Episode 236 - Snot Logs & A-Listers

Welcome

00:00:22Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 236 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Melissa Ellis and I'm joined by my co-host who's quite partial to a bit of Eurovision, Ollie Spake.

00:00:38Oliver Spake: Hey Mel, how's it going?

00:00:40Melissa Ellis: I'm good. How was your Eurovision weekend?

00:00:43Oliver Spake: I won't lie, we have well and truly soaked in Eurovision week in this household. I'm pretty sure we're easily in double digits for the number of times we've heard each of the songs.

00:00:56Melissa Ellis: Really? Yes. I've never listened to Eurovision or watched it. I'm clueless.

00:01:02Oliver Spake: Well, look, to each their own, I suppose. I wasn't brought up on Eurovision. There's certainly some roots to Europe in the family and in my wife's family, but it's actually been something that's been quite recent. So, yeah, I can't claim it's a heritage thing. It's just, it struck a chord.

00:01:19Melissa Ellis: And would you like to tell the listeners why I chose to use that as my introduction? What would I have seen, Ollie?

00:01:28Oliver Spake: Yes, so yesterday being a time of recording on a Monday night, yesterday being Eurovision final day, we had a Eurovision party to celebrate the Eurovision final and naturally it was fancy dress.

00:01:41Melissa Ellis: Oh, you're one of those families.

00:01:46Oliver Spake: Yes. Yes. So it was me dressed up in a terrible attempt at a costume, but nonetheless, I was always entrance. Ticks.

00:01:57Melissa Ellis: It was what? Hang on. Rewind.

00:02:00Oliver Spake: Yes. So we each dressed in approximate... I suppose, costumes. Some of us were representations of contestants this year. Others were more general themes. And so I actually did dress up as one of the contestants being the Norwegian contestant this year.

00:02:17Melissa Ellis: Okay. You did look, as a couple, you and Cathy, you looked smashing, I must say.

00:02:24Oliver Spake: Look, she totally pulled off the front woman from the Ukrainian outfit. She did. Which we've dubbed their entrance. If you listen to it, you may not get quite the reason why it resonated with us, but the kids have dubbed it the parkrun song.

00:02:39Melissa Ellis: Really?

00:02:40Oliver Spake: Yes. So let's just say it's a rather upbeat in tempo electronica song. cross folk song that gets faster as you listen. And part of their display was to have a whole heap of people running on the screen in the background. They were just figures, but nonetheless, kids loved it. And yep, it's the parkrun song.

00:03:05Melissa Ellis: I think we'll have to share a photo of the dress-ups on our post.

00:03:09Oliver Spake: Oh dear.

00:03:12Melissa Ellis: But anyway, tell us about your parkrun day.

00:03:16Oliver Spake: Yeah, so parkrun day was a little bit more normal. We stayed local this week, we being mum and I this week, and I did have grand plans to go off and adventure and share in some of the parkrun experiences, but Home was calling. It was a busy week, so it was nice to spend it back at one of my favourite parkruns. And fortunate because we had a couple of visitors and it was great to get the chance to meet a few visitors, actually get to speak to them, to do one of my favourite roles, to wrap up volunteer week being a Barcode Scanner. And look, special mention to, well, a couple of the guests, but one of our visitors drove all the way up from Victoria.

00:03:58Melissa Ellis: What? Oh, I know, I know, I know, I know.

00:04:02Oliver Spake: Yes. You had Robin. We had Robin. You did.

00:04:08Melissa Ellis: I saw his name.

00:04:09Oliver Spake: Robin reached out, oh, you know, a week in advance and just checked if we could help him jump into barcode scanning after he completed the course, certainly adding to his tally on the most events list there, some impressive standings.

00:04:23Melissa Ellis: Is he a listener, Ollie?

00:04:26Oliver Spake: You know, I spoke with Robin for the best part of the two hours on parkrun morning. Didn't get to ask him that question. But I will be asking him and I will be checking in because he certainly shared a love of volunteering and it was fantastic to have him finish the course and jump into the barcode scanning ranks. It was good company. And, yeah, look, other guests as well. What I was really impressed by was we had a first timer who lives less than an hour away and she was dressed in a tutu and a Christmassy penguin jumper with a penguin headpiece.

00:05:05Melissa Ellis: I saw the photo of these penguins.

00:05:08Oliver Spake: Yes. And so she was one of the penguin sisters for her first ever parkrun, which was just brilliant. Like just talk about starting at the right point. And she had two friends that had travelled up. So the ED from Jubilee Way parkrun, Debbie there, or co-ED, I should say, and fellow parkrunner and volunteer down that way, Karen, who was celebrating a 50. So, yeah, got the chance to meet them in person and see them fly around the course, proving that penguins do fly.

00:05:36Melissa Ellis: They looked really good. I was very impressed.

00:05:40Oliver Spake: It was spectacular.

00:05:41Melissa Ellis: I had a little bit of costume envy. Yeah.

00:05:43Oliver Spake: Yeah. Look, they certainly dressed up well and all smiles. So, yeah, pretty confident that our local member of the Penguin Sisters might be hooked on parkruns. So, we hope to see her again.

00:05:56Melissa Ellis: Oh, good. Yeah.

00:05:58Oliver Spake: But a lovely parkrun day. Fairly quiet one, but good fun. Maybe yours was a little more eventful, Mel? It was, let me tell you.

00:06:07Melissa Ellis: I went to event number 145, which I did not need, of Dolls Point parkrun. Dolls Point launched on the 17th of June in 2017 and it averages 112 finishes. The weather was perfect and I ran my fastest time this year and a post-COVID five kilometre PB.

00:06:32Oliver Spake: That's fantastic. Well done, Mel.

00:06:34Melissa Ellis: Yay, I'm on the comeback.

00:06:37Oliver Spake: That's got to feel good.

00:06:38Melissa Ellis: It did. Yes, I'm happy with that. My midweek training is starting to show in my parkrun times. So I ran alongside 134 other runners. It was an overnight trip for me after I secured cheap flights in a Jetstar sale, which incidentally were both cancelled and replaced with Qantas flights. Sorry. Nothing like, you know, that last minute Friday night flight cancellation to send you into a tiz.

00:07:07Oliver Spake: Oh, good recovery there.

00:07:09Melissa Ellis: It was. Yeah, I was quite chuffed to get onto Qantas because it meant that I got free refreshments and charged my phone and free Wi-Fi. So...

00:07:18Oliver Spake: Look, that was pretty fortunate. My understanding was that there were quite a lot of flight disruptions. Yes. On the eve of parkrun Day just gone.

00:07:25Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I was lucky, wasn't I? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I was lucky. So anyway, I had friends, Helen and Steve, who were also up for a trip to Sydney with whom I shared accommodation and the Uber to parkrun and back. Oh.

00:07:39Unidentified speaker: Mm-hmm.

00:07:40Melissa Ellis: And to offset all the transport, I decided to walk the five odd kilometres each way from the airport to the accommodation, which doubled as getting my minimum step count for the day. So, yay. Well done. Thank you. Now, the stat man, Chris Fraser, drove up from Shellharbour to catch up with me, and he also ran a Dolls Point PB. Yes, well done, Chris. That was a pretty big PB too. It was. I think four odd minutes he took off his time when he ran at Dolls Point previously. Brunch afterwards was at Coffee in the Park and went till well after 11am where, along with Helen and Steve, I enjoyed the company of fellow Victorian tourists Susie and Shane Smedley. And the event team, Ingrid, Walter and Jasmine, Wayne, Pat and Louise. And Ollie, I must apologise to Ingrid for mispronouncing her surname. I have had the habit of saying Botha, but it is actually Botha. I clarified that while I was there.

00:08:39Oliver Spake: I will add my apologies also, Ingrid. I have absolutely done the same thing.

00:08:46Melissa Ellis: So, and I also got to meet a dog the size of Paris.

00:08:51Oliver Spake: Wow.

00:08:52Melissa Ellis: Had a selfie with Paris. Of course. And a photo with Ingrid as well. And the event team were really lovely. It's nice to have extended chat over brunch. And yeah, I was back on a three o'clock flight home that same day.

00:09:06Oliver Spake: real parkrun tourism.

00:09:07Melissa Ellis: Yes and I had a bit of a gap in when my flight arrived because I flew up quite early on Friday morning and then I couldn't check into the accommodation until the afternoon and as I was walking with my suitcase down to the accommodation and I got there an hour earlier. I thought, oh, what am I going to do? And realised I was really close to Centennial Park. So me and my suitcase went on an extra bit of a walk. I ended up a 10K walk because I walked down to find the start point of Centennial Park.

00:09:37Oliver Spake: Oh, and you found it, of course. Mm-hmm. What did you think?

00:09:41Melissa Ellis: Yes, I think I've worn the wheels off my little suitcase. I think I've got slicks now.

00:09:47Oliver Spake: You stopped at the start. You didn't take on the course also.

00:09:50Melissa Ellis: No, no, I didn't. I thought by the time I'd done that, I had done enough kilometres on my feet for the day, needed to save my feet for parkrun. So I just went down just to get the lay of the land for the next time I come back. I was doing my homework.

00:10:05Oliver Spake: Scouting.

00:10:05Melissa Ellis: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

00:10:07Oliver Spake: Well, good to see you had some Shellharbour representation there. I apologise. I'll have to catch you at the next visit. Have we set a date for your next visit to New South Wales, Mel?

00:10:16Melissa Ellis: No, no, no. I'll just wait for the cheap flights to come up again and grab an opportunity when I can. Excellent. Maybe after my birthday. I've been asking for Jetstar vouchers for my birthday. I've done that the last few years.

00:10:30Oliver Spake: Yeah, that'd be a good idea. I've tried to hint the same thing.

00:10:34Melissa Ellis: Yeah, because they all add up every little bit. No, great.

00:10:37Oliver Spake: And obviously good to be back at the Dolls Point parkrun. Still only a few weeks into its return.

00:10:43Melissa Ellis: Yes. And I haven't explained the course because I did speak to Ingrid. I recorded some audio with her, which we'll hear later. And she does give a little bit of a course description there.

00:10:54Oliver Spake: Oh, okay. All right.

00:10:55Melissa Ellis: But we did have lovely weather, so it was quite nice, quite nice morning, wasn't too chilly. And we wore our tutus. We remembered when I packed my tutu in the suitcase.

00:11:06Oliver Spake: Yeah, there was quite a bit of tutuing around parkrun this weekend, wasn't there?

00:11:10Melissa Ellis: There was indeed.

00:11:11Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:11:11Melissa Ellis: Yes, for the 22nd. Do they do that in other countries? Is this an Australian thing?

00:11:18Oliver Spake: We will have to hear. If anyone can give us some context, do you tutu? Okay. If you are indeed listening in another country. So...

00:11:26Melissa Ellis: Pippa, Christine, Rachel, we're talking to you. Alison, do they do that in New Zealand?

00:11:32Oliver Spake: Surely.

parkrun news bulletin

00:11:32Oliver Spake: Love to hear.

00:11:33Melissa Ellis: But, Ollie, there was not so good news last Friday. Yeah. With the press release with the delay of UK parkrun's return. So shall I read the press release?

00:11:46Oliver Spake: Yeah, go ahead, Mel. Yes, please. Okay.

00:11:49Melissa Ellis: So this was last Friday, the 21st of May. Today, parkrun UK has announced that it has been forced to delay the planned reopening of 5K events in England on Saturday 5 June. Although more than 250 events do have landowner permission to return, this falls far short of the critical mass needed to prevent overwhelming those that have been given the go-ahead. With more than 3 million registered parkrunners across England and around 300,000 people taking part on a typical weekend, opening a small subset of parkruns is not viable. In ongoing discussions where landowners were withholding permission, parkrun organisers sought clarification on whether permission would be granted for a later date. With a number of landowners responding positively, parkrun UK will now target Saturday 26 June to resume all 5k events across England. A decision will be made regarding the go-ahead for this new date on Friday 11 June.

00:12:48Oliver Spake: Certainly as part of that press release, we also heard from Nick Pearson, the parkrun Global CEO, who said we'll continue to work hard with landowners over the coming weeks to secure the permissions needed to return at the end of June. We are incredibly grateful to all of the landowners who have granted events permission to return so far and for the groundswell of support for parkrun over recent days. Although it is disappointing not to be able to return on 5th of June, we are still optimistic that we can return parkrun events to nearly 600 communities across England very soon. We will do everything we can to ensure events restart on 26th of June. The three-week delay comes as many permission requests got caught up in unnecessary red tape and lengthy internal bureaucracy at a local level, despite widespread support nationally from the UK government, MPs on both sides of Parliament, DCMS and Sport England, and amidst the changing lockdown landscape across the UK that this week saw the reopening of pubs, restaurants and other indoor hospitality. Many high-profile supporters joined the rallying cry for the inclusive physical activity community events to resume without any further delays. Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has called on London Borough Councils and other landowners to join him in supporting the return of parkrun as the City Hall team stand ready to work with London Councils, the parkrun team and volunteer organisers to make this a reality. Permissions must increase significantly between now and the new targeted restart, parkrun has had legal permission to return from March as part of step one of the government's roadmap out of lockdown. Operating under a government-approved COVID-19 framework and with significant success restarting the Junior 2K event series, as well as the vital need for people to be active and social outdoors, the time is now right for the return of Saturday morning's 5K events.

00:14:50Melissa Ellis: Yeah, so we feel for our friends over in England. It would have been really tough. I think they knew that this was the likely outcome, Ollie. They knew that they didn't have enough of the permissions to restart on the 5th of June. But even so, it's just the goalposts being moved. That's going to be tough for them to deal with. And we're thinking of them all and confident that this will now go ahead. with the support that they've been receiving. I saw, is it Sir Sebastian Coe?

00:15:21Oliver Spake: That's right. Some great support there. And it's been really positive to see a lot of the dialogue. There's obviously a huge amount of effort going into it. And as disappointing news as that is, I think it's certainly laid a pretty solid foundation for parkrun to start on the 26th.

00:15:40Melissa Ellis: And I have heard, I think on more than one occasion, the reference that Tom Williams, I don't know if it was Tom or Nick Pearson, one of them had said, Pausing parkrun was the easy part. The hard part was going to be bringing it back.

00:15:58Oliver Spake: I honestly can't remember which of the two may have said that, but certainly have heard some of the comments and shout out to the other fantastic parkrun podcasts out there sharing the news and updates that some of you may well be listeners of as well.

00:16:12Melissa Ellis: But the good news, Ollie, was last Saturday in the USA, 10 events were able to come back. They were Bear Creek Greenbelt, Himmel, Lilly, Livonia, Durham.

00:16:27Oliver Spake: NC, which I'm assuming is North Carolina, but I'd have to do my research.

00:16:30Melissa Ellis: Charleston, Depot Park, Egan, Roosevelt Island and Fletcher's Cove. And also parkrun has announced that returning on the 29th of June will be 30 of the 221 events in South Africa. Then on the 12th of June, Poland will be coming back, followed by on the 19th of June, Denmark. So it's slowly happening.

00:16:56Oliver Spake: Yeah, it's wonderful to see. We look forward to seeing more pictures online of people getting back and enjoying their parkruns. That's it. Speaking of people enjoying their parkruns, Mel, you gave us a preview before.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:17:08Oliver Spake: Is it time to listen to the roving reports and hear more of your travels?

00:17:12Melissa Ellis: Yes, let's have a listen.

00:17:13[14 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Roving report Melissa Ellis — Dolls Point parkrun

00:17:27Melissa Ellis: Good morning parkrun adventurers. It's Melissa coming to you from the very lovely and very sunny Dolls Point parkrun in New South Wales. And I'm here with today's Run Director and a voice that you may know from the podcast, Ingrid Botha. Good morning. Hey Mel, how are you? I'm good, thank you.

00:17:46Ingrid Botha: Thank you for a lovely parkrun morning. Yeah, we do our best here at Dolls Point. It's always beautiful though. How many did you have here today? I haven't seen the numbers, but it would have been about 130, I think. And that's pretty standard for Dolls Point? Yes. And would you like to describe the course, please? Yeah, it's an out-and-back course. We start on grass and then we head out on a fairly flat path, out for about 2.3km, turn around, come back, and then there's a nice little dogleg, just before the end, and then you come back across the grass. Now, the great thing is that you get to see everybody. Because it's an out-and-back, you get to see everybody at least once. And then on the dogleg, you get to see the people who are closest to you. So you start to eye up who's going to be your secret parkrun nemesis, how they're going, and it's really good to see the people. I think you forgot one fact, Ingrid. What do you run alongside of?

00:18:38Melissa Ellis: Oh, yes, there is the beautiful Botany Bay as well. Okay, it is and it's very picturesque and touted to be the prettiest parkrun in the Sydney area I had heard that and uh yeah I think I might give you that one just quietly yeah I hear we have stiff competition from mossman but I haven't been there yet to compare see Moss see the thing with mossman is they've got that lovely yacht harbor so yeah that is a feature there at mossman

00:19:05Ingrid Botha: Yeah, true. I'll bring my yacht down and it'll be even. Okay, so what about the history of Dolls Point? Yeah, so the area is fairly recently settled, I guess, compared to some of the other parts of Sydney. So we are standing on Bidjigal land. The original name for Botany Bay was Gamay. And so we're on that land. In terms of the more recent settlement, it is fairly recent, about 1930s. There's a lot of 1930s homes around. Apparently it's because this area was reasonably swampy, but you wouldn't see that now. It's quite a beautiful area. Yep, and you've got pretty good facilities.

00:19:43Melissa Ellis: Everything is in the general area. You've got parking, you've got a great toilet block that's got a lovely mural on it. Yes.

00:19:51Ingrid Botha: There's shelters everywhere and the cafe's right on the doorstep. Yes, and we've actually got two cafes quite close to us as well, which is quite good if it is very busy. So, yeah, it's lovely.

00:20:01Melissa Ellis: And a very strong community feeling by the feeling of the brunch area.

00:20:05Ingrid Botha: Yeah, we are building up our volunteer corps and getting a few more Run Directors involved, which is great because many hands make light work. But a huge shout out to Trish Bell. She has just been the backbone of this place for so long. And for yourself, Ingrid, we know your name.

00:20:22Melissa Ellis: You contribute regularly to the posts on social media, which is wonderful. We see your name pop up with our friends with me now as well.

00:20:32Ingrid Botha: So what's your parkrun background? Well, I would not be running if it wasn't for parkrun. So I started running because of a work challenge. They had a charity gig at work, and I thought I'll go and run and see if I enjoy running because my memories of running at school were not great. And it's true, I still don't like running, but I love everything around it. So somebody who was doing the charity gig with us said, hey, there's this thing called parkrun you might want to check out. And at the time, Dolls Point hadn't started, so I went and did St Peter's and went, oh, wow, this is just like... It's just amazing. It's just a pop-up event. It's so fantastic. It's a flash mob. And then I was coming down for a Saturday run and I saw all these people running. I said, oh, what's that? And they said parkrun. I went, oh, there's a local parkrun. And that was event four for Dolls Point. And I've been fairly regular ever since. And you like to tourist a little bit. You told me you've got 18 different events. Yeah, just when I'm going places, I'll make sure that I can pick up the local parkrun. So we went down to Albury to visit my sister. So I went and did Willow one week and Albury the next week. So it was really lovely. That's right. You just missed the... Oh, the corellas.

00:21:42Melissa Ellis: My goodness. You just missed the sky whales. Yes, I did just miss the sky whales. I'm determined to track them down. I've got it in my diary. They're going to be in Victoria in November, I think. Fantastic. Anyway, okay, so let's wait for the corellas to disperse a bit.

00:22:02Ingrid Botha: Have you got, not including your home parkrun, your top three? Yeah, I thought you might ask that question. So I had to think about that. Without a doubt, Futako-Tamagawa in Japan would be my most memorable. It happened to be my 50th and that was just a surreal experience. It was fantastic. My second one would be Broken Hill. So I went and did the original course there and that was just, it was my first trail run and it is so pretty in a different way to here. This landscape is so wonderful. And then the third one is controversial, Menai. So Menai has this bridge in the middle and it's a two lap course and it feels like a putt-putt golf course. You've got this obstacle in the middle and I love it. I've heard people say they don't love it, but I think it's fantastic.

00:22:50Melissa Ellis: I do love courses that are unique, that have something that you don't see anywhere else.

00:22:56Ingrid Botha: That's definitely it.

00:22:57Melissa Ellis: Oh, excellent. And we've got Paris with us today. I had a photo with Paris.

00:23:01Ingrid Botha: That was a bit exciting. Yeah, she was the rough director today. Rough, rough. That's good. She does do the course, doesn't she? She has. She will get carried for part of it. She's done Cooks River and she did very nicely at Cooks River, but she's been walked a few times here and she does a little bit of a run. What breed is she? She's a Maltese Shih Tzu Poodle. Wow. Okay. Yeah. So, yeah, she does pretty well for a little dog, but... It can affect your parkrun time having to carry a dog the size of Paris. Fair enough.

00:23:37Melissa Ellis: All right. Well, thank you very much for talking to me and thank you for having me at your lovely parkrun. I'm so glad you got to enjoy it. Thanks, Ingrid.

The V-side

Roving report Tracey Wood — Sandgate

00:23:47Tracey Wood: Okay, this is Tracey in a Tutu calling in from super sunny Sandgate this morning. I'm getting my volunteer vest on because I'm with the Achilles group this morning. And with me is Geordie. And Geordie, it's Geordie's first time at Sandgate. How'd you go Geordie?

00:24:02Geordie: I did okay for a slow walker. Yeah, awesome. I like to volunteer more than I like to walk. Do you? Awesome. What sort of jobs do you like volunteering as? Um, marshalling all the tail or helping with the, um, handing out the barcodes. Yeah, yeah. It's fun. Awesome. And what's your home parkrun, Geordie? Uh, South Bank. South Bank, right.

00:24:22Tracey Wood: And do you usually go there with someone?

00:24:24Geordie: Um, usually with a guide, um, or I walk Barbara's dog sometimes or I just volunteer.

00:24:31Tracey Wood: Oh, yes. Barbara didn't bring her dog this morning. I've heard Gem likes a lovely walk along the path. Yes. And who do you usually have to guide you? Kyra. Kyra. And who guided you this morning?

00:24:42Geordie: Robert. Robert. How did he go? Really good. Yeah? Him and Sue just walked by me with me and we were chatting and I got to pat some puppy dogs. Oh, well, that's just awesome. And did he do a good job? He didn't push you into the water? No, he's an excellent guide. Really, really thorough with how to guide and knows how to move you from obstacles.

00:25:03Tracey Wood: So I appreciate it. Yes, because Sandgate is right next to the water. So we are close to the edge here. So I do worry about ending up in the water here. Same. No worries about that. And no worries with pedestrians on the path because it is quite busy here. I was pretty much near the tail, so I was good.

00:25:20Geordie: I had no one in my way.

00:25:22Tracey Wood: Yeah, okay. All right. Well, nice chatting with you today. You too. Thank you, Tracey. Have a lovely weekend. You too. Okay, and now I'm chatting with Robert. He was actually guiding Geordie this morning. Robert, how long have you been guiding people?

00:25:36Robert: I've been guiding for about 18 months or two years or so. I started because I saw Achilles people running in a summer event at the Sydney Half Marathon. And then my mother also, or the family, has a history of macular degeneration. And so who knows, I might need a guide sometime in the future.

00:25:54Tracey Wood: And what does it take to become a guide? Can you just turn up and just say, yes, I'll do this?

00:26:00Robert: Yeah, well, guiding is, everyone thinks it's difficult, but it's not that difficult. It's all a matter of communication with your VI runner, and they're often the best educators. And it's all a matter of taking it easy with your new and working out what the VI commands they want to hear and what they're used to. Like a lot of VIs will, you know, if it's a new guide, they'll take it easy and, you know, explain to you their requirements, which side you walk on, when to tell them to lift their feet, etc.

00:26:30Tracey Wood: And Robert, have you been out to Sandgate before?

00:26:33Robert: Yes, I've done Sandgate a few times, both running by myself, but I also, there's another Geordie who often prefers to run here or be guided at Sandgate, so I often come and bring her here and guide her here.

00:26:46Tracey Wood: How did you like it this morning? It's a beautiful day up by the bay.

00:26:49Robert: Yeah, it's a beautiful course when there's not a cloud in the sky and the weather's really nice. It's not a nice course when the wind's blowing and it's wet.

00:26:59Tracey Wood: And where do you usually run it, Robert?

00:27:02Robert: I normally run it, do parkrun at Kedron because there's a couple of VI runners there who, you know, Stephen and Kieran who are always prefer Kedron because it's nice and flat and with good paths and that. And so it's not my closest parkrun to where I live, which is Chermside, but I do that. But when I'm not guiding, I also try to do a bit of parkrun tourism. And I've got two letters of my alphabet left. But next weekend at Kedron, one of the VI runners, Kieran, he's doing his 100th parkrun. So if anyone's listening and wants to turn up to Kedron and cheer Kieran along, more than welcome to come.

00:27:40Tracey Wood: Oh, that sounds awesome. Happy 100th, Kieran. That sounds great. Okay, well, thank you for chatting with us, Robert. You have a lovely weekend.

00:27:48Robert: I certainly will. I've got a 50k run to do tomorrow. Good work.

Roving report Tracey Wood — Kedron

00:27:54Tracey Wood: Good morning, parkrunners. It's Tracey in a Tutu again. And through the magic of radio, I'm now here at Kedron to congratulate Kieran on his milestone. We've just finished a parkrun this morning and we've gone up for morning tea to celebrate the event. And I'm chatting with Darlene, who's a guide here as well. Good morning, Darlene. Good morning, Tracy. Good morning, everybody. Darlene, you've been guiding some of the athletes here for a little while.

00:28:22Darlene: How long have you been doing that? I think it's been about three years now. I've been guiding vision impaired runners and walkers. And how did you get into that?

00:28:29Tracey Wood: How did you become involved?

00:28:31Darlene: I don't know. To be really honest, it was just something I had wanted to do because I felt that, you know, we had the freedom of running and I wanted to be able to share that with somebody else. Hmm. And then I was just lucky enough to come across Achilles was coming down here to Kedron with the hearing impaired people. And then I saw the vision impaired people and just got involved.

00:28:51Tracey Wood: And is there a particular athlete that you guide or do you just put your hand up and say, yeah, I'm available, whoever's interested?

00:28:59Darlene: I tend to come to Kedron every week. And at Kedron, we have two athletes who come every week as well, Stephen and Kieran. So, you know, we tend to guide those two gentlemen.

00:29:11Tracey Wood: Have you guided anyone else at other locations? Yes, I have. I'm a young lady by the name of Isabel.

00:29:16Darlene: We've done the jetty to jetty before. And I've walked with Henry before. So, yeah, there's a few people that I've had the opportunity to meet.

00:29:25Tracey Wood: And can I ask, what questions do you usually ask an athlete before you start guiding them? I imagine they would have their preferences on how they would like to be guided. Would that be right?

00:29:37Darlene: Yeah, I think one of the important things is to know what they need from me, how much direction they need from me, as in things to look out for, things Because some people do have a little bit of vision themselves. Also, whether we use a tether or some people are guided by the straps. Yes. What side they like to stand on as well.

00:30:01Tracey Wood: Yes. Yeah. Okay. That's great. All right. Well, thank you for chatting with me this morning. We're not short on food, that's for sure. So I'll let you go enjoy your morning tea and thank you for chatting with me. Wonderful. Thank you very much. Okay, and now I've got the man of the moment, Kieran here. Now, Kieran's celebrating his 100th parkrun here at Kedron. Kieran, mate, how are you? Really good, thanks. I got a PB today and I did 42 minutes. 42 minutes, that's fantastic. And do you usually run here at Kedron, Kieran? Yeah, Kedron's my... running spot, yeah. And what do you think of the course here? Do you find it easy to run along here or is there another location that you like? Yeah, no, here's the really good jam. Now it looks like you've got a great cake here that's I think people are keen to cut and get into. So I'll let you get back onto the cake and enjoy your morning tea. You have a good day and congratulations again. Thanks very much for coming along. And, you know, it's really, really nice, really, really encouraging, everybody supporting me today. It's a pleasure to be here. Kieran, you have a good day. Talk to you another time. Well, there you have it. That's the lowdown on being a VI Guide at parkrun. If you're interested in guiding, you can chat to one of the Achilles people here in Queensland at either Kedron, Southbank or New Farm parkruns. There's also an Achilles chapter in Victoria. Or chat to your local parkrun. As it's National Volunteer Week, I'd like to give a big shout out to every single person who put their hand up to help out this week. You, my friends, are absolute legends. Well done to everyone who also rocked a tutu on Saturday for Tutu Day. The ladies at Taree were looking especially colourful. And hello to my friend Janet at Lochiel, who was looking particularly pretty in purple. Well, that's all from me. See you on the V-side.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Des Connor Junior parkrun in Ashgrove

00:32:13Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers. It's Lyndell. And I am doing something for the first time today that I've never done. I am at Juniors parkrun. So I'm at Des Connor Junior parkrun in Ashgrove in Brisbane. It's a new Junior parkrun. It's only been going for seven weeks. So here I am about to experience it. I think they're about to do the briefing and the warm-up. So I will check that out and I'll check in with you a bit later. Alrighty, I have found today's Run Director and our Event Director. I've got Gab and Pat. How are you guys going today? Great, it's been a really good turnout on what's the cool of Brisbane morning. It was a bit cool today. Did you think about maybe pretending you didn't have enough volunteers and staying in bed?

00:33:00Pat: No, I've got three kids under six, so it's early mornings for me anyway. So no, always on for me.

00:33:07Lyndell Murray: Always on. And look, our southern friends probably don't think that, you know, 10 degrees or whatever it is, is that cold anyway. But for us, it's freezing.

00:33:16Pat: It certainly is, yeah, yeah.

00:33:18Lyndell Murray: Pretty cold for us here in Queensland, yeah. So three kids under six, is that what drove you to get involved and start parkrun? Hello there, Theo. You've got your barcode. Now, I'll go and get you to see one of the other ladies over there, if that's okay. Okay. I obviously look like I'm important. I'm holding up my phone and the kids already know, only after seven events here at Ashgrove, they know to look for someone with a phone at the end. So you're obviously running a tight ship here, guys.

00:33:49Unidentified speaker: Yeah, we are. Doing our best.

00:33:53Lyndell Murray: Yeah, so small children, is that what inspired you to get involved with Junior parkrun, Pat?

00:33:58Pat: Yeah, I guess so for me, that was a big motivator. Being involved with Ashgrove parkrun, with the 5K event, we just fell in love with parkrun and the community there and we decided that we want that part of our lives, we want our kids to be... Seeing us volunteering, seeing us contributing to the community and the opportunity for kids to have their own race. I think two kilometres is a good distance. So, yeah, my kids were a bit of a motivator. We thought it would be good for them. And, yeah, it was a privilege to be involved.

00:34:33Lyndell Murray: You touched on there wanting your kids to see you being involved in the community. It's, I don't know whether it's international or national, it's Volunteers Day this week. So I guess that's important to both of you, is it, volunteering in your community? Yep.

00:34:49Gab: Yeah, I reckon. Well, I work full time, so I'm limited in what I can do with volunteering at school and stuff, which is why I like to get involved in parkrun. Yep.

00:34:57Lyndell Murray: Yep. Okay, and so what is your parkrun journey more broadly?

00:35:02Gab: So I started, well, ran a few parkruns, one at South Bank and at Main Beach, and then emailed Tim and Gareth and said, how do I get involved? And was basically gifted on a platter. Yeah. It's Mitchie parkrun, which I set up with a few of the people that are here today about eight or nine years ago. So I was involved in the team setting that up. Then I moved to the UK for a couple of years and did parkrun over there and was involved in junior parkrun over there as well. So I knew a bit about how junior parkrun worked. And then coming back here, Pat had set up Ashgrove. So that became my local parkrun and was running there. And Pat said, get involved. You should get involved with the team here, Gab. And I said, sorry, I'm a bit busy. But when the junior one came up, it was a great opportunity for me to get involved. Yeah, fantastic.

00:35:49Lyndell Murray: And Pat, you were involved with the local Ashgrove 5K event as well. So a little bit about your parkrun journey.

00:35:56Pat: I'm a school teacher, so I looked after cross-country when I was a teacher at Marist College Ashgrove. And my local parkrun was Mitchelton back then, and that's where I got to know Gab and a few other people and just loved the model of it and decided we would start one up in Ashgrove. And we did and had a... wonderful team of about yeah of eight people a team of Run Directors and so yeah did that for uh three three and a half years and then um had a year off and then we decided that well because Ashgrove was a is a very family friendly parkrun a lot of families like it's not overly fast because you've got loops like you're on grass and that kind of thing So we get a lot of families that come, prams and that kind of thing as well and we just thought this was the right community to start a junior parkrun because we know the community well and lots of kids and lots of families and here we are now.

00:36:56Lyndell Murray: And what was that process like starting up a junior parkrun?

00:37:00Pat: Yeah, a challenge. Yeah, very much a challenge because just with everyone needing to have their blue cards and that kind of thing and a lot of I's to dot and T's to cross and that kind of thing. But it's been a challenge. But our method has been trying to just build our volunteer bases as big as possible so it can be as least stressful during the week and endeavouring to try to get the roster filled at least in advance, aiming for that. So it can be minimal stress for the event. during the week. So yeah, so far so good. We seem to have a good culture there.

00:37:35Lyndell Murray: That's great. It seems like you have built a really great community of volunteers here. I get your emails all the time.

00:37:41Pat: Thank you.

00:37:42Lyndell Murray: It's first time volunteer and first time at Junior parkrun for me too and it's been a really fabulous event. Really lots of fun.

00:37:48Pat: Thank you. Thank you very much. No, it's a privilege to be involved. And, well, I'm a big believer. If kids can be doing 2K, can be running 2K and they can do that. Because running can be hard. Yes, like it it's like getting them to go like it's building resilience it's building their and like I think when they encounter adversity later in their lives they'll know that they're able to um yeah go to places they didn't know they could go and I think that's what running does and if we're able to get kids running from age six seven eight that kind of thing it's just just really healthy really healthy for kids and That's what I love about it. I love my kids being involved and seeing their friends and other kids helping make kids feel like rock stars. It's good when they come in. I just think it's really healthy.

00:38:40Lyndell Murray: That's a fantastic philosophy. I love that, to just build that resilience as well. Yeah. All right. Well, Pat, thank you so much for everything that you've done here for Junior parkrun, the first Junior parkrun in Brisbane. So that's something to really be proud of. Thank you for all your time and for volunteering this volunteer week. And thanks for talking to me on the podcast. All right, I have tracked her down. It is Connie, who is not only a runner here at Des Connor Park Junior Park, and that is a mouthful, but you've also helped out with the warm-up here as well this morning. Tell me a little bit about that.

00:39:21Connie: Well, every second week I have Tracy who helps me. We do the warm-ups and we plan what we're going to do. But sometimes I don't help as we have other people who also want to do it. But usually I do, and when I do, we do something like star jumps, butt kicks, arm twists, and it just feels like really energised to get for the run, so yeah.

00:39:49Lyndell Murray: Yeah. Is that what you like about it? Getting people energised? Yes.

00:39:52Connie: And seeing the people's faces when Tracy says, kick your own butt, but no one else's.

00:39:59Lyndell Murray: Yeah, she's a wild card, that Tracy, isn't she? All right. And so do you run here as well?

00:40:05Connie: Yes, I do.

00:40:06Lyndell Murray: And have you run every week?

00:40:08Connie: Yes. Well, so far, I've missed one week as I was at Guide camp, but the rest I've all attended to. Yeah.

00:40:16Lyndell Murray: Fantastic. And so what do you like better, the warm-up or the run?

00:40:20Connie: Probably the run. At the end, I feel really energised for my day. Yeah. And today, I think I got my PB because I really pushed myself. Oh, wow. And what did that feel like? It felt really good. I was just running down to the finish line and, yeah...

00:40:38Lyndell Murray: And you just push that little bit more.

00:40:40Connie: I did walk a bit though, but I think next time I can improve that and not walk.

00:40:45Lyndell Murray: Wow, that's good. So you're setting goals and you're improving your running and you're volunteering as well. Is there anything that Junior parkrun doesn't add in your life? I think it's like a five-star rating. Five-star rating? Yes. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for talking to me. And now that you're all energised, I'll let you go and get on with your day. Yes, thank you. Okay, so Ollie and Mel, I've got a repeat offender here. I've found Belinda. Belinda, how are you going? I'm really good, Lyndell. Thank you. Now, last time we met was at Ros Gregor Trail parkrun up in Nanango. Yes. And I'm not going to put you on the spot here. I don't know what number you were up to, but you were in the middle of a challenge, weren't you?

00:41:33Belinda: Yes, I was trying to get to 100 different parkruns in a row without re-repeating one.

00:41:40Lyndell Murray: So how did you go with that?

00:41:42Belinda: That is quite a challenge. I got to about 104 before running out of parkruns within my drivable distance.

00:41:50Lyndell Murray: Yes. All right, 104 in a row is pretty snappy.

00:41:54Belinda: I don't know how many other people have done that. I think there's a couple else on the list at the moment, on the most events list. I did meet one at Nambour when we went up for the listener meet-up. He was on about 114.

00:42:06Lyndell Murray: Yes, yeah, I know who that was. Yes, yes, yes, Michael, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, so tick.

00:42:13Belinda: Yep. Done. Done. What's next, Belinda? I'm trying to increase the volunteer ratio. Yep, okay. So at Juniors today for the first time, volunteering. How's your volunteer ratio going? I think I'm on 17 today, so it's low, but we're climbing.

00:42:31Lyndell Murray: That's it. Look, it's all time in your day. Volunteering is a really great big part of a parkrun. How have you found that change in focus? Have you enjoyed that?

00:42:41Belinda: Yeah, so I've definitely been trying to find some little parkruns around the place that are struggling for volunteers. I volunteered a couple of times at Sarah May recently, which is lovely. The most fabulous volunteer crew there. And this has been really fun today. The little kids are so excited.

00:42:57Lyndell Murray: So excited. What was your role today? Timekeeper.

00:43:00Belinda: Oh, so you got to see them all across the line. Yeah, and go, don't stop, keep going. I just want to say, Mel, it was walking with you at Nambour that encouraged me to sign up and do this today. So thank you, because I was very a bit hesitant coming to Junior parkrun without a small child. And Mel was like, no, we need volunteers. Please do it.

00:43:22Lyndell Murray: I'm the same. I have no children around here. So Junior parkrun needs us as well, Belinda.

00:43:29Belinda: So what's next? Keep volunteering. Hopefully Brisbane has some new events open in the near future that we can keep adventuring. Yeah. All right.

00:43:39Lyndell Murray: Well, thank you for saying g'day to me this morning. It's really nice to catch up. I wish I had have seen you at Nambour. I missed you there. Yeah. But it was nice that you got to spend the time with Mel. Yeah.

00:43:50Belinda: And Ollie. I did walk the last 500 metres with Ollie, so when he came back. Yeah, after he'd done three laps of the course already.

00:43:57Lyndell Murray: And rolled his ankle. Yeah. Well, it's lovely to see you. Thanks for the shout out and hopefully we will meet again. Thank you. And thanks for volunteering here today too. Oh, thank you. Well done for volunteering. All righty, parkrun adventurers, before I sign off, I thought I would just mention that in chatting with Pat offline, just after I interviewed him, he said that maybe he had undersold their event team. He said that there's a couple of them who've been involved in setting up new parkruns, and one of their Run Directors, one of their event team, has actually got an Order of Australia for his services to parkrun, Gareth Saunders. So... Look, a fantastic volunteer team here and they're doing a great job setting it up. First Junior parkrun in Brisbane. So this is Lyndell signing out for the Channel 5 News crew from Des Connor Park Junior parkrun.

00:44:54[16 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:45:10Melissa Ellis: And once again, it was great to chat to Ingrid and get to know a little bit more about her and her history at Dolls Point. And we heard from Tracy, Ollie, telling us about VI guiding. Have you had much to do with VI guiding or have you had VI Guides? I wouldn't think Shellharbour would necessarily be an easy course for a VI Guide.

00:45:34Oliver Spake: Yeah, kudos to the few people that have done the course with a VI Guide and as a VI Guide. To answer your question, I haven't had a lot to do with VI Guides.

00:45:45Melissa Ellis: So one thing that they had at Dolls Point that I thought I should mention was there was somebody signing the run briefing. So there was hearing impaired runners signing.

00:45:55Oliver Spake: A big fan of having someone able to perform Auslan as part of the run brief. Only for periods have we been fortunate enough to have that at Shellharbour, but some fantastic volunteers. And we had one volunteer in particular that used to give us a lot of time to help the community. So we would love to see it across parkruns generally. Even Hannah was learning Auslan there for a while and wants to pick it back up in the hope that she can do it.

00:46:22Melissa Ellis: Yeah, Zoe, when we moved over to this side of town and she started at her new primary school, that was their language that they were learning. Oh, really? Which I thought was fabulous. I was really impressed with that. Rather than doing French or Indonesian or German or any of the traditional languages that primary schools will focus on, their school taught them Auslan. Wow.

00:46:46Oliver Spake: Yeah, really helpful, really practical.

00:46:48Melissa Ellis: I thought so.

00:46:49Oliver Spake: And thanks also to Lyndell for that volunteer-focused report. Continuing on some of the great examples, Mel, from Volunteer Week.

00:46:59Melissa Ellis: Yes, good to hear from the juniors too.

Dazza's

00:47:02Melissa Ellis: Anyway, we had a nice group of people visit us again at the cafe this week at Dazza's, Ollie. And the question this week I posed was to ask people if they were volunteering or maybe getting into the tutu theme for the 22nd. And most people were.

00:47:22Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah, I really feel like I underdid it. No tutu today, but thank you to everyone who did. And great to see some volunteering as well, including our first visitor. So Sam Schroder, astonished myself by handing out 183 tokens without dropping any at North Wollongong parkrun. That's always good. Yeah, great work, Sam.

00:47:44Melissa Ellis: Jodie Maisie. Brendan Peel and I did Cascades on Clyde Wetlands parkrun and lovely breakfast with some lovely parkrunners at Dioro and Co after Virgin cancelled our flight to Canberra. And I think a lot of us saw that happening on Friday night. That was part of Virgin had a big Audi Jolly with their, I don't know, their systems and a lot of cancelled flights.

00:48:07Oliver Spake: Yeah, I know that our penguin visitors only got in at one in the morning in the end.

00:48:12Melissa Ellis: Wow.

00:48:13Oliver Spake: At Shellharbour. So sorry to hear, Jodie and Brendan, that, hey, at least Cascades and Clyde was there and ready for you. But disappointing to miss your flight.

00:48:23Melissa Ellis: Yeah, always wise to have a plan B.

00:48:27Oliver Spake: I'm pretty sure they would always have a plan B up the sleeve. And we also heard from Dawn Branton. Road trip to the lovely Kerang Regional in Northern Victoria. Managed my best finish position ever. And that's number seven.

00:48:41Melissa Ellis: Yay, Dawn. Well done. I'm going to give her a clap. She would have loved that.

00:48:46Oliver Spake: Nice work. That's awesome.

00:48:47Melissa Ellis: And Val Warwick. Steve was Marshall. I was barcode scanning in our tutus. Photo with another tutu wearing Devonportite. Photo taken by Ian Shaw of Wagi Bridge fame. Do you like how I did Wagi Bridge really fast?

00:49:02Oliver Spake: Yeah, that was only two speed.

00:49:05Melissa Ellis: It's so good to welcome visitors and then put them to work.

00:49:09Oliver Spake: And good to see Ian up and about after the UTA efforts. Well done, Ian. Yes. TOC, Tony O'Connell, Queen's Domain Hobart on our Tassie Sunshine Tour. The breakfast after with Leanne and Lee Evans was perfect.

00:49:24Melissa Ellis: and Janet Reid. Tutuing at Lochiel parkrun today. Stunning morning here in South Australia. Superb coffee as usual. Hope everyone has a wonderful parkrun day.

00:49:35Oliver Spake: Mandy Oliver, back to my home parkrun at Surfers Paradise. Beautiful morning for a run.

00:49:40Melissa Ellis: and Caro Vos went to Mount Penang parkrun. They've had another course change and are a multi-lap course now. Beautiful but chilly morning.

00:49:50Oliver Spake: And we had Irene Bommakanti volunteered at Fair Park and ran in my Cookie Monster tutu. Love it, love it. Followed by brunch at The Hatter and The Hare with Hubby and Cheryl who ran at Dandenong. Melissa, your type of cafe, Alice in Wonderland theme. Have you been there, Mel?

00:50:09Melissa Ellis: No, I haven't, but I have looked it up because it's very close to where mum lives. So it looks like a good place to take mum. Might have to look into that.

00:50:18Oliver Spake: Sounds like a plan.

00:50:19Melissa Ellis: And fun fact, Irene's Cookie Monster Tutu has had a previous outing at parkrun. She, I think, created that when Zoe ran at Highlands parkrun, a few years back when she completed all the events to become a junior Victorian statesman.

00:50:36Oliver Spake: Aha. Oh, well, obviously when it comes out for the very special occasions.

00:50:40Melissa Ellis: Yes, special occasion to do.

00:50:42Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:50:43Melissa Ellis: And Mark Scarborough, marvellous Mark, RD at Wagi Bridge parkrun today.

00:50:48Oliver Spake: Cameron Drake decided to take the fur child. Quite a tutu turnout today. That's testing me. Thanks, Cam. No brunch for the wicked. It's back onto the tools next week.

00:50:59Melissa Ellis: He's been missing a few brunches.

00:51:01Oliver Spake: Yeah. Yeah, I hope you're still getting the black coffee to go.

00:51:07Melissa Ellis: Sally Heppleston, super sal, on the tools at Westerfolds, timekeeping, frozen fingers. Yeah. It was a bit chilly at a few events, I think, Ollie. Yeah.

00:51:17Oliver Spake: We're getting into winter season well and truly, aren't we?

00:51:19Melissa Ellis: That's what happens when it gets to winter, I guess.

00:51:22Oliver Spake: I suspect it may be even colder at our next one. Brett Bailey, red tutu at Pegasus, dragged around as usual by Brunner, our bark runner, and then a coffee and a scone at the Flat White. Flat White again, Mel.

00:51:36Melissa Ellis: And more scones. But I need to see a photo of Brunner.

00:51:41Oliver Spake: Yes, we didn't get a photo, did we?

00:51:42Melissa Ellis: No, I don't think so.

00:51:44Oliver Spake: All right. Yes, please, Brett.

00:51:46Melissa Ellis: And Tara Wakefield. Terrific Tara the Tail Walker in a tutu at Warwick parkrun this morning. Well done, Tara.

00:51:54Oliver Spake: Oh, we're really stepping up the alliteration here.

00:51:57Melissa Ellis: I know. Thanks for that.

00:51:58Oliver Spake: You know who would like this?

00:51:59Melissa Ellis: Yeah, Tracy. He's the chihuahua. They come and they go.

00:52:06Oliver Spake: Oh, yes, yes. All the dogs in the house. Now, are the budgies out tonight, by the way, Mel?

00:52:10Melissa Ellis: No, it's too cold. I didn't want to freeze the budgies. Okay.

00:52:14Oliver Spake: No, that's good. They're being quiet, though, so it's okay. They're being well looked after. That's good. And we also had Tanya Bailey. Beautiful morning at Pegasus parkrun in New Zealand. Did tail walk her today.

00:52:25Melissa Ellis: Thank you for volunteering, Tanya.

00:52:27Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:52:28Melissa Ellis: And Tracey Wood got the tutu and the volley vest here at Kedron to congratulate Kieran on his 100th run. And we heard from Kieran in Tracy's report.

00:52:39Oliver Spake: Aaron Hardy, Tail Walker at our park parkrun. Glorious morning.

00:52:44Melissa Ellis: The sun was out in Tassie.

00:52:47Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:52:48Melissa Ellis: Lyndell Murray, volley at home at Bunyaville parkrun. And it looks like Lyndell was on the stopwatch. Oh, no, actually, she wasn't on the stopwatch, was she? She was on the app.

00:52:59Oliver Spake: Ah, yes, yes. The modern technology. Mm-hmm. Bruce Purdy, I travelled a long way to the Fair Park Reserve to see a car park marshal in a tutu, thanks to Irene and her understudy path.

00:53:12Melissa Ellis: He did travel a long way because Bruce is out west.

00:53:15Oliver Spake: Ah, okay. All right.

00:53:16Melissa Ellis: So he made the trek over the West Gate for that one.

00:53:18Oliver Spake: That is a fair hike.

00:53:20Melissa Ellis: Ingrid Botha, Run Director today for the first time post-COVID. Paris was rough director. Gosh, the virtual volunteer app has made life easier. Results processed before we even got to the cafe. Despite my daughter's warning about meeting people from the internet, I had brunch with some excellent people I met on the internet.

00:53:43Oliver Spake: Don't trust those internet people. Oh, good to hear. And Jack, Jack Corkill, the permanent holiday, there's a bit of context from last week, Mel, continues for Claire and I at Glasshouse Mountains Conservation parkrun with location number 83. Way to go. Such is military life. Followed by a snot log for Brekkie, pick for context.

00:54:09Melissa Ellis: We probably, for more context, need to explain a snot log to the listeners that may be overseas. They don't have snot logs overseas.

00:54:19Oliver Spake: I was just going to leave it without context, but you probably was. So it's a vanilla slice, if I know my baked goods. Correct.

00:54:27Melissa Ellis: Also known as a snot block.

00:54:30Oliver Spake: A snot block. I mean, it's certainly more a block shape, I suppose, but

00:54:36Melissa Ellis: Let's not go into the potato cake, potato scallop. Let's not go down that road.

00:54:43Oliver Spake: It's got me planning tomorrow morning's morning tea. So I'm a fan of the snot log, absolutely.

00:54:49Melissa Ellis: Not for this little low-carb runner. I'm next, Rebecca Bailey. I did the first time briefing today and even had a nice run after. Beautiful sunny morning at Shellharbour. Got a double zero for my bingo too. I'm a bit jealous about that. That's the one I'm missing.

00:55:10Oliver Spake: Yeah, Bec, are you teasing Mel?

00:55:13Melissa Ellis: She is, isn't she? And we've got a whole group of Baileys this week.

00:55:17Oliver Spake: Yes, the collective noun for Baileys. I haven't worked that out yet. Is it a pint of Baileys?

00:55:23Melissa Ellis: That was a good one. Cheers.

00:55:24Oliver Spake: Shouldn't it be a shot? A shot of Bailey's. I think it should be a shot. Speaking of a shot of Bailey's, I didn't acknowledge the beautiful photo from Pegasus parkrun just before. I do love the morning light photos, and Tanya Bailey's photo did look spectacular. So I just had to throw that in there. Also wonderful to hear from Pippa White. I celebrated my (not)parkrun with coffee and Lotus Biscoff brownies. Oh, and buying neck tubes.

00:55:53Melissa Ellis: Ah, some ugly buffs heading over to the UK.

00:55:56Oliver Spake: Yeah, Pippa's on the ball. I need to follow suit, Pippa. Good work.

00:56:00Melissa Ellis: And Chantelle Hosking, Highlands for a visit to Bill's Hill, tutu worn. And Chantelle's even referring back to last week's pod where I mentioned Bill's Hill at Highlands, and she provided a photo which, if you zoomed in, you could see the two volleys standing on Bill's Hill. Fantastic. Mm.

00:56:21Oliver Spake: See, that's brilliant context. Thank you for helping. Now I can visualise it. Well, now I don't need to, I suppose.

00:56:27Melissa Ellis: It's not a very big hill, by the way.

00:56:30Oliver Spake: It's all part of the experience. It's all how it feels at the time. And we also heard from Chris Fraser. Met up with an A-list celebrity in a tutu at Dolls Point. Close enough. Saw a couple of sausage dogs, ran a course PB and a post-COVID PB, and congratulations. Finally found a reasonable sausage roll. Not a prize winner, but three and a half stars. Successful day.

00:56:56Melissa Ellis: Yes, and his post did draw a bit of conversation about sausage rolls. Sadly, not much conversation about said A-lister. Well, that's okay. And I saw the sausage dogs too. They were off the course by the time I saw them, so I couldn't go running after them.

00:57:21Oliver Spake: You couldn't introduce yourself.

00:57:23Melissa Ellis: I couldn't. I couldn't find out their names or get their photo because I was head down and on a mission.

00:57:29Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:57:30Melissa Ellis: But, yes, Chris and I both got our course. Well, I didn't get a course PB, but we were both happy with our times. Let's say that.

00:57:37Oliver Spake: Fantastic day. And, look, I mean, to add a three-and-a-half star sausage roll, I think we'd all be happy if we could have a three-and-a-half star day. That's above average, right?

00:57:46Melissa Ellis: I don't know. I don't track these things. Yes, but by all accounts, everybody had fun in the cafe this week. I think so.

00:57:57Oliver Spake: Speaking of having fun, we really did enjoy hearing back from him last week. And once again, happy to hear from him. So Mel, why don't we throw over and have a listen to the informant.

the Informant

00:58:16the 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. Welcome back folks to another riveting week of facts, figures and disclaimers who welcome relief from whatever nonsense Ollie and Mel have been banging on about. At the time of recording, 539 events worldwide had submitted results. Of these, 395 events were in Australia and 33 in New Zealand. We welcome back the USA with 10 events and the rest taking place in Japan, Russia and remote UK territories. No event launches took place. In Australia and New Zealand, all the stats are up, which is pleasing to see. Aussie New Zealand attendance is up around 3,000 to 43,042 runners out of 48,256 worldwide. We had 6,574 PBs, while 1,583 people participated for the first time. 138 juniors reached their Junior 10 milestone.

00:59:10[12 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:59:23the Informant: 189 people reached their 50 milestone, 137 reached their 100 milestone, and 30 people reached their 250 milestone. 22 people called bingo. Lisa Williams was the quickest with 174 events. Liz Manson was the slowest with 313 events. We have eight new Territorians in the ACT, with Mark Shipp, Carmel Horton, Nathan Toscan, Karl Trindorfer, Todd Goldsmith, Robin Shipp, Stuart and Shireen Underwood completing all seven events. Up north Jude Bird and Jason MacDonald completed all three Northern Territory events, while Victoria has two new statespeople in Tim Baldwin, Samuel Esmore. On the most Aussie New Zealand events list, Wendy Pearce, Richard Bilton, Lynette Pritchard, Sarah Gee, Brad Carr, Jack Corkill are the biggest winners, moving up nine places. In the top 20, Errol Poole again moves up one to equal eighth place, running at Maroondula. Oh, crap.

01:00:25[other]

01:00:30Unidentified speaker: Hi. I saw you guys sublime. Open the door. Open the door. That's it, I'm going now.

01:00:47the Informant: Oh, sorry about that. They are rooftop solar panel salesmen. Oh, they're relentless. Right. Yes, where were we? Right. Biggest Wilson mover of the week is Jeff Whiffen, who had a huge jump of 72 from 36 to 108. Yet, the biggest news in World parkrun this week is the return of 10 events in the USA. 561 runners took part over there. Those events attracted 626 in the final run before lockdown, so down approximately 10% pre-COVID. 87 of those who took part were parkrunning for the first time. Two runners would have been delighted to finally reach their 50 and 100 milestones after a 441 day wait. I thought that would have to be some kind of record. However, despite sending the number crunching box into a meltdown, at 2am I discovered that it's not a drop in the ocean. These are world figures. Andrew McKelvey waited a mammoth 2,366 days to get from 49 to 50. Paul Morgan took a similar amount of time, 2,261 days to get from 99 to 100. That's over six years. Crazy. Now, if your computer is already on fire, you might as well keep throwing extra logs on. Have a guess at how long it took for the longest milestones. 50, 100, 250. Here's a little elevator music while you write it down. Right, now before you start sending in hate mail, remember that there are many events held throughout the world on days other than a Saturday. The quickest to 50 are Carol Perez and Katie Bayliss on 322 days. Joanna Henderson was quickest to 100 in 637 days. And Paul Maker was quickest to 250 on 1,659 days. At the other end of the scale, Julie Drummond took 5,562 days to reach her 50 milestone. 15 years! Jan Price took more or less the same time to reach her 100 milestone in 5,460 days. Karen Weir took more or less the same to reach her 250 milestone in 5,502 days. Uncanny coincidences. All women, all 15 years.

01:02:12[music]

01:03:02[12 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

01:03:14the Informant: I'll leave it right there as I'm in enough trouble already to see these stats in full. Visit my blog at theinformant.me. That's the informant, all one word, dot M-E. And follow me on Facebook. This has been The Informant, and my spreadsheet is bigger than yours.

01:03:32Melissa Ellis: And thank you, Informant, for another brilliant stats report.

International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day

01:03:37Melissa Ellis: Now, Ollie, I've ordered my ugly buff. Have you?

01:03:41Oliver Spake: Oh, no. I was canvassing the family at the weekend. Lots of discussion around how many of what or what of what. But yes, there's definitely an order coming from this household.

01:03:52Melissa Ellis: I've got one of everything. So I can matchy-matchy with my previous year's Ugly Christmas Singlets.

01:04:00Oliver Spake: But I mean, I figured that the intent was to always have a non-matching one so that it just adds to the whole presentation. You can go with that. No one seems to be liking that suggestion.

01:04:13Melissa Ellis: There's only one week left.

01:04:15Oliver Spake: Yes, one week left. So everyone, orders close on Thursday the 3rd of June. Order now. I'm going to take my own advice and do that. But yeah, it is just a short window. And the hope is that getting these orders in now gives us plenty of time so that wherever you are, we can all enjoy Ugly Christmas in July.

01:04:36Melissa Ellis: Yes, and they will be in time for International Ugly Christmas in July Day, which is the 24th of July. However, they won't be in time for Longest Run, Ollie, which I'm a little bit sad about because I would like a nice warm noggin for the potential very early mornings. And I do like to get out my Ugly Christmas Singlets because do you do the Longest Run thing where you have a change of wardrobe every single event?

01:05:02Oliver Spake: I'd change halfway through each event too if I could. I love the costume change.

01:05:07Gab: I mean, the car winds up stinking at the end because I'm just throwing the outfits across.

01:05:12Oliver Spake: But yes, yes, always got to have a change of outfit.

01:05:16Melissa Ellis: Well, here's my problem this year. I'm flying to Brisbane and I haven't, because I'm always, you know, one of those very budget conscious. I won't say the word that I will usually describe myself as, but I'm very budget conscious and I don't pay for extra luggage. So I just do my carry on. So I've got seven kilos. How am I going to fit seven changes of active wear into my suitcase? I think I might have to post them up there ahead of time. Yeah. What am I going to do? I didn't think this through. How am I going to fit all the tutus?

01:05:46Oliver Spake: Do you need a bit of a tutu drive? Do we need to put a call out to our Brisbane listeners if you can spare a tutu for Mel?

01:05:54Melissa Ellis: Yes, that would be good, thank you. But, yeah, no, I have thought how much can I actually wear up there? I might have to start weighing all my bags and use the lightest one and wear 10 hats on the plane. Yeah.

01:06:09Oliver Spake: yeah I'm gonna get creative but anyway Ollie are you doing the longest run are you hooking up with Sydney yes that's become the plan and I'm really excited it's been a huge source of joy missed it last year because we um yeah we didn't innovate we didn't do it you know our own version or anything along those lines and yeah really looking forward to getting up there and hopefully seeing a few new parkruns that I haven't visited yet

01:06:34Melissa Ellis: Oh, what's the plan? I don't know. What's their schedule? I don't know. You haven't Googled it.

01:06:40Oliver Spake: Well, I haven't seen it. I mean, I love the suspense and, you know, the team always delight. So I'm sure it's going to be fantastic. But yeah, I'm still intrigued.

01:06:51Melissa Ellis: At least you'll be fit for it after your recent marathon. I'm a little bit concerned how I'm going to get around all seven events this time. I'm secretly hoping that there's enough people that I will be able to have somebody to follow if I'm towards the end of the group and not get lost. Yep.

01:07:11Oliver Spake: Yeah, I think you'll do fine. Hearing a few tales up Happy Hill and your PB at Dolls Point there, your recent PB, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. And I think the experience of the day, it drives you on. It hurts. It hurts later on, but it drives you on.

01:07:30Melissa Ellis: Yes, looking forward to it.

01:07:31Oliver Spake: So you'll get to explore some fantastic new parkruns up north.

01:07:35Melissa Ellis: Hmm.

01:07:36Oliver Spake: So, yes, everyone, if Longest Run is on your wish list and you haven't made a plan, depending where you are, it could be as soon as a fortnight away. It could be a little further. I think they're happening over a series of weeks, Mel, over different locations.

01:07:49Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's true. Yes, here's me thinking that the day that I do it is the be all and end all, but it isn't.

01:07:56Oliver Spake: Love to hear if anyone's trying multiple longest runs. Where are you going? What are you going to try? And, yeah, we look forward to seeing all the pictures.

01:08:03Melissa Ellis: I know the Melbourne events are the same day as the North Brisbane one. I think Sunshine Coast is a different week, isn't it?

01:08:10Oliver Spake: Sunshine Coast, and I believe our friends in Adelaide and maybe in WA as well.

01:08:15Melissa Ellis: Okay. Yeah. We better do some more homework so we've got all this to hand next week when we... Yeah. Is it the 12th of June? No, it'll be the 13th of June. That's likely the first one of the series.

01:08:28Oliver Spake: I believe you're right. Yes.

01:08:30Melissa Ellis: Anyway, North Brisbane, I'm looking forward to coming up there to sample more of your beautiful parkruns.

Sign-off

01:08:37Oliver Spake: And, Mel, I suppose that's almost it for the week. I mean, we have enjoyed hearing more via email, so thank you again to everyone that's written in. Please, of course, if anyone would like to contact us, you can contact us on Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. But, Mel, I think that's it for another week.

01:08:58Melissa Ellis: I think so.

01:08:59Oliver Spake: So we'll see you all next week for more adventures.

01:10:08Unidentified speaker: Mel, I'm at the office. I think he's done something to my swipe card. It's not working. I tried knocking, but he won't let me in. I'm like, dude, I just saw you closing the blinds. Can you, like, call him or something and tell him to open up? He's such a jerk.