Episode 293 - Hackers

Welcome

00:00:23Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 293 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 goes Dharawal Country this week, Ollie? Nice and dry up your way?

00:00:42Oliver Spake: Well, it was, Mel. It was. It is no longer, but it was. And we remember it fondly.

00:00:49Melissa Ellis: I hope it was dry enough for parkrun day.

00:00:51Oliver Spake: It was. It made our morning. I think it was touch and go as to whether things were going to recover from the tremendous amount of rain that has been had in the region earlier in the week. I was ready to call off the event as late as Thursday night, but... things just brightened up significantly. And funnily enough, the sorts of puddles that we've seen stick around after that kind of rainfall in the recent months, they didn't seem to stick around this time. So it was a good sign. We took it and it was a great morning as a result.

00:01:26Melissa Ellis: Glad to hear.

00:01:27Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah. So, look, let's jump straight into it, Mel. Guess where I was on parkrun day?

00:01:36Melissa Ellis: At the parkrun that shall not be named, Ollie.

00:01:38Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. Yeah, I was back in the blue and white Run Director vest for NAIDOC week at Shellharbour. It was a particularly special day, opportunity to do that because the farm kiosk, our local cafe right at our start and finish line had been celebrating NAIDOC week and were very keen to support us and get in the festivities. So yeah, really great to see people dressed in some black, some yellow and some red out there celebrating NAIDOC week.

00:02:10Melissa Ellis: Very good to hear. Hopefully they had flags flying. I had a flag fail this week, Ollie, so I thought I retrieved my Aboriginal flag from my bedroom on the morning of parkrun. Turns out, no. Turns out, no. I had retrieved another country flag of similar colours. Oh, wow. Luckily, I discovered that, thank you, Harry, prior to turning up at the start line with said flag because it was the German flag, not the Aboriginal flag.

00:02:43Oliver Spake: Yes, yes, yeah. And look, that can happen in haste when you see the colours. You know, the thought counts, Mel. Yeah. All good intentions.

00:02:53Melissa Ellis: That can happen in haste when you still have a sleeping husband in the bedroom and you're trying to be quick to turn the light on, retrieve a flag and then exit quickly without waking them.

00:03:03Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:03:04Melissa Ellis: And I pledge to do better next year.

00:03:08Oliver Spake: Yes, yes. But look, so great to see so many parkruns celebrating NAIDOC week. A lot of the photos, a lot of the colour and some beautiful pictures out there. We did see, of course, our dear friends at the Beaches parkrun with a stunning photo on the beach there.

00:03:26Melissa Ellis: That was an amazing photo. I was so impressed, so impressed with that picture, even with the sun almost lined up directly with the yellow symbol of the sun in the Aboriginal flag.

00:03:42Oliver Spake: One of my favourite light shots, yes.

00:03:45Melissa Ellis: Yes.

00:03:45Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah.

00:03:46Melissa Ellis: We shall share that, Ollie.

00:03:48Oliver Spake: Yes, yes.

00:03:49Melissa Ellis: One day I'll be clever enough to do that sort of photography.

00:03:53Oliver Spake: It's good to have a long list of things we want to do, Mel.

00:03:56Melissa Ellis: You know what I did do? I wore a yellow tutu. Oh, is that right? Excellent. Yeah, yeah. Excellent. Me and Jacqui O'Connell, we were, like, vibing the Aboriginal colours in our black, yellow and red. She had a red tutu and we had our black leggings and, yeah.

00:04:13Oliver Spake: Ah, very good, very good. Well, yes, I was wearing my 50 shirt and my apricot, yellowish apricot singlet over the top and some black shorts. Yeah. Ollie yellowish really are we going the banana thing closest I had unfortunately but yeah okay yeah yeah uh I I hope I pulled it off but uh the thought counts right yeah exactly yeah I'm impressed yep good for you Thank you. But you might have to share with us, where did you go for parkrun day, Mel, to wear your yellow tutu?

00:04:24[crosstalk]

00:04:49Melissa Ellis: Well, I was adventuring locally at Kirkdale Reserve parkrun on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people in Brunswick, East Victoria. Family commitments meant I could not travel far. So as I had been keeping Kirkdale Reserve in my back pocket, I was happy to travel only one hour from home and catch up with a heap of local adventurer friends. It was event six at Kirkdale Reserve, which is a double out and back in opposite directions. The course, as we hear later from TOC, runs alongside the Mary Creek, which also has a very popular running track alongside the Mary Creek, funnily enough. Another motivation for visiting Kirkdale Reserve was that my friend and parkrun son, Harry, was visiting from Malaysia. We last heard from Harry in episode 109 when Mel and Scott chatted to him about the launch of parkrun in Malaysia. In September 2019, Paul and I made our very first overseas trip to Singapore and Malaysia and had the good fortune to be hosted by Harry, visiting the Malaysian parkrun courses for Freedom Runs, going to the Batu Caves and experiencing Malaysian street food. Just don't let Harry drive. LAUGHTER Anyway, it was a fabulous morning with much of the Melbourne tourist community in attendance in the cool yet fine conditions. I walked the course with Renee, Abby's mum, and enjoyed a great catch up. I was walking because I injured my foot the day before and Renee had a game of footy that afternoon. After the event, we all wandered over to the Sarah's Merri Creek Cafe for coffee, breakfast and the obligatory park faff.

00:06:06[laughter]

00:06:37Oliver Spake: That sounds pretty good. Great to hear Harry's out for a visit and you're having that opportunity to reciprocate in hosting at a parkrun.

00:06:46Melissa Ellis: It was. It was great. It was great to see him again. And there will be more Harry adventures coming up in the next week.

00:06:53Oliver Spake: Yes, yes, certainly look forward to it. Now, Mel, I suppose on non-parkrun topics, I do believe you've also been up to some other activities this weekend, and whilst the social aspects sound like they've been great, you got to the movies.

00:07:08Melissa Ellis: I did. I did, Ollie. I went and saw Thor. Yes, yes. Thor, Love and Thunder. I'm a big Marvel fan.

00:07:17Oliver Spake: Yeah. And look, the Thor movies in particular have evolved into something that I really enjoy as well. And as we just discovered off air before we jumped onto the pod, We were watching at the same time.

00:07:32Melissa Ellis: That's weird, isn't it? It's not the first time we've found that we've done the same thing without knowing. Didn't we go to, what was it?

00:07:43Oliver Spake: The music festivals.

00:07:44Melissa Ellis: Yes.

00:07:45Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:07:46Melissa Ellis: Without telling each other and we were both at the music festival the same day. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. I love Thor, though.

00:07:53Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:07:54Melissa Ellis: The humour.

00:07:55Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. A lot of fun, a lot of laughs and very playful. We won't spoil it. We won't spoil it. Yeah. And, of course, insist, as always, stay for the post-credits scenes. I mean, I don't know what people will do when one day the post-credits scene is not there, Mel. Wow.

00:08:17Melissa Ellis: I hope that day never comes, Ollie. So I was there with Paul, Zoe, and my mum. I'm not sure it would have been mum's first choice. I think she probably would have preferred to have been seeing Elvis, but I think she followed along enough to enjoy herself. Yes.

00:08:37Oliver Spake: Yeah, look, it is a lot of fun. Look, I've also reliably been told that Elvis is a fantastic movie as well. So hopefully she can get back out and enjoy that too.

00:08:46Melissa Ellis: I think she's got plans.

00:08:47Oliver Spake: Excellent. Excellent.

00:08:50Melissa Ellis: But I haven't also seen Doctor Strange yet. Have you seen Doctor Strange, just going off tangent?

00:08:55Oliver Spake: Yeah, look here. Welcome to the Marvel podcast, everyone. I, too, am a little behind. I have not seen Doctor Strange.

00:09:03Melissa Ellis: Okay, okay. Oh, no, I need to see that one. I am also a fan of Doctor Strange, so.

00:09:07Oliver Spake: Yes, yeah, yeah. Well, Mel, I suppose we should get back on track here.

00:09:13Melissa Ellis: Yeah, please, yeah. Steer me back, Ollie. Let's update. Have we covered you? Oh, no. Oh.

00:09:26Oliver Spake: We're going well this week. So, look, I will add a bit more. What I failed to mention a little earlier, it was good to have Kerry and Chris back, some of the Shellharbour favourites, back volunteering and covering us on the finish line. So, yeah, shout out to Kerry and Chris for their support there as finish tokens and Timekeeper respectively. And, Mel, we had an adventurer, not an adventurer adventurer, but an adventurer, stopped past, Paul Whelan, who was clocking up his 50th different event. So, needless to say, we were glad that he picked Shellharbour as that location.

00:10:07Melissa Ellis: I would concur, Ollie, but if he's not a parkrun adventurer by now, I'm going to say you haven't done your job.

00:10:13Oliver Spake: I haven't done my job. That's right. That's right. So, moving swiftly along. I believe we have a bit of news in the parkrun world. So the timing may have blurred between our weeks with last week's podcast and this week's. But in case you've missed it, the Event Day Course Check role has been confirmed as mandatory. And look, I know many, many different events have been doing this regularly, but it is an important role, Mel.

00:10:41Melissa Ellis: Oh, absolutely. To be fair, this took me off guard because we launched juniors 52 events ago with the event course check.

00:10:52Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:10:53Melissa Ellis: As a mandatory role. So I just assumed that everybody did it. But turns out, no. No, no. Now they have to.

00:11:03Oliver Spake: Yes yeah and you can understand there have been a lot of parkruns that have been going for some time they've been successfully operating they may have very different and low risk profiles as well but it's certainly done its job at home in Shellharbour where the wind and the conditions can absolutely impact the course there.

00:11:23Melissa Ellis: I agree but I can also say without naming an event that I was at in recent times. I turned up, had visitors with me from interstate, set out on a parkrun course that I was familiar with, only to be horrified to discover there was a vehicle parked across the path on the course. And it did become obvious that there hadn't been a pre-course check because had there been, then obviously the RD would have mentioned it in the brief.

00:11:54Oliver Spake: Yes, yes.

00:11:55Melissa Ellis: I mean, the vehicle did have, they had taken it upon themselves to have cones. It was a council vehicle, so they had cones around the vehicle. And it didn't pose any danger to the event. But the vehicle was still running, so we got a nice lungful of diesel fumes as we ran past. Not ideal.

00:12:14Oliver Spake: Not the sort of fuel you want to push you around a parkrun.

00:12:17Melissa Ellis: No, but it just sort of brought it home to me. Like, oh, I don't really think they've done a pre-course check here, so surprisingly.

00:12:25Oliver Spake: Yeah, and look, I suppose there can be different occasions where risks can arise in that slither of time between the check and the commencement of the event, but it is an important check and it will be great to see it being recognised and carried out around parkruns everywhere.

00:12:44Melissa Ellis: Yeah, but there was other news that was less happy, I suppose you could say. Bad news, Ollie, this week that we weren't happy to hear about.

00:12:54Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. Our friends, our dear friends in parkrun France are on pause. And there has been some... Obviously, some announcement on the socials from parkrun. And look, I'll read a little bit of that for context. I'm sure many of our listeners, if not all of you, have heard that. But just in case, it said, as people living in France or those who have travelled to the country to take part in an event such as the Paris Marathon will be aware, there is a general requirement to obtain a formal medical certificate from a doctor in order to take part in most sporting activities. parkrun has never requested a medical certificate. And that's partly because parkrun prides itself on being a community event, partly because operationally we cannot do so in a meaningful way. And most importantly, because I'm swapping between first person and third person here, so apologies. But most importantly, because we believe in doing so creates an additional barrier for those wishing to take part in free inclusive physical activity. I think despite all the best efforts, and this is me speaking now, Mel, despite all the best efforts, and those efforts will continue to try and address that, it's left them in a situation where they cannot continue for the time being. And sadly, those events are officially on pause. Dare I say, unofficially, though, there continues to be a little bit of activity, as I did notice that there was a gathering at a certain time in Paris on of people who like to run a certain distance that were out enjoying their event in a truly non-official capacity.

00:14:39Melissa Ellis: I don't profess to have been able to follow the socials really closely today as I normally would just due to my personal circumstances, but I do believe I may have seen the same reference on social media as you. So I think there's definitely a will in France to continue with parkrun, so let's hope that they can get their issues resolved and they can return officially.

00:15:08Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. And we know that the numbers in France are not always terribly high, but there are some really, truly passionate people. Actually, fun fact, we had someone doing their 250th first parkrun back home where I was on Saturday, one of our regulars. And she and her husband had two weeks ago been in Paris running the 250th. So they'd picked That to be the milestone parkrun, not Shellharbour, but, you know, I'll let that go.

00:15:44Melissa Ellis: Oh, my gosh, really?

00:15:46Oliver Spake: But they were very lucky with the timing there and our hearts go out to the community in parkrun France.

00:15:52Melissa Ellis: Yeah, but it just seems like obviously there is... a desire from the community and putting tourists aside because we all know everybody would like to go and tick off some of those iconic parkruns. Goodness knows I'd love to get to France and do a parkrun one day. But there's a key community there and it's still, it doesn't matter if you get 20 people or 50 people or 300 people or 1,000 people, there's a community there and that serves a need for them

00:16:22Oliver Spake: then we need to fight for it we need to support them they're our brothers overseas yeah yeah and that and that support um hopefully in all the right channels in all the right ways will will be what shows that there is that passion brothers and sisters I should say Yes, that's right. That's right. But Mel, speaking of passion, there's been a lot of parkrun and adventurer passion out there this parkrun day just gone.

00:16:48Melissa Ellis: Absolutely, but no bottles yet, I just noticed.

00:16:51Oliver Spake: No bottles, that's right. Where's it gone?

00:16:55Melissa Ellis: I don't know. It's missing. I don't know. Maybe it's gone to Tassie. I don't know.

00:17:01Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:17:02Melissa Ellis: Maybe Stephen.

00:17:04Oliver Spake: Yeah, Stephen Vowell. Have you seen it?

00:17:07Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Keep an eye out. Maybe it's gone south.

00:17:10Oliver Spake: Yeah. Well, Sarah, we promise it's coming somehow, sometime. Somehow, sometime.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:17:18Oliver Spake: But in the meantime, yes, our Channel 5 News crew, our adventurer community have been busy on our behalf doing what they do best, and that's parkrun adventuring. So perhaps it's time to have a bit of a listen to what they have all been up to.

Roving report Tony O'Connell — Kirkdale Reserve parkrun

00:17:41Tony O'Connell: Howdy parkrunners, Toc reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew. Today we've ventured back up to Melbourne to the lovely little park in Brunswick East called Kirkdale Reserve and I'm here with Ashnee. Ashnee, it's a lovely little parkrun you've got here. What's the river that it runs along?

00:17:58Ashnee: So we run along the Merri Creek and so, yeah, it's really beautiful along here. Coburg also runs along the Merri Creek so we do share that similarity with Coburg.

00:18:10Tony O'Connell: Speaking of Coburg, you clocked up 250 last week. Well done.

00:18:14Ashnee: Thank you, thank you. Yes, did it at home at Coburg. It was a very lovely occasion and lots of people came.

00:18:21Tony O'Connell: No, excellent, well done. So the course here, it follows the edge of the creek, and it'd be fair to say it's got a few little ups and downs in it. It's not dead flat, but it's not massively hilly. It's just a nice little rolly course.

00:18:31Ashnee: Yeah, the course is really undulating, so it's got a little bit for everybody. It's not, yeah, as you said, it's not completely flat, but it's not, the hills aren't that bad, but it's just really nice and undulating.

00:18:41Tony O'Connell: Yeah, a nice little vibe with the people out there, a few high fives and that back out on the course and a lot of people cheering each other on, which is good.

00:18:49Ashnee: Yeah, for a, I suppose, an inner city kind of parkrun, it's got a really small, beautiful community, which is what I really love about it.

00:18:58Tony O'Connell: It's one of those places that you can see with the population around it, it'll grow slowly and hopefully that's the sort of growth that you want. There's nice slow growth into it, not a big spike.

00:19:08Ashnee: Yeah, definitely. So the Merri Creek's really popular for runners, walkers and cyclists. So even this morning I spoke to a family of four who were just walking along the Merri Creek and was like, oh, what's going on here? And so I was able to talk to them about parkrun and hopefully we'll see them in the next couple of weeks.

00:19:24Tony O'Connell: Excellent. Really great event. Well done. And yeah, have fun.

00:19:28Ashnee: Thank you. Thank you so much for coming.

00:19:31Tony O'Connell: Howdy, parkrunners. It's Toc again. I'm at Kirkdale still, obviously. I've got Harry with me. Harry's this amazing bloke from Malaysia that when we went over and visited, picked us up, took us to parkrun and spent the day with us. He's come over to Australia and it'd be fair to say we haven't quite put the same weather on that Harry put on for us when we were over there. Harry's done about 174 parkruns and got a fairly good volunteering background. He's got a V-index of seven, which is really outstanding. But Harry, how are you finding Australia?

00:20:07Harry: So far it's been good. A bit cold, but obviously much better. I enjoy the walks in the cold. A couple of days I've been here now. And I really enjoyed today at Kirkdale. I like the bushwalk setting, the bridges, so on and so forth today.

00:20:24Tony O'Connell: And unfortunately Malaysia's still on hold, still on pause, but you've managed a parkrun now for, what is this, 10 weeks in a row? Yeah.

00:20:31Harry: 11 now 11 now so where have you been for that time so the idea was that I wanted to do parkrun this year because I didn't want it to be another full year without parkrun so me and my dad we we head to uh to Ireland and the UK so about 11 weeks ago I did my first parkrun of the year in donabate in in in Dublin and then I did Queen Elizabeth to get my Q in the south of England and I did Victoria Docks the week after to get my V. Then I had seven weeks in a row in Singapore, alternating between the three parkruns that they have there, Bishan, East Coast and West Coast. And just spontaneously, because my electronic visa for Australia came in quite late, so very impromptu visit here to Melbourne. I came to watch Manchester United play next week, but I wanted to get a couple of parkruns in. So Kirkdale this week, today, and hopefully You Yangs for my Y next week.

00:21:38Tony O'Connell: If you love the bushwalks, Harry, you're going to love You Yangs. It's set into a national park, and it's all trail, so it's a beautiful little walk and a run around the bush. So we mentioned before it's a little bit cool, but it'd be quite a bit cooler than Malaysia. Yeah.

00:21:55Harry: obviously obviously but you see I think I think around the world everyone wants to have different type of experiences so I would imagine Tokyo would like the warm of Malaysia and I would like to enjoy the cold of Melbourne for example so really really like for example I think between you and me we've done hundred odds of parkruns and really we've had different weather different terrain different experiences at all of them so To tell you the truth, I cannot find anything better to do than what I did a couple of minutes or half an hour ago here at Kirkdale.

00:22:35Tony O'Connell: Excellent. Yeah, no, it was a lovely little course to get around. It's great to catch up with a heap of people. I know there's other people at parkrun today here that you've met before, like Melissa and some of the others. So it's really great that you can just turn up to a parkrun in the middle of Australia or in the southern part of Australia and know so many people. That's one of the things I love about our parkrun community.

00:22:56Harry: So, like, when I spoke to you, and you told me that you were going to do Kirkdale to celebrate your son Daniel's 100th I looked up the future roster and I saw Ashley is the Run Director and I met Ashley three years ago at the parkrun conference so and then I got in touch like for example I didn't even say to Andrew that I was doing Kirkdale but he was here I have the curtains here Melissa is here Don Brenton is here. So, you know, it's very nice that I just came to Melbourne, a plan that I made four days ago, and I have about 10 to 15 people that I already know here.

00:23:38Tony O'Connell: It's a wonderful little parkrun community, isn't it? That's one of the things you've got to love about the place. Yeah. All right, Harry, well, I think it's time for us to go and get coffee. Definitely. I've got to go for a bit of cake. It's Saturday. I have my cake on Saturday. So let's go find the cafe.

00:23:53Harry: Definitely. And to everybody that is listening, you know, I just want to say we have to take our opportunities when we have them. If you want to go for a run, go. If you want to go out and do something, do it. Because What we've learned in the last two years is that if you don't take your opportunities, you might miss them and some of it permanently. So take the leap of faith and enjoy life. That's all I can say. So thanks, Toc, and take care, everybody.

00:24:20Tony O'Connell: Excellent advice, Harry. Thanks, mate.

Roving report Sarah Jefferson — Kununurra parkrun

00:24:23Sarah Jefferson: Good morning parkrun adventurers, it's Sarah here on the West Side. This morning I'm checking out the most eastern parkrun in Western Australia and the most northern parkrun in Western Australia which happens to be Kununurra parkrun. For me that means that I have achieved statesman or states lady status which is very exciting and it has been a few years in the making. This morning, I was one of five statesmen to achieve this status. One was regaining their statesmanship and four of us were achieving it for the first time. This morning, I'll have a chat to Matthew Stevens, who was one of the people to achieve his status today. Good morning, Matt.

00:25:08Matthew Stevens: Yeah, good morning.

00:25:09Sarah Jefferson: Firstly, congratulations on completing all of the parkruns in Western Australia, 46 parkruns. Well done.

00:25:16Matthew Stevens: Yeah, thank you. It's been seven years in the making, my parkrun journey. And yeah, very excited. State ticked off, big state to cover. As I said, it's taken a while.

00:25:26Sarah Jefferson: Great job, Matt. There was also lots of tourists at Kununurra parkrun this morning. Can you tell me something that you really enjoyed about the parkrun?

00:25:36Matthew Stevens: Yeah, look, it's a great course. It's a nice loop on sort of hard-packed gravel. It's nice out and around along the levee bank. You can see the river as you go. And it's just a really good vibe. I see a lot of tourists come up here and want to tick it off. A lot of nice people. And everyone's travelled from far and wide. And the locals are fantastic and the Run Director.

00:25:57Sarah Jefferson: I was looking out for a crocodile, but I didn't see one, unfortunately, as I ran past. Maybe I was running too fast.

00:26:04Matthew Stevens: Maybe. No, I didn't see any either, thank goodness.

00:26:09Sarah Jefferson: So, having you've done all of the parkruns in Western Australia, I'm going to put you on the spot. Can you please share with the listeners three of your top favourites?

00:26:17Matthew Stevens: Look, yeah, wow, 46 events. Mount Clarence down at Albany is a beautiful course. Yes, there is some slight undulations, but it's just a wonderful course and a great finish and definitely a good cafe at the end. Dawesville, down south of Perth, lovely to get to as well along the estuarine there. Very scenic. Summer can be a bit dicey with some tiger snakes, I've heard, but other than that, it's a beautiful out-and-back course. And the other one, look, can't go past probably the local Cottesloe. Yes, it's a bit tough with the sand section, but nothing better during summer or even in winter, if you're brave, to go for a nice ocean dip afterwards and, yeah, see the locals out and about.

00:27:06Sarah Jefferson: Well, that's exciting that Cottesloe made your top three, Matt. I know that after Kununurra parkrun you can go for a swim because it does finish at Swim Beach. However, there are freshwater crocodiles and I definitely was on the lookout this morning. I wasn't running too fast. That's definitely not a problem. But, yeah, I saw two freshies in the lake yesterday. So lots of local swim here. Apparently they are... timid and they won't come near you however there are the occasional sightings of salties so be warned you may swim after the event but I think I'll opt for the hotel pool just to make sure I stay safe. So, Matt, I just did a quick calculation, and from my place in Perth, to get to all of these parkruns, it was over 22,220 kilometres. So, obviously, you've completed more... some of them more than once. So a lot of land has been covered to actually achieve this status. So really well done. It's unlike, I guess, in anywhere else in the world, I would assume. So can you tell me a little bit about how you managed to cover all of these parkruns?

00:28:20Matthew Stevens: Yeah, that's a great question. Has been a lot of driving, a lot of flying. Last few years, sort of been stuck in WA. So just took the time to take advantage of that and travel domestically south to Albany, east to Kalgoorlie, north to Port Hedland, Karratha twice to head out to Hampton Oval, Dampier, which is another beautiful course. And, yeah, drive up to Geraldton for Marina Bay. That's part of the parkrun journey. It's just awesome to cover this sort of distance and to see our state.

00:28:53Sarah Jefferson: Well done, Matt. Thanks for sharing your parkrun journey with the listeners today.

Roving report Paul Kitching — Cairns parkrun

00:28:57Paul Kitching: yeah no worries I'm here in Cairns Queensland Australia it's pk good day checking in for another roving report to do my pirate challenge and I've done it I'm at the end I've actually completed my pirate challenge in beautiful Cairns 7 a.m start glorious morning and I'm here chatting with Steve the ed how are you Steve I'm good thank you thank you so much for creating parkrun mate um you've done a few you're saying

00:29:23Steve: Yeah, this is my 406th today and I've done 134 different parkruns between here and New Zealand.

00:29:30Paul Kitching: Mate, I was admiring your t-shirt before. That'll obviously get added to quite a bit.

00:29:34Steve: Yeah, it's a famous t-shirt. It was actually, if you ever look at the UK websites and you'll see all the t-shirts made by Shadow of a Saint over there. Well, it was all a copy from my original... Ah. 50th parkrun when I'd done my 50th tourist event and I was down winning down with Alan and rosian down there and it was my first time I wore the shirt and since then every time I do a different parkrun I write it on usually in the coffee shop afterwards I use a special ink it's actually a paint with a little tiny paint brush and I write it on so when all these other people have their 50 shirts all printed nicely they become out of date next time you do a tourist park with my one I

00:30:11Paul Kitching: I just keep adding to it. You are super. And speaking of T-shirts, you've got Cairns Not A parkrun 100. What's that all about?

00:30:17Steve: So again, when parkrun sort of closed down during the COVID time, we had Not A parkrun. Of course. And I do a parkrun virtually every day. And when I got to 100, I sent away for a shirt. I think I'm up to about 250 now. I still do the odd Not A parkrun during the week.

00:30:31Paul Kitching: That's brilliant.

00:30:31Steve: So Alison over in New Zealand, I'm sort of part of her barcode. Yes, of course.

00:30:36Paul Kitching: Shout out to Alison.

00:30:37Steve: G'day. And she always puts on who's done their Not A parkruns during the week.

00:30:41Paul Kitching: Brilliant. Look at you, mate. You are all over it. Well, thanks so much, Steve. I'm going to go and chat to someone else who's just done parkrun today, also visiting from a little bit further away. G'day, Lawton. How are you, mate? Great, thank you. So you're from Canada?

00:30:53Lawton: I'm from Canada, near Edmonton, Alberta.

00:30:55Paul Kitching: Awesome. And what brings you to Cairns, Australia?

00:30:58Lawton: This is our post-COVID family vacation. Fantastic, mate. We kind of started up doing parkrun back home just before this, and I was thinking, this is great. I looked up what was in Cairns, and here we are.

00:31:09Paul Kitching: Nice, mate. Fantastic. You're loving it? This is our first time here. It's pretty impressive, isn't it?

00:31:14Lawton: Yeah, what a spectacular place to run in the morning. I love it. 7 a.m. with the sun coming up. It's a great way to start.

00:31:21Paul Kitching: It sure is. What's your local parkrun like? What numbers do you get there?

00:31:25Lawton: You mean times? Oh, gosh, it's usually around 30 people. It's the River Valley in Edmonton. Is parkrun still young in Canada? It's fairly young, so there's new courses coming up all the time. And honestly, it's challenging because of the weather. So Edmonton is darn cold for much of the year. You have to dress up.

00:31:47Paul Kitching: I bet you do. Like me? Do you get dressed up like a parrot? A lot more than a parrot. Well, fantastic stuff, mate. We're going to go and find some coffee and some breakfast, but thank you so much. I really enjoyed chatting with you, and thanks for supporting parkrun Tourism.

00:32:02Lawton: Yeah, thank you. Have a great day.

00:32:03Paul Kitching: Thanks. Good on you, Lawton. Well, I found some more legends, and they're not local like us. Rachel and Andy, where are you parkrunning from?

00:32:11Rachel: We parkrun usually in Newport in South Wales.

00:32:14Paul Kitching: Fantastic. South Wales. What's the run like today?

00:32:17Rachel: Oh, fantastic. It made me smile because everybody here, all the locals here, complain about how cold it is. Well, if it's this temperature at our home parkrun, we'd think it was warm. We'd think it was beautiful.

00:32:27Paul Kitching: So whereabouts in Wales is Newport?

00:32:29Rachel: It's in the southeast corner.

00:32:31Paul Kitching: It's just outside Cardiff. Oh, yes. You know you're rugby, you'll know Cardiff. Another C. There you go. Fantastic. But we're on the run, and it was so lovely to run with you today, Rachel. Thank you. It was lovely to chat. Thanks for getting me around. That's all good, mate. You mentioned that Cardiff gets quite a few people.

00:32:46Rachel: So in Cardiff I believe they sometimes get 700 or 800 but now that I was saying that there's many more parkruns opened up locally which has taken the pressure off Cardiff a bit which was which was the intention really.

00:32:57Paul Kitching: There you go and Andy what's parkrun mean to you mate?

00:33:00Andy: Oh it's what got me fit again I spent ages not doing anything since my 20s and then I finally decided I ought to do something and it was parkrun that got me back into it.

00:33:08Paul Kitching: Love it, mate. Good on you, and you're looking fit. Well done. Beat us. I mean, we were chatting, so that's our excuse, right? Yeah, absolutely. Not that it's a race. Friendly parkrunner.

00:33:18Rachel: But you already started parkrunning when I said I was doing my half marathon for my cancer recovery, didn't you? So I'd done a half marathon before I had cancer, and I did a good time then, but I wasn't at all confident about a good time after I'd had the cancer, and so Andy said he would come with me and help me around, and so then he had to start running, didn't you?

00:33:36Paul Kitching: I had to go faster, awesome well that's awesome fantastic and one last question Wales obviously people think of the long names I know that's not necessarily in your area of Wales but what is the longest do you know if there's like some long crazy name there is a long crazy name but I don't it's Clangor what is it and we need Sophie or Ellie our daughters they learn Welsh at school so they learn it in that but we don't speak Welsh I know that it starts off with Clangor something and then it ends up with Gogogoch oh yes there's a railway station that makes yes I've seen that that's it Oh, my gosh, that's so good. Well done, Legends. Well, thank you so much. I hope you enjoy your time here in sunny Queensland. And, yeah, keep doing awesome things where, you know, where parkrun is taking you around the world.

00:34:16Rachel: Oh, thanks. Lovely to meet you, PK. Good on you.

00:34:18Paul Kitching: Thanks, Andy. Cheers. Thanks, Rachel. And there you have it. We've done our seventh C. So exciting. Love Cairns. Some great chats there with people from around the world. Thanks again, Legends. Look forward to chatting again soon. Cheers.

Roving report Sam Schroder — Darwin parkrun

00:34:34Sam Schroder: Good morning, Mel and Ollie. It's Sam here, and I got out of the comfy chair on Level 2 with a view and jumped on a plane and flew to the Northern Territory. And I'm just on my way to Darwin parkrun, really looking forward to reporting in on you, reporting in for you on the first parkrun to start up in the Northern Territory, number one of the three that there are in the Territory. So, yeah, I'll let you know how I go. I'm here with Mark, who's the event ambassador for Darwin parkrun. I did have a chat with Craig, who's the Event Director and was the Run Director at the parkrun today, but he dobbed Mark in for a quick chat. So, Mark, tell us your story. How have you ended up as an event ambassador for parkrun?

00:35:18Mark Connolly: I started Darwin parkrun about nine years ago, almost nine years ago now, just because I thought we need up here and there's none up here and quite a great event to have.

00:35:26Sam Schroder: That's awesome. And it's a beautiful course, two lapper by the water. And so did you have much trouble working out what course you would do?

00:35:33Mark Connolly: We had a few options, but this is the closest one in town. It was the easiest one to get to. And as you can see, it's a nice area, beautiful area to run by.

00:35:41Sam Schroder: Yeah, it is. It's stunning. And you told me it was cold. Let me tell you, everybody listening to this, it is not cold here. It is lovely and warm.

00:35:49Mark Connolly: I am wearing a jumper.

00:35:50Sam Schroder: Yeah. He is. He is wearing a jumper and I am not. And I am very sweaty. So prior to setting up the parkrun here, what's your parkrun story?

00:36:00Mark Connolly: No, besides listening to them on podcasts. Oh, nice. I'd heard about them on podcasts a few times and I was inquired about getting one up here to help out. No one was doing it still. On a holiday, I went for a visit down at Claisebrook Cove, had a look at it, and it was exactly what I expected. So I came back here and started one.

00:36:14Sam Schroder: That's fantastic. And apart from being the event ambassador and having set up Darwin parkrun, have you done many other parkruns yourself?

00:36:21Mark Connolly: Probably different ones up to about 20-odd different parkruns. Nice. But overall, I've done about 130 myself and a couple of volunteers.

00:36:28Sam Schroder: Excellent. That's awesome. Thank you for volunteering. Which is your favourite parkrun? You can't say Darwin. No.

00:36:37Mark Connolly: Well, the three in Darwin are my favourites. Oh, nice answer. They're all different. They're all just slightly different and all for different reasons, but I enjoy all of them.

00:36:44Sam Schroder: Excellent. Well, I've already decided I've got to come back and do Nightcliff. Yeah, Nightcliff's wonderful. I've heard it's a beautiful course. Thank you so much for having a quick chat with me. I really appreciate it. No worries. I hope you enjoy your stay. Thank you. Darwin parkrun, wow, what a beauty. She's a two-lapper, splits up a little bit along the way, so you go down by the water on the way out and come back closer to the road on the way back for a short period, but essentially a two-lap out-and-back course, and just spectacular. I got here at 6.30, it was still pitch dark. We did parkrun as the sun rose, starting at 7am, And this is just a really, really magical place. There are toilets at the start-finish line. There's a playground nearby. It's in Darwin Bicentennial Park, which is absolutely beautiful. And as I said, right by the water, Darwin is an amazing town. If you haven't been to the Northern Territory and you haven't visited Darwin, I highly recommend it. Bye.

00:37:54Melissa Ellis: That was great to hear from all our roving reporters, one in training, Sarah from Kununurra, who achieved States Ladyship, Ollie.

00:38:06Oliver Spake: Yes, yes, I like that. And I think she titled herself both. So, hey, two birds, one stone, statesmanship and States Ladyship, whichever we want to call it. So congratulations. And to Matty, who she spoke with as well there.

00:38:23Melissa Ellis: And we do know there's no mean feat achieving all events in West Australia. We have made light of it in the past and tried to infer that it may be harder to achieve statesmanship in other states, but that doesn't take anything away from the achievements in WA and how far away some of those remote events are. So good on all the WA statesmen.

00:38:48Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. And speaking of far away, thank you also to PK doing a bit of a far away roving report and finally becoming a pirate. Catching some other far away parkrunners who were visiting internationally.

00:39:06Melissa Ellis: Yes, and also far away this week was our very own Office Lady.

00:39:10Oliver Spake: Yes, yes, yeah, yeah, way to pop up in the warm spot.

00:39:14Melissa Ellis: Yeah, did we approve that leave? I'm not sure. I didn't see that leave up actually come across my desk but, yeah, brilliant for Sam to be up in Darwin living the dream and chatting with Mark Connolly who is well known up there as the founder of the Darwin parkrun and the Northern Territory Event Ambassador.

00:39:34Oliver Spake: Mm, that's right. And, of course, thank you, Toc. A bit closer to home for you there, Mel, with some familiar voices.

00:39:42Melissa Ellis: Yes, he always does a great job.

00:39:44Oliver Spake: Yes, yeah, yeah. So Toc joining us from Kirkdale Reserve parkrun, where all the fun was at, apparently.

the Frond — Kirkdale Reserve parkrun

00:39:50Melissa Ellis: It was. The biggest frond.

00:39:52Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:39:54Melissa Ellis: More about that later.

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

Emails

00:39:56Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:39:56Melissa Ellis: But, Ollie, this week, no mail.

00:39:58Oliver Spake: Yeah. Yep. All quiet in the inbox. As far as I know. Unless someone deleted them. I didn't check.

00:40:05Melissa Ellis: Oh, I did have some mail fails this week. But that was resolved.

00:40:10Oliver Spake: Okay. Yeah. All right. Nothing funny going on then. That's good. Okay.

Dazza's

00:40:15Oliver Spake: All right. Well, let's move on to Dazza's. And we talked about the weather a little earlier. Funnily enough, there was a bit of a... Bit of a theme there. So at Dazza's, Dazza's said, welcome to Dazza's. It's wet and cold at Dazza's today. How's the weather at your place? And did it have an impact on your parkrun fun? Come on in and tell us all about it. And look, a lot of people joined us once again, Mel.

00:40:47The Informant: This is The Informant. Keen listeners may have noticed the boss had slipped in a sneaky self-plug into my script last week. Well, two can play that game. While much to my dismay, I have lost the battle with the rank-and-file over the not-milk, we're still full steam ahead with a united push for the caramilk. So this week's pod, well, it could be a little different. And we're starting with a work ban on Dazza's. Listeners, for this week, your Dazza's report will be a self-driven read of the Facebook page. You'll see every post and every photo. The productivity improvement. Now, back to our regular podcast with Melissa and Oliver.

the Obi Award

00:41:32Melissa Ellis: Congratulations to our Obi winner this week, Ollie. Very well deserved.

00:41:37Oliver Spake: Yeah, it certainly is. And thank you, everyone, for dropping into Dazza's once again. Out of the weather for some of you, some good weather for others, and plenty great adventures, achievements, and photos. Always love the photos.

00:41:51Melissa Ellis: Yes, absolutely.

00:41:53[music]

the Informant

00:41:53Melissa Ellis: I do too. But now, Ollie, it's time for us to listen to our informant.

00:42:09The Informant: This is The Informant, coming to you live from Level 2 with a view. And this week's view is... Well, it's all the space I have made in the fridge, ready to be fully stocked with Caramilk hokey pokey.

00:42:24Sam Schroder: But I prefer almond milk.

00:42:26Beige Man: No, the almond milk is staying, but the caramel is new.

00:42:32The Informant: Ah, finally someone gets it. Yes, you can toss the not milk placards. But keep waving the others. With this new line of attack, we've got them on the road. Now these stats are unofficial stats. They're only current at the time they're collected and may differ from the stats that yada yada. There were 438 runs held down under, up 5 on last week. 37 in New Zealand and 401 of these were in Australia. Worldwide there was 1,730 events. Aussie New Zealand attendance was 34,002 out of almost 188,000 worldwide. There were four event launches, one in each of Canada, Germany, Ireland and Norway. Down under we had 3,670 PBs, while 1,375 people participated for the first time. 77 juniors reached their Junior 10 milestone, 174 people reached their 50 milestone, 107 reached their 100 milestone, and 23 people reached their 250 milestone. 22 people called bingo. Todd Osmond-Dreyer was quickest on 153 runs, while Natty B was slowest on 375 runs. I see Melissa Ellis and Oliver Spake have not completed their bingo yet. Hmm, that's not very productive. There were 12 new statespeople. Charlotte Marshall and Karen Martin in the ACT. Deborah Watchorn, Nicholas Consiones, Ashley Salter, Marie Lyons and William Blake finished the Northern Territory. Matthew Stevens, Sarah Jefferson, Jonathan Storey, Jim and Karen Hailstone all journeyed to Kununurra to complete the Western Australia, which is an almighty effort and a lot of kilometres, isn't it, Cam? In the top 20 most Aussie New Zealand events list, Neil Scott goes back up one spot to equal 13th after running his 140th at Welka. Overall, on the biggest movers list, Lou Streets, Tim McKinley and Susan Holley moved up nine ranks to 173 after running their 95th different parkrun. 45 people lifted their Wilson index this week. This week's biggest mover is Christine Taylor, who moves up 40 to 78 and 6 in the WA ranks. Blair Habergen, who was second on the overall list, moved up 34 to 104 and cracks into the Queensland ranks at 10th place. Tracey McColl, fourth overall, moves into ninth on the South Australian list with 57. Former host Scotty Trickett also cracks the top five on the list, shifting his Wilson index up 19. He's a good man, Scotty. Very funny. And good looking, too. I wish I was working for Scotty. In the adventurer Challenges, once again we had no Peels, but we had five half Cowells. The big news is Samantha Howe, who completed her 100th event to claim cow at Henry Kendall Reserve. Well, good on ya! Now if you want to see these juicy caramel flavoured stats in full, you can find them at theinformant.me. That's www.theinformant.me. Or look for The Informant on Facebook. This has been The Informant. My spreadsheet is back and it's better than yours.

00:46:15Oliver Spake: And thank you very much to The Informant once again. It's always great to hear from them, Mel. Yeah.

00:46:22Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Well, I'm just going to say, Ollie, I think we're moving forward in the industrial relations. Yeah, you mean a positive fashion? Yeah, yeah. You know, like the workplace industry.

00:46:35Oliver Spake: Yes, yes, yeah. Well, I wasn't going to bring it up because I thought it was going quite well as well. Okay. Oh, you're right.

00:46:41Melissa Ellis: You forget what I said. Okay.

00:46:42Oliver Spake: No, no, that's quite right. And it's always nice to feel like the team are one. Yeah, yeah. Speaking of one team, Mel, let's catch up with another one team, the Adventurers Club.

Consolidated Club Report

00:46:56Oliver Spake: Can you tell us about the Consolidated Club Report for Saturday Just Gone? I can.

00:47:00Melissa Ellis: Absolutely. So let's hear about the adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Saturday the 9th of July 2022.

00:47:07The Informant: This is the informant. Again, now about this Consolidated Club Report. I don't think we need it. Do you, Beige Man?

00:47:17Beige Man: No, I don't think so. Especially if it gets you off my case.

00:47:22The Informant: That's right. You don't.

00:47:24Beige Man: So? I don't have nipples.

00:47:29The Informant: Oh my God! We, as a united group, can see merit in leaving out the Consolidated Club report. For this week, your CCR will be a self-driven read of the Facebook page. You'll be able to read at your leisure, at a speed you like best. Oh dear, another productivity improvement. Perhaps we can drop the hours of Melissa and Oliver. I wonder what we could spend the cash surplus on. Almond milk? Oh, my God. We've dropped the milk thing. Back to the regular podcast.

00:48:08Oliver Spake: And thank you very much, Mel. Congratulations to everyone out there from the adventurers community getting out there and, yeah, having a good parkrun. And, of course, to all of our volunteers.

00:48:21Melissa Ellis: Absolutely, yes.

Sign-off

00:48:22Oliver Spake: Yes. But let's have a look forward now, Mel. It's a bit of a special week. What are you looking forward to this week apart from your birthday? Happy birthday for this week, Mel.

00:48:35Melissa Ellis: Oh, thank you. I am looking forward to Ollie having a birthday not locked down. So the previous two years, I could not have my family around me on my birthday because Melbourne was in hard lockdown. So this is the first year that we're free.

00:48:50Oliver Spake: Yeah. It's a nice change. It is. I trust. Yeah, absolutely it is. I mean, you weren't getting settled celebrating at home? Sorry, no.

00:49:01Melissa Ellis: No.

00:49:01Oliver Spake: Too soon. Too soon.

00:49:04Melissa Ellis: Don't talk about the war. No, we don't want to go back there. No, we're free and we're happy and looking forward to seeing family. Thank you very much. And going out for dinner, hopefully, fingers crossed, and parkrun Day. Yes. I'm going to have a guest this week, Ollie.

00:49:20Oliver Spake: Oh, yes.

00:49:20Melissa Ellis: Yes, that's right. That's right. I am going to take Harry. Harry from Malaysia is going to be coming with me to the You Yangs. So absolutely looking forward to that. Harry can't drive. Don't tell him he can't drive. And yeah, he will be ticking off his Y out at the Yuis.

00:49:43Oliver Spake: That sounds like a pretty good parkrun morning.

00:49:45Melissa Ellis: Mm-hmm. I think it will be. And it's going to be Harry's birthday too.

00:49:49Oliver Spake: Oh, wow. I know. You guys know how to celebrate. Wow.

00:49:53Melissa Ellis: Yeah. All the birthdays are happening down here.

00:49:56Oliver Spake: Yes. Yeah. Well, I hope you have a good parkrun day there, Mel.

00:50:00Melissa Ellis: Thank you very much, Ollie Party Town. And Harry too, of course, yes. But what about you?

00:50:06Oliver Spake: What about me? Well, I don't plan to venture too far afield for my parkrun this coming parkrun day. In fact, I may just volunteer. I haven't decided. I'll see how the roster falls. I'll be in a familiar location, either in a vest or not. I haven't actually done an official parkrun on our new course since we changed our course.

00:50:30Melissa Ellis: Really? All these weeks?

00:50:32Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah, that's right. I think officially we ticked over when we relaunched. We had the new course. We had the old course for two days. So we've been running this one since the beginning of January, effectively.

00:50:45Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah, you have officially ran your own course since January. Oh, my goodness.

00:50:51Oliver Spake: So, yeah, we'll see. We'll see. I do want to get my volunteering count up. I do have a goal this year. So we'll see there.

00:51:00Melissa Ellis: Excellent. Well, I hope you have a very happy parkrun day.

00:51:04Oliver Spake: Thank you very much.

00:51:05Melissa Ellis: Whatever role that you end up in.

00:51:07Oliver Spake: That's right. I will. That's assured. But it's been another fantastic week. Thank you, Mel. Thank you, everyone. I guess it's time. As always, everyone, you can contact us, please do, via Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That is it for another week, and we'll see you all next week for more adventures.

00:51:28[music]

00:52:30The Informant: Hi, Mel and Ollie.

00:52:43Beige Man: This weekend... What does this button do?

00:52:46Oliver Spake: Message deleted.

00:52:47Beige Man: Oops.