Episode 216 - Zoom zoom

Welcome

00:00:20Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 216 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Melissa Ellis and I'm joined by the man known for his aeroplane running poses and aviator sunglasses, Ollie Spake. Hello, Ollie.

00:00:34Oliver Spake: Hello, Mel. How are you?

00:00:37Melissa Ellis: I'm good, thank you. So I thought I'd post a photo of us earlier in the week taken at Curl Curl in 2019 when we did the longest run together so that the listeners could see who we are.

00:00:50Oliver Spake: I remember that particular Freedom Run at that point in the longest run day all too vividly. It was a bit painful, but no, good fun. And as you say, it always was an aeroplane.

00:01:02Melissa Ellis: What's the origin of the aeroplane pose? Um... I don't know, just fun.

00:01:09Oliver Spake: I think by the time, and hopefully a lot of the listeners can relate, by the time it's a good 4Ks into a parkrun, the endorphins are running high. So I just needed an outlet. So the aeroplane came into it. It might be a bit of the soccer influence or something like that, but an aeroplane a week, it just keeps me smiling.

00:01:30Melissa Ellis: Yeah, you do it often, I've noticed. I call it the Zoom Zoom.

00:01:34Oliver Spake: The Zoom Zoom, very appropriate. I mean, I can't say it's appropriate for 2020 anymore, but anything with Zoom in the name, its value is bound to increase at this point in time. Yeah, I think it shows there's not a whole lot of originality there. One move and I'll be using it for another five years to come, I'm sure.

00:01:54Melissa Ellis: Do you do the jump shot? That's my thing. I usually like to do the jump shot in a parkrun.

00:01:59Oliver Spake: I have tried the jump shot and fortunately with the help of a pretty good photographer or two, it's looked like I've made a decent jump, but I'm pretty sure it's 20 centimetres, something like that. Do you actually manage to do a slightly more successful jump?

00:02:14Melissa Ellis: Not this weekend, no. I'm not jumping at the moment. I'm out of, I'm not match fit. So there's no jumps happening. I don't think it's going to be a good look with the extra weight that I'm carrying. So I'm just sucking in the tummy and raising the chin and praying when I see the photographer.

00:02:34Oliver Spake: Oh, yeah. I can relate. Absolutely. Maybe a few leaps around Ellis Palace just as a warm up there.

00:02:42Melissa Ellis: I've got to get back into practice. But anyway, so what did you do this last parkrun weekend? Because if you count Friday as the weekend, we had two parkruns in a row.

00:02:55Oliver Spake: Yeah. How about that? So for many of the listeners, I really hope that's been a lot of fun and probably a bit of a shock to the system. I'm sure that many would have done it through Christmas and Boxing Day as well there. Yeah, what a start to the new year. For me, I was back in the tools, back volunteering just locally at Shellharbour. We didn't have a New Year's Day event. And I think probably with the startup timing right in with the new year and the Christmas period, a lot of events chose not to have Christmas and new year events. So we opted to do the same. So I did not make it out for a New Year's Day parkrun. Shame to say I didn't even do a New Year's Day not parkrun. But yeah, Saturday I was back out there run directing in the pouring rain. It was good fun.

00:03:45Melissa Ellis: Raining at Shellharbour.

00:03:47Oliver Spake: Yeah. It's usually fun to run in the rain, but the balance of social distancing or physical distancing with limited shelter, obviously numbers were down, but at the same time, it was an unseasonable one. Definitely La Nina.

00:04:05Melissa Ellis: We've got rain at the moment today and I was just contemplating the fact that on this day 12 months ago most of Victoria was on fire and I had the call to come in for the fire effort and today it's raining so it's a funny old world, isn't it?

00:04:24Oliver Spake: I'd definitely take this year over last, absolutely.

00:04:27Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I prefer the rain. The rain's good.

00:04:31Oliver Spake: And yeah, not to have those embers or the black smoke or the air quality indicators. I'd forgotten just how much time I'd spent looking at those air quality indicators leading up to parkruns. I remember last year, well, the year before last, our Ugly Christmas Singlet or Shirt Day, we were homeless because we had to shut down for the air quality. So this year it was nice to to have that back as well. Definitely a significant change. And I think a combination of the current challenges and the cases that we still have locally around Sydney, around New South Wales, and obviously around the country here at the moment and the restrictions, numbers were down understandably. So yeah, a bit more of an intimate setting, but a nice way to start the year all the same.

00:05:17Melissa Ellis: Very good. Well, I had a little adventure for New Year. I returned to South Australia where I had spent last New Year as well, as well as going there for Palm 2020. And I was back, which was great. So I returned with a group of friends. So I left Paul and Zoe at home. They were quite happy to stay home and play computer games for the weekend uninterrupted without mum nagging them about doing other things. So, yeah, I travelled with six other adventurers, including TOC and Jacqui. So that was really nice.

00:05:54Oliver Spake: Excellent. So a real Victorians on tour kind of experience there? Yeah.

00:05:58Melissa Ellis: It was. Yeah, I went with the same people that I was with last year. We went to Mawson Lakes on New Year's Day, an event 159 with 242 parkrunners and parkwalkers, which was fun.

00:06:13Oliver Spake: Brilliant.

00:06:13Melissa Ellis: Yes, loved it. And I did my fastest five kilometre time for a couple of months, which surprised me.

00:06:20Oliver Spake: Obviously, Ellis Palace has been keeping you match fit. Maybe not jumping, but match fit. Absolutely.

00:06:26Melissa Ellis: No, that's a stretch. No, the times are a bit slower than they were previously, but at least I can still run. So that's a positive, yeah. And Mawson Lakes was beautiful. So it's a lovely little area in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. It's about 12km north of the CBD and it's a sort of a technology hub area established in the early 1980s, I think. Also houses the campus of the University of South Australia.

00:06:55Oliver Spake: Okay, yeah.

00:06:56Melissa Ellis: Beautiful little area. course. And I've got to say that all the events that I have been to in South Australia, and this was my 12th event over there, they're all really nice courses, really pretty, which was good.

00:07:09Oliver Spake: Look, I was going to ask, and I don't know if we're going to do a top three or anything like that, Mel, but yeah, do you have any favourites? How does Mawson Lakes compare?

00:07:21Melissa Ellis: You know, for a very, very long time when anybody asked me this question... I used to always say Mount Barker was my favourite parkrun of all the ones I'd done. I understand. Because it's beautiful. Mount Barker's beautiful. And the day we went, you know, I was just so taken with it. And I know it's just, you know, it's all relative to your experience on the day I get that. And, yeah, Mount Barker was always way up there. But, yeah, Mawson Lakes, brilliant. Really enjoyed it. Really unique event. And I spoke to one of the volunteers, Michelle Dezago, and had a lovely chat with her.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Melissa Ellis — Mawson Lakes

00:07:56Melissa Ellis: So maybe we should listen to that now. Let's. Welcome to Mawson Lakes parkrun for the parkrun adventurers podcast.

00:08:04Michelle Dezago: Michelle, the timer today. I am a Timekeeper today. I hate that job. I'm very good at making everyone else say that it's an easy job, but I hate doing it. So it's my second time in 70 times of volunteering. Second time as Timekeeper today. And it's New Year's Day parkrun here in Mawson Lakes in South Australia. A beautiful course. Would you like to describe it for us? It is. We're very lucky. We've got a beautiful little lake at the start line where you finish as well. We hug the lake, but we're lucky enough to head out to a bit of a linear park out the back. And then we head back to the lake and finish around near the lake where there's lots of coffee shops and that. But being New Year's Day today, they are closed, but it's a great little finish spot. In the community, yeah. Yes, and the weather's very nice for us today. The weather is beautiful today. Sometimes it can be a little bit warm down here, but the sun hasn't got that bite to it today. So it's beautiful. It's beautiful conditions to start off 2021. And it's a unique shape. It is a unique shape. A few people do call it the Z course. I've heard that. Yes, the Z course. So there aren't very many Z parkruns, so we'll just claim that one. And how long have you been involved in Mawson Lakes? From the beginning. We're coming up to our... fourth year it'll be we missed our third birthday as most people did last year we missed our third in may and but we will be coming up to our fourth birthday in may and I've been here from the beginning yep I've been rd many more times than I've been Timekeeper um and yeah we just love it love it was it easy to get set up it was easy to get set up once you sort of um stress the importance of it really to the community and what it actually does bring to the community. I think once we got that over the line, it was just a little bit of planning and making sure that what was around the lake was safe for everyone. We're safe. We were good to go. And the council's been great. We've had a few things out the back of the linear park there. The track's been resurfaced from what it was like at the beginning. It was a bit dodgy, but we had some people in wheelchairs at that time. But that's all been fixed up and it's great. And what do you average, your numbers? We average... About the 200. We've pushed out to 250, 260 sometimes. Today, I just gave my Timekeeper a job up for Justin, but I'd already got up to 205, and we've probably got another 20 people maybe to come over the line, so it's great. We always have the big numbers, Christmas Day, New Year's Day. People do like the course, so it's great to see them on those bonus ones. Excellent. And what about your own parkruns history? I started not much longer than the beginning of the Mawson Lakes one here for four years. I started at Lochiel Park, which is about 10km up the road.

00:10:59Chantelle Clark: We know Lochiel Park well.

00:11:00Michelle Dezago: We know Janet. We were there last year for New Year's Day. Yeah. Exactly. So I did start there just as a runner. Wasn't involved with it or anything like that. But, you know, as parkrun does, it sort of sucks you in very quickly. So really, by the time I'd been running there for maybe six months is the timing that this one was starting. And this one is a little bit closer for me, for home. So when this one, the rumours started, we kind of stuck our heads in straight away. And, yeah, so we've been here from the beginning. And David, my partner, is actually the photographer here today. The majority of weeks. So you do tour much? We do. We're here a lot, but we do kind of try and get around the state because I'm with RMA as well. I'm the state ambassador for that, so I try and pop my head around a few local ones. We've done a couple in Sydney and Melbourne. We have done. And we were actually very fortunate before the world happened in 2020. At the very end of 2019, we actually went to Bushy Park for their 15th birthday. Fabulous. So that was wonderful. That was wonderful. Shout out to our UK listeners. Yes. I think I was number 1,803 that day. That's the dream. That's it, exactly so we were lucky enough just before we all got shut down and how did you cope through the lockdown did you have your own routine I did I did I do run a lot anyway and we again we were fortunate we were actually in Japan in March when it all started so didn't get to do any parkruns there because it was just that time where you weren't sure what was going on um But I ordered a treadmill before we got home. We knew we would have to go into lockdown when we came home and into quarantine. So we ordered a treadmill for home and I must say that it worked out well because then I bought one in the last couple of months as well. So yeah, we just had to keep it going. And it was nice. We were very lucky here in SA though. We never really got to that point where you couldn't. So even if we headed down here, there was always someone else walking around the lake. That's the nice thing about Mawson Lakes as well. You could wave to people and you could keep up with those familiar faces during the lockdown as well. Oh, that's good. Yeah, we did find that it's funny. The runners kept running. The runners kept running through lockdown. But I must admit, when it was announced that we were coming back, a bit of a false start at the beginning, but when it was announced that we were coming back, When you started to hear those non-runners being excited that parkrun was coming back, that I think was what made it obvious of how important parkrun is to the wider community, not just the runners.

00:13:49Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I agree. And the exercise. So maybe the council will get behind a few more in that?

00:13:54Michelle Dezago: Oh, we hope so. I mean, in the four years that we've been here, you could count... I was going to say on one hand, maybe eight or nine when we started. And just in the last three or four years, that number's... I think we're at nearly 40. Are we nearly 40 in SA? Or in the 30-something? I can't remember. But it's just... I should have done my homework. Yeah, it's exploded in the last three or four years, and it's so important. It is so important. Yeah, I do enjoy coming over to South Australia. We were here last year as well for the New Year's Day double, the last one that that was.

00:14:31Melissa Ellis: Yeah. So tomorrow, where are you?

00:14:33Michelle Dezago: Here. Okay. Surprise. Surprise. I'll be here. But I'm not volunteering tomorrow, so I actually run tomorrow. Well, thank you for volunteering today. That's okay. We love it. And this is my fourth new year here as well. We usually now would head to Carisbrooke for the double up. Not today. But it's a silly, I say silly, you know, non-runners would think, why? Why? But you just do. Hi, Danielle. Yeah, you just do. It's great. I mean, look at the people here. Beautiful. You say that no one's interested, but, you know, when you get 220 people turn up for a run on New Year's Day, you know that there's a calling for it.

00:15:12Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Well, thank you very much for talking to me. Thank you for volunteering.

00:15:16Michelle Dezago: And enjoy your run tomorrow. I shall.

00:15:18Melissa Ellis: I shall.

00:15:19Michelle Dezago: Thank you very, very much. Thanks, Michelle.

00:15:22Melissa Ellis: So that was my Friday, New Year's Day, with my friends at Mawson Lakes. And on Saturday, our little parkrun group split up. So three of us went off to nearby Carisbrooke parkrun while the others went to get their J at Jubilee Way. So I walked at Carisbrooke, as I said, not match fit. And you've got to manage the comeback, Ollie. You know, you can't risk injury.

00:15:50Oliver Spake: Well, you don't want to peak too soon and particularly if you're going to be leaping in the weeks to come. Yeah, I can understand that.

00:15:56Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I thought I'd be sensible.

00:15:58Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:15:59Melissa Ellis: And I walked. And it was a smaller crowd at Carisbrooke, 96 people. Okay. But another really beautiful one, slightly undulating along the Little Para River. It was an out-and-back course, this one, and had some beautiful red cliffs that were adorned with, I think, agaves. Uh-huh. Quite a lot of them. Really pretty and another really nice little experience. So... Had the best weekend. Loved it.

00:16:28Oliver Spake: That sounds lovely, Mel. Would you recommend walking at Carisbrooke for anyone coming along and giving that particular event a go? As distinct from running and leaping, of course.

00:16:40Melissa Ellis: Well, if you want to take in the sights, then it's always better to walk because you can have a chat, not be huffing and puffing, and you can absorb the beauty of your surroundings. So, yeah, why not?

00:16:52Oliver Spake: Very nice. And you mentioned the course is undulating. What's the surface like? Is it one of those nicely paved courses? Yeah.

00:17:03Melissa Ellis: I think, no, it was gravel. Oh, okay. I don't know the technical term for it, the gravel.

00:17:08Oliver Spake: Okay, sort of the crushed gravel.

00:17:10Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

00:17:11Oliver Spake: So semi-pram friendly, pretty pram friendly.

00:17:13Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah, yeah. It was pretty flat and even for a gravel surface. There was certainly not roots and potholes. No, I would say it would be pretty good for a pram.

00:17:24Oliver Spake: Excellent. Excellent. And you mentioned the rest of the group split up and went and got their J.

00:17:31Melissa Ellis: They did.

00:17:32Oliver Spake: Well, should we listen to our second roving report or our second interview today?

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:17:37Oliver Spake: Should we listen to TOC, who was off getting the J?

00:17:40Melissa Ellis: Let's do that.

Roving report Tony O'Connell — Jubilee Way

00:17:42Tony O'Connell: Howdy, parkrunners. TOC reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew. We've decided to travel across to South Australia for our New Year's Day and the 2nd of January parkruns. Today we're at Jubilee Way, which is about 15 or 20km north of Adelaide in the suburbs. Runs along a bit of a creek line today. We've got a bit overcast conditions. Yesterday was stinking hot at Mawson Lakes. So we'll get out for a bit of a run. They're about to start the briefing. We'll do our run and we'll report back in later. Cheers, guys. Howdy, parkrunners. I'm here with Phil at the finish line of Jubilee Way. Phil, give us a bit of a description of your course.

00:18:20Phil - Jubilee Way parkrun Run Director: We've got a fantastic course. It's an out-and-back course, but it's horseshoe-shaped, and it's quite undulating. We have a hill in the first kilometre. It's not too taxing though and it's nicely shaded by lots of gum trees. It runs basically up one side of the creek around a nice lake at the top and then down the other side of the creek and then you do it all again on the way back.

00:18:45Tony O'Connell: One of the highlights, Phil, I found was being able to look across the creek and seeing the parkrunners go in the opposite direction. That was really cool. And being able to see the turnaround from the finish line, it just sort of brings up a real sense of community and together you can see, you know, the fast guys can see the slow ones and the walkers can see the fast ones. It's a really cool course from that aspect.

00:19:04Phil - Jubilee Way parkrun Run Director: Yeah, and people cheer across the creek too, which is nice. And for the Bucks volunteers at the start and finish, we can see people about halfway through the run going towards the turnaround and heading back again, so it's really good.

00:19:19Tony O'Connell: So it's sort of the perfect course designed for isolation, physical isolation. You cheer across the creek but no high-fives across the creek.

00:19:28Phil - Jubilee Way parkrun Run Director: Yeah, that's right, yes.

00:19:30Tony O'Connell: There's a few extra cones out on the track today, Phil. What are the extra cones on the track about?

00:19:35Phil - Jubilee Way parkrun Run Director: Ah, well, those extra cones mark the spot where there's a koala in a tree. So they'll, of course, Mark, pop them out to say, and then in the briefing you quickly mentioned that there's where the koala is, and with a baby koala.

00:19:48Tony O'Connell: Baby koalas as well. So that's the unique one. I've seen koalas on course. I haven't seen baby koalas. So you've got one up there.

00:19:55Phil - Jubilee Way parkrun Run Director: Yes, well, we regularly have koalas featuring here, and sometimes we've had tawny frogmouths as well. They're harder to spot.

00:20:04Tony O'Connell: Your first k, as you said, is a little bit undulating, mainly uphill, but that last k coming home, you fly down the hill. It's a beautiful trail to run back home.

00:20:13Phil - Jubilee Way parkrun Run Director: Well, it goes up, comes down, and you can let rip coming down the hill and really get the speed up.

00:20:18Tony O'Connell: What do you think your numbers are like here today?

00:20:20Phil - Jubilee Way parkrun Run Director: I reckon we're between 150 and 200 today, somewhere around that region.

00:20:24Tony O'Connell: So somewhere around your normal figures?

00:20:26Phil - Jubilee Way parkrun Run Director: Yeah, the numbers are starting to build after we've resumed. Before COVID, we were getting up to 300.

00:20:34Tony O'Connell: Okay. I should have said, Phil, you're the RD today.

00:20:37Phil - Jubilee Way parkrun Run Director: Yes, I'm RD today, yes.

00:20:40Tony O'Connell: Great course. I'm actually happy after yesterday where it was very hot. I'm happy you put a bit of cloud up for us to cool it down. It was a beautiful run.

00:20:48Phil - Jubilee Way parkrun Run Director: Yeah, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

00:20:50Tony O'Connell: Okay, thanks a lot, Phil. Hey parkrunners, I'm here at the start and finish line with Deb. Deb's one of the co-EDs at Jubilee. Deb, the numbers today, you got some fairly good numbers coming around the course?

00:21:03Deb - Jubilee Way parkrun Co-Event Director: Yeah, really happy with today's number. We always have a little bit of a lucky dip before they start to work out how many we reckon. We've got numbers ranging from 170 to 190 today. Not sure who's going to get it right, but you know, we'll see.

00:21:16Tony O'Connell: Okay, so you must be pretty good judges of numbers if you're within a range of 20 people between you all.

00:21:21Deb - Jubilee Way parkrun Co-Event Director: Well, we try. Yeah.

00:21:22Tony O'Connell: Well, you see that at a few parkruns and the guesses sometimes vary by a couple of hundred people.

00:21:28Deb - Jubilee Way parkrun Co-Event Director: Yeah, no, we're happy today because we're hoping now our numbers will start keeping back up again now that, you know, we've had New Year, Christmas and all that. So, yeah.

00:21:38Tony O'Connell: So how long's Jubilee been going?

00:21:40Deb - Jubilee Way parkrun Co-Event Director: We've been going for two years. So, yeah. Yep. Yep. And we've lost a little bit of time as everybody has to COVID. So we snuck in with our 100th event. That was our last one that we ran back in March. And now we're back into it. So here's to the next 100 events.

00:21:57Tony O'Connell: And hopefully they're not the same break in between. Deb, your background in parkrun, where have you come from?

00:22:04Deb - Jubilee Way parkrun Co-Event Director: Well, personally, I've always been a runner, and then I found Mawson Lakes parkrun randomly, hadn't even heard of it before, randomly found, went down there. Cherie and I had sort of known one another a little bit over the years through running. We had a chat, and lo and behold, we went, you know what, let's get one happening at Jubilee Way, and we did it. And here we are, and it's an absolute crack of a course here. It's beautiful. Yes, we love it.

00:22:28Tony O'Connell: Yeah, I love the attention to detail, like the cones out on the course for where the koalas are. That was brilliant.

00:22:36Deb - Jubilee Way parkrun Co-Event Director: We love our koalas. And the bonus today was we had mother and baby, so yeah.

00:22:41Tony O'Connell: Yeah, it was good. Well, it's been an absolutely lovely course. It's a great little day out. Thanks for visiting. Thank you very much for having us.

00:22:48Deb - Jubilee Way parkrun Co-Event Director: Yeah, no, thanks for being here.

00:22:51Melissa Ellis: So thanks for that report, TOC. It was interesting to see that the event team guessed 170 to 190 parkrunners on the day, and I looked up the actual numbers. They had 187 at Jubilee Way, so they're pretty good at guessing numbers.

00:23:08Oliver Spake: obviously a very well-oiled machine already, that event. No, it was lovely to hear. And yeah, I'll need to take some tips from them in terms of the calibrated eyeball guesstimating numbers, which I cannot do.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:23:22Melissa Ellis: And we've got another report, Ollie. We've got a roving report from our New Zealand correspondent, Steve Darby. He was at Hobsonville Point for Event 62, where they had 75 runners. He spoke to ED Chantelle Clark. Let's listen to Steve.

Roving report Steve Darby — Hobsonville Point

00:23:41Steve Darby: Okay, so it's New Year's Day 2021. That's going to take some getting used to. We're here at Hobsonville Point parkrun, and it's an absolutely beautiful day. This year's definitely better than the last year. I've got Chantelle with me, who's the Event Director at Hobsonville. First question, Chantelle. Yes. Have you heard of the parkrun adventurers podcast?

00:24:05Chantelle Clark: Only this morning.

00:24:06Steve Darby: There's an honest answer. Okay, but you'll be listening to it this week.

00:24:13Chantelle Clark: Oh, yeah, I will now.

00:24:14Steve Darby: Okay. Right, so with it being about five months since we got restarted again, our numbers sort of are holding up. Are we still building back up to where we were pre-COVID?

00:24:27Chantelle Clark: Yeah, definitely building back up. Slowly but surely. I think just before COVID hit, we had just under 300 people Yeah, and I think we're just hitting around the 120 mark.

00:24:39Steve Darby: Yeah, I think it's been lower this week and last week because of Christmas, New Year, but yeah, it was about 140 in the beginning of December. So yeah, there's still some to come back, but are we getting any tourists?

00:24:53Chantelle Clark: Within New Zealand, yes. Are we getting any from the South Island? Ooh, not that I'm aware of. Not that I've noticed.

00:25:04Steve Darby: No, I think that's right. I think it's mainly North Island moving around, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay, so, right, parkrun adventurers is an Australian podcast. So, at some point, I think it'll be a when rather than an if, there will be a Trans-Tasman bubble. Yeah, that'll be nice. Australian parkrunners will be able to come over here and start exploring, start adventuring. So can you tell us a little bit about Hobsonville? Why should they come here? Is it a nice place or is it a horrible place?

00:25:35Chantelle Clark: Oh, it's definitely a nice place. It's fairly new. It's just been building over the last probably four or five years. New development area, great community. You've got some ocean views. And yeah, great coffee.

00:25:51Steve Darby: And it's beautiful, isn't it? It is beautiful. It's beautiful. And it must be 25 degrees and sunny this morning. And what's the history of the place? What was around here before all the houses started getting built?

00:26:02Chantelle Clark: Yeah, so before the housing and development, it used to be an old Air Force, which is still kind of prominent at the moment. We still have a lot of Air Force families in the area, which is now kind of more situated out towards Whenuapai which is our neighbouring little community.

00:26:18Steve Darby: And the sign at the bottom of the road down here which says welcome to Bomb Point, is that connected to the Air Force or is that something else?

00:26:26Chantelle Clark: Yeah, I think it's connected to the Air Force. So we've got a couple of, I don't know what you actually call them, scattered throughout our course, little, I suppose, old bomb shelters, which are all now cleared out and safe.

00:26:38Steve Darby: Are you sure?

00:26:39Chantelle Clark: I hope so. We'll soon find out.

00:26:41Steve Darby: So Australian tourists can feel safe, can't they?

00:26:43Chantelle Clark: Well, they can check it out for us.

00:26:46Steve Darby: Okay. Well, I haven't come to any harm yet. No, no, no. So we'll assume it's okay. Yeah. Okay, one final question from Mel Ellis. Awesome. Are there any fairies in the fairy house tree?

00:27:01Chantelle Clark: Oh, right.

00:27:04Steve Darby: The fairy house tree. I didn't understand this question either.

00:27:07Chantelle Clark: Right, so not, I mean, there must be. I mean, over Christmas it started to light up, so it's got lights now, I believe.

00:27:15Steve Darby: Okay. What's the story behind it? Do you know?

00:27:18Chantelle Clark: No, I don't. I've only seen posts from people that have put them up. Yeah, they look great though. So they're out in the middle of our course. So you do run past them maybe twice as you're running out and twice as you're coming back.

00:27:30Steve Darby: And what are they?

00:27:31Chantelle Clark: So they're literally little houses that are wrapped around the trees. Oh, okay. Yeah, they're very creative, yeah.

00:27:38Steve Darby: Because I googled it and it went back to 2018. There was 45 fairies put behind little doors somewhere. Oh, okay. So it must have carried on from there.

00:27:47Chantelle Clark: It must have, it must have. No, I'm not too familiar with the back story of it, but yeah, they're stunning and they, yeah, it makes a nice little... feature because this year there's a lot of penguins around isn't there there's there's penguins to go searching for in Auckland and in Christchurch yeah these um kind of statues yeah so I guess fairies were the thing a couple years ago yeah and um I think they they started making appearance out here um during lockdown during our lockdown because it gave the people something to look at as they because it's a nice little walk area it was one thing that we were able to do okay so they're still there now they are still there yeah now they've got Christmas lights and everything

00:28:21Steve Darby: There you go, Mel. There's the answer to your question. OK, well, thanks, Chantelle. Another great morning. And we'll welcome the Australian tourists when they get a chance to come.

00:28:31Chantelle Clark: Absolutely.

00:28:32Steve Darby: Thank you very much.

00:28:33Chantelle Clark: Thank you.

00:28:34Oliver Spake: And thanks, Steve. It's been fantastic to hear of parkrun leading the way for the global parkrun community into 2021. Probably if anyone's going to lead us into 2021, I'd be happy for the Kiwis to do that. Yeah, lovely to hear the event over there and a lot of fun on New Year's Day. Certainly look forward to any prospect of a bubble opening with New Zealand. Don't know when, don't know how, but when it happens, yeah, I'm pretty sure there was an invitation there for some of us Aussies to come across. And was it to act as crash test dummies on Bomb Point there, Mel?

00:29:14Melissa Ellis: quite what they meant, Ollie. I think they were just inviting us to come to New Zealand, not to blow us up.

00:29:20Oliver Spake: No, well, you know, if there's a trade-off, look, I'll read the fine print, but yeah, I think it sounds like a lovely place to visit there, over there in Auckland. So... Again, thank you very much, guys. Look, the penguin statues and fairy houses sound fantastic. That's probably a little more picturesque than some of the now very decrepit and faded teddy bears I've seen strung to some street signs and posts there from the first half of the year. The weather's really gotten to them so I hope they're in a much better state there.

00:29:53Melissa Ellis: And faded wooden spoons from Spoonvilles.

00:29:56Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:29:57Melissa Ellis: So we've got a few fairy gardens and houses at parkruns in Victoria that I can think of. I know Wangaratta parkrun is very well known for its fairy garden and also Peppertree parkrun has got some little fairy houses there. So, yeah, we're spreading the fairy love in Victoria. What about up in New South Wales, Ollie? Have you got anything happening up there in fairyland?

00:30:25Oliver Spake: In Fairyland, look, I should have done my homework with my girls because they'd be across this sort of stuff. But a shame to say I'm not aware of any Fairyland exhibits or homes, legitimate homes across the New Zealand. See, I'm still dreaming of that bubble, the New South Wales parkrun courses.

00:30:45Melissa Ellis: Shellharbour, get onto it.

00:30:47Oliver Spake: Yeah, well, yeah, maybe the bunnies. Maybe the bunnies have set up some cute little rabbit holes around Shellharbour. But it'd be nice to hear if any of the listeners have got some of those features around the courses. It would be lovely to hear.

00:31:04Melissa Ellis: And let's talk stats now.

the Informant

00:31:07Melissa Ellis: So we've got an informant, Ollie, who has provided me with some New Year's Day stats. So 10,207 parkrunners completed events across Australia. That was down from 38,754 in 2020. That, of course, is down partly to do with the fact that we couldn't do a double this year.

00:31:31Oliver Spake: That's true.

00:31:31Melissa Ellis: Did you miss the double? No.

00:31:33Oliver Spake: Yeah, it's funny. I mean, we talked earlier of that contrast to last year. Obviously, there were a lot of distractions last year with the country being on fire and obviously being summer conscious, there's always the risk of bushfire anywhere this year, despite the fact that some of us are flooding. But last year, I remember what felt like the beginning of the double in the Illawarra region, which locally for me here in Shellharbour and the two other neighbouring parkruns, North Wollongong and Sandon Point. It was the start of the double, the first time we'd ever had the local parkruns here do a double. But certainly in years gone by, Shellharbour's had an early event to allow or to hopefully allow people to get away to some of the parkruns just that little bit further away, but to claim that double.

00:32:21Melissa Ellis: So you can understand parkrun's stance in putting an end to that pressure of not only the parkrunners to get to the next event but for the For the parkruns, like you said, Shellharbour has deliberately put on an early event so that they could allow time for parkrunners to get to another one. And that's put pressure, I suppose, on the event team, hasn't it, to start extra early? Hang on, do you start at 7 o'clock anyway?

00:32:56Oliver Spake: No, no, we're part of the predominant group in New South Wales that all start at eight. So look, this year I did appreciate a sleep in. It's been a few years. And I can understand that particularly this year with events on the restart, some events due to the current situation with COVID cases, again, in and around the Greater Sydney area where we do have cases that have popped up again prior to Christmas and New Year. We've had events disrupted as a precaution and under the health directions there. So it's probably welcome now more than ever to have a bit of a break, a bit of a relaxation in terms of trying to take on more than we can handle. But with what you said, Mel, I get it. I know that people have had the conversation when Global parkrun first announced the end of the New Year's Day double last that you know it will be missed and there are lots of different views about that but certainly as a parkrun where the next nearest parkrun is just that little bit further it's an impost for the team maybe you know we love volunteering that's okay getting up an hour earlier but knowing that whether Google Maps says you can drive there in that amount of time, you still want people to get around safely, start the new year healthily and enjoy that. So absolutely get it. It's not going to stop me in future years from doing my own, maybe freedom double at my own pace. But I think, yeah, on the balance of everything, I can certainly appreciate why the change has been made.

00:34:37Melissa Ellis: It's probably something I hadn't considered before. I know where I've traditionally done doubles, parkruns have been in quite geographically close context to each other. So it hasn't been such an issue to get from one to the other. But, yeah, I hadn't considered the fact that some other places might have some distance to travel and maybe people not quite straightforward routes that it might be a little bit more difficult for parkrunners to get to. And definitely this new year, so we did our New Year's Day parkrun at Mawson Lakes and then we actually had a Freedom Run planned in the afternoon. So, you know, there was a lot of time in between and there was definitely no rushing. But, yeah, we met later in the day.

00:35:27Oliver Spake: So that's more the right pace, don't you reckon?

00:35:30Melissa Ellis: Yeah, yeah. And it was very social. Yeah. It was lovely.

00:35:34Oliver Spake: Yes. Yeah, yeah.

00:35:35Melissa Ellis: You got to experience another beautiful South Australian course as well. So, yeah.

00:35:40Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:35:41Melissa Ellis: Adventure is what you make of it, Ollie.

00:35:43Oliver Spake: Well, that's quite right. And as you say, Mel, there are lots of events that could do it safely, and I feel for them. It's been a lot of fun, the double. I'll miss the double. But unfortunately, there are some that maybe are just a bit more challenged and That will mean that we get that second unofficial one later in the day, just like you've done in style in South Australia with the Victorian Summit there.

00:36:09Melissa Ellis: Yep.

00:36:09Oliver Spake: Safety first. Yep. Yeah.

00:36:12Melissa Ellis: Now, another stat we've got from our informant.

00:36:15Oliver Spake: The informant, yep.

00:36:18Melissa Ellis: On Saturday, there were 254 Aussie events. Now, that was 17 up from the week before. And I believe, I'm led to believe that of that 17, that was made up of events coming back in New South Wales because they've had more of a staggered return.

00:36:37Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:36:39Melissa Ellis: but also due to the situation, the unfolding situation in New South Wales with the outbreak, the COVID outbreak, some events also didn't run. So that 17 is a, I don't know, what do you call it when it's made up of the difference between the ones that came back and the ones that didn't, that stopped? Yeah.

00:37:07Oliver Spake: I'm struggling with my thesaurus. It's not so much a cumulative, it's just another stepping stone. But I know what you mean, Mel.

00:37:15Melissa Ellis: In any case, over those 254 events in Australia, there was 32,854 parkrunners. And that was up from the previous week about 11,000 people. So the previous week we'd only had 20,904. And that would have been the week prior to Christmas. So I guess that is just maybe extra people on holiday and less pressure with post-Christmas, all the rushing around. So, yeah, anyway, figures are up. So that's a good thing.

00:37:50Oliver Spake: It's exciting to see. I know that certainly locally that's the boom time. We see a lot of parkrunners joining over Christmas, over New Year's and through the summer, and it's exciting to see maybe a bit of that effect but also some of the events returning, hopefully to see many more as things progress. And, look, Victoria's yet to make an appearance.

00:38:15Melissa Ellis: I know. I was just going to say that, and that's without the greatest state. So can you imagine how numbers would have exploded?

00:38:23Oliver Spake: Yes, yes, in a good way.

00:38:25Melissa Ellis: Mind you, I think there was a lot of Victorians on holidays.

00:38:29Oliver Spake: That's true.

00:38:30Melissa Ellis: In lovely locations elsewhere that did have parkruns.

00:38:35Oliver Spake: Look, and it's been a disrupted time. We know that there were parkruns that were meant to go ahead on New Year's Day that couldn't or that didn't. And as we said already, there were parkruns that were meant to resume that haven't for precautionary reasons as well. So... We're still living with that uncertainty and will continue to live with that uncertainty for a little while. It's lovely to see a whole lot more people, first-timers included, getting out there and getting that real-life parkrun experience. And for some of us, still the (not)parkrun experience, which we hope you've all enjoyed a dose of not-parkrun through the period as well.

00:39:14Melissa Ellis: Or freedom running. Yes. Exploring events because, I mean, I suppose we've got on one hand you can not parkrun anywhere, like you can not parkrun from your front door, but you could choose if you've got the freedom to travel to explore maybe the surrounding areas parkrun events that maybe you don't usually go to because you might be a passionista and you might just stay at your home parkrun every week. But because there's no parkrun, you could go and tour and explore all those surrounding events that you might not have visited before.

00:39:46Oliver Spake: No, you're right, Mel. There's a lot of ways to enjoy it. And certainly as a quasi-passionista myself, yeah, it's a good opportunity to do so.

00:39:55Melissa Ellis: Okay, I want to report next week. You have to go off. This is your homework, Ollie.

00:39:59Oliver Spake: Yep, yep.

00:40:00Melissa Ellis: By next week, you have to have gone off and explored a parkrun as a freedom run that you haven't done before.

00:40:06Oliver Spake: That I haven't done before, yeah okay okay you just said you're yes have you done all your existing all your surrounding parkruns officially there are some parkruns uh within I won't say earshot but pretty close uh within an hour's drive or so that yeah I'm yet to get to so that's that's maybe achievable well I'll I'll do my best with my homework

00:40:32Melissa Ellis: Challenge.

00:40:33Oliver Spake: Yep.

00:40:34Melissa Ellis: Excellent.

00:40:34Oliver Spake: Yeah. So have we got any more stats from our informant?

Statesmen update

00:40:40Melissa Ellis: I do have some stats about statesmen slash Territorians. So I've got a list of how many we've got current in the states and territories. Not unsurprisingly, the state with the most Territorians is Northern Territory, but then Northern Territory's only got three events. So it's not unsurprising to know that there's 466 people in Australia that have done all three events in the Northern Territory.

00:41:07Oliver Spake: Still impressive. I'm a long way off that.

00:41:12Melissa Ellis: So the next one is ACT. They've only got nine events. Shouldn't say only. The ACT have got nine beautiful events and 335 people in Australia have achieved every single one.

00:41:27Oliver Spake: That's brilliant.

00:41:28Melissa Ellis: Going up the list, we've got Tasmania, 18 fabulous events in Tasmania. However, paradoxically, only three people have done all 18 events. Isn't that unusual?

00:41:40Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:41:41Melissa Ellis: Not very big tourists in Tasmania, not very big tourists.

00:41:44Oliver Spake: Are there some difficult to reach events amongst those? Look, I know Geeveston right down the south has a pretty modest number, but still great event by the looks of it. As is not that big. I've been following them with ambition, but yeah, certainly what I remember of it, absolutely. Yeah.

00:42:01Melissa Ellis: Is it Whitemark Wharf?

00:42:04Oliver Spake: True.

00:42:04Melissa Ellis: Is the one on Flinders Island?

00:42:07Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:42:07Melissa Ellis: Yeah, maybe that one's a little bit tricky.

00:42:09Oliver Spake: That's the difference. That's the one I was trying to think of, of course.

00:42:12Melissa Ellis: I hope I said it right. Apologies if I didn't. Anyway, so yeah, okay, what's next after Tassie? After Tassie we've got South Australia with 35 events. They've currently got 17 statesmen. Then we've got WA with 40 events with 11 current statesmen.

00:42:30Oliver Spake: So some impressive achievements amongst those two. They're, yeah, they're not exactly close, particularly WA.

00:42:38Melissa Ellis: WA, they're quite spread out. That's a big state. So that's very impressive, actually. Then the greatest state with 86 events has got six current statesmen. Now, can I just make my apologies?

00:42:54Oliver Spake: Yeah, I was going to ask Mel, where do you sit in that stat?

00:42:57Melissa Ellis: I'm not one of those, oh it kills me so no I was inactive for most of January and February because of the bushfires yeah yeah and I missed a lot of parkruns and we had we were inundated with launches in Victoria we I think we had one week where we had three on one day and I couldn't well I couldn't get to any of them on that day but um I didn't get a chance we hadn't had the opportunity to get to all three before we went to the pause so I was still outstanding one So I'm one off at the moment, regaining my statesmanship. So no, I'm not on that list.

00:43:35Oliver Spake: We're looking forward to the restart then.

00:43:37Melissa Ellis: Yeah, there's something to look forward to. And what's the date today? We're recording on the 4th, 12 days, not counting, but 12 days for parkrun in Victoria to come back. Yay. Anyway, so that's Victoria. Yeah. That leaves two states, New South Wales and Queensland. Yes. On the eastern seaboard. Do you know how many statesmen they've got, Ollie? I'll tell you.

00:44:03Oliver Spake: Yeah, probably best I don't guess. Was that but bow that I got it wrong even without guessing?

00:44:11Melissa Ellis: No, they haven't got any.

00:44:12Oliver Spake: None.

00:44:13Melissa Ellis: None?

00:44:14Oliver Spake: None.

00:44:15Melissa Ellis: None. I don't know what their problem is.

00:44:18[laughter]

00:44:18Unidentified speaker: LAUGHTER

00:44:19Melissa Ellis: I actually don't know why. They usually do. It's probably something to do with a billion events launching during the pause and all coming back at once and the poor statesmen not having had opportunity yet to get around to them all.

00:44:33Oliver Spake: Look, I'm sure that there are parkrunners out there with hopes and dreams, maybe even plans to make up some of those events and change that to at least a one event.

00:44:46Melissa Ellis: Maybe if some of them are listening, they can write to us.

00:44:50Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:44:51Melissa Ellis: And tell us why and give us the plan.

00:44:53Oliver Spake: As in tell us what your hopes and dreams are, Mel, or what stuff?

00:44:58Melissa Ellis: No, explain to yourself why you've dropped off and you're not a statesman anymore.

00:45:01Oliver Spake: How did things go off the rails?

00:45:04Melissa Ellis: Or, you know, have you scheduled them in? When do you plan to get your statesmanship back? I don't know.

00:45:10Oliver Spake: Yeah, let us know. And if you've got an idea as to when that badge is coming back, by all means, we'd love to hear.

00:45:18Melissa Ellis: Maybe we should keep a good eye on that and see who's first back. It can be a competition.

palm21 announcement

00:45:24Oliver Spake: We'll see how they go. Speaking of the potential of Travel Mel, we know that there has been a lot of interest, that's even just between you and I, into any potential dates for palm21. Yes.

00:45:37[other]

00:45:37Melissa Ellis: This is where I'm really wishing that I could insert drum roll.

00:45:42Oliver Spake: Shall I try the, yep. Oh, yeah, do that. That's good. Do it a bit louder. Yep. Just wake up the neighbours there. Yes. So, yeah, what was I saying? palm21. palm21, palm21, as things currently stand, there are some restrictions around domestic travel and indeed international travel. So it might be fairly safe to start off, Mel, by saying that international international palm21 participants or visitors you may have to join us virtually we regret to say that but as things currently stand we're not sure that international visitors will be allowed into Australia for palm21 and that is because our current plan is to have palm21 mid-april this year so that is the weekend the 16th to 18th of April

00:46:36Melissa Ellis: It is. Have we actually ever had an international visitor to Palm?

00:46:42Oliver Spake: Perhaps not and probably not going to be this year. Certainly not going to be this year, unless anyone is signing up to move into the country in quarantine. Look, if you're doing that for Palm, we really look forward to having you. I hope we can do it justice.

00:46:59Melissa Ellis: We might have, what do you call them, expatriates?

00:47:02Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:47:03Melissa Ellis: That are overseas that might be interested in coming back to Australia just for Palm.

00:47:09Oliver Spake: That's right. Well, and with that in mind, that's why we wanted to give as much notice as possible in this planning adverse period.

00:47:16Melissa Ellis: You can get the quarantining done in time.

00:47:19Oliver Spake: That's right. So we're hoping that with a couple of months to go, that provides the opportunity for people to make some plans. It is still a relatively warm period, so it means we can go almost anywhere. Even better still if it's somewhere warm and hopefully, just hopefully, some of those borders will be accessible.

00:47:41Melissa Ellis: So, Ollie, as it stands at the moment, if Palm was next weekend, could you go? No, I don't think so.

00:47:49Oliver Spake: Well, actually, technically I may be outside the red zone in New South Wales, but I haven't studied up today's restrictions, so I'd have to get back to you on that.

00:48:00Melissa Ellis: Okay.

00:48:01Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah. What about you, Mel?

00:48:04Melissa Ellis: I could, I think, but I would have to probably quarantine for two weeks. I'm pretty sure you would have to too if you were allowed in. I don't even know if New South Wales is allowed into Queensland at the moment.

00:48:16Oliver Spake: Uh-huh. So there's the key bit of information I haven't mentioned. So we're looking at Queensland. We're looking at a part of Queensland. What part of Queensland are we looking at, Mel? Sorry, spoiler alert. It's probably time for the spoiler.

00:48:28Melissa Ellis: The big announcement. We can't tell you. So the sunny coast, this is what we can tell you. It's going to be held on the Sunshine Coast in Australia, in Queensland. The event may or may not exist yet, so we cannot announce it. However, Ollie, we've got a plan B. We haven't run it past the event team. But we do have a plan B. Yeah. Which I think is very apt considering the feature of the international Ugly Christmas Singlet this year.

00:49:05Oliver Spake: Yeah, with a plan B like that, you could almost call it a plan A, to be honest. It would be a fantastic location if we could all celebrate with our celebrity.

00:49:13Melissa Ellis: And we are, of course, talking about Nambour parkrun, which I believe is in pretty close proximity, if not in the Sunshine Coast. I've never been to Queensland, so I'm just looking at a map, but it looks pretty close.

00:49:27Oliver Spake: Yeah, just up the hill, really. It's been some time since I've been to the Sunshine Coast, but it would be on many people's bucket lists for those that haven't already done it to go to Nambour, if indeed the event were Nambour. But nonetheless, we're sure that the Sunshine Coast would be a fantastic location, giving us ample opportunity for real and freedom parkruns.

00:49:50Melissa Ellis: And I want to go to the pineapple, the big pineapple. There's a big pineapple there, isn't there? Where's the big pineapple? Oh, it's got to be on the sunny coast. And the big banana.

00:50:01Oliver Spake: One of them may or may not be in northern New South Wales, but that does show you. I pretty feel you're right with the big pineapple.

00:50:09Melissa Ellis: Which one's in northern New South Wales?

00:50:11Oliver Spake: As hosts of the parkrun adventurers, I'd hate to get any pineapple-related trivia wrong. So let's just say the big pineapple is indeed in the Sunshine Coast, so that would be a must on the list.

00:50:23Melissa Ellis: Oh, I'm sorry if I've got that wrong. Like I said, I haven't been to Queensland, but I'm looking forward to it. Borders permitting.

00:50:30Oliver Spake: Yes. Yeah. So we will keep you all updated as any plans firm or as hopefully the plans firm. And yeah, once we do speak to the event teams and those concerned, but we do look forward to seeing as many of you that would like to join us and would like to travel and up there in the Sunshine Coast.

00:50:54Melissa Ellis: And if we don't end up doing a proper parkrun at Nambour, we can do a freedom run.

00:50:59Oliver Spake: Absolutely.

00:50:59Melissa Ellis: And we could still meet Fluffy.

00:51:01Oliver Spake: So long as someone books Fluffy in, I'm sure many people will be keen to meet Fluffy. But look, beautiful course, nice hills, big tick.

00:51:09Melissa Ellis: Yep. It's high up on my parkrun wishlist for sure.

Sign-off

00:51:13Oliver Spake: Speaking of parkrun wishlists, Mel, I can't quite ask you where you're parkrunning this weekend. Have you any not parkrun or other parkrun-related plans this weekend?

00:51:23Melissa Ellis: No. No. I've had my big adventure. No, I will be, I'm going hot air ballooning this weekend. Excellent. Yes, that's what I'm doing this weekend.

00:51:36Oliver Spake: Well, that's a jump and a half, yeah.

00:51:38Melissa Ellis: I had to postpone my birthday present this year because of the lockdown that my dear other half planned, which was a hot air balloon ride over Melbourne. So, I mean, that's weather permitted too because these things do tend to get cancelled. But at this stage, that's the plan for the weekend that we get to do that finally, which will slot in nicely the week before parkrun starts because we can't have parkrun interrupted by such things. Yeah.

00:52:06Oliver Spake: Very true. And look for anyone in Melbourne, hot air ballooning, where do they alight from? No, wrong terminology. Where do they go up? Where do they alight from?

00:52:17Melissa Ellis: I don't know, actually. We're going into the Melbourne CBD. We stay in the night in a motel and then we get up in the morning and we drive somewhere and we go up in the hot air balloon. And that's the extent of how much I know. So I can't tell you.

00:52:30Oliver Spake: That sounds fantastic.

00:52:31Melissa Ellis: I'll report back next week. No, actually it will be next week because, oh yeah, it will, because we'll record Monday and hopefully I've had the hot air balloon trip.

00:52:38Oliver Spake: Hopefully you have and return safely. Yes, absolutely.

00:52:42Melissa Ellis: I wonder how many parkrun courses there are near hot air balloon flight paths.

00:52:46Oliver Spake: I seem to recall some flight-related parkrun trivia previously. We might have to revisit that. I mean, there have been new events after all. That would be a good one to plan.

00:52:56Melissa Ellis: I know we have Gardiners Creek in Victoria that often when you're going to the parkrun in the morning, you can see the hot air balloons very close by and they sort of float over Gardiners Creek parkrun. What about you, Ollie, volunteering again? When did you actually last parkrun a real parkrun?

00:53:16Oliver Spake: Yeah, so my plans for the weekend, my plans will be to, I'll be run directing at Shellharbour once again. So looking forward to hopefully a little drier weather and getting back out there at Shellharbour, continuing to welcome back Some of our parkrunners that might have been with family or otherwise engaged over the Christmas and New Year period. Very much looking forward to that. As for when I last park ran, that would be Mount Barker. So that would be the 7th of March. March 2020. 7th of March 2020. Yes. There will have to be a parkrun soon. Won't be this weekend, but the plans are being made.

00:53:57Melissa Ellis: Well, thank you for volunteering, Ollie, because that's pretty amazing. You've had how many events now back at Shellharbour? You had three or four events back in and you volunteered them all. That's really nice. That's amazing. Clap to you.

00:54:10Oliver Spake: It's always fun. It's always nice. You see some familiar faces and I haven't had that chance to get the volunteering fix in the same way while it's been out. So yeah, it's nice to catch up. It's always fun volunteering at parkrun over the Christmas and New Year period as well, hearing what everyone's up to, especially after being absent for so long.

00:54:31Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

00:54:32Oliver Spake: Well, for...

00:54:34Melissa Ellis: yourselves in Victoria Mel I wish you a nice uh not parkrun weekend or not not parkrun as it were but uh it's coming thank you yes we're not far away now I don't think I'm going to do another event of Ellis Palace parkrun I think I've put that to bed for week week 40 was two weeks ago and I thought that was a nice round number that'll do So, yeah.

00:55:02Oliver Spake: Sorry, Mel, was that intentional, 40 being the sum of 20 and 20?

00:55:09Melissa Ellis: Wow. I never thought of that. I like that. Yeah, definitely can't do Ellis Palace parkrun. No, sorry, it's all gone. It's finished, done.

00:55:19Oliver Spake: Two lots of 20 can't go beyond. All right.

00:55:22Melissa Ellis: Yeah, maybe I'll go and freedom run Toolern Creek parkrun. That might be a good way.

00:55:27Oliver Spake: yep yeah the last week because yeah there is there is a group, a small group, that go and do Toolern Creek later in the day not at parkrun time maybe I'll go and join them be a bit social now that we're allowed to do that kind of stuff speaking of social um it's been nice to catch up yeah hoping that more and more events certainly in my state in New South Wales across Australia and and let's hope across the world uh we'll get to experience that a bit more soon but Until next week, Mel, take care.

00:55:56Melissa Ellis: You too, Ollie.

00:55:57Oliver Spake: Happy ballooning.

00:55:58Melissa Ellis: Thank you. Bye.

00:58:05Unidentified speaker: Bye.