Episode 291 - Because

Welcome

00:00:23Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 291 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 joining once again from Dharawal Country.

00:00:37Melissa Ellis: How are you this fine Monday evening, Ollie?

00:00:41Oliver Spake: I'm very well, thanks Mel. I'm Doing great. Another good weekend, another good week starting off, and it's still a relatively nice wintry weather. It's a bit on the cold side, but all things considered, pretty good. What about yourself?

00:00:56Melissa Ellis: Oh, living the dream. I had a very exciting weekend, so I am still on a high.

00:01:01Oliver Spake: Yeah, look, I've been looking forward to hearing about it, so would you care to share?

00:01:05Melissa Ellis: Well, I would because on Friday I travelled to Queensland to attend New Farm parkrun, Australia's second parkrun event. I had the pleasure of staying with Tracey in a Tutu and husband Steve, who cooks a mean salmon on the barbecue. A 5am alarm ensured we arrived in time for the 7am start. with ample coffee and time for pre-parkrun chat. It was a pleasant surprise to run the course with Lyndell, who had come along to join the frond, and also meeting listeners Pauline and Russell Taylor, and I believe their home parkrun is Wishart.

00:01:45Oliver Spake: Yep.

00:01:45Melissa Ellis: New Farm parkrun is on the land of the Turrbal and Yuggera people and was event number 487. New Farm had an extended pause due to flood damage and only recently returned. The course is an out and back along the Brisbane River. Running along concrete paths and boardwalk, there were 377 runners and walkers, with Tracey jumping in as a VI Guide for Henry at the last minute. Due to its name, I had expected New Farm to be somewhat rural, but this is very much an inner-city parkrun. The views along the river were beautiful, the weather was mild, making for perfect running conditions. Afterwards, Tracey, myself and Lyndell wandered back to the local market for coffee and breakfast, enjoying the festive atmosphere and the sunshine. Plus, I had my first market gozleme. I really have to thank Tracey for welcoming me to Brisbane and spending a relaxing day showing me around town. We walked one lap of the Zillmere parkrun course, enjoyed a wander along the beach at Sandgate and sat in a park watching ducks, turtles and eels. Then all too soon, I was back on a plane homeward bound. This whirlwind adventure was very memorable, both for the time I spent with Tracey, but also the stunning Waterside parkrun experience shared with friends old and new. My III index has jumped to six, which was very arbitrary. However, had I not been incentivised by it, I may have overlooked New Farm parkrun and all it has to offer. So I can't wait to return to Queensland for another adventure.

00:03:24Oliver Spake: That sounds like a pretty good weekend. Well, part of a weekend, even at that, Mel.

00:03:28Melissa Ellis: A very whirlwind 24 hours, Ollie.

00:03:32Oliver Spake: 24 hours. Wow. And please do tell, we talked, I think it was last year on the pod. It may have been before that. I'm not sure about gozleme. And you've cooked it at home. How was your market gauze lame?

00:03:46Melissa Ellis: I did choose a different version of gozleme. I went for a chicken, I think it was chicken, pumpkin and spinach, which is something different to what I have cooked for myself at home. I will say at home I'm a little bit more generous with the filling.

00:04:02Unidentified speaker: Yes, yep, yep.

00:04:03Melissa Ellis: And I normally wouldn't eat gozleme because of the carbs and being low carb, but, you know, sometimes you just go for the experience and I thought it was just something to do.

00:04:15Oliver Spake: No, look, if I can give you any tips, I highly recommend the spinach and feta next time. But I'm glad you got the chance to try it. Well done on advancing your III index. I can't recall which event is number seven, but I'm sure you've drawn up plans.

00:04:29Melissa Ellis: Absolutely. Oh, my goodness. Let me go to tell you. It's Newy.

00:04:36Oliver Spake: Oh, well, there we go. Yes, Newy's on my list. That's for sure.

00:04:40Melissa Ellis: Ah, we need to make a date then.

00:04:42Oliver Spake: Yes, I think so. I've got a bit of catching up otherwise. Because yes, we have done a freedo of Newy. That's right. Back in Palm 2019, the Friday afternoon freedo run was there. What a nice course location.

00:04:56Melissa Ellis: Yes, so having had a taster, I absolutely know what I'm in for to return to Newy and I shall look at penciling that in at my earliest convenience. And also, Newy happens to be one of those four-letter events.

00:05:13Oliver Spake: Of course.

00:05:13Melissa Ellis: Which I also need.

00:05:15Unidentified speaker: Ah.

00:05:16Melissa Ellis: Because I've got two of the four.

00:05:18Oliver Spake: Ah, well, yes, yes. He'll be ticking all the boxes. Newy will tick two boxes. Well, and it's just a nice parkrun, as all of them are.

00:05:27Melissa Ellis: But, Ollie, let us know about your weekend at your home location.

00:05:32Oliver Spake: Yes. Thanks for asking, Mel. And, yeah, look, this last parkrun day, I left the eyeshadow in the drawer, Mel. Aww.

00:05:41Unidentified speaker: Aww.

00:05:43Oliver Spake: I was asked where my mohawk and eyeshadow was, but nonetheless, I enjoyed the highlight instead of supporting one of our Duke of Edinburgh juniors step up as Run Director for the first time. So young Dylan, who has pretty, not all too shabby, 125 parkruns under his belt and one juniors run at Westerfolds and has been parkrunning with us since 2015. He's been a big part of an incredibly helpful bunch of Duke of Edinburgh junior volunteers. I've might have mentioned once or twice over the last few months at Shellharbour parkrun. So I was very glad to hand over the vest and the megaphone to get a chance to cheer on my oldest Hannah and her partner James, who took to the course as well, but primarily to Shadow Dylan while he took over and managed the event and volunteered team seamlessly for the very first time for him and made all the more special. We had another sunny and calm winter's morning and saw a little jump in our visitors and first-timers. So all came together there. And, of course, that number of visitors and first-timers happened to include a visit from our local mayor of Shellharbour, who we'd usually find in the surf. So, yeah, obviously the surf wasn't too good, but he came along, he had a chat, caught up with us all and gave us a bit of publicity over the weekend as well, promoting parkrun. which is always lovely. And he was kind enough to also offer some support to ensure our event does continue. As this very week, Killalea Park, we operate in transitions into the hands of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, following a very public movement over the last couple of years to see it change hands, to ensure that its environmental management and maintenance is carried out up to standard. and that the environment and community access be conserved. And as it happens, the mayor was heavily involved in that. So it all came together, really founded on a lot of love and respect for the beautiful location. We're fortunate enough to enjoy each parkrun day. And as it happens, our mayor, Chris, his name is, his partner's father is a gentleman by the name of Ian. And Ian is indeed a keen parkrunner himself from the nearby Southern Highlands Botanic Gardens parkrun.

00:08:03Melissa Ellis: Ah, were they the two in the photo? I saw a photo of you with two gentlemen where the mayor was mentioned, but I figured one of them was the mayor. I didn't know who the other gentleman was.

00:08:14Oliver Spake: Yes, yes. So that was his partner's father. So he's got his green parkrun shirt and he's no doubt striving for the blue. He's got a couple more years to go. And this was almost a scoop, Mel, but we'd counted the tokens after the event. We're doing some cleaning up afterwards on site. And we did find that token number 64, which we did still need, was missing. It When checking the results, I was a little surprised to see that it was the one and only Elmer and was able to go and accost him in as nice as possible way and have that token returned and save him from the front pages.

00:08:59Melissa Ellis: So he managed to scan it, but still put it back in his pocket.

00:09:02Oliver Spake: That's right. He was just having too much fun.

00:09:03Melissa Ellis: Sounds like a great morning.

00:09:05Oliver Spake: It was a lovely morning. And Mel, I believe the parkrun fun continued for you.

00:09:11Melissa Ellis: Oh, at juniors. I haven't prepared anything about juniors. Catching me off guard, Ollie.

00:09:17Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:09:18Melissa Ellis: You will hear more about that later in my roving report, but it was Eynesbury's 50th event, as we mentioned last week. Yeah. And we did have a very enjoyable morning. Mostly because there's a lot of festivities down in the forest at the moment because the local developer puts on a winter festival every year. So there's actually been an ice skating rink set up at our adjoining homestead. So at 10am in the morning it opens and you can have an ice skate and there's all sorts of other things, you know, there's igloos and there's a giant inflatable snowman and It's just a very festive winter wonderland at the moment. So it's a little bit of fun and it's school holidays. So we're hoping to attract some tourists to come down to experience Eynesbury in the holidays when maybe the kids haven't got their extracurricular activities. Parents have got a little bit of extra time to travel and the added drawcard of the festival.

00:10:25Oliver Spake: A lot to look forward to and happy 50 once again to Eynesbury. And yeah, everyone do stay tuned. We've got a couple of roving reports a bit later on, including one from the team at Eynesbury.

00:10:37Melissa Ellis: Yes. And I must also give a shout out. We had a brand new RD come on board this week. Catherine, she did a fabulous job.

00:10:44Oliver Spake: Well done, Catherine.

00:10:45Melissa Ellis: Yeah, as well as some visitors that we had that came from further afield, none other than a family all the way from a parkrun we know very well that happens to have a stomp.

00:11:00Oliver Spake: The one and only envelope, that would be.

00:11:02Melissa Ellis: Correct. Yes. But, Ollie, okay, so we had some feedback on last week's episode as the chihuahua exits the room.

00:11:10Oliver Spake: We did. So thank you, Johan, for your feedback, who had to say thank you for yet another awesome pod. I was listening to it while doing a freedom walk along the route of Swakopmund parkrun, Namibia. Whilst I won't be seeing a new venue for quite a while, the parkrun adventures continue along the Namib Namibian coastline, even though they will all be repeats. So all is good this side, working on that P index. Coming home to Namibia is always an adventure. And if you haven't seen Johan's post, check it out because he also shared a collage of some incredible landscapes that I would love to see with my own eyes one day.

00:11:52Melissa Ellis: Yeah. And might be pertinent to mention just now, Ollie, that when I did compile the Consolidated Club report, the parkrun that Johan was at, I listed as South Africa because that's how parkrun puts together the report. But Johan did let us know that it was technically a Namibian parkrun. So we amended to reflect that, although parkrun doesn't make that distinction yet. But I do believe they're lobbying to have that distinction made.

00:12:27Oliver Spake: Yeah. Well, thank you for keeping us updated, Johan, and Mel for updating that.

00:12:32Melissa Ellis: We want to be correct and we want to be culturally sensitive about

00:12:38Oliver Spake: Well, that's right. We do love having Namibia as part of the parkrun family and we'll do everything we can to reflect that. But I suppose, Mel, across the parkrun world, near and far, there have been a few more goings on and one very social aspect happened this parkrun day just gone, or these parkrun days just gone, I should say, given it wasn't just on Saturday, was it?

00:13:00Melissa Ellis: No, it was not. So there was an event direct catch up organised via a Facebook group where it was suggested that once a season parkrun eds may come together at an event and just um I guess connect

00:13:22Oliver Spake: Well, that's right. It's a bit of that, as you say, that connection, the opportunity to build our relationships across different EDs and RDs, share a bit of our experiences and just have a bit of fun. Anything that supports our parkrun adventurer and event communities getting together and having fun, Mel, I think we're fair to say we're happy to get on board.

00:13:43Melissa Ellis: Yeah, building relationships, I guess, between EDs and a support network as well, I would describe it as. So, yeah, we did have one at Eynesbury. I put my hand up to host one and there were others involved all around the country. So it was a great initiative and I think very well received and hopefully it grows.

00:14:03Oliver Spake: Yeah, I agree. Well, meanwhile, a voice very familiar to our parkrun adventurer community, our former co-host and the OG Mel, if I may. She did it, Mel. She completed her 250th volunteer at Kawana parkrun. She did.

00:14:19Melissa Ellis: That's fabulous.

00:14:21Oliver Spake: So we'd like to say a big green congratulations to Mel for a fantastic milestone. Thank you for all of your support to the parkrun community and no rest for some. She's back on the roster for next week as well.

00:14:34Melissa Ellis: Oh my goodness. She's a star.

00:14:38Oliver Spake: She is.

00:14:38Melissa Ellis: Also, Ollie, this week there was an announcement that we have a new partnership with Medibank. So they have been a sponsor of parkrun Australia, but they're stepping up.

00:14:52Oliver Spake: That's right, yeah. So Medibank has been parkrun Australia's official health and wellbeing sponsor for the past six years and playing a role in the growth of parkrun across Australia and helping parkrun become what it is today. And this announcement... Yeah, really highlights what they've called a three-year partnership and it will be essential to help ensure parkrun events remain free, simple and accessible for everyone who wants to take part, whether that be running, walking or volunteering. Visually, it will also see Medibank's logo appear alongside parkrun's logo here in Australia. And parkrun Australia went on to say that Medibank's support is also a major step towards building the infrastructure parkrun needs to continue its expansion around Australia, bringing free physical activity and volunteering opportunities to the people in our society who have the most to gain from our events.

00:15:45Melissa Ellis: That's right, and together Medibank and parkrun are committed to providing access and opportunities for people to improve their health, happiness and live better through parkrun. Medibank's increased support continuing to lead the way in the provision of community-based and volunteer-led physical activity. Our vision is to create a healthier and happier planet by empowering local communities to provide free physical activity and it's important for us to partner with an organisation that shares our values and purpose. Our partnership with Medibank has enabled parkrun Australia to evolve into a professional, well-resourced and highly respected organisation that has become one of the most important health interventions in the country and we're thrilled to to continue our relationship with him over the next three years to bring parkrun to more people.

00:16:33Oliver Spake: Yes. So I take that as very positive news, Mel, and it is good to see that support continuing to hopefully see more and more parkruns out there to give more people access.

00:16:44Melissa Ellis: Yeah, that's right. And I really think the only difference we'll see from our side of the fence, Ollie, is that Medibank will probably now appear above the parkrun logo, much in the same way that Vitality does in the UK. Yes.

00:16:59Oliver Spake: Now... Of course, there have been other announcements coming out of parkrun this time, also from parkrun Global this week. And for those that may not have seen the announcement on the parkrun socials or the blog, there has been one come through from the chair of trustees of parkrun Global.

00:17:16Melissa Ellis: So it's been divulged that there's been undisclosed and unapproved commissions received by the former, is it CEO, Nick Pearson? Yes.

00:17:26Oliver Spake: Yes, that's right, which have now been repaid. And the matter is, of course, being addressed and explored, I believe, through the appropriate channels. But yeah, I suppose that's one of the risks that we do have out there in the environment, Mel.

00:17:40Melissa Ellis: That's right, Ollie. And while it's been big news this week in parkrun that we've all been... Very surprised to hear. I think on a personal level, you and I, we don't have a lot to add to the discussion.

00:17:53Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's right.

00:17:54Melissa Ellis: We haven't known the parties involved. But I think what we would like to say is that if you are interested in more of the conversation with that, our friends over at With Me Now will probably have a very in-depth discussion, discussion, a very frank discussion about that topic and we'd just like to direct you this week to go over and listen to Danny and Nicola and get their thoughts because they're way more in a position to comment on these things than we are. Is that fair to say?

00:18:26Oliver Spake: I think so. I think so. And that's not intended to reflect a lack of care or respect for the situation. Mel and I certainly both have that. But yeah, we do, of course, want to see the appropriate care and trust always put in. But we think that some things can be covered quite well by our friends and our kin in our podcast community. Yes. But Mel... That's been a lot of news and a lot of catching up. Thank you. But we've got some catching up to do with some of our others in the community, our roving reporters.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:18:57Oliver Spake: So we've got three roving reports for you this week, and it's time to have a listen to them.

Roving report Eman — Railway Park parkrun

00:19:09Eman: Good morning parkrunners, this is Eman reporting to you from Railway Park parkrun, which is a parkrun in the Proston area within the South Burnett region. Just thought I'd give you a quick report. I'm here with James Rees, parkrunner and a tourist who's just finished his Cowell Club, finishing 100 different parkruns. How was your morning James?

00:19:32James Rees: Yeah, really good. A lovely drive out here from Wondai, which is the closest places to stay around here. So it's about a half hour drive, but beautiful drive out and the sunrise in the morning through the countryside. Then go to Proston, which is a small town, a lovely park around here. So a nice group, a bit of a group here out for the Wondai Running Festival.

00:19:54Eman: Yeah, nice. I think we'll be seeing each other tomorrow as well for the main event. How did you find the course this morning in Railway Park?

00:20:01James Rees: Yeah, it's good. It's a little loop around a grassy bit of the park, then on to the main trail, then it's about a kilometre up and back. and you do that twice essentially so it's a it's very slight uphill along the trail which you start to notice the second time around but then it's a nice runnable downhill afterwards so oh nice so that's good that's excellent and what are some of the highlights of the last hundred different parkruns that you've done to complete the Cowell Club Just seeing all the different places around, you know, it's always nice to get out for a weekend, you know, drop off along the way home at some nice cafes and things. Yep. Oh, nice. And where's your home parkrun, James? South Bank. Okay. Yeah, I was a Run Director there for a number of years.

00:20:48Eman: Oh, great. That's great.

00:20:50James Rees: And congratulations to you on your course record this morning. Oh, thanks, James.

00:20:53Eman: Yeah, it was a good hit out. So I had a good time. It's pretty difficult, given the second lap as well, because it's a slight incline. But no, I had a great time. But congrats again, James. And well done with your Cowell Club. And hope to see you around when we're touring next. Yeah, I expect so. Cheers.

Roving report Paul Kitching — Copper Trail parkrun

00:21:10Paul Kitching: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's PK checking in for a roving report as I am out doing an adventure for a change. And actually, can I just first check something? I just need to check my C's, how many C's I've done. So yep, I've done Charleston, one. Let me think, Cleland, yes, two. Centennial or Centennial Park in Sydney, um I've done christie's beach I've done uh there's one more it's going to come to me now I can't remember what it is it is uh carisbrook there it is far out there's five c's thanks for helping me talk through that and today I've done my sixth c yes I am at the Copper Trail parkrun which is just out of wallaroo which is about two hours northwest of Adelaide. So just out of Wallaroo, between Wallaroo and Kadina, the Copper Triangle, they call it up here. Anyway, I've just done my sixth sea. As you can gather, there may be a reason for that, but I'll come to that. But I'm here at the finish line, start finish line, and I'm going to have a quick chat to a couple of the local legends. I can hear a bit of Beatles go in the background. We'll come back to that as well. I'm going to interrupt these legends. We do it for the breakfast, as Adrian says. G'day, Trevor. PK here. I'm just chatting to some legends like yourself for the parkrun adventurers podcast. You're the Run Director today. I am. The fun director, sorry. The fun director. The fun director. How's it going? How many times have you done, have you been a fun director, officially?

00:22:14[music]

00:22:36Trevor: Officially, I think three or four. Good on you, mate. Not quite sure.

00:22:38Paul Kitching: Well done. And they tell me you just turn up when someone says, by the way, you're going to be the Run Director today.

00:22:43Trevor: That's it. I don't volunteer. I get told what I'm doing. Well done, mate.

00:22:47Paul Kitching: Beautiful parkrun. Congrats. How long has it been going for, do you know? 32. 32. Nice, mate. Nice. And why was the parkrun created here?

00:22:56Trevor: Well, the boys started it. I think Jeremy would know more about that. They came down from Port Broughton.

00:23:03Paul Kitching: Ah, yes. Port Broughton is probably the nearest one, isn't it?

00:23:05Trevor: The nearest one, yeah. There's about four or five of them that came down and started it up.

00:23:09Paul Kitching: Awesome. Good to hear. And what does parkrun mean to you?

00:23:13Trevor: social yeah it's not it's not the fitness part it's the social for me you know I live at home on my own so I come out you know coffee afterwards etc yes well done mate and you know it's just the everyone here the community isn't it yeah well it's a great course easy course it is an easy course yeah our numbers vary dramatically here during school holidays we go right up we could have we could have 30-40 visitors awesome yeah so it fluctuates quite a bit

00:23:43Paul Kitching: Yeah, I was happy to get top ten today, only because the numbers were down. Good on you, Trevor. No, well done, mate. I'm going to go and have a quick chat to Jerry. Yeah, thank you, mate. Ah, look out. Here he is, Jerry. The guru. Jerry the guru. Morning, Paul. How are you? Hello, mate. I'm awesome. And your doggo, what's your doggo's name? Ruby. Hi, Ruby. Ruby Tuesday. Hey? Ruby Tuesday's a Beatles song, isn't it? Yep. I think it is. We're listening to the Beatles today. Why are we listening to the Beatles? It's Beatles Day today. It's Beatles Day. Yes, the call did go out. And, Jerry, is that your real hair? Of course it is. If only you could see. Jerry's got some beautiful locks on, a la 70s Beatles. Something like that. Yeah, and I had a bit of a psychedelic headband. Anyway, mate, we're here. We're having fun. Thank you for creating the Copper Trail parkrun. I hear you were instrumental in creating it.

00:24:29Jerry: Yes, I was, yeah. We started at Port Broughton, which is a 35-minute drive every Saturday. Yeah. And we did the Masters Games, and I talked to the council, and they said,

00:24:40Paul Kitching: parkrun and I go yep we should do one and they said yeah okay we'll be behind you and so it took a while to find the course but yeah we did it in the end so it's a great course what used to be the rail railway line I believe that's correct yes yeah um a really nice course absolutely flat gotta love that opposite the pony club the pony club and is that like the old grandstand or something it is one half is going to come down and the other half is going to be um

00:25:05Jerry: Refurbished. Awesome. And they're going to put a big shed on the one side. So it's going to be really cool.

00:25:10Paul Kitching: Happy days. Well, it is a beautiful place out here. Thank you so much for creating it. And we loved coming along here to do a bit of adventuring. Stayed the night in Wallaroo last night. You know, gave the local joint a bit of love. Yeah, that's right, Ruby. You want to go for a run, mate? Anyway, I'm going to go and wander off and have coffee from another local joint. But thank you so much, mate. Really appreciate it. Good on you. All the best, Jerry. Enjoy the rest of your time here. Thanks, mate. Sure will. So there you go. That's Jerry. I'm now going to try and find one more legend and see what their thoughts are. And we can hear the Beatles in the background. Oh, thanks very much. Thanks, Beatles Day. And I'm now with Nicole. You're one of the, are you the co-ED here? Is that right? Co-ED. So we spoke with Jerry, who is the other ED. So you and Jerry set it up. What does parkrun mean to you?

00:25:40[music]

00:25:55Nicole: For me, it's just a good social outing for me. I don't get out a lot. I love it. And I enjoy running when I can run. So, yeah, to me, it's just, yeah, socialising and a nice way to keep fit. Nice.

00:26:08Paul Kitching: Yeah. Do you get a few people coming here? We're here today to do our pirate challenge. Yeah. The sea. That's actually the main reason we're here. Yeah.

00:26:16Nicole: We've got the 34 coming up in two weeks, so Fibonacci, so people that are doing that will hopefully come and visit us.

00:26:23Paul Kitching: There you go. Well, that's good to know as well.

00:26:24Nicole: So, yeah, two weeks' time. Wow. I think it's the ninth.

00:26:26Paul Kitching: There you go. Heads up to those out there listening. If you want to get your Fibonacci, the 34, come to Copper Trail on the 9th of July, I reckon that is. Yep. Fantastic. Good stuff. Well, it's a beautiful day. I hear it's sometimes a tad windy here.

00:26:39Nicole: Just a little bit. Today, I think, is the first time, like I've been to all of them here, that we haven't had wind.

00:26:46Paul Kitching: Wow.

00:26:46Nicole: Yeah. So we've had hail. We've had really stormy weather. Gosh. I think our first one was awful. Yeah. But we had heaps of people. But yeah, the weather was atrocious.

00:26:56Paul Kitching: No, it's great. I love it. And I love the visitor's book as well. That's awesome because it helps you get a few visitors here and a beautiful community. The dogs are welcome, obviously, and everyone's happy. Everyone's smiling and we get to exercise and have some fun in the sun. Well, today anyway. Good on you, Nicole. Thank you for everything that you do for parkrun. It's obviously a beautiful community here. I understand you've got a good volunteer community.

00:27:19Nicole: We have a really good volunteer community here, yeah. Pretty close-knit. We'll catch up for coffee afterwards with everyone as well.

00:27:24Paul Kitching: Fantastic.

00:27:25Nicole: Everyone gets along good.

00:27:26Paul Kitching: It's fun. Good on you. Thank you for everything you do. Well done. Thanks so much. Good stuff. That was Nicole, one of the co-EDs. Let's go and have a coffee somewhere, and I'll chat to Tracy there about why we're doing a C. And as promised, here we are having coffee after the awesome Copper Trail parkrun. I'm with Tracey, the aforementioned Tracey. How are you going, Trace?

00:27:49Tracey: Hello. Great, thank you.

00:27:51Paul Kitching: Awesome. So why did we come to Copper Trail?

00:27:55Tracey: So on our way in a couple of weeks up to Cairns, we thought we'd better get our sixth C for the Pirate Challenge. My dog Clementine also starts with a C. Yeah. So we've got our R, some of us from Renmark, some of us from Reynella.

00:28:12Paul Kitching: Yes.

00:28:13Tracey: East. And so, yes, we've got our sixth C today. Indeed. And in two weeks' time, we'll be dressing up as pirates, tail walking at Cairns Esplanade.

00:28:22Paul Kitching: Yeah. Bring it on, my gosh. We are doing quite a bit of venturing and hopefully I'll be reporting in from there as well. Can't wait. So Copper Trail, gorgeous. And we've just had a great coffee at the Smelter on the main street here. There are a number of different cafes. I think they recommend BB's, but we'd heard the Smelter was good. So shout out to the crew of the Smelter and highly recommend it for those heading to Wallaroo to check it out. Delish breakfast. And great breakfast. And now we're just going to go for a bit of a wander in the sun. And yeah, it was fun today, wasn't it?

00:28:50Tracey: Beautiful, beautiful morning, no wind, all blue skies and gorgeous sunrise with the sun smashing across horizontally as we were driving out there and on the run. It was fantastic. No, it was stunning.

00:29:03Paul Kitching: Good times. Alrighty, well, that's us signing off from another parkrun adventure. And thanks, Trace, for inspiring us to come up here, mate.

00:29:09Tracey: Pleasure. Loving it.

00:29:11Paul Kitching: Loving it. Good times. Thanks, Legends. That's me signing off for another roving report. And, yeah, hopefully I will check in in a few weeks from Cairns parkrun. Bring it on. See you.

Roving report Melissa Ellis — Eynesbury Heritage Trail junior parkrun

00:29:25Melissa Ellis: Okay, it's Sunday morning and I'm at Eynesbury Heritage Trail Junior parkrun and we had some visitors here today. We had Bec Bullock from Aurora parkrun. We had Adrian Hillyer from Peppertree and we had Natalie Harrison from Sunbury parkrun and we had a little ED meetup. So welcome everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Where will I start? I'll start with Natalie. Out at Sunbury, you had the lovely Bec, who is the ED from Aurora, come and visit you.

00:29:56Natalie Harrison: How did your little meet-up go yesterday? Yeah, we had a great little catch-up yesterday. The weather was perfect, perfect morning. So we had Tan, an event ambassador. Our event ambassador. Yes, correct. Come along, and Bec, of course, from Aurora. So it was a great little catch-up and great to show them our Sunbury parkrun. Good numbers out at Sunbury yesterday? A little bit. Yeah, it was a great turnout considering it was a bit chilly and school, first weekend of school holidays too. Oh, I actually saw you had a certain Gary Murphy turn up as well. We did, yes.

00:30:34Melissa Ellis: Shout out to Gary. Yeah. And how did you find it, Bec? Sunbury, had you been there before?

00:30:39Bec Bullock: I had. It had been about four years, so it had been a while since I'd been out to Sunbury and gone up that big hill. But, no, I was in great company and, yeah, really enjoyed it. It was a beautiful morning.

00:30:50Melissa Ellis: And it's your first visit out here to Eynesbury with the kids, so thank you for coming.

00:30:53Bec Bullock: Thank you for having us. It's been, yeah, a bit of a tourist weekend for me, I guess. But, yeah, the kids loved it this morning. It's really beautiful out here. Just love the area.

00:31:02Melissa Ellis: Thank you. We'll do a little mention too that we've got a winter festival down here at Eynesbury. So there's a little bit of ice skating on Offar later and the market's on as well. So hopefully you can stick around and enjoy some of the sights.

00:31:14Bec Bullock: Yeah, looking forward to it. It's become a bit of a morning for us to do a few things in the area. Do you know how your team went at Aurora while you were away? I did check in with them yesterday just because one of our neighbouring parkruns, Mernda, was closed. So I was a bit cautious that, you know, we might get a little bit of an influx of visitors. I think we did have a bit of a crew from Mernda visiting at Aurora. But, yeah, everything sounded like it went really well.

00:31:42Melissa Ellis: Nice as an ED when you can step away and your team's quite capable.

00:31:45Bec Bullock: Yeah, I've got a really great team of Run Directors at Aurora. So, yeah, very capable, very passionate group of people. So, yeah, it's definitely good to be able to still move around and visit other parkruns and knowing that, you know, the ship is being steered well.

00:31:59Melissa Ellis: Exactly. So, now, Mr Adrian Hillyer.

00:32:03Adrian Hillyer: I thought I was getting out of this one.

00:32:06Melissa Ellis: So, we're here today because we're having a little ED catch-up. For the initiative, who started it? Sonja? Sonja Pohlman. Around the country. So I didn't manage to get one yesterday for my sat day, but I've been very blessed to have three EDs join me here today.

00:32:25Adrian Hillyer: How were you yesterday at Peppertree for a start? About average. We had 27 people, which has been about average lately. So quiet, weather was good. Yeah, no, it was a good day. And you got a bit of... A couple of tourists.

00:32:40Melissa Ellis: You got a bit of FOMO. That's why you're here today, didn't you? Yeah, I did. You're right. Exactly.

00:32:45Adrian Hillyer: Exactly right.

00:32:47Melissa Ellis: Ah, so...

00:32:48Adrian Hillyer: It's Eynesbury's 50th event today. You didn't... You failed to mention that. Oh, I did, my bad. And we're all in red. We're all in our red 50 shirts.

00:32:54Melissa Ellis: We are. We're celebrating. We're very sorry that we missed... So, our event ambassador, Tan Baker, couldn't be here today because she's at work and we were also missing... Tracy. Tracy...

00:33:04Adrian Hillyer: From Tool and Creek?

00:33:05Melissa Ellis: Donald, Tool and Creek ED. So, unfortunately, we couldn't get us all together, but maybe another time I'll have to do... We'll have to do a catch-up at one of your events on a Saturday. Maybe on a birthday, hey? Someone's anniversary.

00:33:18Natalie Harrison: Yeah, all right. Thanks, guys.

00:33:19Melissa Ellis: Thanks for coming down.

00:33:20Natalie Harrison: Thank you. Thank you. Bye.

00:33:29Melissa Ellis: And that was great to hear from Eman over at Railway Park speaking with James Rees. Just by the by, Ollie, Eman took the course record.

00:33:41Oliver Spake: Well done.

00:33:43Melissa Ellis: At Railway Park with 18 minutes and one second.

00:33:46Oliver Spake: Yeah, he's certainly still speedy, our Eman.

00:33:49Melissa Ellis: He is. He was in town for the Wondai Running Festival that was on Sunday.

00:33:55Oliver Spake: Yeah, and I'm pretty sure I noticed a photo of him standing on that higher part of the podium, that middle part after that said running festival. So congratulations, Eman. And we also heard from PK at Copper Trail, catching up with a fun director, which I love, and sailing the seas, getting ever so close to his seventh sea. And you could hear a bit of Beatles music in there. So, yeah, it sounds like a fun morning, much like your own, Mel. So thank you very much for your roving report and the whole team there.

00:34:29Melissa Ellis: Thank you. Yes, we had a lot of fun.

Emails

00:34:32Melissa Ellis: But also, Ollie, we've got mails.

00:34:35Oliver Spake: You've got mail. We do. We do. So thank you to our two authors of our mail this week. So first up, we heard from Brett Bailey, who was of course our Obi winner last week, who said, Dear Mel and Ollie, I got a big surprise to see my old mug on the cover page this week and then to get the Obi as well. It was a great parkrun day. Thank you both for all the work you do planning and recording the pod each week. We always look forward to hearing what you have been up to and all the roving reports. Hopefully, we can send a few more recordings over now we know how to do it, particularly if there is a special occasion or milestone. We are also really looking forward to coming over to catch up with Bec and to meet you all in October. Not sure we will do much local touristing before then, as apart from our NENDY at Foster in Rolleston, 45 minutes away, our next closest is Dunedin, which is a five-hour drive, or Queenstown, six hours or a short flight. Anyway, thanks again, Brett Bailey.

00:35:47Melissa Ellis: Oh, and thank you for messaging Brett. Congratulations again. But Tanya did a brilliant job with her roving report, and I don't think we gave her proper credit for how well she did.

00:36:00Oliver Spake: That's right. And I hope, Brett, you did share some of the Obi glory with Tanya because she Tanya Ollie we're saying it wrong it's Tanya that's right and I apologise Tanya for uh mispronouncing everything particularly your name over and over again but we love the contribution loved hearing yeah with our very own ears from you both and look forward to hearing again sometime

00:36:25Melissa Ellis: Absolutely. Now, Ollie, we also heard from Tracey Wood who said, Good morning, Mel and Ollie. Start practising your Swedish, Ollie, as I have found the perfect song for you. "Åh, vilka tider" is the only song recorded only in Swedish and not English by ABBA. The title translates to Oh Lovely Times and I've included the link to it below. Happy Swedishing. Lots of love, Tracey. [Swedish: "Oh, what times"]

00:36:58Oliver Spake: Oh, thank you, Tracey. That's a really lovely suggestion. We're getting a few recommendations of songs for Episode 299, and that one's certainly quite appropriate. As I failed to mention, it was, of course, the family's Midsummer celebration on Saturday night, and there were floral garlands on the head. There was a maypole. There were night swims. There were fires.

00:37:25Melissa Ellis: Maples. Yes.

00:37:28Oliver Spake: So that song was in my head. We didn't listen to it. We were too busy with our smagudna, but nonetheless. I'll have a bit more of a listen, Tracey. Thank you.

00:37:39Melissa Ellis: Ollie, hang on a minute. I thought we had another email. It's missing from the show notes.

00:37:46Oliver Spake: Oh.

00:37:46Melissa Ellis: Where is it? Oh, come on. Don't say you didn't get Bruce's email.

00:37:52Oliver Spake: Well, Bruce did reach out. The ideas, man. Bruce did reach out via message to make another suggestion. And I I'm not in a position to quote Bruce. I don't have his message in front of me. But suffice to say, Bruce has very cleverly tracked down perhaps the most appropriate song for episode 299, which is in fact called 299. The problem being is I cannot read the song. I'm not quite sure how to look further for it. I will use Bruce's reference and do a bit of studying. The ideas man does not disappoint.

00:38:31Melissa Ellis: Okay. Well, you're getting lots of ideas, Ollie.

00:38:36Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. You've got lots of choice. I hope you're going to be prepared.

Dazza's

00:38:41Oliver Spake: We're going to have to recategorize ourselves as a music podcast because Mel, that segues straight into Dazza's.

00:38:51Melissa Ellis: Well, yes, and this week Dazza said it's Global Beatles Day. All you need is love, and we all love parkrun, so twist and shout down the long and winding road into Dazza's to tell us how you were here, there, and everywhere today. I don't think I did a very good job of that.

00:39:13Oliver Spake: Oh, that's all right. You just stand by because our wonderful parkrun Adventure community has outdone themselves. And again, I wish I could read them all out, but let's get us started.

00:39:23Melissa Ellis: Okay.

00:39:24Oliver Spake: Janet Reid popped in from home and you know what she said? She said, Dazza, guess what? We love you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We love you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We love you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Happy Global Beatles Day, and I hope you're all reconsidering asking me to sing in episode 299 now. And thank you, Janet.

00:39:29[music]

00:39:49Melissa Ellis: We also heard from Claire Stutchbury, collected another bee for my beehive at Beringa this morning and had a wonderful park faff breakfast afterwards. So that was Claire coming to us with a tourist event.

00:40:04Oliver Spake: That's right. Now, one that... Did want to call out, Sam Schroder reported in on an achievement that I actually wanted to go and attend, and I did have other commitments, so I was disappointed to not be able to. But Sam did write and shared. Catherine, furthest right in the photo that Sam shared of everyone at the cafe, completed her 250th parkrun at Penrith Lakes parkrun today. Luke and I were very happy to visit and join the park faff with her lovely friends afterwards. And congratulations to Catherine Pirotta. She has been a supporter and volunteer and regular visitor to Shellharbour parkrun as well.

00:40:45Melissa Ellis: Oh, you just got more fines.

00:40:46Oliver Spake: I did. Totally worth it.

00:40:50Melissa Ellis: We also heard from Mel Erbacher, who was volleying this last weekend at Kawana parkrun. And she said, oh, if only I'd known earlier, I would have worn my yellow submarine costume to parkrun. What a missed opportunity.

00:41:10Oliver Spake: And she would have too.

00:41:13Melissa Ellis: We'll have to make a mental note for next year. Sam, can you make a note?

00:41:18Oliver Spake: Now, Mel, we also heard from Sonja Pohlman, who shared a couple of pictures. So the first one with a photo from behind of Sonja Pohlman overlooking the water, rather contemplatively, with a simple caption, because. And the second photo, which may have had a backwards flag and a certain Peter Pohlman, was captioned, oh, yeah, and money. That's what I want. Can we potentially get a work development order for these fines, although the perpetrator remains at large and largely unrepentant? He's a cheeky one, that Peter Pohlman. Yes.

00:41:55Melissa Ellis: We also had a new first-timer to Dazza's Ollie, Tara Wakefield, who said... bestie, sweat sister, sis-in-law, R-D-E-D, volleys, and try to say that three times fast, all rolled into one. And Tara shared a photo of her and her bestie, sweat sister, sis-in-law in front of a frosty background.

00:42:21Oliver Spake: It was a nice one. And yeah, great work. Now, we also heard from Andrew Johnston, who was touristing. And had to say, Werribee, Werribee, Werribee, Werribee, there will be an answer, Werribee.

00:42:38Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's brilliant. See, I didn't draw the conclusion to that song when I read that.

00:42:46Oliver Spake: There were some real talents in that. It's fabulous. And in case you missed it, everyone, Andrew did share a photo in front of the Werribee Mansion.

00:42:57Melissa Ellis: Oh, I love it. And, okay, we also heard from Tracey Wood who was celebrating a frond. Surprisingly, Tracey said, I took the straight road to New Farm and found a frond of five. And, yeah, my singing isn't as good as yours, Ollie.

00:43:15Nicole: It was a pleasure to host Melissa at an iconic parkrun.

00:43:19Melissa Ellis: That was me, and enjoyed a lovely catch-up chat and breakfast with Lyndell the legendary afterwards. Tracey shared a photo of our frond and we did enjoy being there as well with Lyndell.

00:43:33Oliver Spake: Yes, lovely to see you all catching up and fronding together. Now, Amel, we also heard from Steve's bike. Ah. Who had to say? When I was younger, so much younger than today, I went to a parkrun that went out along the way. But now those days are gone, I'm not so self-assured. I opted to give some cryptic clues to confuse you all some more. Enough of my singing. Today I saw a possum, a tiger, a hawk and a bear within the first kilometre. Who was kicking the first goal? It definitely wasn't the possum. Happy parkrun Day all.

00:43:49[music]

00:44:16Melissa Ellis: Thank you, Steve's bike. Thank you, Steve's bike. That was really good. He came up with the goods this week. Oh, yes. And I did see a bike at the Kedron parkrun when we stopped for coffee. I did share the photo with Steve's bike. He claimed it was not him, it was his uncle.

00:44:38Oliver Spake: Of course. The one that lives up north. Yeah, that's right.

00:44:42Melissa Ellis: Yeah, that one. Yeah, yeah. But over in the UK this week with an achievement, Ollie, was Christine Imbert. Greater London region 59 slash 59, tick. London regained at Southall, Southall, Southall, Southall.

00:45:00Oliver Spake: One of those would be right. Yeah.

00:45:03Melissa Ellis: parkrun this morning, lovely parkrun with enthusiastic volunteers providing lots of encouragement. Dazza, please can I have a hot chocolate to celebrate? And Christine shared a photo of herself standing by the world, a giant globe. Pointing to home. I don't know if it was home, Ollie. I just wasn't quite sure where she was pointing to. It looked more like Greenland.

00:45:28Oliver Spake: Oh, right. Yeah, I should have looked more closely at that. But congratulations, Christine.

00:45:33Melissa Ellis: Absolutely. Big achievement. 59 out of 59. That's... Pretty good.

00:45:38Oliver Spake: That's right. And meanwhile, over also in the same neck of the woods, Cass Castleton, today was a complete change of plan. I did Hove Prom as a new runner needed a VI Guide. So off to Hove Prom this morning and met the lady, Lynn Davies, at the bus stop, discovered she was Norwegian. So she said she was going to try for a PB. So the challenge was set. Her second parkrun and a PB was required. And off we went, keeping the pace, even though the first 4K dead on time for a PB. However, the last 1K, we started to push just a little and we finished in an excellent time, giving Lynn a PB of nearly five minutes inside her last parkrun. One happy lady.

00:46:25Melissa Ellis: Five minutes. Way to go, Cass. Cass.

00:46:30Oliver Spake: It's setting a high bar. I mean, parkrun number three will be an extra challenge now, but that's a pretty good outcome.

00:46:37Melissa Ellis: It is. Well done to you.

00:46:40Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:46:41Melissa Ellis: Okay. I've got to scroll down. Oh, that's it. That's it. That's it for Dazza's.

the Obi Award — Sonja Pohlman

00:46:50Melissa Ellis: So all that's left is to find an envelope. Have you seen it?

00:46:57Oliver Spake: I think I have an envelope over here. Hang on, Mel. It's under these post-its. Here we are.

00:47:04Melissa Ellis: You've really got to clean your desk, Ollie.

00:47:08Oliver Spake: One day. It's on the list, Mel. Yep. All right. So I have an envelope here. Shall I open it?

00:47:14Melissa Ellis: Oh, please do.

00:47:18Oliver Spake: And the Obi this week goes to... Sonja Pohlman. And I think it's fair to say, while we were quite impressed by some lovely photos, well, a lovely photo and a cheeky photo, the connections that Sonja has helped many of us already form with the Event Director and Run Director catch-ups are, I something to give a big clap to. So, yeah, we hereby award you this Obi.

00:47:59Melissa Ellis: Absolutely. There are a lot of people that put in a lot of work behind the scenes, aside from being Run Directors and Event Directors, to help the community come together. And, yeah, we want to recognise Sonja as one of those people this week.

00:48:14Oliver Spake: That's right. Some good vibes, Mel. And thank you, everyone, once again, for giving me a chance to practise my singing. Thank you.

00:48:23Melissa Ellis: You did better than me.

00:48:25Oliver Spake: Good work. Let's leave that to be decided, Mel. But I am a little excited, Mel, because there's someone else I'd like to listen to now. So if it's time, should we have a listen to a few more stats?

the Informant

00:48:53The Informant: This week, well, it's all about demarcation. Pay rates, kitchen supplies, walking hours. Actually, whatever we can think of to put on the table. Specifically, caramilk and the almond milk replaced with the real stuff.

00:49:09Unidentified speaker: But I prefer almond milk. I like almond milk too. It's rich in vitamin E, which is an important antioxidant.

00:49:19The Informant: Ah, you're both bonkers. It's not milk, and it's taking jobs from women. Milk comes from nipples. I haven't seen any nipples on an arm, have you?

00:49:29Unidentified speaker: I think you're bonkers.

00:49:31The Informant: Just get with the program. Look, I've done these protest banners. Walking around the office, you have to hold up one of these boards to draw attention to our blight.

00:49:41Unidentified speaker: It's not I after E. Where? In beige.

00:49:46Unidentified speaker: But it's not after a C. It's not even my name. You never mind about the I before E. The issue here is apostrophes. If you mean one of you, one informant, then informants gets the apostrophe before the S. If you mean both of you, then the apostrophe's got to go after the S. We've been through this before.

00:50:05The Informant: Oh, my God. I thought we were supposed to be presenting like a united front. You two are hopeless. Just sit there. Look. Kinda good, but not occasionally. This is The Informant, coming to you live from Level 2 with a view. This week's view is of a united, mobilised workforce presenting minimal, restricted stats. They are unofficial stats. They're only current to the time they were collected. And it's been so long since we ran this gig. Well, we don't know whether anything is valuable at all. There were 452 runs held down under, out of 1,709 worldwide. 415 of these were in Australia, and 37 are in New Zealand. Aussie New Zealand attendance was 36,370. There was one launch in the UK. Down under we had 4,515 PBs, while 1,403 people participated for the first time. 80 juniors reached their Junior 10 milestone, 174 people reached their 50 milestone, 98 reached their 100 milestone, and 24 people reached their 250 milestone. 23 people called bingo. Chris Holt was quickest on 144 runs, while Jonathan Brown was the slowest on 326 runs. There were 9 new statespeople. Bronwyn Adams was the sole newbie from the ACT. Lisa Faulkner, Michael Roberts, Dan Leahy and Robin Wottam finished the Northern Territory. Evelyn Astin and J Craig McKay became South Australians. While Martin Jones and Kirsty Peterson completed all of the South Island New Zealand. Due to industrial action, there will be no report on the post events and the Windexes. Well, maybe there's a little uncertainty of its accuracy following the break. And you can check the numbers on your own in the spreadsheet at your own leisure. In the Adventure Challenges, once again we had no Peels. But we had three Cowell clubbers. They were all Js. James Rees, Janice Whittle and Jacinta Marriott. And we were also blessed with another 14 half Cowells. If you want to see the stats in full, well, you can find them at theinformant.me. That's www.theinformant.me. Or you can look for The Informant on Facebook. This has been The Informant. And my spreadsheet, well, well it could be the last if there's no united workforce by this time next week.

00:52:59Melissa Ellis: And we've got some stats back this week, Ollie, which is really nice and perhaps we won't divulge agreements that may have been made behind the scenes.

00:53:13Oliver Spake: Let's just savour the positive, huh?

00:53:15Melissa Ellis: Yeah, let's go with that.

00:53:16Oliver Spake: Yeah, absolutely.

Consolidated Club Report

00:53:19Oliver Spake: And, well, I think another thing I've been looking forward to is our Consolidated Club report. How are we going with the Adventurers Club?

00:53:27Melissa Ellis: The Adventurers Club for Saturday the 26th of June had a total of 224 members, 180 of which took part on this date at 100 different locations. In the UK, we had 20 events at Banstead Woods, Southampton, Reigate Priory, Hove Promenade, Buckfield, Edenbrook Country, Newport, Gunpowder, Hunstanton Promenade, Stuart, Marshall Drive, Cheadle Hulme, Macclesfield, Oakwell Hall, Selby, Tooting Common, Cirencester, Ross on Wye, Forfar Loch and Southall. In Namibia, we had one event at Walvis Bay. And in Germany, we had one event, Ollie.

00:54:19Oliver Spake: In Marowe.

00:54:21Melissa Ellis: Thank you. Locally, there were adventurers at 24 events in Victoria. 18 events in Queensland, 17 events in New South Wales, 6 in South Australia, 5 in WA, 3 in Tasmania and 1 in ACT. Also, there were 3 on the North Island of New Zealand and 1 on the South Island. Yes. So, look,

the Frond

00:54:51Oliver Spake: Well done, everyone. A lot of parkruns in a lot of locations there and a couple of fronds across the melt.

00:54:58Melissa Ellis: More than a couple, Ollie. There were four different locations that had fronds of five. So we had at Warrandyte River Reserve, Robin Rishworth, Sally Heppleston, Melanie Osmotherly, Vicki and John Smith, a.k.a. Nana Ann Parr.

00:55:19[laughter]

00:55:19Nicole: Ha, ha, ha.

00:55:20Melissa Ellis: Then out at Werribee Park Mansion, we had Andrew Johnston, Natalie Soper, Martine Barrot, Catherine Coombridge and Joanne Blackbourn. Also at Kirkdale Reserve, there were Lee Secuzo, Amanda O'Reilly, Dawn Branton, Matthew Billington and a Mr Scott. And of course, at New Farm, we had Melissa Ellis, Lyndell Murray, Tracey Wood and Pauline and Russell Taylor.

00:55:52Oliver Spake: Wow. Some great efforts. Some good fronting there.

00:55:54Melissa Ellis: Absolutely. And three from Victoria, can I just say. Yeah.

00:56:00Oliver Spake: Yeah, that kept the number of Victorian events down to 24.

00:56:03Eman: Yeah, so well done to our Victorians.

00:56:06Oliver Spake: I believe you probably, well, you may as well continue the theme. How did we go on the Vrond side of things, Mel, with our volunteering Vrons?

00:56:15Melissa Ellis: Well, to the best of my knowledge, Ollie, from personal experience, the biggest Vrond that I know of was at Eynesbury Heritage Trail Juniors. We're six adventurers volunteering. Catherine Coombridge, Adrian Hillyer, myself, Vicki Smith, John Smith and Kevin Green.

00:56:36Oliver Spake: And rest assured, Mel did check the available information. She didn't just write a list of anyone that showed up on Sunday and claim it automatically. Yeah.

00:56:46Melissa Ellis: know they're all adventurous that's oh that's absolutely right just reassuring the listeners that you you have done research and uh to the best of our squirreling um we do ask on our consolidated club report post that if anybody has volunteered they can let us know oh my goodness chihuahuas tonight are very active I do apologise we're getting some late news from our carrier chihuahuas yeah Oh, they're like carrier pigeons. Yeah, yeah.

00:56:56[other]

International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day

00:57:20Oliver Spake: Well, maybe they're bringing the advanced news, Mel, because I did, I suppose, in looking forward, did want to throw in a reminder to everyone, we're getting closer to Ugly Christmas in July. So everyone keep an eye out for those buffs. that you have ordered. Prepare your Ugly Christmas Singlets or shirts and buffs. I'm certainly enjoying the fact that mine double as nice hand warmers when I go for a run. And between, I think, two on the hands and two on the ankles, I'll be able to go the full Monty. So I'm looking forward to that. Do you put them on your ankles? I only have once, but it's a bit pointless because I run in shorts. But nonetheless...

00:58:02Melissa Ellis: I've been putting one on my wrist and I'm doing the thumbs up. Yes. Monty Slade style.

00:58:09Oliver Spake: Yes, yes.

00:58:10Melissa Ellis: Because I like to be able to reply to his post on Dazza's every week with my own thumbs up.

00:58:16Oliver Spake: Yeah, across the world.

00:58:17Melissa Ellis: I love waiting for my Monty Slade thumbs up. I'd really like to know. Oh, my goodness. I was barking in the background. I'd really like to know. I think Monty Slade is an alias. Yes. And I'd like to know if there's any significance to it, if Monty wants to add any light to his chosen alias.

00:58:42Oliver Spake: Maybe through hand signals in Dazza's posts.

Sign-off

00:58:44Melissa Ellis: Yes, sign language. Yes. But, Ollie, looking forward, apart from Ugly Christmas in July, what's your plans next week?

00:58:56Oliver Spake: I have some loose plans, Mel, that will see me not at home. Oh. So that's my start. I will be in New South Wales and I hope to make a parkrun.

00:59:06Melissa Ellis: Ooh. Would this be a parkrun not at home?

00:59:11Oliver Spake: A parkrun not at home and a parkrun that I have not done before on a parkrun day.

00:59:17Melissa Ellis: Wow.

00:59:18Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah, I'm getting greedy.

00:59:20Melissa Ellis: Look at you getting out there and touristing.

00:59:23Oliver Spake: Yes, that's right.

00:59:25Melissa Ellis: That's exciting.

00:59:26Oliver Spake: And, look, I'd be happy to reveal that if I'd made up my mind and had complete control of my circumstances, but...

00:59:35Melissa Ellis: We look forward to hearing next week.

00:59:37Oliver Spake: What about you, Mel? Are you in a position to reveal where you're going or should we just keep it all mysterious? Well, I could tell you, but I'm not going to.

00:59:45Melissa Ellis: Okay. I'm going to keep it a secret this week. I am going to adventure. I am going to get a new event, but I'm not going to tell you where I'm going. Well, there we are.

00:59:56Oliver Spake: So... Look, Mel, I think on that note, we've got nothing else to tell the listeners.

01:00:03Melissa Ellis: We don't. We're all out of information.

01:00:05Oliver Spake: That's right. So thank you, Mel, once again. Thank you, everyone. And as always, everybody, you can contact us via Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. If you'd like to send in some mail, if you'd like to record a roving report, if you've got more song suggestions, thank you very much. But that's it for another week and we'll see you all next week for more adventures.

01:01:23Unidentified speaker: Bye.

01:01:37Unidentified speaker: Hi Mel and Ollie. It's school holidays and me, Mum and Hannah are on a parkrun adventure and stay tuned to find out where we are. Bye adventurers, stay safe.