Episode 233 - Autumnal Adventures
Episode details · · 285 speaker turns · sound cues from context
Enhanced transcript
Speaker names appear where they could be established with confidence. Others are shown as “Unidentified speaker”. Sounds that are not speech — music, laughter, people talking over each other — are written in [square brackets].
Episode 233 - Autumnal Adventures · 2021-05-05
Enhanced transcript — Produced by an automated editing pass — speakers named, sound described, segments marked. NOT yet checked by a person.
Speaker names appear only where they could be established with confidence; others are shown as “Unidentified speaker”. Non-speech sound is in [square brackets].
Source: https://log.5kadventures.net/transcripts/ep233.html · The Adventurers Log · An independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by parkrun.
Welcome
Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 233 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Melissa Ellis and I'm joined by the marathon man who is fast gaining celebrity status at Shellharbour parkrun, Ollie Spake.
Oliver Spake: Hey Mel, how's it going?
Melissa Ellis: I'm good. How are you? How are you recovering from your big weekend, Ollie?
Oliver Spake: It felt like a big weekend. And yeah, it's still a little sore, but surprisingly well. Thank you.
Melissa Ellis: And you started the weekend with Shellharbour.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah, I was umming and ahing. So I was volley coordinator at Shellharbour and we had a nice full roster with a huge thanks to the running event locally happening the next day. So I think everyone was saving their legs. So I took the opportunity to have a parkrun too, which was good fun.
Melissa Ellis: I did stalk your results to make sure you didn't go too fast. Yeah.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah. No, it was just, I suppose, more of a social parkrun, running around, getting a few pictures of the volunteers and marshals out on course and just trying to take it all in. So, I don't know if it was as gentle as I perhaps intended, but it all seemed to work, right? So, yeah. Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: That's good. Yeah. Was it good weather for parkrun?
Oliver Spake: Yeah. I mean, we love the rain too, but it's beautiful, clear weather, cool mornings, warming up with the sun. So it's actually still getting quite warm and nice clear skies, which worked out well because it was a big weekend locally. Yeah. The day Saturday was actually quite a big day for the park that Shellharbour parkrun takes part in. So Killalea, which was a state park and is now, I think, technically called a reserve, was hosting a massive protest. A whole bunch of people taking their boards out into the water and people gathering just to share perspectives, share their voice on preserving the natural environment there in the park. And yeah, gorgeous day for it.
Melissa Ellis: That's good to hear. And the big event on Sunday, I was watching with interest. I was scouting your Strava to see when you finished. And by all accounts, you had a pretty good run.
Oliver Spake: Yeah. So, you know, the ultimate taper strategy worked. It was another beautiful day, really. We were umming and ahing. Because we obviously had many from the parkrun community locally and a number of parkrunners from Sydney taking part, but some of the RD event team from Shellharbour were taking part and ambassadors and others. One of our Run Directors was sweating, though, on Saturday just checking the weather because he had decided that... he would take on the marathon in a star costume to attempt a Guinness World Record. And it was to be the fastest marathon for a male and, forgive me if I misquote this, dressed in a five-pointed star.
Melissa Ellis: There's such a thing.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, there is, there is. And look, you know, despite a valiant effort, that record still stands. But I'm told the outfit was a good six and a half kilos that he was carrying there. So clearly didn't want the warm weather or too much wind for that matter. Oh, wow. Yeah. But, yep, great weather and it was curious. So this event, Run Shellharbour, was an event that was launched back in December 2019 and not sure I was a big fan of it running in the summer, so a May date was a little more comfortable for everyone but, yeah, well supported locally and by a number of people sort of travelling in there and it was the first time they'd run a marathon. So it was... It was a nice mix of a running event but also just felt like a local run.
Melissa Ellis: That's good. So as somebody who has, well, I've ran a marathon or two myself, so what was the course, Ollie? Was it just, you know, a 42-kilometre loop? Were you running multiple laps? Because, you know, that can play with your head. What was it like?
[laughter]
Unidentified speaker: LAUGHTER
Oliver Spake: Yeah, well, it did feel very local in its setup. So, for anyone that hasn't visited the area, we're on the coast, you know, we've got beaches, we've got nice parks and pathways along the back of The Beaches, which gives us great access to the coastline all around. So... starting from a local surf club and taking off there, but really just following the coastal trail that takes us around to the entrance to Lake Illawarra, which is a big lake on the southern side of Wollongong. Shellharbour itself is south of that. And just the pathway, meandering around on the southern edge of the lake until we get to a turnaround point at, let's say, 11 Ks, because I can't remember my maths, turn around, back to the surf club, and then another lap of the same. So, yeah, two loops. And conveniently, that turnaround point was about 150 metres past my parents-in-law's house. So I got my cheer squad, not on the first lap, but on the second lap when I needed it.
Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's good.
Oliver Spake: Yes.
Melissa Ellis: The kids were out.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah. Hannah was down the coast, but the two younger ones were out there blowing bubbles and cheering on, and Kathy and, you know, parents-in-law. Yeah, no, I think I did say online, but, you know, tried to give the kids a hug, but they were having nothing of it. Get away, Dad. Yeah, but... great time, great fun. And, uh, as I said, you know, nice to have a chat. I think, um, obviously my other strategy was just keep talking.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah. You had some company out there by all accounts. Yeah.
Oliver Spake: Lots of parkrunners, of course. And, um, it was a, no, I suppose you, you find your pace and, uh, thankfully I did find some people to help control my pace. Um, but, uh, Yeah, a fellow Shellharbour parkrunner and absolute incredible runner himself. We talked each other through the last, you know, the last stretch in particular, the last 7Ks where the head starts to go for us that haven't done a marathon too often. And, yeah, that was a great way to finish quite strongly thanks to him. So thank you, Chris. I don't think he's a listener, but anyway, thank you, Chris. Thank you.
Melissa Ellis: You never know, it might be now. Yeah. I hope you plugged the pod while you were running along. Oh, we had a chat.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, absolutely.
Melissa Ellis: Excellent. And did you do that very typical parkrun thing that you count down how many parkruns to go?
Oliver Spake: Oh, yeah. The difficult thing is, you know, when they've got the 5k markers, it's not counting down per se. So I had to sort of obviously go completely off the watch. But yeah, it was definitely counting down from at least three parkruns to go. Yeah. And I think the longest run, the plug for the longest run, I think that puts you in good stead because I was comparing it to how I felt after lunch on a longest run, already feeling pretty broken. And yeah, relatively speaking on Sunday, less broken. So that was good.
Melissa Ellis: Excellent. But I think, you know, you mentioned longest run. That's very stop-start where you cool down and you've got to get the legs out of the car again and keep going. I think it's very different when you can just maintain that momentum and and not stop. I don't know about you, Ollie. In a marathon, I don't like to stop even for drink stations. I'm a person that likes to have the hydration where I can, because I can't even drink out of those cups. When you stop at the drink stations and grab a cup and then you splutter and choke and whatever. No, I am a hydration vest, suck on the, you know, the straw kind of person and I just glide past those drink stations and I maintain my pace.
Oliver Spake: Yeah. Well, you're much more prepared than me, I think, Mel. Yeah. I did not have hydration out there and it was really hard to manage that pace because I'd have to stop because I certainly cannot drink out of a cup like that. So it took all of my effort not to just get that all over me. Yeah, so I think I need to take a leaf out of your book. Yeah, you need a vest, dude. Get the best side of things going.
Melissa Ellis: What about food? Did you fuel on your run?
Oliver Spake: Oh, I can't eat and run. No.
Melissa Ellis: No, me either. No.
Oliver Spake: No, so I think I had one gel. Well, I think I had one, one of the gel things left over from last year, so I took that along. That was it. I had a coffee beforehand. That helped.
Melissa Ellis: Okay.
Oliver Spake: Yeah. Oh, yeah? Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: Well, obviously you didn't need it because you did...
Oliver Spake: brilliantly. It was a pleasant surprise. And thank you, Mel. It was fantastic to see so many familiar faces out there, you know, get to run alongside some of them that I had been looking forward to sharing the morning with. And, you know, people across all distances, even down to the 1K Kids Dash, you know, it's just a buzz. Plenty of endorphins.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah. And one thing I was, you know, wanting to bring up is that, okay, we're a parkrun podcast and yet we're discussing marathons. Yes. However, you know, it occurs to me prior to parkrun, I mean, I wasn't even a runner. It was going to parkrun that started my running journey. And then once I'd mastered the 5K nonstop… I started to set my sights and challenge myself further with running events. Once you can do the 5K, you start looking, oh, maybe I could do a 10K event. Maybe I could run that 10K event. And then you do a few 10K events, you think, oh, maybe I could do a half marathon and so on and so on. So I think parkrun is really the launching pad for a lot of people that may never have considered they could do such things. And certainly myself, I never would have ever thought I would run a marathon. It was never on my horizon until I started parkrunning.
Oliver Spake: You're absolutely right. And I can attest to that. I was never a serious runner. I don't think I knew how to, let's be honest, I still can't discipline myself into any sort of rate regime. But parkrun brought that interest and the right combination of other things to that community spirit to just make it click and grow. Yeah, it's amazing where these things take you once you really get invested, yet they're still there. When you go through your troughs, you've got your peaks and it takes you to amazing places, but it helps you get back into gear in the troughs too, which I think has been what made the difference. Because what is it? It's close to five years since the last time I tried a marathon. And if it wasn't for parkrun and seeing an event like this being a similar kind of local community, yeah, I certainly would have gone, yep, tapped out, that's it for me. So just, yeah, keeps you going.
Melissa Ellis: And sharing it with other parkrunners as well.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, and that's a lot of fun. There were people out there that I was meeting on course and chatting and, you know, discovering, I can't remember his name and I'm really sorry if you're listening, but there was a gentleman from the Ponds parkrun who had done the Gold Coast Marathon and, well, Heaps of other marathons. But he was a very regular one after starting at Gold Coast. And we were just having a big chat and hearing about parkrun whilst out there at a completely different event. Yeah, it's one of those common things. And probably what I neglected to say about my Shellharbour parkrun experience in Gold Coast, the vein of things being connected was I got to meet Sam too. Sorry, Sam. That was a highlight. To have Sam come back, thank you very much, and volunteer with us again and to help out once again, help out as part of our scanning crew and support one of our first-time scanners with the app there was just fantastic. It's great to have that kind of support and, you know, always nice to – to meet new people in person. You hear the names and you sort of connect online, but yeah, to get to meet them at the events is extra special.
Melissa Ellis: Great, and we'll hear more from Sam later in Dazza's cafe.
Oliver Spake: You also had an adventure, Mel.
Melissa Ellis: I did, yes.
Oliver Spake: Tell us about your adventure. How was it?
Melissa Ellis: It was a new event for me, travelling to regional Victoria, to a part of regional Victoria that we particularly love. The Alpine region, my husband, Paul, really enjoys going up into the mountains, into that part of the world. So he was very happy to accompany me, which was good for me. Because he did all the driving.
Oliver Spake: Oh, nice. There we go. Good work. Yes.
Melissa Ellis: I wasn't solo for a change. So, yeah, we travelled up there for event two of Ovens River Trail and I did record some audio as well, which we can hear shortly. Yeah, and plenty of my fellow tourists also accompanying me for the weekend up there. So a nice little group of us. We spent some time touring the local town. Spending some money in the area, which helps post-COVID, you know, regional Victoria suffered greatly during the pandemic. So to spend a bit of time there and put some money back into those communities that suffered so much was, you know, felt good. But there was lots to see up there.
Oliver Spake: Sounds like a beautiful spot. So is that part of the autumn leaf belt of that part of Victoria?
Melissa Ellis: Yes.
Oliver Spake: Excellent.
Melissa Ellis: It definitely is. It definitely is, yeah. They just have an abundance of beautiful autumn colours.
Oliver Spake: Just those tones, those autumn tones, I suppose.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah, yeah, yeah, really beautiful crisp mornings and beautiful autumnal colours and the... The locals really embracing the tourists as well, which was really nice. While we were up there, Paul and I, we toured a little bit further so we could see some silo art. Ah, right. I had that in my sights. I knew that there was a few up that way, so I was determined to get to them. So we travelled after parkrun and after we'd finished seeing the sights around the town and we were on our way home, we detoured slightly to go to a couple of small towns to see their silos and One in particular in Devenish had a military theme, had depictions of, I suppose, a World War II nurse. Oh, yeah, yeah. In her military attire. And then the opposite, the modern-day medic nurse.
Oliver Spake: Yes.
Melissa Ellis: Depicted on the opposite silo. So that was, yeah, I really enjoyed that. And it's recently been Anzac Day, so the war memorial still had all the poppies and everything. And we went across the road while we were in the town. We went across the road to the pub, went in and had a drink and sat at the bar and had a chit-chat to the, what do you call the dude that's at the bar?
Oliver Spake: The Wild Republican. Yeah, yes that's it the publican yeah my mind went straight to a country practice I was thinking cookie um if I've got the name right but yeah yeah and apologies for context there that's uh that's a show I grew up with the publican I'm just thinking cookie well yeah wasn't he always behind the bar yeah must have been Must have been cookie, yeah.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah.
Oliver Spake: There we go.
Melissa Ellis: But you know what, Ollie? I don't think I've ever gone to a country pub and gone in and sat at the bar and ordered a drink. I don't think I've ever done that before. That was a first for me. So all these little things that, you know, just from going to parkrun and then deciding, you know, obviously through – associated endeavours but because I was there in the area doing parkrun and then I decided to do these other things and I'm having all these firsts that I've never done before and it's just really beautiful oh wow and then the publican said to us oh you know what there's only five minutes down the road there's another silo at Goorambat you should go there and I was like oh really I look at Paul I'm like can we go to Goorambat and he's like sure why not so So we went down the road and we visited another silo that was painted with these three Clydesdale horses that were very significant to the local area. I think they breed them in the local area. Anyway, it was beautiful. Yeah.
Oliver Spake: Oh, yeah. Look, that's the way to do an adventure. Well done, Mel and Paul.
Melissa Ellis: Thank you. Yes.
Oliver Spake: And I think the pub stopped. now seems like it has to be a staple. I'm going to have to plan a road trip and have the pub stop and see where it takes me.
Melissa Ellis: Well, see, this is the thing, Ollie, because these little towns that get these silos, they commission them to bring tourists to their town. So while you're there, you've got to stop and you've got to, I don't know, you've just got to interact with the town and spend some money, I suppose, you know, give back.
Oliver Spake: See what it takes you. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, excellent. Well, it sounds like a trip to Ovens River is on the list. Definitely.
Melissa Ellis: But you can also go to Benalla. There's a few, I should say, in country Victoria. Oh, you know, silos all over the place in country Victoria. So, yeah, it's always doable.
Oliver Spake: Yes, yeah.
Melissa Ellis: And it reminds me of the time that we went to Mansfield Botanic, and this was prior to the pandemic, but we went up that way, and that's also high country, and we stayed at the local zoo. We took our tent and we camped at the zoo. That was brilliant. That was a wonderful experience, which we never would have done if we hadn't been going there for parkrun.
Oliver Spake: That sounds like a pretty cool experience. Right.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah, waking up with, like, antelope licking your tent. It's quite unique.
Oliver Spake: At least they were licking and not bucking or anything. Yes. Yeah. Wow.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah. So there you go. Never know what you can do when you're parkrunning, when you're out there in the country.
Oliver Spake: Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: Lots of adventures to be planned yet.
Oliver Spake: Yes. That's one of you squeezed it all in there. Well done.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew
Oliver Spake: Thank you. Well, I think speaking of adventures, we've been lucky enough, fortunate enough to have another group of roving reports, including some more guest reports. So let's have a listen, shall we?
[music]
[12 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]
Roving report Melissa Ellis — Ovens River Trail
Melissa Ellis: Good morning parkrun adventurers, it's Melissa here and I'm coming to you from the beautiful brand new Ovens River Trail parkrun in Myrtleford, Country Victoria and I've got Ruth and David with me here, the Event Directors. Good morning. Hello. Good morning. And congratulations. Thanks Melissa. On a successful launch, this is week two. Would you like to tell us how Ovens River Trail came to be?
Unidentified speaker: Oh, someone put a post on Facebook and said, is anyone interested in opening a parkrun in Myrtleford? And we said, yes, let's get it going. Really? Yes. We've got support from Alpine Health and North East Health. They were running Active April and wanted to get it going. And there was a small, like, steering committee that started. And you put your hands up.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Did you know about parkrun previously? No. Yeah, we've done it for a few years. Okay. Yeah. So where did you travel previously to go to parkrun? Oh, we did Lillydale Lake a few times.
Unidentified speaker: So we live in Melbourne during the weekend, up here on the weekends. Lovely. So if we were stuck in Melbourne, we might do Lillydale or Fair Park. Or if we're up here, it was Wangaratta or Mount Beauty. We've done Bright. So there's a few in the area that we've, yeah. And today's a good example of tourists from everywhere loving the northeast of Victoria.
Melissa Ellis: Definitely. It's so beautiful up here. Now, so the council was behind you and encouraged the creation of the parkrun for the community?
Unidentified speaker: Yes. Ovens River Trail parkrun is the third parkrun in Alpine Shire, so we were pretty chuffed that they actually encouraged us to do it and they supported us with the financial foundation grants. Excellent. They were really, really supportive.
Melissa Ellis: And was it hard to find the course? Yes, it was a bit challenging.
Unidentified speaker: We knew we wanted it here, but we hadn't really considered it deeply until we were submitting the course. And we've got a swing bridge, which we just assumed that we'd run over, but it's actually horrible and it rocks far too much. So we had to cut that bit out and do a little double up on the rest of the course. But yeah, it works really well. Okay, would you like to describe the course for everybody?
Unidentified speaker: So it's effectively a out and back course that is 1.7 kilometres out and 1.7 kilometres back. And then we actually go out another 800 metres, the same 800 metres at the start and then come back again. And we are running basically along a bitumen path that runs along the Ovens River, crosses over a couple of times on steel bridges, which are a lot better than the swing bridge that you cross to get into the parkrun. Lovely treed course. The other advantage that we've got, I guess, from a parkrun point of view is that if people wanted to redo the course again, there's mosaics hidden all the way along it.
Melissa Ellis: There is, yes.
Unidentified speaker: And so there's something a little bit extra for the kids to see after or maybe to do while somebody else was doing parkrun and they didn't want to do parkrun.
Melissa Ellis: And a beautiful painted building at the turnaround point, is that a toilet block?
Unidentified speaker: Yes. It is a toilet block.
Melissa Ellis: With a mosaic or not a mosaic, what is it? A mural. A mural.
Unidentified speaker: On all four sides, it's got different pictures and murals, but it's also got a couple of mosaics hidden within the murals as well.
Melissa Ellis: So, yeah, I intend to walk back out later and have a good look at that because I didn't really stop on my way, but I did get some lovely pictures over the two bridges. Good, I'll have to get you to upload them to Facebook. Oh, I can do that. Certainly. So you've got a nice little car park. It's little. Yeah, it's a small car park. There's toilets and a playground.
Unidentified speaker: And there's additional parking that we've negotiated with the Savoy Club over the road. So we can use their car park if this one gets full as well.
Unidentified speaker: Yeah. And there's barbecues if people want to have lunch later.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Or a nice breakfast. And you have a market once a month, I saw on the website. Yeah, the Farmer's Market. Yeah, that has some lovely things.
Unidentified speaker: So that was last weekend. So town was really busy yesterday.
Melissa Ellis: Yep.
Unidentified speaker: Good for the launch.
Unidentified speaker: Half an hour to get a coffee after ordering it was not the best experience. Ah, that was nice though. But it's really good. It gives people the opportunity to sit around and talk. Yeah. And get to know each other and yeah.
Melissa Ellis: And how many did you have today? Do you know the numbers? Forty. Okay. Okay. Well, that's a nice start. Yeah. Yeah.
Unidentified speaker: A little bit less than the launch last week, but yeah, not much.
Melissa Ellis: And you haven't had trouble getting a core group to support you?
Unidentified speaker: Oh, it's a bit challenging to get volunteers to fill all the volunteer positions. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to have to work on getting some Run Directors, probably four, ideally, just to take it in turns a bit more.
Melissa Ellis: Oh, very good. So, and what is, what is to see around the place? If you want to sell, sell me Myrtleford. Okay.
Unidentified speaker: You've done parkrun. So you're into a bit of exercise. You might want to go for a walk up Reform Hill. Last week it was, um, launched a new mosaic trail of endangered species around Myrtleford and there's a few mosaics around there but it's just a lovely walk up an old um gold mine tailing hill is that where the Hume and Hovell uh what is it the Hume and Hovell monument maybe maybe
Melissa Ellis: And there's a big tree. There's an old battery stamp there where they used to bash the rock to get the gold out. Okay, sure. And the big tree I've got to go and find, the largest river red gum in the district. Oh, it's beautiful, yeah. Just up the road?
Unidentified speaker: Just tucked in one of the back streets. It's, yeah, just on the side of the road. There's the phoenix tree as you're going up the main street there. It's...
Melissa Ellis: big old tree that's got a carving and the stump of it so it's actually pulled the whole thing out of the ground and it's up there and as you're going into town okay we'll go and check that out as well all right well thank you very much for having spending the time to have a chat with me this morning good luck with the parkrun thank you I'm sure it's going to be again tell all your friends oh yes this is this is what we do all right thanks a lot thank you
Roving report Brendan — North Shore
Brendan: Good morning, we're here on the North Shore parkrun in Townsville and I'm just having a quick chat with Lisa and Lisa's a local here. Lisa's just going to give us a run through what the Townsville parkrun means to her and the community it's based around.
Lisa: Oh hi, well I've been living in Townsville for over five years and one of the first things I did when I moved to the region to help myself connect with other like-minded runners was to actually come out and brave Be brave and turn up to parkrun and it was the North Shore parkrun that I firstly came to and for me it's given me a real sense of connection with other people who have that commonality which is the love of running and on a Saturday morning you know I'm not always here on a Saturday morning but when I do come familiar faces all shapes and sizes, all ages, people with dogs, people with prams and it's just this acceptance and this diversity that I think makes it really encouraging and we're all here to bring the best out and encourage and support each other.
Brendan: And do you find the community here in North Shore supports parkrun in general?
Lisa: Absolutely, I do. I think it's actually grown in my five years, has actually grown to a lovely community that that is accepted, we've sort of got our little, or planted our, not a seed, but planted ourselves in the area and it's just a weekly ritual or it's a, yeah, a time to get together. There were markets here many years ago, but people hang around, have a coffee, support each other, lots of volunteers, gets people involved in volunteering. We get people from other parkruns, because there's a few other parkruns in Townsville, to come out to the area and a lot of people actually comment that this this particular parkrun is because it's a smaller one much more warm and inviting.
Brendan: So there's what three parkruns in Townsville now isn't there?
Lisa: I think four there might be four this is the one you know the northern suburbs so it brings in you know lots of new families and I suppose For us, we're a little bit further out from Townsville, so it sort of brings people from the outer northern suburbs of Townsville together.
Brendan: And coffee culture pretty good here?
Lisa: Oh, you're going to ask me an honest question. That's something that's actually lacking. We do have coffee, and I'm really sorry to the local people. We do need a beautiful coffee place, and I think that would be another drawcard for the North Shore parkrun.
Brendan: It's what we all gauge running on, isn't it? It's the coffee.
Lisa: Yep, that's what brings you together. And tea. Black tea.
Brendan: Beautiful. Thank you very much for your time today. Thanks.
Roving report Tracey Wood — Chermside
Tracey Wood: Good morning parkrunners it's Tracey in a Tutu checking in from Chermside parkrun this morning where I was getting my volunteering vest on this week to be Tail Walker. Now for those that have not done this role before this is the person whose job it is to be the last finisher. Sometimes RDs also ask you to pick up equipment or signage along the way so without further ado I give you Tracey's top 10 of tail walking number one you're not out of breath and are able to cheer people on as you walk two it is perfectly acceptable to stroll the course three stopping to admire bird life or scenery is definitely acceptable number four chatting along the way with other walkers is just compulsory number five, had a big Friday night but don't want to miss out on parkrun Don't walk. Number six, you can take your tea or coffee with you. Number seven, you still get a parkrun finish. Number eight, you also get a volunteer point. Number nine, runners think you're awesome. Number ten, you feel awesome for helping out. Now, can I give a special shout-out to M. Scullery of Shellharbour, who recorded her 200th volunteer milestone recently, to Sam Schroder, who has been doing some volunteerism while her knee heals, Linda Ripper, who celebrated her 50th volunteer at Sandgate, and Sally at Highfields, who became a legend with 100 volleys. Well done. Now, it's enough from me. It's time for some tea. Until next time, toodles!
Roving report Ingrid Botha — Dolls Point
Ingrid Botha: So g'day everyone, my name's Ingrid Bothra and I'm down here at Dolls Point. Very excited because this is the relaunch after the COVID pause and it's quite a turnout, quite an early turnout. We've got about 10 minutes to go and the place is just buzzing. I'm standing here with Sincerity and Pat, two of my favourite people from parkrun. They're laughing, but it's true.
[laughter]
Pat: The other thousand as well.
Ingrid Botha: Yeah, I do love the other thousand as well. That's true. So I just wanted to ask you guys, how have you coped with the absence from Dolls Point? Have you been to other parkruns? How are you feeling?
Pat: Should I go past? No, I haven't been to other parkruns, but I've coped really well because I've discovered I love running. And I've just run at least three or four times a week since parkruns stopped. And I just love it. Oh, you're going to be hard to beat. No, I'm getting slower. Much, much slower.
Ingrid Botha: And Sincerity, I know I've seen you when we've been doing a bit of the touristing.
Sincerity: Yes, I've joined other parkruns, made newer friends, bragged about this parkrun, and now we're back.
Ingrid Botha: It is definitely the prettiest parkrun in Sydney. I've got Jasmine here. Jasmine is doing finish tokens today. How do you feel about being back at Dolls Point?
Jasmine: It feels good because I'm familiar with this one and it's really beautiful here.
Ingrid Botha: Yeah, it is. And would you rather still be in bed though? Yes.
Melissa Ellis: And thank you to Brendan at North Shore and Tracey at Chermside and Ingrid from Dolls Point coming with some roving reports for us, Ollie.
Oliver Spake: Yes, and you, Mel, of course.
Melissa Ellis: Yes, thank you.
Oliver Spake: But it was great. It was great to hear Brendan travelling around Queensland a bit further, part of the dynamic duo, giving us another report there. And I really enjoyed catching Tracey on the V-side there.
Melissa Ellis: Yes, with some tips for tail walking.
Oliver Spake: Yes, yes. And look, absolutely agree 100% with each of those. Tail Walkers are awesome. It's hands down the most popular volunteer role I've seen.
Melissa Ellis: I don't mind a bit of tail walking myself.
Oliver Spake: And so nice to hear from Ingrid and getting to be a part of the fun back at the Dolls Point relaunch. Unfortunately, we couldn't quite get all the audio, Mel.
Melissa Ellis: No, we couldn't, but I've used all my powers, Ollie, to be able to give you a bit of a rundown on the three reports that Ingrid submitted that we unfortunately weren't able to use today. We heard from Wayne. Wayne was tail walking at Dolls Point with a woman who has done 258 parkruns. That was Helen Rubin.
Oliver Spake: Fantastic.
Melissa Ellis: Yes. And during the pause, Wayne was not parkrunning and being a tourist. While he waited for Dolls Point's restart, he did Cooks River, Panania, Kamay and Cronulla.
Oliver Spake: Very nice, yeah.
Melissa Ellis: Yes, and then we heard from or Ingrid spoke to Carys celebrating a recent 80th birthday with a parkrun at Dolls Point, her second visit to Dolls Point, but she's done 54 tourist runs in total with a total parkruns of 289. Not too shabby, Ollie.
Oliver Spake: That's phenomenal. Happy birthday and well done, Carys.
Melissa Ellis: Definitely must be on John's list.
Oliver Spake: Yes, yes, I think so.
Melissa Ellis: And then Ingrid also spoke to Darren. Darren, who is a tourist doing his first Dolls Point and only needs to do one more event at Whalan to become a rayfarer. He loved Dolls Point along the water. He said it was beautiful and flat and liked that he could see the planes taking off in the distance.
Oliver Spake: Yeah. And look, thank you so much, Ingrid, for capturing that and glad that we could at least share a bit of that. It sounds like there were some very glad parkrunners, but some very high achieving parkrunners in terms of all of these wonderful adventures and numbers of different runs that everyone's completed there. And, of course, Mel, only realising tonight that, yeah, Darren, I've seen Darren's travels now for some time and his reflections on his travels during COVID, during lockdown. So great to see everyone getting out there and supporting the Dolls Point crew.
Melissa Ellis: Well, you know what it's managed to successfully do, Ollie? It's managed to successfully make me put Dolls Point high up on my list of events to visit when I am next in Sydney.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, highly recommend it. It is a lovely course there and... I would say it would be one of the faster courses except that I think it's nicely entwined with a popular spot and the community there. So you probably get a bit of everything in terms of getting amongst it but also getting a nice track there. Yeah, you'll enjoy it.
Melissa Ellis: Actually, that's one thing they didn't say. Is it an out and back? It is an out and back. Maybe they did say it and I didn't listen.
Oliver Spake: Look, it sounds like there was a lot of excitement, so they could be forgiven if they didn't say, that's for sure. But it is, by and large, an out and back. Well, no, I think it is almost exactly an out and back. There's a little bit where, as you can tell from me describing it right now, on the longest run, I got very confused. And unfortunately, I was at the front of the pack at that point, so everyone else got confused behind me. Yeah, when I did the run on parkrun Day, absolutely loved it.
Melissa Ellis: Oh, you've done Doll's Point.
Oliver Spake: I've done Doll's Point, yeah, yeah, early 2020. And, yeah, beautiful warm summer's morning, run through the park, then onto the path and you could practically be on the beach and there's usually a bit of sand on the path there and you're heading along the shore of Botany Bay there where you can pretty much see the airport and you can see The Entrance to Botany Bay. turn around and return. But yeah, lovely community there. Great spot.
Melissa Ellis: Wow. Congratulations for your return, Dolls Point. We're very happy that you have become the, is that the final event for Australia to return? I think maybe.
Oliver Spake: Didn't check my facts, but one of, can we say one of?
Melissa Ellis: If only we had an informant.
Oliver Spake: We need to check in with HR. What we do have, though, Mel, is a lot of company once again.
Dazza's
Oliver Spake: Dazza's was cracking.
Melissa Ellis: It was indeed, Ollie. It was another very busy morning, which was great to see.
Oliver Spake: It was, yeah. Thank you, everyone, of course, for sharing your experiences. Good to hear from you all. And first up, we heard from Adrian Hillyer with the C number four at Central Lakes parkrun, coffee at Caboolture Bowl and Mini Golf.
Melissa Ellis: Yes, and Greg Garner, out west visiting family and also completing St George parkrun for the first time, so makes number 18 different events I've now attended.
Oliver Spake: Nice work. A few people ticking over some challenges here. Errol Poole chasing a Wilson index number at Horseshoe Bay Reserve, followed by breakfast at the Heritage Beachside Cafe.
Melissa Ellis: It did look nice at Horseshoe Bay. Yeah. And Tracey Wood, morning team. I was so busy chatting, taking photos at Chermside that I forgot to get one of myself. Anyway, it's tea time for Tracey, so toodles.
Oliver Spake: Be forgiven for sure, Tracey. And Alison King, all of the above. Current goal is Countryman. So this was in response to our question, of course, Mel.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah, we probably should mention what that was.
Oliver Spake: Context, yeah. So I jumped straight into it. But we did ask this week that being that we are by name all adventurers, what is your parkrun MO? Are you a Windexer, chasing pirates, that is bingo numbers, or an Alphabeteer? Or like Mel, does your spirit yearn for new events in faraway places? So, Alison, yes, yes, well and truly you are all of the above. Well done. Current goal is countrymen with a Windex filling when I can. But today I ran it home to celebrate the launch of my new book, was a glorious morning at Puarenga. And we should mention that, shouldn't we, Mel?
Melissa Ellis: We should. Congratulations, Alison, on the timely release of your new book.
Oliver Spake: We've ordered our copies. And for anyone that is yet to... yet to spot it or yet to order a copy but wants to hear more about the beautiful parkruns of New Zealand, jump onto our page and you can find your way through. But keep a lookout for Alison's unofficial parkrun guide for New Zealand.
Melissa Ellis: Yes, I think we should put the link to Alison's book in the comments of the podcast post, Ollie. Good idea. Can you remind me?
Oliver Spake: Noted. They'll put that right next to the budgie reminder.
Melissa Ellis: Oh, don't forget the budgies. They're out on the deck.
Oliver Spake: Good grief.
Tracey Wood: All right.
Melissa Ellis: And Claire Stutchbury pasta for breakfast after event number 81 at Kedron, a PB for our time in Queensland before some birthday shenanigans. And I did clarify with Claire whose birthday it was, and it was Jack's. So happy birthday, Jack.
Oliver Spake: Happy birthday, Jack, and congratulations on the QLDPB. Pasta for breakfast? Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: I'm not sure about that one. Breakfast of champions.
Unidentified speaker: Oh.
Oliver Spake: And we heard from Caro, Caro Vos, Wilson Index Chaser today in Scone, Bill Rose Sports Complex parkrun. And Caro there with a scone at Scone.
Melissa Ellis: That's not half a mouthful, is it?
Oliver Spake: A bit too big a bite for me there. But nice work, Caro.
Melissa Ellis: And Bec Bailey, sunny morning for my half tonne at Shellharbour. Nice to see all the local faces again and even a chat with Ollie before he took off up Cardiac Climb. Good luck tomorrow.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, time relativity there. Of course, that was parkrun day. But, yeah, it was nice to run with Bec. And she also took up Cardiac Climb. But, yes. We heard also from Bernadette Bennett, Newy returning to its original starting spot. It's like being welcomed home. That's good to hear. Good to hear the Newy team back in their spot there.
Melissa Ellis: It is. And I did question Bernadette as to what was the reason for the change. And it's a post-COVID thing due to the necessity for social distancing and needing more space. That's why Newy returned to their original start point. And Chris Fraser. Okay, this is a long one, so I've got to get ready. Lots of trauma today. Left wallet and phone at theatre last night. Had to spend all my small change on fuel to get me to parkrun this morning. No course photos, no money left for baked goods. Oh, dear Lord. However, Casula Parklands, my 271st parkrun, 269th officially recorded at my 127th location, my 14th C, so now I'm a Pirate Club times two. It was my Missing Sydney event, so I'm back as a Rayfarer. It was event number 13, so my Wilson Index jumps two points. It moves my NENDY Interstate back to Willow, three kilometres closer than Leighton, 12th finisher, which I have done three times before. I finished with a time of 28.01, so a 2021 bingo number, and happens to be the same time as my first run back from COVID last year. It is, however, just two seconds off a post-COVID PB, which hurts. Hashtag run for stats. Oh, that was hard. Thanks, Chris.
Oliver Spake: Chris Fraser in short demonstrating that he is one of everyone of the description in our question. And well done, Chris. I was just in the process as we were going through double checking that Chris did have a second R and, yes, have been able to confirm that. I don't think there was much doubt given the number of events, but double pirate.
Melissa Ellis: Can't we trip him up on something?
Oliver Spake: I don't think so. I don't think so. But, look, sorry to hear about the lack of baked goods.
Melissa Ellis: Yes. Oh, well, it's his own fault.
Oliver Spake: Someone that was maybe a little more happy there was Ingrid Botha, who we heard from before. I was thrilled to not be touristing today with the return of Dolls Point. 169 walkers, joggers and runners today. My other half said he saw me beaming with a huge smile while we were watching the run briefing. Home at last.
Melissa Ellis: Oh, good to hear. Yes. And Erica Liotta, back to SS Koopa Trail parkrun today as photographer. Nabbed a 16 for my Wilson Index as I walked the course while taking happy snaps of the other 19 parkrunners that braved the rain. Topped it off with the Mega Coffee at the Bribie RSL afterwards with the RD and other volleys and... It looks like scones for Erica too.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, well learnt. The weather looked crazy up there. I saw some video footage there from the Sunshine Coast and, yeah, quite a lot of rain there. So well done for finishing and for volunteering in those conditions. She's a champ. Yep. And we heard from Andrew Turner. A trip to Jells for my J today. I enjoyed the beautiful hilly two-lapper in Verdant Parkland and scored a surprise first finish. A special shout-out to the second-place runner, Dee Dee, who let me know when I made the wrong choice of path towards the end of the first lap. Good support there.
Melissa Ellis: It is. And well done. Val Warwick, Steve and I volunteered at Railton today and being Marshall, my V index has increased to six this morning. We started in mist but the sun burned that off on this glorious Tasmanian autumn day, still and sunny. Yeah, lovely.
[23 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]
Oliver Spake: And we heard from Bruce Purdy, a 66.67% Territory statesman with a visit to Darwin parkrun and then the Lime Cafe for a lime milkshake when in Rome. Lime Cafe, Northern Territory, Darwin City Waterfront there. Yes.
Melissa Ellis: I was green with envy. Sam Schroder, barcode scanning and fangirl gushing at Shellharbour for me. Thanks, Ollie, for being just as lovely in real life as you are on the pod waves. My family had a ball on the ridiculously beautiful Shellharbour course, which was an ideal PB condition today. Oh, you got some fans there, Ollie.
Oliver Spake: Oh, look, it flows both ways. It was wonderful to meet Sam, as I've said before, and to chat with her and Luke there who was finishing parkrun number 49. So big parkrun coming for him.
Unidentified speaker: Ooh.
Oliver Spake: Yes. And, look, worth mentioning, Sam did come to Shellharbour on Picton's birthday. So I did feel a bit guilty about that. Thanks, Sam. Mm-hmm. And we heard from Cameron Drake back at parkrun, volunteering after a brief break. And I must say the coffee tastes better than ever. Wishing the park fam good luck at Margs and Light Horse this weekend. Go you good things. And that was referenced, thanks to the clarification, to the Margaret River Ultra and Light Horse Ultra, mad distances run by mad people. Yeah, I've since Googled some of those pictures. Looks amazing.
Melissa Ellis: And Tony O'Connell. It was sunny at Inverloch as expected. Coffee and berry cheesecake after at Paul's was good as well. And TOC's referring to Paul the Pieman's.
Oliver Spake: Sally Heppleston, there's no place like home. Kidsport meant I had to stay close to home today, but I ran my fastest time at Westerfolds in years. 25.37. Well done, Sal. Two seconds off getting my final bingo number, 35, but I really don't know if I could have gone faster today. Lovely morning. Coffee consumed at home alone, but no complaints. Hope an adventure is possible next week.
Melissa Ellis: Oh, my gosh. Supercell is just going amazing at the moment.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, I think you can certainly feel comfortable not chasing that bingo number. Well done, Sal.
Melissa Ellis: Melanie Rabi joined the 100 Club last weekend. I've done the Alphabet and Staying Alive Club. One more C to go and I'll be a pirate.
Oliver Spake: Oh, nice. That's a healthy collection. Melanie, nice work. And Janet Llewellyn-Reed took a two-hour drive to Australia's smallest parkrun, Meningie. Good coffee and an 8 out of 10 sausage roll. Oh, and did I mention a beautiful community and amazing core volleys?
Melissa Ellis: It is pretty amazing at Meningie. I can attest to that as I've been there. And the sausage rolls, they're gaining momentum.
Oliver Spake: They sure are. Good choice, Janet.
Melissa Ellis: Parth Bomber Canty at Ovens River Trail parkrun this morning with a bunch of fellow States people. Brunch at Cafe Fez and found this shop behind and alongside the cafe. Must be Dazza's dad. And there's a photo of Buddha. If you're looking for knickknacks to redecorate your house, this is the place to go browsing for ideas and items. Enjoyed coffee and a halloumi and mushroom on bread and relish dish.
Oliver Spake: Hit the spot. That sounds quite nice.
Melissa Ellis: Just to elaborate on the cafe fez. Yes. It was a Middle Eastern themed cafe and behind the cafe, it was like the TARDIS, Ollie. It had a shop with all this... I guess, again, Middle Eastern type of bric-a-brac and it just went on and on and you walked through and there was another room and then you walked through there and there was another room and then you walked outside and then there was another place. My gosh, it went on forever. Amazing. Best place. Sorry, that's it.
Oliver Spake: No. Well, did you wind up bringing Dazza's dad home, by the way?
Melissa Ellis: I was very – do you know what I found? I digress, but I found a wooden spiral staircase that I really, really wanted. I didn't have anywhere for it, but it was just in the middle of this place. It was amazing. I really wanted it. Exactly.
Oliver Spake: No spare need for a staircase then. Oh, that's a shame.
Melissa Ellis: I think I could build a house around it though.
Oliver Spake: You're not kidding when you say they really do have everything in there.
Melissa Ellis: Yes. Uh-huh. Yeah, it was like it could have just come out of the Titanic or something. It was just in the middle of this place. It was a spiral staircase, a timber one. Amazing. Oh, right. Oh, well.
Oliver Spake: Oh, right. Oh, well. Yeah. And we also heard from Dawn Branton. Visited Stockton parkrun in Newcastle this weekend and what a fabulous parkrun it is with water views all the way. You can even arrive by ferry. Special shout out to the awesome team who managed to find and return my hotel key I dropped somewhere on the course.
Melissa Ellis: Oh, Dawn.
Oliver Spake: That's good support. We're glad you had that support.
Melissa Ellis: Oh, my word. I'm glad she found it.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, and there's one for the Transit to parkrun collection.
Melissa Ellis: Yes, yes. And lastly, Ollie, Robin Shallard, I can't wait to sample such goodies once I am a resident. Well, that's great, Robin, a resident of which parkrun? Who wants to guess?
Oliver Spake: Yeah, I'm intrigued. I'm intrigued. I'm going to be reviewing all the cafe posts now to try and work this one out.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah, it's like join the dots, isn't it?
Oliver Spake: Yeah, yep. But thank you, Robin, and thank you, everyone. Another good parkrun day.
Melissa Ellis: It definitely is.
Oliver Spake: Yes. Look, Mel, I know that we've had a few goings on with HR and whatnot, but I do believe we have a stats report. So should we listen to that? Is that right? We received one, didn't we, Mel?
Melissa Ellis: I believe so, Ollie.
Oliver Spake: Okay.
Melissa Ellis: Let's see what we've got.
the Informant
"the agency casual": This is the agency casual. The informant is on unpaid leave this week while he gets his issues sorted out with HR. I don't know what's going on there. Best not to ask too many questions. Unlike the informant, my stats are always right. If they're not, then send me an email so I can politely ignore it. This week, Australia saw 394 parkrun events, with 39,956 runners, down 1,465 on last week, with an average time of 33 minutes, 17 seconds.
[15 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]
Unidentified speaker: Runners, down 226, with an average time of 31 minutes and 49 seconds.
"the agency casual": Australia has 10 new 250 shirts, Tony McDonald, Margaret Johnson, Jessica Lawrence, Angela Walsh, Lisa Linson, Glenn Vallis, Helen Dowling, Rolf Coulson, Jake Robinson, and John Keogh, females in Australia were Abigail Graham, 15 to 17 age group, running a new PB in 17 minutes, 23 seconds. Danielle Graham, 11 to 14 age group, also run 25 to 29 age group also running a new PB in 18 minutes and seven seconds top three fastest males in Australia were Kieran Perkins or 25 to 29 age group running a new PB in 14 minutes 21 seconds Brandon Ford 15 to 17 age group 14 minutes 51 seconds and Adrian McLean 30 to 34 age group 16 minutes and 5 seconds the top three fastest females in New Zealand were Bella earl in the 15 to 17 age group 18 minutes and 4 seconds Charlie miller in the 35-39 age group running 18 minutes and 22 seconds. The top three fastest males in New Zealand were Paul Martelletti, 40-44 age group, 15 minutes, 21 seconds. Jacob Priddy, 20-24 age group, running 15 minutes and 48 seconds. Nick Moore, 45 to 49 age group running 16 minutes and 18 seconds. The top three largest events in Australia were New Farm with 438 runners up by 21 from 417 last week. Albert Melbourne with 430 runners up 65 from 365 and The Ponds 401 runners up 11 from 390.
Unidentified speaker: The top three
[14 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]
"the agency casual": Being an agency casual, that's all the stats I'm going to give you. If you want more stats, then I guess that's too bad. If you suffer with insomnia, then re-listen to this segment and I'm sure you'll be sorted.
[17 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]
"the agency casual": With any luck, the informant will be back next week and I can get back to my normal life.
Melissa Ellis: And we heard from the agency casual, Ollie. Yeah, so that was interesting.
Oliver Spake: Yes, yes. Well, it's nice to hear a report. And thank you to our agency casual for stepping up and stepping in. Look, yeah, I'll check my emails. I'm sure HR's had something to update us, but I don't know, Mel. Can we keep it casual for a while just in case or what do you think?
Melissa Ellis: I think that we need the casual on standby because we just don't know when the informant's going to return, if he's going to return. Yeah.
Oliver Spake: Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: Goodness. So being that we don't know, if anybody out there has any particular stats they would like the agency casual to cover, please let us know. We can put it to him. He doesn't sound overly interested in working too hard, probably because he's on a pretty meagre rate, but we can do our best to try to see what we can get.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, the parkrun adventurers budget isn't the same as it was back in the days of the Netflix deal, huh?
Melissa Ellis: Definitely not.
Oliver Spake: Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: Definitely not.
BINGOE
Melissa Ellis: However, we did come by a random stat, Ollie.
Unidentified speaker: Yes.
Melissa Ellis: That we should share with the public. They may be interested to know this stat.
Oliver Spake: Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: Would you like to let everybody know?
Oliver Spake: Maybe just to keep the mystery, can I give you a five-letter clue?
Melissa Ellis: Does it start with B?
Oliver Spake: B, yep. I-N-G-O.
Melissa Ellis: No, I think wouldn't it have to be six-letter because it's got to have an E on the end? Oh, whoops, yeah. Jeez, Ollie.
Oliver Spake: B-I-N-G-O-E.
Melissa Ellis: Especially due to the subject of the B-I-N-G-O-E. That's right.
Oliver Spake: Big congratulations to the subject of the BINGOE, achieving a stopwatch bingo at this parkrun day just gone.
Melissa Ellis: That's right, Mr Scott Trickett.
Oliver Spake: Yes. Scotty. Yes. Congratulations. Proving that it can happen without forward planning.
Melissa Ellis: Do you recall how many events it took him to achieve it? I am madly scrolling through my Facebook messages.
Oliver Spake: I do recall. Yeah. So look, it makes me feel a bit better for not having gotten my stopwatch bingo. I'm still six off, but Scotty has managed it in what was reported as 324 parkruns. That's a lot of efforts. Well done.
Melissa Ellis: I'm still waiting to get mine too. And I am not quite at 300. So I have hope that it's not too far away.
Oliver Spake: No, it's coming. It's coming. So, yeah, clearly Scotty's got to find himself another challenge now.
Melissa Ellis: That's true. Okay, we'll get our spies onto that and see if we can't figure out what he's going to get onto next.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah. Oh, well. We'll take suggestions there as well in any feedback. So if you've got questions for the agency casual, suggestions to, well, we can't put them to Scotty, but we can spy and guess and try and back up your suggestions.
Melissa Ellis: We'll just tag him. We'll just tag him in everything.
Oliver Spake: We'll be the support crew no one asked for.
Melissa Ellis: I like it. It's a good plan.
Sign-off
Oliver Spake: Excellent. Yes. Of course, if you've got any of that or if you'd like to get in touch, say g'day. As always, you can contact us via our Facebook or on our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. But, Mel, I suppose there's another parkrun Day coming. There's another weekend, a special weekend. Have you got plans for your next parkrun Day?
Melissa Ellis: Yes, I do. It's Mother's Day weekend, Ollie.
Oliver Spake: Yes. Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: So I am heading east again to be out in the general vicinity of my kids so that I can do a parkrun and visit with them at the same time. I'm going to take my grand doggy to parkrun again. I can't wait.
Oliver Spake: Excellent.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah, Dustin's coming with me to parkrun. I think we'll revisit Cascades on Clyde. So Michelle Mullins, if you're listening, you're probably not, but if you are, coming to see you again. And yeah, that should be fun. What about you, Ollie? I think there's some multiple celebrations happening in your household.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, I mean, so much we had to start early Sunday, just gone after the marathon with Zali's birthday party. But, yes, yes, it's double birthdays on Saturday, so I'll have to squeeze a parkrun in between getting up and presents for Zali and then a parkrun with mum for her birthday, assuming she feels like coming up and parkrunning, but she's the one that suggested it. So take that as a big yes. Then we're off to a winery. So, yeah, it'll be a pretty good day, I think.
Melissa Ellis: Now, is Zali and Galen, is their birthdays actually the same day?
Oliver Spake: Yes, yes, that's right.
Melissa Ellis: Wow, that's cool, sharing a birthday with Nana.
Oliver Spake: Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: And is it Saturday?
Oliver Spake: That is Saturday, yes, the 8th of May. parkrun birthdays. parkrun birthdays. See, I don't think I could quite convince Zali to come on out, but she's got dancing anyway, so we'll have to, yeah, we'll have to spare her. But, yeah, looking forward to it.
Melissa Ellis: But Galen's potentially coming to Shellharbour? Yeah.
Oliver Spake: She will be at Shellharbour. That's right.
Melissa Ellis: Right. So call out to everybody near and far who wants to come down to Shellharbour Park to celebrate. Happy 70th birthday to Galen.
Oliver Spake: That's right. Yeah, and then Mother's Day. So we look forward to Mother's Day. Always a nice day.
Melissa Ellis: Fabulous. Well, I hope that you have a lovely time and happy Mother's Day to Galen and Kathy.
Oliver Spake: Thank you. And to you, Mel. Thanks. All right. Well, look, I suppose that's it for another week, Mel. So we'll see you and we'll see you all next week for more adventures.
Unidentified speaker: Ollie, I didn't run today. I got to be a Marshal and I got to be the warm-up helper, so I helped mum and I told her what order we drew them in. And the thing I liked about being the Marshal, I had to do number two. Well, the thing I liked was cheering on people. I hope you had a good time. on your marathon. Bye!