Episode 227 - Smorgasbord

Welcome

00:00:22Oliver Spake: Welcome to episode 227 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. I'm Ollie Spake and I'm joined by the third fastest Ellis this week in the field. That's not accounting for other parkruns that I didn't actually check.

00:00:37Melissa Ellis: Melissa Ellis. Ah, they did beat me this week, Ollie.

00:00:43Oliver Spake: They did, they did.

00:00:44Melissa Ellis: Good pick up.

00:00:45Oliver Spake: How are you, Mel?

00:00:46Melissa Ellis: I'm good, thank you. How are you?

00:00:48Oliver Spake: I'm well, thanks. I'm well. And you, I saw you came last.

00:00:54Melissa Ellis: Yes, I did. But that was my job this week, Ollie. I was the Tail Walker at Toolern Creek parkrun. Fantastic.

00:01:01Oliver Spake: Well done. How was volunteering at Toolern Creek and chasing a very familiar pack too?

00:01:07Melissa Ellis: It was really good. So the exciting thing for me was I got Paul and Zoe to Saturday 5k parkrun. And that is something that hasn't happened since the first week that we came back from the pause.

00:01:20Oliver Spake: That's fantastic. Well done, Paul. Well done, Zoe. It's awesome to have you back for all the different milestones and achievements we've been celebrating. That's a pretty cool one.

00:01:29Melissa Ellis: It was nice. We were there as a family. They had a lovely father-daughter walk. I had a couple of really lovely photos of them walking hand in hand, talking about their, I don't know, some sort of random computer game that they both partake in that goes over my head. Wow. I cramped their style a little bit when I caught up to them and wanted to talk about other things other than computer games, but that's okay.

00:01:57Oliver Spake: That's all right.

00:01:58Melissa Ellis: And it was a beautiful morning down at Toolern Creek. I spotted a couple of roos in the paddock.

00:02:02Oliver Spake: That's good. A bit of wildlife. And look, I was actually confused because when I saw that you were at Toolern Creek, but I saw another reference to you being at Gnomeville parkrun, I actually had to take a second glance. I should have known there wasn't maybe a Gnomeville parkrun. Yes, you saw gnomes too.

00:02:19Melissa Ellis: I should explain. So it's a new thing post-pause for Toolern Creek at the turnaround point. We have a little family of hand-painted gnomes that inhabit the trees as a little point of interest for the walkers and the runners as they come down our course, done by, I believe, one of our Run Directors, Tiani. And, yeah, it's a nice little point of interest. There's a little chalkboard there that does say Gnomeville parkrun or Welcome to Gnomeville parkrun. And they're growing. Every time I visit, there's one or two more gnomes popping up along the trail.

00:03:00Oliver Spake: You've got to watch these gnomes, Mel. They're mischievous things. So, I mean, is it not risky having the gnomes at the turnaround point? I trust there's some other way to know the turnaround because I don't trust the gnome.

00:03:11Melissa Ellis: Well... What are they going to do, steal the turnaround flag or something, maybe?

00:03:19Oliver Spake: I should give context.

00:03:20Melissa Ellis: Is it like a pot of gold? They're like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

00:03:24Oliver Spake: It's all sorts of things. No, my mother-in-law collects gnomes and, yeah, she's got some pretty mischievous Finnish gnomes. So I don't know if it's just that breed, but, yeah, it sounds like a risk.

00:03:38Melissa Ellis: You know, after the other year when it was on the Bingoe card for Streaky Sipped Miba, that we had to find a gnome on a streak. I realised there was not enough gnomes in Meltown. So I actually went out and bought a gnome for my garden to increase the contribution for the local community of gnomes. You can't have enough gnomes.

00:04:03Oliver Spake: That's very thoughtful. But hey, look, they were pretty cool. And another question, Mel, did I see you waved back?

00:04:11Melissa Ellis: I did. Yes. Oh, well, I didn't. I made Paul and Zoe wave back.

00:04:14Oliver Spake: Oh, okay. All right. Yes.

00:04:16Melissa Ellis: Yes, because, yeah, for context, Ollie.

00:04:20Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:04:20Melissa Ellis: In my Ellis Palace parkrun every week when I ran the course at a certain corner of I could look across the road and view the Toolern Creek parkrun trail. And we would stop at that corner each week and wave. Well, we were at Toolern Creek parkrun. So we waved back across to Ellis Palace parkrun.

00:04:45Oliver Spake: Isn't that lovely? It's like looking in a mirror. Yeah.

00:04:48Melissa Ellis: Oh, well. Keeps us amused.

00:04:50Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:04:51Melissa Ellis: But, you know, going back to the gnomes.

00:04:53Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:04:54Melissa Ellis: I think you would appreciate the potential when you're trying to, I won't say drag little kids along the entirety of the course, but maybe encourage children to the turnaround point of an out-and-back course. Having something at the turnaround point like, oh, we're nearly there. We'll see the gnomes.

00:05:14Oliver Spake: The furthest most point.

00:05:16Melissa Ellis: I think, you know, it's only a good thing.

00:05:19Oliver Spake: Yeah, look, that is quite wise, actually. It sounds like and it looked like a lovely day.

00:05:24Melissa Ellis: It was. It was a beautiful morning. And I had a friend who was there for her very third parkrun. Yep. She had come along to Toolern Creek. Having been new to the area and knowing all about parkrun, I think through seeing my social media posts, And I said, well, I'll be there on this certain day and I'll be the, you know, come along on this day. I'll be there volunteering. Well, she didn't wait for me. She came straight away and she was up to event three by the time I was there. Nice. I know.

00:05:57Oliver Spake: Straight into it, two feet in. That's excellent. So she's clearly enjoying Toolern Creek. She is. And it was great.

00:06:03Melissa Ellis: But Ollie, what about you? Give us an update. Where were you?

00:06:09Oliver Spake: I was in a very familiar location. Okay. I was all prepared for the big wet. So it's been and continues to be quite a wet week. Hopefully by the time this podcast is out, we've seen that ease and a lot of people's situations improve. But on the East Coast... I'd say north of Sydney or Sydney and north right up towards the Queensland border and probably a bit over it. It's just been raining and raining and raining. And yeah, we had expected that for parkrun day morning. We'd seen a few cancellations. We were wondering if it was going to be cancelled and just quietly we're all pretty stoked to be running in the rain because kind of enjoyed that too. But yeah, I think we had some disappointed people as it wasn't raining at parkrun morning. at home there. So yeah, the big wet wasn't wet and we had a slightly reduced crowd, but yeah, we filled the volley roster, had a few people just slip into the roster from the event team and I had nothing else to do. So I got to run. That's pretty cool. Yeah, it was great. My legs still hurt. So training has obviously gone out the window, but I got a bit excited and ran around the course as fast as I possibly could because I thought it was going to start raining. And yeah, just took it all in.

00:07:30Melissa Ellis: That's really good. Now I am aware of the flooding, which is quite serious. New South Wales has got some emergency situations. The eastern part of the state is underwater. Calling in the emergency services. I know on the news tonight Victoria sent up some emergency services calls personnel to assist up there with the floods. It's pretty concerning seeing what's happening up there. And yeah, I hope that the rain subsides pretty soon for you guys.

00:08:06Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's right. I mean, my neck of the woods, it's just been wet. We've had some occasional flooding, but nothing as severe as the biggest in decades in parts of Western Sydney and obviously further north there. So Hope everyone's safe. The parkrun courses will recover. But yeah, people's safety first and foremost. Yes, and some drier weather to come.

00:08:27Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I think it's heading our way.

00:08:29Oliver Spake: Yes. It was maybe a subdued parkrun day as a result. I think numbers were down generally, but there were still plenty of people out getting their parkrun on, Mel. And we've had another fantastic bunch of roving reports.

00:08:44Melissa Ellis: I know. We heard from Sir Toc, who reported in from Cascades on Clyde Wetlands, and Marvellous Mark from Braidwood Showgrounds. I saw Mark in some gumboots.

00:08:58Oliver Spake: Yes, so, yeah, the weather well and truly reached Braidwood there, a bit of the wet.

00:09:03Melissa Ellis: And Lyndell came to us from Maleny, how do you say it, Ollie? Maleny Trail?

00:09:08Oliver Spake: I'm going to say Maleny, yes.

00:09:10Melissa Ellis: Okay. Well, let's have a listen now.

00:09:13[15 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Tony O'Connell — Cascades on Clyde Wetlands parkrun

00:09:27Tony O'Connell: Howdy parkrunners, Toc reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew. Today we've ventured up to Melbourne's southeastern suburbs and we've come to a town called Clyde, or Clyde North. We've come to Cascades on Clyde Wetlands parkrun. It's a fairly new estate here. The houses are just mushrooming up around us. I've been told there's approximately 5,000 people into this area last year alone. So the town's really exploding. The parkrun itself runs around a bit of a wetland, But we're about to go for parkrun, so we'll grab someone and have a chat after we've had our run. Cheers, guys. Howdy parkrunners, we're here at the finish line and I've got Natalie with me. Natalie is a fairly unique person in that last night at 8.30 you didn't have a barcode, you'd never signed up for parkrun and you're here in the fluoro today rocking the fluoro top and photographer.

00:10:20Natalie: Yep, yep. Photography is a bit of a hobby of mine so when I had the tag on Facebook from a friend of mine who normally does the Cascades parkrun she She tagged me to see if I could help out because we just live around the corner. And I'm like, oh, you know, she goes to the photography or marshalling. I said, well, if you need a photographer, let me know. I'll put the camera on charge.

00:10:44Tony O'Connell: Your friend's tagged you today and then she's gone off adventuring. She's not even here.

00:10:48Natalie: No, she's not here at all. She's off helping out down at one of the other parkruns volunteering.

00:10:53Tony O'Connell: Awesome. It's really great to see you out in the orange and welcome along to parkrun.

00:10:57Natalie: Thank you. And hopefully I'll have a chance to walk the parkrun. The partner's out walking the parkrun today. Excellent. He'll probably pass out later, but yeah. So yeah, we just thought we'd live around the corner. We may as well give it a go.

00:11:08Tony O'Connell: Yeah, no, volunteering is a great part of parkrun. Well done.

00:11:12Natalie: Thank you. Thank you.

00:11:17Tony O'Connell: Howdy, guys. We're at the end of Cascades here. We're sitting around the kids' park, and I've got a couple of locals with me. Guys, what's your names? I'm Glenor.

00:11:26Chantal: I'm Chantal. Hi.

00:11:28Tony O'Connell: And you're local to the area here?

00:11:30Chantal: Yes, we are. I'm just local down the road.

00:11:32Tony O'Connell: So how many parkruns? We're week three at Cascades. How many have you been to?

00:11:37Chantal: This is my first one. Mine as well, here in Australia. We've done parkruns back home in South Africa, so we're looking forward to start here.

00:11:46Tony O'Connell: Oh, sweet. Excellent. We've got a bit of ambition to get to South Africa and do a couple. There's a couple of name ones that I want to go to, just to get the name on my list. I want to go to Cannibal's Cave and Piggly Wiggly.

00:11:58Unidentified speaker: Yes. Oh, yes. That sounds awesome. Check that box. Yeah. No, you need to go down and do the Comrades Marathon.

00:12:05Unidentified speaker: Okay.

00:12:06Tony O'Connell: I have seriously thought about that. I'm trying to work out whether I do it in an up year or a down year. So what brought you along to Cascades today?

00:12:17Chantal: decided well as Chantal said we were doing it back in South Africa so we just thought that we'd need to start up again yeah yeah get our feet moving so how many parkruns have you done each of you um well I've done back at home around maybe only just 25 or so so fairly new to it yeah and at a few different events uh mainly at the same um event or same spot okay which one was that uh what is it called uh oh gosh I don't remember the name of the complex that we were in so yeah just turn up and do parkrun it's a good thing about parkrun you can just turn up you know where to go as long as you've got a bike you're laughing and what did you think of the course out here today oh I think it was a nice And it's nice the volunteers showing us which way to go, making sure that you're not cutting any corners.

00:13:15Tony O'Connell: And it's got a couple of nice little bridges and a couple of boardwalks and that on it, which are really nice on a parkrun. We always love our parkruns that have got a bridge on them.

00:13:22Chantal: Yep.

00:13:22Tony O'Connell: All right, guys. Well, I think we might head off to coffee. Thanks for the chat.

00:13:28Chantal: Thanks so much. Thank you so much. Enjoyed it.

00:13:33Tony O'Connell: Howdy, parkrunners. We're here enjoying a lovely coffee and breakfast down at the cafe, and I've got Michelle with me. Now, Michelle, I've known you for quite a while. You were down at Hastings, which was formerly known as Mornington Peninsula. Correct. And now you're up at Cascades. Tell me a little bit about the Cascades course.

00:13:51Michelle: challenging and different it's got a couple of u-turns beautiful scenic it's a it is path and boardwalk we do like to call it soft concrete you know because a lot of people don't think well they think oh it's all concrete path now we're not going to do that one but now we call it soft concrete

00:14:10Tony O'Connell: You've got a nice little bridge and that to cross over to over the wetlands. That's actually quite a nice course.

00:14:15Michelle: Isn't it? It's just... And you can look out. We've got a couple of swans. And I also like to think... I found a pelican as well. I like to think he's just come over from Hastings to look over me. Just follow you over? Yeah, and then just probably report back and tell them what I'm doing. Um... But no, it's just the ecosystem just out here is just gorgeous, with it being a new community as well. So nice.

00:14:44Tony O'Connell: So the area around here, it's exploding as far as number of houses around. There's people out and around the path everywhere. So you'll slowly reel them into the parkrun family?

00:14:54Michelle: Hoping to. Slowly. We can get them there. It's... Look, people see us and they ask, which is really good. Or you can say, you know, we're from parkrun. Do you like walking? Do you walk the path very often? Yes, they do. Well, why don't you come and join us every Saturday morning? And they're quite happy to go home and register. As you've seen this morning, you know, we've... You know, we've got a few community there.

00:15:21Tony O'Connell: We're a bit longer, but, hey, we're only three weeks in, so... And I was really blown away by the fact that you had someone that got messaged at 8 o'clock last night, they registered at 8.30 and then volunteered at 8.30, so their first ever parkrun's a volunteer that they didn't know about at 8 o'clock last night.

00:15:38Michelle: didn't know the rules, just knew absolutely nothing. She lives, you know, 500 metres down the road. But to actually do that and then put your hand up, you know, for a photographer, which you can... Really hard to get people to do. I was just amazed. And that was why I thought she needed that special mention this morning because I just thought that is just the epitome of getting out there and doing... And just helping out. Yeah.

00:16:03Tony O'Connell: You describe your course as challenging, but I think it's got a couple of U-turns on some out and backs, but I actually found it pretty good. I really like those sections where you're running into such a diverse group of people coming the other way that you get to, you know, encourage and... That's right.

00:16:18Michelle: And do you know what? Isn't it a shame that we can't high-five? Yeah. Yeah, but look, we'll get back to that once. But it's nice to say, and people like that encouragement. You know, they might be sort of back of the packers and they might get lapped, but it's the seeing the other people, you know, and the fact that we have to actually do the two laps. You just get sort of people everywhere on the park.

00:16:41Tony O'Connell: And from your finish line, you look out over the lake, basically, and you can see three parts of the course from the finish line. You can.

00:16:48Michelle: You can. That's the beauty of it. I didn't... Probably until we did our second trial, I didn't realise that that's what you could actually envisage up there. But to see, you know, sort of those two parks, you know, people finishing, then sort of people on that front park and then people on the Boulevard... Just stacks. It's great. Cool.

00:17:12Tony O'Connell: Well, tell me a little bit more about the Michelle, the tourist Michelle. How many events have you done and how many different places have you been to?

00:17:20Michelle: Not many. Not many? Not many. I think I might have done about half a dozen different parkruns.

00:17:28Tony O'Connell: Okay, so you love your home event?

00:17:30Michelle: Yeah, I was Hastings girl for such a long, long time before I sort of... got the gumption to start this one. But I was one of those parkrunners that had the barcode for six weeks and could not bring myself to get out of the car. I couldn't do it. I was petrified. And I did one day at Hastings and... welcomed with open arms and that's where it all started, you know.

00:17:55Tony O'Connell: You've just got to get out of the car, don't you? You do, you do.

00:17:59Michelle: That's just it. And, you know, and the parkrun community itself is so embracing of everything and everybody.

00:18:07Tony O'Connell: Yep, and every pace too. It's not about the pointy end, is it? No. It's everybody.

00:18:11Michelle: It's not, it's not. And I look at it, you know, people say, oh, but I can't run. Well, you don't have to. And you're going to get more enjoyment out of walking The first couple of runs. And if you want to give a little bit of a shuffle in, all the better. But if not, walking. Just as good. Forward's forward. Yep.

00:18:30Tony O'Connell: That's the way I'll look at it. Your run briefing this morning, I absolutely loved it. You were full of life. You were full of vigor. You had everyone champing at the bit to get to the start line. That was brilliant.

00:18:41Michelle: Well done. I like to see it, as much as I'm only supposed to have two minutes, I like to see it as it's a get up and go. This is exciting. This is parkrun. Well, you did pump the crowd up. Work everybody up.

00:18:54Tony O'Connell: Everyone said, let's go to the start line. It was almost like a race. Everyone started their Garmins to get to the start line.

00:19:00Michelle: Yeah, I know. Everybody was a little bit over in their time. That's probably why. But, yeah, and just to see all those people, yeah yeah just see all those out there lined up ready to go and the dogs and the mums and the dads with the prams you know it's it's I thought it a little bit challenging for the the mums with the prams but like she said we just make it work yep yeah oh that looks like you're building a great little community already week three and it looks like it's going really well it's a really fun event to get to and uh breakfast has been really good well worth the venture over the road Oh, Steve, the manager, has been amazing. So accommodating. So accommodating. Look, we've got our own little space just for parkrun.

00:19:39Tony O'Connell: He puts a big space aside for parkrun, has their own parkrun special menu and specials for parkrun.

00:19:44Michelle: And he didn't know parkrun, anything about parkrun, five weeks ago. Yep. You know, it's just we've educated him. All right.

00:19:52Tony O'Connell: Well, thanks for your time, Michelle. Great event.

00:19:54Michelle: Loved it. And I'll be back. Thank you very much.

Roving report Mark Scarborough — Braidwood Showgrounds parkrun

00:19:59Mark Scarborough: Hello parkrun adventurers, this is Mark reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew and we've driven down the road from Canberra to Braidwood to the Braidwood Showgrounds parkrun and it's the first time that I've worn gumboots at parkrun and I'm actually Run Director here today and I'm here with the ED, Kelly, good morning.

00:20:19Kelly - Event Director, Braidwood Showgrounds parkrun: Good morning, how are you doing?

00:20:21Mark Scarborough: I'm good, first off, happy birthday.

00:20:24Kelly - Event Director, Braidwood Showgrounds parkrun: Thank you. Happy 26th birthday, thanks, I appreciate that Mark.

00:20:28Mark Scarborough: It looks like, you know, there's certainly some encouragement for a lot of Canberrans to come down to Braidwood and celebrate your birthday with you today. But I'm not sure with this weather many people will actually turn up.

00:20:39Kelly - Event Director, Braidwood Showgrounds parkrun: I'm surprised anyone's turned up. It's freezing and it's pouring down. But so far it's all Canberrans. God love you lot. You're great.

00:20:48Mark Scarborough: The last time that I think we were here, we did also have another rainy day. We're all huddled underneath the umbrellas for the run briefing, but we won't be doing that today. We'll keep our social distancing going today. So how's Braidwood parkrun been going over the last couple of months since the restart?

00:21:05Kelly - Event Director, Braidwood Showgrounds parkrun: Actually really well. Good morning. Really well. It's going really well. We've had to have two weeks off because there were things on at the showground, but Apart from that, it kind of came back into full force as much as Braidwood does. So no, it's been really good. And good catching up with everyone again too.

00:21:22Mark Scarborough: Braidwood's a small town. What does this parkrun mean to the community of Braidwood?

00:21:29Kelly - Event Director, Braidwood Showgrounds parkrun: I think mainly it's just something that's here constantly. There's nothing in Braidwood, as in there's no gyms, there's nothing really that's there for people to go to on a regular basis. So parkrun's that stable that's here every Saturday, rain or shine. Yeah, it's just something we can all get out and have a chat and enjoy. Yeah, it really does bring the community together. It's really lovely.

00:21:53Mark Scarborough: Now, I know you've done some other parkruns outside of Braidwood. Without naming Braidwood in this, what is your top three parkruns?

00:21:59Kelly - Event Director, Braidwood Showgrounds parkrun: Oh, talk about putting me on the spot. Oh, jeez. I really enjoyed Gungahlin. What have I done? Lake Macquarie. Lake Macquarie was beautiful. I really enjoyed Mount Ainslie, Batemans Bay, Goulburn. Okay, I've gone past three. I love all of them.

00:22:23Mark Scarborough: All right, thanks for your time. We'd better go. All right, we better go set up. Thanks, Kel.

00:22:29Kelly - Event Director, Braidwood Showgrounds parkrun: Thanks, Mark. See you soon.

00:22:30Mark Scarborough: All right, I'm at the finish line here with Lauren. Good morning, Lauren. How was your parkrun?

00:22:36Lauren: It was a little bit wet. Yes, wet today, but good fun being out there with everyone.

00:22:41Mark Scarborough: This seems to be a pattern for when we come out to Braidwood that we also bring the rain.

00:22:45Lauren: Yeah, it does seem to be a trend. I think the locals might not be so keen on us coming from now on if that's the pattern that we bring.

00:22:52Mark Scarborough: Maybe when there's a drought, we can come back.

00:22:54Lauren: Yeah, yeah, they might be up for that, definitely.

00:22:57Mark Scarborough: All right, so today there was a bit of a volunteer takeover, which you organised. Well done. What was your inspiration behind organising this takeover and how did it all work?

00:23:08Lauren: So Braidwood had a rough year in 2019. They had been going through drought, a farming community, but then they also were surrounded by fires for four months and their parkrun couldn't go ahead because of all the smoke that was happening. And then, so we came out in February last year and we brought the rain with us. There wasn't that many locals and we thought, how about we come out again and we'll fill their roster so the locals can have a run, um they're not just standing in the rain for us to come out and have a run and we plan to do that a week um this week a year ago so the week that covered shut everything down for everyone for quite a period of time so when things started happening again in Canberra um we ran into Kelly and her husband who Kelly's the Event Director out here and we kind of started the idea again of how about we do what we planned to do a year ago how about we come out fill the roster let the locals have a run and we'll be the volleys for the day.

00:24:10Mark Scarborough: And put the word out through our local Gunrunners group and here we are, got the Gunrunners and people from Gungahlin parkrun and Wagi Bridge parkrun to come fill the volunteer roster.

00:24:20Lauren: Yeah, so yeah, no, we've had a very dedicated team because we did have to move it a week as well at very short notice because Braidwood couldn't do their event last week. And yeah, very committed team that have come out today to support, yeah, the local parkrun community out here.

00:24:35Mark Scarborough: Yeah, it was a good idea because, as you said, it is a small parkrun group here and it's the same people that tend to volunteer, which we see a lot of parkruns. But, yeah, for these guys it's very small and they don't necessarily always get to mark up a parkrun. So it was a good initiative. Well done. And let's go get some coffee and hot breakfast, eh?

00:24:51Lauren: Yeah, sounds good. Sounds good to warm up. Thanks, Lauren.

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Maleny Trail parkrun

00:24:56Lyndell Murray: Alrighty parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell and this morning I am checking in for the Channel 5 News crew from Maleny Trail parkrun. We have twisted and turned and climbed our way up through the fog and the mist and we're in the Sunshine Coast hinterland up on top of a hill on top of the Blackall Range at Maleny to check out a relatively new parkrun, parkrun number 14 today at Maleny Trail. So I'm going to do a bit of investigating and adventuring today. The trail runs through the trees adjacent to the golf course here in Maleny. And I have it on pretty good authority that there are platypus viewable from the course. So I'm going to test out that theory. I've never actually seen a platypus before. So I'm going to give it a go, see if I can find some wildlife and yeah, check in with some of the parkrunners after we run. Okay. So post parkrun, I have caught up with family McKenna. What's your name?

00:26:03Matthew McKenna: Matthew.

00:26:05Phoebe McKenna: Amanda. Phoebe.

00:26:07Lyndell Murray: Now, Phoebe, you did a special thing today. What happened today? You wore a cape?

00:26:13Phoebe McKenna: Mm-hmm. Why did you wear your cape? Because I was doing a 50, my 50.

00:26:19Lyndell Murray: 50th parkrun, high five. I can't do a high five anymore, can I? That's no fun. We'll just have to make a sound effect. Alright, high five. Now, how did it feel to run your 50th parkrun? Good. And do you run here all the time? Most of the time, yes. Yep. And have you been to other parkruns too?

00:26:23[other]

00:26:38Phoebe McKenna: Mm-hmm.

00:26:40Lyndell Murray: And what do you like most about parkrun?

00:26:42Phoebe McKenna: Because we can run a lot. Yep. And we can... Do whatever we want. And you have fun?

00:26:56Lyndell Murray: Yeah. Awesome. Okay, so Family McKenna, 50 parkruns, but Maleny's only been going for 14 weeks. So what other parkruns have you been to? What's your parkrun story?

00:27:07Amanda McKenna: We started in Bathurst, New South Wales, and then we moved up here to Queensland and we've been adventuring. We've done Glasshouse. Baringa, Golden Beach, Kawana, Nambour, Mudjimba.

00:27:21Matthew McKenna: Tourist stuff has been of late. We've done Hobart and Devonport as well. Down central New South Wales there was Orange and a few others. Mudgee, I think we did Mudgee. So we've kind of tried to make the most of whenever we've travelled incorporating a parkrun and knocking out as many as we can.

00:27:40Lyndell Murray: All right, well, so I found some kindred spirits here on the parkrun adventurers. So as adventurers, what would you say are your favourite three parkruns that haven't been your home?

00:27:51Matthew McKenna: We did one at Newcastle. I can't remember. I started with a bee. I think it was pretty phenomenal in the trees. Blackbutt. I believe it was Blackbutt. It was really quite exceptional.

00:28:01Amanda McKenna: And it has emus in a cage inside the parkrun. And it's all undercover canopy. It's really pretty.

00:28:07Matthew McKenna: It's really, really beautiful.

00:28:08Amanda McKenna: It's a special place in our heart because that's where we started. I got my 50 there. Your 50s are always special, aren't they?

00:28:16Lyndell Murray: All your milestones. Yeah.

00:28:17Matthew McKenna: And then I guess it's, you know, we do a bit between Glasshouse and Maleny, but both of these ones, even though we're sort of fairly new to the area, they both hold a special place for us because they're so pretty and both have a lot of good canopy, which is great in summer.

00:28:33Lyndell Murray: fantastic yeah so I've come up from Brisbane and I run at Bunyaville which is the same there's lots of trees there but a lot of the courses there are all on the river and on the bay and it's just hot as so it was lovely being up here in the mist and the cloud and the forest yeah definitely yeah definitely that's one of our favourites and especially through summer it's nice to find the shady ones Alright, so what's next? What's your next adventure going to be?

00:29:00Amanda McKenna: I want to get Ocean View done because we're trying to chase the alphabet challenges and our NENDY as well. So Phoebe needs to get an O, so we're going to go do Ocean View and that's our closest, our NENDY. Get your mountain climbing shoes on for that one. Yeah, I've heard. But we're moving to Yeppoon at the end of the year, so we're going to be locals to Yeppoon and Rockhampton, and we'll do a bit of travelling up there like Emerald and wherever else.

00:29:27Matthew McKenna: We'll knock out a few others out in the heat, no doubt, Central Queensland.

00:29:32Lyndell Murray: You should. I reckon you guys might be showing up on the statesman list before you know it.

00:29:37Amanda McKenna: Maybe.

00:29:38Lyndell Murray: I haven't looked at it. It's everyone in Queensland, so get on to that, I reckon. Oh, yeah.

00:29:43Amanda McKenna: Yeah. We travelled to Cairns area like July last year, but of course it was still all shut down. We could have got our Y up there. Yungaburra, but yeah. Anyway, we'll get there.

00:29:56Lyndell Murray: All right. It is. It's an adventure. It's just so much fun. So thanks for talking to us today on the podcast and happy parkrunning. Cheers.

00:30:04Unidentified speaker: Thank you very much.

00:30:05Lyndell Murray: Thank you. Thank you.

00:30:06Unidentified speaker: Bye.

00:30:10Lyndell Murray: Alrighty, so I've caught up with today's Run Director, Anita. How are you going today? You're multitasking here, handing out watermelon and being interviewed.

00:30:21Anita: I'm going okay. It was a very early start. It was very dark and it was very misty, but we got there okay. The weather held out for us, which was fantastic. It sure did.

00:30:29Lyndell Murray: I actually packed a change of clothes today because I thought it might just rain on me. But it was a very foggy drive up to Maleny today. Is that a normal experience here? Yes, it is.

00:30:42Anita: You got the full Maleny experience. Yes, you sure did. We live in the clouds, which is a beautiful place to be.

00:30:50Lyndell Murray: Now, you're relatively new here. Week 14, I believe it is.

00:30:56Anita: Yes, we kicked off in December. Yep. And what's that been like getting a new parkrun up and running post-COVID? Well, it fell mainly to a beautiful woman called Jo Turner who's done most of the hard yards and she's done a fantastic job, but it wasn't easy. It took her a fair while. It's been a work in progress for a couple of years now, I believe. So, yeah, she's done a fantastic job and it's going solidly. So, yeah, no problems once we got over the initial hurdles. Yep.

00:31:25Lyndell Murray: It looks like your volunteer board is pretty full, so you're obviously getting some support here in the community.

00:31:30Anita: Yeah, we've got a really nice local community and we've got a good pool that we can call on whenever we need to, which is great. Including yourself, Anita. Yes. Now, are you a runner as well? Yeah, I run, I try and do sort of every other week. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I really enjoy it. And on my volunteer weeks, I just often run the course afterwards.

00:31:47Lyndell Murray: Yeah, fantastic. And have you done much adventuring? Since we are on a parkrun adventuring podcast, have you touristed to many other parkruns?

00:31:56Anita: I have only really done the Sunshine Coast ones. I've got young children, so I don't get further afield very often. But, yeah, no, Jo, the Event Director, he's trying to convince me to do some more sort of broader trail running and stuff as well, which should be fun. She's got one called The Gladiator coming up that sounds terrifying, but she's trying to talk me into that. It's called the gladiator. It sounds frightful. But that's what I said. And then she said, oh, no, you just dress up as a gladiator. And I thought, well, that could be kind of fun. So that's coming up soon. So watch this space.

00:32:28Lyndell Murray: And how did you get into parkrun? If you've done some on the Sunshine Coast, have you been doing it for a little while? Yeah.

00:32:33Anita: Yeah, I have. So I got just word of mouth, really. And I just really like the concept. So I work as a GP during the week locally. And I just love the idea of prescribing it to my patients. It's a social thing and a really great thing for fitness. Yeah.

00:32:47Lyndell Murray: So how do your patients take that? I mean, I don't want to do any confidentiality here, but is it well received?

00:32:52Anita: They get terrified about the word parkrun. And I said, no, but you can do a park walk.

00:32:56Amanda McKenna: And then they sort of go, oh.

00:32:59Anita: So, yeah, once they realise it's not necessarily running, it's generally really well accepted. And, yeah, we've had quite a few turn up, which is really lovely.

00:33:08Lyndell Murray: And do you prescribe it for the social benefits as well? Have you said to anyone, just come and volunteer?

00:33:13Anita: Yes, yeah, I have. Well, I should probably do that more. But, yeah, I sort of encourage them to do a bit of both. Yeah, but you're exactly right. Yeah, I mean, we get a lot of, you know, volunteering can be so enriching as well. So, yeah, no, it's wonderful. It's absolutely fantastic. I love the concept.

00:33:26Lyndell Murray: Excellent. Well, thank you, Anita, for everything that you've done here for parkrun. Now, these ladies here are scanning. Should I nab them while I am here? I think I should. What are your names and how are you today? I'm Sue. And I'm Alice. And you are holding the fort here, scanning everybody in. Here comes a customer for you right now. How have you found being at Maleny parkrun?

00:33:50Sue: Love it because I live here so I don't have to drive down the coast. It's nice, it's on our doorstep. Waited a long time for it and very happy it's here.

00:33:58Lyndell Murray: So Sue, you've done other parkruns before Maleny started? I have, yes I have. Have you got any favourites or key highlights?

00:34:05Sue: Um...

00:34:07Anita: Well done, guys.

00:34:08Sue: Not really, no. I just love them all. They've all got something to offer. They've all got something different.

00:34:14Lyndell Murray: I reckon that's 100%. They're all different and they all bring something special to the community and to runners, yeah. All right. And Maleny parkrun's going pretty well, going really really well loving it loving it did the first one and it was just brilliant and now it's just every week it's just so good so I'd run it and then other weeks I just volunteer so try and mix it up a bit fantastic that's great and how about you do you run and walk as well no I don't this is my second time as volunteering and I'm not able to run or walk the 5ks but I'm enjoying volunteering Fantastic. And have you... So you'll come more and come every week or...? Hopefully, most weeks, yes. I was put onto this by my son who does the run most weeks. Oh, that's terrific. Well, I hope you continue to enjoy your volunteer experience.

00:35:05Sue: Shall we scan the tail runner?

00:35:07Lyndell Murray: Oh, hello. We're still... It's all right. We're OK. I realise that I'm multitasking here. So volunteering you found... And have you found it easy?

00:35:16Anita: Yes. And everyone is so helpful in explaining things. Very easy and very friendly.

00:35:24Lyndell Murray: That is fantastic. So thank you for volunteering and thank you for your contributions to parkrun in general. And we'll hopefully see you again sometime. Alrighty adventurers, that is a wrap from Maleny Trail parkrun. I realise I didn't really talk much about the course. It's lovely. There's, you know, a bit of everything, a bit of concrete, a bit of cross country, beautiful trail through the forest up here in Maleny, look honestly do yourself a favour get up here check it out um it's a lovely you know fairly small little park one I had 76 finishes today so definitely friendly and happy and you know love having tourists here so check it out and I will sign off now for the channel 5 news crew

00:36:11Oliver Spake: And thank you to TOC, Mark and Lyndell for the roving reports. It was, I think it was kind of special there, Mel, to see that effort at Braidwood Showgrounds. I was searching for the name there for a second, but at Braidwood Showgrounds, that was a lovely gesture, the takeover there on Kelly's birthday too, to take over by the gun runners and the ACT parkrunners there and give them a day to enjoy their own parkrun.

00:36:40Melissa Ellis: Yes, Ollie. Shower hats and gumboots.

00:36:43Oliver Spake: Yep. I mean, you would have thought it was actually a birthday theme with a nice dress up like that.

00:36:47Melissa Ellis: I know. I'm pretty impressed. And Mark was down there, what, guest RDing, by all accounts.

00:36:54Oliver Spake: Yeah. Nice work. Nice work. And look... Great volunteering all round. It was lovely to hear of the fresh new volunteer photographer from TOC and some nice stories from parkrun all round. And I have to say congratulations, Lyndell, on another event. Got to be happy with a new event. Yes.

00:37:14Melissa Ellis: And, Ollie, we had some...

Dazza's

00:37:17Melissa Ellis: more posts, some more attendees at Dazza's Cafe this week.

00:37:22Oliver Spake: Yeah, it was nice to have a bit of company there.

00:37:24Melissa Ellis: And one of them was Marvellous Mark. Yes. Who said, Gumboots at Braidwood Showgrounds, parkrun today, being Run Director. And there was a photo of Mark wearing his lovely gumboots. And it did make me wonder, is there a precedence for a gumboot parkrun has anybody run a parkrun in their gumboots like I've seen people do them in thongs and barefoot but you know is is there a a club for gumboot running for gumboots I think it's going to have to be a discussion point at next week's Dazza's cafe to be perfectly honest but I haven't seen any surely it's got to have happened surely there are some some crazies out there that have tried that I feel compelled to go and get myself a pair of fancy gumboots. Might come in useful at juniors.

00:38:14Oliver Spake: Yeah, I mean, hey, look, there was even Gumboot Envy out there. So Jason McDonald at Ashgrove there wanted to borrow Mark's gumboots as well. So I think Mark's a bit of a trendsetter now.

00:38:25Melissa Ellis: Could be. But my friend and yours, Chris Fraser, he was at Sandon Point this week, Ollie. He was, he says, went back to my original parkrun, Sandon Point, wet, like most of New South Wales, but big turnout regardless. Old parkrun, but new bakery. Black diamond, black, bully a solid four plus lamington dessert I had a shoelace tying fail today don't think I've had one of those before cost valuable seconds now I'm going to have to run again next week would have been a nice consistent pace run for an undulating course except for the shoelace That rookie mistake.

00:39:08Oliver Spake: I can feel the pain there, Chris. I can feel the pain. But, look, sounds like the snacks afterwards made up for it or more than made up for it.

00:39:17Melissa Ellis: Double knots, Chris.

00:39:20Oliver Spake: Yes. Yeah. I can't remember the last time I didn't die a double knot, but I, you know, Chris will learn. Chris will learn. Speaking of learning, Mel, I don't want to be the pronunciation police here. Bulli.

00:39:32Melissa Ellis: Oh, I was going to say that. What's black diamond bully? Bulleye. I don't even get the reference.

00:39:39Oliver Spake: Bulli, Bulli. So Sandon Point is neighbouring on Bulli. And so location in the northern Wollongong, Illawarra area. Beautiful spot.

00:39:48Melissa Ellis: Oh, and what's Black Diamond? Is that the name of the cafe?

00:39:51Oliver Spake: Yeah. New Bakery by the sounds of it. Yes, yes.

00:39:54Melissa Ellis: Oh, okay. Oh, it's all making sense.

00:39:57Oliver Spake: That's it. And rated four stars on debut.

00:40:00Melissa Ellis: Right, okay. So for future reference, Ollie, you can read out the New South Wales related comments.

00:40:09Oliver Spake: Noted, noted.

00:40:10Melissa Ellis: And I'll stick to the Victorian ones.

00:40:12Oliver Spake: Sorry, Mel. All right, well, here's my first attempt. A biblical ark run at Mosman today. No a-doubting it. Thank you, Simon Mackley.

00:40:22Melissa Ellis: That's not really a stretch.

00:40:25Oliver Spake: I think I'm getting stitched up here. Yeah, one I'm pretty familiar with. But that did look wet. That did look wet. I didn't know whether, you know, the yachts had moved or the harbour had shifted. It was wet there.

00:40:37Melissa Ellis: Yeah, Mosman had their own lake going on. Yeah. For the cheaters. Shout out to the dirty cheaters.

00:40:43Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:40:44Melissa Ellis: Okay, and we had Bruce Purdy at Goldfields Reservoir, one hell of a brunch at the Bull and Mouth after one heck of a PB at the Goldfields Reservoir parkrun and so lovely to see water in the reservoir too.

00:40:57Oliver Spake: Nice work, Bruce. Indeed. Yeah, well done. Congratulations. Yeah, and it is nice to see some of our water bodies filling up. That is an absolute positive of what we're seeing with the weather contrasting what we saw a year ago, that's for sure, albeit now a bit more challenging.

00:41:15Melissa Ellis: Oh. No, last year, like, the whole country was on fire.

00:41:19Oliver Spake: Well, that's it. It was really quite sad seeing, you know, obviously the wildlife struggling with lack of water, certainly around the local here and in many places. So thanks for that report, Bruce, and congratulations once again. And, look, one close to my heart, large latte, please. TOC.

00:41:41Melissa Ellis: He's putting in his order.

00:41:44Oliver Spake: Yes, I trust that Daryl filled that. Sorry, Dazza.

00:41:48Melissa Ellis: Well, he certainly can next week because I do believe that the O'Connells may be in town. Ooh. In town in the vicinity of Ellis Palace parkrun next weekend. So stay tuned for that.

00:42:00Oliver Spake: Fantastic. We look forward to it.

00:42:02Melissa Ellis: And Alison King. How did I end up with this one? Let me just have a crack and then you can correct me. Poirua?

00:42:11Oliver Spake: For the record here, I don't think I'm the authority.

00:42:16Melissa Ellis: Well, you've got more connection to New Zealand than I do. Okay, all right.

00:42:21Oliver Spake: I'm going to give you at least one thumb up and then Alison can correct us. Yes.

00:42:25Melissa Ellis: I can't say it, Ollie. I went to Poirua. Poirua? then went to this New Zealand place, then I went to Lower Hutt Cafe where I sorted the tokens. That New Zealand place was my 28th New Zealand parkrun course, slowly edging closer to countryman status. #Aotearoan. The weekend is still young. Six freedom runs tomorrow.

00:42:52Oliver Spake: That sounds like a good weekend, Mel.

00:42:54Melissa Ellis: Sorry for the creative license in your comment, Alison.

00:42:58Oliver Spake: Now we're really breaking the mould. Irene, course PB at Dandenong parkrun for Parth and I at Dandenong today, followed up by a chilli omelette at the Publix Corner. So good, filled with mashed potato. Yum. Yeah, that did look good. And Mel, was there a follow-up visit to the actual Dazza's Cafe there?

00:43:20Melissa Ellis: Yes, because, you know, only the special people get late-night visits to Dazza's cafe.

00:43:26Oliver Spake: All-night trading. I know.

00:43:28Melissa Ellis: Yeah. I didn't know that Dazza had got a special peck on the cheek, though.

00:43:35Oliver Spake: He makes a good coffee. He deserves it.

00:43:38Melissa Ellis: Yes, but only decaf on offer at Dazza's Cafe in the flesh.

00:43:43Oliver Spake: Yes. Andrew Turner, Karkarook. We were greeted by a glorious sunrise on our first visit to Karkarook, a great two-lapper with an Olympian in attendance.

00:43:54Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I saw that photo and it's no secret that I love a glorious sunrise. But who was the Olympian? I want to know.

00:44:04Oliver Spake: Yeah, I mean, that's a real cliffhanger. I'm really hanging out to know now.

00:44:09Melissa Ellis: I actually looked at Karkarook's results trying to figure that out, but I'm clearly not up to speed on my Olympian's, because I couldn't work it out. So if you could get back to us, Andrew, that would really be appreciated.

00:44:22Oliver Spake: Yeah, tell us, Andrew. But beautiful photo, beautiful sunrise, love the morning light.

00:44:28Melissa Ellis: And Janet Reid came in with a late comment, a bit late to the party, but it was an iced coffee, a big bowl of the best chips in South Australia, possibly the world, followed by a glass of wine to celebrate the safe but early arrival of our grandson.

00:44:45Oliver Spake: Now, I think that's well and truly a good excuse to be late, Janet, and a fantastic excuse to celebrate.

00:44:51Melissa Ellis: Congratulations. I know. That was a little bit exciting.

00:44:56Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:44:56Melissa Ellis: Having a little arrival like that.

00:45:00Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:45:01Melissa Ellis: Fabulous.

00:45:02Oliver Spake: I hope all are well and all are enjoying those special moments. And, look, Janet wasn't the only one late to the party. We had Geoff Wiffen as well. So, hey, what's a party? What's a cafe? If you don't have some fashionably late guests, it makes it. So a bit late to the party also, but Narelle and I ventured off to Lalor parkrun, continuing to pick up event numbers and new events to slowly work our way towards Statesman. Nice work.

00:45:31Melissa Ellis: Yes, Jeff is making a good effort at ticking off the Victorian events for statesmanship, but also juggling his spreadsheet so that when he does do a new event, it also ticks off a Wilson index number. So he's making a good effort at, what would you call it, ticking all his boxes at once.

00:45:53Oliver Spake: Yeah, well, that's impressive. That's impressive. I think I need to do quite a lot of that. So I'll have to watch a few of Jeff's stats and pick up a few tips.

00:46:02Melissa Ellis: He's got everything planned out for the whole year, Ollie.

00:46:06Oliver Spake: I mean, plans can go awry. So good luck, Jeff. Not going to say anything else.

00:46:13Melissa Ellis: Yes, don't you go mozzing us, Oliver Spake. You've been warned about this.

00:46:17Oliver Spake: That's right. But... Thank you, everyone. It was a lovely time. I'd say morning, but it was a whole weekend spent with you at Dazza's Cafe. So fantastic. Thank you all for sharing. We look forward to more coffee and more parkrun chatting and faffing next week. We do. But, Mel, speaking of ticking off parkruns... We've had some fellow parkrunners who've kind of taken that a little further in one of our favourite ways, really. So we've heard from Alison over in New Zealand, who the day after parkrun Day took it a little bit further, as I think she alluded at the cafe there, and a bunch of Kiwis have delivered, I suppose, a bit of a New Zealand smorgasbord or I'm going to say a tasting half dozen, Mel.

00:47:09Melissa Ellis: Wow.

00:47:09Oliver Spake: As I think, you know, fitting for New Zealand events.

00:47:12Melissa Ellis: But was there any ice creams involved, Ollie? Let's have a listen.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:47:18Alison Fraser (King): Alison King here reporting in from New Zealand for the Channel 5 News crew. It's not parkrun day today. I'm actually recording this on Sunday. I'm down in the Wellington region for a longest parkrun. There's a crew of us who are going to do about six of the parkrun courses down in the Lower North Island. So we'll see what I can record from it.

Roving report Alison King — Lower Hutt parkrun

00:47:41Alison Fraser (King): So we've just finished running at Lower Hutt parkrun and I'm here with Julia Gordon who is a Lower Hutt regular. So morning Julia. Good morning Alison. I'm puffing here. So Lower Hutt's the first on our six times 5k trip and you run this probably more times than anything else.

00:48:00Julia Gordon: Yes this is my home run. I started here at Lower Hutt in 2012 at event number five. That's when I discovered parkrun and I haven't looked back.

00:48:10Alison Fraser (King): And you're a bit of a parkrun tourist yourself, aren't you?

00:48:12Julia Gordon: Yes, my husband and I love travelling and we do a lot of Australian runs because our son lives in Queensland and we did do quite a few different countries before lockdown put an end to it.

00:48:26Alison Fraser (King): And you're one of our countrymen, or Aotearoans, or however you want to call it.

00:48:29Julia Gordon: Yes, there's a slightly notorious group of us here at Lower Hutt who make an effort to go to all the new parkruns, often to the inaugurals, because here in New Zealand there isn't a problem with going to inaugurals. And so, yes, there's a group of about five or six of us here at Lower Hutt who've done all 33 runs.

00:48:51Alison Fraser (King): And today, well, this is your second time at doing this bus trip. So can you tell us about the first time it ran a couple of years ago?

00:48:59Julia Gordon: Yeah, actually, my husband and I went on the first trip, but we actually didn't go on the bus. We drove in our car and just did three because I had my very first marathon a week later and I didn't fancy doing 25 in a day. So we just joined in and did three of them.

00:49:15Alison Fraser (King): Can you tell us about the Lower Hutt course for those listeners who've never heard of it?

00:49:18Julia Gordon: Lower Hutt is a city, but it's actually really close to Wellington, only about 20 minutes drive from Wellington City. It's the first parkrun to start in New Zealand. We started in May... It started in May 2012, a couple of months before the big Cornwall Park, which is the main Auckland one. It's a course by the Hutt River in the Hutt Valley, as you can tell from the name. And it's quite an exposed course along the stock bank of the river. It's an out and back. And we have a rather well-known northerly wind that we often have to contend with on the return. If it's a southerly wind, that's quite common. quite nice for the return but then sometimes in winter it's like it's from the antarctic so there are pros and cons of both northerlies and southerlies yes um it's a really pretty course like first thing in the morning with the sun coming up and the sky and yeah taking a few pictures yes it's lovely by the river and um it's a course that although it's quite exposed we have never once had to

00:50:23Alison Fraser (King): closed due to flooding or bad weather even though on other days of the week there have been flooded parts of the course it's always been okay by Saturday so only closed due to lockdowns yes that's right now we were talking as we were coming along during this freedom run about what your top three top three parkruns that not include in your home parkrun so have you chosen your

00:50:45Julia Gordon: Yes, I've been thinking about it as I came along here on the last couple of Ks. I love Queenstown, which I've done, I've only done once, but I've done a couple of Freedom Runs there. Queenstown in the far south is absolutely beautiful. And I also love Greytown Woodside Trail parkrun, which is in the Wairarapa region, which is about one hour's drive from here, north from here. It's a rural, a really rural run with cows over the fence and beautiful vistas of the Tararua Ranges.

00:51:15Alison Fraser (King): And your third one.

00:51:16Julia Gordon: Oh, my third one. That's a bit tough. I particularly like a new one in Auckland called Hobsonville Point parkrun, which is about half an hour from the city, west from the city. And it's been, I'm not quite sure how long it's been going.

00:51:30Alison Fraser (King): May 2019.

00:51:33Julia Gordon: And it's on the site of an old Air Force base, which is now a whole new town and village with brand new houses and nice cafes there. And it's on the upper reaches of the Auckland Harbour. So it's a really lovely one. I've done it twice, two or three times, I think.

00:51:50Alison Fraser (King): Cool. Thanks so much, Julia.

Roving report Alison King — Porirua parkrun

00:51:54Alison Fraser (King): So we've just run Porirua parkrun's course. I'm here with Lizzie Elton-Walters, who's a well-known tourist of these parts. So welcome to the show, Lizzie. Thank you. Would you like to describe the Porirua course for us?

00:52:06Lizzie Elton-Walters: It's another out and back along a river, but this one has a steady incline up to the turnaround point. And the downhill is always a lot faster than the uphill. And then underfoot, it's sort of gravelly, pathy stuff. So it's quite easy on the legs, surface-wise, but not gradient-wise. So what's brought you out on this bus trip today? I'm actually moving back to the UK next week. So it's a nice time to spend with all of my parkrun friends and to revisit all the courses that I've done around the South and North Island. So you've been touristing quite a bit, I've seen. So I came out to New Zealand in 2016 and I was only going to be here for a year on my working holiday visa. And my plan was to get all of the parkruns done in that time. So there was 15 when I moved and now there's 33. And obviously, as parkrun's grown, I have stayed on. I'm not saying that one caused the other, but it's not a coincidence. And so I've now currently got 32 of the 33, and I've got one Saturday left next week to get my last one. And that one will be? Barry Curtis in South Auckland. Is that close to the airport for you? No, it's not. And I'm actually going to have to go from Rotorua up to Barry Curtis, back to Rotorua with all of my stuff. So it's not actually that practical, but I can't miss out on the opportunity of getting all of them. No.

00:53:17Alison Fraser (King): So your parkrun story started in the UK? Yes, it did. November 2011.

00:53:22Lizzie Elton-Walters: I was a student at university and my course was four years. So a lot of people had already left after three years. So there wasn't a lot of partying. Also, I seemed to be ages older than everyone else. So we looked for something else to do on Saturday morning rather than go out on a Friday night. And we found parkrun. So that was in Cardiff. And that was a beautiful course that I was very spoiled with because it was pan flat and very fast. And then I moved to Bristol where it was not pan flat and Ashton Court is more hilly than Porirua. And so I did 110 of my parkruns there. So the hill never got easier. How many different parkruns have you run? 69 69 or 70 I can't remember whether um Little Stoke still counts on my stats I think it should still count okay so I think it's 70 by now okay so out of all of those parkruns not including either of your home parkruns because I'm going to count eshton court as your home in the UK and lower hut is your home in New Zealand what are your top three um Gisborne New Zealand absolutely beautiful uh again flat which is my thing um but all along the coast and then up at the river a bit and it's just everything that you could want in a parkrun course um Tampere I think I'm saying that right in Finland um really really lovely course it was very cold and the lake was entirely frozen over and it was just completely different to anywhere I'd ever run and I did that with my brother and my sister who are also parkrun parkrunners so that was a very special one to me and Bushy Park obviously yeah um there's nothing like it on earth so yeah cool and congratulations yesterday for your 400th parkrun thank you yeah it's good good to get that while in New Zealand yeah absolutely yeah cool right well let's get back on the bus brilliant thanks

Roving report Alison King — Kapiti Coast parkrun

00:54:55Alison Fraser (King): So I'm here with Christina Cameron. We've just run the Kapiti Coast parkrun course and this is Christina's local. So do you want to tell us about it, Christina?

00:55:03Christina Cameron: Yeah, sure. So the Kapiti Coast parkrun runs along the Waikanae River. It's a really beautiful course, mostly gravel trail. There's no hills or anything. It's out and back.

00:55:14Alison Fraser (King): So pretty flat?

00:55:15Christina Cameron: Pretty flat, yeah.

00:55:16Alison Fraser (King): And I noticed it was a gravelly surface, so it can be a little bit trickier?

00:55:20Christina Cameron: Yeah, so occasionally the river washes away parts of the track and they have to resurface it every now and then, so yeah. Makes it interesting. Yeah. So why are you on the bus today? Well, I did it two years ago when there were only five parkruns to do and now there's another one. So I really enjoyed it the first time around. There's nothing quite like being on a bus full of like-minded sweaty runners.

00:55:45Alison Fraser (King): And good to do your parkrun as well.

00:55:47Christina Cameron: Yeah, so it's good to have my one in there, you know, show off my parkrun to the others.

00:55:53Alison Fraser (King): You were pretty speedy this morning.

00:55:55Christina Cameron: Yeah, I guess home turf advantage.

00:55:59Alison Fraser (King): And discounting your home parkrun, what would be your top three favourite parkruns?

00:56:04Christina Cameron: Well, I go to Christchurch quite often, so I quite like Hagley parkrun. That's a nice flat and fast course. I've also done Porirua parkrun a couple of times. It's more fun on the downhill. The first couple of Ks is straight up and then it's a nice run down. And then Puarenga parkrun, it's nice just sort of running in a toxic wasteland, I guess. But the people there are wonderful. They really get into it. People dressing up, the Marshals and everything, so I really enjoyed that one too.

00:56:41Alison Fraser (King): Cool. Well, let's hope we have an enjoyable rest of the day. We've got three to go. Yeah, three down, three to go. Yeah. Thanks.

Roving report Alison King — Palmerston North parkrun

00:56:49Alison Fraser (King): So I'm sat on the bus with Bruce. We've just done Palmerston North parkrun. Bruce McArdle is one of the Lower Hutt originals and the organiser of this bus trip. Can you describe the Palmerston North parkrun for us, Bruce?

00:57:04Bruce McArdle: The Palmerston North parkrun is quite a fast parkrun. I've done it four times. I've got three PBs. I'm reluctant to go back, but I'm happy to be there for a freedom run today with everybody else on board the coach.

00:57:17Alison Fraser (King): Can you tell us about the course?

00:57:20Bruce McArdle: The course, well, it's quite flat. It's, yeah, it's quite, and it's along beside the Manawatu River, um on a good day it's really pleasant I can imagine on a bit of a windy day which can get a lot in Palmy North it would be quite horrible but the days I've been there it's been lovely yeah it was a nice outback today yeah yeah yeah absolutely so tell us about this bus trip how did it come about well it's because of these guys the parkrun adventurers, you know, I'm an avid listener and I heard about the longest day trip so I thought well that's a good idea well we could do that so I suggested it at the start run of the start line of a parkrun one morning and I got a very positive response when I said so I went ahead and did it and organised the bus and told people about it created an event on and yeah and we did it two years ago and we had 30 odd people on the coach and was was well organised for last year because this time was when we went into lockdown and so that had to be abandoned and so here we are back for the third year but the second running of.

00:58:26Alison Fraser (King): So parkrun adventurers say that we're a little bit early in doing ours because they do it in Australia in June.

00:58:32Bruce McArdle: Okay well we do it well we did the first one after Daylight Saving finished so we ran out of daylight so this time I was determined to do it before Daylight Saving finished. And when it got a bit cooler, it's been a very pleasant day, hasn't it? Yeah. I mean, ideal, really, condition-wise.

00:58:51Alison Fraser (King): Yeah. And I suppose we do have a lot of travel time between a number of the parkruns.

00:58:55Bruce McArdle: Yes, we do. It's gone pretty quick because most people have been sleeping. Yeah.

00:59:00Alison Fraser (King): Now, out of all the parkruns that you've run, Bruce, not including the two home parkruns that you claim on your April Park, what are your top three?

00:59:12Bruce McArdle: My top three would have to be, well, I haven't done a lot, but Hamilton Lakes I enjoyed a lot. New Plymouth was really good as well. And I'd have to say Palmerston North because I've ticked off three PBs there. Cool.

00:59:29Alison Fraser (King): Well, thank you very much.

00:59:30Bruce McArdle: All right. It's a pleasure.

Roving report Alison King — Greytown Woodside Trail parkrun

00:59:34Alison Fraser (King): So I've just finished Greytown Woodside Trail and I'm here with Mel McGregor and this is her home parkrun so thanks for coming on this trip today Mel. Oh I've loved it, thank you. And can you tell us about this course?

00:59:46Mel McGregor: The Greytown Rail Trail? Yeah. It's a lime course and on one side it's got some tall pines which protect us really well in the summer and give us some shelter from some wind in the winter and there's a few little streams that you cross and it's just a gentle run or gentle walk or gentle stroll it's really lovely course yes it's a nice out and back yeah out and back yeah and what brought you on the bus trip today um well I'm friendly with Bruce and Fiona and Bruce had heard about um something that has been done overseas and he put it out there to us and I also went on this first one, so this is my second time. Loved it the first time and I didn't want to miss it this time.

01:00:26Alison Fraser (King): Are you much of a parkrun tourist outside of this trip?

01:00:29Mel McGregor: No, just local. I've done Hamilton, which is my favourite. I love the Hamilton track and just Freedom Runs if I'm somewhere. I can do as much as I can that way.

01:00:38Alison Fraser (King): I was going to ask you your top three parkruns outside of your home parkrun.

01:00:41Mel McGregor: So definitely Hamilton's my top and today and other times I've done it, Porirua and Kapiti. Stunning courses. Awesome.

01:00:48Alison Fraser (King): Cool. And how are your legs today? My glutes are very tight.

01:00:52Mel McGregor: Yeah. But if Bruce says that we're going to do this again, I am definitely on board again. Awesome. It's been fantastic. Cool.

01:00:58Alison Fraser (King): Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

Roving report Alison King — Trentham Memorial parkrun

01:01:01Alison Fraser (King): So I'm with Stu Leslie who is a Run Director here at Trentham Memorial parkrun and we've just rounded up our six parkruns for the day. So how was your day Stu?

01:01:10Stu Leslie: It was a long day, it was a long day.

01:01:12Alison Fraser (King): Can you tell us about this parkrun that we've just run slash walked around?

01:01:17Stu Leslie: Trentham Memorial parkrun is new. I think yesterday we did event seven or eight. We're still very, seven was it? Okay, very very new. We start right next to Barton Bush with all its native trees which means we have lots of native birds. We run around the edge of the bush which some people think is pretty and then we head out to the river and we run downstream down the Hutt River. 2.6km we turn around and come back and when we come back we run through Barton Bush which is always the highlight for everyone I think.

01:01:45Alison Fraser (King): It's a very pretty course.

01:01:46Stu Leslie: Very pretty yeah we like it. It's quiet and calm here in the morning so we do get a lot of the native birds.

01:01:53Alison Fraser (King): Now how did you hear about this bus trip? that we've just been on?

01:01:58Stu Leslie: So I know Bruce from Lower Hutt parkrun and he put out the call two years ago to do the first one and we thought it sounded like a good idea at the time so we put our names forward and then when last year came around we got invited again and we put our names up again so.

01:02:15Alison Fraser (King): But then Covid happened.

01:02:17Stu Leslie: Then Covid happened which is why we're here today yeah yeah, and are you a bit of a parkrun tourist yourself uh what have I done I think I've only done six or seven in New Zealand so no not really okay well out of those discounting Lower Hutt and Trentham Memorial what would be your top three uh okay so I'm a mainlander my home is Blenheim so blenheim's a favourite because it means I get to go home to mum and have a quick breakfast afterwards I met my wife in Auckland through running and her home course was Barry Curtis so that'll always have an emotional connection. And Greytown, Greytown's very pretty. I like the cows.

01:02:59Alison Fraser (King): And how do you feel now that we're all finished?

01:03:03Stu Leslie: Tired. Ready to go home and crash. No, it's been a good day. It's been a great day. Bruce does well organising these, so it's good fun, good fun. We'll be back for the next one.

01:03:14Alison Fraser (King): Cool. Oh, thanks very much.

01:03:15Stu Leslie: Not a problem. Thank you.

01:03:18Alison Fraser (King): So there you have it. That was our six times 5Ks in a day, also known as the longest day of Freedom Runs. So we did 335 kilometres on the bus. I'm so glad I didn't have to drive. It was a very long day. Our first parkrun, we looked at the watches and we started at 6.51 and then we started our last parkrun at 6.49pm. All in all though, it was a really awesome day, meeting lots of new people and sharing stories and just getting a few Freedom Runs done. So I hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you the next time.

the Informant

01:04:01the Informant: This is the informant. These are unofficial stats. They may differ from the stats you read elsewhere. They are only current at the time they are collected, with a 100% chance of an error from time to time. There were no event launches this week, and overall numbers are down due to many event cancellations, particularly in soggy New South Wales. We had 445 events held worldwide, 396 were in Australia and New Zealand, the remainder taking place in Japan, Russia and the Falkland Islands. Down under we had 40,185 runners out of 41,799 worldwide, down by around 10,000 on last week. We had 5,836 PBs, while 1,633 people participated for the first time. New stat for reporting is junior 10 milestones, of which we had 133. 196 reached their 50 milestone, 105 reached their 100 milestone, and 18 people reached their 250 milestone. A further 16 people called bingo. Jamie Richardson took the longest with 346 events. Richard Malek was the quickest with 165 events. We have 12 new or returning statespeople. We have Mark Purcell, Grant Nichols, Belinda Rance, Sarah Doyle, Neil Barnett, Guy Williams, Stuart Lindenmayer, Brendan Bowman, Yifei Chong in the ACT, with Neil Barnett becoming now the fourth person in the triple statesperson club. Rachel Telford became a Northern Territorian. Natasha Littler became a stateswoman in South Australia. Last but not least, Nathan Castle became a Victorian statesperson. The biggest movers on the Most Aussie New Zealand Events list are Matthew Lockhurst, Brent Hale, Michelle Kohler, Matthew Allen, David Ray, Narelle McInnes, Joan Bolvin and Mill Clayton. who all jump nine spots. In the top 20, the only movement this week is Robin Wishworth, who moved from 18 up to equal 16 after running at Port Augusta. Biggest Wilson mover of the week is Nick Bailey, who jumps 16, going from 6 to 22. Bruce McArdle jumped from an already impressive 105 to 117, and in doing so claims the highest spot in New Zealand. In the ex-podcast host division, Scott Trickett jumped nine places to 22, Just one behind Mel Erbacher. Carol Parise remains our highest windexer, now on 171. This week's listener question comes from Cameron Drake. It got me so excited and diving down so many rabbit holes, I don't even remember what it was. Something about p-indexes and most runs at a single event. So good it has taken up two tabs of the spreadsheet. Choosing the easy option first, we have 9922 people who have run at a particular event between 100 and 199 times. 1235 runners have run at a particular event 200 to 299 times. Getting more serious, we have 63 runners running at an event 300 times. However, we have two people who have ran at an event over 400 times, one in New Zealand and one in Australia. Mark Malone has ran 403 of Lower Hutt's 450 runs, which was New Zealand's first event. Similarly, in Australia, Brian Peters has ran 449 of the 470 events run at Main Beach. 449 out of his 478 runs. Yes, Brian has more runs than there has been held at Australia's oldest parkrun. Astonishing commitment. Now we move on to the Passionista, a curious breed of parkrunner who should never be discussed on this podcast. However, there are 639 runners who have ran over 100 runs at their home event and never ventured anywhere else. In Australia, Rick Innes of Darwin has completed 342 runs in the one place, despite having two other events in close proximity. In New Zealand, the title goes to Natalie Smith, who has completed Lower Hutt on 277 occasions. The event with the most passionistas is Rockingham, on 41, followed by Hervey Bay on 14, and Highlands on 13. The mighty Shahava drops into the list soon after, on 11. Okay, now we're warmed up. It's time for the P Index. This one gets the XLV lookup absolutely smoking. At its upper levels, this is possibly the highest parkrun challenge to chase. Leading this group are two very committed runners on a P Index of 11. Cassie Hughes of Claisebrook Cove and Craig Robertson of Southbank. Behind them, we have Carolyn Vandermeer, Claire Natalie Wardle, Greg Webster, Michael Bannerman, Nicole Sanday, and Richard Wilkins, all on 10. If you're keen to look at these stats in more detail, and who isn't, they can be found on my blog at the informant.me. That's the informant, all one word, dot M-E. This has been The Informant, and my spreadsheet is bigger than yours.

01:09:30[16 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

01:09:46Oliver Spake: And some insightful stats there from the informant, Mel. I'm still calculating in my head the numbers there for Main Beach and it was Brian, wasn't it? Brian's stats there.

01:10:01Melissa Ellis: Yes. I think this calls for a sound effect, Ollie.

01:10:02[other]

01:10:06Oliver Spake: Oh, yeah.

01:10:07Melissa Ellis: Oh, hang on. I've got to open it in YouTube.

01:10:08[18 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

01:10:27Oliver Spake: Yes. So how has Brian run more parkruns, Australian parkruns, because I've looked that much up, than main beach parkruns? So he was at event number one there. He's done a few more and only guessing, Mel, it's New Year's Day doubles.

01:10:43Melissa Ellis: It must be, Ollie, but he's also a decent volunteer having done, what, in the vicinity of 30-odd?

01:10:50Oliver Spake: Yeah, a few dozen, yeah.

01:10:52Melissa Ellis: Old year olds? Yeah.

01:10:53Oliver Spake: So nice work, Brian. Yeah, we're going to have to trawl your stats a bit further or listen out for more for the informant.

01:11:00Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah. So, Ollie, we've got people to do this for us now.

01:11:03Oliver Spake: Yes.

01:11:04Melissa Ellis: We'll just task the informant to break it down for us and give us the report next week. Yeah. We don't need to be doing this kind of menial stuff.

01:11:13Unidentified speaker: Oh.

01:11:14Oliver Spake: Well, I think kudos there to Cam as well for the listener question. I think we've got some interesting work there, and it sounds like the informant's got his hands full, so a bit more to look into. I was also very interested to hear a couple of moves in the Wilson Index there, Mel.

01:11:30Melissa Ellis: Yeah, Scotty jumped this week, Ollie, nine places to get to number 22. I think he's got a mission.

01:11:39Oliver Spake: Nice. Well, he's clearly executing it.

01:11:43Melissa Ellis: Maybe he'll get his own sound effect next week.

01:11:46Oliver Spake: Oh, okay. Well, let's see. What events have a 23 coming up that Scotty could possibly go into?

01:11:52Melissa Ellis: Oh, again, outsource.

01:11:56Oliver Spake: Noted, noted. Well, clearly doing exceedingly well compared to my own. So good work. Good work, Scotty. Good work, everyone. Good work, Bruce McArdle as well, who we heard also as part of the mega day there, the longest day in New Zealand. Thank you, Alison.

01:12:15Melissa Ellis: Yeah, but Ollie, hang on. In the UK and in Australia, do not they usually run these events in June? Why is New Zealand doing it in March?

01:12:29Oliver Spake: Virtually on the equinox there. So it's kind of like the Goldilocks Day, but... Maybe that's why they did six instead of seven. I mean, that was probably more logistics. Hell of a job there. So well done, Bruce, and all of the Kiwi crew there for traversing and sharing with us some amazing parkruns. Again, the list grows. But... In March? The answer is I don't know, Mel. I mean, for some reason that I can't quite recall or maybe have never explored, we do ours around the shortest day because that makes a lot of sense.

01:13:06Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I know, right? So it started in the UK and the UK quite wisely chose to do it on the longest day of the year where they had the most sunlight and they could fit in the most amount of parkruns. But in Australia, if we did it on our longest day, it would be in ridiculous heat and nobody would want to do it. So we chose to do it on our shortest day. Therefore, ergo, we end up running the first one and the last one in the dark.

01:13:39Oliver Spake: Well, yeah, and that's when things go to plan. Yeah.

01:13:43Melissa Ellis: So New Zealand's not so silly. Do they have daylight savings in New Zealand? Well, actually, hang on. No, forget that because that doesn't actually give you an extra hour of daylight, does it?

01:13:52Oliver Spake: No, no, no, no. That's right. Look, yeah, I suppose we're – are we tougher, Mel? Is that what it is? You know, we do it in the dark, you know, nothing holds us back.

01:14:07Melissa Ellis: We go out with our headlamps, Ollie. Maybe. Hey, Ollie, we could do a rebel summer longest run this year in the middle of December.

01:14:20Oliver Spake: Why stop at summer? Equinox is clearly a thing too. I think quarterly longest days.

01:14:26Melissa Ellis: Oh, quarterly? Quarterly, yeah.

01:14:29Oliver Spake: Okay.

01:14:30Melissa Ellis: Oh, we could just do one every season.

01:14:33Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. Hey, it could fit nicely into Streaky September too. It's all coming together.

01:14:38Melissa Ellis: Hey, that could be a Streaky September challenge.

01:14:42Oliver Spake: That would require a fairly lengthy streak that day, but yes.

01:14:47Melissa Ellis: That would be good for the Bingoe card. Run seven parkruns in one day. We're in charge of this this year, you know. We can do whatever we want.

01:14:56Oliver Spake: That's true. That's true. Well, maybe we need to throw in a few options there. If that becomes a Bingoe card option, then surely there's got to be a, you know, you can walk it as well, of course, or you can walk it.

01:15:06Melissa Ellis: Don't go soft on me, Ollie. Oh, I mean, it's good to have a turnaround, Marshall. No, you're trying to be all. Well, you can volunteer them. No, you have to run them.

01:15:21Oliver Spake: I tried. I tried.

01:15:24Melissa Ellis: Got to make it hard.

01:15:25Oliver Spake: It does sound like fun. It would be fun to have that as part of a Streaky September Bingoe card, and it would be fun to have more longest days. So it gets inspired me, Mel. I'm going to have to, well, firstly, I'm going to have to see what's on the cards for this year, for the longest run or the longest day.

01:15:40Melissa Ellis: I think you mean Streaky Sept Meba.

01:15:42Oliver Spake: Oh, Sept Meba. Yes. My apologies. I must pronounce it correctly.

01:15:47[crosstalk]

01:15:47Melissa Ellis: But I did interrupt you. Sorry, go ahead.

01:15:50Oliver Spake: Oh, no, I'm just getting excited over in the corner here. Yeah, I've realised that, well, being three months from the shortest day or the Queen's birthday long weekend, as we seem to adjust it to sometimes as well, because that's handy.

01:16:04Melissa Ellis: It's all about making it convenient in Australia.

01:16:07Oliver Spake: Yeah, and lining it up with the English.

01:16:10Melissa Ellis: We don't want to run in the heat. We want it to be a long weekend.

01:16:13Oliver Spake: That's right. go to work the next day when we're actually quite smart yeah so it's our intelligence yes it's a it's a measured decision as to why we we choose well look the lesser of the evils is to just do it in the dark and freeze our hands off god love us um Yeah. So Mel, any rumbles on the longest run news for June? Am I getting ahead of myself or are we going to see some going ahead? I think I saw one already being mentioned for Queensland.

01:16:44Melissa Ellis: Really? Because down here in Victoria, we're just happy to have parkrun back at the moment. I don't know. No, there's been no mention of anything in Victoria, but I know that our community will definitely put something on even if I have to do I don't know Ellis Palace parkrun could get slotted in there oh yeah I was gonna say yeah lunch at Dazza's yeah if I can wangle it the secret eighth um event for the day or something oh I'm feeling a bit inspired might have to get some planning happening I think so it's conveniently close to Toolern Creek well yes no look I think that's a plan Mel lock it in And what about up in Sydney? I shouldn't just say Sydney, Ollie, New South Wales?

01:17:28Oliver Spake: Well, there are always some fantastic options there. I've been spoiled with the Sydney organisers, the wonderful bunch of people that have been organising that each year. So I really hope so. If not, I have to pull my own finger out. But, yeah, we don't quite have that representation in the Illawarra of parkruns down here. So, yeah, I think it still involves a Sydney solution for us. Of course, up in the regional runners, they've got some good options. What's that, Mel?

01:17:57Melissa Ellis: Sorry, no. As usual, I am talking over you and cutting you off. Apologies. But, Ollie.

01:17:58[crosstalk]

01:18:04Oliver Spake: Yes.

01:18:05Melissa Ellis: I've done the longest run in Victoria and I've been fortunate enough to do the longest run in... New South Wales. That's right. We could visit another state. There's potential for Tasmania now. They're building their events down there in the south.

01:18:25Oliver Spake: And there just happens to be a magic number in the southeast there, Mel. You know, I think it could really make a good day.

01:18:33Melissa Ellis: I like that idea. It'd be even colder and wetter and darker in Tasmania. Yes. It'd be perfect. Challenge accepted.

01:18:47Oliver Spake: Oh, I'm not sure I can swing a trip to Tassie as soon as June, but that does sound fun. Yes, I think so.

01:18:57Melissa Ellis: Any Tassie listeners out there, you want to start planning an event and reach out to us?

01:19:03Oliver Spake: Yeah, tell us your plans. It's always a fun day. For anyone that hasn't been a part of the longest run, the longest day, or any version of it, highly recommend it. There's nothing more enjoyable than just... Yep. Sorry, Mel.

01:19:17Melissa Ellis: Don't you apologise to me. I interrupted you. Hang on a minute. Longest run, long weekend in June. There may be a significant event occurring in another part of the world.

01:19:35Oliver Spake: And that is quite an exciting event, isn't it? Yeah, we have to be careful not to clash with that.

01:19:40Melissa Ellis: We have to have our game on that for that.

01:19:42Oliver Spake: That is our first priority. Oh, yeah.

01:19:44Melissa Ellis: We can't go get sidetracked with longest run stuff when there's something more pressing happening in England.

01:19:50Oliver Spake: That's quite right. We'll have to fit it around. And look, if that means that I can't go and join Tassie's longest run, assuming that even one exists, then that's what it will be. We're looking forward to this event.

01:20:01Melissa Ellis: Yes, otherwise you can be the anchor in your lovely home and I'll be on the ground from Tasmania.

01:20:13Unidentified speaker: I'm joking.

01:20:16Melissa Ellis: But no, traditionally I'm thinking Queen's birthday long weekend, that's going to be the weekend, the same weekend as England comes back.

01:20:24Oliver Spake: Yeah, thereabouts. I really need to check the calendar, Mel. Get my head around this. It's coming.

Sign-off

01:20:29Melissa Ellis: Okay. So that's it, Ollie.

01:20:33Oliver Spake: I think you might be right, Mel. It's been a smorgasbord of different parkrun experiences and, you know, extra parkrun experiences. It's been wonderful to hear from everyone.

01:20:43Melissa Ellis: It has. And, well, until next week, have you got adventures planned? Do you want to divulge that? Are you keeping it secret? No.

01:20:52Oliver Spake: Do I have adventures planned? Look, over the coming week, Mel, I don't have any plans. So I'm going to have to wait and see. Might be on a whim or might just be enjoying one of the parkrun experiences I love the most. But yeah, looking forward to it regardless. What about you, Mel?

01:21:09Melissa Ellis: can always rely on you Ollie to um be our passionate volunteer yeah me I might just have a little adventure up my sleeve excellent well until then have a fantastic parkrun day thanks Ollie we'll chat next week

01:22:32Melissa Ellis: It's got a very unique name. It's Ignoble Informant Index. That's not half a mouthful, is it?

01:22:40Oliver Spake: The I, I, I. I mean, yes. That's a very interesting message there. I think it's a fantastic index.