Episode 237 - Emma Keer

Acknowledgement of Country

00:00:00Oliver Spake: We would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri, Dharawal and Yuin people, traditional custodians of the lands on which we record this week and also acknowledge the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

00:00:26[music]

00:00:28[24 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:00:52Oliver Spake: Welcome to episode 237 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. I am Ollie Spake and I'm joined by my co-host who's been busy joining in the celebration of parkrun's return in the USA, Melissa Ellis.

00:01:06Melissa Ellis: Hi, Ollie. How exciting is it that all these countries are coming back to parkrun? How are you today?

00:01:11Oliver Spake: I'm well, thanks. How are you, Mel?

00:01:13Melissa Ellis: I am good. And thank you for giving us the Acknowledgement of Country. For those of our listeners that may not have attended an event where there has been an Acknowledgement of Country, an Acknowledgement of Country is a formal statement often spoken at the beginning of a public event that is taking place on land originally inhabited or belonging to Indigenous people. And Ollie, it is National Reconciliation Week in Australia this current week.

00:01:40Oliver Spake: This recording week. Yeah.

00:01:42Melissa Ellis: Yeah. So National Reconciliation Week is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures and achievements and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. So thank you for doing that, Ollie.

00:01:58Oliver Spake: It is something I like and enjoy that many parkruns do, sometimes on special occasions. It's important we all be mindful and share the culture.

00:02:09Melissa Ellis: Now, Ollie, you got an adventure again.

00:02:14Oliver Spake: Yeah, it seems rare as hen's teeth still, but I did get out.

00:02:19Melissa Ellis: So tell us all about it.

00:02:20Oliver Spake: Yeah, so look, parkrun Day just gone. I visited Bowral parkrun, which has been the, for the majority of my parkrun life, it's been my Nendy.

00:02:31Melissa Ellis: Oh.

00:02:32Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:02:32Melissa Ellis: Well, how far away is it? Give us some context.

00:02:35Oliver Spake: Ah, okay. So Bowral itself is situated in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. So it's a really nice, I suppose, quite popular country town, particularly, I should say, for Sydneysiders. It's about... An hour and a half, probably, southwest of Sydney. And the Southern Highlands themselves are an area just sort of beyond the escarpment that sits behind the coastline. And it's an hour's drive from where I live.

00:03:03Melissa Ellis: So an hour south.

00:03:05Oliver Spake: An hour south of Sydney, an hour west of me.

00:03:07Melissa Ellis: Oh, okay.

00:03:09Oliver Spake: Yeah. But to get there, to go up into the Highlands, we head up through the pass. It's a very well-used thoroughfare from the Wollongong area. You know, travel to Canberra, travel to the Highlands, you go up the lovely hairpin bends of Macquarie Pass or one of the other passes. And yeah, I decided I would finally get up there, tick that thing off the to-do list. It's kind of been like, you know, fixing the gate. It's just been on the list for that long. Nothing against Bowral parkrun. I've always wanted to go there and glad I did. Was it a solo trip? Yeah, I'd hoped to corral some of the family into joining me and I did have, you know, fairly healthy consensus heading into the week. But by the time the weekend came, it was kind of whittled down to just being possibly Ava and I. And given the weather forecast, it I just opted to go solo rather than drag her out in the cold.

00:04:05Melissa Ellis: Ah, yes.

00:04:06Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:04:07Melissa Ellis: Very good parenting skills.

00:04:10Oliver Spake: Yeah, she's done one parkrun but with much encouragement and I think it would have been a bit of a bridge too far to expect her to take on a fresh parkrun like that.

00:04:20Melissa Ellis: You've got to get a junior parkrun happening somewhere close by.

00:04:23Oliver Spake: I reckon. Or, you know, get the family in the car and go and enjoy a junior parkrun somewhere. Actually, when I speak to Zali and talk about doing a parkrun because, you know, school holidays is coming up, she asks me, is it going to be a junior parkrun?

00:04:37Melissa Ellis: Oh.

00:04:37Oliver Spake: Because, of course, I've told her about Abby and Abby's her motivation. So, yeah, she just keeps asking me, well, why can't we do a junior parkrun? The distance factor doesn't quite factor for her. So, obviously, I'm just making up excuses.

00:04:52Melissa Ellis: Oh, well, when you do come to Melbourne, you'll be able to tick that off her list as well.

00:04:58Oliver Spake: That's right. But no, look, probably best I didn't take Ava. The parkrun itself, stunning location. I do love nice country parkruns. And I mean, I should give context. Sorry, Mel, I don't know if you've done Bowral parkrun.

00:05:12Melissa Ellis: No.

00:05:13Oliver Spake: The parkrun itself is in just this beautiful green space. It's called Bong Bong Common. And it's basically nice, big, grassy fields across some sort of gently sloping river flats, probably more white space because it was very frosty. The course itself was about 500 metres, maybe a bit less of grassy downhill to start with. And then this wonderful sort of shared concrete pathway through the, you know, amongst the fields there. But it was a massive puddle, which they've had for a few weeks. And they were very, very transparent about, proud of the puddle, dropped the shoe temperature by a couple of degrees and I can only imagine I would have been carrying Ava across that which of course you know she wouldn't have had a result if I did that so that was that was going to be a no-no but yeah there was no avoiding the puddle oh straight through Yep, straight through.

00:06:03Melissa Ellis: With wet runners.

00:06:05Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah, frosty wet runners.

00:06:07Melissa Ellis: And at what point in the run was that? That was just before the turnaround. Okay.

00:06:11Oliver Spake: Past 2Ks, through the puddle, just up the path, turnaround, back through the puddle.

00:06:16Melissa Ellis: Hmm.

00:06:17Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:06:18Melissa Ellis: And what was the crowd like?

00:06:20Oliver Spake: Oh, look, it took... It's a fairly modest parkrun community. The Run Director, Peter, who I met, I got there nice and early just to make sure I wasn't going to get lost. So I got there when Peter was setting up. He told me it was his first gig as Run Director there and he did an awesome job. So well done, Peter. He did explain to me they usually get about 60 parkrunners there in the warmer months but drops to about 40 in winter. We had 55, but that's because there was a wedding party. So they were out there having a parkrun.

00:06:49Melissa Ellis: Brilliant.

00:06:50Oliver Spake: When I looked at the results, there were about one-third of the parkrunners there were first-timers. So maybe the puddle was the attraction. Yeah, so it was nice to get out. Didn't stop for coffee there. Came all the way home for coffee with Hannah and just warmed up there.

International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day

00:07:04Oliver Spake: Oh, and ordered Ugly Buffs.

00:07:07Melissa Ellis: Oh, good. Oh, good, yes. Because by the time we go to air, most likely they will have closed off the orders because they do close this coming Thursday, the 3rd of June. So we hope that you've all ordered and you're ready to be suitably ugly come International Ugly Christmas in July.

00:07:27Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:07:28Melissa Ellis: So you got the family's order together?

00:07:30Oliver Spake: Yep, all sorted.

00:07:31Melissa Ellis: Good work.

00:07:32Oliver Spake: Yeah, we decided on a shared pack so we can mix and match. Yeah, it wasn't going to miss out.

00:07:38Melissa Ellis: Fantastic.

00:07:39Oliver Spake: Yeah, and look, it was a very exciting parkrun weekend, Mel. Yes. Maybe not for some, and I should, I suppose, tamper my comments. I'm being a little harsh, a little bit cold. Sorry.

00:07:52Melissa Ellis: That's not a good segue at all.

00:07:56Oliver Spake: Sorry, Mel.

00:07:57Melissa Ellis: I'm going to get another sound effect to insert.

00:08:01Oliver Spake: This is where Ollie puts his foot in it.

00:08:03Melissa Ellis: Self-destruct sequence. No, that's okay. We can announce, which, you know, everybody in Australia will be currently aware that Victoria is in lockdown again. There were no Victorian events running this last Saturday and, to be honest... It is looking very unlikely this coming Saturday there will be any either.

00:08:25Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:08:25Melissa Ellis: Because we've got a small outbreak to deal with. So while that occurs, we shall live vicariously through everybody else. But, Ollie, this Saturday just gone, what did come back was our seventh country for parkrun to restart in in South Africa. Yeah. Welcome back, South Africa. And in the official channels, they did note that South Africa was going to have 30 events coming back at the time of recording. There were 22 events that had uploaded results. So with a little bit of podcast magic, I have outsourced the list. So here they are.

00:09:14Janet Reid: Hi Olly and Mel, Janet here with the list of the 21 parkruns that returned in South Africa this weekend. Sand River in Virginia, Hoopstad, Mountain Drive, Mogol, Piet Retief, Vredendal, Upington, Ladysmith, Kameeldoring, Loxton, Vryheid, Umfolozi, Leeupoort, Harrismith, Kei Mouth, Ficksburg, Clarens, Bethlehem, Pongola, Jock Trail and Adrenalin Addo. It's really good to welcome them all back into the parkrun family. Hopefully more will be joining again soon. Bye.

00:10:03Melissa Ellis: And thank you very much for helping me out with that, Janet. And actually, Ollie, after I asked Janet to record that, there was one final one announced, which was Cannibals Cave. Do you like how I outsourced those duties, Ollie, to our... We can call her an ambassador.

00:10:19Oliver Spake: She's not a parkrun ambassador, but she's a parkrun spirit ambassador.

00:10:23Melissa Ellis: She's our parkrun adventurer's South African ambassador.

00:10:25Oliver Spake: That's right. Or correspondent. Correspondent, yes. Well, and that's the thing, Mel. We've got such a wide array of unique experiences, parkrun experiences and beyond across our wonderful parkrun adventurer community. It's nice to see some of these talents from everyone. It is. So thank you, Janet.

00:10:44Melissa Ellis: And I have to apologise because last week I actually said that South Africa was coming back on the 29th of June. I did, of course, mean the 29th of May. I wrote it down wrong in the show notes. So that is my mistake. However, we also this last Saturday just gone had a further seven events return in the USA. I can pronounce these ones. The first one was Canyon Rim Trail. That was actually a launch.

00:11:11Oliver Spake: Wow, great work team.

00:11:12Melissa Ellis: So congratulations to them for coming back with event one. Then there was Third Creek Greenway, South Boulder Creek, Northside Beltline, Howard Temin Lakeshore Path, College Park and Clermont Waterfront. So there you go, 17 events back now in the US of A.

00:11:36Oliver Spake: Good to have everyone back.

00:11:38Melissa Ellis: It is. And, Ollie, I had the pleasure of interviewing parkrun social media ambassador and Lillie parkrunner, Emma Keer. So let's have a listen to that now.

00:11:49[15 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Interview Emma Keer — parkrun Communications Ambassador (USA); Lillie parkrun (Ann Arbor, Michigan) parkrunner

00:12:04Melissa Ellis: Welcome to the parkrun adventurers, our very special guest today, Emma Keer. How are you, Emma? I'm doing great. How are you? I'm good, thank you. Now, you are a communications ambassador over in the USA. Is that correct? Yes, that is. And we're speaking to you today because we're excited about the return of parkrun over in America and we wanted to hear a little bit more about it. So firstly, would you like to let us know how you first discovered parkrun?

00:12:35Emma Keer: Yeah, absolutely. So it was back in 2017 and I was still living with my parents and my dad, he's from England, so he was reading a British newspaper and found out about this thing called parkrun. And he was like, okay, what are the odds that there's one in America? At the time, there were seven events, maybe eight. I think the eighth one had just started. And he was like, okay, now what are the odds that there's one within driving distance? And the closest one was a 20-minute drive away. So he said, hey, Emma, let's check this thing out. And we went that Saturday. And we've been hooked ever since. And what event was that? So that was Livonia. It was the, which is also the first one to start in America in June of 2012. So we, five years later, hopped on the parkrun train.

00:13:22Melissa Ellis: So now there is one a little bit closer to you. Is that right?

00:13:26Emma Keer: Yes. So then in the fall of 2018, Lillie parkrun started, which is in Ann Arbor, a college town in Michigan. Um, It was also started by someone from England. She moved over, didn't have a parkrun close enough and thought, why not start one myself? Thus Lillie was born. So yeah, so that one is just, it's about a five minute drive from my apartment, which is really nice to be close.

00:13:52Melissa Ellis: That's fabulous. So for our Australian listeners, Michigan is roughly located northeast of the USA.

00:14:02Emma Keer: Is that right? Yes. It's considered the Midwest, but it's a little bit east.

00:14:08Melissa Ellis: Yep. That's great. Now, I had a little look at your parkrun cred. You are barcode number A3163598. And you have run in three countries. Yes. Was that a focus? Did you just happen to be on holidays or are you enjoying touring around whenever you can?

00:14:30Emma Keer: Both, actually. So my family's from England. So whenever we go visit my grandma... We always time it so that we can be there for at least one Saturday. So I've done three different events in England, including Bushy, which obviously is the mother of all parkruns.

00:14:45Melissa Ellis: The pilgrimage.

00:14:47Emma Keer: Yes. And then so where I live in Michigan is about a 45 minute drive from the Canadian border. So on Canada Day, which is July 1st, that's like Canada's special parkrun. So a couple of friends and I drove to Canada to do one of their events. It was about an hour and a half away. And then just for funsies, one weekend, my dad and I went to another close one just over the border.

00:15:13Melissa Ellis: That's an exciting tourist trip to be able to go for a drive to another country.

00:15:18Emma Keer: Yeah, no, it definitely is. It was my, even living so close, that was my first time actually going to Canada for something other than just like hopping over the border for the fun of it. So it was cool. It was an adventure.

00:15:31Melissa Ellis: And you've done 17 different parkrun events in total. And so a lot of those are around different events in the U.S.?

00:15:38Emma Keer: Yes. Yeah. So 12 of them in the US, all sort of within driving distance. And I say sort of because events are very spread out in America. The closest one besides Livonia is about a two hour drive from us. So driving distance can mean upwards of six hours sometimes if we're really feeling gutsy. Yeah.

00:16:00Melissa Ellis: That can happen over here too in Australia. I know West Australia has long distances between their events. And we look at the UK with a lot of envy with all their very close events.

00:16:12Emma Keer: Yeah. Yeah. From where my grandma lives in the UK, there's four or five parkruns within walking distance from her house. We're very jealous.

00:16:21Melissa Ellis: I guess over time that will happen for us.

00:16:24Emma Keer: Yeah, I hope so here too. We have just under 50 events so far. So we're growing still. We'll make it.

00:16:31Melissa Ellis: Now I believe your husband is the Event Director at Lillie? Yes.

00:16:34Emma Keer: Boyfriend, not husband yet. No, no worries.

00:16:38Melissa Ellis: Um, yeah, so he's, he's one of the Event Directors at Lillie. Okay. I noticed that the US events were suspended on the 12th of March in 2020. How has the Lillie community stayed connected during the pause?

00:16:53Emma Keer: We have done so many virtual things. Um, We started with just weekly Zoom meetings just to like see each other's faces because none of us were seeing anyone else. And we were a very close community to begin with. And then the Zoom calls turned into trivia games. So every Saturday morning, we kind of took it off of like the great big parkrun quiz. So we would do like Lillie-centric trivia about our history, our course, regular parkrunners. Um, and then that fizzled out and then we brought in our own sort of like virtual parkrun structure. So every Saturday morning we would post on Facebook and say, Hey, go do your 5k, however your heart desires. Just tell us about it. Tell us where you did it. Send us a selfie if you'd like. Um, and then after that I would compile like a little unofficial results sheet. Um, as similar as we could get to like the real parkrun thing. So just on a Google sheet and we eventually had badges for like the normal 10, 25, 50 virtual parkruns. We had people from England participating, mostly just our previous Event Director who was still part of the community. A couple of people from Hawaii also who used to parkrun at Lillie. So it was fun to see everyone from different parts of the country that had we wouldn't have even normally been able to see on a normal in-person week to week parkrun. So it was cool to still stay involved that way. And another one of our parkrunners, she conducted like parkrun interviews with all with like, I'd say 20 or 30 of our regular parkrunners asking them how they got involved with parkrun, what their favourite thing about it was, advice they'd have for a new first timer at parkrun. So it was really cool to see how everyone kind of jumped up to be involved, even when things looked a little bit different.

00:18:44Melissa Ellis: That's wonderful. Who was the driver mostly being the communications ambassador? Did you do a lot of that work?

00:18:50Emma Keer: I did. Yes. But it was fun. And I had a lot of help with other like people we have one regular parkrunner Amanda who's amazing with graphic design so she would help us with like getting posts for the weekly events um and especially she's been helpful with our restart getting some graphics up to like remind people of COVID rules and whatnot um and yeah everyone at lily is so dedicated so it was everyone always jumps to help and loves to be involved so it was good

00:19:20Melissa Ellis: It must have been exciting for Lillie to be one of the first 10 events back in America. So that was last weekend, the 22nd of May. You had event number 74. What was the atmosphere like on the morning?

00:19:34Emma Keer: Oh, it was great. It was very humid, very warm and humid, but everyone was so excited to see each other. And there were some people who literally had not seen each other since our last event on March 7th, 2020. So it was really exciting to see each other. People were excited to volunteer and everyone was super respectful. Michigan no longer requires masks outside, but that's a recent development within the last week, I think. So we recommended them and everyone was super on board with that. They respected each other, social distancing, not knowing what other people were comfortable with. And it could not have gone better. It was awesome.

00:20:12Melissa Ellis: Had you used the app previously or was that new for your event team?

00:20:17Emma Keer: Yes, we always use the app. I think the original timers and scanners have been in a cupboard in our apartment for at least the past two and a half years. And they always beep at three minutes to the hour. So we have not used the timers or the scanners in a very long time, but their battery still lasts. But yes, we've been using the app. So that was very familiar to people. Yeah.

00:20:42Melissa Ellis: It must have been emotional for people to come back together after such a long time, regardless of your connection on social media, just to be in person.

00:20:51Emma Keer: It was. Yeah, we had done a handful of in-person events. Last summer, we did a little bit of trail cleanup at Lillie Park to kind of trim branches, clear the mud and put gravel down and stuff. And then occasionally we would meet up for coffee when the weather was nice outside at our usual coffee meetup place. But it was nothing like the actual event. So it was very, very great to see everyone again.

00:21:18Melissa Ellis: And you had no problem getting permission from the landowners for your return?

00:21:23Emma Keer: No, not at all. Our parks department had been emailing us since last summer saying, whenever you're ready to come back, let us know. Like, hey, what's going on? Are you guys coming back soon? So it was very welcome, very easy to get that going.

00:21:37Melissa Ellis: That's fabulous. Did you get much interest in the wider community?

00:21:42Emma Keer: A little bit. We didn't want to advertise it too much to non-parkrun people at the beginning, just because whenever we do that, Ann Arbor is a very active city with lots of runners. So whenever we do advertise it broadly, we kind of get slammed with first timers, which is a great thing normally. But our first week back when we were still trying to work out the kinks and stuff, we didn't want to overwhelm our volunteers. So we kept it a little bit low key, but we still had 15 first timers, which was awesome. And we've started getting the word out a little bit more for the next few weeks. So hopefully we'll continue to have new people.

00:22:17Melissa Ellis: I saw tutus in the photos. So was that for the 22nd? That's the thing over here if a set day falls on the 22nd of the month that we will put tutus on.

00:22:27Emma Keer: Yes. Yeah, that was. Oh, goodness. I told myself I was going to look this up. I forget the original parkrun that we got the idea from. But a couple of years ago, we had been posting about each other on Facebook to wear tutus on the 22nd. And it was just perfect that our restart date was the 22nd and people wear tutus. Um, Back in February of last year, that was the 22nd, we had dogs in tutus. That was our theme for the day. So everyone brought their dogs. Everyone put tutus on their dogs. And that was our parkrun event, our parkrun theme for the day. So we definitely, definitely do tutus over here as well, following in your footsteps.

00:23:09Melissa Ellis: And would you like to describe your course for everybody?

00:23:12Emma Keer: Right. So it's recently changed, actually, because we used to have this amazingly beautiful bridge that spent the better part of the last year underwater. So we have a completely new course. We start the park has a has a couple of soccer fields and then it goes into the woods around a lake, hence the bridge. So we start on the soccer field, do one lap of the soccer fields and then head into the woods. It's three laps through the woods. There is quite a hill, and it's worse now that we have redesigned our course. But you get past it, and then you're good. But it's very pretty. There's beautiful views of the lake. It's a fairly small lake, but still, there's lots of wildlife that live there. And the path is nice. No bears? No bears. Goodness, no. No, we are in southern Michigan. Wildlife means about a million geese and a couple ducks. Yes. No, nothing exciting. Nothing wild. But yeah, there's one main trail that goes around the lake through the woods. And there's lots of other offshoots as well. So the park is great for more than just parkrun. But our course is a three-lap course, which is great because you generally, like if you're a middle runner, you get passed by the fast people and then you can pass the walkers. So you get to see everyone loads of times and you're always... You can always see someone else. So it's nice that you don't just feel like you're alone. You're running or walking with other people, which is nice.

00:24:40Melissa Ellis: Yeah, very social.

00:24:41Emma Keer: Yeah, definitely, definitely. There's a couple people who are just some of those crazy ones who can finish in like sub 19 minutes. And it's always, you kind of judge yourself based on how far you make it before they lap you. And then once they lap you, you're like, all right, it's game time now. But yeah, it's fun.

00:25:00Melissa Ellis: That was one of my first challenges when I first started parkrun. I used to get, it was a two lap course and I used to get lapped by the finishers just as they were going down the finish last 200 metres. And it was my goal to get around my first lap without being lapped.

00:25:15Emma Keer: Yep, definitely. Definitely. The best part about having a three lap course, though, is that literally almost everyone gets lapped. And you pretty much lap a lot of people unless you're the Tail Walker. So it's there isn't I don't know, I guess maybe sometimes being laughed and be like, oh, no, like I'm not going fast enough. But it's not there's like no vibe like that at all. It's all very like you got to see each other. Yeah, friendly. Exactly.

00:25:40Melissa Ellis: So you would have the same the same restrictions as us. No high fiving on course, no spitting extra scanners at the end. Do you have that requirement as well?

00:25:51Emma Keer: Yes, we do. I think they recommend one scanner per 50 people. And we usually get 60 to 70 on an average day. But we're lucky that a couple of our runners who finish before the rush of people around 30 minutes, they always jump in and scan even on a pre-COVID day. So that was not a problem for us to fill our volunteer roster in that respect. But yeah, we're definitely operating under the same COVID framework that the rest of the parkrun world is.

00:26:22Melissa Ellis: So do you know how many other events are coming back this week in America?

00:26:28Emma Keer: Yes, I think it's roughly seven. Based on people who have, like on very unofficial people who have posted on Facebook announcing that they're coming back, I think the number is seven. But I guess by the time this airs, that will have happened. So hopefully seven, fingers crossed.

00:26:44Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:26:45Melissa Ellis: Yeah. I did look it up last week and I can't remember, was it 43 or 47 in total you've got over there?

00:26:51Emma Keer: So we have... 47, but a handful of them have yet to start because their start dates were March and April of last year. So a couple of them, yeah, a couple of them are coming back within the next few weeks. I think one of them is coming back in September. Then a couple more have yet to announce, but I think that's just because of COVID cases and restrictions in their area are preventing that, but they're still like active, ready to come back.

00:27:17Melissa Ellis: Yeah. So obviously you're going to be very involved with Lillie for the immediate future, but do you have plans to get around to any more events anytime soon?

00:27:30Emma Keer: Oh, definitely. I've already been trying to convince my dad and my boyfriend, Adam, who's the Lillie Event Director to drive with me to our closest not yet done parkrun in America. And It's about a six hour drive one way, but we've done it before. It was a little bit of a, not a disaster. It was just exhausting. But now I'm thinking with three people, piece of cake, it's like two hours driving each one way and it'll be great. So there's one down in Kentucky, Joe Creason parkrun. That's about a six hour drive away. And then there's one over in West Virginia, Charleston parkrun. That's also about a six hour drive away. So hopefully we'll get to those this summer. There's two out in Colorado, which has some great mountains and hiking and camping that we had a trip planned last year that we've had to postpone. So hopefully we'll make it this year. But yeah, who knows what the summer will bring? I definitely hope to get to more events.

00:28:28Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I love to create a whole weekend adventure around a new parkrun, usually to places I would never have otherwise visited.

00:28:37Emma Keer: Yeah, definitely same here. There's like two types of tourism, the ones that are within driving distance, which we've kind of exhausted our options. And then there's the ones that are like structuring a whole weekend around it. Like, oh, hey, cousin who I haven't talked to in a couple months, what you doing next week? You want to hang out? Yeah. Yeah, long lost friends from school. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, I know. One of my really good friends from school, he lived just near Durham parkrun in North Carolina. And I had always said that I would go visit him. And it was always like, not right now, but next time, next time, next time. And now he's moved. So he no longer, and there's no longer an excuse to be able to go tourism there for a bit. But hopefully we'll still make it.

00:29:21Melissa Ellis: That's a bit rude.

00:29:23Emma Keer: I know, how dare he move on with his life now.

00:29:27Melissa Ellis: Oh, I love it. That's one of the first things when I reconnect with somebody I haven't spoken to for ages. Oh, where are you living now? Quickly search. What's the closest parkrun to them? Yep. Yeah, definitely. All right. Another thing I thought I would ask you, Emma, is have you got any parkrun stories you might like to share with us?

00:29:48Emma Keer: Yeah, I mean, I'm definitely partial to it. But my favourite story is actually how I met Adam, who is now the Lillie Event Director and my boyfriend. About two and a half years ago, he moved to America from England, had only just started parkrunning, done one or two. And lucky enough, there was one in Ann Arbor where he moved. And our Event Director at the time who started parkrun, she was British. So it was kind of she took him under her wing because they were both in the same field in their jobs. And so this British guy shows up at parkrun. And we started talking just casually because my family is from England. And it was like a cool thing to chat about. And yeah, we became friends. And now the rest is history. So parkrun definitely brought us together in a fun way. And we love to do parkrun tourism together. He's really great at driving through the night. So our 2 a.m. wake-ups to drive somewhere new. He's as crazy as I am and ready to go adventure somewhere. And so then when the founder of Lillie moved back to England, Adam took over as one of the Event Directors. Yeah. So that's how we met. It's fun. I like having that little story. And it's also a great way to tell other people about parkrun because they'll say like, oh, blah, blah, blah. How'd you and Adam meet? And I can say, well, every Saturday morning we do this thing called parkrun. You should come. So yeah, it's cool. It's a fun part of our lives that we can share and we're both equally interested in.

00:31:24Melissa Ellis: That sounds like a perfect match and double the places to stay when you tour to England with all that family.

00:31:31Emma Keer: Oh, exactly. We, yeah, we're, we're hoping to go back at the end of the summer, maybe early winter for some family weddings and stuff. And we're already planning like our trips to see like different sides of the family around where there's a parkrun that we like want to do. So, yep.

00:31:50Melissa Ellis: Excellent. And so what's on the top of the list?

00:31:53Emma Keer: Oh, goodness. So the I think some of the ones within walking distance or running distance from my grandma is just because those are ones that my dad has done that I haven't done. And definitely some friendly competition between us. If he's done one that I haven't, how dare he? No. And then... Honestly, there's so many in England that it's kind of hard to choose. We've both done Bushy, so that one we've checked off our list. We don't have to go back there. But yeah, I think maybe some of the ones that are on the running challenges, the plug-in that you can see, like the Alphabeteers. Yeah, yeah.

00:32:27Melissa Ellis: So the Ponty... whatever they are.

00:32:31Emma Keer: Exactly. The full Ponte or the one where there's like four with that name. One of our friends lives up in Leeds, I believe where one of those is close to it. That was her home run for a bit. Like I'm totally, I might have the wrong one, but I'm tempted to say it's like Pontifract, Pontifract. Could be saying that wrong. So definitely want to do that one. Some of the ones that have like North, South, East, West in the name, because I don't think we have any Wests or Easts in Leeds. America. So we'll probably try to do that one. Yeah. That sounds great.

00:33:04Melissa Ellis: Good planning. And hopefully in the not too distant future, some international travel will be allowed to resume because I also have plans to get over to the UK.

00:33:14Emma Keer: Yeah, we definitely hope so. It's been a while since we've seen family. We're lucky that we're both british citizens so there it'll be a little bit easier to get in because we won't have to go through the like americans travelling sort of thing yep but yeah hopefully we'll be able to get over there do some more tourism and hey maybe one day we'll come to Australia you know yeah you only need one more country to become a world tourist oh is it four to do that yes okay then there's more motivation Yeah, in New Year's Day of 2020, actually, we met a couple of Australians. At College Park parkrun, they did the same second parkrun as us. And we chatted with them at coffee. They're like crazy. They've done, I think, over 100 different events. They've gotten their Alphabeteers and everything. I follow them on Strava. And so while America was still paused and you guys were running, we would see like, oh, Claire and Jack, they did their parkrun this morning. We're so jealous. Oh, no way.

00:34:14Melissa Ellis: Not Claire Stutchbury and Jack Corkill. Yes. Yeah. Oh, they are listeners of the pod. So big shout out to Claire and Jack. Oh, no way.

00:34:24Emma Keer: Hey, how's it going? Yeah. Yeah. We met them at, yeah, doing our New Year's Day double. And yeah, they, like, we thought that we had done a lot of events and then they were like, oh yeah, we've done like a hundred different ones. And I was like, wow, you guys are crazy. So yeah, so that's cool. We, I like seeing their Stravas of the different places that they go and what they do.

00:34:48Melissa Ellis: Ah, they are great tourists and great ambassadors for parkrun.

00:34:52Emma Keer: Yeah. Yeah.

00:34:53Melissa Ellis: Okay. So this is a question that we like to ask a lot of people that we speak to on the podcast, which is not including your home parkrun. Can you give us your top three parkruns that you've experienced?

00:35:07Emma Keer: Okay. So I would definitely have to say Livonia parkrun, just because that's where I started parkrunning. That's where my dad parkruns every week. So I have lots of reasons to go. It's about 30 minutes away. So Livonia is definitely one of my favourites. The people there are great. The course is great. I'd say also St. Albans parkrun in England. I know that's not America, but still one of my favourites because that's just around the corner from my grandma's house. So that's where I always parkrun if I'm there and don't have someone to drive me to another event. And that one's really nice. It's a couple laps around a lake through a park. An old Roman wall is there. It's really nice.

00:35:44Melissa Ellis: Oh, wow.

00:35:45Emma Keer: Yeah. And then... I guess I'd say Eagan parkrun. So a little bit, not one of the most well-known ones in America, but it's in Minnesota, which is kind of like Michigan, just a little bit West. And it's, I went there November, a couple of years ago. It was so snowy, so cold. And the first 30 minutes, I was like, what am I doing here? I'm not talking to anyone. I'm just going to run and go home. Then when I finished, a couple of volunteers came up and were like, hi, who are you? And they were so friendly, so lovely. They drove me to coffee. We chatted. And it was just exactly what parkrun is all about, just meeting people that you never would normally interact with in life that are just... you guys have the same very strange interest of running a 5K every Saturday morning for fun. So that one was really cool. Just the people were great and awesome. Yeah.

00:36:34Melissa Ellis: I love it how that translates all across the world.

00:36:37Emma Keer: Yeah. Oh, definitely. That's what we love about parkrun. I mean, obviously everyone does. No matter where you are, you have the same thing in common and it's a little bit Crazy, dare I say, to just run a 5k every Saturday. People like my friends who don't know about parkrun think it's the strangest thing ever, mostly just because it's, it's not very well known in America. I think like, I usually have to explain it to people. And they're like, Wait, what do you mean? Just you run every Saturday. So It's like this cult. Exactly, exactly. When Lillie came back this past weekend, a couple of our parkrunners were posting on Facebook and they're like, we promise it's not a cult. We just really love these people.

00:37:17Melissa Ellis: And you've ran in snow. Was it snowing, you said?

00:37:20Emma Keer: Yes, it was. It was snowing. And there are a couple of parts of the They had to kind of change the course a little bit to like divert you off the path when it was icy. So you'd go through the snow on the grass. And that's a very regular occurrence in the Midwest. So we're used to it. We're used to neat, not neat, like calf deep snow sometimes for a parkrun.

00:37:40Melissa Ellis: That's probably one of the things I'd really like to do, have the opportunity to run in the snow. We don't really have any events that are always snowy here. There's a couple of events that have occasionally snowed, had snowfall, but it definitely wouldn't be heavy snow on the ground.

00:37:57Emma Keer: Oh, okay.

00:37:58Melissa Ellis: Yeah, that would be an experience. Like the USA, Russia, wherever. Canada, I guess they would have snow, would they?

00:38:07Emma Keer: Yeah, Canada definitely gets more snow than us. They're pretty much covered throughout the winter. Yeah.

00:38:12Melissa Ellis: Wow.

00:38:13Emma Keer: Yeah, our course is beautiful when it snows.

00:38:16Melissa Ellis: Oh, so you get it at Lillie as well?

00:38:19Emma Keer: Oh, 100%. Yes, definitely. We... I'd say it's mostly snowy from end of December to early March. Sometimes even April we'll have snow.

00:38:28Melissa Ellis: Wow. Is it harder to get the volunteers in that time of year?

00:38:32Emma Keer: No, it's actually easier, I think. Because a lot of people, they want to do parkrun, but they don't want to run and get sweaty but cold. And sometimes the snow is deep and we always make sure the course is safe, but different people have different preferences of what they run on. So a lot of times people are down to marshal or... bring like a little portable heater at the finish line and huddle by it with their like 10 layers of clothing and hand out tokens.

00:38:57Melissa Ellis: I am not going to complain about being cold at parkrun ever again.

00:39:02Emma Keer: Yes. So our main, we call it our summer course because it's completely shaded and there's lots of trees. So in the winter, when the snow kind of melts, then it freezes again. So it gets pretty treacherous in there. So we have to do an alternate course, which is our winter course. And it's six laps around a little park. But the parks department clears that so it's never icy. Six. Yeah, six laps. It's a time. But you know, it's fairly flat. So we have to make it a little bit longer so that people don't only set PBs on that one. But yeah, that one's the best because no matter where you are, you can always see other people, especially in the winter when there's no leaves on the trees. You can be at one completely opposite end of the park and you can see who's like at the finish line starting their fifth lap or something.

00:39:51Melissa Ellis: I love that variety. How do you track all those laps though? I guess it's just an honour thing, isn't it? People know when they've done their 5k.

00:39:57Emma Keer: Yeah, definitely. And if like when we're processing results, we'll see that like, oh, so-and-so shaved off 10 minutes of their time. We'll kind of reach out to them and be like, hey, what's going on? Usually when it's that cold and we're on that course, we have less people. So we'll have maybe 20 to 30 people on those weeks. And it's easier to keep track of how many people have done, if they have more to do. And a lot of people keep track on their watches as well.

00:40:25Melissa Ellis: Yeah, fantastic. Well, Emma, it has been an absolute pleasure to talk to you. Thank you so much for giving us the time today. It's been lovely to learn a little bit more about the parkruns over in the USA.

00:40:38Emma Keer: Yeah, absolutely. It was great chatting with you. Okay. Thank you. And good luck with the continued rollout of the events in America. Yes. Thank you. We are very excited.

00:40:48[15 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:41:04Oliver Spake: Thank you for that lovely interview with Emma. It's wonderful to hear, I suppose, some of the experiences of our friends in the USA coming back and some beautiful serendipity there, Mel, with Friends of the Pod, Jack and Claire.

00:41:18Melissa Ellis: I know. They're just popping up everywhere, aren't they?

00:41:21Oliver Spake: They are. And we really look forward to hearing and seeing more of our friends in the USA and, of course, across the globe coming back. Please, if anyone would like to share with us that experience, don't hesitate to reach out on our email address, of course. And what do you think, Mel? We'll mention it twice this week. No. parkrunadventurers at gmail.com or on our Facebook. But, yeah, share some of your experiences. If you're listening and parkrun's coming back, we'd love to hear. Definitely.

00:41:52Melissa Ellis: We've missed a couple of countries. We've got to play catch-up, Ollie. We haven't spoken to Japan. Who else haven't we spoken to? That's right.

00:42:00Oliver Spake: Well, yeah, they're just clocking up, which is lovely to see and happy to play some catch up. So, yeah, please do share.

Emails

00:42:07Oliver Spake: And now, Mel, we did actually get an email. We got some feedback regarding the brief chat we had last week about Auslan. Yes, we did. It's always lovely to hear from all of our listeners. So please keep it up. But I did want to say in our chat, I did make a passing reference to a parkrunner who has performed the Sign Language Support volunteer role and helped us actually at Shellharbour as part of the team many times. So I should say firstly, a big shout out to Georgia for all of her help at Shellharbour and parkruns beyond. But it was mentioned to me in the feedback that I did use the word perform when describing her speaking Auslan. And I do think it's important to take note because I do appreciate my choice of words might not have been entirely accurate. So it's important I acknowledge it really should have been better described as her speaking Auslan as a language rather than confusing my words. And naturally, I do apologise to anyone that might have been offended.

00:43:04Melissa Ellis: It's good to take note so that we are sensitive and use the correct language when we discuss these things. And now we've all learned.

00:43:11Oliver Spake: Exactly. So please keep up the feedback, everyone. It's always lovely to hear from you all. We did have a few people reaching out, I suppose, in the cooler weather. They were kind of packing Dazza's to get a bit of warmth there.

00:43:25Melissa Ellis: I hope they were socially distanced.

the Cafe

00:43:27Oliver Spake: Let's hope. So this week, of course, we were encouraging a little bit of food sharing. Again, maybe that's not the right thing to encourage at this point. Sharing what food we were enjoying and did people enjoy their brunch at parkrun or not parkrun today and questioning whether people had ordered their ugly buff. And as I said before, I ordered and thank you, Dazza. You kept me honest. Or are people in training for the longest run? Of course. So Sam Schroder was quick to reach out and say, early in the week, Kit the RD from Chipping Norton did a shout out for a token vollie. So Luke and I headed back for another visit. We were pleased to visit the Liverpool Growers and Foodies Market, just 250 metres from the start line. Good coffee and amazing gozleme. Highly recommended.

00:44:23Melissa Ellis: Oh, I remember this comment because I don't know what gozleme is.

00:44:27Oliver Spake: And I think I can certainly reinforce what Sam said. You need gozleme in your life, Mel.

00:44:34Melissa Ellis: I don't know if I need it, though. Why is it always me that doesn't know what this stuff is?

00:44:39Oliver Spake: I clearly don't get out enough. No, that's, again, a chance for us to learn. But... It's amazing. We have markets that visit here. Well, you know, it was regularly. It's becoming regularly again.

00:44:52Melissa Ellis: Can you give me a clue?

00:44:53Oliver Spake: Yeah, the gozleme food truck.

00:44:55Melissa Ellis: Give me a clue.

00:44:56Oliver Spake: Can I look up a proper... description but it's it's I suppose it's a is it a dumpling oh it's it's two pieces of um flatbread that's it it's a turkish cuisine it's like a pita bread a stuffed pita bread thing yeah it's stuffed so some will be served with uh often like you know feta and spinach um or a you know sometimes a meat sauce um it's very savoury tasting and look it's just amazing it's just delicious

00:45:28Melissa Ellis: Moving swiftly on, Cameron Drake. No morning tea until the chores are done. Was there an incident today? There will be if I don't get a move on. Then maybe a conti roll and a long mac topped up.

00:45:43Oliver Spake: Val Warwick, did Kingston Park parkrun under a snowy kunanyi / Mount Wellington for my half Cowell? With our 13-year-old grandson who can now beat Pa over five kilometres because they don't go for coffee and our youngest grandsons were waiting to see Nana and Pa, coffee was at our son's place, as was a shower so that we can take the 13-year-old out for a belated birthday lunch. Don't tell anyone, but that birthday was in November." We had trouble arranging when we could do it when living at the extremes of the state with many obstacles, but having a soccer bye today, it's finally happening. And Mel, one of the dogs at our son's is a lovely old sausage dog. Sausage dog.

00:46:29Melissa Ellis: Oh, but you didn't tell us his name.

00:46:32Oliver Spake: Oh, well, we did get a picture. We did get a lovely picture. Very good. But congratulations on the half Cowell.

00:46:39Melissa Ellis: Yes. And we heard from Belinda Taylor, Hill Marshal at Sirromet parkrun today on this chilly for Brisbane morning. Back to the gift shop near Wishart parkrun for their awesome coffee and almond croissant. And great to hear from you, Belinda.

00:46:55Oliver Spake: Yes. Good work on all the volunteering. Mandy Oliver. My home parkrun at Surfers again. Loving the cooler weather for running. Bit antisocial this morning and grabbed a coffee with my petrol on the way home.

00:47:07Melissa Ellis: Long as you get coffee, that's all that matters. Yes. And Helen Davis. Lovely chilly run at Cooks River, but went back to Chris and Em's for breakfast. Cooked by Chris. Very nice. So you've got to be happy with that. And I do believe that Helen spotted a cheetah or two over at Cooks River.

00:47:26Oliver Spake: Ah, they were out. They were. Janet Reid, what a beautiful morning. Clear skies made for a chilly start at the launch of South Australia's first new event in two years and also the first five-kilometre loop parkrun in South Australia. I didn't realise that. No five-kilometre loops until now. An inviting log fire kept us all warm pre-parkrun, then off to Meadows Bakery and Tea Rooms for a celebratory coffee and... ..snot log... Now, I usually enjoy my vanilla slice, but after listening to the pod, it didn't have quite the same appeal. So I gave it 9 out of 10. Coffee was superb. All in all, another perfect Saturday.

00:48:12Melissa Ellis: So Jack's just put everybody, all our listeners are getting turned off vanilla slices now.

00:48:21Oliver Spake: I was the opposite. I saw it and had instant envy.

00:48:25Melissa Ellis: Rebecca Bailey, first time a briefing and a jog around Shellharbour today. Windy and fresh, made for a strong headwind down the last kilometre. Nothing like hearing your name over RD Brendan's megaphone to get you home. Can't wait for a nice warm brekkie to start my weekend.

00:48:42Oliver Spake: Alison King, Wanaka parkrun's Edgewater Cafe is known for its scones, has its own scone menu. I had the buttermilk, which came with cream and jam. Wonderful parkrun. And today, 10% of the field was Australian.

00:48:56Melissa Ellis: Wow. I think Alison might have spoken to some of those Aussies in her roving reports later.

00:49:03Oliver Spake: That's right. Stay tuned.

00:49:04Melissa Ellis: Caro Vos, lovely day at Woi Woi parkrun, complete with coffee afterwards. So Caro was back at home. Yeah.

00:49:12Oliver Spake: And Bernadette Bennett, touristing at Chipping Norton while on a shopping trip in Sydney. Sheltered tree-lined course along the Georges River. Small numbers compared to Newy's usual, with farmer's markets nearby for coffee, though we had to hightail it back to the hotel. Great sight and friendly crew.

00:49:31Melissa Ellis: Ingrid Botha, sending love hearts to Victoria this morning, crisp and clear morning at Dolls Point, lovely to briefly catch up with a couple of the crew from Kamay. And Ingrid had a photo of the volunteer crew all doing lovely love hearts.

00:49:47Oliver Spake: Yeah, good work, team. Mark Scarborough, Wagi Bridge parkrun, Run Director again this week, thinking of the pancakes and berries for Brekkie at Stonehouse. And Mark backed that up with the evidence.

00:50:01Melissa Ellis: He did. Do you think he's just putting in this comment every week to make us say Wagi Bridge? And he's sitting back laughing?

00:50:10Oliver Spake: I hope so. I hope someone's having some fun.

00:50:15Melissa Ellis: Andrew Turner.

00:50:17Oliver Spake: Just on that. Sorry, Mel. I noticed Mark's going to be there for the next couple of weeks too. So we've got that to look forward to.

00:50:24Melissa Ellis: More to come. Andrew Turner. It was back to the traditional lockdown footscray, not parkrun today. Good to max out the attendance number with Dave. A good chance to enjoy the last of the autumnal colours.

00:50:39Oliver Spake: Ah, nice work, Andrew. Big fan of that Footscray Knot parkrun. Obviously, it's part of the Autumn Belt as well.

00:50:46Melissa Ellis: It did look really, really pretty.

00:50:47Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah.

00:50:48Melissa Ellis: Made me want to figure out where it was so I could go and have a little run there myself when I'm not confined to a five kilometre bubble.

00:50:56Oliver Spake: Yes. Lee Caparita, Parramatta parkrun for me. Sausage dog in a not-so-ugly Christmas jumper spotted on today's run.

00:51:05Melissa Ellis: How awesome was that? Not only a dog of sausage, but a dog of sausage in an ugly Christmas sweater.

00:51:15Oliver Spake: It's meant to be.

00:51:16Melissa Ellis: You would only get more points if you actually knew the name of the dog. So, yeah, that's the level up challenge, Lee, if you get a chance again. But well done.

00:51:27Oliver Spake: It was a very elegant sweater too.

00:51:29Melissa Ellis: Yes. William Barlow, Breadtop. Now, I stopped to try to figure out this one. It was a photo of a plate of delicious baked goods. Yes. But what, Breadtop, what does that mean, Ollie?

00:51:45Oliver Spake: Don't know, but they look delicious.

00:51:49Melissa Ellis: Okay.

00:51:50Oliver Spake: But then we also heard from Yvonne Cohen. Is a snot log the same as a snot block?

00:51:57Melissa Ellis: Yes, and now see, we've confused everybody. Yes, Yvonne, snot logs, snot blocks, they are all vanilla slices.

00:52:06Oliver Spake: Just not snot rockets.

00:52:08Melissa Ellis: No, no, not those. We're not allowed to do those. They're banned.

00:52:12Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:52:12Melissa Ellis: They are not COVID safe.

00:52:14Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:52:14Melissa Ellis: Now we're going to have people wanting to know what a snot rocket is. Surely that's universal.

00:52:19Oliver Spake: I think we've addressed that, but for anyone that hasn't heard that particular episode or maybe it has been addressed on another pod and I'm just confusing ourselves.

00:52:27Melissa Ellis: Moving swiftly on.

00:52:28Oliver Spake: Okay, no context.

00:52:30Melissa Ellis: Oh, it's me, Bruce Pairty. It was a not post parkrun coffee from Yellow Espresso during a main street not parkrun. I loved having a mid five kilometre coffee fix and am a huge fan of the name and smiley face on the cup.

00:52:46Oliver Spake: I love it. I love it. Personalised.

00:52:48Melissa Ellis: Yes.

00:52:50Oliver Spake: It did look like a very happy coffee.

00:52:52Melissa Ellis: It did.

00:52:53Oliver Spake: And Claire Stutchbury, entering my longest tourist streak. So that's number 28 for this streak. Event number 84 and 21 in Queensland at North Lakes parkrun. A sneaky first for Jack Corkill, followed by a breezy paddle on Lake Kurwongbah. And I apologise if I got that pronunciation wrong. But well done, Jack. And Clare, of course.

00:53:17Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and they're following in the stat man's footsteps by having a, would you call it a kayak or is it a surf ski? Paddle after parkrun.

00:53:26Oliver Spake: Yeah, look more of a paddleboard paddle.

00:53:30Melissa Ellis: A paddleboard paddle?

00:53:31Oliver Spake: Yeah, a paddle on a paddleboard.

00:53:33Melissa Ellis: Oh, okay.

00:53:34Oliver Spake: Yes. Do you think there's a club developing for the post-parkrun paddlers?

00:53:38Melissa Ellis: Maybe.

00:53:38Oliver Spake: We need a few more P's in there. It'll really get going.

00:53:41Melissa Ellis: Oh, the alliterations.

00:53:42Oliver Spake: Yes. Speaking of whom?

00:53:45Melissa Ellis: Moving into Tracey Wood. Hey, team, guess what I got? Hint, see photo. And Tracey posted the photo that was taken of her at Palm in her costume when she was dressed as a Wilson Index. So I'm tipping Tracey got a Wilson Index.

00:54:03Oliver Spake: Well done, Tracey. And I'm pleased to say that it did not take me as long to guess it this time. And Brett Bailey, on the tools handing out tokens at Pegasus, then got my five kilometres in on a run home.

00:54:19Melissa Ellis: And Tanya Bailey, photos of Brunner with Brett and Tanya Bailey at Pegasus. So we did get to see Brunner. It's nice to see Brunner again.

00:54:28Oliver Spake: Yes. And Chris Fraser, I chose Illawarra's most sheltered parkrun at North Wollongong. Soft.

00:54:35[laughter]

00:54:35Unidentified speaker: Ha ha.

00:54:37Oliver Spake: Sausage roll and Lamo. Greedy. Mine was much better looking than Kerry's gluten-free option from the next cafe.

00:54:48Melissa Ellis: And that did, again, elicit quite a bit of conversation between Kerry and Chris about gluten-free options and flakiness of pastries. And it's getting quite technical, Ollie.

00:55:01Oliver Spake: Yeah. I love the dynamic. I think they could possibly take this show on the road. Yeah. Maybe they have. Clearly they have.

00:55:10Melissa Ellis: Right. So that was it at the cafe this week.

00:55:14Oliver Spake: It was. Great to hear from everyone. Thank you. And once again, I'm hungry.

00:55:20Melissa Ellis: Did you have, when you had your coffee after parkrun at Bowral, did you have baked goods or you didn't tell us?

00:55:27Oliver Spake: Well, yeah, look, I didn't feel appropriate to read out my own report because I drove all the way home and met up with Hannah and we went down to the local here, my everyday local, naturally tasty, and my baked good of choice was the blueberry muffin, which I instantly regretted as I walked past the bakery.

00:55:48Melissa Ellis: Mm-hmm.

00:55:48Oliver Spake: Back home and saw the snot block.

00:55:52Melissa Ellis: Well, I'm going to have to get my thinking cap on. I think Alice Palace parkrun needs to up their game this coming Saturday with a theme.

00:56:02Oliver Spake: Bake Good theme?

00:56:05Melissa Ellis: Maybe it's got to be snot logs all round. Yes. Except for me because I don't eat them. Oh, well. Anyway, Ollie. Yes. That is it for the cafe. So we shall now listen to Alison and PK with their roving reports.

00:56:21[16 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Alison King — Wanaka parkrun

00:56:37Alison Fraser (King): Good morning parkrunners. It's Alison King here reporting in for the Channel 5 News Crew. And today I'm coming to you from Wanaka parkrun. That's right. I've done some overseas travel again, crossed the Cook Strait to the South Island. And if you are in Australia, you can get to Wanaka parkrun by flying to Queenstown, hiring a car and driving about one hour north. Now Wanaka parkrun started in February, 2018. And it's had really, really low numbers of late. So hopefully we're gonna have a few more parkrunners this week, but have to say the weather nationwide isn't that great. It's bitterly cold right now. It's quite cold, about four degrees. So yeah, let's see who we can find. So I'm here with Olive at Wanaka parkrun. So good morning, Olive. Good morning. Where have you travelled from today? I've come over from Brisbane. probably beats me in the parkrun tourism stakes today. Yeah, yeah. What brought you over?

00:57:35Olive: I have family here, so I've come to visit family and I can't come without doing a parkrun. Fair enough. Yeah.

00:57:43Alison Fraser (King): And so have you run around here before?

00:57:45Olive: I've done parkrun once here before, but I run around the streets and around the lakefront and just a beautiful place to be.

00:57:53Alison Fraser (King): What do you love about Wanaka?

00:57:55Olive: Just the scenery. I don't enjoy the weather, but the scenery is just amazing and it's always different. Yeah.

00:58:02Alison Fraser (King): Have you run at Queenstown?

00:58:03Olive: Yes, I have. Yeah.

00:58:05Alison Fraser (King): And do you think our Aussie parkrun adventurers should come to Wanaka instead of heading over to Queenstown?

00:58:11Olive: Oh, definitely. Wanaka is one of the best parkruns. Yeah.

00:58:15Alison Fraser (King): And can you tell us a bit about your parkrun story?

00:58:18Olive: Oh, I've been running for probably, doing parkrun for probably nine or ten years, getting close to doing 200. I'm heading towards my 100th location as well. I haven't got the stats on me because I don't have the internet here. But yeah, a Saturday doesn't go by where I can't do a parkrun. Yeah, just love it.

00:58:38Alison Fraser (King): Cool. Well, thanks for having the chat. Thank you. Nice to meet you. You too. So I'm here with Chris and Prue. Good morning.

00:58:47Unidentified speaker: Can you tell the listeners where you've come from today? We've come from Brisbane and our local parkrun is Kelvin Grove, Australia. You've come quite far. Yep, and we planned our trip around two parkruns. The first one we did when we landed in Christchurch and then we planned to come to Queenstown and then to here to do this particular parkrun in Wanaka because we'd heard it was one of the most beautiful in New Zealand.

00:59:12Alison Fraser (King): And did it live up to your expectations?

00:59:15Unidentified speaker: Absolutely, including the snow on the mountains.

00:59:19Alison Fraser (King): So do you think Australian parkrun tourists should come to Wanaka instead of going to Queenstown?

00:59:25Unidentified speaker: Yes, definitely.

00:59:27Unidentified speaker: Yeah, definitely. It's really picturesque and and not as hilly. It's lovely. The lake is just beautiful.

00:59:34Alison Fraser (King): Now, Chris, I can't help but notice that the two of you ran in your puffer jackets. Yes, we did today, yes.

00:59:39Unidentified speaker: It was a new thing. I'd never done it before, but here in Wanaka, the weather kind of provided the right environment for it, so.

00:59:46Alison Fraser (King): A lot different to what you normally run in in Brisbane.

00:59:49Unidentified speaker: Yeah, the first parkrun we did at Kelvin Grove was very hot, indeed. It was very warm.

00:59:53Alison Fraser (King): Yeah, so you got some shorts.

00:59:55Unidentified speaker: Yeah. Yeah.

00:59:57Unidentified speaker: And today it's tights and puffer jackets.

01:00:00Unidentified speaker: Yeah, exactly.

01:00:00Alison Fraser (King): I've got woolly tights, gloves and a puffer. Wow. So you're going to be espousing the beauty of Wanaka to all your Aussie mates back home?

01:00:10Unidentified speaker: We are. We just missed our little puppy who normally does parkrun with us today, Goldie. She normally does it. Yeah, she would have loved it. She would have loved this one.

01:00:17Unidentified speaker: Yeah, but we'll be telling people how useful it is. Yeah, we'll be skiting for sure that we ran in three degrees. Well, thanks so much for crossing the ditch.

01:00:26Unidentified speaker: Thank you.

01:00:27Alison Fraser (King): Thanks for having us. So I'm with Adam Sharman, the Event Director from Wanaka. So thanks for organising this parkrun, Adam.

01:00:34Adam Sharman: Oh no, thank you, Alison. It's awesome we would be here, rain or shine. It's lovely to see our parkrun tourists.

01:00:40Alison Fraser (King): Now, there's a lot of friendly rivalry, isn't there, between you and Queenstown?

01:00:44Adam Sharman: There is. It's both friendly and a rivalry. We like to compete for who's got the prettiest parkrun. I like to think that we've got a bit of a case given the tree and the mountains and the lake, but I think Queenstown probably have an argument to it as well. We'll keep it friendly for now.

01:00:57Alison Fraser (King): not that difficult for our Australian parkrun tourists to come over to Wanaka is it?

01:01:02Adam Sharman: No it's easy they can fly straight into Queenstown and then it's just a quick hop over the hill although I said that this morning there's snow on the hill so I know it's a long way around but it's always nice to see our Australian visitors we had somebody from Brisbane this morning someone from Gold Coast so yeah always great to see those guys.

01:01:16Alison Fraser (King): And what's your parkrun story?

01:01:18Adam Sharman: So our parkrun story. So we started doing parkrun in Auckland. We started in Cornwall Park. I think we did there 10th when we lived there. It was about 30 people. And then over the years that grew. And when we moved to Wanaka, which is about five years ago, there wasn't a parkrun. So we decided we were going to set one up. And we've been going over three years now. So that's great.

01:01:37Alison Fraser (King): And you beat Queenstown to have a parkrun, didn't you?

01:01:40Adam Sharman: We did, by only a few weeks. I think Invercargill the week before us, and then it was us, and Queenstown a few weeks later. So it's growing in the South Island. We'd love to see that.

01:01:48Alison Fraser (King): Well, thanks for an awesome event.

01:01:51Adam Sharman: Thank you, Alison. Great to see you.

01:01:53Alison Fraser (King): And that's a wrap from Wanaka. I've made it back to my hotel room. I'm staying at the Edgewater Resort, which is where the parkrun Cafe is also held. The scones are amazing, so I highly recommend staying for coffee and cake afterwards and perusing the scone menu. There were 29 runners today, so not a big crowd, but... Looks like all the other parkruns around the country may have been affected by the bad weather, but the weather actually cleared for us, which was really, really cool, parkrun weather fairies were looking down on Wanaka. So Aussies, if you're coming over the ditch, fly into Queenstown, hire a car and drive up to Wanaka. You will not be disappointed.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Paul Kitching — Christies Beach

01:02:33Paul Kitching: Well, good morning, parkrun adventurers. This is PK checking in for another roving report from beautiful Christies Beach down south. Well, not down south, but certainly south of Adelaide City. And it's my first time at Christies. It's another C for the old Pirate Club, which is great. I think it's my fifth C. I've already done an R. And we were going to do Seacliff, but that's been cancelled because of work to the path and winter upon us, etc. But anyway, great story, mate. We are going to do Christies and... Fantastic. Great numbers down here. Lots of people limbering up. There's lots of QR code checking in. And I've already seen a few legends. Mel Cox is here. Michael Willison is here. And yeah, it's going to be a beautiful day. So let's go and have a listen to the first time's briefing. And I will go and find some other crew after. Well, I've just done Christies Beach parkrun for the first time and far out. Are you sure it's 5Ks? Because I'm sure it was 10. My gosh. And I'm not complaining. I just wanted to keep going. It's such a beautiful course here along the coast of Christies and I found some legends, as I said I would. Bob, I was told to speak to you. Bob Hooper, how are you?

01:03:51Bob Hooper: I'm very well, thank you. And how are you?

01:03:52Paul Kitching: I'm awesome, mate. I see you encouraging everybody along the way. You've got to love a support crew.

01:03:58Bob Hooper: Well, the camaraderie down here is something, really something. And we appreciate each other, and that's why we encourage each other. I love that. I mean, to get yourself out of bed on a cold morning such as this morning, I mean, it takes a bit of determination. It does. And you did it today, parkrun? Yes. Yes, I did. You're out there on the course as well. Yes, yes.

01:04:20Paul Kitching: And how many have you done? Is this your local and how many have you done? I've done 105 today. Well done, mate. Thank you. Congrats on the 105. Thank you. Well done. Charles, you've done over 100. G'day, Charles.

01:04:31Charles: Yes, g'day. How are you?

01:04:32Paul Kitching: Yeah, good. Nice to see you sporting the 100T like me. Well done. And is this your regular and how many do you reckon you've done? It is.

01:04:37Charles: I don't know probably about 115 or something like that nice mate nice it's a it's a beautiful course isn't it why people keep coming back here yeah we've got a sort of a core group of people we get lots of visitors as well yeah well they're like me it's great there's a core group here because um and it is very encouraging as bob said so I love it mate it's a nice little family down here

01:04:58Paul Kitching: Sure is, and it only took me five years to get here. I've been doing parkrun for a long time, but that's all right. But I'm very happy to get here, and I've done my C, one of my Cs, because it's important, because there's the Pirate Club. If you do five Cs, and seven Cs, you can say, you know, sail the seven Cs, and you do an R. So this is my fifth C, so I was pretty happy with that. So, no, it's a beautiful course. I'm going to go and find Rich.

01:05:21Charles: A local member of parliament coming along here. Brilliant.

01:05:24Paul Kitching: I did recognise... Katrine. Katrine. That's right. Yeah, indeed. Well done. How are you, Katrine? Do you mind if I have a quick chat and ask you... Oh, this is for the parkrun podcast? Sure. parkrun adventurers podcast. How are you? Did you enjoy?

01:05:37Unidentified speaker: Enjoy is an interesting word. I always enjoy...

01:05:40Paul Kitching: Endure.

01:05:40Unidentified speaker: ...coming out here and seeing our community together. That's the best thing. Isn't it? It's amazing.

01:05:45Paul Kitching: Oh, my God, and what a beautiful course.

01:05:46Unidentified speaker: We're all so encouraging. Yeah.

01:05:48Paul Kitching: I've not done it before. Have you... Did you do the Moana one? Have you done other parkruns around here before?

01:05:54Unidentified speaker: Um... Where have I done? Shiraz Trail.

01:05:57Paul Kitching: Ah, yes.

01:05:58Unidentified speaker: Mostly here, Seacliff.

01:05:59Paul Kitching: Yes, beautiful.

01:06:00Unidentified speaker: But mostly here.

01:06:01Paul Kitching: Nice. I wasn't meant to do Seacliff today, but of course it's closed at the moment, which is fine. But it means, you know, you get more people here. I reckon maybe 200 today. I don't know.

01:06:07Unidentified speaker: Yeah. Good numbers. I think we have a very special community here. Yeah. It's very supportive and encouraging.

01:06:13Paul Kitching: Exactly what Charles and Bob were just saying. So congratulations. I'll let you go and recover. Thank you. But thank you for letting me say g'day for a moment. And well done. PK. PK. Good on you. Thank you so much. Good on you, Charles. Good on you, guys. See you later. Yeah, it is beautiful down there. And great to see the local member of parliament enjoying it. So well done to everybody here on a beautiful course. It's just beautiful. It's great to see the community getting involved. There was even free bread this morning. Fantastic. And now I've found Rich. Rich, you're one of the EDs here, I believe?

01:06:48Rich: I am, yes. Good morning.

01:06:48Paul Kitching: Yeah, well done, mate. And you're taking the photos as well, mate. You're a man of many talents.

01:06:53Rich: Well, I think we've got to try and hand across all the board of the volunteer role.

01:06:57Paul Kitching: Indeed, mate. And how many volunteers do you actually need here at Christies? What's your core number each week, do you reckon?

01:07:04Rich: Pre-COVID, we could get away with about between six and eight. Yeah. Nearer, maybe 12 to 14 would be inaccurate, depending on your swell of numbers.

01:07:13Paul Kitching: Of course, and with the scanners, yeah. I just noticed that Mel Cox jumping in there and doing a few more, which is great. So, because I reckon maybe 200 or so today, do you reckon? Yeah. 200 or so I would say yeah yeah so it's awesome to see and awesome to see you guys obviously we try and now post COVID are coming out of COVID we're trying to make sure that we keep to the 50 50 person per scanner um which is great and it makes it easier for everyone um but what a beautiful course far out uh along I know we keep going on about it but you've got to remember this is down by the coast there is a bit of a hill sorry undulation undulation exactly It seemed to go on forever and go past the water treatment plant, which is beautiful as well. So, nah, well done, mate. I'm going to go and have some breakfast, but congratulations. What does parkrun mean to you, by the way, before I go? community family yeah definitely yeah without a doubt it's beautiful and that really should be the I think the you know a nice note to finish on because it for those who may not have done a parkrun or may haven't done one for a long time just remember that it is about getting out here and getting amongst your local community or meeting new people like we have today so everybody's having a great time even this guy here with his cool club t-shirt on I love it good on you rich lovely thanks Paul good on you mate yeah to everybody else Love your work. Thanks, Rich. Good on you, buddy. Thank you so much for volunteering as well. And that is it. I am now going to head off and have some breakfast. Thank you so much, Legends, for listening in. And, yeah, to all my fellow roving reporters, keep doing great work. And to everybody out there, yeah, keep getting amongst parkrun and loving it because, you know, like anything, it only exists because of the people who do it. And all the volunteers are out here for you. Am I making sense? You know what I mean.

the Informant

01:08:55Paul Kitching: Enjoy.

01:08:55the Intern: Hi, Parkies. This is your favourite staff reporter coming to you live from a tiny office that reeks of the most peculiar blend of underarm and butt crack in downtown... So, well, I'm live right now, but I won't be live when you get to hear this, because it will be like three or four days later, if you know what I mean. Mr. Bay's trousers just went out to get a coffee, so I thought I'd jump on his computer and get a stats report to adventurers HQ before he gets back. I was only coming in to nick a Kit Kat out of his drawer, but since he left his computer unlocked, well, why not? At the time of recording, 449 events worldwide had submitted results. Of course, we missed our Victorian cousins. However, we still had 302 events in Australia and 33 in New Zealand. We welcomed back another 7 events in the USA, now up to 17. The rest taking place in Japan, Russia and remote UK territories. Three event launches took place. The Avenues in South Australia, Canyon Rim Trail in the US and Perth. Pur-Navolok in Russia. Aussie New Zealand attendance is down 11,000 people to 32,038 runners out of 37,554 worldwide. We had 4,844 PBs, while 1,056 people participated for the first time. 60 juniors reached the Junior 10 milestone, 144 people reached their 50 milestone, 113 reached their 100 milestone, and 20 people reached their 250 milestone. 20 people called bingo. Wesley Harrison was the quickest with 157 events. David Moss was, hey, is that Mossy the barefoot runner guy? Oh, I wouldn't do that 361 times. Well, maybe it's a different David Moss, I don't know. But this David Moss was the slowest person to call bingo this week, taking 361 events. Not many new statespeople this week, just four. Chris Carney and Anita Carr in the ACT, David Hooper in the Northern Territory, and Dan Baldwin in Western Australia. On the top 20 most Aussie New Zealand events list... Oh, I think his real grumpiness might have messed this up. There's no movement in the top 20. Could that be right? Anyway, a little further down the list, there are 11 people who jumped 9 rankings. Margie Olive Oli Olsen, Copo Copchicus, Steve Rayner, Elaine Harris, Michelle Kohler, Jacinta Marriott, Wendy Pierce, Richard Bilton, Steve Amor, Jack Corkill and Tom Gallagher. Good work everyone. Keep touristing. Biggest Windex of the week. You know, I still don't really get what this Windex thing is about. How can someone with more than 100 parkruns still be down the bottom of the Windex list? Well, whatever. Cassie Hughes moved up 21 from 30 to 51 Windexes, which is also the 8th highest on the West Australian list. Let's see, who else is a big Windex? Michelle Malone rocketed into 7th place in the top New Zealand Windexes, jumping 11 spots to 27. That's about it. To see these stats in full, visit sillyoldgoat.com. This has been the intern, and my stat report is totally awesome.

01:12:18Melissa Ellis: And thank you to Alison at Wanaka, PK at Christies Beach, and our cheeky little intern.

01:12:24Oliver Spake: Yeah, great to hear from everyone there. Sounds like it was cold almost all round. Congrats, PK, on the fifth C. And as for Alison, she's really drumming up Wanaka parkrun. There's a bit of a rivalry. I don't know whether it existed beforehand, but it's definitely there now. So love your work, Alison. I don't know what the people over at Queenstown parkrun feel about that. But yeah, Wanaka parkrun definitely has to be one for the list.

01:12:50Melissa Ellis: Got to love a bit of rivalry. Yes. Friendly rivalry, of course. That's right. And as she pointed out in the cafe, there's a few Aussies there. Excellent. That's good to know. It's a travel bubble. Yes. Working well.

01:13:03Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's right.

01:13:04Melissa Ellis: And PK at Christies Beach. I became a pirate at Christies Beach. Is that right? Yeah, that's where I got my seventh C. At the time, there was only six Cs in Victoria, so we took a family holiday over to South Australia so that we could grab our seventh C. We had the dogs with us. They had little pirate bandanas around their necks.

01:13:26Oliver Spake: Oh, I love it. Love it. Now, I was trawling some stats.

01:13:31Melissa Ellis: Ah, yes.

01:13:32Oliver Spake: Which I don't do that often. But correct me if I'm wrong, PK, but that was a post-COVID PB.

01:13:38Melissa Ellis: Oh.

01:13:39Oliver Spake: So congrats, PK.

01:13:40Melissa Ellis: Very good.

01:13:41Oliver Spake: Yeah, very impressive. Now, Mel, I suppose given the timing, I think we've already mentioned it, but are we now going to tell people that they've missed out on ordering Ugly Buffs?

01:13:55Melissa Ellis: Yep. Yep.

01:13:56Oliver Spake: Sorry, guys.

01:13:58Melissa Ellis: Yep. It's too late. They've closed. They've closed on Thursday the 3rd of June, which will most likely have rolled across, rolled over, occurred, whichever.

01:14:09Unidentified speaker: Yep.

01:14:11Melissa Ellis: Oh, my words tonight.

01:14:13Oliver Spake: Unless through the magic of podcasting, you know, that's somehow still in the future. Yeah, we hope everyone is now eagerly awaiting their ordered ugly buffs. And for those that have chosen not to, are eagerly awaiting the opportunity for their Ugly Christmas Shirts or singlets because we should start the countdown for that one for December. But, hey, look, if you missed out on ordering...

01:14:40Melissa Ellis: Well, Ollie, if you've missed out on ordering, keep your eye on the page because you never know if those cheeky elves are going to give you a second chance.

01:14:50Oliver Spake: Yeah. But also speaking of dates, Mel, you know, I'm guessing. Yeah, yeah, it's very close. I guess we're yet to see whether all of them will go ahead. Yeah.

01:15:04Melissa Ellis: Yes, I am starting to resign myself to the realisation that I will probably not get to North Brisbane. We've spent the weeks talking it up and ironically, I'm probably unlikely to get there now.

01:15:22Oliver Spake: Let's hope. Time recording, the lockdown will end before this podcast comes out.

01:15:28Melissa Ellis: Well, the lockdown may end, Olly, it doesn't mean the borders are going to be open.

01:15:31Oliver Spake: Yeah, very true. And yeah, naturally, because of the multiple longest run events we have seen, there were a number or are a number, I should say, planned for the 13th of June. So should things change for the positive, you know, we really look forward to seeing a number of those Melbourne and the Gippsland region too, crews enjoying their longest runs.

01:15:53Melissa Ellis: Yes, planned on the 13th of June is Gippsland, the southeast Melbourne, the Melbourne North, Melbourne West 1 and 2, Sydney and Brisbane, North Brisbane.

01:16:07Oliver Spake: Yeah, and I really love how Melbourne does that. Covering the different regions, coming together, fantastic work. Clearly a big day for the longest run. But it continues, to the best of our understanding at least. We've got the Sunshine Coast on the 20th of June. We've got South Australia on the 27th of June and Perth, the 4th of July. So, hey, there's an action-packed month.

01:16:31Melissa Ellis: Maybe I'm a chance for the 4th of July. Yeah. I haven't been to Perth. I'll go and visit Cam.

01:16:37Oliver Spake: Yeah, I think we need to knock on Cam's door.

01:16:39Melissa Ellis: Hmm.

01:16:40Oliver Spake: So, look, everyone, stay tuned. Obviously, check into the Facebook events. We've got our fingers crossed for you. And, yeah, let's look forward to some longest running.

01:16:50Melissa Ellis: But, Ollie, we've come across a bit of exciting news for this coming Saturday.

01:16:55Oliver Spake: Is this the highlight, Mel?

01:16:57Melissa Ellis: I think so. Well, this is something that I can celebrate.

01:17:01Oliver Spake: Yes.

01:17:02Melissa Ellis: At Alice Palace. Yes. This is a potential to build a whole theme around.

01:17:07Oliver Spake: I like your thinking.

01:17:08Melissa Ellis: Would you like to tell everybody what next Saturday, June the 5th, actually is? Kind of.

01:17:14Oliver Spake: So, as you mentioned, June the 5th, next Saturday, next parkrun day or not parkrun day, wherever you are, is...

01:17:28[other]

01:17:28Unidentified speaker: National Sausage Roll Day.

01:17:33Oliver Spake: So look, if ever there's been a day to break out the 4.9 star sausage roll, this is it. We'll all be hoping, fingers, toes crossed, eagerly anticipating. Does the sausage roll measure up on the day?

01:17:47Melissa Ellis: Better not build it up too much, Ollie. Mine might be a frozen box from the, mine might be a Herbert Adams from Woolworths or something.

01:17:59Oliver Spake: Good grief. Hopefully there's bonus points on that day.

01:18:02Melissa Ellis: I wonder if I've even got a bakery in my five kilometre radius. I don't know that I do.

01:18:08Oliver Spake: Uber Eats.

01:18:09Melissa Ellis: I've got a Dazza's fish and chippery. I kid you not. I do. I'm going to take a photo of it. It's actually Dazza's fish and chippery.

01:18:17Oliver Spake: Yes, there we are. There's Dazza's new digs. Excellent. Can Dazza a cup? Yeah, well. So, look, National Sausage Roll Day, in case you haven't gathered, Chris, we await your report.

01:18:34Melissa Ellis: No pressure.

Sign-off

01:18:37Oliver Spake: But, of course, Mel, it's been a pretty big week. Yes, yes.

01:18:42Melissa Ellis: Fun-filled, in fact, and lots going on all around parkrun World.

01:18:46Oliver Spake: That's right, yes. So please, everyone, keep us tuned. I'd love to hear some of your stories.

01:18:52Melissa Ellis: Keep us tuned.

01:18:53Oliver Spake: Keep us tuned.

01:18:54Melissa Ellis: Is that right?

01:18:59Oliver Spake: I'm sure there's an analogy there somewhere. Okay.

01:19:03Melissa Ellis: Stay tuned.

01:19:04Oliver Spake: Stay tuned. Keep us informed. If you've got some feedback, if you'd like to reach out, please send us an email at parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. There's the second mention. Mel, that's it for another week. We'll see you all next week for more adventures.

01:19:22Melissa Ellis: And we'd also like to give a special 21st Happy Birthday shout-out to friend of the podcast and Shellharbour parkrunner, Em. And this is for you, Em. Are you ready, Ollie?

01:19:35Oliver Spake: Always. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Em. Happy birthday to you.

01:19:36[music]

01:21:00the Informant: This is the informant. What my intern failed to realise is that the ZA South African download was still in progress when she attempted to steal my thunder. So on top of the figures that she provided, we need to add 25 runs held in South Africa. 977 runners took part. 97 people ran a PB. 82 were first-timers. Two juniors ran their Junior 10 milestone. Four people ran their 50 milestone. Two people ran their 100 milestone. And I am owed a Kit Kat. This has been The Informant. If you'd like to see these stats in full, you can view them on my blog, theinformant.me. Thank you.