Episode 240 - Raw & Uncut

Welcome

00:00:23Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 240 of the parkrun Adventures podcast. My name is Melissa Ellis and I am joined by the man whose passion for his home parkrun has inspired the creation of a new acronym.

00:00:39Oliver Spake: Thank you, Mel. How are you? I'm good, thanks. How are you? I'm very well, thanks. Delighted to have an acronym. Intrigued.

00:00:50Melissa Ellis: You're very special, Ollie. You had a big weekend.

00:00:53Oliver Spake: Yes. Don't know about special, but definitely had a big weekend. I have had a parkrun day and I've had another longest run and I'm very, very, very tired. How are the legs? Better than last week, surprisingly. Really? Yeah. That's good. Yeah. There's something in this regular exercise thing that probably I've Not quite appreciated previously.

00:01:15Melissa Ellis: Well, tell us about Saturday, firstly.

00:01:18Oliver Spake: Yes. Well, I was Run Director, so I did volunteer at Shellharbour parkrun. First mention. We're counting. Yep. One. We had a pretty wet and wild day. We thought it would be much wetter. I don't know how the forecast was where you were, but certainly the expectation was that there'd be quite a bit of rainfall. As it stood, completely wrong with the forecast. It all blew away. It was just really windy. And nonetheless, we had some dedicated parkrunners out there and... even more so dedicated volunteers. So thank you everyone for your help, including our course director, Rob, who took the step just as a precaution of tying the flags to the posts.

00:02:03Melissa Ellis: I did see on social media on Saturday morning Shellharbour parkrun posting a very early message for their community to keep an eye on the website or the Facebook in case they were cancelled. And that raised alarms with me and the people I was with to say, Shellharbour might be a cancellation risk.

00:02:27Oliver Spake: Yeah, look, maybe it was a tad dramatic. I'd blame that on the tiredness. I've been up watching the Euros soccer a few too many nights. And that particular morning, it was another 5am morning for the game. And it sounded really windy. I was busily messaging the course, the pre-event course checker saying, you don't have to go out there if you feel it's unsafe, please don't. But they reassured me that it was fine. They had company. And when I got there as well, we inspected the course, only a couple of minor branches down. So we cleared the track, made sure it was safe, and we got a parkrun. So, yeah, we were very grateful for that.

00:03:04Melissa Ellis: Hooray. And you had some –

00:03:06Oliver Spake: Special guest volunteers again, I saw. We've been very lucky. Volunteerist extraordinaire. Gee, it would be nice if I could get my words straight. Sam was back, yes. Yeah, and kindly stepped into the Timekeeper role. So hopefully Sam's passion for the virtual volunteer app has expanded after that. Needless to say, it all went off without a hitch. Sam was a fantastic Timekeeper. We did have technical difficulties with the camera, my own camera, which I'd wiped down and loaned to a volunteer. And I couldn't get my own camera working until I tried the old take the battery out and put it back in three times. And that fixed it.

00:03:47Melissa Ellis: Turn it off and turn it on again.

00:03:49Oliver Spake: That's a throwback to my old Telstra faults training. Have you tried switching it off and back on again? But yeah, see, these are the challenges we have at parkrun that we overcame and had a great morning, except for the fact we sold out of sausage rolls.

00:04:04Melissa Ellis: Oh, what's with that?

00:04:08Oliver Spake: Yes. Yeah.

00:04:09Melissa Ellis: And Chris wasn't even there. Let's not go there.

00:04:13Oliver Spake: No, no, we did miss him.

00:04:14Melissa Ellis: So this is coming on the back of the week where he didn't buy a sausage roll. No, what was it last week? Oh, he missed National Sausage Roll Week.

00:04:26Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:04:27Melissa Ellis: Gee, I don't know. I don't think his heart's in it.

00:04:29Oliver Spake: Oh, look, I think when you love the sausage roll that much, you can set your own terms. Yeah. A lovely weekend. Needless to say, had a fantastic experience again at the longest run. Country to coast. Yeah. The inaugural country to coast longest run. So a big shout out to Steve from Cow Pasture Reserve at Camden for suggesting and setting up the longest run this week. Had such a fun time last week in Sydney to get to do it again. Was fantastic. So I For those of you that weren't familiar with the event or aren't familiar with the courses, we started in Campbelltown in southwestern Sydney and headed down through the Southern Highlands region through Camden, Picton, home of Sam, and on to Barrel, home of the very cold puddles, and came down, saw some beautiful rainbows on the way to Shellharbour, which felt a little cruel for run number five.

00:05:24Melissa Ellis: Is that mention number two?

00:05:26Oliver Spake: Mention number two. And then North Wollongong and Sandon Point, which was just stunning with the sun having just about set at that point. Beautiful sea air, a tad cold, but wonderful time.

00:05:40Melissa Ellis: Okay. So my question is, Ollie, had you done all of those events officially previously or was one or more of those a new event for you?

00:05:50Oliver Spake: See, that was the fun part. Last week, of course, I hadn't done one of the official events and I also hadn't done one of the Running Stars events. So there's two new events of two different natures to give a try to in future. But there were two parkruns this week, that I hadn't been to and I've been on the search for which parkruns I can take the kids to and both of them hit the spot. So I'm very, very excited to get them to both Cowpasture Reserve and to Picton.

00:06:21Melissa Ellis: Ah. Yeah. Excellent. Is that on the cards now in future?

00:06:26Oliver Spake: Yes. Yeah, I think so. I think so. And I honestly don't know which one. Both of them have nice, fairly flat courses, you know, great concrete pathways, which I think the kids will appreciate. Parks nearby, good cafes, or even for the kids, a Macca's right near Picton there. So I don't think it's going to be too hard.

00:06:49Melissa Ellis: Shout out McDonald's if you want to sponsor us.

00:06:52Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's right. You have to queue up. But no, it's just a question of when now, but they're on the list. Sounds good.

00:06:58Melissa Ellis: Ollie, how have you pulled up?

00:07:01Oliver Spake: I'm sore. Yeah. I felt pretty good. I felt better than last week. And I think, as always, you've experienced these before, Mel, and hopefully again very, very soon when Melbourne gets its turn next month. But the camaraderie kind of spurs you on, probably spurs you on beyond what you might otherwise think is the capability of the legs there, uh this time was pretty good like there were some people yesterday as time of recording um that had never run more than I think it was 22 23ks in a day and trying the longest run and notching up 35ks just it's exciting

00:07:43Melissa Ellis: That's really good. Now, please excuse me, my chihuahua is snoring. I have enlisted Paul to come and remove said snoring chihuahua from the studio.

00:07:57Oliver Spake: No, don't disturb the chihuahua. No, he's off. Let it rest.

00:08:01Melissa Ellis: Thank you, Paul.

00:08:02Oliver Spake: Thank you, Paul.

00:08:04Melissa Ellis: Yeah, bye, Chico. Yeah, he's waving. Oh, goodness. Oh.

00:08:10Oliver Spake: Mel, correct me if I'm wrong. Yes. But it was a pretty big week at your end.

00:08:16Melissa Ellis: Well, it was. It was. We started with a week of anticipation, waiting to hear if Victoria was going to get the go-ahead to come back to parkrun. And we didn't get that notification until... mid-morning on Friday. So, you know, it plays with your emotions a bit, Ollie, not knowing, trying to fill volunteer rosters, not knowing if you've got actually an event that's going to go ahead.

00:08:48Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's a tough gig.

00:08:50Melissa Ellis: Yeah, yeah. So Thursday night for juniors for Eynesbury, we were madly trying to fill our roster and hoping that the event would proceed however come approximately 10 30 Friday morning we got the news to say no no events will be going ahead in Victoria so it was a rush to quickly send out emails to all those people that had kindly put their hand up to volunteer to say that well in actual fact juniors would not be proceeding and then cancel the events through the official channels. But there was already plans, Ollie. There was already plan Bs in motion because, you know, The borders are now open.

00:09:44Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:09:45Melissa Ellis: And restrictions were eased enough that Victorians could travel into New South Wales or ACT to do parkrun. So there was already the ideas had been flowing for contingencies if we couldn't run in our greatest state. Yes. And yeah, so yeah, we escaped Victoria and did a very long car drive. I jumped in with Toc and his lovely wife, Jacqui, and travelled north quite a few hours.

00:10:19Oliver Spake: I think a few is probably an understatement by the sounds of it.

00:10:22Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you'd be right. I think nine hours probably. Yeah, there's a bit of passion there. So Tony was sitting on 249 parkruns prior to the pause and he really wanted to do that at Inverloch.

00:10:40Unidentified speaker: Yeah, yeah.

00:10:41Melissa Ellis: The event where it's always sunny, and uh I guess you know when you're faced with another week where there's no parkrun and there's the opportunity to travel and maybe tick that off it's tempting yes and so yeah the opportunity was grabbed and yeah we travelled north so I was very proud and very honoured to have been there for Tony's 250th at Wagi Bridge.

00:11:11Oliver Spake: Wagi Bridge.

00:11:14Melissa Ellis: And I believe we've got some context on the pronunciation, haven't we, Ollie?

00:11:19Oliver Spake: Well, I won't say that I'm 100% confident with my pronunciation, but it's been... Yeah, it's been good to get a bit of reassurance, a bit of direction. And look, I should say, I'm sure that we have been educated already on the pod, but thank you, marvellous Mark, in this case, for giving me another chance. But yes, Wagyu. So Wagyu is part of the Ngunnawal language, being that Wagyu Bridge is on the land of the Ngunnawal people. And what does it mean, Mel?

00:11:53Melissa Ellis: It means dancing.

00:11:55Oliver Spake: Yeah, which is quite lovely. The bridge there spanning the natural water line.

00:12:00Melissa Ellis: Yes. And thank you, Mark, for sending us further information to help us to be confident of the way that we're pronouncing it on the pod, because we want to get things right. We're all about education here in the parkrun adventurers. And yeah, I think Mark was He was definitely surprised because we didn't tell him we were coming. We knew he was the RD. Yep. Well, Tony knew. And we didn't message ahead to say we were coming, so we turned up on the morning and surprised him.

00:12:32Oliver Spake: Oh, what a way to do it too.

00:12:34Melissa Ellis: Mm-hmm.

00:12:34Oliver Spake: What a way to do it. So you got there in time for the run brief, I trust?

00:12:37Melissa Ellis: Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. On point, the run brief, I must say.

00:12:43Oliver Spake: Marvellous.

00:12:43Melissa Ellis: Definitely. It was. Yeah, and I wasn't prepared for the, oh, they call them undulations. I'll call them hills.

00:12:56Oliver Spake: Well, you have a bit of time to contemplate them, maybe a few iterations of the undulations. Yes.

00:13:03Melissa Ellis: Yeah, so Wagi Bridge isn't a flat course. But, no, I was quite happy because that gave my legs a little bit of a workout and a little bit more preparation for what's coming up in the next few months. Yes.

00:13:18Tracey Wood: Yeah. Lovely. And, Ollie, there was people from Shellharbour there.

00:13:23Melissa Ellis: From Shellharbour parkrun, really? Yes.

00:13:26Oliver Spake: Is that three and four? That's three and four. Yes.

00:13:29Melissa Ellis: Yes. Karen and?

00:13:31Oliver Spake: Karen and Ralph.

00:13:32Melissa Ellis: Yes. Yes.

00:13:33Oliver Spake: Yeah. Yeah, that was a bit of a surprise. So our own event team members.

00:13:38Melissa Ellis: I know.

00:13:39Oliver Spake: Who would have thought that? Who would have planned it? I mean, they're on a bit of a tourist street themselves. I think you plot these things, Ollie. It's really hard to come up with this content. You've got to appreciate how hard it is to come up with ways, different ways, creative ways to mention Shellharbour parkrun this many times. So thank you, Karen and Ralph. I owe you some petrol money.

00:14:00Melissa Ellis: Yes. So Tony noticed them because they were wearing buffs of the Running Is BS podcast that Tony was also wearing and he recognised that, oh, look, There's people over there. And then when Karen turned and I noticed her apricot Shellharbour, I was like.

00:14:20Oliver Spake: You didn't swear, did you? There we are, number six. Well, no.

00:14:25Melissa Ellis: But my eyes might have rolled. No, but that was very exciting because of the connection, obviously. So, yeah, we were very happy and it was just like one big family gathering as parkrun is. Yes. But, Ollie, can I take a moment because I want to give a bit of a shout-out to our friend TOC.

00:14:45Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:14:45Melissa Ellis: Yeah, for his 250th. So, Ollie, we've got a little bit of TOCopedia that was posted today on the Inverloch Facebook page. And allow me to read it to you. Please, parkrunner A772779, Tony O'Connell. Toc discovered parkrun while holidaying at Merimbula between Christmas and New Year in 2013. He was 18th across the line in a time of 22.54, running in a field of 104 runners. Like many of us, Toc was addicted immediately. He ran at Albert in February and again at Easter and was back in Merimbula again in late May. Frustrated by the lack of a local parkrun, Toc contacted parkrun Australia about starting up a run locally. He did so at around the same time that I, Glenn Sullivan, contacted them and we were put together to see if we could get one up. We made use of the fledgling running group on Thaggy Road Runners to set up a working party and we met with people at the Bass Coast Shire. A small working party of Toc, myself, Les Corson, Lyndon Costin, Kat Denny and Bill Barry met to look at a course at Inverloch after considering where the best local location would be. the wheels are in motion and a start date was set. The Inverloch trial took place on August the 30th, 2014 with the start date set for September 13th. Toc became the Event Director and was the Run Director at the inaugural Inverloch run. By the time the first Inverloch event took place, Toc had completed nine parkruns at Merimbula, Albert, Frog Hollow, Lilydale Lake, Point Cook, North Shore and Berwick Springs. Inverloch had 94 runners and walkers at that first event. That was only the start for Toc. He became a parkrun ambassador and was responsible for assisting to set up parkrun events all through Gippsland, including our neighbours Phillip Island and Coonwarra. Of his 250th runs, Toc has completed 161 at other parkruns, travelling all around the country to walk, run or volunteer. Toc is the face of Inverloch parkrun. If you run elsewhere and mention his name, there will be someone there who knows and has met Toc. Congratulations, Toc, on your 250 parkruns. Welcome to the Green Shirt Club. And that was written by Glenn Sullivan.

00:17:10Oliver Spake: Ah, that's wonderful and big congratulations to Toc. That's a magnificent milestone.

00:17:15Melissa Ellis: And also, you know, Ollie, considering of the 250 parkruns, that includes 131 different parkruns.

00:17:23Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:17:24Melissa Ellis: Four countries and he has volunteered 135 times.

00:17:28Oliver Spake: Yeah, fantastic. Toc's a good example of someone that has given so much in so many different ways to parkrun and the support, the community spirit that clearly Inverloch shares and the parkrun world shares from people like Toc is just, I think, something that keeps us all coming back on a Saturday.

00:17:48Melissa Ellis: And on top of that, he's... willingness to be a part of the podcast and be the channel five news crew as well so he gives extra time as well to do that yeah clearly I was a long time listener beforehand so I personally was thrilled when I met TOC at the first listener meetup so

00:18:08Oliver Spake: I know it's a challenging time for you guys and it's been no short distance to make it to Wagi Bridge, but fantastic to hear you guys share in just a little celebration. I'm sure that's going to continue when TOC does return to Inverloch as well.

00:18:24Melissa Ellis: Definitely. I know he really wanted to do that milestone at Inverloch, but no doubt that that community will celebrate him when he is back there.

00:18:36Oliver Spake: And Mel, thank you for sharing that. I should also mention because I was, of course, as I said, up at the longest run last week and I did get to catch up with some of the Sydney parkrunners. I wanted to shout out also to Paul, Paul Rainbow. Congratulations on Paul's 250. I failed to mention it last week, but good to see the crew back there celebrating Paul's 250. Well done, Paul.

00:18:59Melissa Ellis: Yes, well done, Paul. And fabulous to know that Paul listens to the podcast.

00:19:05Oliver Spake: Yes, thank you for the feedback. We like all our feedback, Paul.

00:19:08Melissa Ellis: And Paul, I don't know if you noticed the jump shot that myself, TOC and Jacqui did at Wagi Bridge, but that was in honour of the Dirty Cheaters. And a tip of the hat to you.

00:19:19Oliver Spake: Yes. So somehow it managed to be a fairly big weekend, at least in parts, Mel. We did hear from a couple of other parkrunners at the weekend, a couple of familiar voices, one we haven't heard from for a while. So should we have a listen, Mel?

00:19:34Melissa Ellis: Okay. Yep. Let's do that.

00:19:35[14 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Nadine Crawford — Ted Scobie Oval

00:19:49Nadine Crawford: Good morning, parkrunners. It's Nadine here. It's been a while since I've put a roving report in, but I happen to find myself on a bit of an adventure this weekend. I have escaped like a refugee from Victoria and I'm in Griffith, New South Wales at the lovely Ted Scobie Oval parkrun. So I'm here with a couple of guys here. They tell me they're from Wagga. So can you just quickly introduce yourselves?

00:20:12Matt: I'm Matt from Wagga.

00:20:14Nadine Crawford: And I'm Beth from Wagga. Awesome. So what brings you to Griffith this morning?

00:20:19Tracey Wood: Well, we're just having a holiday, so just a long weekend and have never been here, even though we live two hours away, which seems a bit silly.

00:20:28Nadine Crawford: But anyway, we finally made it here. Nice.

00:20:30Matt: We've got the long weekends over.

00:20:32Nadine Crawford: Oh, good. And I'm going to make an assumption. Tell me if I'm wrong. Are you parkrunners in Wagga?

00:20:38Unidentified speaker: Yes.

00:20:38Nadine Crawford: You are. And what did you think of Ted Scobie Oval this morning? Nice.

00:20:42Matt: Good. There was a bigger hill than what we're used to, but no, we enjoyed it.

00:20:46Nadine Crawford: Is Wagga flat, is it? I haven't been there.

00:20:48Matt: Fairly flat, yeah, just around Lake Albert.

00:20:50Nadine Crawford: Okay, right. I like how you threw in the Victorian reference there for everyone. That was good. Now, I've got a question for you. A little while ago, our lovely pod host, Mel, was here in Griffith, and she didn't go to the Hermit's Cave. So what I'd like to note from you guys is, should Mel have gone to the Hermit's Cave?

00:21:09Matt: Well, I would have thought it was essential, wouldn't you?

00:21:12Nadine Crawford: Yeah, we're going there later.

00:21:14Matt: Excellent.

00:21:15Nadine Crawford: Excellent. Well, you'll have to tell us all about it. Well, enjoy your time in Griffith and thanks for talking. No problem.

00:21:20Matt: Thank you.

00:21:20Nadine Crawford: Okay, I'm here with James now. He's our trusty volunteer today. James, tell us about Ted Scobie Oval parkrun and how you came to be here.

00:21:29James: Well, it's actually pretty new. We started about 19 weeks ago after our failed launch the year before because of COVID-19, which has been fun, but it's been two years in the making since we've applied for all our grants and stuff and we finally got off and running and it's going well.

00:21:46Nadine Crawford: Excellent. And you're one of the Event Directors here, aren't you?

00:21:48James: I am, yes.

00:21:49Nadine Crawford: Yeah. And who's your partner in crime?

00:21:51James: Glennis Domeni.

00:21:52Nadine Crawford: Oh, fantastic. And so James tells me that Glennis is the face and he is the IT support. Is that right? Awesome. You've got to have a good team. So I have a question for you. A few weeks ago, our trusty pod host Mel was here in Griffith and she didn't go to the Hermit's Cave. Should she have gone to the Hermit's Cave? Absolutely.

00:22:13James: Absolutely.

00:22:15Nadine Crawford: Tell us about the Hermit's Cave.

00:22:17James: Well, obviously it's a bit before my time, but apparently one bloke just one day got sick of living in society and went and lived by himself up there and he built his own little terrace and his home within the rock. It's actually pretty cool.

00:22:29Nadine Crawford: Yeah, awesome. Well, we're definitely going to go to the Hermit's Cave.

00:22:32James: Yeah, it's kind of essential for Griffith.

00:22:34Nadine Crawford: Yeah, absolutely.

00:22:34James: There's not much else.

00:22:37Nadine Crawford: Well, thanks for talking to us. You're welcome. Appreciate it. Thanks for a lovely parkrun. I'm now here with Glenys, who's the other ED of Ted Scobie Oval, and she's standing here at the finish line giving out tokens with a coffee in her hand, which is no better way to volunteer, in my opinion. So, Glenys, tell us a little bit about your community here at Ted Scobie.

00:22:57Glenys: It's a great community. We've only been going about 19, 20 weeks, but we all know each other's names. It's just fantastic. Gets you up in the morning, get ready for the weekend and go, go, go. And we can see Hermit's Cave from here. It's an amazing place to go and visit. A guy lived up there for 10 years and he's got these little rooms and he had his garden. He's still got paintings and his words up on the cave walls. It's an amazing place. And it's a beautiful backdrop to the actual parkrun. Well, it is too, because it's right up behind us.

00:23:27Nadine Crawford: We can see the rocks of the cave from here. So I do want you to be very clear, though. Anyone who comes to Griffith, would you recommend going to Hermit's Cave? Definitely. It's one of our biggest attractions. Excellent.

00:23:39Glenys: Well, thank you so much for a lovely morning. Now, I must know, where is the best coffee in Griffith on a Saturday morning? Oh, there's so many good places. We've got Italian background. Yeah, I notice there's a lot of Italians here. And if you don't have good coffee, it's a no-no. Yeah. Probably, if you want to go, you could go into the Central Shopping Centre. Mitchie's got amazing coffee. Peaches are in there too. They have good coffee. Up the top, there's Limonere, which is like a really beautiful old building. They have a store with all recycled stuff. Basin going anywhere. Yeah, that's it.

00:24:11Nadine Crawford: Because we all know that parkrun is all about the coffee, yeah? Yes, especially on a cold morning like today.

00:24:17Glenys: Oh, it's actually nice here this morning. The sun's shining. Last week was really the bad. Was it? We had fog and you couldn't see the run. Oh. Oh, well, I'm glad we're here this week. It was beautiful today.

00:24:26Nadine Crawford: Thank you so much for talking to us, Glennis.

00:24:28Glenys: I'm still recording.

00:24:29Nadine Crawford: Still here with Glennis. And after I stopped recording, she told me this amazing story of how she came to find out about parkrun and started here. So, Glennis, can you tell our listeners about how that all came to be?

00:24:39Glenys: I own the local athlete's foot store and I went to an athlete's foot conference. and they were announcing they were major sponsors of parkrun. They put a video up and at the end of it, I was crying. I was so emotionally connected with, and I thought we need that for Griffith. So it took me about 18 months and COVID put a dent in all those plans, but we set up parkrun and it's the most amazing experience. I can't wait to get up Saturday morning and come to parkrun and it's the best buzz for the whole weekend.

00:25:05Nadine Crawford: That's so amazing. And it's just amazing to hear how athlete's foot is, you know, having an impact on getting parkruns established around the country too and, you know, parkrun and athlete's foot working together. So thank you so much. No, I enjoy it. Thank you for coming. Awesome. Thanks, Glenis. I'm here with my lovely husband, Ian, who we've come up to Griffith together. So Ian chose the parkrun that we visited this weekend. Can you tell us why we chose this parkrun?

00:25:33Ian: Why we came to Griffith? Yeah, well, I've actually wanted to come to Griffith for quite a while because not many people know this, but the town was laid out by the same guy that designed Canberra, a guy by the name of Walter Burley Griffin. And everyone who's been to Canberra knows it's a town of many roundabouts and circles. But if you come to Griffith, you'll find it's also got circular roads radiating out from the middle, just like Canberra. So the guy only had a few ideas, obviously. He basically had one idea. When you build a town, it's on a big circle.

00:26:03Nadine Crawford: It is actually pretty cool, isn't it? It is.

00:26:05Ian: It's quite interesting. If you look at it on the map, you get a bit more of an idea about it. So I've actually wanted to come to Griffith for a long time, but here we finally are and the sun is shining. It's lovely.

00:26:14Nadine Crawford: Awesome. Now, just one more question for you. What would be your top tourist attraction pick for today? Where are you going to visit today?

00:26:21Ian: Well, I've read that there's a place called the Hermit's Cave. Well, apparently you can't come to Griffith without coming to the Hermit's Cave.

00:26:29Nadine Crawford: So you think we should definitely take him to Hermit's Cave?

00:26:30Ian: I think we should. I think we are definitely going to the Hermit's Cave after coffee.

00:26:33Nadine Crawford: All right. That's a wrap from me. We are headed to the Hermit's Cave. Happy parkrun Day, everyone.

Roving report Tracey Wood — Bunyaville

00:26:40Tracey Wood: Good morning. It's Tracey in a Tutu. I'm at the beautiful Bushy Bunyaville again and I'm with the amazingly awesome Alison. Good morning, Alison. You're wearing a lovely tutu. What's the story behind that?

00:26:53Alison: This is my 250th parkrun and I thought I'd be here just once and now I've been here 250 times. That's awesome.

00:27:03Tracey Wood: Alison, I've heard that the directors here have told you you're not allowed to volunteer again until you get your 250. Is that right? Yes, that's right.

00:27:11Alison: That's what they told me. So I'll be allowed to volunteer next week. I'll put my name down next week, won't I?

00:27:17Tracey Wood: And what's your favourite volunteering role? You've done Tail Walker a few times.

00:27:21Alison: I was going to say Tail Walker or marshal. Okay. And you like this course? You're obviously regular here. I'm reasonably regular. I was a parkrun passionista until a while back, and then I've started doing other parkruns. This one's very steep, but I still love it here. And are you a volunteerist as well? You volunteer at other locations? No, I don't think I have volunteered anywhere else. I'll have to, won't I?

00:27:48Tracey Wood: No, I don't think so. I think you're doing enough. Thanks. We'd better go.

00:27:53Alison: Thank you.

00:27:54Tracey Wood: Sorry about that, guys. We just had to duck off for the briefing was just about to start and Alison was going to be recognised not only for her 250 parkruns, but also for her work at Bunyaville parkrun. Okay, I'm going to head out soon. I'm tail walking this morning. It's a bit wild and windy here. And because it's dropped under 20 degrees, we declare it cold. Okay, talk to you later. Okay, I'm now chatting with Claire, who's not a stranger to Bunyaville whatsoever and may have volunteered here once or twice in the past. Would that be correct here, Claire? 60-odd times, I think. As Run Director, obviously, and you started this parkrun up as well? Yes. So when was that, that Bunyaville started? I think Alison told me this morning was 2013, but I can't remember. Oh, too long ago. So obviously you're not run directing anymore. You've handed over to a few others. What are you doing with yourself these days? Very capable people. You're still coming to parkrun, obviously?

00:28:56Alison: Yes, still hooked on parkrun.

00:28:58Tracey Wood: Good on you.

00:28:58Alison: Still love Bunyaville parkrun. Excellent. Yes, still love trying others as well.

00:29:03Tracey Wood: Yeah, a bit of a tourist. Done a few overseas. Oh, which ones? Mainly in England. Oh, have you done bushy? No, no. Went down in Cornwall and Devon and that way, yeah. I've heard you can get a good pasty or is it pasty from Cornwall? Absolutely, yes.

00:29:24Melissa Ellis: And it's gone to cream. It's gone to cream, excellent.

00:29:28Tracey Wood: All right. Well, it was a great morning here today. A few runners here. A bit cold this morning, but very nice and good to see you again. Yes, absolutely. But Nippy will go for a nice coffee now. Join Alison for her 200. Yay! All right. 250. 250. Thanks, Claire. Bye.

00:29:48Melissa Ellis: Cheers.

00:29:49Tracey Wood: Okay, parkrun done and dusted. Thank goodness we're out of that bitterly cold wind. And we've headed off to the Fish Lips Cafe for a lovely hot cuppa. Unfortunately, no snot logs or sausage rolls on offer. Now that the Statman is no longer around, I'm going to give you my own stats.

SPFShellharbour parkrun Factor

00:30:09Tracey Wood: And this week, the SPF was 13. Yes, you heard it here. The Shellharbour... parkrun factor i.e number of times it was mentioned on last week's podcast yeah now has started at 13 is the new benchmark see if you can beat that this week Ollie cheers Toodles from Tracey see you on the b side

00:30:30[15 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:30:46Melissa Ellis: And great to hear from Nadine at Ted Scobie Oval and Tracey at Bunyaville, Ollie.

00:30:51Oliver Spake: Very nice to hear from them, Mel. And it sounds like Nadine was, let's say, well prepared.

00:30:57Melissa Ellis: Yes, Nadine did a very good job of getting all the details of the Hermit Cave that I missed when I was there. Thanks, Nadine. I appreciate that. And I'm glad you got to see it.

00:31:14Oliver Spake: Yes, it sounds like a great time at Ted Scobie. Definitely. And the surrounds, of course, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:31:20Melissa Ellis: And Tracey, she was there for Alison's 250th.

00:31:26Oliver Spake: Yes, congratulations, Alison.

00:31:28Melissa Ellis: And... Nice that the event team told Alison she wasn't allowed to volley again until she reached that milestone. That's just testament to the fact that she's obviously a very good volunteer who gives up a lot of her time and they wanted to see her get her own accolade.

00:31:47Oliver Spake: Yeah. Oh, look, some people really do give a lot and clearly Alison's just been a big part of parkrun there. So, no, wonderful to see the team supporting her in that way and celebrating in such a way.

00:31:59Melissa Ellis: Yes, and she seemed really excited that now that she's achieved that, Ollie, she can now volunteer again next week. Good on her.

00:32:06Oliver Spake: Priorities. Priorities.

00:32:08Melissa Ellis: I know.

00:32:09Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:32:10Melissa Ellis: And Ollie, I noticed that Tracey said she actually gave the declaration of if it's under 20 degrees, that's what classifies as cold in Brisbane.

00:32:20Oliver Spake: Did we just put it down to relativity? I mean, I guess that's cold.

00:32:25Melissa Ellis: Well, at the moment in Melbourne, that would be a heat wave.

00:32:29Oliver Spake: Yeah. That's right, yeah.

00:32:31Melissa Ellis: It's warm here if it's over 10.

00:32:34Oliver Spake: Anyway. Let's hear some other versions of that. What are your thresholds, particularly our international listeners?

00:32:41Melissa Ellis: Exactly. And Tracey was tail walking there at Bunyaville and so in the fluro again. Yes. And speaking to Claire, the founding ED at Bunyaville.

00:32:52Oliver Spake: Yeah, no, look, thank you very much, Tracey. You've captured that well and volunteered again. So, you know, I appreciate your support to the parkrun world. And I think Tracey's clearly picked up on something I must mention a little. Oh, really? You've got to mention it?

00:33:12Melissa Ellis: The new acronym, Ollie. The SPF.

00:33:16Oliver Spake: The SPF. Yes, that's for me to say. I guess it's only natural. Yes. So the Shellharbour parkrun Factor?

00:33:25Melissa Ellis: Yes. Yes. 13.

00:33:27Oliver Spake: Which makes seven today.

00:33:29Melissa Ellis: Are we going to overtake that this week? Who knows?

00:33:32Oliver Spake: Not a chance. I barely say it. But thank you, Tracey.

00:33:37Melissa Ellis: Poor old Toolern Creek. They just don't get enough love. I really need to do more for my own home parkrun.

00:33:43Oliver Spake: Oh, look, I need to do more for Tool and Creek as well. Yeah. Just on that, I have to say a sincere thank you to Tracey. Now I've got an index I can realistically achieve and better week in, week out. Sorry, everyone.

00:33:59Melissa Ellis: Oh, my goodness me.

00:34:01Oliver Spake: Speaking of hearing from people, we've heard from some more people.

Emails

00:34:06Oliver Spake: You've got mail.

00:34:07Melissa Ellis: Yes, Ollie, we have an email from Eman.

00:34:10Oliver Spake: Yeah, fantastic to hear from Eman again on a special weekend too.

00:34:14Melissa Ellis: It was, and Eman said, hey, guys, I hope you're both well and good work on completing your version of the longest run last week. I had RD duties today at South Toowoomba event number 136 with 156 participants braving this morning's cold and windy conditions. Had the pleasure of parkrun adventurer Michael Schultz visiting us as he pads out his Wilson Index and completing his 418th event. Also had our co-ed Robbie celebrate an unofficial milestone of 350 parkruns and 325 volunteer events. Stay warm this weekend. Eman. Ollie, oh, my gosh. So there's a bit to unpack in that email. Yes. Robbie.

00:35:03Oliver Spake: Robbie, well done. Simply, congratulations.

00:35:09Melissa Ellis: That's amazing.

00:35:10Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:35:11Melissa Ellis: He's been going for a while, 350 parkruns, good grief, and 325 volunteer events.

00:35:17Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:35:18Melissa Ellis: That's just ridiculous.

00:35:20Oliver Spake: It's something else. I do like to look up, obviously, people's stats on the parkrun page and see the volunteering section in particular, how it sort of spreads it out year on year. You just keep scrolling. Robbie's obviously been a huge part of the South Toowoomba family and he's And, yeah, clearly to the parkrun world.

00:35:40Melissa Ellis: And Shortsy completing his 418th parkrun. Yeah. And Eman sent us a photo, so I think we'll use that photo this week for our pod post.

00:35:50Oliver Spake: Yes. Yeah, yeah. I hope you don't mind, Eman. It's a pretty good photo. Yeah, lovely photo.

00:35:56Melissa Ellis: We will ask. Should I have asked him?

00:35:58Oliver Spake: We'll ask. No worries. We'll get the intern onto it.

00:36:02Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah, good point.

00:36:03Oliver Spake: Yes, yep, yep.

00:36:04Melissa Ellis: That's what junior, you know, office staff are for, right?

00:36:07Oliver Spake: That's right. We push that as far as we can, honestly. Yeah, yes, yeah. So thank you, Eman. Lovely to hear from you. Thank you for sending us an email. We'll be sure to respond, of course. And, yeah, please, everyone, feel free to reach out to our email address, parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. But we also got a private message, Mel.

00:36:29Melissa Ellis: We did.

00:36:29Oliver Spake: Yes, from Bruce, Bruce Purdy. So Bruce Purdy got in touch and did mention that my cheetah ears pricked up when I heard the informant mention the launch of the Valentine's Peak parkrun in the USA. I searched for the next parkrun day that coincides with February 14th. Alas, it's 2026. Though on a positive note, that gives plenty of opportunity to plan a trip to the States.

00:36:59Melissa Ellis: Well, that's a good point.

00:37:00Oliver Spake: Well, that's right. I mean, the months don't line up, but as a soccer fan, I'm checking it.

00:37:05Melissa Ellis: Why? What's it got to do with soccer?

00:37:08Oliver Spake: There's a World Cup over there in 2026, so it's just meant to be, clearly. But I think that's pretty good research from Bruce.

00:37:18Melissa Ellis: Is it Eurovision?

00:37:19Oliver Spake: Yeah, well, the US may get invited by then, but no.

00:37:23Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:37:24Oliver Spake: Oh, sorry, wrong continent.

00:37:25Melissa Ellis: My bad.

00:37:26Oliver Spake: Hey, look, Australia's invited. So, yeah, we Australians tend to be a bit liberal with our geography. Yeah. But wonderful to hear.

00:37:34Melissa Ellis: Yes, well, thanks, Bruce. Yes. That's a good point. I didn't really take enough interest in the fact that there was a new parkrun called Valentine's Peak. Mm-hmm. We need to find a connection there, Ollie. Maybe we can find a listener from Valentine's Peak that we can talk to.

00:37:52Oliver Spake: Yes, yes.

00:37:54Melissa Ellis: Anybody out there?

00:37:56Oliver Spake: With some nice romantic music in the background.

00:38:01Melissa Ellis: And some wine.

00:38:03Oliver Spake: It's standard to drink wine while talking about parkrun, isn't it?

00:38:06Melissa Ellis: Only in a romantic way, Ollie.

00:38:08Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:38:09Oliver Spake: But look, unless there's a parkrun on Christmas Island, I won't try and create a club out of this one. In any case, I suppose let's continue.

Dazza's

00:38:23Oliver Spake: We also heard from a number of other people because, of course, Dazza's.

00:38:27Melissa Ellis: Yes, and it was the relaunch, Ollie, of parkrun in Denmark. Yes. However, we failed to elicit any Danish references or Danish listeners, sadly, this week.

00:38:44Oliver Spake: Okay, yeah, yeah, we'll have to try harder. LAUGHTER

00:38:46[laughter]

00:38:48Melissa Ellis: I don't know if you brushed up on your Danish, and I threw quite a few words of Danish pastries and cuisine into the post this week, but I'm not even going to try to pronounce any of the words that I wrote, and I don't expect you have practiced those.

00:39:08Oliver Spake: I appreciate that you might even pause with the thought that I'd be capable of this one.

00:39:15Melissa Ellis: That's okay. That's okay. Our thoughts are with you, Denmark. We're happy you're back.

00:39:20Oliver Spake: That's right. Very happy you're back. Very happy you're back. And look, I absolutely love a Danish pastry.

00:39:26Melissa Ellis: Oh, I've got to just interject. Okay. So I was away but before I went away I went to the bakery and I bought a pecan Danish cake. Well, if you call it a cake. It was like cake size but I guess it's not a cake because it's a pastry thing. And I just left it at home and when I was away I messaged Paul and I went, oh, by the way, there's this cake in the cupboard, you can have, and he said it was delicious. It was the best thing he'd had. So he was pretty happy.

00:39:59Oliver Spake: Very nice. Yes. Yeah.

00:40:01Melissa Ellis: So I just thought I'd throw that in.

00:40:02Oliver Spake: Well, look, a good pastry goes a long, long way. Yes.

00:40:07Melissa Ellis: So the comments we got, Ollie.

00:40:09Oliver Spake: Yes, yeah, yeah, the comments. So look, a familiar name to start with, TOC, Tony O'Connell, slipped the Rona noose in Victoria for a road trip with Jack and Mel to run my 250th at Wagi Bridge. Yahoo, green shirt coming.

00:40:27Melissa Ellis: Hey, that's me. I was the Mel. And Neil Taylor, celebrating Burley Griffin parkrun's fifth birthday. Their theme was fluoro is fun. Very nice. Looked like fun.

00:40:40Oliver Spake: Happy birthday to Burley Griffin.

00:40:41Melissa Ellis: Yes. Yeah.

00:40:42Oliver Spake: And Ingrid Botha, lots of jumping for joy at Dolls Point's fourth birthday today. I enjoyed seeing Zach from Canberra scan his barcode for the very first time. Congratulations again on your first run, mate.

00:40:56Melissa Ellis: Oh, I've got to love it when you see first runners scanning their barcodes.

00:41:01Oliver Spake: Very much so. Start of a journey.

00:41:03Melissa Ellis: Sam Schroder. As Ollie mentioned, I headed to Shellharbour to have my first experience of timekeeping on the app. So much easier and less stress-inducing than the stopwatch. Luke came with me but opted out of walking in the wind, enjoying a sneaky coffee and sausage roll in the car instead. And I think, Ollie, he might have eaten the last sausage roll. Yeah.

00:41:26Oliver Spake: Look, I did my research. It technically wasn't the last one. The last one went after Luke, so I bear absolutely no grudge towards Luke. And special mention, given that Sam and Luke and grandson Asher all joined for the longest run, Luke and Asher managed to walk the entire Shellharbour parkrun course for the longest run. So he got it in in the end. Also, we heard from Bernadette Bennett. Set up, first time as brief and a run at Newy. Can't get better than that for variety. The weather didn't turn nasty till after we were finished and we had perfect conditions and a very small 275 parkrunners. Oh. Doing an interval-style run to train up for Mudgee and Double Tens, banana smoothie and banana bread at Cafe Inu at Carrington. Nice work, Bernadette. All-rounder, I think we call that.

00:42:24Melissa Ellis: And Mandy Oliver. Surfers Paradise with my friend Linda. Coffee after before she ran home as part of her GC marathon training, which is, I guess, Gold Coast Marathon, which is coming up soon.

00:42:37Oliver Spake: Very soon. Very soon. Good work. Dawn Branton, another refugee from Victoria. I crossed the border to Wagga. Perfect morning for a glorious run by the lake. And now my parkrun map looks like a dragon.

00:42:51Melissa Ellis: Yes, and Dawn does love filling in those sections on that parkrun map on the, what is it, the Chrome extension? Yes. There's a name for that map, Ollie. What is it?

00:43:04Unidentified speaker: Oh.

00:43:06Oliver Spake: See, my Chrome extension hasn't worked.

00:43:07Melissa Ellis: Is it the Vega map or something like that?

00:43:10Oliver Spake: I'd be lying. I'd be lying.

00:43:12Melissa Ellis: We really should have prepared for that. Anyway, but whatever. Dawn's map is very impressive and it does resemble a dragon. And we've got Karo Vos. Met Not Fluffy at Blackbutt parkrun. Lovely course. And I've been up there on a Freedom Run and also seen the Not Fluffy.

00:43:32Oliver Spake: Oh, really? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I missed Blackbutt. Yes. I have to give it a try.

00:43:38Melissa Ellis: Got to get back there.

00:43:39Oliver Spake: And Val Warwick, I am interloping at Dazza's today to report. We were up at ridiculous o'clock this morning, but unfortunately it was knock for parkrun tourism today. The old fella, Steve, was doing the most southern half marathon at Cockle Creek. No parkrun, no parkrun coffee. Surely it really can't be Saturday.

00:44:03Melissa Ellis: Aww. Oh, dear, Val.

00:44:05Oliver Spake: That must have been freezing for the record. But I am looking forward to trying that sometime. So thanks for the tip, Val.

00:44:12Melissa Ellis: But poor Steve, he was the old fella, and Mark Scarborough. There I was finishing my run before volunteering at Wagi Bridge parkrun when I was surprised by three familiar faces. Thanks for visiting Mel, Jacqui and TOC. So honoured to host TOC for his 250th milestone.

00:44:35Oliver Spake: A very fitting host.

00:44:36Melissa Ellis: He was. He was a marvellous host.

00:44:38Oliver Spake: Brett Bailey, first time as briefing at Pegasus, then ran with Tanya and Brunner. Home for an eggs Benny. Pegasus 250 next week, green tutus ready. Big one coming. Yeah.

00:44:51Melissa Ellis: Sally Heppleston, I could go to the gym, yay, but I couldn't parkrun. I really hope I can join in the chat next week with news of having my barcode scanned.

00:45:02Oliver Spake: We look forward to it, Sal.

00:45:03Melissa Ellis: Yep.

00:45:04Oliver Spake: Rebecca Bailey, windy run at Shellharbour this morning. I've lost count, that could be eight.

00:45:09Melissa Ellis: I know, I've lost count too.

00:45:11Oliver Spake: Weather showed who were the keen parkrunners. I got 17th, which is my highest placing here, normally in the 30s or 40s.

00:45:20Melissa Ellis: Nice work, Bec.

00:45:22Oliver Spake: Yeah, very well. I mean, it could have been because you were just fast, Bec, but very well done.

00:45:26Melissa Ellis: But also brave.

00:45:27Oliver Spake: Yeah, I think the entire last kilometre was a headwind.

00:45:30Melissa Ellis: And Tracey Wood, I'd like a hot flat white, please, after a very cold morning at Bunyaville. And Tracey was volunteering.

00:45:39Oliver Spake: Well and truly earned it.

00:45:40Melissa Ellis: Mm-hmm.

00:45:41Oliver Spake: Alison King, I met Kelly and Ingrid from Tamworth, New South Wales today. They crossed the ditch to visit Puarenga. No Danish pastries at the cafe for me though.

00:45:51Melissa Ellis: Nice to see more Aussies taking advantage of the bubble. Yes. And Nadine Crawford, made like a refugee and headed to Griffith in New South Wales for Ted Scobie Oval parkrun. Met the lovely volunteers and heard some interesting local knowledge. Also enjoying some beautiful sunshine. Love parkrun.

00:46:12Oliver Spake: Very well done. Tanya Bailey, fastest time this year with the help of Brunner and Brett. Had to wait for the ice to melt off the car windscreen before we headed down to Pegasus. Home to an eggs, Benny, made by me while listening to the podcast. Gearing up for next week's 250th and fifth birthday at Pegasus.

00:46:34Melissa Ellis: And that completes our Bailey shot for this week.

00:46:38Oliver Spake: Love it. Love it. And it sounds like the temperature was slightly below 20 there.

00:46:44Melissa Ellis: And Janet Reid, I would have joined you, Melissa Ellis, Tony O'Connell, Jacqui O'Connell, but R.D. Judy's called at Lochiel. Skinny flat white for me, followed by another skinny flat white, followed by a bowl of Australia's best hot chips from Jeff Health Golf Course, followed by a glass of Shiraz from Vines growing in the greater state. Oh, wait, hang on. Hang on.

00:47:10Oliver Spake: You're wondering on the comma placement here.

00:47:17Melissa Ellis: In the photo with me is the charismatic, energetic, Lochiel legend, Tamas Lawrence, who completed the irrational South 200 mile event last week in roughly 78 hours. That's 65 parkruns back to back running from Murray Bridge to Clare Valley. Somehow the longest run doesn't seem quite as impressive anymore.

00:47:39Oliver Spake: Yeah, not wrong.

00:47:41Melissa Ellis: There's a bit in that post, isn't there, Ollie? There's a bit of contention.

00:47:45Oliver Spake: Now, look, firstly, Mel, I think you missed a little part of that.

00:47:49Unidentified speaker: No.

00:47:52Melissa Ellis: I don't think I did. Pretty sure you did.

00:47:57Oliver Spake: 78 hours, 200 miles. Yeah. Well done. Gee. That's a little bit crazy. Irrational it is. That's what makes it beautiful, I'm sure. But that sounds like a pretty good combo there too, Janet. Hot chips and Shiraz and lots of coffee.

00:48:17Melissa Ellis: Yeah. A skinny flat white followed by a skinny flat white followed by a bowl of chips followed by a Shiraz.

00:48:23Oliver Spake: I know what I'm doing next Saturday. We also heard from Chris Fraser, second missed parkrun in three weeks due to being moving day. I haven't missed two out of three since becoming a parkrunner seven years ago. On the plus side, conditions pretty crappy, a good weekend to miss out. And that is spot on. We hope the move went well, Chris.

00:48:48Melissa Ellis: We do. But dude, get back there. Sonja Pohlman, stupid migraine descended. So this was my view today. Totally unrelated to the servo sausage roll and coffee, Chris Fraser. Oh, Sonja, we're very sad to see that you had a migraine and you missed parkrun day.

00:49:10Oliver Spake: But a very comforting view for those that haven't seen the view. It's the cat. Yeah, yeah. And Karen Hamilton, gallivanting at Wagi Bridge this morning, unexpectedly ran into the team. Hello, Mel and TOC and Mark. Nice to meet you. Unfortunately could not stick around after, was meeting friends for breakfast at Penny University Cafe. There I became a pear compote parent. Yeah. with this unusual green tea and black sesame pancake with pear and goji compote. Do we need some context?

00:49:47Melissa Ellis: Yeah, Karen is referring to content from With Me Now when she is referring to a pear compote parent.

00:49:56Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. But good to hear from the Shellharbour team up there. And, yeah, what a nice surprise.

00:50:05Melissa Ellis: Oh, really? Another mention?

00:50:08Oliver Spake: It was a bit tenuous, wasn't it?

00:50:10Melissa Ellis: No, we're always happy to hear from everybody.

00:50:13Oliver Spake: Very much so. Thank you, everyone, for sharing Dazza's, sharing a special day for the Danes as well. And look, we look forward to next week at Dazza's. In the meantime, Mel, I suppose we should throw across, I mean, after last week's news, change things up a little bit.

00:50:32Melissa Ellis: Yes, I had a bit of feedback from the fact that we've killed off the informant.

00:50:39Oliver Spake: You weren't meant to do that.

00:50:44Melissa Ellis: I don't think that that's necessarily correct. We haven't killed him. He's not dead.

00:50:50Oliver Spake: Yeah, we're pretty confident. Yes.

00:50:54Melissa Ellis: It wasn't us. It was his decision.

00:50:56Oliver Spake: It was. It was. So, yeah, look, I guess the question is how long can an intern be an intern when they're more permanent than that?

00:51:07Melissa Ellis: Well, in any case, we appreciate that she's stepping up.

00:51:11Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's right.

00:51:13Melissa Ellis: So it'll be interesting to see how she goes.

00:51:15Oliver Spake: Let's have a listen.

00:51:16[13 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

the Informant

00:51:29the Informant (the intern newly taking over the role): Hello, Parkies. This is the informant.

00:51:32the outgoing Informant ("Mr Beige Trousers"): You're not the informant.

00:51:34the Informant (the intern newly taking over the role): I am now. This is the informant.

00:51:36the outgoing Informant ("Mr Beige Trousers"): You're not the informant.

00:51:38the Informant (the intern newly taking over the role): Well, I'm not the intern anymore. So what's my job title then?

00:51:41the outgoing Informant ("Mr Beige Trousers"): I don't know. How about the incompetent?

00:51:44the Informant (the intern newly taking over the role): Yeah, right. Why don't you go back to your Suzuki?

00:51:48the outgoing Informant ("Mr Beige Trousers"): It's Sudoku.

00:51:50the Informant (the intern newly taking over the role): This is the informant. These are unofficial stats. They are only current at the time they are collected and may differ from the stats you read elsewhere. This week we welcome back Denmark with 7 events. We had 309 in Australia and 32 in New Zealand. Elsewhere in the world we had 13 events in Japan, 71 in Poland, 66 in Russia, 28 in South Africa, 23 in the USA and 5 in UK territories. That's a total of 554 events worldwide, which is a post-COVID record. And that includes four launches. One at Bayview Road in Western Australia. One at... Oh, I can't read those. Two in Japan and one in Poland. Aussie New Zealand attendance was down 3,000 on last week's number to 29,919 runners and that's out of 38,566 worldwide. Wait, what? That can't be right. How can the number of events be a record but the number of runners be down two weeks in a row?

00:52:56the outgoing Informant ("Mr Beige Trousers"): I don't know, just stick to the script.

00:52:58the Informant (the intern newly taking over the role): Oh, whatever. Sorry, everyone. Mr Beige Trousers gets upset when numbers are down. We had 3,855 PBs, while 879 people participated for the first time. 72 juniors reached their Junior 10 milestone, 160 people reached their 50 milestone, 90 reached their 100 milestone, and 23 people reached their 250 milestone. 17 people called bingo. Colin Bridge was the quickest with 165 events. Yvonne Gruber was the slowest person taking 290 events. We had five new ACT Territorians in Anne-Marie Kalman, Adam Barlow, David Camp, Megan Hogan and Shane Hogan. And big news, we have another in Queensland. Neil Barnett becomes the second Queenslander, alongside Michael Schultz. On the top 20 most Aussie New Zealand events list, Kathleen Wallington is now 12th outright after running Whalan Reserve. That slips Nathan Castle down to 13th. The biggest winners on the overall most events were... on the other side of the ledger there were 5 people who dropped 5 places and 46 people increased their Windex Oh, whatever. I still don't think it's a real thing. Biggest movers of the week were Bea Sykes and Tanya Farmer, who increased their windex by seven. Bea is now on 10 and Tanya is on 23. To see their stats in full, visit www.theinformant.me or follow The Informant on Facebook. This has been The Informant, and my stats report is totally awesome.

00:54:45the outgoing Informant ("Mr Beige Trousers"): Yeah, right.

00:54:47the Informant (the intern newly taking over the role): Hey, you know how you like alliteration?

00:54:48the outgoing Informant ("Mr Beige Trousers"): Yes.

00:54:50the Informant (the intern newly taking over the role): Well, I was thinking you could rename your Facebook profile to Mr Colour Coordinated Cardigan.

00:54:55the outgoing Informant ("Mr Beige Trousers"): Out.

00:54:56Melissa Ellis: And thank you to our intern, always happy and bubbly and full of fun, Ollie.

00:55:04Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah. Isn't it a nice tone, Mel? Yeah.

00:55:09Melissa Ellis: Definitely. And while we're on happy, we also had another longest run that occurred this last weekend. That was the Sunshine Coast.

00:55:21Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah. And these guys really know how to do extra value. Eight runs. Eight? Eight parkruns. They're just showing off. Yeah. Yeah.

00:55:35Melissa Ellis: How do you fit eight into a day?

00:55:38Oliver Spake: Well, I was going to say maybe the daylight hour is a bit longer, but, yeah, there's probably an element of that. But I think clearly the parkrun community up there and the running and walking community together, all just, yeah, they like a bit of fun.

00:55:55Melissa Ellis: Are they just all a bit faster than us down south, are we?

00:55:58Oliver Spake: Must be. Must be. Oh, it's not like they've got any elevation or anything.

00:56:03Melissa Ellis: So what events did they do?

00:56:06Oliver Spake: This is where I obviously correct that. So they look nice early start. There's tip number one, 6 a.m. Majimba. So a start at Mudjimba Beach parkrun there, down by the beach. And then on to Noosa. Then they really hit their straps at Nambour. Good grief. Yes. So, yeah, a gentle run at Nambour for number three. Maleny Trail. So, yeah, Maleny is also going to be testing them, surely. Baringa.

00:56:42Unidentified speaker: Mm-hmm.

00:56:42Oliver Spake: Golden Beach. Kawana. And finishing at Brightwater.

00:56:47Melissa Ellis: Nice.

00:56:48Oliver Spake: Yeah. And look, Mel, I could be wrong, but I was looking at some of the pictures. Obviously, we have enjoyed reflecting on some of the efforts from our longest runners. There's a lot of daylight in those pictures. So well-organised and well-run team.

00:57:06Melissa Ellis: Good work, Sunshine Coast.

00:57:08Oliver Spake: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, and huge numbers.

00:57:13Melissa Ellis: Well supported.

00:57:14Oliver Spake: I guess, yeah, we'll have to try and make it. No, actually, it's not fair, is it, Mel? Yeah. What?

00:57:23Melissa Ellis: Are you assuming that next year we'll be locked down again?

00:57:27Oliver Spake: No, I just didn't want to draw attention to the fact that obviously you didn't get to go to Brisbane, but your plan was a good one and it would be good to go and explore and do a longest run like the others. That absolutely wasn't your fault. But well done, well done.

00:57:46Melissa Ellis: But coming back next week, Ollie.

00:57:49Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:57:50Melissa Ellis: Northern Ireland.

00:57:51Oliver Spake: Yeah. Yeah, so looking forward to that. Looking forward to seeing more of the returns there, Mel. Mm-hmm.

00:58:01Melissa Ellis: Same.

00:58:01Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah.

00:58:03Melissa Ellis: Where will you be next week, Ollie?

00:58:06Oliver Spake: I'll be fairly local, fairly local. It is the winter solstice, so naturally that for me means midsummer. Maypoles. Maypoles, that's right. Små grodorna and everything. Yeah.

00:58:19Melissa Ellis: What's that mean?

00:58:21Oliver Spake: That's the little frog dance. Oh, yes. So, yeah, I'll be drinking mulled wine and wearing flower crowns and singing about little frogs as I dance around maypoles.

00:58:31Melissa Ellis: Can you please set up a really good photo that we can use next week for our podcast post? I want people to see these such maypoles and flower crowns with you, please.

00:58:42Oliver Spake: Oh, I don't know. My flower crowning skills are pretty limited, but...

00:58:48Melissa Ellis: Hannah, Hannah, I'm appealing to you, please. Can you make sure you get an appropriate photo for us to use next week? Thank you, Hannah.

00:58:56Oliver Spake: Oh, dear.

00:58:56Melissa Ellis: And because I am editing, you can't get rid of that.

00:58:59[laughter]

00:58:59Oliver Spake: Ha-ha. Fair enough. Yes. Yeah. All right. Noted. There's my homework. And what about you, Mel? Plan A, plan B, plan C?

00:59:11Melissa Ellis: Who only knows where I will be, Ollie. Who only knows? I have a good feeling that I will abscond again and I may be, who knows, I may go back to ACT. I may... If their borders are open, pop over to South Australia. I'm not really sure if those borders are open yet.

00:59:34Oliver Spake: Well, I mean, Mel, I don't want to lead you astray or anything, but you do realise this Sunday in South Australia, the 27th of June, is their longest run.

00:59:45Melissa Ellis: I know. However, this may depend if Victoria is able to return to parkrun because if it is, I've got a junior parkrun to put on on Sunday morning.

01:00:00Oliver Spake: which would be very exciting, puddle or not. Yep.

01:00:04Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah, I must get down there to see if the puddle's still got water. We have had a little bit more rain. I'm confident there will still be water. But, yes, so obviously my first priority is to Eynesbury. Yep. And knowing, you know, our previous weeks, it'll probably come down to the line again, so... If I'm just throwing myself in the car and driving to South Australia and I've got the opportunity to stay, if there's no juniors, then, yeah, I might just have to fly by the wind.

01:00:37Oliver Spake: Yeah, so many variables in the parkrun world.

01:00:40Melissa Ellis: Yeah, it's kind of rough times for planning, for parkrun planning. You've just got to be able to be adaptive.

01:00:49Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. Yeah, yeah. Look, we are fortunate, of course, to be able to make these trips and hopefully everything keeps moving in the right direction there. Yeah. Yeah, obviously, at the time of recording, there's cases developing in New South Wales too, Mel, so maybe I'll dust off the old plan B as well.

01:01:11Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and what's your plan B?

01:01:14Oliver Spake: Many times around the maypole, probably. LAUGHTER

01:01:16[laughter]

01:01:18Melissa Ellis: Where's the maypole? Where do you have such an event?

01:01:23Oliver Spake: My parents-in-law, their roof, it's like the TARDIS. They fit so much in there. The maypole lives up there, as do many other things. So, yep, it just comes out for midsummer.

01:01:37Melissa Ellis: Yeah, but where do they live?

01:01:40Oliver Spake: Oh, well, they live locally. They live locally in a suburb nearby. Okay. The suburb, can you tell I'm doing research as I'm talking?

01:01:54Melissa Ellis: You don't know where your parents-in-law live?

01:01:56Oliver Spake: No.

01:01:57Melissa Ellis: Do your in-laws live in Oak Flats?

01:02:00Oliver Spake: Oak Flats, yes, which is on Lake Illawarra. It's very close by.

01:02:03Melissa Ellis: Right.

01:02:04Oliver Spake: Yeah. Yes. In fact, it's a parkrun distance away.

01:02:08Melissa Ellis: Just for me to be able to cut all this. Yes. So where do your in-laws live, Ollie? Oak Flats.

01:02:17Oliver Spake: They live in Oak Flats, which is just a parkrun distance away from home.

01:02:22Melissa Ellis: Near Lake Illawarra.

01:02:24Oliver Spake: That's right.

01:02:25Melissa Ellis: Excellent.

01:02:25Oliver Spake: Yeah, on the lake there. So, in fact, there's a good parkrun course out the front of there. As in parkrun, it should be a parkrun course.

01:02:33Melissa Ellis: I really feel like I need a maypole. I really want to experience that.

01:02:38Oliver Spake: Well... It is good fun. I can't say I've tried it for a (not)parkrun yet, as I was meant to.

01:02:46Melissa Ellis: Challenge, Ollie.

01:02:49Oliver Spake: That's right. I just don't think the string will maintain its integrity.

01:02:53Melissa Ellis: Is there a Guinness Book of World Records for the amount of loops around a maypole?

01:02:58Oliver Spake: I don't think I'd come anywhere close enough.

01:03:00Melissa Ellis: You could do it, Ollie.

01:03:01Oliver Spake: I know you could.

01:03:03Melissa Ellis: I believe in you.

01:03:04Unidentified speaker: Hannah?

01:03:05Melissa Ellis: Hannah? Hannah, Dad can do this.

01:03:09Oliver Spake: Let's see.

01:03:10Melissa Ellis: I'm going to find out who I have to contact at Guinness. I'll come up for that.

01:03:18Oliver Spake: Oh, dear. No, I think after two longest runs.

01:03:21Melissa Ellis: Don't try to get out of it.

01:03:24Oliver Spake: After two longest runs, my legs wouldn't keep up with that.

01:03:28Melissa Ellis: Your legs are now conditioned. All right. Yes, you can't play that card.

01:03:34Oliver Spake: Oh, I see. I can't dodge.

01:03:39Unidentified speaker: Nope.

01:03:40Oliver Spake: Nope.

01:03:40Melissa Ellis: Change the subject. Moving swiftly on.

01:03:42Oliver Spake: Moving swiftly on.

01:03:45Melissa Ellis: Yes.

01:03:45Oliver Spake: Yeah. So, look, I think it will be a relatively quiet parkrun day for me and not just because of the mulled wine the night before.

01:03:53Melissa Ellis: Right. Yes.

Sign-off

01:03:54Melissa Ellis: Oh, well.

01:03:55Oliver Spake: But, Mel, I suppose that's it for this week. Look, if anyone would like to get in touch, share with us your parkrun stories, share with us your return stories, your (not)parkrun stories.

01:04:11Melissa Ellis: Your sausage roll stories.

01:04:13Oliver Spake: Yes, definitely, definitely. Yeah, contact us via Facebook, email, and, of course, the email address being parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. But, Mel, I think that's it for another week. We'll see you next week for more adventures.

01:04:26[music]

01:05:38Melissa Ellis: Hello, Mel speaking. Yes. She did what? Oh, yes, I'll authorise a new swipe card to be issued. I can imagine. Yes, he's not happy. No worries. We'll speak to him. Thank you. Bye. I think I'll let Ollie deal with that one.