Episode 262 - All the good things

Welcome

00:00:23Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 262 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Melissa Ellis and I'm joined by someone who spent time this last weekend running Surf Coast trails dressed as a unicorn. Welcome back to the co-host chair, Tony O'Connell.

00:00:41Tony O'Connell: Thanks for that, Mel. It's really great to be back on the podcast. It seems like it's been so long since I've had a chat and with Victoria being on pause, there's been no roving reports from me. So it feels like forever since we've had a great chat.

00:00:55Melissa Ellis: Yes, it has been. But how was your parkrun weekend? Well, your (not)parkrun weekend.

00:01:01Tony O'Connell: Well, my (not)parkrun weekend, we started off with our usual Cape Paterson Not parkrun. We've got a circuit that we've run, I'm going to guess, probably 60 or 70 times now. It goes around Cape Paterson through the new estate and then follows the foreshore. So we get some really nice coastal views. as we run along the foreshore. Back to home, finish off, and now we've got a really great coffee cart in Cape Paterson that generally has muffins and coffee. My Saturdays are almost complete. Not quite, I'm still missing the parkrun, but they're almost complete.

00:01:39Melissa Ellis: And I should say, hi, Jackie.

00:01:42Tony O'Connell: Following on from that, as you said, we went over to the west coast of Victoria to run an event called Afterglow. It's all about getting as colourful as you can. And I think I achieved that, Mel. I reckon I was a bit of a glowing character and actually won a headlamp for my costume that I wore. So I was pretty happy with that because now I can glow even further.

00:02:06Melissa Ellis: Oh, well done. And you were in last year's version of the Ugly Christmas Singlet, I noticed.

00:02:12Tony O'Connell: I was. It seemed pretty fitting to have Fluffy and the unicorns together, at Gingerbread Men on my shorts. So I had a little bit of everything going on, but it was great to represent the last year's Ugly Christmas Shirt. And it was surprising, quite a few of the volunteer shirts out on course with people using that as part of their colourful outlook. So it was actually really good to see a couple of the V25s and, in fact, a couple of 50 shirts as well. So people taking their parkrun out to the longer courses as well.

00:02:44Melissa Ellis: Oh, I thought you were going to say there was more Ugly Christmas Singlets out there.

00:02:50Tony O'Connell: No. No, there was a lot of blob unicorns and unicorn Dolls and glow sticks and all sorts of things like that, but not many ugly tops, no.

00:03:00Melissa Ellis: I did see the Mountain City Runners had their aid station and there was some good unicorn costumes going on representing the West out there as well.

00:03:09Tony O'Connell: Yeah, it's an event that's really well supported by a lot of the running community. It was amazing how many parkrunners I actually ran into while you're sitting waiting to get on a bus to get bussed out to the start line. Actually, a bit like a Saturday morning catch-up with Saturday night because the event starts in the dark and runs with headlamps.

00:03:28Melissa Ellis: I've never done Afterglow, but it is an event that I've looked at and probably, you know, thought I need to do that one year.

00:03:37Tony O'Connell: It's always a real fun event. Yeah, they just, I don't know, play it up a little bit. And your music, you've got a live band generally at the finish line and a

00:03:46Melissa Ellis: our bar and a cafe at the finish line so yeah it's got that real party atmosphere about it how do you go running at night I do notice that you often will run in the evening but I tend to be a morning runner and I find it hard I've done some of those sunset runs and my body just doesn't want to get up and go at that time of day now I find it

00:04:09Tony O'Connell: Because I quite often have to go to work at about six in the morning, I find I run a lot at night because that's when you can squeeze it in. But I can run in the morning at night. Yeah, all good.

00:04:20Melissa Ellis: Yeah, you're an all-rounder. I'm a specialised.

00:04:24Tony O'Connell: I just fall over more often in the dark. And how about you, Mel? How was your (not)parkrun weekend?

00:04:31Melissa Ellis: Well, Saturday morning I kept it local. I returned to the Peppertree parkrun course, which I've only ever visited once before, to meet with Event Director Adrian Hillyer, Run Director Amy, Brendan Peel and Jodie Mainzy, who I caught up with a couple of weeks ago at Albert Park. Brendan, Jodie and I all turned up in our brand new Ugly Christmas Shirts, which did draw quite a few comments from other park users. We had a great run chat and afterwards headed to the marsh for brunch and more park faff at the Bake and Brew Cafe. So my (not)parkrun cup was full to overflowing. Didn't make any crazy interstate trips this weekend because I just, oh, It took so much out of me last week doing that drive. So, yeah, I had to stay close to home. But it was very enjoyable and good to revisit Peppertree parkrun.

00:05:28Tony O'Connell: I saw the collection of ugly shirts on a photo and, in fact, last weekend they seemed to be appearing more and more in the world in a lot of Facebook posts and it was really great to see a collection of them together out in the world.

00:05:42Melissa Ellis: And that's Brendan's first one. He doesn't have any of the previous years, so the first time Brendan's joined us with the Ugly Christmas Shirts. So that was a surprise.

parkrun news bulletin

00:05:53Tony O'Connell: Great to see.

00:05:54Melissa Ellis: But not all the news was good this week, Toc.

00:05:58Tony O'Connell: No. No. No. Unfortunately, we saw a posting on Facebook on one of our US Friends events. And, yeah, Mel, it's sad to see an event being packed up.

00:06:12Melissa Ellis: It is. So Crissy Field announced last Friday, the 19th of November, Crissy Field parkrun has had a fantastic run over the last six years, creating lots of memories and friends. However, circumstances now are such that, unfortunately, we are unable to resume holding our event at Crissy Field. We look forward to the day that we can hold another parkrun in San Francisco, but for the moment, Byxbee parkrun, half an hour south of San Francisco, will have to fill our parkrun needs. Many thanks for all the support over the years. So that was sad to see, Toc, because, I don't know, Crissy Field was on my wish list if I ever was to get over to the US.

00:06:55Tony O'Connell: I think that iconic image of the Golden Gate Bridge in the background has probably made it... one of the most recognisable parkruns probably in the world, it'd be fair to say. Yeah. And I think a lot of people are going to be feeling that, you know, that was an event I was going to and I think a lot of people will resonate with that because it was one of those events that you could see a picture and you knew exactly which parkrun it was.

00:07:23Melissa Ellis: Even if it was a picture of just fog with a bit of a drawing of a bridge in the background? Have you seen that happen in the past?

00:07:35Tony O'Connell: I have done, yes.

00:07:36Melissa Ellis: People would draw in their own bridge?

00:07:38Tony O'Connell: Yeah.

00:07:39Melissa Ellis: Yeah, so that's sad. Hopefully that, yeah, San Francisco can come back and find a new location and, yeah, everybody can travel to Byxbee in the meantime.

00:07:50Tony O'Connell: Well, Byxbee is one of those events that's been on this podcast a couple of times now, so at least there's a little bit of continuity there. It's only half an hour away, which for a lot of the adventurers, half an hour is pretty close. It's nothing, is it?

00:08:05Melissa Ellis: Also through the week, in the Street to New Year's Day group, I noticed Patrick Schimitzek.

00:08:12Tony O'Connell: Very well done.

00:08:15Melissa Ellis: He informed that he was up to his tea on his reverse Alfa Nautis and visited the creek with a Strava art of Dazza he shared this Wednesday night. Did you see it?

00:08:27Tony O'Connell: I did. How good is that? Some of the artwork that Patrick's doing on Strava is amazing. He obviously puts a lot of time into planning.

00:08:35Melissa Ellis: He does, yeah, and he's given a little clue into, you know, how he gets some of his lines too, pausing and then restarting to get straight lines. But there's definitely an art to that.

00:08:47Tony O'Connell: I did wonder about that when I saw he was going through shops and buildings. Has he got the ability to fly or...?

00:08:56Melissa Ellis: Yeah, but it's clever, right? But you've still got to work it out. There's still a lot of planning involved to run to a certain point, pause your Garmin, and then obviously run around to the next point and unpause to get that straight line.

00:09:08Tony O'Connell: And make it work. I noticed that there's a couple of times he's unpaused and he's actually got the line from one straight to the next to the next diagonally and he's actually got it to work. Yeah, kudos to Patrick. That's been brilliant effort.

the Obi Award

00:09:19Melissa Ellis: Which leads me to bring up the conversation that Ollie and I had last week, which was our yet-to-be-named award for something that happens in the adventurer community that is above and beyond that we could award kudos to for the week. Now, I came up with a few ideas, which was the Dazzler and the Parky and the Abbey, but I had another idea this week. So maybe you could tell me what you think about it because obviously, you know, the big cheese, the person who brought parkrun to this fine country, our own Tim Oberg. So I thought if we're going to name an award after somebody, surely it has to be after Tim Oberg. So it would be the Oberg Award, a.k.a. the Obi. We could have the Obis award.

00:10:11Tony O'Connell: I like the name of that, Mel, but I think it would be good to put it out to the listeners and see if anyone's got any other really creative ideas. Great to get a little bit of feedback on that one.

00:10:20Melissa Ellis: Yep, we can appeal again. I did have one message through the week, which was a tick for the Dazzler. That was Ollie's idea last week. So, yeah, if anybody wants to get back to us, I think Patrick's a good contender this week with his Strava Art of Dazza.

00:10:37Tony O'Connell: It'll leave fine points with you.

00:10:38Melissa Ellis: Yes. I also liked Wendy Glen's comment this week when we were discussing doing our notties back at our regular parkrun courses and Wendy said that she has been returning to her local parkrun course of Gardiners Creek the last few weeks and she's calling it her pre-season training.

00:10:58Tony O'Connell: Hopefully it's not that much longer before Wendy gets into the regular season, the full season.

00:11:04Melissa Ellis: And very wise, Wendy, very wise. Yes. And it's been a big week of news, Tony. News came out last night, Monday evening, that there's going to be a change to barcodes and scanning.

00:11:17Tony O'Connell: Yeah, Mel, this has probably been one of the most significant changes that we've seen for a little while. And it probably follows quite well on with going across to the virtual volunteer. We do all our timekeeping in our barcode scanning on the phone. The big change this week that's been announced is we're going to allow digital barcodes to be scanned at parkruns as of this weekend, a lot of people very happy it is Mel but um it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out parkrun are still asking people where they can to bring a printed version um it's still felt that the ice details that show up on the on the printed versions are fairly important uh so but they are going to allow where you don't have a printed version for the digital to be scanned

00:12:00Melissa Ellis: So, Tony, is it actually possible now to forget your barcode?

00:12:03Tony O'Connell: Well, for the true adventurers, Mel, not really because I don't know how many you take with you on an average week to parkrun, but I reckon if I had a look between my phone, my wallet, my wristbands, my key tags, I'd probably take five or six with me each week anyway. So now I'm going to take an extra one on my phone as well as one in the case of the phone. So look, I think for most of us, it's pretty well just as you were. But for some people, it will give you the opportunity. You've gone away on holiday, I guess, got to your destination, down ready to do your touristing, and you realise you've forgotten your printed barcode. This may give you the opportunity to scan in at least.

00:12:43Melissa Ellis: Yep, yep. So, yeah, that's a big move for parkrun. And that begins as of this Saturday, I believe, the 27th of November.

00:12:54Tony O'Connell: That's correct. But as we said earlier, parkrun still do ask people where they can to bring a printed barcode. So it'd be great to see people still rocking up with the wristbands and the... The printed barcodes. Absolutely.

00:13:08Melissa Ellis: So yes, a big change there and big news coming out of headquarters this week. Some other big news that we must mention, maybe even bigger than the barcode topic. Ugly Christmas Singlet and shirts the second offering is about to close so you've got to get in quick if you haven't already ordered your Ugly Christmas Singlet or shirt and uh yeah they close on Sunday night so the 28th of November that'll be it for this year and for that printed design uh forever

00:13:43Tony O'Connell: I think that's an important thing to remember, Mel, is once it's closed, you can't order it in a month or two and it won't be available next year or any other year. They're a one-off, so you need to get in and have a look at last week's Dazza's Cafe and see the crew in them. They're a great-looking shirt and I think everyone will want to get on board.

00:14:03Melissa Ellis: I'm really happy with mine. I'm really happy with the traditional colours. I think they're really effective out there in the wild. I'm looking forward to spotting some this week at parkrun.

00:14:12Tony O'Connell: And the other thing is the supplier that makes them, they do a fantastic running shirt, so they're really comfortable to get out and get active in. Whether you run, walk, hop, skip or jump, they're a great shirt to be out and about in. That's right, good quality.

00:14:24Melissa Ellis: That's probably all our wrap-up of news from the past week. Toc?

00:14:31Tony O'Connell: Yep, I think we should go and listen to a couple of roving reports. Mel, what do you think?

00:14:36Melissa Ellis: Yep, let's do that.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Sarah Jefferson — Burswood Peninsula parkrun

00:14:42Sarah Jefferson: Good morning parkrun adventurers. It's Sarah here in Western Australia and this morning I am going to check out Burswood Peninsula parkrun. Unfortunately I am injured at the moment. I've had a little bit of knee surgery so I'm actually going around and I'll be volunteering there this morning. I've got barcode scanning so I'll report in soon. All right, I'm here at Burswood Peninsula parkrun checking in with Anita, the Run Director. How did today's event go, Anita? How many participants did you get? Well, I think we got up to nearly 80 today, which was unexpected and really nice. Awesome, and it is a stunning, stunning morning down here. Can you tell me a little bit about the course and some things that might be iconic to Perth?

00:15:23Anita: Well, it doesn't get more iconic than the Optus Stadium and we're very lucky to be able to do our run around here. It's a little bit confusing on the first run, which I think anyone that's been down here can vouch for, but it's absolutely beautiful and we love it and it's a privilege to be able to run around somewhere so nice, so close to Perth.

00:15:42Sarah Jefferson: And definitely now that the AFL Grand Final is held here in 2021, that's definitely been put on lots of people's maps, I'm sure. And the Swan River is really close by as well. Burswood Peninsula parkrun, I think, is quite unique in that the start line for this event is quite close geographically to another parkrun, Claisebrook. How far away do you think that is? And I'm sure that would be one of the closest in the world, surely, to have two starting so close by.

00:16:10Anita: I think our start lines are maybe a kilometre and a half to a kilometre, you know, between the two of them. So it's not too far. And we have had the one person that has run Claisebrook and come over and tried to run Burswood and still beats our Tail Walker.

00:16:28Sarah Jefferson: So that's how close they are. Awesome. Well, thanks for checking in this morning and a lovely morning down here at Burswood Peninsula parkrun. Thanks for coming to visit us. All right, and here I am having a chat with Michaela, who is today's Tail Walker. And Michaela is actually a Run Director at Lake Joondalup. Michaela, why are you here volunteering this morning?

00:16:47Michaela Semin: I'm doing a bit of touristing at the moment. So when you're a Run Director, of course, you can't actually get out and participate, so you miss your participation points. So when I'm not up at Lake Joondalup, I like to do a bit of touristing and I always put myself down as Tail Walker, see how other parkruns do things, check out the different courses. And, yeah, so that's why I'm here today.

00:17:07Sarah Jefferson: Well done, because that's actually volunteering as well. So well done to you. Yay! Michaela Semin, you are Run Director at Lake Joondalup. Would you like to tell us a little bit about it?

00:17:17Michaela Semin: Yeah, Lake Joondalup, we're usually, well, we're actually getting around between 200 and 250 runners and walkers at the moment. It's quite a popular course. It's a lovely relatively flat out and back along Lake Joondalup itself so the course is pretty shaded. I think we just had the male state record set at Lake Joondalup a few weeks back so it is really a beautiful course and it starts at Neil Hawkins Park. You can't have dogs unfortunately because Neil Hawkins is dog free but yeah we're a big parkrun family. There's a coffee van on site and it is a really lovely parkrun to start your morning. Awesome.

00:17:53Sarah Jefferson: That's great to hear that you've got the community vibe happening. Oh, definitely. I'll have to head up there and check it out again. I have been there once before, but it sounds like I need to head back up there. Welcome back. Thank you.

Roving report Tracey Wood — Bagara parkrun

00:18:03Tracey Wood: Good morning, adventurers. It's the peripatetic probationer, the rookie roving reporter. It's Tracey in a Tutu coming to you from beautiful beachside Bargara. Bargara is close to Monropo Turtle Park, where if you haven't been here and seen all the... turtle hatchings or the turtle nestings. That is a pretty wondrous sight to see, I can tell you that. So maybe if you're looking for somewhere to tour, come up in February and you can come out here in the evening and come on a tour and see about a hundred little turtles crawl over your feet heading out to the shore. It's a pretty awesome sight, I can tell you that. Okay, I've arrived here at parkrun. I'm going to go talk to a Well, first, I have a couple of questions I need to answer. Okay, first, thanks to Patrick. He did take a request for a tutu, and thank you. I love it. It was awesome. Now, I know I'm not the brightest sandwich in the tool shed, but go have a look at his picture of a mouse on the Street to New Year's Day page, because that took me way longer than it should have to work that out. Okay, second, in response to Caveman Cam, that I should go interview a car park marshal. What the ****? Good idea. Sorry, am I allowed to say that? Anyway, yes, I would if I could find one, but there aren't too many of those in Queensland. In fact, I'm pretty sure the only one I know of is at Toowoomba parkrun, and that's only in September when they have the carnival flowers on. So, thank goodness they've allowed me to be a reporter already, because otherwise I would have had to wait till September next year to go find one. And that leads me on to the third thing. Thank you for allowing me to be a reporter, but yes, I am going to continue the challenge. Alrighty, I have found Maria. Good morning, Maria. Good morning. Now, I've got a funny little story about Maria. When I went to Highfields parkrun a couple of weeks ago, Kim told me, if you ever go to Bargara parkrun, catch up with Maria and Phil. So, would you happen to know a Kim at Highfields? I do. I know a Kim from Highfields. A very, very nice... long-term friend. Now how's that for seven degrees of friendship in the parkrun world? We were just talking about roles before as well and Maria you're doing a couple of jobs on the roster today what are those roles?

00:20:22Maria: So I'm a Timekeeper so very important for everyone that they get their time so that's my role today but also I set up and post set up so that's like all the equipment storage like we store it at home and we bring it and set up the course for everybody and then we pack it up and take it home.

00:20:41Tracey Wood: So equipment storage, tick, and also post-event close-down, tick. Would that be right? That's correct, yes. Oh, we're listening here, listeners. Okay, cool. Because you and Phil are Event Directors here? That's correct, yes. And how long have you been doing this? Three years. Is that how long that the parkrun's been going for? Yes. Fantastic. And why did you start parkrun here?

00:21:02Maria: We love being involved in the community and we went to our first parkrun at Main Beach probably about five, six years ago and also at Hervey Bay and we thought, well, why can't we have something like this in Bundy? So, yeah, we just went from there and seeked funding and tried to find some information and got onto parkrun Australia and, yeah, just went from there and it's just taken off.

00:21:27Tracey Wood: Now, this is an absolutely lovely location. For the listeners at home, can you describe where we are at the moment?

00:21:33Maria: Okay, so we're right on the foreshore at Bargara. Our course has a mixture of bushland. We run into the reserve, run along the coastline. Right along Bargara, we have bitumen surface, gravel surface and grass surfaces. So we tick all the boxes. Excellent. Now, is it a flat course? It is. I would call it a flat course, but there is a couple of little sneaky hills like you run up ramps. So yeah, it's easy course. Yeah, it's not hard at all. Like I said, there's a couple of ramps that have a little bit of an incline. When you hit the grass, it sort of slows you down a little bit. But apart from that, no, it's great.

00:22:14Tracey Wood: And anything else you look out for on the course? Anything's too unique?

00:22:17Maria: Oh, yes. So as you run through the reserve, we always have kangaroos and a little bit of wildlife. You always see lizards and there's a little broad walk. There's like reeds and stuff. Lots of wild little birds. It's awesome. It's great. Along the coastline, we've seen whales and dolphins. Wow. Yeah. So and even when we've set up in the morning, we've seen baby turtles on our beach. So yes, we tick all those boxes and throughout the year you can see lots of different animals. It's great. That's awesome.

00:22:49Tracey Wood: Now I see you're modelling the lovely purple volunteer shirt this morning. So you've obviously got your 25 volunteer milestone. Congratulations to you. Thank you.

00:22:58Maria: And I'd like to skite too. I just picked up my 100 volunteer black shirt. Well done. Fantastic. So I'm very excited about receiving that shirt. Yes. So I'm very happy to wear that shirt. But sadly, it was in the wash, and I didn't get to wear that one today. Can I ask you what your favourite volunteer role is? I actually like taking photos and being Tail Walker because I get to walk along the course when I take photos and I say hi to everybody and yell out. Also when I take photos we walk along the course and we do lots of selfies and encourage people. So it's great because we get to talk to everybody.

00:23:35Tracey Wood: meet see everybody every Saturday yeah awesome which is what it's all about absolutely thank you so much for talking with me not a problem thank you okay it's Tracey in a Tutu checking out from Bargara parkrun oh it's a bit of a steamy morning out here but it's beautiful day out here I've met some really lovely people uh both beforehand and on the course thank you to everyone who made me feel so welcome It's been really lovely and I look forward to coming back to Bargara parkrun another time. And maybe next time they're even thinking about getting a mascot. So hopefully that might even happen as well. So I hope everyone has a good day. See you on the B-side. Bye.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Grette Wilkinson — Copper Trail parkrun

00:24:15Grette Wilkinson: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Greta here and I'm reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew from the Copper Trail parkrun today. So Copper Trail is partway between Kadina and Moonta in South Australia on the Yorke Peninsula and that's about two, two and a half hours drive from Adelaide, kind of up north, rather than the top of the Yorke Peninsula. And for those of you who don't know, the Yorke Peninsula is the one that looks like a foot in South Australia. So the Copper Coast is the area around the sort of Kadina, Moonta, Wallaroo area and it's called Copper Coast because back in the turn of the 19th, 20th century obviously they were mining copper around here. They're also a fairly strong Cornish community and a biennial festival that they have here is the Kernewek Lowender which is the largest Cornish festival outside of Cornwall. So, we might even see if we can find a Cornish pasty today for breakfast. Alright, so we're off to do the parkrun and see if we can find some people to chat to. Okay, so I'm here at Post parkrun Coffee and I'm with the Event Directors of Copper Trail parkrun. Gerry. [Cornish: "Kernewek Lowender — literally "Cornish Happiness" (Kernewek = Cornish, Lowender = happiness/joy)"] [translation uncertain]

00:25:28Gerry: Hi there.

00:25:29Grette Wilkinson: And Nicole. Hi. Congratulations, what a fantastic day.

00:25:33Gerry: Yeah, it was pretty good. Really good turnout.

00:25:37Grette Wilkinson: It was wonderful. Are you happy with how it went?

00:25:39Gerry: Yes, we are. I think it went really well. We had about 122 people turn up, which was considering the weather. It was really good.

00:25:47Grette Wilkinson: Yes, we had lots of comments about the weather today.

00:25:50Gerry: Yep, a bit of rain, a bit of sunshine, no hail luckily, so that was good. And a bit of wind on the way back, so that was good for the runners.

00:26:00Grette Wilkinson: Yeah, that wind was a surprise for me on the way back.

00:26:05Gerry: And a little bit of a hill as well.

00:26:06Grette Wilkinson: That's right. Yes, that was a bit deceptive too.

00:26:10Gerry: So we like to keep these things secret so they come and run and think it's easy and then, you know.

00:26:15Grette Wilkinson: Then you turn around.

00:26:16Gerry: That's it, yeah. Yeah, and thank you to Nicole and everyone else. It was really awesome. Yeah, it was wonderful.

00:26:22Grette Wilkinson: So what led you guys to bringing parkrun to Kadina Wallaroo?

00:26:27Gerry: It all started with the Masters Games. I was doing the athletics and talking to council about it and I said we need a parkrun and they said yeah let's do it and we had to find a venue. That took about a month, two months to find a venue. Of course we couldn't find an area that was good enough to do it in.

00:26:46Grette Wilkinson: That didn't cross roads and was long enough. How wonderful though to have council support.

00:26:53Gerry: Yeah, oh yeah, the council was behind us all the time, so that was awesome, yeah. And if you ask them anything, they just go, yeah, what do you want next, what do you want next?

00:27:01Grette Wilkinson: Fantastic.

00:27:03Gerry: So yeah, no, the council has been good. The mayor is behind us. I know a couple of the councillors and they all just went, yeah, we'll vote for it, no problem, we'll do it. So yeah, that was good.

00:27:14Grette Wilkinson: And Nicole, tell me about the path. So now that you've got the course, tell me about it.

00:27:19Nicole: It's a looped course. So we start about 200 metres up from the track and then we run down to a bollard so you're not crossing any roads, turn around and then straight up and you find that nice little hill towards sort of the end and then you turn around that bollard and then it's a run sort of up downhill home to the finishing line slash shed I guess. And the course is sort of, is it halfway between? Kadina and Wallaroo. Right. Yes. And does it use an old rail trail? Yes. So that was pulled up a couple of years back and they've bitumised that now. So it's fully bitumised. So you can use that track to go to Kadina and Wallaroo and now they're extending that to go towards Moonta.

00:28:05Grette Wilkinson: Fantastic. And so you use a bit of that that's sort of right in the middle between two roads. Yes. What, 2.3 kilometre? chunk that, yeah, we use.

00:28:14Nicole: And it's sort of in the middle of crops. Yeah, there's some farmland and an old pony club is next to it as well. And we use some of their facilities. So there's toilets and car parking, that sort of thing.

00:28:28Grette Wilkinson: It's fantastic. And what about the two of you? Have you both been parkrunning for a while? What sort of other parkruns have you done?

00:28:36Gerry: I've done 18 different locations now. Have you? Yeah, and I've done a few in Auckland.

00:28:42Grette Wilkinson: Which ones in Auckland have you done?

00:28:44Gerry: I did the one in the middle of Auckland. I can't remember the name.

00:28:49Grette Wilkinson: Because we have some New Zealand listeners.

00:28:51Gerry: Yes, and I'm a Kiwi, so...

00:28:53Grette Wilkinson: And they'll be listening to this, yelling the name at you, I'm sure.

00:28:58Gerry: Yep. And I'm on 97 parkruns now.

00:29:02Grette Wilkinson: Oh, so close.

00:29:04Gerry: Three to go. So maybe New Year's Day I'll do it. I'll do my 100.

00:29:09Grette Wilkinson: You'll be able to do your 100th parkrun at the parkrun that you started. That's right, yes. How wonderful.

00:29:15Gerry: That's awesome, isn't it? Yeah. Pretty cool. Yeah. I've done quite a few in Victoria, a few around South Australia. So, yeah.

00:29:23Grette Wilkinson: And notwithstanding your home parkrun, which we'd have to say now is Copper Trail, what would be your top three favourite parkruns? And I can give you some thinking time and I can ask Nicole what her parkrun journey is and I'll come back to you. So how long have you been parkrunning for?

00:29:43Nicole: On and off for three years. Mine is nowhere near as extensive as that. I think I've only done about seven different parkruns. And then COVID put a stop to it for a while. So then I had to find the love for it again. But yeah, so I've done mainly South Australian ones, a couple in Victoria. Which ones are nearby here? The closest to our Copper Trail would be Port Broughton. It's about 35 minutes from here. And Clare. And Port Augusta as well, if you want to drive that little bit further. But yeah, I think I've done the Clare and I've done the Port Broughton ones locally here and then off to Adelaide for all the other ones.

00:30:27Grette Wilkinson: Well, I'm going to ask you as well, except for Copper Trail, your top three. But we'll go to Geri first and then I'll give you some thinking time. How are you going, Gerry? Have you come up with three?

00:30:40Gerry: First one must be Jubilee Way, because that's where I started.

00:30:43Grette Wilkinson: Your inaugural?

00:30:44Gerry: That's my inaugural one.

00:30:46Grette Wilkinson: And it is lovely.

00:30:48Gerry: It is. My second one will be Ararat.

00:30:51Grette Wilkinson: Ah, I've done Ararat. Yes, I know Ararat.

00:30:54Gerry: Yeah, that's quite a different, small, interesting course.

00:30:57Grette Wilkinson: Now, is that, you might remember, is it a three or four lap course?

00:31:02Gerry: I think it's a three lap course, yeah.

00:31:03Grette Wilkinson: Three lap course, yeah. Which I really enjoyed because you could see everyone the whole time. Yeah, it was very social.

00:31:11Gerry: And then I would say Ballarat is close by as well. Okay. Because it's nice, you run in the park with roses around you and all that. It's a beautiful park to run in, yeah. Just the two course, you go around twice and yeah, awesome.

00:31:23Grette Wilkinson: Great.

00:31:24Gerry: Yeah, so that's probably my three favourites actually.

00:31:26Grette Wilkinson: All right, the top three. Have you come up with three?

00:31:29Nicole: I could name three. I don't know if they're the top three. My first was Port Broughton, and that's a challenging course because of the grass to the seaweed and the rocks. Because that one's actually on the beach, isn't it? It is, yeah. So that one is very hard to get a good PB on that one. You've got to watch your feet. You do have to watch your feet. So I didn't mind that one. I didn't mind Portland's.

00:31:51Grette Wilkinson: Portland's was actually pretty good. Portland has been mentioned already today by someone else.

00:31:57Nicole: Yeah. And probably... Like I said, I haven't done that many, but I didn't mind West Beach when I did that one. Oh, yes, that's it. That was quite nice. Along the beach and then up the Torrens? Torrens, yeah. So, yeah, probably those three for now until I do more and get out and about.

00:32:16Grette Wilkinson: You can revise your top three. That's it. Well, look, congratulations both on launching a fantastic event. I wish you all the very best for Copper Trail parkrun into the future and hopefully we'll come back soon. Visit.

00:32:30Gerry: Thank you very much. Yeah, all that. Thanks, Nicole.

00:32:33Nicole: Thank you.

00:32:33Gerry: Thanks for coming.

00:32:34Nicole: See everyone soon. Get out.

00:32:38Grette Wilkinson: So parkrun adventurers, that's a wrap from Copper Trail parkrun. Fantastic breakfast and coffee at The Smelter in Wallaroo following the run. A great run. I think, I looked at my Strava, I think it's probably the straightest parkrun I've ever run. A couple of turns, sort of go up and down a bit, but definitely very straight and a lovely part of the world to come visit.

00:33:09Melissa Ellis: And great to hear again from Sarah Jefferson over at Burswood Peninsula in WA, Tracey at Bargara, and Greta coming from the inaugural at Copper Trail. So thanks, girls. Clean sweep from the girls. Toc. I keep wanting to call you Ollie. It's just a habit.

00:33:31Tony O'Connell: Sorry. Come on, that can't even make the outro. That's just got to be there.

Emails

00:33:39Nicole: Yeah.

00:33:39Tony O'Connell: Mel, it's very exciting. We got a little bit of mail in this week. We got an email from Eman and Christine with Baby Juno. I'll read it out. Hey, guys, we took Baby Juno on her first interstate trip and fourth unofficial parkrun tourist event this morning to Montrose Foreshore. If only infants could be registered this early. It's a nice and flat course, perfect for tomorrow's point-to-pinnacle run with a 1,270 metres of ascent up to Mount Wellington. This is the reason for our trip. A few parkrun tourists, mainly from Queensland, enjoyed a foggy morning and a friendly group of vollies. We'll be saving Bellerive for the 2022 parkrun adventurers Listener Meetup, Eman and Christine. And Mel, I've got to say, that is an amazing event. That point to pinnacle starts at the water and runs up a mountain. How good's that? That is my ideal running race.

00:34:33Melissa Ellis: It is, but we're not going to tell Ollie because he was supposed to be there.

00:34:38Tony O'Connell: Okay, let's not mention that Point to Pinnacle is an awesome event then. Oh, dear. Eman, be very, very quiet. Yeah, shh.

00:34:52Melissa Ellis: But lovely to get the message from Eman and Christine and a couple of photos of them at the event with baby Juno, who is getting big. So I hope everything has been going well and nice to have a holiday with such a little baby.

00:35:09Tony O'Connell: And it would have been great to be down in Tassie too. I noticed there was a couple of other parkrunners. Cassie from WA has been over there and certainly getting around a little bit. She met up with Val the week before. She did, the dirty cheetah. To a few other people that we know that are out and able to tourist around and hopefully enjoying all that Tassie's got to offer.

00:35:29Melissa Ellis: Have you done Montrose Foreshore before?

00:35:31Tony O'Connell: No, I haven't even done it as a freedom. I've done most of the Tassie events as freedoms, and I've done quite a few of them, but I haven't been out to Montrose, no.

00:35:40Melissa Ellis: Oh, we'll put that on the list for Palm.

00:35:43Tony O'Connell: It's on the Palm freedom list. That'll be our Saturday afternoon freedom run, but more on that later.

00:35:50Melissa Ellis: Ah, excellent. All righty.

Dazza's

00:35:52Melissa Ellis: Well, moving straight along to Dazza's this week. Dazza was a little late opening the cafe. He slept in. Let's go with that. He slept in. The post said, come in, come in. We're a little late opening. Panic. How was your parkrun day? Come in and let us know. And we started off hearing from Marg Prowse. Just a non-parkrun at Wallaby Track this morning. I don't think it's just a non-parkrun. I think that's good on you for getting up and getting out there in the morning, Marg. And we heard from Alison King, also doing a nottie morning Dazza. I'm still recovering from a wisdom tooth extraction, so it was not parkrun walk for me today. Then I went to our parkrun cafe to meet with friends. It was great to meet up with friends, and Bernadette Bennett, parkrun walked this morning around the streets of Carrington, avoiding the Newy course, to complete our citystrides.com suburb. Well done, Bernadette.

00:36:55Tony O'Connell: And I've got one here from Ingrid Botha, and this, to me, sums up what's probably been some of the best things about having to do notties. I know we'd all love to be doing our parkruns, but this sums up what a nottie is. Logged a nottie this morning and discovered a nice little park pathway that I've never known about while completing a few more streets in our local suburb. I was not going to mention carbo-loading this week, but then I discovered a pop-up gluten-free doughnut kiosk in the local mall. So consider me fully carb loaded right now. And there's a lot of emojis of doughnuts and people running.

00:37:31The Informant: And that to me, I love that.

00:37:33Tony O'Connell: We also had Lynette Ann, Freedom Run at Castlemaine parkrun for me today. What a gorgeous park. Trees and the track is perfect. All ability surface. Nice three-hour trip to visit Castlemaine, worth the drive. Now dropping in for cappuccino and a chat to check in with the others. And Lynn sent us a really lovely picture from the course.

00:37:55Melissa Ellis: It's one of my favourites, Tony, the Castlemaine. It's a three-lapper, but it's such a beautiful parkrun in the Botanic Gardens there.

00:38:05Tony O'Connell: I did it as a tail walk there one day, and it was brilliant just to walk around that park and chat to people and not have to run, I've got to say. And then we had Jodie Mosey. What a beautiful morning doing a (not)parkrun at Peppertree parkrun. Such a beautiful course and a lovely breakfast at the local cafe. Thank you, Melissa Ellis, Brendan Peel, Adrian and Amy.

00:38:27Melissa Ellis: And yes, Jodie shared the group picture of everybody posing with Ellis Palace parkrun selfie frame on tour.

00:38:38Tony O'Connell: In the uglies.

00:38:39Melissa Ellis: In the uglies, yes. And we heard from Chris Fraser. Ran a Freedo at North Wollongong, followed by a couple of sausage rolls, followed by building a set for an upcoming theatre production. Time for the painters to take over. And Chris shared a picture of the theatre set. We also heard from Sally Heppleston. I ran seven kilometres around Westerfolds with the pod in my ear using my AfterShokz. Turns out Sal's a fan of the AfterShokz just like me. And Patrick Shymitzek. I did a nottie for Toolern Creek and made sure to pay my respects to Dazza. As we mentioned earlier. Well done, Patrick.

00:39:21Tony O'Connell: Next up, we had Val Warwick. It was sublime spring morning at Devonport parkrun. Sunshine, warmth, and no wind equals a perfect parkrun day. I didn't feel well, so I hadn't felt like going. But as soon as I started walking and started encouraging the runners on a double out and back course, I was as happy as Larry. That just sounds like a perfect day, Val.

00:39:42Unidentified speaker: Mm-hmm.

00:39:43Tony O'Connell: Janet Llewellyn-Reid. Good morning, Dazza. It was very chilly aboard the mothership Lochiel this morning. We're so grateful that the rain held off as it was kids in charge. And they did do a great job, all 28 of them. Wow. I don't know how you can get 28 together, Janet. Well done.

00:40:00Melissa Ellis: Oh, my goodness. That's more than we have for juniors.

00:40:04Tony O'Connell: They donned the coveted orange vests and carried out their roles meticulously. So much laughter and chattering. The RDs were so confident, spoke clearly and injected plenty of humour into their combined run brief. And when it came to results processing, no red lines, all in capitals. Woo! Little Lochiel legends, the future of parkruns in very safe hands. I think hot chocolate for everyone, please, Dazza. As always, sending Lochiel love to our friends who are still doing notties. And Janet included a vollie photo of all the group, and it was a huge group. It was so awesome to see.

00:40:39Melissa Ellis: Amazing.

00:40:40Tony O'Connell: Ruth Denton, wet one at Renmark today. A picture of Ruth running at Renmark. It's interesting that they're both in the same state, Janet and Ruth. One had a beautiful day and one was a bit damp.

00:40:53Melissa Ellis: I haven't had the pleasure of getting to Renmark yet, but it is one of my events, probably one of my nindies, I guess, for South Australia. And we heard also from Stephen Warwick, a most enjoyable struggle at Devonport. We had our usual cappuccino at Drift, where I saw a vegan lamington. I said that I wasn't vegan, but I still ordered it. When it was brought to me, it was accompanied by a dish of cream because I wasn't vegan. One of the park doggies licked the cream off my fingers. And Mandy Oliver. Walk with Linda whilst her husband did his hundredth at surface. Then soy chai afterwards. And to finish our actual real parkrun legends, we heard from Tony Everingham. A sunny, humid morning at Fodder Forest parkrun in Queensland with heaps of shade and boardwalks. This was their sixth event. And Tony posted a photo of himself during the event. And I think that could be Tony's first time to the cafe. So welcome, Tony.

00:42:00Tony O'Connell: Yeah, welcome along. Grette Wilkinson. We heard Greta before with our roving report. She's visited Dazza's as well. A new parkrun for the Wilkinson Four this morning and for South Australia at Copper Trail parkrun. Copper Trail is halfway between Kadina and Wallaroo at the top of the Yorke Peninsula. Home of the Kernewek Lowender, the largest Cornish festival outside of Cornwall. Breakfast was not a Cornish pasty or pasty. But it was amazing and gluten-free. And Greta sent us a picture of breakfast in and I'm hungry just looking at it.

00:42:40Melissa Ellis: Is that a pasty or a pasty?

00:42:41Tony O'Connell: Oh, it's a pasty in my house.

00:42:46Melissa Ellis: Yes, so I was a little bit excited about this because I actually have Cornish ancestry who came over from Cornwall and landed in South Australia before coming on to Victoria, and they were in the area. They were around where this festival is held, Moonta, I think it is, because I think that's included in the area where this is held. So I think I need to put this on my tourism wish list for a future trip over to South Australia to incorporate this festival. But I did notice that the next festival is not till 2023. So I don't know why they've skipped next year, but maybe they're just pre-empting COVID or something.

00:43:28Tony O'Connell: Plenty of time for planning. And I know we've had a palm in South Aussie. I was going to say maybe a potential next venue, but we might have to consider further. Yeah.

00:43:38Melissa Ellis: I know, I thought that, but yeah, we can't do that. We've got plenty of other places we haven't been yet.

00:43:45Tony O'Connell: Sam Schroder wrote in, did you have a sleep in, Dazza? We were up at 4.30am because one of us is officially obsessed. And Sam, I've got to say, I don't know whether it's you or Luke, I think you're both obsessed. Luke very generously drove all the way back to the ACT at Sparrows Crack so that we could do Wagi Bridge parkrun. It was loads of fun. And Jack Corkill, gorgeous morning at Hervey Bay parkrun for me. Nice flat course for 19 minutes. That's flying. No run for Claire Stutchbury as she completed the 2K barge to beach ocean swim, playing on all our strengths today. Claire's an ocean swimmer. We had a picture of the pier in there as well. So lots of photos appearing this week, Mel.

00:44:32Melissa Ellis: Are you an ocean swimmer, Toc? Have you done events like that?

00:44:36Tony O'Connell: No. I've done aquathons before, Mel, but I'll stick to the land. I love getting in the water, but I'll run. That'll do.

00:44:47Melissa Ellis: Kudos to Claire. And more from our parkrun tourism, we heard from Greg Garner. Got to meet the legendary ultramarathon runner Ron Grant at Yowie parkrun this morning. And Greg shared a picture of himself with Ron Grant. And all I can hear, Toc, is the roving report we had from Lyndell a few weeks back who was so excited, like, it's Ron Grant. Yeah.

00:45:16Tony O'Connell: And the thing I took out of that was Ron was just so calm and sedate. Yeah, yeah, I'm Ron. Yeah, all good.

00:45:23Melissa Ellis: I know. So, yeah, good to see that Greg got out there to Yowie and also got to meet Ron Grant. We also heard from Tracey Wood, who we had the previous roving report from. Morning Dazza walked my way around beautiful Bargara parkrun this morning before a bountiful bacon and egg bricky. And Tracey shared a selfie of herself on course. And Nadine Crawford. Nothing like a last-minute plan fuelled by serious parkrun FOMO. After deciding not to return to ACT this weekend, I booked a last-minute flight and did just that. Went to lovely Ginninderra parkrun and met up with adventurers and a roving troll. Fingers crossed for parkrun back in Vic soon. I'm going to be broke and exhausted if this continues. And Nadine had a selfie at the briefing and a brunch photo with Bruce, the ideas man, and the Scarborough family. I was a bit envious of Nadine getting back up to ACT.

00:46:24Tony O'Connell: It is a long road trip, though, but if you can fly it. All well and good. Continuing on with our tourism, we heard from the other half of that dynamic duo from last week, Bruce Purdy. You can't beat cheap flights and a random chance to fly interstate to Ginninderra. Great to catch up with Nadine, Nathan and the Scarboroughs, a few dirty cheaters and share a fantastic morning. And Bruce also posted a photo with Nadine. Now, a little bit of, I guess, a backstory to their trip is I happened to watch their Strava on Friday night, and they went for a walk, went up a mountain, and by the looks of their Strava title, I think they may have got a little bit lost. So I think the tourism and the map reading may need a little bit of work there, Bruce. I'm not sure whether it was you or Nadine leading that one, but, yeah, may need a little bit more work on the map reading. Yeah.

00:47:16Melissa Ellis: And I do believe friend of the pod, Paul Rainbow and Glenn were there as well. Is that right? Did you see that as well? A couple of dirty cheaters.

00:47:26Tony O'Connell: I did have a look and I can't remember. There were so many from the Canberra list up there. There's so many people travelling, everyone going up there doing the Canberra FOMO syndrome runs that, yeah, it was really interesting to see the names on the list. Moving along, we also had Chantelle Hosking. This is a photo of us on our way to parkrun. Yes, Friday afternoon departure to get to Canberra to do Burley Griffin parkrun. Hashtag Escape Victoria. And there was a picture that Chantelle posted of a group of people in the car, all on the way up to Canberra, and they're all looking pretty happy that they're going to do a parkrun, Mel.

00:48:04Melissa Ellis: They do, yes. Shout out to the Bomber Canties as well as our friend Dawn.

00:48:09Tony O'Connell: Yep, the carload of the rural adventurers. It was good to see. And we've got an international one, Mel, Christine Imbert. Mm-hmm. I had a proper parkrun adventure. It involved planes, trains and passports. I travelled to Finland with four other Uber tourists and we ran parkrun Tampere. Hot chocolate and pecan pie afterwards. We're currently on the train back to Helsinki for our flight back to the UK. And there was a picture of Christine in the selfie frame at the event wearing a World Tourist beanie that did look very cold in the photo now.

00:48:44Melissa Ellis: did and it looked like a proper fun adventure for Christine but I have noticed there's somebody that we haven't had at the cafe this week and I wanted to give her a shout out, Toc, because we haven't heard from Pippa but Pippa's been out of action a little bit just doing her streaks I think but perhaps wasn't up to a nottie this week yep I'm sure Pippa will be back and in full flight soon enough Okay, so moving on, we've got two-thirds of our Bailey shot this week. We heard from Tanya Bailey, did a nottie walk at our Woodend Beach course this morning, stayed on the track as the tide was in, and Tanya shared a picture of herself with Brunner, and we heard from Bec Bailey. Morning, Dazza. I ran the Marysville, didn't realise it was so hilly, knot parkrun course this morning. First knot course in Victoria. Logged a nottie for Lilydale Lake, the closest parkrun course to where I am staying this weekend. Off to work for a month tomorrow. See ya when I see ya. And Bec added her Strava run at Marysville with 85 metres of elevation. Now, I'm pretty sure you'd be familiar with that area of Victoria, Tony.

00:50:00Tony O'Connell: Yes, it does have hills. That's one thing Marysville has in abundance is hills. Any direction you go, you're going uphill, sometimes downhill, but you've got to go uphill to come downhill. It is a beautiful part of the country. There's some just superb tracks and trails up there. It's just a lovely little spot to go for a holiday too.

00:50:19Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I hope you enjoy it, Bec, and I'm kind of sad that we won't have the opportunity to sort of catch up with you or host you while you're in the Greater State. And last but by no means least, we had parkrun volunteer Louise Minty. I had a fab morning marshalling at the inaugural South Beach Recreation Reserve parkrun in Fremantle. It's a beautiful run with a fun sandy stretch at the end. That sounds like one we need to hear about really soon. And a new event over in WA.

00:50:54Tony O'Connell: Yeah, new event in WA, Mel. It looks like it's fairly close to the coast, just south of Freo. And they had a pretty good rock up for their inaugural. They had 191 finishes at it. So, yeah, quite a reasonable turn up for the first event.

00:51:09Melissa Ellis: Very good. And thank you very much for volunteering, Louise. Right.

the Informant

00:51:14Melissa Ellis: Well, I think it's time that we hear from the informant. I believe we've got beige trousers again this week, so let's see what he has to say.

00:51:22The 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. More international post-COVID records this week for the total number of runs held, number of participants, number of 50 milestones, number of 100 milestones. There were 223 runs held in Australia, up 10 on last week. This was out of 1,521 worldwide across 18 countries. There were four launches, Copper Trail at Kadina, South Australia, and South Beach Recreation Reserve in Fremantle, WA. There was also one launch in Japan and one in the United Kingdom. Aussie attendance was up 371 to 21,518. That's out of 183,522 worldwide, which is down around 1,800 on last week. Down under we had 2,093 PBs, while 698 people participated for the first time. 46 juniors reached the Junior 10 milestone, 118 people reached their 50 milestone, 75 reached their 100 milestone, and 14 people reached their 250 milestone. Six people called bingo. Ken Miller was the quickest with 195 events, while Jason Gardner was slowest on 273. There were three new statespeople this week. In the ACT, Jacinta Marriott bagged the lot at Coombs, and Mark Everton did the same at Mount Ainslie. Further south in Tasweeja, Christine Timms became the 14th Tasmanian at Our Park. In the top 20 most events list, Nathan Castle moves up one, to be equal 12th on 153 events by adding Ginninderra. Hogging the stats, Jacinta Marriott was also the biggest mover on the overall most events list, jumping up to 165th ranking with 87 different events. Natasha Littler was the biggest mover on the Wilson Index, jumping up 12 from 4 to 16. Natasha was one of 189 people to increase their index this week, 126 of those being attendees of the launches. Good Lord, that was a cheery stat report. Must be the Victorian relaunch that's lifted my spirits. If you want to see a full breakdown of the weekly stats, you can download them from my blog at www.theinformant.me. That's www.theinformant.me. Or look for The Informant on Facebook. This has been The Informant, and my spreadsheet is bigger than yours.

00:54:21Melissa Ellis: Thank you once again to our informant for all the stats this week.

Consolidated Club Report

00:54:26Melissa Ellis: But moving along, I've got our weekly report on our Adventurers Club, Toc.

00:54:32Tony O'Connell: So how did the numbers come up this week, Mel?

00:54:34Melissa Ellis: Oh, I'm glad you asked. We were up four, in our members for the Adventurers Club up to 64 this week. We had 23 on our Consolidated Club Report, which was down nine from last week, and 27 people logged notties. But I did notice on our Consolidated Club Report, Toc, there were a few adventurers at Burley Griffin parkrun and that didn't appear. That might mean that they haven't joined the group.

00:55:07Tony O'Connell: Yep. It might indeed, Mel, and I think it's worth pointing out that the Consolidated Club report is the list of those people that were actually lucky enough to run a parkrun last week.

00:55:17Melissa Ellis: So if you're listening, Bomber Canties and Hoskings, you've got some homework this week.

00:55:24Tony O'Connell: Just to name a few.

00:55:27Melissa Ellis: Our (not)parkrun results this week, Toc, we had Koonwarra and Port Macquarie tied on 36.

00:55:33Tony O'Connell: And it was interesting watching that one. Mel, sorry to cut in, but I know there was some calls going out on pages late on Sunday night saying, log, log, please log.

00:55:47Melissa Ellis: And then coming in in third place was Campbelltown on 30. Doing our, I always forget what it is, long jump down the list, we are not mentioning that Voldemort parkrun this week.

00:56:01Nicole: Not one mention so far.

00:56:02Melissa Ellis: But Inverloch. The Stump at Envy, 18, and Toolern Creek came in with a solid six, which isn't too bad backing up after all the excitement from last week. Now we must thank Alison again for providing us with the New Zealand stats. Oh, Ollie usually reads this and now I've got to pronounce it.

00:56:26Tony O'Connell: I know, that's why I was letting you go with it.

00:56:30Melissa Ellis: Whangarei was a very strong 52, followed by Anderson with 44 and Pegasus on 36. Now, Alison informs us that a fun fact, all three parkruns started in 2016. and in a row as well. Whangarei in the February, Anderson in the May, and Pegasus in the June. And I'm happy to have feedback from our Baileys or Alison on my efforts in pronunciation.

PALMparkrun adventurers Listener Meetup

00:57:02Melissa Ellis: But we can now perhaps look forward, Toc, rather than looking back. And what can we share with the listeners that might be coming up next year?

00:57:15Tony O'Connell: Well, Mel, one of the things about taking on the designated role as party planner for Palm, and I've got to admit there are quite a few people in the background actually doing the work. I just write things down as we go. And reminding everyone, of course, that Palm is on the weekend of the 5th and 6th of March down in Hobart in Tasmania. So get your flights booked. I know quite a few adventurers got in on a deal last week. Jetstar were running where they got free returns. So you'd need to be looking to book for the Friday the 4th through to Sunday the 6th. And the provisional program at this stage, Mel, and it's subject to change, of course. We're still playing around with some locations and things. But it looks like Friday, our Freedom Run, our traditional Friday Freedom, we're going to tackle the Queen's Domain course in central Hobart. Nice sort of course. I've done it, tail-walked it. A couple of months ago, it was a beautiful little course. Dinner location on the Friday night, still to be advised. We're still working on that one. But Saturday is the main day where things happen. Our parkrun will be down at Bellerive in the shadow of the Blundstone Arena. For those that watch the cricket or the footy, you've probably seen the Blundstone Arena. Belle Reve parkrun runs along the foreshore at Belle Reve. Got a nice little bump in the middle, so a little bit of a rise. Oh, wow. So it's an out and back, but it's pretty flat. It's pretty flat compared to a lot of the courses, and it is nothing like this year's Nambour course.

00:58:54Nicole: I've got to tell you that.

00:58:55Tony O'Connell: Yay. We'll find somewhere to do our podcast bit afterwards. That's still being worked on. Saturday Arvo, we've heard Montrose mentioned before. Saturday afternoon's Freedom Run will be at the Montrose foreshore. And for those that want to fill in a bit of time on Saturday, it's right out near the Mona Art Gallery. So you can fill in a bit there. Saturday night, there'll be our traditional dress-up dinner. Location still to be advised. Working on that with a couple of people at the moment. Theme still to be advised. Mel, that's something that we'll get to closer to the event. And then Sunday, we're returning back to a more traditional fun run. So in past years, a couple of the events have had a fun run involved on the Sunday. We're going to the Clarence Lyons fun run, which runs partially along the Belle Reve parkrun course as well. It's a fundraiser for the Lyons Club, and there's a 5K fun run on that will participate, and it'll be great to see as many of that as we can. And that'll probably just about wrap the weekend up for a lot of people. I'll be scooting off to the airport. I know there's a few diehard adventurers that are hanging around for the Sunday night. But, yeah, lots more details to come, Mel. And, of course, the all-important theme because we've got to get our costumes ready. I'm sort of favouring a little bit, you know, how can we work unicorns into it because, you know, I've got to get up for that already. But no doubt we'll come up with something a little bit more creative.

01:00:27Melissa Ellis: The theme is very important. We have to get the theme right. And I've got a heck of a lot of costumes after the last two years. So I'm feeling pretty ready for whatever we decide on. But... I noticed you said, Tony, people are booking flights, but I just want to say you don't necessarily have to get to Tassie via flight. I plan to come over on the Spirit. I'm going to bring my car over. I'm going to travel overnight and come over probably a week early, spend the week travelling the east coast of Tasmania with Paul, seeing some of the sites, doing some of the tourist stuff before I land in Hobart. And I'm also thinking I don't want to go home on the Sunday. I don't want to feel like, oh, there's the trip trap. Damn it. I don't want to feel like I'm racing off on the Sunday, so I think I'll stay the Sunday night and go home on the Monday. I don't know how many other adventurers are thinking that as well, but just putting it out there.

01:01:36Tony O'Connell: Sounds like a real adventure, Mel. And at first when you said you don't have to fly over there, I had this sinking feeling listening back to our Dazza's Cafe. I thought you were going to suggest an ocean swim over to Tassie. I was going to say it's just a bit too far for that.

01:01:49Melissa Ellis: That's a little bit longer than an English channel. I don't think anybody would be – nobody's ever swam Bass Strait. But, yeah, lots to look forward to. I'm very excited. I have started formulating my plan, rough idea, and so much to see in Tassie. It's such a pretty place. I've done a few trips. I actually haven't done any of the events that you've mentioned, either the actual Belle Reve or any of those Freedom Runs. I haven't been to any of those, so that's exciting. I look forward to that very much. Thank you. Thank you for all the work you're doing behind the scenes.

01:02:26Tony O'Connell: As I said, I've got some Tasmanian friends helping me out, which is great to have people actually on the ground that know the place. That makes it a lot easier.

Sign-off

01:02:35Melissa Ellis: Fabulous. So what's on your radar this Saturday?

01:02:44Tony O'Connell: We have been staring at all of our friends, all these adventurers, ducking up to Canberra and thinking, we've just got to do it. Yeah, the FOMO has bit. We only have a couple of events to go to become statesmen up in the Territory. So we're going to do the eight-hour road trip, up to Canberra and spend the weekend up cruising around. Going to Burley Griffin parkrun, following the Bomber Canties and Dawn and Chantelle from last week. They went up there, looked good. So we've booked in and we're going up there. Really looking forward to a weekend away and getting a parkrun in. It's been so, so long.

01:03:25Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's good. So happy for you guys. And you'll have your trusty co-driver, Jackie, with you.

01:03:31Tony O'Connell: I certainly will have my trusty co-driver with me. Jack actually does a lot of the driving when we go away on these trips because I tend to have my laptop open and doing a little bit of work as we travel. So, no, we'll get up there and have a great weekend and it'll be so good to be back at a parkrun. I'm actually doing the first-timers briefing and I'm really looking forward to putting a little bit of orange on before the run. I think the first-timers briefing is a really important part of what we do now at parkrun and I'm really looking forward to it hopefully get a few new faces there come and have a chat how about you Mel what's your plans for the weekend well can we insert some um some news music or some drum roll I think we need

01:04:00[music]

01:04:23Melissa Ellis: Toc, I've got news. By the time this comes out, everybody will know the news.

01:04:29Unidentified speaker: But Victoria's back this week.

01:04:32Melissa Ellis: Woo-hoo, party time. I know. Sad for you because you won't be here. But happy for us here that couldn't keep traipsing interstate every single week now that the borders are open. We're very excited. We have got permission to come back. It's so exciting after such a long pause. You know I'm speaking to the converted. There's going to be lots of planning for events. I've got a juniors roster to fill. I've got complete faith that the community will come together. We can get that happening. I don't know where I'll go. I really don't know. I did have plans where I was going to not parkrun on Saturday, but I've got to scramble around and perhaps the venue where I was going to not parkrun might be the place where I can actually scan my barcode, which was going to be Maribyrnong parkrun.

01:05:26Tony O'Connell: That'll be so much fun. You know who's going to be probably the most excited, Mel? I've got a feeling it's going to be Nadine because I think three weeks in a row driving up to Canberra or going up to Canberra was going to break Nadine. So I think she's going to be so excited.

01:05:41Melissa Ellis: Maybe I should go to Rosebud, hmm no I don't have enough time no it's actually Zoe's birthday on Friday I've got a contingent of pre-teen girls coming over Friday night and and one staying the night so I've got to be relatively local again this Saturday because there's celebrations in the house the chihuahuas are celebrating already

01:06:07Tony O'Connell: It's sounding like just such a fun Friday night. I think I'll drive to Canberra.

01:06:14Melissa Ellis: You still get extra event, a new event to tick off.

01:06:18Tony O'Connell: Certainly do. It's a new event, yes, which will be great.

01:06:21Melissa Ellis: And it's a beautiful one, Burley Griffin. I 100% rate that. It's got beautiful views, especially a certain part of the course when you're running along and you can see that Telstra Tower. Very pretty. So I know you'll love it.

01:06:35Tony O'Connell: And welcome back into the family, Victoria. It is so good to hear that news.

01:06:40Melissa Ellis: Yes. We're still a little bit shell-shocked because it's come out of, well, not out of the blue. We hope for it every week, but it's one of those things where you're waiting for it, but when it arrives, it's still a shock. These two hours tonight, they're driving me insane. Sorry.

01:06:58Tony O'Connell: In and out, in and out. Good grief. Other budgies outside?

01:07:06Melissa Ellis: No, no. I've given up putting them outside because I just forget to bring them back in again and then I feel bad.

01:07:13Tony O'Connell: That's all right. I was just going to give you a reminder. I'm off the hook for that.

01:07:18[other]

01:07:18Melissa Ellis: I just deal with budgie noise in the background and chihuahua taps and completely unprofessional in this podcast, sadly. But thank you so much for joining me this week, Toc. Thank you for responding to the SOS podcast.

01:07:34Tony O'Connell: Mel, it's been a ball. It's always great to catch up. And it has been way too long since we parkrun together. It's been way too long since we had a chat together. And I'm loving being back on the podcast. Thanks for the invitation.

01:07:48Melissa Ellis: Well, I hope you're back again soon with more updates for us, for Palm. We are all excited and looking forward to that. There's lots of planning to be done. But... That's it for another week. So as always, you can contact us via Facebook or on our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. We'll see you all next week for more adventures.

01:08:11[music]

01:09:22Unidentified speaker: Hi, Mel and Toc. I'm so excited, parkrun is coming back in Victoria. Woo-hoo! Bye, everyone. See you soon at parkrun. Don't stay safe. Stay running!