Episode 220 - parkrun fun

Welcome

00:00:24Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 220 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Melissa Ellis and I'm joined by Shellharbour's favourite son, Ollie Spake. How are you, Ollie, and how was your parkrun weekend?

00:00:39Oliver Spake: Thank you, Mel. I'm very well and I had a wonderful weekend. Very nice Saturday morning at parkrun, once again at home, but it was nice to see things from, you know, a different role. Yeah. I took the opportunity to barcode scan this week and we enjoyed one of our fresh-faced URDs taking the reins. So that was really exciting to see someone else put their stamp on the parkrun and just kind of sit back and relearn everyone's names actually because that's my favourite thing about the barcode scanning role is I get to look at people's barcodes. I get to look at their name and particularly after this pause, I get to relearn everyone's names.

00:01:18Melissa Ellis: You are such a good little volunteer, Ollie. Well done.

00:01:21Oliver Spake: Thank you. And probably the most exciting thing in the morning I enjoyed was just seeing some of the milestones. We had one Shellharbour regular who reached 100. And she has been on a quest, certainly through personal change. She's lost a lot of weight as she's parkrun. And she's really taken her Shellharbour parkrunning to a whole new level, I think, chasing that milestone PB. And she got it. I've not seen people actually achieve that milestone PB. I mean, as arbitrary as that is, I've not seen them achieve it very often. But Mel, she got a PB last week of 40 minutes and 11 seconds. And then this week, she was just trying to beat 40 minutes. She came in at 37 minutes 49 seconds. So that was just amazing. With a bit of support from other parkrunners, she was just ecstatic. And dare I mention, that's a pretty magical PB because after I did the calculation, she sliced 2-2-2 off her time. So...

00:02:27Melissa Ellis: Marvelous. Marvelous. I like it. Well done. What's her name?

00:02:32Oliver Spake: That's Liz.

00:02:33Melissa Ellis: Well done, Liz.

00:02:34Oliver Spake: Liz is just fantastic. Well done, Liz. And it was special in a normal parkrun weekend kind of way.

00:02:40Melissa Ellis: I like it.

00:02:41Oliver Spake: What about your weekend, Mel?

00:02:42Melissa Ellis: Oh, the cliffhanger, Ollie.

00:02:44Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah, we're continuing last week's cliffhanger to learn whether or not you did make an appearance at the local parkrun or if you took a, was it a small drive?

00:02:55Melissa Ellis: It was a small drive, Ollie, 577 kilometres. What? I crossed the border and I just had that yearning for an adventure. It had been quite a while since I'd done that solo trip. I've done it a couple of times in the past to Bega and to Wagga Wagga and just really had that desire to chuck my stuff in the back of the car and take the CDs because I'm not that technologically advanced that I have. What is it that people use?

00:03:28Oliver Spake: With the Bluetooth or?

00:03:30Melissa Ellis: Well, that, yeah. I've still got a CD player in my car. Anyway, I like the musical soundtrack, so there was a bit of that going on. I was enjoying a bit of that, singing really loud on my own and, yeah.

00:03:42Oliver Spake: Okay, okay. So dare I ask what musicals get listened to on a trip to Meningie?

00:03:48Melissa Ellis: So I'm a really big Wizard of Oz fan, so Wicked is my soundtrack. Yes, yes. You might notice that my profile picture is the Wicked Witch of the West.

00:03:57Oliver Spake: I was going to say I should have noticed that was an Ellis Palace parkrun special, wasn't it?

00:04:02Melissa Ellis: Yeah, that's the second time that Elphaba has made an appearance at a parkrun or pseudo parkrun. I dressed like that for a Westerfold's birthday one year as well. But anyway, I digress. And also the Jersey Boys had a... I had a showing too, which I really enjoyed, re-listening to some old CD tunes. So, yes, I got to Meningie, which was absolutely fabulous. There was also a couple of launches that happened in Victoria this weekend. So I am no longer a statesman. These things come and go so quickly in parkrun. Two new events this week in Victoria and so, anyway, I wasn't there. But that's okay. I can catch them up another day.

00:04:47Oliver Spake: Back in the chasing pack. Yeah, it's got to happen to everyone at some stage, surely, Mel.

00:04:51Melissa Ellis: Yeah. And you know what I was wondering? I don't know if you've ever wondered this, Ollie. Why do we call them a launch in Victoria when England, they call them inaugurals? So, obviously, parkrun started over there and they call them inaugurals. So, why did we not adopt that terminology? Why are we different?

00:05:12Oliver Spake: Good question. Don't know. Don't know. We'd have to study that one. We do have a bit of a habit of, let's say, adapting, misappropriating, butchering some of our English terms.

00:05:25Melissa Ellis: So the Aussies couldn't pronounce inaugural. We're like, that's too long. Let's think of something shorter.

00:05:32Oliver Spake: Yeah, look, we do have a few differences in terms of our parkrun terminology there. So maybe we'll have to add that one to the collection.

00:05:39Melissa Ellis: Well, let me tell you about Meningie.

00:05:41Oliver Spake: Please. So it's another lake parkrun, just checking?

00:05:44Melissa Ellis: Yes. You know I like the water events.

00:05:47Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:05:47Melissa Ellis: So I was fourth finisher, second female.

00:05:52Oliver Spake: Well done.

00:05:53Melissa Ellis: First in my age category in a field of nine. That's brilliant. Nine people.

00:05:58Oliver Spake: Well done to you and the other eight finishers. I hope they collected some fantastic records there too.

00:06:04Melissa Ellis: Yeah, no, it was nice. Really, it was very enjoyable because so often you're in such a big crowd. You can't always talk to every single person at the parkrun in the field, can you? But when there's nine people, you absolutely can.

00:06:20Oliver Spake: That'd be kind of special, I think.

00:06:21Melissa Ellis: Yeah. And I also really love a parkrun that runs around the local war memorial and the bowlo.

00:06:29Oliver Spake: All the highlights. It's another sampler course.

00:06:31Melissa Ellis: It is. It really, really is. And I really like a parkrun that's also compact. So basically I stayed in the motel, I crossed the road to the parkrun start finish point where the toilets were also located and We ran the parkrun and then we walked back across the road to the bakery next door. Everything was right there. You didn't have to go anywhere. You didn't have to... Get in your car. It was fabulous.

00:06:54Oliver Spake: It's a dream setup, really. Meningie's really got it going.

00:06:57Melissa Ellis: Oh, they do. They've got it nailed.

00:07:01Oliver Spake: So we went to the bakery afterwards, did you, Mel?

00:07:03Melissa Ellis: I did, yes. Excellent. I sat with the locals and learnt a little bit. There were some visitors from Naracoorte parkrun, which I had also been to, so I had a little chit-chat to them about that.

00:07:15Oliver Spake: That sounds like a good morning.

00:07:16Melissa Ellis: It absolutely was. And then I got back in my car and I drove home.

00:07:20Oliver Spake: parkrun fresh?

00:07:21Melissa Ellis: Yes.

00:07:21Unidentified speaker: Yes.

00:07:23Oliver Spake: That's got to be fun. Was it five and a half hours back?

00:07:27Melissa Ellis: It was six and a quarter.

00:07:28Oliver Spake: Six and a quarter, right.

00:07:30Melissa Ellis: But I got home in time for tea, so that was all right.

00:07:33Oliver Spake: Well done, Mel. That's some adventure.

00:07:35Melissa Ellis: Yeah, it was. And that'll do me for a little while because I did wear myself out and I was a little bit fatigued by the end of the weekend. So that'll have to do me for now.

00:07:45Oliver Spake: get to share the adventures and maybe have an off week, have a local week, build up the energy.

00:07:50Melissa Ellis: It was a big week around parkrun.

00:07:52Oliver Spake: It absolutely was. And we were fortunate enough to hear from a multitude of different roving reports across Australia and New Zealand.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:08:02Oliver Spake: So let's have a listen, Mel, and let's start with yours.

Roving report Melissa Ellis — Meningie parkrun

00:08:07Melissa Ellis: Good morning parkrun adventurers, it's Melissa here coming to you from Meningie parkrun in South Australia and I've got with me Jenny who's one of the Run Directors here on Meningie parkrun. Good morning Jenny. Good morning. I have ventured across the border here to Meningie and enjoyed your beautiful parkrun this morning. It's a very small crowd here. Yes, it's often very small. And do you know much about how Meningie came to be?

00:08:36Jenny: I believe you've been around for quite a while here. Yes, I was here at the practice run and the very first one and then the first one when we got back after COVID, yes I've done quite a few we had a fellow that lived in Murray Bridge started this one here that would be Matthew Matthew Billington yes that's Matthew yep and then Matthew moved on to other things and he also it's a long drive for him to come down here every Saturday morning and then we've got angie and Rebecca are the main Run Directors and they sort of organise our messenger group and the Facebook and organise the volunteers and whatever, they keep it going and then there's just a few sort of a core group I guess that take it in turns in doing the volunteer jobs and we all try to run a bit as well. You gave a little course briefing this morning, would you like to describe it again for me? Sure, so our course runs along the foreshore of the lake, two and a half flat course um we just run along a um concrete path with a beautiful lake as our backdrop um yeah five k's five turns that's how we explain it to our visitors it's pretty simple that was a really good description um that really helped me because it was a small course so I was a little bit nervous never sure whether you might um get a bit lost Yes, no, it was pretty tricky. Our original course was pretty tricky and then we did simplify it a bit and yes, it's certainly a lot easier now.

00:10:04Melissa Ellis: I heard you talking a funny story one week. You had a very wet parkrun morning.

00:10:09Jenny: Do you want to tell us that story? Yes, my husband and I both run and we live 50km away and we're the ones who really like to run, the main runners of our main group and then we have a lot of walkers and a few that run walk and and whatever but there's one morning we're coming over and it was blowing a gull and it was raining sideways and I think there might have been a bit of hail thrown in and we thought if we get over there and we're the only runners and we've got these volunteers all standing out there I said we're not running we're just going to pull the pin and we got there and we were the only runners and And we thought, no, we can't make the volunteers stand out here for 25 minutes while we run. So we said we're going straight to the bakery for coffee. So we went straight for coffee. That's very thoughtful of you. Gavin and I did sneak in a run later on, but we weren't going to make him stand out there in the cold.

00:10:59Melissa Ellis: So it's quite unique, your course you start.

00:11:02Jenny: at a giant pelican yes which is a wood a wood sculpture wood sculpture yes it's an old pine tree I think that um yes some artists turned it into a sculpted into a pelican and you run past a statue of an ostrich yes there's a story behind that there's a legend that's There was like a bushranger that used to ride an ostrich around. That's how the legend goes.

00:11:28Melissa Ellis: Does the ostrich have a name?

00:11:30Jenny: It does.

00:11:30Melissa Ellis: I can't remember. I can't remember. I'll go over and read the sign. Yes. All right. And it's on the, we should say, the lake that you're on the foreshore of is Lake Albert?

00:11:43Jenny: Yes, Lake Albert.

00:11:45Melissa Ellis: Lovely. All right. Well, thanks for having a chat with me this morning, Jenny. Nice to meet you.

00:11:48Jenny: Thanks for coming over to our parkrun. No worries. Anybody, welcome. Come to our parkrun. We love visitors.

Roving report Alison Fraser — University of Waikato parkrun

00:11:56Alison Fraser (King): Alison here. Today I've come to the University of Waikato parkrun in Hamilton, New Zealand. Now this event is the 32nd out of our 33 events. It kicked off on November the 7th, 2020. It's in the city of Hamilton, which is in the North Island, and Hamilton has another parkrun, Hamilton Lake, which started six years ago. Now this event is run entirely in the grounds of the University of Waikato and it is usually volunteered by students and faculty members and well mostly those rather than just your regular parkrunners from outside of a university. The start and finish is in the village green which is right by the shops at the university. It's usually quite quiet at eight o'clock on a Saturday morning but let's go and see who we can find. So I'm with Jason McCarthy here at the University of Waikato parkrun. So Jason, do you want to tell us a bit about your parkrun, like your home run, and why you come here?

00:13:02Jason McCarthy: My dog and I, Sam, we started off at Hamilton Lake way back in the last couple of weeks of 2014 and been going ever since. But when he passed away after we'd done 300 runs there, I moved to here, so. But I like it here. It's a nice course.

00:13:22Alison Fraser (King): What do you like about it?

00:13:24Jason McCarthy: It's different to every other one that I've ever done. Because of so many loops and large and small ones, it actually makes you think a little bit more as well instead of going from there. And the course is very tight, which is good. So it will actually restrict the amount of people on the course. It makes it a nice, more informal instead of large ones.

00:13:44Alison Fraser (King): Yeah, well, Hamilton gets significantly more than this parkrun. So has it been a big difference for you coming from that large to a small?

00:13:53Jason McCarthy: No, because when I first started there, Hamilton Lake Day had been going for 10 weeks. So I started there at week 10. And that was the numbers that they're getting here now. And I've just watched it exponentially grow and stuff like that as well. So, yeah, it's nice to see an event grow and be successful. And this one will be exactly the same. They all start off slow and then eventually grow. So it's good.

00:14:17Alison Fraser (King): So aside from the multi-laps, why else should people come and visit this one?

00:14:23Jason McCarthy: Why not? That's half the fun of parkrun tourism, isn't it? Just going around and seeing all the different courses. That's the beauty to a certain degree of the parkrun is the ethos of it is that everything has to have a park somewhere in it. So it just makes it nice and it makes it different. That's what it's all about.

00:14:40Alison Fraser (King): Cool, thanks very much. I'm with Gail Sharp, who is from Dunedin, here at the University of Waikato parkrun. So Gail, what brought you here today?

00:14:50Gail Sharp: The U, to get the U out of the alphabet challenge, parkrun challenge.

00:14:54Alison Fraser (King): You're a bit of a tourist, aren't you? Yeah, I guess we are, yep. How many events have you done in New Zealand?

00:15:00Gail Sharp: Oh, in New Zealand? I don't know. In total I've done 35. So that's New Zealand and overseas.

00:15:08Alison Fraser (King): And what do you like about this course today?

00:15:11Gail Sharp: It's very scenic, variation. Yeah, it's a good course. A nice scenic parkrun course. Ideal.

00:15:17Alison Fraser (King): Did you run it as well as you hoped you would?

00:15:20Gail Sharp: Yes, yes. It's always good to get under 26, and I did, so that was always good. Yeah, yeah.

00:15:25Alison Fraser (King): Cool, thanks very much. Oh, you're welcome. So I'm with Linda, how do I say your last name? Brainer. I'm with Linda Brainer from, well, we've been at University of Waikato parkrun, but where's your home run, Linda?

00:15:39Linda Brainer: Hamilton Lake parkrun, which I've been doing for the last, well, it was my very first one. I've been doing it since 2013, so I've been running around there for the last seven years. Now, every time I come to the University of Waikato, I'm sure I've seen you here. Yeah, I've done a few at the University of Waikato since it started, so probably only about three or four. And today was your 25th volunteering occasion? Yeah, so that's a nice milestone because I've only recently got my 250, parkruns and so yeah so that's it's taken me like seven years to get there to both milestones but yeah no it's all good good fun so I enjoy helping out supporting people it's just a nice um yeah feeling just to be with others and in that social atmosphere so now I've enjoyed it and I'm quite addicted to parkrun so yeah no it's awesome and what roles did you do today Oh, like I started at seven this morning and it took about an hour to set up the course. So I was on course set up, course packed down and we were short of marshalling. So I marshalled as well. So yeah, no, it was all good. Yep.

00:17:07Alison Fraser (King): Cool. Thanks very much. So I'm here with Lex Chalmers, who was today's Run Director. So how did the run go today, Lex?

00:17:16Lex Chalmers: We were lucky with the weather and given it's anniversary weekend I was quite impressed with the number of people who prepared to turn up so that was good to begin with. I did notice that it was the 13th event and we had a couple of withdrawals late last night of volunteers so that put some pressure on from the start but the event ran as per normal. It's a course that you have to give people some fairly explicit guidance for it's a tight course it's a few turns but it's set in a very attractive environment so we thought it was worth doing designing the course that way and now all we have to do is process the results and make sure everybody's happy well everyone got a free run so what's to worry about yeah exactly no charge at all now what's your involvement with the university Lex I've been here at the university since 1974 I've been a lecturer, I've done the admin sort of stuff and so I'm just at the point where I think next month I'm off the roll. So 40, 44, 45 years. So I know the place pretty well physically and in a sense I'm quite pleased given COVID that I'm not involved in teaching undergraduates anymore and I still work with my graduate students, some of them who are now faculty, and I'm writing a lot. So that's the final thing I've got to do. 45 years, didn't think of doing something different.

00:18:50Alison Fraser (King): What's your field of expertise then?

00:18:52Lex Chalmers: I'm a geographer, so I'm interested in maps, I'm interested in drones, I'm interested in satellite imagery and interpretation. But I've found much more recently, after 40 years, I'm turning to a more reflective field, sort of uh writing and I'm writing about something called public intellectuals people who make a contribution on the basis of their thinking and what they're prepared to say to speak truth to power so it's a new area after a career that was predominantly science-based and uh technical now I'm actually able to think I figure I would have been better if I thought at the beginning but I think on the basis of experience you learn something about how the world works and what you need to do to make a difference.

00:19:40Alison Fraser (King): So being a geographer it comes as no surprise then that you've helped set up is it possibly three different parkruns with the courses?

00:19:47Lex Chalmers: I've been involved with three principally, they're all local and it really gives you a good platform when you go somewhere and you're a visitor. People do things differently, people do things better and you're always learning.

00:20:02Alison Fraser (King): So the design of the University of Waikato parkrun, was that all your idea?

00:20:07Lex Chalmers: We had a very nice 5k course and then the university decided to do some major capital works And just about three months before we were going to propose the course become a formal parkrun, we had to start again. So it was needed to be cross no roads, obviously. And the site is quite big, it's quite attractive, but it needed to feature things that made it appealing to people who might visit us. And so the two central lakes were the focus. There's a big sports field. there's a couple of little rises they're not really hills but it meant that we were doing circuits repeat circuits good good thing from a management point of view is it means that we don't need people at a distance we always could see our runners or most of the time we could see our runners and it's uh it's a different style of course than most but it's good yes well thanks

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Mark Scarborough — Varsity Lakes parkrun

00:21:10Mark Scarborough: Hello parkrun adventurers, this is Mark reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew and we've actually crossed the border this week and made it into Queensland and we are at Varsity Lakes parkrun which is a beautiful parkrun set by one of the waters here and I did actually get to do a freedom run here on our travels last year. Today is event number 367 and at Varsity they have an average finishes of 106 And an average finish time of 29 minutes 17. So we'll have a few chats with some people here and have a parkrun. So I'm here with Sharon. Good morning, Sharon. How are you?

00:21:51Sharon: I'm not too bad, thank you.

00:21:52Mark Scarborough: And what brought you to Varsity Lakes parkrun today?

00:21:56Sharon: We've decided to go out and travel around to all of the different parkruns. So this is our first Gold Coast parkrun.

00:22:02Mark Scarborough: And where is home parkrun?

00:22:04Sharon: It's Minnippi up in Carindale in Brisbane.

00:22:07Mark Scarborough: And how far have you travelled for here? Did you come today?

00:22:11Sharon: Yes, it's about an hour's drive.

00:22:13Mark Scarborough: Oh, that's not too bad then, is it? And so you get out much around the Queensland area?

00:22:19Sharon: We've been doing Brisbane Metro. So obviously COVID stopped us in our tracks. So we did a few home runs to start with when it recommenced. And each week now we're just doing a different parkrun.

00:22:31Mark Scarborough: And have you explored any further than Queensland at this stage?

00:22:35Sharon: No, the aim is to get into New South Wales to do my own home parkrun down there. But COVID has stopped that. And then because I'm from the northern beaches, that's all been in lockdown. So that's probably later in the year if we ever get there.

00:22:50Mark Scarborough: Excellent. And what initially brought you to parkrun? Where did it start with you?

00:22:55Sharon: For me, it was my daughter was under 11 at the time and she used to run with my husband. But I felt sorry for him because he had to go a bit slower for her. So I thought I'll dust off the boots and I'll run so our daughter can have a run. But then when she turned 11, she didn't want to run anymore. So I thought I'll just keep going because I'm enjoying it.

00:23:15Mark Scarborough: Excellent. That's good. And you're all doing run down under as well?

00:23:19Sharon: Just my husband and I are doing that. We've been doing that for just under two years now.

00:23:23Mark Scarborough: And where are you in Australia at the moment?

00:23:25Sharon: We've just crossed the border from the Northern Territory into Western Australia. Oh, wow. Yeah.

00:23:30Mark Scarborough: That's pretty good. I started, I think it must have been last year, and I think I'm getting close to Port Macquarie. So I've got a bit of work to do there. That's good. And what about, are you doing any of the parkrun challenges? So like we're here today for our V for the alphabet challenge. Are you doing that at all?

00:23:47Sharon: We're on the 5k app and that's one of the challenges so we don't have a V so I'd be lying if I said we weren't doing it for the letter but we're just going around and if we knock off letters of the alphabet as we go then so be it.

00:24:02Mark Scarborough: All right so you've done a lot of the ones in Brisbane so I'm going to ask you what are the top three parkruns that you visited in the Brisbane metro area?

00:24:11Sharon: Well, we really like Mansfield. My personal favourite, I like Wynnum because I like running along the water. And we'll have to say our home run of Minnippi as well.

00:24:22Mark Scarborough: Excellent. Well, thank you for your time and enjoy Varsity Lakes.

00:24:24Sharon: Thank you.

00:24:26Mark Scarborough: All right, so I've just finished Varsity Lakes parkrun and I'm here with Rhiannon. Good morning, Rhiannon.

00:24:30Rhiannon: Hi, how are you?

00:24:32Mark Scarborough: I'm good, thank you. So where's your normal parkrun?

00:24:35Rhiannon: My normal parkrun's Logan River Parklands, about an hour's drive from here.

00:24:39Mark Scarborough: And so what brought you an hour up the motorway today?

00:24:42Rhiannon: Well, I had to get the V, didn't I?

00:24:45Mark Scarborough: How are you going with the alphabet challenge?

00:24:47Rhiannon: I'm getting there slowly. Yeah, not 100% yet by any means, but getting there.

00:24:52Mark Scarborough: Have you got the next one marked out already in the calendar?

00:24:55Rhiannon: Not yet, no, but I'm proud to say I've got my Z, my Z at Zillmere.

00:25:00Mark Scarborough: Yeah, I think we'll have to organise another trip up to Queensland to tick that one off. And Nambour, I think, is the other one I want to join you to. So what can you tell us about your home parkrun?

00:25:12Rhiannon: It's reasonably flat. We've got a great bridge that you have to run up and over, though. A little bit of shade, more shade than here, actually. And yeah, we roughly average over 200 people. So similar numbers to today, I guess.

00:25:25Mark Scarborough: That's a big crowd and we're from Wagi Bridge parkrun in Canberra and we have a troll on our bridge and the troll likes to get out and explore and so I think the Wagi Bridge troll might like to come to Logan River one day to check out your bridge.

00:25:36Rhiannon: Absolutely, welcome. We have a troll that sits under our bridge and we have a turnaround point on the top of the bridge so yeah, he'll be in good company.

00:25:44Mark Scarborough: We'll have to add that one to the troll's schedule. How did you find Varsity Lakes today?

00:25:51Rhiannon: I liked it. I liked the fact the paths were wide. It was reasonably flat. I really appreciated the cloud cover today, even though it's still hot and humid. Yeah, I liked it. I thought it was good. Good for a wheelchair.

00:26:05Mark Scarborough: And what got you into parkrun initially?

00:26:08Rhiannon: I've always been a bit of a runner, but just a social runner. And a girlfriend suggested parkrun to me. And, yeah, I haven't looked back since. So almost up to my 250.

00:26:19Mark Scarborough: Oh, wow. Congratulations.

00:26:21Rhiannon: Thank you.

00:26:21Mark Scarborough: Well, thank you for your time, and I'm glad you enjoyed Varsity Lakes.

00:26:24Rhiannon: No worries. Thanks. Nice to talk to you.

00:26:27Mark Scarborough: So I'm here with Andrew, who's one of the Run Directors here. Good morning, how are you? Yeah, good, Mark, and yourself? Good, thank you. There's a big crowd today. This is about normal, you think?

00:26:37Andrew: Yeah, we'll have about 160. We've been sitting on that since New Year's, since Christmas. That's about right.

00:26:43Mark Scarborough: Thankful for the cloud cover today. I appreciate that. Coming from Canberra, it's a bit warm.

00:26:47Andrew: Yeah, it's cooled it off a little bit, but it's still humid, so you can still get a good sweat on, though.

00:26:52Mark Scarborough: How long have you been involved here at Varsity Lakes?

00:26:55Andrew: I think event four I started running here, so since the start.

00:27:00Mark Scarborough: That's pretty good. And do you get out and adventure much around the other areas?

00:27:04Andrew: Only if we're not on. I live two kilometres from here, so it's too convenient just to come to parkrun at Varsity Lakes each week.

00:27:12Mark Scarborough: So you've got a few fast runners here, and we were having a chat before about an older gentleman who is a bit quick around the course.

00:27:21Andrew: Yeah, so the other week... One of the guys comes up to us and says, I think there was a mix-up with last week's results. I might have been given the wrong number because my time says I was 36 minutes, and I've never run that slow in my life. We have to remember this guy is 78 years old. All right, we'll have a look. And he said, yeah, my time's 31.40. See what you can do. So, yeah, it was quite amusing. We've got a guy pushing 80 and he's refusing to accept a time of 36 minutes because it's too slow.

00:27:54Mark Scarborough: That's pretty inspiring that we've got some people in the older generations still kicking around at those kind of times. That's pretty cool.

00:28:01Andrew: oh yeah it's good and then when you chat to him and find out when he was a young fella he was a 15 minute 5k runner so yeah it's like he hasn't lost it that's pretty cool what about uh what other stories we got from Varsity Lakes we haven't had any swans for nearly a year or we were off last year because of COVID but we haven't seen any baby swans and ducks recently we'll have to wait till next spring after winter we might see some chicklings it just rolls along sort of uneventful unless you sort of dig into it but I'm not privy to all the good stories

00:28:32Mark Scarborough: That's, I think, also a good sign if things just tick along nicely, I think. You know, that's a good thing about, you know, when you've got parkrun, you've got some good volunteers and everybody just rocks up and they know their role and, you know, there's no dramas.

00:28:43Andrew: Yeah, it does. It's week in, week out. We get averaging 150 week in, week out. course is pretty good it's reasonably quite stable goes under every now and then with the rain but that might be only once every few years yeah there we go the second bridge where we usually the bridge is about a metre above the water we've had that go the handrail is underwater in recent years so we do park swim that week but voluntarily there's too many sharks in this little canal here so you don't swim in it

00:29:13Mark Scarborough: So for our listeners, do you want to give a description of the course?

00:29:16Andrew: Alrighty, we start on Christine Avenue next to Sports House, and we start on the footpath and we then head north up past Aldi and then over two bridges across the small island and then onto the other side of Lake Orr and then we head west along the water's edge, following the water's edge in front of the units, up a hill and then down Varsity Parade and around the corner onto Christine Ave. This is just on a footpath next to Swampland, turn around and then come back the way we came and then continue past the bridges up towards the eastern end of Lake Orr along the boardwalk, turn around and then come back. So it's a T course. Most of it's along the water's edge. It's pretty good. You get to see some wildlife, some fish jumping. Like I said before, swans and ducks. It's not too bad. If you want a fast time, it's reasonably flat with not too many corners, so come on down.

00:30:13Mark Scarborough: Yeah, it's an easy course to do as a Freedom Run as well. I did that last year when we were on our travels and yeah, it was easy to follow the instructions and the map for here. So yeah, that's a good course. I do recommend it when you're up in the Gold Coast.

00:30:25Andrew: There is one we had a first time for New Year's Day, I think it was. It was a chap in a powered wheelchair. So the course is wheelchair friendly.

00:30:33Mark Scarborough: Yeah, I was just having a chat to one of the parkrunners today and she was scoping it out for one of her friends who suffers from MND and she might bring him down and give him a scoot around the parkrun course as well because he volunteers regularly as a Barcode Scanner at their home parkrun. So yeah, you might see them here.

00:30:49Andrew: Well, thank you for your time today and thanks for having us at Varsity Lakes. That's all right, Mark. Thanks for coming.

00:30:55Mark Scarborough: We're finished here at Varsity Lakes parkrun on the Gold Coast and I'll catch you next time on the parkrun adventurers.

Roving report Paul Kitching — Lochiel parkrun

00:31:04Paul Kitching: G'day, it is PK here. G'day, parkrunners, haven't spoken to you forever. Yes, PK checking in for the first time in 2021, first time in months for a roving report because I am adventuring. I am at the awesome Lochiel parkrun and it was lots of fun. Anyway, let's go and find some people to talk to. Here we go. G'day, Louise. Hello. Sorry, interrupting. Hello, Louise. How are you?

00:31:29Louise: I'm good. How are you?

00:31:30Paul Kitching: Awesome. How was parkrun for you today?

00:31:32Louise: I'm trying to get fit again after the COVID shutdown. So I actually did my best run for maybe three or four runs. Awesome.

00:31:40Paul Kitching: So how many parkruns have you done?

00:31:43Louise: I think I'm closing in on 20.

00:31:45Paul Kitching: Awesome. Congratulations. And you've got lots of friends here today, which is good to see. I haven't been.

00:31:49Louise: I love it.

00:31:50Paul Kitching: I haven't been to Lochiel forever, but lovely to see lots of friends, lots of friends of my late sisters, which is lovely. G'day, Penny.

00:31:56Penny: Hi, Paul. How are you?

00:31:57Paul Kitching: I'm great, mate. So nice to see you. How was parkrun for you today?

00:32:01Penny: Exhausting. This is only my second run. Well done. I'm very impressed. We really pushed through. We actually ran today as well as walked. Whereas last week, we just walked.

00:32:12Paul Kitching: Well, good on you. Thank you for coming out. I'm glad that you're enjoying parkrun. And I'm going to go and find... I'm interviewing some other people over here. Interviewing. Chatting. Not interviewing, just chatting. G'day, Vicky.

00:32:22Vicky: Vicky.

00:32:22Paul Kitching: How was parkrun for you today?

00:32:23Vicky: It was good. I broke sub 37 today. Woo! Yes. Loving it.

00:32:28Paul Kitching: How about you, mate? Nick? Nick. How was it today, mate? Good. How many parkruns have you done?

00:32:34Nick: 13.

00:32:35Paul Kitching: 13, awesome. And all here at Lochiel?

00:32:37Nick: No, we've done Packer. We did Cleland one time. Beautiful. That's pretty hard. That's our other one.

00:32:42Paul Kitching: Yeah, Cleland's a bit of fun, isn't it? At least you see lots of... Bike, look out, bike. Yeah, we're at the finish line. And how about you, mate? Sorry, I can't remember your name. Michael. Michael, how was parkrun for you today? It was very good.

00:32:53Andrew: Induced a heart attack, so that's nice.

00:32:56Paul Kitching: I love it. Well done, legends. Hope to see you again. Hello, Sputnik. Do you mind me chatting to you for a moment? No, no. You're an absolute legend. Okay, why not? This is the parkrun Podcast, and this is Sputnik, who's probably been on it before. I don't know. I think I have. Oh, wow. And I'm trying not to take it personally. Well, now's the chance. How are you? I'm good, mate. I'm good. It's always a pleasure to see you out on the parkrun course. I'm not taking photos today. I mean, not officially, but not even casually.

00:33:22Sputnik: Not even unofficially. I took one photo on my phone at the start line, and that was it. Because if it's not on Facebook, it didn't happen.

00:33:28Paul Kitching: Correct, right? You wouldn't know that. Correct. How's 2021 been for you so far, or the 21 days? How many days?

00:33:35Sputnik: I'm just calling it 2020 version 2.0. It's just more of the same, isn't it? It's more of the same, I know. I don't think it's clicked over to a new year. Are we just going to skip 2021 and go straight to 2022?

00:33:46Paul Kitching: I think so, mate. How's your, do you call it a running journey? I don't know. I mean, you're always, you're running.

00:33:51Sputnik: No, it's downhill. Yeah, it's a downhill journey these days. 2012 was probably the highlight.

00:33:59Paul Kitching: Mate, you are known for your fantastic photography. Do you get out here? Is Lochiel a good place to bring the camera?

00:34:05Sputnik: I actually live on the river just a few more kilometres up, so I do spend a bit of time down there taking photos and stuff. Nice. But, yeah, today, actually, just to answer your earlier question, today I just had a day off. Nice. I thought, should I bring the camera out or should I just bloody run?

00:34:18Paul Kitching: Yeah. Just bloody run. Just bloody run, mate. Well, I love that you do that. I will let you go because I know you're probably trying to get somewhere, but...

00:34:23Sputnik: It was so busy this morning that I had to park almost another five kilometres away, so I'm going to go and do another parkrun. It is, isn't it?

00:34:30Paul Kitching: This is impressive. It was good. They're still coming over the line.

00:34:33Sputnik: You know what they did do a good job of? They did a great job of dividing up the start line and these busy parkruns where they say, if you're going to run 20 to 25 minutes, start here or there. I think they did an amazing job. And just kids at home, when they say no spitting on the course, no spitting also means no snot rockets at all. So to the guy behind me who did a snot rocket, perhaps if you could not do that, that'd be great.

00:34:57Paul Kitching: Good call, mate. Good on you, Smart. Great to see you, mate. See you, buddy. Okay, we're now here with Paula. Hi, Paula.

00:35:05Paula: Hello, Paul.

00:35:06Paul Kitching: How are you? And who have you got here?

00:35:07Paula: I have got Leonardo Covinci aka Leo.

00:35:10Paul Kitching: G'day, Leo.

00:35:12Paula: And Leo has hit a milestone, his first 5K run today. Yay!

00:35:16Paul Kitching: Oh, well done. Yes, we love park dogs. Yes. Does he have a barcode? No. No.

00:35:21Paula: Lots of parkrun walks for training.

00:35:23[crosstalk]

00:35:23Paul Kitching: He's got a barcode, yeah. Sorry. Keep it down in the back. Yeah, thank you. They're telling me that he's got a bark code.

00:35:29Paula: Oh, that's funny.

00:35:30Paul Kitching: Yeah. Oh, mate. I'm sorry, you were saying, yeah, so he seemed to enjoy it.

00:35:36Paula: He did. He's done all his training walks, and today he was ready to go.

00:35:39Paul Kitching: Awesome. How was parkrun for you today?

00:35:41Paula: First run in about 12 months, and I'm still talking, so I suppose we're both winning.

00:35:48Paul Kitching: Good on you. I love that you come out, and it's a beautiful, it's great for us and the family as well, isn't it, for all of us to come out and see each other no matter where we are. So, yay. Thank you for supporting parkrun. Good on you, Leo. Bye. Bye. Found another dog to chat to. Woof, woof. Good on you, Paula. Thanks, legends.

00:36:02Unidentified speaker: Bye.

00:36:04Paul Kitching: And here we have the awesome Janet. How are you, Janet?

00:36:07Janet Reid: Great, thanks, PK. How are you doing?

00:36:08Paul Kitching: Great to see you. Here come some people running up. So we're on the finish line here at Lochiel. How's 2021 been for you?

00:36:14Janet Reid: We've got off to a good start. We've got great numbers today. We've just tipped over 300.

00:36:17Paul Kitching: Wow. I know, right? The car park was full. Yeah, yeah. Here comes 301 coming through now. Yep. Here it comes. Yes, sorry, we're just at the finish line. Go, Legends. Well done. And how's life for you?

00:36:32Janet Reid: Yeah, good, good. It's as normal as we could possibly be, making the best of it, enjoying being back at parkrun. Once parkrun started again, things felt good. I think so too, right? It felt normal. We all got normal and human again.

00:36:45Paul Kitching: Well, Janet, you do amazing things for parkrun. Good work being RD today. Thank you. Love your work.

00:36:49Janet Reid: Thank you for having us. Good. And hi to the parkrun community.

00:36:54Paul Kitching: Love it. Good on you, Janet. Thank you, mate. See you. Well done, Kim. Good work, mate. Well done, Michelle. Well done, guys. That is it. That is my really short report from Lochiel parkrun. Just thought I'd check in whilst I can. Great to be back. Great to be back amongst the parkrun community here in South Australia and see it so well supported. Get out there and get amongst it, peeps.

Roving report Cameron Drake — Canning River parkrun

00:37:19Cameron Drake: Good morning, adventurers. Happy parkrun Day. This is Cam reporting in from Canning River parkrun at the Canning River Regional Reserve, right next to, you guessed it, Canning River. This is going to be fun. Speaking of which, I wonder how everyone brings the fun to parkrun. Okay, I'm here before the event and I'm here with Sharon and Richard. Richard, Sharon and Richard. Now, what do you two do to bring a little bit of extra fun to parkrun?

00:37:53Sharon: Sharon? Well, before COVID, I used to give everyone a high five and a smile and a, yeah, go for it.

00:38:00Cameron Drake: Smile and a high five and an encouragement. That sounds great. Richard, what about you?

00:38:05Lex Chalmers: Well, the fun is really at the end of the race for me. Seeing the finish line is fun. Ah. Yeah, because I push pretty hard and suffer a bit.

00:38:14Cameron Drake: So if someone brings some binoculars to bring the finish line that little bit closer, then it'll be all right, will it? That's right. That's a good idea. I'll bring some binoculars next time. Fantastic. Well, thank you very much, Richard, and I hope you have a great time. Thank you.

00:38:27Mary: Hello. I'm here with... Mary.

00:38:29Cameron Drake: And... Penny. Mary and Penny. What do you do to bring a bit of extra fun to parkrun?

00:38:36Mary: My child.

00:38:37Cameron Drake: Excellent. Children are always amusing. This one is climbing through your car as we speak.

00:38:42Alison Fraser (King): Just lots of friends.

00:38:44Cameron Drake: Bring friends or make friends?

00:38:46Alison Fraser (King): Well, we've made friends here, yeah. Excellent. And we used to get into the dress-up thing quite a bit.

00:38:51Mary: Yeah, whenever they'd have a theme, yeah.

00:38:53Cameron Drake: You need a theme to dress up?

00:38:55Mary: Oh, well, yes, that makes it a little bit more fun.

00:38:59Cameron Drake: Oh, when everyone else is dressing up?

00:39:00Mary: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we don't want to dress up by ourselves.

00:39:03Cameron Drake: What's wrong with that?

00:39:05Mary: Tell me. Well, you obviously like it.

00:39:08Cameron Drake: Hey, it made people laugh. It was good. It was worth it.

00:39:11Mary: And memorable, yes.

00:39:12Cameron Drake: Memorable. See, you remembered me.

00:39:14Mary: Yep.

00:39:14Cameron Drake: All right, ladies, well, I hope you have a great time out on the course.

00:39:17Mary: Thank you. Thank you very much.

00:39:20Cameron Drake: I'm here with Bob. Now, Bob, what do you like to do to bring a bit of extra fun to parkrun?

00:39:24Bob: Well, I like meeting everybody. I mean, they are such a friendly mob, so when I turn up here and I just see people and some haven't been for a couple of weeks and whatever, so I guess that's what my fun is, is catching up with everybody. They're such a friendly mob. And I like running too. I'm getting a bit older now, but I like running and that's good fun. And to me, just the area itself, it's just nice running around parkrun. So I guess that's it. I'm trying to think of fun, but I think, well, when I'm running, that's not much fun. But when I finish, oh, it's really good fun. So it's fun when it ends? Oh, yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. I mean, I wouldn't miss it. I just... Really, really enjoy it. I get the chance to catch up with the family as well. So it's just a nice, pleasant morning. That's fantastic. And the steepest parkrun in the world did that in New Zealand. Yeah, that was very interesting. But yes, we have all around the world. Well, fantastic. Well, thanks very much and I hope you have a great event today.

00:40:26Cameron Drake: You're welcome and thank you. Thank you. G'day, I'm here with... Owen. Excellent. Now, what do you do to bring a bit of extra fun to parkrun?

00:40:36Owen: Well, what do I do? I don't know. Sometimes I do the photography down here. Volunteering, excellent. Yeah, exactly. Apart from that, not much more.

00:40:46Cameron Drake: What else is there to see? That's it. Volunteering is the funnest activity. Gentleman with the red hat, what's your name? Peter. Peter. Now, Peter, what do you do for a bit of extra fun at parkrun?

00:40:57Peter: I just try and keep up with Richard. He's a very fast runner. He's about 65, but he's just so swift. So that's my aim is I just try and stay in his slipstream. And you've already interviewed him. Oh, excellent. That I have.

00:41:10Cameron Drake: So just trying to beat your PB is rewarding. Just try and challenge yourself a bit each week, eh? That's right, mate. Fantastic. Sir? I'm Michael. Michael. Michael. What do you do to bring a bit of extra fun to parkrun? I must say I'm one of the person who don't think running is fun. Join the club. It's hard work. It is hard work, you're right. You are very pleased afterwards and the fun part for me is to talk and chat to all the people around. So making friends and socialising with everyone is the highlight of your parkrun experience then? Yes, definitely. So if you could just take the run part out and we could just stand around talking while sweaty, that'd be perfect for you? That's actually a good idea. I didn't think of them myself. Well, with the way Perth summers are going, I think we can do that every other day of the week as well. Look, thank you, fellas, for having a chat and I hope you have a great time. OK, thank you. Bye-bye.

00:42:01Andrew: I'm here with Andrew. Andrew is the Run Director today. How are you going, Andrew? I'm wonderful, Cameron. I had a wonderful run this morning. Everybody did what they were supposed to do in terms of runners, and I had a wonderful volunteer team. Everything seems to have gone smoothly. I saw the veritable army of volunteers on the list before I came. Five marshals on course. Really? It's a single-loop course, and we don't want to lose any single runner. To date, we've never lost a... Well, yes, actually, we did lose a couple of them. Oh, we did lose one. Yeah, not today, though. Not today, is it?

00:42:30Cameron Drake: Well, I've got to say, I think without the Marshals there, I would have definitely veered off into regions unknown. But I heard you say you've got a few parkruns and volunteers under your belt. What was that all about?

00:42:41Andrew: Well, you probably guessed from my accent that I'm a pommy. No. So I was blessed to be living near Bushy Park when it started. Oh, lucky duck. So my barcode number is number 122. Oh, 122. Claim to fame. The lowest, I believe, in Australia by that. Oh, so you were there just about when it began? Well, about 12 months after it started, I think, was my first run. But it was early days. It wasn't even parkrun then. It was Bushy Park Time Trial. So what was the vibe like back then? Was it similar to what we have today, or has it evolved a lot? Yeah, the actual atmosphere was exactly the same as it is today. That's been retained. The organisation was a bit different there. You didn't need a barcode. You'd turn up and give your... Firstly, just your name, and then it was name and date of birth, and then they went to metal finishing, sorry, that was with metal finishing discs. So it wasn't until some time into it that the barcodes came about, but yeah, obviously the barcodes make it far more efficient now. Sure does. Makes it easy, especially with all this app business that we've got now, isn't it? It's wonderful. As an RD, it's so easy to get the results out promptly. Gone are the days where we used to spend hours jiggling the data. Oh, it's brilliant, isn't it?

00:43:57Cameron Drake: We used to have a competition to see who could process the results before coffee came at the coffee shop. And now it's too easy. We try and have a competition to see who can process the results before the volunteers have left.

00:44:08Andrew: I'm not sure I'll be able to achieve that, but yeah, it's good to have a target.

00:44:12Cameron Drake: So I've been asking people at your beautiful parkrun what they do to bring a bit of extra fun.

00:44:17Andrew: What do you do to bring a bit of extra fun to parkrun? I guess I enjoy the pacing aspect in terms of we used to pre-COVID have pacing days and so made a lot of friends through that, helping people out that way. Oh, everyone will get along the 5.30 bus and try and keep up? Indeed, yeah, and you meet people on that day that go on to say hello for years to come, so it's good. Oh, that's fantastic.

00:44:43Cameron Drake: Look, thank you very much for the chat, and thanks for putting on a lovely event. I love all these bridges. I think I got photos of every single one, except for the last one when I was running a little bit too fast. I might go back and take a photo. All right, thank you very much. My pleasure, Cameron. Nice to meet you. Thanks, you too. Well, gang, that's it for me from Canning River parkrun. It is a beautiful course. If you're a fan of bridges, I thoroughly recommend making the short trip out this way. Before I let you go, you know, I've been hearing a lot of talk about statesperson, territory person, country person, if you're a top or a bottom in New Zealand. And, you know, I... I just had a question, and I think the question can be handled by the so-called informant whose spreadsheet is bigger than anyone's. I'd like to know if there is another parkrun region anywhere in the world... that has two parkruns further apart than, say, Kununurra and Margaret River, as we have in WA. And if not, well, then I think perhaps statesperson in WA means slightly more than, say, in some other self-proclaimed greatest state, which could fit inside Western Australia 10 times with change. Riddle me that, Mr or Mrs Informant.

00:46:07Melissa Ellis: Oh, controversial cam. Ollie, I think we've let the genie out of the bottle. So here are my thoughts on this topic. I do understand how WA may feel a little in awe of the greatest state and all its events, which incidentally puts us third behind Queensland and New South Wales in total events. I too have felt a little envious of the UK and the amount of events they have in an area comparable to Victoria. It's all relative to how long parkrun has been around in that country. We all know Australia continues to grow with new events and the reason that they are more concentrated on the eastern seaboard is probably relative to population density. So here's my view on how it should be judged. To decide where it is the most difficult to attain statesman, territorial or countryman status, we need to calculate the distance from home and back to every parkrun in said state, territory or country. The combined kilometre total across all parkruns would then become the measure. However, even within a state, this would vary as some people who live away from city centres where the parkruns are concentrated are at a disadvantage. For example, TOC would have travelled more kilometres to gain his title than I have. Adding to this is the issue of whether it should be measured as the crow flies or as a drivable route, because as we've discussed previously, there are often mountain ranges which get in the way and complicate matters. So of course we take Cam's point and look forward to coming up with the answer to his question. All our discussions are of course in good humour and not intended to cause any offence, only maybe good-natured rivalry. So let's wait and see what the informant can come up with.

00:47:56Oliver Spake: Let's, let's look. I agree, Mel. And I think, I think your methodology is, is quite solid there. It's, you know, that nice, nice mix of objectivity and subjectivity, maybe. It's a difficult one to measure and it's a whole lot of fun to debate. I look forward to hearing from the informant and I personally can really only sit back in awe and say, well done to all of you, really. But Mel, I will add, we have heard from the informant, so maybe we better have a listen.

the Informant

00:48:31The Informant (unnamed persona): This is the informant. These are unofficial stats. They may differ from stats you read elsewhere. They are only current at time they are collected, with a 100% chance of an error from time to time. There were three event launches worldwide this week. Fair Park Reserve and Lewis Hayman Park launched in Victoria, and Trentham Memorial launched in New Zealand's North Island. The South Island has not launched an event since October 2018. Has anyone knocked on their door for a welfare check recently? 440 events ran worldwide. We had 407 events run in Australia and New Zealand, up from 404 last week. Down under we had 54,298 runners this week, which is down a smidge. Average attendance was 133, a slight decrease on last week's 135. We had 6,845 PBs and 273 people reach their 50 milestone, which are post-COVID bests.

00:49:32[13 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:49:45The Informant (unnamed persona): There were 2,952 first-timers, 120 reached their 100 milestone, and 17 people reached their 250 milestone.

Statesmen update

00:49:55The Informant (unnamed persona): For statespeople in the ACT, we have 10 new. Ashley Slomka, Brendan and Noah Codrington, Greg Lloyd, Jack Daniel, Elliot and Jared Webb, Alex McConnachie, Yvette Turner and Steven Jolliffe. In the Northern Territory we have Ellen Lawson who ran Nightcliff. While in Tassie we have Laurie and Neville Snook who ran at Owl Park. Over on our Most Aussie New Zealand Events list, the biggest moves of the week have jumped up six places each. Kevin Rogers has moved from 204 to 198 at SS Cooper Trail Kerry Holder and Araya Udungchai have both moved from 196 to 190 Kerry ran at Sandgate while Araya ran at Broadbeach Waters Now it seems I have finally received a worthy challenge loyal listener from Western Australia took time out from bleating about how East Coasters steal all the GST dollars to argue that WA is the hardest state to become statesman. And I guess for the 16.4 people who live in Kununurra, this is true. But let us consider life for the other people who live in WA and centre around Perth. We'll assume I live at the airport. There are 40 events I need to travel to and return. The total distance I need to cover, as the black swan flies, is 13,157 kilometres. Impressive, until it is taken into perspective. The helmeted honey eater from Victoria would have to travel 19,474 kilometres from Tullamarine to get statesmanship. The New South Wales kookaburra, a.k.a. laughing jackass, has just covered 37,508 kilometres, scoffs at such a paltry number. Ha! Poultry. God, I kill me. But up in Cane Toad land, the Brolga is still having trouble getting around all of its 109 events, which requires a staggering 61,135 kilometres from Brisbane. Time for loyal listener to go back and play in the sand. For the record, South Australia has 5,942 kilometres, Tasmania 4,532, ACT 179, and the Northern Territory is just going to walk it with 50. This has been The Informant, and my spreadsheet is bigger than yours.

00:51:48[laughter]

00:52:28Melissa Ellis: Oh, the informant is getting some attitude, Ollie. I think we'll just let those two sort it out themselves.

00:52:36Oliver Spake: Yeah, I think that might be wise. But what I did like, Mel, amongst all that controversy was there was a lot of fun in those roving reports and all kinds of fun. And Cam, we absolutely love a bit of Channel 5 News team parochialism, but you did a fantastic job in also capturing the fun at Canning River we noticed you were at. Thank you for sharing that with us and also getting us a wide variety of different volunteers there. And probably the main thing I noticed was that amongst all of that fun, there's quite a lot of parkrun suffering going on.

00:53:17Melissa Ellis: They just don't really want to run. They just want to have the parkrun fun without the running bit.

00:53:22Oliver Spake: Which, I mean, just as well, we have some healthy options when it comes to volunteer roles. There's a balance, but yeah, I do like a bit of parkrun suffering myself. So it was nice to hear.

00:53:32Melissa Ellis: Yeah. And Cam, I liked your question that you asked everybody. How do you bring the fun to parkrun?

00:53:39Oliver Spake: Yeah. We hope to hear more parkrun fun, of course. And look, we did hear some more parkrun fun. It was nice to hear from PK as well, obviously having a bit of fun down at Lochiel, hearing from some familiar voices out there and some voices that maybe we haven't heard too much from. We'd love to chat more. Please don't be a stranger, including Leo the Park Dog. Well done on your first parkrun, Leo.

00:54:03Melissa Ellis: Yeah, but Ollie, who is Sputnik? We didn't really get an explanation from PK. I think you need to come back, PK, and give us some more background on Sputnik.

00:54:14Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:54:14Melissa Ellis: He seems like he may be a well-known character over there, but we don't know anything about him.

00:54:20Oliver Spake: Yes, more Sputnik, please.

00:54:22Melissa Ellis: And are we going to touch on snot rockets, Ollie, for perhaps our international listeners, if there is one, who might not understand that Australian term? Is it an Australian term?

00:54:36Oliver Spake: I'm not sure, but what I will say, it's the second time, if I can call this this weekend, I mean, we're still talking parkrun, so technically it's still parkrun weekend. It's the second time this parkrun weekend I've heard snot rocket mentioned in a parkrun context. So, hey, if it's an Australian colloquialism, it's a popular one.

00:54:54Melissa Ellis: Maybe we better just tell them to Google it.

00:54:56Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:54:57Melissa Ellis: Leave it at that.

00:54:58Oliver Spake: Yeah, stick to the text, not the image results.

00:55:01Melissa Ellis: Shout out to Janet. Hi, Janet. Nice to hear you.

00:55:04Oliver Spake: as it was with Mark taking us across the border in his northerly trajectory up at Varsity Lakes and some interesting troll scheduling going on there. We'll look forward to hearing about the adventures of the Wagi Bridge troll and the other trolls that it meets along the way.

00:55:20Melissa Ellis: He's ticking off some alphabet letters on this holiday.

00:55:23Oliver Spake: Yeah, I noticed a few alphabet challenges out there. V and U, some popular letters to pick up. Good work, Mark. Keep it up. I'm sure you're due a rest. I hope you're looking forward to a rest back at home and make an appearance back in the territory.

00:55:37Melissa Ellis: Yep, and more parkrun tourists listing their home parkrun in their top three.

00:55:41Oliver Spake: Love it. I'll certainly always list mine. So, hey, let's keep that trend going.

00:55:46Melissa Ellis: Oh, where's that again, Ollie? Where's your home parkrun?

00:55:48Oliver Spake: Yeah, it's the parkrun that shall not be named.

00:55:51Melissa Ellis: Shall...

00:55:53Oliver Spake: That's exactly right, Mel. And Alison reporting in again. So great to hear from Alison for two weeks running.

00:56:00Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Let me do this one. The University of Waikato.

00:56:03Oliver Spake: Well done, Mel. I was ready to butcher that. And just you wait. I've got one to butcher shortly. Obviously some great supporters of the parkrun there and nice to hear a bit of parkrun background from Lex, the Run Director on the day. Obviously has a strong history with the university and the parkrun course and I like a bit of a sampler. I'm not sure if I can put it on the list. I've got a developing list over there in New Zealand.

00:56:29Melissa Ellis: I could leave my U until my New Zealand trip. And then I could double up, get a country and an alphabet letter at the same time. That's a good idea.

00:56:38Oliver Spake: I think it's a plan, Mel. And look, reassuring there is that you've got a geographer to give you the complex course description. It's definitely one to try.

00:56:46Melissa Ellis: Is it anywhere near Puarenga? What's the geothermal one?

00:56:51Oliver Spake: Ah, Puarenga. I don't know. And that's as far as my New Zealand geography goes. It's on the North Island. Sorry, Alison. We'll have to explore it much more. Now, on Alison, she has reached out to us. Alison has been looking at that snazzy term for countrymen. Mel, so are you ready?

00:57:12Melissa Ellis: Yep. Do your best, Ollie.

00:57:16Oliver Spake: So Alison, it might help if you record it in an audio report sometime soon, just to correct it for the listeners, because I'm not going to do it justice, but an Aotearoa, the Maori term for a New Zealander. So what could be more appropriate than that? And it's certainly a club we all need to aim for, no matter how many parkrun events it takes to join it.

00:57:37Melissa Ellis: Yes, because that is just arbitrary. We don't really, we don't even really mind. And I think you did a really good job of pronouncing that. And I do apologise for my chihuahuas little toenails just tripping into the room just then.

00:57:46[other]

00:57:52Oliver Spake: It was almost perfectly timed. It could have been a drum roll.

00:57:57Melissa Ellis: That's how I work the sound effects in.

00:57:59Oliver Spake: Yeah. Well, I'm competing at this end, Mel. We've got the storm rolling in. So stay tuned. We'll have some more impromptu sound effects, I'm sure. What I should ask you, Mel, is how was the rest of your weekend? How's juniors going?

00:58:01[other]

00:58:13Melissa Ellis: Oh, juniors was great. We had 46 kids this weekend, Ollie. That was a massive jump from the week before, so we were really excited to see that many little smiley happy faces.

00:58:23Sharon: That's lovely.

00:58:24Melissa Ellis: And I had an absolute full roster, which allowed me, and I wasn't RDing, so that freed me up to be out on course to see the kids actually enjoying the run, which was the first time I'd had that opportunity. Oh, I have to tell you, my little friend who runs up to me every week and tells me what number she is.

00:58:41Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:58:42Melissa Ellis: The first week she was number 19 and the second week she was number 11. She was so excited. Her name's Abigail. Now, Abigail came running up to me when I got back to the finish area and Mel, I was number 36.

00:58:58Oliver Spake: That's awesome.

00:58:59Melissa Ellis: I just love it. She was way higher than the previous week, but she didn't even care. She just couldn't wait to tell me. I love you, Abigail.

00:59:08Oliver Spake: It's nice. Nice way to celebrate the result. It's the highest number she's achieved. So well done, Abigail. It's just lovely to hear that enthusiasm.

00:59:16Melissa Ellis: That kid is a glass half full kid.

00:59:18Oliver Spake: We look forward to hearing how Abigail goes next week.

00:59:21Melissa Ellis: Maybe I'll get a roving report from Abigail. I'll see. I'm on it.

Sign-off

00:59:25Oliver Spake: If you want to get in touch with us, you're welcome to, whether it's controversial or just to say hi.

00:59:32Melissa Ellis: Yeah, poke fun at us or take exception to what we say. Yeah, sure.

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

00:59:40Melissa Ellis: If anybody out there is interested in sending in a roving report, we'd love to have them. Or if you'd just like to drop us a line, send us an email. We have an email address, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. And I don't think we've mentioned that before, Ollie, but it's probably a helpful thing to give the listeners.

00:59:56Oliver Spake: I think so. It's nice to hear all kinds of correspondence. So yeah, it'd be lovely to hear from anyone. If there's something on your mind, if you've got some adventuring suggestions for me that are maybe just a little bit achievable, I'd welcome that when I finally fly the coop. But more than anything, just love to hear from you. If you're parkrunning or if you're not, please keep in touch.

01:00:20Melissa Ellis: Are we done for another episode?

01:00:21Oliver Spake: I think we might be. It's been a massive episode with Roving Reports. It has. And I think we need to give the listeners a bit of a break.

01:00:29Melissa Ellis: Well, let's sign off for now and we'll see you all next week.

01:02:39Unidentified speaker: Bye.