Episode 299 - Buzz Buzz

Welcome

00:00:23Oliver Spake: Welcome to episode 299 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. I am Ollie Spake and I am joining once again from Dharawal Country.

00:00:33Melissa Ellis: And I am Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country.

00:00:38Oliver Spake: And 299 Mel, who would have thought this little podcast would get to 299?

00:00:43Melissa Ellis: Are we not getting excited a week too early, Ollie? Shouldn't it be next week when we're getting excited at 300?

00:00:51Oliver Spake: Well, it's all arbitrary, isn't it? But nonetheless, it's a big number.

00:00:55Melissa Ellis: You're just getting excited because of the 99, because what you've got to do this week.

00:01:01Oliver Spake: I did listen back to a little bit of a previous episode over the weekend just for a bit of inspiration.

00:01:08Melissa Ellis: I'm so glad you did that. Yeah. Getting in tune.

00:01:13Oliver Spake: Well, I'm not sure that's the right terminology, Mel. But I am referring, for those who may not have followed that link, to episode 99 of the back catalogue. And if you haven't listened, please do yourself a favour. Go and have a listen.

00:01:28Melissa Ellis: Yes, everybody go and listen to episode 99.

00:01:31Oliver Spake: Yes, pause this episode right now. Go and listen to that one. Come back. We'll wait for you. And be sure to listen right to the end. It's an audio feast. Yes, but how are you, Mel?

00:01:44Melissa Ellis: I'm good. I'm pumping. There's been so much excitement in parkrun Australia comms over the last few days, Ollie. Here in Australia, we've just had the parkrun Ambassadors Conference. What do they call it? APAC.

00:02:00Oliver Spake: APAC, yeah. Asia Pacific Australian, I don't know, what does it stand for? Little help from the crowd there. Didn't make out what the suggestion was though, sorry. Yeah, Bambi, can you say that again? Please.

00:02:15Melissa Ellis: Asia Pacific Australia Conference, APAC.

00:02:18Oliver Spake: Let's go with that. I've got no idea. So I'm in your hands.

00:02:22Melissa Ellis: Yes. So many adventurers were represented at conference. And so my feed has been flooded with all the photos and all the excitement and all the media, and it has been fabulous.

00:02:37Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:02:37Melissa Ellis: Completely flooded what I did this weekend.

00:02:42Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah, nonetheless, nonetheless. And before we continue, it stands for Asia Pacific, the A for Asia, the PAC for Pacific. Thank you, Dr. Google.

00:02:53Melissa Ellis: What did I say? Didn't I say Asia Pacific Australia Conference?

00:02:57Oliver Spake: No, just Asia Pacific. APAC stands for just Asia Pacific. Oh, okay. But nonetheless, it was the conference. I think we're saying the same thing, Mel. LAUGHTER Sure. But nonetheless, you did have a little bit of an adventure at the weekend. What did you get up to?

00:03:06[laughter]

00:03:16Melissa Ellis: Well, I did, Ollie. I went to event four of Frank Keenan Reserve parkrun in Yarrawonga, as I mentioned at the end of the pod last week. Yarrawonga is a border town on the Murray River, river with Mulwala being on the New South Wales side. It was just over a three hour drive from home so I elected to do the stupid o'clock drive leaving home at about 4am. I arrived to discover some other adventurers also milling around and we all anxiously wondered if we were in the right spot as there was no event team to be seen. It's very unnerving Ollie when you're at a parkrun and time's ticking away and there's no event team.

00:03:58Oliver Spake: I imagine there's that direct correlation to the amount of effort and time and expense potentially that you've invested into getting there. Yeah.

00:04:07Melissa Ellis: But I had faith. Like, I'm a believer. I had faith that they would be there. Frank Keenan is an out-and-back course. It's on gravel and it's quite flat. I was running solo for the first time in a few months, so I was giving it my best effort and happy, albeit surprised, with my eighth placing at an average pace with a six in front of it.

00:04:30Oliver Spake: Nice work, Mel.

00:04:31Melissa Ellis: Yeah, well, that's a quick time for me in the last couple of months. The course runs along Lake Mulwala, starting at the Yarrawonga Yacht Club. The Yarrawonga Weir is the largest of the 16 weirs on the Murray River, and Yarrawonga is located 280 kilometres northeast of Melbourne via the Hume Freeway. Yarrawonga was the name given to a local pastoral station in 1842. The term is probably a Yorta Yorta Aboriginal word, meaning either place where the Wonga pigeon rested or water running over rocks.

00:05:08Oliver Spake: after parkrun I didn't hang around for brunch but instead fuelled up and headed home again as there was things I needed to get home for it's a no small trip Mel um that's a it's a big morning yeah how did you feel I was gonna say how did you feel after the parkrun but you know also importantly how did you feel after the drive back after the parkrun after the drive there

00:05:30Melissa Ellis: It was a big day. I was excited because when I got there, I did strike up a conversation with another parkrunner standing around. Her name was Sarah. And we chatted a bit. And it wasn't until the event actually started that I said, Hi, my name's Mel. What's your name? And discovered that she's actually a listener. So that was really cool. So it was nice to meet Sarah. Hi, Sarah. And she was standing there in a purple volunteer shirt. Oh, very nice.

00:06:03Oliver Spake: It sounds like a really positive morning.

00:06:05Melissa Ellis: It absolutely was. And when I say that we were nervous that the event team weren't there, they did turn up in time for the event to start and everything went absolutely fine. There was no issues. The course was all set up. So it was just that as we arrived, the event team was actually out on course marking the course. So that explains them being not... At the area.

00:06:29Oliver Spake: Yeah. Correct. Well, very impressive.

00:06:31Melissa Ellis: So that was me ticking off Frank Keenan Reserve and, yeah, very happy for that for my 155th different event, I think. I don't know, something like that. But, Ollie, how was your parkrun day? Well, I stayed close to home.

00:06:48Oliver Spake: Surprise, surprise. I was Run Director at Shellharbour. There we are, first one of the night. parkrun for the morning. I was looking forward to the celebration I mentioned on last week's pod to celebrate our Tail Walker and our milestone, Sue King, achieving her 250 and to a bit of a frond. I think the crew kind of all assembled from near and some from slightly afar. To come and spend the morning. So that was a particular highlight. So to have some good company who stuck around for brunch afterwards, and I did actually manage to make it to brunch afterwards, not just I, in fact, I made it to brunch with mum and with Hannah who had done the parkrun. She notched up her 47th parkrun and her boyfriend, James, who had volunteered as photographer for his first volunteer stint and Zali and Ava who didn't actually come to parkrun. They just came to brunch. So I think I need to address that. I'm not sure I'm enforcing the right behaviours there, but nonetheless, it was a nice time.

00:08:00Melissa Ellis: Well played, Zali and Omar.

00:08:03Oliver Spake: And I should say, there was caramilk, so thank you, Sue.

00:08:06Melissa Ellis: Now, Ollie, is Sue Keane the person that was in the high-five photo from palm18? That's exactly right.

00:08:15Oliver Spake: Yes. Yes. So in the cookbook on every Saturday, I've forgotten the page reference, but... If you look at that wonderful picture on the beach at Killalea there on The Farm beach, yes, you'll see our beloved podcast host Mel high-fiving volunteer Sue at palm18. Excellent.

00:08:35Melissa Ellis: How about that?

00:08:35Oliver Spake: I thought that was Sue.

00:08:37Melissa Ellis: Congratulations on your 250, Sue.

00:08:40Oliver Spake: And let's congratulate also our PB achiever, Sam, who absolutely smashed her PB with support crew, Bec and Luke, cheering her on on either side of her as she made her way around the course. Blitzed it.

00:08:55Melissa Ellis: The Office Lady.

00:08:56Oliver Spake: That's right. So it was a nice morning, but, yeah, as I was going to say, look, the highlight for me was also the warming tribute to one of our Shellharbour family and, naturally, It's our community that steps up and cemerates. Dear me, that's a cross between celebrates and commemorates. Wow. Yeah.

00:09:19Melissa Ellis: We can invent new words, Ollie. It's fine.

00:09:22Oliver Spake: I've heard that, yeah. But commemorates and celebrates the contribution of those that are special. And we had a parkrunner who had been with us at Shellharbour for 125 parkruns, and we were very fortunate that some of the family and friends of Mr David Gill were able to come and join us for the morning, many of whom had never been to parkrun. and join us for a special tribute. We wore blue, a touch of blue was the theme, and people really outdid themselves because not only did David often wear blue, but he often wore long pants, chinos or jeans, and a buttoned-up collared shirt and a hat. So it is the first time I've ever ironed a shirt for parkrun.

00:10:08Melissa Ellis: Aww.

00:10:09Oliver Spake: And, dare I say, many others.

00:10:11Melissa Ellis: I saw the photo of the event.

00:10:13Oliver Spake: I don't know if it was the event team. It was a group of people. That was, yeah, really just the community, yes.

00:10:19Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and that was lovely. What a great tribute. Congratulations, Shellharbour, for sending off one of your own in such a lovely way.

00:10:28Oliver Spake: And, look, I suppose a bit of context, David had been parkrunning with us for about five years. His health had deteriorated and he sadly passed away about a month ago. He would come up and be there most weeks, always at the back of the pack, always with a walk, always with a smile. But I really can't do it justice. The person that could do it justice was Julie Turner, one of our adventurers and one of our royalty from Shellharbour parkrun, who wrote a touching tribute poem and read it out. So if only we could just have Julie read it out.

00:10:59Julie Turner: In memory... of our parkrun friend, David. David loved to ramble over the hills of Killalea. One day he heard of parkrun there and came along to see. He found the Saturday morning crowd suited him just fine. Never had need to worry once about his weekly time. For David was happy leading from the back of the parkrun pack. He loved to walk and talk. Always, mister, have a chat. He'd tell us of the white-faced heron and the nesting black swan. It's amazing what you could learn from him as you walked along. David came nearly every week and soon the 50 mark was reached. Just another stroll down to that beautiful sandy beach. Before too long he had a hundred runs under his parkrun belt, his presence always a happy one that all who knew him felt. Brightest of all were the mornings David chose to volunteer, encouraging everyone who passed him with a wave and a friendly cheer. Now, whenever we're at parkrun, leading from the back of the pack, we'll remember our friend David in blue who always loved to chat. Aww.

00:12:44Oliver Spake: Yeah, thank you, Julie. Thank you, Julie, for that beautiful poem, and it was appreciated.

00:12:50Melissa Ellis: So nice and so well read.

00:12:54Oliver Spake: It's Julie that can do it justice. But nonetheless, last week's episode, Mel, I haven't really got any big notes on last week's episode except that Sue did add that she thoroughly enjoyed the poem, might I say. So thanks.

00:13:10Melissa Ellis: Is this where I admit that I haven't gone back and checked on the feedback from the posts?

00:13:16Oliver Spake: Oh, no, that is the feedback. Look, the other thing to mention, Joe Dinan did share a link in the comments of the podcast post on Facebook. So, again, if anyone doesn't have Facebook and would like a bit more information, this could be challenging because it's actually a Facebook link, but we'll find a way. But Joe shared a link from Umbagong District parkrun just with a bit more information saying read all about the amazing Graham over at Umbagong and the link to the post there about Graham. So, yeah, we heard last week about Graham. He was in the feature post there with Michael. And, yeah, I think it's some well-deserved credit he's getting. So check out that link if you haven't already and let us know if you do need a bit of help.

00:14:00Melissa Ellis: I'm actually feeling a bit guilty because when I was at Umbagong, I did feel like I should have interviewed Graham. I do regret that's an opportunity lost previously. But if one of our adventurers gets back there in the future, they can perhaps take up that challenge and have a chat to Graham and make up for what I didn't do.

00:14:24Oliver Spake: Always opportunities, Mel. So that's a good suggestion. Hopefully we will hear from Graham one day.

00:14:29Melissa Ellis: Or we could just get the Office Lady to call him up. That would work too.

00:14:34Oliver Spake: Well, yes, that would work as well. All good options.

00:14:37Melissa Ellis: But, Ollie, in news and discussion this week, I found a bit of an interesting tidbit from in the Stats Geek group. Try saying that three times fast. Stats Geek group. Tony Martin shared a bit of news that Harris Avenue parkrun in Queensland, they had event 111 this week. And they had 111 finishes in a time of 1 hour, 11 minutes and 33 seconds. Now, I've confirmed this, Ollie. These stats are correct. Not that I doubt the stats geeks. They're pretty cool.

00:15:17Oliver Spake: Yeah, it's usually a risk to call the stats geeks on things, but yes.

00:15:20Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I know.

00:15:21Oliver Spake: I just felt I needed to do my homework.

00:15:23Melissa Ellis: Yes. Yeah, but how was that? So event 111 with 111 finishes in a time of 111.33. Oh, well.

00:15:33Oliver Spake: In a little over two years, we know what we're going to be expecting there then, huh? It'll be the Richie Benaud 222 event, hopefully. I know. But that would be a very long parkrun morning. Yeah.

00:15:44Melissa Ellis: Yeah, but anyway, thank you, Tony, for sharing that little stat of our very own Australian Queensland parkrun. And thanks for giving me permission to share it.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:15:55Julie Turner: Yeah.

00:15:56Melissa Ellis: But that goes to me now to throw to our roving report. So we've got a couple of roving reports, three, in fact, from Saturday Just Gone. So why don't we listen to those now?

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Tony O'Connell — Kingscliff parkrun

00:16:19Tony O'Connell: Howdy, parkrunners. Toc reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew. I'm up at the APAC parkrun Ambassadors Conference at Kingscliff in northern New South Wales. We have an absolutely sensational group of people up here. Today we ran Kingscliff parkrun. Fair to say we probably flooded their course with ambassadors of all types. We had event ambassadors, grant ambassadors, social media ambassadors, ambassador ambassadors. I don't know. We had a lot here today. It's been a really sensational day. We've heard some sensational stories today over the parkrun.

Talking to Lisa Millar — ABC News Breakfast presenter, Walkley Award winner and parkrunner; MC for the APAC…

00:16:54Tony O'Connell: And I'm here with Lisa Millar, who's the ABC Breakfast TV presenter, a Walkley Award winner and a parkrunner, even better. And you've been the emcee for the weekend. Lisa, how have you found the weekend so far?

00:17:08Lisa Millar: It's so inspiring. And just looking out at the faces of all these parkrun ambassadors and seeing them just sucking in all this information that they're getting. And you can almost hear their minds ticking over as to what they're going to do with all the information when they go back to their parkrun. So it's like parkrunners, beware, they are going to come back, with so many fun ideas, you know, what to do with the volunteering, how to welcome first-timers. I just have absolutely loved it. It's a treat. It's a treat for me because it is a cult, isn't it? I'm sorry, parkrun is a cult.

00:17:45Tony O'Connell: Hashtag not a cult. Hashtag not a cult.

00:17:48Lisa Millar: My friends roll their eyes at me and Michael Rowland on ABC News Breakfast. He's like, yes, yes, Lisa, we know you're in parkrun. It's like I talk about it so often.

00:18:00Tony O'Connell: Lisa, a bit of background. You've done 93 parkruns at 21 different locations.

00:18:05Lisa Millar: As of today, 93 today. Yep.

00:18:07Tony O'Connell: Well done. You are a bit of a tourist around with the locations, which is awesome. We are the parkrun adventurers. We love our touristing. Can you give me a bit of a sense, apart from Albert Park, which is your home run, which are the ones that really stick out in your mind? Are there a couple in particular that have really jumped out at you?

00:18:24Lisa Millar: Yeah, I loved Kawana. Kawana was awesome because you run... It's a bit of an incline, but you end up going around the lighthouse at the top. I loved it. But don't do it when you've got to run along the beach. Oh, my God, no. I do not approve of sand running, right? If there is a course that says this changes sometimes during the year and you have to run on the beach, I am big fat no, no. Golden Beach is nice as well. I did Golden Beach on Christmas morning. I always love a Christmas morning parkrun. I have not been able to convince any members of my family to do it with me. And they don't know what they're missing out on. So I try to do South Bank in Brisbane, South Bank Christmas morning. A thousand people do that. 900 of them are dressed as Santa Claus. Whenever I turn up, I think, damn it, I should have dressed up more. Christmas parkruns were one of my favourite I've only done one as a participant and I've rd'd every other year I love it right I love it I have done it now for four years in a row and because I would come home from overseas where I was a foreign correspondent I'd come home often to Australia at Christmas time and so it just made me feel just that little bit closer to Australia, waking up on Christmas morning, hot as anything, sweating profusely, especially in Queensland, and doing a Christmas Day parkrun.

00:19:58Tony O'Connell: Lisa, from what you're saying before about Kawana and... Hi, Mel. I gather you haven't done the beaches in Newcastle?

00:20:06Lisa Millar: No, I have not. And you know when you call me a tourist parkrunner, a lot of the places I've done because I've been there for work, so it's not that... I mean, I guess that still kind of makes me a tourist parkrunner, but I haven't thought, oh, I need to, you know, knock off a W or an N or something, but... This conference here, so many people have come up to me and said, oh, come on, you've got to come and do the ponds or you've got to come and do the parkrun in Hobart. So now I'm going to start having to be a real tourist.

00:20:36Tony O'Connell: And how good is it that you went out and found a job that lets you go to all these places and do a parkrun?

00:20:40Lisa Millar: Well, I covered the... The reason I did the Torrens... parkrun in South Australia was that I was covering the South Australian state election for news breakfast I had to be there to broadcast on the Friday and rather than coming home Friday afternoon I thought oh no screw it I'll stay for a Saturday morning parkrun it's all about the parkrun it's like how can I organise my flight my life my job to make sure I can do a parkrun and so

00:21:07Tony O'Connell: Volunteering. What sort of volunteering have you done? And do you have a favourite role?

00:21:12Lisa Millar: I do because I'm a scaredy cat. I was anxious about volunteering and I started as a Marshal and thought, wow, people yell out, especially in the UK. Here in Australia, they'll say, thanks for volunteering. But in the UK, they'd say, thanks, marshal. Do they say thanks, marshal, at any of the parkrunners you know? More thanks for volunteering. Yeah, exactly. So in the UK, it's totally... Thanks, Marshall. Thanks, Marshall. And in my head, of course, I'm thinking, my name's not Marshall. And so it used to make me laugh, right? So I loved it when they said that. Barcode scanning is my absolute favourite. When I was a teenager, my first job, part-time job was in... the town library in Gympie, and you used to stamp the cards as people were taking things in and out. And I love the organisation of something, you know, being done, like the big sort of stamp on the book and then away it goes. And I feel like with barcode scanning, there's a bit of that, you know, I just need some more noise effects. It's really a process.

00:22:16Tony O'Connell: You need something to go ding every scan.

00:22:17Lisa Millar: Yes, yes, it needs to go... Like, I need noise with my barcode scanning.

00:22:22Tony O'Connell: Wouldn't it be cool when you were scanning if it recognised a PB and put off another buzzer? How good would that be?

00:22:28Lisa Millar: Oh, my God, and the balloons, and then everyone can go, we've got a PB here, we've got a PB. That would be great.

00:22:34Tony O'Connell: Oh, that'd be so... What a great idea. That's just sort of that. I like to... All right, well, we're going to continue with our conference. It's been really great chatting. Oh, thanks. You've been a fantastic host this week, and I've really loved it. Like all the ambassadors, you come to these conferences, and look, after three years, everyone's a little flat. We know numbers are not back, but you come to these conferences, and you just go away invigorated. Yeah. It's just such a pump up and such a great thing. And I wish our Event Directors and everyone could come to a conference, but there's limitations. But you just come away full of energy and it's fantastic.

00:23:13Lisa Millar: Yeah. And is it true that you are going to West Sequins tonight for the special party dinner celebrating the return of parkrun all around the world?

00:23:22Tony O'Connell: I will if you do.

00:23:23Lisa Millar: Oh, West Sequins if you do.

00:23:26Tony O'Connell: Woohoo. All right, parkrunners, talk out. Cheers, guys.

Roving report David Bravos — Bixby parkrun

00:23:32David Bravos: It's a very warm summer's day in Palo Alto, California. Byxbee parkrun is two laps out and back with no cover and very little breeze to speak of, but it's a lovely community. Lots of people turn up, lots of tourists, as you can imagine, being so close to San Francisco with people coming from Germany and England and a few like myself from Australia. Okay, I'm here with Robert at Byxbee parkrun in Palo Alto, California. What got you into parkrun in the first place, Robert? I lived in the UK.

00:24:08Robert: I had started running mainly to get fit. A group of friends told me about eight years ago that there was this thing on a local park called parkrun. I went along to try it out, absolutely loved it. And as I saw parkrun get bigger and bigger and bigger in the UK, I changed my home run to a close one. But then I loved it. Moved to America about five years ago. There wasn't a close one to us. And then we heard that there was a group of people setting up a new parkrun here in Byxbee. And I got involved and loved it. Fantastic.

00:24:41David Bravos: Oh that's wonderful because you don't find many parkruns in the US unfortunately I found. I did Crissy Fields when it was there. Which is closed down now unfortunately. Yeah this is the closest one to San Fran and I think most ones like Phoenix or something.

00:24:54Robert: We're the only one in California at the moment.

00:24:57David Bravos: At the moment yes.

00:24:59Robert: I've heard of a number of groups that are trying to set another one up in San Francisco but they keep getting refused permits so yeah. I see.

00:25:07David Bravos: Yeah, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for writing this for everyone.

00:25:10Robert: It's an absolute pleasure. We loved doing it. It was wonderful being here.

00:25:12David Bravos: Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Stanthorpe parkrun

00:25:17Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell and today I am coming to you from the lands of the Kambuwal people. I'm in Stanthorpe. It is a balmy, feels like temperature of minus 1.7. If you can hear that in the background, it is the heater going in the car because I'm just sitting here and kind of wondering about my life decisions in agreeing to a weekend in Stanthorpe in the middle of winter, um look there's a crowd building um the volunteers are all decked out in their orange and their blue and white vest I might head over I'm gonna I'm gonna brave it um and head over listen to the briefing and go for a run and I'll talk to you after that so I've just jumped out of the car and listened to a very interesting question what was your question do you run in your fleecy top yes keep warm and the local here said yes I do Because I'm from Brisbane and we only run in a singles or a t-shirt. Well, I'm from Brisbane and I quite often have a long shirt on, even in winter. But yes, not usually a jumper. So you don't have a beanie, I've got a little buff on. But you'll run in your jumper and you do that often?

00:26:29Unidentified speaker: Yes, I usually take the jumper off maybe about kilometre three. When I can feel my fingertips, that's when I take it off.

00:26:36Lyndell Murray: Then you've got to carry it, you see. Oh, I tie it up, it doesn't bother me.

00:26:40Unidentified speaker: OK, it's every day you have to wear a jumper there's a couple of us who are crazy enough that uh I think one of the parkrunners James he uh he'll only put a jumper on if it's less than five degrees and then a beanie and gloves on if it's less than zero but I'm not quite that crazy yes 3.5 right now 3.5 degrees

00:27:02Lyndell Murray: I just looked before I got out of the car and it was a feels like minus 1.7 or something. We slept in the car last night. Yes. Are you travelling around a little bit and are you doing a few different parkruns? Yeah, I am.

00:27:19Unidentified speaker: Yes.

00:27:20Lyndell Murray: And where have you been and where are you going next? This is my first one away. Oh, no, I did Noosa two weeks ago. Now I'm doing Stanthorpe.

00:27:29Unidentified speaker: Wondai.

00:27:30Lyndell Murray: Well, Wondai probably next week. Have you done lots of touristing in the past or is this a new adventure?

00:27:36Pippa White: This is only number 12 parkrun for me. I've only just started and I love it. Yes. I love it. Yes.

00:27:43Lyndell Murray: And now you're wandering around all over the place. I love this. What do you like most? I'm in my 70s. Good on you. This is the life. Yeah, I know. This will be me in 20 years. I reckon he's my driver. He just takes me wherever I want to go. So you're not running today, sir?

00:28:04Unidentified speaker: I'm going to walk a little bit of it. Yes. I'm going to go back and make breakfast.

00:28:08Lyndell Murray: Yeah, he has breakfast ready for me. Okay, well, my husband won't be doing that, but my husband is also going for a little bit of a walk, so maybe you should grab him and go for a walk too. I don't know. All right, well, many happy adventures in your future. Maybe I'll see you at another parkrun.

00:28:24Unidentified speaker: Are you walking today?

00:28:25Lyndell Murray: I will run today, yes. Well, I think I'll run if I don't freeze. I'm from Brisbane as well. My home parkrun is Bunyaville.

00:28:34Unidentified speaker: Bunyaville. Runyaville. On the north side?

00:28:36Lyndell Murray: Yeah, on the north side. It's a trail run. This will be my 84th different event today, so it's great to be here. And I'm happy to be like you. Yes. Some people I've met have done 300. I know. I haven't done that many either. I haven't got enough time left on this earth to do that many. I have to hurry up. Well, you'll have to just give it your best go. Now, thank you for talking to me. And your name is? Phyllis. Phyllis. Chantel. And Phyllis' husband is Costa. And your name? I'm Lyndell. Hello, Lynd. Everyone knows who I am.

00:29:07Unidentified speaker: You'll have to come to Victoria Point.

00:29:09Lyndell Murray: We're from Victoria Point. Oh, yes. And I do the one there. Is that Fodder Forest? Fodder Forest. I haven't done that one yet. Oh, it's lovely. I'm saving it up. And I'm so close.

00:29:18Unidentified speaker: I cycle there. Oh, that's brilliant.

00:29:20Lyndell Murray: Three Ks and I do the 5K run. I cycle home. Wonderful. It's great. All right, Phyllis, I do hope I see you on another adventure sometime soon. I don't know whether I'll be back to Stanthorpe. I think this is a one and done for me.

00:29:32Unidentified speaker: Is this your first time too?

00:29:34Lyndell Murray: No, first time in Stanthorpe, yes. So I might never come back, I don't know. See how you go.

00:29:41Unidentified speaker: It's a great place. You should come back.

00:29:43Lyndell Murray: It's been a lovely time. You've got to come back and see it in summer as well. Yes, maybe that's what I should do. Nice to meet you, Lyndell. All right. I am trotting along, walking, running. Yeah.

00:29:56Unidentified speaker: Just getting out there with one of the local runners. What's your name? My name, well, everybody knows me as Leg. Leg? Yeah, Leg. Okay. And you're a local parkrunner. Yeah. Yes, I am. Started back in 2018. Yep. October 20, 2018. All right. I love it. What do you love about parkrun? Trying to stay healthy and fit, which I love so much. And the lovely people that we meet here, like yourself. You know, that's what I love. Do you get a lot of visitors here at Stanthorpe? Yeah, we do. We do get a lot from all over.

00:30:37Lyndell Murray: Yep.

00:30:39Unidentified speaker: We've even had international runners here.

00:30:42Lyndell Murray: Is that right? Well, you've got a beautiful town here. What would you most recommend to a visitor in Stanthorpe?

00:30:49Unidentified speaker: Just go and visit our wineries and some of the orchards that got orchard tourists going through them. Yeah, just our lovely surroundings, national parks and all that. That's great. Good food venues. Yep. That's all I've got covered. Our photographer. He's cornered us.

00:31:11Lyndell Murray: He's caught me out interviewing the locals.

00:31:14Unidentified speaker: Yeah, he's right.

00:31:15Lyndell Murray: All right. And is there anything else that you'd like to say about parkrun and your experience that you said you wanted to stay fit and healthy?

00:31:25Unidentified speaker: I just wish that a lot more people should get out there and do it. The best thing that ever happened to me. I've had a few problems in the past, but put them aside and keep going. Yeah, and that's what I love so much about it. And meeting lovely people, you know, the socialising side of it. Yeah. After parkrun, we're going to have coffee down the street. Well, that is excellent. Thank you so much.

00:31:52Lyndell Murray: My pleasure. For interrupting your parkrun this morning to have a chat to me. Thank you. And, gee, it's foggy, isn't it? I hope I don't get lost.

00:32:02Unidentified speaker: No, you won't. I'll guide you through.

00:32:05Lyndell Murray: Good on you. Let's go. Okay. All right. I have finished parkrun. I didn't get lost despite the fog, so that's a bonus. My day is going to be awesome, I can tell. And I'm here with Bernadette. Now, Bernadette, you've got a milestone today. Congratulations. Thank you. Thanks. And your barcode's scanning today on your 25th time volunteering. Yes, I am. And how have you found Stanthorpe parkrun?

00:32:31Bernadette: It's been really good. I wasn't a runner before I started, so I started doing it about five or six years ago. And just the community has kind of kept me going, which is good. Motivates me to get out of bed every Saturday morning or most Saturday mornings and do something. So that's been good.

00:32:47Lyndell Murray: Excellent. And parkrun's become a bit of a magnet in the community, I understand.

00:32:53Bernadette: Yes, it has.

00:32:54Lyndell Murray: It's brought people together.

00:32:55Bernadette: Yes, absolutely.

00:32:56Lyndell Murray: Or people from out of town.

00:32:57Bernadette: Yeah, and lots of visitors come too, especially in winter. For some reason, I don't know why, because that's when I least like running here. But it seems to bring them in.

00:33:06Lyndell Murray: I don't know why I'm here in winter. And so what's the best thing about parkrun for you, Bernadette?

00:33:12Bernadette: I think just the supporting community and, you know, the social aspect of it. As I said, I'm not a runner, so I do run. I try to run, but I'm not good at it. But you're a parkrunner. I'm not good at it either.

00:33:23Lyndell Murray: You're a parkrunner and that's the best kind of runner.

00:33:26Bernadette: I certainly wouldn't be running if it wasn't for parkrunners, for sure.

00:33:30Lyndell Murray: All right, I'll let you scan this barcode. Thank you for talking to me. Congratulations again. Awesome. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Alrighty, guys. I have tracked down the Co-Event Directors, Glenn and Jen. How are you both today?

00:33:44Glenn: Great, thank you. Thanks, Lyndell. Yeah, really well.

00:33:46Jen: Thanks, Lyndell.

00:33:47Lyndell Murray: Now, Jen, your run briefing this morning, I was very impressed at your mathematical knowledge. Now, there's all these challenges with Fibonacci's and primes and I don't know what else. all those number challenges. What number event is it today here at Stanthorpe?

00:34:02Jen: It's our 365th, which is a semi-prime centred square number. So if you're unsure of what that is, you might need to look it up. But I was hoping that it would be something that was already on the challenges, but apparently we need to make a new one.

00:34:14Lyndell Murray: Well, you've done a lot more research than I have. All I thought was, Stanthorpe's had a parkrun for every day of the year. Isn't that cool? That's cool too. Alright, and it's a cool morning here today. We were wondering, my husband and I were wondering whether there would be anyone in singlets and shorts, and there were. What else can you tell me about Stanthorpe? Is this a general, normal winter's day for you guys out here?

00:34:37Glenn: No, look, it's pretty foggy this morning, so therefore it's a little bit warmer of anything. Normally through winter we can get down to, like I mentioned before, minus six. Generally the coldest, coolest, I shouldn't say coldest, but coolest parkrun in Queensland. We are actually the highest elevation parkrun in Queensland, so that's probably where the coolness comes in. So, yeah, it's just one to check off. Beautiful morning, but nice and foggy.

00:35:00Lyndell Murray: It was a lovely morning. I've survived. I didn't take any of my layers off, though, I have to say. I'm a bit of a sook anyway. So coming, I don't know why I agreed to be here in winter, but anyway, here I am. Now, the community here, this is amazing. I thought everyone would just disappear on what I think is a cold morning, but everyone's hanging around to have a chat. It sounds like you've got a really great community here.

00:35:20Glenn: Yeah, look, it is. It's just one of those things. It's just what we're used to. Even the visitors from Brisbane, which generally we get a lot, they love normally running in the frost. There's no frost today, but it's still cool. And yeah, it's just a great community. Great bunch of regulars that come in and enjoy the atmosphere.

00:35:38Lyndell Murray: And full volunteer rosters, I saw during the week you weren't calling out for volunteers. So generally people put their hands up and volunteer?

00:35:45Jen: Generally they do. It's always my aim to make sure that the roster is full for at least one more week so that we don't have to think about it during the week.

00:35:52Lyndell Murray: That's fantastic. And what a great bunch. I've spoken to Bernadette who's doing her 25th milestone. That's fantastic. Is there anything else that you'd like to say? I haven't done a course description actually. Would one of you like to describe the course?

00:36:04Glenn: Well, look, it's nice and flat. There's no hills for a start. Flat and fast usually. We're grateful in our local council for providing a nice sort of flat running track for us, a concreted area. Yeah, it's just virtually two loops around our beautiful parklands down here and second time come back to virtually the gazebo. So, yeah, it's quick, fast, flat and fun.

00:36:29Lyndell Murray: Yep. And there were posts along the way with your kilometre markers, so obviously you've had great support from the council here.

00:36:35Glenn: Yeah, good support from council. That was something Jen and I had in the pipelines for the first few years and, yeah, they were lucky enough to come to the party and help us with that and gazebos and so forth. So, yeah, the local council's been fantastic.

00:36:49Lyndell Murray: Excellent. Now, I'm going to put you on the spot here a little bit. Do you guys do any adventuring away from Stanthorpe? Have you done any other parkruns away from home?

00:36:58Jen: I've done heaps.

00:36:59Lyndell Murray: Excellent. Jen, over to you. Now is your time to shine. You keep saying, you keep pointing to Glenn whenever I ask a question, so it's over to you. Can you give me some highlights from your adventuring? Maybe a top three events that aren't Stanthorpe or a story about a really special time when you've adventured away to a parkrun?

00:37:19Jen: That is really putting me on the spot. I met up with my sister and another friend every so often and we parkrun somewhere a little bit different. We're meeting up next weekend and to get our E for the alphabet challenge. So we'll be at Ecco Ripley. The furthest we've been as a group is Jells down in Melbourne.

00:37:37Lyndell Murray: For your J. For our J.

00:37:40Jen: But I need more time to think about memorable ones. I really like Kelvin Grove in the middle of Brisbane. Flat, out and back, friendly. It's great, surprisingly flat at Kelvin Grove being a Brisbane local Kelvin Grove is full of hills and so they found a really nice flat track along there the river there hey they certainly did yeah and because we're so far from the sea I do quite like parkruns that you can look out of the ocean too so I think bagara is quite nice like that

00:38:09Lyndell Murray: Great. Well, see, there you go. You've done it. That wasn't that hard. All right. Thank you so much, guys, for having me here today. Thank you for everything that you have done for the Stanthorpe community and the parkrun community. Clearly, it's a winner. So well done, you. And hopefully I'll see you another time on an adventure.

00:38:28Glenn: No worries. Thanks, Lyndell. Yeah, thanks for visiting. Thank you for coming.

00:38:32Lyndell Murray: Alrighty, that is it. That's a wrap from me from Stanthorpe parkrun. What a great community. What an excellent run. I tell you what, it is time for a hot coffee and maybe some eggs on toast. That's it. Lyndell checking out Stanthorpe parkrun for the Channel 5 News crew on the parkrun adventurers.

00:38:57Oliver Spake: And thank you very much to our roving reporters this week. As we said, a bit of the excitement and fun from TOC. Thank you very much, TOC, in catching up with Lisa Millar, a very recognisable parkrunner up at Kingscliff parkrun this weekend, as well as David Bravos popping up on the other side of the globe over at Byxbee there. So thank you very much, David, for reporting in your travels. And to Lyndell from Stanthorpe parkrun.

00:39:27Melissa Ellis: Yes, very good to hear. Funny, Ollie, that Lisa loved Kawana, the home parkrun of Mel Erbacher.

00:39:36Oliver Spake: That's right, that's right. A particularly nice one. Only been a freedom run for me so far. Not sure how I feel about Lisa's comments on running on sand, but nonetheless. LAUGHTER Different strokes for different folks, yeah. It is tough to run on sand, though, isn't it? It is. We have to admit that.

00:39:47[laughter]

00:39:55Melissa Ellis: We know that because we've run at the Beaches.

00:39:58Oliver Spake: That's certainly high on the list for anyone that does like their sand running. But we've also heard from some other parkrunners this weekend.

Emails

00:40:07Oliver Spake: Mel, we've got some mail. You've got mail.

00:40:10Melissa Ellis: We do, Ollie. We heard from Richard. Now, Richard is currently... touring the world, not jealous at all. Richard's over in Canada at the moment and he said, hi Mel and Ollie, just answering to my comment about coffee in North America. Most people here agree that the percolated or as it's called here, drip coffee isn't the best. Asking for an espresso based coffee such as a latte or cappuccino usually results in in coffee from an automatic machine, like those at a 7-Eleven. Proper coffee is becoming more popular and cafes with a real machine and a trained barista aren't rare. You just have to look. Well, here in Toronto anyway, Luckily, there is one such cafe just downstairs from my sister's apartment. Again, here it's just called a condo. If I upset any of our North American community, I'm sorry. It wasn't my intent and I know they're too nice to throw a fellow parkrunner out of the country. Richard. Now, Richard, we are so sure that you haven't upset anybody in the parkrun world. I'm pretty sure that everybody just knew you were having a bit of a lighthearted joke about the coffee in the USA.

00:41:31Oliver Spake: That's quite right. But thank you for following it up. The thought is appreciated. And it is reassuring as a coffee snob myself. Yeah. It is reassuring to hear of some barista coffees out there.

00:41:46Melissa Ellis: Ollie, I don't think you need to worry about being a coffee snob. I come from Melbourne where our coffee is. True, yes. noted to be pretty good. I don't think that's a stretch to say. And I don't class myself as a coffee snob until I did have my first international trip and discovered how hard it was to find nice coffee when you're overseas. So I guess you don't really realise until you are faced with the dilemma of finding good coffee.

00:42:25Oliver Spake: That's right. You relish the experience. You take the opportunities to enjoy the other highlights of wherever you are and appreciate the fact that it's maybe not the same everywhere and that's what makes this world wonderful for sure.

00:42:38Melissa Ellis: Exactly. And, like, here we are in the capital of the good coffee in Melbourne. Ha-ha! Ha-ha! not realising what we have to be grateful for is coffee.

00:42:43[laughter]

00:42:49Oliver Spake: Yes, that's right.

00:42:50Melissa Ellis: So tourists, just so you know, in Victoria, the greatest state is where the greatest coffee is, just so you know.

00:42:58Oliver Spake: Moving swiftly along. We also heard from Brett Bailey following up from a discussion as well where we referred to City to Surf as the mullet run, if I'm not mistaken. Why was it the mullet run, Mel?

00:43:09Melissa Ellis: Because the party's at the back.

00:43:12Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:43:13Oliver Spake: So Brett said, hi, team. Just to confirm, mullets are well spread out throughout New Zealand as well, particularly prevalent in the rugby fraternity and teenage boy department. Several prominent All Blacks rock some pretty impressive mullets too. Must admit, I had a bit of a mullet back in the 80s as well. Cheers, Brett Bailey. Ollie, I think you need to grow a mullet. It's not going to happen. I'm sorry. No disrespect, Brett and everyone else with mullets out there. I think the beard has been a stretch enough.

00:43:47Melissa Ellis: Adventurers, we need to get a movement to encourage Ollie to grow a mullet.

00:43:53Oliver Spake: Well, I'm not one for bribery. If I could raise $5,000 for my run-up point to pinnacle, then sure, I'd run with a mullet, but that's not going to happen. Ollie, excellent. Yes. It wouldn't grow in time, Mel, sadly.

00:44:08Melissa Ellis: Don't be a defeatist. Okay, you could grow one in time for palm.

00:44:16Oliver Spake: Not quite the same intent.

00:44:18Melissa Ellis: Cathy, block your ears.

00:44:20Oliver Spake: Yeah, no, no, no. This is dangerous territory.

00:44:23Melissa Ellis: My husband has just decided to regrow his chopper moustache. Oh, wonderful. Nice work, Paul. I know. It's back. Excellent. He totally should be doing it for charity. Now I've just realised.

00:44:36Oliver Spake: That's all right. There's still time.

00:44:38Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Yeah. Same goes for you. You can use this to your advantage, Ollie. Yeah.

00:44:45Oliver Spake: Yeah, I need to tread carefully there.

00:44:47Melissa Ellis: You're just not on board, are you? No.

00:44:50Oliver Spake: Not entirely, not entirely. The mullet phase skipped me, unfortunately, yeah, or fortunately for some.

Dazza's

00:44:57Oliver Spake: But once again, moving swiftly along, at Dazza's this week. Dazza said, it's World Honeybee Day. Did Honey make an appearance in your pre- or post-parkrun breakfast? Come in and tell us all about it.

00:45:13Melissa Ellis: And first up we had Tony O'Connell. Toc with the most likes. And Toc said, feeling awesome at the parkrun conference. Big coffee, please. And Toc had an absolutely fabulous photo of some festively ugly zoomies, which were Toc, Jacqui, Janet, Alison and the Ideas Man.

00:45:36Oliver Spake: And they, as we'll find out later, just a snippet of quite a frond there.

00:45:41Melissa Ellis: There was. There was many more adventures there. And yes, we will list them all soon.

00:45:46Oliver Spake: That's right. But Mel, we also heard from Sarah Dee, who was touristing, I believe, who shared us the post saying rainbow at Portarlington parkrun. And the photo shared was beautiful over the coastline with a big rainbow there covering a nice big section of the sky. And

00:46:04Melissa Ellis: And Alison King came to us with a frond. There was a swarm of uglies at Kingscliff today. I was Tail Walker and had a sweet, sweet time with Janet Reid. Here's a pic of me with a sausage dog I found on course. And photo of Alison in orange with the dog of sausage.

00:46:25Oliver Spake: Roberta Winters. I was touristing once again, but notched up a bit of an achievement and said no honey for me either today as I tripped around to Umbagong parkrun to get my alphabet U and regain my ACT statespersonship. Also knocked another position and stopwatch bingo off my list. And with the B emojis, I don't know whether to say bzzz or not, but I've gone and said it now. But Roberta did share a photo of herself with the selfie frame. Well done. Umbagong's getting a lot of love.

00:46:58Melissa Ellis: It is. Steve's bike was back this week and said, I was beezy doing an ollie today. Home sweet home. And you can work that out for yourself, adventurers.

00:47:13Oliver Spake: These things shouldn't stump me, but yeah, nonetheless. Really? Heather Hunter, also with an achievement. No honey for me, but I had the sweetest moment when I finally, after six attempts over three years, managed to get to Zillmere parkrun on a day they weren't cancelled. This required going AWOL from a conference and a 1.5 hour drive each way from the conference venue in a borrowed car. My alphabet is now complete. Heather celebrated with a photo in a Zillmere selfie frame.

00:47:46Melissa Ellis: I did hear about a conference person who made the trip to Zillmere. Team Heather, that's what I say. I would have done that too. And a newbie this week, Margaret Love, in relation to the honey question, who said, yes, on my porridge this morning before volunteering at Forster New South Wales.

00:48:09Oliver Spake: Now, someone who was back on the parkrun course, Greg Garner, said, I was buzzing. Bzzz. After doing my first parkrun in nearly three months this morning at Stone's Corner parkrun. P.S. It might have also been after the storm beat the Broncos last night. Brendan Peel, Jodie Maisie. I think they were tagged, but just for effect, I'll read it out too. Sorry, guys. And Greg showed a photo of himself back on course, flying out there.

00:48:38Melissa Ellis: He's cheeky, isn't he? Mm-hmm. I could also mention the Pies had a one-point win yesterday over Carlton. It was a bit exciting. Go Collingwood. And we heard from Kelly Smale, who was a volley this week, coming to us from South Australia. No honey for us, but we had a family volunteer morning at Stebonheath parkrun. My son did the first-timers briefing, my husband was the Timekeeper and I was Tail Walker. We loved spending our Saturday mornings with the little parkrun community at Stebonheath. Kelly sent us a lovely photo of herself and the family in bright orange volley vests, and we shared that photo this week in our Consolidated Club report.

00:49:23Oliver Spake: We did. Thank you, Kelly. We also heard from Helen Rutter over in the UK who said, Hi, Dazza. We went to the Not Flat Flatts Lane, my fifth visit. The cafe is more of a tuck shop, so I had a white magnum and a cup of tea. It was my son's 50th parkrun. It took him only seven years to get there. And Helen shared a photo of them with the parkrun sign, plus a shot of a special barcode wristband to mark the milestone. So congratulations to him.

00:49:54Melissa Ellis: We also heard from Yvette Turner, a newbie to doesers who said no honey today but it was sweet to reach my quarter Cowell running the beautiful undulating hills of Umbagong district parkrun also regaining my statesmanship award after completing the newest parkrun in the act and got a u for my parkrun alphabet And Yvette shared a photo of herself with this selfie frame. Congratulations. More love coming from Umbagong, Ollie.

00:50:24Oliver Spake: That's right. Great work. You have to get there. On the list. Absolutely. But someone who had a... We had a touristing in the UK, Andrew Turner, who said, no, honey, but wonderful to run with my sister and nephew at Upton Court with views of Windsor Castle. And Andrew showed some photos, firstly a flag selfie, plus a shot of the view of the castle. Wow.

00:50:50Melissa Ellis: It's great to see you over there, Andrew. And, Ollie, I'm so jealous of all these adventurers who are touristing overseas at the moment. Yes. Give you ideas, Mel? Oh, 100%, yeah. Going to start planning. But coming to us from USA slash Canada, we heard from Richard, who said, another late check-in for me, this time from Meadowvale parkrun in, oh, Ollie, why did you give me this one? Missississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississississ What? What even is that?

00:51:24Oliver Spake: Is it Mississauga?

00:51:26Melissa Ellis: I don't know. I've never even heard this place before. Oh, Richard. Okay, it's in Ontario. Anyway, it's an undulating three-lap course around a purpose-built lake for the local community. And Richard sent a lake photo plus a photo of Moo Moo or Milkshake, we don't know who,

00:51:46Oliver Spake: with the selfie frame. Thank you, everyone, for popping into Dazza's. We had quite a lot of people popping through once again. So if you haven't seen the photos and you are on Facebook, be sure to check them out in our album.

the Obi Award — Tony O'Connell

00:52:02Oliver Spake: But it's time to award an Obi Mel.

00:52:05Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you do that.

00:52:07Oliver Spake: Okay. It's your turn. Excellent. Well, I've got it here. It's, sorry, under all the caramel. Okay, here we are. The Obi goes to... TOC.

00:52:30Melissa Ellis: Really? Really. Really? Oh.

00:52:35Oliver Spake: Does Toc get it for Ollie? Toc gets it for really just being a part of the fun as well as something that we failed to miss, which was a pretty snazzy time as well, a finish time that he didn't mention in his report.

00:52:48Melissa Ellis: Oh, he did. He absolutely got a pretty good PB. I don't know if it was an all-over PB. I believe he was paced by parkrun adventurer Will, Will Barlow.

00:52:59Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:53:00Melissa Ellis: Newest parkrun adventurer member, if we could say that. Yeah, well done to all of everybody. And yeah, congratulations, Tony. Yay.

00:53:13Oliver Spake: Yes. And I've just done the research. All-time PB.

00:53:18Melissa Ellis: I thought it was.

00:53:19Oliver Spake: Yes. Look, it's very hard to scroll down through that long list of parkruns to find that fastest time. But yeah, confirmed it. So... Yes, a great parkrun weekend. Thank you, everyone, as we said, for popping in to Dazza's to celebrate.

the Informant

00:53:35Melissa Ellis: Absolutely. And now it's time to listen to our informant and see what stats we've got this week.

00:53:45Unidentified speaker: This is the informant.

00:53:54The Informant: Coming to you live from Level 2 with a view. And this week too. Well, it's the old man rugged up in the corner, complaining about the cold front. Harden up. See if you can pull your beige pants up a little higher. I digress. These are unofficial stats. They're only current at the time they're collected. And maybe yada yada. This week, there were 451 runs held down under, up 3 on last week, 418 in Australia and 33 in New Zealand. This is out of 1,766 worldwide. Aussie New Zealand attendance was 37,091, up 4,000 on last week. That's out of 203,000 worldwide. There was one event launch in the UK. Down under, we had 4,608 PBs, while 1,527 people participated for the first time. 88 juniors reached the Junior 10 milestone, 148 people reached their 50 milestone, 105 reached their 100 milestone, and 25 people reached their 250 milestone. 21 people called bingo. Steve Rossiter was quickest on 176 runs, while Jason Gearing was slowest on 379 runs. There were 12 new statespeople. Melanie Holmes, Brett Mosley, Jared and Lisa Smith in the ACT, Jenny Spain and Emily Jennings in the Northern Territory, Samantha Jo Leonard in Queensland, David Evers, Mark and April Sweet in South Australia, Michael Palmier and Tony Lane in Western Australia. In the top 20 most Aussie New Zealand events list, there was a bit of jiggling. Jim Woodruff moves up 1 to 8. Kathleen Wellington moves up 1 to 10. And Tony Jennings moves up 1 to 15. Overall, in the biggest movers, there were four parkies who jumped up nine places. Helen Davis, Frank Finn, Bronwyn Bell and Joanne Blackbourn. 77 people lifted their Windex. The biggest mover is Simon Nash, who moves up a whopping 45 to 127. In the adventurer Challenges, we have no Peel Club inductees. Joanne Blackbourn and Amanda O'Reilly ran their 100th event to join the Cowell Club, and 14 people joined the Half Cowells. Due to popular demand, I've spiced up the I-Index. The spreadsheet is so revamped, it can be renamed the Intern Index. The biggest mover this week is Nathan Castle, who lifts his index from 3 to 7 after filling in the gap running at St Peter's. If you would like to see the Intern Index and all of these stats in full, you can download them from theinformant.me. That's www.theinformant.me. Or look for The Informant on Facebook. This is The Informant, and my spreadsheet is more revamped than yours.

00:57:00Oliver Spake: Thank you very much to our informant, once again, bringing us all the updates and the stats from the weekend. But let's keep it going.

Consolidated Club Report

00:57:08Oliver Spake: Mel, consolidated club report.

00:57:10Melissa Ellis: Yes, Ollie. We had a total of 274 members, of which 221 took part on this date at 114 different locations. Oh! You can go over to our social media to see our Consolidated Club report on our Facebook page.

the Frond

00:57:32Melissa Ellis: However, our largest frond this week was at Kingscliff, the parkrun Ambassador Conference. So we had a great representation out there, Ollie. Sure did. It was a big one. It was. There was 18 adventurers. We had Tony and Jacqui O'Connell, Jeff Whiffen, Simon Mackley, Nadine Crawford, Amanda O'Reilly, Charlie and Paul Butler, Kate Corner, Michelle Dezago, Bruce the Ideas Man Purdy, Ria Lambino, Grette Wilkinson, Alicia Hopper, Anne Fry, Emma Nicholson, Alison King and Janet Reid. And Will.

00:58:14Oliver Spake: And Will, who technically didn't make the Consolidated Club report because of time of signing up.

00:58:20Melissa Ellis: I do believe that Will might have had some people checking in with him as to if he had come on board. I'm sorry about that, Will. Sorry if you had peer pressure.

00:58:31Oliver Spake: But we hope it enriches your parkrun experience all the more. And thank you for joining the club. Largest frond, we don't know. I believe there were six at my home parkrun. Oh, well done. But there were a few parkruns with healthy doses of volunteers. So thank you to our volunteers out there. And yes, we did have some other sizable fronds out there.

00:58:55Melissa Ellis: Yes, 11 at the Voldemort parkrun, I do believe. And seven at Umbagong.

00:59:02Oliver Spake: Yeah, very popular.

00:59:03Melissa Ellis: So Umbagong is a very popular parkrun lately.

00:59:07Oliver Spake: It is. But look, there's more coming up. We are aware of a certain, I was going to call that a little run, but that's a little disrespectful. It's a big run. It's a very big run, comrades is happening it is happening if you're listening to this a little later than you know release date it's potentially already happened or happening it does go for a little while when does it happen I believe it's it's next weekend as in next weekend from when we're recording this it's very very soon and we know some people taking part in that yeah I'm sure that there are people that we're going to miss too but uh Look, all the best to our adventurer, Monty Slade. Absolutely. Monty, yes.

00:59:51Melissa Ellis: He is going over to partake in Comrades, so we wish you all the best. Yes. He's coming from the UK to South Africa, but... We have another Aussie, don't we, Ollie?

01:00:05Oliver Spake: We do, yes. One of the Shellharbour parkrun event team. Oh, of course. Ralph Matheson. Yes, he's headed over to South Africa Wednesday for his first Comrades since 2019, and Ralph's gunning for a seven-and-a-half-hour goal. He's actually done it two times before, Mel. Once was sub-10 and once, I should say, was just under, over 10 um Karen has mentioned that she mostly hopes as always Ralph will just make it back alive given his tendency I suspect to give it his all during any runs but importantly we'd also like to Ralph a happy parkrun day when he hopefully makes it out to Piggly Wiggly parkrun which is part of the goal oh

01:00:52Melissa Ellis: How awesome. Piggly wiggly. Yes. But, Ollie, wouldn't it be great if we could get Ralph to get a selfie with Monty? It would be great. Guys, I know there's like 100 billion people at Comrades, but please could you find each other and have a selfie?

01:01:13Oliver Spake: Forget those time goals. Forget finishing. We want the selfie. Yeah.

01:01:18Melissa Ellis: That would be amazing.

01:01:20Oliver Spake: We'll see. Okay. Moving swiftly along. What else is coming up?

Streaky September

01:01:25Oliver Spake: What else is coming up is Streaky September. And well, look, we have a Bingoe card. It's in the pipeline. It is coming. We promise it's coming. We've totally prepared it. It's not still needing to be done or anything. But- There might be an opportunity to still provide some input. But importantly, Streaky September, which we've mentioned on the pod, our long-time listeners will be familiar with it, but we may have some new listeners or we may have some people that still want a bit of a refresher and we are going to enlist some help of one of the best ambassadors of Streaky September we can, Pippa White, to tell us a bit about it.

01:02:11Pippa White: Hi, it's Pippa from the UK. I got so excited when I heard Mel and Ollie talk about Streaky September last week. So here are some hints and tips from one of the group who's been there a little bit longer than some, not quite as long as others. Streaky September is a really relaxed, get ready for spring and summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Or for us who've joined from the Northern Hemisphere, get ready for autumn and winter. It's a daily two kilometre walk or run or around 30 minutes swimming or cycling if that's your preferred exercise. Once you've completed the exercise, come and tell us in the Facebook group and we'll be your friendly marshals cheering you on, commiserating if it hasn't gone to plan and celebrating when you've done something different or new. Post along with some pictures if you can. Cheer up those who are looking forward to a bit more spring and you've got it early or those who are going into autumn would like to see some sunshine still. One of the things we're going to ask you to consider quite early on is to find your streak saver. That is your two kilometre activity walk or run loop out or back so that on a day where it isn't going so great, then you can actually just get out and do it. Anyway, I'm really excited. I can't wait for the Bingoe card. I'm really looking forward to getting out and streaking with some new people. Happy streaking.

01:03:34Melissa Ellis: And thank you, Pippa. That's great to have some awesome tips about Streaky September, which we are all looking forward to.

01:03:45Oliver Spake: We are. I have, in fact, signed up for September. Work was promoting it once again, so I thought it has to be. So I'm on board. I'm looking forward to it. I'm glad you're on board. I am actually on a streak, Ollie. Oh, you're still going? Yes. I should have asked about this.

01:04:00Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I know. So I've got a heads up on streaky September. I'm on day 28 or something today. Wow. Today being, what is today? The 22nd of August. So I've got a good head start, on streaky September you absolutely do and I'm going to out myself you'll pick it up in the edit I'm sure find me for timing I've written myself a note for next week to ask how your streak is going because that's impressive Mel that's impressive thank you I know I'm trying really hard so today I will admit was a day where I went out and just did a streak saver Which Pippa, I think, is the person that has previously advised us on streak saving, which is just having a 2K loop that you can just do as a default to maintain your streak.

01:04:53Oliver Spake: Yes. Take the thinking out of it. Yeah.

01:04:56Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

Sign-off

01:04:56Melissa Ellis: And I did that today.

01:04:57Oliver Spake: But where will you be taking your streak next parkrun day?

01:05:01Melissa Ellis: Well, next parkrun day, I am back off to Puckapunyal. Excellent. Heading back out to Pucka with a couple of parkrun adventurer friends and looking forward to that very much. Love going out there. Love going back to the trails at Pucka. But What about you, Ollie?

01:05:24Oliver Spake: I am looking forward to slowly ticking up my event count a little further to event number 40. And at this stage, it's planned for Willoughby. Wow. I'll be away for the weekend. So staying up in the sort of northern Sydney area. And it was either Willoughby or Galston. And I think Willoughby is going to fit the timing a bit better.

01:05:44Melissa Ellis: I'm impressed. You're touring. I am touring. That's right. Oh.

01:05:48Oliver Spake: So I'm looking forward to that. I've been there on the longest run once, but never for a real life parkrun day.

01:05:54Melissa Ellis: That's awesome. I'm excited. I'm looking forward to hearing about the recap of that next week.

01:05:59Oliver Spake: Thank you.

01:06:00Melissa Ellis: So I hope you have a great weekend.

01:06:02Oliver Spake: Thank you very much. Family on the road, but I think if anyone, maybe just mum will join me. We'll see. Well, look, I think that's been a relatively big episode. Once again, fitting being episode 299, I suppose.

01:06:16Melissa Ellis: Hang on, aren't you supposed to be doing something at the end of this episode? We haven't really discussed this yet.

01:06:23Oliver Spake: You've been avoiding the topic. Well, I've made some subtle references to a certain former episode, which we discussed in the intro, episode 99, which... I think it really came about because, let's face it, we all wanted to hear it when our beloved host of the parkrun adventurers, Scotty, treated us to 99 Red Balloons or, of course, the German version, which I won't attempt. But I recall that he made the reference to it having been a pleasant surprise. Is that the right term, Mel, that the pod carried on from maybe some of the early discussion in some of the early episodes? And, yeah, he stepped up to the plate with a beautiful rendition. So, yeah, they're big shoes to fill.

01:07:07Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

01:07:08Melissa Ellis: I'm trying to figure out where you're going with this, but you have something to offer us? Is that what you're saying?

01:07:16Oliver Spake: Oh, look, I will be attempting a song. Woo-hoo. I look forward to disappointing you all. I have appreciated all of the song suggestions. I've taken up none of them, and I do apologise for that. And sad to say it's also not a duet. So now I've disappointed you all.

01:07:33Melissa Ellis: Yay. You can just wait and see.

01:07:36Oliver Spake: I'm very glad it's not a duet. I'm off the hook. Well, it could have been a duet with someone else too, but.

01:07:41Melissa Ellis: Oh, ouch. Okay.

01:07:46Oliver Spake: But nonetheless, this is a song that I do like to run and sing to. However, I don't think I've ever really sung the words very well. So there we are. You'll know why very soon.

01:07:59Melissa Ellis: We are all looking forward to listening, Ollie. Thank you. Thank you very much. But as always, you can contact us via Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another week, and we will see you all next week for more adventures.

01:09:14Oliver Spake: OK, yes, it is my turn now. It is going to be a Eurovision song. It's not necessarily one of the ones selected, so apologies, everyone. It is a different language. It's a language I don't know. It is tone deaf.

01:09:42[laughter]

01:09:42Unidentified speaker: LAUGHTER

01:09:44[music]

01:09:44Oliver Spake: It's time for shum. Yes, but there is another bit. It is a bit faster. It's also tone deaf, but it's worth it. Fishkinoshka, fishkinoshka, day-day zemovala, Yase-doshku, naklinoshku, soro-chikyokyala, Ta-mo-li-si, ya-la-zi-si, sa-va-du-la-du-ye, Ya-si-spa-vu-spe-ve-noshku, day-day-bo-na-chu-ye, Zava-le-cha-shu-be-ba-ve-nosh-kum, Ya-to-be-spe-va-vu-be-zhen-nosh-ku, She-yo, she-yo, she-yo, she-yo, kono-be-lech-ke, She-yo, she-yo, she-yo, she-yo, de-le-ne-sen-ke, Nomo-nomo, naro-be-le-shu-ma, thanks over for helping me wrap that one up there and aren't we all glad that's over but I do thank everyone for their suggestions. I hope that once your ears do stop bleeding, you have a wonderful parkrun day. Stay safe out there, everyone, especially from tone deaf podcast hosts.

01:10:31[music]