Episode 244 - Sarah Hudson

Welcome

00:00:24Oliver Spake: Welcome to episode 244 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. I am Ollie Spake and I am joined by my fellow benchwarmer, Melissa Ellis. How are you, Mel?

00:00:36Melissa Ellis: Oh, hi, Ollie. Yeah, we are both on the bench, aren't we, at the moment? Not much parkrunning happening here.

00:00:41Oliver Spake: That's right. Yeah, very sedentary parkrun days.

00:00:44Melissa Ellis: Although we did both get out for not parkruns.

00:00:47Oliver Spake: Yeah, the (not)parkruns have been a bit of a saviour. And I think now that I'm finally taking a leaf out of some of the more, I don't know, experienced not parkrunners there, I think you obviously breed them quite well in Victoria. Yeah. Don't want to point out the obvious reasons for that, but it's been really heartening to see, well, see myself and some of my fellow parkrunners jump on the (not)parkrun bandwagon and take that motivation. It's been quite welcome.

00:01:16Melissa Ellis: It has indeed. I went to a last minute effort to throw mine together, being that our... So we probably should address the elephant in the room, Ollie. I did not get to Brisbane this last parkrun day.

00:01:29Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah, you're right. Let's set a bit of context here. And that's for those that have listened to last week's pod, of course. You're on again, off again.

00:01:37Melissa Ellis: And haven't listened to the live that we did on Saturday. When was it, Saturday morning?

00:01:43Oliver Spake: Yes, that time. That time we usually were all busy.

00:01:46Melissa Ellis: Yes. So I was all set to join Tracey in a Tutu up in Brisbane to run New Farm parkrun when we heard – when did we hear – Thursday afternoon. I forget. It was last week. It was a million years ago. case.

00:02:04Oliver Spake: A week is a long time. I think you said yes.

00:02:07Melissa Ellis: Yes. So we got told that we were going back into a five day snap lockdown. So it must've been Thursday because I then jumped on Friday morning to cancel my flights for that day, which I was able to do yet and jump into my plan for my (not)parkrun, which was German theme.

00:02:28Oliver Spake: Yeah, jump into and last minute preparation. I'd look admirable terms. They didn't look like that, Mel. That was a pretty sophisticated setup.

00:02:37Melissa Ellis: Well, no, really, it was just a lot of red balloons and a costume and a black forest cake. Yeah.

00:02:47Oliver Spake: Yes. And I'm not sure how many of those pictures you've shared, Mel, but for anyone that hasn't seen or hasn't heard, would you like to enlighten us as to how many red balloons you blew up on Friday night?

00:02:57Melissa Ellis: Well, the plan was 99. That was an idea given to me by a fellow listener of the pod. I think it was Tracy, actually. Gave me that idea about blowing up 99 red balloons. And I was like, yes, because do you remember back in the day when Scott sang that song?

00:03:16Oliver Spake: Yep.

00:03:17Melissa Ellis: Yeah. And I thought, perfect. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go out and buy a packet of red balloons. I'm going to blow up 99 balloons. Well, Ollie, the packet had 100. Yep. So right from the start, I was like, ooh.

00:03:29Oliver Spake: Fine lines. Yeah.

00:03:33Melissa Ellis: Ooh, I've only got one that can go wrong here. But I was being positive and I thought, no, no, the packet says 100. They'll probably throw in an extra five, you know, margin of error.

00:03:45Oliver Spake: This isn't the deli bar.

00:03:48Melissa Ellis: It's not like getting the extra potato cake from the fish and chip shop. No, sadly. We actually had quite a lot of balloons that were just fizzes. They just had holes in them, blew them up, didn't even pop. It wasn't even a fact of them popping. They just had holes and they just were uninflatable. I think one, I managed to put a bit of sticky tape over to keep it inflated. I ended up with 92.

00:04:11Oliver Spake: Well, this is quite interesting, Mel. I didn't realise we were going to get into a study into the structural integrity of balloon products, but that's really quite disappointing to hear that 8% of rubber balloon products fail. I know. Because I'm pretty confident you've got a sample there.

00:04:28Melissa Ellis: Yeah. I was very disappointed because, you know, I'm a high achiever, Ollie. I wanted 99. But, you know, a few people did say to me, no one's going to count them. No one will know. So I've just let the cat out of the bag that I only did have 92. And it pained me to only have 92. And I've still got 92 in my kitchen. Don't quite know what I'm supposed to do with them. Of course, they will get deflated somehow and put into landfill and not released into the environment because we're very environmentally friendly here at the parkrun adventurers.

00:05:04Oliver Spake: Well, I mean, take that a bit further. There's new legislation in your neck of the woods that prevents you from releasing it into the environment, if I'm not mistaken.

00:05:12Melissa Ellis: Exactly. It's against the law.

00:05:14Oliver Spake: Yeah. So, you know, thank you for doing your bit under grave threats. Look, as a suggestion, there is something coming up next week. So welcome back, Germany. Side note.

00:05:25Melissa Ellis: Oh, yes. It was supposed to be all about Germany, not the red balloons.

00:05:29Oliver Spake: Not the red balloons, but it was fantastic to have another country, albeit a small intimate number of parkruns back. There is another country. There are actually a couple of other countries coming back, but we know that parkrun obviously is close to the hearts of many, many in England. English flag, to start stating the obvious, has two colours. Maybe you could attach said balloons into plus-

00:05:54Melissa Ellis: shape yes I just need 92 more white balloons Ollie and I'm right for next weekend well you might need a greater number if you're creating a whole rectangle but um oh thank you everyone for joining our brainstorming session but anyway how good did Daryl look in his lederhosen did you see that they were authentic lederhosen every buddha should have it oh

00:06:20Oliver Spake: Everybody bought a statue.

00:06:21Melissa Ellis: Hey, every parkrun adventure should have a pair of authentic 1970s lederhosen in their storeroom.

00:06:28Oliver Spake: Clearly. Yeah, look, I felt grossly underdone when it came to German theme items. The best I had was three remotely, I suppose, appropriately coloured German flag parkrun shirts. I think it's very generous to call the apricot German flag coloured, but nonetheless, and some beer glasses. So...

00:06:47Melissa Ellis: Participation award for you, Ollie.

00:06:50Oliver Spake: Encouragement, yes. Got a few of those. The brunch looked fantastic.

00:06:55Melissa Ellis: Well, it was well-received. There is no black forest cake left. I did balk at the price of the black forest cake. I only had the option of getting it from Woolworths, so there was no plan Bs. I had to pay the price. I didn't have time to bake one, but it has now been consumed. Not by little old low-carb me, might I add.

00:07:20Oliver Spake: I'm sorry you missed out.

00:07:22Melissa Ellis: Did you see the beer I poured though, Ollie?

00:07:25Oliver Spake: Yeah, it was rather frothy.

00:07:26Melissa Ellis: But isn't that like that's what beers are supposed to look like? Any cartoon or illustration of a beer I see has this lovely big froth on it. So I wanted the effect. I was going for the effect in my defence. I wanted the froth for the photo.

00:07:41Oliver Spake: Well, you absolutely achieved the froth effect and I'm not going to criticise one part of that brunch. It looked spectacular.

00:07:49Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:07:50Melissa Ellis: Yeah, Paul wasn't happy with the froth. But it was a legitimate German beer. I had to go into the store and ask for a German beer, and I had a very helpful salesperson that directed me to where the German beers were, so it was legit.

00:08:06Oliver Spake: And it's fortunate that it was any left, given all the celebrations for the return of parkrun Germany.

00:08:11Melissa Ellis: Yes. Yeah. Oh, yeah, back to Germany.

00:08:17Oliver Spake: But it was nice to catch up with a couple of fellow parkrunners and Victorian parkrunners live from lockdown.

00:08:24Melissa Ellis: During the live. It was, yes. TOC joined us, which was lovely. Sadly, weather was not conducive to him actually being outside, nor was he able to venture as far as Inverloch Stomp.

00:08:38Oliver Spake: Under current restrictions in Victoria.

00:08:41Melissa Ellis: Which are slightly less than what you've got. Which doesn't go unnoticed.

00:08:47Oliver Spake: No, that's right. So context for the listeners, we're both in lockdown in case you haven't gathered from the podcast so far. What have you got, Mel? You've got 5Ks, I've got 10Ks. South Australia has also now entered restrictions at time of recording. So our thoughts and hearts go out to our South Australian parkrunners too.

00:09:06Melissa Ellis: Definitely, yep.

00:09:08Oliver Spake: And yeah, as things stand, obviously needing some positive trends before we re-enter the parkrunning world.

00:09:15Melissa Ellis: And, of course, Ollie, we want to say a big thank you to Mr Danny Norman from With Me Now podcast who joined us for the live to give us a little bit of mentoring and to prepare us for next Saturday's live cross, for the launch, the relaunch, the unpause of parkrun in England.

00:09:37Oliver Spake: But, Mel, look, I hope after all of that you did make it out to an Ellis Pellis not parkrun.

00:09:42Melissa Ellis: I did. Yep. Changed back into my active wear. Wasn't going to go out in my costume. Wasn't quite confident enough to attempt that solo. If I had, you know, company in numbers, sometimes one's a little more brave sometimes.

00:10:00Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:10:00Melissa Ellis: Anyway, yeah, no, I went out and I did complete my Ellis Pellis not parkrun. And what about you, Ollie? And you also got out?

00:10:10Oliver Spake: I did. Didn't go anywhere. Oh, no, actually, yeah, I'm completely wrong there. I got out for a few not parkruns. So that motivation is starting to help. I'm still pretty slow, but got out for an early sunrise parkrun before the live and did make it out on Sunday morning for Bass Point not parkrun as well.

00:10:28Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's good to hear. Good. Well done.

00:10:30Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:10:31Melissa Ellis: Got some hills. Did you get some hills?

00:10:33Oliver Spake: No. Hills are still to come. Slowly making it back. I'm building up, Mel. You need to give me time. But yeah, looking forward to some hill training soon. We're on a bit of a, no, it's premature to say we're on a health kick, but in our household, we're all starting to motivate one another and I will make it back to the hills with a bit of support from Hannah and Kathy.

00:10:51Melissa Ellis: Very good. But Ollie, you had the pleasure of an interview this week. I did.

00:10:58Oliver Spake: As many of our listeners would have heard recently, you were fortunate to speak with a parkrunner over in the USA celebrating the return of parkrun over there. And I also had the opportunity at the weekend to speak to Sarah. Now, Sarah Hudson, who we have heard on the pod before when Scott Watkins was able to interview her after the recent launch of Byxbee over there, did join us to have a bit of a chat about the return of parkrun over there. And let's have a listen.

00:11:26[14 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Interview Sarah Hudson — Founding Event Director, Byxbee parkrun (Palo Alto, California, USA)

00:11:40Oliver Spake: Our guest this week is someone whose parkrun journey began in Australia, but has more recently seen her call the USA home, where she's helped bring a second parkrun to the state of California. She is the founding Event Director at Byxbee parkrun, which takes place in the Silicon Valley in San Francisco's Southern Bay area. Welcome to the podcast, Sarah Hudson. Hello. Nice to be here. Thank you very much for your time, Sarah. It's nice to get to catch up and hear about how things have been going over there for you. Obviously, not just since COVID, but before. But to start with, have you found the return of parkrun at Byxbee after your own pause there?

00:12:17Sarah Hudson: Yeah, so we were off for a long time. So our last run in 2019 was on the 7th of March and By that point, a few of the other USA parkruns had already cancelled and the following week, all of them cancelled for the USA. So we counted it up and between our 26th parkrun and our 27th parkrun, there was 68 weeks where we did nothing.

00:12:42Hannah: Wow.

00:12:42Sarah Hudson: It's been a long wait. And I'm very happy to say that, you know, we've actually had people come back. So that's been the biggest relief. It really wasn't a guaranteed thing that we were going to come back. It was a really tough period this last year because, you know, everything has been cancelled. There's been, you know, no gyms, no fitness groups, no social events, no kids camps. Everything has been off or impacted in some way. And while things have kind of been slowly coming back as the health authorities have kind of worked out what things are okay and what things aren't, it's been really difficult to kind of work out where it's going to fit. But today was our fourth run back since we started.

00:13:24Oliver Spake: Yep.

00:13:24Sarah Hudson: And we've been doing pretty well. We've been averaging around 30 people finishing each time. We've had a lot of first timers, which is great. I noticed we started to get a few of the local run clubs and track teams who are, I think, looking for things to do. They've started to notice because there's not a lot of official events running yet. So we're one of the few that they can actually run with other people. And so far, everyone who I've spoken to who's come back has just said how happy they are to be there and how nice it is to see everyone. And certainly it seems to be making a lot of people happy that they get to see other people on a regular basis again, which is something we've all missed dreadfully. So it's been a good start.

00:14:10Oliver Spake: As I understand it, obviously, with the relatively young parkrun that you have, it must be great to see some of those faces back.

00:14:18Sarah Hudson: It's been good. We've definitely had a few. Some of our regulars have either moved away or gone on to other areas and we might not be seeing some of them again. But it's refreshing that a lot of people have been able to sign up to volunteer and been able to fill our roster and that, yeah, we've had enough people to make it all worthwhile. And at the same time, not so many people that we're all freaked out.

00:14:39Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:14:40Oliver Spake: There's a balance.

00:14:41Sarah Hudson: It's been the ideal number. We're quite happy being a small event at the moment.

00:14:45Oliver Spake: Yeah, look, keen to hear a bit more about your parkrun journey, Sarah. I mean, you've been parkrunning for a number of years. I think I counted it at 143 parkruns so far.

00:14:56Sarah Hudson: That sounds about right.

00:14:57Oliver Spake: Fair to say a heck of a lot of volunteers as well. But can you share with us how you came across parkrun? I mean, what was your first parkrun?

00:15:03Sarah Hudson: My first parkrun was at Curl Curl because we were living in Beacon Hill, so it was great. relatively around the corner. In fact, at the time, my mother-in-law also lived in Curl Curl. So it was great. I could go park at her place and walk to the start line. But yeah, my very first run was actually the Halloween run. And so it was like October, I don't know, 2014 or 2015, something like that. And I was not a runner. My little boy was only two at the time. So he was very little. So I would kind of sneak out in the morning while he was still asleep and go to parkrun and have some coffee afterwards and then come back and resume my mum duties. But it was great. It was just such a nice atmosphere that, you know, it didn't matter how fast you were. In fact, you know, because of the Tail Walkers, you couldn't finish last and everyone was really encouraging and it was fun. So I came back. again. And I think where I really got hooked was when I volunteered for the first time. And I think I just did barcode scanning or something like that. It was like one of the slightly easier roles, but it was just so nice to meet everyone and to be able to, you know, chat to all the other volunteers, on the start line or the finish line while we were waiting for everyone to finish and say, oh, this, this is a different side of it. And it was really nice. And so it was just something that, you know, I ended up, you know, making lots of friends, you know, other people who around the same finish time as me, you know, you start to see the same people every week and eventually you kind of work up the courage to say, hi, let's run together today. And then all of a And tail walking is definitely, I think, my favourite volunteer position. I've done that, I think, more than almost anything else. I've done a lot of tail walking and I've also been a photographer quite a few times because I also find that quite good fun. I have an SLR camera, which I'm not a great photographer, but I do just enjoy trying to get good running shots of everyone and I always make sure that I always get everyone. I try very hard not to miss anyone, especially the people who are finishing towards the back. Because I know how it feels is that you're worried that everyone's going to pack up and leave before you finish. And I just love that that's never the case at parkrun.

00:17:07Oliver Spake: It's very special. And fast forward to 2019, Sarah, and you're launching a parkrun, well, on the other side of the earth, really, in California. Well done. Thank you. But how did this come about?

00:17:20Sarah Hudson: Yeah, so at the very start of 2018, we moved over to California. We've moved here into Palo Alto, which is one of the cities in Silicon Valley. And one of the first things I did was grab my barcode and take it up to Crissy Field parkrun, which is in San Francisco. And Crissy Field is, I think... the first parkrun that launched in the US. It is a really lovely course and they get a lot of tourists. So, you run pretty much just along the shoreline of the bay and you can see the Golden Gate Bridge and, you know, if it's a clear day, of course, San Francisco, there's always fog, but if you're lucky and it's a clear day, you can see the Golden Gate Bridge, you can see Alcatraz and you get the whole view of the city and you're right in the middle of it and it's absolutely gorgeous. So that was one of the first things I ticked off. I was like, wow, this is great. But over time, I realised that where I was living and Crissy Field are really not close. It's a good hour drive with traffic. So it's not an easy thing to get up there regularly. And for a while, we didn't even have a car. So it was pretty much impossible to get up there for parkrun. So the next thing I did when we'd sort of been settled was I sent a message to parkrun USA to say, hey, are there any plans to start one elsewhere in the area? Because if someone else was already in the process of starting one, then I can help out. Yeah. And so I got put in touch with Sam Stowe, who was living in Mountain View, which is the next city over. And yeah, he was kind of keen to get a parkrun started, but hadn't really gotten much further than that. So we just started working together. And yeah, just sort of step by step, we just worked out where we might be able to hold one and whatever. Started to collect other people who might be interested in running and helping out. And we eventually got to the point where we settled on the location at Byxbee and we got the go-ahead from parkrun USA to launch. And we've been running since September 2019.

00:19:20Oliver Spake: That's fantastic. About Byxbee parkrun, can you tell us a bit about the parkrun itself, its location, its course?

00:19:28Sarah Hudson: Absolutely. Byxbee parkrun is named after the park where we start and finish, which is Byxbee Park. It's located in Palo Alto and it's located in a nature preserve called the Palo Alto Baylands. Now, the Baylands is an enormous wetland area, nature wildlife preserve that runs along the edge of the San Francisco Bay. And there are parts of it in a lot of different neighbouring cities. So there's a trail that runs through it, the San Francisco Bay Trail, and you can actually follow that trail for miles and miles and miles. So you can start at Palo Alto and 10, 20 miles later, you'll find yourself in Sunnyvale. So it's a really lovely area. It's very open. It's very flat. There's no trees. So you can see for A long, long way. There's lots of wildlife. There's lots of birds. It's a nesting area for birds like pelicans and seagulls. And the Canadian geese come through in their migration. So you'll see them at various times of the year. There's also lots of little furry critters. We have lots of hares. So the big long-eared rabbits, they're everywhere. We get little squirrels, little burrowing squirrels that pop up out of the ground. It's a really lovely place to be. And we are very lucky that we're able to hold our event there. Our actual course, we actually had a course change as part of our coming back. Our original course that we launched with was an out and back course. So we'd run out on the trail to a point, turn around and come back. And it was a really long kind of sweeping curve on the trail. But what is happening on a section of that trail that we used to use is there's a concrete structure called the Tide Gate, which is used to regulate the amount of bay water that comes in and out of the wetlands.

00:21:09Oliver Spake: Okay, yeah.

00:21:10Sarah Hudson: And it's a very old structure, the one that's there. It's about 70 years old and they need to rebuild it partly to be able to cope with climate change and rising sea level and also just because the concrete and... timbers and things in it are crumbling. So it needs to be replaced. And so that project is scheduled to start at the end of this year, and it's going to take three to four years, and that whole section of trail is going to close. So we negotiated with the rangers to work out an alternate section of the trail that we can use. And so we've shortened the course to being a two lap rather than a single out and back so that we're on less of the course and uh we take a slightly different path now but it's it's still pretty similar to what we had before it seems to be working pretty well so we've had our fourth run on there and we haven't lost anyone and everyone's made the two laps so I think I think it's working well that's a key yeah it's a key kpi for success there you're getting all the parkrunners back Exactly. We haven't lost anyone out there. No one's gone out to the highway and gotten lost. So that's good.

00:22:13Oliver Spake: As the Event Director, how have you found that role and the aspects of it?

00:22:17Sarah Hudson: It's definitely a challenging role being an Event Director. Certainly now with the virtual volunteer app, that makes the timing and barcode scanning very, very easy.

00:22:25Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:22:26Sarah Hudson: It's so much easier to tell people what to do. And I'm also very lucky that I've managed to get together a pretty good sort of core team of volunteers. So people who will put their hand out week after week for anything that needs to be done and who've been a lot of help, you know, sort of deciding how to do things. And I've got one lady, you know, she manages all the social media side of things and she does a fantastic job, you know, managing all the posts for our Facebook and Instagram. And I have another, Heather, she does a fantastic job wrangling the volunteers every week. She's taken that on. And so she answers most of the emails and makes sure the roster is updated. And so, you know, that's not something I have to do actively every week. I only just need to occasionally step in if we're getting close to the end of the week and we're still missing a few people. Yeah, so it definitely helps having a good team. And that's the thing, you know, it's like every parkrun is being run by a team of people. And that's why we do it, you know, because we love having the event. So we make sure that it can happen.

00:23:20Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's fantastic. And clearly a supportive community you've got there. And how has the community of Byxbee parkrun dealt with the impact of COVID, you know, the pause itself and your return?

00:23:31Sarah Hudson: Yeah, so I would say probably the hardest thing that sort of I think impacted a lot of people here is the fact that there's been a lot of isolation. A lot of the tech companies that employ the vast majority of people around here have been able to allow people to work from home, but that means that they've basically been stuck at home for the last 15 months and a lot of them still are working remotely. The offices have opened up slowly, so they may be required to come to work one or two days a week. Some of them may still be working full-time at home. A lot of the kids are on summer break at the moment, so people are probably still working at home as well because they've got their kids at home because school's not back.

00:24:07Unidentified speaker: Yep.

00:24:08Sarah Hudson: So there's been a lot of isolation and... you know, so few opportunities for people to get together and meet. And the other thing is that, you know, indoor space has been just closed off in so many ways. So probably the hardest thing from the parkrun perspective is that open space, you know, parks and recreational areas have all become very popular and heavily used because they're one of the few kind of refuges that we have. Generally, outdoor activities are considered safer than indoor activities. And so that means that anyone who wants to meet with other people has to do it outside. And that was probably the hardest thing. It was, you know, even if we had people who were keen, there was going to be no guarantee that we'd be even permitted to be able to come back to the park. And certainly discussion I had, several times with the rangers, just checking in over the break, was, you know, their observations that, you know, just how busy the park had become. They were very cautious. They were saying, you know, it's very busy, you know, we have so many people coming here every day. So, there was really just no, you know, apart from the whole health side of would we even be able to get an event gathering people together and the logistical side of that. One thing to remember is here is I know the experience in Australia is that they have the QR code system so that people can check in when they arrive. We don't have anything like that here. So, essentially, the contact tracing went out the window very quickly because there was just so, so many cases been circulating so widely. So, pretty much, we all operate on the assumption that COVID's everywhere and we just have to work around it. But yes, apart from whether or not our local city, our local county would allow events to happen on any scale, even if we got that point, then being able to find a space that we could go back to using, it was just no guarantee. Yeah.

00:25:57Oliver Spake: It's really positive to hear that, you know, going from that and obviously as you talk about isolation and you guys, I imagine, are no different in having had that experience working from home, kids at home and having to find new and innovative ways to make the home environment as much as it can be to then when you've talked about, you know, run clubs getting involved now. So clearly there's that desire, which is really positive.

00:26:21Sarah Hudson: Absolutely. And the thing to remember is that there's still very few large running events that have started again. This is probably something that's kind of the biggest challenge about starting a parkrun in the USA. It's that so many events are normally running here on any given day of the week, any week of the year. Yeah. You know, there's so many track teams. and run clubs and fitness clubs and social clubs and yet so many people are doing running for different causes for different institutions and they're all using the same spaces so it's very difficult here to find a spot for parkrun to fit in and there isn't a lot of widespread awareness of parkrun it's not really on anyone's radar here most of the people who know of parkrun know it because they've been somewhere else that had a parkrun and they went there one time. So they find out that, oh, there's one nearby. I had no idea. And it's like, that's okay because there's only two of us. So there's only two in the whole of California. And they go, why? And it's like, well, where do you hold one? It's very, very hard to get a permit to use the space. And as my ambassador explained to me when we were way back looking at getting this going, even just having the conversation with your city, if you go in and say, I want to run a 5K every week, the hands go up, the alarm bells go off because what they associate the words 5K are a big event, 10,000 people showing up, roads closed, merch being given out, trash everywhere, loud music. And they just go, no, you're not doing that every week. And it takes a long time to explain to them that that's not what parkrun is. It is generally a smallish community run. It's completely free. We're really low impact on the area that we use. We don't hand anything out. We don't put lots of permanent signage. We don't really even have that much trash or anything like that. And it's weekly, but it's low impact. And it does take a lot of convincing to get the city on board with that. And I think the thing that I really loved seeing happening at Byxbee is that for a while then, most of the people who were coming were basically what I'd describe as expats. They were Australian or they were British. You have a couple of South Africans. So people who had come from somewhere else and brought parkrun with them. But over time, we're picking up more and more locals, which is fantastic because they're the people who are going to keep it going. So the more every time we get a new person who's like, oh, I heard it from my friend or You know, I saw it on the local social media group and it's like, fantastic. And we even have a couple of people who say, oh, I haven't been up to this park for years. I even forgot it was there. And it's like, well, isn't it lovely? I'm so glad that you can join us for a run here. So we're slowly picking up more and more people who've lived here for a long time and who are happy to see us using the space, which is great. And yeah, hopefully they'll keep it going for a long time.

00:29:13Oliver Spake: Oh, that's wonderful. Look, a fantastic job to you and to the Byxbee community there in setting that up and restarting in such a challenging time. I will ask you the next question, which I have to ask. And it sounds like Byxbee should clearly be in that list. But knowing that you've done a few different events. I have. You've two countries so far. Do you have a top three events that don't include your home event?

00:29:36Sarah Hudson: So if I had to pick the top three, I'm going to go on my list of three where I've either run as a tourist or I've gone on my way to visit it and they've just been fantastic, great experience and so grateful I got to do them. And so my top three are Crissy Field parkrun is spectacular. If you get it on a clear day, it's beautiful. It really was just so much fun. Number two is Taree parkrun, which is on the north coast of New South Wales. So my mother-in-law lives up that way now and so I've done about four or five parkruns up at Taree. I also went to Forster parkrun when they had their launch, which was great. But I love Taree. It is a really lovely, it's a similar sort of size parkrun, I think, to Byxbee. It's a two lap and you're running up and down the river in town. And so you run down to the bridge and you run back and you do that two times. And they have just the most lovely community up there. It is fantastic. And quite often as you're running, you'll see the ladies out in the dragon boat doing their training on the river and you can wave to them. And it is a beautiful spot. It's absolutely stunning. So, Taree is definitely in my list. And my number three favourite that I've done is Albert Park in Melbourne. So, I've only been down there one time, but I had a great time doing it. And even though it was a horrible, cold, windy day when I was down there. Thank you, Melbourne. Yeah. It was just so much fun because, you know, you're running around the lake, there's so much going on, you're right in the city and obviously it's one of the bigger parkruns in that area. So it was great. It was a real experience. And it was also one of the first ones where I noticed that you didn't have to have the start and finish in the same place to have a successful parkrun because for those people who haven't done Albert Park, and I assume that they still do it this way, is everyone puts their stuff and has their briefing in one place and then you walk to the start because it's The way the distances work out, they need to shift the start a little bit to make sure that you're not running too far by the time you finish. So that was one of the first times I'd sort of been at a parkrun that does that. It's like, oh, okay, you can just, you know, manage the group and move people around if you need to to get it to work. And so it was a creative solution to that problem. And I respected that they were able to work that out. But that's just a real adventure, that one, because you just go all the way around the lake and you see so many different things on the way and you never get to see the same thing twice, which is exciting and not that common. So that was a great one. I enjoyed that.

00:31:55Oliver Spake: That's fantastic. You've named three parkruns I haven't done. Well, four, in fact, with the launch of Forster. But I've clearly got an ever-growing list. Look, I'd love to keep chatting, Sarah, but we'll have to let you go. I'm conscious it is the evening there. But I want to say thank you so much for your time. It is wonderful to hear about the efforts and the community reconnecting over there at Byxbee parkrun and hopefully parkruns around the US through this improved time, this summertime. So thank you so much for joining us and we wish you all the best.

00:32:28Sarah Hudson: You're very welcome. Thanks for having me.

00:32:30[15 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:32:45Melissa Ellis: And great to hear from Sarah over there at Byxbee, Ollie. It sounds like a successful return to parkrun for them.

00:32:54Oliver Spake: Yeah, sound like some positives with a few more people starting to trickle back into what seems like a fairly small community there, but I think they're glad to have their parkruns back.

00:33:04Melissa Ellis: Yeah, 100%, and nice to learn a little bit more about the area and the difficulties that they have in getting events up in the USA.

00:33:15Oliver Spake: Yes, yeah, and it's possibly been something touched on before, but I guess I've really glossed over it in terms of my own understanding. There's a pretty diverse range of areas, and I'm sure there are some more opportunities out there. Hopefully, we'll see many, many more to come, Mel.

00:33:34Melissa Ellis: Yes, and thank you very much to Sarah for taking the time to talk to us this week.

00:33:38Oliver Spake: Yes, yes. And also a shout out to some of our Sydney parkrun friends of the podcast who did help us reach out.

00:33:44Melissa Ellis: Indeed.

Dazza's

00:33:45Oliver Spake: Yes. But look, Mel, speaking of people who are enjoying their parkruns, we did hear from a few of them at Dazza's this week.

00:33:52Melissa Ellis: Oh, we did. Wasn't it wonderful?

00:33:54Oliver Spake: Yep, certainly gave a fix. And the first of whom, it's always nice to start with a bit of a Bailey shot. Tanya Bailey, tail walked with Brett and Bronwyn today. We had an extra shot of Bailey today with our son Nathan present. Barmy 12 degrees, home for a spa and eggs benny cooked by Brett.

00:34:12Melissa Ellis: 12 degrees? There's a heat wave here in Melbourne at the moment. Excellent. And then Brett Bailey. Tail walked at Pegasus. 93 parkrunners today. Warm and very windy.

00:34:23Oliver Spake: Well, I think there's a consensus on the temperature there. Bronwyn Bailey. We'll swap your rain and flooding and wind thrown in for good measure.

00:34:31Melissa Ellis: Is Bronwyn another connection to the Bailey shot?

00:34:34Oliver Spake: I can only say yes without any research whatsoever.

00:34:38Melissa Ellis: And we heard from M Scholarly. Good morning from M. And M was wearing her ugly buff.

00:34:45Oliver Spake: Rocking the buff. Yeah, looking fantastic. We also heard from Sonja Pohlman. It was blowing a gale, but brilliant blue morning at the Beaches. We enjoyed listening to the live as we walked our 5K. Off to grab a coffee and fingers crossed for the, sorry Mel, this is where I have to scroll, for the Strawberry Victoria Sponge Special from Cake Boy.

00:35:09Melissa Ellis: It was lovely to have the Pohlmans present and commenting live on our live. But Sonja's post, Ollie, and the comments attached to the post sent me on a bit of a Wikipedia deep dive.

00:35:23Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:35:24Melissa Ellis: Because there was reference to a bee sting. Now, it just seems like every week in the podcast, there's some sort of food that I don't know what it is. And so I had to do the Google search for the bee sting. And what I came up with is it's got a German connection. Like, how apt is that?

00:35:45Oliver Spake: Yes, very fitting.

00:35:47Melissa Ellis: It was completely fitting. So Bienenstich or bee sting cake is a German dessert made of a sweet yeast dough with a baked on topping of caramelised almonds filled with a vanilla custard, buttercream or cream. Biennstich is a very tasty dessert with an interesting origin. One source cites a legend of German bakers from the 15th century who lobbed beehives at raiders from a neighbouring village. successfully repelling them and celebrated later by baking a version of this cake named after their efforts. How's that? [German: ""Bienenstich" literally means "bee sting" - the speaker glosses it correctly in the same sentence."]

00:36:22Oliver Spake: That's a pretty good award for that. All the efforts.

00:36:25Melissa Ellis: You're just always learning here on this podcast.

00:36:28Oliver Spake: Well, about baked goods at least.

00:36:30Melissa Ellis: Yes, yes. We're very informative in baked goods.

00:36:34Oliver Spake: Yes. Thank you, Sonja. Yeah, well and truly hungry again.

00:36:37Melissa Ellis: And I hope you enjoyed your bee sting. I might have to get one for the family. And we heard from Linda Coombes, my 250th at Warwick parkrun in my ugly jumper for Jumpers and Jazz Festival, one of my favourite runs of our parkrun year.

00:36:51Oliver Spake: Happy 250 there, Linda. That's quite an impressive 250 as well in the photo. We also heard from Claire Stutchbury. Guten Morgen aus Queensland. Another week of mask wearing, but luckily still allowed to parkrun. Event number 91, our 28th, Queensland, at Broadbeach Waters, followed by a sneaky ocean swim.

00:37:12Melissa Ellis: Those two are just enjoying parkrun too much. I think we have to block them from any more comments while we're in lockdown.

00:37:22Oliver Spake: No, it's good. We need it.

00:37:24Melissa Ellis: And Ingrid Botha ran, I'd rather be at Toolern Creek, not parkrun yesterday, so I could catch the parkrun adventurers live this morning. And thanks for joining us, Ingrid.

00:37:35Oliver Spake: Very nice to have your company there. We also heard from Rebecca Bailey. Good morning. After catching the live stream this morning, I headed out on the Banksia Avenue, not parkrun, and stopped in at the Windang Cakes Delight and Cafe for my baked goods. 800 metres from home and a lovely 7 out of 10 sausage roll. And Rebecca did also provide us a course description. So for anyone interested, I will read it out. It's a relatively flat out and back course starting at the end of Banksia Avenue, run down the grass strip behind the houses to the end, turning right and running along the footpath to the bridge. A small stair climb up onto the bridge, then across passing over Lake Illawarra, down the stairs on the other side, then along the footpath to the toilet block at the end of Redall Reserve. Return the same way.

00:38:22Melissa Ellis: Kind of love it when you turn around at the toilet block, Ollie.

00:38:26Oliver Spake: That's a (not)parkrun of convenience, hands down. And the bridge Rebecca's talking about, I love that bridge. It's great for morning light and you can actually run under it. And the concrete underneath the bridge just kind of fills up in golden sunlight. You catch it at the right time of the morning. It's a pretty good one.

00:38:43Melissa Ellis: And we heard from Tracey Wood. Guten Morgen from sunny and blowy Queensland. Today I celebrated my 300th parkrun at New Farm and breakfast after with the gang, photo courtesy of Erica Liotta. Oh, I wish I was with Tracy. [German: "Good morning from sunny and blowy Queensland."]

00:38:59Oliver Spake: Happy 300th, Tracy. The gang would have looked even slightly more merry, but they looked like they were having a good time, Mel.

00:39:11Melissa Ellis: I jest a little bit.

00:39:13Unidentified speaker: Yes, a little bit.

00:39:14Oliver Spake: We also heard from Val Warwick. Barcode Scanner was my role at Kate Reed parkrun while Steve timed. Because we were up at ridiculous o'clock, as both of us were on photo duty at 6am for Tassie Trail Fest, I also took early photos for parkrun. Great breakfast in Prospect and now back for photos of the 100 milers and 100 kilometres-ers. And the 45 kilometres, this is what we call a stretch, all wandering up and down all those elevations. Sure needed that, Brekkie, as it'll be a long day.

00:39:53Melissa Ellis: Goodness, Val, good work on all those photographers. And we heard from Belinda Taylor. Was meant to head to Victoria this weekend and had hoped to complete Albert parkrun, but was not the case. So I headed north to see Fluffy instead. Coffee at a not-to-be-named coffee shop in Noosa that was so bad it was thrown out after two sips.

00:40:18Oliver Spake: Have you had one of those, Mel?

00:40:19Melissa Ellis: No.

00:40:20Oliver Spake: I have.

00:40:21Melissa Ellis: Oh. Well, but great to hear from you, Belinda, and I'm glad that you got to see Fluffy.

00:40:26Oliver Spake: Yeah, this time around.

00:40:27Melissa Ellis: But I'm sad that you didn't get to come to Victoria. Next time, let me know and I'll try and catch up with you.

00:40:32Oliver Spake: Yeah, I hope Fluffy helped soften the blow there.

00:40:35Melissa Ellis: Oh, and she said, but I got to pat Fluffy, so all was not bad. Did I say that before?

00:40:41Oliver Spake: You did now.

00:40:44Melissa Ellis: Yay for me.

00:40:46Oliver Spake: And Tony O'Connell, join some legends for a chat to start the day, then a run on the beach.

00:40:52Melissa Ellis: Oh, that was us.

00:40:54Oliver Spake: Supposedly, yeah.

00:40:55Melissa Ellis: Or maybe it was Danny. Oh.

00:40:58Oliver Spake: I don't know, maybe he's referring to a conversation earlier with Jackie.

00:41:02Melissa Ellis: I think it was us.

00:41:03Oliver Spake: I hope so.

00:41:04Melissa Ellis: And Mark Scarborough, today we achieved Peel Club by completing Cottesloe parkrun in West Australia. We enjoyed coffee and brekkie at the Il Lido Cafe.

00:41:14Unidentified speaker: Mm-hmm.

00:41:15Melissa Ellis: Is it? Okay. With Cam, where I had a crab chilli omelette.

00:41:21Oliver Spake: Congratulations, Team Scarborough.

00:41:23Melissa Ellis: Yes, Peel Club. Clap, Ollie.

00:41:25[applause]

00:41:27Oliver Spake: Yes. I can never clap on cue. I can do it any other time. That was fantastic. And crab chilli, that's a way to celebrate.

00:41:35Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

00:41:35Oliver Spake: Now, we also heard from Jack Corkill. Speedy run at Broadbeach Waters parkrun this morning, followed by reading a book on the beach while Claire swam. Good to know someone's got some sense. Can confirm I was the 1,000th specific finisher at Cormorant Bay last week. Thank you, Jack. Was told at the run brief that the first place visitor would be 1,000th.

00:41:59Melissa Ellis: Well done. And that, again, a great achievement. Yeah. But I'm feeling very jealous of them. They're living the life, doing all this nice beach stuff and touristing. We'll have to live vicariously through them, Ollie.

00:42:16Oliver Spake: That's right. There's no rest for you guys. Keep adventuring. Keep us updated. Thank you.

00:42:21Melissa Ellis: and Peter Leroux. No parkruns in the major urban centres here in South Africa yet, but I'm about to head out the door for my (not)parkrun, spiced up by some pursuing zombies, thanks to the Zombies Run app.

00:42:36Oliver Spake: Now, I've heard about the Zombies Run app, but I still haven't tried it. It sounds a bit scary. Yeah, look, Peter, I hope you made it. Please check back in. Let us know you're safe.

00:42:44Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I might have to download that.

00:42:46Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's right.

00:42:47Melissa Ellis: Maybe Peter could get back in touch and give us a bit more context with this app.

00:42:52Oliver Spake: Yeah, I have to give it a go. We did also hear from Alison King. Mel, I found a recipe for Black Forest Gâteau that I would love to make. Best cake ever. But, she did also say, I ran at Taupo, as I understand the pronunciation is, parkrun today, and took my P index to five. It was wet and windy, but so great to finally meet Claire from Millwater parkrun, all one of my ugly buffs.

00:43:18Melissa Ellis: Ah, great to hear from our friends over the ditch. And we heard from Bernadette Bennett. Willkommen alles. Blowing a gale at Newy, but you wouldn't know by the photo. Neighbouring rowing club filled the volley rolls and the team got to run. Cheering.

00:43:35Oliver Spake: Nice work. And the rowing club too. That's some good community spirit. Well done. We heard from Janet Reid, volunteered on board the mothership today, Lochiel Park. We had the lovely Louise Appleby making her very successful RD debut today. With heavy rain and strong winds forecast, we had a 50% turnout compared to the usual. And guess what? no rain and little wind courtesy of the parkrun weather fairies. Then it was back to the golf club to process results, no red lines, woohoo, while enjoying my usual skinny flat white and a shared bowl of the world's best hot chips, sending all the parkrun feels to those of you who are in lockdown.

00:44:21Melissa Ellis: And sending them right back to you now too, Janet. Oh.

00:44:25Oliver Spake: Yes, very much.

00:44:26Melissa Ellis: Late news in is that South Australia has joined us in lockdown.

00:44:32Oliver Spake: Yes, but very fortunate and congratulations to Louise for stepping up. I'm convinced that the L was for the fact that she was stepping up as a learner rather than the fact that her name is Louise. For those that have seen the photo posted on the page at Dazza's, great to see someone new donning the blue and white vest.

00:44:49Melissa Ellis: And Pippa White, I had a hospital appointment half an hour before parkrun start time. The last week I would have not changed a Saturday appointment. All is well, iced coffee please and whichever pastries are left, almond croissant perhaps. Thinking happy thoughts of our parkrun experience in Germany and next week, next week. Next week.

00:45:11Oliver Spake: Are you excited, Pippa?

00:45:12Melissa Ellis: Sounds like it.

00:45:13Oliver Spake: I hope so.

00:45:14Melissa Ellis: We're excited for you.

00:45:15Oliver Spake: Yes, we're very excited. We can't wait to see your photos and hear all about it. So please let us know once you've enjoyed it, of course. And last in queue. Sam Schroder, week three of the Love Shack Not parkrun and we took three minutes, 18 seconds off our post knee PB. Very happy with that. Breakfast from Luke's Cafe was chorizo tortilla, which is pretty much a potato, peppers and sausage pancake. It was amazing.

00:45:46Melissa Ellis: Well done, Sam. Sounds good, Sam. Yeah. And Luke.

00:45:49Oliver Spake: Yeah, well, that's right. Well done to both of you. Nice way to start the morning. That's for sure.

00:45:54Melissa Ellis: So a good crew again at the cafe, Ollie.

00:45:57Oliver Spake: A hearty crew. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. And thank you for sharing your parkrun experiences, even if they were at New Farm and even if Mel wasn't there.

00:46:05Melissa Ellis: Don't mention the war.

Western Wanderers Challenge

00:46:08Melissa Ellis: But, Ollie, we've got an update on our Western Wanderers Challenge here in Victoria. Ooh. So I've received a photo from Adrian, the ED at Peppertree parkrun, highlighting all the events that you can enjoy for the Western Wanderers, but we've got an edition. There's a late edition.

00:46:29Unidentified speaker: Ooh.

00:46:30Melissa Ellis: Okay. Yes, yes. So Highlands has been added. It is decided that being west of the Hume Highway, it makes the grade. So welcome, Highlands.

00:46:42Oliver Spake: It's always good to have Highlands part of the gang, right?

00:46:45Melissa Ellis: Yes, they are the happiest parkrun. Must also be noted in the photo that I will share on the pod post this coming week that it does include an event that is on the Victorian parkrun map. Williamstown Breakwater parkrun is not actually a current parkrun, has never launched. So that just needs to be pointed out to the community. I do think there is still the option that there will be a Williamstown event in the future.

00:47:18Oliver Spake: So a bit of a teaser there for the future one day.

00:47:21Melissa Ellis: Yeah, but it must be noted that that event is not a current active event. It was supposed to be prior to the pause, but did not eventuate.

00:47:29Oliver Spake: Oh, look... I imagine that'll be frustrating for some that want to tick off every parkrun on that map there, Mel, but these things happen, don't they?

00:47:37Melissa Ellis: Patience, grasshopper.

00:47:40Oliver Spake: Well, Mel, I do hope to actually start the list of the Western Wanderers one day. So yeah, for now I can only dream.

00:47:48Melissa Ellis: Have you done any Victorian events?

00:47:50Oliver Spake: Just the one.

00:47:51Melissa Ellis: Yeah, which one?

00:47:52Oliver Spake: Wangaratta.

00:47:53Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's right. I remember now. Silly me. Yes. Paul and Zoe were there that day. That's right.

00:48:00Oliver Spake: Yes. Absolutely. Coincidentally. Yeah. Always a fun surprise when you travel six hours down the road and bump into some fellow parkrun tourists. I mean, you've experienced it plenty, I'm sure. It's a rarity for me. Well, I suppose let's keep it going.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:48:15Oliver Spake: We were fortunate enough to hear from a few parkrunners this week who very kindly recorded some roving reports. So let's have a listen.

00:48:22[15 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Roving report Tracey Wood — New Farm

00:48:38Tracey Wood: Guten Morgen, Frau Ellis und Herr Spake. Hi, I'm at New Farm. I'm sorry you couldn't be with me today, Mel, so this one goes out to you. Anyway, I'm here at 6.30. Cars are lining up. Looks like the markets are on. It's getting busy around here, but it's freezing. Yes, it's under 20 degrees. I'm going to go and ask other people or see what they think of the weather.

00:49:03Karina Joyce: Good morning. I'm doing a survey for parkrun adventurers podcast.

00:49:06Tracey Wood: I'm trying to convince them that it's cold up here. Victorian people don't think it's cold. What do you think? It's not that cold. Not that cold? Okay. Are you a Queenslander, Brisbaneite? Yeah. And you're not feeling cold? I am. It's the wind chill back. What temperature do you think it is at the moment?

00:49:22Unidentified speaker: I think my car said it was 15, but I think with the wind chill it's definitely under 10.

00:49:26Tracey Wood: Yes, you look quite warm there in your nice puffy jacket.

00:49:28Unidentified speaker: I am, but I'm going to have to take it off. Oh no, are you volunteering this morning?

00:49:32Tracey Wood: Oh, to run. That's a good idea. Hopefully when we get out in the sun it'll be a lot warmer. What was your name, sorry? Robin. Robin and? Ben. Ben, thanks for talking with me. No problem.

00:49:44Karina Joyce: Good morning.

00:49:45Tracey Wood: How are you?

00:49:45Karina Joyce: Good.

00:49:46Tracey Wood: How are you going? Good. I'm doing a survey for parkrun adventurers, the podcast. Okay. I didn't even know there was one. Oh, there is now. And I'm trying to convince them that it's cold up here in Queensland and Victorian people are laughing at me.

00:49:59Hannah: What do you think?

00:50:00Unidentified speaker: It is definitely a bit chilly at the moment, especially at this time of the morning.

00:50:06Tracey Wood: Yes, it is a bit. And are you running this morning too? Yeah, with my little five-year-old. Oh, wow.

00:50:11Unidentified speaker: Has he got his own barcode? He does. He's doing his number 33 today.

00:50:15Tracey Wood: Congratulations mate, number 33 run today. Do you want to come say hello to me?

00:50:20Unidentified speaker: Come say hello?

00:50:21Tracey Wood: Yeah, good on you.

00:50:22Unidentified speaker: Are you doing parkrun today? You say yes? Yes.

00:50:26Tracey Wood: And what's your name love? Harrison. Harrison, well congratulations Harrison. Do you like parkrun? Yeah. Hey Harrison, you're doing your number 33 today, is that right? Mm-hmm. And you like parkrun? And do you run with mummy or daddy or do you run with a dog or do you run with friends? I run with... You run with mummy. Is she really, really fast or does she have to keep up with you?

00:50:51Unidentified speaker: Who's the fastest? You or mummy?

00:50:53Unidentified speaker: Me.

00:50:54Tracey Wood: You're the fastest. Oh, well, good work.

00:50:56Unidentified speaker: Because I have my speedy shoes.

00:50:58Tracey Wood: Harrison, they are really awesome shoes. And what was your name, sorry? Cheralee. Cheralee from Redland Bay, which is my Nendi. Thanks for talking with me. I'll see you later. Say thank you.

00:51:09Unidentified speaker: Bye. Thank you. Bye.

00:51:14Tracey Wood: Okay, I'm now walking with Henry at parkrun, and Henry has Yaz on his left. Henry, you were telling me, how old is Yaz now?

00:51:25Henry: Well, Yaz is five. She's a very, very cheeky Labrador, golden colour. She also happens to be a guide dog in her spare time. So lots of sass, lots of personality, and keeps me out of trouble and hasn't killed me yet.

00:51:43Tracey Wood: And can you tell me about service dogs? What's their usual working timeframe? How long do they usually work for?

00:51:52Henry: Well, it depends a lot on the guide dog. It depends on how long and hard they've been working. Generally, They have a mandatory retirement age of 10. It changes from organisation, but a lot will depend on what kind of physical condition the dog is in. So, you know, I mean, none of us want to work until the day we drop dead. So it depends on how happy the dog is working.

00:52:22Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:52:23Henry: Sometimes that's eight. Sometimes that's, you know, until the mandatory age of 10. So... I've always retired my dogs a bit early so they can have some time to enjoy their twilight years and do all the things that they probably weren't allowed to do when I was having to be quite strict with them as a working guide.

00:52:47Tracey Wood: Yes, yes. Now, we're at New Farm, as I mentioned before, and Henry was telling me a great story about yes, and a bacon and egg roll. Henry, would you mind telling the listeners this story again? Because I found it quite funny.

00:53:04Henry: Well, just to be clear, the bacon and egg roll is no longer with us, sadly. Yaz and I were walking past a very low wall with a very romantically attached couple sitting down, having a nice relaxed bacon and egg roll after parkrun. Yaz was guiding me very diligently and very diligently took the bacon and egg roll from the bloke's hand. without me knowing. Perfect guiding all the way. No movement of the head whatsoever. And the only notice I had of it was howls of laughter and outrage coming from behind. The guy's partner proceeded to chase me down and inform me of what was occurring to my left, my way with guide dog swallowing the remnants of this bacon egg roll and you only knew when um when the lady ran up and told you about it didn't you she did and she I did offer to pay but she said that the look on her partner's face was priceless so I got away with that one and Yaz had absolutely no regrets whatsoever. Taking the whole concept of living in the moment to its extreme, I think.

00:54:22Tracey Wood: Okay, thank you, Henry. We're just going to do a 360 because we're at the turnaround. So here we go. We're not going around the flag. We're just going to spin around here and we'll keep going. Thank you, Marshall. All right. Thanks for sharing, Henry. We'll head back now. Enjoy your bacon and egg roll after a parkrun.

00:54:40Henry: Absolutely. Yaz is not.

00:54:42Tracey Wood: Okay, parkrunners, that's all from Tracey in a Tutu. I've done New Farm parkrun and I had breakfast there with the gang at a cafe afterwards. I do recommend the avo on toast. Yum. And that's it from me. See you on the VTOL. Toodles from Tracy.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Mark Scarborough — Cottesloe

00:55:03Mark Scarborough: Hello parkrun adventurers, this is Mark reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew. And since we last reported in at Port Lincoln in South Australia, we have clocked up 2,405 kilometres to come to Cottesloe in Western Australia. That's equivalent of 481 parkruns in distance, for the maths heads, I suppose. So at Cottesloe we're here, event number 280. I thought this might have been a fast course, looking at their stats, with an average finish time of 30 minutes and nine seconds, but looks can be deceiving. Must be a very fast group of people that come here every week, because there is a decent sand section, probably about a kilometre, which is certainly hard going. And an achievement for us as the Scarborough family, we've now achieved Peel Club status, running a parkrun in every state and territory in Australia. I'm here with our resident Western Australian correspondent, Cam. Good morning, Cam.

00:55:54Cameron Drake: G'day, Mark. How are you going?

00:55:57Mark Scarborough: How did you find that today? It was a bit of a hard slog on the sand, wasn't it?

00:56:01Cameron Drake: Personally, I love the sand. Anything that's hard and makes me work is obviously good for me because I need to work harder for it. I've got to earn it.

00:56:09Mark Scarborough: And we had James from the Channel 2 News crew pacing us this morning. He was going pretty hard at it.

00:56:15Cameron Drake: He ran us ragged, I'll give you that much. He had to slow him down a bit so we could keep up.

00:56:20Mark Scarborough: Yeah, I think if it wasn't for the sand, I think you would have definitely got a PB today. So Cam, how many years have you been parkrunning for?

00:56:27Cameron Drake: I think I started in late 2015, November I think was my first parkrun. And I've been doing it ever since. I think I did over 100 parkruns at one event before I started going out elsewhere. It was a bit sort of centric on one location. But since then I've tried to get around once a month or so. Just get out and see this beautiful wide brown land of ours. What got you involved in parkrun initially? I don't even remember anymore. I think I was just looking around for something regular to run around because I was sick of running around the same block in the section of my suburb and just up a hill, down a hill, around the school, things like that. And I thought, there's got to be somewhere better to do this. And I looked around on the websites and found this thing called parkrun. And there was a local one down the road. It was only 20 minutes away. I thought, hey, why not? The moment I got there, I saw all these happy, smiling people. I thought, what the heck is this about? And the moment I finished, I think I was hooked. Just kept on coming back time and time again. Which is your home parkrun here? Tamworth Wetlands parkrun. Whenever I do a report and I don't mention the name, that's usually where I'm at.

00:57:33Mark Scarborough: I mentioned T the other day when I spun up T on the alphabet wheel, and we were talking about to learn as well there. That's where I learned about where Tamworth Wetlands was, so it's good to know. What would be your top three parkruns, not include your home parkrun,

00:57:47Cameron Drake: Oh, I think my favourite would be Margaret River. That's part of my favourite part of the world. And apart from that, without playing too many more favourites, I quite like Geographe Bay down that way as well. That's a nice little course. I love the area. And outside of that, I quite enjoyed Bibra Lake. That's a good one. Nice flat course, good for PBs. But I don't think I've ever been to a bad parkrun. They're all at lovely places full of lovely people.

00:58:16Mark Scarborough: Yeah, it does make the top three hard, honestly. I think I would struggle naming my top three. But what's your favourite volunteer role?

00:58:25Cameron Drake: Ah, that's put me on the spot. I like marshalling. I like encouraging people. My home course, we've got a number of out and backs. We've got the Marshals on the points, so you get to see people a number of times. So you get to see them during the various phases of their run, whether at the start when they're fresh and energetic, in the middle when they're flagging a bit, and at the end when they're struggling. You say, get up the hill. Go on, get up. And that's my favourite part.

00:58:48Mark Scarborough: So cheerleader or motivator?

00:58:50Cameron Drake: Yeah, a bit like that. Yeah, cheerleader.

00:58:53Mark Scarborough: If you could go anywhere in the world next week for parkrun, where would you go?

00:58:58Cameron Drake: Somewhere warm. No idea. Anywhere. They're all good.

00:59:03Mark Scarborough: Well, thank you for having a chat to us and coming and joining us at Cottesloe parkrun today. It's a great course and thankfully the rain stayed away. Well, that's us done at the Cottesloe parkrun. We're going to go off and have some breakfast and coffee now. I'll let you know that during the week we also did a Freedom Run at the Kalgoorlie Boulder parkrun, which is in the Karlkurla Bushland Park on the edge of town, which is an expansive nature reserve filled with salmon, gums, Blackbutt and the silky pear that gives the park its name. It's quite a beautiful course, actually. A bit of undulation throughout it, and it kind of winds throughout the nature park for the 5K course. One of the good things with this particular one for Freedom Runners is it's well marked out. Whilst the map looks a little bit confusing, when you actually get out on course, there's markers there that lead you the way. So that's us done here, and we'll talk to you next time on the parkrun adventurers.

Roving report Cameron Drake — Cottesloe

00:59:55Cameron Drake: Good morning adventurers, Cam here, reporting in from Cottesloe parkrun, that's right, chasing another C for the Pirate Club. I'm out here, I'm right next to the beach, you might be able to hear a bit of that. It's not what I'd call the best weather, but it's not raining. Part of what I've been struggling with is motivation, is just getting out of a nice warm bed, throwing on running clothes and getting out into the freezing cold. I wonder how other people do it. Let's find out. Alright, well I'm here with a voice that some of you may find familiar. Mark, what motivates you to keep coming in such awful weather and winter cold temperatures?

01:00:34Mark Scarborough: Cam, this weather here isn't that bad. I think the weather forecast for Canberra was looking pretty ordinary this morning, so we're going to count our blessings. It's not raining here yet at Fremantle, but for me, motivation is just the habit of parkrun, really. We just love getting out. I think my body just knows when it's Saturday morning parkrun time and I've got to get out there and hit up parkrun. So I think the habit is the motivation. You've made the habit, now it's impossible to break. I think so, yeah. Even when I'm volunteering at parkrun, like being an RD or something like that, my body gets that twitch, it's like, I've got to run, I've got to run, I've got to run, it's like a parkrun. But no, it's the habit. That's what drives the motivation for me. What about you, Cam?

01:01:15Cameron Drake: Yeah, look, I wouldn't know what I'd be doing with myself on Saturday morning. It'd probably be something like house chores or something like that. So that's a really great motivation to get out and away from the dishes and the floors and everything else that needs taking care of. I can get out for a few hours and just escape.

01:01:31Mark Scarborough: So Nicole walked away when you started getting the record button out. I think the motivation for Nicole is the coffee and the breakfast afterwards. That's been the key thing to keep her coming to parkrun.

01:01:42Cameron Drake: Well, you can have coffee and breakfast anywhere. Perhaps it's coffee and breakfast with you and the fam?

01:01:46Mark Scarborough: Yeah, but I think also the parkrun community, particularly with our Wagyu Bridge community, which is a good group that go out afterwards as well. And I think that that's also nice, just to kind of catch up with people over coffee. How do we say that again? Wagyu Bridge. Wagyu Bridge. Wagyu, yep. Wagyu? Yep. It means dancing in Ngunnawal language. Excellent.

01:02:06Cameron Drake: Okay, Mark, well, thanks for sharing and I'll see you afterwards as well. Marvellous. All right, everyone, I'm here with... Angus Cameron. And Duncan Cameron. Nice to meet you, fellas. Are you a local around here?

01:02:19Angus Cameron: Yes.

01:02:20Cameron Drake: Yes, we are, just up the road. Fantastic. Now, I don't know if you've noticed, but the skies aren't exactly the bluest I've ever seen. What keeps you fellas motivated in the more wetter, yuckier months?

01:02:33Angus Cameron: Well at school I've always been pretty like bad at running and like I would be good at sprinting but not so long distance and I'm in a football team so my coach really encourages me to like he's really strict on doing 5k runs every week so I was like okay I'm going to step it up and I just come down here even if it's raining and yeah.

01:02:56Cameron Drake: So 5K each week makes you a better footballer on the ground, hey?

01:02:59Angus Cameron: Yeah, I believe so. That's what I think, hopefully. And I always think each time I do a parkrun, I try and get better and better. So, yeah, that's good.

01:03:09Duncan Cameron: That's fantastic. How about yourself, sir? Look, I always like to support my son. If he's doing something, I want to be down there with him because it's time we spend together. Oh, that's nice. But I have to wear a tracksuit top, I must admit, in the colder weather, so it keeps my engine warm.

01:03:24Cameron Drake: Yeah, I think us of the older persuasion need a few extra layers just to keep the body functional, don't we?

01:03:29Duncan Cameron: Oh, absolutely. But look, the reward you get is when Angus and I, we go and have a nice breakfast down Cottesloe Beach afterwards. And he likes his crab omelette. Nice. Yeah, it is fantastic. And then we just have a bit of a chat and we go home and that sets us up for the weekend.

01:03:47Cameron Drake: So we've got being a bit of football and a bit of father and son time. Well, I can't think of any better reasons than that, fellas. It's been lovely chatting to you. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, everyone. I'm here with... Karina Joyce. Karina. Now, what got you out of bed and got you motivated to come to parkrun today?

01:04:05Karina Joyce: I just was thinking about how I would feel at the end of the run. And I looked out the window and I saw how grey it was and I was thinking, do I really want to or do I stay in my nice, warm, snuggly bed? But, look, I decided to get out and, yes.

01:04:21Cameron Drake: parkrun triumphed over a warm bed.

01:04:24[laughter]

01:04:24Karina Joyce: Yes! LAUGHTER That's amazing! Yeah, yeah.

01:04:29Cameron Drake: And so that feeling after you've finished parkrun is what got you motivated to come out here today?

01:04:34Karina Joyce: Yes, it is, yeah, yeah.

01:04:35Cameron Drake: It is a good feeling, is it?

01:04:36Karina Joyce: And then I had a happy couple of finds as well. I enjoy parkrun, but not just for... you know getting a better time it's about being out in nature and being along I love being along the ocean but I managed to find some fungi as well some some what I'm sorry some fungi oh okay mushrooms ah yes yes that's right photographed mushrooms as well so yeah I don't let the scenery distract me from a good run all right yeah vice versa that's

01:05:05Cameron Drake: My wife says that I'm just a bit of a mushroom, that I'm kept in the dark and fed the proverbial, but I like to think that I'm a fun guy.

01:05:15Karina Joyce: Yes. Perfect. I like that interpretation.

01:05:19Cameron Drake: Thank you. Well, thanks for chatting with me and I hope to see you around. Yeah, okay.

01:05:22Hannah: Thank you. No worries.

Roving report Hannah — Bass Point Not parkrun

01:05:24Hannah: Hi, I'm Hannah. I'm reporting from the Bass Point Not parkrun because I'm part of the Greater Sydney lockdown. It's been a lovely morning out here today. We're not quite done yet, but I have found a few of the Not parkrunners. I'm just going to ask them a few questions. Hi, I'm Hannah. I'm just asking a few questions about the Bass Point Not parkrun. Have you found the parkrun today?

01:05:46Oliver Spake: It's great today. I think we're pretty lucky with the weather today. It was much windier yesterday, but it's a much nicer morning today. It's good that we can at least do this (not)parkrun because we miss our home parkrun, Shellharbour parkrun, and looking forward to getting back to Shellharbour parkrun sometime soon.

01:06:01Hannah: Thank you for that. I hope you enjoy the rest of your (not)parkrun. Thanks. Hi there, I'm just asking a few questions about the Bass Point Not parkrun. What did you like most about the course today?

01:06:12Oliver Spake: Oh, look, I always love that we go past the dog park. It's nice to see the dogs. Not too many today. And another course feature today was the toilet on the side of the road.

01:06:21Hannah: Yeah, a very interesting feature. I do believe that feature is new.

01:06:25Oliver Spake: Always having improvements at the (not)parkrun, hey?

01:06:28Hannah: Yeah. Well, thank you. Hope you enjoy the rest of your run. No, thank you. And hope to see you back at Shellharbour parkrun sometime soon. Thank you. You too. Hi there. How's it going? I'm Hannah. I'm just asking a few questions of the Not parkrunners here at Bass Point Not parkrun today. How have you gone today?

01:06:45Oliver Spake: Oh, pretty well, I think. I think it's not my PB, but yeah, I'm glad I'm out here. I've made it out. You know, it's pretty hard without Shellharbour parkrun to go to. So at least, you know, this gets me out and gets me active and maybe next week I'll get the PB.

01:06:59Hannah: Yeah, I'm so glad to see you out here today. Hopefully you enjoy the rest of your run and let's see that PB next week, hey?

01:07:04Oliver Spake: Thank you.

01:07:06Hannah: Hey there, I'm Hannah. I'm just asking a few questions today. I believe you're the Tail Walker.

01:07:11Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's right. I thought, well, you know, why not? I'm going to be out here. I'll give it a go and make sure we all get back safely.

01:07:17Hannah: Yeah, are you tail walking with anyone else today?

01:07:19Oliver Spake: Yeah, tail walking with my daughter today. It's nice to spend the time. Nice to have a good not parkrun together. And hey, it means we can walk and talk at the same time.

01:07:29Hannah: Yeah, exactly. Have you volunteered much here at the Bass Point, not parkrun?

01:07:33Oliver Spake: Oh, look, try and help out whenever I can, in any way I can. Just like, you know, obviously at my home parkrun, Shellharbour parkrun, I just try and always help out and make it a comfortable parkrun for everyone.

01:07:46Hannah: Yeah, well, thank you for volunteering here today. It's greatly appreciated. Hopefully to see you volunteering here again sometime soon.

01:07:51Oliver Spake: Oh, without a doubt. Thank you.

01:07:52Hannah: Thank you. Hi, I'm here with the Event Director of Bass Point Not parkrun. Can you tell us a bit about the event, sir?

01:08:01Oliver Spake: Yeah, look, it's been in mothballs for a little while, but, you know, as circumstances change, we've had to get it back up and running. You know, pretty amazing. We get the turnout we do, you know, when we are limited to two people or people within the household. But, you know, it's just nice to be able to get out and not parkrun and make it possible for, you know, myself and the people in my household. Yeah, well, that's our best option. Usually I'd be at Shellharbour parkrun, but... Bit of traffic here. That's one of the differences about not parkrun is, of course, you know, we can run alongside of the road, which gives us a bit more flexibility. And I think people appreciate that the course here, it runs along the road, but the views are just spectacular.

01:08:42Hannah: Oh, they are amazing. They do not compare to Shellharbour parkrun, of course, though.

01:08:46Oliver Spake: No, no, no. Look, I appreciate you saying that. I might be biased, but hey, that's pretty good. But I think all in all, it's a pretty good course. It's pretty flat. There's one sort of rocky hill that people get to take on close to halfway, but it's all worth it, right? And thank you so much for coming out and joining us today.

01:09:05Hannah: Thank you for putting on the event today. It's been greatly appreciated. I enjoyed the opportunity to come out. Thank you. Thank you. This is Hannah signing off. It's been a great opportunity to come out here today. For the 11 million of you, much like myself, who are in lockdown, I wish you all a happy and safe lockdown. And hopefully we can all join the rest of the parkrunners again soon. See ya.

the Informant

01:09:37The Informant: This is The Informant, coming to you live from level 2 with a view. This week we saw a businessman holding way too many coffees fumbling around for the car keys. Parkies, you didn't need to be a clairvoyant to see it coming. He did a brilliant job of juggling six coffees. For about a second maybe. Coffee everywhere, including his feet.

01:09:55[laughter]

01:09:55Unidentified speaker: Ha ha!

01:09:56The Informant: It was hilarious. He didn't go back inside and reorder either. Anyhow parkies, these are unofficial stats. They are only current at the time they are collected and may differ from the stats you read elsewhere. But you wouldn't do that because you can get it all right here at the parkrun adventurers. On the junior front we lost a few events due to COVID lockouts. This weekend there were three events and 160 junior parkies took part. 21 of them scored a PB. There were 26 first-timers. Ella Webster, Joel Torpey, Laura Stockall, Mayasari Bhattacharjee, Poppy Carroll and Sloane Nicholls all recorded half marathons. There are no marathons recorded this week. And that's it for genies. Once again, I'll put these stats up on the blog in my spreadsheet. Not the biggest, but high in quality. Just like the juniors, regular 5K parkruns were heavily affected by COVID restrictions last weekend. There were 537 runs taking place in 10 countries. There were 270 in Australia, 33 in New Zealand, Denmark and France had 8, Japan had 20, Poland had 75, Russia 42, UK 39, USA 35, and of course, we welcome back Germany with 7 events. There were two launches, one at McLean Beach in New South Wales and one at Sportpark Rems in Germany. Aussie New Zealand attendance was down by 7,000. We had 23,134 runners out of 34,344 worldwide. We had 2,311 PBs, while 656 people participated for the first time. 45 juniors reached their Junior 10 milestone. 108 people reached their 50 milestone, 68 reached their 100 milestone, and 22 people reached their 250 milestone, which is more than double last week. So that's a bit strange given the trends set by the other stats. 13 people called bingo. Kasey Pearce was the quickest with 158 events. Rosemary Goodrick was the slowest person, taking 354 events. We have just two new states peoples. Mary Ann Bustede completed all in the ACT at Ginninderra. Paul Griffiths completed all in the Northern Territory at Palmerston. On the top 20 most Aussie New Zealand events list, Robin Rishworth moves up 1 to be equal 11th with Gary Nisbet on 152 events after running at Seacliff Esplanade. 24 people increased their windex. Simon Nash was the biggest mover up 27 points to 82. OK Parkies, that's your lot from me this week. As always, to see these stats in full, you should definitely follow the informant on Facebook, visit the blog at www.theinformant.me. That's the informant, all one word, .me. This has been The Informant, and my stats report is like a six-pack of jam doughnuts after 30 seconds in the microwave.

01:12:48Melissa Ellis: Another great bunch of roving reports and our cheeky informant.

01:12:55Oliver Spake: Yes. Thank you, everyone. Yeah, really appreciated hearing those insights into not parkrun, I should mention, as well as the real deal.

01:13:03Melissa Ellis: Oh, yes. Good work, Hannah. Excellent work. Stood up to the challenge beautifully.

01:13:10Oliver Spake: Yeah. Not sure how they fit within the two people exercising restrictions there for New South Wales, but hey, I'm sure they were practising some, yeah, solid physical distancing.

01:13:21Melissa Ellis: But everybody else doing real live parkruns, Ollie, so that's always nice to hear.

01:13:26Oliver Spake: That's right. And actually, Mel, I will say quite motivating. I'm going to take some of that motivation forward, yes. Great. Yep.

01:13:33Melissa Ellis: And, Ollie, we did survey the Channel 5 News crew through the week because we've got a potential new member of the Channel 5 News crew.

01:13:43Oliver Spake: Yeah, I mean, it doesn't go unnoticed when I think someone makes a pretty solid contribution. We love hearing everyone's parkrun experiences, parkrun angles, but there have been some critics, no pointing fingers as to whom has suggested maybe we've lowered the bar to get into the Channel 5 news crew. But I may have been put forward as an example. You can't say that.

01:14:06[laughter]

01:14:12Melissa Ellis: off again no no no it's all good no allison we are not saying that we lowered the bar by letting you into the channel 5 news group we are referring to our own misgivings with no not misgivings what's the word We are referring to our own failings at creating a challenge. And Alison slipped in the back door, Ollie, while we weren't looking.

01:14:42Oliver Spake: She's not the only one. Not the only one.

01:14:45Melissa Ellis: You better stop saying that, otherwise I'm going to set you a challenge.

01:14:49Oliver Spake: But back on point, Mel. I'm sorry I digressed. Tracey in a Tutu.

01:14:54Melissa Ellis: Yes, we surveyed the Channel 5 News crew to come up with a challenge for Tracey. And the challenge that has been put forward is that Tracey should conduct an interview with every different type of volunteer position that's available. Is that accurate, Ollie? Yes.

01:15:14Oliver Spake: It might be more than one interview.

01:15:16Melissa Ellis: Yes, it doesn't have to be on the same day. Over a period of time, Tracey can tick off an interview with a person from each volunteer role.

01:15:26Oliver Spake: And Mel, there's a bit of rationale behind this. You want to explain that for the listeners?

01:15:31Melissa Ellis: Yes, please.

01:15:35Oliver Spake: Well, Tracey in a Tutu is, I'd say, a pretty strong proponent of, let's say, the brighter shade of parkrun, the orange shade of parkrun. With many of her roving reports we've heard already, she's done some pretty solid sharing of the fantastic experiences and just the nature of giving that our volunteers can bring. So you could say she's already halfway there, really.

01:15:59Melissa Ellis: Absolutely, Tracey. And we will accept all prior reports too on that list of volunteer positions. So you don't have to start again.

01:16:09Oliver Spake: That's right. But we look forward to hearing some more volunteer roles. And yeah, I don't think that this one will be terribly difficult for Tracey to achieve. Might take a little while, but I hope we all enjoy that.

01:16:21Melissa Ellis: Yes.

01:16:21Oliver Spake: Yeah. And Mel, there were some other suggestions too, weren't there?

01:16:26Melissa Ellis: Should we divulge what? Wow, Tracy.

01:16:29Oliver Spake: No, no. Let's hold on to those for another day.

Sign-off

01:16:32Melissa Ellis: Okay.

01:16:33Oliver Spake: Yep. Yes. Look, Mel, it's been a big episode. There's another big week we're about to roll into. Maybe not some of us individually, but we will be enjoying some fun, some festivity. What are you up to next week?

Ugly Christmas in July

01:16:49Melissa Ellis: Oh. I am going to be donning my ugly buffs, Ollie, and I am going to be finding a way to virtually enjoy Ugly Christmas in July.

01:17:03Oliver Spake: That's right. It's here. It is here. We've all been waiting for it. We have been waiting to enjoy it at parkrun, but...

01:17:09Melissa Ellis: Hang on. Hang on, Ollie.

01:17:11Oliver Spake: Okay, sorry. Yes.

01:17:12Melissa Ellis: I'm inserting the fanfare.

01:17:14[music]

01:17:14Unidentified speaker: Okay, go.

01:17:22Oliver Spake: Okay, so just a reminder, in case we haven't made it clear enough, it is July 24, this coming parkrun Day, or in some of our cases, not parkrun Day, where if you have some ugly Christmas attire that needs a festive outing, don't wait until December. Ugly festive frock up and join us, for the inaugural Ugly Christmas in July. So if you haven't already, check out Facebook, look up the Ugly Christmas in July event, sign up that you are going. We hope that you have your ugly buff, but if not, get creative. There's time. And go for a walk, plod, amble, skip, run, or stay at home Lego building or baking, which I might be doing some of. Whatever you do, do it with us in your ugliest festive fashion.

01:18:12Melissa Ellis: I get to wear my ugly Christmas runners, Ollie, that I bought some months ago. And I've been saving them, saving them patiently. Can't wait.

01:18:23Oliver Spake: So I think that'll be a pretty good way to spend it.

01:18:25Melissa Ellis: Mm-hmm.

01:18:26Oliver Spake: Yep. Wherever we are.

01:18:28Melissa Ellis: Yes. And we look forward to seeing, we hope there is a lot of ugly buffs filling Dazza's cafe next Saturday morning. But, Ollie.

01:18:36Oliver Spake: Yes. And don't forget to share it on the Ugly Christmas in July page too. Absolutely. Yes. True that.

01:18:42Melissa Ellis: Mm-hmm. But only something else exciting is happening with us on Saturday.

01:18:47Oliver Spake: Yeah, it's going to be a big day.

01:18:49Melissa Ellis: Huge, huge. We are very honoured to be involved with the launch, the relaunch, the unpause of England and coming to you live with our friends over at the With Me Now podcast Saturday afternoon at approximately 5.30 Eastern Standard Time.

01:19:12Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's right. So check your time zones, everyone. But won't it be lovely? Won't it be fantastic?

01:19:18Melissa Ellis: Yeah, Janet, Janet, you're half an hour behind.

01:19:23Oliver Spake: I have been following Cam's adventures and he's been through some interesting time zones. So I'd say everyone check your own circumstances. Yes. But, yeah, no, thank you, Janet. Yeah, don't miss that half hour. Yeah, it would be fantastic to see everyone's excitement and some real-life barcode scanning.

01:19:40Melissa Ellis: And we may even have a special guest, UK Dazza.

01:19:45Oliver Spake: UK Dazza.

01:19:45Melissa Ellis: Yeah, just leave you with that.

01:19:47Oliver Spake: Ooh, ooh. And this isn't Dano. This is someone else.

01:19:51Melissa Ellis: No, not Dano.

01:19:52Oliver Spake: Mm-hmm. Chase. All right. Well, yeah, look, in the meantime, Mel, I will be practicing the buttons after a bit of online coaching and clunky practice last week. And yeah, we look forward to taking part. Thank you to the With Me Now team for inviting us.

01:20:10Melissa Ellis: Oh, yes. And thank you for your patience in allowing us to practice as well using your platform. We appreciate that. And we will do our absolute best on Saturday. And we can't wait.

01:20:21Oliver Spake: We can't. Until then, Mel... I hope you enjoy your week and your (not)parkrun day until I catch you a bit later. Enjoy the Olympics if you are watching any of that.

01:20:30Melissa Ellis: Are they starting?

01:20:31Oliver Spake: They're starting. They're starting. They start this Friday.

01:20:35Melissa Ellis: Okay.

01:20:35Oliver Spake: Yeah. It is an interesting time to be having an Olympics. I'm not sure we've got that same Olympic spirit as usual, but things are actually warming up Olympics wise in this household. So there's a bit of a home Olympics going on. I might be a bit distracted with that.

01:20:49Melissa Ellis: I can see a Olympics Ellis Pellis parkrun theme in my future.

01:20:55Oliver Spake: Yes, it's meant to be. But until then, Mel, as always, everyone would be very welcome to contact us via Facebook or on our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. But that's it for another week. And we will see you all next week or live on Saturday for more adventures.

01:21:14[music]

01:22:21Unidentified speaker: Hi Mel and Ollie. We did a not junior parkrun today. We did it in our footy colours. Hi Zali and Ava. I hope you did a (not)parkrun too. Maybe you could visit us one day at Eynesbury. Bye. Talk to you again soon. Bye.