Episode 217 - The Informant

00:00:00[music]

Welcome

00:00:00Melissa Ellis: parkrun Vic is coming, parkrun Vic is coming, it's not very far away. Time to get your barcode out, it's almost parkrun day. Music Welcome to episode 217 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Melissa Ellis and I'm joined by the Shellharbour ED who hasn't ran a parkrun since the 7th of March, Ollie Spake.

00:00:12[music]

00:00:50Oliver Spake: Hi Mel, and are you feeling excited Mel?

00:00:55Melissa Ellis: I am, yes. Okay, so what's today? The 11th and parkrun comes back on the 16th. Five days.

00:01:03Oliver Spake: Five days.

00:01:03Melissa Ellis: Not counting at all. Five days. Five days.

00:01:07Oliver Spake: So look, it's getting very close. It's very exciting. And yeah, certainly that morning when it rolls around is going to be just a little bit special for obviously yourself and all of the Victorians out there. I mean, we wish that for every parkrunner, but it's coming. And yeah, I think that's worth singing about. Absolutely.

00:01:29Melissa Ellis: So, yes, we are the last state in Australia to come back to parkrun. So once this weekend rolls around, all of Australia will be back. Actually, apart from maybe the states that... So what events have we got in New South Wales? Has New South Wales got paused parkruns at the moment with the current outbreak?

00:01:53Oliver Spake: Well, we have had a mixture in New South Wales. So as things currently stand, I know that some of the lockdown areas in Sydney's northern beaches have had their restrictions reduced. over the weekend just gone. So I think we could see a return to parkrunning following that because that would have been changed on the Saturday night. And we have seen more of the parkrun events resume in and around the Sydney region, which of course was also, yeah, keeping things under pretty close wraps. whilst we've had these cases. It could still change, but you're right, there are more coming back. There have been more events resume across New South Wales over the weekend just gone. And, yeah, look, there's certainly some parkrunners out there that are singing along with you, Mel.

00:02:43Melissa Ellis: Okay, that's good. Can I just make a small request, Ollie? Yes, of course. Due to the previous weeks, when we record, I have to put my budgies outside on my back deck because they have a habit of being really noisy while we're recording. I mean... That's aside from the fact that you might hear a little trip-trap of chihuahua toenails on my hard floors, but my budgies are out of my back deck and I have been known when we're recording to go to bed after the recording and forget them. They spend the whole night outside on the back deck. So at the end of the podcast, can you please remind me to go and bring the budgies in?

00:03:25Oliver Spake: All right, I'm writing a mental note. I don't want to leave. I mean, it is summer in Melbourne, of course, so look, it might be a comfy night for them tonight, but I will do my very best to remind you, Mel, we don't want the budgies to sleep on the deck there. Let's bring them in.

00:03:40Melissa Ellis: Thank you. Okay, now, question for you. Did you do your homework?

00:03:47Oliver Spake: Yeah, look, I have, no, no, no.

00:03:53Melissa Ellis: Why did I think that was coming?

00:03:57Oliver Spake: I'm developing a bit of a record here. No, sadly, Mel, I didn't manage to get up to do what would have been one of my local undiscovered parkruns. I did speak to some parkrunners from there, if that's maybe a C-minus in terms of handing something in.

00:04:17Melissa Ellis: Can we call that research?

00:04:18Oliver Spake: Research, yeah, that's exactly what I meant. So, you know, I've got the goss, I've, you know, re-familiarised myself with the course and now it's just a case of actually going and doing it. So I'll try and do that this week instead.

00:04:36Melissa Ellis: Are we going to name the event? Oh, no, okay, we'll leave that in the outro when I ask you where you're going to be next week.

00:04:43Oliver Spake: Look, I was going to say I did at least make it to a parkrun. So, you know, I'm still enjoying parkrun, real-life parkrun in New South Wales. It was Shellharbour once again and it was lovely to see, you know, more and more parkrunners coming out. The weather was a bit better and, yeah, just seeing everyone get their groove back a little bit, which we've obviously missed.

00:05:08Melissa Ellis: And did I hear that numbers were up this week at Shellharbour? Yeah.

00:05:11Oliver Spake: Numbers were indeed up. We almost didn't know that because our COVID cleaning techniques are obviously doing a great job, except for the fact that our barcodes have become a little fuzzy. So we had to get creative in recording the results this week. So, yeah, tip for new players, maybe steer clear of too much warm water and sanitiser in those weekly barcode cleans. But we've had a few more and we were fortunately able to capture those results another way.

00:05:44Melissa Ellis: I haven't had to do that yet, the wash the barcodes. So I'm interested to know what the methods are. Is there events doing it different ways? Is it you can't put them in the washing machine? Are we just throwing them in the sink with some hot soapy water? Are we... How does it work? Do we just wipe them over with bacterial wipes? I don't know.

00:06:06Oliver Spake: Hopefully it's no spit and polish. But, yeah, we've seen a few different techniques at least out there. We've got a very careful and – helpful volunteer amongst our event crew that has taken them week in week out and has a sanitizer used at home in you know some of his other hobbies and activities so you know that's been the approach at our parkrun but I'm sure there are a few good ideas out there designated sanitizer yes yeah look I'm pretty sure it's not on the volley list um it's not a role so at the moment he's he's accepting of Token Sorting but yeah we might have to um we might have to speak to hq about that there's a lot of adventurers out there that would do anything to get that other volunteer credit oh look I think it's befitting of another certainly

00:07:01Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I think so too.

00:07:02Oliver Spake: Yes. And Mel, look, I know you're excited about parkrun resuming in Victoria, but were you excited about maybe the last week of not having parkrun in Victoria? What did you get up to?

00:07:16Melissa Ellis: As I said at the end of last week's episode, I went along to Toolern Creek parkrun to do a (not)parkrun at Toolern Creek's course and I met up with a few regulars, not at parkrun time, later in the day, and I went to brunch and, yeah, it was really good. And we arrived. There was some evidence that the ED was around in the area at the time. And I actually caught up with her. So Tracey Donald, the Toolern Creek ED. And I recorded a short interview with her. So we can have a listen to that now.

Interview Tracey Donald — Event Director, Toolern Creek parkrun

00:07:57Melissa Ellis: It's Saturday morning. It's not eight o'clock. It's... Just gone half past nine. I'm down at the Toolern Creek parkrun course. Just happened to bump into Toolern Creek's lovely E.D. Tracey. Good morning, Tracey.

00:08:09Tracey Donald: Good morning, Mel.

00:08:11Melissa Ellis: You're down here this morning having a walk on the course, checking it out, I assume, for the exciting day next week.

00:08:17Tracey Donald: Yes, checking out that there's no issues and we're all good to go.

00:08:20Melissa Ellis: And how is the course? Give us a course report.

00:08:23Tracey Donald: Oh, we do have a bit of a detour since we closed off in March. So we have a big hole, in our course, but we will manage that with a bit of cones and marshals probably.

00:08:36Melissa Ellis: Yes, a little bit of construction going on there, I noticed.

00:08:38Tracey Donald: It will be good when it's finished. It looks like we're going to have a little bridge that will go over the creek.

00:08:43Melissa Ellis: Nice. And I noticed you put a little chalk message for the locals that might be down here through the week.

00:08:48Tracey Donald: I did, I did. So I thought there's a lot of people who've started walking and running since March and there's a lot of new houses in this area. So they might not have known about parkrun. So we've left a message on the path right at our start line.

00:09:02Melissa Ellis: That's a great idea. And how have you gone through the pause? Have you kept your running and your walking up?

00:09:07Tracey Donald: Yeah, we kept coming back every week. A lot of walking, and we did start coming a bit later than usual, which was nice. So I'm trying to get back into the routine of 8 o'clock again.

00:09:19Melissa Ellis: Yeah, early mornings. So this is actually my first time coming back to the Toolern Creek parkrun. I've been running my own course, which you came to visit me at. I did, and we did wave. Thank you very much. I stood there and waved over at Ellis Pals parkrun this morning. Of course, there was nobody running. We finished that off a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, but I noticed there's a few people out this morning enjoying the sunshine, so hopefully we get a nice day. And have you had much inquiries?

00:09:48Tracey Donald: We have had nearly every week people ask us, when is parkrun starting back? And we have a full roster for next week, so that's awesome.

00:09:55Melissa Ellis: That's fabulous, because I know Toolern Creek's traditionally really booked out weeks ahead. You've got really good support for your volunteering.

00:10:03Tracey Donald: Yes, so we're just going to focus on getting the next month filled up and then I'll be happy. That's great.

00:10:10Melissa Ellis: All right, well, all the best for next week. I'm sure it'll go really well, and I know that the crowd will be busting to get back. So good luck, and I'll see you around. Thanks, Mel.

00:10:23Oliver Spake: So it's getting close. It's very exciting and exciting, Mel, to hear that there are some changes happening on course. I suppose there's a bit of evolution happening to a few parkrun courses out there, but very excited for Toolern Creek to be getting a new bridge. So hopefully that isn't too far away. And I really liked the touch there from Tracey to put out the message and let everyone know that parkrun is coming. Hopefully, you know, you'll get a few new parkrunners interested to come along and give it a go.

00:10:54Melissa Ellis: Yes, I think so, Ollie, because where we are located, it's a growing area. There's a lot of new housing development, so there's always people, new people moving into the area. So it was a really good thought for Tracey to actually put that little message on the parkrun start line so that people might see it and, yeah, they might go home and Google, what's this parkrun thing? Isn't that how we just all started? Yeah.

00:11:24Oliver Spake: True. And thrilling to hear of a full roster. It's going to be a great weekend, I'm sure. But I recall you had other plans for your weekend just gone too. So tell us a bit about Sunday.

00:11:36Melissa Ellis: Yes, my balloon flight. It went ahead. We had a launch in the Burnley area of the inner suburbs of Melbourne. The weather was really fine. The wind was a little bit low. That had the positive effect that to get the balloon better wind currents, their balloons have to go up a lot higher. So we actually climbed to 4,777 metres. That's pretty high. We were up above the clouds. And I did say to Zoe, we are nearly a parkrun in the air.

00:12:20Oliver Spake: We've got to measure it in parkrun distance. That's a little more comprehensive.

00:12:24Melissa Ellis: That's a long way up, a whole parkrun in the air. Yeah.

00:12:27Oliver Spake: And so, okay, so the low wind is helpful and I did see, I think I saw a picture of that cloud cover from above, wasn't it?

00:12:36Melissa Ellis: It was, yeah. There was a lot of balloons up. We could actually see. So in Victoria, there's two key areas where they do ballooning, which is over the city of Melbourne and in the Yarra Valley, which is sort of wine territory, very high tourist area. And as we were up that high, we could actually see the Yarra Valley balloons as well. There's about, I think I counted six balloons and there was probably about the same amount of balloons up over Melbourne floating around. And so I didn't remember straight away, but I actually put my Strava on. I pressed start on my Garmin because I wanted to see, you know, how that would map out.

00:13:16Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:13:17Melissa Ellis: Yes. So I had the little Strava map, Garmin map, obviously, when I finished, and I wanted to – edit the activity so it didn't look like I was like running in the sky and garmin actually has uh the option to change the activity to flight I don't really know what's the purpose of that um because obviously you know people can't just go for a fly well we can try we can try I don't I wonder what circumstances somebody would normally put flight. I just kind of thought, well, I'll just check just in case there's hot air ballooning as an option, but clearly there wasn't. That was fine. I could edit my Garmin, but then I went to Strava to try to edit and no such anything on Strava. I had no options. No, I had to change my Strava activity to workout.

00:14:09Oliver Spake: And you haven't had a follow-up from Strava at this point? No Strava police? Okay. Well, that's impressive.

00:14:16Melissa Ellis: But I was a little bit thinking, oh, am I going to start getting some like PBs for what is it called?

00:14:25Oliver Spake: What, elevation?

00:14:28Melissa Ellis: It wasn't so much elevation. I was concerned about going faster than I've ever been before. Ah.

00:14:32Oliver Spake: Yeah, you're going to throw out all your stats, Mel. I don't know what you're doing here. I know.

00:14:36Melissa Ellis: I know I've buggered it up, haven't I? But I thought, but actually the balloon just kind of floated along at around the six to seven kilometres an hour. So it wasn't really an issue. I didn't break any land speed records. We were just sort of floating at that nice speed. So that was interesting to know how fast a balloon goes. Of course, there's no steering with balloons. They just sort of aim for a park and they radio ahead, you know, their crew on the ground and say, meet us at this park and you sort of float by and then they miss the opportunity or the landing or it's not on course. So then they just get back on the radio and they tell their crew on to meet at the next park so then you just so they're giving them a bit of notice then they're not uh they're not making the call at last minute hopefully yeah yeah it's all quite interesting that was actually our second flight we we had done the Yarra Valley one um about 12 years ago so yeah I just realised my my dog is like making funny noises in the background he's asleep he's asleep beside me on the floor and he's um groaning in his sleep I apologise if Doggy dreams. It's doggy dreams. Chico.

00:15:59Oliver Spake: You have fed Chico dinner, hopefully.

00:16:02Melissa Ellis: Yes. If they could only just stay down. I've got the tally on down in the other end of the house because the dogs, that's the routine. Like the end of the night, we put the TV on. We sit in there and they watch TV with us. And if I don't put the TV on because I'm sitting in the study preparing, if I don't put it on, they all get funny. So the TV's on down there just for the dogs. But...

00:16:29Oliver Spake: Chico wants a peaceful place to rest.

00:16:34Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and he's dreaming and making silly noises. Anyway, sorry, that's by the by. Let's move on.

00:16:42Oliver Spake: Well, yeah, we'll keep an ear out and maybe Chico can add a couple of things as we go on.

Statesmen update

00:16:50Oliver Spake: Speaking of adding a few things, we had a message, Mel, after our... Our ponderings of, you know, what's happened to statesmanship across New South Wales and Queensland in particular last week. So in the pod last week, obviously, we heard the latest from our informant regarding this. Well, I suppose it was a bit of a revelation for me, but maybe not so much of a surprise for others, including Aaron. Aaron Hardy reached out and confirmed that as, yeah, As we've all seen and known, COVID has played havoc with everyone's plans, particularly those that have had plans around statesmanship. And Aaron visited Walcha parkrun. So Walcha parkrun was running its first event back from the restart after just three events. last year. And Aaron has become the New South Wales statesman. So that's quite impressive. I did see actually at least one other familiar name. So the others can't be too far off, but we'll obviously see on the balance of launches and who knows what else in terms of changing plans over the next month or two, whether or not any of the others can catch up. Oh,

00:18:08Melissa Ellis: Yes, and thanks, Aaron, for your message. It was great to hear from you, and we welcome some of the other statesmen to fill us in and let us know how you're going towards regaining your crown.

00:18:24Oliver Spake: Yeah, not an easy task at the moment.

00:18:26Melissa Ellis: And, Ollie, we had another question, interaction which made me smile Mark Scarborough posted a photo of himself and his son James doing the zoom zoom did you see that I did wasn't it great I loved it it's a good photo too so thanks for that mark and mark was in yass at riverbank parkrun and he recorded a roving report for us so let's listen to that

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Mark Scarborough — Riverbank parkrun

00:18:57Mark Scarborough: Hello parkrun adventurers, this is Mark reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew from Riverbank parkrun in Yass, New South Wales. Yass is a town in the southern tablelands of New South Wales, just outside Canberra. The name appears to have been derived from an Aboriginal word meaning yar, said to mean running water. Quite a good name, noting the beautiful Yass River flowing through the town and at Riverbank parkrun. And today was event number 19 for Riverbank parkrun. They did start back, I think it was October 2019, but obviously we've had a few interruptions over the last 12 months with bushfires, also the river flooding, and also obviously COVID-19, which has affected everyone else. So let's go and have a chat to a few of the parkrunners. So I'm here with Anita, who's travelled to Riverbank parkrun today. Good morning, Anita. How are you?

00:19:54Anita: Morning, very well. Thank you. How are you?

00:19:55Mark Scarborough: Good, thank you. So where's your normal parkrun?

00:19:58Anita: Home parkrun is Ginandera, so that's our closest to home in Canberra, but we also run at Lake Burley Griffin and some of the other local parkruns in Canberra, but Ginandera is our home one.

00:20:06Mark Scarborough: And what brought you to Riverbank today?

00:20:08Anita: So I train with Elevate Running and Fitness, and we made a decision as a club that we would come and support the first run reopening of Riverbank parkrun today.

00:20:18Mark Scarborough: And what did you think of the course?

00:20:20Anita: The hill is a little bit brutal, especially doing it twice. But it's a really pretty course. And I've just said to my husband, I'd definitely come back and do it again.

00:20:28Mark Scarborough: So your first time to Riverbank?

00:20:29Anita: Yeah, first time for Riverbank. Really great. So we're going to go and spend some money in Yass for breakfast as well. So it's nice to see everything reopening and long may it continue.

00:20:39Mark Scarborough: Indeed. And do you get out and parkrun tourist a lot?

00:20:42Anita: We've, obviously you can hear from the accent that we're from the UK, so we've been back to the UK, parkrun there in a couple of locations. My husband's also parkrun in South Africa when he's been there on business and we tend to go camping quite a lot with our camper trailer around Australia and we plan to parkrun wherever we camp.

00:21:02Mark Scarborough: Can you name your top three parkrun courses?

00:21:05Anita: I think Bega because I have my parkrun PB there, which came with the very last event before lockdown last March. So that's a really pretty course mix of path, a little bit of road and some trail at the end. So really pretty course. Merimbula is also an excellent course because it's flat. The only problem is overtaking on the rather narrow boardwalk and the risk of falling into the water there. And I think I have to say my home parkrun, Ginninderra, because they're a really great crowd and we've made lots of really, really great friends.

00:21:37Mark Scarborough: And what's the next course on your list?

00:21:39Anita: The next course I think we're going to give a go, maybe Goulburn or perhaps we haven't actually done Mount Ainslie in Canberra. So we need to give that a go.

00:21:47Mark Scarborough: So it's going to be your NENDY then, I imagine.

00:21:49Anita: Yes, I think so.

00:21:50Mark Scarborough: All right, well, very, very good. And thank you for having a chat and best of luck on your adventures.

00:21:55Anita: Yeah, love the podcast. Thanks very much.

00:21:58Mark Scarborough: All right, so I'm now here with Event Director Amanda. Good morning, Amanda.

00:22:02Amanda: Good morning, Mark.

00:22:03Mark Scarborough: Welcome back to parkrun, 101 runners today.

00:22:05Amanda: Yes, it's a fabulous turnout for our relaunch. We are thrilled with everyone coming in and re-embracing parkrun.

00:22:13Mark Scarborough: It's been good. I did say at my intro that you guys started in October 2018. It was actually October 2019, but a few interruptions over the last year and a bit.

00:22:23Amanda: Yes, between the flooding river, the bushfires and COVID, we've had to battle through, but the community has embraced it so well. The community here loves parkrun. So they were so looking forward to it coming back. So we're thrilled that we can bring it back weekly now after, yeah, a bit of a hiatus for a little while.

00:22:43Mark Scarborough: And what do you think about that community spirit here in Yass and therefore parkrun? What is that?

00:22:50Amanda: Look, the community out here is something quite different. We love our community out here. Everyone wants to look out for one another and everyone's encouraging one another out here. So having something like this really brings our community together and it's a good social gathering for everyone, but it also promotes that healthy lifestyle and gets that consistency in for people to get out and enjoy our town.

00:23:13Mark Scarborough: And for our listeners, how would you describe how the course runs?

00:23:18Amanda: So we've got a two-lap course. Our course is quite scenic in its beauty. We've got a slight incline when you get about 600 metres into the run. You cross the river and you do a slight incline up to our local high school, public high school, and then you flow right back down onto the river, follow the river around and do it again.

00:23:40Mark Scarborough: the term flow down that's good it's not it is a flow it's a nice as long as you're not rolling down you're okay that's true that's true now it's a good turnout so 101 parkrun is out today and obviously yeah the community is pleased to see uh parkrun back and uh looking forward to more parkruns out here definitely we can't wait thank you very much Amanda thanks mark well parkrun adventurers that's uh mark finishing up here at riverbank parkrun we're out for breakfast at one of the local cafes and looking forward to seeing you next time on the parkrun adventurers for our next adventure

00:24:15Oliver Spake: And thanks, Mark, for that roving report. It's lovely to hear from Yass parkrun and it's lovely to hear that they're having a bit of a nicer summer this year. Obviously, we've had a lot of events go through a lot of things, but what about that? Bushfires, floods. I mean, there's the air quality, COVID, but now they can get back out there and I really, really, really like the sound of a brutal hill. So great to hear.

00:24:39Melissa Ellis: Yes, and how marvellous is Mark? Do you know, Ollie, I don't know if you're aware of this, but Mark, as a roving reporter, he actually has a microphone that he records with that he plugs into his phone. So he stands there and looks all official. This is why I call him Marvellous Mark.

00:24:56Oliver Spake: Marvellous. I like it. Yeah, good style, Mark.

00:25:00Melissa Ellis: And he brought back the top three. He asked Anita what her top three parkruns were. Now, that's a throwback. Scott and Mel used to ask all the guests what their top three parkruns were. I haven't thought about that for a while.

00:25:15Oliver Spake: Yeah. And look, I'm not sure if the home parkrun was in the rules, but hey, Mark's call on that one. And it sounds like he was accepting that one.

00:25:25Melissa Ellis: And Anita from Ginninderra, she's a listener, Ollie. She said she loves the pod.

00:25:32Oliver Spake: Which is fantastic. I mean, Scotty did say there are at least five of them out there, right? So it's good to hear you're listening, Anita. Thank you.

00:25:42Melissa Ellis: What are the odds of finding one of them? That's right. And speaking of Marvellous Mark, I don't know if you saw this, Ollie, but on the Aussie parkrun tourist page just in the last week, we had Mark Mask who dressed up as Richie Benaud for his 222nd parkrun at Bundaberg and he dubbed it the Richie Run. Did you see that?

00:26:05Oliver Spake: I didn't see this one, but it sounds impressive.

00:26:08Melissa Ellis: Yeah, he was full on dressed in a suit and he had his microphone and I think he even had – I'm pretty sure it was a wig. Apologies, Mark, if it wasn't. The team got behind him. Yeah, for anybody who's not a cricket fan, Richie Benaud is a pretty well-known – Australian cricket commentator who had a very particular speech when he used to pronounce, I suppose, his twos, two, two, two. Yeah, that was a great idea, Mark. So well done for doing that. I really liked that.

00:26:42Oliver Spake: Marvellous indeed. Oh, look, and wig or not, it was clearly impressive, clearly very stylish.

The Informant

00:26:49Melissa Ellis: We've got something else exciting this week, Ollie. We've actually got some audio from the informant.

00:26:56Oliver Spake: That's right, Mel. And look, we've come across a little information about the informant's mysterious past. So yeah, a little background, as it were, on the informant, Mel. So yeah, did you want me to share that?

00:27:12Melissa Ellis: Yeah, why not, Ollie? I believe he is a self-proclaimed stat geek.

00:27:18Oliver Spake: Yes, and the name, the informant, there could be a cooler alias, but I guess some stat geeks are a bit too nerdy to spend time thinking about a cool alias.

00:27:30Melissa Ellis: They're not known to be cool, are they, geeks?

00:27:33Oliver Spake: No, no. You can always buck the trend, of course, and I'm not sure I want to argue with the informant. So what we've heard, our informant started as a casual parkrunner in 2013, progressed to be a routine parkrunner in 2014, and then transitioned to be a parkrun tourist at the back end of 2015. In 2016, he became obsessed with the parkrun lists and numbers, everything that a good parkrunner loves, and reached certifiable lunatic status in 2017. He has his green shirt and has run at over 100 locations. He's also flown interstate for visits lasting just a few hours and has been guilty of planning three holidays in different foreign lands just for parkrun. Some time ago, he lived in Auckland and having been there for about three years, he should have a bit better grasp on the Maori pronunciation than some past hosts of the pod. And look, before I go on, that's going to include me soon enough too, I'm sure. Let's listen to our informant.

00:28:42guest: This is the informant. These are all unofficial stats. They may differ from stats you read elsewhere. They are only current at the time they are collected. There are currently 430 events down under. Of those, 32 are in New Zealand, 389 are public in Australia, and 9 are active prison events. An active event is any event that has run in the last 12 months, however. There are some events that are still current but have been on hold for over 12 months, such as Westbury in South Africa, which hasn't run since November 2019 due to sinkholes on course. I will have to change the accounting method soon before I lose most of the world's events due to COVID. At the moment we are the parkrun capital of the world. This week we had 257 events run in Australia and New Zealand. We were joined by 25 events from outside the region in Japan, Russia and Cape Pembroke in the Falklands. All other countries are still on hold. There were 29,536 runners this week, an average of 115 per event. 1,636 of those were first timers. 152 people reached their 50 milestone, 74 reached their 100 milestone, and 14 reached their 250 milestone.

00:30:02[17 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:30:19guest: The next lot of stats might irk the ACT and Northern Territory runners a little, and perhaps the Kiwis a lot. Here in Australia, there is an unofficial sought after status of Statesman or Statesperson, a runner who has completed every current event in a state or territory, excluding prison events. I'm not aware of such a thing over there in Unzud, but I'm going to make one anyway. I'm declaring the North and South Island states because I can behind this cloak of invisibility. Congratulations to Peter Thomson, Gordon Calcino, Stephen Miners, Jay Trevena for joining the ACT statesman list. Claire Marie O'Brien, Matt Costello, Imogen Ryan, Emily Jane Taylor and Christine Hurren who joined the Northern Territory list. Linda Doty completed all of the North Island events at Waikato. Hayden Johnson completed all of the South events at Wanaka. And Aaron Hardy became the only current New South Wales statesman when he ran at Walcha. This has been The Informant, and my spreadsheet is bigger than yours.

00:31:36Melissa Ellis: How awesome was it to hear from the actual informant? Obviously, we have to protect his identity.

00:31:44Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's right. It's obviously top secret. Can't divulge any of that information around identity, around any more than what we've been shared, of course. Thank you to the informant for stepping forward.

00:31:57Melissa Ellis: Yeah, he's done well. Liked the content and self-proclaimed New Zealand states, whether they like it or not.

00:32:08Oliver Spake: Yeah, some bold remarks there. And look, I'm not about to argue with any of the informants' methods or approach there. That's not a voice I want to mess with. Hey, who knew it? New Zealand has states. Yeah.

00:32:23Melissa Ellis: Well, I just make them feel a bit more like a bit more part of Australia, I suppose.

00:32:29Oliver Spake: That'll go down well.

00:32:31Melissa Ellis: I saw a funny meme actually. Ollie, did you see the meme? You know, when we first had the pandemic, but New Zealand, they did so well and they basically got on top of everything, all the COVID really quickly. And there was a lot of envy, I think, coming. Okay, let's reframe that. There was a lot of admiration coming from Australia towards the way that...

00:32:55Oliver Spake: Probably both.

00:32:56Melissa Ellis: Yes. Jacinda Ardern handled everything. And I saw a particular meme where I think Australia was referred to as, okay, where are we geographically from New Zealand? We're west, aren't we? Yes. The West Island.

00:33:08Oliver Spake: The West Island. Yeah. I've certainly been called a West Islander when in New Zealand previously. Absolutely.

00:33:16Melissa Ellis: So you've been there?

00:33:17Oliver Spake: I've been to New Zealand some time ago, sadly pre-parkrun. Beautiful, beautiful area.

00:33:24Melissa Ellis: Wow, you've been to Tassie, you've been to New Zealand, you've been everywhere.

00:33:28Oliver Spake: Well, all sadly pre-parkrun. It's on the list. And look, you know, the last couple of weeks here talking of bubbles, talking of, I mean, Wanaka parkrun, honestly, yeah, high on the list. I have relatives in the North Island there, all Poms, but they're in New Zealand and I can't wait to hit them up for a place to stay.

00:33:51Melissa Ellis: And we've got Steve Darby to visit too now.

00:33:54Oliver Spake: That's right. Yeah. Roving Steve. I can't think of a place in New Zealand I wouldn't want to visit.

00:34:00Melissa Ellis: Well, I haven't been there, but my son, Jake, his girlfriend is a New Zealander from, I think the South Island, because I think she hails from around, is it Dunedin? Yes. I don't know how you say it.

00:34:15Oliver Spake: Yes. Dunedin in the South there. Haven't been to Dunedin, but heard good things.

00:34:21Melissa Ellis: So there's been no announcements from my son and his partner, but the idea has been floated that were they to get married that it would be likely in New Zealand. And, of course, poor thing, like she's stuck here at the moment in Australia. She can't go home. Well, not stuck here. She has us.

00:34:43Oliver Spake: Well, yeah, and your son, of course, yes. Yes. Yeah.

00:34:48Melissa Ellis: Anyway, yeah, she's not able to travel home for a visit at the moment. Chomping at the bit to get back there and, of course, yeah, so I'm a bit excited because, you know, like, oh, excuse to have to go to New Zealand for a wedding. That's right. Sounds like a good plan to me.

00:35:03Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. A couple of week-long wedding would be a fantastic reason or at least one to kick-start a bit of a stay over there.

00:35:12Melissa Ellis: And Paul and I had actually been planning. That's right. Last year should have been our 10th wedding anniversary in 2020, September. And at the start of the year before everybody's plans went south, we had intended on having two week, three weekend holiday in New Zealand. Luckily, we hadn't actually booked, so there was no need to cancel and try to claim refunds. But yeah, that obviously that didn't happen. So definitely looking forward to getting over and exploring that country. Funnily enough, the informant's got a couple of questions that they want to reach out and ask the New Zealanders. He wants to know, are there any events in New Zealand that take place in prisons? So does New Zealand have prison parkruns? So Steve, can you find that out for us?

00:36:07Oliver Spake: Yeah, we need to obviously rustle up another informant or two to help our informant, but that's a curious one.

00:36:17Melissa Ellis: And the other question is... Are there any events in New Zealand that no longer take place? We've got some in Australia. Heirisson Island is no longer an official parkrun. It was started and it was retired. I suppose that's the terminology. What else have we got? Is there a race course? What's the, is it Bourke?

00:36:42Oliver Spake: Bourke Racecourse.

00:36:44Melissa Ellis: Is that the right one? No. Okay.

00:36:48Oliver Spake: Are you thinking of Broken Hill who had to revise their, yes.

00:36:52Melissa Ellis: That's me being geographically challenged. So Broken Hill had an event that had to retire and then they came back as Broken Hill Racecourse. Is that right?

00:37:05Oliver Spake: That's my understanding, but happy to be corrected by the listeners. That's showing my poor following of my own state's parkruns here. So my apologies. That's very bad representation. And if I'm not mistaken, there's another parkrun that has had to recently or maybe even currently rebadge Hobart parkrun. Have you heard about this one, Mel? Yeah. I did. Yeah. Hobart parkrun around the dam there at Risdon Brook had obviously been patiently waiting for their restart but being relaunched under another name.

00:37:43Melissa Ellis: But that is actually the same course. All the history, all the event history attached to Hobart parkrun stays. They just have a name change. It's not a completely new event.

00:37:56Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:37:57Melissa Ellis: So it's a little bit, yeah.

00:37:59Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah.

00:38:00Melissa Ellis: So, yep. Much like we had one in Victoria that was previously called Mornington Peninsula parkrun and they changed their name, still the same event, still the same event history, and they changed to Hastings Foreshore so that it was a bit more representative of their actual location and more in line with the newer naming conventions, I guess.

00:38:25Oliver Spake: Yeah. You think we'll see some more of those changes over time, Mel? Yeah, more parkruns I think so I don't think it's a bad idea yeah I think it's um obviously gives it more of a local feel certainly don't have an issue with a hobart parkrun or anything along those lines but it's still a nice local connection obviously can lead to some pretty interesting names out there as well which uh yeah which is a bit of fun

00:38:53Melissa Ellis: The informant has also let us know that if there's anything anybody wants fact-checked or any requests for stats that you may be interested in to comment on the Facebook post for this podcast, because he'll be watching. Yeah, and reach out and let him know if there's anything you want him to check up or any information you would like to find out. Just put a comment in the post for this podcast and he might come back next week with some answers.

00:39:29Oliver Spake: Very good. I mean, I'm sure the informants' knowledge and access to all of this information knows no bounds. So, yeah, let's see what we can fact check.

00:39:40Melissa Ellis: Can you think of anything to ask him?

00:39:42Oliver Spake: Unlike the informant's knowledge, mine does have bounds. So I'm going to have to think about that. What about you, Mel?

00:39:48Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I probably should think these things out before they come out of my mouth. I could be a bit more prepared. What would I like to know? Yeah, no, I've got no clue. I'll have to have a think about that. I might have my own brainstorm through the week, give him some requests, keep him busy, you know, kind of a slack informant.

00:40:08Oliver Spake: Well, that's right.

00:40:09Melissa Ellis: Could earn his money that we don't pay him.

00:40:12Oliver Spake: Yeah, out of the pod budget there. Absolutely. Well, it is, of course, that exciting time for Victorians, for Victorian parkrunners in particular. Still, like so many others across our parkrun world, Victorians have been waiting patiently to get back to parkrunning. Some have had an opportunity to, I won't say steal across the border, travel legitimately across the border and parkrun. But yeah, I imagine there's nothing like... a local Victorian parkrun, Mel. So dare I ask, are you excited for the return of parkrun to Victoria this weekend, Mel?

00:40:50Melissa Ellis: Excited doesn't even come close. I am just so happy to have life returning to some sort of normality. Even Zoe's excited. She's totally all keen to return and scan the barcode again. She's turned 11 during the pause.

00:41:12Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:41:13Melissa Ellis: That was a big milestone and probably I was surprised at just how much that meant to her to turn 11 because not traditionally, you know, a big event that children look forward to. Not like 10, you know, the double digits or 13, a teenager or, I don't know, 16 and you can get your learners or 18, you can...

00:41:38Oliver Spake: vote or get your license but yeah um obviously yeah in zoe's walk of life 11 is a big thing yeah she was she was she was excited and I think she's looking forward to that first parkrun solo other other than junior of course well yes so I mean I was going to ask Mel where are you going what are your parkrun plans this weekend but should I be saying where's where's Zoe going and what what's her plan so he's going wherever I'm going Okay.

00:42:09Melissa Ellis: So we're heading out to Dandenong parkrun in the southeast Melbourne suburbs. It was one that launched not long before the lockdown during the period where I was away with the fires and wasn't able to get there yet. So yeah, I can, well, technically get my statesmanship status back, but I've got a feeling there may be a couple of other launches in the midst, which probably means that I won't technically get the statesmanship back but you'll be riding riding that cusp of the wave anyway that as we stand right now that is the one of it I'm outstanding so yeah and just to be back amongst my fellow parkrunners is what it's all about my clan my people that's what um I'm looking forward to and yeah heading out to the southeast and visiting the kids afterwards so yay

00:43:04Oliver Spake: Lovely. So you and Zoe, anyone else joining you? Paul making a parkrun appearance? Yep.

00:43:09Melissa Ellis: Yeah, somewhat begrudgingly perhaps at the moment. He's lost his mojo. He really has. Didn't weather the pause as well as others have. Started off really strong joining me in my (not)parkruns, but very quickly lost interest in running around and around the block. He was pretty good-natured with the dress-up, so I can't complain too much. He let me put him into costume week after week after week.

00:43:37Oliver Spake: And again, those brunches are fantastic. Obviously, the pause, the lockdowns have been a challenge and continue to be a challenge for so many. I get where Paul's coming from. There's certainly been some begrudging not parkruns and And Freedom Runs at times, other times of the week that I've made and plenty of weeks where I haven't. I hope he discovers his mojo. In the meantime, I hope there's a nice brunch in store. Hopefully something that is maybe just a fraction as good as one of those Ellis Palace parkrun brunches. And do you have a plan for brunch afterwards was what I was going to ask before.

00:44:11Melissa Ellis: Actually, no, I think we're heading southeast because, well, to do Dandenong parkrun, but also my older kids are out that way. So we'll be heading off to help my daughter move house. Probably won't be much of a hanging around afterwards, maybe a quick coffee at the cafe, wherever that may be. But, yeah, it's pretty close. Dandenong was pretty close to where we previously lived and where my older kids live. So we're scheduling it all in to coincide.

00:44:42Oliver Spake: Well planned.

00:44:43Melissa Ellis: Anyway, Ollie.

00:44:45Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:44:45Melissa Ellis: What about you? Are you going to be at Shellharbour? Yeah.

00:44:49Oliver Spake: Yes, yes, I will be at Shellharbour. At this stage, I may even parkrun, which is going to be a bit of a shock to the system for me. As you noted, I haven't parkrun in quite a while, so it'll be nice to get out and to be on that side of the Barcode Scanner or the phone, as it were, and get amongst it.

00:45:12Melissa Ellis: Relieved of the official duties and free to simply enjoy the beauty of the Shellharbour parkrun.

00:45:18Oliver Spake: Yeah, something I've been looking forward to doing a great deal. Obviously keen to get out and explore another parkrun nearby sometime soon. Yeah, fortunate to have some good help and, yeah, I'll enjoy that. We're getting into the groove, I think, as I said a bit before. And, Mel, I've got to say the app upgrades, I don't know if you've looked closely at the Virtual Volunteer app upgrades, And I know I mentioned some scanning challenges I had because we extra sanitized our tokens, but that app is a dream. I've seen reports of 10 second results uploads. Yeah, well done to the app developers there. So yeah, looking forward to trying that from the reverse angle as well.

00:46:02Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I have actually had the pleasure of having a play with that app and I agree. How easy is it? It's absolutely brilliant. Now, I don't think we touched on this last week because I think this happened simultaneously with the recording. Well, you just didn't tell me, but you've taken over as ED of Shellharbour parkrun.

00:46:24Oliver Spake: Yeah, surprise.

00:46:27Melissa Ellis: Thanks for the scoop.

00:46:29Oliver Spake: Yeah. The lifeblood of Shellharbour parkrun, Mr Brendan Scholarie, has decided that, yeah, it's time to enjoy parkrun, as I said, from the other side of the Barcode Scanner for a little while. Hopefully that means he'll be out there parkrunning a bit, but to step back from being Event Director, the event directorship, I should say. Now, Brendan's obviously been a huge part of Shellharbour parkrun since day dot, he's He's been up there as a solo Event Director from near the start until he took me under his wing and invited me on board to help. So I'm delighted to be able to continue his good work and keep Shellharbour parkrun going.

00:47:14Melissa Ellis: So you were the heir apparent? Yes.

00:47:18Oliver Spake: I did my best. No one can ever replicate the efforts of someone like Brendan. I mean, we had these parkrun heroes throughout, and I know that, you know, we've had parkrun hero campaigns and volunteer campaigns recognising the great efforts, and there are many out there. You know, having lived it now, Brendan might not have been the first person that said hello to me, but he sure was the person that got me hooked and just showed me you know, how delightful it can be to enjoy parkrun from any volunteer role by seeing it through, you know, 300 other people's eyes.

00:47:52Melissa Ellis: I definitely had the pleasure of meeting Brendan in person when we came up for the first palm at Shellharbour place cards. What would you call them? What we held up, Ollie, that we could write our own parkrun on? Our home locations.

00:48:07Oliver Spake: Yes. Yeah. Yes. Placards. I've still got mine. Something to that effect. Yep. Yep.

00:48:12Melissa Ellis: Thank you, Brendan. I've still got it. It's much treasured. We had everybody that had attended on the weekend signed all our place cards. We held them all up, didn't we, at one stage for a photo?

00:48:23Oliver Spake: That's right. I still remember standing at the bottom of Gary Murphy Hill number two and cheering people on. And I don't think Brendan misses a trick. I mean, even Scott Trickett Bridge, which I'm not sure measured even one metre, but it's still got its own place name.

00:48:42Melissa Ellis: I'm pretty sure I've got a photo of you at that Marshall Point on that day with your aviators on.

00:48:48Oliver Spake: Yep. It's obviously people like Brendan and so many others that make days like that special, that make any parkrun day special. And his effort and obviously the fantastic help of all of his family. I mean, we've talked previously of how much a part of Shellharbour parkrun in particular is. you know brendan's whole family is he's clearly going to be missed in that role you know whilst he's he's done over half a thousand volunteer roles you know obviously not over half a thousand volunteer days but uh you know that just shows how hard he's worked in that capacity and is that an official measure half a thousand Well, I'm going off what's my source. I'm not as cagey as our informant in this case, so running achievements app in this case. So times volunteer roles completed, 522. Ah, okay. I'm proud to say I share one statistic with Brendan Scholarie and that is our latest run is Mount Barker on the 7th of March 2020. Oh. Yeah, so hopefully he can add to that and have a bit of a parkrun with the family.

00:49:54Melissa Ellis: Hey, Brendan, if you're listening, I think you need to come out and run on Saturday at Shellharbour with Ollie. I think that's how you both need to do the official handing over of the baton. Run it together.

00:50:07Oliver Spake: Well, not a bad suggestion, Mel. No pressure there, though. I think Brendan might have a better offer. So we'll see. And I'd be delighted if he does have a better offer that takes him on a parkrun.

00:50:18Melissa Ellis: Well done, Ollie, and congratulations. And I'm sure Shellharbour's in good hands and would feel pretty confident that Brendan wouldn't have been handing it over to just anybody. So it's a pretty big tip of the hat to you to take on that role and steer the ship in the post-COVID era.

00:50:36Oliver Spake: It's an exciting time to be getting back into parkrunning. Again, we don't forget how fortunate we are. I certainly look forward to even being a bit of what Brendan brought to Shellharbour. So thanks, Mel.

00:50:47Melissa Ellis: You'll have to find your own spin. You're going to make it your own now. Brendan who?

00:50:54Oliver Spake: That's going to take a little while, yes.

00:50:57Melissa Ellis: Tell the listeners about his number plates on his car.

00:50:59Oliver Spake: Oh, Mr parkrun. Sorry, not Mr parkrun. Sorry, wrong Brendan. What? Yes. No, Brendan, if you've come across, and I'm sure many of our listeners have come across Brendan Scholarie, I hope many more get to. Now he's going to be let loose. Yep, check out his ankle. I think it might be the left ankle and the number plate. You would think you'd notice these things straight away, but we did tweak when Brendan had his new vehicle that it's had a... A number plate very closely resembling a parkrun with a little 05 in the middle of the word. Yes, well and truly in the blood. Excellent. Now, before we go on, and I know we're near the end of the pod, I do have to remind you of one thing because I will forget if I don't say it now, and that's please bring the budgies in off the deck.

00:51:46Melissa Ellis: The budgies?

00:51:47Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:51:49Melissa Ellis: Tell them you forget the budgies. Okay, yes.

00:51:51Oliver Spake: Okay.

00:51:51Melissa Ellis: Bluey and sky. Can you guess what colour they are?

00:51:55Oliver Spake: Bluey and Skye, was it? Would one of them perchance be blue? Maybe both? Yes.

00:52:02Melissa Ellis: Never let kids name animals. That's all I can say.

00:52:05Oliver Spake: Well, I think how old are Bluey and Skye and who named Bluey and Skye?

00:52:10Melissa Ellis: Well, Zoe.

00:52:12Oliver Spake: Zoe. Good job, Zoe. I think Bluey and Sky are fantastic names. And I mean, she's right on the money in terms of the popularity of Bluey. So can't go too wrong there. I know they're not a dog.

00:52:23Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

00:52:24Oliver Spake: All the same. Because I'll admit, we used to have budgies. Sadly, they've moved on. Had them for a number of years. At the time we got them, I was very much interested in ancient history, Egyptian ancient history in particular. So at the time... And that's why my cat's called Sphinx. Maybe that's a bit less ancient history, a bit more just big cat statue.

00:52:47Melissa Ellis: I like that. I like having a really interesting kind of the name's got meaning and it's different. It's not just fluffy. No offence to fluffies. That's right.

00:53:00Oliver Spake: Well, yes. Yeah, sorry, Fluffy. Yeah, all blueys. And look, you know, we've bastardised it. He is Sphinx-y, but yeah, that's him. But our budgies were named Horus and Isis. Of course, that was before that name took a whole different meaning around the world. But yes, Horus and Isis, a fantastic pair that we had, neither of which were blue. Yeah, they were green and yellow.

Sign-off

00:53:27Melissa Ellis: Excellent. Well, I shall promptly go and rescue my budgies from the back deck. And that's it for another week.

00:53:35Oliver Spake: Yes. Thanks, Mel.

00:53:37Melissa Ellis: And I've only got one more thing to say. What's that? parkrun Vic is coming, parkrun Vic is coming.

00:53:40[music]

00:53:44Oliver Spake: It's not very far away. Sorry, everyone.

00:55:53Unidentified speaker: Thank you.