Episode 253 - Runner 5(00)

Welcome

00:00:23Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 253 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Melissa Ellis and I'm joined by somebody who didn't have a troll to chaperone around his LGA. How are you today, Ollie?

00:00:39Oliver Spake: I'm well, thanks, Mel. I'm, yeah, I'm troll-less. I don't know how I picked myself up this weekend to go for a (not)parkrun.

00:00:48Melissa Ellis: He's moved on.

00:00:49Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:00:51Melissa Ellis: But he hasn't surfaced, so I'm not sure where he is at the moment. It's a bit of a mystery.

00:00:57Oliver Spake: Yeah. Oh, look, who am I to question the mysterious travel ways of the troll kind? But, you know, fortunate as I was, and I know that I think many would hope that troll surfaces somewhere near them. So let's wait and see.

00:01:14Melissa Ellis: And how did you manage, you know, on your own this week?

00:01:18Oliver Spake: It was on my own. Look, I went out for the slightly more traditional Bass Point, not parkrun. And it was quite nice. At the moment, there's a bit of roadworks going on. So it's a forced course change. But hey, I change it willingly almost every week. So I'm not going to complain about that. But it did send me down through the Well, it's through a foreshore area where there is a dog park, an off-leash area. So I got to run amongst all the doggies and I haven't really been that fortunate to run. I mean, you've had your furry friends along for many a parkrun, Mel. I never have. And just running amongst them, that was probably the highlight of the morning because they're all nice and friendly.

00:02:06Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's a good thing about not parkruns, Ollie. They're very adaptable.

00:02:10Oliver Spake: That's right. And, hey, you know, it was a nice little surprise. Wasn't expecting to have such friendly company. But these things are possible when you can be flexible. And, look, aside from that, I was just glad to get back and have my coffee. And find my rainbow, my rainbow bow tie, which I had forgotten because I didn't check Dazza's memo early enough. But, Mel, you did not miss the memo.

00:02:41Melissa Ellis: No. So our theme this week for Ellis Palace Not parkrun was rainbows and unicorns. Because I think I was inspired a little bit by Inverloch's colourful theme the week before for their anniversary. And Zoe had previously asked for a unicorn theme. And I thought, well, now's the time because, you know, we all needed a little bit of cheering up. And what's not to be happy about unicorns and rainbows?

00:03:10Oliver Spake: I agree.

00:03:11Melissa Ellis: We just went all colourful and fairy bread and doughnuts and jelly, colourful jelly. Anything I could think of that just might lift the spirits a little bit in the house.

00:03:23Oliver Spake: And did you not parkrun in your rainbow hair? Absolutely did.

00:03:28Melissa Ellis: Excellent. Actually, I didn't wear my colourful hair, Ollie, but I did go out for my streak.

00:03:33Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:03:34Melissa Ellis: And coincidentally, after last week when I made the grand claim that I haven't been swooped this season. Oh, of course.

00:03:44Oliver Spake: That's right. Guess what happened? Oh. They were listening. They listen to the pod.

00:03:50Melissa Ellis: Yes, they do. So our course is a two-loop course. The first was a 3K and the second is a shorter loop of 2K. So on my first loop, I got swooped on a section that I haven't been swooped ever before. So obviously knowing that I had to come back around on a second leg, I had to make a last-minute course adjustment.

00:04:15Oliver Spake: Oh, I'm a fan of them, yep.

00:04:18Melissa Ellis: To cut that corner out where I got swooped. Not that I'm, well, I'm a pretty calm person when it comes to swooping. Yep. I sort of turn around and have a chat to the magpie and say, hey, what are you doing? It's me, you know. This isn't very nice. Took my mask off so it could see who I was. But, yeah, I did get swooped about three times and he made contact. He actually struck me, which was okay. I'm kind of used to it by now so it's definitely swoopy September again.

00:04:50Oliver Spake: I suppose that's somewhat reassuring that things aren't that different that we still have the swooping but I trust you're okay by the way Mel.

00:04:56Melissa Ellis: Over the last few years when I've become quite fond of my local magpies so I've done a lot of research and I think I said last week, you know, there's only so many weeks of the year. It's probably six weeks or less for the year that they swoop. It's only when the female's on her eggs. And I know he's just protecting his territory. So, well, I know now... not to go down there until probably for the next six weeks and just let them be. And I got on the community Facebook page and I warned all the neighbours, you know, got swooped here, so just avoid the area for a little while.

00:05:33Oliver Spake: That's it. Give them a bit of time. Let them settle. Let them grow.

00:05:36Melissa Ellis: That's it.

00:05:37Oliver Spake: Well, I'd say good to hear, but, yeah, that's not quite appropriate. Yeah.

00:05:43Melissa Ellis: Oh, we had a great morning.

00:05:44Oliver Spake: Sounds like an entertaining morning, yes.

00:05:45Melissa Ellis: Yeah, it was, yeah. And I had good fun the night before making coloured jelly. I think I bought about five different packets of coloured jelly and spent our time. So we didn't have breakfast cocktails this week. We had breakfast jelly.

00:05:59Oliver Spake: Ah, right. I mean, I always thought maybe the vodka goes with the jelly, but... The jelly's fun enough.

00:06:07Melissa Ellis: I didn't think of that. It was just fun.

00:06:09Oliver Spake: Yeah. Fantastic work. Certainly brought colour to the morning, seeing the fantastic hair and the get-up at Ellis Palace once again, Mel.

00:06:20Melissa Ellis: It was pretty funny, Ollie, because I get up in the morning and I go about my business just putting on my, you know, getting my costume ready and setting the table and I was making fairy bread and getting the jelly out and the chocolate frogs that I had and busily fussing around. And Paul, who'd been in his upstairs office after night shift, just came down the stairs to say hello and... I don't know. I can't even describe. He just looked at me. He just laughed. He was like, oh, my God. I really surprised him. He didn't know what to say.

00:06:57Oliver Spake: He was impressed, clearly.

00:07:01Melissa Ellis: He's like, usually I'll have to ask Paul to take my photo, and he's like, where's the camera? I've got to get a photo of this. Anyway, at least I amuse my husband. That's one thing. That's right. Life's never boring.

00:07:16Oliver Spake: Not around Ellis Palace anyway. No. That's for sure. And have you kept up the training, Mel? You've been out training recently, maybe not for the hills we wanted, but how's the training going?

00:07:28Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I am continuing on my training plan very diligently, and I am incorporating my Abel Township missions. You'll be glad to know I have completed, oh, I'm up to four now. Oh, well done. Today was my fourth mission. Found a lost child today. Ah, good. Excellent. And I've even worked out Spotify.

00:07:54Oliver Spake: Oh, yeah, you're a very productive runner, Mel.

00:07:58Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:07:59Melissa Ellis: It was really good because I created a playlist with all these, you know, 80s songs and they were all kind of running related and upbeat tempo. Actually, I don't usually run with music, so I really enjoyed that. And with the app coming in over the top, it works a lot better with music than it does with podcasts.

00:08:21Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah. It's just a bit different with a podcast, isn't it? Yes.

00:08:25Melissa Ellis: So I am actually really enjoying my – my zombie run missions.

00:08:31Oliver Spake: Okay. Well, I'm sure Abel Township appreciate your hard work and effort and it's good to hear you're getting back safe from those runs.

00:08:42Melissa Ellis: I had a message this week though, Ollie, when it comes to not parkruns. So I thought I might let you know about the message that I received. Please. It says... Hey, I'm not sure if some of our other adventurers might be interested in this touristing not parkrun challenge. Nadine and I are aiming to complete the 25 letters of the alphabet in order by changing our parkrun home. We've set our time goal to finish by the end of October, which means 43 days to achieve the 25 times 5 kilometres. Basically, it's Septober.

00:09:19Unidentified speaker: Mm-hmm.

00:09:20Melissa Ellis: Bruce. So, yeah, there's a new challenge that we can start considering, Ollie. Okay.

00:09:27Oliver Spake: So 43 days. So that's a bit of scope to flex it around with a bit of a breather. Not too much, mind you.

00:09:33Melissa Ellis: Yeah, well, it just means you don't have to do that five kilometre nottie every day.

00:09:39Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:09:39Melissa Ellis: To get the 25 letters done by the end of October. But I liked the idea of septober.

00:09:47Oliver Spake: Okay, septober. So there's still time to start. Plenty of time to start, really, isn't there?

00:09:53Melissa Ellis: And in case people aren't that au fait with how to change their home parkrun, obviously you go onto your parkrun login and go to your, what is it, your details?

00:10:07Oliver Spake: I believe so, yes.

00:10:08Melissa Ellis: Yes, update your details in which you can select your home parkrun. So this is what you need to do when you are going to not parkrun tourist. You need to go into there and select a different parkrun as your home parkrun and save it. However, you need to wait a little while before you can then log your (not)parkrun under that newly changed home parkrun because if you do it too quickly, it might not have been recognised through the system. So you can go back into where you log your (not)parkrun and it will actually state which not parkrun you are attached to. Now, if that page still says the previous event that you had as your (not)parkrun, you need to keep refreshing and not log your nottie until it updates to the new not parkrun.

00:10:59Oliver Spake: Aha, yes.

00:11:00Melissa Ellis: Oh, to the new parkrun.

00:11:02Oliver Spake: That's, yeah, the new parkrun home there. And Mel, so you've been on a bit of tourism. So do you think you'll reset to A and give the challenge a go?

00:11:14Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I'm thinking I will.

00:11:15Oliver Spake: Okay.

00:11:16Melissa Ellis: I'm liking the idea of I can go on and have a look through all the A's and decide which one I'm going to go and visit. I like to visit randomly, you know, parkruns where I know I've got friends. Because I like to think they might look and see my name pop up and get excited that I visited. Well, that's it.

00:11:38Oliver Spake: We've kind of, some of us at the moment, and not everyone, of course, but yeah, some of us are certainly missing the visiting aspect of life right now. So it's a nice way to, yeah, just to kind of reach out and check in.

00:11:52Melissa Ellis: Yeah, that's right.

00:11:54Oliver Spake: And you have an A parkrun in mind.

00:11:56Melissa Ellis: Yeah. No.

00:11:58Oliver Spake: That's right. We've got time to think about that. We've got a whole podcast to think about.

00:12:02Melissa Ellis: No, because I might go interstate, Ollie.

00:12:04Oliver Spake: Yeah, true. No, I like the tip. I'm going to have to give it some thought. And it's just that changing the parkrun that I think I was getting the timing all wrong. So I've only just finally gotten the timing right. So yeah, I'll have to remind myself, write myself a nightly reminder to change it over so that I can log my nottie.

00:12:30Melissa Ellis: My biggest problem at the moment is because I'm doing this training, I can't always make it fit into a nice little 5K. So that's annoying because my brain just wants to always run 5K every day.

00:12:43Oliver Spake: Oh, see, no, I mentally clock the 5K. That's what I do. And, you know, that always stands out. I miss it now and then and, you know, have to sort of stop and look back and work out where I was. But, yeah, there's something about the 5K milestone. I guess it kind of, you know, gets ingrained.

00:13:02Melissa Ellis: The rest days are easy because the rest days for the training plan, that's easy. Just go out and walk a 5K and then you can log the nottie.

00:13:11Oliver Spake: Okay, a bit of motivation.

00:13:13Melissa Ellis: But, Ollie, what have we got coming up today?

00:13:15Oliver Spake: I guess we've changed it up a bit this week. Mel, what we do have coming up, we've actually got two interviews, which kind of makes up for the fact that this week there aren't any roving reports. Mel, we don't even have stats.

00:13:30Melissa Ellis: No.

00:13:31Oliver Spake: So sorry, guys. Our informant is on holidays. Well-earned break, both of them, all of them. Must be crowded at the resort. Nonetheless, what we do have are two interviews. So coming up later in the pod, we have a special guest that you spoke with, Mel, Adrian.

00:13:52Melissa Ellis: We do.

00:13:53Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:13:54Melissa Ellis: Adrian Hon from the Zombies Run podcast.

00:13:58Oliver Spake: That's right. So keep listening and Adrian will reveal all or maybe not quite all of everything you want to know. But in the meantime, I was also fortunate to speak to someone who maybe for the sake of doing, this is about my calibre of stats reporting, Mel, who did achieve a parkrun milestone, an official parkrun milestone at the weekend at Main Beach parkrun. And someone that began at Main Beach parkrun number one, and has just ticked over 500 parkruns. So I was fortunate to speak to Brian Peters. So let's have a listen.

Interview Brian Peters — Main Beach parkrun (Gold Coast) original participant; first Australian parkrunner to…

00:14:44Oliver Spake: Our next guest completed a parkrun today. He's 500th, in fact. And for an Australian parkrunner, that's kind of a big deal. Previously, he was the first Australian parkrunner to reach the 250 milestone and now also for 500 parkruns. He's completed a whopping 470 of those at home at Main Beach parkrun. Visited, I believe, nine other parkruns and volunteered 55 times. Welcome to the podcast, Brian Peters.

00:15:12Brian Peters: Good afternoon, Ollie. Thanks for the intro. You make me sound important.

00:15:19Oliver Spake: Well, as I say, it is kind of a big deal in our circles. 500 parkruns and getting to speak to you on the day, so I really appreciate you making the time. Congratulations on the 500 milestone. How was your parkrun morning today?

00:15:34Brian Peters: Well, as I run on the Gold Coast, most parkrun mornings are like every other morning, fantastic weather-wise. Yes. And it was a great morning this morning. You know, autumn is a great time here, of course. The course is at a beautiful location. The weather was great. The course was good. With the numbers we have at the moment, we're down a little on what we would expect at this time of year, possibly because of COVID. So we had around 200 this morning. which is a good number for the course. The course handles that number pretty well. A bit of a buzz for me was making a new friend.

00:16:14Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:16:14Brian Peters: If you've been to parkrun Main Beach and you happen to be running around my time, there's a fair chance that we – Might have struck up a conversation. So good day to Christy if she happens to be listening to the podcast. Christy helped me get an improved last K in a bit this morning. Nice. Yeah, just when I was struggling a little. And you'd think after 500 that it would be easy. But no, it's not. But the good thing is I got out of bed. I went down there, I ran the whole way, met some new people. And can I just say, too, that there was a lot of fuss made of me this morning, which was very nice. Thank you, everybody, for hitting my milestone. But there were 188 people there this morning, all running their own personal milestones.

00:17:07Unidentified speaker: Yeah, yep.

00:17:08Brian Peters: And for two of them, this was their absolute first time at parkrun.

00:17:13Oliver Spake: Yeah. Well, and the way you describe it, I mean, you make it sound like any parkrun morning. The connection, the friendships you can strike up, you know, someone that spurs you on, as you say, in that last stretch of the parkrun. It really can be like that on any parkrun any day, can't it?

00:17:30Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:17:31Oliver Spake: That's right. Yeah. And look, 500 parkruns, you've clearly been parkrunning for a while, as long as Australia has, is my understanding, as long as Main Beach has. Correct. Going back, how did you discover parkrun in the first place and what has kept you coming back?

00:17:48Brian Peters: How I discovered it was central to how it works in a sense because it was all – it was this new age we live in with the internet. And you can do things with technology today that you couldn't in the past. Like imagine going back – I used to have to pay to go to a fun run. especially if it was going to be timed. You know, the internet and what the guys have done setting the system up to make it as functional and everything as they have been is great. And of course, part of that is emails. So I work at the council in the city of Gold Coast. Samantha Hughes was someone that Tim Oberg approached about trying to establish parkrun on the Gold Coast. Samantha Hughes works in our active and healthy department. She sent out an email to all staff. So on the first week leading up to it, at a time when I was trying to get back into doing some running because I had gotten out of the game when my wife and I started a family. And thinking about getting into getting some regular exercise, this email came across my desk and I thought, that suits me. Five kilometres and timed. The recording stuff as much as anything. I'd like to keep a running diary. And the fact that someone else was going to do the upkeep of that floated my boat. So I was one of the originals on day one. And... Yeah, here we are all this time later and I've stuck at it. A lot of them are still running. Some of them have moved into roles which don't let them have their run count each week. So they're now Run Directors and they've given up, you know, the chance to be, you know, the number of runs that I've done and I appreciate that. But it's just great.

00:19:35Oliver Spake: Yeah, having had... the opportunity to speak to a couple of the Main Beach parkrun family you've clearly built a a wonderful community there and it's it's been well supported and a big part of the area over this time now what changes have you observed at Main Beach and parkrun generally since you started

00:19:56Brian Peters: Well, you mean apart from me being slower today than I was back then?

00:20:01Oliver Spake: I'll have to ask. Are you slower?

00:20:03Brian Peters: Unfortunately, age and other things, you know, other things means injuries, slow you down. But it's not the Olympics, and so I don't have to be fast each week. But I tell you what, it gives me an appreciation, though, of people who perform well on the big stage. You know, I go down to my parkrun every Saturday morning and I think, you know, today's the day I'm going to run a PB. I look at my time at the end and I sort of scratch my head as to why it wasn't, you know, and then I turn the telly on and I see that someone runs a PB, you know, world record at the big athletics meet. And I think of all the things that had to come together for them to achieve that. They've got to have their conditioning right, they've got to have their diet right, they've got to have their headspace right, they've got to have the weather right. It's really interesting in that regard. But as far as changes, In the early days, we had the tools to set parkrun up, but there was opportunity for us all to get involved in ways that maybe had not been originally anticipated or there was opportunities. And maybe because of injury.

00:21:08Oliver Spake: Oh, yeah.

00:21:09Brian Peters: I was towards the end of the pack on a couple of occasions. and saw some things out on the course. Keep in mind, there was people all over who were saying, oh, here's a way I can contribute. Here's something that I've thought of. And so I did the same. One week, I came across a girl who would have only been seven or eight years old, and she was in a bad way. She was skin off her knees and both bleeding, skin off the palms of her hands and both bleeding. in a section of our isolated part of the course. For those who don't know the Main Beach course, it runs in the dunes and the natural vegetation, you know, it's the bush in the city. And I was, I had kids her age and I thought, oh, for goodness sakes, you know, there's no one else around here. Where's your mum? Where's your dad? No, they've run, they were ahead of me when I fell. They don't know that I'm... So I said, well, look, I'm going to run with you today. I'm going to bring you in. You're going to be my project today. Then there was another time when a lady, once again, towards the end, we were at the end, I struck up a conversation with her and she was saying how great it was to have found a group that properly catered for those who weren't elite. She spoke about how she joined a gym who advertised themselves as being inclusive and and part of the gym session that she was doing this day was to go to hit the streets for a run and then went out the door and they said we leave no man behind and took off which for me and for someone else might have gone oh well if that's the way you're going to be you can have your membership or not or what for her the impression I got was it was devastating Anyway, we were approaching the finish line and I could see up ahead that they were packing the finish line up. And I thought, oh, oops, not a good look. So I excused myself from her, and I said, look, I'm just going to run ahead here for a sec. You keep coming. I was able to. I dashed ahead. I said, hey, listen, don't pack up. Don't pack up. That's not the thing to do this morning. We've still got someone on the course. Now, the Event Director at the time, a great guy named Brendan Murray, he was open to suggestions. And I said to him, you know, I recounted the story of this woman who was grateful for what she had found. And I said, I think that we could maybe improve what we do if we had a sweeper. If we had someone who just moseyed around in the back and made sure that no one got left behind. And Brendan was happy for, you know, for that. I got the impression that it wasn't a thing originally. And I'm not going to say that no one else ever could have thought of the idea and I need all the plaudits. But it was something that we started at Main Beach where so for... For the first 12 months, for a period of 12 months, I did it every week. And then for the next five or so years, that was the role that I organised. Said to the Event Directors and the Run Directors, you leave that to me. You just, every day, you turn up and do what you have to do. I will make sure there is a tail runner.

00:24:26Oliver Spake: And it's, I think, such a fantastic role now that I suppose we see across parkruns that is just part of what we expect. But I think you're quite right. It gives so much more. It's inclusive and it welcomes anyone that wants to walk, anyone that wants to just come along at their pace, you know, with your example of, you know, keeping the course open, keeping the finish line still there to welcome everyone back at their pace and, of course, to be there to help those that, you know, they might have a bump, they might join the stack club along the way. Yeah, just provide that support.

00:25:07Brian Peters: And it's the biggest buzz for someone like myself to be with someone who has never completed a five kilometre anything in their life. If you've ever experienced it, you'll know what I mean. Chatting to folks who, you know, you get them to the turnaround at two and a half Ks and they know that now there's no turning back for them to... You know, they're going to do 5K and then half an hour later or longer or whatever, and they're still, tell you what, it's a buzz. These folks, you know, being with them when they've achieved something, which, you know, we've done lots of times, it's never any easier. You know, take this morning for me, for example. But they are the highlights for me, the goosebumps I get when I recall the instances of people who never thought they had it in them.

00:26:04Oliver Spake: It's lovely. I haven't had that fortunate experience, but it's fantastic to see those. I've certainly been on the finish line when they've come in. But no, I think that's lovely to hear. Is it fair to say that that would be your favourite volunteer role then, Brian?

00:26:23Brian Peters: Absolutely. It beats running the stopwatch and mucking it up, let me tell you.

00:26:28Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:26:30Adrian Hon: Yes, yes, yes.

00:26:32Brian Peters: Sorry to the guys on that one week when I ran the stopwatch and learnt my lesson, never done it again, on that one week when instead of pressing lap, lap, lap when they came in, I pressed stop, start, stop. Oh, sorry. Whoops. So if you missed out on the selection trials because of my error on the stop line, on the finish line, I confess and I'm sorry. Okay.

00:26:58Oliver Spake: look, we all appreciate our volunteers. I too, I've had a 59-59 week that I have contributed. We do our best and we're just glad to have parkrun back the next week so that people can get a different time that week. And I suppose, yeah, to have it back next week, that's not necessarily the case right now and hasn't been the case too much recently. We've seen a lot of disruption and some long pauses for parkrun. It's good to see Main Beach back up and going more regularly. How have you managed personally the last 18 months and some big gaps in parkrun?

00:27:37Brian Peters: I feel I'm not sure if I should be as enthusiastic in my response as I want to be because I know that COVID has not been good for a lot of people. I'm very fortunate in my work that my work has not been impacted. And so I'm conscious of that. But the lockdown business for me has just been sensational. As far as Headspace goes, it's been great because it's given me a chance. I tend to achieve more working. We've been working from home and things like that. I tend to achieve more working from home than I do in the office. Part of the reason for that is you haven't left the office when you walk into the rest of the house, so you're inclined to be putting more hours in, but when you're achieving things, it's not that onerous. So where I live, my (not)parkrun course, which I did, you know, for that period when we were all properly locked down, my (not)parkrun course takes me past and on the concourse of Metricon Stadium, which was the main venue for 2018 Commonwealth Games. Not a bad place to be. That's about 500 metres or more across the venue there, so half a K out, half a K back. There's a kilometre of your run, which has been in the precinct of the Commonwealth Games. There are worse ways to do a solo run. There are worse places.

00:29:03Oliver Spake: I was going to say, yeah, that's a pretty motivating course. Yeah. Good pick, that one. Yeah.

00:29:08Brian Peters: Yeah, you've got to be lucky sometimes.

00:29:11Oliver Spake: Yeah, and I suppose speaking of motivating courses, you've visited a collection of other parkruns across which I believe mainly southeast Queensland. Correct. Do you have a personal top three of the parkruns you've visited?

00:29:24Brian Peters: Yes, I do. Of course, Main Beach, for anyone who's been there, will understand why it would be a top, you know, towards the top of the list for any list. And the actual fact that I drive past some parkruns to go to Main Beach now, apart from the beautiful venue, as much as anything, it's a bit like family. You know, made some great acquaintances there, you know, from kids through to the... to the very elderly, and so I tend to go to Main Beach by choice. And anyway, I've got a standing offer there if they're short of a tail runner. Just let me know on the morning. I'll do it when I get there. Before the lockdown, a fair bit before the lockdown, I had a phone call from one of the ladies. Lisa, no doubt you will remember this. Lisa rang me on the morning, and by this stage, the tail runner deal, the Tail Walker deal had been folded back into the broader organisation, and I wasn't responsible for it, but I had my offer there to always assist if required. Lisa rang on the morning, Brian, I've slept in. Oh, my goodness. I'm tail runner today. Can you do it for me? Of course, Lisa, not a problem. So that was fine. When we hit lockdown... I think it was 36 weeks that we were locked down. I guess she was stranded on 249 runs and regretted the morning she couldn't get out of bed that day. But favourite venues. Well, my current three, and this might be modified, I found out last night that I have to go to Bundaberg to help my wife with her work in a month. And I don't know if Bargara or Bundaberg itself is going to be on my new list, but I'll be giving them a visit while I'm there, one of them. Apart from Main Beach, I've got Broadbeach Waters. If you're talking about family, if you're talking about atmosphere, can't go past Broadbeach Waters. Great family course. They're not a lot of runners. Good number on the Gold Coast, good venue. Yeah, so that's on my list of three. The third one would be Kingscliff, which I get to do these days when I'm down there with the Christmas holidays. So Kingscliff is a great course. It's an out-and-back course on the waterfront, great venue. Just if you're visiting there from Queensland, they start at 8 o'clock, not 7 o'clock. Don't get it mixed up like I've done.

00:31:52Oliver Spake: Oh, yes, always important to check, always important to check.

00:31:56Brian Peters: Yeah.

00:31:57Oliver Spake: That sounds like another good one. And hey, look, I think all of those goals, all of those milestones, they're all important. So I wouldn't downplay your support and achievement there. And look, more generally, it really does sound like you've been a big part of, as I said, what is a wonderful community there at Main Beach. Congratulations again on 500 parkruns, predominantly as part of that community too. Thank you. And, yeah, thank you so much for joining us, Brian. Wish you all the best for the next 500. Yeah, well...

00:32:34Brian Peters: That's going to take a while. People will be happy to know, local people, like family, will be happy to know that that green shirt, 250 runs, we'll finally see it pensioned off.

00:32:45Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:32:46Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:32:46Brian Peters: The blue one, which may be my new favourite colour yet. Yeah, so really appreciate the, you know, the folks that came up to me and said nice things this morning. A lot of them who I don't normally, you know, they're not friends before this morning. That was very nice to have them congratulate me. You know, I'm mindful that I've been given an opportunity because they themselves turn up. The volunteers are there. It's great to achieve a huge personal milestone. Don't know what to say. It was just great and everyone's been very nice about it. So thank you.

00:33:18Oliver Spake: It is lovely to hear that everyone has been sharing in that and thank you so much for sharing it with us too. I'm absolutely certain that that blue shirt is going to look fantastic. Thanks, Brian.

00:33:31Brian Peters: Thank you, Ollie. Thank you.

00:33:40Melissa Ellis: That's pretty exciting, Ollie. Our very first homegrown 500 milestone. Yeah.

00:33:46Oliver Spake: It was great to hear from Brian. It was. And it sounds like, you know, just a great parkrun morning. Do we call him our first true blue Aussie parkrunner?

00:33:57Melissa Ellis: Ooh, I like that.

00:34:00Oliver Spake: True blue. That's very Aussie. True blue. Yeah. But look, someone that's obviously so entwined with the Main Beach parkrun community for such a time now. Brian was lovely. I had a chat with him even after the interview and he was talking about some handicap runs that he organises after parkrun just because, you know, they want to keep the fun going. particularly for anyone that volunteers and still feels like a run. So, you know, clearly, you know, they've got a good thing going and he's known it for some time. He's a true passionista, isn't he? I think so. Almost five times over. Yes.

00:34:37Melissa Ellis: I had a little look at his stats and he indicated, or I got the sense that he thought that he'd slowed down over the years, Ollie, but I looked at his best time for 2011. It was 25.35 and his best time so far this year is 25.51. That's only a difference of 16 seconds.

00:34:54Oliver Spake: I guess technically it is slowing down, so maybe he's just pretty hard on himself. Yeah, consistent.

00:35:03Melissa Ellis: I've slowed down a heck of a lot more over COVID.

00:35:07Oliver Spake: Yeah, I think we've all experienced that in various ways, that's for sure. But, hey, congratulations, Brian. Thank you for your time and, yeah, look forward to seeing the pictures in the blue shirt.

00:35:19Melissa Ellis: 100%. He was probably there when I was there for the anniversary, Ollie. Wish I'd known then. Could have had a chat with him. That's right.

00:35:25Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:35:26Melissa Ellis: Now, Mel.

Streaky September

00:35:28Melissa Ellis: Streaky September, Ollie. Yes. Are you still streaking? 100%. Mm-hmm.

00:35:33Oliver Spake: Excellent. Well done. Are you? Yes, but if I don't get out there in the next three hours, that might change.

00:35:42Melissa Ellis: Okay, quick, quick. We better wrap it up.

00:35:45Oliver Spake: Yeah, we're still going strong, aside from that little detail. Still going strong. Ticking off a few more challenges. Our level up seems to have been well received, Mel.

00:35:55Melissa Ellis: It was, wasn't it? The kind of things. People were embracing it.

00:35:59Oliver Spake: That's right. And look, I was unsure myself, but then bang, it was there in front of me. So I think it's nice. It points out the things you don't always notice, and that's what I'm really enjoying about Streaky September is just it points you in the direction of things you wouldn't look at.

00:36:17Melissa Ellis: Yes.

00:36:17Oliver Spake: It makes you hunt for those things, doesn't it?

00:36:20Melissa Ellis: Yes. You found a chalk drawing with a positive message.

00:36:24Oliver Spake: Well, I didn't want to mention the detail. It was actually written in something other than chalk, which was maybe the slightly negative aspect of that, but nonetheless.

00:36:34Melissa Ellis: Oh, really?

00:36:35Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:36:36Melissa Ellis: That didn't come across in the photo. No.

00:36:40Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:36:40Melissa Ellis: Well, I found a different way to do a kind of thing, Ollie. I've got a supermarket that opened up during COVID close to me. So through the last 12 months, quite regularly I come across abandoned trolleys that people have brought home and decided not to return to the supermarket. And I've taken it upon myself, if I'm out for a walk, I don't do it on a run because it's a little bit awkward, but if I'm out for a walk and I know there's an abandoned trolley in a certain street that I've come across previously, I will deliberately go via that street and pick up the trolley and return it back to the supermarket because it just makes our streets nicer. And I feel sorry for the trolleys because, you know, they're lost. To me, they just look sad. So I like to return them. It makes me feel happy. So that's been my kind of thing. And there was a few lying around over the last few weeks, so I've got a bit of a backlog of trolleys to return.

00:37:41Oliver Spake: Oh, I'm just thinking of all of those trolleys being reunited. That's pretty sweet, Mel.

00:37:46Melissa Ellis: I went out yesterday on my zombie run and I found three and I decided, well, they were all together in this blob. Yeah. And I thought, okay, well, I'll just stick them all together and I'll take them back. Well, that wasn't really smart because it was quite difficult to manoeuvre them in a straight line. I've never tried to do that before. And so perhaps in the future I will just go back to one at a time. But I did think that that would come in handy for Abel Township to have those trolleys.

00:38:16Oliver Spake: Well, that's right. You know, they appreciate all the supplies. I mean, I keep dropping all the supplies on my runs. So I'm not sure. Maybe I'm not running fast enough.

00:38:28Melissa Ellis: Well, even if you had a trolley, Ollie, you could just like throw it at the zombie and run away.

00:38:33Oliver Spake: Well, there we go. Okay. It's like a defence mechanism thing.

00:38:37Melissa Ellis: What do you call that?

00:38:38Oliver Spake: So are you suggesting that our new challenge, our level up, is run with a trolley, Mel? Is that this week's challenge on the Bingoe card?

00:38:46Melissa Ellis: I want everybody to return trolleys. I tell you what, I've got to say this. Once you start returning abandoned trolleys, you cannot unsee an abandoned trolley. Everywhere I go, I spot them and I have this compulsion to save them and return them to where they belong. And it actually can be a little bit distressing when you drive past a trolley by the side of the road and you look longingly and think, oh, I need to save that trolley.

00:39:16Oliver Spake: I'm just weird. You know this. Sentimentality, yeah.

00:39:21Melissa Ellis: I'm sure there's different ways that we can celebrate our local neighbourhood, Ollie.

00:39:27Oliver Spake: Have you anything in mind?

00:39:28Melissa Ellis: Oh, well, actually, one of our listeners has inspired me just today. Sonja Pohlman has been going out during her lockdown and finding all the interesting things in her suburb and how do you say it?

00:39:44Oliver Spake: Chronicling.

00:39:45Melissa Ellis: Chronicling. Is that a word?

00:39:48Oliver Spake: Probably skipping a syllable there, chronicling, chronicling.

00:39:51Melissa Ellis: Because it's the chronicles, the chronicles of her suburb.

00:39:55Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:39:56Melissa Ellis: And one of the things I liked this week, Ollie, with Dazza's was all those video clips reports coming in giving us a little bit of a glimpse of everybody's local areas and the (not)parkruns they're doing so I think that the level up this week should be chronicle your local area

00:40:21Oliver Spake: Excellent. So that's it.

00:40:22Melissa Ellis: Does that work? I don't know. It does work.

00:40:25Oliver Spake: Yeah. Yeah. Chronicle your local area. Now it could be a postcode or it could be, I suppose, even more specific than that, but I think that'd be lovely to see. So if you haven't already seen it on the Bingoe card update for the week, go and check it out. It'll be on our Facebook page, of course, and enjoy your streaking.

00:40:44Melissa Ellis: And thank you, Sonja, for the inspiration.

00:40:46Oliver Spake: Well, that's exactly right, yeah. And look, some of the chronicling that I have witnessed from Sonja's updates, it just, again, points out some magnificent things you wouldn't otherwise notice. So, yeah, I look forward to seeing them all. Mel, you mentioned also the videos. The videos were fantastic at Dazza's.

00:41:08Melissa Ellis: They were. I really enjoyed them. I love that I know a lot of our listeners not parkrun regular courses. Yes. When we know that Bec has Banks Yet Avenue and we know that, is it Sam and Luke that have the Love Shack not parkrun?

00:41:25Oliver Spake: Yep.

00:41:26Melissa Ellis: Who else have we got? Bruce this week, he's in isolation, so he had his backyard not parkrun. And even a stump. Yes. I know. He's got a little note called Talk sitting on a stump. It was amazing. I love having that little insight and our listeners sharing a little bit of their world with us. It's really good.

Emails

00:41:46Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:41:46Melissa Ellis: And we had mail. We did have mail. Yes. Would you like me to read it? I think you should because you're best at that first sentence.

00:41:56Oliver Spake: Okay. So our mail this week came from Tracy, and she said, Brains! Sorry, Tracy, I couldn't quite do it in your voice. Good morning, Mel and Ollie. Loved your episode this week. From the start, you had me smiling and I felt like I was sitting down with you both and enjoying your banter with a cuppa in hand. Actually, I was out walking the dog and heard your bit about kind of things when I noticed a lot of plastic strewn along the footpath. What an opportunity. I happened to have a bag on hand. So a full bag of rubbish was collected for the bin, not for the nearby waterways. Also enjoyed your chat with Jenny Blow. I can't say I was familiar with goalball either. So thank you for shining a spotlight on this not so well-known sport. The only thing I was disappointed about was not hearing Abigail this week. I so look forward to the ending music and to hear her chirpy little voice. You're going to have to substitute something else for when she can't make it. Thanks so much for all you two do. Lots of love, Tracey in training.

00:43:08Melissa Ellis: Aw, thanks, Tracy. And, yes, there was a lot of people that were disappointed when Abigail didn't appear at the end of last week's pod. But can we just say that she can be, how do you say it, Abigail? She will record if she feels like. In the mood for recording. And we can't force her. If she's not feeling the love, if she's not feeling the vibe, well, it doesn't happen. So we hope she's back, but can't tell you when.

00:43:41Oliver Spake: Yeah, just have to stay tuned.

00:43:44Melissa Ellis: And I don't think she can be replaced. I have made attempts in the past to substitute Abby, but I think that it will be all the more exciting when she does come back.

00:43:56Oliver Spake: That's right. And we look forward to that.

00:43:59Melissa Ellis: Yes, we do miss your abs.

00:44:00Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:44:01Melissa Ellis: All right. But we also need to thank Tracy for the absolutely fabulous interview she did at Ecco Ripley. We don't have audio of it this week because it was a video and we have already shared it.

00:44:16Oliver Spake: That's right. And Mel, particularly a huge shout out to Tracy to acknowledge the National Week of Deaf People, which we mentioned in last week's pod, interviewing with Amanda Sterling and Auslan support by Cherie there. So if you haven't seen that on the parkrun adventurers Facebook page, please jump on and enjoy that. It was wonderful to see the parkrun and get to enjoy that interview.

00:44:43Melissa Ellis: Absolutely was. And yes, Tracy, thank you so much for doing that. And if we can highlight... Oh, sorry. There's a chihuahua. Goodness me. Sorry. We are really happy to be able to share a video like that. And hopefully we can do more of that in the future, Ollie.

00:45:06Oliver Spake: I agree. That's... Hands down my favourite part of the parkrun adventurers podcast family is getting the shared experiences and getting to be able to hear other parkrunners' perspectives. So it's been wonderful to enjoy that one.

Dazza's

00:45:21Melissa Ellis: And the other videos we also had, obviously, at Dazza's this week were from us, Ollie. We posted little glimpses of our (not)parkrun morning. We also had contributions from Caro Vos. We had TOC, a little bit of Hills with Will.

00:45:42Oliver Spake: Yep.

00:45:42Melissa Ellis: Some little bit windy video from Val Warwick.

00:45:47Oliver Spake: Yep, volunteering out there.

00:45:50Melissa Ellis: Yes, as previously mentioned, Bruce's Home Not parkrun and Donna's Rainbow Cake. Thank you very much for that, Donna. That was a great surprise.

00:46:01Oliver Spake: Right on theme.

00:46:02Melissa Ellis: We also had Tracey Wood drop in and Mark Connolly from Palmerston's 5th Anniversary, Janet Reid. Marvellous Mark, Bec Bailey, Neil Taylor and Sam Schroder all contributed videos this last week at Dazza's.

00:46:21Oliver Spake: Yeah, it was wonderful. What a bunch. But we did also get some other reports from Dazza's, so we'll share a couple of those. We heard from Tanya Bailey who said, Not parkrun this morning in Wellington. Lovely morning by the waterfront. Brunch at Mulberry Garden Cafe. Dazza's. Bernadette Bennett said, out early, so missed the video request and would love to have shown an aerial view of Newcastle from our highest spot. Maybe next week. This week, we highlighted a local mansion and local stairs in replacement of the Werribee Mansion and staircase we were supposed to see at a family wedding. It is the not the wedding venue, not parkrun. And Jack Corkill, gorgeous run today at Toowoomba parkrun through the Botanical Gardens with the Flower Festival on 98th location, so two to go.

00:47:13Melissa Ellis: Ooh, getting close now for Jack, Jack and Claire.

00:47:17Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:47:18Melissa Ellis: We also heard from Peter Pohlman. We did not parkrun at Hamilton today and we did the suburb street signs again and Peter had the photo of Hamilton Street today. Schultzy, Michael Schultz. Back to where I started, New Farm. Event one and now event 469 on the 10th birthday. 427 parkruns in 10 years.

00:47:47Oliver Spake: Happy birthday, New Farm.

00:47:48Melissa Ellis: Yes. And Shirley Dell. The plan was some parkrun tourism at Lakes Entrance. Then parkrun was cancelled for all of Victoria. So Greg Dell and I did a (not)parkrun at Lakes this morning. Breakfast at the Salty Grom's Cafe.

00:48:05Oliver Spake: Then we heard from Sonja Pohlman. We not toured to not Italy and ran the bridges and canals, aka drains, of our local area. Also visited the not Uffizi gallery to see a blue horse. Who can ask for more? Lisa Spencer, good morning adventurers. Bingo brought me here. Sorry, no video. And even the photo is from last week. Our (not)parkrun went on safari again this week in the land of elephants. Then home for breakfast of homemade sourdough, avocado, bacon and eggs. And Brett Bailey, a weekend visit to Wellington and nottie around the waterfront with Tanya. Sorry, missed the video request.

00:48:45Melissa Ellis: And we heard from Nadine Crawford. Took Bubble Bird for a nottie at Rosebud parkrun this morning. Even managed to nab a first finisher, followed by coffee, of course. And we heard from Phil Olson. Just off to Burgess Park parkrun. And Ingrid Botha. Hold my pancakes. No run today, but I'll report back from Sunday's run. And I'm still waiting for Ingrid to report back.

00:49:13Oliver Spake: Was obviously a good run.

00:49:16Melissa Ellis: Maybe she's still running.

00:49:19Oliver Spake: Well, if she is, and look, thank you everyone for joining, if Ingrid is. I don't know, has she completed the Bingoe card Abel Township mission yet, the Zombies Run app, Mel?

00:49:31Melissa Ellis: Ooh. You don't think she got caught by the Zombs?

00:49:35Oliver Spake: I hope not. But, you know, just putting out a call there, Ingrid. I hope you're okay with no zombie incidents on hand. Drop the supplies. I always do. Works a treat.

00:49:48Melissa Ellis: And welcome to all the new visitors that dropped into Dazza's this week, even if it was for a Bingoe card challenge. We were very happy to see you. It worked for me. But maybe, Ollie, we did surprise a few people with the Dazza post requesting videos, so I'm wondering if we should maybe extend it for another week, see if we can't get a bit more video. Why not? It's a shame that we missed Bernadette's aerial view of Newcastle. So if we extend it for another week, we might get the chance to see that.

00:50:18Oliver Spake: All right. Let's do it.

00:50:20Melissa Ellis: Okay.

00:50:20Oliver Spake: More videos, everyone.

00:50:21Melissa Ellis: Yeah, more videos next week.

00:50:23Oliver Spake: Excellent. In the meantime, Mel, we did promise something else coming up. Is it time?

00:50:30Melissa Ellis: Speaking of Zombs.

00:50:31Oliver Spake: Yes. You were very fortunate to be able to get in touch with a bit of help from our parkrun adventurers community. Really one of the key people behind the Zombies, Run! app, Adrian Hon.

Interview Adrian Hon — CEO and founder of Six to Start; co-creator of Zombies, Run!

00:50:54Melissa Ellis: Our guest today is CEO and founder of Six to Start, an independent games developer, an entertainment company based in London, and the co-creator of Zombies Run, the world's most successful smartphone fitness game ever. On top of being a world-leading designer in online and alternative reality games, he has studied neuroscience and is also a published author. Welcome to the podcast, Adrian Hon.

00:51:19Adrian Hon: Glad to be here. Thanks.

00:51:20Melissa Ellis: Now, Adrian, if we can start with how did Zombies Run start? What was the inspiration?

00:51:28Adrian Hon: Well, it really came from two places. I'd been trying to become a runner for a while and I had a lot of gadgets, like a very early GPS watch. It was more like a sort of armband, you know, to sort of make running and get the stats more interesting for me. And the iPhone was pretty new, and I was surprised that no one had made a running game yet. It just seemed like an obvious thing. Shouldn't running be a bit more exciting, especially for beginners? And I mentioned this to a friend, Naomi Alderman, who's a co-creator of Zombies Run. And she mentioned that she just joined the online running club and they'd asked people, why do you want to start running? And one person said they wanted to lose weight. Another person wanted to, you know, get fit. And a third person wanted to survive the zombie apocalypse. Yeah. And, you know, we thought, wait a second, that kind of makes a lot of sense as a running game because you've always got a reason to be running, not just to escape the zombies, obviously, but also to collect supplies and to rescue survivors and to do scouting and so on. So we thought, oh, yeah, this works really well.

00:52:51Melissa Ellis: Did you have challenges involved in getting the project going?

00:52:56Adrian Hon: Well, we needed money. That's the main thing. Didn't have any money. You know, the company at the time was about three people. And so it was very much designed around the people we had available and what their skills and talents were in terms of audio production, because Zombies Run is an audio only game. And so that meant that we didn't have to have a lot of art or animation or things. Uh, we knew, knew we had a great writer in Naomi, so we wanted to rely on that. And, um, you know, we, we launched that on Kickstarter, uh, in late 2011, it was one of the first Kickstarter projects in the UK actually. And that's how we got our funding. And I'd already done a couple of Kickstarters before then. So it was really all about, Hey, what are we good at and how can we put that all together into something that makes sense?

00:53:53Melissa Ellis: Were you already a fan of horror and zombie fiction?

00:53:56Adrian Hon: You know, we have both seen, you know, the classics, you know, Shaun of the Dead and 28 Days Later and so on. And we're aware of, you know, and we'd seen earlier movies. But to be honest, neither of us were horror fans at all, actually. Or even zombie fans, you know, played zombie games. They're fun. But... you know we chose zombies not because we were necessarily big fans of the genre and in fact I thought at the time it was a bit overdone because everyone was doing zombie tv shows and zombie stories it was more that it just fit running really really well it's just really perfect story and setting for a running game right okay and have you made other similar fitness related apps Yeah, after Zombies Run, we made a bunch of different apps. There's a fairly related 5K training app called Zombies Run 5K Training. We made a game about walking called The Walk, very imaginative. And that sort of tracks you throughout the day. And you have to walk, I think, 600 miles to save the world, essentially. It's kind of a spy thriller. And you can get all three of those apps still now. Then we have a few apps that aren't being sold anymore. There's one called Superhero Workout, which was our sort of version of the seven-minute workout, but more interesting and kind of gameplay-driven and fun. And that was really fun. And the kids game called Step by Step, a pedometer adventure, which was a way to encourage kids to kind of walk more during the day.

00:55:47Melissa Ellis: Okay. And I believe the walk, was that sponsored by the NHS or over there in the UK?

00:55:54Adrian Hon: Yeah, it was fully funded by the NHS and by the Department of Health. It was one of their first fitness games that they funded. And the idea was they were looking for innovative ways to help reduce the impact of obesity on the NHS. And so the idea being that if they spent a bit of money on a game, then maybe it would encourage lots of people to walk more and exercise, you know, reduce the sort of financial burden elsewhere.

00:56:30Melissa Ellis: And have you got any future areas of development you'd like to bring to Zombies Run or the concept of augmented reality games in general? Any new features you'd love to bring to the app one day?

00:56:43Adrian Hon: I mean, you know, that's a million things I'd love to do to the app. You know, we brought, when we started, there was just really one or two game modes. And now that's about six or seven or eight game modes in the app. And we have lots of ideas for what we want to do in Zombies Run and in kind of related apps. People have always asked for things like multiplayer and social gameplay. People have always asked for things that are more location-based And, you know, tracking different kinds of things, tracking different kinds of exercises like cycling and so on. It's really hard as a small company to prioritise, you know, what we do. You know, people think that we're like Strava, you know, or Nike. And it's like, no, that's just a few of us. And keeping, we're really proud of the fact that the app is really reliable and it's still maintained. There's not many apps from 2012 that are still being maintained right now. And so our main thing is, okay, how do we keep the thing that we're really good at, which is storytelling and gameplay while running, making sure that works really well. Because every year, there are new phones and there's new smartwatches and there's new requirements by Apple and Google. It's a bit of a treadmill thing. to keep up with that. Having said that, we do have plans for some big new things in the coming year. I think people, when they hear about them, they'll realise what we've been spending all our time on. So yeah, there are big things coming.

00:58:21Melissa Ellis: And who's your target audience? What does the average runner five look like?

00:58:27Adrian Hon: Well, we haven't designed it for a specific type of person. Um, we really wanted it to be fun and engaging both for beginners, you know, people who've never run before. I mean, we do have a 5k training app for that. Also for people who just run once or twice a week, also people who have run, you know, thousands of thousands of miles and zombies from, you know, ultra, you know, marathon runners. And the way we do that is by having the app and the game and the story scale to your ability. So if you want a mission to last for just 20 minutes while you're walking, we can make that happen. If you want to run for two hours and... do two missions in a row, we can do that as well. You know, if you want to have zombies pretty slow and don't come very often chasing you, that's fine. If you want to have all the zombies all the time, we can make that happen too. And so it's very much about giving people choice and not making people feel bad if they don't want to turn everything on because everyone comes to running from different places.

00:59:46Melissa Ellis: Hmm. So our podcast, The parkrun adventurers, is mostly based in Australia, although we do have listeners in many countries, including the UK. Do you know if you've got much of a user base in Australia?

00:59:58Adrian Hon: Yeah, I mean, Zombies Run, I think Australia would probably be our third or fourth biggest territory after the US, UK and Canada, perhaps. Zombies Run is all in English, so we tend to see our most popular countries being the speaking countries. So we know they're definitely Australian players.

01:00:22Melissa Ellis: And I know you've got quite a strong fandom base. How important has that been to the evolution of the app and has there been inspirations for stories or characters which have come from the fans?

01:00:38Adrian Hon: Yeah, I mean, you know, both Naomi and I, you know, we sort of are fans of a lot of things and we've written fan fiction before, you know, for things that we love. And, you know, we're extremely online. And so fans of Zombies Run have written stories that have made it into the app and into the game. We've had fans who've become contractors and employees at Six to Start. So, yeah, you know, we pay a lot of attention to what the fans think and want.

01:01:11Melissa Ellis: And is there anything which is really important to you when you develop your characters?

01:01:17Adrian Hon: Well, I mean, that is mostly kind of Naomi's realm in terms of leading the story. But I think that we want our characters to... know represent the world in all its diversity you know we're really proud of of the fact that we did that right from the start back in season one nine years ago um and we wanted the story to feel supportive you know we didn't want to have this super grim dark you know world like the walking dead which just seems really depressing you know we want to be encouraging um and supportive and we want to show that's possible even in a zombie apocalypse.

01:02:02Melissa Ellis: And what's the background behind the new adventures?

01:02:06Adrian Hon: So as much as we like zombies now and they fit running very well, we have wanted to do other kinds of stories. People have asked for other kinds of stories and So we've added science fiction, fantasy, you know, comedy, nonfiction stories where you, the player, are running through different environments. And some of them are kind of like alternate universe versions of our zombies-run characters. So that's been really fun, like a sort of parallel dimension. But some, most of them are... entirely new characters entirely new casts and so we've got a huge variety now dozens of stories across horror and and all you know science fiction comedy romance uh it's been really fun developing those and we add new adventures practically every week now okay

01:03:04Melissa Ellis: So how long is the Abel Township saga going to go on for? And do you have an end game in mind?

01:03:12Adrian Hon: You know, we always talked about how we would want to keep on making it for as long as people wanted to keep playing. You know, that said, I think good stories have to have an end, that they shouldn't go on forever. We have talked about what the ending would look like for zombies run for the Abel Township saga. And we kind of know what the last scene would look like. Uh, although we don't necessarily know what the plot would be. So, you know, there's definitely no date in mind, you know, uh, don't worry, it's not going to end next year or anything like that. But, and even if we did end the main saga, there will be other stories we want to tell within the zombies run universe.

01:03:53Melissa Ellis: And are there any characters who are absolutely safe and will never be killed off?

01:03:57Adrian Hon: I'm not going to say that.

01:04:02Melissa Ellis: Nobody's safe then?

01:04:04Adrian Hon: I mean, no one's safe, but a lot of people have survived for a long time. So even past nine years. So yes.

01:04:14Melissa Ellis: So you're a runner yourself?

01:04:16Adrian Hon: Yeah.

01:04:17Melissa Ellis: As you said, yes. And your team, most of them?

01:04:21Adrian Hon: Um, no, no, no, there are some runners in six to start, but I'm probably the most avid runner in the company.

01:04:30Melissa Ellis: Have you ever been to parkrun?

01:04:33Adrian Hon: I have been once and I know there are a lot of parkrunners in our fan community. And I actually used to go to school with the fastest parkrunner in the world, I think. Really? Amusingly enough, Andy Baddeley. Yeah. I think he's got the fastest 5k time. So it's funny when I saw him, I turned on the TV for the Olympics once. I was like, I recognise that name. That's an unusual name. And it zoomed in. I was like, oh yeah, that's a guy I went to school with. So yeah, it's kind of funny how the past converged there.

01:05:07Melissa Ellis: Which parkrun did you go to?

01:05:10Adrian Hon: It was one of the ones in London, I want to say.

01:05:12Melissa Ellis: Okay. Yep. Do you think Abel Township would have a parkrun and what characters would work best in the volunteer roles?

01:05:20Adrian Hon: Um... yeah that's a good question uh I think they probably you know some you can build an Abel Township that's pretty big if you played for a long time so you know if you had a big Abel Township you could probably do it actually inside the the um the the perimeter of the base or maybe they'd let you out when the that's not a lot of zombies um People in volunteer roles, I mean, Janine obviously is overseeing the logistics. Who would be reliable to take down the times? I'm trying to think about that. Maybe the doctors would be good at that. I think maybe the radio boys or Sam helping for refreshments and things like that.

01:06:10Melissa Ellis: Yeah, so we actually have roving reporters that file audio for us every week for our podcast and we've had one of your, what would you say, supporters or keen zombie runners file a roving report for us from Abel Township, which was really good. That's really cool. Well, Adrian, that's really all the questions I had. Unless there's something else that you would like to share with us today?

01:06:50Adrian Hon: Um, no, I mean, just really glad to be on the podcast and, uh, you know, hope people give it a try. Um, you know, we, we try and make running more fun on those rainy mornings and evenings when it's hard to motivate yourself. So, um, you know, if you're in the mood for having a, um, interesting story and a kind of fun game, then, then check it out.

01:07:12Melissa Ellis: Thank you. We've definitely been encouraging our listeners to check it out this month. We have had an incentive we call Streaky September where everybody that listens is encouraged to go out and run every day of the month, in some form or another, walking or running, and we've encouraged them and challenged them to at least have a listen to the Zombies Run app and, yeah, because we think it's pretty good. Well, thank you very much. Awesome. For taking the time to speak to me tonight.

01:07:45Oliver Spake: It's been fun.

01:07:46Melissa Ellis: This morning over there in the UK. And we wish you all the best with the future of Zombies Run and six to start.

01:07:54Adrian Hon: Thank you.

01:08:02Oliver Spake: Thank you, Mel, and thank you, Adrian, for that wonderful insight into, yeah, I think a very well-established and very popular run app. It's kind of exciting, Mel, to think that there's still something to look forward to, even though I'm seasons and seasons behind.

01:08:16Melissa Ellis: Definitely, Ollie, and I have to say a special thank you to Karen Hamilton who did, I shouldn't say assist, she literally provided me with an outline of questions to put to Adrian. She is a big supporter of the Zombies Run app and her involvement was very much appreciated.

01:08:39Oliver Spake: Yeah, good job, Karen, and thank you very much.

Consolidated Club Report

01:08:42Oliver Spake: Mel, is it time for another update on our Adventurers Club? Oh, yes. We've got 46 members now, Ollie. Go team.

01:08:51Melissa Ellis: We're growing, you know, modest baby steps, but we're growing. We had 14 members on the Consolidated Club Report this week and 23 people registered notties.

01:09:04Oliver Spake: Well done.

01:09:05Melissa Ellis: So... I have figured out now, thank you very much to Simon Mackley for his technical assistance, I have now figured out how I can navigate back to find last week's results for notties. I don't find, I've got to say, I don't find the parkrun website very intuitive. It's not always obvious that you can click on something and it's a hyperlink.

01:09:34Oliver Spake: Okay, yes.

01:09:34Melissa Ellis: Yeah, but I've worked it out. I know how I can navigate back to the previous week's results or the history.

01:09:43Oliver Spake: So, yeah, it was good to see. The growing numbers. Speaking of growing numbers, a different parkrun had growing numbers in – well, actually, I didn't go back and check whether it was growing or shrinking from last week, but I suppose the crux of the matter is someone else is on top in the (not)parkrun results in Australia last week.

01:10:02Melissa Ellis: It was, yes. Wyndham Vale came number one this last week and they had 61 parkruns and I do think they were down from the previous week, Ollie, because I think they were 75 the week before.

01:10:15Oliver Spake: Ah, there you go.

01:10:15Melissa Ellis: But they did top the table in Australia this week with 61. Coming in second was Inverloch with 42 and skipping down to our home parkruns, Ollie. And I think...

01:10:30Oliver Spake: Long jumping, yep, yep.

01:10:32Melissa Ellis: Yes. Shellharbour with 26, not too shabby. And Toolern Creek, seven. Seven, well done. Yeah, seven.

01:10:45Oliver Spake: Some good results.

01:10:47Melissa Ellis: That's our weekly wrap-up.

01:10:50Oliver Spake: Yeah, and I think overall it looked like that the number of not parkrunners and not parkruns were slightly down. So let's see where it goes.

01:11:01Melissa Ellis: Could have been weather, Ollie. It wasn't too nice this weekend in Victoria. What was it like in New South Wales?

01:11:07Oliver Spake: Oh, we had our nice patches, at least where I was anyway. So I'd love to claim it as an excuse, but to be honest, I probably can't. Yeah, that's right. We'll see.

01:11:19Melissa Ellis: We'll see.

01:11:20Oliver Spake: But, Mel, I think there is some other important news we might have to share.

01:11:25Melissa Ellis: Yes. I think I need newsflash music. This is another opportunity for me to find new sound effects. You know how I love my sound effects, Ollie.

01:11:33Oliver Spake: Yes.

01:11:34Melissa Ellis: I can just think of it. Yep, yep, yep. You're taking me back.

01:11:39[music]

01:11:39Oliver Spake: Absolutely. Absolutely.

International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day

01:11:47Melissa Ellis: Yes, we've got an announcement. Ugly Christmas Singlets are coming. Oh. Borders will open next week. We are reliably informed. Don't blame us. This is just the intel that we're getting from the elves. Date to be confirmed, but it will be before the end of September. So information is that Ugly Christmas Singlets will be returning to a more traditional Christmas colour this year. There will be two new Aussie mascots. But only one design still.

01:12:26Oliver Spake: Yeah, so not multiple singlets or anything?

01:12:29Melissa Ellis: No, no. You won't have choices with designs. It'll be one design comprising of two new Aussie mascots and a design like nothing we've ever done before. So word on the street is expect the ugly unexpected.

01:12:49Oliver Spake: I'm excited. It's very exciting, isn't it? It really is.

01:12:53Melissa Ellis: Do you think it's really going to be ugly, though? Well, they're kind of sometimes cute ugly, aren't they?

01:12:59Oliver Spake: Cute ugly is definitely a thing.

01:13:01Melissa Ellis: I'm excited. And, you know, it lifts our spirits a little bit because, Ollie, you know, we're both in lockdown and life's a little bit of Groundhog Day. There's not a lot to look forward to. We're doing our best. We're trying hard. We are doing our Bingoe cards and streaking and trying for all the positives. But, you know, this is just a little bit of a lift that we really need right now. So we're really happy.

01:13:30Oliver Spake: And it's another sign we're getting closer to Christmas. So, hey, bring it on.

01:13:35Melissa Ellis: I did see somewhere in the last week that there was only 10 people Ten parkrun days till Christmas? Pretty sure. Could be nine now. Good grief.

01:13:49Oliver Spake: Okay. For whom, Mel?

01:13:51Melissa Ellis: For everybody. Yeah. Do some people not have as many parkrun days till Christmas as others? I don't think it works that way.

01:13:59Oliver Spake: Yeah. Gee, my maths is failing me. Wow. Is it really that close?

01:14:05Melissa Ellis: Ten Saturdays till Christmas. Okay.

01:14:07Oliver Spake: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

01:14:09Melissa Ellis: October, November.

01:14:12Oliver Spake: I'm questioning myself.

01:14:15Melissa Ellis: Yeah, that doesn't kind of make sense, does it?

01:14:18Oliver Spake: It's close. The mind is slowly turning.

01:14:22Melissa Ellis: This is a lesson to me. Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

01:14:28Oliver Spake: And one we should all admire by.

01:14:29Melissa Ellis: Maybe I'll ask the informant as to Ernie's pay.

01:14:33Oliver Spake: But I think crux of the point, well, when they're back from the resort. But, yes, the lesson in that, though, Mel, is that there are not that many weeks. So stay tuned. Check out the International Ugly Christmas Singlet or shirt. Are we doing shirts? We'll see. Day Facebook page. And don't miss out because it's going to be closer than we think.

01:14:57Melissa Ellis: I think they might have posted a teaser.

01:15:00Oliver Spake: Yes, I have seen said teaser and I've got no idea.

01:15:07Melissa Ellis: I haven't, Ollie, because unlike you, I wasn't tagged in anything.

01:15:14Oliver Spake: Yeah.

01:15:15Melissa Ellis: We can see who's the favourite host, can't we?

01:15:20Oliver Spake: One swallow doesn't make a, what's the expression? Yeah.

01:15:25Melissa Ellis: Where are you going with that, Ollie?

01:15:29Oliver Spake: Summer. I think the expression is summer. One swallow doesn't make a summer.

01:15:33Melissa Ellis: Okay. Oh, right. Okay. Haven't heard that one.

Sign-off

01:15:36Oliver Spake: Yes. Okay. Wow. I've probably got the wrong bird. But anyway, in any case, Mel, I'm excited to check it out and keep guessing what the hint is. And in the meantime, I think I need to get out and streak, Mel. Oh, yes. So it's probably time we wrapped this up. Let's wrap it up, Ollie. I headed out into the great darkness. Yes.

01:15:58Melissa Ellis: I'm going to be watching Strava and make sure you do. So I'm not saying anything else.

01:16:02Oliver Spake: Okay. All right. Well, in the meantime, as always, everyone, you can contact us via Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. But that's it for another week. We will see you all next week or at Dazza's by video for more adventures.

01:16:15[music]

01:17:27Unidentified speaker: Hi Mel and Ollie. We've been going on lots of walks and I think we've been to every park in our area. Thank you to everyone that has been a tourist at Wyndham Vale doing a (not)parkrun. You guys are awesome. Bye. Stay safe.