do can be done safely and in a way that is sort of acceptable to governments and the broader community. So I think every week that we have parkrun operating in places gives us more and more hope that we can accelerate towards the other ones starting.

00:08:36Melissa Erbacher: Absolutely. And look, not even just hope, but evidence that it's safe to operate and so hopefully everybody else gets on board sooner rather than later.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:08:47Melissa Erbacher: But you know what? I did miss before parkrun came back, and I'm not sure, I can't remember if I mentioned it when I was chatting to Lyndell last time, but Kawana parkrun had our eighth anniversary and it was literally a non-event because we We weren't there and it didn't happen. And I know you guys at Albert Park had your ninth anniversary recently too, Scott, but you guys made it an event, didn't you? And I want to hear more about it.

00:09:14Scott Watkins: Well, we did, yeah. And I think, look, people all around the world, probably 80% of parkrunners have missed their anniversary this year. You know, obviously a few got through at the start. But I think people, for some of them, that's always a really big day in the calendar and I think it's a day when people we reflect back on, you know, how far and yeah, for us, you know, nine years has been phenomenal. And there's a lot that's happened in that time. But We managed to replicate a few of the things that Albert Melbourne parkrun here. The last few years, we've just sort of settled on each anniversary doing a rainbow theme for it. It's sort of a theme that stuck and it stopped us having to think up new ones every year. And so Joanne, who's my wife and the Co-Event Director with me, she, many of you have seen that she's been doing throughout the pandemic on during parkrun time or an hour after parkrun actually doing a Facebook live cooking and people from our community join in and quite often cook along with her and it's actually been you know something that's been meaningful for a few people you know obviously not for everybody but for a few people it's been really really meaningful So they cooked rainbow cakes on that day, and that was a lot of fun. I came back just at the end of it, and there was some ingredient that Joanne had left out, and she was like, oh, just mix them all back, the colours back together, and then do them. I was like, no, no, no, stop, because if you mix the colours, they're not going to ever unmix again.

00:10:40Melissa Erbacher: No, you're going to have a brown. Yes.

00:10:44Scott Watkins: and she's like oh yeah good point so that was good but yeah she did a really great job and we had we had a couple of people who went down to the course and um Daryl and Julie who's a couple who are awesome volunteers they took photos of themselves down at the course and posted that into the chat and there are a few other people that dropped in and um you know and there were people cooking along which was really uh a really good thing and then Myself and a few others actually wore sort of rainbow outfits during our (not)parkrun. So I went out with one of our Run Directors and very good friend Sarah who we have been running together most or all Saturdays during this and We did a nine-kilometre run for nine years. We both had rainbow outfits on running along the beach at St Kilda. And, yeah, we got a lot more smiles on that day than normal. So that was really nice. So, yeah, so we managed to capture a few aspects of the day and the anniversary by sort of replicating those things that we normally do.

00:11:43Melissa Erbacher: And you can never have too many rainbows.

00:11:45Scott Watkins: No, that's exactly right. You know, there's a lot of symbolism in it and, you know, we think that the rainbow is there and there is light coming and there is hope and there is parkrun coming back, as you saw. Yeah, so it was nice to do it, but it just means that next year, when it's the 10th anniversary, which, you know, is a less arbitrary number, we will have to make it an extra special celebration. MUSIC

00:12:10[music]

00:12:18Melissa Erbacher: Lockdowns have left a lot of people running around their own backyards, Scott.

00:12:22Scott Watkins: Yes, lots of people have been running around their backyards and things like that during this time. And I believe you had a conversation with one of them who got quite good at running around a fairly big yard.

00:12:35Melissa Erbacher: I did. We should go have a listen.

00:12:37Scott Watkins: Great.

Interview Chris Murphy — Airlie Beach parkrunner; winner of the Australian leg of the Big Dog's World…

00:12:39Melissa Erbacher: In October, our guest competed in the Big Dogs World Championship for the year 2020. The aim of this competition is to see who can run the greatest number of yards, that is laps, with each yard being 6.7 kilometres. Not to be mistaken with that other unit of measurement that I don't understand. 21 countries took part in the championship, with each country hosting their own event this year, and the Aussie leg was held on the Oxley Common in Brisbane. This year, not only did our guest compete in it, but he won it in Australia and finished 17th in the world out of a field of 315 runners. He is an Airlie Beach parkrunner, and his name is Chris Murphy. Chris, welcome to the parkrun adventurers Podcast.

00:13:29Chris Murphy: Thank you for having me, Mel.

00:13:30Melissa Erbacher: Now, oh my goodness, I've got so many questions. So let's start with, you're in the World Championships for this random thing running the greatest number of yards and the yards are 6.7 kilometres. Can you give us a bit of an overview of the event itself and where it came from, what the history is and how you got involved?

00:13:54Chris Murphy: Yeah, the general gist of the race or event is it's a last one standing. So that 6.7 kilometre yard that we do is done every hour on the hour. So for this race, we started at 10pm. At 10 o'clock, we'd run 6.7km. And then 11 o'clock, we'd run 6.7km. And that continued until we only had one person left that could finish a loop by themselves. This style of race came about from, there's a guy in America in Tennessee called Gary Cantrell or Lazarus Lake. He thought up this one to try and take the edge out of the faster competitors and bring everyone back to being tired at the end of every lap. Yeah, I got into this one. I competed in the Clint Eastwood, which is the exact same style race in the exact same location back in August. Yeah, managed to have a good run there. Did 30 yards, came third. So then when this event in October, the world champion style one came about, yeah, I got invited to be part of the Australian team. And yeah, turned that into a bit better day than expected.

00:14:54Melissa Erbacher: I like that it's a team event when it gets to the world championship level. So normally you participate as an individual, but 15 people get selected from each country to go to the world championships. How do people get selected?

00:15:10Chris Murphy: Well, this one was actually the first of its kind. Generally, there are golden ticket races all around the world. The winners from those go to Tennessee and I think they have about 70 runners take part in the single race over there. But due to COVID this year and no one being able to travel internationally, yeah, they rethought the whole situation and came up with the satellite version where each country has their own race.

00:15:33Melissa Erbacher: And I guess they wanted you to be running with some other people to feel that camaraderie and competitiveness at the same time?

00:15:39Chris Murphy: Yeah, so they decided that they'd run a 15-person team at each of the different countries, and I was lucky enough to get included from a decent run at the event a few months beforehand. There was a few other guys that had done well in years gone by, as well as the winners from the Clint Eastwood this year, which was Ryan Crawford, who came first, and Cam Munro, who's come second there two years in a row. And yeah, the rest were a group of different runners with extremely good resumes that made me feel completely underqualified to be there, but welcome me with open arms.

00:16:11Melissa Erbacher: It's one of those random concept events. Can you explain to me a little bit about why it is 6.7 kilometres? Because, yeah, that is a big yard for a dog. However, I mean, I certainly don't have a yard that size and it does seem like a random total of kilometres.

00:16:30Chris Murphy: It does, isn't it? But the fact that if you add that up for 24 hours, it's worked out so that every 24 hours that you run for is 100 mile.

00:16:42Melissa Erbacher: Do you get something for making the 24 hours and doing 100 mile? Do you get a medal or something to say, well, I did 100 miles, but I didn't win anything else?

00:16:51Chris Murphy: No, you get the self-satisfaction that you tick the 100 mile box.

00:16:55Melissa Erbacher: Bragging rights. That's it.

00:16:57Chris Murphy: That's it. And as you go through the bigger races like the Clint Eastwood, we had 108 people start. The amount of people that get to that 24-hour mark, the 100-mile mark, and then don't start the next lap is crazy. It's that, yep, I've ticked the box, I'm done. And people pull out straight after 24 hours. So the 25th hour is where you see who's left to run the race.

00:17:16Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. Well, I'm not sure I could blame them, to be honest.

00:17:20Chris Murphy: Yes.

00:17:21Melissa Erbacher: Okay, now I mentioned when I introduced you that you won the Aussie leg and set a new Australian record of 46 laps.

00:17:29Chris Murphy: Yeah, yeah, that's right. So previously the record for this style event was 41 hours. And, yeah, we managed to push it for an extra five hours. I think they've only been running for a few years, so I don't think there's been all that many events. But, yeah, it was cool to bump it up a few hours.

00:17:46Melissa Erbacher: And when you know you've already done the previous record and the person who came second in Australia, how many laps did they get in and when did they stop?

00:17:57Chris Murphy: 45. So it was Barry Loveday. Yeah, it was the guy, me and him ran together for 16 hours, just the pair of us. Yeah, 45 hours, 45 laps, we both finished that one. He got help back to the start line. He didn't want to start, but he did. And, yeah, I managed to complete the 46th lap, and he walked his, and he didn't make it back within the hour, so that means that I was the winner. So it's a literal as soon as there's one person left, game over.

00:18:25Melissa Erbacher: Okay, so they don't let you keep going just because you want to clock up some extra kilometres and you've got the time.

00:18:33Chris Murphy: No, a few people have said that me being the winner of the race, technically I'm the only loser because I don't get to find out how far I could go.

00:18:40Melissa Erbacher: Well, I guess there's nothing from stopping you doing it unofficially.

00:18:43Chris Murphy: No, and the hard part was there was a few other countries, another five other countries still going when we were finished. Yeah, America went to 69 hours and Belgium with Karel Sabbe went to 75.

00:18:56Melissa Erbacher: So they don't – okay, and this was going to be another one of my questions, and I guess it's sort of hinted at by the fact that you started at 10 p.m., which once again is a very random time to start a race. Is that because you were all literally running at the same time wherever you were in the world?

00:19:16Chris Murphy: Yes, yeah. So it was all hinged around the main race in Tennessee, which started at 7 a.m., I believe it was. There was a live video link between all the events, so we all – all heard the same bell, the same whistle at the start of every lap. And we'd all total away from the start line and do our thing and come back. And live coverage of the whole event was pretty cool. And I think Australia did the best as far as live coverage goes. Alan Davies from AAA Racing and Sam Penny with all the live coverage did an incredible job. So I've got a lot of family down south around the Bathurst area and they obviously couldn't be up here for it, but they felt like they were with the coverage that was put out for this race. It was amazing.

00:19:58Melissa Erbacher: Oh, that's great.

00:19:59Chris Murphy: Yeah.

00:19:59Melissa Erbacher: And when it comes to the fact that you started at 10pm and they started over there at 7am, do you think that was an advantage perhaps or a disadvantage or do you think it didn't really make much of a difference?

00:20:14Chris Murphy: I'd probably put it as a slight disadvantage for the fact that I was probably down a little bit of sleep at the start. For the Clint Eastwood, it was a 1am start and that was by choice from the race organiser.

00:20:25Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:20:28Melissa Erbacher: Let's not make things easy for the people.

00:20:30Chris Murphy: I got about two hours sleep before that race started, so I started on the wrong foot straight away for the original race there. But, yeah, I managed to work around that and try and get a bit of sleep every lap and play catch-up. But, yeah, the 10pm start was probably a little bit rough. By the time you get there, set up and do everything you need to do during the day, you're ready for bed by the time you start in this race.

00:20:53Melissa Erbacher: And then there's 46 laps. Did you have an opportunity for any kind of little power snoozes? Did you run a couple of the laps faster, for example, just so you could close your eyes for 15 or 20 minutes before you had to start again?

00:21:08Chris Murphy: No, in the Clint Eastwood, I was running about 48 minutes a lap for the first couple of laps and then decided that I needed to sleep. So I ran a little bit faster from there and started having to sleep every lap and that worked really well. So that became my strategy for the rest of that race and this world championship race. For this one in October, I was running about a 45-minute lap fairly consistently. And then, yeah, I'd come back in, quick bite to eat, sort out the plan for the next lap with my crew, which is my wife and a good friend. And then I would kick back in my reclining camp chair and squeeze in somewhere between five and eight minutes sleep sometimes.

00:21:51Melissa Erbacher: That boggles my mind that you've got like this 15-minute window and you've got time to talk strategy and then eat something and then actually sleep. I mean, but it's amazing what the body can do, especially when you really want sleep, isn't it?

00:22:07Chris Murphy: Yeah. My wife would have a good old chuckle because I would be out cold within a matter of seconds. And then three minutes before the start of the next lap, they'd blow a whistle and that would startle me awake every time. Oh, okay.

00:22:23Melissa Erbacher: So it was the whistle that made you awake. You didn't get woken up so you could be on the start line.

00:22:29Chris Murphy: Warning whistles at three minutes, two minutes, one minute, and then it's a whistle to go. Gotcha. Okay. I hate the sound of whistles.

00:22:37Melissa Erbacher: All right. Now, let's talk about the logistics. You mentioned your wife was on your support crew and another friend. Who are they and what do they do in a world championship to keep Team Murphy going?

00:22:50Chris Murphy: Yeah, so it was my wife and another good running friend from the running club and from parkrun up here, Julie Stone. They basically take care of anything and everything that I need in between laps. The less I have to think or take care of, the better. So I'd come in, I'd hand them empty water bottles and my vest and whatever else I had, tell them what I wanted or didn't want and whatever. They'd throw a few different options for food at me. I'd eat those or throw them in the bin because I didn't like them at that point in time, depending on how the stomach felt. They'd give me massage, ice packs to put around the neck to try and cool down during the day. They'd give me jackets to warm up during the night. The best way they put it was like a pit stop at the Bathurst races where you come in, they refuel, change tyres, do all that, clean you up, bit of sunscreen on, clean me up, whatever I need to do, but also looking after a toddler that doesn't know how to look after themselves.

00:23:48Melissa Erbacher: Because that's what you're doing after a few of these laps, I imagine, just toddling on those legs.

00:23:54Chris Murphy: Yeah, and I just can't think straight towards the end, so they're just throwing food at me and in me and just making decisions for me by the end. So I'm sort of... pretty reliant on those guys to be able to keep getting up and going out lap after lap.

00:24:11Melissa Erbacher: Well, it's lucky you've got such an awesome support crew to keep you going.

00:24:15Chris Murphy: Yes.

00:24:16Melissa Erbacher: Okay, so now we have talked about the number of laps, and that was 46 hours, but that's not obviously your total run time, which was actually 34 hours, 42 minutes, and 30 seconds, which meant for the 308.2 kilometres that you completed, it was actually the quickest time in the world for the distance. Oh, yeah. Yay. I mean, that's incredible. You've got to use the numbers and say, well, okay, I might have come 17th in the world, however.

00:24:47Chris Murphy: I was the fastest.

00:24:49Melissa Erbacher: I was the fastest. I was the fastest person to finish 17th. I mean, that is very impressive. Do you think you would potentially look at changing your strategy the next time to slowing it down by a minute or two minutes just to see if you can last longer? Or I guess you're going to be in Tennessee and actually participating, so you'll be allowed to just go as long as anyone else is there and you might come up against these people who did an extra thing. However many laps it was, then you were forced to stop in Australia because there was no one physically left to participate with.

00:25:30Chris Murphy: Yeah. Yeah, so it's hard to say how much further you could go in these sort of races. I still was fairly consistent with my lap time, so I was moving well enough to be able to get more laps done. I think 50 laps was in reach. Okay. But it's one of those things where once you start slowing down and you start running out of time in between laps to get the standard routine done. And the recovery. Yeah, it might make your next lap that little bit slower again. I think it's a fairly quick downward spiral once you start getting into that. But strategy-wise, I think I was pretty happy with what I was doing. It was enough time that I could get a decent rest, a bit of sleep, food, redo everything and and get back out there without without being rushed but also not pushing too hard out on course tennessee might be a slightly different course I think it's a bit more technical they actually do it slightly different in for their race during the daytime they run a they run a trail loop and then during the night they go out onto the road just to make it a little bit safer yeah so it'll be interesting how that would play out but yeah I'm pretty happy with my my 45 46 minute loops

00:26:39Melissa Erbacher: All right, so I want to know how has Airlie Beach parkrun played into this whole story? How did you first find out about parkrun and how did you get involved?

00:26:51Chris Murphy: So back in 2016, I was getting a bit fat and whatnot, not quite as fit as I used to be, so I... Decided to start just running around the block, trying to do something to build some fitness back up, because most sports didn't really line in with work all that well. So got into that, and then a friend from work suggested I should do the Airlie Beach 5K at the running festival there. So I signed up, did that, and then from there I bumped into another friend who said, oh, you should come down and do parkruns. So then mornings, 7 a.m., we run 5Ks every weekend. So... I got myself a little barcode and turned up there the following week and started regularly doing that. And I could see the benefit to myself of turning up there week after week. So I put the effort in and pushed myself and forced myself out of bed every Saturday morning to get down there and make it a habit, and um really enjoyed it to the point where I started encouraging my wife to get out of bed really early every Saturday morning much to her disgust to begin with but and yeah made some some really good friendships there a lot of different people which is which is the coolest thing there's there's people well into their 70s that are that are running there there's 11 year olds 12 15 20 year olds there's people from all different backgrounds and They're all 100% behind each other and I think Airlie Beach is probably one of the friendliest. I know parkrun's a fairly friendly thing, but Airlie Beach is an extremely good bunch of people and we have a lot of... people travelling through a lot of tourists so we get that sort of things where people have a great old time on holidays as well and yeah I made that a habit and that progressed me to running further and further I remember when I first started turning up I'd see people that ran from home did parkrun then ran home again I thought they were crazy that's how could you run three k's to parkrun run a fast parkrun then run home again I've slowly built up over the years and I'm a little bit out of town, so it's about an 18K run for me to get from home to parkrun. But during the training times, that'll be a fairly standard run for me to run from home into parkrun, do parkrun and then potentially run home again or do a few extra loops here and there. But I still try and keep parkrun in amongst the training as much as I can just because it's given me so much and I enjoy the time I spend with all those people there.

00:29:15Melissa Erbacher: So that's just a cheeky little marathon on a Saturday morning with a parkrun in the middle, basically.

00:29:20Chris Murphy: Occasionally, yes, sometimes, yeah.

00:29:22Melissa Erbacher: And this all started in 2016 and we're only in 2020.

00:29:25Chris Murphy: Yeah, yeah, so it's going pretty quick.

00:29:28Melissa Erbacher: That escalated quickly, Chris.

00:29:30Chris Murphy: Yeah.

00:29:32Melissa Erbacher: Those kilometres have added up very fast.

00:29:34Chris Murphy: Yeah, I think it was starting in 2016, got stuck in the parkrun thing, and then May 2018 I ran the UTA 100km. And yeah, that was a big jump. But I got it done. And yeah, here we are now.

00:29:51Melissa Erbacher: Here we are now. Well, thank you so much for coming on the pod this week, Chris. We really appreciate having you here to share your stories and congratulations on getting your golden ticket to Tennessee. Commiserations to Nicole for you getting a ticket to Tennessee. Thank you very much. But really wish you all the best for it and can't wait to hear how it goes. Thanks, Mel.

00:30:15[15 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:30:30Scott Watkins: Well, while Chris has been doing some real runs, there are still plenty of virtual runs happening because there are still events that are too big to take place at the moment. And one of those is what is normally Australia's biggest marathon, the Melbourne Marathon, is actually being deferred to this coming week. And here in Melbourne, they've switched that to all a virtual run. And yeah, have a guess what I'm going to do, Mel.

00:30:54Melissa Erbacher: Oh, does it seem too obvious that you're going to do the marathon?

00:30:57Scott Watkins: Well, I don't think I am actually going to do the marathon now, but that would have been an obvious guess.

00:31:01Melissa Erbacher: Okay.

00:31:01Scott Watkins: But I actually...

00:31:02Melissa Erbacher: The 5,000 metres, the parkrun distance.

00:31:06Scott Watkins: Yes, you're correct on that. The way they've set up the Melbourne Marathon is you can actually do the events over eight days. So I had this idea that I'll actually enroll in all of them. So I signed up for the 5, 10, half and full marathon. Because I had this vision of me being like Ian Thorpe after the Olympics with like four medals around my neck. But I have decided over the last couple of weeks that I just haven't put enough focus on running really long distances in the last little while. Earlier in the year I did, but the last little while I've sort of tapered off a little bit. I've been running a bit more with some other friends. So I think I'm going to pull the pin on the actual 42K, but I'm doing the three others. So I'll do the 5K with Joanne. And I'll do the 10K with Sarah, who I mentioned earlier, and my other friend Lynn is going to do her second half marathon. I'll run that with her. So I'm actually giving myself a pretty enjoyable experience because I actually love pacing. People really, really take great enjoyment out of running alongside someone and seeing them push through and battle their demons and encourage them along the way.

00:32:13Melissa Erbacher: While you're perfectly comfortable and not even breaking a sweat.

00:32:16Scott Watkins: That's the other thing too, you know, it means that I don't really have to push myself. And so whilst it's all about me, like, you know, oh, yeah, I'll talk to you and I'll keep you going. Yeah, it is a bit easier on my body if I'm not pushing myself. So, yeah, so it's been an interesting experience. I think in some ways these virtual ones, you know, feel a little bit different. not real because you don't have the sense of occasion. There's not the same course and stuff like that. But absolutely for some people, I think they've been very helpful in giving them something to aim for, something to train for. And a few of the people that I mentioned that I'm doing it with, they've absolutely had these as goals and, you know, been wanting to say, okay, well, I'm going to set myself this goal of early December, doing something and you know in the absence of something like parkrun um where you've got that sort of collective thing and other things having goals is is a good thing for people look if it's an excuse that actually gets you out and moving I think I'm all for it definitely yes yeah I'll uh I'll you know can report back some other time but I think um I'll only have at best three medals to wear around my neck

00:33:17Melissa Erbacher: That's disappointing, Scott. I'm disappointed in you in advance. No, seriously, I'm contemplating doing Couch to 5K because after Streaky September, I came to a grinding halt with all forms of movement. And yeah, it's not been good for my health or my fitness.

00:33:37Scott Watkins: Have you done it before?

00:33:38Melissa Erbacher: I haven't. I've never done it before. So I'm not sure if I can even commit to it, to be honest, but the thought had crossed my mind.

00:33:46Scott Watkins: Well, I have had a bit of experience with that in the last couple of weeks. I'd never actually done it myself. I mean, I'm not a great runner at all, but I don't even remember how I did my first 5K, but I didn't use a gradual program like that. I probably should have. So, yeah, I haven't really been exposed to it. But over the last couple of months, I have been, doing it with friend of parkrun and Australian Breakfast Television presenter, Lisa Millar. I'm sure Lisa won't mind me giving her a bit of a shout out on here. Lisa's done plenty of running and done a couple of triathlons and stuff, but hadn't been focusing on her running recently. And she put on Instagram a little while ago that she was looking to try and build up her running times again and Joanne saw her on Instagram and replied to Lisa it was like oh you know doing a couch to 5k program would be a good idea Lisa lives down here in Melbourne and comes to our parkrun and she sort of spoken a few times and she rang Joanne up and she's like oh have you got some advice and Joanne was like oh my husband's really good at doing it and volunteered me yeah thanks Joanne yeah yeah but it's actually I've had the privilege of of having runs for the last couple of months with Lisa as we've been gradually building up and last weekend she did she ran the whole 5k by herself actually while I was away so I'm looking forward to sort of testing it out again this week and seeing it but Yeah, look, I've learned a lot about it. There's quite a few different programs out there. You know, there's not a single one, but absolutely they're a great way of building up that. It's the confidence as much as the mechanics and the stamina of it. You know, I think all of us know that you can talk yourself out of a run pretty easily if you're not feeling it. So I recommend it.

00:35:23Melissa Erbacher: Okay. I might consider semi thinking about committing to that.

00:35:29Scott Watkins: Unfortunately, it's probably a little bit far when you come and run to you and my dance cards are getting a little bit full at the moment.

00:35:34Melissa Erbacher: Oh, look, I'm not looking for a coach. Don't worry. I won't ask Joanne to volunteer you.

00:35:41Scott Watkins: She's done a great job and it's been really great to see. I'm all for pacing. If people out there are, you know, looking for something to do and they're, you know, they're okay with their own running, I can't recommend pacing enough. It's such a rewarding and fun thing to do.

00:35:57Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well, I've only inadvertently done it the one time. Oh, no, actually it's, yes, it was inadvertent one time and it was planned the second time and I've enjoyed it both times. So 100% of my experiences I would recommend.

Co-host handover announcementone-off

00:36:13Scott Watkins: Yes, it's good.

00:36:15Melissa Erbacher: So how's this for a bit of a stretch on a segue, Scott? Speaking of pacing. It has come to my attention that it is probably time for me to step away from the parkrun adventurers podcast.

00:36:30Scott Watkins: Okay. That's big news.

00:36:33Melissa Erbacher: Yes. Big, possibly sudden, but maybe not unexpected for a lot of listeners. I'm not sure. It's certainly been on my mind for a very long time. To be honest, the majority of this year.

00:36:50Scott Watkins: When did you lose Scotty? When did he pull up stumps?

00:36:53Melissa Erbacher: That was August of last year.

00:36:55Scott Watkins: Okay, so it's more than a year ago now.

00:36:58Melissa Erbacher: Yeah.

00:36:59Scott Watkins: I must admit, as a listener then, you know, I was surprised but incredibly happy that you continued on and you found your new tribe. So is it going to be a case of some of them continuing?

00:37:11Melissa Erbacher: Well, yeah, and that's the thing. I should probably, before everyone freaks out, the podcast is going to still be here.

00:37:16Scott Watkins: Excellent.

00:37:17Melissa Erbacher: Yes, it's just not going to be co-hosted by a Mel Erbacher. I'm very, very pleased to announce that there is another Mel who is stepping up to the plate. I think you will all recognise her when she comes on board. Her surname also begins with an E and she is a much loved and valued member of our Channel 5 News crew. Of course, I'm speaking about Mel Ellis stepping up to the plate and she's bringing with her the wonderful Ollie Spake, who is going to be her new co-host. So I'm very excited to announce that.

00:37:50Scott Watkins: So these are the kids that have had the keys to the house a couple of times already, haven't they?

00:37:54Melissa Erbacher: They have, yes. We've been giving them a bit of a test run, not just keys to the house, but keys to the really expensive Porsche. But if we're talking about movie metaphors here, then this is definitely Ferris Bueller's day off. And, yeah, we've let them borrow Cameron's dad's car a couple of times and they haven't wrecked it yet. So, yes, they'll be taking over from the beginning of January, the 1st of January 2021. Wow. 2021 it's going to be a New Year for the podcast and a New Year for oh gosh I hope it's going to be a New Year for everyone in more positive than 2020 has been I'm not usually the kind of person who's ah this year has been terrible I can't wait till next year but this is I think probably the first year of my life where I have kind of thought I just really hope next year is better

00:38:47Scott Watkins: Yeah, look, I think everybody shares that. The pragmatist in me says that it's not all going to change just when the calendar flicks over. But I think that where there's definitely light at the end of the various tunnels around the world, and I think that the start of a New Year is always a good reason to rekindle that hope and steel ourselves to hopefully get through what is hopefully the last phases of this pandemic that's thrown up our lives. So do you think you might throw in the occasional roving report? Can you see yourself doing that?

00:39:20Melissa Erbacher: Look, I don't know. I'm not going to say never. Never say never. It's possible. Yeah. I don't know, Scott. I honestly don't know.

00:39:28Scott Watkins: Yeah. Look, I know it's a big decision and I know many of the listeners know that you're Your passion is also your profession and this has meant a lot to you and it's a big decision. But I'm always of the belief that when you make a decision like this, whether it's leaving a job that you love or moving or whatever change in your life, when you make it, you've got to make it the right decision. And when you make it, you have to follow through on that and believe that it is.

00:39:55Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. Yeah. I agree. And look, it's no secret that obviously the podcast hasn't been the same since Scotty left. It's been a very different podcast and I have missed him incredibly having that. I mean, the Channel 5 News crew have been beyond amazing in co-hosting with me and it's been awesome to get to know them all better and let our listeners get to know them all better as they've co-hosted throughout the more than 12 months since he left. But Yeah, I do feel like the continuity of having the same co-hosts every week is going to be wonderful to have again. And it's a great opportunity for everyone to get to know Mel and Ollie as they plan their adventures and move forward. At the moment, neither one of them has actually got parkrun back in their state, but... fingers crossed that that is only a very short duration. And we've got Channel 5 News crew members all over the country. So there should be plenty of content for them to talk about now that parkrun is on the up and up with getting back in Australia and Asia Pacific region in general. So yeah, I've got every faith that it's going to be an amazing podcast. I will definitely be tuning in. I'm not going anywhere. And I'm sure all the listeners will still be supportive and hanging around for them as well. And yeah, it's just time.

00:41:15Scott Watkins: Well, on behalf of listeners, you know, and this is my privilege to get to say this on behalf of the millions of people out there that tune in every week. You know, thank you for all you've done. I mean, it has been thousands of hours that you've put into this over many years. And, you know, you have brought smiles you've brought joy you've brought new facts you've brought you know new experiences to a huge number of people so it's been awesome you know I've as I've said repeatedly I've had the privilege of coming on and speaking like this is a co-host a couple of times but the vast majority of the 200 times I've been you know sitting at the end of my headphones listening at one and a half times speed and enjoying enjoying it all so yeah well done and thank you that's a Well, it's very lucky for me to get to say that. But between now and then, there is something very important coming up. And this is another thing that's very dear to your heart and very close to your heart even.

International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day

00:42:14Scott Watkins: And that's our International Ugly Christmas Singlet and Shirt Day 2020.

00:42:19Melissa Erbacher: Yes, and every year, all the years ever, Ugly Christmas Singlet and Shirt Day. This year, of course, it is, and it's always on the third Saturday of December, but this year that day falls on the 19th. So put it in your diaries, people, if you haven't already. You don't need to already own an Ugly Christmas Shirt or singlet. You can make one yourself. There is an instructional video on the International Ugly Christmas Singlet or Shirt Day page on Facebook. So if you head over there and like it, there's a video there showing you how you could make one at home from running singlets you already have and decorations and other bits and bobs you've already got around the house, so you don't have to spend any money to do it and we will be doing another video before the end of the month with some fresh designs for 2020 as well which I'm very excited about but for those that have spent the money it's probably one of the best investments they've ever made because

00:43:17Scott Watkins: because it is awesome. So I've got mine. I think we were pretty early in getting them delivered, weren't we?

00:43:23Melissa Erbacher: You were. Here's the thing, Scott. So apart from the international orders, which actually get prioritised because they're going to take longer to get to their destination, All the other orders get shipped by order of order placement.

00:43:38Scott Watkins: Okay.

00:43:39Melissa Erbacher: So I'm pretty sure you and Joanne had your order in in about the first five minutes after it opened.

00:43:45Scott Watkins: Joanne did. I can take no credit for that. Her enthusiasm for this is very high. Christmas Day is Joanne's birthday, so everything about Christmas is a very high priority in our house. Celebration. Yeah. We both have had all of the editions of the Ugly Christmas Singlets in previous years and love them very much. So, yeah, when you announced that they were up for order, Joanne was straight in to the point where even a couple of our friends moments later said, oh, do you want to order them together so we can save postage? And Joanne was like, I've already ordered. LAUGHTER You're too slow. So, yeah, okay, so that explains things because, yeah, ours did come a couple of weeks ago. And I have worn it out a couple of times. I wanted to try it and got some very positive feedback. Actually, I wore it on the day that I mentioned earlier on the Albert Melbourne parkrun ninth anniversary because it was pretty rainbow. Yeah, it's pretty colourful.

00:44:17[laughter]

00:44:41Melissa Erbacher: The rainbow colours are based on the gay pride flag. So, yeah, that was intentional. And also the shirt this year is possibly the most symbolic of all the years that it's ever been on multiple levels as well.

00:44:53Scott Watkins: Yeah, it is spectacular. There's a huge amount of detail in there. If you've got one or if you see someone out, I do encourage you to go up and look at it because I know, Mel, you spent a lot of time in creating very large illustrator files containing all of the detail.

00:45:11Melissa Erbacher: Which, yes, and a lot of people who were waiting for the orders to open will know that we mentioned a couple of times, it'll be tomorrow, we're told it'll be tomorrow, and then it was tomorrow and then it didn't happen. And that's literally because the files were so big that the supplier's designers couldn't handle them. I think they needed to get the big computers out.

00:45:30Scott Watkins: Well, every gigabyte of that file has been worth it because the fine detail in the print is very special, pleased to see that the pineapples are still featured prominently there will always be a pineapple Scott every year there's gonna be a we're in solidarity on that one it's really great so I'm I'm looking forward to it whether there's parkrun actually on Christmas Day or not that shirt will be getting a wear but definitely on the 19th is uh it's going to be a big day

00:45:59Melissa Erbacher: It's going to be super fun. And look, I'm encouraging everybody who's got one already to get out there and wear them because the joy that you are spreading by having rainbow shirts with an emu on them and all about Christmas cannot be underestimated. And one of the things that I'm most proud of this year is that we actually had them available in children's sizes. And as soon as people started receiving them for their kids and sent me photos of My heart melted because it's the best decision I've made this entire year, bar none, is to have kids' sizes available because they are freaking adorable.

00:46:36Scott Watkins: Excellent.

00:46:36Melissa Erbacher: Definitely going to be a mainstay in future years as well.

00:46:39Scott Watkins: Have you got a sense of how many or what proportion have headed overseas? Have there been a lot?

00:46:45Melissa Erbacher: I don't know in terms of proportion, but we definitely have shirts that have gone once more to the UK and New Zealand. I'm not sure that we've had any other countries this year. I'm pretty sure last year we had some go to the U.S., with the koala.

00:46:59Scott Watkins: Yeah, it will be interesting to see the reactions of, particularly in the UK, of running around with the big emu on the front. It may not be immediately identifiable as a bird. So I wonder what the reaction will be of people.

Sign-off

00:47:12Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well, I've already seen some of them out there. We've seen photos of tinsels. For those who don't remember or have only started tuning in this year, the collective term given to a group of people dressed in Ugly Christmas Singlets or shirts is called a tinsel.

00:47:27Scott Watkins: Okay, I'd forgotten that.

00:47:28Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well, there you go. So I've received pictures of big tinsels of people in their shirts already, which has just made my day. Every time a new one comes through, it just lights me up. I can't tell you how much I love it. Yes, spread the joy, people. 19th of December, put it in your diaries. Do not forget. In the meantime, Scott, thank you for joining me for another episode of the podcast. Thank you for being here when I had to make a little bit of an announcement that I wasn't too sure how I was going to make or how I'd cope with. So it was very comforting to have you around for that.

00:48:04Scott Watkins: Well, thank you. Well, this is our last one co-hosting together. We'll obviously still talk often and in depth, but thanks for all the opportunities over the years that you've given me. I've really enjoyed it.

00:48:17Melissa Erbacher: Thank you.

00:48:18Scott Watkins: So this is episode number 212 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. I've been Scott Watkins.

00:48:24Melissa Erbacher: And I'm always going to be Mel Erbacher.

00:48:27Scott Watkins: Thank you for listening and stay tuned for the next episode as we get closer to International Ugly Christmas Singlet and Shirt Day 2020 and the end of 2020.

00:49:29Unidentified speaker: Thank you.