Episode 258 - Richard McChesney

Welcome

00:00:22Oliver Spake: Welcome to episode 258 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. I am Ollie Spake and I am joined by someone who has sadly promised no more Ellis Palace themed not parkruns before parkruns return in Victoria, Melissa Ellis.

00:00:39Melissa Ellis: Hi, Ollie. How are you?

00:00:42Oliver Spake: I'm well, thanks, Mel. How are you?

00:00:44Melissa Ellis: I'm good, but you know what? There's a good chance there's going to be another theme. You promised.

00:00:50Oliver Spake: I mean, that's wonderful. Okay. So here's the thing. Here's the thing. Look, we're barely seconds in. Groundbreaking, yeah, update.

00:00:59Melissa Ellis: I know. I had a message from my son's partner just a few days ago because they're coming to stay with our eased restrictions in Victoria. They're going to come and stay on the weekend, which is really exciting.

00:01:19Oliver Spake: Yeah, yes.

00:01:20Melissa Ellis: And they're going to be here for Saturday morning. And Leah messaged me and she goes, so what's the theme? What are we doing for Ellis Palace? And I was like, oh, oh, oh, oh.

00:01:34Oliver Spake: Wow, bonus points. Well done.

00:01:36Melissa Ellis: It was so nice that they were keen to participate. Yes. So I just said to her, it's a Zed theme.

00:01:46Oliver Spake: Oh, of course. Of course. It's the 30th.

00:01:49Melissa Ellis: It is.

00:01:50Oliver Spake: It's a Zed for all who've earned it and everyone else, all the rest of us.

00:01:55Melissa Ellis: So we're coming out of retirement for Zed.

00:01:59Oliver Spake: Okay.

00:01:59Melissa Ellis: A one-off.

00:02:00Oliver Spake: That sounds like a special occasion. Thanks for kicking us off on a high, Mel. Good work.

00:02:05Melissa Ellis: You're welcome.

00:02:07Oliver Spake: But look, I suppose not missed on me. We've had a (not)parkrun day. We've had another week. How's your week been? How was your weekend?

00:02:18Melissa Ellis: mixed emotions. So actual parkrun day was pretty quiet. Just another pretty stock standard run around the block for me by myself. But we had some big announcements in Victoria with regard to the easing of our lockdown. And that was exciting. And I had the opportunity for a couple of my kids to come visit on Saturday. So that was also a big bonus that I hadn't been expecting.

00:02:46Oliver Spake: I think so.

00:02:47Melissa Ellis: Yeah. So I got to see a couple of the girls. I got to see my daughter Olivia and my daughter Sarah, have the afternoon with them. And on Sunday I went chasing waterfalls.

00:03:01Oliver Spake: Yes. Yes, I did see a reference to waterfalls. I trust you found one.

00:03:06Melissa Ellis: I absolutely did. Eynesbury has their very own waterfall and I knew of its existence. I had previously on a group run with some other local runners, I'd seen it. It ran sort of along a crest where it was visible. But I also knew from a local photographer that it was possible to get down to the bottom to see it in its entirety. And that was my... And so when a running friend messaged to catch up and she said, what do you want to do? And I said, oh, come to Eynesbury. I want to go and look for a waterfall. And she goes, okay, that sounds like fun. She turns up, she gets out of her car and she's standing there in her Injinji socks. I don't know if you're familiar with Injinji socks, Ollie. They're toe socks. Okay. And she's got her Oofos on and Oofos are like a kind of a thong, right? Okay, so she gets out of her car and she's wearing her Injinjis and she's got her Oofos on and she's searching her car looking for her runners and she can't find them. She can't find them. They're not anywhere to be found. So we're like, okay, so we're going for our waterfall exploration and she's wearing basically her thongs with her cherry socks. Like, oh, my goodness.

00:04:37Oliver Spake: Oh, that's brilliant. At least they're supportive.

00:04:40Melissa Ellis: Well, yes, but this is not the kind of waterfall that is set out for visitors.

00:04:48Oliver Spake: Okay, yeah.

00:04:49Melissa Ellis: Yeah, there's no viewing platforms. It's just the rough bush. There's no paths.

00:04:58Oliver Spake: A bit of bush bashing needed.

00:05:00Melissa Ellis: Yeah, 100%. So we didn't know how to get down to the bottom. I knew there was a way because I've seen photos from the bottom from people from the local area, but I didn't know how to get down there. So we're literally picking our way down an embankment that was really steep. And in my mind I'm like, oh, my goodness, Cheryl, don't fall off the edge because you're in your, you know, haven't got proper footwear she's like I'm fine don't worry about me I'm fine I'm sliding down on my bottom because I'm like I've got a fear of Heights and I'm really scared so I'm scooting down this embankment of grass on my bottom so that I don't fall off the edge of the cliff oh my goodness it took us ages We finally located the correct platform to view the waterfall and get the said photos. Oh, with Bubble Bird, I might add.

00:05:58Oliver Spake: Yeah, don't forget the third participant here. I know.

00:06:03Melissa Ellis: Yes, I had Bubble Bird. He was revisiting the area to do the Eynesbury Junior parkrun course. A bit of his last hurrah, if you like.

00:06:15Oliver Spake: Oh.

00:06:16Melissa Ellis: I mean, the bubbles are pretty much finished now.

00:06:19Oliver Spake: True. He's just a bird.

00:06:21Melissa Ellis: Yeah, well, he's a famous bird.

00:06:24Oliver Spake: He's a very famous bird, yes. A lot of followers.

00:06:27Melissa Ellis: So I had him stuffed down the front of my jacket as I scooted down the embankment. It needs a bit of work, this waterfall.

00:06:38Oliver Spake: Well, it sounds like it does the job. I mean, there's a waterfall. It's an adventure to get there. Heck, you can even do it in Injinjis and Oofos. I know.

00:06:50Melissa Ellis: Yeah, no, it was fun. And I've probably gone on too long about that, but there you go. That was my big excitement for the weekend. But what about you, Ollie?

00:07:01Oliver Spake: Well, Mel, you've made more of freedom than I have so far. So well done. This is not meant to be a metaphor, but I got excited about some fences coming down and three new blocks being opened up across the road. So I went and ran around them. Excellent. So, yeah, huge adventures for me. Excellent. Look, I took the opportunity to just measure out what looked like an appropriate running track distance, found out that maybe it was just a little bit long, so I created the new Waprom Knot parkrun.

00:07:39guest: Wow.

00:07:40Oliver Spake: Which is my new Not parkrun right on my doorstep and consists of a 450-metre well sorry 11 laps of a 450 metre what or thereabouts uh course around some well three of the four streets don't have vehicles on them yet so it's a nice uh nice open track just to enjoy the running 11 laps yeah slightly repetitive But, yeah, it was exciting, Mel. Yeah, clearly someone needs to get out and look for a waterfall myself.

00:08:20Melissa Ellis: I feel sort of sad for Bass Point, Ollie.

00:08:23Oliver Spake: Oh, look, I'll still get out there. The dogs are hard to resist. I still get the opportunity to run out there other days of the week.

00:08:31Melissa Ellis: Mostly because I can't say the other word.

00:08:35Oliver Spake: What, waprom?

00:08:36Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

00:08:37Oliver Spake: It's not a word, no. It's what you come up with when you can't come up with anything.

00:08:44Unidentified speaker: Oh.

00:08:45Oliver Spake: Yes. Yeah, you just throw the street names together. But nonetheless, I got out for, yeah, a little bit of not parkrunning. Not nearly enough, Mel.

Septober

00:08:57Oliver Spake: I'm still in September. You, however, I believe, have moved on.

00:09:01Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah.

00:09:04Oliver Spake: From September to a new challenge.

00:09:06Melissa Ellis: No, I'm still in September. I haven't completed it yet.

00:09:09Oliver Spake: Well, I thought you'd paused it perhaps.

00:09:12Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah, well, yes. Yeah, yeah, yes. That is true. So since we last spoke, I completed a T at Tamworth Wetlands. I went over to see Caveman Cam. Yeah. And run his home parkrun.

00:09:29Oliver Spake: I'm not sure he was there, but anyway. No.

00:09:36Melissa Ellis: Sorry, I'm pausing for the trip-trap.

00:09:38Oliver Spake: Would you just sit down?

00:09:41Melissa Ellis: That's Bambi.

00:09:42Oliver Spake: We've got an audience tonight, Mel. Yes.

00:09:44Melissa Ellis: I don't know. I did a U at Underwood Park because that is my U of choice if I ever get to travel again.

00:09:53Oliver Spake: Ah.

00:09:54Melissa Ellis: Then a V at Varsity Lakes. Mm-hmm. And just yesterday I completed my W at Woy Woy. Well done. To visit our very own Caro.

00:10:07Oliver Spake: Yeah. I look forward to Woy Woy parkrun someday. Ah.

00:10:11Melissa Ellis: So only four for me in the last week but, yes, I am now paused waiting to complete Y and Z in the next week.

00:10:21Louise Minty: Yes, yes.

00:10:22Melissa Ellis: I was going to try to do X today. I did bring up my Google Maps and look at my local area and see if I could find a suitable X course to run and it just nothing was jumping out at me and it just all looked too hard so I didn't do it. I piked.

00:10:43Oliver Spake: Well, I'm not one to criticise, Mel, for the piking side of things. But, yeah, it's a little deceiving. I would have thought, well, okay, you find two straight roads, 90-degree angle, but, yeah, there's less of them than you would have thought.

00:10:58Melissa Ellis: It's not as easy as you think, Ollie.

00:11:00Oliver Spake: No. No. No, and I wouldn't suggest trying it in the city centre. So, yeah, maybe there's another solution.

00:11:10Melissa Ellis: I did take on board that we had the feedback about the snake challenge.

00:11:15Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:11:16Melissa Ellis: Janet did message us to say that the snake challenge is on the 5K app and it is to run 10 parkruns starting with the letter S.

00:11:28Oliver Spake: Aha, okay. Yeah, so I have a look. Yes, yeah, that's right.

00:11:32Melissa Ellis: Officially, I've got six. I've done four events starting with this in Victoria and I've got two in New South Wales. I won't tell you what one of them is. I'm sure you can guess. We don't need to say it.

00:11:45Oliver Spake: No, look, I think that's covered.

00:11:49Melissa Ellis: Yeah, so that's something that I'll bear in mind. Okay. For future parkrun touristing.

00:11:56Oliver Spake: Well, that makes me feel a little better because there are some good S's around and I do need a reason to enjoy them, aside from the fact that they're good S's and good parkruns. Yeah. Oh, okay. Mel, I believe you've also been doing some research.

00:12:15Melissa Ellis: Oh, I have. After Lyndell was at Yowie parkrun and was discussing the difference or contemplating the difference between a Yowie and a Bunyip, I thought I'd do some research, Ollie. I just felt like I needed to know. For myself. So, yowies and bunyips, they're both from Aboriginal mythology. A bunyip is from the southeast of Australia and is said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds and waterholes, essentially in Victoria. So, a bunyip is described as amphiborous. Amphibious? How do you?

00:13:02Unidentified speaker: Hmm.

00:13:03Oliver Spake: I'd say amphibious.

00:13:05Melissa Ellis: Yes, that. Thank you. Yes, so a water creature. So a bunyip lives in the water. However, a yowie lives in the outback. A Yowie is a hairy, ape-like creature with large feet, more like your yeti and your bigfoot kind of creatures.

00:13:28Oliver Spake: Okay.

00:13:28Melissa Ellis: So, yeah, I believe also more towards the eastern side of Australia. I don't know why the west hasn't got yowies and bunyips.

00:13:38Oliver Spake: We're going to have to get on to our West Australian connection to clue us in there again.

00:13:43Melissa Ellis: Let us know what you've got. Why haven't you got yowies and bunyips over there? Maybe they've got something else. I'm not sure.

00:13:51Oliver Spake: Yeah, love to hear.

00:13:52Melissa Ellis: In any case, that's the difference between your yowie and your bunyip. Thank you, Mel. You're welcome.

00:13:59Oliver Spake: Oh, I'm learning lots. I'm learning lots this week. And look, I probably should mention, We've already well and truly started, but we do have a few things coming up in the episode this week. We do have an interview with an individual who has a bit of a connection to New Zealand, plenty more updates on Septober, as well as, of course, Dazza's and our informant. And, Mel, aside from a roving report from a slightly familiar location, I believe there's a bit of news coming up later on.

00:14:35Melissa Ellis: There is. I'm so excited. You'll have to wait to the end and we'll tell you what it is.

00:14:41Oliver Spake: Yes, so it's a big one. It's another big one, guys. So please bear with us. Take a second run. Yeah, we look forward to sharing that with you. But, Mel, I suppose I wanted to just throw a note of thanks out to our wonderful community once again. We've mentioned September. I have completed two more Not parkruns for my September challenge this Merimbula and Orange. Now, I was going to log an N, but very kindly we received this message. Our very own Lyndell said, I have an idea for Oliver Spake. Instead of the one to skip a few strategy, perhaps the listeners could donate our parkruns to contribute to his September streak. I did Nambour yesterday if you need an N. Together, maybe we can get you to Zillmere on time. And thank you, Lyndell, and to the others that were already willing to contribute. I really appreciate that. Happily take any, not parkruns, because frankly, everything beyond O is still up for grabs. However, as someone who likes to own up when he doesn't do his homework, I'm willing to just show up anyway. It's lovely though. If you want to run a few extra not parkruns and dedicate it to me, I really appreciate that. And I will see you at Zillmere, whether I deserve it or not.

00:16:10Melissa Ellis: She's a legend, Lyndell, isn't she?

00:16:13Oliver Spake: That's right. So, hey, look, again, a bit unorthodox, but I still appreciate everyone's motivation. That is inspiration to get me out and motivate me to get out and continue the not parkrunning. I've got a P planned, so I hope to get out tomorrow. Excellent. Yes.

00:16:33Melissa Ellis: um but yeah Mel look a big one a big one a big pod that is it is so it's probably time to throw to your big interview Ollie the interview with Richard McChesney let's have a listen now

Interview Richard McChesney — Founding Event Director, Lower Hutt parkrun (New Zealand's first parkrun); ultra-walker

00:16:59Oliver Spake: We're very fortunate to be joined on the podcast this week by a guest who in 13 years of parkrunning so far has racked up a very impressive catalogue of 138 different parkruns spanning six countries and I believe 450 events so far. In doing so, he played a pivotal role in parkruns spread into New Zealand, founding its first ever event, Lower Hutt parkrun. Welcome to the podcast, Richard McChesney. Thank you. Thanks very much for joining us, Richard. And I suppose, you know, first question, very keen to hear is how was your parkrun day?

00:17:33Richard McChesney: So firstly, you mentioned that I've had a pivotal part in starting parkrun in New Zealand, but I'm now back in England. So I am able to participate in parkrun because New Zealand is currently in lockdown again. Yes. So this morning I was Tail Walker at Kingston parkrun, which is my local parkrun, although I think it's the first time I've been back to Kingston parkrun since 2019. Oh, fantastic. And what was the morning like? Perfect autumn morning, overcast, dead calm, warmer than usual for this time of year, I'd say. And I'd say we had, well actually I know because I was Tail Walker, I was 248th across the line, so 248 runners and walkers. It was great fun.

00:18:16Oliver Spake: Fantastic. And you clearly have a number of parkruns within reach there. I hope I was correct there in that it was 450 today. It was, yes. Obviously, it would have been a bit higher were it not for the last year and a half, but you're inching ever closer to that 500.

00:18:32Richard McChesney: Yeah, to say we've had about 18 months. It wasn't quite that long. Yeah, it probably was actually about 18 months of no parkrun over here. So I would have well and truly been into 500s by now. But it's just, you know, they just build up, don't they? It's not really something that I've been focused on or anything. It'll just happen when it happens.

00:18:53Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's right. And thank you for volunteering. I understand, like many passionate parkrunners, you enjoy parkrun walking quite a lot. So maybe just to start us off, can you share what it is you like about walking a parkrun?

00:19:06Richard McChesney: So when I first started parkrun in 2008, I was a runner and I I'd like to say I was an ultramarathon runner, but I'd only done a few 100-kilometre races, nothing too extraordinary. But we'd moved over to England in 2008. I joined the local Harrier Club, and I learned about parkrun. So I decided to go along and find out what it was all about. And to cut a long story short, I went from running parkrun, running ultramarathons, to effectively becoming a walker and giving up running altogether due to a series of injuries that in 2012 I damaged my ankle and have never really recovered from that. And so that's why I now walk. But insofar as walking, I will probably walk 31, 32 minutes when I'm fit, so it's not a slow walk. I've got a fastest parkrun as a walk of 29.20 or something like that. But, you know, quite often I'll just walk 36, 37, 38 minutes. It just depends on what I feel like at the time. Most parkruns I do, I actually walk two parkrun and walk home. And as you mentioned, there's a lot of parkruns within, you know, short distance of where I live. I think there's probably five parkruns within a five, 10 kilometre radius of where I live. But I'm quite happy to walk up to three hours, four hours to get to a parkrun, do parkrun and walk three or four hours back as well and make it a long walk for the week.

00:20:37Oliver Spake: Well, and truly, I mean, it's certainly spoilt for choice, but that's an incredible walking pace. Did that take a while to reach that kind of pace? I suppose training or has that always been a natural pace when you've moved into walking there?

00:20:50Richard McChesney: I started walking in 2012 and actually I started walking in 2010. We were living over here at the time and I was back in New Zealand and I did an ultra marathon, the river trail race for the New Zealanders listening and it's 60 climb to ultra. I actually won it that year as a runner. And I met this guy that had walked it and he had finished only two hours behind me. And I was reasonably impressed with that and got talking to him. And I'd never even considered walking up till then. And because I was always injured, I thought, well, next time I'm injured, I'll give it a go. And I did, and so I spent two years sort of dabbling with walking, and then 2012, got this injury, and finally, you know, decided that was what I was going to do. And, yeah, initially, I would have probably been walking, you know, eight-minute kilometre pace, 40-minute parkrun sort of thing. And over a period of time, I've trained my body to get more of a walking style. Not necessarily what you see in the elite Olympic race walking, but closer. And yes, I can get under 30 on a good day nowadays.

00:21:55Oliver Spake: Look, that's very impressive. And I understand you've also taken walking to some incredible lengths. I mean, you mentioned you had that history of ultra-marathoning. That's continued. I understand also the very recent, was it the Llanlas Ultra? Excuse the pronunciation.

00:22:12Richard McChesney: Yeah, I don't know how you pronounce it. That's the way I would pronounce it as well, but it's in Wales, so I'm sure it's got a slightly different pronunciation.

00:22:19Oliver Spake: Yeah, my apologies, yes.

00:22:22Richard McChesney: So that ultra marathon was just last week, and it starts in Holyhead, which is the northwest point of Wales. And it effectively goes diagonally across Wales, across the mountain ranges, et cetera, down to Cardiff. 253 miles, 407 kilometres in our language. And has a total of over a parkrun in elevation. So five and a half thousand metres of elevation change from start to finish. Definitely not flat. That particular race was a runner's race. I mean, as most of the ultra marathons are that I compete in, they're running races that I'm generally the only walker, although races of that distance, most runners will walk as well. Anyway, I finished that in 90 hours and five minutes, so just under a parkrun an hour. During that time, I had a total of about two hours sleep.

00:23:14Oliver Spake: Oh, my goodness. And the sleeping along the way, is that very small intervals or do you group that to a more substantial part?

00:23:21Richard McChesney: Well, what should have happened is if it had gone smoothly, I would have got to the 100 miles and had a short sleep and then got to 150 miles and had another short sleep. They only had indoor checkpoints at 100 miles, 150 and 200, and then another short sleep at 200 miles. But I got to the 100 miles and couldn't sleep, then got to 125 miles feeling really good. And then by the time I got to 150, in fact, the next 25 miles, so just short of a marathon, took me, I think it was 11 and a half hours or something like that. I was really shot. And unfortunately, I was at 125 miles, I was going so well that I actually knew that at around about 160 miles, there was a parkrun that we'd be coming across. And at that stage, it looked like I could arrive at nine o'clock on Saturday morning in time for parkrun. Wow. But unfortunately, I got to the 150-mile checkpoint 6.30. By the time I'd had my sleep and working up again, it was 9 o'clock and I didn't get through to the parkrun until 1 o'clock in the afternoon, which is possibly just as well because given the way the rest of the race went, it might have been a little bit embarrassing to say, well, halfway through, he took a break and did a parkrun and then he didn't manage to finish or something like that. Yeah. But I have been known to do that sort of thing. Back in September, I did a parkrun on the way to a 24-hour track race because the track race didn't start until lunchtime and I had time to do a parkrun on the way. So, yeah, I always try and incorporate parkrun if I can.

00:24:47Oliver Spake: Oh, that's splendid planning, that's for sure. I think another event or effort I've certainly become aware of is the tube stations. Can you tell us a bit about that?

00:24:58Richard McChesney: Yeah, that was last year during lockdown. So, obviously, lockdown in different countries had different impact on different people and you've got to be aware of that. For many people, COVID has been devastating with a lot of loss of life, et cetera. Fortunately, we were fairly lucky. I had to work from home, but we were still allowed to exercise outside and there was no restriction. You were allowed to exercise. In England, you were allowed to exercise once a day, no restriction on the amount of time. So once a day could be one hour or it could be five hours or 15 hours. It didn't really matter, and no real restriction on how far you went, although I was careful. In fact, it was really good because a lot of lockdown, it meant that there was no one around, and especially when I was out training nearly in the morning, there was absolutely no one, and that was good. So I came up with a couple of challenges for myself, and one of them was I decided to walk to every tube station in London There's 270. At the time, there were 270. Unfortunately, I didn't realise that they were due to open two new tube stations this year, which they've done since. But at the time, I became the first person to walk to every single tube station nonstop. And that took me five days and 20 hours from the time I started to the time I finished. I effectively did a loop starting and finishing at the same tube station. And total distance was 525 kilometres or thereabouts. Wow. averaging more or less 100 kilometres a day for five and a bit days.

00:26:29Oliver Spake: Look, you have 10 points for creativity. What a way to keep yourself occupied and keeping yourself going naturally without all the events that have since returned in some parts. So, look, that's an incredible one. Very keen also to hear, I mean, your parkrun journey began, I think, as we mentioned, back in 2008, Richmond Park, and now, of course, approaching that 500 events. How did parkrun enter your life?

00:26:57Richard McChesney: So, as I said, when we moved over here, we came over here in June 2008, and it was late August, early September, I had decided I was going to join a harrier club. In fact, I I hadn't been running for quite a while before we moved over here. And so my first goal when we moved over here was to get fit enough to join Harriers because I decided everyone has sort of arbitrary targets. And my target was I wasn't going to join a Harrier club until I could run 10 kilometres. So I spent roughly 10 weeks going from not having run for several months to get fit enough to run 10K again. I did that end of August 2008 and then went to Harriers the following week. And I think it was either that week or the next week, a guy was telling me about parkrun. And I couldn't believe, you know, they had this free 5K event every week. But I thought I'd go along. And also, 9 o'clock on a Saturday morning, which I know, you know, in New Zealand, we set up parkrun to start at 8 o'clock. In Australia, they're someplace a day earlier than that. Yes. 9 o'clock on a Saturday morning, I thought, you know, I'm not going to get up 9 o'clock on a Saturday morning to do a 5K, but I decided I would. And I was immediately, you know, just couldn't believe it. It was such an amazing event, just all the people, the whole organisation. And back in those days, you know, we didn't have barcode or anything. That was in the days when you had, you crossed the finish line, you had to register beforehand. And if you wanted to do a parkrun on a Saturday, you had to have been registered by six o'clock on the Friday or whatever the cutoff was. And once you're registered, you're registered for good. So you're registered and then you turned up, you ran, you got your little metal disc that had your place number on it. You went and stood in line, talked to someone that was behind a laptop computer. They looked up your name and matched your name to your place. And that's how you got your results. So I went into Richmond parkrun that first week. And then I discovered that there were four parkruns within a reasonable distance of where I was. So the next week I went and did Wimbledon, I think. And then I did another one the following week. And then the fourth week I went and did Bushy parkrun, which happened to be, as everyone knows, Bushy Park's the home of parkrun. But it happened to also be their birthday. So it would have been their fourth birthday. And then after that, I had to go back to New Zealand for work. And it was back in New Zealand for pretty much for the summer, and then we got back here in 2009, and then I actually decided when I got back I was going to do an Ironman, not having owned a bike for 15 years or something. I'd done Ironmans back in the early 90s, but I decided I was going to do that, and so I decided to get back into parkrun, bought a bike, bought a wetsuit, and that's how I spent my summer, doing different parkruns around the place and cycling to and from, parkrun, etc., And never looked back. parkrun has basically become a large part of my life and my family's life as a result.

00:29:51Oliver Spake: Yes. Yeah. I look and I understand the family do all parkrun. In fact, I think you were, if I'm not mistaken, in attendance at the Bushy Juniors launch.

00:30:00Richard McChesney: Is that right? So Bushy Juniors has been going 10 years as well now, I think. So I think they started 2011. April 2011, perhaps. And so if that was the case, my son would have been, my youngest son would have been 10 at the time. It might even have been the year before. I can't remember what year it was they actually started, to be honest. But he was one of, I think, seven at that first Bushy Juniors parkrun, and they were only monthly in those days. And the following month, there were only four, and he was there. And by the time we left to move back to New Zealand in 2012, he'd done every single Bushy Junior parkrun, was the only person at that stage there. to have done every junior parkrun. And he's no longer a runner, but he got to a stage where he'd done, I don't know, 130-odd parkruns and then became a teenager. And one day he might be back to it, but, you know, that's something in his past at the moment.

00:30:52Oliver Spake: Well, yes, yeah, it changes over time. And, yeah, there's certainly – Hopefully a lot of opportunity in future to welcome him back. But nonetheless, as I mentioned in the introduction and you've alluded to it, you've had a bit of experience back in New Zealand with parkrun. Can you tell us a bit about the experience in starting Lower Hutt as the first New Zealand parkrun?

00:31:13Richard McChesney: So end of 2011, we decided we were going to move back to New Zealand for various reasons. And we kind of hoped it would only be for a couple of years, but we didn't know at that stage. But it was definitely an opportunity to start up parkrun in New Zealand. And on New Year's Day 2012, they used to have the New Year's Day double. And I caught up with Paul Sinton-Hewitt at one of the parkruns that day. It was either Bushy or Nonsuch parkrun. I can't remember which one I saw him at. And I told him we were going back to New Zealand. I knew Paul through parkrun because back in those days, parkrun was still fairly small. Everyone knew everyone else. Anyway, I knew Paul and said I was going back to New Zealand and we'd like to start parkrun up over there. And we were moving back in February. So we had sort of, you know, a period of time, six weeks or so to, to get things sorted out. And so Paul arranged for me to have some parkrun training over here. I also spent the next six weeks or so touring just to make sure I got a bit of variety about different parkruns. Not that I've done quite a few different ones at that stage already. And then we got back to New Zealand February, late February, 2012. And I immediately started looking for a suitable course and getting council approval and things like that. One of the things I wanted was to have a parkrun that finished near a cafe and also had ample parking, ample free parking as well. So I found a suitable course. And the actual original course we found, not a lot of people know this, but I found a course that was going to start on the opposite side of the river to where we start, where it starts now, and go down one side of the river and back up the other because I straight out and back. But a week, two weeks, maybe three weeks before parkrun was due to start, there was torrential rain for about three days and part of that course was underwater for about a week after that. Decide we better change our plans. And we went for an out and back on the other side where it is now pretty much, I believe the course is pretty much unchanged from when we first set it up. And as I say, the cafe was a big part of it. I didn't realise really that people go to parkrun, definitely now anyway, maybe in this case right at the start, and people go to parkrun for the social side more than the run. And they go there to have a coffee afterwards and the running is just something they do. We're also really lucky that it's worth mentioning that when I set up parkrun, Firstly, going back to the family, the first parkrun, we had all my family volunteering, apart from my wife, who was overseas at the time. But we were very quick in establishing a core volunteer team. And worth mentioning, a shout out to Kent Steed and Mark Malone, who were pretty quick in stepping up to become part of the core team and become Run Directors, which was good because after about six or eight weeks, I had to go over to Dublin for work for I can't remember how long, about six weeks or so I was away. And so they stepped in. And then I know Kent's moved up to Auckland since and been involved in a couple of the other parkruns, been established up there. But I believe Mark's still heavily involved in Lower Hutt parkrun. I moved back to England in 2014, so I was involved as Event Director for two years before moving back. But, you know, still on a Friday night now, I sort of look on Facebook before I go to bed to see how many parkrunners turned up and what's happening in New Zealand.

00:34:40Oliver Spake: That's a lovely connection. And those early sprouts of community clearly can go a long, long way. And it's been wonderful to see New Zealand grow and grow. And I can only imagine how that must feel looking back and being involved in its origin. Do you have plans to return when that's again possible?

00:35:02Richard McChesney: yeah I I would really have liked the opportunity to go back for the 10th anniversary of New Zealand parkrun in may of next year yes but we're also hoping to go back Christmas of next year and um can't really afford to do both but yeah my plans you know going back a couple years always um that we I'd be back in New Zealand for that 10th anniversary but it'll be a virtual celebration for me Yeah. And the other thing is now there's so many parkruns in New Zealand that while I want to go back to Lower Hutt, I also want to go and do some of the other new ones, especially Alison's one up in Rotorua. But there's just so many parkruns in New Zealand to choose from. I've only done, I think it's four different parkruns in New Zealand. And now there's 30 plus, so spoilt for choice again. Well, that's right.

00:35:47Oliver Spake: Yeah, it's easy to have a long list. I'll attest to that. And as I take it, I mean, alongside volunteering, you've managed to complete some impressive tourism achievements nonetheless. Has that been driven by goals or is it just been part of the journey? Does this just happen naturally?

00:36:05Richard McChesney: A little bit goal-driven in the early days. So as I said, before coming back to New Zealand in 2012, I did a little bit of tourism just to to see a variety of different parkruns. Then when we moved over in 2014, I started doing lots of different parkruns and somewhere along the line, I realised that I knew we were going back to New Zealand in August 2015 and I worked out that if I did a different parkrun every single week between now and then, I would be able to do my hundredth different parkrun in the Kapiti Coast parkrun, which happens to be the town where I was born. So I thought, well, that's a goal to do. What ended up happening is we went back to New Zealand and we were staying in middle central North Island. Taupo and River of parkruns didn't exist in that time back in 2015. And in order to do my 100th at the Kapiti Coast the following weekend, I had to get up something like four in the morning and drive up to Hamilton to do their parkrun, my 99th different parkrun, and then get back to where we were staying for some family celebrations that night. Then Kapiti Coast parkrun the following week and then Lower Hutt the week after that. And that was my three weekends in New Zealand for that 2015 trip. And then since then, tourism really has been... You know, occasionally I'll do it because a friend has got a celebration, you know, the 100th different parkrun or the 250th parkrun or something like that. And I'll go and join that. But other than that, I don't, you know, I like to do different parkruns for the last 10 weeks or whatever since we resumed over here. I've done different parkrun every week, but I haven't done a new one. I've gone and done ones that I've done previously. And, you know, when there's an opportunity, I'll do a new one, but I'm not targeting it. I think I'm at 138 or thereabouts, different parkruns, but I've got no goal as such to get to any particular number.

00:37:56Oliver Spake: Well, I mean, what about highlights? Have you had any highlights in terms of any of the experiences, the countries, the parkrun courses? There must be so many to choose from, obviously. Yeah.

00:38:06Richard McChesney: So given this is an Australian parkrun podcast, I better mention my one and only Australian parkrun, I guess. Around about 2013, I was in Adelaide for a conference and while the Saturday morning of the conference was due to start at nine o'clock or something like that, I figured that they wouldn't notice if I was a little bit late. And so I went for, I was still running a little bit, even though I was You know, I was also walking, but I basically ran to Torrens parkrun, ran that and then ran back and then slipped in the back door at the conference. So that was my only Australian parkrun. Probably my highlight would be Portrush parkrun up in Northern Ireland. Ah, yes. That is the only parkrun, I know there's other parkruns now, but that's the only parkrun I've ever done that's 100% on a beach. Ah, yes. And I did that in June 2013. I was working in Dublin again at the time. And so while I was in Dublin, firstly, I did all the parkruns in Republic of Ireland. There were only four at the time. So then every weekend I'd head up to Northern Ireland and my 50th different parkrun was was at Portrush, and that was definitely a highlight. And if anyone's going to be in Northern Ireland, definitely in summer, I would recommend that. I'd say that possibly outside of Lower Hutt parkrun, it's possibly my favourite parkrun. But, you know, there's so many different parkruns, they've all got highlights.

00:39:30Oliver Spake: Look, that's absolutely one for the list. I believe I've seen a few of the pictures there. Would be a spectacular one. Look, thank you for sharing. And I'm sure we could draw so many more examples from you. One thing I did want to ask is another thing I understand is that you've, amongst everything, you've authored a book. You know, you are a runner. So can you give us, I suppose, a brief rundown of the book?

00:39:54Richard McChesney: Thanks. Again, this was about 2013. I came up with this idea that let's create a humorous look at running, which you know you are a runner is 40 illustrated cartoons or pictures. So an example is a guy running past a church and he can't go to church because it's Sunday's long run day. And they're all sort of things, you know, another one is, yeah, I don't know about you, but whenever I go up an escalator in a shopping centre, I stand on the edge of it so I can stretch my Achilles tendons while I'm, you know, going up the escalator. And so we wrote that book and it's turned out to be quite popular, especially at Christmas time. We sell it on Amazon. And we find that especially around Christmas time, people were buying it as presents for other runners. So I emailed you about this and suggested that if we could mention it on this podcast. Anyone that wants to search for it and buy that on Amazon Australia, we will give 25% of our royalty income from the sale of those books to parkrun Australia. And hopefully they might use some of their money for parkrun New Zealand, but they can do what they want with it. So basically any sales of, and we'll make it any of our books because as well as You Know You Are a Runner, we've got eight books in the series. Yeah. So any of the books, you know you are a mother, you know you are a teacher, you know you are an engineer, et cetera, et cetera. Any of them that are sold on Amazon between Amazon Australia, shall I say, between now and Christmas or end of December, we will then send a check to parkrun Australia in January for 25% of the royalties from those sales. Thank you, Richard.

00:41:43Oliver Spake: That's very kind and I'll be sure to check it out. It sounds very relatable.

00:41:47Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:41:48Oliver Spake: Very relatable.

00:41:50Richard McChesney: As I say, they're all things that I've either noticed in myself or my family have noticed in me or I'm sure anyone reading them will notice many of the characteristics in themselves or their fellow runners. and hopefully get a little bit of a laugh from it.

00:42:07Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah, I'm sure they will. Look, thank you very much, Richard, for your time and, of course, for all your support to parkrun over the years to date. I want to wish you all the best for your next adventures and hopefully we'll get to catch up with you not too far down the track. I mean, obviously New Zealand's 10th anniversary coming up next year, so, yeah, we'll have to check back in and see how things are going. Until then, thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you, Richard. It was an absolute pleasure to get to speak to Richard, Mel. Some very impressive ultramarathon efforts there, and I can't believe he walks them.

00:42:51Melissa Ellis: I know. He can walk faster than I can run, Ollie. Yes.

00:42:57Oliver Spake: Yes. Yeah, that's some impressive walking. That's right up there. And look, we'll be sure to share details of the book. As well. So, yeah, look, stay tuned, everyone.

Emails

00:43:11Oliver Spake: Meanwhile, Mel, I believe we've got mail. You've got mail.

00:43:15Melissa Ellis: We have, Ollie. We had more correspondence from Bruce who said... Jeez, where did Septober go? We are now on that final stretch of road to Zillmere. I've just got to say how enjoyable it's been watching others plan their own personal nottie parkrun journey to Zillmere. Thanks everyone for sharing your stories and a little bit about yourself. I guess many of us will log a nottie for Zillmere on the 30th, but there might be others who are lucky enough to do a real parkrun on that day. Don't stress. Log earlier in the week or log on Sunday to join the Z train. And any internationals who can't log your notties at Zillmere, come to Dazza's Cafe and show us your Z's. It might be a costume or a sign or anything to keep us connected. Thanks again, everyone, and a huge shout out to Mel and Ollie for your support. Thank you very much, Bruce.

00:44:17Oliver Spake: Yeah, echo that, Mel. Bruce, you've done a fantastic job. Thank you again for the motivation, and we're all looking forward to Zillmere.

00:44:24Melissa Ellis: We are.

00:44:25Oliver Spake: Yeah. I'll have to give some thought to a Zed theme myself. All right.

00:44:29Melissa Ellis: I've got an idea. I just have to find – so we've got retail opening up on Friday, so it's cutting it a bit fine, but I'm hopeful that I can source something.

00:44:40Oliver Spake: Heaps of time. And – Of course, we do look forward to seeing everyone's sharing at Dazza's as well. If you happen to be joining us at Zillmere and want to add it in there as well.

Dazza's

00:44:53Oliver Spake: We had a waterfall theme this week at Dazza's, Mel.

00:44:57Melissa Ellis: Surprisingly. That's right. That's right. I don't know what connection yet.

00:45:03Oliver Spake: So Dazza in fine voice, and this is just a tribute as the song goes, but as Dazza said, don't go chasing water. Now I'm going to have to wrap it or something. Don't go chasing waterfalls. Well, not unless your name is Mel and you're an adventurer with a rubber chicken. In our defence, it's been a long lockdown. Please distract us with your Saturday morning tales. And sorry, there was no singing there.

00:45:32Melissa Ellis: And first up, we heard from Mandy Oliver, Timekeeper at Surfers Paradise parkrun. No waterfalls, but a lake and a river.

00:45:43Oliver Spake: Absolutely on point there, Mandy. I think that's exactly what the lyrics say, so...

00:45:48Melissa Ellis: Greg Garner celebrating 100 parkruns for Victory Heights Trail parkrun with cake Louise Minty I had a great run at homestead parkrun this morning first encounter with channel 5 news crew in the wild and a trolley pick taken for Mel so it sounds like Louise spoke with Cam I believe so how about that I know. And, yeah, hi, Louise, and thank you for the trolley photo. Cameron Drake. Perfect spring weather for an adventure out to Homestead parkrun and have a chat with the gang and maybe a run if there's time. Definitely didn't talk with Rodney. Sarah said she was coming back. A fantastic location and a friendly and supportive crew. We'll be back now for coffee. Tracey Wood volunteered as Barcode Scanner this morning at Kedron with the Achilles crew. Also showed the Wagi Bridge Troll our lovely course with its three bridges.

00:46:55Oliver Spake: And we also heard from Pippa, Pippa White. And Pippa said to us, so I did a real parkrun on Saturday, typed out my update report for those who like to know that some parkrun is happening and promptly fell asleep. I appear to have one of Peter Pohlman's stickers on me. Now I've woken up. Adventure time. Met up with two friends from RTR in Tooting, South London. One now living in a town with a river and a parkrun, Henley-on-Thames parkrun, about two hours drive from here and two and a half hours back. It was a two-lapper on narrow paths, not buggy or dog-friendly, and this really mean hill. No, no naughty words this week, but that hill needed them all. So having missed brekkie yesterday, I'm off to Junior's. I'll come and grab a croissant and coffee after I've handed out finished tokens. Pippa added, pre-Junior nottie. As a bonus, a not Junior. 58 awesome kids, beautiful sunshine, coffee and almond croissant, please, Dazza.

00:48:04Melissa Ellis: Ah, well done, Pippa.

00:48:05Oliver Spake: And we heard from Val Warwick. Had a slightly drizzly parkrun at Devonport this morning, but not cold. A great brekkie afterwards at Drift with some of the others. And Phil Olson, last-minute panic as the planned parkrun was cancelled due to flooding. Next, most suitable added another 20 minutes to the planned 2 hours and 45 drive. Biggest disappointment was no coffee and cake.

00:48:33Unidentified speaker: Oh.

00:48:36Oliver Spake: Claire Stutchbury, event number 102 at Mudgeeraba parkrun's eighth birthday today. Just three more weeks till we've completed 100 Aussie events.

00:48:47Melissa Ellis: Oh, I hope the mud had subsided from last week.

00:48:51Oliver Spake: Yeah. And Will, Will Barlow reported in. Ali Rowe and Will did hills. Very unusual.

00:49:02Melissa Ellis: And our Bailey shot, Rebecca Bailey. Morning, Dazza. Today is a SPF kind of day, not only because it's very sunny and I'll need a high-level SPF sunscreen for my post-Dazza surf, but because I got to go back and do a free-do at my home parkrun course for the first time since lockdown. Cough, cough, Shellharbour. Today is also my S day for the Alpha Nottie Challenge. No, I'm not recording it for Shellharbour as I have already done Shellharbour and I am recording for parkruns I haven't been to. So instead of Shellharbour, I have chosen Studley parkrun to receive my nottie for today. Looks like it's a weekend in Melbourne for me with T coming up tomorrow. Hashtag SPF4. I don't know what that four stands for. Do you?

00:49:59Oliver Spake: I think that refers to the number of times you've mentioned the infamous parkrun number.

00:50:08Melissa Ellis: And Brett Bailey, nottie in Queenstown. We did most of the parkrun course after a big day at the wineries yesterday, followed by e-bike adventure around the lake today. And Tanya Bailey had a nice nottie walk this morning with Brett in Queenstown. Lovely course along the lakefront. And I did see those photos of that lake. It looked magnificent.

00:50:34Oliver Spake: I can just sense the fresh air when I look at it. I can't wait to get back there.

00:50:39Melissa Ellis: It was like a postcard.

00:50:41Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:50:41Melissa Ellis: Absolutely. And Alison King ran a nottie for Queenstown parkrun plus a couple more kilometres and completed the Strava climbing challenge in the process, and Ingrid Botha. Ran by the beach this morning for the first time since June. Now about to sit down with some gluten-free pancakes. Paris did not run with me, but is keen for pancakes. Image shows fluffy white dog licking her lips in anticipation.

00:51:11Oliver Spake: And we heard from Bernadette Bennett. Also ran a beach this morning as a nottie in Woolgoolga, logged for West Beach. Pancakes are also now on order. I I feel like I'm copying Ingrid Botha. One could do worse. Photo shows husband in distance. And Sonja Pohlman, a lovely walk around a neighbouring suburb. Pohlman for scale. Refer photo. Polman included. And we heard from Peter Pohlman, another suburb run in street signs, and plenty of good street art found, there's a linkage there to the previous one, may not have actually run Maitland, which was of course the street sign. And Peter went on to add, And for parkrun adventurers, sticker slapping is street art, like an alternative to straight graffiti tagging. The slapper tags on stickers, then slaps them on the wall as they walk by, so as to remain inconspicuous to authorities. The practice is huge in urban areas, and sites typically focus on pillar boxes, utilities, street signs, and drain pipes.

00:52:25Melissa Ellis: Hmm.

00:52:26Oliver Spake: So thank you, Peter. It's good to get a bit more context and a bit of feedback, and I'm really going to be looking out for that now.

00:52:32Melissa Ellis: Yeah, yeah, that was good. That definitely helped me get a bit of understanding. Thanks, Peter.

00:52:37Oliver Spake: And we heard from Andrew Turner. We had a big increase in numbers at Footscray, not parkrun today, with a massive seven finishes.

00:52:45Unidentified speaker: Whoa.

00:52:47Oliver Spake: I don't know, you Victorians are living it up now. Too soon, sorry.

00:52:52Melissa Ellis: Too soon.

00:52:52Oliver Spake: Too soon. Slightly fewer puddles this week and a PB for me. Well done, Andrew. Simon Mackley, a nottie slash freedom run at Greenway parkrun this morning. Beautiful morning for it and a great chat with Kel Walker.

00:53:09Melissa Ellis: And Abigail's mum. Ten kilometres along the Werribee River again this (not)parkrun day, followed by a panini and coffee in the piazza. And I'm wondering where my invitation is. Just quietly. Sam Schroder. I got some vitamin C while logging a nottie for trendy Toolern Creek today. Dazza. It made me very happy to see the sea again. And Tony O'Connell. Latte and a slice of raspberry and white chocolate cake, please, went and found a smaller waterfall for Melissa. Well, I don't know that that was smaller. That looked like a pretty good waterfall to me.

00:53:52Oliver Spake: Yes, yeah, that was a pretty tidy waterfall as well. So, yeah, a few parkrunners there, a few parkrun adventurers following the brief whirl. So Dazza was very impressed, I heard. Mm-hmm. Now, last but certainly not least, Michael Scott gave us another Septober update. He went to say, Hi, Dazza and team. Septober update completed Nhill, Ocean View, Port Fairy, Quinns Rocks, Railton and St Peter's since last update. On track to complete Alphabet at Zillmere next Saturday, including an X, on an x-shaped course virtually at Applecross or apple x in this case camino update I am 182 kilometres in after 28 days only 592 kilometres to go I passed through pamplona a week ago but missed the running of the bulls Can't wait for the restart of real parkrun in New South Wales on the 4th of December.

00:54:50Melissa Ellis: Thank you, Michael. Well done on your progress on your Camino.

00:54:55Oliver Spake: That's right, yeah. You have to find a cow paddock, Michael, just to make up for the running of the bulls.

00:55:02Melissa Ellis: So great tales from Dazza's this week, Ollie.

00:55:06Oliver Spake: It certainly was, yes.

00:55:08Melissa Ellis: But it's time now to throw to Caveman Cam and the informant... for this week's updates.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Cameron Drake — Homestead parkrun

00:55:24Cameron Drake: Good morning everyone, it's Cam here reporting in for the parkrun adventurers Channel 5 News crew and I'm here at the absolutely delightful looking Homestead parkrun, except it's not the launch, it's event number two because I missed out last week, but here we are anyway. And it is a fantastic day, blue skies, sun's out, no clouds, we've got a lovely run right next to the river and this place looks perfect. So dear listener, let me paint you a picture. It's 50 metres to go, and whether you've got a little bit left in the tank, or you've given it your all, you're really looking forward to crossing that finish line. But behind you, you can hear it, clomp, clomp, clomp, clomp, clomp. And you turn around and look and suddenly at 40 metres there's someone come out of nowhere who's shoulder to shoulder with you. And by the time it's 30 metres your brain starts reacting and going, what is happening here? It's 20 metres to go and you start thinking, no, no, that's not right. And by the time you get to 10 metres before the finish line, they've just crossed it. What's happened? You've been pipped at the post. Does this happen often? Well, I've volunteered at Finish Tokens and Timekeeper enough to say, yes, absolutely it happens. Let's see if it happens to other people too. All right, everyone, I'm here with Kevin. And Kevin, what are you doing today? Car park marshal, homestead parkrun. That's fantastic. I've never talked to a car park marshal before, Tracy. Hint, hint. Now, Kevin, I'm talking to people about getting pipped at the post, just at the finish line, someone steaming past you. Has this ever happened to you?

00:57:03Kevin: Funny story, because I was the Timekeeper last week. Oh, and how did that go? I was just talking to a guy literally 10 minutes ago who was complaining about the fact that I hit the stopwatch and his wife passed him and the token giver swapped him around. Tongue-in-cheek joke. People do get quite upset about it. But it's usually top 20 finishers that will have the problem.

00:57:33Cameron Drake: So it's not anything that you've ever done at all, ever, is it? No.

00:57:37Kevin: Honestly, I don't know. That's a yes if ever I heard one.

00:57:42Cameron Drake: I might have. Well, the cat's out of the bag. It happens, and I'm not the only one. All right, Kevin, well, thanks for having a chat, and I hope you have a lovely time marshalling these cars. Yeah, well, I hope you're running as well, so good luck. Cheers. Thanks. Alright gang, I'm here with... Ashley. And Michael. And Blake. Alright, Ashley, Michael and Blake. Now, I wanted to ask you, has anyone run past you in the last 10 metres just before the end of parkrun?

00:58:13Ashley: Yes, mostly Michael and my little brother when they try to get me my PBs because they're rude.

00:58:21Michael: but they're trying to help you they are they do promise that they're not going to do it every single time and then still do it um just to try and push me past even further but it doesn't quite work yeah I guess so I mean I'm safe yourself well I'm definitely guilty of it a few times not just to Ashley but to some other random people I remember at um Champion Lakes um some guy overtook me about halfway and then I got to him towards the maybe the last hundred metres and he heard me coming so I was steamrolling all the way back there and then he started increasing his pace and I just shot right past me. I said, oh bugger. But yeah, a little bit of a laugh I guess. I do feel a little mean, a little bit.

00:58:58Cameron Drake: Now mean would be turning around and looking as you cross the finish line and smiling. How about yourself?

00:59:05Blake: I'm definitely guilty of doing it myself.

00:59:07Michael: Yeah, numerous occasions I think.

00:59:09Blake: Last week here, it wasn't quite at the end, and I'd been about 100, maybe 50 metres to go, and I put the jets on, and they couldn't stay with me, but I've done it on numerous occasions.

00:59:20Cameron Drake: So really, you do it just for fun, even though when it happens to you, it's not quite as fun. Would that be the general consensus here?

00:59:28Michael: Yeah.

00:59:28Cameron Drake: Yeah, I'd say so, yeah.

00:59:29Blake: It's never happened to me.

00:59:31Cameron Drake: Never? Never. Blake's too quick. Well, I look forward to seeing you at the front then, eh? All right, thanks for chatting, gang. I'll see you out there. Thank you. Thank you. I'm here with... Alan. Now, Alan, I think the group has stitched you up because when I asked, does anyone run past the other people just in front of the finish line, everyone pointed at you. Now, what have you got to say for yourself? It's not a race. That's right, it's a run, it's not a race. No, I'm very competitive. Well, it's not a race up until the last 50 metres, then all bets are off, isn't that right? That's right, especially when there's young kids around, giving you the elbow. You've got to show them who's boss, don't you? That's right, that's me. So no one ever does that to you in return? Yes, they do it all the time. Is that because you do it all the time? No, not necessarily. There's a lot of competitive people out there. Ah, so you tell the competitive people it's a run, not a race, and then just go past them at the finish line, yeah? Well, yeah, yeah. It's all about the time at the end of the day, you know, and the position. Ah, and it helps you get a bit of a PB every now and then, doesn't it? Well, yeah, I haven't had one of those for about seven years now, but... It's a long time between drinks, but tell you what, if I see you out there, I'll start running, OK? Thank you. Cheers, Alan. Cheers. Okay, everyone, I'm here with Louise. Now, Louise, you confessed something as I caught up to you. What was that?

01:00:48Louise Minty: I confessed that I am a parkrun adventurer, a podcast listener.

01:00:53Cameron Drake: Now, just to confirm things, because there may have been some aspersions cast my way, can you name any number of the other reporters or the current hosts?

01:01:02Louise Minty: Mel and Ollie.

01:01:04Cameron Drake: Anybody else?

01:01:04Louise Minty: Tracey in a Tutu.

01:01:08Cameron Drake: Perfect, thank you.

01:01:08Louise Minty: And look, PK.

01:01:10Cameron Drake: There you go, guys. It wasn't a fluke. Now, I've come here to Homestead. This is gorgeous, isn't it?

01:01:15Louise Minty: It's beautiful, yeah, lovely. I love running around.

01:01:18Cameron Drake: Oh, I love running around rivers. Lots of trees guaranteed.

01:01:20Louise Minty: Beautiful.

01:01:21Cameron Drake: Now, I was asking people if you've ever experienced the phenomenon of when you're just approaching the finish line and some dirty sausage steamrolls past you at the very end and pips you at the post. Has that ever happened to you?

01:01:33Louise Minty: It has, yeah. Usually my partner does that to me, yeah.

01:01:36Cameron Drake: I hear that happens a lot.

01:01:38Louise Minty: Yeah, I drag him all the way around the course and then he just kills me at the end.

01:01:42Cameron Drake: And you wouldn't be guilty of this at all, would you?

01:01:45Louise Minty: My legs aren't long enough to do that to him, unfortunately.

01:01:48Cameron Drake: And no one else?

01:01:49Louise Minty: I try not to.

01:01:51Cameron Drake: You try not to, but you have?

01:01:52Louise Minty: No, I don't think I have. Or I feel guilty about it because it's a parkrun thing. It's not a race. I know, but it's funny. It's only a race between me and my partner, so...

01:02:02Cameron Drake: Oh, well, when the finish line is in sight and there's two runners on the same bit of track, it's on like Donkey Kong as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, absolutely.

01:02:08Louise Minty: I suppose people are used to that, aren't they? It's just how we are.

01:02:11Cameron Drake: It's just a bit of harmless fun, isn't it? Well, thanks for the chat, Louise, and I hope to see you around.

01:02:15Louise Minty: Thank you.

01:02:17Cameron Drake: All right, everyone, I'm here with... Rodney Glossop. Oh, I can't talk to you. Alright everyone, I'm here with today's Run Director, Clint. Clint, congratulations on another wonderful event.

01:02:25Clint: Thank you very much. Very excited. Our second event here at Homestead and my first ever as the Run Director.

01:02:31Cameron Drake: Oh, congratulations. Well done. That was a good turnout today, wasn't it? Yeah, it was good. Yeah, I reckon probably up around 200 today, which is pretty awesome. 200, yeah. It looked like a great turnout. Now, the thing that everyone's going to want to know is, where's the nearest coffee and sausage roll? Where am I going to get that?

01:02:44Clint: Nearest one, we have our sponsors, Jamaica Blue, just over in Thornlie in Forest Lakes. If you do volunteer, they've actually got a voucher for a free coffee as well.

01:02:53Cameron Drake: Oh, now that's an incentive to volunteer, isn't it? That's what you need. I'll let you get back to it. And thanks for running a great event today. Thanks very much. Appreciate it. Cheers. Cheers. Well, that's about it from me today. I hope you've managed to get out today and run a parkrun or a (not)parkrun or just managed to get out the door. It's all good. All right, gang, I'll speak to you next week or maybe the week after or whenever we catch up. See ya.

the Informant

01:03:20The Informant: This is the informant. These are unofficial stats. They are only current at the time they are collected and may differ from the stats you read elsewhere. It has been a blockbuster week with many global stats breaking post-COVID records. We have had records in a number of events held, number of launches, number of runners and the number of 50 milestones. There were 211 runs held in Australia, up six on last week. This was out of 1,440 worldwide across 18 countries. There were nine launches, locally at Anstey Hill Recreation Park, South Australia, one in Germany, four in Ireland, one in Japan, and two in the United Kingdom. Aussie attendance was up by 16 to 20,858 out of 174,751 worldwide, which is up 1,748 on last week. Down under we had 1,974 PBs, while 755 people participated for the first time. 41 juniors reached their Junior 10 milestone,

01:04:25[16 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

01:04:42The Informant: 98 people reached their 50 milestone, 61 reached their 100 milestone, and 18 people reached their 250 milestone. 8 people called bingo. Rozyshenko was the quickest with 166 events, while Vern Lawson was the slowest on 311 events. Just one new statesperson this week, Robert Gilroy in the Northern Territory. In the top 20 events list, Neil Scott is now 19th outright after running at Reynella East, leaving Brendan and Janine Sellers behind on 20. Overall biggest mover was Graham Tutte, who jumped up 13 places to 236th at Marina. Another week of high activity on the Wilson Index with 252 increases. Biggest mover is Alison Jones, who went up from 1 to 17. She was closely followed by Trevor Carpenter, who went from 20 to 35, which also saw him enter the top 10 South Australians in 6th place. Another brief no-nonsense report. If you would like to see these stats in full, you can download your own spreadsheet. Look for The Informant on Facebook or visit the blog at www.theinformant.me. That's The Informant, all one word, .me.

01:06:06Oliver Spake: And thank you to our informant and to Cam for a fantastic roving report from Homestead. It was great to hear from a number of our parkrunners there and to not hear from some of them as well. Hmm.

01:06:20Melissa Ellis: Yes. Well done, Cam, for not talking to Rodney.

01:06:23Oliver Spake: That's right. And Mel, have you been pipped to the post?

01:06:27Melissa Ellis: Probably, yes. The one time my son did come to parkrun early on, he was determined not to let his mother beat him in a parkrun and he did that sprint finish to overtake me and then vomited at the finish. Yeah. God bless him.

01:06:48Oliver Spake: Pay the price. Yes. Yeah.

01:06:50Melissa Ellis: What about you?

01:06:51Oliver Spake: Plenty of times. All the time. All the time.

01:06:56Melissa Ellis: That'd be like 2% of the parkrun population that would be able to overtake you.

01:07:03Oliver Spake: Oh, there's always someone. There's always someone, yes. But it's part of the fun. It's part of the motivation that keeps us going.

01:07:10Melissa Ellis: 100%.

Consolidated Club Report

01:07:11Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

01:07:12Oliver Spake: And I was going to say, speaking of motivation, Mel, also motivating are our clubs.

01:07:18Melissa Ellis: There are. So we've got an update on our adventurers parkrun Club. We are up one, Ollie, this week to 57. Excellent. I don't know who it was. If you want to own up, please let us know. Maybe it was Scotty.

01:07:36Oliver Spake: Maybe. Maybe.

01:07:39Melissa Ellis: So this week we had 57 members now in our Adventurers Club with 20 this week on the Consolidated Club Report and 23 members logging Notties this week. As far as not parkruns in Australia go, Ollie, Wyndham Vale topped the list with 44. We had Koonwarra second on 43, so only one behind. Well done, Cooney. And Campbelltown coming in third with 38.

01:08:12Oliver Spake: Well done to our not parkrunners.

01:08:14Melissa Ellis: And long jumping down the list to Shellharbour, Shellharbour on 13 and Toolern Creek with five. A couple of visitors there for Toolan Creek this week and I think Shellharbour as well.

01:08:25Oliver Spake: Yes, yes. We're seeing a few visits still popping up. Let's see what happens this coming week.

01:08:32Unidentified speaker: Mm-hmm.

01:08:33Oliver Spake: But over in New Zealand, our (not)parkruns recorded, we had Hamilton Lake topping with 64. So again, our Kiwi Not parkrunners topping the consolidated list there across the two countries. Whangarei, 42. And Anderson, 30. So some very strong efforts. Well done, everyone.

01:08:57Melissa Ellis: Well done.

01:08:58Oliver Spake: Now, Mel. We made the mention early in the pod about some news. We're almost gonna forget to include this. That's not true.

01:09:11Melissa Ellis: I'm not sure about that. I think it's a big announcement, Ollie.

01:09:14Oliver Spake: That's a big announcement. It's been one we've been looking forward to making with shadows of doubt everywhere, given restrictions have been moving all over the place, all over the country, and we've still got a lot of things to change. But just in case I'm not being clear enough, because I know that I've got a habit of doing that, I'm going to hand it over to you, Mel, to share that news.

01:09:36Melissa Ellis: We have an announcement of Palm 2022. It's going to be... In Tasmania, we know this.

01:09:52Oliver Spake: Yes.

01:09:53Melissa Ellis: At Bellerive parkrun on the 5th of March in 2022. How about that? Exciting. Yes. We've got a venue and a date. So book it in. But disclaimer. We don't know if COVID restrictions are going to put a spanner in our works. So please be mindful of that if you book. As much as we want this event to go forward on this date, it is subject to border restrictions allowing us to

01:10:30Oliver Spake: to progress that's right yeah so check check the terms of your bookings uh I know that I've been mostly lucky with some of the cancellations but it's always the old one the accommodation ones sometimes keep an eye out uh and hey I think by the time the pod is out let's let's count it from next (not)parkrun day Mel that'll be about 125 126 days to go wow how did you work that out uh Maths.

01:10:58Melissa Ellis: Okay, fair enough. Yes, but how exciting. So we're excited to go to Tassie. We're actually really excited to be going to Bellerive. And on the Sunday, so that'll be...

01:11:11Louise Minty: The 6th, yes.

01:11:13Melissa Ellis: There's an event, a small local running event that we are also hoping to be involved with and take part in in Bellerive that runs on part of the Bellerive parkrun course.

01:11:27Oliver Spake: That's right. So... A good opportunity for everyone to get involved and just, you know, keep the fun going. Of course, we'll throw in as many notties as we can. Freedom runs, I should say.

01:11:38Melissa Ellis: Definitely. Yep. And the essential catch-ups. And the Friday night dinner. And the Saturday night dress-up and the Sunday running event. And thank you very much to TOC for figuring out that there was an event and that this was a good location.

01:11:55Oliver Spake: That's right.

01:11:56Melissa Ellis: TOC's been in the background helping us out with these things. So thank you to him for that.

01:12:01Oliver Spake: I can't take any credit for this one. So yeah.

01:12:04Melissa Ellis: Yeah, no, nothing to do with you, Ollie. Exactly.

01:12:06Oliver Spake: The organising committee, the brains and the passion behind Palm. And look, for anyone that hasn't experienced it, it's well worth the trip. We look forward to sharing it with you all. We hope that many of you can make it. And for those that join us in spirit, for another one in due course down the track. But we look forward to catching up with everyone.

Sign-off

01:12:31Melissa Ellis: We do. But I think that's it for this week, Ollie. Anything else that we've forgotten?

01:12:37Oliver Spake: I think we covered it.

01:12:38Melissa Ellis: Okay. That's all my notes. So, as always, you can contact us via Facebook or on our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another week and we'll see you all next week for more adventures.

01:12:51[music]

01:13:50Unidentified speaker: Bye.

01:14:04guest: Hi Mel and Ollie. My sister's at school and I got to have an ice cream for lunch. And me and mum went for a walk at Wyndham Vale parkrun. I'm excited because I get to go back to school as well. Bye everyone. Stay safe.