Episode 278 - Goldilocks

Welcome

00:00:24Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 278 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Melissa Ellis, and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country.

00:00:33Oliver Spake: And I am Ollie Spake, and I'm coming from Dharawal Country.

00:00:38Melissa Ellis: With your cicadas this week, Ollie.

00:00:39Oliver Spake: That's right. Wouldn't have it any other way. Who have you got with you?

00:00:43[other]

00:00:43Melissa Ellis: I've got some budgies and some chihuahuas, which have currently exited the room, but no doubt they will return any time. Oh, yes, on cue. Ah, geez.

00:00:52Oliver Spake: Wow. And they say don't work with animals.

00:00:57Melissa Ellis: It's Bambi.

00:00:58Oliver Spake: Hello, Bambi. We've missed you.

00:01:01Melissa Ellis: But I've spent some time this week, Ollie, considerable time doing my homework, my pod homework.

00:01:06Oliver Spake: Yes, you have. You have. I've had a sneak preview of the homework. It's impressive.

00:01:11Melissa Ellis: And I also want to say I resolve to not question pronunciation or ask any questions. I think I've looked ahead and anything I wasn't sure of, I've done my research, so we should be good. There should be no indecisive Mel whining about, I don't know what that is. So... Fingers crossed.

00:01:31Oliver Spake: Look, we are who we are and I'm always happy to apologise for my very poor pronunciation. I mean it with the utmost respect, but I do appreciate that you've done some homework, Mel. That's certainly one better than me.

00:01:44Melissa Ellis: Well, I had to fill in some time over the weekend, Ollie, because there wasn't a lot of adventuring happening. When you just go five minutes to your local parkrun and you're home, you know, promptly, there's plenty of time for other things. Yeah.

00:01:59Oliver Spake: Ah, so that suggests that, as I think we saw, you invested some time into building your, was it Peel Ellis or Ellis Peel? Which way does it go?

00:02:10Melissa Ellis: I'm not actually sure.

00:02:12Oliver Spake: Oh.

00:02:12Melissa Ellis: I'll have to refer that to the adjudicator.

00:02:16Unidentified speaker: Yes.

00:02:17Melissa Ellis: But, yes, I was at home my 17th visit to Toolern Creek. But wonderful serendipity, I had a visitor.

00:02:27Oliver Spake: Oh.

00:02:27Melissa Ellis: The lovely Lynn from Cobram and her little grandson, Axel, messaged me sort of evening, Friday evening, saying hello and we're coming to get our T tomorrow at Toolern Creek and just thought we'd let you know. And I went, wow. Matter of fact, I'm going to be there. So that was great.

the Frond

00:02:51Melissa Ellis: We had a little frond going on.

00:02:52Oliver Spake: You did. You did. And I trust Lynne and Axel both enjoyed the creek.

00:02:56Melissa Ellis: I do believe they did, yes. I did let them know about Gnomeville at the end, at the turnaround point. But I did have to rush off because I had another one of the reasons why I was running at home this week. Zoe had an appointment yesterday, a local appointment that I had to get her to so I couldn't hang around sadly afterwards I couldn't do brunch or anything like that had to race off I had to love them and leave them well great to have a mini frond at the creek and well done on collecting the T, Lynn. And you also had some visitors again at Shellharbour I was going to call it the harbour the harbour

00:03:35Oliver Spake: I had a near home experience. That's right. So the drive for me was possibly even closer. And I was fortunate enough to be on the edge of another frond with some very familiar faces. So Sam and Luke joined us once again at Shellharbour, with Sam giving the First Timers Welcome to some very brave souls, because once again, the course was atrocious. Yeah. Yeah, it was terrible. Feel sorry for them, especially Luke. Luke went over. He had a stack, didn't he? He did. He did. He says it was one of the most cushy stacks he's had. So I suppose there's a positive there in the longer grass in some sections.

00:04:15Melissa Ellis: Right.

00:04:16Oliver Spake: But still managed a PB. Well done, Luke.

00:04:18Melissa Ellis: Oh, he's gone from strength to strength.

00:04:21Oliver Spake: Yeah, well and truly. So, yeah, it was a big week for Luke and happy birthday once again to Luke. We once again had Bec Bailey and we had Paddy as well out on course.

00:04:35Melissa Ellis: Oh, Paddy Oshimo.

00:04:37Oliver Spake: Paddy Oshimo. That's right. Yeah.

00:04:40Melissa Ellis: We're going to hear a little bit more from him later.

00:04:42Oliver Spake: Yes. And Mel, I don't often make a big brunch, but it was nice to enjoy a fairly lengthy brunch with some of the gang, at least at Odang afterwards. So thank you once again to everyone that dragged me away. No kidnapping required. I was more than happy to come and enjoy and make the most of a parkrun morning, despite being at home.

00:05:04Melissa Ellis: That was a real role reversal, wasn't it? Because I'm usually the brunch person. Yes. So you got to do the brunch this week.

00:05:10Oliver Spake: That's right. I guess we help out when we can, don't we, Mel? Yeah, I got your back, Ollie. Thank you. Thank you.

00:05:16Melissa Ellis: While we're speaking about Bec Bailey, we should mention that after last week's pod where we actually requested that we would have liked a photo of Da Jeffricorn, as it is known uh Bec sent a link in our pod post or in something yeah the pod post it was yes the Jeffricorn's got a Facebook page how about that so the I mean the answers we were asking for they were answered they were you put it out there to the universe that's right and uh should we share some of that information no I think so okay otherwise all my homework was for nothing I'll

00:05:52Oliver Spake: How about I read?

00:05:53Melissa Ellis: Okay.

00:05:53Oliver Spake: Okay, so Da Jeffricorn is a previously mythical creature born in the depths of time in a secretive part of the forests of Ireland. Escaping from home in the imagination of a travelling Borcheldana... which is a bad boy or naughty boy, he arrived in New Zealand to make his presence known in 1960 A.D., wandering along the shaky isles many times until finally settling on an equally mythical place to reside. De Jeffricorn appeared to the residents of Pegasus Town a short number of years ago. It is generally believed that De Jeffricorn limits his appearances anywhere to just Lá Fhéile Pádraig, celebrated on March 17th, it is possible, given the nature of leprechauns everywhere, that it could be coaxed out of hiding on other occasions. And once again, I apologise for that pronunciation. [Irish (Gaeilge): "buachaill dána — "naughty boy" / "bad boy". Oliver Spake glosses it himself in the same breath: "which is a bad boy or naughty boy"."] [Irish (Gaeilge): "Lá Fhéile Pádraig — St Patrick's Day. Confirmed in context by the following clause, "celebrated on March 17th"."]

00:06:49Melissa Ellis: Don't apologise. Just own it, Ollie.

00:06:51Oliver Spake: Own it. But thank you, Bec.

00:06:54Melissa Ellis: Yes. Now we know more about De Jeffricorn.

00:06:57Oliver Spake: De Jeffricorn, yes.

00:06:59Melissa Ellis: Pegasus Town. Yes. Local legend. So jump over to his Facebook post to see a collection of photos of his antics.

00:07:09Oliver Spake: Plenty of time to prepare for next year's celebrations.

parkrun news bulletin

00:07:14Melissa Ellis: But it's been busy in parkrun world in the last little while, I guess. It hasn't all happened in the last week, but I thought we haven't really brought it up before. There's some events that are coming back. There's some events changing. There's some events that are being put on hold or hanging up there.

00:07:34Oliver Spake: Hanging up their flags.

00:07:35Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I was thinking stopwatches, but that's not really relevant anymore. Kind of have it a visual about hanging up a stopwatch, but not an app.

00:07:45Oliver Spake: That's true.

00:07:45Melissa Ellis: Firstly, it was announced on the 22nd of March, Pioneer Dairy is officially mothballed. Closed. Closed, dead buried although there does seem to be a bit of a public push a bit of media I believe uh it was on breakfast radio last Friday yep the Run Director dr Gordon spence was speaking to breakfast host giving the story and I think they're getting a bit of a local push to get support for the event

00:08:14Oliver Spake: Yeah, and it's a familiar theme, isn't it, Mel? We've certainly seen it overseas, back in the UK. I haven't experienced it locally or I can't think of any other experiences locally. Siri's trying to help me out here and chime in, always keeping me honest. But despite what Siri claims... I do believe that, yeah, this very much revolves around the matter of paying for use of the park.

00:08:26[other]

00:08:43Melissa Ellis: That's right. Much like Little Stoke, that was the event in the UK. And I'm sure there's been more since. But yeah, a licensing fee, Ollie, $200, which doesn't seem like a lot. But obviously, that's not something that we can set a precedence with.

00:08:59Oliver Spake: Well, that's right. And certainly as the announcement from the team said, just to quote a part of it, as the motto goes, parkrun is free for everyone forever. And that success is due to the fact it costs nothing. That's what makes it sustainable, possible and accessible to everyone.

00:09:15Melissa Ellis: So hopefully they can maybe get a bit of backing and maybe down the track that decision can be overturned. They can get a waiver. But yeah, at this point, sadly for that community, Pioneer Dairy closed.

00:09:28Oliver Spake: Yes, we'll follow it. And of course, be keen to share any updates and to lend our support wherever possible.

00:09:36Melissa Ellis: Moo Moo and Milkshake, they're going to have to find a new home.

00:09:39Oliver Spake: Yes, well, always welcome down the coast.

00:09:42Melissa Ellis: But in better news, Ollie, a Victorian event, Lancefield, returned last Saturday for their event 107 with 16 people. That was an event that we thought perhaps was also going to be mothballed, that wouldn't have the opportunity to come back. Its last event was the 15th of May in 2021.

00:10:00Oliver Spake: A long pause, yes.

00:10:02Melissa Ellis: But happy return for 16 people down at Lancefield last Saturday.

00:10:07Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's great news. And, I mean, continuing that positive news, seeing the update that Jindabyne is coming back in slightly different attire as Jindabyne Sport and Recreation parkrun. Yep. So for those that haven't seen the ongoing and extensive flooding of Lake Jindabyne, it has really been the key issue there and they've needed to seek that new course. They expect to return to the course by the lake at some point. but will be on the new sport and recreation course throughout winter at least. And it's still unclear, I understand, Mel, thanks to your homework, whether the event will be a brand new event or continue its identity.

00:10:47Melissa Ellis: I guess you can relate to that with what happened with Shellharbour.

00:10:51Oliver Spake: That's exactly right. I mean, we changed our course, as a number of parkruns do. In our case, starting and finishing in the same location was the reason to keep the identity. But yeah, this one sounds maybe a little different.

00:11:03Melissa Ellis: But we've also got news from Bowral parkrun that it is on ice. No, that's wrong, isn't it, Ollie?

00:11:11Oliver Spake: Oh, sorry. That Bowral parkrun itself is on ice, but the news is this week that they're returning as an alternative parkrun.

00:11:19Melissa Ellis: Right.

00:11:19Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:11:20Melissa Ellis: The Southern Highlands Botanical Gardens parkrun. Do you know much about that one?

00:11:24Oliver Spake: Yeah, so following that one, that's only fairly recent in our news once again, but the course itself had suffered from the weather impacts. So they do have a section on grass and even last year had some significant puddling around there and some issues in maintaining that course as well have really compounded it. Whilst I had thought that they hadn't returned since the pause, I do believe they were able to have one or two events, but it started back into pause status. But the great news is that they will be returning as this new parkrun locally, so giving a parkrun presence in the New South Wales Southern Highlands there on May 14th.

00:12:07Melissa Ellis: Excellent. Good news.

00:12:08Oliver Spake: Yeah. So good work to a lot of people there. You know, even on the news of closures, there's a lot of people putting in a lot of effort there and we appreciate it, as do all of the parkrun community. Speaking of effort, Mel, I think you'd noticed this level of effort and the number five jumps to mind. Someone else has put in a lot of effort recently.

00:12:31Melissa Ellis: Oh, really?

00:12:33Oliver Spake: Our podcasting friend.

00:12:37Melissa Ellis: Oh, yes. Our kin. Yes.

00:12:38Oliver Spake: Our kin in parkrun podcast world.

00:12:40Melissa Ellis: Very subtle, very subtle. Thank you, Ollie. Yes, we wanted to give a big shout-out to Nicola, Nicola Forward from With Me Now, for her five marathons in five days. Well done, Nicola. That is huge. And it was raising money for charity as well, so great causes there. And, yeah, well done, Nicola. Amazing, incredible.

00:13:04Oliver Spake: Yes, I hope you've had a good rest now. Big hooroo to the team there and keep up the good work.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:13:10Oliver Spake: But Mel, I suppose it's time to listen to a roving report, shall we?

00:13:16Melissa Ellis: Yes.

00:13:16Oliver Spake: So we have one roving report for you this week. So let's have a listen.

Roving report Tracey Wood — Noosa parkrun

00:13:29Tracey Wood: Good morning, parkrunners. It's Tracey in a Tutu and I've arrived at Noosa parkrun. What am I doing here today? Well, I'm not running it, which is a bit of a shame because it's an event I haven't done yet, but I'm actually here to volunteer as Barcode Scanner. I've got a big event on this afternoon, so we're just resting the legs this morning and just helping out the local parkrun. Now, we've found it. It's at Tewantin State School. We see the parkrun flags, which is awesome, and we've checked in, so let's go find someone we can talk to. Okay, I'm here at the finish line. I found Tony. Hi, Tony. How are you?

00:14:09Tony: I'm excellent, thank you, apart from I'm not running at the moment.

00:14:11Tracey Wood: Oh, why are you not running? Okay, Tony's gesturing to his ankle, which looks fairly well strapped. Oh, dear. It looks like an injury there. Well, thank you for volunteering today, Tony. Is this your home parkrun?

00:14:23Tony: Yes, yes.

00:14:25Tracey Wood: Excellent. And how long have you been coming here?

00:14:27Tony: Well, started parkrun in the UK in 2011. And we actually started a parkrun in the UK. We first of all went to Swindon where they had a parkrun. And I came back to the village that we were living in saying, this is great. Come and join us. They came and joined me and said, yeah, but it's 40 miles to drive to go and do the parkrun. So let's start one here. So we... We started one in Southwick Park in Trowbridge in England. And then I left there very shortly after having set it up and got it going. Came to the sunny coast here. And at the time, there was no parkruns at all. And shortly after that, Kawana started. And of course, I was down there for the first event at Kawana. And I... Used to go to Kawana and then Noosa started up, so Noosa's become my home run because we live closer to here than we do to Kawana.

00:15:29Tracey Wood: So what's your stats like? How many parkruns have you done?

00:15:34Tony: 360 or so.

00:15:35Tracey Wood: Impressive. And volunteer stats?

00:15:39Tony: It's somewhere in about the 70 mark, I think.

00:15:41Tracey Wood: Awesome.

00:15:41Tony: Good on you. And tourism as well. Right into the tourism. 85 different events.

00:15:50Tracey Wood: Oh, wow. That's great. And tell me then, a common question on the podcast is what's your top three parkruns?

00:15:58Tony: Merimbula is is one of them um Brightwater if I want a fast time but uh third one although this is this is uh oh you can't mention your home park home parkrun um probably uh The one in Edinburgh. Yeah, it was along the seafront, but the day we did it, it was icy, really icy all the whole way, and I was slipping and sliding, but other than that, it looked like a really good run.

00:16:33Tracey Wood: And what was the name of the parkrun in England you started?

00:16:37Tony: Southwick. Southwick Country Park.

00:16:39Tracey Wood: Okay, so for our UK listeners, we've got Tony from Southwick here. Okay, awesome. All right, well, thank you for that, Tony. Good chatting with you. And we'll be on the lookout for some finishes to come through.

00:16:50Tony: Shouldn't be too long.

00:16:51Tracey Wood: Turn down Sarah, reluctantly, who's the RD today. Morning Sarah, how are you? Hello, how are you? I'm great. That's good.

00:17:01Sarah: Sarah, for our listeners, where is Noosa? Noosa is a small group of towns sort of collectively known as Noosa and we're about an hour and a half north of Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast. Queensland, Australia. Queensland, yes. Excellent. And can you tell me about this course? Our course here is an out and return course, so you kind of do it twice. We run on a concrete path through some really beautiful bush. It's always nice and shady, which is quite a unique part of a parkrun in this part of Queensland. They're often very, very sun exposed. And we run along a little trail that takes us towards the edge of a lake and then back again. And it's on a slight hill and we have little up and down creek paths hills along the way and it also is quite twisty and turny but everyone seems to love it awesome and have you been doing this for a while yes this parkrun started in july 2014 so we're coming up to eight years wow which is really flown um yes we have a fabulous community here and what we love about this parkrun most is that it always has a lot of visitors from all over Australia and other parts of the world so Sadly, over the last couple of years, we've had fewer of those, but now they're starting to come back, which is really nice. Yes, awesome. Lovely. Thanks for talking with me, Olly. Pleasure. Thank you, Sarah. Have a great day.

00:18:24Tracey Wood: All right, it's Tracey in a Tutu signing out from Noosa parkrun. I'd better go do some barcode scanning because we've got some people expected in within the next couple of minutes. All right, have a good day, everyone. See you on the B-side. Bye.

00:18:45Melissa Ellis: Another great report there from Tracey coming to us from Noosa parkrun. And she was resting her legs, Ollie, barcode scanning before the big event later in the day.

00:18:53Oliver Spake: Yes, another person out there clocking up the Ks. So well done, Tracey. Nice, tidy little 30K Noosa Ultra Trail.

00:19:02Melissa Ellis: Very impressive.

Emails

00:19:03Melissa Ellis: Ollie, our inbox.

00:19:05Oliver Spake: You've got mail. And then some.

00:19:08Melissa Ellis: I know. Big surprise this week. Yeah. We have had multiple correspondents.

00:19:15Oliver Spake: That's right. So, look, thank you to everyone for getting in touch. Mel, shall I read our first correspondence? Oh, I think you should. Okay. So, Chris and Karen Gore wrote to us saying, "'G'day, Mel and Ollie. Just a quick note to tell you about one of our West Australian parkrunners, Phil Gore, who along with his wife, Gemma Gore, are Event Directors at Shipwreck parkrun near Armadale in West Australia." This last weekend, Phil won the Herdy's Front Yard Ultra. He completed 50 laps of the 6.71 kilometre course, making a total distance of 335 kilometres in 50 hours. The Backyard Ultra format requires the runners to complete a lap of 6.71 kilometres every hour. The distance of 6.71 is set so that after 24 hours, the runners have covered 100 miles. Each lap starts on the hour, every hour, and the runners must be back at the start line before the next lap starts. The faster they complete the lap, the more time they get to take care of the necessities such as water, food, and sleep before the next lap starts. The race continues until there is just one person left. When the second last person called the assist decides to pull out, the last person must complete one more lap. The assist is very important in helping the winner achieve their goals. The assist in this race was Shetan Sadana, also a parkrunner, who completed 49 laps. Phil has taken part in five races of this format. He finished as the assist in his first one in 2020 and has won the last four. He holds the Australian record for the backyard format with 51 laps set in August last year at Birdy's Backyard. Thanks for the podcast, Chris and Karen Gore from Bibra Lake parkrun and Proud Parents.

00:21:08Melissa Ellis: Wow. That's amazing. Yeah.

00:21:12Oliver Spake: Yeah, it sounds like a lot of fun. I know we've heard some of the format and heard some of the experiences before, but I'm going to have to try it one day. It just, yeah, it blows me away.

00:21:24Melissa Ellis: I think it must have been Cam spoke to Phil. That might have been just after Birdy's.

00:21:30Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's right. And to have won the last four, that's just astonishing.

00:21:35Melissa Ellis: They can certainly run those West Australians.

00:21:38Oliver Spake: That they can.

00:21:39Melissa Ellis: And nice to hear from Chris and Karen, as they said, proud parents. And thanks for letting us know all about Phil's achievement. Yes. We also heard from one of our regulars, Paddy Oshimo. Who said? Hi, Mel and Ollie. I was chuffed to hear reference to my post in the podcast just released. This was the episode where Dazza's had a St. Patrick's Day theme. It seems that I go by the names Patrick, Pat, Shimo, and now even Patty. That last one is a new one, but I'll take it, especially around St. Patrick's Day. That nickname sounds fast. I'm sure it will bring me a PB. I also found myself shouting at my phone, Sham The word you're after is shamrock, but you guys got there in the end. My apologies for not delivering any Strava art for some time now. I will come back to this, but it's all a matter of priorities, time and planning. I will probably return to some Strava art in a couple of months' time. Thank you for all your podcasting. I always enjoy your work. Regards, Patty Oshimo.

00:22:41Oliver Spake: And thank you, Paddy. I think bringing back the Strava in a couple of months will be a fantastic little warm-up for streaky September. And we hit it, so we do look forward to that. But in the meantime, yeah, maybe the nickname will bring a PB. And... We also received some correspondence from Stephen and Jen. So we did make mention last week about the Panorama Punish and it seems that Stephen and Jen were listening. So they wrote and said, as we drive to Canberra during the week for work, we listen to the latest podcast. And lo and behold, the Panorama Punish got quite a mention. Thank you so much. It is a labour of love. of ours and is taking on a life of its own. Jen and I are the entire organising committee. We both have 51% voting rights, that maths checks out, which helps with getting things sorted. The adventurers will be most welcome both at the Punish and of course Bathurst parkrun. I guess we are founding EDs of both events. We both managed to complete our ACT Statesperson Challenge yesterday with a delightful rolling run at Coombs parkrun. The RD, Lara Bishop, was most welcoming and the roos, rabbits and ducks made the course along the Molonglo River a great mini-adventure. We followed up with the Great Volcanic Challenge today at Mount Canobolas near Orange. Thanks again for the mention. The parkrun punish double is very popular and we must talk more to make the weekend even more parkrun adventurer friendly. Take care, Stephen and Jen.

00:24:20Melissa Ellis: How about that? I'm getting excited about this weekend. Ha ha.

00:24:23[laughter]

00:24:24Unidentified speaker: Ha ha ha.

00:24:25Melissa Ellis: But also, they sent some photos. So there were some lovely photos. One very good one of Stephen and Jen in the Coombs parkrun selfie frame.

00:24:32Oliver Spake: Yes, that they did. So congratulations on the achievement. ACT status there for you both. These guys don't waste time.

00:24:40Melissa Ellis: I managed to inadvertently give you the two emails to read that had a couple of difficult words.

00:24:47Oliver Spake: Whoops.

00:24:47Melissa Ellis: Go to me. You did very well, Ollie.

00:24:51Oliver Spake: I'm owning the pronunciation, Mel. I'm taking your advice. Just own it. Yep. But thank you to everyone that got in touch.

Dazza's

00:24:58Melissa Ellis: And other people that got in touch were those that joined us at Dazza's. Yes.

00:25:04Oliver Spake: So at Dazza's, we did have the theme saying, with yesterday being National Ride to School Day, it got us thinking about how you got to parkrun this morning. Did you ride, walk, drive or catch public transport? Yes. Maybe you carpool on your adventures. Do you incorporate other forms of exercise into your parkrun morning? Let us know all the things. And you've got the first one. I do. And we heard from Michael Charlton. Out touristing. He said, morning, Dazza. Drove to Grafton parkrun for a soggy jog. Now a change of shoes and two chap... Chappuccinos? Chappuccinos. Two chappuccinos to go. Sorry, Michael, I butchered it. But great effort there, and I trust the shoes have dried by now.

00:25:50Melissa Ellis: He is also a Panorama Punish enthusiast.

00:25:53Oliver Spake: Yeah, we look forward to seeing Michael there.

00:25:55Melissa Ellis: Our New Zealand contributor for this week is Brett Bailey. Hello, Dazza. We're back. Five of us drove 10 kilometres to Pegasus on a stunning morning to be finally back at parkrun after a two-month enforced break. Tanya, Brett Nathan, Brunner and newbie cousin Paul visiting from Auckland for his first sample of parkrun. Brunner was very excited to be back to see his friends and foes and even got to say hello to a greyhound, his most favourite breed of dog. And a photo there of one happy parkrunner and his parkrunners in front of the parkrun flag. Welcome back, New Zealand. Woohoo! Well...

00:26:37Oliver Spake: More of New Zealand. More of New Zealand. That's right. Great news. Continuing the highlights, with a lot of likes this week, understandably so, Mr Simon Mackley. An 800-metre walk to the start this morning. Main Beach was the place that I could finally do the thing that's been very COVID-delayed. My 250, surrounded by friends and family. I'm so grateful to those who travelled from near and far to celebrate with me. What a beautiful day.

00:27:06Melissa Ellis: I do believe there was a contingent of Dirty Cheetahs that surprised Simon.

00:27:12Oliver Spake: Great work.

00:27:12Melissa Ellis: Somebody else who surprised Simon, Chris Fraser, who comes under the banner of joint most likes and also taking part in a frond. An airline had a good go at cancelling my adventure, but I made it to Main Beach, no sign of forecast thunderstorms, and witnessed the Quizmasters 250th parkrun. Main Beach is a nice course, mostly trail, constant undulations. Zero stars, however, because I was bitten by an ant. And the adjacent pavilion doesn't have sausage rolls, so I'll have a ham and cheese croissant with banana milkshake, please, as Chico enters the room. And Chris shared a selfie of himself with Simon in his cheetah ears, plus photos showing the sights of the morning across. I can't read that.

00:28:03Oliver Spake: Of course, the beach and the parkrun excitement. Thank you.

00:28:08Unidentified speaker: Oh, my goodness.

00:28:09Oliver Spake: Thank you, Chris. Another achievement out there was Joanne Blackbird, and she said, I caught three trains, and they all connected, thank goodness. To get to Williamstown this morning, I did Cyril Curtin and became a pirate. So stoked. Arr. Congratulations, Joanne.

00:28:28Melissa Ellis: Our volley this week at his home parkrun, Andrew Turner. I was at home at Maribyrnong, so ran the four kilometres to the start. It turned out to be the perfect warm-up leading to a 5k PB. That was followed up by some funnel managing, which was my 50th volunteer occasion. Aha! Well done, Andrew. All the things. Yes. And good on you, for getting a PB, but not good on you for posting a photo of a reverse flag that will upset some that shall remain nameless.

00:28:59Oliver Spake: You're referring to artistic director?

00:29:03Melissa Ellis: about parkrun flags being the wrong way round.

00:29:06Oliver Spake: But it did have some light, some nice sunlight, so I thought that was a highly redeeming factor. Absolutely. Carol Pryle had another achievement and had to say, I don't drive, so today I got a taxi to my home parkrun, Hamilton, where I was lucky and surprised to get my last stopwatch bingo number after 234 runs.

00:29:25Melissa Ellis: Oh, well done, Carol.

00:29:28Oliver Spake: It's a big week.

00:29:29Melissa Ellis: That impresses me.

00:29:30Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:29:30Melissa Ellis: Because I'm still trying to get mine. Anyway, this week, our cryptic clue from our mysterious Steve's bike. Hello, Dazza. Bit of a journey to parkrun from home this morning, so no bike for me. Today, I went to an Alice rival with a windmill. Happy parkrun day, everyone. A windmill.

00:29:53Oliver Spake: I've got no idea. Obviously, I haven't done enough Victorian parkruns.

00:29:57Melissa Ellis: How many have you done, Ollie?

00:29:59Oliver Spake: One.

00:30:00Melissa Ellis: And which one?

00:30:02Unidentified speaker: Uh...

00:30:03Oliver Spake: The Wang.

00:30:04Melissa Ellis: Oh, yes. Oh, I always should remember that. And I always ask you, I should remember because you were there with Paul and Zoe.

00:30:11Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. But it's understandable that you would forget it since you weren't there.

00:30:15Melissa Ellis: The Wang.

00:30:16Oliver Spake: Yes. That's Wangaratta parkrun for those unfamiliar with the colloquialism. Moving swiftly along, another person not parkrunning this week after we heard from Tracey earlier on volunteering. So Lyndell, our very own legendary Lyndell shared with us that, I drove for an hour or so, parked my car as directed by some orange clad volunteers and then got on a shuttle bus and ended up at a brewery, no parkrun in sight. But there was a trail run, so I did that instead.

00:30:48Melissa Ellis: And a little thumbs up emoji at the end of that one. Well done, Lyndell. I had to look up this trail event that Lyndell had done because I did wonder if she was in Victoria. We also had a very well-known trail event occurring on Saturday morning that also occurs at a brewery, which is the Sharpies Beer Run. And I thought, don't tell me Lyndell's in Victoria. But it was not to be.

00:31:12Oliver Spake: No, but not a bad one to go to. Have to look it up.

00:31:15Melissa Ellis: We also heard from Renee Jackson, a.k.a. Abby's mum. A late check-in for me today, skipping the cafe and heading straight to Happy Hour with a nice cold beer, not an IPA. I attended Wyndham Vale this morning by car. It's close enough. I should probably run there though. Had a great run today too. My first sub 30 in over two years and after playing a footy practice match yesterday. Happy parkrun Day to all. Nice work. Renee is kicking goals. Well, not literally. Yes, not literally at footy, but I did spend time with her today and I know she pulled up really sore after her footy match. So kudos to you for pulling out a sub 30, bit jealous.

00:32:01Oliver Spake: Yes. All right. Well, that sounds like she just needs to keep soldiering on. That's what's working. And Mel, from over in the UK, we heard from Christine Imbert. I carpooled with friends and we spent Thursday and Friday night in Leeds before running Woodhouse Moor parkrun. Woodhouse Moor was the fourth parkrun to start and the first parkrun outside of London. I've now run nine of the first 10 parkruns. And Christine did share a photo of the crew with the Woodhouse Moor parkrun sign.

00:32:31Melissa Ellis: We've got a Nicola forward theme running through our pod today because you can't think of Woodhouse Moor without thinking of Nicola and Leeds, Leeds, Leeds, Leeds, Leeds.

00:32:41Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:32:43Melissa Ellis: That's it. That's it for Dazza's.

00:32:44Oliver Spake: Yes. Thank you, everyone. And a shout out to all of the other modes of transport that were mentioned. I had a great time seeing the achievements and, yeah, a few other modes in there.

00:32:56Melissa Ellis: You know, you mentioned before, Ollie, that you probably had a shorter commute to parkrun than I did. You know what we should do? We should actually work out by car who's closer to their parkrun.

00:33:07Oliver Spake: Okay. We could have a challenge. We could ride our bikes to parkrun or we could rollerblade. Am I allowed to go in the back gate?

00:33:13Melissa Ellis: No. I don't know. Oh, now you're changing the rules.

00:33:22Oliver Spake: Okay, so we must follow a public road. How about that? Yes. Or a public footpath that leads to the start-finish area.

00:33:30Melissa Ellis: Yes.

00:33:30Oliver Spake: Yeah, that would be fair.

00:33:32Melissa Ellis: Because as the crow flies, if I scrambled down the creek, I could probably get to the two-kilometre mark within 100 metres. Oh, right. Yeah.

00:33:44Oliver Spake: Well, yes, yeah, as the crow flies, I'm a bit further. Not much.

00:33:49Melissa Ellis: But I digress.

00:33:50Oliver Spake: Yes.

the Obi Award — Stephen and Jen

00:33:52Oliver Spake: Where's that envelope?

00:33:53Melissa Ellis: Oh, yes. So have I got it? I might have it today. I think I've got it.

00:33:58Oliver Spake: That explains it.

00:33:59Melissa Ellis: I think it was left. I found it here. Hang on. I'm looking in my tray. Yep, I've got it.

00:34:05Oliver Spake: Oh, good. Okay, Mel, well, you're going to have to do the opening this week for our Obi winner. So who is it? Yep, okay, I'm opening it.

00:34:16Melissa Ellis: The winner is Stephen and Jen. From our emails. So there's a curveball. Yes. It wasn't a Dazza's participant this week. It was one of our email correspondents.

00:34:43Oliver Spake: Oh, well, look, they did achieve their statesmanship and share some lovely pictures. It was lovely to hear from them. So congratulations, Stephen and Jen. I really am curious, who puts those envelopes together with the results?

00:34:56Melissa Ellis: Maybe it's the new person in the office.

00:34:57Oliver Spake: Yes, yeah, we need to, we really must introduce ourselves.

00:35:01Melissa Ellis: Yes, I have spotted somebody new wandering around the corridors. So yeah, more about that probably in weeks to come. Oh, okay.

00:35:11Oliver Spake: But that was a lot of parkrun adventuring, vicariously. Thank you, everyone, for these two home parkrunners this week. I think it's time now to hear a little more about the parkrun world and throw to our informant, shall we, Mel?

the Informant

00:35:27Unidentified speaker: Mm-hmm. This is The Informant.

00:35:37The Informant: These are unofficial stats. They are only current at the time they are collected. And may differ from the stats you read elsewhere.

00:35:48The Informant: Hey, who's that lady in the kitchen?

00:35:51The Informant: You're late.

00:35:52The Informant: Whatever. Who is it?

00:35:55The Informant: Who?

00:35:56The Informant: The lady that's in the kitchen.

00:35:58The Informant: I don't know. Mel probably.

00:36:00The Informant: I know who Mel is. It's someone else. She was in the fridge and she's going to chuck out anything without a name on it. I told her you would crack it if she tossed your yoghurt.

00:36:10The Informant: Watch your body.

00:36:14[laughter]

00:36:14Unidentified speaker: Ha ha.

00:36:15The Informant: Down to business. Last week there were three junior parkruns. 225 juniors participated and 32 of those were first timers. 61 got a PB. Astrid Little, Kian Dillon, Effie Murphy, Frankie Stewart, Noah Carnell all scored their half marathon wristband for 11 runs. Adam Anthony, Eva Hurley, Lucy Drummond, Tom Carey, William Drummond scored marathon wristbands for 21 runs. Well, good on yous. In the 5K events, there were 423 runs held down under, which is up 27 on last week. 394 of those were in Australia and 29 in New Zealand. This was out of 1,679 worldwide. Aussie New Zealand attendance is up 671 to 36,377. 200,073 ran worldwide. There were nine launches. Jarrahdale Heritage in WA and Warrandyte River Reserve in Victoria. They were joined by two in South Africa, two in the United Kingdom and one in Germany, Poland and Ireland. Down under we had 4,868 PBs, while 1,458 people participated for the first time. 95 juniors reached their Junior 10 milestone. 149 people reached their 50 milestone, 105 reached their 100 milestone, and a post-COVID record 31 people reached their 250 milestone. 15 people called bingo. Joshua Hugo was quickest with 142 runs, while Adam Shannon was slowest on 362. There were three new statespeople, all from the ACT. Stephen Jackson, Jennifer Arnold, and Bianca Keane. Ah, welcome back. Glad you could join us. Not very professional.

00:38:18The Informant: Get on with it.

00:38:20The Informant: In the top 20 most Aussie New Zealand events, Irene Bommakanti debuts into the chart at equal 20 on 142 different events. On the overall list, the biggest movers were six people who moved up nine in the rankings. Marilyn McCann, Bradley McCann, Sandy Delamere, Lynette Pritchard, Nadine Crawford and Caro Vos. 112 people lifted their Windex this week. The biggest Windexer was Cynthia Cliff.

00:38:47The Informant: Stop. It's the Wilson Index.

00:38:51The Informant: No, it's not. Look. Cynthia Cliff.

00:38:54The Informant: The challenge is called Wilson Index.

00:38:57The Informant: Huh? The challenge is trying to figure out what on earth you're banging on about, mate. Look. Cynthia Cliff up 52 to 75. And what have you done to the adventurer list? It's not coming up on the screen.

00:39:10The Informant: You've got the cursor in the wrong spot.

00:39:13The Informant: I see. Just get rid of this bit here. No. Move that to there and save.

00:39:17The Informant: No, save it.

00:39:21The Informant: Oops. How do I get that back?

00:39:25The Informant: You're on your own.

00:39:28The Informant: Hmm. Well, this has been the informant and my spreadsheet.

00:39:34Melissa Ellis: Well, it's missing a tab. Getting back to some normality, Ollie, with our informants in the office again. After that mishap with the leave, what happened there?

00:39:46Oliver Spake: Whoops. I guess it's time I come clean, Mel, and admit that whilst I do love a spreadsheet, I don't actually keep much in a spreadsheet and it's all just a whole bunch of post-it notes.

00:40:01Melissa Ellis: Right.

00:40:02Oliver Spake: So inevitably things get mixed up a little bit now and then. Okay. I'll try and improve my spreadsheet in game because it really is starting to have an impact.

00:40:14Melissa Ellis: Maybe we need both our signatures on the leave application.

00:40:18Oliver Spake: I think so. I think so. And yeah, I guess, yeah. Imagine the possibilities. If I actually maintained a decent spreadsheet, I might actually plan some adventures too.

00:40:27Melissa Ellis: Time to clean up that desk, Ollie. It's getting a bit beyond a joke.

00:40:31Oliver Spake: I think so. Yeah, I need a much better performance than that. Oh, and Mel, speaking of a better performance, one thing I didn't mention in Dazza's was an excellent performance. We got Steve's Run Director brief in verse, so thank you to Val. I failed to mention that, but well done, Steve, on another run directorship. And yes, some poetry. Doing very well down there at Port Sorell. That's right. And what else is doing well, Mel?

Consolidated Club Report

00:41:00Melissa Ellis: Something else that's doing really well, Ollie, is the Adventurers Club. We are up to 148 members and 124 members took part this last Saturday at 75 different locations. We had 10 events in the UK, Woodhouse Moor, Southampton, Rotherham, Rushmoor, Cheadle Hulme, Whinlatter Forest, Clapham Common, Brooklands, Frickley Country, and Storey's Field. We had four events this week in New Zealand, Pegasus, Greytown Woodside Trail, Hobsonville Point, and Owairaka, and one event in the USA, which was Joe Creason. Locally, there were adventurers at 25 Victorian events, 13 New South Wales events 12 Queensland events three wa three sa three act and one tasmanian so a nice sweep of the board there Ollie Victoria is still on top of course showing our superiority um and spacing nt

00:42:16Oliver Spake: Seamless. Yes. You Victorians know how to spread across the parkruns, don't you?

00:42:21Melissa Ellis: Jeez. And we had the most members at a frond. You did. With seven at the launch last week of Warrandyte River Reserve parkrun.

00:42:34Oliver Spake: Yes. So... Big numbers, big numbers. And thank you everyone for jumping on and taking the Adventurers Club along with you.

00:42:44Melissa Ellis: Only 60 more to go till we might get onto the Australian Most Members Club Report. Most events, most members list. Biggest clubs list. What's it called? Oh, I said I wasn't going to do this.

00:43:01Oliver Spake: Does the number change? Does the bar change?

00:43:04Melissa Ellis: I don't know.

00:43:04Oliver Spake: Do people lift it?

00:43:07Melissa Ellis: I guess. I don't know what the criteria is. I just think I looked initially to see the list and the group at the bottom of the list had 210 roughly. So I set that as the benchmark. I thought if we equaled them, we would also make the list.

00:43:27Oliver Spake: Solid logic. Yeah. Very solid logic.

00:43:30Melissa Ellis: I'd hate to get there after all this time, like the best part of a year probably by the time we achieve it and we don't make the list. That would be a...

00:43:43Oliver Spake: Anti-climax?

00:43:44Melissa Ellis: Yes, that one.

00:43:45Oliver Spake: Disappointment?

00:43:46Melissa Ellis: Yeah, anti-climax. That's what I was thinking.

00:43:49Oliver Spake: I'm sure we won't be disappointed. Each week lifts us higher. So thank you, everyone.

00:43:55Melissa Ellis: It does. We've actually gone up just two more people today. It always jumps a little bit after I post the Consolidated Club report on our Facebook page.

00:44:03Oliver Spake: And again, fantastic to see all the calls out for the volunteers of the world keeping things ticking as well. So keep it coming, everyone.

00:44:11Melissa Ellis: So I've just looked it up, Ollie. It is actually on the parkrun Australia main page. It's biggest clubs, which is under the heading of the results.

00:44:21Oliver Spake: And interestingly, I see one there with 198.

00:44:25Melissa Ellis: Actually, under the results, it says largest clubs. And when you click on that, it says biggest.

00:44:31Oliver Spake: That's okay. I'd use them interchangeably.

00:44:34Melissa Ellis: Yeah. So, Ollie, perhaps previously Deadly Runners was the last one on the list with 210, but now Running Mums is appearing with 198. So, we're closer than we think.

00:44:45Oliver Spake: That's exciting. Do we need to change the target?

00:44:47Melissa Ellis: No, no, no, no, no, no. We'll leave it at 210, I think.

00:44:51Oliver Spake: Let's keep it going.

00:44:52Melissa Ellis: Because then we won't be at the bottom.

00:44:54Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:44:55Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

Sign-off

00:44:56Oliver Spake: So look, we look forward to seeing everyone else's adventures over the coming weeks, over next week in particular, needless to say. So let's see if we can spread across even more events. But Mel, I suppose that's about it for the podcast this week, would you say?

00:45:14Melissa Ellis: I've run out of things to talk about. I'll be honest.

00:45:16Oliver Spake: Well, that's all right. We'll be back next week with plenty more, I'm sure.

00:45:22Melissa Ellis: We can take requests.

00:45:24Oliver Spake: Yeah, absolutely. Drop it in the episode post. Let us know what else you want to hear about or what you want to add. But in the meantime, as always, you can contact us via Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers@gmail.com. That is it for another week, and we'll see you all next week for more adventures.

00:46:53guest: Make yourself at home, hey? Mmm. Well, this is nothing like home. What's the story with this desk? What a mess. Who needs so many post-it notes? Oh. Oh, this desk's a bit better, isn't it? Oh, I do like all the matchy-matchy desk organiser stuff, but... Why's the cup holder full of screwdrivers? That's weird. Oh. Oh, no, this desk looks more like me. Mm, wonder if I can move this person on. Look, personal bar fridge, comfy leather chair. Ah! Somewhere to put my feet up. Oh, I see. The informant has switched all the IPAs for craft beer. Who's he trying to impress? I think I'm going to like it around here.