Episode 296 - Hot and Gold

Welcome

00:00:23Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 296 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country.

00:00:32Oliver Spake: And I am Ollie Spake and I am joining once again from Dharawal Country. And how are you Mel?

00:00:39Melissa Ellis: I'm good. How's Dharawal Country today? What's the weather like up there?

00:00:44Oliver Spake: It's dry. It's dry. I feel guilty. I mean, for so long we wanted rain. We've had rain.

00:00:50Melissa Ellis: You've had lots of rain.

00:00:52Oliver Spake: Yes, but it is nice to have some dry weather. We do appreciate it. There's a bit of a breeze, but the temperatures are itching ever so closely back. Itching, I don't know why that's the term I choose. Edging ever so closely back to the 20s. So it's balmy.

00:01:10Melissa Ellis: Spring. There's a hint of spring. I'm feeling that down here too. We had a bit of a sunny day today in Wurundjeri Country.

00:01:17Oliver Spake: Yeah, I certainly appreciate that weather. I'm sure there'll be a few more cold snaps. There'll be some rain. There's plenty of wild weather around the country still, as we've become very much accustomed to. But we do appreciate it. How was your weekend? Well, look, same kind of story, to be perfectly honest. It was sunny. It was, I won't say warm, but it was very pleasant. And surprise, surprise, another week and another Shellharbour parkrun for me. I took the opportunity to bring along two helpers. And surprisingly, they were more or less ready to come and join. In fact, Ava was up first, which is very unusual for Ava. It's more the case that she would groan and probably punch me if I said good morning to her. But no, she was up and she was ready to go. So for once, they joined me at Shellharbour.

00:02:15Melissa Ellis: What roles did they do? Am I pre-empting you to tell me that?

00:02:20Oliver Spake: Well, no, pre-empt away. I'm not sure it was well-defined. I thought about assigning them roles. Zali had practiced, in fact, they'd both practiced barcode scanning some time ago. They weren't necessarily very interested in that. I thought, look, take the positives. When the positives come, they wanted to come along. They were dressed in their Oodies. They grabbed the bell, they rang the bell. Someone commented it was like we were in the Alps or something because, you know, the bell's just ringing in the hills there. So there was lots of cheer and Ava climbed trees for about three hours. So, yeah, it was pretty successful. We had, once again, our junior Run Director, Dylan, so one of the Duke of Ed kids take the reins again. So I took the opportunity to jump in and do a bit of barcode scanning and devour a couple of cupcakes. because we had a few more of our locals achieve the 250 club. Aside from that, Mel, I think just a happy morning. We were very pleased with the fine weather that the National Parks crew have continued a bit of the restoration of the park. So our course is just gradually starting to itch.

00:03:25Melissa Ellis: into better condition.

00:03:27Oliver Spake: And it was also lovely to see a whole bunch of adventurers volunteering and helping out and including Melissa from Goulburn with the family who stopped by and we got to chat about top threes and agree we both like Cronulla parkrun.

00:03:42Melissa Ellis: Oh, good. Sounds like a great morning.

00:03:44Oliver Spake: Yeah, no, very, very pleasant and very laid back. I think I was even in jeans. So, yeah, I'm not sure what's changed. What about you, Mel? I trust you did a bit more adventuring than me because I was very lethargic.

00:03:57Melissa Ellis: Yes, after a couple of weeks locally, I returned to the ACT for Umbagong District parkrun on Ngunnawal Country. It was event three, and I was there with fellow Victorian tourist, Irene Bomakanti, and TOC and Jacqui O'Connell. On arrival, we were greeted by volunteer Graham, who enthusiastically described the local area and its geographic features. So this includes a number of axe grinding grooves in the volcanic tuff of the creek bed. Why are you laughing?

00:04:27[laughter]

00:04:28Oliver Spake: I like that description.

00:04:30Melissa Ellis: The axe grinding grooves. Yes. Yes. Well, we were told as you run out, you will see some rocks and they're very important rocks.

00:04:38Oliver Spake: Oh, is that right? Yes. Oh, sorry. I thought that was a description of the course. My apologies.

00:04:44Melissa Ellis: No, no, no, no. Okay. Yeah. No, this is a feature of the local area. They were created by the first inhabitants of that part of Balcony. Oh, goodness. Really? Yes. And apparently... Umbagong which it's actually pronounced Umbagong it's the native word for spear native first inhabitants congregate in groups by the creek bed and sharpen their spears which over time puts grooves into the rock so there you go there we go I had no idea thank you Mel that's okay

00:05:17Oliver Spake: Here I was thinking it was just another worn-out course. I think I'm just a little too accustomed to those, but I'm sorry for interrupting.

00:05:20[crosstalk]

00:05:25Melissa Ellis: No, no, no. So now getting to the course, it is an out-and-back along an undulating bike path and begins a short distance from the Kippax Fair shops. There is, as was described by Mark's roving report from the trial in episode 294, a fair amount of elevation. And it's also worth mentioning that there are no toilets or playground facilities. However, parking and toilets are available at the nearby shopping centre. I was very pleased with my run considering the hills and the cold temperature. It was in the minuses.

00:05:59Unidentified speaker: Yes.

00:05:59Melissa Ellis: Frost on the ground and very cold parkrunners. But the encouragement I received at the finish line by Timekeeper and parkrun adventurer Will Barlow was awesome. Afterwards, we headed to Bunny Beans Cafe, which I must add provided excellent and very fast service and was very welcoming of the parkrun crowd. So it was a great morning out there at Umbagong.

00:06:23Oliver Spake: Well done, Mel. It does sound like a challenging course, especially in those conditions. Cold sounds like an understatement from what I saw.

00:06:30Melissa Ellis: chilly yeah icy yeah maybe icy I mean we know the act is cold this time of year so that's okay it was expected we travelled up on Friday and then we travelled home after brunch so just an overnighter lovely well done

00:06:49Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's certainly adventuring.

00:06:51Melissa Ellis: It is. So, yeah, nice to get the you, but I just like going to new events and meeting new people. So, yeah, I did get to see John Spooner again. I've bumped into John Spooner previously. I believe he was at the Beaches parkrun as well when we went for palm19, was it? Oh, yes. Shellharbour was eight. Oh, damn it.

00:07:14Oliver Spake: That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Thank you for elaborating, Mel.

00:07:22Melissa Ellis: Yes, anyway, I had previously bumped into John Spooner there and at Ted Scobie Oval and, yeah, this week at Umbagong.

00:07:32Oliver Spake: It's always a nice surprise.

00:07:34Melissa Ellis: And Ian Shaw was there as well. He's an adventurer now.

00:07:37Oliver Spake: Yes, excellent. Well done, Ian.

00:07:39Melissa Ellis: Welcome to the club. So that wraps up our parkrun weekends, I would say. I think so. Thanks.

00:07:46[other]

Hotline

00:07:46Melissa Ellis: Can you hear that, Ollie? I can hear a phone.

00:07:48Oliver Spake: Oh. It's the hotline. Did Scotty plug that back in? Shall I get it?

00:07:52Melissa Ellis: Where is it?

00:07:53Oliver Spake: Hang on. Hang on. I think it's over here. All right. Hello? Yes. Okay. So there is another one. Oh, two. Yes, I should have researched that a bit more. Thank you. You too. Bye. Mel.

00:08:12Melissa Ellis: I can't believe that the hotline rang.

00:08:16Oliver Spake: Gee, what's old is new again. I know.

00:08:19Melissa Ellis: Who was it?

00:08:20Oliver Spake: You know what? They didn't actually say.

00:08:22Melissa Ellis: Oh. But. Did we get something wrong again?

00:08:25Oliver Spake: You picked that up? Yes. We did have a bit of feedback, Mel. Military parkruns. Two, as it was pointed out to me.

00:08:34Melissa Ellis: Oh, excellent.

00:08:35Oliver Spake: So in last week's podcast, we did make the comment that we weren't aware of any other military parkruns across the globe. That's not the case. So thank you to our adventurer community for highlighting Akrotiri parkrun in the RAF base in Cyprus and in the Falkland Islands, Mel, Mount Pleasant.

00:08:57Melissa Ellis: Ah, there you go. Puckapunyal's part of a little parkrun frond. Yes. Excellent. I don't think my pass would get me into the other two though, would they?

00:09:05Oliver Spake: Potentially not. That might be a bit tricky in that respect, but it's nice to hear that hotline ringing again, Mel.

00:09:14Melissa Ellis: Yes.

00:09:15Oliver Spake: Hopefully we can hear a few more calls now it's plugged back in.

00:09:18Melissa Ellis: Hopefully.

00:09:18Oliver Spake: In case there's any more feedback.

00:09:20Melissa Ellis: Yeah, well, it didn't ring for the poem zone.

00:09:22Oliver Spake: No, no poems yet.

00:09:24Melissa Ellis: There was other news. This in the last few days, Ollie, it's been very exciting. Have you been sitting up watching the Comm Games?

00:09:31Oliver Spake: I'm ashamed to say I haven't seen all of it, but we've seen some familiar, speaking as an Australian parkrunner, some familiar and some very favourite Commonwealth athletes taking part quite successfully, mind you.

00:09:46Melissa Ellis: We're going to be a little bit biased here, we have to admit, because I'm not really across all the international athletes. That's right. So we have blinkers on when it comes to who we are aware of, and especially those that we know of who are parkrunners, Ollie.

00:10:01Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right, parkrunners and even former podcast guests, not necessarily of our own, but from Mel and Scotty previously. Madison de Rozario, who... Yeah, absolutely dominated the women's T53-54 marathon in Birmingham. I think it was a games record of an hour and 56 minutes.

00:10:22Melissa Ellis: I didn't see her race, but I caught her interview afterwards. And oh my goodness, her...

00:10:28Oliver Spake: Her chair. Chair? Yep.

00:10:30Melissa Ellis: What's the correct terminology?

00:10:33Oliver Spake: I've seen it referenced as chair. I didn't actually catch the interview itself. So I don't know what she called it. Okay. So my apologies. Yeah.

00:10:40Melissa Ellis: It was cable tied together. Yeah.

00:10:42Oliver Spake: It was, yeah, pretty precarious. Just a bit of an insight into the conditions that athletes such as Maddie go through, holding it together and still pulling through in such an amazing time there. And for those that haven't listened to the back catalogue, check out episode 151, the one and only Maddie makes an appearance.

00:11:04Melissa Ellis: And I was captivated by the lovely Jess Stenson, formerly Jess Trengrove, who we've also had on the pod in the early days, the very early days.

00:11:15Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:11:16Melissa Ellis: Winning the women's marathon and getting gold. That was so exciting.

00:11:20Oliver Spake: Yeah, that was huge.

00:11:22Melissa Ellis: Jess is well known over in South Australia and frequents parkrun.

00:11:26Oliver Spake: Yeah, as you said, firstly, she did indeed appear in the early episodes, episode 29, I believe. Yeah, what about that? So I think her time was two hours and 27, Mel.

00:11:38Melissa Ellis: I can only dream, but it's very exciting to be watching running. Usually they, is it the Olympics where they finish the- Yeah, the games. The two weeks with the marathon? Yes, yes. Because I was really surprised. It felt like it was day one and we're watching a marathon. I'm like, hey, what?

00:11:54Oliver Spake: And that's where I'm ashamed because I'm aware of a number of adventurers that were following it very closely and I was half asleep. Yeah, what an achievement and so closely followed almost on the podium Eloise Wellings and Sinead Diver. Mm-hmm. And there's at least one of them's a parkrunner in Sinead.

00:12:14Melissa Ellis: I believe so, yes, out in Victoria in Maribyrnong parkrun.

00:12:18Oliver Spake: That's right. Some huge achievements in the women's events there. The men's also just missing the podium was former Australian fastest male parkrun finishing time holder, Liam Adams. I think he had the world record too. Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Gee, one job, Ollie. One job. I'm going to get another call next week now. And Mel, I didn't see the interview, but someone quoted it and I really liked it. I don't know if you heard the quote, but he was quoted as saying, I'm pretty proud of that run. Those guys are professionals. I'm amateur. I'm working 40 hours a week. They're not. They're probably running 40 hours per week. I'm a sparky.

00:12:59Melissa Ellis: He did so well. We're so proud of you, Liam.

00:13:01Oliver Spake: That's right. So close. So close. It was seven seconds. Yes. Yeah. In fact, that's the second time someone came so close to finishing on the podium in a marathon this weekend that I'm aware of commiserations also to Ralph, also of Shellharbour parkrun, who very nearly achieved a podium finish in a very impressive marathon, finishing fourth as well. So diverting slightly from the Commonwealth Games there, but celebrate some of those achievements, Mel.

00:13:31Melissa Ellis: We do. And what was his time? Do you want to share?

00:13:35Oliver Spake: I think it was a pretty speedy 253, if I'm not mistaken. So, yeah, he's got another marathon to look forward to. He's just qualified for. So stay tuned for that next year. But speaking of staying tuned, Mel, of course, we've got a whole lot more events still to happen. Obviously, this week, by the time the pod comes out, some of them will have happened. But next parkrun day, and in fact, next parkrun weekend is the parkrun distance. And we're looking forward to seeing, by my count, four of them are parkrunners in the parkrun distance event. Wow. Yeah, so I've checked and my understanding, Matthew Ramsden in the men's parkrun distance from Rockingham parkrun, Kai Robinson from Wishart parkrun, Rose Davies from Newy, Natalie Rule, I haven't found any parkrun details on her, but, of course, one of my favourites, Mel, Jess Hull from Shellharbour.

00:14:31Melissa Ellis: Oh, yes. Geez, you're racking up the finds today.

00:14:34Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's right. It's all worth it. I'm excited. I've got the fever.

00:14:38Melissa Ellis: And to our UK listeners, I'm pretty sure there's a whole bunch of UK parkrunners in there too. No doubt we'll get coverage by our lovely friends over at With Me Now.

00:14:48Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. So we'll watch the results as they come through. There are more parkrunners in the other distance events and probably in some of the other events altogether, potentially, Mel. So looking forward to it. But back with a bit more of a focus on parkrun world and parkrun day just gone, we have heard from a couple of our parkrun community near and a little further afield.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:15:14Oliver Spake: So why don't we have a listen to two of our roving reports from this week.

Roving report Ingrid Botha — the Ponds parkrun

00:15:27Ingrid Botha: Hi, this is Ingrid. Botha, calling in from the Ponds parkrun on a beautiful parkrun morning. The course here at the Ponds isn't out and back, but it's definitely not straight. There are quite a few corners and there are plenty of volunteers cheering you along on the course. There are a couple of bridges and make sure you keep an eye out for the painted rocks through the underpass. There are plenty of small dogs here this morning, which is fantastic as well. Paris quite enjoyed those. The facilities here are fantastic. There's an arcade with toilets and cafes not very far away from the start line. And this parkrun just has a fantastic energy. Let's go find who we can talk to, see if we can track down a couple of volunteers to talk to. Hi Janisha, what role are you doing today?

00:16:10Janisha: I'm a Barcode Scanner.

00:16:11Ingrid Botha: Yeah, and how old are you?

00:16:13Janisha: I'm [age removed].

00:16:13Ingrid Botha: Yeah, and do you do a lot of volunteering? Yeah, I do every week.

00:16:17Janisha: Yeah, do you like it? I really enjoy it, yeah. What's your favourite role? Barcode scanning.

00:16:22Ingrid Botha: And why do you like that one?

00:16:24Janisha: I like it because I kind of get to talk to people and ask how their run was and everything.

00:16:28Ingrid Botha: Oh, fantastic. And do you get forced to come? Like, my daughter has to come to parkrun or are you excited to get here every day?

00:16:35Janisha: No, I actually begged my parents to come because I really wanted to because I had nothing to do on the weekend. Oh, fantastic.

00:16:41Ingrid Botha: Right, I'm swapping daughters. Have a great day. Thanks for talking to us. No problem. I'm here today at the Ponds parkrun and I'm with Sukhwan Singh and he's one of the Run Directors today. How are you today?

00:16:53Sukhwan Singh: I'm good, Ingrid. Welcome to the Ponds parkrun.

00:16:56Ingrid Botha: It's a lovely parkrun, isn't it? Quite lovely paths.

00:16:58Sukhwan Singh: Yeah, is it? And it's quite a multicultural area and we have a lot of nationality. So, yeah, it's going really, really good and one of the biggest in this area.

00:17:09Ingrid Botha: Yeah, it is. I think the numbers before COVID were about 600.

00:17:14Sukhwan Singh: I think the maximum we got up here was a 798 and six and a half was our average before COVID. We picked it up again. We reached 350 mark. So every week is just growing. So hope to see everyone back soon.

00:17:31Ingrid Botha: It's fantastic. Usually when I'm walking with Paris and my daughter, we're a long way ahead. We can't see anyone a long way ahead of us. And today it was just so social. So many people out on the course. And we actually know each other from many, many years ago we worked together. So it's fantastic to see each other sort of in the parkrun community. What's your parkrun story? How long have you been involved with parkruns?

00:17:52Sukhwan Singh: I'm almost 80 years now. Me and my wife, we started when the Ponds parkrun started. I think it was an event 10 or 15, I can't remember. Done literally 200s now, near to 200s, both of us. And we are Run Director from last three years.

00:18:09Ingrid Botha: Fantastic. Oh, that's great. And I did notice with the volunteer roster, you've got quite a mammoth volunteer roster. There's quite a lot of names on it. Do you struggle for volunteers at all?

00:18:21Sukhwan Singh: Up in Ponds parkrun, we hardly struggle, honestly speaking. People are so helpful, they come forward, and then we always just even announce as well that just come this side of parkrun to just enjoy the volunteer, and it's just encouragement. And it's already, the team is so great up here, they're always happy to chip in. Like, today wasn't my roster, but one of our RD just got something urgent, so I'm just filling his role.

00:18:49Ingrid Botha: Fantastic. All volunteers are wonderful, we know that. But the volunteers out on the course were just so encouraging and they're just really lovely. It was really good. They really looked like they were having fun joining in.

00:19:01Sukhwan Singh: Yeah, yeah, that's true. And up here you can see we have Club 50 volunteers and Club 25 volunteers. And sometimes we don't even need to ask if they just finish their run and see that we need one more scan. They just stand there and just scan. And how beautiful that is and just always appreciate it.

00:19:19Ingrid Botha: Oh, fantastic. It's a really great community feel here. Well done.

00:19:22Sukhwan Singh: Yeah, thanks, Stan. Thanks for just joining us at the Ponds. Hope to see you soon again.

Roving report Alison King — Stratford-upon-Avon parkrun

00:19:28Alison Fraser (King): Good morning, adventurers. It's Alison King here reporting in not from across the ditch, but in fact over in the UK, where today I'm going to be at Stratford-upon-Avon parkrun. And I'm quite excited about this one because even though my own parkrun tourism has been derailed due to injury, I'm on the volunteer roster. So I'm going to see if I can have a word with one of the core team. So let's see if I can find them. So I'm with Simon Teal, Co-Event Director at Stratford-upon-Avon parkrun. Tell us about your parkrun, Simon.

00:20:02Simon Teal: So we've been here since February 2016. Most of us came from Leamington in the core team, some from Arrow Valley. So we were filling in a gap halfway in the middle. And we're on this sort of rather iconic route, which is opposite the Royal Shakespeare Theatre on the other side of the River Avon, close to the Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare is buried, and was baptized so as well as getting parkrun tourists like you here we also get ordinary tourists who come along as well so yeah get a nice mix of people coming week to week to week now it's a three lapper and I know some people don't like the laps but I think it's a pretty good one well I came from Leamington which is a single lapper and I didn't think that anything would be as good as a single lap but the great thing about this is that people who can do different speeds can see each other they all know each other they pass each other and I think it's more social now so I've changed my mind completely um and again you know you if you're running around you see the same Marshall three times and the Marshal sees you so I think from building a community the laps is better and uh I'd recommend it anyway of course and it's got a nickname of flatford Has he really? I hadn't heard that one. I think we're the 26th flattest. We were the 19th flattest, so some newbie events seem to have stolen part of our crown. But yeah, it is quite flat. I mean, we're just sitting here looking at the hill and I think that elevation gain is about 75 centimetres. If that. So yeah, there is a bit of a challenge there as well. Don't take it for granted.

00:21:57Alison Fraser (King): And you're pleased with how the event was run today?

00:22:00Simon Teal: Yeah, it was great. So we had a reasonably high post-COVID number of people turn up. Loads of volunteers, as usual. We always try and maximise volunteering because all the volunteers enjoy it. So we try and get along as many as possible. I think we had 30 or something today and a field of about 313, something like that.

00:22:27Alison Fraser (King): It's always a good day in Stratford on a Saturday down at the Rec.

00:22:31[other]

00:22:31Simon Teal: Yeah and you can hear that that noise you can hear is Holy Trinity Church I was talking about earlier so they always ring the bells like that when parkruns on. I think I've always said it always seems to be ringing when parkruns on so I guess that must be true.

00:22:46Alison Fraser (King): Now I know you've done a bit of parkrun tourism yourself Simon even though you're pretty much always almost always here can you tell us your top three not including your home event?

00:22:57Simon Teal: Yes, I can. Vogrie. So Vogrie is one of the Edinburgh parkrun events. I really like that because it's got a bit of everything. Formal gardens, running through woods, a little bit of running up and down slopes. And it's set in a stately home. And the stately home's got a cafe in it, so that's pretty good. What else do I like? Leamington is where I came from so obviously I have to like that one so Leamington's a single lap it's about 12-13 miles away I used to be Event Director there so again I'm biased that features a very big hill that is a surprise to many who think that Warwickshire is quite flat and it's got a nice cafe run by volunteers at the end of it as well the famous Mrs Doyle was there for very many years So, Leamington's obviously got to be there. And Bushy. Bushy is an experience. Everybody should try and do it. It's a bit classic. But apart from all the running stuff, which obviously, I mean, the running bit itself is a bit tedious. But in the middle, there's a really nice cafe. But it's surrounded by lovely woodlands. So, you're in the middle of smelly old London. I'm a Londoner. I was born there, so I can say that. Stinky old London. But right in the middle of Bushy Park is an oasis of beauty. And if you go there, sort of spring to summer, lots of trees, lots of wildlife, things going around in the trees, interesting things in the rivers. So yeah, spend some time there. Bushy comes third, yeah.

00:24:44Alison Fraser (King): Thank you so much.

00:24:45Simon Teal: Lovely having you, Alison. See you again.

00:24:48Alison Fraser (King): So that's a wrap on Stratford-upon-Avon. I'm actually going to be here again next week. So I don't think there'll be another report, roving report from me on this adventure, sadly. But it's still been awesome to catch up with so many parkrunners that I used to see week in, week out when I was on the core team of this event. I'm way back in 2017. It really is such a joy to just do parkrun anywhere. And even if it's not quite what you want it to be, it's still a really, really good day. So anyway, that's it for me. Over and out.

00:25:32Melissa Ellis: Great to hear from Ingrid out there at the Ponds, Ollie, talking to Janisha, who was barcode scanning. She's 14 years old.

00:25:41Oliver Spake: Yes, yeah, nice work. Begs her parents to go to parkrun. Wouldn't we all as 14-year-olds?

00:25:48Melissa Ellis: And Singh, the RD out there, good to hear from Singh as well. Wonderful volunteer support coming from their community by all accounts.

00:25:57Oliver Spake: Yeah, I really, really do want to get to the ponds on a parkrun day.

00:26:00Melissa Ellis: And Alison out, or not out, over in the UK, back at her home parkrun event and talking to Simon, the co-ED, out there. And it was nice to hear the lovely Holy Trinity bells in the background during that report. Yeah.

00:26:15Oliver Spake: Yeah. And gosh, doesn't Alison know how to do some parkrun tourism?

00:26:19Melissa Ellis: She does. She's over there during the Comm Games and watching the footy.

00:26:26Oliver Spake: Yep.

00:26:26Melissa Ellis: I think her footy team had a win.

00:26:28Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:26:28Melissa Ellis: So she's having a blast.

00:26:30Oliver Spake: Good work, Alison. And thank you, both of you, for some more lovely roving reports. But we've heard from a lot of people this week, Mel.

Emails

00:26:38Oliver Spake: We've got some mail. You've got mail. The email's full again. It certainly is. It certainly is. So we've got a couple of emails. The first from Damon Young. If I may read it out, please, Mel. Please do. So Damon said, hi Mel and Ollie. Just a quick note following Mel's call out on episode 294 apologising for not catching up with myself. For me to also say sorry I didn't catch up and meet you Mel at You Yangs on the 16th of July. I hadn't listened to that week's pod episode 293 before attending the You Yangs parkrun, and I was on a very tight timeframe, so left virtually as soon as I finished as I had to be back in Shepparton to shower, change, and pick up my son to then be in Nathalia by 1 p.m. for football umpiring duties. I listened to the pod after the parkrun on the drive home to Shepparton, which explained as to why you were at the You Yangs, and it was great to hear TOC's interview of Harry and his parkrun story. It was a big day, but I thoroughly enjoyed the You Yangs parkrun and the idyllic bush setting. As my home parkrun is in Shepparton, I'm very used to a flat course, but I actually liked the first 1.3K incline to start the You Yangs course, albeit the incline for the last 600 metres was a bit challenging at the end, but it was a great course and well run by the local friendly volunteers. I was in Geelong for work and thought it was a good opportunity to undertake some parkrun tourism and, like Harry, to get a why for the Alpabetia and my namely challenges. Hopefully, we'll catch you in the near future, one parkrun day, Mel. Possibly at Frank Keenan Reserve parkrun in Yarrawonga when it launches in the coming weeks. and you attend to regain your statesman status. I also endorse Mel's comments for a parkrun in Seymour. As I'm unable to do Puckapunyal, a course along the Goulburn River would be a great setting. Nagambie would be another good town for one also. And a call out for those doing the Fibonacci challenge that event 377 is coming up in Shepparton on the 13th of August. In the meantime, I'll continue to strive for the number one finish place to achieve all my placings up to 50 for position bingo to get to the 50 volunteer milestone, about nine to go. And we'll hopefully get to the ACT by the end of the year to complete a course there to join the Peel Club. Umbagong sounds like a great new course, which will also tick off the U for my alphabet tier and namely challenges. Love the pod, guys, especially the roving reports and your own experiences attending your home and tourist parkrun events. Keep up the great work. P.S. I blame you guys for putting me onto the 5K app and all these challenges, albeit I do like that it provides some extra interest in volunteering, different roles, completing certain courses and event numbers either at my home parkrun or whilst undertaking parkrun tourism, albeit these incentives are just a bonus to going to great places and catching up with fellow parkrunners. Happy parkrunning and adventuring. Cheers, Damon. And look, firstly, well done, Damon. You're absolutely nailing some of those challenges. And Mel, hopefully you guys do cross paths.

00:29:56Melissa Ellis: Yes, I will be heading out to Frank Keenan later in August. So, yeah, it will be great if I bump into Damon out there. I do note that Yarrawonga is up in the vicinity of Shepparton. So if that is where he's from, then there's a good chance.

00:30:14Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:30:14Melissa Ellis: But, Ollie, we also heard from Stephen Jackson. And Stephen said, Hello, Ollie and Mel and Scotty. Would he remember me? I have just driven to Canberra and caught up on the last two pods. Nice as ever. Jen and I have had a busy few weeks at parkrun and we thought it worth an update, especially given your dearth of emails in the inbox. Bathurst's sixth birthday was two days ago and it was suitably festive and ugly. We even had the Bathurst Mayor and the New South Wales Deputy Premier on hand to help us celebrate. It was only minus five, so almost T-shirt weather. Inspired by Bushy Park at Christmas, yes, we have both done Bushy, both cake and mulled wine were served and covered by the local paper and we made the TV news as well as visitors from across Australia. It was marvellous. The week before saw me making the 250 Club at last. There are a few of those starting to appear. Well, the informants' numbers for reaching that milestone seem to grow every week. And the week before that, we had Bathurst parkrun flooded out. So Jen and I touristed to Narromine Wetlands. As ever, a lovely, friendly parkrun community. A funny story ensued. Took off at the start of the run, a double out and back course, and only one young bloke came with me. I had a look at him at the first turnaround and thought, he is just sitting on me. Second turn, he was still there, even though I threw in surges and tried to lose him and me cursing him under my breath. Third turn, and I was quietly muttering to myself that he should take the lead for a bit, but resigned myself to being out sprinted by his 40 years younger legs. Even Jen commented I was looking more grim as each turn came and went. With 200 metres to go, I just threw everything I had into an all out sprint and managed to cross the line in front of my stalker. I turned to congratulate him and he seemed not to see me. It turns out that Simon is vision impaired. He needs to have a guide to run parkrun. So I had just spent the 20 minutes out there trying to drop a blind guy. Not exactly a VI volley point there, and checking his previous emails, he is quicker, but always second or third. Anyway, after that little social faux pas, Jen and I were lucky enough to be male and female first finishers, which was definitely a first for us, so a real bonus. Kudos to Simon for taking part and for the parkrun community, it's amazingly inclusive ethos. Still rambling, sorry. I noticed Cirencester was not in the adventurers Consolidated report. Reason for noticing that omission is that Cirencester is the home of Lord and Lady Bathurst, after whom our town and parkrun was named. Jen and I have stayed at their place in Cirencester, a lovely country village in England, and highly recommended for a visit. I'm looking forward to Scotty's expose on parkrun naming conventions. Last paragraph, I promise. Glad you cleared up what an Obi was. Suspected it was related to Tim but was unsure. Can I ask for a bit of history on Dazza's? Still trying to work that one out, and a Panorama Punish update. Over 600 entries. And are we able to offer adventurers a discount code, or did I just do that? Take care, and we are glad that Ollie actually ran Shellharbour for a change. And we are jealous about Mel's Puckapunyal access. Stephen and Jen.

00:33:52Oliver Spake: Look, congratulations on the first place finishes and for, yes, not quite the VI role there. But thank you for your email, Stephen. And Mel, that's, again, very exciting to hear about the Punish.

00:34:11Melissa Ellis: Yes, it is. So I am taking it by Steve's wording that if adventurers use the word adventurers in their entry, it will offer a discount code because he did write adventurers in uppercase with inverted commas. Give it a try. Let us know how it goes.

00:34:30Oliver Spake: And Stephen, if not, please write back to us and let us know.

00:34:34Melissa Ellis: And he did put Shellharbour with the – that's the third time I've said it. With little asterisks and things, but I didn't know how to pronounce that in the audio context.

00:34:46Oliver Spake: Well, that can be the feedback for next week's pod as alternative pronunciations. But nonetheless, thank you, Mel. I've got a fine jar here you can use. So, yes, a bit of context requested there for Dazza's podcast.

Dazza's

00:35:04Melissa Ellis: Yes, the history of Dazza's. So where do I start? So I don't know how many people realise that the image of Dazza, he's a concrete statue of a Buddha that sits at my front door.

00:35:20Oliver Spake: And sorry to interject there, if anyone's not on Facebook, you'll see that image on Facebook. If you'd like to see it and you're not on Facebook, let us know. We'll send through an email.

00:35:29Melissa Ellis: So during lockdown, every week when I did my (not)parkrun, we had our own family theme every week and I dressed up my concrete statue in a costume and took a selfie with him. So he became quite well known by my friends and everybody enjoyed seeing him dressed up every week. So he sort of got a little profile in a way on social media. And when we decided we wanted to bring a regular Saturday post for our listeners to engage with, we came up with the idea of using Dazza as the face of our virtual cafe. So that's how we evolved.

00:36:11Oliver Spake: Yeah, so right from the get-go, Dazza has been excellent at keeping us company, keeping us motivated and inviting us all in. And that's what we hope Dazza's is all about on a Saturday, is something for everyone to jump on, particularly if you've got to jump in the car after you finish and travel a tidy two, three, seven hours back. back to home after your adventure. Don't check in while you're driving, but there's that cafe connection just in case you don't get to make it. Yeah, virtually.

00:36:42Melissa Ellis: And Dazza's is open all hours.

00:36:44Oliver Spake: That's right. Just as well there's no minimum wage standards or working standards for concrete statues, Mel, or we'd really be in trouble.

00:36:53Melissa Ellis: So I always called him Daryl. So his real name's Daryl. But, of course, when we decided to use him for our regular post, we thought we needed something a bit more ochre, a bit more Aussie, didn't we? That's right, because we're mates. Yeah. Yeah.

00:37:07Oliver Spake: And, look, what better way to segue across to Dazza's? For this week's Dazza's, we're at Dazza's this week. He said, it's International Friendship Day. Come on in to Dazza's and tell us about your parkrun friends and what you all got up to today. So one of our first was Brett Bailey over in New Zealand, who said, Brunner, Got to say hi to all of his Bark Run friends at our Pegasus Midwinter Christmas today in a chilly three degrees after a week of record rainfall. Tanya and I rocked our ugly shirts and Brunner wore his Christmas collar. I'm having physio on my leg, so it'll just be a walk for me for a while yet. Tanya baked a parkrun Christmas cake. And thank you to Brett for sharing the photo of he, Tanya and Brunner in their ugly Christmas gear.

00:38:02Melissa Ellis: And I should mention that all these photos that we will be describing have been released in our Monday Night album by The Office Lady. Yes. So if you want to have a look, you can jump onto Facebook and see them there. We also heard from Sonja Pohlman who was celebrating friendship this week. My heart is so unbelievably full and the fact that it is International Friendship Day is perfect. We had the chance to meet up with friends we have not seen for 15 years as they moved back to the Netherlands. My Brit and I were in a mother's group together when our babies were actually babies. They have now done two parkruns in Australia and will be regulars at home in Haarlem. Oh, And we are stopwatch twinnies today too. And there was a lovely photo of the Pohlmans with their friends in the Varsity Lakes selfie frame.

00:38:52Oliver Spake: Carrying on the friendship theme, Paris Lawrence. Fingal Bay parkrun with Roberta Winters. So good to finally do a parkrun with her. Yay! And Paris shared a photo of herself and Roberta with the backwards flag, for Roberta's first time to Fingal Bay.

00:39:12Melissa Ellis: Next up we have Joanne Blackbird. Touristing. Talk about friendship. Did Willow parkrun in Wodonga today. Then the very welcoming and friendly Sylvia invited me to her home for a cuppa, literally a three-minute walk from the start line, and even dropped me off at my motel in Albury afterwards. I love the parkrun community. And Joanne... shared a photo of herself in the willow selfie frame.

00:39:37Oliver Spake: That's lovely. And now we also heard from Julie Turner and Liz Libros at Shellharbour. And Julie said, Beautiful morning at our parkrun paradise. Greeting lovely parkrun adventurer Melissa. Hoping to visit you at Goulburn parkrun soon. And the reply from Liz, thanks, Julie. It was lovely meeting you, your lovely hubby and Ollie too. It was great to finally see the famous parkrun that cannot be named. It's beautiful, but those hills are killers. You also managed to convince my hubby to join the Adventurers Club too. And Julie did share a photo with the selfie frame with myself and Liz and herself with husband Gordon.

00:40:22Melissa Ellis: So many mentions.

00:40:23Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:40:24Melissa Ellis: Then we heard from Karina Campbell, also celebrating friendship, making a new parkrun friend and a first parkrun after COVID with Stacey and Sam at Ashgrove parkrun. And they shared a selfie shot.

00:40:37Oliver Spake: Hope you're recovering well, Karina. And over in South Africa, we heard from Johan, who said, hi, Dazza. Today, again, back at Heidedal parkrun, where everybody feels like family. It was a special day as our second parkrunner to reach 200 parkruns, Cyril Mazadorp, crossed the finish line. And Johan shared a lovely collage of photos from the day.

00:41:02Melissa Ellis: Always lovely photos out there at Heidedal.

00:41:05Oliver Spake: Yes, yeah.

00:41:06Melissa Ellis: Hmm. Then we heard from Michael Scott, who had an achievement. Hi, Dazza. What a great surprise to have my mate Nick and partner Leanne join me and Margie at Southern Highlands Botanic Gardens parkrun in Bowral to help me celebrate regaining my New South Wales statesman status on a chilly parkrun morning. Well done, Mike. Good work.

00:41:26Oliver Spake: Yes, I'm still looking forward to getting up there. Now, over in the UK, we heard from Helen Rutter. We were in London for the Wedding Day 7K race in Bushy Park last night. Would have been rude not to take advantage of our Premier Inn location today. So, Crane Park it was. Made a new friend, Hannah, while running and met up with two tourist friends. Apparently, PSH... Push Kerber-Froese. I haven't had practice with that, Mel. I've heard it so many times. I've never said that. Can you believe that? I've never said that. So thank you. Push Kerber-Froese was there, but none of us saw him and it wasn't even busy. But Helen did share a photo, an action shot running in the morning.

00:42:14Melissa Ellis: And then Alison King volleying, as we heard earlier, International Friendship Day, you say? Today I revisited my UK home parkrun of Stratford-upon-Avon, where I was Run Director. I caught up with my old running buddy, David, who hadn't run a parkrun in years, as well as the core team and other parkrunning friends of old. It was a great morning, 314 finishes and no incidents. And lovely photo of Alison and David and happy V25.

00:42:43Oliver Spake: Yes, well done. And last but certainly not least, Tim Robbins, still touristing abroad, walked and wrote the report for Eden Project parkrun. And Tim shared the photo of himself and co with the pop-up sign there. Nice work, Tim.

00:43:01Melissa Ellis: Fantastic. Lots of friendships all around, new and old.

00:43:06Oliver Spake: Yes. So thank you, everyone, for jumping into Dazza's and giving us some great friendship vibes on this special day.

00:43:13Melissa Ellis: Yep. Envelope time.

00:43:15Oliver Spake: Envelope time. Do you have it or do I?

00:43:18Melissa Ellis: Must be in your intro, I think.

00:43:19Oliver Spake: Okay. Here we are. Yes.

00:43:22Melissa Ellis: Okay.

00:43:22Oliver Spake: I'm sorry, what was that?

00:43:23Melissa Ellis: I was going to say I think it's orange.

00:43:25Oliver Spake: Orange. Is it orange? Is it orange envelope? Yes, that's it. It's over there. It's under the caramilk. All right. Here we are.

00:43:31Melissa Ellis: Does the informant know you're eating his caramilk?

00:43:35Unidentified speaker: Shh.

00:43:36Oliver Spake: This will go downhill again, Mel.

00:43:38Unidentified speaker: Shh.

00:43:40Oliver Spake: Okay. Moving swiftly along.

the Obi Award — Paris Lawrence

00:43:43Oliver Spake: The Obi this week goes to... Paris Lawrence.

00:43:58Melissa Ellis: Fantastic. Well done, Paris. Good to catch up out there with Roberta and meet up in person, I believe. They must be social media friends.

00:44:09Oliver Spake: That's right. So we can overlook the backwards flag, Fingal Bay, beautiful spot. Love to do a parkrun there one day.

00:44:15Melissa Ellis: Don't say about the backwards flag. I was just going to get the art director to do a flip like last week.

00:44:22Oliver Spake: Ah, okay. Pretend I never said that, everyone. Yes.

00:44:27Melissa Ellis: Anyway, that's exciting.

00:44:29Oliver Spake: All right. Well, after a whole lot of correspondence and sharing there, I think it's time to check in with someone else who's got a bit of news for us, our informant. So let's catch up and have a bit of a listen.

the Informant

00:44:52The Informant: This is The Informant, coming to you live from Level 2 with a view. And this week's view... Well, the winter is nearly over, Parkies, because the Big Wattle is about to break out in beautiful yellow. These are unofficial stats. They are only current at the time they are collected and may differ from the stats you read elsewhere. This week we have a record number of 459 runs held down under, 424 in Australia, and a record 1,771 worldwide. 35 of these were in New Zealand. Aussie New Zealand attendance was 35,864, up almost 4,000. That's out of 194,000 worldwide.

00:45:28[12 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:45:41The Informant: There were four launches and all in Australia. Frank Keenan Reserve in Victoria, Nantu Wama in South Australia, University of Western Australia in, well, Western Australia, and Westbury Town Common in Taswija. Down under, we have 4,260 PBs, while 1,660 people participated for the first time. 73 juniors reached their Junior 10 milestone, 160 people reached their 50 milestone, 110 reached their 100 milestone, and 27 people reached their 250 milestone. 24 people called bingo. Brendan Orth was quickest on 153 runs, while Julie Hughes is slowest on 298 runs. You hear that noise? That's crickets still waiting for Melissa and Oliver. Well, you have to imagine crickets because I don't know how to put in the sound effects. There were two new statespeople. Well, kind of three. Or maybe four. Firstly, Mike Scott makes a return in New South Wales after a long, long absence. Roger Wilson joins the ranks in Northern Territory. And in news from the New Zealands, Rebecca Edgecombe completed the North Island and the whole country in Tauranga. In the top 20 most Aussie New Zealand events list, Ross Burrell and Brian Hardy dropped 1 to 14 and 20 respectively. What does that even mean, respectively? Who in the English language added that? Perhaps if Sam wasn't busy stealing the comfy chair and having won too many caramel almond mochaccinos, we could find out. Overall, in the biggest movers, Marilyn and Bradley McCann moved up nine spots to be on rank 180 after running their 95th different parkrun at Pittsworth. A record 464 people lifted their windex. Many of these were very small moves, by people getting the coveted one at any of the launches. The biggest mover is Wendy Glen, who moves up 26 to 51. In the adventurer Challenges, we have an Oberg. Arno Micini finishes run of all states, territories and islands of Australia and New Zealand. Not to be confused with an Obi, which I must certainly be due for soon. Wendy Beckhouse was similarly impressive doing a Cowell, her 100 different event at Warrandyte River Reserve. A further 11 parkrunners completed a half Cowell. Now if you would like to see these stats in full, you can download them from theinformant.me. That's www.theinformant.me. Or look for The Informant on Facebook. This has been the informant and my spreadsheet is, well, it's just as big as Bay's trousers. I don't know what he bangs on about.

00:48:48Melissa Ellis: And thank you, informant, for all the stats again this week. A bit going on there, a few launches this week, Ollie.

Consolidated Club Report

00:48:57Oliver Spake: It has been busy. It has been very busy. So I'm wondering, Mel, in the name of being busy, our adventurers Consolidated Club report, how are we doing in everyone's favourite pronunciation segment?

00:49:09Melissa Ellis: Well, Ollie, of a total of 254 members, 207 took part on the 30th of July at 116 different locations. We are growing. We are. In the UK, there were 20 events. Brace yourself. Oh, I've already forgotten it. Coed Cefn Pwll Du, Rothay Park. Seven Fields, Dunstable Downs, Maldon Prom, Crane Park, Osterley, South Norwood, Tooting Common, Leazes, Horspath, Alderley Park, Eden Project, Heartlands, The Great Field, Groe, Hafan Pwllheli, Hastings High School, Wyre Forest and Endcliffe. In the USA, we had three events, Joe Creason, Roosevelt Island, D.C., and Jamaica Pond. In Ireland, one event at Bushy Dublin. In Germany, Ollie, one event.

00:50:15Oliver Spake: Landesgartenschaupark.

00:50:18Melissa Ellis: Locally, there were adventurers at 32 events in Victoria, 19 events in Queensland. 17 in New South Wales, 8 in South Australia, 5 in WA, 4 in Tassie, 2 in the ACT, and 3 in the North Island, and 1 in the South Island of New Zealand. So pretty busy. And I'm really sorry about my pronunciation there of what I believe is Welsh parkruns. Feel free to find me.

00:50:53Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:50:54Oliver Spake: Jump onto the hotline. The phone's connected. Give us a bit of feedback. We actually do like to learn the correct pronunciation. It's just unfortunate that we choose to do it after we've said it on the podcast. So we would appreciate those tips, me included. I apologise.

00:51:09Melissa Ellis: We did practise a little bit. A little bit. But probably not enough. Yes.

the Frond

00:51:15Melissa Ellis: Anyway, largest fronds, do you want to know?

00:51:18Oliver Spake: Yes, I do. Absolutely.

00:51:20Melissa Ellis: Okay. We had three events that had six adventurers in attendance. The first one was Shepparton with Andrew Johnston, Jie Ting Huang, Martine Barrot, Sarah Langley, and Vicky and John Smith at the parkrun that shall not be named. We also had six adventurers with housemate Lance, Paddy Oshimo, Jason Green, Melissa Khoury, and Julie and Gordon Turner. Out at Umbagong District was the other event where there were six adventurers with TOC and Jacqui O'Connell, Ian Shaw, Alistair Buchanan, Irene Bommakanti and me.

00:51:59Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:52:00Melissa Ellis: But the winner this week was the Ponds parkrun with nine. A frond of nine. Nice work, adventurers. What a frond. Yes. Yes. All the names, all the fun out there at the ponds. The ponds is proving to be a very happy and friendly parkrun.

00:52:27Oliver Spake: It certainly is. Still having FOMO in that respect. I look forward to seeing you all there sometime. And look, on the Vrond side of things, our research elves haven't quite worked that out. I believe we may have had six at Shellharbour, just for another find there. But... I am reliably informed. We've had a lot of volunteers around the traps, so it could be anywhere.

00:52:52Melissa Ellis: But time to look forward. Time to look forward. City to Surf is fast approaching and perhaps time to recap the event and the parkrun that we're planning to do on the Saturday before the event, Ollie. Well, that's right.

00:53:08Oliver Spake: That's right. Now, my understanding goes that there is still opportunity to enter the City to Surf event, which is a fantastic fun run for anyone that hasn't done it. I'm sure many of you have experienced that. But the atmosphere, the course, the great company, if you like a beer, the Stein afterwards, the swim at Bondi, it's all good fun. I highly recommend it. And all the more fun with a whole bunch of adventurers around. And even more fun, Mel, as you say, is parkrun Day just before that, where we have plans. So if you're free and you're in the area, come and join us, please.

00:53:46Melissa Ellis: At Cooks River parkrun. I don't know a lot about Cooks River. It's been on my radar for quite a while, but I have yet to get there. I know it's conveniently located near the train line, so it should be easy to get to.

00:54:01Oliver Spake: Look, I have done a freedom run there as part of the longest run. If I remember correctly, it is a double out and back course. It is mostly on footpath. There's a tiny bit on grass there. There are undulations. I'm going to eat my words if it's not double out and back. I distinctly remember two legs, but I could be mistaken there. But yeah, the path is a nice spot by the river there. Highly recommend it.

00:54:25Melissa Ellis: Hmm. So that will be our best opportunity as adventurers to catch up over that weekend. From previous experience at the start line at City to Surf with all the people and all the different waves that we will be separated into, it's near impossible to manage a meeting location before the event. That's right. And probably afterwards is also a little bit difficult with the different times that people will take. So we'll use this Saturday, I think, as our main opportunity to catch up as adventurers.

00:54:57Oliver Spake: That said, if you spot a parkrun adventurer you recognise anywhere, grab a photo, throw it on Dazza's and we'll just enjoy everyone's company virtually if we don't get to see you all in person on the Sunday. But it should be a fantastic weekend, Mel.

00:55:14Melissa Ellis: It should. And also going a little bit further, as Stephen did point out in his email, we are still looking forward to The Punish, so we have to give that a little bit of promotion again. I've actually booked my campsite now at the showgrounds.

00:55:28Oliver Spake: Oh, wonderful.

00:55:29Melissa Ellis: I believe I will be staying alongside the Baileys. Yep. And I think Chris Fraser has also booked his campsite today, so that's going to be all the fun, all the cool kids are at the campsite.

00:55:41Oliver Spake: And I haven't booked mine yet. I'm just working out whether or not the grommets in Oodies are going to make the trip. If I am camping, I need a new tent pole. So I need to remember that.

00:55:53Melissa Ellis: It's always best to do that before you arrive at the campsite.

00:55:55Oliver Spake: Yeah, I worked that out last time. Yes.

00:55:59Melissa Ellis: I'm also working on Paul and Zoe just accompanying me for the trip to Bathurst. And I promised them that I'm not going to make them run. They wouldn't have to do any kind of running.

00:56:08Oliver Spake: Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:56:09Melissa Ellis: They could even volunteer at Bathurst if they were so inclined. But I'm – I'm pitching it for just a little weekend away. So we'll see. We'll see how that goes. Excellent.

00:56:18Oliver Spake: Well, we hope to see them there. We hope to see many of the adventurer community out there over the weekend, Bathurst parkrun and definitely at the Punish. It'll be my first time.

00:56:28Melissa Ellis: Me too.

Sign-off

00:56:29Oliver Spake: Yeah. And then bringing it in a bit closer, Mel, next parkrun day. What's happening? What's on the cards?

00:56:34Melissa Ellis: I am staying in Victoria this week, going local to Kirkdale Reserve, back for another visit for Jodie Maisie's 50th parkrun. She will be also achieving Hoffman Club this weekend. So that should be fun. I think there will be quite a few friends in attendance and, yeah, a nice little celebration. What about you, Ollie?

00:56:57Oliver Spake: Congratulations in advance there. I was considering some adventuring, but I think with Cooks River coming up and another set of 250 milestones back at home, I think I'll stay home.

00:57:08Melissa Ellis: Right.

00:57:09Oliver Spake: Yes. Not sure, but that's the plan.

00:57:12Melissa Ellis: No, no worries.

00:57:15Oliver Spake: But it feels like it's been a bit of a big one, Mel. I didn't go anywhere, but it feels like I've virtually been to a lot of places. So thank you, everyone.

00:57:23Melissa Ellis: It was very busy this week, wasn't it?

00:57:25Oliver Spake: Yes. So after a quiet inbox a couple of weeks ago, things have really ramped up. Thank you, everyone, for involving us in your parkrun adventurers. And as always, you can contact us via Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. But, Mel, I think that's it for another week, and we will see you all next week for more adventures.

00:58:48Unidentified speaker: Hi, Mel and Ollie. At juniors, I came number 16. And after juniors, we had hot chocolates. But I put a sugar in mine and Mum was not happy, Jan. But I thought it was funny. Bye, adventurers. Stay safe.