Episode 307 - Cops & Robbers

Welcome

00:00:22Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 307 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country.

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

00:00:40Melissa Ellis: I am good. You, you had a frond at that Voldemort parkrun that shall not be named.

00:00:48Oliver Spake: We can say it this week. No, we can't.

00:00:50Melissa Ellis: What?

00:00:50Oliver Spake: It's all okay.

00:00:51Melissa Ellis: We can say shall not. Hang on. Who authorised this amnesty? That wasn't ran by me or run by me.

00:00:59Oliver Spake: I'm pretty sure the Office Lady cleared it. I saw it on a post-it somewhere.

00:01:05Melissa Ellis: With who? Who? Wow. Wow. I was out of the loop on that.

00:01:12Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:01:12Melissa Ellis: That's right. Okay. Oh, concede. You can have your amnesty. Tell us all about it.

00:01:20Oliver Spake: Well, firstly, it has been a busy time and a busy parkrun day was actually, funnily enough, nice balance to that. So, yes. We had a few visitors at Shellharbour parkrun. I'd taken the opportunity after a bit of a late night the night before. I went to a 90s grunge cover band, Mel, so that was good fun, and got up with a bit of meditation on Saturday morning, so... trying to be as prepared as possible for all the fun. I went and joined something called The Sit, but needless to say, a nice morning meditation overlooking the farm beach at Killalea there at 6.30 was wonderful and meant that I was there nice and early for the arrival of all of our adventurers.

00:02:10Melissa Ellis: Can I interrupt?

00:02:12Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:02:12Melissa Ellis: Who were you meditating with?

00:02:14Oliver Spake: Well, I suppose a bit of context. So the SIT is an organised not-for-profit community event, much like a certain 5K or 2K community event that we're all familiar and quite passionate about. And it is popping up in a number of locations. And only about a month ago, it was set up with one such group at Killalea. And they've been every week at 6.30 in the morning inviting the community to come and join for just a little bit of guided meditation. And it's nice because, I mean, for me, parkrun has always been a bit of a meditation experience, but some weeks are quite busy. Some weeks are quite frantic. So, yeah, it gives just that little bit of breathing time so that I'm well and truly ready for it.

00:03:04Melissa Ellis: Can we have a photo? Sure. Yeah, absolutely. I need a photo of the meditation.

00:03:12Oliver Spake: Yeah, and it was a modest group, about a dozen people, including our fill-in course setter-upperer. I'm campaigning for that to be the new volunteer name, by the way. But the event, the sit, I do believe they've set up locations, Manly Beach in Sydney. I'm pretty sure there's one in Melbourne as well, so I'll look it up and I'll share a bit more details another week. I think probably more the point, was the frond. And excitingly, the birthday of one of our volunteers at Shellharbour, one of our adventurers, the one and only Bec Bailey, who was joined in real life by two other Baileys for the first ever on record real life Bailey shot.

00:03:55Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:03:56Oliver Spake: I mean, that alone was a highlight, seeing the Baileys reunited after so long of not being able to spend time due to borders being closed. And, of course, Brett and Tanya in New Zealand over there at Pegasus parkrun. But to have them join and to have them join at Shellharbour and have so many other adventurers was a true highlight. So I was Run Director for the day. I was fortunate enough, of course, with the park walk month of celebration continuing. We had a brimming roster of two dozen volunteers plus Darwin, so two dozen humans plus Darwin. Yes. And a beautiful sunny day, which obviously we were very fortunate to have knowing that so many other events and so many other locations were weather impacted and I truly hope that everyone is doing okay. But for us, you know, we had north of 150 parkrunners, we had a drier course and, of course, we had all the other highlights that make a parkrun day special like blocks and blocks of caramilk. LAUGHTER So fines paid well and truly. We had lots of zoomies. I'm pretty sure I saw two-thirds of the Bailey's shot having a zoomie together. As I said, plenty of parkwalkers, including some of our volunteerists. We had lots and lots and lots of cake. So thank you to everyone that brought cake. And, of course, Bailey's shots with our cake. So it was quite good. As I mentioned, one of our volunteers, Bec, the birthday girl herself, performed the first time. That's welcome and was well and truly supported, not just by all the visiting adventurers, who I'm sure will get a bit of a mention when we talk about the Consolidated Club Report, but other, let's call them pending adventurers, from nearby parkruns that make up Bec's wider friend network. So a lot of celebration. It overflowed when we went down to the Georgia Rose Cafe down at the marina at Shell Cove here. And yeah, really just an uplifting experience.

00:05:00[laughter]

00:06:06Melissa Ellis: That's awesome. And I was suffering a lot of FOMO, really would have loved to be able to be there. But I'm excited that I can catch up with everybody next week.

00:06:19Oliver Spake: Yes, that'll be honest before we know it. And hopefully, hopefully that weather does improve. But Mel, we do look forward to having you a part of the fun too. Yeah, but let me just say once again thank you to all of our adventurers, many of whom jumped into the volunteer ranks and gave us a hand. So it was truly a treat and a privilege to have everyone at Shellharbour.

00:06:42Melissa Ellis: Wow. Make the most of it. Make the most of it. Next week we're back to the fines.

00:06:48Oliver Spake: I will. I will. Now, but Mel, I am excited because I do see where you got to parkrun this weekend. I'm sure the circumstances were a bit of a factor there, but that is very, very exciting. So would you like to share with us your parkrun experience?

00:07:06Melissa Ellis: I will. So since I last checked in, there has been widespread flooding along many of Victoria's riverways, which has greatly impacted Victorian parkruns. There were 35 cancellations last Saturday with, I believe, the majority being due to inundation. We feel for all our parkrun communities in the flood-affected areas and I hope that they are receiving all the help and support they need at this difficult time. As such, with Nolans Park, one of the events cancelled due to flooding and many road closures around the state, I was happy to stay off the roads and have a week at home at Toolern Creek. Although the course does follow the creek line, the Toolern Creek sits deep in a gully which protects the surrounding area from flood levels and other than a few puddles from the recent rain, the event offers a safe option for the surrounding parkrun communities whose home events have cancelled. I was happy to catch up with Peppertree parkrun ED Adrian Hillyer and a small contingent from the Bacchus Marsh area, as well as adventurer Marg Prowse, who had made the trip all the way from Wallaby Track parkrun. We had mild conditions on the morning, reinforcing that I need to do away with the long sleeves for the season, and 102 parkrunners only the second time this year that the event has topped 100. And I did enjoy brunch at Cafe 35 afterwards with Adrian and Marg for the obligatory park faff. Now, Sunday morning saw more changes of plans with the cancellation of Eynesbury Juniors due to lack of volunteers. This was extra disappointing as I had visiting volunteerists in Sonja and Peter Pohlman in Melbourne for a work conference who had applied and received the Victorian Working With Children checks in anticipation of their visit. But no harm, no foul. We just got up a little earlier to travel across town and visit Westerfolds juniors instead where Peter assisted in the warm-up role and marshalled while Sonja and I donned the blue vests to park walk with the effervescent Riley who was also filling the junior parkrun role. As an aside, juniors can only park walk if accompanied by an adult in the same role who is a validated volunteer.

00:09:25Unidentified speaker: Okay.

00:09:26Melissa Ellis: After juniors, I played tour guide for P1 and P2 on the Westerfolds 5K course before another brunch at Carlucci's in Templestowe where salmon, benny and waffles were the breakfast of choice. Sadly, no baps or sausages for me.

Mel's tourism tips

00:09:44Melissa Ellis: This week's tourist tip is... Stay off the roads during extreme weather events and never, never drive through floodwaters. This has been a public service announcement.

00:10:00Oliver Spake: And a very wise one. No, thank you, Mel. I'm very glad that yourself and your guests were able to make the most of any opportunities, as it does sound like it has been a really trying time down there.

00:10:15Melissa Ellis: There's water everywhere, Ollie, and so many people have been impacted. There would be many of our adventurer community affected. I don't actually know how Shepparton parkrun managed to go ahead on Saturday. I do believe they did go ahead, but Shepparton is one of the areas that is very affected. impacted with the floods. And no doubt Victoria will be impacted in many more weeks to come.

00:10:42Oliver Spake: Oh, well, we'll be watching and hoping for some good news there. But Mel, we did get some feedback from last week's episode. So before we get on to the news and discussion and our feature interview or roving interview for this episode... Would you like to share some of the feedback?

00:11:00Melissa Ellis: Well, yes. Chantelle got back to us with the reason that Abby had been upset with TOC. Now, we mentioned this last week, Ollie, because we couldn't remember. Neither could TOC or Abby or Abby's mum. Oh. And Chantelle updated us and said that it referred to when Inverloch beat Wyndham Vale on the (not)parkrun leaderboard. And as soon as Chantelle said it, I thought, of course, of course, that's exactly what it was. So thank you, Chantelle. Thank you for remembering and sending us that feedback.

00:11:35Oliver Spake: Yeah, there's an unusually competitive streak that I haven't really noticed in many Victorians going on. I jest. Yes. You're so cheeky. Other feedback. Helen Rutter and Geoff Glaab especially enjoyed last week's roving reports. And look, thank you. Hear, hear. They were wonderful. We're very fortunate to have such a, I guess, a wealth of different Channel 5 News crew and roving reporters contribute to the pod.

00:12:02Melissa Ellis: Absolutely. And we heard from Val Warwick, who loved Cam's interview with Connor over at Applecross because she knows his mum. And also Heather Hunter particularly enjoyed the milestone shirt interviews that Cam did as well. And Heather also thanked us for her Obi.

00:12:19Oliver Spake: You're welcome, Heather. Well and truly earned. And on topic for this week, Jen and Stephen, from the Mount Panorama Punish popped in to reassure us that the floodwaters had receded in time for Saturday's event, which is good news and hopefully that stays the same, obviously for more than just our own selfish interests. But thank you, team. We know you are very, very busy right now and we look forward to giving you a A bit of support, hopefully, and seeing you. And Mel, I've got a late entry to the feedback from last episode as well. I see that.

00:12:54Melissa Ellis: News to me. What's going on?

00:12:56Oliver Spake: So this wasn't on social media, but someone did have a word to me at parkrun on Saturday morning with a bit of feedback to remind me that whilst I did give some credit and thanks to... A happy birthday song that I got at Shellharbour parkrun last week as Brendan Scholarly grabbed the microphone. It was, in fact, Em Scholarly that led the singing and it would be remiss of me not to thank Em because she's always the first one to lend any support and to lead a song. So thank you, Em, and you have my formal apology for not calling you out in last week's episode.

00:13:31Melissa Ellis: Jeez, only one job.

00:13:33Oliver Spake: One job, exactly. LAUGHTER Exactly.

00:13:34[laughter]

00:13:36Melissa Ellis: Good on you, Em. Keep him to account. But, Ollie, there's big news this week and the Office Lady has published our photo album. Yes. And would you like to tell the listeners what our exciting news is?

00:13:51Oliver Spake: Yeah, there's lots of photos of Shellharbour. No. Sorry. What? Our exciting news, our very exciting news. Look, we've been looking forward to sharing this for a little while now, but thanks to some wonderful creativity from a fabulous support crew, we've got a new logo.

00:14:10Melissa Ellis: We do. So very much thanks to Julian. Son of the Office Lady, our new logo is being revealed. Yes. In the Monday Night Photo album. So we hope you like it. We feel it's very representative of Ollie and I.

00:14:28Oliver Spake: That's right. And I think it's a lot of fun. Without getting into the specifics of what's on the logo, go and check it out for yourself, but I think it's representative of one of the things that – many of our adventurer community enjoys, which is flying around and enjoying the experience of parkrun adventuring.

00:14:49Melissa Ellis: Absolutely.

00:14:50Oliver Spake: But that's probably it from the feedback side of things and the news side of things, unless there's anything else. So Mel,

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:14:59Oliver Spake: I think it's time to catch up with our feature interview, our roving interview this week, which comes to us from Lyndell, who in fact popped into Mansfield in Queensland parkrun last week and recorded this fabulous roving report. So let's have a listen now.

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Mansfield Queensland parkrun

00:15:23Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell. Today I am at Mansfield Queensland parkrun on the lands of the Turrbal and Yuggera people and it's Cops and Robbers Day. I'm dressed in my best burglar black. And I tell you what, there's lots of cops here. I'm a bit worried I might get arrested. Look, there's a lot happening here. It's a big community day as part of Mansfield Queensland parkrun's calendar. It's run in conjunction with the Queensland Police and is also a fundraiser for Blue Hope Charity. So I'm going to see if I can find out a little bit more about all of these things. The origins of why cops and robbers is such a big part of Mansfield Queensland parkrun I will do some investigation stealthily of course because I am a robber I don't want to get caught and I'll be back with you after the run all righty now I have found senior sergeant Michael Moria he's the officer in charge so he sounds really important and I'm dressed as a robber so this is probably not a great idea but anyway Michael thanks for talking to me on the parkrun adventurers can you tell me a little bit about cops and robbers day at Mansfield Queensland parkrun um

00:16:35Michael Moria: It first started in Britain, and I saw the idea and thought, why not have a crack, let's do it in Australia. And I think it possibly was the first one that we did in Australia for Australia World. It started off, we had 100 or so, and then over the years it's gotten bigger and bigger and bigger, and I absolutely love it. A lot of work, but gee, it's worth it. If you can see the amount of people that are here and are expected to come, yeah, 100% worth it. Excellent.

00:16:57Lyndell Murray: So there's lots of things happening here. You've got a police beat van, there's a recruiting tent, there's a couple of recruits cooking a sausage sizzle. What's it all about?

00:17:06Michael Moria: Okay, love a parkrun. Love it myself. And I try and drag, recruit, if you will, finally I should mention that name, recruit as many police as I can to parkrun. We've mixed sort of... levels of success over the years again I've dragged more and more in which is really good but it's a great opportunity for the public to get in with the police ask us whatever questions they want nothing is off limits have a look at the equipment we've got it also shows the public our our capabilities our resources so just great day for everyone to interact together and it involves parkrun it's even better

00:17:41Lyndell Murray: Even better, parkrun, community spirit. Yep. Finding curiosity, finding out more about something you don't know about. Yep. Yeah. All right, so you're a parkrunner. Yep. What's your parkrun history? Are you an adventurer?

00:17:53Michael Moria: That's an interesting story. So ran as a teenager, wasn't a supreme athlete or anything, kind of lost running in my 20s, like everyone else, picked it up later on in life. Got dragged to this thing called parkrun in Rockhampton by my wife and sister, was really, really embarrassed about how poorly I did. So funny enough, I think that was 2017. Came home from Rockhampton, found my local parkrun, joined in, amazed by all these people that were there, these athletes in this community, and then eventually wanted to get my time down and down and got hooked like a lot of other parkrunners. So addicted to it.

00:18:30Lyndell Murray: And have you done much adventuring to other parkruns? Do you normally parkrun here?

00:18:34Michael Moria: So this is probably my most common. Wishart's my other common. And I've got the little book like a lot of others with the alphabet in there and I'm trying to tick off a lot of the alphabet. I've been to parkrun in Singapore. I've done parkrun in Munich. And then a couple of parkruns around Brisbane and Canberra and Sydney as well.

00:18:54Lyndell Murray: Fantastic. So you're an adventurer in the making. Yes. All right. Thank you for talking to me today. Is there anything that you would like the listeners of this podcast to know about your local parkrun or a funny story about an adventure that you've had?

00:19:11Michael Moria: What wouldn't you want to know? Beautiful parkland along the Bulimba Creek. Love it. Absolutely love it. Just, no, if I can say a few words, just be nice to your local police. It is a hard job. Please look after them. It is a hard job that we do have to go through. And also, if you're not really into parkrun, if you're listening for the first time, get out and go to a parkrun. Yeah. And can I just mention also, you mentioned a funny story. I actually helped set up the first prison parkrun in Australia with the women's correction facility over at Wacol. Yeah, fantastic.

00:19:40Lyndell Murray: That was good on you.

00:19:41Michael Moria: So I did a parkrun in the women's prison. So 20 laps, I think it was, of their oval.

00:19:48Lyndell Murray: Fantastic. Well done. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for talking to me. Thank you for your contribution to parkrun. And that's a really great element of parkrun, isn't it? Just making it so inclusive to all communities. And thank you for your service as a police officer. No problem at all.

00:20:04Unidentified speaker: All right. Thank you. Thanks.

00:20:13Lyndell Murray: So Mansfield parkrun Queensland is an out and back and an out and back. So I'm just heading back past the start finish area and I thought I would capture a little bit of the police pipers that have come along today.

00:20:20[music]

00:20:30[19 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:20:48Lyndell Murray: Okay, we've just done the final turnaround. I've caught up with a police person. His name is... Daniel. Now, thank you for talking to me. You've been saying, we were just saying, you don't normally do parkrun, but you've come to Cops and Robbers Day.

00:21:02Daniel: Yeah, truth be told, I was semi-dragged into it by my sergeant. I'm glad it turned out. It's been a great event.

00:21:10Lyndell Murray: What have you liked about it?

00:21:12Daniel: I didn't know how big it was actually going to be. I just thought it was a great atmosphere. The weather's beautiful. What more of an excuse do you need to come out and get a bit of fitness done? When you can do it in a big group, it's always nicer, I reckon.

00:21:24Lyndell Murray: For sure. And parkrun's a pretty happy place to run or walk.

00:21:27Daniel: Yeah, it gives time. You can debrief to yourself, think about stuff during the week or what's upcoming.

00:21:32Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:21:32Daniel: Yeah, perfect time to have a think and, I don't know, clear some stuff up if you've got stuff going on inside. So, yeah, anyone who's, you know, thinking about trying to clear their head, parkrun's definitely the way to go, I reckon.

00:21:43Lyndell Murray: Yeah. All right. Now, you are running slash walking today in your full uniform. What's that like?

00:21:51Daniel: Oh, it's very heavy. Yeah, I don't know. You just run where you can, walk where you can. It's kind of a, I don't know, a small sacrifice that you pay when you think about other people that are going through, you know, mental health problems and, you know, all that sort of stuff. So I kind of just think it's a small price to pay for what they're going through.

00:22:08Lyndell Murray: And you'd see a lot of that in your line of work?

00:22:11Daniel: Yeah, every day. Every day is different. Every day you come across people with different problems and experiences and some days are harder than others. But yeah, I don't know. It's kind of a rewarding job as well at the same time. You know, the people that you can help and whatnot. So yeah.

00:22:27Lyndell Murray: For sure. And have you been a police officer for very long?

00:22:30Daniel: I started my third year in May this year.

00:22:33Lyndell Murray: Yeah.

00:22:33Daniel: So two and a half years all up. Yeah, it's been great. Great two and a half years so far. Plenty more to learn.

00:22:39Lyndell Murray: Plenty more.

00:22:39Daniel: Plenty more to see. Yeah.

00:22:41Lyndell Murray: Yeah. All right. Well, is there anything else that you'd like the listeners of the parkrun adventurers podcast to know about the life of a police person or the experience you've had to hear today at parkrun?

00:22:53Daniel: Oh, if you can get out and do these more often, by all means, go for it. I think if you, I don't know, if something you think about, police officers are all people at the end of the day as well. We're just people that put the uniform on. So come say hello. We're all friendly. All love a chat. Yeah. So, yeah, no, we appreciate the support from you guys. Thank you so much.

00:23:12Lyndell Murray: No worries. Thank you so much for your service. Many more years ahead of you, Daniel, I'm sure. And thank you for having a chat to me today on the parkrun adventurers.

00:23:21Daniel: No worries. Thank you very much.

00:23:25Lyndell Murray: All righty, parkrun adventurers. Today's Run Director is Neville. I've got him here. He's not dressed up as a cop or a robber, but he's had other things to do today. How did today go?

00:23:37Neville: Today has gone very well. It looks like there is probably around 300 people here. Our normal parkrun size is around the 120, 130 mark. So this is our biggest event of the year. It's organised as cops and robbers, so that people get to race against the cops. And it's been promoted that way for quite a few years.

00:24:02Lyndell Murray: And there are quite a few police men and women out on the course today, some in full uniform, some just in their training gear or whatever. So police come from all over the place to be part of this, is that right?

00:24:15Neville: That is correct. It's promoted in the police force so that police get to feel what running 5K, chasing someone is like. And there is a prize for the first civilian back and there was a prize today for the first cop back. So it is promoted for police to get out there, have a go and run 5K. Some of them will run with full kit and there's quite a few that will just run in their uniform. And it's promoted... That event is promoted through the police and through parkrun here to actually be a full-on cops and robbers chase. So it's quite a fun day. Everyone gets excited about it every year.

00:24:58Lyndell Murray: And, look, it was really fun. There was lots of funny remarks and, you know, some of the robbers were paying off the cops on the course with their fake money and jewels. It was very, very fun, yeah. And there's a bit of... There's stuff around, isn't there, as well? So the police have really come out in force. Did you see what I did there? Come out in force. I'm not as funny as I think I am, am I? But they're all here. There's the police beat. There's police cars here. As you say, the cops are running in their full kit. So it's really about getting to know the community, getting to know the police and the police getting to know the community as much as anything.

00:25:38Neville: Yeah, that's correct. It's a good way for bringing the community out and it's also a good way to connect the community to the police. They've got all their stands here to be able to ask police questions. There's lots of information. People can talk to them about their issues etc. We've also got the local council member here with his stand and the state member is here as well. They've been great support to the parkrun over the years and have put a lot into keeping us going and supporting us behind the scenes.

00:26:16Lyndell Murray: That's terrific, it's so excellent. Now Mansfield Queensland parkrun has been going for quite a few years now. How long have you been involved here Neville?

00:26:25Neville: I'm one of the founding Run Directors. How Mansfield got started is most of us that were involved here were at Wishart and we wanted to start a parkrun in this park. So we come from Wishart over to here. We started in July 2017. That was our first parkrun. Yeah.

00:26:52Lyndell Murray: And I can see why you wanted to come and start a parkrun here. It's a beautiful park, isn't it?

00:26:57Neville: Yeah, it's a very good park. It's great for running because you've got the creek going through the middle of it and you've got good tree coverage as well.

00:27:05Lyndell Murray: And a couple of hills to keep people honest.

00:27:07Neville: Yeah, the hill out the back keeps everyone honest. There's a little dipper before you get to it and you come up out of that and think, gee, that was steep. And then you turn the corner and there's this nice long hill.

00:27:18Lyndell Murray: But it's just as fun coming down. Like, this is the thing. You might have to get up the hill, but it's nice coming down.

00:27:25Neville: Yeah, that's it. It's all downhill to the finish line.

00:27:27Lyndell Murray: All right. Now, founding Run Director yourself, do you do much running and do you do much touristing to other parkruns?

00:27:37Neville: I've been to 20 different parkruns. Yeah, well done. You won't see that on my profile because I forgot to take my barcode, didn't I? The Run Director forgets to take a barcode to a parkrun launch at someone else's parkrun. So, yep, no tickets for that one.

00:27:55Lyndell Murray: Oh, well, we've all done it. We've all done it. There's plenty of stories about people running back to their hotel when they've been touristing and asking the reception to print it out madly. We've all done it, Neville.

00:28:07Neville: Yep, I think everyone's done it at some time. And if you haven't done it, then you're probably going to do it sometime.

00:28:13Lyndell Murray: Yeah, that's a really good point. Okay. And do you have any other stories? Do you have any favourite parkruns, not including, I'm going to say Wishart and Mansfield? Is there any other highlights for you?

00:28:26Neville: Yeah, there's a, used to do a parkrun at Bunyaville. Yep. So I've done a lot of running with the Bunyaville guys out there and have been to their parkrun quite a bit and Kawana Waters.

00:28:38Lyndell Murray: I knew I liked you. Bunyaville's my home parkrun.

00:28:43Neville: There you go. And Kawana's beautiful too, isn't it? Yep. Yep. Kawana's quite nice. You get up there around the lighthouse and overlooking the ocean. Occasionally you can see a whale.

00:28:53Lyndell Murray: It's one of the best views in parkrun, isn't it?

00:28:55Neville: It is a good view.

00:28:56Lyndell Murray: Yeah. All right. Is there anything else that you would like the parkrun adventurers to know about Mansfield Queensland parkrun, Cops and Robbers Day, any of other Neville's adventures?

00:29:08Neville: Yeah. parkrun is all about having good fun. It doesn't matter how fast you are or how slow you are. I've had to walk a few parkruns when I've had injuries and on others I've you know gone as fast as I can after starting parkrun I ended up getting more involved in the running community and I've now done around about 10 marathons heap of half marathons some of them trail runs and so yeah parkrun is a great place to start hang out with friends and get involved in the community

00:29:45Lyndell Murray: Fantastic. Well done. Thank you for sharing your story with me today, Neville. It's been wonderful. And thank you for everything that you do for Mansfield Queensland parkrun and your contribution to parkrun in South Brisbane.

00:29:58Neville: Thank you.

00:30:00Lyndell Murray: Alrighty, guys, that's it from me, I think. Just before I go, a couple of quick shout-outs. Firstly, Daniel, he was wearing full kit. His full kit included shoes that were not really built for running, so he might be a bit sore tomorrow. I hope the recovery's not too bad. And another shout-out to a friend of the podcast, Erica, and her mate, Ryan, who Now they won best dressed because between them they carried a TV set for the whole length of parkrun. They ran like they stole it and well deserved best dressed there. Remember that Cops and Robbers Day is all about introducing the police force to the community. They're people too. They do their job because they love it and they do it to serve the community. So be nice to the cops and all service people who work in your community. Alrighty, this is Lyndell signing out now for the Channel 5 News crew on the parkrun adventurers.

00:31:06Melissa Ellis: And wonderful to hear from Lyndell from the previous week out at Mansfield Queensland parkrun for the Cops and Robbers, which was held, Ollie, in conjunction with Queensland Police. Lyndell, I need to come next year. We need to diarise this because I want in on the cops and robbers fun. And how good were the police pipers? I love myself some bagpipes, Ollie.

00:31:32Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah. I always have really fond memories of hearing bagpipes when I was little and I'd be in it just for the bagpipes for sure.

00:31:41Melissa Ellis: Yeah, they were playing Amazing Grace. We also heard from Daniel who it was his first time for parkrun and Cops and Robbers Day. And he says that it's a great way to clear your head after a big week. So, yeah, I think there's a few servicemen that would agree with you there, Daniel. And he was walking in his uniform. Yeah. So, well done you.

00:32:04Oliver Spake: Nice way to connect, for everyone to connect, and I 100% agree with that clearing the head comment. So thank you so much, Lyndell, for bringing that to us.

00:32:13Melissa Ellis: Yes, yes, Ollie.

Emails

00:32:16Melissa Ellis: But Mel, so the inbox. Nope, nope, nope. No emails and no roving reports. The inbox was empty this week.

00:32:28Oliver Spake: That's right. So keeping it pretty simple this week.

Dazza's

00:32:31Oliver Spake: However, however, someone who was fully invested this week was Dazza, who said, are you more of a law-abiding citizen or do you have the potential to be a criminal? Would you look as good as Dazza in prison garb? Come on in, tell us your best cops and robbers stories and all your parkrun and park faff fun from today. And now that I've managed to get my tongue around that, for some reason that was a bit difficult, Calum Burrell popped in and said, Dazza dressed as a barcode. Well, I never...

00:33:06Melissa Ellis: does look like a bit of a barcode doesn't he he does he does that was his uh costume from uh the (not)parkrun days at Ellis Palace when we had a that's right a jailbird theme yeah Anyway, Ollie, we also heard from Claire Stutchbury, touristing this week back to adventuring after a two-week hiatus for an ocean swim and my bridal shower, a sneaky hop across the border to Kingscliff parkrun. And we had a lovely photo from Claire looking down the path to a very appealing beach.

00:33:43Oliver Spake: And over in New Zealand, Alison King said, my son committed the criminal offence of playing with the finish tokens, and dropping them all thankfully they were put back in order before the first runners came through meanwhile I park walked we enjoyed a visit to the cafe afterwards and then stopped in at julian's berry farm on our way home it's now open for summer and would have been a crime not to boysenberry ice cream for us both and allison's photo evidenced herself and axel with some very appetizing looking boysenberry ice creams so all's well that ends well got off with a warning axel following in abby's footsteps there with the dropping of the tokens yes how did I get this next one Ollie I think I've been stitched up here

00:34:33Melissa Ellis: With the most likes, we heard from our very own Bec Bailey. Dazza, it's my birthday and we paid off the Office Lady with some chocolate. So she'll harbour, she'll harbour, she'll harbour. I had the best morning down at the local with a lovely parkrun frond full of the most amazing friends. and welcoming some first-timers and a bunch of visitors. I ran with my dad as he experienced the most beautiful course in Greater Sydney. Mum and Sam finally got to meet and they enjoyed a park walk together. Afterwards, we celebrated with Bailey shots, cupcakes and brunch down at the marina. It was the best day. Can't wait for Bathurst next weekend. And Bec shared a photo of the Bailey shot, a real-life Bailey shot, and... Oh, and she'll have a selfie frame. Well, thankfully, with the amnesty, I won't get fined for any of those indiscretions.

00:35:30Oliver Spake: That's right. Got to help you enjoy it. We also heard from Jason Green, who was at home and said it would have been a criminal offence by not being out and enjoying the beautiful morning at Shellharbour parkrun. And Jason shared a lovely morning light shot across the grass to the water with the caution sign in the foreground. And noting in our caution sign at Shellharbour parkrun is all CAPS.

00:35:55Melissa Ellis: Well, touristing this week, we heard from Gemma Kajasky, who said we thoroughly enjoyed parkrun adventuring at Mount Isa parkrun this morning. Neil volunteered on finish tokens, joining the friendliest team of volleys. Afterwards, we shared a delightful breakfast at Bambino Espresso. Espresso, espresso, it's espresso, isn't it? Aptly described as a slice of heaven in the outback where we fraternised with this young detective, a member of the local constabulary. Wow, all the tongue twisters. Our 21-hour train journey on the Islander, Inlander, the Inlander, from Townsville to Mount Isa, especially for parkrun, was well worth the adventure. Oh, my goodness, Gemma. Kudos to you and Neil. And thank you for sharing the photo of both of yourselves with the selfie frame plus inside the cafe. Now, we did share the photo of Gemma and Neil in the Consolidated Club report on Sunday.

00:37:00Oliver Spake: That's right, and I love that train journey. Wow. In fact, there's a bit of a link with the next Dazza's post, which has a bit of a train theme as well. Chris Fraser, who was touristing, said, "'When I was a little boy, I needed a matchbox car from Woolworths that my mum decided was not essential, so I pocketed it.'" When I was found out, my mum marched me down to the manager's office. I was sure I was going to HM prison, but I paid my dues by creating a new volley role. I was stray dog herding as two large non-bark runners were harassing everyone, so I evicted them. I went on an adventure. I caught the XPT down to Queanbeyan to run at Jerrabomberra. What an awesome run. It reminds me of Porirua in New Zealand, but different. Out and back trail course, all the way uphill, all the way back downhill, some good views on the way. And Chris shared a nice photo looking up the path in the bush there with a few parkrunners up in front.

00:38:04Melissa Ellis: We also heard from Johan over in South Africa. He said, today we were freely running the track at Brandkop parkrun in South Africa. I recalled a photo of Carly that expressed the despair of incarceration during the initial hard lockdown when we were not even allowed to walk the dogs. I'm so thankful that we can largely live our lives again. And there was a photo of Carly looking longingly under the fence.

00:38:32Oliver Spake: Yes, yes, very cute, and we are very fortunate to be back, able to enjoy all of that again, and Carly in particular. Thank you, Johan. Now in the UK, Graham Wilkinson popped in and said, Hi, Dazza. I was the cop today for sure. I caught wind and rain at West Lynx parkrun and also managed to chase down sixth position for a bingo number. Like all good cops, I finished off the morning with a coffee and doughnuts.

00:39:01Melissa Ellis: We also heard from Cass Castleton, who had an achievement. Cass said, went to Tidworth parkrun today to help a fellow parkrunner celebrate her Cowell. And to top it off, she finished in 100th position. And we had a photo there with the celebratory group.

00:39:18Oliver Spake: Well done. Well done. Nice way to finish it there. And Peter Pohlman, who was touristing, as we heard, and said... I am no criminal and nobody can make me repent my crimes. You can't see my fingers doing the symbol there. Thank you to today's host and tour guide, Melissa Ellis, and co-conspiratory Sonja Pohlman. And there was a photo shared with Peter with a backwards junior flag and, well... Someone obscured there.

00:39:50Melissa Ellis: He's very cheeky, that Peter Pohlman.

00:39:51Oliver Spake: He is indeed. He is indeed. I'm very impressed that the backwards flag made an appearance during this visit, Mel. Another thing that did impress me and that wasn't necessarily in the flagged posts, but apologies for not reading out.

00:40:09Melissa Ellis: You're going off script.

00:40:11Oliver Spake: I am. I am. For anyone that hasn't checked out the album or Dazza's, Val, that outfit looks spectacular.

00:40:18Melissa Ellis: Oh, who did it better?

00:40:21Oliver Spake: Val went and found the scan of the slide her mother took on the last day of school before the leaving certificate and found a bit of a resemblance there between her and Dazza. So we'll leave it to the listeners to decide who wore it better.

00:40:38Melissa Ellis: That's fabulous. Yes, thanks for contributing that, Val, by Ollie.

the Obi Award — Bec Bailey

00:40:43Melissa Ellis: It's the award winner time. And as always, you have an envelope you need to divulge. Yes. Firstly, a colour of an envelope on theme for the week, plus the opening. Now, last week, it seemed a snip. Have you got scissors there? Are you cutting open envelopes these days? It sounds like you were.

00:41:04Oliver Spake: Sometimes I need a bit of a helping hand to get it open there. But rest assured, I have an envelope here that does not need snipping and appropriately this week it's caramel coloured.

00:41:15Melissa Ellis: Oh, okay. Yeah, no, I just drew that conclusion.

00:41:18Oliver Spake: So the Obi this week goes to... ..Bec Bailey.

00:41:34Melissa Ellis: Congratulations to Bec. It was lovely to see the Baileys reunited from across the ditch. We were very happy and especially on the occasion of Bec's birthday. After three years of not seeing her parents again, The adventure community was all warm and fuzzy seeing that occurrence.

00:41:55Oliver Spake: That's right. Bec essentially is on behalf of all of the people that had good reason to get together. And I'm naturally quite biased, but it was a wonderful morning. And again, really appreciate everyone popping in to celebrate. But...

00:42:12Melissa Ellis: considering we have no stats, we have no informant, there's no stats, there wasn't really much to draw out of Dazza's either. There wasn't many people posting achievements. So I really didn't have anything to report on. Sad to say.

00:42:27Oliver Spake: Look, I am confident that our community will find a number of achievements in the near future. So that's all right. Hit them coming. We'll celebrate them when we spot them. And if anyone does have any other stats to point out, by all means, let us know.

00:42:44Melissa Ellis: The only thing I wanted to bring up, Ollie, is Shellharbour really included in Greater Sydney?

00:42:48Oliver Spake: No, but yes.

00:42:49Melissa Ellis: What?

00:42:52Oliver Spake: I'm not going against the birthday girl, so I have to say yes. But no, it's not. Yeah, Shellharbour, I suppose we could call it outer Greater Sydney. Oh, my goodness. So I don't feel the wrath of the Dolls Point parkrunners in particular for that. Also, Bec doesn't. Yeah.

00:43:10Melissa Ellis: So if we go back to lockdown and rings of steel, like I know there's been a bit of discussion this week about the events in Melbourne that may constitute Greater Melbourne and how many do we have and what would be the boundary. Well, hello, I don't think there's any greater boundary than that ring of steel that occurred during lockdown. So if you apply the same thing to Sydney, would Shellharbour fall within or without those boundaries?

00:43:42Oliver Spake: Well, can I answer that in my own way too? No, but yes, but no.

00:43:49Melissa Ellis: Ollie!

00:43:51Oliver Spake: So there was a time where Shellharbour was part of the Greater Sydney lockdown, but there was also a time where, in fact, the Windang Bridge, the beautiful Windang Bridge, was the boundary and Shellharbour escaped some of the other restrictions. So it depends on what time. And the other no is, of course, the more reliable definition, the definition of the Rayfarer Club is, with the spreadsheet maintained by one Chris Fraser that I've looked up, does not include Wollongong or Shellharbour in Greater Sydney. So look, if we have to go to the Rayfarer Club for advice, then the answer is no.

00:44:29Melissa Ellis: There you go.

00:44:30Oliver Spake: And I haven't cross-checked that with, obviously, our other glorious adventuring spreadsheet, but I will do that. But I am also quite confident. Right. Now that I've complicated that.

Consolidated Club Report

00:44:42Melissa Ellis: Let's move along to the adventurers Consolidated Club Report. Happy with that?

00:44:47Oliver Spake: Very.

00:44:47Melissa Ellis: Okay. So on Saturday, the 15th of October, 2022, of a total of 317 members, 244 took part at 126 locations.

the Frond

00:44:53Melissa Ellis: The largest frond, was 15 at Shellharbour. We had Housemate Lance, Richard and Sally, Sam and Luke, The Fool, Bailey Shot, Jason Green, Julie Turner, Gaillyn Cooper, Ingrid and Jasmine, Louise Clements and Paddy Oshimo. Uh, no mention of Gordon, Turner, Ollie or Glenn?

00:45:28Oliver Spake: I believe they were at other locations.

00:45:31Melissa Ellis: North?

00:45:32Oliver Spake: North. Northwest.

00:45:33Melissa Ellis: Okay. So also we had a frond of 10. Down in the Greater State at Westerfolds, we had Thomas Martin, Craig and Bec Ryan, Scotty Trickett, Sally Heppleston, Bram Cassidy, Andrea Booth, Dan O'Connell and Irene and Parth Bomber Canty. We also had nine over at the Ponds.

00:45:56Oliver Spake: Wow. So some big turnouts, some very big turnouts. And I'm pretty sure I heard of at least one PB floating in there. So congratulations on the PB there. But well done, everyone. On the Vrond side of things, Mel, I did my best because, hey, I thought I had a reasonable chance. I've counted 10, but I've missed things before. So I do believe it may have been at Shellharbour, but juniors does often have the largest Vrond. However, under the assumption we did have Bec and Tanya Bailey, we had Sam, Julie, Michael, Richard, Karen, myself, Brendan and Em.

00:46:33Melissa Ellis: Excellent. And considering that Eynesbury wasn't running, I'm pretty sure that you would have taken the honours this week.

00:46:41Oliver Spake: However, how did we look across the states?

00:46:43Melissa Ellis: I'm glad you asked, Ollie. So locally, despite the flooding, the greatest state, Victoria, topped the charts with 28 events, with New South Wales a close second ahead. On 23, Queensland was down this week on 22 and South Australia dropped to 9. West Australia had 7, the ACT 6, Tassie 3 and the Northern Territory had... Across the ditch, Adventurers represented at six events in total with Queenstown the only representative on the South Island.

00:47:19Oliver Spake: Well, relatively busy. Well done to your resilient bunch in Victoria and to the other states impacted as well and to everyone across the states, territories and our friends across the ditch. Wow, that's a lot we've had to reflect on and I appreciate your patience with the repeated mentions. But how are we looking forward, Mel? What's coming up on the horizon?

00:47:45Melissa Ellis: Well, looking forward, Ollie, I would like to jump ahead a couple of weeks and say that Toolern Creek is expecting event four. 333 for the Nelson Challenge on the 29th of October. Now, I mention this because Toolern Creek will be hosting the one and only Eman, Christine and Juno in town to experience our fast and flood-safe course. I also plan to be there and I do believe the Bomber Canties will be in attendance too. So if you want to be where it's all happening, come along to Toolern Creek that week for 333.

00:48:23Oliver Spake: That sounds like a plan. Well, yeah, hopefully it's a good turnout and hopefully a nice sunny dry one. For those with an eagle eye on Facebook, you might have noticed, and particularly those keeping an eye on our parkrun adventurers listener meetup Facebook event pages, there are some events popping up. So we will now start to see some of the locations and some of the plans for our Freedos, our Freedom Runs and Walks, and the events for PALM 2023 weekend so if you haven't already please jump on there if you're not on Facebook feel free to send us an email and we can give you a few details but as the planning and the wonderful planning team advance towards palm 2023 we'll certainly be calling out for people to give a bit of an indication as we get much much closer of course and we look forward to seeing you many of you there

00:49:16Melissa Ellis: Definitely. There's lots of chat about when people are intending to arrive, where they are going to be staying over in WA and what events they intend to do. There's a lot of interest in going to see some quokkas.

00:49:33Oliver Spake: Yes, there certainly is. I haven't booked flights yet. Naturally, I will be, but I might have to see the quokka plans. Yes.

Sign-off

00:49:42Melissa Ellis: But Ollie, there is an announcement that we need to make. about next week. Next week's pod, Ollie, is going to be a little bit different.

00:49:52Oliver Spake: That's right. Same, same, but different, you could say.

00:49:55Melissa Ellis: And we are going to take a break. Ollie, you didn't have much choice in this. Sorry about that. But I am going to have a week off, which means that I won't be editing next week. So we are bringing in... Some guest hosts.

00:50:14Oliver Spake: That's right. Are we going to say who the guest hosts are? Can we reveal that information? I think we should. Okay.

00:50:19Melissa Ellis: Because, you know, going to the teaser doesn't always play out well. That's right. It's best that people have that anticipation of who they're going to hear.

00:50:28Oliver Spake: That's right. The people want to know.

00:50:30Melissa Ellis: And I think they're going to be pleasantly surprised.

00:50:33Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. So the kids are taking a break.

00:50:35Melissa Ellis: Yeah. We're handing back the keys.

00:50:37Oliver Spake: We're handing back the keys. Mum and Dad are back.

00:50:40Melissa Ellis: They are. I'm so excited to be able to sit back and listen. I can't wait.

00:50:45Oliver Spake: That's right. And, hey, look, maybe if you haven't been listening to the podcast for quite that long, you don't get the references there. When Mel and I did take over the parkrun adventurers podcast, we were handed the keys. We entrusted the keys to the podcast from the wonderful inaugural co-hosts, Mel and Scotty. And you'll have Mel and Scotty next week. Surprise. That's right. And one of those reasons, Mel, is where are you going next parkrun day?

00:51:13Melissa Ellis: We are going to Bathurst.

00:51:15Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:51:16Melissa Ellis: We are going to be away for the weekend, enjoying hopefully the very dry conditions at Bathurst parkrun and the Panorama Punish, camping hopefully in muddy conditions and So, yes, Scott and Mel have very kindly agreed to come back for a special recording, take the reins, entertain you all and give us a week off. We're very grateful.

00:51:43Oliver Spake: That's right. I do look forward to listening. And, yes, I really do look forward to The Punish. I look forward to Bathurst Weekend. I look forward to volunteering at Bathurst parkrun and seeing many of our adventurers out there, including yourself.

00:51:57Melissa Ellis: Yeah, it'll be great to catch up again, get to see the Baileys and be a part of the frond. So much fun. And thank you to Jen and Stephen again for putting on the event, welcoming the adventurers so warmly.

00:52:13Unidentified speaker: Yes.

00:52:14Melissa Ellis: I do believe we have quite a large contingent of adventurers. Oh, I wonder if we'll take out the biggest group, Ollie.

00:52:22Oliver Spake: We'll see. We'll give it a red hot go. We will. But Mel, I think that's it.

00:52:28Melissa Ellis: Yeah, let's wrap it up.

00:52:29Oliver Spake: I'll make sure I've got the keys handy. I'll hand it over on the way out. I've cleaned up the post-its a little bit. And everyone, as always, you can contact us or Mel and Scotty, of course, via Facebook or our email, which is also theirs, at parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. Oh dear, .cop, that's on theme. parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. Dear me, that is it for another week. That's it for two weeks for us. Enjoy Mel and Scotty next week and we will see you, well, we'll see you out there for more adventures.

the Informant

00:54:13Unidentified speaker: Hey, is that... It's the informant. Beige Man, where have you been? Oh no, please don't tell them I was here.

00:54:20The Informant: Why not? Why did you leave the pod? Where have you been?

00:54:24Unidentified speaker: Beige Man, where have you been?

00:54:27The Informant: Because I... I don't... Look, I just want to enjoy the race.

00:54:34Unidentified speaker: But people want to know where you are. And where's the intern?

00:54:37The Informant: I really can't say. I've got to go. Just don't say anything. I've got to go.

00:54:43Unidentified speaker: But what will I say to Mel and Ollie?

00:54:45The Informant: Nothing. Well, that was weird.