Episode 294 - the new U

Welcome

00:00:17Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 294 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country.

00:00:25Scott Trickett: And my name's Scotty Trickett and I'm also coming to you from Wurundjeri Country as well. And Mel, I still love that music. That is the best intro music going around. I'm so glad you've kept it after all those years.

00:00:31[music]

00:00:39Melissa Ellis: Oh, you're welcome.

Interview Scott Trickett — Original co-host, returning as guest co-host; former parkrun Australia staff member

00:00:40Melissa Ellis: And welcome back, Scott. Thank you. I'm so pleased that you could co-host with me tonight. Where have you been?

00:00:47Scott Trickett: Yeah, well, I've been absent for a number of years, as most of the regular listeners would be aware, parkrun wouldn't let me come back on, would they? And I no longer work for parkrun anymore, so as soon as you put out the olive branch, I just jumped on it, so... I'm thrilled to be here thrilled to be back for 294 I can't believe we're still going after all these years well we're doing our best Scotty we uh we've rearranged the furniture a little bit you might have noticed when you when you came by yeah I did so one of my old favourite sayings like let's peel back the curtain so I haven't I haven't been listening which I've been very transparent with you and Ollie yeah I haven't been listening every week um but I did go on a long run this afternoon and I caught up on the last couple of episodes and I thoroughly enjoyed them. And one thing that stood out to me is that it's no longer Mel and I's podcast anymore. This is very much Mel and Ollie's podcast. And I love that. Like you've definitely introduced your own flavour to it and you captivated me for two episodes and I'm looking forward to going back. So I'm listening in reverse, which is, Is that how you do it? I did think about it. Do I go back like 20 episodes to where I left off or do I just listen to the most recent and then work my way back?

00:02:13Melissa Ellis: We had a big discussion about this about five episodes ago. Oh, did you? Because I got – I started listening to the back catalogue and I went back to episode 100 on one of my long car trips and I wanted to listen from 100 onwards. Right. But my – The podcast app kept trying to take me backwards and I didn't want to listen in reverse order.

00:02:35Scott Trickett: Ah, so the podcast app was determining how you do it.

00:02:38Melissa Ellis: Yeah, but apparently there's a setting and it's quite easy to fix. Okay.

00:02:43Scott Trickett: Well, maybe that's the default way to do it. And look, it worked for me for two episodes, but maybe once I get a month or two months out of date, it might not be as relevant.

00:02:54Melissa Ellis: So here's the other thing, Scott, that you don't know because you are up to date, that I issued you a challenge a few weeks ago.

00:03:01Scott Trickett: I had heard rumours about this.

00:03:05Melissa Ellis: And I was trying to be clever after that very difficult challenge you issued me to become a part of the Channel 5 News crew. So I wanted you to have to go out. Before I would allow you back on the podcast, you had to go out and interview a Mel and an Ollie or something like that.

00:03:23Scott Trickett: Oh, really? Yes. Okay. Well, I'm glad I didn't listen because I never would have done that.

00:03:31Melissa Ellis: And instead I've just gone, welcome back.

00:03:35Scott Trickett: Okay, well, we had a chat beforehand, so that's the interview. We just won't air it. And Ollie, I caught up with an Ollie at parkrun a few weeks ago. Not the Ollie, but another Ollie. So just take my word for it.

00:03:51Melissa Ellis: Okay.

00:03:51Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:03:52Melissa Ellis: All right. Well, I think you get special dispensation anyway, being a previous host and everything. But, Scotty, are you still enjoying your parkrun? Where were you on Saturday? Okay.

00:04:03Scott Trickett: Yeah, absolutely. So I was back at home, which I know is a bit boring. So one thing I did pick up by listening to the last couple of episodes is that obviously Ollie is not quite the adventurer that we all hoped he would be. And he enjoys going to his home event, which is fine. It's a different kind of adventuring. But I was at my home event on Saturday. But For a very good reason. I was at Westerfolds. Some of you may have heard of it. And we had a collection of Westerfoldians doing 250. So we had four Westerfoldians doing the 250th and a couple doing the 100th. So it was a real milestone celebration. So I had to be back home and celebrate with them. And I got to enjoy some post-parkrun breakfast, which was wonderful, because since I've left doing the podcast, I haven't had this obsession about going to new events and trialing new events. What my parkrun morning has become over the last few years is just like where are my mates going and is there a reason to go this to this event this week um as opposed to I've got to go catch a new event like there's an event here in Melbourne Warrandyte that was in my lockdown bubble and you know I ran that course over and over again when we were in lockdown but I still haven't been there um because none of my mates have been going when I've been free.

00:05:34Melissa Ellis: Well, plenty of time. They're not going anywhere, are they?

00:05:38Scott Trickett: No, they're not. They're not. So I was at Westerfolds, just a casual run and chat around that wonderful park. Where were you?

00:05:48Melissa Ellis: Well, I, after a very late night on Friday night attending Manchester United, the soccer-friendly against Melbourne Victory, the MCG, I ventured out to You Yangs parkrun for my third visit at event 222, part of the Nelson, New Nelson Challenge. Well, probably not new, I guess, but in any case, I was there with guest tourist Harry, who was happily collecting his wine.

00:06:15Scott Trickett: Right. I heard Harry on last week's pod. He was at Kirkdale with you, so he's been following you around for a couple of weeks.

00:06:23Melissa Ellis: He has, yes.

00:06:24Scott Trickett: Did he enjoy You Yangs?

00:06:25Melissa Ellis: I think so. I think so. No bridges out at You Yangs, which I should add is on the traditional land of the Wathaurong people. And we had fair skies, which was good. Continuing in Victoria, making it a very pleasant run around the one loop course. And numbers were slightly up. There were 46 participants out there. That's big for You Yangs.

00:06:51Scott Trickett: It's a little bit tricky to get to, isn't it? Like it's great to have a Y in the vicinity of metropolitan Melbourne. But, yeah, it's a little bit tricky to get to.

00:07:02Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Yep. Yep. There was a Trails Plus running event out there, which was why there was why. Why there was more people than normal. So afterwards, Harry and I joined fellow adventurers Jeff and Narelle Whiffen for Miller's Lara for brunch and took a drive down the Great Ocean Road to Lawn. Wow. And visited a very muddy waterfall at Kalimna Falls. So, yeah, it was good to catch up. And there was other parkrun friends there, Donna, Suzanne and Gary, as well as fellow adventurers, Nicola and Kevin, and met a listener, Andrea.

00:07:42Scott Trickett: Nobody talks to me about the podcast anymore, so I don't know if they're listeners. Although I can retell a story. I went to Castlemaine a couple of weeks ago. I was up there doing cross-country and I was staying with a mate that I met through parkrun. And I finished, you know, Castlemaine, it's in regional Victoria, greater state. And, yeah, after the event, this guy comes up to me and says, hey, you're Scott Trickett. And I go, yes, I am.

Poem Zone

00:08:11Scott Trickett: And he remembered me from the podcast days and he gave me the biggest thrill because he remembered the poem zone.

00:08:18Unidentified speaker: Oh, yeah.

00:08:19Scott Trickett: And Chris said he sent in an entry and it just warmed my heart to know that a little part of the Poem Zone is still living on in the parkrun universe.

00:08:32Melissa Ellis: It made an impact, the Poem Zone.

00:08:35Scott Trickett: I just like the name. But, you know, I'm glad that people still remember the Poem Zone. And you. And me, yeah, yeah, yeah. So obviously I haven't changed in four years. A lot has changed in four years, but I'm still the same guy that was doing the podcast a few years ago.

00:08:57Melissa Ellis: What's on the horizon for Scotty Trickett now?

00:09:00Scott Trickett: So I'm not going to be unemployed and destitute, Mel. I'm ready to go to my next challenge, post-parkrun, and I'm really looking forward to it. can't say too much more than that. But I will say I absolutely loved my five years working for parkrun. A lot of people, you know, it's a very small and privileged group of people who get to call themselves employees of parkrun. And that number is going to grow as parkrun grows over the years. And I absolutely loved my time being the voice of parkrun in Australia. But I also thought it was time for someone else to be that voice. You know, I'm a middle-aged white guy in suburban Melbourne and maybe it's just time for that to be taken in a new direction and parkrun's changing. You know, we've been through two years of a terrible pandemic and that has definitely affected participation numbers at all sports and parkrun has not been immune to that. So I think parkrun's going to just go through a period of consolidation and try and grow those numbers back and which is the right thing to do. And I just think it's a great opportunity for someone else to do that. And it's not me, but absolutely loved my time. Really thankful for Tim giving me that opportunity to come on board when he did. And, yeah, I'm definitely, definitely happy and looking forward to the next chapter in the Scotty Trickett world.

00:10:44Melissa Ellis: Excellent. Good to hear. Well, onwards and upwards, that's what I say.

00:10:48Scott Trickett: Absolutely.

00:10:49Melissa Ellis: Now, feedback. Feedback from our last episode. You could probably give us some, but you would know that we had some issues last week with our production.

00:11:02Scott Trickett: I couldn't help.

00:11:04Melissa Ellis: We had some segments that were cut out. may or may not have had to do with some industrial action that we've been experiencing. But in any case, our listeners weren't very happy about it. It was a bit of unrest that Dazza's was cut. But not only that, what caused the most angst was Abby's audio at the end being cut, accidentally deleted but I don't think that was deliberate I actually think that was more user error than anything else um but I can reassure everybody that these issues have been resolved and this week we are returning to regular programming so abby's back this way are you going to point the finger at anyone can we you know is it is it an us versus them mentality within the team here we're working on workplace cohesion okay

00:11:53Scott Trickett: I will say I liked the informant last week because he gave me a shout-out. Oh, yes. I agree with everything he says. I haven't agreed with stuff that I've heard from him, but last week he was on point. I am hilarious, and I think he said I was very attractive.

00:12:11Melissa Ellis: You've got a big fan there.

00:12:12Unidentified speaker: Good.

00:12:13Scott Trickett: And he also noted that I upped my Wilson Index, which was nice to hear.

00:12:19Melissa Ellis: Yeah, we track these things.

00:12:20Scott Trickett: Yeah, that's great. Great.

00:12:24Melissa Ellis: But what else has been happening this week in parkrun world? We have had our third 500th parkrun. What do you call it? Not a recipient. Well, Kian Farm. Fam? Farm. Fam. Fam. She ran her 500th out at New Farm on the weekend and Lyndell was out there on the spot to get all the details. So we'll hear a bit more from Lyndell later. But it was Kian's 78th different event and she's run in two countries, being Australia and our brethren over in New Zealand.

00:13:03Scott Trickett: Well done, Kian. In my travels, I'm pretty sure I might have met Kian because I think in the early days, You know, when parkrun was launching, there was, like, people on 100 and 200, and that was like unicorns. And, yeah, so well done. That's a lot of parkrunning.

00:13:21Melissa Ellis: It is.

00:13:22Scott Trickett: Yeah.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:13:23Melissa Ellis: And we also welcomed three new events over in the USA this week. Coler Mountain Bike Preserve.

00:13:30Scott Trickett: You reckon that's how you say it? I don't reckon that's how you say it.

00:13:32Unidentified speaker: Okay.

00:13:33Melissa Ellis: Okay. What's the first word then? Collar.

00:13:36Scott Trickett: I reckon that's collar.

00:13:37Melissa Ellis: Collar. Collar mountain bike preserve. I actually did Google that one because I was thinking it should have been reserve, but it's not. It's definitely preserve.

00:13:46Scott Trickett: Yeah. Well, look, you've done more research than me, so maybe you're right.

00:13:50Melissa Ellis: And Little Sugar Creek Greenway and Osborn MetroPark. They are the three new events over in the USA. So hopefully they are well attended and go on to be very successful events.

00:14:05Scott Trickett: They love a long name in the US, don't they? In fact, everyone loves it. Have you had the discussion about the naming convention of parkruns?

00:14:12Melissa Ellis: They're getting very long and there's lots of reserves. Yeah. And they're all named after men. Well, ours are. Ours seem to be these days.

00:14:21Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:14:22Melissa Ellis: But no, we haven't really had a conversation.

00:14:24Scott Trickett: I tell you what, maybe a few more weeks removed from being an employee of parkrun, get me back on the podcast and we can have a real talk about the naming convention. Because, yeah, whew. But, hey, that's good for parkrun USA. Like, I think... about time parkrun took off in the u.s and parkrun tourism over there as well because they have long distances to travel to try to be tourists yeah so well done parkrun USA Ewan is in charge of north America and I was obviously doing a bloody good job so well done well done so there's a line now that says I throw to the roving reports is this it are we ready to go yeah we are they're good this week aren't they we've got Do we intro them beforehand or do we back announce them?

00:15:11Melissa Ellis: Back announce.

00:15:12Scott Trickett: Okay. Well, there's a few coming up. There's a lot coming up. And I reckon they're all going to be great. So take it away, roving reporters.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Mark Scarborough — Umbagong District parkrun

00:15:30Mark Scarborough: Hello parkrun adventurers, this is Mark reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew and I'm at the trial number two for Umbagong District parkrun in Canberra and I'm here with the ED. Alison, good morning Alison, how are you?

00:15:41Alison - Event Director, Umbagong District parkrun: I'm good thanks, thanks for having me Mark, it's a pleasure to be on the podcast today.

00:15:45Mark Scarborough: This is going to be Canberra's newest parkrun so when you hear this on the podcast we would have launched here. How have you found the trial so far?

00:15:53Alison - Event Director, Umbagong District parkrun: I found it's really good. We're getting some positive feedback and we're getting some creative criticisms of the course. There's a few hills that are a bit unexpected and it's turned out to be a really great morning.

00:16:03Mark Scarborough: So there's a few attractions to Umbagong parkrun. So in the briefing this morning, you spoke about at Umbagong, we have the kangaroos, wombats and platypus. How cool is that?

00:16:11Alison - Event Director, Umbagong District parkrun: Oh, it's absolutely amazing. It's nice to see nature probably about 500 metres in front of you.

00:16:15Mark Scarborough: How's it been getting Umbagong off the ground and getting the volunteers together to launch?

00:16:20Alison - Event Director, Umbagong District parkrun: It's been a fairly hard process. It's been probably close to about three years now for us to get Umbagong off the ground. In terms of volunteers, we've had a great outcome in terms of getting our roster filled for the next couple of weeks. We've pretty much sorted for launch date and we've got a really good team. We're looking forward to working together and hopefully making the community parkrun a positive one for the area of Latham.

00:16:41Mark Scarborough: This parkrun wouldn't be without some financial support. How did that come about?

00:16:45Alison - Event Director, Umbagong District parkrun: I unfortunately come in just after financial support was obtained, but we at Umbagong have received a private donation from the Prince family of probably three quarters of their overall funding, and Ginninderry Estate had provided $1,000 to finalise all of our financial obligations.

00:17:03Mark Scarborough: Ginninderry Estate is a new estate being built in the West Belconnen area of Canberra. Good of them to get behind and recognise that for their community, their building, that parkrun's important and obviously a big acknowledgement to the Prince family as well for their support. Can you, for the listeners, describe the course for us?

00:17:18Alison - Event Director, Umbagong District parkrun: The course is an unrelated course. It is narrow and bumpy through certain places, of course. It is a bit unexpected for a lot of people. It is narrow, so it is single file for most of the course as It can be quite squishy in certain places but it is hilly, it is through nature and nature is pretty much on your doorstep.

00:17:36Mark Scarborough: Thank you very much and good luck for the launch day. I'm sure that I'll see you here sometime in the coming weeks.

00:17:41Alison - Event Director, Umbagong District parkrun: Perfect, thank you Mark and appreciate having me.

00:17:44Mark Scarborough: I'm here with Peter, who was one of the people that donated generously to this cause here at Umbagong parkrun. Peter, can you talk a bit more about how that financial contribution came about?

00:17:52Peter - Umbagong donor: Sure. My disabled brother, Robin, passed away last year from pancreatic cancer. He loved parkrun. He lived in Mittagong in the Southern Highlands in a group house. And every Saturday morning, one of his carers would take him to Bowral parkrun and he was... Just welcomed as one of the family and they were so lovely and welcoming to him and it just shows how much parkrun is absolutely everyone. By that stage he had trouble with his eyesight so he could only walk. He's always been kept very fit by mother and he would often just leave his carers in the shade. Umbagong parkrun is exactly the type of lovely bushy walk that my mother and brother used to really enjoy going on around the Southern Highlands. And she'd come down from Sydney and roar all around the Southern Highlands in her little car, which led to a police chase one day. After she turned 90, she was caught going 135 kilometres an hour on the Hume Highway. I think I've heard about this story.

00:18:55Mark Scarborough: Was she driving like a Porsche or something? No, not a Porsche.

00:18:58Peter - Umbagong donor: She used to run into everything. It was always everybody else's fault, so I was a little beaten up by Hyundai.

00:19:03Mark Scarborough: That's a bit of a different story I heard.

00:19:04Peter - Umbagong donor: Yeah, yeah. No, that's absolutely right. Yeah, so my brother was 58 when he passed away. When he was younger, he was famous for two things. That was running and eating. He had an intellectual disability, so an IQ of a three-year-old, but he could run. In 1979, we travelled an hour in from the north of Sydney, found the start of the City to Surf, ran the 14 kilometres for the City to Surf in 70 minutes, and then got ourselves all the way home again. And for him, that was a huge day, but he just did it. And he'd come down to Canberra, do 10-kilometre runs down here in under five minutes. And then later on he had problems with his eyes but my mum would just keep him walking, parkrun at Bowral was so good for him and also for the carers. So my wife's a Run Director at Burley Griffin and after he passed away she had a lovely idea of asking parkrun Australia if we could make a donation in his memory. And they said the planning was taking place for Umbagong, and we thought that would be a perfect thing to help support in his memory. That's fantastic, yeah. Wonderful. That's how it came about.

00:20:10Mark Scarborough: Thank you very much Peter for sharing that story and for the donation in honour of your brother Robin. He was able to give back to the community that obviously gave to him so thank you very much.

00:20:20Peter - Umbagong donor: It's an honour to be able to help a great new parkrun start off.

00:20:24Mark Scarborough: Great, thank you. I'm here with Bruce now and Umbagong was actually I suppose the brainchild of Bruce. He must be pleased to see it off the ground finally after many, many years.

00:20:32Bruce - Umbagong instigator: absolutely so it's been about three years in planning stages and trying to get finance and doing all the things so yeah it's great to have it and a trial with about 50 people has been awesome so there was a few challenges in that time come through it must have been a bit of a frustrating couple years it was and for me personally I actually moved away from the area as well so that didn't help but yeah covert certainly didn't help at all but we did a few trial runs with parkrunners and realised it was actually going to work so it reinforced our commitment to making sure we got it happening

00:21:01Mark Scarborough: What attracted you to this area initially?

00:21:03Bruce - Umbagong instigator: I've lived in the McGregor area for about 45 years, so it's been my home. I've always just loved the scenery around here and the challenge of the course.

00:21:12Mark Scarborough: I assume you'll be here for launch day?

00:21:14Bruce - Umbagong instigator: I'll definitely be here. It's also my 250th next week, so I'm joining both of them together. It's going to work out really well.

00:21:20Mark Scarborough: Couldn't write a better story. Well done. All right, cool. Thanks, Bruce. Now I'm with Andrew Smith. He's the event ambassador for many of the Canberra parkruns. Morning, Andrew.

00:21:29Andrew Smith: G'day, Mark. Thanks for coming out.

00:21:30Mark Scarborough: Pleasure. So what did you think? Trial number two?

00:21:33Andrew Smith: It's great. I think these trials are an excellent way to test risk assessment, test the course operation and get general feedback from experienced parkrunners.

00:21:42Mark Scarborough: And what do you think about what this means to Canberra by adding this one? It's been a number of years since we've had a new parkrun start. So what do you think about how that means to Canberra?

00:21:51Andrew Smith: It's three years, I think, since your event, Waggie Bridge, got underway, Ian, before you. I think it's great. It's the eighth event for the ACT. It addresses the West Belconnen population as a growing population and community. In the Ginninderry development, they were one of the funders for our event. But out to the border now is due to be constructed and residential. So there's quite a growth population-wise, probably a population much like many which is going to bring young people and retirees and older people who will embrace that the GP initiative and walking at parkrun initiative where we're hoping we'll be leveraged here at Umbagong.

00:22:25Mark Scarborough: And for our parkrun adventurers I think the exciting thing about Umbagong is the unicorn, the letter U for people who are chasing the alphabet.

00:22:33Andrew Smith: We are doing a soft launch for that reason. There are two other U events. There's Urunga, which is south of Coffs Harbour, and Underwood Park, which is Metro South Brisbane, which gets quite a high attendance. In sort of preparing for this course, we've analysed the event information for those and to see how, to sort of predict how our course will grow over that time. Knowing, of course, we'll always get the tourists, but we're looking forward to bringing people to parkrun in the local community. Yeah.

00:22:59Mark Scarborough: All right. Excellent. Thanks for your time, Andrew.

00:23:01Andrew Smith: Yeah, thanks, Mark. Appreciate it.

00:23:03Mark Scarborough: All right, parkrun adventurers, that's us done at the Umbagong District parkrun, trial number two. See you next time on the parkrun adventurers.

Roving report Lyndell Murray — New Farm parkrun

00:23:11Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it is Lyndell and today I am coming to you from the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal First Nations people. I am in Brisbane at New Farm parkrun. Now, I have no need to be here today for any of the challenges that I'm chasing. It is a P&X run for me, but I'm up to date with New Farm. And look, New Farm's received a lot of love on the pod. I've done roving reports here and Mel talked it up after her recent trip too. But I don't need a lot of encouragement to come back here. It's where I did my first parkrun and as Mel said a couple of weeks ago, it's a really beautiful course. So here I am now. What has drawn me here? I am here to track down a milestone runner. A parkrunner by the name of Kiani is doing her 500th parkrun here today at New Farm. I have to admit, I have not done my research. I have not done the stats. I don't know how many Australians have actually achieved this, but I think I'm going to go for the technical estimation of not very many. I'll leave the actual stats to the informant. I mean, let's be honest, with all the industrial action that's been happening there lately, I'm not causing any trouble there. So... The theme for today, being a blue shirt milestone, is blue. So I'm here early. I'm wearing every bit of blue that I own, including shorts. Although today is not shorts weather for us Queenslanders. There was a feels like temperature of less than five degrees when I left home. So I'm putting it all on the line here. I'm early. I'm top to toe blue. I've got to try and find Kiani before the run because I had on good authority that she's a pretty snappy runner. And look, we all know that I'm not. So she might not be here by the time I finish. So, okay, adventurers, wish me luck on my quest. I'm going to go now, see what I can find, listen to the briefing and have my run.

00:25:31guest - unnamed: One of New Farm parkrun's longest serving runners is doing a 500 parkrun today. It's only the third time someone in Australia has got 500 parkruns. She's done 309 of them here at New Farm, 78 different parkruns around Australia and also volunteered 50 times.

00:25:51[19 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:26:10Lyndell Murray: Okay, guys, success. I have found Kian. Here she is. How are you going today? What a great day.

00:26:19Kiani - New Farm 500th-parkrun milestone runner: It is such a great day. A bit cold, but very nice weather for running.

00:26:23Lyndell Murray: Absolutely. And congratulations on your 500th parkrun. Looking forward to getting your blue shirt. Yes, of course. Very excited. And excitingly, the Run Director gave you stats. I just did an intro before saying I have no idea how many people have done this. So you're the third Australian to achieve this. How cool is that? It's pretty cool. And I believe the first female in Australia with 500. Oh, yes. Doing it for the sisters. Good on you. All right.

00:26:50Kiani - New Farm 500th-parkrun milestone runner: So 500 parkruns is a long time ago. How did you get into parkrun? Well, I've always enjoyed running when I was younger. And after school, I sort of didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to train because I always just went to school and, you know, attended training there. So I hadn't run for a whole year and mum found out about parkrun and she's like, oh, we should go try it out. And so off we went on a Saturday morning. She drove me here and yeah, I couldn't even run the whole 5Ks the first time, but she just kept bringing me back like I couldn't drive back then either I was only 17 so really need to thank my mum and dad for bringing me every single week since then and yeah I would run and they would walk and eventually they were like well we might as well run as well so they got into it So, yeah, that's how my parkrun journey started.

00:27:45Lyndell Murray: Fantastic. And your mum is here sorting tokens, is that correct? Yeah, she is.

00:27:50Kiani - New Farm 500th-parkrun milestone runner: Yep, fun little job. So I've got the whole family here today, my mum, my dad, my son, Michael, and my brother also parkruns with us, but he's not at New Farm today because he's got to run to work. So he's at Wishart and then he's going to drive off and head to work for 8am.

00:28:09Lyndell Murray: Yeah, cool. Now, you've done a bit of volunteering as well. Do you enjoy volunteering and what's your favourite role?

00:28:15Kiani - New Farm 500th-parkrun milestone runner: Yeah, I do like volunteering. I've done quite a few different roles. Probably one of my favourites is pacing because I do get to run and, you know, obviously that's why I do parkrun. I love running. And also it's just so nice when you finish and so many people come up to you and say, you know, thanks for pacing. And I feel like it's really, really rewarding.

00:28:37Lyndell Murray: It is. And it just really helps people to keep going. Paces are awesome.

00:28:41Kiani - New Farm 500th-parkrun milestone runner: Yeah. You can have a nice little chat too. Although often you're just having a chat to yourself and everyone else is like...

00:28:48Gina - Ernie Run Club founder: I can't chat right now.

00:28:49Kiani - New Farm 500th-parkrun milestone runner: I'm sorry. I'm like, that's fine. I'll just talk to you. You can hear about my week, you know.

00:28:52Lyndell Murray: Can't talk. PBing.

00:28:54Kiani - New Farm 500th-parkrun milestone runner: Yeah, exactly.

00:28:56Lyndell Murray: Yes. Now, this parkrun podcast is for adventurers, so people who like touristing. So, again, thanks to our handy Run Director, you have done 78 different events.

00:29:08Kiani - New Farm 500th-parkrun milestone runner: Mm-hmm.

00:29:09Lyndell Murray: Now, can you name for me a top three that doesn't include New Farm as your home?

00:29:15Kiani - New Farm 500th-parkrun milestone runner: First of all, thanks for giving me a heads up about this question.

00:29:18Lyndell Murray: I usually put people on the spot. I was nice to you.

00:29:21Kiani - New Farm 500th-parkrun milestone runner: You were pretty nice. So I would say Cormorant Bay parkrun is very lovely. I really did like that in the early morning. Well, you know. It was all misty and foggy and the sun was rising. That was very beautiful. Also loved Albert Park, parkrun down in Melbourne. And the last one was Edithburgh. Oh, Edithburgh. Where's that one? In South Australia. Yeah, we had a trip down there before my son was born. And I was like, we have to get that E. So we drove all the way around, to the other side, to the peninsula, to run Edithburgh parkrun. But it was very rewarding, super beautiful, and a nice little crew there, not too busy, and it's all along the cliffs, so very nice.

00:30:09Lyndell Murray: Awesome. Now, what is next? You've got your 500. Are there any other challenges that you're chasing in the parkrun world?

00:30:16Kiani - New Farm 500th-parkrun milestone runner: Well, I recently just finished my alphabet, so that one's done. But I do need to get my Wilson index up. So, yes, because I'm pretty sure my number's pretty low. I'm only at two, so I need to get that third event. So probably do that. Yeah, looking forward to keeping on running and encouraging my son to be a runner. He's only 15 months, but, you know, as soon as he turns four, I'll be getting that parkrun barcode. Take him off to juniors. Yeah, exactly. Yep, Saturdays and Sundays for parkrun, perfect all right is there anything else that you would like the listeners of the parkrun adventures to know about parkrun or your journey or New Farm um oh man it's so hard for me to think on the spot isn't it but I just hope that everyone continues to enjoy and participate in parkrun I guess it's such a nice community event um

00:31:16Lyndell Murray: and yeah keep adventuring because it's so fun visiting different parkruns right yeah keep ticking off these events yeah all right yes parkrun is about community I can tell that you're a loved part of the community here at New Farm so thank you for just being such a bright spark and thank you for being the first female to achieve this amazing milestone um we're all gonna get there one day all right thank you for talking to me today and taking the time yeah thank you

Roving report Pippa — Rendlesham Forest parkrun

00:31:46Pippa - roving reporter: So, hello parkrun adventurers. It's Pippa here in a forest somewhere in Suffolk. But I've got somebody really exciting with me. I've got parkrun adventurer Christine Imbert. Hi, Christine. Hi, Pippa. Hi, parkrun adventurers.

00:32:01Christine Imbert: So why are we here today, Christine? We're here today because we've just done a parkrun and today was my 250th different parkrun, which we call a Freyne. It's called a Freyne after Paul Freyne, who was the first person to complete 250 different parkruns. And I'm very flattered that he is here today as well.

00:32:28Pippa - roving reporter: It's been really lovely to meet him and just see these people that we see on the list. But today's about you, Christine. How did it feel when you finally picked up your token today? It felt amazing.

00:32:39Christine Imbert: I've been looking forward to this run for several months now. It's been in the diary. I knew where I was going. And I've just been sort of ticking off week by week and just feeling so excited about it.

00:32:55Pippa - roving reporter: very glad that so many of my friends have come along to join me and what's even better is we are in the middle of a heat wave so it is warm it's beautiful it's amazing and yes and we're all sitting outside chatting and having a great time

00:33:10Christine Imbert: Yes, and as Pippa said, we're in a forest, so there is shade, so we aren't baking and didn't get too hot.

00:33:19Pippa - roving reporter: Yeah, it's just a really good morning. Anyway, should we go see if there's some more cake left? We'll do that. It was fabulous cake. We've eaten some of it already. Anyway, thanks very much, guys. We'll catch up with you soon. Bye, everyone. Bye. Bye.

Roving report Paul Kitching — Glenoma parkrun

00:33:36Paul Kitching: Okay, g'day, good morning parkrunners, g'day parkrun adventurers, it's PK tuning in for a roving report, my second roving report from Queensland after doing Cairns last week. We are back in Cairns to do the other parkrun here, Glenoma, yes, a G, and of course that means Bee Gees, staying alive, but more on that later. We have rocked up and it's raining, would you believe it's raining here in sunny Queensland? um but we're hoping I think it's going to stop by the looks of things uh and we're about to do the course but I reckon I actually might have a quick chat with one of the most important people in the course let me see if I can go and have a chat to him and then we'll check in after the race it's not a race it's a run just super quickly I'm chatting with nick who's the lead bike just about to take off what's it like doing being the lead bike what a role it depends on um who's here I suppose and how fast they are yeah so you just have to stay in front yeah that's why I got the road bike you know sometimes I Fantastic. Well, we're about to head off. Thank you so much, Nick. I just wanted to grab you before because I won't see you after. You'll be so quick. Good on you. Thanks for doing such an awesome role. Far out. What an amazing course Glenoma is. Beautiful. It started raining, which was brilliant on the way here anyway. And then out on the course, it was just phenomenal. Just going to have a chat to some of the legends that ran past me wearing a top that said Ernie. Oh, now I can read it. Easy runners, no intention of excelling. How are you, Gina?

00:34:58Gina - Ernie Run Club founder: Yeah, good, thank you.

00:35:00Paul Kitching: It's just brilliant. I think it's fantastic to see so many people getting excited and being, I mean, there's lots of run clubs out there. When did you create the Ernie Run Club?

00:35:09Gina - Ernie Run Club founder: It was about 2018. We just had a few friends training for a marathon. Awesome. And just doing some long runs together and we just, yeah, just created the Ernie Run Group, brilliant whereabouts do you usually run whereabouts are you from um just away from Brisbane um yeah we just normally run around the Brisbane river cool um Ash Grove around um uh terralba parkrun yeah but we all do tours as well for nice and what about interstate tours any interstate tours planned we have got we have had some interstate tours we've done Melbourne marathon and just want to think where else we've gone um

00:35:41Paul Kitching: What about a trip to the Mecca, to Bushy? Is that on the cards?

00:35:45Gina - Ernie Run Club founder: Oh, definitely. We've actually got some Ernie's who just did it last week.

00:35:48Paul Kitching: Awesome. Good to hear.

00:35:50Gina - Ernie Run Club founder: How many were there? I think there were about a thousand or something. Oh, in terms of Ernie's, there were only two. Only two Ernie's. You never know. We are aiming for world domination, but not that big. Who knows?

00:36:04Paul Kitching: They could have recruited some. I went there for its 12th birthday, which was six years ago, and there were 1,212. I think they punched the figures. 1,212 people on the day. I did bushy. But fantastic. And so what's the next destination for the Ernie's? Have you got anything planned?

00:36:21Gina - Ernie Run Club founder: Well, actually, tomorrow we are all doing the Cairns Marathon. Awesome.

00:36:24Paul Kitching: I'm in Cairns from Adelaide, and I'm not here to do it.

00:36:26Gina - Ernie Run Club founder: Sorry.

00:36:28Paul Kitching: I know you're looking at my body thinking, wow, he looks like a marathoner. No, I'm not. No. Thank you. No, we've been to Port Douglas and we did Cairns last week, which was amazing. Have you guys done Cairns parkrun? You probably have.

00:36:40Gina - Ernie Run Club founder: Some of us have done it, yeah.

00:36:42Paul Kitching: Well, thank you so much for contributing to the fun that is parkrun by being colourful and awesome and fit and keep doing great things.

00:36:49Gina - Ernie Run Club founder: Great. Thanks very much. Thanks, Gina.

00:36:50Paul Kitching: See you. Cheers. Thank you. Well, far out. What a great parkrun. I just heard my daughters say this is the best parkrun they've done. And we have done quite a few parkruns around the world. When I say the world, gosh, sorry. Oh, we have. Yeah, they did some parkruns in the UK. But anyway, what's more important is I've got Andy with me here, who is the Run Director today. Andy, thanks for a great parkrun.

00:37:12Andy - Run Director: No worries. Glad to have you here. Oh, mate. That's music to my ears, hearing that your daughter's calling it their favourite.

00:37:18Paul Kitching: I know, right? And we were saying on the way here, because we do parkrun in Adelaide, 8 o'clock, you know, it's luxury over there, that, you know, how do you get kids up at 7am? How did you get up, mate? I've got a random kid in the background sucking on a bed. I know. Why? Is it because of what you've got in your hand?

00:37:34Unidentified speaker: I just have an alarm, so I just wake up.

00:37:37Paul Kitching: Excellent answer. I wake up because of the alarm and because he's got an ice chocolate, probably, or an ice latte. Who knows? And also the Bee Gees music, mate. Fantastic.

00:37:44[music]

00:37:47Andy - Run Director: Yeah, we heard there was a bit of a Bee Gees challenge going on, a few people doing the challenge. Yeah. So we went to Bee Gees playlist for today.

00:37:53Paul Kitching: Oh, mate, I was super impressed. My favourite Bee Gees song was playing on the way over the line. So, yeah, so those who are doing the Staying Alive challenge, which is when you do three B's and three G's, this is one of the G's, which is pretty cool. I think we're about to hear a bell go in the background maybe. It's about to go off and we'll know why in a minute. Why do you do parkrun, Andy?

00:38:14Andy - Run Director: I do parkrun just because it's what got me back into running and it was that thing to show up to every week and then the natural progression was to start helping others get back into it as well.

00:38:24Paul Kitching: Yeah, good on you. So you obviously started volunteering and then so why did you choose to be a Run Director? um because I uh connected with Julian Craig our Event Directors and was one of the people to help try and get this one off the ground because we're excited to get a second one happening yeah so good we did cans last week which was beautiful but so different to this like we arrived and it was raining and then but then it stopped and it was like running through rainforest I was hoping for crocs or cassowaries but um no wildlife to get any wildlife up here We do get a bit of wildlife.

00:38:53Andy - Run Director: This is a known horse training area, so we do get some horses along the track sometimes. But no, we get quite a bit of wildlife. We run along a creek the whole time, but it is a freshwater creek, so no saltwater crocodiles here.

00:39:04Paul Kitching: Well, lots of dogs. Annie in the background is there being very patient. Very happy out on the course today. Annie, weren't you? Yes, she was, lots of fun fun people fun dogs good times well thank you so much um for for being here for because if it wasn't for you we wouldn't be here so thank you so much no worries thanks for coming good on you and thanks guys thanks for to the background crew as well good on you thanks Annie well there you have it we um have done glenoma parkrun and our second parkrun here in Cairns and um it's time for coffee it's not even eight o'clock Far out. So, yep, that's PK signing off from another parkrun adventure. And, gosh, good times up here in Queensland. Love it.

00:40:00Melissa Ellis: Heaps of roving reports this week, Scott. Firstly, Mark, over at the Umbagong District trial. So Umbagong was an ACT launch this week. Lots going on over there. Top three over there for Umbagong, kangaroos, wombats and platypus. So not only can you go to Geeveston to see a platypus, but now you can go to Umbagong.

00:40:27Scott Trickett: There you go. They'll be loving that. Another U. I'm sure that's the main attraction. Let's be real. Like, we're not going to see a platypus, are we, really?

00:40:36Melissa Ellis: Well, I'm going to try.

00:40:38Scott Trickett: You're going to try, but your chances of seeing it are pretty remote. Oh.

00:40:42Lyndell Murray: Sorry to put a downer on it.

00:40:44Scott Trickett: Let's get excited about the U, because there's very few of them around. Do you have your U? No, I don't. Right. And I'm going to Canberra in September, and I've already told the boys we're going to Umbagong. Good. I'm glad.

00:40:58Melissa Ellis: I'm going to go in a couple of weeks.

00:41:00Scott Trickett: Okay.

00:41:01Melissa Ellis: Yep. And it was lovely to hear from Peter who donated some of the money to start Umbagong in memory of his brother, Robin, who loved parkrun. So that's really nice. That's lovely. Yeah. Yep. And Lyndell was out there, as we said earlier, at New Farm getting the lowdown on the latest 500 clubber, Kian.

00:41:23Scott Trickett: Great to hear, Lyndell. She was my old co-host. Remember when Mel went off and had babies and stuff? Oh, yes. Yeah. Lyndell and I were a dynamic duo for a couple of weeks there.

00:41:33Melissa Ellis: Yeah. I caught up with Lyndell a couple of weeks ago myself when I visited New Farm.

00:41:38Scott Trickett: Yeah. Lovely.

00:41:40Melissa Ellis: And people were interviewing Christine Imbert for her Freyne and Paul Freyne also there, which would have been pretty special for Christine.

00:41:49Scott Trickett: Absolutely. And PK. PK was back two weeks in a row. Mm-hmm. Yep. He's enjoying the weather up in far north Queensland. Yep. Great to hear from PK.

00:41:59Melissa Ellis: Had you heard about the Ernie Run Club before?

00:42:01Scott Trickett: No.

Club Corner

00:42:02Melissa Ellis: No.

00:42:03Scott Trickett: Club Corner.

00:42:04Melissa Ellis: Maybe Club Corner needs to come back.

00:42:08Scott Trickett: That was another great segment. It was. Can we invent a segment this week?

00:42:12Melissa Ellis: Oh, sure.

00:42:13Scott Trickett: It can last for a few weeks. Yeah. Give me to the end of the episode and I'll come up with something.

00:42:17Melissa Ellis: Oh, I'm looking forward to that. That'll make up for the fact that we've got no mail. So that's another sound effect I don't have to worry about putting in this week.

00:42:26Scott Trickett: Well, that's what I said. That's the Scotty Trickett effect. So I've had an influence. No one wants to get in touch with this week.

Dazza's

00:42:35Melissa Ellis: What we do have, though, Dazza's is back. Dazza's is back. And this week, Dazza said, Dazza double dares you to do good deeds today. After a few weeks of flag fines and cheeky fun from the regulars, Dazza challenges you to share your most angelic, kind-hearted, fine-avoiding moves at parkrun today. Come on in and share the love. So first up, we heard from Rebecca Bailey, one of our Bailey shot who had an achievement. She said, Dazza, I got a PB and first female at a course I will not name as it is not the day for fines, but it's been three years since my PB of 2606 and today I got 2549. I was certain with the course change into its now more hilly version that I would never get close to it, But I guess surprises can happen even when you don't plan to try. Off to the bike park for practice laps before tomorrow's race and excited for some more adventuring planned for next weekend. Well done, Bec.

00:43:38Scott Trickett: Well done, Bec. And I've got the wonderful Sonja Pohlman. My best fine avoiding position was left right out. Lots of fine chatter at Dazza's. I don't need to get to the background on the fines. But a migraine kept Sonja in bed today. So she attached a photo of Neville Longbottom. Great name. Great name for a cat. She drew the blinds and nothing for me. She'll see Dazza next week.

00:44:08Melissa Ellis: And Sonja did get the most likes slash love, I think, sympathy for her predicament this week.

00:44:16Scott Trickett: Sympathy or the cat photo?

00:44:17Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah. True. True, true. But we also heard from Michael Sharp, who was home this week and said, I ended my volunteer streak with a run. And there was a nice photo of Michael, a nice finished photo with Michael at the Beaches and a nice forward-facing Peter Pohlman.

00:44:39Scott Trickett: We heard from Samantha O'Connor, who was volunteering with the whole family. She was RD on the day at Avondale. She was sorry about the backwards flag. But bonus Photoshop koala courtesy of today's excellent photographer.

00:44:55Melissa Ellis: I didn't get to the bottom of those Photoshopping issues at Avondale. I get the feeling there was a few. But on the milestone front, we had Carol Pryle. I brought cake and cupcakes for everybody for my 250th parkrun at home at Hamilton. And there was a photo of Carol and her cupcakes, which looked pretty good. And congratulations, Carol.

00:45:20Scott Trickett: Now, Mel, I've just gone back and had a look at Samantha's photo. That's pretty good photoshopping. The koala. I'd believe it.

00:45:30Melissa Ellis: I think I got the impression that there was more in the event photo album.

00:45:37Scott Trickett: Right, yeah.

00:45:38Melissa Ellis: More random photoshopped things. Yeah.

00:45:41Scott Trickett: Okay. And Johan. Johan. In South Africa, I loved hearing from the South Africans last week. There's no need for me to put on my South African accent, which is one of my finest.

00:45:54Melissa Ellis: You can do it for giggle shits and giggles. Yeah. I can't say that.

00:45:59Scott Trickett: After a week of industrial action at work, my pleasure to be RD with the never striking, with the never striking volunteers of, being a South African, you reckon I'd be able to pronounce this, but Heidedal parkrun. And Johan was with the volleys and the flag.

00:46:18Melissa Ellis: Well done, Johan. And we heard from Tim Robbins over in Ireland. Good evening, Dazza. I made my Irish debut today at Malahide parkrun. I was so kind I volunteered too. I'm starving with the 9.30am start, so a sausage and bacon roll plus granola with yoghurt, please. And Tim sent us a photo of himself in the selfie frame.

00:46:42Scott Trickett: They just keep going. There's so much. This is a revelation. We're nearly there. We heard from Chloe Bravos over in WA, beautiful WA. She enjoyed an absolutely beautiful morning at Applecross parkrun. Lovely out and back along the… Swan River. Swan River, yes, Swan River. Lovely view. Helps keep the legs going when they feel like packing it in, and they feel glowy great fun so we should try and add in that the Durbal Yerrigan perhaps is the traditional name of the Swan River yeah very insensitive of me I'm making fun of the South Africans and can't even pronounce um traditional names but I'll get better, people. Stay with me.

00:47:31Melissa Ellis: It's practice.

00:47:32Scott Trickett: Yeah. Yeah, I haven't done this for a while.

00:47:35Melissa Ellis: We heard from Helen Davis who has some tourism. We spent an amazing morning at Bushy Park. We met friends from Germany who we met in Sweden and then we bumped into Nadine Crawford at the Park Vaf Cafe. We were welcomed by many of the team and we helped sort the tokens from 901 to 1000. Only 983 used today. Wow. While we drank our coffee in the sunshine, we saw several deer out on the course, which was a lovely flat, partly shaded and mostly on dirt paths. Highly recommended. And there was a collage of photos from Helen, including a selfie with Nadine. And we're very glad to see them both there.

00:48:14Scott Trickett: Now, I'm venturing in topics that you might have already discussed. But have you run bushy? I have not had the fortune yet. Okay. It's on the plans, I imagine, one day?

00:48:28Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah, it's a bucket list.

00:48:29Scott Trickett: Yeah, it is a bit, isn't it? Yeah. Okay, well, Kath Atkins, she wasn't there, but she was visiting Marlborough Common parkrun in the UK, different conditions from her home at Pegasus in New Zealand.

00:48:45Unidentified speaker: Hmm.

00:48:47Melissa Ellis: And a photo of her with that pop-up sign. Pop-up sign. Why don't we have those, Scott, those pop-up signs?

00:48:56Scott Trickett: Why don't we have them? Do we need them? Do we need them? Look, I can give you a bit of context. Look, it's about giving value back to the partners who invest in parkrun to keep it free. And so it's basically an advertising opportunity for Great photo opportunity for tourists if they can't get to the selfie frame. But I think if you take a close look, I'm not sure if those sponsors are still involved in supporting parkrun. So I'm not sure if those pop-up signs will ever make it. I come back, I come back, or they'll never be seen in Australia. But I don't know. I don't work there anymore.

00:49:39Melissa Ellis: I'm taking advantage of having you here to field my questions. Yeah, go for it. But anyway, that was Kath's first time to Dazza's, so welcome, Kath. We also heard from Christine Imbert, who also was celebrating the achievement we heard about earlier. I felt very humbled today to have lots of friends turn up at Rendlesham Forest parkrun to celebrate with me at my 250th different parkrun venue, which is also known as the Freyne. And I was spoiled by having this lovely cake and biscuits baked for me. And there was a photo of the Freyne cake.

00:50:14Scott Trickett: Freyne cake. How about that? You're the first one in the parkrun world to achieve something, and so you get a club named after you. And then it just extends to having cakes named after you. That's the challenge, to be the first to do something.

00:50:29Melissa Ellis: I came way, way too late to the party to get anything named after me.

00:50:35Scott Trickett: We heard very international flavour at Dazza's. I'm very impressed, Mel. Graeme Wilkinson, he said, Hi Dazza, just a tourist run from me today at Fort William parkrun. That's not in Australia.

00:50:47Melissa Ellis: No.

00:50:48Scott Trickett: A steak bake after the run was enjoyed. What's a steak bake?

00:50:52Melissa Ellis: Oh, see, I was going to look that up and I forgot.

00:50:55Scott Trickett: It's probably a pie, isn't it?

00:50:57Melissa Ellis: It looked like a pasty that just had chunks of steak in it.

00:51:03Scott Trickett: Yeah, that'd be a pie.

00:51:06Melissa Ellis: But it was a pasty shape.

00:51:08Scott Trickett: Pasty, right. Remember we had, remember Mel, back in the old days, Mel wanted to call them pasties? Yes, I know. It's pasties, yeah. But anyway, back to Graeme. He enjoyed his steak bake, but somehow my latte turned up disguised as a hot chocolate. Jesus. Wouldn't be happy with that. And he was off volunteering at Stirling juniors as RD the next day. Well done, Graeme. That's a full parkrun weekend.

00:51:36Melissa Ellis: Yeah, doubling it up. And we love to hear of our volleys at juniors as well. We lastly heard from Bernadette Bennett with No parkrun, who said, my fine avoiding and kind-hearted move was to not turn up for a second week and not run the risk of spreading the germs after just getting out of ISO. So not wanting to end on a sadder note, but we wish you a good recovery, Bernadette, and that was nice of you to be thinking of your fellow parkrunners and staying home when you're not well. So, okay.

00:52:15Scott Trickett: So now we ordered a winner?

00:52:17Melissa Ellis: Yeah, so there's an envelope and it must be on my desk with Ollie not being here. See, Ollie usually has the envelope. Okay. So I have to look in my in tray and I find the envelope. Here it is. And it's a nice blue one today. And so I need to open it. Right.

the Obi Award — Chloe Bravos

00:52:37Melissa Ellis: Okay. This week's Obi goes to, drumroll. Chloe Bravos over in the WA.

00:52:48[applause]

00:52:48Scott Trickett: Do you insert the cheering? Yeah.

00:52:50Melissa Ellis: I don't have to cheer? You don't have to.

00:52:52Scott Trickett: Chloe, I would. I would. It was a great photo. But we've got sound effects to do that job.

00:52:57Melissa Ellis: I do like my sound effects. I get a bit carried away. But, yes, well done, Chloe. And it was a lovely shot with the city in the background across the Swan River, the Derbal Yerrigan. And you can correct me and I can be fined because I'm the only one at the moment putting the fines in the fine jar. Yeah.

00:53:20Scott Trickett: Applecross does look like a cracking parkrun. Over my years looking at so many bloody parkrun photos, Applecross always came up with some good photos.

00:53:32Melissa Ellis: I'm going to do it as a Freedom Run when we go over for Palm next year.

00:53:36Scott Trickett: Okay. Have you named – where is Palm happening? No, we haven't announced.

00:53:39Melissa Ellis: No, no, no. It's not announced yet.

00:53:42Scott Trickett: Okay.

00:53:43Melissa Ellis: We've got a date. Don't ask me what it is or don't have it to hand. Okay. But, yeah, we don't have an event. The party planner is working hard putting it together.

00:53:53Scott Trickett: Good. Look forward to hearing all about it. Now do we throw to the informant? I throw to the informant. Yes. What's he got in store for us this week? Have we identified its gender? No. Because I've introduced as a day, but I could be wrong.

00:54:10Melissa Ellis: Well, see, there's two, Scott.

00:54:15Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:54:18Melissa Ellis: Because there's the one referred to as beige trousers with the deep throat, the deep voice, and there's the cheeky informant who has a more feminine persona.

00:54:30Scott Trickett: So there's more than one informant? Yes, there's two. So I will throw to the informants.

00:54:37Pippa - roving reporter: Okay.

00:54:38Scott Trickett: And let's see what they've got in store for us this week.

the Informant

00:54:45The Informant: This is the informant. These are unofficial stats. They are only current at the time they are collected and may differ from the stats you read elsewhere. There were 455 runs held down under, up 17 on last week. 37 were in New Zealand, and 418 of these were in Australia. Worldwide there were 1,749 events. Aussie New Zealand attendance was 34,594, out of almost 189,000 worldwide.

00:55:13[14 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:55:27The Informant: There were seven event launches, Umbagong District in ACT, along with one in South Africa, two in the United Kingdom, and three in the United States. Down under we had 3,852 PBs, while 1,391 people participated for the first time. 56 juniors reached their Junior 10 milestone, 185 people reached their 50 milestone, 90 people reached their 100 milestone, 24 people reached their 250 milestone, and one person became the third Australian to reach the 500 milestone. 15 people called bingo. Simon Maxwell was quickest on 168 runs, while Gary Steffen was slowest on 358 runs. There were five new statespeople, Brent Radastovic in Victoria, Jasmine and Ella Fetke, and Andrew and Simone Fitzgerald in the Northern Territory. In the top 20 most Aussie New Zealand events list, there was no movement at all. Overall on the biggest movers list, Philip Coldwell topped the list, moving up 10 rankings to 175, after running his 95th different parkrun. 100 people lifted their Wilson Index. This week's biggest mover is Heather Gee, who moves up 13 to 28. In the adventurer Challenges, we have Marge Sinclair joining the Peel Club by completing an event in all states and territories in Australia. Arno Panichi and Vivian Henderson join the Cowell Club by completing 100 different events. Now if you want to see these stats in full, you can download the spreadsheet from theinformant.me. That's www.theinformant.me. Or look for The Informant on Facebook. This has been The Informant, and my spreadsheet is bigger than yours.

00:57:39Melissa Ellis: Thank you to our informant informants. Back to normal programming this week. And, yes, keeping us amused as always.

Consolidated Club Report

00:57:48Melissa Ellis: But, Scott, it's time for our Consolidated Club Report. So... We have a total of 241 members now, of which 188 took part at 100 different locations. In the UK, we had 15 events at Rendlesham Forest, Southend, Bushy, Carlisle Park, South Shields, Wythenshawe, Fort William, Hastings, Homewood, Southampton, Swanley, Lanhydrock, Marlborough Common, Ruthin Memorial Playing Fields and Pontefract. In the USA there was two events, Joe Creason and Roosevelt Island DC. In Ireland there was one event at Malahide and in the Netherlands there was one event, Thank you, Johan. Karpendonkse Plas. Locally, we had adventurers at 25 events in Victoria, 19 in New South Wales, 19 in Queensland, 6 in South Australia, 6 in West Australia, 3 in Tassie and 1 in the ACT. Over across the ditch, we had 2 events in the North Island and none in the South Island this week.

the Frond

00:59:12Melissa Ellis: The largest frond this week was at You Yangs with Geoff Wiffen, Kevin Green, Nicola Wright, Damon Young and me and also listener Andrea Booth who has since joined the club. And I do want to say, Damon, I didn't get to speak to you and I'm so sorry and hopefully our paths will cross again another time soon. Now, Scotty, fronds, fronds with a V. Can I go back to the fronds?

00:59:43Scott Trickett: Yeah, yeah. Is the largest frond just wherever you are each week? Because you just go on a recruitment to get everyone to sign up after parkrun?

00:59:51Melissa Ellis: No. No, no, no. So Andrea wasn't included in those figures because she just happened to listen to the previous week's pod and heard we were going to be there and came down and joined us, which was really nice. So yeah. Technically, there were six.

01:00:08Scott Trickett: Right. So it was a clear winner. Because I see there were four at Westerfolds. Because you went through everyone in the UK, but you didn't go through all the events in Australia.

01:00:17Melissa Ellis: No. We can't read them all, Scott, you see.

01:00:19Scott Trickett: Well, another opportunity to mention.

01:00:21Melissa Ellis: So we read all the international ones. Okay. And then we gloss over the Australian, New Zealand events. But, yes, there were four at Westerfolds, four at Werribee Park Mansion, four at Maribyrnong. So, you know, the greater state doing well.

01:00:41Scott Trickett: Yeah, absolutely.

01:00:43Melissa Ellis: But then in New South Wales there was a couple of events with four. Do you want to read them?

01:00:47Scott Trickett: Yeah. Shellharbour, St Peters.

01:00:51Melissa Ellis: Yay. I just wanted you to get a fine. Now, one thing I did notice, so when we get the consolidated club report, it states 188 members. Now, I happen to know if you go down and count all the names on that list, there isn't 188 names. There's 153 names, which leaves a difference of 35. Right. I think they must be volunteers. Yes. I think maybe parkrun captures the information of people volunteering and attending, but they just don't give us the stats in the report for the volunteers.

01:01:32Scott Trickett: Yeah. Yeah, look, I know there's a historical hangover within parkrun about volunteers not getting the recognition that they deserve. Not that they deserve, but as in like all the reports and stuff like this, it hasn't mentioned that. But there's definitely an appetite to see that change, and this might just be part of that.

01:01:55Melissa Ellis: Yeah, maybe it's in the process.

01:01:57Scott Trickett: Yeah, yeah.

01:02:00Melissa Ellis: It also doesn't include juniors.

01:02:05Scott Trickett: Yeah, well, they are kind of separate, aren't they?

01:02:09Melissa Ellis: I suppose. Yeah.

01:02:13Scott Trickett: Yeah. Yeah, I don't have any more to say on that.

01:02:20Melissa Ellis: Same, same, but different.

01:02:21Scott Trickett: Yeah, yeah. Well, they're still parkrun events.

01:02:24Melissa Ellis: Yeah, they are. But, okay, so the frond total is impossible to know how many adventurers were at different events, but I'm just going to take a stab and say seven at Eynesbury Heritage Trail Junior parkrun may have been the largest volunteering frond this week.

01:02:46Scott Trickett: It's a pretty fair guess, yeah.

01:02:47Melissa Ellis: Yeah. So, but coming up, what are we looking forward to next weekend, Scotty?

International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day

01:02:53Melissa Ellis: Christmas, Ugly Christmas in July. It's next Saturday.

01:02:57Scott Trickett: Well, it's the last Saturday in July. Look, great concept, the ugly Christmas concept. Might have something to do with it was my idea, but Mel has run with it and got these buffs going. So we wear them next week?

01:03:20Melissa Ellis: Yep, yep. They should be turning up. If they haven't already, they should be hitting letterboxes this week. So hopefully everybody is receiving their deliveries and can be appropriately ugly on Saturday wherever they are.

01:03:35Scott Trickett: Yeah, you can wear the singlet as well.

01:03:37Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

01:03:38Scott Trickett: I'll probably have to – I don't think I own a buff, so I'll have to wear a singlet. And I know Ollie's a mad fan of the Christmas singlet. I think he just loves getting the guns out, even in cold weather. And why wouldn't you? He's a very attractive man, so show off every opportunity you can get.

01:03:55Melissa Ellis: Yes, he does like running with his buffs.

01:03:59Scott Trickett: Yeah.

01:03:59Melissa Ellis: Keeps his hands warm, he says.

Streaky September

01:04:01Scott Trickett: Hmm.

01:04:02Melissa Ellis: But also coming up, Scott, Streaky September. Are you deep?

01:04:08Scott Trickett: Another bloody great idea. Who came up with that one?

01:04:11Melissa Ellis: I thought it was Mel.

01:04:13Scott Trickett: Was it? No, she takes most of the credit.

01:04:15Melissa Ellis: Yeah, so we've maintained Streaky September. We've kept all these things.

01:04:21Scott Trickett: Yeah, fantastic. Fantastic. Look, will I streak? That's the question that's written in front of me. Yeah, look, I might. Yeah, why not? Why not? It's a great motivator, isn't it? It always has been. And, yeah, I'm going to. Are you going to?

01:04:40Melissa Ellis: I do, yeah. Yeah. Although I have to say time pressures with editing these days gives me a lot less running time. Which is.

01:04:51Scott Trickett: The idea behind Streaky September was to get people out more, like to get them, you know, ready to go for summer and just an opportunity to be outdoors and being more active. Yeah. So, yeah, this is the whole point of it is that you have to invest in it, Mel. I will. Let the editing go for September.

01:05:11Melissa Ellis: Okay.

01:05:12Scott Trickett: Yeah. Get someone on here to help you.

01:05:15Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Yep, yep, yep. Can do that. Moving swiftly on, bingo challenges. We've got to come up with a Bingoe card. Bingo still has an E, too. Do you like that? See, the legacy lives.

01:05:29Scott Trickett: Yep.

01:05:31Melissa Ellis: So if you've got any suggestions.

01:05:32Scott Trickett: You'd never think I work in comms, do you? That I write for a living. But, yeah, bingo with an E. That's great. Have we brainstormed? No. Are you asking me to come up with them now?

01:05:47Melissa Ellis: Yeah, no.

01:05:47Scott Trickett: Because I'm still thinking about a segment and I'm running out of time.

01:05:51Melissa Ellis: You are. No, no, no. It was just thrown in there as a topic of discussion. So probably something. Oh, so toilet blocks. I'm thinking this year we might have to have a selfie out front of a toilet block. What's the attraction there? Yeah, so if a few months back I may or may not have got locked in a toilet with 10 minutes to go before the start of parkrun right so I often travel now with a screwdriver in my pocket in case I ever get locked in a toilet block again

01:06:27Scott Trickett: Okay. Well, I won't ask you for details. I'll just go back and listen to the episode. Did you recount that incident? I'm pretty sure I would have. Okay. Okay. I'll go back and listen to it. Is that a prerequisite for you to have a toilet near the start line of a parkrun?

01:06:43Melissa Ellis: No.

01:06:44Scott Trickett: No. People talk to me about that and said, oh, you've got to have parking, you've got to have a toilet, and you've got to have this, you've got to have that, you've got to have bubblers. No, not at all. Never thought about that.

01:06:56Melissa Ellis: I did give Harry the big chat about the drop toilets at You Yangs.

01:07:03Scott Trickett: Yeah.

01:07:04Melissa Ellis: The explanation as to what they are. But no, I don't care. No, it doesn't worry me. I will look at the event page, the website the night before, make sure I'm across whether the event's got toilets or whether I need to stop at the local McDonald's or whatever on my way. And where to park and all the things that tourists need to know when they're going to a new location they haven't visited before.

01:07:32Scott Trickett: Good to know. Good toilet talk. But you asked me favourite bingo challenges. I always just like the opportunity to get a photo with someone. So maybe veering away from the toilet block and actually with a human being. I remember, I think the first year we did, it was like pose with someone you didn't know.

01:07:57Melissa Ellis: Oh, right.

01:07:58Scott Trickett: So can we, maybe we didn't, but that's my idea this year. Go up to some completely random stranger that you don't know and say, hey, can I have a photo with you? A stalker selfie. Yeah, but not in a creepy stalker way. Like be friendly about it. Approach them with a smile, you know, bring on that charm and charisma and say, do you mind if I get a photo with you? And then they'll go, well, can I go one or two ways? But hopefully it goes, yes, because they're a parkrunner and they're there to have fun every morning and it's, you know, It's another way to start a conversation.

01:08:28Melissa Ellis: Yes, it's a conversation. Open eye. You are 100% correct.

01:08:31Scott Trickett: Okay. So there's my book for this year.

01:08:33Melissa Ellis: Okay. Thank you.

01:08:35Scott Trickett: Photo with complete stranger. In front of a toilet block for the level up. And if you feel nervous about it, nobody knows if you know them or not. So just get a photo with your mum or your dad or your mate and tell us it's a stranger to tick off the Bingoe card. But, you know, if you're genuine about it.

01:08:53Melissa Ellis: Okay. And the streaky group is still going too, Scott. Oh, great. Do they streak all year? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's people they're up to. Crazy. Oh, I'm not going to say how many days. Lots of days. They've been streaking for years. They're still going.

01:09:07Scott Trickett: Yeah. It's very impressive. I've tried it many times. If I go for a run on the first of every month, I go, this is it. This is the month. And usually about third or fourth of the month, I'm done. Because why would you run every day? But good day.

01:09:25Melissa Ellis: But you don't have to run in streaky September. You can walk as well.

01:09:27Scott Trickett: Yeah, I know, I know, I know. 2K, they're the rules. Yeah. You made them. Yep, yep, I did. Oh, Mel, she'll probably take credit for the rules as well, but yeah. So we've got a month to get ready, a month and a half to get ready. Great.

01:09:43Melissa Ellis: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sign-off

01:09:45Scott Trickett: But we've only got a few days to get ready for the next parkrun day. That's right. Where are you going?

01:09:53Melissa Ellis: I am going to return to Puckapunyal. I haven't been there for a while, so I am going to return, have a visit. And what about yourself?

01:10:01Scott Trickett: Fancy. Well, let's just unpack Puckapunyal. So you're allowed to go there because you're part of the army. What's the deal? How come you get to go to Puckapunyal and I don't?

01:10:13Melissa Ellis: Because I am a military member. There you go. And I have the appropriate pass to enter the military base.

01:10:21Scott Trickett: Yep. But you've done it too. I have done it, yeah. I have done it. But that was because I was a very privileged staff member and we were meeting the team up there and we were doing some filming and stuff. It's actually, it's a cracking parkrun, isn't it?

01:10:37Melissa Ellis: It is.

01:10:37Scott Trickett: It is. It's beautiful.

01:10:39Melissa Ellis: It is. It's really nice. It's in the bush. I ran those trails during bushfires every day for my sanity.

01:10:46Scott Trickett: Yeah.

01:10:47Melissa Ellis: when I couldn't actually, I wasn't allowed out to go to parkrun.

01:10:51Scott Trickett: Yeah, well, there were worse places to do it. I understand your frustration.

01:10:55Melissa Ellis: It's really pretty, yeah.

01:10:57Scott Trickett: But, yeah, Puckapunyal, we're very lucky. We'll enjoy that.

01:10:59Melissa Ellis: Actually, I would have advocated for Seymour to get a parkrun. I mean, the Goulburn River runs through Seymour. Surely there's a trail. Yeah.

01:11:09Scott Trickett: But there's going to be a parkrun in every town in Australia eventually. But just at this moment in time, no one in Seymour has caught the bug or has inquired about it. Well, I know they have. I know people in Seymour have. But as you know, it's just not that easy to click your fingers and bang, we've got a parkrun. So it'll come. It'll come. And yeah. And then when it does, they'll kick themselves going, geez, we should have done this years ago.

01:11:39Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

01:11:41Scott Trickett: What about you? Where are you off to this week, Scott? Well, this is it. A few days out from Saturday. I've got no idea. I know I can head down to Parkville and catch up with a former colleague who's in town. So I might do that. You know, Parkville's a funny one for me because I started it. Did you? Yeah, I started Parkville. Well, that's not technically true. It was back in the old Territory Director days. And I met with the original founder, but he had to go back to the UK before we actually got it going. So he did a lot of the groundwork and I met him and we measured the course that is still actually the course to this day. I'm the guy who has the handshake agreement with the city of Melbourne. To say that it'll never go over 50 and then it'll never go over 100 and it'll never go over 250 or whatever they're at now. Yep, yep. But yeah.

01:12:40Melissa Ellis: I heard recently that they have altered their course slightly. They moved their start.

01:12:45Scott Trickett: Oh, did they?

01:12:49Melissa Ellis: Yeah, somebody said that recently. And in the back of my mind, I'm like, oh, I have to get back to Parkville and run the Different one.

01:12:58Scott Trickett: Okay, well, there you go. Disregard everything I just said. It's not the same course that we came up with.

01:13:02Melissa Ellis: Oh, well, it still goes around the same track.

01:13:05Scott Trickett: It's just a slight move of the... Now that I've said this, I'm going to go to Parkville, on Saturday and then I'm going to report back to you and Ollie next week.

01:13:13Melissa Ellis: Can you please do a roving report and can you interview a Scott, oh no, a Mel and an Ollie? No. Damn it.

01:13:26Scott Trickett: Oh, should we build the anticipation? Oh, maybe Mel, see how it goes. Yeah.

01:13:31Melissa Ellis: So a few weeks ago I was trying to list the events you started. I think when we announced that you'd left Australia,

01:13:38Scott Trickett: you'd finished up with parkrun Australia and I knew Westerfolds of course and I knew Studley and I knew Westerfolds juniors and I couldn't think I knew there was another one and it came to me after, of course, after we finished recording - it was Jells. Well, no, Jells I took over. So Jells, Jells was launched by someone else and yeah I took over that when when they stepped away uh pretty early on and was only Event Director there for a very short period of time And I was never an Event Director at Parkville and Darebin. I did everything there, but I was never the Event Director at Darebin. So I liked the idea of getting all these events ready and then handing them off for someone else to run with. So I did basically most of the work. I just took the glory.

01:14:28Melissa Ellis: Well, I think it's about time for me to thank you very kindly for joining me tonight. Is that it? We're done?

01:14:34Scott Trickett: Well, yeah, I think so. Okay. That was great, Mel. I actually loved it. It was like brought back old memories. And I'm sure we've probably gone off on some tangents that you probably didn't want to or not used to with Ollie. And I think everyone will be glad that Ollie's coming back, right? I believe so. Okay. Unless he's lost. Right. We don't know where he is. He needed a week off. Yeah.

01:15:01Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Yeah, but no, we appreciate very much that you stepped into his shoes tonight, and I hope you did enjoy being back. Thank you very much.

01:15:11Scott Trickett: Loved it. Don't need to ask for permission anymore, so you can ask me whenever you want to come back on, and I'll gladly step in and fill all these shoes.

01:15:20Alison - Event Director, Umbagong District parkrun: Don't be a stranger.

01:15:20Scott Trickett: Or fill your shoes, maybe when you want to have a week off. Maybe it can be the Scotty and Ollie show. That'd be a dynamic.

01:15:27Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's a good idea, yeah. And you can edit.

01:15:32Scott Trickett: Yeah? Happy to.

01:15:34Melissa Ellis: Alrighty.

01:15:35Scott Trickett: Love it. Okay, so I've got to do the outro? You do. As always, you can contact us via Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another week. We'll see you all next week for more adventures. Now, if that sounded scripted, that's because it was.

Abby's outro

01:15:59Abby - closing-segment persona: Hannah and Ollie, I went into the office last week and you guys didn't have my almond milk and you deleted my recording. Not happy, Jan. You guys need to up your game. Bye, adventurers. Stay safe.