Episode 228 - Bookrun

Welcome

00:00:22Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 228 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Melissa Ellis and I'm joined by my partner in crime, he whose volunteering spans three generations, Ollie Spake. Hello Mel. Hello.

00:00:39Oliver Spake: Yeah, guess what I did on the weekend?

00:00:44Melissa Ellis: Did you volunteer?

00:00:45Oliver Spake: I did. I did. Yes, yeah, with some good solid help, that's for sure. As you can see, all in matching outfits too.

00:00:53Melissa Ellis: Excellent. We have got a mammoth episode this week, Ollie. We might be pushing a PB, I think, for the longest episode to date on the parkrun adventurers.

00:01:04Oliver Spake: Well, in the spirit of today, I think at least a post COVID PB, which I think is a bit of a term going around. I hear it a lot and I'm proud to have set post COVID PBs myself. So bring it on. I thoroughly encourage everyone out there to strive for those post COVID, that is lockdown, post lockdown PBs. And for everyone that's still waiting for the return, you've got those coming too.

00:01:28Melissa Ellis: And how was your weekend, Ollie, though? Tell us about it.

00:01:31Oliver Spake: It was a lovely weekend. It was a highlight on Saturday morning. I was a Barcode Scanner and I sent my eldest daughter, Hannah, out with the camera. Well, I didn't send her. She volunteered willingly, which is fantastic and much appreciated. Sent her out onto the course and I sent mum down into the puddles after the big wet, last week sent her down to uh to enjoy splashing about in the mud a little bit and I'm just trying to think I'm not sure if we saw any gumboots out there we're certainly on the lookout for some I may have seen one pair come to think of it carrying on the fashion sense from last week but it was it was a you know fantastic sunny morning Shellharbour parkrun tick sunny tick oh no hang on that's in the lock but um volunteering tick great fun tick

00:02:18Melissa Ellis: And did I say you did an event on Sunday?

00:02:20Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:02:21Melissa Ellis: You were with the Dirty Cheaters. You were hanging out with my mob. I know.

00:02:25Oliver Spake: It felt a bit special. You know, I feel very fortunate. As with parkrun, to go to a real-life event was a little strange. And, you know, to go to Run West in Western Sydney, so this was the second running of Run West, was fantastic. obviously cancelled last year being at this time of year. And I participated in the 12K event. They had a 4K event as well, but it was a little too hard to turn down the opportunity to do a hot lap on the Sydney Motorway and to turn out running through the zoo.

00:03:01Melissa Ellis: I was going to say that. It went through the zoo, didn't it?

00:03:04Oliver Spake: Ah, yeah, it was pretty cool.

00:03:06Melissa Ellis: The new zoo.

00:03:07Oliver Spake: Yeah, new zoo. Fantastic little layout there. The animals were all great. And look, one of the dirty cheetahs, so Mr. Simon Mackley and Mary, who was also there as well, both dirty cheetahs. But Simon in particular did report back that the animals were actually cheering on the crowd or cheering on the runners. So you can't get much better support than that.

00:03:32Melissa Ellis: That sounds fun.

00:03:33Oliver Spake: But yeah, passed through Rooty Hill parkrun as well. So it was a trifecta.

00:03:37Melissa Ellis: Did you pass any dirty cheetahs in the zoo?

00:03:40Oliver Spake: No cheaters, no cheaters, past lions and cheering gorillas and hyenas. I recommend it. It was just, again, quite unique to be back out there in an event. Of course, you finish up, you sanitise your hands, you whack the mask on and get on the bus and head back. But for that moment, being out there, it was funny to be reacquainted with that feeling.

00:04:08Melissa Ellis: Mm. After so long.

00:04:10Oliver Spake: But yeah, lovely weekend. Thanks, Mel. What about your weekend? How was it?

00:04:13Melissa Ellis: It was really good. My weekends are always really good when I do parkrun and juniors. But yeah, so I headed out to event three of Puckapunyal parkrun in the closed military event. So that was really nice. I caught up with some of my colleagues and At the event, I got my friend Megan out to do her very first parkrun. I was a little surprised when she agreed willingly, without much coercion at all, to turn up. She lives local to the area. And I said to her, I'm coming down. And she's well aware of my parkrun obsession through social media, so... Anyway, she turned up with her daughter, Maddie, and they were very excited to partake in their first parkrun, embraced it.

00:05:05Oliver Spake: Oh, that's fantastic.

00:05:07Melissa Ellis: It was lovely to be back on those trails again, those trails that were my solace last year when I was there for a period of time. through the stress of the bushfire season. And, yeah, I just find that Aussie bush so very magical and relaxing and I did reflect on the fact that I think that's why I love Eynesbury so much because Eynesbury is a very similar setting, very similar Aussie bush setting to what is found at Puckapunyal. So it's definitely my place.

00:05:39Oliver Spake: Look, that's fantastic. You got to enjoy that. Obviously, given the experiences you've had there, to see it turned into a parkrun and to get to enjoy that. Yeah, nice to hear that connection with both Vera and Eynesbury.

00:05:52Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and my friend, she's keen, she's going to come back, and she even put her name down on the volley roster. So proud. She's a natural. I know. She's hooked.

00:06:04Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:06:05Melissa Ellis: I've got another sucker hooked.

00:06:06Oliver Spake: Obviously, you've done all the hard yards with your sharing of all of your experiences beforehand. She was obviously convinced well before then.

00:06:16Melissa Ellis: She's introducing me to other people and telling them all about Daryl. Oh, right. And Alice Bell's parkrun. I was like, she was all over it.

00:06:24Oliver Spake: Well, Daryl is a bit of a celebrity, let's be honest. And, of course, how was Juniors on Sunday?

00:06:30Melissa Ellis: It was good. It was our event number 10. Happy, happy 10th, double digits. Yay. And we had 37 kids. So it was a nice crowd. Enjoyed their run. We had some celebrity volunteers.

00:06:45Oliver Spake: Oh, okay. Which celebrity volunteers did we have?

00:06:49Melissa Ellis: Oh, they come from that, you know, that parkrun where it's always sunny. Oh.

00:06:54Oliver Spake: The Stump parkrun.

00:06:56Melissa Ellis: Yeah, that one. Yes. I think it might have been referred to once or twice.

00:06:59Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:07:01Melissa Ellis: So yes, Toc and Jacqui were down in the area enjoying other parkrun events for the weekend and they very graciously came along and volunteered and enjoyed Eynesbury Heritage Trail Juniors and Toc was the Warm-up Leader and then they were both marshals out on course.

00:07:19Oliver Spake: that's fantastic good to see them getting out and supporting and getting to experience the the fun of it I look forward to sharing that one day

00:07:27Melissa Ellis: Yes, definitely. We need the Spakes to come and visit us as well because we did have a family all the way from the ACT as well.

00:07:35Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:07:35Melissa Ellis: Two little tourist kids enjoyed their first junior event. We had James and Elise Scarborough visiting us all the way from Wagy Bridge.

00:07:47Oliver Spake: That's fantastic. Nice to see them getting to enjoy a bit of Eynesbury hospitality. And do you think they'll be back?

00:07:54Melissa Ellis: So I know that they're off to visit Tasmania and on their return I think they might be dropping in to see Westerfold Juniors on their way home. Oh, great. But I've got another update, Ollie. So you might recognise this voice.

00:08:10Unidentified speaker: Tell me now. I came 33 today. 33. Elbow bump.

00:08:18Melissa Ellis: Yes, that was Abigail.

00:08:20Oliver Spake: Well done, Abby.

00:08:21Melissa Ellis: She was back this week enjoying her parkrun.

00:08:24Oliver Spake: Sounds like a top result for her. Nice to hear the celebration in there too.

00:08:29Melissa Ellis: Definitely. So with all that excitement, there's also more excitement coming with the imminent return of juniors in the UK.

00:08:37Oliver Spake: Yeah, it's getting close now. It's very exciting for all of our English parkrunners and in particular, of course, the junior parkrunners there. Part of that excitement in the UK, obviously, is seeing people getting back out. Obviously, the weather still looks fantastic. The spring is spreading. There have been some fantastic running pictures that I've seen over there. But, Mel, I believe you got the opportunity to have a bit of a chat with part of that excitement about parkrun over there in the UK.

00:09:06Melissa Ellis: Yes, there was, Ollie. So we had the excitement of the book run relay occurring this week. And that was a book that made its journey from one end of England to the other for its official launch. And I had the pleasure of interviewing the author of that book, Eileen Jones. So let's listen to that now.

00:09:30[12 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Interview Eileen Jones — Author of "How parkrun Changed Our Lives"; Fell Foot parkrun core team member, Cumbria, UK

00:09:42Melissa Ellis: We've got with us today Eileen Jones, fell foot parkrunner and the author of a new book, How parkrun Changed Our Lives. Welcome Eileen and thank you for talking to us today.

00:09:53Eileen Jones: It's wonderful to be talking to you Melissa, it's really exciting.

00:09:57Melissa Ellis: Well firstly Eileen, for our audience, can you tell us how did you first find parkrun and what was it that made you keep coming back?

00:10:07Eileen Jones: Well, I was a runner for a long time. I used to do what they call fell running, the small mountains in England are known as fells. And I used to run up and down those and race up and down them years ago. And then, you know, over time, I got slower and slower. And the racing part of it stopped being fun because I was so far off the back of the pack. You know, there was nobody around me to race against. And I started to feel embarrassed for the poor marshals who were standing around on the summits waiting to chase, check me through you know sometimes I get timed out anyway so I've always carried on running on the fells where I live now is just beautiful hill country but I was missing being part of something and then my sister who lives near where we grew up in a part of Manchester called Heaton Park She was a born again runner. She didn't even start running until she was in her 50s. And she's now absolutely amazing. She's still winning everything in her age category. And she's a far better runner than I ever could have been. She discovered parkrun in Heaton Park and told me about it and said, why don't you come along? And I was absolutely thrilled to bits. You know, there were maybe 200 or 300 people in those days. It's quite big now. But I was part of something. I wasn't lost. Nobody's ever lost. There were people I was, you know, having a bit of a jostle with. Can I get in front of them? And, oh, this is fantastic. So I carried on going there. And then I discovered there was one north of where I live here in the Lake District. And after a year or so, started to make inquiries about finding people some parkland here. And of course, it's very hilly country and quite tricky. There's not a lot of open space that's not really steep and got, you know, precipitous drops and so on. But we found it's a country park at the foot of Windermere, which is England's largest lake. And it's owned by the National Trust. And we worked with them to set up parkrun there in 2014. So I've been a member of the core team there ever since. But also, because my sons at the time were both living in London and I was going down there a lot, I started doing some London parkruns and met Louise Ayling, who started the whole parkrun tourism thing and discovered that tourism was a thing.

00:12:35Melissa Ellis: I've heard of Louise on Free Weekly Timed.

00:12:38Eileen Jones: Yeah she used to help present it with Vassos. Yes. So I met her and we became friends and then I just thought oh this is great because now I can achieve something. I'm not getting any faster, I'm never going to win anything but I can tick things off and I can reach milestones and targets and I can do 20 different parkruns. I can do 50 different parkruns and all the silly challenges, you know, pirates and staying alive and all of those. So it's been an absolute joy. I've carried on loving Fell Foot. It's about a 20 minute drive from where I live. And then last year, just before lockdown, I helped set up a new one here in the village where I live in Ambleside. That's called Rothay Park, which I will do occasionally, but my heart is still at Fell Foot. It's where my parkrun family is and where I just love the people. I love the course. And Paul Sinton Hewitt has agreed to come and run there in the summer. And I'm saying this publicly on a podcast. I can't now back out, but I met him and Jo the other day and they said they'd just bought a camper van and yes, they'll come up to the lakes in the summer and do Fell Foot.

00:13:51Melissa Ellis: Oh, wow. Wow. That's pretty exciting. So I did look up Fell Foot. I saw they're up to 265 events. Can you describe the course for us?

00:14:00Eileen Jones: Yeah, it's a very, very attractive course. It's two laps of a huge meadow, which sometimes has sheep or cattle grazing in the middle of it, lots and lots of beautiful wildflowers, with the lake the foot of the lake alongside at one side of it and in between those two laps there's another loop at the top end of the park on gravel paths um a little bit of hill we call it Cumbrian flat because here you know we're used to very steep hills so that they're not really significant the problem is um that in the winter the meadow and the run out to it gets incredibly boggy. And in fact, it becomes unusable. So we've created a winter route, which is just using the gravel paths at the north end of the park. And it's quite interesting. Our Event Director is a guy called Ron Edington. And he has got a great imagination and created this fantastic course. It's probably, you know, it's a tiny space. but it loops round and round and you do four laps of it and you keep passing people going the other way and going round. It's really sociable. You have to be very careful to count. I always take a finger out of my glove each time I go round a traffic cone And then I know how many more laps I've got to go. So it's two very, very different courses, summer and winter. Both of them delightful.

00:15:26Melissa Ellis: And I looked up, you've done 260 events. I have, yeah. And 104 different. So you've done your Cowell.

00:15:34Eileen Jones: Yes, that was exciting.

00:15:36Melissa Ellis: And I also looked up whereabouts you are in, is it Cambria? Cumbria. Cumbria. Yeah. Okay. So it's roughly for, to put it in perspective for us over here, down under, the middle of UK, kind of level with the Isle of Man?

00:15:52Eileen Jones: Yeah, a little bit higher up than the Isle of Man. We're just below the Scottish border. So the north part of Cumbria actually hits the border with Scotland. So I'm probably about an hour and a half drive from no, maybe less, maybe, yeah, about an hour and a half drive from the Scottish border here. And we're in the northwest corner of England.

00:16:14Melissa Ellis: Okay. So the book, How parkrun Changed Our Lives, would you like to tell us how did you get the idea about writing the book and what motivated you to write it?

00:16:25Eileen Jones: Well, I'm a storyteller, Melissa. I'm a writer. I've been a journalist all my life. I've only written one book before. That was a long time ago. But I write articles for magazines. I have my own little public relations business. So I write things for my clients. I write blogs for their websites. But I'm a storyteller by nature. So I would go off to all my parkruns, doing my parkrun tourism and come back to Fell Foot and tell the gang there all about my adventures, you know, where I'd been and what the course was like and the people that I'd met and how wonderful was the bacon sandwich in the cafe. And they used to say, oh, you should write all this down. You should write a book about it. And I'd say, no, no, it's been done. You know, Debra Bourne wrote that encyclopedic book really about the history of Parkland. And I haven't got time, you know, and I've got to earn a living, blah, blah, blah. And then, of course, a year ago, when the pandemic hit, all the businesses that I represent closed down. And very abruptly, I had no income. And very abruptly, I had time on my hands. And at first, it wasn't so bad. It was a beautiful spring. And so I took the opportunity to go and do a lot more walking and running. But I have to be busy. I have to do something. And my younger son kept saying, write another book, you know, you should write another book. And one morning I just thought, yeah, I've got it. I woke up with the opening sentence of chapter one, which is about, is parkrun a new religion? Can it be seen as a new religion, the way that we all gather together and celebrate and congregate together? And once I got the first sentence, the rest came easily. As a writer, I've always found that's all I need is the opening sentence. So it was a Sunday morning and I got up really early and sat down and started typing. And within an hour, I got a couple of thousand words down and I thought, I'm going to do it. And the rest, it was just so easy. I started to talk to people. I started off because of the religion theme. I started tracking down vicars and clerical people who who parkrun, I found most of them on Facebook and there's loads of them. And then the more I looked into it, the more it was apparent that parkrun was helping people in sort of spiritual and mental ways as well as physical. So I did a lot of research by putting out calls on Facebook among the tourist community. I had immense help from a very good friend called Rebecca Robinson, who she's a doctor based here in England and She went on holiday to San Francisco and she set a new women's record for parkrunner, the Crissy Field run. She's run for England. She's a phenomenal runner.

00:19:13Melissa Ellis: Okay.

00:19:14Eileen Jones: And I was talking to her, and as I say, she's a doctor, and knew lots of people who'd done research about the benefits of parkrun. And she, in a space of about 20 minutes, you know, I filled a notebook with people. She said, you must talk to so-and-so, you must talk to so-and-so. So that moved on the whole health and wellbeing aspect of the book. And at some point I got in touch with PSH and said, look, I'm going to do this and I'd really like your cooperation. And he said, yeah, yeah, what do you want? So when I wrote the chapter about him, I sent it to him to check that it was OK, that it was on the right lines. And he just sent it back and said, yeah, you've captured it all beautifully, which gave me a lot of confidence then to to carry on. And it was it was just a joy. Every single sentence that I wrote was a joy. I was writing about this thing that I love. so much. And everybody wanted to help. Everybody wanted to cooperate. Everybody wants to tell their stories. And their stories are wonderful ones. They are just uplifting and inspiring and funny. It was not difficult to write. It really wasn't.

00:20:29Melissa Ellis: Do you have a favourite story in the book or a couple that stand out that you would like to share?

00:20:37Eileen Jones: Yeah, lots really. But of our group at Fell Foot, we had this couple who came along to the inaugural event, Conrad and Josie Slater. And they take turns each. One of them usually volunteers and the other one runs. In Josie's case, she normally just walks now. But they have been absolute stalwarts. They are 85 years old. And when they celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary a couple of years ago, that's being married for 60 years. the parkrun together and cross the finishing line holding hands and you know they just are so full of joy and and love and they they love being there they love coming to the cafe afterwards and they love the fact that all the younger people just include them because they're parkrunners it doesn't matter what age they are that epitomizes it doesn't it really absolutely does And then a guy I haven't actually met, I've only spoken to him, but I will look forward to meeting. A lot of these people I couldn't meet in real life, of course, because I was writing this during the pandemic. A blind chap called Dave Williams, who just sounds like the most positive and enthusiastic person you can imagine. And he told me his story. about how he took up running and lost loads of weight and got lots of confidence. And he has a guide runner called Rebecca. And Rebecca is dyspraxic. And he said she sometimes can't tell her left from her right. So he said, between us, we're a right pair. So no wonder we ever get round the course at all. So stories like that, you know, that make people laugh a little bit. Oh, and then a guy up in the northeast who runs with his twin sons in a buggy. And one of them is autistic and likes lots of bright colours and likes dressing up and so they dress up every week in different costumes and this boy nearly always throws his shoe out of his push chair and his dad used to go back and pick it up but then now he doesn't bother because he knows somebody along the way will pick the shoe up and return it to him just you know families doing it together One of my friends who is a fell running champion, a guy called Ben Abdel-Noor, and he went along thinking, what on earth is parkrun going to do for me? You know, I've got the fells on my doorstep. I can run up and down hills. He does, you know, literally run up and down hills before breakfasts. And he got absolutely hooked the first time. He thought, this is great. And he found himself being beaten by 12-year-old kids. Not that it matters, gritting teeth.

00:23:19Melissa Ellis: We've all had that experience.

00:23:21Eileen Jones: Absolutely. So, yeah, at every end, you know, every age range, every ability range, there's just wonderful, wonderful stories. Yeah.

00:23:32Melissa Ellis: I don't think there's many other organisations where interaction that can span so many generations can happen. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's what parkrun's really unique. Absolutely. Yeah, totally. You know, so people, you know, over 65 can be, you know, enjoying the company of, you know, under 11s. Oh, yeah, yeah. And mixing and interacting and, you know, that just doesn't usually happen in different.

00:24:00Eileen Jones: Oh, I think you're absolutely right. I can't think of any other field of life where people come together like this and so regularly. And, you know, you get people going to music festivals, you get people who go to theatres. Yes. But these people also like music and they like theatre and will do that as well. But they come together from all different walks of life and with all different backgrounds. And, you know, you can be running alongside somebody for weeks and weeks before you realise that they're a great musical theatre fan, Melissa Ellis. I saw your profile picture was that green face and I thought, uh-uh, here's somebody who likes musicals.

00:24:40Melissa Ellis: Yes. So can I quickly tell you the story about that? Yeah, please. During our pause here in Australia, I created my own home parkrun. And every week we would have a different theme. And it basically was to keep us motivated as a family. And I've got an 11-year-old, so that engaged her every week. It gave her something to look forward to because she was stuck at home studying, very isolated. And so, but every week she knew that mum would sort of make this theme, do a dress up, buy some fun food. And it gave her something to look forward to every week. And we'd come together as a family as well. Anyway, so one week was Wizard of Oz theme. And we were, our restrictions were at a level where I was allowed to have five people, I think, visit my home. They couldn't come in actually. We were just allowed to gather in groups of five. So I had some local friends and I said, hey, you know, do you want to come and do my home parkrun with me? We were restricted to I think a 20-kilometre bubble at the time.

00:25:38Eileen Jones: Yeah.

00:25:38Melissa Ellis: So they could travel but they couldn't come in my house so we had a brunch on my driveway and we all dressed up as characters from Wizard of Oz and I was the Wicked Witch of the West. And, yeah, so 8 o'clock in the morning we walk down the street so we're getting trucks Tooting us as we walk down the street.

00:25:54Eileen Jones: That's brilliant. That's absolutely brilliant. It's silly, you know. Oh, it's wonderful.

00:25:59Melissa Ellis: But I was posting on social media every week and actually got people saying, we love seeing your pictures every week. We really look forward to it.

00:26:06Eileen Jones: Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I think that's the kind of thing that's kept us all sane throughout the pandemic. That's wonderful. Yeah, it's just hanging on, you know, and it's hope. Yeah, yeah.

00:26:17Melissa Ellis: Anyway, so the book relay, 330 mile relay to mark the launch of your book. We know Paul Sinton Hewitt wrote the foreword for your book, but how did you get the idea for the relay?

00:26:31Eileen Jones: Well, I wanted to launch the book. And of course, the traditional way to launch a book is to have a signing in a bookshop. And of course, there's no bookshops open. I did think while I was writing the book that parkrun might stop by the time I published. And I did actually think at one point that it might even coincide, you know, the publication date might coincide with the startup of parkrun. And then it became apparent that wasn't going to be the case. But I'd been thinking, oh, it would be great to have a book launch at Bushy parkrun. So I'd got this notion in my head about the book being at Bushy. And when we realised, you I just thought, well, we'll take the book there. And the obvious way to take a book is, if you're a runner, is to run with it. So the problem was, if you're going to organise an event, you have to have a date for that event. And the book hadn't even gone to be printed at this stage. So it was due to go to the printers. It was being printed in Poland. And I knew that it would take about four weeks. But we were in the middle of a pandemic worldwide. And we just got all the problems to do with Brexit. And, you know, transportation of goods to and from Europe. So I was a bit anxious that whatever I organised, the book might not actually be here in time. But I did want to get it organised and give people a date to work towards it. So in the end, we decided to set off on Friday the 19th of March and the book arrived 17 days before that. So I was able to say to my team, hey, we've got a baton. So what I'd done, I got a friend to devise a map for me because I knew where Bushy Park was in relation to where I am. But then, you know, that's driving down a motorway. I had to get a route that was doable for pedestrians. So A friend created a map and we divided that map into seven sections, one for each day and decided there would be no overnight running. I think the longest section was 60 miles. And then I have a friend called Eve Taylor, who is quoted in the book. She's a parkrun ambassador a bit south of here. So because she was south of my area, I thought, well, I know I can get runners in my own area. They were all friends who took part here. Then Eve started to work on the next two sections of the country. And then she put out calls and I put out calls on social media. And eventually we ended up with a team of seven people to coordinate each section. So that meant I could delegate and each local area organiser knew their locality. So they have this map. We had to say because of COVID restrictions that no more than two people on a leg and you can only run, there isn't a definitive ruling about how far you can go from your house for exercise, but you're supposed to stay in your own locality. So people could only run if they were relatively near to the route. So lots of people wanted to do it, but really just didn't live close enough. But it was great having the local organisers because they knew exactly where different parts of the route were. Excuse me, we didn't want to have exactly 5k. I mean, that would have been fun, but It would have been very, very unwieldy. We'd have had so many runners and we would have been stopping and starting in the middle of nowhere, perhaps beside a busy main road or something. So it was just looking for venues which were natural changeover points, you know, a village square, a town centre, a church, a car park. And then people volunteered to run different distances, you know, 10, 11 miles or even just one mile. And somehow or other, we put the whole thing together. And then just before, it was about a week or so before we were due to set off, a guy called James Thurlow, who has a tracking business, offered the loan of a GPS tracker. So we were able to create that interactive map, which was a very cohesive feature, to be honest. It really brought the whole community together in different parts of the country so that everybody could watch the progress each day following this little dot moving down the map and seeing where the book was up to.

00:30:54Melissa Ellis: It must have really given people, you know, a lot of enjoyment to read, be a part of it, but then to be invested in the journey.

00:31:02Eileen Jones: Oh, Melissa, I cannot tell you how astonishing and how humbling it has been that I knew people were, oh yeah, we're happy to sign up and do this. They were overjoyed. I saw so many photographs of smiling faces. I got so many messages back saying, thank you so much for letting me be part of this. And I said, thank you you know you're the one that gave up your time you're the one that went to all this trouble they just loved being part of something again it's been missing from their lives and it means that you know parkrun really is about community and being together so I felt as if I knew these people you know I was 300 miles north of where they were but I was invested in their performance and their ability to turn up and do what they were going to do And there wasn't a single hiccup along the way. Everybody turned up and nobody got lost and everybody handed the book over. We designed, a friend of mine, Joe, customised a little backpack with the parkrun logo on it. So the book was inside that and the tracker was taped onto the shoulder of it. And then the baton was handed over. Lovely. And passed it on the line. And the person who took the book home at night, the last leg runner each day, had to switch the tracker off and then switch it on again in the morning. And so when I, because I'm working to promote the books on behalf of the publishers, I am officially allowed to travel. So I went down to London to see the finish and I was in Bushy Park, met Paul and Joe for the first time, which was exciting in itself. And we were watching the progress of the last leg runners, Chris and Sophie and, who were getting closer and closer. And we were following on the map and we could see where they were. They're in Twickenham, oh, they're nearly at the park gates. And then the entrance to Bushy that they came in is this long, very, very long, straight pathway leading up to the fountain in the middle of the park. And it was just spine tingling. You know, we could see them in the distance moving towards us. And when that rucksack arrived, you know, a And it was placed on the ground so that Paul could pick it up. And the point where they put it down was the original start line of the very first bushy parkrun. It was just magic. And I couldn't believe that these people had. all come together to create something like this. It was just wonderful. And you created that. Yeah, we created it. I mean, okay, I had the idea, but, you know, it's all very well having a grand idea.

00:33:44Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah, it takes a village.

00:33:45Eileen Jones: Yep. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

00:33:49Melissa Ellis: Oh, fabulous. One thing I was wondering was any of the people that you interviewed for the book that are, you know, the stories, were any of those people part of the relay?

00:33:58Eileen Jones: Yes, they were. A vicar, well, a curate, he's at a church in Lancaster, which is south of here, a guy called Matt Gilder. And he was one of the clerical people I interviewed in the book. His story is a fascinating one. And I got in touch and said, day two of this relay is going to start in Lancaster. Are you interested? So he was thrilled, of course. So he got his dog collar, his clerical dog collar, and wore it underneath his apricot vest. And he set off on day two. He ran 11 miles. I did say to him, do you want me to come and pick you up at the finish and drive you home? No, no, I'll run back. I'm training for a marathon. So he passed on to, I can't remember who the next runner was that day. Eve Taylor, whom I mentioned, the ambassador, she was one of the final day runners, I think day three. Who else was there that I'd already met and interviewed? I don't think there was anybody else that had actually appeared in the book. Obviously, on day one, a lot of my fell foot colleagues were there. So they do appear in the book. I was running on leg one with a woman called Sally Ann Lambert. who sadly has been stuck on 99 parkruns for a whole year. She and I were going to go away to Wales to do her 100th and it had to be cancelled because of lockdown. So she's in the book. Jo Jackson, who has been my companion every Saturday through lockdown we've run from a different bridge somewhere and done a (not)parkrun together uh she was on one of my legs and then Karen white and Andy leather and from Fell Foot an amazing fell runner a legendary fell runner called selwyn wright he ran a section oh we also had on our first section a world champion A friend of mine called Sarah McCormack, who is currently the world mountain running champion. And she ran one leg with her partner, Paul Tierney. And he's an interesting ultra runner. He set a new record in the Lake District. There are 214 mountains which were cataloged by a writer called Alfred Wainwright many years ago. And he wrote seven guidebooks, divided the mountains into seven sections. And people try and do all of them. I did them over 42 years, you know, eventually. Paul set a new record for running the whole lot in just over six days. And I was part of his support team for that. So it was really great to have him on the squad for day one as well.

00:36:47Melissa Ellis: Wow. I think I saw them. There was some television media with you starting the race. So I saw that. I watched that.

00:36:55Eileen Jones: Fantastic. Yeah, that was brilliant because Fiona Marley-Patterson, who is the TV reporter, she's also a runner, so she actually ran an aisle on day one. That was brilliant.

00:37:05Melissa Ellis: And thank you, Pippa. Thank you, Pippa White, for sending me that link to that footage. Yeah, yeah. Tell me, Eileen, did you take an extra book to get PSH to sign for you?

00:37:16Unidentified speaker: No.

00:37:18Eileen Jones: What a good idea. I did have a box full of books in the boot of my car when I drove to London. I take them everywhere just in case somebody wants to buy one. And I did think perhaps we ought to have a spare one with us in case the one that's in the backpack is damaged. But then in my excitement, I didn't take it with me into the park. And Yes, what a great idea. I should have taken my own copy and got Paul to sign it. So there's a good idea for the summer when he comes up to Parliament. Thank you for that.

00:37:52Melissa Ellis: How can our listeners get a copy of this book here in Australia and New Zealand?

00:37:57Eileen Jones: Yeah, I guess the easiest way is to do it on Amazon, from from Australia if you do it can you buy books through amazon I mean I'm assuming that the amazon is a global yeah yeah we have an amazon au as well so you can order it from the publisher themselves I imagine the cost would be quite it'd be quite expensive I don't know how much it would cost via amazon however if you wanted to have a look at the gritstone publishing website um It's just Gritstone Publishing. There is a link to the book there where you can order it. And if it goes through Gritstone, then you get a signed copy. But obviously, I'm not sure how much they posted. I think I sent one to Canada last week and that cost an extra £10 or something to post there. I have sent one to Alison because Alison and I are doing a book swap. I know. To publish her book. And I didn't know she was doing it and she didn't know I was doing it. And we've only just met on social media in the last few weeks. And I just think that's the most wonderful serendipity that we were doing it at the same time. It is. So I'm really looking forward to hers. Hers will be published in a week or so, I think.

00:39:09Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Eileen, there's one last thing we like to ask all of our guests, not including your home parkrun. Yeah. Can you tell us your top three favourite parkruns and why?

00:39:20Eileen Jones: Right, okay. Number one, without a shadow of a doubt, is in the south of England on the south coast in Cornwall and it's called Mount Edgcumbe. And I write about it in the book. It was the most beautiful day. I'd organised a little holiday for myself, travelling along the South Coast with a parkrun at the beginning of the holiday and a parkrun at the end of the holiday. Because why else doesn't one go anywhere these days? And everything about it was perfect. The weather was beautiful. You take a little ferry across an estuary. and land in the grounds of a beautiful stately home. And the route suited me as a hill runner. It went very, very steeply up through some beautiful woodland He came out of the trees with this view of Plymouth and the Drake's Island, and then the most glorious fell run as descent through the woods. And everything about it was perfect. I think my second favourite is another hilly one, the hilliest in the UK, probably the hilliest in the world, at Whinlatter Forest, also in the Lake District here, maybe about 20 miles from where I live. And it's got the most ridiculous amount of ascent. It actually starts at a point lower than the finish and the first half mile is all downhill so you can imagine what the rest of it's like but it is beautiful the scene is one where runners often stop as they come out of the trees and see the view of the mountains they stop and take photographs and you know nobody's going to get a PB on on Whinlatter anyway so it's just so extreme Number three. Oh, there's a hard one. I did love very much one on the east coast of England, near a place called Bridlington at Sewerby Hall, where you run out along the cliff tops and then also around the back of a stately home. I like I like the parkruns that have got a bit of different scenery. I like very much the London ones, Brockwell Park. Tooting Common Mile End Gunnersbury um I have done bushy of course and there's this week when this week when I've been down in London I was staying overnight in teddington just near The Entrance to Bushy Park so of course yesterday morning I had to go and run 5k around Bushy Park yeah well yeah I mean it would be rude not to admit so I could go on forever listing ones that I've loved. I don't think there's... There's only been one I didn't enjoy, and that was where I twisted my ankle or pulled my Achilles or something partway through, and it was just an agony to get to the end, and I had to get to the end because I was on target to do, you know, 50 pounds or whatever it was. So I had to finish it, but it was really painful. But otherwise... every one of them has been utter, utter joy.

00:42:13Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's fabulous. Well, thank you very much for spending the time to share your book and your journey with us, Eileen. It's been really engaging to hear all about it. A half an hour isn't enough time to talk to you. So hopefully in the future we may get another chance to have a chat. But thank you so much for coming on to the parkrun adventurers.

00:42:36Eileen Jones: Thank you, Melissa. It's been an absolute pleasure.

00:42:39[13 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:42:51Oliver Spake: That was great to hear. Such a fantastic and inclusive approach there, Mel, to something that's clearly been a big part of people's lives. And to see it over there in the UK, that was lovely.

00:43:04Melissa Ellis: It was, yes. Thank you, Eileen.

00:43:07Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:43:07Melissa Ellis: I really enjoyed having a chat with you and seeing the journey of the book all the way from one end to the clutches of PSH.

00:43:16Oliver Spake: Yeah, very fitting, very well coordinated. And look, it really does show people's desire to be a part of something that clearly means a lot. To see that level of support is just amazing. Well done.

00:43:26Melissa Ellis: I want to get myself one of those backpacks. I'm wondering what Eileen did with that backpack. I hope you kept it, Eileen. This has got to go in some sort of parkrun museum, I think. Yes.

00:43:35Oliver Spake: Going down in history. Is there a parkrun museum? Surely someone's got a parkrun museum.

00:43:39Melissa Ellis: No, I don't think so. But I know Danny talks about it a bit.

00:43:43Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:43:44Melissa Ellis: He's collecting things for one, but I don't think it's been started yet. I don't know that I'd have anything to contribute.

00:43:51Unidentified speaker: Okay.

00:43:51Oliver Spake: Well, yeah, Dazza can make the parkrun museum. No to Danny. Go and get the backpack. I'm sure Eileen would love to share it.

00:43:58Melissa Ellis: She might not be giving it up.

00:43:59Oliver Spake: No, that's true.

Dazza's

00:44:00Melissa Ellis: Speaking of Dazza.

00:44:01Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:44:02Melissa Ellis: We had lots of people come to Dazza's cafe this week.

00:44:04Oliver Spake: Yeah, a bit of a crowd, wasn't it, Mel?

00:44:06Melissa Ellis: It was. A standing room only. So we heard from Helen Jane Davies who said, It was lovely at St Peter's. Lucky we'd chosen that one as Centennial got cancelled due to flooding. It was nice to catch up with parkrun friends for breakfast after they'd been to Greenway parkrun.

00:44:20Oliver Spake: Some nice parkruns there. Absolutely. But yeah, hopefully a few of those parkruns are covering from the floods. Fingers crossed. I was speaking to someone from East Richmond at Run West who only as of Friday, I think he was saying he was actually able to get out. And so I was thinking he's lucky stars he was able to make the event. Oh.

00:44:37Melissa Ellis: Oh, okay.

00:44:38Oliver Spake: Yeah, with slightly less water but still continuing the theme, Mark Scarborough. We woke up in Melbourne with the sound of rain on our caravan roof. Thankfully, the rain stopped right in time for parkrun at Lalor.

00:44:51Melissa Ellis: Excellent. And Andrew Turner, timekeeping at a damp Maribyrnong today where a certain Scott Trickett was in attendance.

00:44:59Oliver Spake: Another sighting.

00:45:00Melissa Ellis: I know. He's getting around Melbourne at the moment. It was an event 23, so I was just wondering if he's working on his P index.

00:45:08Oliver Spake: Maybe he's playing the long game. There could be a couple of synergistic goals that he's working towards there, Mel.

00:45:14Melissa Ellis: Yeah, he's a man of mystery.

00:45:15Oliver Spake: Yes, all right. Well, Melbourne, keep your eyes out. Alison King. I went to, here we go. Sorry, Alison. Tauranga parkrun in the Sunny Bay of Plenty. Had to stop in at the Whipped Baker for refreshment. My gosh, that was an incredible looking bakery. [Te Reo Māori: "safe anchorage, or resting place"]

00:45:30Melissa Ellis: There was plenty on offer there. No ice creams this week.

00:45:34Oliver Spake: No.

00:45:34Melissa Ellis: And I think, hang on, Ollie, I made a note. I made a note. Where's my note? Something about, oh, the longest run. Yes. The reason they didn't include their seventh event would have been because it was another two hour drive to get to event number seven. That's why they didn't include it.

00:45:48Oliver Spake: I think that's a very fair reason.

00:45:49Melissa Ellis: I think they would have run out of time.

00:45:51Oliver Spake: Look, you've always got to have another challenge to level up for next time. That's something they can look forward to.

00:45:56Melissa Ellis: And Kirsten Louise Russell rocks Riverside where the sun was shining and the chats were just what I needed. So glad to hear the sun was out where you were, Kirsten.

00:46:06Oliver Spake: Beautiful parkrun course, that one. Jenny Reedman tried out my new pineapple-coloured 10th birthday of parkrun in Australia ID band at SS Cooper Trail parkrun and bagged my 11 on the Wilson Index. Now I'm sitting on 18. That's a level up and nice to see the wristband make an appearance there.

00:46:25Melissa Ellis: Yes, that's great. And, yeah, 18's not a bad number for a Windex. But, yeah, Zoe also received her pineapple-coloured wristband.

00:46:34Unidentified speaker: It's yet to be used.

00:46:36Melissa Ellis: She was a no-show this week at parkrun Bar. Okay. It's going in the suitcase for next weekend's holiday.

00:46:41Oliver Spake: Yeah, it needs a sunny location. Yes.

00:46:43Melissa Ellis: And Jacqui O'Connell, Victorian statesman again at Peppertree parkrun. Nice run playing leapfrog with Brian Allison, who was doing a walk run program. He could run a lot faster than me, but I kept catching him on his walk breaks. Thanks for the encouragement to sprint to the last section, Brian. Nice. Well done, Jack. Statesman again.

00:47:02Oliver Spake: Congratulations. That's impressive. And then Amanda O'Reilly, adventured to my home parkrun at Westerfolds. First parkrun there in 12 months. Was great to run those hills again.

00:47:13Melissa Ellis: There's always something nice about coming back to your home parkrun, Ollie.

00:47:16Oliver Spake: especially if there's a hill or two.

00:47:18Melissa Ellis: And Bill Eldridge, I took my wife out for her first ever parkrun at Mawson Lakes and we had so much fun with so many friends with us. I like Mawson Lakes. I was there on New Year's Day.

00:47:29Oliver Spake: Val Warwick, yes. Volley Marshall and photographer at home, Devonport. We began in pouring rain after a thunderstorm had woken everyone at 4am, but that rain passed and we had a rainless event after the first five minutes.

00:47:43Melissa Ellis: Oh, I'd like to hear that, Val. It's funny how often the rain just clears up for that half an hour to an hour at eight o'clock or seven o'clock if you are in those states where it starts at that time.

00:47:54Oliver Spake: Or nine o'clock. Yeah, that's right. Yes, down in Tassie. True. And for a long time, we always used to say, look, you know, always clears for Shellharbour parkrun at that time. But eventually it stopped doing that.

00:48:07Melissa Ellis: And our friend from over in the west, Cameron Drake, managed an adventure all of 15 minutes away and enjoyed a long black so hot I couldn't drink it until I got home.

00:48:16Oliver Spake: Oh, coffee report. Very good. Ingrid Botha. Kame today. No photos, but I do have a witness who saw me run up at least one hill. But the big achievement is that I beat my secret parkrun nemesis off to the border for the next two weekends to catch a W or two. Ah. Oh, she's got plans up her sleeve. I think so. Do you have a parkrun nemesis? I did have a parkrun nemesis, but yeah, distant memory now. Distant memory. Do you have one, Mel?

00:48:46Melissa Ellis: I wouldn't say it was a nemesis, but when I first started, you know, when you're first trying to do parkrun and challenging yourself and there's that person every week that just runs that little bit faster than you and you're always sort of trying to catch them. At first I had this lady that had this really long, long, dark plait and she was my mark. And then I had the apricot shirt lady. So bless them. Thanks, guys. Thanks for all that encouragement over the years. You'll never know that I chased you for so long.

00:49:15Oliver Spake: It's all the more special for that reason.

00:49:17Melissa Ellis: And Tony O'Connell, Brekkie at Peppertree. And thanks, TOC, for the photo of your breakfast there.

00:49:24Oliver Spake: Yep.

00:49:25Melissa Ellis: It looked very yummy.

00:49:26Oliver Spake: That's what makes it such a nice cafe. There's just so much nice food, nice coffee. Correct. Well-earned. That one, well, well-earned. And Janet, Janet Lewin-Reid. Beautiful drizzle here at Lochiel Park. Happy parkrun Day, everyone.

00:49:39Melissa Ellis: Thanks, Janet. And Bruce Purdy enjoying a massive mug of flat white at Hamilton. Another photo of a big coffee.

00:49:48Oliver Spake: Yep. I love the coffee reports. Jodie Maisie, Brendan Peel, and I did Avondale University College parkrun. It was such a lovely parkrun.

00:49:56Melissa Ellis: It was a star-studded event there from what I could tell, Ollie. I clicked to see how many people ran there, actually. They had just shy of 250, I think, and I was running my eyes down that list thinking, who's who of the tourism population at that parkrun?

00:50:13Oliver Spake: Yeah, it was something else. It was obviously a well-supported launch and great to see. It always means a lot to the region of runners there and obviously with the Doddfather out there heading that passion. What did they call it, Mel? I think they called it the Weetbix parkrun. What? And they called it the Weetbix parkrun. Did they? That's right.

00:50:29Melissa Ellis: I didn't listen to the audio. Was that referred to in that? Oops, I'm outing myself here.

00:50:36Oliver Spake: Well, there you are. Why? I can't remember.

00:50:40[laughter]

00:50:40Unidentified speaker: LAUGHTER

00:50:45Melissa Ellis: Okay. Homework.

00:50:47Oliver Spake: Homework, homework. Yeah. But it was a fantastic looking launch. Well done to everyone there, especially with the course having been underway.

00:50:54Melissa Ellis: I want to know now why it would be a Weet-Bix parkrun. Is it soggy?

00:51:01Oliver Spake: Now you've got all the more reason to go and investigate. And that's half the fun.

00:51:05Melissa Ellis: Didn't I tell you we've got people to do this for us? Oh, okay. Well, we had also Heather Patzel at Mount Gambier, Mount Gambier, supporting our friend Bec who moved to Adelaide. Today she completed lap two of Run Down Under. Lap two.

00:51:21Oliver Spake: Oh, my gosh.

00:51:23Melissa Ellis: Well done. It was a little wet to start, but a muggy morning. Lap two. Oh, good grief.

00:51:29Oliver Spake: And Adelina Trott. Some Westerfoldians headed out to Cascades on Clyde wetlands for a wet parkrun, fittingly.

00:51:36Melissa Ellis: Yes, it was very wet in Victoria at most of our events. Not where I was. Yeah. I was high and dry.

00:51:44Oliver Spake: Oh, nice. But yeah, great to see the Westerfoldians getting out there to support them.

00:51:47Unidentified speaker: Yes, there was a whole group of Westerfoldians that went together to Cascades on Clyde.

00:51:51Melissa Ellis: And Dawn Brandt in Parkville today, the only parkrun with its own UU. Do you know about these UUs, Ollie? Because this might be a little foreign to you Northerners. No.

00:52:02Oliver Spake: Not a clue. Very curious, but not a clue.

00:52:04Melissa Ellis: Oh, now I've got to explain it, don't I? So they're these sculptures that represent sheep, which is why they're called UUs.

00:52:13Unidentified speaker: Yes. That refers to it being a sheep somehow.

00:52:17Melissa Ellis: And they're all decorated and they seem to be hidden all around Melbourne. And I think there's a hundred of them. That could be a lie, but I think there's 100 of them. And I also think there could be some sort of interactive website or app where you actually locate them and record that you've located them. And the idea is that you find all 100 that are dotted around Melbourne and the greater Melbourne area. And I really hope I got that correct. But my friends have been really into going out on weekends and looking for UUs.

00:52:47Oliver Spake: Love it.

00:52:48Melissa Ellis: And I think the time's nearly up. I haven't even seen one.

00:52:50Oliver Spake: Oh, so there is a time limit.

00:52:52Melissa Ellis: Oh, yes, yes. Yes, they're about to all disappear.

00:52:54Oliver Spake: Oh.

00:52:55Melissa Ellis: I don't know where they're going. They might be going to a museum. I don't really know. They're going somewhere.

00:52:59Oliver Spake: Oh, now I really feel like I'm missing out.

00:53:02Melissa Ellis: Well, maybe they'll come to Sydney. I don't know.

00:53:04Oliver Spake: Well, that's it. Everyone get out to Parkville quickly.

00:53:08Melissa Ellis: Yes, I know there's some down Geelong way too. Oh, there's the trip trap, trip trap.

00:53:14Oliver Spake: Ah, yep, yep.

00:53:14Melissa Ellis: That had to happen.

00:53:16Unidentified speaker: Okay.

00:53:16Oliver Spake: And Shell Sparkles, home parkrun in the most perfect weather and views. And I believe that was Rockingham.

00:53:22Melissa Ellis: Rockingham. Was that not where Cam was?

00:53:24Oliver Spake: Rocky, that's it.

00:53:25Melissa Ellis: Ah. Ah, there you go. And Tracey Wood, touching the gate at Bunyaville this morning. And Tracey posted a photo of herself touching a gate, which prompted me to say, why are you touching a gate? Is it a thing? And I think it is. I think when you get... I think Bunyaville maybe is a double out and back from what I gather. Okay. When you get to the end, you touch the gate. It's a thing.

00:53:50Oliver Spake: Bunyaville sounds like a pretty challenging park, right? Is it something that's synonymous with those more challenging parkruns? Because I'm pretty sure I remember the gate at Wildflower, not at the top of the most challenging hill perhaps, but I think I touched the gate there too.

00:54:03Melissa Ellis: Okay.

00:54:04Oliver Spake: But now I'm really curious. So, yeah, Bunyaville on the list.

00:54:07Melissa Ellis: I'm sure Tracey will let us know.

00:54:09Oliver Spake: And we had Steve Batesta. I was RD in Cairns this week, so ran just after 5 a.m. over our course. Couldn't see a thing for most of the first kilometre. Next week starts three Saturdays of touristing. Good work, Steve. And I'm glad you didn't hit anything.

00:54:25Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Next time, take your headlamp. And wind lines. PB for a Warwick, of course. Yay, windy. Well done.

00:54:33Oliver Spake: And friend of the pod also, Errol Poole. Fine and sunny at Pallara. Excuse the pronunciation. I probably got that one wrong. This morning in southeast Queensland. Yeah, look, it's been great to hear that good weather back finally after a pretty rough time for everyone there.

00:54:49Melissa Ellis: Yes, and I did say to Errol, I think we need some sort of report from that parkrun. It's not one that I'm familiar with or I think I've ever heard mentioned before, so a bit of a mystery parkrun. We need to know more.

00:55:00Oliver Spake: Well, that makes me feel better. Please tell us, Errol, or anyone else that wants to travel out there, of course.

00:55:04Melissa Ellis: Well, Ollie, what an epic part two of the longest podcast in the world. Do you remember, like, that there was a song that was like, this is the song that doesn't end. It just goes on and on, my friend.

00:55:18Oliver Spake: We're going to change our theme music this week to that one, you think. I think the listeners will appreciate that.

00:55:23Melissa Ellis: We're like the Energizer Bunnies. We just keep going and going and going.

00:55:26Oliver Spake: That's right. How many parts do we have, Mel?

00:55:28Melissa Ellis: We have three.

00:55:31Oliver Spake: And this was two. And look, sorry, Mel, you go.

00:55:34[crosstalk]

00:55:34Melissa Ellis: As usual, I'm talking over you. So please continue.

00:55:37Oliver Spake: Oh, I forgot what I was going to say. Sorry.

00:55:40Melissa Ellis: I've done it again so have I forgotten uh so yes this was uh part two and now uh we will transition into our roving reports Ollie because we heard from a plethora of our roving reporters out there and and Ollie you've done an interview

00:55:57Oliver Spake: I've done an interview. That's right. Because look, what's not lost on us is that there are a few things going on, Mel. Too much. There are a few. I don't know if you'd call it too much. Okay. You just need to take it in moderation, I suppose. So look, everyone, if you need a drinks break, you want to just stop your run, save this for tomorrow's run. Pause now. Okay. mid-part two. No, what we've got coming is a bit of a tip of the hat. Unfortunately, we didn't get in touch with the entire team who are probably deserving of it, but had a chat with Mr. Paul Ralph, formerly of Main Beach parkrun and still fairly regular. With Main Beach's birthday coming up, Mel, with parkrun Australia's 10th anniversary as well, we're just chatting with everyone.

00:56:45Melissa Ellis: All right, well, let's listen to them now.

00:56:47[17 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Interview Paul Relf — Former Event Director, Main Beach parkrun (Gold Coast); now a parkrun event ambassador

00:57:04Oliver Spake: Our guest on the podcast today is one of the very familiar faces to many who have joined Main Beach parkrun over a big chunk of the last decade. Whether you know him as the former ED for Main Beach parkrun or taking on the parkrun course in one of many brilliant costumes, welcome Paul Relf.

00:57:21Paul Relf: How are you going, Ollie?

00:57:23Oliver Spake: I'm good, thanks, Paul. How are you?

00:57:24Paul Relf: Yeah, good, good. Just sort of starting to sit back and watch other people organise an anniversary parkrun, so it's a little bit different, but yep. I'm all good.

00:57:35Oliver Spake: Yeah, a little more removed this time. It is an exciting time for Main Beach parkrun.

00:57:40Paul Relf: It is, and they've got a new ED, and he's all excited and taking the big role of the 10th anniversary run this weekend.

00:57:47Oliver Spake: Look, and it's an anniversary you've clearly enjoyed a couple of times at Main Beach parkrun. So when did – well, actually, take us right back. Take us back and tell us how you first discovered Main Beach parkrun.

00:58:01Paul Relf: A long time ago, back to – 2013. So a bit of a long story to get started, but I was always a runner, but my wife wasn't. She was the gym junkie. And she was always trying to get me to the gym and I said, no, no. And one day I said, look, I'll go to the gym if you come and run. And she said, well, you need to find something that I can do regularly, but only a short distance. So it or not, but she sent me down and she said, you've got to go down and see what it's all about before I take the plunge. So I went down, it was December 2013, and I like to get there early, so I was always early and I'm in the background hiding away. And Libby Maxwell, who was the Event Director at the time, spotted me and just came over and just started, introduced herself, had a chat, you know, this is your first time and all that sort of thing. And, you know, that straightaway, before I'd even run, I knew I was going to be hooked at it just because the way I was welcomed in by Libby. And before you know it, the other RDs there at the time, Julie and Wendy, who are still RDing at Main Beach, And Liz and Roger, they all took me under their wing. And as they did every new person back then, just a quick chat. And as I say, before I knew it, I was hooked. And so was my wife. Had her there the next week. And believe it or not, I still go to the gym and she still does parkrun.

00:59:22Oliver Spake: So you're part of the family straight away then?

00:59:24Paul Relf: Yeah, well, that's sort of what the parkrun is. And it's the way I've seen it with the majority of people. It doesn't matter what parkrun you go to. They all seem to chat to the newer people and just sort of take them under their wing. If the new people want, sometimes they don't want that. They just want to stand to the side. But, yeah, that's the way it sort of seems to me.

00:59:43Oliver Spake: Yeah. And did it take you long to try a few of the volunteering roles and to find that RDing experience to your liking?

00:59:51Paul Relf: Well, I initially started pacing after a couple of weeks. So I was talking to some slower people and I ended up pacing them. And before I know it, I was the regular balloon man back then because I used to take balloons nearly every week. And then a few things happened and I didn't pace that often. And I thought, no, I've got to give back a little bit more. So I started doing the other roles, you know, just the simple barcode scanning or marshalling. And I guess within 12 months, both Zoe and I ended up as Run Directors, more a tag team. So, yeah, it just... Did a few of the other roles first and just then, as I said, Libby and Wendy and Julie approached us, both Zoe and I, and said, do you want to have a go at it? And I just kind of, yeah, I'll be in this, something different. And then just sort of flowed along, enjoyed that. The next progression sort of was about 12, 18 months later. Libby moved house and ended up closer to Madrabah parkrun. and it was just a bit too far for her. And she said she was going to hand over. And before you know it, I was the one that ended up as the Event Director.

01:00:58Oliver Spake: How did you find being an Event Director then?

01:01:02Paul Relf: Very different. It was, as a Run Director, you do your little session on Saturday morning, put up the results and a few bits here and there. But it was more the The background stuff, answering the emails, making sure the Facebook pages and the volunteer roster was all sorted. So it was a little bit different, but didn't mind. But in saying that, I guess every Event Director is going to say exactly what I do, but seriously, I had the best Run Director team behind me. Like I've still got run – well, I don't, but now I've sat down. There's still Run Directors that have been there since day one at Main Beach for 10 years, and the support and the knowledge that that team – have given me over the years, I found it easy. I found it so easy. It was a well-oiled machine.

01:01:48Oliver Spake: Yeah, it is fantastic. You're quite right. Having a great team of Run Directors just makes such a difference. I'm fortunate to have experienced that myself and, you know, Each person brings their own touch, their own approach, even if it's little nuances to parkrun there. So it's great to sit back and just take it in. How did you and Zoe like tag teaming as Run Directors?

01:02:16Paul Relf: Oh, it was good. It worked really well for us and I've seen it at a number of parkruns and Main Beach do it for a few of their Run Directors so that both of us would be on at the same time and I generally give the Run Director's speech at the start but Zoe used to take the first time as briefing. It's interesting now that a separate person does it where at Main Beach we kind of had that already and then we found it easier with the two of us on because if one person got stuck down in an issue or an incident The other Run Director was always there just sort of overlooking. And we both have separate strengths and weaknesses. And as a couple, we know each other's weaknesses and are able to help out.

01:02:58Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's a good point. Makes it a bit seamless on the day.

01:03:01Paul Relf: Absolutely. And when you've got a parkrun that's a bit bigger, it's not as big as your South Banks or your Albert Parks, but, you know, Main Beach regularly, especially over summer, between 300 and 400 people, and a lot of those are tourists, having like a backup or a second Run Director there, certainly I think helps if you're a bit bigger.

01:03:21Oliver Spake: Yeah. How have you found, I mean, you're in a pretty public location. I mean, all parkruns obviously are public locations, but it's a beautiful spot. It's got a bit of park, got a bit of, you know, beach promenade there. How's the community accepted you over those years and has that relationship changed over time?

01:03:39Paul Relf: Like everything, 99% of the people love us. Like I was out on... as a Marshal for the start of parkrun this week and then a few walkers are there and they're going, oh, you guys are about to start. And I said, yep, yep, be careful. And they just stepped to the side and let us run through. But there's always one or two that aren't fans of parkrun for whatever reason and we try and chat to them to bring them around. We've brought a lot around that were anti-parkrun that are now parkrunners. But, you know, the majority of people love us. Yeah. Yeah, or accept us, and I think that's everywhere. Yes, yeah. They realise we're there for the same reason they are, and that's to exercise and to enjoy the parklands that we run parkrun through.

01:04:22Oliver Spake: Yeah, and I'm sure one of the attractions over that time has been the different celebrations, a good anniversary celebration or any other kind of event. Any highlights from those celebrations?

01:04:38Paul Relf: Oh, you know, there's a lot of highlights, but I guess the biggest one for us that sticks in my head, because we missed our nine-year one because of COVID, but our eight-year one. Our eight-year one was right in the middle of the Commonwealth Games. Oh, wow.

01:04:52Oliver Spake: Yes, of course.

01:04:53Paul Relf: So, and Tim came down and we actually had the young girl who, at the start of the Queen's Baton Relay, in Buckingham Palace, she presented the baton to the Queen or took the baton from the Queen and she actually ran at Main Beach and we made a mock one up for her to give a little baton to Tim Oberg with Tim's speech for the start of that run.

01:05:20Oliver Spake: Brilliant.

01:05:21Paul Relf: But we put a big security scare through them all as well because we ran right past the Sheraton hotel and Prince Charles was staying in there and we had 664 participants And you can imagine running past the Sheraton, which is 500 metres from the start line. But fortunately, the week before, a couple of federal police who were parkrunners happened to turn up at the start line and said, are you guys running next week? Yeah, yeah. Okay. We'll have to redo our security. That's fantastic. It was quite a memorable Saturday for a multitude of reasons, but it went off without a hitch. And one of those ones, I really got to thank a lot of other Event Directors and event ambassadors around who sort of in little ways helped me out. Like the couple from Albert Park, because they had the big one of almost 1,000 just beforehand, they actually came up and said, here, Paul, this is what we did. And then there's a few, as I say, EAs from around that sort of put their hand up and just helped out. So it's amazing. The parkrun community certainly come together. I was going to say, that's all over the place. It's not just your own local community. It's people coming from interstate to help out.

01:06:42Oliver Spake: That's a fantastic display of teamwork. Something that we're all fortunate to have, but to hear it on that scale and of course to hear that the parkrun running takes precedence over the security plan, well done.

01:06:58Paul Relf: It was interesting because one of the the police officers from the federal police, she actually wanted to take Main Beach off. So she said, we're not going to have cancer because I'll be running undercover that night. I thought, OK, whatever works.

01:07:15Oliver Spake: I hope she wasn't mentioned in the brief beforehand, named or anything like that then.

01:07:22Paul Relf: No, no. Yeah. Well, it was actually part of the thing. We had to keep it quiet who was staying in the Sheraton. Ah, okay. At the time. Had to keep our lips sealed until parkrun finished on that Saturday. Yeah.

01:07:34Oliver Spake: Yeah. Oh, what an experience. And then obviously very disappointing that, like many parkruns, I suppose, but, yeah, for your ninth birthday there, that was just into lockdown, I take it.

01:07:46Paul Relf: Two weeks after lockdown. So we'd already started the advertising, already started putting things into place, but that's the way it is. It could have been worse. That's right, yeah.

01:07:57Oliver Spake: And how has the return from COVID been for Main Beach?

01:08:01Paul Relf: Yeah, good, good. Like all, we're back. Well, I say we're back, they're back. No, we're back strong as ever. It's almost as though we didn't have a break, which was good for me because I always said that I was going to step down or not step down, I was going to review my position after five years as the Event Director and the team was strong and had a couple of people that could have stepped up and I just had a chat to the the Run Director's team and said, I think it's time for me to step down and who wants to have a go? And Martin just jumped at it. He's certainly filled right into it and looking forward to what lies ahead.

01:08:43Oliver Spake: Oh, that's fantastic. Again, you know, great to have that good support. We did notice, of course, that it was a very regal transition of event directorship. Can you tell us a bit about that?

01:08:55Paul Relf: Well, it actually stems back from when I took over. Libby did exactly the same. for me. So the dressing up with the crown and the cape and handing the crown over to the new Event Director to move forward. So, you know, a bit of a showmanship and like an official handover day. So, yeah, a bit of fun and a bit of theatre for the parkrunners. They love that sort of thing, I guess, and I love it. For those that know me, I'll dress up, more commonly known as the Flash, but I've got a Power Ranger outfit. Where's Wally? Santa Claus. It just continues. Excellent.

01:09:38Oliver Spake: Well, yeah, well, firstly, which colour Power Ranger are you?

01:09:42Paul Relf: The pink Power Ranger. Ah, fantastic. Now, the reason for that, there is a reason. It was the only one with a courtesy skirt.

01:09:50Unidentified speaker: Okay.

01:09:51Paul Relf: Now, you've got to think about that more. Most of the other Power Rangers ones are tight-fitting outfits. So out of the goodness of my heart, that one's got a courtesy skirt for everybody else. That just works. Yes. They don't need to see Matt Sherving from Boo. Yes.

01:10:09Oliver Spake: Excellent. Well, a bit of thought for the fellow parkrunners. That goes a long way. Good thinking. Yes. And did you also mention, was it Gandalf?

01:10:18Paul Relf: Yeah, Gandalf. That was a tough one to pull off. There was a theme we did a while ago and it was for a magic one and it took me nine months to grow the Gandalf beard. So you grew a real beard? I actually planned that one out and For nine months because I grew the beard because I can grow a fairly decent beard and in nine months it was well worth it. And it was, yeah, a magic theme. So I had the Gandalf outfit and Zoe was all dressed up in her witch's gear and a lot of Harry Potter people there that day.

01:10:57Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

01:10:57Paul Relf: I love that. I try not to have too many because I know that some people get carried away and spend a lot of money or other people don't like it. So I've always only ever tried to have three or four themes a year maximum. But I love it, and if another parkrun has a theme, I do my best to get there.

01:11:17Oliver Spake: Now that you mention that, you have visited a few parkruns, I should ask. Any highlights? Do you have a top three?

01:11:25Paul Relf: Any highlights? If I pick too many, if I pick single anybody out, the others will be all over my case because I am an event ambassador now and looking after – a lot of the ones on the Gold Coast and a couple down in the northern New South Wales. So they're always highlights to go and see. I've done a few, like I've done St Peter's and I've done Ginninderra. I'll speak of Ginninderra. It was one degree, so they all thought it was a heatwave when you come from the Gold Coast because the middle of winter. But it was just straight away they realised Zoe and I were visitors and they said, this is where we're going for coffee afterwards. Come and join us. And, you know, it was the same at St Pete. It was the same everywhere. But just the way that we were treated there, they didn't know where we were from or anything when they offered us. And it was just a great time after it, if you know what I mean. You just... The coffee afterwards, I love that about parkrun. I live more for that than the actual run or the volunteering, to be honest, just the social chat afterwards.

01:12:34Oliver Spake: Yeah, I mean, that's such a big part of the morning and it just spreads that community feeling, doesn't it?

01:12:39Paul Relf: Yeah, and the way that they grab the tourists at most parkruns and say, this is where we're having a coffee, and they put it in their first-timers brief and their run brief that, you know, These are the local coffee or cafe places we all go to. Most places are like it. I remember the first time I ran at Coomera parkrun, which is on the coast. They were the same. This is where we meet at the local coffee shop.

01:13:03Oliver Spake: You've been an event ambassador for some time as well. Have you found that experience?

01:13:09Paul Relf: Yeah, a bit different. Two and a half years as an event ambassador. You spend a little bit more time away outside a parkrun helping out. Like on a Friday afternoon, there's a bit of a panic. So sometimes for whatever reason, you get the phone calls or Saturday around lunchtime when somebody can't upload. It's just a different set. I love it. I enjoy it. It's a bit of a challenge. trying to remember how to edit results when you're not in front of a computer. And then you're stepping someone through how to edit. So that's a challenge, but it's enjoyable. About four, I'll say six weeks ago was probably the toughest Friday I've ever had as an event ambassador. We're looking for event ambassadors on the Gold Coast. I'm the only one at the moment for reasons. So there's about a dozen to 16 parkruns in the area that sort of Not that I directly look after, but sort of look to me for advice at times. And Brisbane had the shutdown. And so all the Gold Coast events were worried, what do we do? Brisbane have shut down for COVID. And I spent a good whack of my Friday just stepping through the processes and helping the guys make decisions on whether they should or shouldn't run. We had four make the hard call of cancelling, and others put in a few extra processes around for the COVID. So it was a challenge and I'm up for the challenge. I love it, but it was just a different sort of day. Yeah.

01:14:40Oliver Spake: Well, it has been a very challenging time, certainly with the extra restrictions and the things that we do need to manage around that for everyone's wellbeing. But yeah, you're quite right. I mean, a little bit of help goes a long way in those roles. So it sounds like a role you'd recommend.

01:14:59Paul Relf: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. And as a general rule, parkrun liked you to only have a maximum of five events to be an event ambassador for, so normally you don't have too many to worry about. And, you know, there's always the support. There's other event ambassadors, and you've got a regional ambassador that provides guidance. I'm lucky not only to have my regional ambassador, Nikki, although she's based down north, just south of you, actually, down in the Wollongong area. Yes. But I've got a few up here, Rhonda and a couple others, that if I can't get on to Nicky, they're always good for a chat. And, again, it comes back to we all help each other.

01:15:39Oliver Spake: Oh, look, that's fantastic.

01:15:41Paul Relf: That being said, even as an event ambassador, I've gone to Run Directors for advice, you know, that don't always have to go up to get help. I can go down because a lot of people know a lot more than me.

01:15:52Oliver Spake: Yeah, and a lot of people have the passion and are willing to give their time to help out their community, their parkrun community in particular. So you're quite right there. There's a wealth of knowledge and a wealth of, I think, good nature and support there when you need it. Paul, I wanted to ask, you're approaching, if I'm not mistaken, 250 parkruns yourself. So have you any plans for that milestone?

01:16:18Paul Relf: I'm actually gutted at the moment. You've got me. So I'm on 241, I believe. That would leave me nine to go. So eight weeks ago I was out doing a jog on a Wednesday and it was only slow for me. It was a 5K jog, didn't finish it. My knee went snap, multiple bidirectional tears in my meniscus. I was planning on doing 250. This Saturday at Main Beach. So I haven't run since then. I had surgery five weeks ago, so I'm on the slow men back.

01:16:55Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah.

01:16:56Paul Relf: So yes, for everybody at Main Beach, that's why I'm not running. I've kept that a secret. I've just been volunteering. Yeah, I hope there will be a superheroes theme. because that's my preferred running outfit. There will be something, I'm sure.

01:17:14Oliver Spake: Well, yeah, we'll have to put the call out if it's not lining up.

01:17:17Paul Relf: It's going to be about three to four months away. I'm hoping my first parkrun in about two or three weeks time since the surgery yeah it's a it's a bit of a long wait back um that must be hard for you so wish you a safe recovery from that one it is good though I've been able to get around to a few of the other events that I'm an ambassador for and help them out as a Timekeeper or Barcode Scanner so I'm certainly doing a lot of

01:17:44Oliver Spake: volunteer tourism so it works fantastic support and and look um fantastic support clearly from from you and Zoe from your time in your Event Director role at Main Beach and really as part of the community by the sounds of it congratulations and thank you to to Martin and obviously to Libby before you all and the whole team there it's an exciting time so will you be there You'll be there in the volunteer ranks on Saturday.

01:18:16Paul Relf: Absolutely. I'm Timekeeper on Saturday and I've already sourced my Hawaiian theme

01:18:23Oliver Spake: outfit so I'll be all dressed up ready to go in my own special way oh I wouldn't be missing it for the world Ollie definitely wouldn't be missing it excellent well we look forward to seeing the photos for those of us that can join you they're absolutely raring to go but for you all thank you again and wish you a very happy Main Beach anniversary thanks a lot Ollie and thanks for taking the time to chat to me

01:18:47[15 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Alison Fraser — Tauranga parkrun

01:19:01Alison Fraser (King): Alison here reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew in New Zealand. Now this parkrun day I've come over to Tauranga parkrun for their 133rd event. Now Tauranga is a Māori name meaning safe anchorage or resting place. We're in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand and this course is almost four years old. They're turned four next month. I was here for their inaugural event and Even in that time I think this is only my third visit so I really need to get here a bit more often. So this course, well I'm going to hopefully find some people who can tell you about this course. So I'm here with Warren at Tauranga parkrun and Warren was one of the founding core team members here. So thanks for coming on the show, Warren.

01:19:49Warren: Thank you so much for being on the show.

01:19:52Alison Fraser (King): What can you tell us about the course here at Tauranga?

01:19:55Warren: Well, it's a 5k like everybody knows. It's the most beautiful, awesome and wonderful track in New Zealand. If you're ever around in Tauranga, please come past and take a run. It's a 2.5k forward and a 2.5k back.

01:20:08Alison Fraser (King): And what about the scenery around us?

01:20:11Warren: Oh, it's beautiful. We run along a nice flowing stream. Now and again, you do see eels jumping in and out the water. And you do meet other people along the way, which are bikers and walkers as well.

01:20:24Alison Fraser (King): How did you get involved with parkrun?

01:20:25Warren: Well, I'm actually originally from South Africa. I used to do the parkrun there, where there was ranging from 800 people to 1,500. And when we got here to Tauranga, which... We call home now. There wasn't a parkrun and we got together with like-minded people and started it.

01:20:44Alison Fraser (King): And you've been here ever since?

01:20:45Warren: Ever since, never moved.

01:20:48Alison Fraser (King): We mentioned before we started recording, we were talking about different parkruns that we'd run. Not including Tauranga, what would be your top three parkruns?

01:20:57Warren: Well, I would say my one would be Taupo, which I ran in winters. Unforgettable was that one. And the one I did in Whangarei was beautiful as well. And Rotorua because of the smell.

01:21:09Alison Fraser (King): Cool. Thank you so much.

01:21:11Warren: Thank you.

01:21:13Alison Fraser (King): So I'm here with Peter Hall, who is a Tauranga parkrun regular. So how did you find your run today, Peter?

01:21:19Peter Hall: Yeah, brilliant. No, really good. Quite quick. So yeah, very happy with it.

01:21:23Alison Fraser (King): And can you tell us a bit about your parkrun story, how you came about to be at parkrun?

01:21:28Peter Hall: Yes, well, I'm a business owner with New Zealand Home Loans here in Tauranga. And a lot of you may know, but originally we were the sponsors nationally. We were with parkrun when it started in our huts in the early days and all the way through for about eight years until we ended our agreement a couple of years ago. And I was one of the main sort of founding members of the Tauranga parkrun when it started through the sponsorship. So yes, that's how I got started and enjoyed it ever since.

01:21:52Alison Fraser (King): How many runs have you done now?

01:21:53Peter Hall: We're up to about 82, 83 now. So we've got 100 coming up. All things going to plan probably around about sort of July, I target. So looking forward to that one.

01:22:03Alison Fraser (King): Cool. You've got an interesting story that you probably would have got to your 100 a bit sooner.

01:22:08Peter Hall: Yes that's true. So last October I was out doing a training run and I was unfortunate enough to suffer a cardiac arrest and I collapsed on the run. Really fortunately it was in an area that was quite well served by sort of people walking around and dog walkers and that sort of thing. It was about half past seven in the morning so it was it was reasonably busy and I was found after a reasonably short time by somebody walking the dog who who ran to the local road main road and stopped a couple of passers-by who fortunately for me knew CPR and were able to start CPR before the ambulance arrived and consequently they did manage to sort of restart me and got me straight into hospital and yeah amazing story that I recovered really really well to now be talking to you and running again and I'm looking forward to my 100th and as I say I'm extremely lucky to be here.

01:23:00Alison Fraser (King): And you said that while you weren't running, you did a lot of volunteering.

01:23:04Peter Hall: Yes, yes, that was really good. So within about three weeks of having the event, I was in the hospital for about 10 days. But as soon as I got out of that, I wanted to get straight back into sort of the community spirit and keep the connection with people rather than just sort of sitting at home and sort of wondering why and all that type of thing. So I got straight back into volunteering, did about a month of volunteering, which was great and just kept me involved and seeing people and talking to people and encouraging others, and I targeted that I wanted to actually get out and do another run or start running again by Christmas so I came along with one of my sons on the 19th of December just a week before Christmas and that was my first run after suffering the cardiac arrest and we completed that. It was by no means personal best but we completed it. I've got to be honest I was a bit nervous at the start line but We got there and we did that and parkrun has been a tremendous help with my recovery and in that regard and a really good thing to help me focus on recovery, keep involved with the community. The support I've had from fellow runners and the Run Directors here and volunteers has been amazing and I really look forward to that and I thank everybody for their help, I really do.

01:24:13Alison Fraser (King): That's the great thing about parkrun though isn't it, you don't have to be a runner to get enjoyment from it.

01:24:18Peter Hall: No, not at all. Not at all. No, I mean, it's a weekly thing, obviously. Every Saturday morning, so many people look forward to it just as a sort of a community thing, a weekly get together. You see some friends, some mates, and you're always supporting other runners. And, you know, it doesn't matter whether you're fast or slow. Whether it's your first run or your 250th run, everyone's out there to support each other. And then afterwards, you know, we can catch up at the cafe just up the road here and have a cup of tea, have a coffee and really just have a good old catch up from the week and just keep involved, keep contact. So it's really, really good, really good.

01:24:49Alison Fraser (King): And can you give us a plug for the cafe?

01:24:52Peter Hall: A plug for the cafe, yeah, it's Whipped Baker Cafe just up here in Historic Village. Fantastic coffee, great tea, great cakes, especially if you like chocolate. So yeah, so head up there afterwards and yeah, enjoy yourself.

01:25:03Alison Fraser (King): Cool, thanks very much.

01:25:04Peter Hall: That's good, pleasure, thank you.

01:25:07Alison Fraser (King): So I'm with Kat who celebrated a milestone today, so tell us about that today, Kat.

01:25:11Kat: Today was my 50th parkrun milestone. Wow, that's pretty awesome. Yeah, no, really pleased with that and actually I just noticed you've got a book in your hand, How parkrun Changed Our Lives, and that's certainly the case for us I'm doing my first marathon in six weeks time and yeah both my husband and I are sporty but I'm a horse rider and he's a sailor and running is something we found together through starting parkrun two years ago and we run for you know every other day now and we've done some trail run bigger trail runs and parkrun is where we really push ourselves and Yeah, it's addictive. We're totally addicted to parkrun and it has changed our lives.

01:25:55Alison Fraser (King): What was it like the first time you came down to this parkrun?

01:25:58Kat: Well, the main thing I noticed is how friendly and supportive it was, you know, right from like, is there any first timers here? And everyone gives you a clap when it's your first run. And everyone sort of, you know, chats to you, smiles at you and you get to know it's like a real community. And then you make friends and, you know, everybody asks how you're going, if you're going for a PB and so the more you come, the more people you get to know and you're just waving hi to them as you go around the turn. And it really is a social community of supportive, friendly people. And I think because it's a voluntary run organisation, It's got that vibe about it where no one's making money out of it. Everyone's here for the right reasons. And, you know, we got into a bit of volunteering as well. We do our turn at the Run Director. And, yeah, it's just that all-round feel-good factor in every way, you know, about your own fitness, about friendships, about being supportive, about being a community-based team, sport um something for everyone you know uh all levels of fitness there's no kind of like elite group uh you can bring your dog you can bring your baby something for everyone yeah yeah and how was your run today oh pretty good I wasn't going for a PB but actually a friend started pushing me uh for the second two and a half k around the turn and so I ended up going pretty hard and I was telling him to go away and leave me but he wouldn't he said no it's your 50th parkrun you have to push and he paced me and so I ended up pushing really hard so I don't know my time but it was uh exhausting in one word yeah cool thanks very much no worries thank you

01:27:48Alison Fraser (King): Well, that wraps up another successful parkrun day here at Tauranga parkrun. If you do come over to New Zealand, make sure you come over to the sunny Bay of Plenty. And if you do Tauranga parkrun, you must get to the Whipped Baker afterwards for coffee and the fresh cream doughnuts. I'll see you the next time.

Roving report Mark Scarborough — Laylaw parkrun

01:28:07Mark Scarborough: Hello parkrun adventurers, this is Mark reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew and today we've adventured down the Hume Highway from Canberra to Melbourne and we're actually at Lalor parkrun and it's in Whittlesea Gardens in Lalor. We'll have a parkrun and then we'll have a chat to a few people here today. Alright, I'm here at the finish line with Melissa. Good morning Melissa, how was your parkrun today?

01:28:30Melissa: It was warm, warmer than I thought it'd be.

01:28:33Mark Scarborough: Yeah, there was a bit of pitter-patter on our caravan roof this morning. A bit nervous about the rain, but thankfully it held off for the start, which was really nice. But yeah, nice day here at Lalor parkrun. And what got you into parkrun?

01:28:46Melissa: I was convinced after I quit drinking because I had a bit of an alcohol problem for many years. And once I started up a fitness at a boot camp, someone suggested come along to parkrun. And they said all you had to do was walk. And so I did a lot of run walking on the first day, parkrun and as it turns out I fell on my first parkrun and I may have done some damage to my wrist but I never got it looked at so couldn't use it properly for about a year later but I still come back the next week and just kept coming back and coming back.

01:29:25Mark Scarborough: So this has been a big part of your recovery?

01:29:28Melissa: Running in general and also joining the running club and having that that big community wider community.

01:29:36Mark Scarborough: So there's a few people here that are graduating the Lalor Running Club Walk to Running program. What can you tell us about that?

01:29:43Melissa: I did it three years ago so I didn't think that I would ever run five kilometres it was a goal running five kilometres non-stop but yeah I was encouraged and went through the program and it actually worked I didn't stop I kept going and I actually got a bit of white line fever at the end and sprinted for the finish line I think to get get it over and done with yeah and how does the program work Slowly build you up from say 30 seconds of running, 60 seconds of walking to then gradually up to two minutes of running, 30 seconds of walking, just up until like a continuous 30, 35 minutes or 5k.

01:30:32Mark Scarborough: That's excellent. And how long ago did you graduate?

01:30:34Melissa: Three years ago.

01:30:36Mark Scarborough: There's a few people getting medals today, which is really cool. Like it's a really supportive environment.

01:30:40Melissa: Absolutely. Well, my daughter's actually at Aurora with another one of our club members, actually our vice president. And yeah, we sort of divide and conquered because I had to be here for the graduates. I know what it was like to be supported when I did it.

01:30:56Mark Scarborough: That's good. Now you volunteer a bit at parkrun. What's your favourite volunteer role?

01:31:01Melissa: I would have to say handing out the barcodes because you see everyone running for that finish line and really that big burst of energy at the end.

01:31:12Mark Scarborough: Excellent. Thank you for your time, Melissa.

01:31:13Melissa: Thank you.

01:31:15Mark Scarborough: I'm here with Michelle who's actually one of the graduates today. Congratulations, Michelle.

01:31:18Unidentified speaker: Thank you.

01:31:19Mark Scarborough: What can you tell us about the running program you've just finished?

01:31:23Unidentified speaker: So it was an eight-week walk-to-run program that took me from doing nothing to running, and it's been really good. So supportive, the team at Lalor Running Club and at Lalor parkrun, and I ran non-stop 5Ks today, and I didn't think it was possible.

01:31:36Mark Scarborough: That's fantastic. Well done.

01:31:38Unidentified speaker: Thank you.

01:31:39Mark Scarborough: This could be the start of many things for you.

01:31:41Unidentified speaker: It could. Some of the others I've been running with have been talking about, you know, 10Ks and half marathons, so it's getting me a bit excited about that.

01:31:47Mark Scarborough: So I'll tell you a bit about me. So I started exactly the same as you many years ago, doing just walking parkrun. And to date, I think I've done about nine half marathons and completed my first full marathon here in Melbourne a couple of years ago. So you'd be surprised what you can do. And, you know, somebody had told me when I first started that I'd be running half marathons and marathons. I'd laugh at them.

01:32:07Unidentified speaker: Yeah, that's me at the moment. But it does sound like a bit of a dream and I'd love to one day.

01:32:11Mark Scarborough: Yeah, look, just build up to it, you know, so maybe the next thing is a 10k and, you know, 14 and half marathon from there. So has this been the only parkrun you've been coming to?

01:32:20Unidentified speaker: No, I have been going the last few weeks. I mainly go to Aurora in Epping, but the last month or so I've done a few tourists to Diamond Creek and Warringal parkrun lands.

01:32:29Mark Scarborough: And which has been your favourites?

01:32:32Unidentified speaker: I don't really like Warringal actually. Yeah, only been there once.

01:32:36Mark Scarborough: Well, we're coming back to Melbourne in a couple of weeks, so we've got to find another parkrunner to come to. So looking for recommendations.

01:32:42Unidentified speaker: Yep. If you haven't been to Albert Lake, yeah, that one's really nice too. It's a bit of a distance. Ringle parkruns or Diamond Creek are good ones.

01:32:50Mark Scarborough: So you've got a lucky prize today as well. You've got a pair of Steigen. They're very comfortable socks.

01:32:55Unidentified speaker: Yes, yes. I'm very excited about these.

01:32:57Mark Scarborough: Oh, you can wear them maybe at your first half marathon.

01:33:00Unidentified speaker: Thank you.

01:33:02[applause]

01:33:02Mark Scarborough: The crowd here is cheering in another... Another graduate today at Lalor parkrun. I'm here with the ED, Kieran. Good morning.

01:33:15Kieran: Good morning. How are you going?

01:33:16Mark Scarborough: Good, thank you. Thank you for having us at Lalor parkrun today. Nice day. Thankfully the rain stopped just in time for the start.

01:33:22Kieran: Yes, absolutely. And there was no wind, so all good.

01:33:25Mark Scarborough: Yeah, I've heard there's a bit of a vicious wind when running down this back straight there.

01:33:31Kieran: Yeah, about 3.5km, 4km, there's a big hill. Well, we call it Mount Lalor, but people just say it's a little hill. But yeah, not very good when you have a bit of a headwind.

01:33:44Mark Scarborough: And how long have you been here at Lalor parkrun?

01:33:46Kieran: I came basically around event number five or so. So we're up to about 214 now. So I became a Run Director probably around 11 or 12 weeks into it. So enjoying it.

01:33:58Mark Scarborough: Yeah, it's a good little course. Can you give us a description for our listeners of the course?

01:34:04Kieran: It's basically an out and back course. There's two little differences. We do a bridge on the way up and then we don't do it on the way back. And then we just go around. We've got a bit of a lake. We just go the opposite way to the finishing line, basically to where we started.

01:34:21Mark Scarborough: So it's a mainly gravel course around the park area and then there's the main out and back part which is all on a bit of concrete path there and as you said, a bit of long straight hills which is quite deceptive for an out and back. It felt like I was always running uphill. What's the story there?

01:34:36Kieran: Well, it used to be worse. We used to do the hill and then we had to go up the bridge as well. We switched that around. We do the bridge at the start now when we have your fresh legs and then you don't have to do it on the way back. So it's a bit easier. And that last 500 is pretty much downhill.

01:34:51Mark Scarborough: Do you get out and about to see many other parkrunners in the area?

01:34:54Kieran: I've I'm probably not the best to do the the um the touristing but um because I only live 700 metres away from here so so majority of mine are Lalor parkrun but yeah I've done a few in Wales England uh and Ireland obviously back back home but yeah I've been to probably 15 16 different ones around but I gotta go a bit more yeah all right well very much um thanks for having us today and um we might see you at breakfast awesome okay thanks thanks

01:35:23Mark Scarborough: All right, so that's us done here at the Lalor parkrun. We've actually just finished breakfast at a cafe where the parkrunners from Aurora parkrun also joined us, so it's good to have a chat with a few other people. Now, on last week's podcast, if you listened, there was a lot of chat about Tasmania between Ollie and Mel, and that's where we're off to next. So in Dazza's cafe... chat this week. How about you give us your recommendations of parkruns that we should hit up in Tassie while we're there. Anyway, we'll catch you next time on the parkrun adventurers from Tasmania.

Roving report Tony O'Connell — Peppertree parkrun

01:35:59Tony O'Connell: Howdy parkrunners, Toc reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew. Today we've travelled to Peppertree parkrun at Bacchus Marsh, which is west of Melbourne. Bit of a fruit and veggie growing area. Looking at the course, looks like it's a bit of a trail course along the edge of a river. Looks really pretty. Fair to say that it could be a little bit moist underfoot, but we'll get out and have a run and see how we go and see what this trail's like and then talk to a couple. Howdy parkrunners, so we've run Peppertree parkrun. It was a lovely little course and I'm here with Adrian at the finish line. Adrian's the Run Director today and also the Event Director at Peppertree. Adrian, get you to give us a bit of a description of Peppertree parkrun.

01:36:46Adrian Hillyer: Wow, a nice gravel track with its own little fairy village along the Werribee River. It's just a nice little path in the middle of town and nice.

01:36:59Tony O'Connell: It's like one of those little isolated areas in town. You've got houses all around, but as you're running up along the track, you wouldn't know that there's a house around. It's a nice little bit of bush you run through. So it's actually a really nice little course you've got there.

01:37:13Adrian Hillyer: As you go along the course, the houses are probably 40 metres above you. I was actually looking this morning when I was putting out the cones at the far turnaround and Having a look at the rooftops and go, gee, that's a long way up. Yeah, you're right beside houses, but a long way away at the same time.

01:37:29Tony O'Connell: So here at Peppertree, today was event 12A, I believe.

01:37:32Adrian Hillyer: Oh, 13 might be unlucky for some.

01:37:35Tony O'Connell: So you kicked off just before the pause and you've come back into it. So a few events down now. How's it all going at Peppertree?

01:37:43Adrian Hillyer: Yeah, pretty good. Um, our volunteer roster is starting to establish itself and be, um, getting some regular volunteers coming along now. So that's really good. Not having too much trouble finding volunteers a little bit. I'm getting some great help from, uh, friends from other parkruns, giving me shout outs and coming along and helping out as well.

01:38:02Tony O'Connell: So that's really good. No, it's really good. A bit of parkrun, love getting shared around. So what, what's your background in parkrun? How'd you get involved in parkrun?

01:38:10Adrian Hillyer: Um, One of the parents at the hockey club tried to get me involved and then it took a while, like most people, it takes a while for you to turn up. I then turned up and so I started doing parkrun at Wyndham Vale and I'd done 78 parkruns at Wyndham Vale out of about 118 or something I'm up to now, so... Only 10 locations. I'm not a big tourist, but I have done Canning River in WA and Chipping Norton in Sydney. Okay. I've been around a little bit, but not too much. Yep, beautiful.

01:38:47Tony O'Connell: All right, Adrian, we might wrap it up and go for coffee. Our last finishers are just coming in. Thanks for having us at Peppertree. It's an awesome course. Love the gorge. And we'll be back. Thank you for coming. Hey, parkrunners, I'm here at the finish line of Peppertree. We're just about wrapped up, starting to pack everything up. I'm here with Bronwyn. Bronwyn, you had a run today. You're one of the usual Run Directors here, I believe.

01:39:08Bronwyn: Yes, I am. I had a run today and, well, the rain's coming down now, but very enjoyable run. It's lovely. No, it's sunshine, liquid sunshine. It's always sunny at parkrun. Yes, it is. Well, it's sunshine and smiling faces.

01:39:20Tony O'Connell: So how many times did you get to run at Peppertree?

01:39:24Bronwyn: I would say because we try and share it around, probably I'll try and do one in two, one out of every two. So try and take a volunteering role that we can share it around and get to run. Yep.

01:39:32Tony O'Connell: And other than Peppertree, have you run any other courses?

01:39:35Bronwyn: Down at Melton in Toolern, is it Toolern Park there?

01:39:38Tony O'Connell: Toolern Creek.

01:39:38Bronwyn: Toolern Creek, yes.

01:39:39Tony O'Connell: So how many parkruns have you actually run?

01:39:41Bronwyn: Oh, I'm a newbie. I've only done probably maybe 13 or 14, I'd say.

01:39:47Tony O'Connell: Okay, it looks like we've got to go for a photo. But, yeah, it was good to see you out on course. Big smiley face and lots of cheers. It was really good.

01:39:53Bronwyn: Yeah, thanks for joining us. Lovely. Cheers. Thanks, Bronwyn.

Roving report Cameron Drake — Rockingham

01:39:58Cameron Drake: G'day everyone, Cam here, calling in from the state with the youngest child syndrome, that's right, WA. And today, technically, I'm adventuring because I decided to hop in the car and go 15 minutes down the road to bright and beautiful Rockingham. Now speaking of adventures, I wonder how often other people get out and adventure away from their home parkrun. Let's find out. Well, today I'm here with... Pauline Harris.

01:40:24Unidentified speaker: And Uli. Mike Chitty.

01:40:26Cameron Drake: Mike. Well, gang, I hear that you may have travelled around a bit. Is this your home parkrun or not? Yes.

01:40:33Unidentified speaker: Yes? Yes, it's my home parkrun, but I live in Norwich, so it's a fair drive now.

01:40:39Unidentified speaker: That's a bit of a travel for your home parkrun. How about you, sir? Yeah, it's my home parkrun, but I actually live in Mandurah.

01:40:45Cameron Drake: You people are crazy. Okay, so do you get out and about often or is that a bit of a redundant question?

01:40:52Unidentified speaker: Yes, I try and travel once a year, but at the moment I haven't, obviously. So I did my 250th parkrun in Florence.

01:41:00Cameron Drake: Nice, that's an achievement. My gosh, I'm very jealous. I'm always jealous.

01:41:06Unidentified speaker: Yeah, my parkrun today is number 93 and it's the first time since a few months before COVID. So I'm excited to be back on the horse after such a long time not being able to, yeah.

01:41:19Unidentified speaker: Oh, that's lovely. I'm associated with the Peel Running Group and they today got a minibus and are going down to Bunbury to run in their parkrun.

01:41:29Cameron Drake: Everyone's going everywhere like crazy. All right gang, well thanks very much for the chat and I hope you have a great run.

01:41:34Unidentified speaker: Thank you. Thanks Cameron. Thank you. That's great. Thank you.

01:41:38Unidentified speaker: G'day, I'm here with Sue and Ian Palmer.

01:41:42Cameron Drake: From Geraldton. From Geraldton. And what parkruns up at Geraldton?

01:41:46Unidentified speaker: Marina parkrun. We're doing our 50th parkrun at the marina today, but unfortunately we're not up there. Ah, right.

01:41:54Cameron Drake: So you've come for an adventure, and that's a pretty significant distance. Do you get out adventuring often at Geraldton?

01:42:01Unidentified speaker: We've been to a few non-Geraldton parkruns. Out in Cobar would be the most remote one. Cobar? Where the heck is Cobar? Out back in New South Wales.

01:42:10Cameron Drake: Middle of New South Wales. That's a bit of a drive. I bet you would have had to have gotten up early for that.

01:42:15Unidentified speaker: Fortunately, we had our caravan. We were all parked up at the site.

01:42:19Cameron Drake: Oh, okay. Well, fantastic to see you down here at Rockingham. And I'm not going to hold my breath about seeing you around the traps, but I hope to see you around. You probably will. We get around a bit. We get around. Fantastic. Well, happy parkrunning.

01:42:33Unidentified speaker: Thank you.

01:42:34Cameron Drake: I'm here with one or two familiar faces, actually four. Hello.

01:42:38Melissa Ellis: Hi, hello. Hello. Hello. Hi.

01:42:42Cameron Drake: Now, I've seen you around the traps a little bit, so I assume you get out and adventure a little bit. Please insert name here.

01:42:50Unidentified speaker: Leslie. Satu. Kylie. Miranda.

01:42:55Cameron Drake: Now, do you get out and adventure very often to parkruns other than, say, Rockingham?

01:43:00Alison Fraser (King): Yeah, we get out. We've done Burswood, Upper Cross, Dawesville.

01:43:06Peter Hall: And when I go back to the UK, I've done Southampton and Romsey and a couple more over there.

01:43:13Unidentified speaker: I've done one in New South Wales. Oh, cool. Albury. Baldivis. That's it. Cool.

01:43:19Cameron Drake: Yay, Baldivis.

01:43:20Alison Fraser (King): I've done one in Cape Town, South Africa.

01:43:22Cameron Drake: Cape Town, South Africa. That's a bit of a drive.

01:43:24Alison Fraser (King): Yeah.

01:43:25Cameron Drake: Have to get up early for that one. So, Sadie, what appeal do you find in adventuring and getting out to a different parkrun?

01:43:34Unidentified speaker: Meeting new people, different courses, yeah.

01:43:38Cameron Drake: They're all friendly. If you wear your shirt, especially the run down under, they go, oh, what's that? So you can just spread the word. It's a good conversation starter, isn't it?

01:43:45Unidentified speaker: Yeah. It just makes me run faster because I'm always trying to catch someone rather than being on my own.

01:43:52Cameron Drake: The strangers always run faster than your local, do they?

01:43:55Unidentified speaker: Pretty much. Miranda? I don't actually go to other ones. Just here or Rockingham or Baldivis, that's it.

01:44:02Cameron Drake: Technically, that's still adventuring.

01:44:04Unidentified speaker: I suppose, I come here for the coffee after.

01:44:06Cameron Drake: Ah, the coffee. Yes, the coffee gets people in. Well, thank you very much, ladies. Lovely chatting with you and I hope you have a great parkrun.

01:44:11Elizabeth: Thank you.

01:44:13Cameron Drake: Hi, I'm here with Elizabeth. Elizabeth is today's Run Director. How are you going?

01:44:17Elizabeth: Hi, I'm good, thank you. Lovely day.

01:44:19Cameron Drake: Oh, it certainly is. Rockingham has turned it on for all the runners here. How many people do you think we have today?

01:44:24Elizabeth: Probably about 270, maybe.

01:44:28Cameron Drake: 270? I remember a few years ago you'd get sort of 300, 400. It was crazy. I guess it's nice to even out a little bit.

01:44:34Elizabeth: Well, maybe COVID might have put a stop to a few people travelling, maybe. I don't know.

01:44:40Cameron Drake: Maybe. So how's today gone so far? Smooth sailing?

01:44:43Elizabeth: It's been very smooth. Yeah, we've got a guy that's usually in our first finishes. He's doing Timekeeper today because he's had an operation. So instead of running, he's... volunteering and we've got some new people that have never volunteered before that are stepping in.

01:45:01Cameron Drake: First time volunteers, that's excellent. Maybe they heard the news about the volunteer shirts where we get more sort of milestones for that. Do you think that's an influencing factor? I hope so. That's why I started doing it and I'm still going. You're still earning that Aubergine shirt for Volunteer 25?

01:45:16Elizabeth: Yeah, I've got it on.

01:45:18Cameron Drake: Hey, there it is under several layers. So in addition to run directing, do you get out and have little adventures to other parkruns very often?

01:45:27Elizabeth: I've been down to Dawesville. Oh, I've also volunteered in the UK as well when I went on holiday. So I had an operation on my foot, so I was out of action running-wise, but I did volunteering instead.

01:45:39Cameron Drake: Volunteerism, that is such a fun. I hear there's some people that go around and do that in the entire state, not mentioning anyone in particular. That's really good. Yeah, some people, they do crazy things. Well, it's lovely being chatting to you, Elizabeth, and I hope the rest of the event goes perfectly.

01:45:54Elizabeth: Yeah, thank you. Look forward to seeing you again. Thanks.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report James — Eynesbury Heritage Trail Junior parkrun

01:45:58James: Hello parkrun adventurers, James reporting in for the Channel 2 News crew. Today we're at Eynesbury Heritage Trail Junior parkrun. This is my first Junior parkrun and I'm really excited to do it. So let's go talk to other kids. So we're at the finish line here with Hannah. So Hannah, what brought you to Junior parkrun today?

01:46:21Unidentified speaker: My mum. She's always been doing parkrun and then she's dragged me over here and now I'm really getting into it, waking up at 6 o'clock in the morning and doing heaps of runs.

01:46:34James: That's nice. So what did you like about the parkrun?

01:46:38Unidentified speaker: I liked that you actually run it and sometimes walk and it gets your health up and helps you run better.

01:46:48James: Yeah, that's right. Thanks for having a chat Hannah. So I'm here with the host Mel. So Mel what inspired you to start Junior parkrun?

01:46:59Melissa Ellis: Well I took my little girl to Westerfold's Junior parkrun and I saw how much fun all the kids had and I wanted to bring that over to my area so all the kids here could have the same fun. Cool. So what do you like about Junior parkrun?

01:47:15James: I like seeing all the happy little faces as they cross the finish line. Yeah, that's nice. Thanks for having a chat, Mel. Thank you, James. You did a great job. I'm here with TOC from the Channel 5 News crew. Today is volunteering at Eynesbury Junior parkrun. So what brings you to volunteer here?

01:47:33Tony O'Connell: We thought we'd come down and have a look at how Junior parkrun operates and give Mel a hand. All the team down here, it's been a bit of fun. It's a heap of fun out watching all the kids run around. And yeah, we just thought we'd come along and have a look.

01:47:46James: Yeah, that's nice. What volunteer role did you do today?

01:47:51Tony O'Connell: I got here a bit early and did the warm-up later, and I had a great time jumping around, just getting the kids warmed up, ready for their run, trying to learn all the different things like the swimming and the gorilla stomp and all that was a bit of fun. And then we went out and marshalled on the Puddle of Doom, but the puddle wasn't there today because the course was pretty dry.

01:48:11James: Yeah. Thanks for having a chat, TOC. No worries, James.

01:48:15Tony O'Connell: Thanks a lot, and I hope you enjoyed it. I did.

01:48:19James: So we're done here with Eynesbury Heritage Trail Junior Park and it's a very nice course and I think you should come out and try it whenever you can. It's James from Channel 2 News Crew.

01:48:32Oliver Spake: Mel, wasn't that lovely to hear from not just a wide range of the Channel 5 News Crew... But the Channel 2 news crew as well.

01:48:42Melissa Ellis: I know. How good did James do? He was fabulous and such a lovely little person to meet.

01:48:49Oliver Spake: No, top job, James. Top job. You've got a job any week you want. Yeah, look forward to hearing from you again. And it sounds like it was a special morning.

01:48:58Melissa Ellis: I wonder if we can build a little crew for the Channel 2 News Crew.

01:49:02Oliver Spake: I think that'd be great. Speaking of building a crew, we have built a crew. We've added to a crew, haven't we?

01:49:08Melissa Ellis: Surprise! We welcome Alison to the Channel 5 News Crew. She came in on a Stephen Bradbury moment. Yes, yeah. Much like yourself, Ollie. Yeah.

01:49:20Oliver Spake: I don't know if technically I'm on the crew, to be perfectly honest, so I'm in no position to be inducting anyone. Pass this one all to you, Mel.

01:49:28Melissa Ellis: No, but we're very pleased to welcome Alison. She has been doing a fabulous job with her roving reports from New Zealand and helping us to engage with our audience over there across the ditch.

01:49:39Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's... That's it. And look, for anyone that hasn't seen it, that hasn't seen Alison's blog, in true Molly style, do yourself a favour and go and check out her new e-zine, which you'll find on our Facebook page with a link.

01:49:56Melissa Ellis: Yes, and Alison's blog as well runs with a barcode. And what would we do without somebody to correct us on our pronunciations when we make a mess of them?

01:50:06Oliver Spake: That's right. It's much appreciated. Thank you, Alison.

01:50:09Melissa Ellis: But if anybody else would like to correct us on our pronunciations or our incorrect recollections of UUs or other such things, things, you can contact us on our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com.

01:50:23Oliver Spake: That's right. It's all welcome. Constructive criticism goes a long, long way. And I'm sure there are many opportunities to correct that pronunciation. Gosh, I'm having trouble even saying the most basic words.

01:50:35Melissa Ellis: It's getting late, Ollie. It's been the marathon of podcast efforts.

01:50:40Oliver Spake: Yeah. I mean, we didn't say welcome back to part three, my mistake there, but guess what? Part three.

01:50:45Melissa Ellis: Yes. We hope you enjoyed your intermission.

01:50:48Oliver Spake: And special thanks again to Paul. It was lovely to speak with Paul. It's very exciting to be seeing you know, the Main Beach parkrun, you know, the baby of parkrun back when it all started over here. So a huge congratulations to everyone involved in getting that started. We hope it's a fantastic parkrun day or was if you're listening to this after the event, of course, just to get that, you know, time and relativity right.

01:51:16Melissa Ellis: Because it took that long to listen to. Yeah.

01:51:21Oliver Spake: Just in time for its 12th birthday.

01:51:23Melissa Ellis: If you couldn't fit the three-hour episode into your commute to Main Beach, we apologise. But, Ollie, maybe there's a slight chance that we might have a live cross to Main Beach. But we can't promise anything because it's all reliant on borders being open.

01:51:41Oliver Spake: That's right. Yeah, that's exactly right. So once again, you know, current context is that we have seen a couple of cases identified in the Brisbane area and in southeast Queensland there. We have seen a couple of days lockdown for the people of Brisbane. So we hope, you know, you're all well and you all manage. And at this point in time, recording early in the week, ahead of Main Beach parkrun's birthday, we're hoping for a fantastic day.

Sign-off

01:52:08Melissa Ellis: Well, I'm just hoping that I can get there.

01:52:11Oliver Spake: Yes.

01:52:12Melissa Ellis: Because my plan is to be at Main Beach's 10th anniversary, Ollie, but I have got a few hurdles to jump through with red zones and border restrictions. But hopefully I can get there and we can manage a live on Saturday morning.

01:52:29Oliver Spake: Yeah. So tune in, everyone, probably maybe after your parkrun experience. We'll obviously have it on the page there and share a bit of the festivity. But what have we got last but not least? Yeah, well, it has been a bit of a challenge stacking everything into this podcast. We've been so fortunate to hear from so many, and we really thank everyone for all of their contributions. We wanted to finish on a high, and after a lot of careful consideration about how we can finish on a high, I mean, what's that word for careful consideration when you've sort of got a problem solved? Yeah, there must be a term for it anyway.

01:53:07Melissa Ellis: You tell me.

01:53:10Oliver Spake: If there's anyone to ask, it's probably this person. So last but certainly not least, and just on that, if you do have any questions for said individual, please do reach out via our page or through the contact details that he will provide. We'll finish with the informant.

the Informant

01:53:40The 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. One event launched this week at Cooranbong NSW. Stalking the Facebook pages, we see Avondale University College parkrun is a mostly flat, mostly trail parkrun and was attended by just under 250 participants. Overall numbers are similar to last week, up slightly but down on expected due mostly to many cancellations in water affected NSW. We had 442 runs held worldwide. 390 were in Australia and New Zealand. The remainder taking place in Japan, Russia, Guernsey and the Falkland Islands. Down under we had 42,556 runners out of 44,491 worldwide. This is up by around 2,500 on last week. We had 6,450 PBs, while 1,642 people participated for the first time. 152 juniors reached their 10 milestone, 192 reached their 50 milestone, 129 reached their 100 milestone, and 19 people reached their 250 milestone. The further 18 people called bingo. Peter Walker took the longest with 304 events, Jared Gibson was the quickest with 100 events, which is an Australian New Zealand record. We have seven new statespeople. We have Andrew Devereux, Andrew Cheffers, Peter Smith, Darren Smith, Peter Mayer, Bernardo Palmer in the ACT, And across the Tasman, we welcome Lizzie Elton Walters, who became a North Islander, and Altair Owen. On the most Aussie New Zealand events list, 12 people moved eight spots from three different locations. Melissa Flentjar, Nick Muir, Simon Nash, Lisa Nash moved to 151. Leif Mawson, Emily Steele, Brent Hale moved to 183. Karen Beralia, Joanne Parsons, Steve Amor, Joanne Blackbourn, Jack Corkill moved to 234. In the top 20, Tony Jennings dropped down 1 to 14 when Kathleen Wallington ran a cajoula. Kevin Muller and Jan Bigham dropped 1 to 17 when Robin Richworth moved to 15th at Gawler. Biggest Wilson mover of the week is John Ranger, who jumped 14, going from 22 to 36. Carol Parise from South Australia remains our highest windexer, now on 172. There are no listener questions this week. However, I was fact-checked during last week's episode. Ollie and Mel had the audacity to question on the air how Brian Peters could run more events than has been held at our oldest event, Main Beach. Typical upper management, spinning about in their executive chairs, surrounded by motivational posters, trying to figure out how to fit words like heuristic and synergy into general conversation. We'll buckle up and take a strong grip of the stress ball as we dive in. There have been 486 non-COVID Saturdays since the Main Beach launch day. There was no event on 20 of those Saturdays, which is 466, but there were five Christmas Day events, which comes to 471. Brian has had 486 non-COVID Saturdays available. He has missed or volunteered on 24 occasions, which takes him down to 462. He has run on the five Christmas days and 12 New Year's days, totalling 479 runs. Now, please excuse me while I go and discuss this with my union rep. If you're keen to look at these stats in more detail, they can be found on my blog, theinformant.me. That's the informant, all one word, dot M-E. This has been The Informant, and my spreadsheet is much bigger than yours.

01:58:51Unidentified speaker: Thank you.