Episode 238 - Baked Goods

Welcome

00:00:24Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 238 of the parkrun Adventures podcast. My name is Melissa Ellis, and I'm joined by my co-host, who can actually enjoy a parkrun on Saturday, Oliver Spake.

00:00:38Oliver Spake: Hello, Mel. How are you?

00:00:40Melissa Ellis: I am parkrun-less, but I'm good.

00:00:45Oliver Spake: parkrun-less, back at Ellis Palace.

00:00:48Melissa Ellis: Yes, back at Ellis Palace. Yeah. Daryl was happy.

00:00:53Oliver Spake: I bet.

00:00:54Melissa Ellis: He got dressed up in new, what do you call it? New clothes. Let's go with that.

00:01:00Oliver Spake: New clothes. He did. And look, obviously between you, you cooked up an absolute storm.

00:01:05Melissa Ellis: We did. We celebrated baked goods. We should have been Ellis Palace bakery this week.

00:01:13Oliver Spake: Very appropriate. Very appropriate. All good parkruns deserve a good bakery, as I think we've discussed over recent pods.

00:01:20Melissa Ellis: And for anybody who might have just tuned in for the very first time, Ellis Palace is a fictitious parkrun, an unofficial parkrun, which is run during lockdown as a (not)parkrun on a Saturday morning at 8am.

00:01:33Oliver Spake: Yes. So we had our Victorian parkrun cousins once again parkrun-less, as you say, due to the lockdown. Week two of lockdown.

00:01:43Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah. Mark four.

00:01:45Oliver Spake: Mark four. Yeah.

00:01:47Melissa Ellis: Yeah, the fourth time that we've gone into lockdown here in Victoria. But, yeah, it is nice, I have to say, Ollie, to be able to switch back into like on the one hand mourning the fact that I can't have my regular official parkrun but then I can just go, oh, well, okay, what theme will I do this week? Yeah. What can I dress Dazza up as? You know, what will we focus on? And then I just get to work and start planning it, and it just gives me a focus. I was on social media finding out the local bakeries who had the best snot logs.

00:02:23Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:02:24Melissa Ellis: You know, because there's got to be a standard. Zoe experienced her very first snot log. Oh. Yeah.

00:02:32Oliver Spake: And did she love it?

00:02:33Melissa Ellis: Well, I think so, yes. Wow. She was a little bit confused at first by the title when we went, here, this is a snot log. And she's like, hmm? And we're like, it's okay, it's like pastry with custard and icing. And she was like, oh, okay. But Ollie, the gozleme was a hit.

00:02:52Oliver Spake: That's impressive, Mel. So how many weeks ago? Well, it was one week ago, was it not? I didn't even know what it was. It was fictitious for you. And all of a sudden, you've created it.

00:03:03Melissa Ellis: I know. I thought, well, I looked it up. Good old Google. I searched for where I could potentially buy gozleme. Mm-hmm. And there was nothing in my 10-kilometre radius, so that was out. There was no option for me to be able to purchase it and get it delivered. So my only way to have it on the table was to make it myself. And fortunately, it's actually not that hard to make. Yeah, so that was a big hit. Paul loved it. I think it's actually going to become a staple in the house.

00:03:35Oliver Spake: Good, good, yeah. As we said, you've got to have gozleme in your life.

00:03:39Melissa Ellis: Apparently so. Yeah.

00:03:42Oliver Spake: Well, I think in terms of parkrun contingency plans, Mel, you're right up there.

00:03:49Melissa Ellis: And Zoe's picked a theme for next week too. She wants to have a pride theme.

00:03:53Oliver Spake: Excellent. Yeah. So have we played this theme out? Have we got costumes? Have we got baked goods? Can we find more baked goods?

00:04:02Melissa Ellis: No, no, no. All right. No, the planning doesn't usually start to kick in until, say, Thursday.

00:04:11Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:04:11Melissa Ellis: I just can't get enthusiastic too early in the week.

00:04:16Oliver Spake: Well, once again, yeah, there is a lot to play out during the course of the week as Melbourne is currently, as we say, in lockdown at time of recording. That could all change by the end of the week. We don't know.

00:04:28Melissa Ellis: That is correct. But, Ollie, what about you? How did Em's 21st birthday go at Shellharbour? Because it looked like Shellharbour put on a pretty good day.

00:04:39Oliver Spake: It was a beautiful day at Shellharbour and awesome to have Em there volunteering and celebrating her 21st. Look, it just warms the heart seeing so many of the local community get in and share a special day for one of our parkrun family. I don't think Em had a spare moment between people wishing her happy birthday and in true Em style, she was giving all of that back through volunteering at the same time. We got to sing happy birthday. And, look, this follows her actual birthday the day before where I'm not sure she could even keep up with the birthday messages. So, yeah, Em, you're a true star and you deserve all of those wonderful birthday wishes. And she was presented with a special parkrun birthday gift, that customised apricot tee that she now has.

00:05:31Melissa Ellis: Oh, really?

00:05:32Oliver Spake: Yes, yes. So, yeah, we'll have to see a photo. So hopefully Em can don the apricot tea and maybe join us at Dazza's or something sometime and we can share that apricot tea.

00:05:47Melissa Ellis: Yes, we need a photo of that, please, Em, in the cafe this coming Saturday. So can you give us the scoop on what the personalised message is or is that going to be for Em to reveal?

00:06:00Oliver Spake: I'll leave that for Em to reveal.

00:06:01Melissa Ellis: Okay.

00:06:02Oliver Spake: Only fitting.

00:06:02Melissa Ellis: Like a bit of suspense.

00:06:04Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's right. But it was a lovely morning. Neither of us did a parkrun, Mel, for that matter. I was Volunteer Coordinator. Not that I had much to coordinate. I'm not sure how many volunteers I really coordinated. They all knew what to do. I was there really just to join in a bit of the celebration. Quick hazard marshal because we've got a few unstable rocky parts on the downhill. And then it was off to the dance concert. So, yeah, the parkrun was cut rather short. Oh.

00:06:29Melissa Ellis: Oh yes, please explain about the said dance concert.

00:06:35Oliver Spake: Well, yes, yes. Rather than budding parkrunners, some of my girls, well, at this stage, no, two of my girls actually, in case Hannah's listening, two of my girls have a passion for dance. But this one was Zali and Zali had her half-year dance concert, which naturally on the Saturday morning. So, yeah, we zipped across to a stadium inside a sporting complex, which would make a nice parkrun course, incidentally. You know, when you just travel somewhere and you see that spot and you think, well, okay, we're still going. There's still a nice pathway. There's some good land over there.

00:07:11Melissa Ellis: Always. Everywhere I go. Yep.

00:07:13Oliver Spake: Yep, yep. But, yes, dance concert. So it was all jazz, hip-hop and a tiny bit of ballet for the morning.

00:07:20Melissa Ellis: So when I saw the photo of you and Hannah kicking back with your gozleme in the park, I'm thinking you've been to some sort of rave. Yeah.

00:07:30Oliver Spake: Outdoor festival. Yeah. Well, no, I should provide more context. You should.

00:07:34Melissa Ellis: Sorry, Mel. I was all jealous. I'm like, oh, wow, he's living the life and here's me.

00:07:40Oliver Spake: Well, I don't think this is going to help my cause, but after parkrun and the dance concert, we then went to the markets. Sorry, Mel. What are they? I forget. Yeah. So we got back from the dance concert, ducked down to the local markets, and there was a gozleme truck. Well, no, a tent on this occasion, a gozleme tent. Completely forgot it was National Sausage Roll Day. Went to gozleme.

00:08:06Melissa Ellis: Oh, the poor sausage roll. It's just been forgotten.

00:08:09Oliver Spake: And, look, to rub it in, and I really need to get back running the Ks because to rub it in, I spotted a snot block on the way back, and I may have had dessert.

00:08:19Unidentified speaker: Oh.

00:08:19Melissa Ellis: Wow, you went all out.

00:08:22Oliver Spake: I did.

00:08:22Melissa Ellis: So I've got some sausage roll stats for you, Ollie.

00:08:25Oliver Spake: Oh, yes, do tell.

00:08:26Melissa Ellis: I looked up what is in the pages of the Guinness Book of World Records when it comes to sausage rolls, and the only one I could find was the record for the longest sausage roll, which was 111.11 metres. That's a pretty long sausage roll.

00:08:51Oliver Spake: That's more of a marathon than a sprint despite that distance. Yes. That's humongous.

00:08:57Melissa Ellis: And it was made in South Africa in June of 2005. So there's a record there just waiting to be broken.

00:09:05Oliver Spake: And they're still eating it.

00:09:09Melissa Ellis: Yes. And I also looked up the existence of the sausage roll can be traced back to the classical Greek or Roman eras. However, the modern version of meat surrounded by rolled pastry dates back to the beginning of the 19th century in France.

00:09:25Oliver Spake: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:09:26Melissa Ellis: The sausage roll has some pop culture references, one being an 1896 Gilbert and Sullivan opera called The Grand Duke, in which conspirators identify each other by eating sausage rolls. So you have to think that you could be sending the wrong message when you're out there in public eating your sausage roll. And in the UK, there's been three number one Christmas singles with sausage roll themed covers. Did you know that? And they're quite recent.

00:10:04Oliver Spake: I hope this isn't going to be a quiz.

00:10:06Unidentified speaker: No.

00:10:07Melissa Ellis: So there's a group called, or a duo I think they are, called Lad Baby, and in 2018 they had We Built This City, which was a cover obviously on the original, I think it was a Starship that recorded that song, but they obviously changed the words to We Built This City on sausage rolls.

00:10:27Unidentified speaker: Oh.

00:10:28Melissa Ellis: Then in 2019, they did a cover of I Love Rock and Roll to I Love Sausage Rolls. And then in 2020, they did a cover of Don't Stop Believing, which I think was Don't Stop Eating. And again, had a sausage roll theme. Yeah.

00:10:48Oliver Spake: Maybe stretching it.

00:10:49Melissa Ellis: I don't know why they write songs about sausage rolls. I didn't pick that up. But anyway, it's charitable, so they raise money for doing those covers. So there you go. The sausage roll's out there and it's making a name for itself and it's raising money for charity.

00:11:05Oliver Spake: Look, clearly there are wonders we just haven't appreciated that these sausage rolls are capable of providing.

00:11:12Melissa Ellis: Well, I haven't heard any pies doing these kinds of things, so kudos to the sausage roll. And also, Ollie, I need to refer back to last week's pod where we were a little bit confused when Will – commented Breadtop on his cafe post.

00:11:30Oliver Spake: That we were.

00:11:31Melissa Ellis: If I had have actually been a little bit more proactive and Googled Breadtop, I would have known that Breadtop is a bakery chain. So that is obviously the context of Will's post. The baked goods came from the bakery called Breadtop. And incidentally, the franchise has been around since 2002 and its first store opened in Box Hill, Victoria. Yay, Victoria.

00:11:54Oliver Spake: Box Hill. Yeah. Well, I think we're well and truly covering the baked goods here in honour of National Sausage Roll Day, even though time has passed. I think we're clearly basking in its glory. But I think, Mel, do you think maybe you've identified a good playlist for some parkrun tourism?

00:12:13Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah, like the mixed tape for the car.

00:12:15Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:12:16Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah. Maybe the listeners could come up with some others.

00:12:20Oliver Spake: I think so. All you need is the right challenge to complement that.

Sausage Roll Club

00:12:24Melissa Ellis: Okay. Tell me more.

00:12:27Oliver Spake: So in honour of Sausage Roll Day, I'm very keen for feedback here, by the way, because some of our listeners, some in particular, might be all across and may already have a pre-existing challenge. But should they not, Mel?

00:12:40Melissa Ellis: I don't think so.

00:12:43Oliver Spake: Should they not? There exists some great reference articles for where you can find the best sausage rolls across Australia.

00:12:50Melissa Ellis: Yes, and we are, of course, referring to the best places to stop for a sausage roll by escape.com.au.

00:12:59Oliver Spake: Now, apologies already to our overseas listeners. We look forward to you being able to travel to Australia and maybe joining in said challenge. But, Mel, supposedly there are eight wonderful bakeries that can provide sausage rolls and most of them are near a parkrun.

00:13:15Melissa Ellis: Wow, Ollie, what parkruns would they be? LAUGHTER

00:13:18[laughter]

00:13:20Oliver Spake: You'll be pleased to know there's a bit of a cross section. And so far, research so far, I don't have a mammoth spreadsheet like the informant or any of the magical databases we have seen out there in parkrun land. But so far, my searching has not found any parkrunner that has completed all of these to complete the sausage roll challenge. But please let us know if you have. So these include in Surry Hills in Sydney, the Bourke Street Bakery. So Surry Hills, very close to Centennial parkrun. Just 4Ks away. You have La Petite Souris, Alexandra Headland up in Queensland, which happens to be just 8Ks from Kawana parkrun.

00:14:00Unidentified speaker: Kawana.

00:14:02Oliver Spake: So Centennial, Kawana. Then you've got Banjo's, Latrobe, Tassie, Devonport parkrun appears to be the closest. So, yep, for our Tassie parkrun adventurers family, I'm sure you can give us a bit of a maybe a reference of the Banjo's Bakery Sausage Roll. Johnny Ripe, Red Hill, Victoria. Oh. Rosebud parkrun happens to be by a thin margin the closest there. Rosebud? Rosebud, yep. I've done that. Yes. You're off the mark in the challenge, Mel.

00:14:30Melissa Ellis: And I've done Devonport. I've got two.

00:14:31Oliver Spake: Oh, there we go. Okay. Well, you might be one of our top sausage rollers. Then you've got Yatala Pies. Now, I apologise if I've butchered that pronunciation or anything beforehand. Up in Queensland, so Logan River parkrun, 6km away there.

00:14:47Unidentified speaker: Oh, Erica.

00:14:48Oliver Spake: Yep, there we go. And over in Western Australia, one for Cam, so Denmark Bakery in Denmark, Mount Clarence parkrun. It's 56km away. It's stretching the friendship, but... You might need a very long black to make it there. Port Elliot Bakery, I'm getting to the bottom of the list, I promise. Port Elliot, South Australia, so Victor Harbor parkrun.

00:15:10Melissa Ellis: I've done that one too. I've got three.

00:15:12Oliver Spake: Oh, wow. Okay. Here's one you may not have done. So Heritage Bakery in Milton, the only one I've done. Well, no, one of two I've done actually. Huskisson parkrun, Husky.

00:15:23Unidentified speaker: Oh.

00:15:25Oliver Spake: Just a tidy 51 k's away, but, yeah, it's doable. And while I did say there were eight there, I may have said. You did. There happens to be a wild card, Mel.

00:15:36Melissa Ellis: There's a level up.

00:15:37Oliver Spake: There's a level up, and that's the best servo sausage roll, which apparently is the Freshwater Creek General Store, which is 13 k's away from Torquay parkrun.

00:15:46Melissa Ellis: Torquay, I've done that one too.

00:15:50Oliver Spake: You're basically halfway.

00:15:51Melissa Ellis: I am.

00:15:52Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:15:53Melissa Ellis: Oh, I'm excited about this challenge, the Sausage Roll Club.

00:15:57Oliver Spake: The Sausage Roll Club.

00:15:58Melissa Ellis: I've got four.

00:15:59Oliver Spake: And, look, I will say I have had one sausage roll from one of those bakeries.

00:16:04Melissa Ellis: I'm sure that one, the Banjo's one, I think that – who's our listeners down in Tassie?

00:16:13Oliver Spake: Val and Stephen?

00:16:14Melissa Ellis: Yeah. I'm sure they've said they've been to Banjo's.

00:16:17Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:16:18Melissa Ellis: Rings a bell.

00:16:19Oliver Spake: Now, I think Banjos, if I remember correctly, is a chain. I remember growing up in Hobart and going to Banjos. It was one of my favourite, favourite places to go, but never had the sausage roll, actually. To be honest, Mel, I don't know if you'll appreciate this, I'm more of a Cornish pasty fan.

00:16:37Melissa Ellis: My family heritage is Cornish, so I'm all for the pasty, but I don't want to prejudice the sausage roll. And seeing as that I'm already doing really well in the sausage roll club, can we ask Mr. Peter Pohlman, sir, please, can we have that added to the spreadsheet? Pretty pleased with the cherry on top?

00:17:02Oliver Spake: And look, it can end there, but just in case any of our UK listeners want to join in the fun, my favourite pasty to date has been from the St Ives Bakery in Cornwall, and I found out that Heartlands parkrun appears to be the closest.

00:17:17Melissa Ellis: Oh, you're just bragging because you've been to Cornwall. Well done, though.

00:17:21Oliver Spake: It was delicious. I hope we've celebrated the sausage roll.

00:17:25Melissa Ellis: I think we've successfully profiled the sausage roll.

00:17:28Oliver Spake: We should probably talk about parkrun.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:17:33Melissa Ellis: And we have some roving reports, Ollie.

00:17:36Oliver Spake: We do. We have heard this last parkrun day and the parkrun day before. We've got some roving reports. So let's take a listen to those, Mel.

00:17:44[13 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Roving report David Moss — Bourke

00:17:57David Moss: David calling in for the parkrun adventurers. We're in transit at the moment and managed to find ourselves in Bourke for parkrun day. Bourke is in I guess central western New South Wales. It turned out to be quite a pleasant town especially for one that I've never really thought too much about. It's certainly got a lot of history to it but I found the food was quite good, the people were fantastic actually and there's quite a bit to see around there. As I say, it's quite a historical little town on the Darling. It's even got a few maritime things. So it's a place I would thoroughly recommend people going to if you're humming and harring. When in doubt, do it. Even better, it's got parkrun. And a couple of the people there were kind enough to let me harass them and we'll play the recordings with them in a sec. The other little thing that turned out really good for me, I finally achieved parkrun bingo. It took 361 runs and I only realised well afterwards that, yes, it's now one more challenge out of the way. Hello, we're at the Bourke Racecourse parkrun and I'm with... Una. And Una, could you describe to us the course here?

00:19:11Una Taylor: It's a lovely flat course, actually. We go up onto our levee bank. So the levee bank actually goes all the way around town. But we just go basically across to what the locals call the Weir Road on the levee bank and then to a turnaround point all the way to the Cobar Road and back. So we always tell our runners that if you're off the levee bank, then you've gone the wrong way. Basically, just stick to the high point and you'll have a great time.

00:19:35David Moss: And it's actually, I've got to admit, the levee's beautiful and flat, but I do love the wildlife you've got there as well.

00:19:41Una Taylor: Yes, we often have kangaroos. You just don't know what you'll see when you come to Bourke parkrun because we have the resident horse next to the starting point. And then, of course, there's lots of kangaroos each morning. Unfortunately, in summertime, we've known to have a slithery, slimy friend as well. But of course, we put that in our warning at the beginning to make sure that people are on the lookout for snakes as well. But yeah, there's beautiful bird life as well. And we'll often see some little lizards and all kinds of little things along the track, really. It's great.

00:20:15David Moss: And what's the levee bank actually stopping? What's the river?

00:20:19Una Taylor: The Mighty Darling River is the river that runs through Bourke and it's glorious just at the moment because we've had some wonderful water coming from further north. But yeah, basically the levee bank is a way of protecting the town during floods. Yeah.

00:20:35David Moss: No, I've got to admit it stands out, it's superb here. I'm also very glad it's right at the end of May and this is about as green as I can imagine it being out here.

00:20:46Una Taylor: Yeah, actually the area around here has changed significantly in the past 12 months, I guess. We have had some rain and Obviously the winter grasses and winter weeds are up at the moment but it is looking much better than it has been in previous years. We've had some horrendous drought and the place was looking really barren and that kind of thing but I guess it's hopefully things are turning around.

00:21:08David Moss: And how did you get involved in parkrun?

00:21:11Una Taylor: Well, my sisters were actually parkrunners. They first started at Burley Griffin in Canberra and then they decided that they wanted to be involved in starting up a parkrun in our hometown of Queanbeyan. So they got onto that and then they kept saying, come on Una, go to parkrun, come to parkrun, you'll enjoy it. So I did. And then a wonderful group of people here connected to our medical service actually got a grant to start parkrun in Bourke and I put my hand up straight away and said I'd love to be part of that and then our Event Director left to move on to other opportunities and so my friend Charlotte and I became the Event Directors here for Bourke and we just love it. We come every Saturday and it's just like the morning routine that we do.

00:21:57David Moss: So are you born and bred in Bourke?

00:21:58Una Taylor: No, no. Queanbeyan is my hometown and I came prac teaching about 20 years ago and I now have a lovely husband and four children. So I'm not going home to Queanbeyan. Bourke's now our home.

00:22:12David Moss: No, fair enough. And just out of interest for other people who might be coming through this way, anything tourist potential?

00:22:19Una Taylor: Oh, there is an unbelievable amount of things to do in Bourke. You could spend a week. Often, I think tourists, when they plan to come to Bourke, actually short, you know, they don't leave enough time. So there's a beautiful Mount Gundabooka in the National Park. There's a paddle steamer, the Jandra paddle steamer that you can have a lovely afternoon cruise on. There's the Crosley Engine, so if people are interested in the old engines, that's down at the Replica Wharf, down at the wharf. Yeah, there's some beautiful bushwalking tracks. There's heaps to see and heaps to do. I'm a real advocate for Bourke. I think it's a wonderful place, and you should really get out to the outback and enjoy it. Okay, all for it.

00:22:58David Moss: I did enjoy seeing the kangaroos on the actual race course starting off. How many people do you tend to get around here? Sorry, coming to the parkrun.

00:23:06Una Taylor: It's a small parkrun, so the most we've ever had is 56.

00:23:10David Moss: Right.

00:23:11Una Taylor: But our general average would be, say, 20 to 25.

00:23:14David Moss: And I notice you do have a few tourists going through, either heading north, I think, more than anything else.

00:23:19Una Taylor: So everybody that's a tourist is generally chasing the sun this time of year. So they're usually Melbourneites or from south going to Queensland. And then sort of towards the end of the tourist season, it's the opposite. They're going home again. We don't get any tourists in summertime. It's just too hot. So this time of year is the perfect time to be in Bourke. You know, that sort of, well, from Easter to October is just lovely weather.

00:23:45David Moss: I also say it's nice. What actually happens here, the parkrun, there's a little ramp of, I don't know, 50, 80 metres or so going up to start. But it's one of the nicest things is actually having a downhill section at the end of a parkrun. Yes. parkrun seems to be notorious for getting that little twisty up to the finish line. Yes. Which is a little bit sadistic.

00:24:05Una Taylor: Yeah, I agree. I think the end of our parkrun is a really, it's a bit of a feel good, isn't it? You know, you're running in and you've got the volunteers at the end smiling and and cheering, but it's just that bit easier on the downhill.

00:24:16David Moss: Well, I only got here yesterday. I've got to admit, what I've seen has been really nice. So I do recommend anyone who does have the opportunity to come through here, hey, give it a go. Try and arrive on a, oh, I was going to say a Friday, even a Thursday. Have a look around, and then have a go at the parkrun.

00:24:31Una Taylor: Absolutely. We'd love to see visitors from anywhere in the world. Thank you, Una. Thank you. Okay.

00:24:37David Moss: Okay, and I'm now with Bonnie. And Bonnie, you've just done the parkrun here at Bourke as well.

00:24:43Bonnie: Yep.

00:24:43David Moss: Do you live in town?

00:24:44Bonnie: I do. I've been in Bourke for the last 10 months. So originally from, lived here, born here, but grew up in Melbourne and back in Bourke.

00:24:52David Moss: Okay, subtle difference between the two.

00:24:55Bonnie: Yeah.

00:24:55David Moss: And do you do the parkrun every week?

00:24:58Bonnie: Yes, I have been. So I've... been selected in the Indigenous Marathon Project. So I've been into my training and been at parkrun almost every weekend.

00:25:09David Moss: Okay, so tell us about the Indigenous Marathon Project.

00:25:13Bonnie: Yeah, so Indigenous Marathon Project's under the Indigenous Marathon Foundation. It's founded by Rob de Castella and he's helped create a platform for Indigenous people to spread ripple effects throughout the community for Indigenous people. So It's a program where you train to run the New York City Marathon, but due to COVID, we're going to be running at midnight in Alice Springs. Okay, slightly different crowd to what we're getting over in... Yeah, into New York. But no, it's an amazing opportunity. And so it's not just about running, it's also creating the ripple-affecting communities and building up resilience of Indigenous people in the country.

00:26:00David Moss: So out of interest, how much running are you doing each week at the moment?

00:26:03Bonnie: So at the moment, my long runs are, today I did 13k. That's a very long parkrun. Yeah, so I did my 8k's before parkrun and then tried to tee it up perfectly so I could just keep running into parkrun. But yeah, so at the moment I'm up to 13, but in five weeks the squad are getting together for another workshop, in the Gold Coast where we'll run the Gold Coast Half Marathon and we'll also be doing our education.

00:26:28David Moss: Excellent for all of the listeners who are likely to be there. Bonnie will be out there running away.

00:26:32Bonnie: Yeah, me and my squad and some previous graduates from the program are going to be doing the full marathon on the Sunday. So we're going to have a big presence at the Gold Coast Half. So we're doing that and we're up there for a week and during the week we're doing our Indigenous Leadership and Health Promotion program. course so it's not just about the running we're doing an education element as well.

00:26:55David Moss: Okay excellent and will people be able to recognise you?

00:26:58Bonnie: Yeah we'll be having all of our gear on so our ASICS gear with our Indigenous Marathon Project uniform some of the previous grads will have their graduate shirts on as well so yep.

00:27:08David Moss: Okay and when is the Alice Springs one?

00:27:10Bonnie: So Alice Springs will be late October. I think it's the 23rd of October. Don't quote me on that. But yeah, late October under the full moon. That's the perfect time for doing it. They call it a moonlight marathon. They did it last year for the 10 years that the program's been going. And yeah, they had a bit of a tough year last year with COVID, but they had an amazing, amazing experience in Alice Springs.

00:27:35David Moss: It's wonderful. It's nice seeing you encouraging one of the runners on Little Girls.

00:27:40Bonnie: Yeah, so Koisha, her teachers brought her over from Brewarrina, which is about 100km from Bourke. So they've been over the last couple of weeks doing parkrun and she's just been doing her regional... She just ran her district and won district cross-country and she'll be off to regionals in two weeks. So it's so exciting to encourage the young mob out there and, you know, really get behind them and... and encourage them to keep running. So it's great.

00:28:07David Moss: I should ask, how long have you been running for?

00:28:09Bonnie: I've been running for a little while. I've previously run Melbourne Half Marathon two years ago, but then had a bit of a drop. But I've been applying for the Indigenous Marathon Project for four years.

00:28:20David Moss: Congratulations for that. I know that's sort of an iconic thing that Deek de Castella started up.

00:28:26Bonnie: Yeah, he's amazing. Rob's great. And then all the graduates who've been part of the program, there's been 109 graduates and each person has inspired other people in their communities and across the country so my sister also did the project in 2016 so she's encouraged me to apply and so yeah four years after she did it and I finally got in so I'm stoked and yeah I've had a few friends and a few friends running it and they've just inspired so many people across the country look Bonnie thank you very much no worries wishing you all the best thank you thank you so much

Roving report Tracey Wood — New Farm parkrun

00:29:03Tracey Wood: Good morning, parkrunners. It's Tracey in a Tutu, nefariously navigating the niceties of New Farm parkrun today. I'm getting my volley vest on to firstly furnish the first-timers briefing upon the new folk. Stay tuned. Right, I've found Vance. And Vance, hi, I'm Tracey. I'm doing the first-timers briefing today. So what have you got for me?

00:29:27Vance: Hey, Tracey. Well, what we've got here is we've got a first-time briefers brief. So what actually happens is at around about 10 to 7, I will call out that we're going to have the first-time briefers. They're you, Tracey. Yep. Well, then... they will all huddle around you and you will use this first time briefers guide yeah okay oh good yes very good so what you can do there is you'll give a welcome yes and you'll explain that that's you are you and you'll explain what happens here and then you'll talk about the parkrun then you'll talk about what actually happens when they get to the finish line yes and then you'll give a brief overview of the race description or the course description right okay yep and that should take around about five minutes

00:30:11Tracey Wood: Fantastic. And where do you want me to stand, Vance?

00:30:13Vance: Just over here.

00:30:14Tracey Wood: Just over here at the picnic tables? Fantastic. Yeah, just by the table. All right, great. And you're the Run Director today?

00:30:21Vance: I'm the Run Director today.

00:30:22Tracey Wood: Right. And you're going to be kicking off the briefing before this or after this?

00:30:27Vance: I will do the briefing after you.

00:30:29Tracey Wood: Right. Okay. So I'll just wait for the heads up, the shout out, and then we'll go from there. Absolutely. Thank you.

00:30:35Vance: Thank you.

00:30:37Tracey Wood: okay first-timers briefing good morning everyone okay my name is Tracey uh welcome to New Farm parkrun if you've got any questions please ask me or any of the other volunteers or wearing our delightful orange vests uh or ask any of the other parkrunners we're all a friendly bunch first of all I'm just going to ask does everyone have their barcode is anyone absolutely new to park I've never done a parkrun before got their um everyone got their barcode I only have it on phone. Okay. Unfortunately, we can't scan off phones at the moment, but just get a printed one or people have got bracelets on this, but just put those in your pocket. You don't need those for later. Okay. About parkrun. parkrun is not a race. We... Walk, jog, run, volunteer or spectate, all are welcome. You won't be last. Thanks to our friendly volunteer Tail Walkers. And that's Glenda and Tail Walkers. Hi. They're over there. So you won't be last. They're going to meander their way along and they'll be at the back. So what to do at the finish? Please stay in order and take your finish position token. Find a friendly volunteer to scan your barcode and token. Okay, course description. Brief description of the course is we start down here, we go out, we come back. If you're at the front, keep going until you get a Marshal, then you come back. Okay, that's fairly easy. If you hit port side, you've gone way too far, okay? We're on social media, so please do share your experiences with others and encourage your friends, family and colleagues to come along too. And most importantly, have lots of fun. Okay, another couple of tips. We do have a photographer on course. If you don't want your photo taken, please cross your arms like that and we will delete your photos. If you've got any questions, just ask, okay, and have a great day.

00:32:31Unidentified speaker: Thank you.

00:32:34Tracey Wood: Okay, I'm now with Mike, who is the Run Director today, is that right? Or are you the Event Director? Sorry, Mike.

00:32:40Mike: No, I'm the Run Director. It's Vance who's the Event Director.

00:32:43Tracey Wood: Yes, excellent. And how did it all go today?

00:32:45Mike: Yeah, it all went very well. There was no incidents. It was a bit of a chilly start, but now the sun's out. So yeah, it's been a good one and everyone's finished and everyone's enjoyed themselves.

00:32:55Tracey Wood: Excellent. And what were numbers like today?

00:32:57Mike: I think we just got just over 400, which is about normal for New Farm.

00:33:01Tracey Wood: Yeah, yeah. And have you been doing this for a while?

00:33:04Mike: Run directing, yeah. So I think it's about a year and a half I've been doing and I've been volunteering in New Farm for a few years since we arrived from the UK.

00:33:12Tracey Wood: Oh, right. Oh, fantastic. So how are you enjoying it over here?

00:33:15Mike: The weather's a lot better and also it means that we can go out because in the UK they're still pretty much on lockdown or they're just coming out of lockdown. So yeah, we made the decision at the right time.

00:33:24Tracey Wood: Right. So New Farm is your favourite park right now at the moment, is it?

00:33:27Mike: Yeah. So when we first arrived, we lived in New Farm. So that's why we now live over the other side of the city in Toowong, but we've still come back to New Farm. This is our home park when it always will be now. Yeah.

00:33:36Tracey Wood: Yeah, excellent. Oh, that's fantastic. And do you do any other touring? You mentioned South Bank. Do you occasionally tour around to other parkruns?

00:33:45Mike: Yeah, we do. We try and get about. It was a few weeks ago we had a camper van for a few weeks, so we did a few up in the north of Queensland. But yeah, we try to go out and visit different places when we're not doing volunteering duties at New Farm.

00:33:57Tracey Wood: Yeah, excellent. All right, well, the run seemed to go very well today. I saw there was a few cyclists on course, which made it interesting, but it was a good run nonetheless and another beautiful day here in Brisbane. So thanks very much for your time, Mike.

00:34:10Mike: No worries. Thanks for coming down and hopefully we'll see you again.

00:34:12Tracey Wood: See you next week. Oh, perfect. There we go. Cheers. Okay, I've done the first-timers briefing, I've done the event, and I've chatted with Mike and Vance, who are Run Directors here. Now, without further ado, I'll give you Tracey's nice numbers to visit New Farm parkrun. Okay, New Farm parkrun is the second parkrun in Queensland and in Australia. So if you're looking to increase your III index, you need to come here. And if you need to know what an III index, you need to go talk to the informant. Don't ask me. I don't know who he is. Two, the markets are nearby. There's coffee, there's fruit, there's veggies, there's flowers, there's coffee. There's lots of food available, lots of delicacies here. And did I mention there's coffee? Okay, number three, gardens are nearby. How beautiful. I'm quite partial to visiting the gardens, being around the roses. Very nice. Oh, which leads you onto the picnic areas. Great place to bring a picnic rug and your hamper and come sit down and watch the world go by, but if you don't want to bring a picnic you can go to the nearby breakfast places not only at the markets here with lots of food did I mention coffee there's also lots of breakfast places around that you can go grab a bite to eat and sit and watch the river yes the lovely brown snake of a Brisbane River meanders its way along and you can watch the various traffic along here Um, numbers. Oh, where else can you do a parkrun with over 400 of your closest friends? Fantastic. Yeah, it does get a bit busy, but that's okay. They've got it well managed here anyway. Do be aware of cyclists on the course as it is a shared pathway. Okay, the top reason to visit New Farm parkrun is just it's a really nice park, right, actually. It's flat, it's fast, it's scenic, it's beautiful. There's parking, there's toilets, there's a playground, there's markets. Did I mention coffee? It's just a really nice place to visit. People are lovely. I'm going to wander off. Have a great weekend, guys, and I'll see you on the B-side. Toodles from Tracey.

Roving report Paul Kitching — Charleston parkrun

00:36:25Paul Kitching: Good morning, parkrun adventurers. This is PK checking in again, far out. Another report so close to the last one. Yes, because I am out adventuring again and have headed up into the Adelaide Hills to do the beautiful Charleston parkrun. Charleston is just out of, well, it's in Charleston, but just out of Woodside, Oakbank, around that beautiful area of the hills. Last time we were here, it was freezing. Still cold today, but not as cold, but we have come... to do the uh 100th Charleston parkrun and it's a beautiful course there's lots of uh scenery things to see um there's even signs to point out some of the things you may see like kangaroos there was a sign that said look out for the cows I saw the cows but then I also saw the cows gotta love a good segue um I've got the cowl family the mad cows uh how you going aid good Paul I'm father cowl Father cow, moo. How was today's parkrun for you?

00:37:22Unidentified speaker: Today was great. We all ran as a family. I think that's the first time after many parkruns we've run as a family and crossed the line together.

00:37:29Paul Kitching: Oh, look at that. I did see a few of the cow signs out there. That was very impressive. How are you going, Lil?

00:37:34Unidentified speaker: good not as yes I did but not as tired as I am after crossing the line for other parkruns still invigorating hey yes um have you done this one before uh yeah yeah yeah have you we've all done this haven't we yes and what were your thoughts pen well today it was green the first time we came it was white it was so cold there was uh frost on the ground the second time we came is after the bushfires that's right oh my gosh and this time it was green yeah with lots of cows

00:38:03Paul Kitching: Lots of cows. Cows and cows. Yeah, it is a beautiful parkrun. And great to get out here and support the community. Good on you, cows. Thank you so much. Woo-hoo! If only you could see their horns. Moo! I've now wandered over to the finish line and found today's Run Director. You're also the Event Director, aren't you? This is the wonderful Kylie Ross. How are you?

00:38:27Kylie Ross: I'm good, thank you. How are you?

00:38:28Paul Kitching: I'm great. Nice to see you. Congratulations on 100 parkruns. Does it feel like yesterday that it started or does it feel like five years ago? I don't know. Well, a few years ago.

00:38:37Kylie Ross: It feels like, yeah, it probably feels like a really long time because we've got a beautiful community here. So I feel like 100 parkruns came up really quickly, but it's been awesome. We've had an awesome time building our parkrun.

00:38:48Paul Kitching: We've always loved coming up here. I was just chatting with some of our squad that go and visit different parkruns and I think they said the last we came here were after the fires when it was black. We came here when it was really cold and today we've come here when it's green. So we're seeing all different seasons kind of.

00:39:05Kylie Ross: Yeah, it's always very seasonal out there. Sometimes you can leave in the rain and come back in the sun.

00:39:10Paul Kitching: And what kind of numbers are you getting up here?

00:39:13Kylie Ross: So we average about 45 people.

00:39:15Paul Kitching: That's a nice number. It's lovely. Beautiful. Easy to manage. Fantastic. And the community, it's all about community, isn't it, really? I mean, we know that with every parkrun, but it's just a beautiful... And are you continuing to get new people discovering parkrun?

00:39:29Kylie Ross: Yeah, we had new people today, local people. So we are getting lots of local people coming in, discovering it when they see our chalking.

00:39:36Paul Kitching: Yes, of course. I love the chalking. I was just saying. I noticed the roos. I looked out for the cows. And 100% for 100 parkruns made me go even faster. That's why that worked. I love it. Kylie, what does parkrun mean to you?

00:39:49Kylie Ross: A parkrun is about my happy place where my friends are. I love Saturday mornings with my friends. I'm a nurse, so at the end of my really busy week, I find it lovely to come and see these people and just relax and have a laugh.

00:40:03Paul Kitching: That is a beautiful, beautiful way to look at it. Good on you. Thank you so much for everything you do for parkrun. And congratulations on the 100.

00:40:10Kylie Ross: Thank you so much. Nice hat.

00:40:12Paul Kitching: Thanks. Oh, yes. A bling. Yeah, black with bling. If only you could see my ugly hat. I found a few more legends who are also visiting. Why did you come today, Tracy, to Charleston?

00:40:26Tracy: Well, we saw Mel at Christies Beach last week and she said she was coming up here for Charleston's 100th. Fantastic. And we thought it would be a good opportunity to go and check out Kaku Nursery.

00:40:37Paul Kitching: Yes.

00:40:38Tracy: A new nursery up here at Oakbank.

00:40:40Paul Kitching: Yes, I've heard good things. So for those playing at home, Kaku is somewhere else as well, isn't it?

00:40:45Tracy: Blackwood, yes.

00:40:45Paul Kitching: Blackwood, that's right.

00:40:46Tracy: I've heard this one described as blackwood on steroids.

00:40:49Paul Kitching: Oh, well, look out, hey?

00:40:49Tracy: I'm not sure if that's what parkrun is.

00:40:52Paul Kitching: Sounds good, and apparently we have to take a big bag because we're going to bring home lots of things. Serenity, how was parkrun for you today?

00:40:57Serenity: parkrun was beautiful, even though it was really, really cold, and we're all wearing our black and bling, so we're adding a little bit of sparkle to the morning.

00:41:05[other]

00:41:05Paul Kitching: Moo, there's the cows in the background. Absolutely. Great to have you guys. We are now walking towards our breakfast, so I will sign off and say thanks very much. Good work, legends. Thank you. Woo-hoo. Moo-hoo. Oh, dear, my friends. Seriously. Nah, I've got a great parkrun squad, and I trust all you crew out there are loving parkrun and you've got your own squad. There's a doggo as well. Yep. I think that dog wants to get out and parkrun as well. Good times, peeps. See ya.

00:41:34[15 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:41:49Melissa Ellis: Thank you to Dave, Tracey and PK for the roving reports. And Ollie, how cool was it that Dave spoke to Bonnie from the Indigenous Marathon Project?

00:41:59Oliver Spake: Yeah, well done, Bonnie. Obviously, you know, getting right into the thick of training. It's an awesome exercise, an awesome foundation and such great support. I know we've heard on the podcast over time people that have been participating in the Indigenous Marathon Project and from Deeks himself, haven't we?

00:42:19Melissa Ellis: Yes, that was back in episode 127, Ollie. Yes. And I've always been actually a supporter of this foundation. I've got a running top. It's been a very favourite singlet that I've ran in many times from the Indigenous Marathon Project. And I have frequently done the virtual events as well that they hold once a year to raise money for the foundation, the virtual running events. Yeah, I think I ran one of my Melbourne marathons wearing the Indigenous marathon shirt and I was just hanging around outside the MCG with my running group wearing the shirt and somebody came past and commented on my shirt being IMF and I looked up into the eyes of Robert de Castella.

00:43:09Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:43:10Melissa Ellis: To my amazement and excitement. So quickly, as you do, whipped out the phone and got a selfie.

00:43:16Unidentified speaker: Yep.

00:43:18Melissa Ellis: Yeah. So there you go. And I actually bumped into him too at City to Surf a couple of years later when I was up there doing the event. And he was obviously with the team supporting them running that event as well.

00:43:33Oliver Spake: Yeah, it's such great support. And the project's clearly come a long way, Mel.

00:43:37Melissa Ellis: It has. It was formed in 2009 and they took four Indigenous Australians to run the New York City Marathon. And since then, I think, Ollie, they've had 109 graduates finishing. But at the moment, as Bonnie was saying, they can't go and obviously travel because of the current travel restrictions and the pandemic. Yeah. But they're doing the Midnight Marathon in Alice Springs, which is on the 25th of October.

00:44:07Oliver Spake: Which would be an incredible, incredible thing to experience. And I hope it's, yeah, it's everything you're hoping to be there, Bonnie. We look forward to seeing and hearing more about it along the way, hopefully.

00:44:18Melissa Ellis: So good work, Dave. Some nice reports there. And Dave, he was getting busy with achievements at Bourke. That was actually not last week, Ollie. That was the weekend before we held that one over that report.

00:44:31Oliver Spake: Yes, yes. Congratulations on the bingo for those Eagle Eared listeners. They would have picked up. Our intern found that in the stats.

00:44:40Melissa Ellis: Yeah, well done, intern.

00:44:42Oliver Spake: Yes. Someone's obviously not a novice here.

00:44:46Melissa Ellis: She's a cheeky little thing though, isn't she?

00:44:48Oliver Spake: She is.

00:44:49Melissa Ellis: She makes me giggle.

00:44:51Oliver Spake: She doesn't miss a trick and I share her affinity for Kit Kats too. Absolutely. But, yeah, well done, Dave. Congratulations. And, Mel, just on the Indigenous Marathon project, so that virtual event, I only discovered that that's coming up soon. So that times in with NAIDOC Week, if I'm not mistaken, in early July, the Run, Sweat, Inspire Festival. So there's a chance for everyone to get out.

00:45:16Melissa Ellis: Yeah, how good's that? Might have to jump on that again.

00:45:19Oliver Spake: That's some pretty impressive bling too.

00:45:22Melissa Ellis: Yeah, they're good.

00:45:23Oliver Spake: All those lovers of bling out there, I think that one is truly beautiful. It's unique.

00:45:28Melissa Ellis: I was actually looking at their merch again because, as I said the other week, I'm in the market for a new running jacket. I need to update the old model.

00:45:38Unidentified speaker: Yep.

00:45:38Melissa Ellis: When it's getting close to, you know, a decade and you notice you're still running in the same clothes, you know, it's time to maybe refresh the look. But, yeah, and I noticed the merch on the Indigenous Marathon website, so... I'm quite liking the ladies' activewear jacket. I might have to put one of those in my cart, I'm thinking.

00:45:59Oliver Spake: Excellent. Oh, we look forward to seeing it, Mel.

00:46:03Melissa Ellis: You never know, I might bump into Deeks again.

00:46:05Oliver Spake: Yes, yeah. Well, it'll be very fitting. Also in our roving reports, thank you so much, Tracey and PK. It was great to hear Tracey's kind of snapshot of the whole experience of volunteering there.

00:46:17Melissa Ellis: I loved how Tracey put together that report. She really took the listeners on the journey of learning what was involved with the first-timers briefing. I loved how that came across.

00:46:28Oliver Spake: Yes. And might I say, very fitting. I know PK was all in black for the Charleston 100th. Happy 100th to Charleston parkrun. Yes. But that bling hat did have something that looked like a US flag. So, yeah, a bit of a tribute there, perhaps unintentional. To our US parkrunners and having them back. We'll draw that bow.

00:46:49Melissa Ellis: Yes. Hopefully they got a few more events back this week.

00:46:53Oliver Spake: Yes.

Emails

00:46:54Oliver Spake: And in other news, we've also had some more correspondence, Mel.

00:46:58Melissa Ellis: That's always exciting.

00:47:00Oliver Spake: Very exciting. So we heard from, well, from Eman, who's on the III Index trail, but we also heard from Em. As I mentioned before, it was Em's birthday. We did celebrate it. And for those that might have listened to the end of the last podcast, I sincerely apologise.

00:47:18Melissa Ellis: I did my best with the edit.

00:47:22Oliver Spake: Yes, yeah, thanks for the auto-tune. I will, however, read out Em's message. So she says, hi, Mel and Ollie. Thank you so much for singing happy birthday to me on the podcast. What a great surprise, and I was so excited when I heard it. I had a great day at Shellharbour parkrun with so many of my parkrun friends, and my poppy and auntie came down from Brisbane and did our parkrun, and I scanned their barcodes. And, oh, spoiler alert, I even got a birthday present parkrun shirt saying Em from Shellharbour.

00:47:51Melissa Ellis: Oh.

00:47:53Oliver Spake: In Em's own words there, so I can't not read that. Have a great week and happy seventh anniversary to Shellharbour parkrun. Lots of love from Em.

00:48:01Melissa Ellis: Oh, thanks, Em. Thanks for emailing in. Yes. And Eman, good luck with your III challenge and keep us informed on the progress.

00:48:10Oliver Spake: Yeah, I'd love to hear of it.

Dazza's

00:48:12Oliver Spake: And then, of course, we were also joined at Dazza's.

00:48:15Melissa Ellis: Yes, yes, we were. And Dazza had an upgrade this week. As I mentioned earlier, he had a costume change. He shaved the mow. That's good. We got rid of the dirty mow.

00:48:28Oliver Spake: Didn't like the mow.

00:48:29Melissa Ellis: Wasn't a fan. No. So, yeah, now he's all clean shaven and he was in his bakery attire. So Chantelle Hosking, she noticed the new look and commented, Dazza is looking like he's ready to make everyone smile with five-star sausage rolls. And he was. He was hoping that everybody was getting their sausage roll dreams come true.

00:48:52Oliver Spake: Yes. Well, one whose sausage roll dreams did not come true was Greg Garner. No sausage roll for me today, but a new parkrun completed at Golden Beach parkrun. Great morning for a run beside the water. So I think that's a pretty good consolation.

00:49:06Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah. Yes. I'd be happy with that at the moment.

00:49:10Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:49:12Melissa Ellis: And we heard again from Caro Vos, Run Director today at Woy Woy. But, Ollie, what I want to know from Caro is where's the photos of all these driftwood sculptures that I see on her social media?

00:49:28Oliver Spake: Yes, yes, we do love the driftwood sculptures. Please share them with us as well, Caro. We did note, and something that hopefully strikes a chord with some of our listeners, one of the recent ones was a driftwood Pegasus. And for those who are unfamiliar, these driftwood sculptures show up on the central coast from local artist, I think he's local, Pete Rush, And they're just spectacular. So, yeah, we'll have to share the Pegasus for our New Zealand listeners there.

00:49:57Melissa Ellis: Yeah, let's do that.

00:49:59Oliver Spake: We also heard from Jack Corkill. Beautiful run at Sirromet parkrun for Claire Stutchbury and I today. Claire also doing a 1.5K open water swim straight after. Great to hear from Emma on the podcast this week. When we saw her name on the title of the pod, we couldn't believe it. It was awesome to meet her and Adam when we were in the States.

00:50:19Melissa Ellis: small parkrun world well and truly is wow and well done on the swim Claire that's impressive so that's like a parkrun duathlon I think so and we heard from Tracey Wood, morning team, I visited New Farm this morning to work on my p index so Tracey is doing the rounds of our local events

00:50:42Oliver Spake: And we heard from Alison King, I tail walked at Tauranga parkrun, leaped like a unicorn and danced on the boardwalk with a four-year-old doing her first parkrun and then went to the Whipped Baker in search of their custard square. None to be found, so I had a Snickers doughnut instead. And, my gosh, that one looked incredible.

00:51:02Melissa Ellis: It was massive.

00:51:05Oliver Spake: I've never seen anything like that.

00:51:06Melissa Ellis: I don't know about these custard squares, though. What's a custard square? Oh.

00:51:12Oliver Spake: We'll let that one slide.

00:51:15Melissa Ellis: And Melissa Erbacher. There is a new registered parkrunner in my household. Four years ago, my firstborn decided he was going to be born on parkrun day, making me miss parkrun and meaning my co-ED at the time had to collect the kit from hospital so he could do my RD stint for me. Fast forward to now and we were all excited to finally register him for his very own barcode. He's got a little ways to go before he'll be completing his first five kilometres, so we'll be arranging an adventure to a junior event in the near future. We're all looking forward to letting him collect his first finished token and scan in for the first time soon. That was pretty exciting.

00:51:59Oliver Spake: Yeah, happy birthday, Wes.

00:52:01Melissa Ellis: Happy birthday, Wesley.

00:52:03Oliver Spake: Listeners of the pod from four years ago will remember that time clearly. But if anyone is heading back to listen to the back catalogue, highly recommend it. Wes is obviously a well-experienced parkrunner, just not in official channels and not out of the pram really, I suppose.

00:52:21Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and did you say there was a picture, I think, on the Aussie tourism page just this week of a little boy who was doing his very first parkrun and he just wanted to collect his ticket when he got over the line.

00:52:38Oliver Spake: It was so cute. Little do they know they'll be hooked. And we also heard from Neil Taylor. Glad the fire is lit. Still trying to defrost after being RD at Burley Griffin parkrun. It was a bit cold this morning, but the sun was shining.

00:52:54Melissa Ellis: Neil had a photo of the current weather at Burley Griffin, which was minus 3.5. Yeah, that's fresh. I think they're in competition with Tasmania as who can have the coldest parkrun.

00:53:07Oliver Spake: I'm happy to stay out of that competition.

00:53:09Melissa Ellis: Yeah. And Bruce Purdy, happy snag roll day. Why is there no sausage roll emoji? This one is from the Albury Riverside Bakery just near the mighty Murray River. They have quite the menu of sausage rolls to choose from with spinach and feta or cheese and bacon sausage rolls. The verdict, five stars.

00:53:31Oliver Spake: Ooh, he gave five stars.

00:53:33Melissa Ellis: That's a bit controversial.

00:53:35[laughter]

00:53:35Unidentified speaker: LAUGHTER

00:53:36Melissa Ellis: You're not allowed to give it five, Bruce. There's nowhere to go if you give it five.

00:53:42Oliver Spake: Unless he's working off a different scale, but five stars, yeah, sounds like they're rated. And Tony O'Connell, TOC. Back to Inverloch for a lockdown nottie, then ooh-la-la, snot blocks after. Latte, please.

00:53:56Melissa Ellis: I love that reference to a (not)parkrun being a nottie. I think that should carry. Yeah. Yeah. Very catchy. And Adrian Royce, my V index increased to seven today. That's a mighty fine V index.

00:54:11Oliver Spake: Yeah, impressive one. Good work, Adrian. And Erica Liotta, first time at Logan River parkrun this morning and tourist number 75. Three quarters, Mel. Lovely course with a stunning red bridge to cross in the first kilometre. Perfection.

00:54:27Melissa Ellis: Excellent. And yeah, the three quarter count there for Erica. Well done. Janet Reid, sausage roll with a bit of sauce and a very hot latte. Did the very beautiful The Avenues parkrun event number two this morning. We had a bonfire, drizzle, cloud, sun and 78 happy faces on the track. Happy National Sausage Roll Day parkrun adventurers. I rate mine seven out of ten.

00:54:54Oliver Spake: That's decent. I noticed the scale's a bit different, but that's a strong rating.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:54:59Melissa Ellis: And incidentally, South Australia had another launch this last Saturday just gone. Ooh, another one. Who joined us? Yeah, South Para Reservoir. Ah, welcome. So that's two for two in the last two weeks.

00:55:13Oliver Spake: Yeah, South Australia, kicking on. Well, we hope to hear from some of our New South Australian parkruns soon. We'd love to hear more about the courses. We also heard from Val Warwick. Steve had a tiny sausage roll at Wattlebanks Cafe at Orford, where we both volunteered at our park parkrun before we had breakfast by ourselves. There were eight participants today. And Steve was tail walking with a first timer who loved it. She's hooked. I was timekeeping, which is probably the easiest timekeeping I will ever do.

00:55:44Melissa Ellis: Wow.

00:55:46Oliver Spake: That's an intimate parkrun, Mel.

00:55:48Melissa Ellis: It is. But good to hear that they've hooked a new person. Yes. And we had a visit from Una Taylor. Yes. This is why we had sausage rolls. It's National Sausage Roll Day. Who knew? And Una features in the interview from Dave, we heard.

00:56:08Oliver Spake: Yes. No, it was lovely to hear from Una and hear about the parkrun journey or a snippet of it. And glad to hear a serendipitous sausage roll in there. Hmm.

00:56:18Melissa Ellis: Was meant to be.

00:56:20Oliver Spake: Rebecca Bailey. No sausage roll for me today, but a run at Shellharbour in my pink shirt for Em's birthday and a rusty burger up at North Break Cafe with my Sandon Point running friends.

00:56:31Melissa Ellis: And Mandy Oliver. Main Beach for Paul Ralph, The Flash's 250th parkrun. He's also volunteered over 160 times. Our event ambassador, ED at Main Beach for five years and well-known as the Balloon Man, pacing many of us to our first sub-30 over the years. So well done, Paul, and congrats on the 250th.

00:56:54Oliver Spake: Yeah, well done, Paul.

00:56:55[applause]

00:56:55Melissa Ellis: Oh, yes, we should give a little clap.

00:56:58Oliver Spake: Yes. Yes. That's a milestone that Paul was very much looking forward to and it's wonderful to hear he hit it. So, yeah, huge congratulations.

00:57:06Melissa Ellis: Yeah, thanks for sharing that with us, Mandy. That's much appreciated.

00:57:10Oliver Spake: And Chris Fraser, the man of the day. I missed the parkrun today, but... did partake in Sausage Roll Day with a 4.5-er, watching good boys and girls chase balls, frisbee and surf at Balamby.

00:57:26Melissa Ellis: Well, I don't know. I'm just really disappointed of all the days that Chris Fraser is going to not go to parkrun. It's on National Sausage Roll Day. It just doesn't seem right.

00:57:40Oliver Spake: The 4.5 almost makes up for it, though, don't you think?

00:57:45Melissa Ellis: I don't know. He's going to have to work a bit harder to get back in my good books after that.

00:57:51Oliver Spake: Oh, good luck, Chris.

00:57:54Melissa Ellis: Irene Bommakanti, no parkrun for this Victorian today. Instead, we slept in with breakfast in bed consisting of muesli for path and toast and yoghurt for me. Jack Sestafi got the delicious task of licking the yoghurt lid. Late freedom, not parkrun at Warringal Parklands, which is within our 10-kilometre bubble. So, yes, more fellow Victorians making the best of what we can.

00:58:20Oliver Spake: Nice to hear another nottie in there. And we heard from Brett Bailey. No hanging around today. Ran with Brunner at Pegasus, then home to do some landscape work.

00:58:30Melissa Ellis: No rest for the active parkrunner. That's right. And we also heard from, what did we call them? We got our shot of Bailey's. Tanya Bailey, sunrise at Pegasus parkrun, Run Director today with 110 participants. So nice numbers at Pegasus, a beautiful sunset. And thank you for volunteering, Tanya.

00:58:54Oliver Spake: Love the morning photos. And Ingrid Botha, gluten-free sausage roll for me, please. If you can find a good one, not always easy. Practised jump shots and incidentally got a five kilometre run done at Dolls Point.

00:59:08Melissa Ellis: Ah, Ingrid was back home. Yes. And good jump shot too. I did notice that posted in the socials. And lastly, we've got Sam Schroder. Coincidentally, yesterday was International Donut Day. We went to visit Cowpasture Reserve parkrun, Camden today. I scanned some barcodes and Luke had a walk. Then we snacked on ham and egg cups on our way home to get ready for our first Swans game for the season. And Sam sent us or showed us a lovely photo of her in a doughnut dress. So Donut's making a late play for taking the limelight from Sausage Roll Day.

00:59:48Oliver Spake: I feel like we missed it, Mel.

00:59:50Melissa Ellis: Oh, well, we can't celebrate all the baked goods, Ollie.

00:59:53Oliver Spake: So we're not putting out a second pod this week just to balance the ledger?

00:59:57Melissa Ellis: No.

00:59:58Oliver Spake: No. Okay, good. Yeah, yeah.

01:00:00Melissa Ellis: So that's it. That was all our busy cafe visitors.

01:00:05Oliver Spake: Thank you, everyone, for joining. We hope you enjoyed your sausage rolls or other cuisine of your choice. We'll see you next week at Dazza's. Mel, after I suppose the intern made up the numbers this week, have we got our informant back?

01:00:19Melissa Ellis: I believe so, Ollie.

01:00:21Oliver Spake: And I should clarify, I'm pretty sure she didn't make up the numbers. Cheeky little bugger. How about we have a listen?

the Informant

01:00:40The Informant: This is the informant. These are unofficial stats. They are only valid at the time they are collected and may differ from the stats you read elsewhere. At the time of recording, 482 events worldwide had submitted results. Down under we had 341 events, 308 in Australia, still missing Victoria, and 33 in New Zealand. We had 86 events in Russia, 21 in the USA, 20 in South Africa, 11 in Japan, and 3 in UK territories. South Australia and Russia are on a streak of launches with South Para Reservoir and Buzuluk Pashkina. With a cold snap in progress we might see a drop in numbers this weekend. However last week the stats were trending upwards. Australian New Zealand attendance is up approximately 2,500 to 34,517 runners out of 41,301 worldwide. We had 5,130 PBs, while 1,242 people participated for the first time. 88 juniors reached their junior 10 milestone, 171 people reached their 50 milestone, 91 reached their 100 milestone, down 20%, and 16 people reached their 250 milestone. 20 people called bingo. Mark Tinian was the quickest with 146 events. Mark Stone was the slowest person, taking a nice round 300 events. In Regionnaire lands, this week we had four new ACT Territorians in Kayla Mark-Smith, Ayumi Kono, Egan Blake, Erica Gleason. We had five in the Northern Territory in Jason Carter, Teresa Smith, Brian Hardy, Tobias Barnes, Paddy and Jim Burgess. And over the seas where they talk funny and think rugby is the premier football code, David Brockway finished his New Zealand South Island quest. On the top 20 most Aussie New Zealand events list, Errol Poole moved to eighth outright after running at Bega, dropping Rosbarrel down to 9th. The biggest winner overall was Erica Leota who moved up 11 to 232. On the other side of the ledger there were 13 people who dropped four places. 66 people increased their Wilson index. Biggest mover of the week was Jane Colvin, who doubled her Wilson index from 7 to 14. To see these stats in full, visit theinformant.me. That's the informant, all one word, dot M-E. Or you can follow the informant on Facebook. This has been the informant, and my spreadsheet is bigger than yours.

01:03:35Melissa Ellis: And thank you, informant. The informant's got his seat back in the office, Ollie.

01:03:41Oliver Spake: A bit of to-ing and fro-ing there, but yes, comfortable and back.

01:03:45Melissa Ellis: I wonder if he's got a lock on his drawer now for the cat.

01:03:49Oliver Spake: Surely. I mean, I would expect the informant to have some very sophisticated security system with the sort of information that he trades in.

01:03:59Melissa Ellis: Yeah, how did the intern manage to sneak in? Yeah. The last we heard, her swipe card wasn't working.

01:04:07Oliver Spake: That's right. Must have a connection to HR. Maybe that's the background.

Sign-off

01:04:13Melissa Ellis: So, Ollie, next week. Next week. I have to live through you. Tell me what you're doing.

01:04:21Oliver Spake: Well, next week, as Em has broken the news in her email, it is Shellharbour's birthday. And, you know, obviously not just Shellharbour, but, yeah, looking forward to getting out and celebrating that. And sorry, Mel, but I'm looking forward to the longest run.

01:04:39Melissa Ellis: That's okay.

01:04:43Oliver Spake: Yes.

01:04:43Melissa Ellis: That's okay. Tell us all about it.

01:04:45Oliver Spake: I'll save the stories to see how many I actually make it through. But rest assured, the plan is to go and take on the Sydney one. So that'll involve a very early start and a very late finish because I don't think I'm staying up there. So, yeah.

01:05:01Melissa Ellis: Oh, okay.

01:05:02Oliver Spake: It should be fun.

01:05:03Melissa Ellis: You're not going to take a co-driver? That's a lot of driving for tired legs then.

01:05:07Oliver Spake: Yeah. No, yet to find a co-driver, but we'll see. I might try and talk mum into it again. Not saying that I've ever successfully talked her into it, but... See if I can attempt it more successfully this time.

01:05:19Melissa Ellis: Right.

01:05:20Oliver Spake: But yeah, so we do have a couple of longest runs. As we discussed in last week's pod, Melbourne was to have several longest runs and we will wait and see what happens with regards to restrictions changes. We're hoping. We're hoping for you guys, but we are looking forward to seeing some of our other longest runs. We know North Brisbane is having its longest run this coming Sunday. But, hey, there are more weeks to come. There are more longest runs. We read through them last week, Mel, but I have noted one addition.

01:05:53Melissa Ellis: Ah.

01:05:54Oliver Spake: And I'm getting on board.

01:05:56Melissa Ellis: Okay.

01:05:56Oliver Spake: The 20th of June, there is another longest run that has been announced, the Sydney Country to Coast longest run. So there's a back-to-back opportunity for Sydney. And just because I might be a little biased, this one's got a bit of driving as well, but from Campbelltown in southwest Sydney down through the Southern Highlands, Picton, Home parkrun of Friend of the Pod Sam, Cow Pasture and Bowral and Shellharbour and North Wollongong and Sandon Point. So finally, my local gets a parkrun, longest run.

01:06:31Melissa Ellis: Yay. Well, Ollie, when it comes to the Victorian events, we have had word that the decision has been made to postpone this year's longest run events across Victoria. Mm-hmm. due to our current restrictions. The inability to travel to regional areas makes the postponement the logical option at the moment. And the new date has been decided on the 11th of July. So we are hoping that we can all get out and enjoy a great day together then.

01:07:02Oliver Spake: Yes, and everyone, please check the Facebook pages for the latest updates. Hopefully there's plenty of longest run fun to come, whether it's this week or some other time.

01:07:13Melissa Ellis: Yes, and if worst comes to worst and I'm not allowed out of my 10-kilometre zone, I'll just probably be doing Toolern Creek parkrun seven times. I'll just have to run to the car, change my clothes, get back out there.

01:07:29Oliver Spake: Yep, yep, got to have the change of clothes.

01:07:31Melissa Ellis: I might be able to think of different things to do for each one. Like maybe I could skip one. Maybe I could run one backwards.

01:07:38Oliver Spake: You can zoom one, of course.

01:07:40Melissa Ellis: I could.

01:07:41Oliver Spake: Yes.

01:07:42Melissa Ellis: I might even have to get my, what is it, my gimbal. I might have to get my gimbal working. I haven't worked it out yet, Ollie.

01:07:49Unidentified speaker: Oh.

01:07:51Oliver Spake: Oh, well, yeah, we'll look forward to it, Mel. Please do share. Everyone, of course, we know Dazza's is on Saturday, but hey, if you're checking in at a cafe on Sunday, you're welcome back at Dazza's. We'd love to see any of your updates. And, of course, any other feedback, please contact us via Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. But Mel, I suppose that's it for another week. It is. Well, parkrun or nottie, we'll see you next week for more adventures.

01:09:33Unidentified speaker: we're doing a parkrun at the big parkrun and we're doing two kilometres it's really