Episode 230 - Stepping up

Welcome

00:00:22Oliver Spake: Welcome to episode 230 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. I'm Ollie Spake, and I'm joined by my co-host, who's been away enjoying the now sunny northern New South Wales east coast, Melissa Ellis.

00:00:37Melissa Ellis: Hello, Ollie. How are you?

00:00:39Oliver Spake: I'm well, thanks. How's the coast, Mel? It's sunny.

00:00:41Melissa Ellis: It's sunny. I had a week of rain, but it's all cleared up now and it's beautiful up here.

00:00:48Oliver Spake: Good to hear. Have you had some of that cold weather that's been, well, all around the country?

00:00:53Melissa Ellis: Not yet. No? No. We had blue skies, thankfully, on Saturday morning to travel out to Kirra parkrun. So I knocked off another one of my III events.

00:01:08Oliver Spake: Ah, yes, yes.

00:01:10Melissa Ellis: So I got Zoe out there. I did... indicate on social media that Zoe was going to be partaking in parkrun. However, on the morning, she was a little reluctant, so she didn't actually do the course. She waited patiently for me to complete the course.

00:01:28Oliver Spake: I hope she got to do brunch though.

00:01:29Melissa Ellis: Oh, so here's the thing. We raced off after parkrun because we had to get to the airport to pick Paul up because he was flying in to join us for our holiday. So as soon as I completed the course, and I think this was part of Zoe's thinking, she knew that if she did the course that we'd be potentially out there for an hour. Or if she sat it out and let mum run, mum would take, you know, 30 minutes and then we could get quicker to pick dad up from the airport.

00:01:58Oliver Spake: Ah, so that was actually quite clever planning by Zoe then. Well done.

00:02:01Melissa Ellis: I think so, yeah.

00:02:03Oliver Spake: Hopefully there was some brunch in there somewhere or some food and coffee of some description.

00:02:07Melissa Ellis: We PT'd it back from the airport down to where our accommodation is, which probably took us three to four hours. And so we had a little stop at some point and got some takeaway food. So, yeah, it wasn't our usual five-star parkrun brunch.

00:02:25Oliver Spake: So not a cafe you want to give a shout out to then? No.

00:02:28Melissa Ellis: No, I don't think so. Okay.

00:02:29Oliver Spake: Okay. I appreciate it in its own way. Look, I've got it all backwards though. So, how was Kirra parkrun?

00:02:36Melissa Ellis: Oh, it was really good. So, it's a lovely course out and back along an esplanade and I do believe that Kirra's been profiled before in the podcast. So, I wasn't planning to do any kind of roving reports or track down any EDs or anything like that. However, I got a bit of a rush of blood, Ollie, because I found sausage dogs I just I turn around I'm standing there you know waiting for the briefing to occur and I spot these two sausage dogs in my eyes like I'm like oh my goodness and I go up to this woman and I go oh can I please take photos of your dogs she's like yeah sure she was really lovely So, you know, I took photos and I didn't want to sound too weird and stalkerish. So I didn't say too much. But then as I'm out on the course running, I'm like looking the whole time. I've got my phone ready to take photos of them. And probably three quarters of the way through my run, I'm thinking, I haven't found these dogs yet. Oh my God, they must have been in front of me. They must be doing really well. So I got all the way to the end and I didn't find, I was so disappointed. Like, oh. Where did they go? How did I miss them? And then I finished my run and I spotted them at the finish line. I ran across the finish line, grabbed my token. I didn't even scan it. And I went running over to this woman. I'm like, can I please talk to you? She was so lovely.

00:04:05Oliver Spake: Well, that's still not stalkerish at all. That sounds nothing but genuine. I'm sure she gets that all the time.

00:04:13Melissa Ellis: She was so lovely. Her name was Natalie, and we will listen to my recording with her in a little while. But I should say, here I am, travelling the countryside now, looking for dogs of sausage.

00:04:26Oliver Spake: Yes, yes.

00:04:28Melissa Ellis: Only I think we need to give our mate in England, Dano, we need to send him a challenge for when the UK comes back to parkrun.

00:04:36Oliver Spake: Okay.

00:04:37Melissa Ellis: What's he going to find, like Australian-wise? He needs to be on the hunt, don't you think?

00:04:42Oliver Spake: That's a good point. What can Dano go and look for? Have a squiz.

00:04:47Melissa Ellis: Yeah, we need to put our thinking caps on. Yeah, we're totally unprepared for this. I don't think he's going to find koalas.

00:04:55Oliver Spake: No, no, drop bears don't tend to like those colder climates. We need to insert some thinking music here and I'm sure we'll come up with something fantastic.

00:05:05Melissa Ellis: Okay, I reserve the right to come back after I've had another week to think about the challenge for Dano.

00:05:12Oliver Spake: Ah, okay. This is England parkrun Restart Challenge. We're not going to send him a whole Bingoe card, are we? Just a challenge?

00:05:19Melissa Ellis: We could.

00:05:22Oliver Spake: I think you'll have other things to think about as well, so that would probably be unfair.

00:05:25Melissa Ellis: Yeah, they've had post boxes. Yes. They've had dogs of sausage. They need something new, something new and fresh.

00:05:32Oliver Spake: All right. We want your thoughts, people. We need some Australian challenge ideas for Dano for the return of England.

00:05:41Melissa Ellis: But, Ollie, I've got to tell you about something else at Kirra.

00:05:43Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:05:44Melissa Ellis: They've got these statues of koalas.

00:05:48Oliver Spake: I did see a picture.

00:05:49Melissa Ellis: Have you ever seen them?

00:05:50Oliver Spake: Not until this picture. Yeah, do tell.

00:05:53Melissa Ellis: So I did a bit of research because I had seen them previously in photos for Kirra parkrun. So there's two particular statues of giant koalas and they're painted. They're sort of decorated in particular ways and they're both located around the turnaround point for the final – so it's not the halfway mark – Because you go out two kilometres and then you do a turnaround and then you go back past the start line another 500 metres and then you do another turnaround. And that's where these koalas are. They're at that point. And so, I did some Googling to understand what they're like. It turns out that much like our Ewes in Victoria… In 2013 and 2015, Currumbin Wildlife Hospital in Queensland had a similar art trail, where they decorated these koalas and they were all around, I think, all around the Gold Coast. And then they were auctioned off to raise money for the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital. And two of them just happened to still be in location at the Kirra parkruns as a point of interest. And I particularly was excited about one because it was in camo paint. So, it sort of had like this military feel to it and it's called the Eco Warrior. And then the other ones just got sort of brightly coloured splashes of paint and it's called splash so and I'm sure there's more dotted around the gold coast I've googled and googled and I'm not really sure where they are if I had more time up here I would go searching be on the hunt yeah no doubt they're in like random places around and people can write in and tell us if they know where any of them are

00:07:39Oliver Spake: I would love to hear. I'm loving all of these art, I suppose, art-themed and particularly animal-themed, you know, be they mythical or, you know, quite real in this fact. Yeah, please do tell us. Share it at the cafe over coffee and, yeah, we'll be able to plan a few more parkrun journeys on that basis. But they were spectacular, Mel. Good find.

00:08:00Melissa Ellis: Thank you. But anyway, Ollie, I saw that you had a pretty special morning at dear old Shellharbour parkrun. Would you like to share with us the special event that occurred there?

00:08:10Oliver Spake: Well, for me, it was pretty cruisy. But yes, at Shellharbour parkrun, my eldest daughter, Hannah, took the reins. So... Yeah, her first gig as Run Director on a weekend where we saw a few of the podcast family taking on the Run Director reins. But Hannah had said to me a couple of weeks ago that she wanted to give it a go. She'd made sounds about it previously. She'd been part of the kids' takeover when she was a kid. Now she's a big kid.

00:08:38Melissa Ellis: Mm-hmm.

00:08:39Oliver Spake: And, yeah, she'd been almost threatening that she wanted to give it a go. And, yeah, true to her word, she jumped up and, honestly, it was like she was a pro. So, yeah, well done, Hannah.

00:08:51Melissa Ellis: Well, from the photos I saw, she looked pretty confident. And also in her response when I commented congratulations to her, I think the comment was something along the lines of she's ready to take over all your duties. Yeah. Will she be co-hosting with me one day soon?

00:09:09Oliver Spake: Probably. Jeez. With that sort of sass.

00:09:13Melissa Ellis: Don't get sick, will you, Ollie?

00:09:14Oliver Spake: No. Well, I have to watch my back. Yeah, yeah. I mean, with that sort of sass, the informant better watch out too. Like I always say, my favourite thing about having different Run Directors, different people sort of taking the reins at parkrun is just seeing what each of them bring to it. And to see what Hannah brought to it was pretty special, even if she did keep referring to me as Oliver in the run brief.

00:09:35Unidentified speaker: Oh, yeah.

00:09:36Melissa Ellis: And was everybody like, who's that? Who's Oliver?

00:09:39Oliver Spake: Well, hearing my name over a megaphone while standing in front of a crowd next to the person with the megaphone, it felt like I was getting in trouble. But no, I think she enjoyed it and she had a few friends come along and join the event, visiting from nearby North Gong as well. So yeah, lots of fun and a good Shellharbour week.

00:09:59Melissa Ellis: Well done, Hannah.

00:10:01Oliver Spake: Yeah, so we'll have to give her the gear again soon, I'm sure.

00:10:04Melissa Ellis: Has she indicated she's up for a return gig?

00:10:07Oliver Spake: I think she will. She hasn't set a date, hasn't set a timeframe, so we'll see. We'll give her some time to reflect, but it was a pretty good experience. She enjoyed the morning, which was what counted, and naturally everyone getting back safe and sound counted as well. I think she'd enjoy it again. Another good parkrun day. Good to be at home before flying the coop this week, hmm but some others that had a good parkrun day well some that we've been hearing from on the road a little bit uh like you Mel um who we'll hear from shortly is uh mark and and of course our channel two news team reporter James uh as part of the crew there who uh who took the travels onto the next parkrun stop in Tassie so let's have a listen

00:10:52[13 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Mark Scarborough — Our Park

00:11:05Mark Scarborough: Hello parkrun adventurers, this is Mark reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew and we're still in Tasmania and today we have come to our park, parkrun and good thing is we're collecting an O today and I'm also told that this is a pretty scenic course so we're looking forward to giving this one a run. So I'm here with Tony. We've just finished our parkrun here at our park. Good morning, Tony.

00:11:28Tony: How was your run today? Pretty good, thanks. Nice and cool and lucky we've just missed the rain, so it's good.

00:11:34Mark Scarborough: Yeah, the Tail Walker and a few strugglers out there will be getting a refreshing rain at the moment. But yeah, it was quite a scenic course. I quite liked it running by the water. What did you think?

00:11:43Tony: Very much so, yeah. Just the four legs is different to what I'm used to, so that was really good. You could sort of see where you were in the field and all that. And the houses were just pretty... Spectacular, some of them. Where's your home parkrun? Mackay, up in Mackay in Queensland. So about 800km north of Brisbane. Quite a distance from Orford here in Tasmania. What brought you to Tasmania? My wife's mother lives in Hobart, so we've made a big trip of it. We're back up to Hobart today for five days and then back to Mackay. What's been some of your highlights in Tasmania so far? A lot of bushwalking, Cradle Mountain, Mount Wellington. All the little places that we've stayed have just been beautiful. Farm stay, house stay, just really cute, really nice. When do you head back to home? Today, this afternoon. So, yeah, might need a shower or a change of clothes. We'll see how we go. Very good. What's been your, I suppose, your top three parkruns around Australia? Well, we were lucky enough to go down to Melbourne and there was a couple of places down there, a couple of little places there in the cold and the wet. They were pretty good. They were hard, but they were pretty good. I think this one's up with them. Top three. There you go.

00:12:58Mark Scarborough: Great. Thanks for your time today. No worries. Thank you very much. So I'm here with the ED, Kendall. Good morning, Kendall. How are you?

00:13:05Kendall: Good morning. I'm very well, thank you.

00:13:07Mark Scarborough: Thanks for having us at our park today. It's a beautiful course here by the water. Just, yeah, it's a beautiful space.

00:13:12Kendall: It is. We're really lucky that we can run along the edge of the beach and look out to Maria Island. Pity it's just started raining, but it was perfect at nine o'clock.

00:13:20Mark Scarborough: No, it was a perfect run for some of us, but yeah, the Tail Walkers and the others are now enjoying a refreshing shower. That's all right. Our park is a relatively young course, so what brought it about?

00:13:31Kendall: I think this is about our 23rd run at the moment. We meant to start before all the COVID stuff happened, but obviously we had to wait. So I started doing parkrun in Launceston about five years ago and then moved down here a couple of years ago and really missed it. It was a bit of a travel to go to Bellerive or Risdon. And we've got this beautiful space here. So we decided to get one happening in Orford. It's lovely.

00:13:53Mark Scarborough: a small community in this area so what what does parkrun mean to the Orford and Surround community?

00:13:59Kendall: I think it's for us it's a good chance just to get together on a Saturday morning and we have quite a few locals that turn up and then we get a lot more people in school holidays and long weekends and things like that but we we're quite proud of our lower numbers because it means it's a bit more of a community family event and we get lots of little kids coming as well which is fabulous.

00:14:17Mark Scarborough: So for our listeners can you describe the course?

00:14:19Kendall: Yep, so we have a double out-and-back course. It is all on a relatively flat trail, nice open spaces. We do cross over a small bridge, so you cross over that four times. You start in a very large family-friendly park area. Once you head out about 500 metres, you can then run along the edge of the beach, still on the trail, looking out over the water, and turn around at 1.25 and come back and then go and do it again. Yeah, really nice trail.

00:14:47Mark Scarborough: Yeah, it's a good space you have here and it's a good playground here for the parkrun families to come and visit as well. We had a few interstate visitors today. We had the family from Mackay and some from Victoria and others. So do you get many tourists throughout the year or is there more peak seasons?

00:15:01Kendall: We've had tourists every week so far, so that's been really nice. We had quite a few last weekend being Easter and probably more so last weekend from around Australia, whereas on our launch we had more from around Tasmania. But yeah, we do get tourists every week.

00:15:15Mark Scarborough: Yeah, one of our runners from the Gun Runners was here last week prior to doing the Easter Marathon in Hobart, so it was good to see. All right, well, thank you very much for having us at our park, and it was a great parkrun.

00:15:25Kendall: Thank you so much for coming down.

00:15:27Mark Scarborough: Thank you. All right, parkrun adventurers, we're done here at our park parkrun. The rain has started to settle in here at the moment, so we're going to go off and find some hot breakfast and some hot coffee to warm us back up. So, James, from the Channel 2 News crew, what were your thoughts on our park parkrun?

00:15:45James: It had lots of scenery and it's very rough, but I still loved it. And you should come out whenever you can.

00:15:54Mark Scarborough: That's us here at our park parkrun. Thank you.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Melissa Ellis — Kirra

00:15:58Melissa Ellis: Good morning parkrun adventurers, it's Melissa here and I'm coming to you from the beautiful Kirra parkrun in Queensland. I wasn't going to record today because Kirra's been profiled before in the podcast but I came across some little dogs that I got a bit excited about, dogs of Sausage and so I had to have a chat to Natalie, the owner. Hi Natalie, how are you? Hello, I'm well, beautiful day here at Kirra. It is. Now, I did get a bit excited thinking the dogs must have run and actually came in ahead of me. But they didn't run today, did they?

00:16:31Natalie: No, they're 13 now. So dodgy hips and knees, unfortunately, but they still love it. They'd give it a go for sure. But, you know, just a walk today. And their names are Harry and Duke. Yeah. Yes. And what is your home parkrun? So our home parkruns in Brisbane at New Farm and they do it every week. Love it. love the community love going to breakfast which is exactly where we're heading soon so you didn't run yourself but so your partner ran partner ran so we just take turns these days one of us walks and one of us runs and so we do do the tail walk sometimes but otherwise we uh Yeah, just walk the course with the boys. And down here visiting friends? Yeah, in fact, our friend was doing his 200th today, so we thought we'd take the journey down to Kirra. Fabulous. Oh, that's good. A bit of support there. It's definitely warming up here, but thank you very much for talking to me. Thank you. I do have a new farm on my... on my list yes well you'll see us there it's one of the top 10 to start so you will be I guess approaching your 10th anniversary that's the thing yeah I've probably been doing it for seven years so I wasn't there from the very beginning but yeah heading up towards my 150th so I'm not that regular but pretty good nice all right well thank you very much for talking to me and letting me stalk your dogs wonderful thank you have a good day you too

00:17:47[16 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:18:03Melissa Ellis: And that was great to hear from Mark at our park. And you, yeah. And me. Tracking down sausage dogs all over the country.

Dazza's

00:18:13Melissa Ellis: But, Ollie. The cafe was full again this week.

00:18:17Oliver Spake: It was. They had some achievements there this week too, Mel.

00:18:20Melissa Ellis: There was. So we had Tracey Wood, Morning Dazza, Cracker of a Day at Kedron in Brisbane. And Ollie, Tracey ran her 49th event at Kedron.

00:18:29Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's almost a red 50 shirt at the one event. Nice work.

00:18:33Melissa Ellis: I know. Well done, Tracey. I hope you're going to be back there soon. I want to hear when you get back there for number 50.

00:18:39Oliver Spake: Surely it's coming soon. You've got to be planning that one in.

00:18:42Melissa Ellis: Well, not this weekend, Ollie, because she's going to be at Palm this weekend.

00:18:44Oliver Spake: That's right. We're looking forward to that, Tracey. Looking forward to seeing you. And also we had our adventurer, Erica Leota. What a great morning at parkrun. Finally got my E at Emerald and became an alphabeteer. What a great course too. Special kudos to Erica for making the E with her body in front of the flag, which I probably would have struggled with. I don't have that level of coordination, but well done.

00:19:09Melissa Ellis: I wouldn't have even thought of it.

00:19:11Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:19:11Melissa Ellis: E for Erica too. Well done.

00:19:14Oliver Spake: Yeah. Excellent.

00:19:15Melissa Ellis: And Mandy Oliver, gorgeous morning at Paradise Point. And Mandy posted a stunning photo over the water with the sunlight.

00:19:24Oliver Spake: That was just a gorgeous shot and the place just looks tremendous. That's on the list. And we heard again from Alison King with another teasing post. Berry crumble custard pie, yum, today with a bite taken so you can see the inside. Thank you, Alison. Was a wet run in Puarenga today. Running legs stayed at home, so grateful for a finish at what was my 100th parkrun in New Zealand. Yeah, well done, Alison. It looks like a bloody good way to celebrate. That looked delicious. It did.

00:19:59Melissa Ellis: Yum. And Mark Scarborough, who we've just heard from down at our park. Mark says, we collected an O at our parkrun and now enjoying coffee and breakfast at Wattle Banks Cafe. I'm having serious food envy over Nicole's omelette, though, and so was I, Mark.

00:20:16Oliver Spake: Yeah, I think it's time for a second dinner, to be honest. That one looked very nice. But, yeah, nice to see the cafe update as the Scarborough family make their way through the southern state there.

00:20:26Melissa Ellis: Yeah, just stop posting food shots when I haven't had my brunch yet.

00:20:32Oliver Spake: And then we had Chris Fraser, backup Timekeeper today, but had a freedom run beforehand. Apologies, no sausage roll report. I was half pulled over outside the bakery, but continued on. Maybe because I didn't scan a barcode, I was subconsciously not allowed. But Chris, we did appreciate your help. Thank you so much.

00:20:52Melissa Ellis: And I disagree with that. I think a volley roll is more than worthy of sausage roll rewards.

00:20:59Oliver Spake: I second that. I certainly had a treat.

00:21:01Melissa Ellis: And Simon Mackley, our quiz master, had a great run at Chipping Norton and really good conversation with their amazing ED. Well worth the trip. Touch and go whether it would go ahead though. So many parkruns struggling to get volunteers at the moment. It's so much fun. I don't understand why. And neither do we, Simon, but we are super happy that you got to get to Chipping Norton.

00:21:24Oliver Spake: Yeah, it is a shame because I did see a few events cancelled or at least one cancelled and others on the verge of being cancelled. So, you know, thoughts out there for the teams and I hope you do manage to get some volunteers.

00:21:37Melissa Ellis: It does seem to me, Ollie, though, and I'm seeing it down in Victoria as well, there are are a lot of events that have not traditionally struggled to fill their volunteer rosters that are putting call-outs when they've never had to do that before. And every week I'm seeing it. I'm not quite sure why. Why it's affecting the volunteers?

00:22:01Oliver Spake: Look, I'll be interested. I'll be interested to hear, I suppose, how it is across Australia, across New Zealand and the other regions that are operating at the moment. How is it for you all? I have to say that's been our experience. We're always fortunate at home and many parkrun event teams to have a great bunch of people that step in and other people that step up and give things a try. But it does seem a little bit different. And I don't know whether that's because I've just forgotten, because of the passing of time or if maybe people growing up or reassessing and how they want to spend a Saturday, we've maybe lost a core group there that were providing us such great support. Yeah, I'm not sure. And obviously you guys over there in England, hopefully when you start up, you'll have that support, but curious to hear your experience too.

00:22:49Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. It'll be interesting to see when the other countries come back, Ollie, if they are finding the same thing that we are finding. And Alison, maybe is New Zealand also experiencing this same phenomenon that Australia is noticing? Maybe, Ollie, over the pandemic, the people that volunteer have found other ways and have stepped up into other volunteer type roles outside of parkrun where they're investing their time to help the communities that have struggled through the pandemic. I mean, that could be a relative thing.

00:23:24Oliver Spake: Totally agree here. And, you know, you've got to acknowledge that people's circumstances will have changed as well. And naturally, you know, maybe there's a group of people, quite understandably so, that are being cautious, you know, given that we still have some restrictions, we still have some underlying risk, as we see with outbreaks and with, you know, snap lockdowns and other things. sorts of changes. So, you know, there's probably a whole multitude of reasons and can't emphasise how lucky and appreciative we are of all of the wonderful people that are volunteering. Simon's absolutely right. It is so much fun. You know, I'm sure you can have an average day doing anything, but, you know, To see a parkrun through 50, 100, 150 or more parkrunners' eyes from your volunteering role gives me a pretty good kick and hopefully we'll continue to engage and more people will get to enjoy some volunteering.

00:24:19Melissa Ellis: And this next one, Ollie? Yes. One that we should be especially proud of.

00:24:24Oliver Spake: celebrating Tony O'Connell reporting in proud moment watching Jack on the stump for her first rd gig then coffee and cake at Paul the pie man's way to go Jack that vest looked like a perfect fit I know it's so wonderful to see Jackie on the stump in the blue and white rd vest well done Jack and uh Paul the pie man's I can happily say I have been there on more than one occasion Like many of these reports, they don't go unnoticed. I've went and Googled there. It looks good. So, yep, on the list.

00:24:58Melissa Ellis: And Bernadette Bennett, mushrooms on toast, anyone? Taken at Avondale University College parkrun. And just to paint the picture for those of you that may not have seen the photo that Bernadette posted, it was... a stump, a tree stump with some mushrooms growing off the side of it. So perhaps not the type of mushrooms that we might like to eat. But yeah, a nice picture at Avondale University College parkrun nonetheless.

00:25:29Oliver Spake: The mushrooms clearly like the spot. There's a healthy growth there. And we also heard from Sally Heppleston back at my old home parkrun in Diamond Creek.

00:25:39Melissa Ellis: Yep, Sal was running locally. Yeah. She's been putting in some tourist kilometres recently on her quest to tick off every parkrun in Victoria, but she went back to her old stomping ground this weekend, so good to see Sally with her puppy.

00:25:56Oliver Spake: Yeah, I was going to double check that that was Sally's puppy in the background. Yes, it was. Nice to see them out for a run.

00:26:02Melissa Ellis: And Rebecca Bailey, I believe from Shellharbour, if I'm not mistaken, Ollie.

00:26:08Oliver Spake: That would be it.

00:26:09Melissa Ellis: Got my Z at Zillmere. One more week on the Gold Coast, then picking up Yeronga on my way home. Ticking them off she is, isn't she?

00:26:16Oliver Spake: Yeah, well done, Bec. Good to see the Z as well in the photo there. I noticed that she did say she's got a week on the Gold Coast. It doesn't sound like the Sunshine Coast there.

00:26:26Melissa Ellis: No, I know.

00:26:27Oliver Spake: It's a shame. She's not going to quite make it up there, but never mind. Good travelling, Bec. Well done. Speaking of travelling, some of our intrepid travellers here, Jack Corkill and I. So this is, sorry, sorry, Claire. Claire Stutchbury reporting that Jack Corkill and I finished our alphabets. Yarrabilba parkrun this morning. A massive weather turnaround from last weekend. Yes, they definitely look like it. Well done, guys.

00:26:54Melissa Ellis: They're certainly ticking off all the challenges. I know. Well done, guys. Are we going to see you at Palm? I don't know if you've mentioned if you're coming.

00:27:05Oliver Spake: Hopefully so. If not, then we'll have to get the word out for next year nice and early.

00:27:09Melissa Ellis: Where's home for Claire and Jack?

00:27:11Oliver Spake: Well, yeah, that's what I was wondering. I could have sworn that they had a relationship back with Goulburn, but I'm now not so sure. So, yeah, guys, you have to let us know. And, of course, what's next for the challenge? Now you've conquered that one. What are you aiming for now?

00:27:26Melissa Ellis: Hmm. And we had Tammy Taylor, gorgeous day at New Farm. New Farm. New Farm keeps coming up in my life, Ollie. I've got to get there and our plans are in motion.

00:27:40Oliver Spake: No, that looked like a nice one. It's good to see all this sunny weather coming back. It's, you know, a bit of balance. And we heard also from Janet, Janet Llewellyn Reid. Morning, Dazza. Late to the party again. That's okay, Janet. South Australia's event ambassadors took over Aldinga Beach parkrun this morning. Heavy clouds rolled in and down came the rain in time for the briefing. Then out came the sun. I should have sung this. I'm sorry, Janet. LAUGHTER Out came the sun for parkrun. Delicious post-parkrun coffee at the Goodness Coffee Co.

00:28:05[laughter]

00:28:13Melissa Ellis: I'm loving everybody's mentioning their cafes now, Ollie. Yes.

00:28:17Oliver Spake: Nice to get all those shout-outs there. And, Mel, wasn't it fantastic to see probably more purple than people in that photo?

00:28:26Melissa Ellis: Purple people.

00:28:27Oliver Spake: Yes. What a great bunch of ambassadors. Well done, everyone. And I think I recognised one or two faces in there.

00:28:33Melissa Ellis: Greta. Yes. From our very own Channel 5 news crew. Great to see you, Greta. You've been getting around also doing your own touring recently, I have noticed. Got her statesmanship back in South Australia, has our Greta.

00:28:46Oliver Spake: Nice work, Greta. And look, great initiative from the ambassadors there. It sounds like a perfect morning, a morning full of goodness.

00:28:53Melissa Ellis: It was. And Bruce Purdy. Today was Pirate Club Day with the 7th Sea at Cascades and an almighty arrr from Donna.

00:29:03Oliver Spake: And for anyone that hasn't been to the cafe or checked out Bruce's entry at the cafe there, you've got to check the video because it proves it. There is absolutely an arrr. Mm-hmm. And we heard again from Ingrid Botha. Having done Willow last week, I ran Albury this week. Lovely to run with my sister for the second week in a row and I've closed the gap so she's only four minutes faster than me now. Introduced two first-timers to the world of parkrun. Wow, well done.

00:29:32Melissa Ellis: Good work, Ingrid. And I did comment to Ingrid that the Sky Whales are going to be in Albury next week, Ollie. She's got to go back next week.

00:29:44Oliver Spake: Oh, so close.

00:29:45Melissa Ellis: Not that I'm obsessed with the Sky Whales at all.

00:29:47Oliver Spake: Yeah, well, again, a shout out to, it was Neil Taylor, was it? I've forgotten. Yes.

00:29:54Unidentified speaker: Sorry. Sorry.

00:29:56Oliver Spake: Shared the Sky Whales with us. So, yeah, Mel, you're carefully planning the Sky Whale tour, right, the Sky Whale Trail?

00:30:03Melissa Ellis: I am because I looked up when they were going to be in Albury and then I realised it was next weekend when we've got Palm. I've stalked their, I don't know, what do you call it, their schedule, and I've got them penciled in for when they visit Melbourne in December, but that's a way off.

00:30:20Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:30:21Melissa Ellis: But I want to see any of our other parkrun adventurers, if they can track down the sky whales in their travels because, yeah, I want to see more sky whale love.

00:30:30Oliver Spake: Well, now that you've mentioned it, I have noticed that there might be a trip to the Hunter Valley in September, so in New South Wales. So Sky Whales and wine and parkrun sounds like a pretty good combination to me.

00:30:44Melissa Ellis: When's that? I might have to come up for that one. Any excuse to tour?

00:30:49Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:30:50Melissa Ellis: Okay, so next, Andrew Turner. With a great team of volunteers, I made my RD debut at Maribyrnong. Andrew, another RD debut this week. Congratulations.

00:31:03Oliver Spake: Andrew, you look spectacular in the vest. What a great job. Well done. I hope you enjoyed it. Beautiful course at Maribyrnong. I've done that a few times. I've heard good things.

00:31:12Melissa Ellis: It's very fast. I think Maribyrnong is one of the ones that has previously hosted maybe the Australian record, female record. Oh, maybe both. I'll have to get my stats people on.

00:31:25Oliver Spake: Yes, get the people onto it.

00:31:30Melissa Ellis: stuff up for me.

00:31:31Oliver Spake: The informant or the intern or we'll have to work out who's on this week. Anyway, we also had Helen Davis. Birdsland's second birthday took us back home this week to catch up with our tribe. We even persuaded our neighbours to come along. Brekkie and Coffee was pretty awesome at Maria in Upwey.

00:31:49Melissa Ellis: Excellent. And yes, the land of the birds, they like to call it.

00:31:54Oliver Spake: That sounds nice.

00:31:55Melissa Ellis: And last but not least, Irene Heather. Brunch at Circular Quay with Cheryl after Parramatta parkrun. Some sustenance to fly back to Melbourne in the afternoon. And I know Irene was up there trying to break that world record. How'd she go? I don't know. I didn't stalk her results. It wasn't in the media, so maybe she didn't manage it.

00:32:18Oliver Spake: Okay. Better luck next time, Irene.

00:32:20Melissa Ellis: I did notice in her photo, though, that Medibank drink bottle, which... It does tend to get around quite a bit around Australia.

00:32:29Oliver Spake: Ah, they're pretty identifiable.

00:32:31Melissa Ellis: They are. It was a jam-packed cafe again, so thank you to everybody who contributed.

00:32:36Oliver Spake: Yeah, it was lovely to hear. Nice to hear a meal or two and maybe a coffee in there, but it certainly was a nice morning, and thank you all for sharing.

00:32:45Melissa Ellis: And a few shout-outs for a few of the cafes.

00:32:48Oliver Spake: Yeah, keep them coming.

00:32:49Melissa Ellis: What have we got next, Ollie?

00:32:51Oliver Spake: Well, that's what I was starting to get a little bit confused about, to be perfectly honest. So last week we had the intern. So I'm not quite sure. I mean, is the informant back or the intern?

00:33:05Melissa Ellis: Yeah, well, we'll have to wait and see. There may be some tension in the office.

00:33:11Oliver Spake: Well, given the intern did such a good job.

00:33:13Melissa Ellis: So let's hear, Ollie. Let's listen now and see who we've got. Okay. Okay.

the Informant

00:33:25the Informant: This is the informant. These are unofficial stats. They are only current at the time they are collected, and may differ from the stats you read elsewhere. Yes, that's right, I'm back. The seat has been adjusted back to its correct position, the radio is tuned back on Radio National, and importantly, it has a full tank of fuel.

00:33:48the Intern: It's not my fault. You didn't even leave any money.

00:33:50the Informant: Why do I have to leave you money?

00:33:52the Intern: To put petrol in your car.

00:33:53the Informant: You used the petrol.

00:33:55the Intern: It's your car.

00:33:56the Informant: You were driving for... This is ridiculous. I'm moving on. There were 411 events in Australia and New Zealand, up to 503 worldwide. There was one new event launch at Nizhny Prud in Russia. In Australia and New Zealand, we had 48,232 runners out of 53,114 worldwide, which is down around 3,000 on last week. We had 6,180 PBs, while 1,996 people participated for the first time. 143 juniors reached their Junior 10 milestone, 229 people reached their 50 milestone,

00:34:24[18 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:34:42the Informant: 116 reached their 100 milestone, and 14 people reached their 250 milestone. 16 people called bingo. John Young took the longest with 341 events. Jonathan Morgan took 114 events. We have a plethora of new statespeople. There are nine in the ACT, with Chris Horowitz, Kelly Jackson, Sunil Jacob, Paul Rowe, Veronica Buchanan, Stephanie Jash, Alison Rowe, Nathan Johnson, and Claire Fleming. There are two in the Northern Territory with Philippa Stansell and Sue Reid. In Victoria, we have four in Joanna McCarthy, Mark Anderson, Christopher Hill, and Shane Teel. Across the ditch, three people completed all South Island events. Robin Richards, Lorena Howe, Bill Hunter. In the North Island, Dean King completed all 33 of New Zealand events, becoming an Aotearoan. On the most Aussie events list, six people... Hello, New Zealand. Yes, six people moved up 10 spots from 208 to 198. Joanna Henderson, Glenn Moore, Mark Lockhurst, Wendy Pearce, Lynn Pritchard and Sarah Key. In the top 20, Aaron Harvey has reached his highest ranking, now equal six, having run his 166th event at Northparkes Oval. Biggest Wilson mover of the week is Steve Harris, who jumped 26, going from 12 to 38.

00:36:17the Intern: Is Steve from New Zealand?

00:36:19the Informant: No.

00:36:21the Intern: Oh.

00:36:21the Informant: You know New Zealand are still crying about the underarm bowl.

00:36:24the Intern: The what?

00:36:25the Informant: The underarm bowl.

00:36:26the Intern: The what?

00:36:27the Informant: Seriously? What's that? In 1991, Australia was playing New Zealand in the third one-day cricket match.

00:36:34the Intern: Boring.

00:36:35the Informant: It's not boring, it's... Boring. This is going to be the worst report ever. Steve Harris is now on 38. Cal Carese is the highest on 174. This has been The Informant, and my spreadsheet is bigger than yours. If you'd like to see these stats in more detail, please see my blog at theinformant.me. That's the informant, all one word, dot M-E. You do know I can literally get anyone to come in and do your job. I don't understand why you just...

00:37:05the Intern: I don't understand why you have to be so grumpy.

00:37:07the Informant: Literally anyone. Someone who knows how to make a coffee...

00:37:12Oliver Spake: Well, it sounds like all's good and well in the offices of the informant, Mel.

00:37:20Melissa Ellis: Oh, I don't know. I think there's some tension going on in that office. Glad I'm not there.

00:37:27Oliver Spake: Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Well, yeah, we hope you're okay, guys. Yeah.

00:37:36Melissa Ellis: I wonder if any of them are coming to Palm. Who's going to stay behind?

00:37:40Oliver Spake: Well, hey, you know, everyone's welcome. So hopefully they can both come. I'm sure that they can work remotely, provided they can work through things and we can all enjoy the time at the weekend together.

00:37:53Melissa Ellis: It'd be lovely. And we've got some great things lined up for everybody, at palm Ollie uh starting off on Friday and it's next Friday next Friday at 3 p.m oh sorry sorry sorry you go no no sorry it only occurred to me this is coming up Thursday or Friday isn't it I know so it's literally tomorrow yep So if you're listening to this on Thursday, it's going to be tomorrow.

00:37:58[crosstalk]

00:38:28Oliver Spake: Yes. And sorry, Mel, before I so rudely interrupted, you were going to say.

00:38:33Melissa Ellis: You're quite welcome to interrupt me because I do that all the time for you. I was saying that. We're going to start the weekend off with a 3 p.m. meet and greet with Fluffy.

00:38:44Oliver Spake: Yeah, special thing to introduce the weekend, provided Fluffy wants to say g'day and actually meet and greet us. But, you know, here's hoping. If not...

00:38:54Melissa Ellis: I kind of got the impression we're just going to hunt Fluffy down. I don't know if Fluffy's got a lot of say in the matter.

00:39:00[laughter]

00:39:00Unidentified speaker: LAUGHTER

00:39:01Oliver Spake: It's okay, Fluffy. All in a friendly way. Yes. So look at anyone that can join at 3 p.m. Come on out. We'd love to see you. But if you can't, and as we have with every palm so far, we will have a Freedom Run on the Friday as well. That's at 5 p.m. and meeting at Kawana at the Kawana Surf Club for the course there.

00:39:22Melissa Ellis: Yes. And after our Freedom Run at Kawana, we're going to be enjoying a drink and a meal at 6 p.m. at the Surf Club at Kawana for those who would like to sit around and have a chat.

00:39:37Oliver Spake: Yeah, and, I mean, it feels kind of like one of those spiritual homes, certainly for anyone that's been listening to the pod for some time. I would imagine Kawana's been on the list if you haven't already made it. Many of you probably have.

00:39:51Melissa Ellis: Might have heard it referred to a few hundred times. Exactly. Just like that Shellharbour place that we hear a lot of these days.

00:39:59Oliver Spake: Catching up with a bullet, yep.

00:40:00Melissa Ellis: And then, Ollie, Saturday morning. Yes. 6.45, be there or be square at Nambour parkrun.

00:40:09Oliver Spake: Yes. Don't forget your barcode. That's not directed at anyone in particular.

00:40:15Unidentified speaker: Oh. What?

00:40:16Oliver Spake: Just a gentle reminder to everyone, just because all of us forget our barcodes sometimes.

00:40:22Melissa Ellis: Okay. Yep. I don't.

00:40:24Oliver Spake: Oh, well.

00:40:25Melissa Ellis: But anyway, what you don't want to forget, Ollie, is your Ugly Christmas Singlet featuring the emu himself, Mr. Fluffy. That is... If you haven't maybe had the thought yourself, that is the uniform of the morning. We want a group photo at Nambour.

00:40:43Oliver Spake: We want a tinsel.

00:40:44Melissa Ellis: With everybody. We want a tinsel. We want those Ugly Christmas Singlets featuring Fluffy. We want as many as we can get there. So throw it in the suitcase. Throw it through the wash.

00:40:54Oliver Spake: I was going to wear my apricot singlet with Shellharbour on it just to.

00:40:58Melissa Ellis: No. What?

00:40:59Oliver Spake: No.

00:41:00Melissa Ellis: Oh, my goodness.

00:41:02Oliver Spake: No.

00:41:04Melissa Ellis: I'm sure you're joking.

00:41:05Oliver Spake: I am joking. Nothing will upstage the Nambour parkrun dress code. So, yeah, we look forward to parkrun morning at Nambour. Yeah, look, it's funny how the headlines just kind of grab you, Mel. I think Nambour has been synonymous with fluffy. What I and probably many of us might have missed is the other thing, hills and elevation. I know.

00:41:32Melissa Ellis: god she had no idea she had no idea that we are literally like having our event at what is potentially the second most hilliest parkrun in Australia isn't it wonderful Janet how did you not know that where have you been it'll be all the more fun there's nothing like a hill to make your parkrun day special would have been all the more fun if Janet hadn't found out

00:41:59Oliver Spake: Oh, dear, yes. And then we will all recover from our Nambour parkrun and hopefully our time with Fluffy and all of the fantastic Nambour parkrun crew with brunch at the Endless Time Cafe. So, look, we'll say 8 o'clock, but it's whenever you finish your parkrun, really, and we'll duck across there. I mean, I don't know, Mel. I mean, Dazza is clearly not coming, so he's going to set up in the meantime.

00:42:25Melissa Ellis: Oh. Poor Dazza.

00:42:26Oliver Spake: Have we discussed that with Dazza? Did we forget to invite Dazza?

00:42:30Melissa Ellis: What should we do this week, Ollie? Do we do a Dazza post? Oh.

00:42:36Oliver Spake: Oh.

00:42:36Melissa Ellis: This is awkward.

00:42:37Oliver Spake: I know.

00:42:40Melissa Ellis: He's at home. He won't know. Maybe we just won't tell him. Maybe we need to find somebody else to step in up on the sunny coast.

00:42:47Oliver Spake: Oh.

00:42:47Melissa Ellis: Oh, no, that's awkward.

00:42:49Oliver Spake: That's all right. We'll have a chat with Dazza. We'll work it out. Oh.

00:42:53Melissa Ellis: Okay. But I'm hoping that we get to meet some of the people up on the sunny coast. I'm hoping that we get some adventurers that we haven't met before coming to visit us.

00:43:03Oliver Spake: That's right. Yes. For anyone that hasn't made your mind up, you don't know where you're parkrunning, or hey, you've made some plans and you just feel like changing them, come and join us.

00:43:12Melissa Ellis: Exactly. And after brunch, Ollie, we've got to record a live podcast.

00:43:19Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's also the thing. The headlines grab you and you forget about the details. That's the detail, isn't it? Yeah. We're looking forward to this. We're looking forward to getting to share.

00:43:30Melissa Ellis: I'm not. I'm a bit scared.

00:43:33Oliver Spake: To share what we've learned in our short time as co-hosts of the parkrun adventurers podcast with you all.

00:43:41Melissa Ellis: Do they serve wine at that cafe?

00:43:43Oliver Spake: Bloody well hope so.

00:43:48Melissa Ellis: It's all right. We'll be fine. We'll be fine. Our friends will support us.

00:43:52Oliver Spake: That's right. So look, 10 a.m. at the Burry Lane Cafe, we'll be doing the podcast recording. So please stick around. Again, if you've got plans and you feel like changing them, come and join us. Bring wine. Bring wine. And we will have the quiz, of course, synonymous with a Palm podcast recording. We have to have a live quiz. So we look forward to sharing that with you all.

00:44:18Melissa Ellis: We do. And, Ollie, in the afternoon, come back and have an Arvo Freedom parkrun at Brightwater, 3pm. Yes, I'm looking forward to that one.

00:44:29Oliver Spake: I haven't heard a thing about Brightwater before.

00:44:31Melissa Ellis: I was going to say exactly the same thing. I know nothing about Brightwater. I need to be enlightened.

00:44:36Oliver Spake: Yes, and I guess we have to stress here, hey, guys, if you're around at all at any point of the weekend and want to join us for just one of these things, please do. Keep an eye on the Facebook page, of course, in the events. So if anything drastically has to change, we'll endeavour to throw a post on there and let you all know.

00:44:54Melissa Ellis: We'll be spamming the heck out of the parkrun page, don't you? worry about that.

00:44:59Oliver Spake: Good. Yeah, we'll be there. And to wrap it all up for Saturday, 6.30pm, back at the Kawana Surf Club is the dress-up dinner.

00:45:10Melissa Ellis: Yes. The kick back and relax. It's all over parkrun social event.

00:45:18Oliver Spake: That's right. As parkrun theme.

00:45:20Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Come as... your favourite parkrun, come as a parkrun you love to do, come as not your home parkrun because that's against the rules.

00:45:31Oliver Spake: Unless you're Melissa Erbacher. Yeah.

00:45:34Melissa Ellis: Well, yeah. We did say Mel had creative licence to be whatever she damn well wants to be.

00:45:40Oliver Spake: That's right. Or come as your favourite thing about parkrun.

00:45:44Melissa Ellis: Yes, be a token. A token gesture. Be a Tail Walker. Yep. Be coffee at the end of parkrun.

00:45:55Oliver Spake: Or a wine for some of us.

00:45:58Melissa Ellis: What are you trying to say? Who has post-parkrun wine? Only me? I'm sure it's only me.

00:46:04Oliver Spake: Oh, no, I'm pretty sure we have some podcast family that enjoy a good wine after a parkrun. Oh. Yes.

00:46:10Melissa Ellis: As long as the sun's up, then it's, you know, it's okay. That's right. Yeah. So, there may even be, Ollie.

00:46:19Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:46:19Melissa Ellis: Something happening Sunday morning, but yet to be decided. But there's usually another... Freedom Run on Sunday.

00:46:29Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:46:29Melissa Ellis: So let's not rule that out.

00:46:31Oliver Spake: That's right. Let's keep that open and hanging. We all need a bit of suspense. I think a few of us do hope for a Sunday morning Freedom Run. So stay tuned.

00:46:39Melissa Ellis: I'm sure if it's up to TOC, he'll be up at 5.30 running along the beach somewhere. So Ollie, if we're actually staying with TOC, we just have to make sure we're awake in time and we can just tag along and we can get those um 5 30 a.m sunrise amazing beach photos that he always gets on his Strava yeah let's get in for some of that sounds like a plan I do need to do a bit of running so uh that will help that will be good oh Ollie yes that reminds me of I saw on Strava you did you did a big run you're still training.

00:47:15Oliver Spake: Well, still is a generous term. I am training. I was training. I am training. There was a period there where training was probably too generous a term, but hey, I'm training and it was good fun. I think the thing I always forget is that it is a lot easier with some training buddies. So I was fortunate to to head out and to come across some familiar parkrunners. And that just made the time go. That was the motivation I needed. So thank you.

00:47:46Melissa Ellis: Excellent. I saw you did, was it about 32 kilometres?

00:47:50Oliver Spake: Yeah, 32. So I've got some hope yet. Three weeks to go. It'll be two weeks soon.

00:47:55Melissa Ellis: We're tracking this. I'm not forgetting about it. We are tracking it.

00:48:00Oliver Spake: Oh, that's right.

00:48:00Melissa Ellis: We can't let Palm overshadow the marathon.

00:48:03Oliver Spake: I think Palm can overshadow the marathon. In fact, it's even the same day as Ali's birthday party, so the marathon's not even the feature of the day. Yeah, just, you know, casual, slotting in a marathon before the birthday party, yeah.

00:48:17Melissa Ellis: How old is Ali?

00:48:19Oliver Spake: She will be eight.

00:48:20Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's a beautiful age. Enjoy the eight.

Sign-off

00:48:25Oliver Spake: Yes. But we digress. As always. Thank you again in advance to obviously Melissa and the Nambour parkrun crew. Huge thank you to TOC for the support in getting all of this up and running and underway. And thank you, Mel. We really look forward to seeing some of you, maybe many of you, but as many of you as possible out at Palm this weekend.

00:48:52Melissa Ellis: And thank you to Chris Fraser. He's also supported TOC and he's been a great help to us helping us with our social media posts and our photos, editing those every week. We really appreciate that and we look forward to seeing Chris as well at Palm.

00:49:10Oliver Spake: That's right. We couldn't do it without your help. Thank you, Chris. We look forward to sharing it all with you all.

00:49:15Melissa Ellis: Okay, Ollie, well, that's wrapping it up for another week, hopefully a shorter pod. Sorry, everybody, for the last two mega pods that we've served you up. A short and sweet one this week. in preparation for an exciting weekend to come.

00:49:33Oliver Spake: Yep. Thanks, Mel. And bye, everyone.

00:50:30Unidentified speaker: Thank you.