Episode 213 - On the Rove Again!

00:00:22[music]

Welcome

00:00:22Melissa Erbacher: Thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening me. I am Mel Erbacher. Welcome to the parkrun adventurers episode 213. We've got a lot of rumbling going on in the background, so hopefully not too much noise is coming through on the mic, but I think you must be having slightly different weather where you are, Mark.

00:00:45Mark Scarborough: Yeah. Hi, Mel. Thank you for having me on the podcast. So not Sunshine Coast this week. It's Thunderstorm Coast.

00:00:54Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, we've had just ridiculous heat and it's broken this afternoon in one of our magnificent summer storms. Now it finally feels like Christmas because we've had, you know, 37 degree day and an afternoon thunderstorm and it's just been beautiful. So yes, it's the stormy coast at the moment.

00:01:16Mark Scarborough: And here in Canberra, I'm actually wearing trackies and a jumper because we've had a bit of a cool snap again yesterday.

00:01:22Melissa Erbacher: No, you don't still have those items of clothing accessible at this time of year, surely?

00:01:27Mark Scarborough: Well, this is the thing. Canberra can be a bit funny. We have had snow in the first week of December before, so you just never know. We've had some wonderful weeks of nice weather, and it's gone a little bit cooler the last couple of days, so I had to put a jumper on when I got home.

00:01:43Melissa Erbacher: Now, I didn't do a very good job of introducing you. I just jumped right in. You are, of course, Mark Scarborough. This is the first time we've had you co-hosting on the pod since way back when you started your Aussie adventure with your family. Of course, we had you guest pop in every now and again on your travels, which was awesome. But you're home now. You've been home for a little while, parkrun has been back in the ACT for a little while even. How has that all been? How have you been settling back in?

00:02:11Mark Scarborough: Yeah, look, it's been strange, I suppose. We've been back home now from our trip for about two months now. And yeah, as you said, parkrun has recommenced in the ACT. So it is kind of like back to normal in a way. We're back to work and back to school and enjoying being back to parkrun. So yeah, we're thoroughly enjoying life. And, you know, it took a little bit of adjustment to get back to living in our house after coming out of the caravan. Yeah, funnily enough, we went away a couple of weeks ago just for a very short weekend away to Bathurst and took the caravan away. And it was kind of nice being back in the caravan. It didn't actually feel strange being back in it. Yeah, it's good to be home and certainly good to see parkrun back in the ACT and coming back in the other states now with New South Wales being announced that they're returning.

00:02:56Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, we're only going to be one state away after we get New South Wales back on board. But I want to ask you about when you got home after being in the caravan. Did you find that you all sort of congregated in one corner of the rooms and things like that and that the space was all just a bit too much to deal with when you got home?

00:03:13Mark Scarborough: It was quite strange, to be honest. The house just did feel a whole lot bigger than it ever had felt. Probably actually as big as it felt when we first moved in from our smaller house that we first had. But, you know, it was great to be home and see our dog. And I tell you what, going to our big bed and having an en suite, that's a real treat.

00:03:33Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:03:35Melissa Erbacher: It's like luxury.

00:03:36Mark Scarborough: Oh, it is. You know, the beds in the caravans are quite cozy. But yeah, it was nice to have our king size bed back and have a clean en suite nearby and not have to traipse through a caravan park to an amenities block that you're sharing with everybody else. So yeah, we certainly appreciated those finer things in life.

00:03:52Melissa Erbacher: Awesome. All right, now back to parkrun. Two co-hosts on the parkrun adventurers podcast both went to parkrun on the weekend, just gone. So that's exciting. Where were you on Saturday and what did you get up to?

00:04:06Mark Scarborough: Yeah, so we were back at our home parkrun at Wagi Bridge. We were volunteering. So I was a Run Director for the day. And I think that's my second or third time being Run Director. And we had Nicole handing out finish tokens and the kids were Barcode Scanners. All that went really well. So obviously we're operating under the COVID-19 framework and everybody has really you know adapted to that quite well I think that we you know we for us we put that down to really good communications on our Facebook page leading up to particularly to the launch and everybody's kind of accepted the slight changes to it like hasn't been big changes but you know little changes and it's all working out well the virtual app updates being fantastic yeah it was great to be you know back at Wagi Bridge and supporting our local parkrun and seeing the familiar faces again. What about yourself? Where were you?

00:05:00Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I made another return to home. So I think I mentioned it. Oh, there's the thunder again. I think I mentioned last week that I'm pretty much sticking close to home for now. We might venture out. Well, we had plans and we'll talk about this a little bit later to head south a bit for Christmas, but we're probably going to change those plans. So, yeah, for now. Back at home, I volunteered in a couple of other roles with the boys this week, so it has been noted that if I volunteer, not only does Adam have to run with both boys in the bobsled, He also ends up, to allow me to perform my role, he also ends up spending a lot of time just pushing them in the swings in the park and he actually doesn't get to talk to people while he waits for me to finish. So I said, well, all right, I'll change it up. I'll do a couple of different roles this week. I did First Timers Welcome and Volunteer Coordinator and the way we do Volunteer Coordinator at Kawana is we use it as a person who goes around and recruits volunteers for the future weeks so we don't have to rely like solely on social media. So I thought, oh yeah, you know, I can do those roles and the boys can potter around with me, didn't quite work out that way certainly while all the participants were out on the course I just spent a lot of time pushing them on the swings in the park and letting them climb all over the equipment but yeah once the participants started coming back and I was on the job as it were it yeah pretty much once Adam crossed the line they saw him and they made a beeline for him so it ended up relatively the same way as it always does he just in this situation didn't have to push the double pram so yeah but it was a good morning I love First Timers Welcome getting the opportunity to clock all the new faces and the visitors from other people you know those people who are having the adventures and finding out where they're from and then after they finished because you know you've made that connection already you can pick them out from the crowd and go and check on them and see how they went and yeah

00:07:10Mark Scarborough: Yeah, for Wagi Bridge, like I did the first timers briefing and it was a dad and a young fellow there for their first time. And, you know, it was something that I've been quite purposeful in thinking, even when, you know, like I was at Gungahlin and was trying to keep an eye out for those people that were clearly first timers and try and touch base with them afterwards to make sure that... how they found the experience and that, you know, they understood how things worked and, you know, encouraged them to come back. Because I think it's kind of like, you know, you're reliving those early days for yourself about the excitement and the joy you kind of get out of it all. And how are the boys then going with parkrun coming back? Like, do you feel that they missed it and now that it's back, it's like you're seeing something there? Yeah.

00:07:54Melissa Erbacher: Well, I definitely noticed, I think Emmett was still too young to really understand that he was missing anything. Wes, on the other hand, especially in the earlier days, you know, if we woke him up in the dark, he would be wondering if we were going to parkrun and he would ask. And he was getting excited as we mentioned that we were going back. And then literally the last two weeks we've had to wake both boys up because they're starting to sleep really well, which is just awesome. Yeah. However, Wes doesn't tend to wake up very well in the morning. He's not a super morning person anymore. And last weekend I sort of went in and went, Wes, wake up. It's time for parkrun. He's like, no. I said, come on, you've got to wake up, buddy. He's like, no. And he just rolled over and was like, oh, sorry, buddy. You've got to come with me. So it's not as easy as it used to be before he was toilet trained and, you know, you could just. grab him in his pyjamas and make sure you had a spare nappy and all that sort of stuff was fine as long as you had food packed you could just chuck him in the pram and it was all good but now we have to make sure he's up and he goes to the toilet and all those extra fun parent things where you're trying to get your kids ready and you realise oh this is why it takes an extra half an hour to get out the door all the time he's so happy once he's there and they have just completely crashed after each week Emmett doesn't even make it home without falling asleep it's a big long exciting day for them when we started with parkrun that's been nice to see again and Wes is only well he's three and a half now so he's only six months away from getting his own barcode might have to start training him up getting him out of that pram yeah that's the next adventure

00:09:41Mark Scarborough: That'll be an exciting time is when you get his own barcode and then chase down the 10 milestone.

00:09:46Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well, Adam always lets him have his token and gets to go scan it in. And he actually is really enjoying the fact that he gets to drop it in a bucket now because the volunteers aren't touching their own tokens. And so you just have to hold them out and then it gets dropped in a bucket and Wesley likes to go and drop them in the bucket. We had to intercept Emmett last week because all the buckets and it's probably a little bit of a mistake on my behalf. Other people might have used ice cream buckets or whatever. I actually went and purchased three sandcastle buckets, you know, bright yellow with red handles that came with little spades, which I removed. And so we've kept the spades at home, but I just bought these buckets to donate to the event to be used for this purpose. And of course, the kids see them and go, oh, let's go make sandcastles. And so Emmett made a beeline for them and actually tipped them and we had tokens all over the ground. So that was great. There was a lot of sanitizing of hands going on after we put those back in the buckets.

00:10:48Mark Scarborough: Yeah, that's been one of James' jobs is token sorter slash washer-upperer. So, yeah, that's one of the little jobs that he's been doing. He's a volunteer as well the last couple of weeks.

00:10:58Melissa Erbacher: But isn't it awesome that we can – okay, perhaps the involvement of my children is not ideal at this stage, but yours, you know, they get to –

00:11:07Mark Scarborough: actually perform a role and do something important and responsible and learn about that and there are not a lot of volunteer opportunities I guess in the world where you can volunteer with your kids yeah that's right I think that I think it's been talked about before on the podcast about the beauty about some of the volunteer roles with parkrun is that kids you know supported by parents can do it you know at least as of an age where you know she can do the barcode scanning on her own quite well

00:11:33Melissa Erbacher: She could do the timing. I find the kids are all over the technology a lot better than many adults.

00:11:39Mark Scarborough: Yeah, I should talk to her one day actually about the Timekeeper because I know there's a lot of people that are quite fearful of Timekeeper and I've done it a couple of times recently and it is so straightforward. The new app, like I said before, is just so well designed and it kind of removes some of the issues before where you could hit the wrong button. This way it's so much easier to do it and the way that the results upload now as well as getting the QR code is just amazing. I suppose some of the positives that have come out of COVID is some of these advances in some of the technology that we're using, you know, parkrun and, you know, work and personal life.

00:12:13Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, the upgrades to the app were always on the agenda and they were a future kind of project because they were nice to have. And I guess getting given the opportunity to have a bit more time during the pause for the development of that to happen was really great. And yes, I'm a big fan of it myself too.

00:12:34Mark Scarborough: But hey, Mark, so... That thunderstorm is going crazy there.

00:12:38Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, you can hear it.

00:12:40Mark Scarborough: Yeah, have you got like the window opening and watching the lightning as well?

00:12:44Melissa Erbacher: No, I'm not watching the lightning because if I was doing that, then my mouth would not be directed at the microphone. So I'm hoping that you can just hear me over all the rumbles anyway.

00:12:54Mark Scarborough: No, you can definitely hear you because you can hear this here, the rumble in the background. It's like, Mel, did you have dinner tonight? Yeah. Not yet, but I will. I will. Maybe that's what it is. Maybe it's not thunder. Maybe it's just a growling stomach.

00:13:07Melissa Erbacher: That'll teach me for not having a snack before we start. No, but so what I was going to say, Mark, is that you and I are not the only ones fortunate enough to have parkrun back in our worlds.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:13:19Melissa Erbacher: We also have a bunch of the Channel 5 News crew and a special ring-in from the Northern Territory this week who have sent in some roving reports for us. Shall we have a listen?

00:13:30Mark: We shall.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:13:32Mark: Hi, this is Mark here from Darwin. I'm here with Helen, the Event Director of Nightcliff parkrun. Hi Helen.

00:13:36Helen: Hi Mark, how are you?

00:13:37Mark: Hey, good thanks. How was today's run?

00:13:40Helen: Wet and soggy, but it was great. It was a bit cooler for us today, so the humidity was a little bit lower, so it made it a bit easier.

00:13:47Mark: Yeah, it's probably like 5, 10 degrees cooler than most weeks this week at the moment.

00:13:51Helen: Oh yes.

00:13:51Mark: Very nice, very nice. And numbers down a little bit? Up a little bit?

00:13:54Helen: Down a little bit. Since coming back from COVID, it has reduced, but today it was a lot lower. But everyone had a great time and made it easier for all the volleys as well.

00:14:05Mark: Excellent, excellent. And how are the new COVID rules? Are they making a difference?

00:14:09Helen: Everyone's adhering to them and it seemed to be running quite smoothly.

00:14:14Mark: Sweet. And did you keep running in the COVID shutdown period? Most certainly did.

00:14:18Helen: Twice a day.

00:14:19Mark: Well, someone did. I didn't run once from the time we shut down until we got back and I'm paying for it now. Oh, excellent. Well, thank you for your time, Helen.

00:14:27Helen: No worries. You enjoy yourself. See you later. See you later. Bye.

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Bunyaville

00:14:31Lyndell Murray: Alrighty. I've just done my first parkrun in nine months. I got through it. I lasted. Garmin didn't. Garmin fail. Anyway, everyone knows I was at parkrun. I know if it's not on Strava, it didn't exist, but I'll just log it. It's fine. Now, I'm here with Marty, who is today's director. How are you today, Marty?

00:14:50Marty: Good. Thank you very much. And yourself?

00:14:52Lyndell Murray: Yeah, really good. Good, good. You're looking good in that vest there today. Thank you. Now, it's been a bit of a journey, I think, probably for every event team to get parkrun back up. What's it been like?

00:15:01Marty: Yeah, well, we didn't expect it to come back so soon. We honestly thought it would be like next year. So it took us a little bit by surprise, but we've got a great team of directors and volunteers. And the new sort of challenge we had was, well, not challenge, but change was the course change. But Bruce Willis pioneered that spectacularly and he's just done an outstanding job to implement the new course change. I think it's worked really well today. So far, we haven't had any slips or falls, you know, and I think that can be as a result on the gravel part at the start. But it's been great. Everyone just, you know, it's worked really well with the new COVID changes and all. And I think everyone's smiling today and really enjoying a first run back at parkrun.

00:15:46Lyndell Murray: I think so. And yes, listeners, you did hear right. Everything is hard and tough at Bunyaville. We even have our own Bruce Willis. So new course, a little bit resembling of the original course here at Bunyaville, I thought. Did anyone else notice that?

00:16:04Marty: Yeah, no, we definitely recall that. I mean, I personally hadn't run the old course back in the day, but, yeah, a lot of our old heads who have been – Bunyaville forever or live here forever basically yeah um yeah definitely recall um it resembling the old course and yeah they think it's uh it's great you know so and I mean like most uh parkruns at some stage you know they grow and um changes do happen and it's obviously all beneficial for everyone you know for uh all parkrunners and walkers and volunteers and such so I think it's worked really well and yeah just with all the new COVID rules it's a learning curve for everyone not just us directors and volunteers but also all parkrunners yeah so I think it's worked well you know obviously it all changes and evolves but main thing is everyone's here having fun and enjoying themselves and that's what parkrun's all about you know so

00:16:58Lyndell Murray: Exactly. Look, in all of our aspects of life, we've had to make changes, little changes here and there to get back on track. So I think of all of the places that we've had to make changes, parkrun's probably the most enjoyable. Yeah. Look, Marty, it's been nine months since you've been at parkrun. What have you been doing to keep yourself amused in that time?

00:17:20Marty: I've actually been absolutely flat out at my work. I actually work two jobs in the veterinary industry. It's a vet nurse, very busy emergency hospital. But running wise, I've been doing actually quite a lot. I'm actually having a break at the moment. I did my first 100K about a month and a half ago, which was quite a challenge. And I think just like for anyone, even just rocking up the parkrun and doing 5K is a challenge to someone, but it feels very rewarding to finish. And I feel that same feeling as anyone here, who's done their first 5K at parkrun, as I did for that first 100K trail. So, yeah, no, definitely been still running, having a little break, but we'll be getting back to running next month and definitely will be coming back to Bunyaville to have a bit of a trot.

00:18:02Lyndell Murray: Yes. So listeners to the pod might know I talked last time I was on the pod about my experience at the Blackall 100. Marty was there, but Marty had been home and probably had six hours sleep by the time I was even thinking about finishing. So well done, Marty. First 100. You did a great job. It was a hot day. Thank you. It was. And it's a tough course. It definitely was, yeah.

00:18:20Marty: I was very glad to finish, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

00:18:23Lyndell Murray: All right. Well, Marty, thank you so much for all the work that you do and all the work that the event team does. Thank you so much for getting Bunyaville back up.

00:18:33Marty: Yeah, no, thank you for coming. And we get a lot of joy seeing everyone here enjoy themselves and, you know, families and everyone. It's seeing all the youngsters, you know, developing and growing and just learning to enjoy and participate because that's what it's all about, you know. Yep. So it's just great, you know, seeing everyone back.

00:18:50Lyndell Murray: Here's a little tacker now. He looks like he's about seven. He's got his little 10 shirt on and he's sprinting up the hill to the finish line. I don't think mum's going to catch him. All right. I think that is the perfect place to leave Bunyaville parkrun for today. Thanks, Marty. Thanks, everybody.

Roving report Cameron Drake — Garvey Park parkrun

00:19:18Cameron Drake: Gidday adventurers, Cam here again. Now as a proud family man, I've heard the pitter patter of little feet a couple of times in my life. And now parkrun WA introduces the newest member of the family with pitter patter of lots of feet, Garvey Park parkrun. Located next to a river, I forget which, I should probably know that, and beautiful parklands with mostly sealed path, a bit of limestone, and a small hill. It is a lovely setting, lots of shade, it's gonna be beautiful in summer, lots of beautiful trees, wetlands, and deep ruts, mind the ruts. Hey, let's go chat. All right, I'm here with Paul and Mark. Fellas, how was today's launch at Garvey Park parkrun? Awesome course.

00:20:07Paul: Yeah, I was out there taking photos. Great crowd here today.

00:20:11Cameron Drake: And I've heard you've volunteered a few times. I have, yes. And how many times would that be, sir?

00:20:16Paul: Today's 250.

00:20:18Cameron Drake: Goodness me, there's got to be a shirt for that. What do you reckon, Paul? Give him five. Yeah, you can tell I've just finished a run. Fellas, how do you think parkrun has had an impact on your lives?

00:20:29Paul: Paul? It's certainly given us something to do on a Saturday morning and pretty much all day Saturday with taking photos.

00:20:36Cameron Drake: So it kept you out of trouble, that's good to hear. Mark, I got your name right this time.

00:20:40Mark Scarborough: Yeah, yeah.

00:20:42Cameron Drake: It's certainly given me something to do Saturday morning and made so many friends. Oh, that's fantastic. Hundreds of people I know through parkrun now. Oh, that's great. Well, thank you very much for chatting and I'll see you around the traps.

00:20:54Paul: Thanks very much.

00:20:56Cameron Drake: Hello, everyone. I'm here with Crystal, Ruby, Shaylee, and to be announced. Everyone, how was your parkrun?

00:21:04guest: It was good. Today's one was different, being the launch, so we haven't ran here before. So it was a bit of a trail run through the tracks and then along the river.

00:21:17Cameron Drake: Oh, it's a lovely run, isn't it?

00:21:19guest: Yes.

00:21:19Cameron Drake: Now, I noticed that you're holding up little faces, and what's going on here?

00:21:24Unidentified speaker: It's Paul's 250th volunteering.

00:21:28Cameron Drake: Oh, yes, he mentioned that when I chatted to him earlier. Oh, that's lovely. He's the what, I'm sorry?

00:21:34guest: The photo guy.

00:21:34Cameron Drake: The photo guy, yes. Did everyone try and do a jump shot for Paul?

00:21:38guest: Oh, we forgot our jump shot today. We usually do do a jump shot. We've been to quite a few parkruns and Paul's been the photographer there. And, yeah, we usually do a jump shot, but we forgot today. We just put up our signs. Too busy waving our Paul faces.

00:21:53Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:21:53Cameron Drake: Oh, that's lovely. Do you think parkrun has had a positive impact in your lives?

00:21:58Unidentified speaker: Yes.

00:21:59Cameron Drake: That was quick. Would you mind elaborating?

00:22:02guest: Okay. We're early risers anyway, so it's good to get up and come out and do a run, and then we've done that for the day. Yeah, we often sometimes bring some barbecue down, so we have a barbecue breakfast afterwards. We've packed the kayaks today, so we can go for a kayak along the river after as well.

00:22:23Cameron Drake: So we've really come for an adventure run today, haven't we?

00:22:25guest: Absolutely.

00:22:27Cameron Drake: All right, well, it's been lovely chatting to you ladies and hope to see you around again sometime soon.

00:22:31guest: Thank you.

00:22:33Cameron Drake: G'day, everyone. I'm here with the people's champion, or so he's been told. Tell me, sir, why are you the people's champion? I was influenced by the mayor of parkrun, as I like to call him. The mayor of parkrun. Before he introduced me to parkrun, I wasn't doing much. I was working on my weight loss journey but not getting far. And then once I started my first parkrun, I did 43 in a row. Wow! I couldn't make it to 50 in a row because of injury. Oh, no. So, Mayor of parkrun. Yes. How was your parkrun? That was a very good course. I thank the organisers for such a great job here. Garvey Park, good turnout. Would do again. Excellent. Now, fellas, how would you say parkrun has had a positive impact on your lives? It's got me out and about, got me more positive, focused, social. There's a lot of people to come and talk to. That's right. Lovely. Yeah, parkrun is, Saturday is parkrun day. And typically the 5K is just to qualify for the end of chats, the coffees and all the social activities that happen afterwards. So, yeah, it's really good.

00:23:39Unidentified speaker: Entry requirement.

00:23:41Cameron Drake: So it's the warm up for the coffee.

00:23:42Unidentified speaker: Yeah, exactly.

00:23:43Cameron Drake: All right, fellas. Well, I hope you've had a lovely day today. It's been beautiful at Garvey parkrun. Maybe I'll see you around. Thank you. Thanks for that. Sweet. I'm here with Simon and Phoenix. Phoenix might not say much, but Simon, how was your run?

00:23:55Simon: Oh, it was awesome. Very nice. Really good to come to all the launches. I do try and come to all of the new parkruns when they launch and it's good to meet all the friends I haven't seen for a while.

00:24:05Cameron Drake: And this one's a cracker of a course, isn't it?

00:24:06Simon: Yeah, it's really good. It was a bit confusing and I wasn't expecting the trails and the rutted out sections and they're going to be really fun through winter, but it was fun. I think it'll keep you on the toes or on your bum. Try not to fall over.

00:24:18Cameron Drake: Hey, so do you think parkruns had a positive impact on your life?

00:24:23Simon: If so, how so? Oh, it's had, yeah, a massive impact on my life. I think, yeah, just most of the friends that I hang out with now I've met through parkrun. Got married recently and a lot of the people from the wedding were at the wedding as well. And, yeah, so, I mean, parkruns had a massive impact and even around travel and everything. So every time we travel, we always do a new parkrun. So I've done, like, nearly 350 parkruns and 55 unique parkruns around the world as well. Yowzers, you've done it all. Yeah, quite a few. And always looking for more to do.

00:24:51Cameron Drake: Aren't we all?

00:24:52Simon: Well, thanks for the chat and I hope you had a great run. Cool, thanks very much. Nice to meet you. Cheers.

00:24:57Cameron Drake: G'day everyone, I'm here with the man, the myth, the legend, and almost the inaugural Run Director. I'm here. Melody. Okay, so I've got Melody and Mohammed here. Melody, first of all, how was the first event at Garvey Park parkrun?

00:25:10Melody: Bloody brilliant. I've had a great time. It's a little bit exhausting, but very fulfilling. Huge crowd.

00:25:19Cameron Drake: That's fantastic. So everything's run smoothly, everything's perfect.

00:25:23Melody: Yeah, we had a small number of people didn't get their second loop in, so they did cross the line. The mosquitoes are pretty gnarly.

00:25:32Cameron Drake: They're friendly.

00:25:33Melody: Yep. The course was a little bit short, so we started at the wrong tree, which won't happen next week. But, yeah, everything was smooth.

00:25:44Cameron Drake: I think it was a fantastic launch. Well done.

00:25:47Melody: Thank you. Thank you.

00:25:49Cameron Drake: Muhammad, how are you going? That was fun. Muhammad's a bit formal. I'm sorry. Abdul, mate, how's it going? Oh, yeah, I'm pretty good. Yourself? Yeah, all right, all right. I'm parkrun fresh. What about yourself?

00:26:01Abdul-Raouf Mohamed-Isa: Oh, yeah, yeah, I've done a few since it's come back, just slowly getting back into it, yeah.

00:26:06Cameron Drake: Excellent. So, Melody, Abdul, how do you think parkrun has had a positive impact on your lives? Me. Me. Ladies first. Huge. Huge? Absolutely huge. How so?

00:26:18Melody: Um... I was listening to a podcast just recently and it was about, you know... how you get together with people and how you make friends. And I'm not a person for standing around with a glass of wine, looking you in the face and having a chat. It's not me. I never go to those types of things. When I come to parkrun, I can hang out with people and do lots of things that are fun for both of us and I don't have to feel like I'm having to perform in a conversation.

00:26:51Abdul-Raouf Mohamed-Isa: You can be you.

00:26:52Melody: I can be me.

00:26:53Abdul-Raouf Mohamed-Isa: That's lovely.

00:26:55Melody: Abdul?

00:26:56Abdul-Raouf Mohamed-Isa: It's definitely had a positive influence on my life. Before parkrun, I wasn't much of a traveller. And if you've followed a few of my travels, I've... Yes, a few. So it's given me kind of like a reason or excuse to travel the state and even other states and territories. Although I haven't had a chance to hit Northern Territory or ACT, so if anyone can give me like a course they can recommend for those two territories, that'd be great.

00:27:23Cameron Drake: Sounds like it's time for a road trip.

00:27:24Abdul-Raouf Mohamed-Isa: Yes, definitely. Once everything clears up, I'll definitely be making plans. But yes, positive influence because before I started parkrun, I was quite... I guess a little introverted and public speaking wasn't my thing, so I actually put myself in that position as an RD to open up and help me develop personally. And it's helped a lot making connections with different people who I probably would never have come into contact with. Volunteering's helped a lot with that, yeah, definitely. Oh, fantastic.

00:27:52Cameron Drake: Well, Abdul, thanks for the chat, and I'll see you around. You too, mate. Cheers.

00:27:57Mark Scarborough: Well, it's good to hear a couple of roving reports, Mel. We heard from Mark from Nightcliff parkrun. Actually, it was one of the parkruns I got to do on our trip. And I find it funny, though, talking about it was cooler than usual. And I had to look up what cooler than usual is. And it was a cool 24 degrees there at Nightcliff on the weekend. And, yeah, not cool by certainly my standards.

00:28:21Melissa Erbacher: Oh, that's definitely cool by my standards, especially when we had a 37-degree day on Saturday here ourselves.

00:28:28Mark Scarborough: And we heard from Lyndell, who was also talking about that they've had a course change at Bunyaville. Have you run at Bunyaville before?

00:28:37Melissa Erbacher: No, it's still one of those ones that I'm yet to get to. Given it's a trail event, and I've spent a large proportion of the last four years being either pregnant or recovering from having small children, and therefore having small children with prams that rely on me, it's not been very conducive to going and doing single track trail type events.

00:29:00Mark Scarborough: Fair enough. So that's one's on the agenda for some time in the future then, I imagine.

00:29:05Melissa Erbacher: Yes. Well, now the boys are kind of old enough to be babysat for longer periods of time and they eat real people food and they sleep in their own beds and all that sort of thing. That makes a big difference to opportunities for Adam and I to get away for more than an hour at a time. So... Yeah, you know, I might wait just a little bit longer because the heat at the moment through the summer, look, I'll be honest, Mark, I usually volunteer for the majority of summer because I'm a bit lazy like that and I don't like to sweat too much, much as I need the exercise. So, yeah, I might leave it till it cools down a little bit, but I'm hoping Bunyaville is something on the horizon for early 2021. Yeah. There, I've said it now.

00:29:50Mark Scarborough: We'll have to watch this space for a special Mel Roving report, maybe.

00:29:54Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well, hey, you know, I've got to go meet Bruce Willis now that we've had him on the pod.

00:30:00Mark Scarborough: And we heard from Cam, who was at the launch of the Garvey Park parkrun over in Western Australia. And at the end there, he spoke to Abdul, who I believe has been on the podcast before.

00:30:14Melissa Erbacher: He has, yeah. Yeah. Hi, Abdul. He's our old favourite. That's good. Not old, but he's been a favourite for a long time, if that makes sense.

00:30:24Mark Scarborough: One of the things that I really liked about Abdul sharing his story about that, you know, he was a bit of an introvert and volunteered as a Run Director as a way of challenging himself, putting himself out there and well done. I think that's fantastic and, you know, it just shows what you can get out of volunteering.

00:30:41Melissa Erbacher: Always good to challenge yourself, isn't it?

00:30:44Mark Scarborough: Indeed. So that's our roving reports.

00:30:47Melissa Erbacher: Now we should get on to the excitement. We are in December. I still listen to my weekly Christmas podding podcast hosted by Vanessa Gibson of Sandgate parkrun fame. December means we can just talk about Christmas all the time, according to today's episode. So I'm going to start right there. The Christmas and New Year Compendium 2020-21 is out. Event teams found out last week that we could – have additional festive events across Australia and New Zealand. Are you going to be getting to a Christmas Day parkrun or a New Year's Day parkrun early next year, Mark? Or are you hosting? Are you planning to volunteer?

00:31:31Mark Scarborough: Yeah, look, I'll say that we will definitely be at the special events. I think that our plan at this stage is to run Christmas Day. Nicole and the kids haven't actually run a parkrun on Christmas Days yet. We all volunteered last year at Gungahlin. So, yeah, our plan is to run Christmas Day and then we'll probably volunteer the next day on parkrun Day proper. We're not sure what's happening in Canberra yet in relation to who's hosting which special events. So it's a bit of a watch this space, but I'd expect that, yeah, Gungahlin or Wagi Bridge will be hosting Christmas and I'm not sure how we'll deal with the New Year's Day one as well. But that's all being discussed and talked about at the moment. But, yeah, we'll certainly be out there and, yeah, celebrating Christmas and celebrating a new year. What about yourself? What are your plans?

00:32:20Melissa Erbacher: I alluded to it in the intro earlier on in the pod that, well, we still do technically currently have plans to head south to my brother's place in Brisbane. And he and his wife are Run Directors at Lota parkrun, And our intention was to go there Christmas Eve, get up, volunteer with them in the morning at Lota. Oh, those rumbles are getting close, aren't they? We might have to end the podcast pretty soon if the thunderstorm intervenes. Now I'm getting very distracted. So yes, the plan was to go and spend Christmas there and we generally always spend Christmas with those guys and get along to a parkrun event. Their kids are across the whole, you're only allowed to open one present from Santa before we go to parkrun and then all the rest of the presents are afterwards. and it's always worked out really well. But my oldest dog, Inu, my Husky German Shepherd Cross, he's having some issues a little bit lately with ages catching up to him basically. He's 14 and a half. He's got some arthritis creeping into his bones and he's lost a little bit of weight in the muscle mass. He's starting to get quite weak and They've actually got a six-month-old puppy full of life and doesn't know her own strength. So I'm a bit concerned that taking him down, of course he's welcome. Both our dogs are always welcome. We always take them with us for Christmas. But it just might not be the kindest thing this year to spend Christmas with a rambunctious puppy.

00:33:57Mark Scarborough: At 14 and a half, he's an old man now.

00:34:00Melissa Erbacher: He is.

00:34:01Mark Scarborough: Pups just don't know how to give up.

00:34:05Melissa Erbacher: They don't. Well, yeah, they really don't. And he deserves to have a lovely, quiet, peaceful Christmas. And who knows, you know, this could be the last one we have. So I don't want to have mum guilt that I've exposed him to a stressful Christmas day. And I won't enjoy it either if I feel like he's being harassed. So we'll see how it goes. There are a few more weekly visits to the vet for some injections to help him with his arthritis and I'm giving him all the food to fatten him up and start gently working on the doggy physio, et cetera, to help him. So I don't know, we might end up staying at home on the Sunshine Coast and I don't know what our options will be here for parkrun on Christmas Day.

00:34:48Mark Scarborough: We have to keep an eye on the compendium.

00:34:50Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well, I will. We'll be keeping a close eye on it. And as for New Year's Day, well, we always start parkrun somewhere on New Year's Day and we're lucky enough. I know you had your events cancelled. We had our trip down to South Australia and managed to get our events in on New Year's Day this year before hopping over to Kangaroo Island to get evacuated from bushfires, which were why you had cancellations where you were. So... Isn't it crazy to think that it was a year ago now that the fires all started to kick off in the ACT and other parts of Australia?

00:35:26Mark Scarborough: It feels very surreal in a way, particularly when you look through Facebook memories. It was around this time of year when the world was normal.

00:35:36Melissa Erbacher: Virus-free normal.

00:35:37Mark Scarborough: Yeah, you know, and we didn't have that, you know, the bushfires and the smoke and everything that came with that and then, you know, a pandemic. One of my Facebook memories that popped up the other day is that I volunteered at parkrun as a photographer and I was heading out to do photos for a friend who was skydiving and I ended up getting coaxed into actually skydiving with him on the day. So I did a skydive wearing my purple volunteer shirt.

00:36:02Melissa Erbacher: I remember that.

00:36:03Mark Scarborough: Yeah, but the thing is that in that skydive, you know, from there you could see the smoke that was affecting Braidwood and Braidwood was one of the parkrun nearby that was, you know, affected for quite some time because they were really just surrounded by it, you know, and that was kind of like the last weekend of no smoke in the area and the fires weren't as bad as what they got to. So, yeah, it was kind of strange looking back going, wow, that was only 12 months ago and think about everything that's happened since then.

00:36:31Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, it comes around quickly, doesn't it? We've had a lot of bushfires up here on the coast. Fire season has definitely begun.

International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day

00:36:38Melissa Erbacher: But you know what? Something I do remember, especially from this time last year as well, is that International Ugly Christmas Singlet or Shirt Day was still celebrated by yourself and your fellow members. ugly festive wearers in the act and you guys got together even though you didn't have a parkrun on that day you still got together and went to a cafe after well not afterwards but you went to a cafe yeah there was a there was a tinsel of of us um certainly yeah celebrating the day back last year and weren't you sitting in santa's chair

00:37:13Mark Scarborough: Yep, yep, yep. So we all went to our normal gastro pub for breakfast and everybody had their outfits on. And then, yeah, we went and raided Santa's little village in a shopping centre and got our group photo taken. So that was really cool.

00:37:29Melissa Erbacher: See, and this is why this day means a lot to me. Yes, it kind of was born out of parkrun and for people to celebrate Christmas in an Aussie fashion without, you know, wearing the really heavy sweaters. And I've made a lot of sacrifices for uncomfortable costumes over my costume-wearing career, but this doesn't have to be one of them because it's actually... built for our climate I guess and we're already seeing the singlets out and about and spreading the joy which I'm loving even even last year's getting out there one of our adventurers who got the koala t-shirt Mitch he sent me a photo he took his girls to a koala sanctuary and he couldn't not wear his shirt and even the staff there were very appreciative and admiring of his attire I mean obviously limited edition you can't ever get it again but I do love that it's still out there and spreading the joy so cannot wait to celebrate with everyone this year whether or not people are at parkrun we do know that the majority of people will have an opportunity in Australia to be at a parkrun but there are still so many people who can't and they're not forgotten are they Mark it's still a little bit strange to have it when so many other people don't

00:38:52Mark Scarborough: Yeah, I think that that's been one of the challenges, I suppose, of reconciling that is being, yeah, the fortunate few that can actually get out there and enjoy this community that we do thoroughly enjoy so much. And here in Australia, as you said, there's only one state left to go and hopefully our Victorian friends will be able to join us on Saturday soon. But, you know, there's the rest of the world as well that's still a long way to go to have the rest of parkrun turned on and we can just... hope that things improve in 2021.

Sign-off

00:39:24Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, well, I don't want to put the mockers on it by saying something silly like it can't get any worse, but at least even if our Victorian family can't get to a parkrun in their home state, many of them might be actually travelling for the festive season to visit family interstate that they haven't been able to see for a long time and they can take that opportunity to get to a parkrun somewhere close by to their family too. Fingers crossed anyway for those people. And speaking of travels, Mark, I've got a little bit of time off between Christmas and New Year. I don't know if I'm going to stay close to home or if we're going to get to venture into someplace away to support so many of the tourism businesses that just haven't seen the travellers coming to visit them. Have you got any travel plans? Are there going to be some adventures in your not too distant future?

00:40:16Mark Scarborough: Yeah, look, we've got some plans in place for 2021 to certainly continue our adventures in our caravan next year. But in January, we're heading back up to Queensland. So we're heading to the Gold Coast and we've got a couple of stops planned on the way up the East Coast in New South Wales. So we're going to visit a couple of parkruns on the way up. One of the ones I did as a freedom run on my last trip was Coffs Harbour. So I'm kind of excited to actually go to Coffs Harbour and actually do a proper parkrun there. And we'll be ticking off hopefully North Wollongong. Not sure which one on the Gold Coast we'll do as yet, but, yeah, we'll be definitely ticking one off on the Gold Coast. So kind of looking forward to the parkrun tourism side of things again that we didn't get to, you know, really tick off other than Nightcliff and Darwin on our trip. So, yeah, really looking forward to being on the road in January and that and watch this space for some other adventures planned in 2021.

00:41:14Melissa Erbacher: Excellent. Well, I'm sure Mel and Ollie will really appreciate any roving reports that you want to send from your travels while you're away.

00:41:21Mark Scarborough: Yes, of course.

00:41:23Melissa Erbacher: Mark, thank you for joining me for another episode of The adventurers. This is going to be our last one together too, because there's only going to be two more episodes after this till I'm no longer co-hosting.

00:41:36Mark Scarborough: Well, thank you for having me on for one of your last ones. It's certainly been an honour to share the microphone with you as you lead up to hanging up the headphones and the microphone. It's been great to be able to be a co-host every now and then with you and also dial in for some guest reports. And I've really enjoyed the opportunity that you've offered through this podcast. You know, it was fantastic. Not long ago, I saw the shout out by Will Barlow asking for people to, you know, put up their hand to be roving reporters in the ACT area. And I'm glad I stepped up and took the challenge on. And I say thank you for inviting me on to be the podcast today.

00:42:18Melissa Erbacher: Thanks for coming.

00:43:19Unidentified speaker: Bye.