Episode 310 - Cheers

Tribute

00:00:04Oliver Spake: We're saddened to hear of the passing of a dedicated Australian parkrun tourist at parkrun on Saturday just gone. Our condolences go to their friends and family and heartfelt sympathy to all of the first responders.

00:00:16[25 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

Welcome

00:00:41Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 310 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country.

00:00:50Oliver Spake: And I am Ollie Spake and I'm joining once again from Dharawal Country. How are you Mel?

00:00:56Melissa Ellis: I am good. How is Dharawal Country? Are the skies blue?

00:01:00Oliver Spake: Blue, balmy, warm, sunny, all the things that I've probably been whinging about not having for such a long time. So I guess I should say I'm very happy. Excellent. And appreciative. I'm grateful. Yes.

00:01:13Melissa Ellis: All the rain's disappeared and the soggy ground's dried up. Well, that's right.

00:01:17Oliver Spake: That's right. Now I actually have to water the plants.

00:01:20Melissa Ellis: Oh.

00:01:20Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:01:21Melissa Ellis: We're still getting a bit of rain down here in Wurundjeri Country.

00:01:25Unidentified speaker: Yes.

00:01:25Oliver Spake: How is everybody coping?

00:01:27Melissa Ellis: With the floods.

00:01:29Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah. I did see a picture in Dazza's with still some raised water levels this week.

00:01:35Melissa Ellis: We are having some events slowly coming back from cancellations, but I think there's still quite a few events impacted by the flooded riverways. Yeah. Yeah.

00:01:46Oliver Spake: Well, I do hope everyone is doing okay. Look forward to welcoming back all of the events when it's safe to do so. And thank you to all the event teams who are clearly putting in a bit of effort trying to make sure that that safe point can come soon. And have you had a good week? It's been a blur. I'll be honest, it's been a blur. It has been a lovely week. I've been up to so much and, you know, parkrun Day was absolutely a highlight of that, but it feels like so long ago already. I was out last night, as it was. It's Dad's birthday coming up, so I had a late night last night watching the Bootleg Beatles. So there's nothing like a good Beatles show to spend a Sunday night.

00:02:26Melissa Ellis: Was that a live show?

00:02:27Oliver Spake: It was, yeah. They're out of England. I've seen them previously, but they made the trip down to Wollongong, so couldn't miss it. And Dad's a big fan too, of course. So, yeah, we had a great time.

00:02:37Melissa Ellis: Oh. That's nice.

00:02:39Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah. And, you know, parkrun happened around all of that as well, of course. And last parkrun day, I suppose, yeah, a bit of a recap, I was at Shellharbour. Of course I was. Of course you were. I took the opportunity to volunteer. I figured that that was the best way to spend a bit of time. I had grand intentions of going and training for the run beforehand. I was too tired. I woke up just in time to head across. So it was nice to get out on course, have a bit of a walk out there with our Tail Walker who happened to be celebrating a very special pair of milestones, Mr. Paddy Oshimo. And to enjoy the company of a number of parkrun adventurers and Shellharbour parkrunners out there celebrating not only Paddy's milestone but that of Luke. So special congratulations on the 100 parkrun milestones to Patrick and to Luke and an extra congrats to Paddy for his 25th volunteer.

00:03:39Melissa Ellis: Excellent. So there's been lots of celebrations happening over at your home lately. There certainly has. It's a busy place, isn't it?

00:03:48Oliver Spake: Yeah, it's becoming a little more festive, which has been wonderful. There has been an absolute influx of first-timers and visitors to parkrun down our way. The numbers are still lower than they used to be, but we're seeing that uptick that is much more common now, come the warmer months, the return of the warmer months in this part of the world. So, you know, tracking towards the usual higher numbers around the Christmas and New Year period and resolution time.

00:04:17Melissa Ellis: I can tell you what spring is giving me, Ollie. Allergy, that's what spring's giving me.

00:04:23Oliver Spake: no sorry to hear Mel are you managing all right yeah yeah the grasses are flowering and the eucalypts are flowering and the allergies rampant yes yes yeah you know it could be worse so I do wish you a uh a healthier week to come and and hopefully those allergies do move on they're they're never welcome they're part of life but never welcome And, yeah, look, I should say thank you. Thank you to everyone that did come and join Shellharbour parkrun at the weekend. It was lovely to enjoy so many wonderful friends, to celebrate and to have a nice brunch afterwards to top it off. So a great time. Thank you, Mel. What about you? Did you go on an adventure?

00:05:06Melissa Ellis: I did.

Roving report Melissa Ellis — Nolans Park parkrun

00:05:07Melissa Ellis: I travelled, as was suggested last week, to Nolans Park parkrun in Boort on the lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung people. Boort is situated approximately 250 kilometres northwest of Melbourne and is 100 kilometres from Bendigo. Boort is an Aboriginal name meaning smoke from the hill and the small Victorian township lays claim to having the largest collection of Aboriginal scar trees in the world, with over 2,000 being found around Lake Boort. The scar trees are so named when the bark is removed from trees to build canoes, shelters, shields... for grinding seeds into flour, for burials, for drying possum skins and for artworks. It's also thought to be one of the few remaining places where you can find trees with toehold scars was event five at nolan's park and I was met with blue skies and a familiar face it wasn't until I offered the reply of Toolern Creek to the ceremonial call for tourists that I heard my name called with surprise and he bounded toward me with a grin and his sidekick Flynn in tow it was of course Channel 5 News Crew member and poem creator Mr Gary Murphy oh

00:06:22Oliver Spake: The man himself.

00:06:23Melissa Ellis: It was. It was a modest crowd of 47 and Gary and I seemed to be the only two tourists willing to offer up their home events. It was only after the event was finished and packed up that I discovered another tourist from Kerang Regional parkrun when she stopped to comment on my parkrun number plates. I was chuffed to discover this was Amanda Lake, also an adventurer who had been the Tail Walker for the morning. Another adventurer in attendance was Robin Rishworth, always happy to talk anything adventure related and offer intel on rumours of upcoming parkrun potentials. I didn't run this week, instead challenging myself to see how fast I could walk the flat out-and-back pram and wheelchair-friendly course which follows the shoreline of Little Lake Boort. Nolans Park is easily located with Google Maps and offers a small car park, picnic shelter, toilets, playground and an old-fashioned merry-go-round. that operates on special occasions. It also sits conveniently next to the Boort Lakes Holiday Park if you plan to visit for a day or two. After the event, I headed home with my bucket full and my statesmanship regained once again. Well done, Mel. That's quite an achievement. You always get a surprise at parkrun. You go along thinking, I'll just duck off to this little quiet country parkrun, nobody will know me, I'll just slip in unannounced and there you go, bang. Hmm.

00:07:49Oliver Spake: It is a small state, yeah, but great to hear of some adventurous sightings out there and some great company for the day. Well, we've had a bit of feedback from last week's episode, Mel.

00:08:03Melissa Ellis: We had a lot of feedback, Ollie, and very good feedback for Johan. Everybody loved the interview with Bruce and Gill, so thanks again to Johan and the surprise that... that he did receive when he heard that we welcomed him into the news crew. He did tell me. He nearly drove off the highway. Whoops.

00:08:23Oliver Spake: Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Yes, please do take care. And I'll echo the feedback that we don't have to report on this week and to say that everyone I've spoken with that had listened to the episode Absolutely loved it. I mean, what great insights and great ambassadors. I know we briefly touched on it last week, but listening back once again, it was really a wonderful interview to listen to.

00:08:47Melissa Ellis: Geoff Glaab did comment with a quote, I think that was Jill? that may have said it, the evils of money, politics and religion that separate people do not exist at parkrun. And Jeff said, amen. He also said, please don't apologise for doing a long pod once in a while. It's not a bad thing to get an extra 10 to 20 minutes of positivity in our week when we're constantly bombarded with terrible news. So thanks, Jeff.

00:09:14Oliver Spake: Thanks, Jeff. Yeah, I like that perspective. I'll certainly bear it in mind. And Val Warwick said, wow, what a fabulous pod. That interview Johan did was amazing. As a walker, and often over the years, one of a very small number of walkers, it was so heartwarming to know that 30% of South African parkrunners are walkers. What a fabulous statistic. Thank you, Johan, for such an in-depth interview. I can guarantee you will get a very warm welcome at Shipwreck parkrun with the Gores. One of my lasting memories of our trip was, Steve, having corresponded with Gemma, who was RD the day we visited, I had the biggest parkrun welcome hug possible. Lovely hearing from both Phil and Gemma. And yes, we were on the keeping track every hour of Phil's amazing 76 hours too. And if you don't listen to the little end snippet, do yourself a favour and go back. Fabulous job, young Asha, and have a fabulous 100th parkrun tomorrow, Luke and Patrick. This pod might have been long, but we sat listening and thoroughly enjoying. And the fact that we didn't get up to have brekkie until 10am is testament to the fabulous pod that it was. Thank you, Mel and Ollie.

00:10:29Melissa Ellis: I can just imagine Val and Steve sitting up in bed listening.

00:10:34Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. And here, here, Asha, absolute superstar. Not playing down some of our other end audio snippets. We're fortunate enough to have a few superstars, but Asha is definitely amongst those ranks.

00:10:49Melissa Ellis: Very confident young man, yes. Good job. We also heard from Mark Scarborough who said, running up the main straight at Mount Panorama Punish where all the grid places are marked, I said to my son, I have goosebumps, and he replied, can we come back next year, Dad? So that was lovely. I do know that Mark ran with James. Yep, yes. And James' only instructions were he had to stay with Mark until they got to the top. And then he took off and left Dad in his dust.

00:11:18Oliver Spake: The force is strong with that one. Well done to the Channel News crew. Channel News crew. Oh, dear.

00:11:24Melissa Ellis: Channel 5 News crew.

00:11:25Oliver Spake: Thank you, Mel. The tongue doesn't want to behave. Ah, and we also heard from Booz Dayton. Booz. Booz. Booz. Booz. Thank you, Booz, who said, all parkruns need people like Bruce and Gill. Clap, clap, clap. I was surprised to get a mention in the podcast only in reference to an earlier post in this group but had to chuckle and then roll my eyes a little at the assumption my name was a suggestion I was very Aussie and loved to drink. It's a high school nickname I've had for almost 30 years, rhymes with book and comes from the fact that as a teenager I was quite well endowed with big Aussies. That's what happens when I don't read beforehand. Thank you, Bus. It's great to get that context. And we really appreciate you clarifying that it's not a reference to alcohol.

00:11:30[laughter]

00:12:08[laughter]

00:12:26Melissa Ellis: Oh, my goodness. That's just too funny hearing you reading that knowing you hadn't read it beforehand.

00:12:28[laughter]

00:12:32Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. I mean, I'm not sure it would come as the surprise to the listeners that I don't always read everything beforehand, despite my expert pronunciation.

00:12:46Melissa Ellis: That you do quickly while I'm reading something.

00:12:48Unidentified speaker: Yes.

00:12:50Melissa Ellis: Oh, dear. But anyway, what are we up to next? Okay, so some big things happened this week. There was a certain parkrun registration that occurred Saturday night in the UK. Yes. I think it was we woke up to it Sunday morning, wouldn't have we? Yes. Yeah. That's right. Saturday. Oh, I don't know. Don't get me to get my head around time zones. But anyway.

00:13:12Oliver Spake: Within the last week. Yes.

00:13:13Melissa Ellis: Eight millionth parkrunner registered this last weekend, Ollie. So that was a bit exciting. Now on. It's huge. And they're registered to Lawson parkrun in New South Wales.

00:13:24Oliver Spake: Which is a pretty special place to be registered to. What a fantastic parkrun that one is.

00:13:29Melissa Ellis: Have you been there?

00:13:30Oliver Spake: I have. Hooray. Yes.

00:13:32Melissa Ellis: So, yeah, the name of the eight millionth parkrunner was shared, I believe, and it was told to me. I don't know. I felt a little bit uncomfortable, Ollie, with this person's privacy being splashed all over the social media. Well, and –

00:13:49Oliver Spake: I get where you're coming from, Mel. We do mention a lot of names on the podcast, but generally we prefer to mention a name when we've been told we can mention a name. So let's just say A8 million.

00:14:03Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Yeah. Or A8000000.

00:14:07Oliver Spake: That's a possible way of saying it as well. Yeah.

00:14:11Melissa Ellis: Well, anyway, I wonder how many of those 8 million people are duplicates. Do you reckon how many people will sign up, not go to parkrun, and then three years later forgotten their password and just sign up again?

00:14:25Oliver Spake: Oh, feedback for our listeners. Have any of our adventurers done that? We could do a straw poll. I have certainly seen some parkrunners that have had the earlier registration. It's great when you're looking up a volunteer. You get their name but not their ID. They have two IDs. So it does happen and not wanting to take away from that massive milestone because it is a huge and significant milestone, a wonderful sign of the growing community that is parkrun and the movement that it is.

00:14:59Melissa Ellis: spreading around the world can I offer a tip okay I haven't got a tourist tip this week but this is this is a different type of tip if you do have a multiple or duplicated barcodes you can easily just email parkrun support and they get rid of one magic yes yeah just like that Or they'll merge your accounts into one, I believe.

00:15:27Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:15:27Melissa Ellis: Is that your understanding, Ollie?

00:15:28Oliver Spake: I think so. Yes. Yes.

00:15:30Melissa Ellis: So if they delete numbers, they would know that there's gaps because everybody's number doesn't move up one to make up for the one that's been deleted.

00:15:38Oliver Spake: That's right. But I guess nonetheless, that doesn't detract from the fact that we have had 8 million registrations.

00:15:45Melissa Ellis: Yes.

00:15:46Oliver Spake: And a huge number of people participating in one form or another. But... Yeah, I think that's a great suggestion. So if anyone does do that and have the tips on how to do that and what exactly does happen, I'd be interested to understand so I can help chase up some of our parkrunners.

00:16:04Melissa Ellis: But also last week, Ollie, we shared a video in our socials of our friend M Scholarly who was featured by parkrun. Was it parkrun Australia or parkrun Global?

00:16:15Oliver Spake: parkrun Australia, yeah.

00:16:17Melissa Ellis: Okay, yeah. She was featured and we were pretty proud to see Emma up there.

00:16:23Oliver Spake: So proud. It was a lovely – I'm biased, clearly biased – given where it was filmed and who it's about. But I think we could all be a bit biased in favour of Em in this respect because it was a lovely video. I think it really showcased how exuberant, supportive and just full of energy Em is at parkrun. Really, she gives, in my experience, the best parkrun welcomes and encouragement throughout the morning. So it was wonderful to see.

00:16:54Melissa Ellis: And she loves the pod too. So big shout out to Em because we know she listens.

00:16:59Oliver Spake: That's right. She certainly does. So thank you, Em, for all of your support to the parkrun world. And, yeah, thank you for being a celebrity this week. And Mel. Jess Stenson.

00:17:11Melissa Ellis: Yes, Ollie. Jess Stenson, Jess Trengove, who has been featured on the pod in the past and recently won the Commonwealth Games Marathon.

00:17:21Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:17:21Melissa Ellis: She has just run the New York City Marathon and came ninth female. So... I went over to her Facebook profile and I borrowed some words and this is what Jess had to say. What an experience. Words can't describe the energy in this city and the support out on course. I see why so many people from all over the world fall in love with this wild event. My goal this morning was to crack the top 10. My inspiration was my family and it was very cool to be able to present my brother Jack with his debut marathon finishes medal. Two hours 47 with the fire emoji thank you always to the people who helped me get to the start line and who inspired me to the finish so yep well done from us to you Jess Stenson yeah welcome to the marathon world Jack absolutely so that's all a whole lot of news this week Ollie

00:18:16Oliver Spake: That's right. No, thank you, Mel. I certainly appreciate that.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:18:20Oliver Spake: We have one roving report this week, one roving report that has come to us from Alison over at Much Like You, an event number five at Broad Park. So shall we have a listen to that now?

Roving report Alison King — Broad Park parkrun

00:18:38Alison Fraser (King): Kia ora koutou, it's Alison here reporting in from across the ditch in Aotearoa and I'm at the airport so I'm on my way for an adventure and I'm going to Broad Park parkrun which is in Ōtautahi, Te Waipounamu, also known as Christchurch on the South Island And it's going to be a really awesome trip, I think. Well, I just know it will be because I am going to be going to New Zealand's newest event, Broad Park. And it's week five for them, but it's going to be the first time they've used their official course. They've had to use their alternative for the first four weeks. I'm getting to hang out with some parkrun friends. And after the parkrun, we're going to go to experience the hot pools. So now I'm at the airport and so I'll report in when I get to Broad Park and hopefully get some audio from there and then I'll catch you on the other side. So I'm at the finish with Big Dan and Lisa who are two of the, well they're two voluntourists around the Christchurch area. Dan was on first time as welcome today so thank you Dan for the welcome. [Te Reo Māori: "Hello to you all (greeting addressed to three or more people)"] [Te Reo Māori: "New Zealand"]

00:19:43Big Dan: You're welcome.

00:19:45Alison Fraser (King): Tell me about Broad Park parkrun.

00:19:48Big Dan: It is so awesome. If you guys have not been out here come along. I really love Broad Park because compared to a lot of other parkruns we've done For one, it's rugged. If you can see me, I've got a big beard. I'm a rugged looking guy, so it suits me. It's off-road, you've got beachside views, part of the track you're running in the forest. There's even some hills that I've discovered in today's parkrun, so that was quite unique and an interesting challenge. But it's really, really beautiful, just like any other parkrun out there. It's the community that really makes it what it is, isn't it?

00:20:22Alison Fraser (King): And you were saying just before that you're going to be run directing here?

00:20:25Big Dan: Exactly, yeah, that's home for us, yes.

00:20:28Alison Fraser (King): So why have you been coming over to Broad Park?

00:20:30Big Dan: Well, there's many reasons. One of the main ones would probably be the Fibonacci sequence challenge in the 5K app. So that's been quite a... A really interesting way of spicing up the parkruns and to really make it a bit more enjoyable. Not that the 5K app is something that I needed to do parkruns, but it's just, like I said, it adds a bit more spice to it. There is potential that Lisa and I could come and do a run directly over here. I mean, we're not opposed to it.

00:21:02Alison Fraser (King): What's your parkrun story Lisa? How long have you been parkrunning?

00:21:07Lisa: I started in Dunedin in 2014, that was when I was studying at uni and I've been going ever since. Dunedin is a lot harder, you do two laps around the flat and then two up on the hill so it was quite a nice nice wee thing to come to a flat flat course at Hagley yeah and you've been doing quite a bit of you've been doing quite a lot of tourism like around the Christchurch area yes we have yeah we've done a few we've been to Palmerston North Dunedin, we've done the Foster, Pegasus, yeah we try to book our holidays with where the parkruns are.

00:21:48Alison Fraser (King): Oh I like that, that's what I do.

00:21:50Big Dan: Who doesn't, come on.

00:21:53Alison Fraser (King): How did you get into parkrun Dan?

00:21:55Big Dan: Funny enough it was later. We started in Dunedin back in 2014 and back then my mindset was completely different. I was a runner in the past. I used to compete in boxing, so running was part of the process. And prior to 2014, I'd been inactive for like two, three years. So running was not in the cards for me, especially with the type of work I was doing back in Dunedin. I was a furniture removalist. So when Lisa asked me to come and join her, it was like one day off in months. I was like, I don't want to come for a run. Well I got there and one of the interesting things that I learnt from Dunedin was pay attention to the first time is welcome because I thought 5k is a piece of cake. I didn't realise it's two laps around the flat and two laps around the hill so I found out the hard way.

00:22:48Alison Fraser (King): That's a challenging one.

00:22:49Big Dan: It's a challenging one absolutely but it sparked something within me that I realised just how out of shape I was and I was determined to never get back to that point again. So Lisa was one of the inspirations that got me involved with parkrun when we moved back up to Christchurch in 2015. Hagley was our home so we'd been doing that for a while and somewhere along that process we just decided we'll just keep coming over and over again. For me it's a good reset so it's quite good mentally just to reset and come out here, socialise with everyone else. If you want to run hard and fast, have those days. If you have those days when you want to have a good, easy run, parkrun's got something for everyone.

00:23:35Alison Fraser (King): Yeah. So you've recently celebrated your 250 milestone, is that right?

00:23:40Big Dan: Yes, yes. So when did I do that? Months ago. So numbers hasn't been... Funny, I downloaded the 5K app. I love keeping track of things, but when it comes to my own numbers, I don't really care. Fair enough. I do keep track of it for myself only, but... Everyone seems to find out about my numbers when I try to keep them quiet.

00:24:00Lisa: How about you Lisa? How many have you done? I'm coming at nearly 200. So that will be really, really exciting for me. And what do you love about parkrun? What do I love about it? Meeting heaps of cool people. I love to connect with other runners, especially people who are running around the same speed as me. It helps keep me accountable and then slowly builds me up to the next PB as well, and also um I I'm a pet sitter so I love seeing all the dogs here that's my obsession is seeing all the dogs I tend to know all the dogs names and forget about humans names so that's cool thank you so much for having it's a glorious day today absolutely yeah yeah put on the fine weather and it's been a good good run oh thank you good thank you

00:24:54Alison Fraser (King): Back at the airport now, on my way home to Rotorua from Broad Park parkrun. And what can I say about this event? Well, it has a great course, a great team, a great cafe and a great post-parkrun activity. We went to the new Brighton Hot Pools. If you are in Christchurch, you should make a booking and head along. Absolutely stunning views of Brighton Beach from the hot pools. We were there for a couple of hours, they've got a sauna steam room plunge pool anyway you can probably tell it was a really really good morning back to the parkrun Broad Park is a lollipop shaped parkrun course so you go up the stick around a big loop through the bottle lake forest and then back down the stick to the park where we finished the cafe is a very short walk just down the road I enjoyed a chili beef and cheese pie and a peanut butter cup and a really nice flat white They do great breakfasts. I've heard that their chocolate cake is stunning, and I would really like to go back. Very soon, in fact. So, yeah, that's Broad Park parkrun in a nutshell. You can fly direct to Christchurch and, yeah, put it on your list. So that's Alison King signing off.

00:26:20Melissa Ellis: And thank you, Alison, out roving around again over in New Zealand. We haven't heard from anyone across the ditch for a while, so that was good. She spoke to Big Dan and Lisa, and Big Dan says it's rugged, that event, Ollie. Off-road, beachside and rugged.

00:26:39Oliver Spake: That sounds like a lot of fun. That really does.

00:26:41Melissa Ellis: It sounds just up your alley, doesn't it? And Alison also enjoyed the Brighton Hot Pools. So that's a nice tip for an after-run activity. Sounded good to me.

00:26:52Oliver Spake: I think that'd be a good mix.

00:26:53Melissa Ellis: I wonder if you could run downhill from the parkruns into the hot pools a la Scotty from the other week.

00:26:59Oliver Spake: And boil yourself at the end. Yes. That sounds like a plan.

00:27:03Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

00:27:04Oliver Spake: All right. Someone's got to get working on that event.

Emails

00:27:07Oliver Spake: But Mel, we've got mail. You've got mail. We do, Ollie. Who have we got? We heard from Stephen Jackson, of course, one half of the fabulous team behind the Panorama Punish. And Stephen emailed to us saying, hello, Mel and Ollie. We listened to the last pod as we drove down to Minendi, Werrington Lakes Reserve parkrun in Western Sydney. Unfortunately, we had to cancel Bathurst as it was still under three metres of water, so an opportunity to tourist a bit. Consolation was Jen was second lady finisher and I was second bloke finisher. We are both really pleased that you enjoyed the Bathurst weekend and we'll do our best to make next year even better. We are negotiating for the pits again, but with added control of the tunnel traffic lights and cementing. food vans. Our target is two weeks after the Bathurst 1000, so around the same date as this year, but all subject to those pesky racing cars choosing their dates first. We loved having everyone there, especially the adventurers, and in particular, Mel, Ollie, and the Office Lady. Bailey's were also special. We have just about sorted all the loose ends now with a few trophies to mail out, but the response and support was nothing short of spectacular. The entire organising committee, both of us, are ecstatic. Bring on next year. Take care. Love the pod and your commitment. Cheers, Stephen and Jen. And worth mentioning there, I'm not sure I captured it in the results, but... Stephen is, of course, an adventurer. And congratulations to Stephen who did, in fact, take out his age group when he finished in the punish in a tidy time of 28 minutes and 28 seconds. So, yeah, well done. Well done indeed.

00:28:57Melissa Ellis: Absolutely. Yeah, fabulous. And congratulations, Stephen. Jen gives him a leave pass for 30 minutes while she holds the microphone and he runs the race. So that's good teamwork in my book.

00:29:08Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. I should clarify that was the gun time too. Apologies. I've ripped him off three seconds on the net time, but yeah, one job, Ollie.

00:29:17Melissa Ellis: Now also, Ollie, in the absence of our stats report, I've pulled out a few things just to celebrate and give a shout out to our ideas man, Mr. Bruce Purdy did celebrate his 250th parkrun locally this last weekend at Ballarat.

00:29:32Oliver Spake: Congratulations, Bruce. And the Statman himself, Chris Fraser, celebrated his 150th unique event. Well done, Chris.

00:29:41Melissa Ellis: And Chris Horowitz, he also celebrated his 250th. I missed where that was. Ollie, did you catch where that was?

00:29:48Oliver Spake: Believe it was Rhodes. Apologies if I got that wrong, Chris. Excellent. But believe it was Rhodes. But congratulations. Yes. Nice to see some celebrations out there.

Dazza's

00:29:58Oliver Spake: And we had a bit more at Dazza's, I believe. So this week at Dazza's, he said, welcome to Dazza's where everybody knows your name and they're always glad you came. I didn't sing. Sorry. Sorry. Do you know that I couldn't? I get the rhythm. I'm still in Beatles tune, so I get it all wrong. Anyway, so at Dazza's, we were joined by Sonja Pohlman, who was at home volunteering at the Beaches and making plans for our eighth birthday in a few weeks. And lovely photo there from Sonja of sandcastles in the sand, eight sandcastles, in fact.

00:30:35Melissa Ellis: I liked that photo. That was a really good photo. Yeah. We also heard from Paddy Oshimo, who had a milestone, which we've already spoken of. And he said, hi, Dazza. It sure felt like everybody knew my name this morning as I tail walked around Shellharbour today. I knew a lot of names and many seem to know mine. Congratulating me on my 100th parkrun today. Here I am celebrating a double hundredth with good friend and Office Lady's husband, Luke Schroder. Luke and I also enjoyed fantastic weather and breakfast with many friends. Thanks to all of your well wishes and to you special people for your support over most of those 100 parkruns. Today was also a celebration for me of 50 Shellharbours, 25 volleys and 20 unique parkrun venues. This might not have been coincidental and and required careful planning, executing plan Bs, and a dash of good luck. So there was a great photo there, milestone photos of Luke and Paddy with the cardboard cutout. And, yeah, congratulations, boys.

00:31:39Oliver Spake: Thank you, Mel. And I didn't pick up on that particular 50 Shellharbour milestone. We also heard from Helen Reeves, who was at home, didn't add a comment, but the photo was gorgeous. And Helen shared a beautiful photo there of the family in the selfie frame with three generations, I think you said, Mel?

00:31:57Melissa Ellis: I did, yes.

00:31:58Oliver Spake: Yeah. Yeah.

00:31:58Melissa Ellis: We also heard from Richard who was touristing and he said today Sally and I headed to Whalan Reserve parkrun for a Fibonacci 55. Sally volunteered as parkwalker and I hopped on barcode scanning after my run. On theme, here's a pic from the Cheers Bar in Boston. I'm assuming that was from Richard's recent holiday or maybe it's a bit older. I'm not really sure.

00:32:21Oliver Spake: Nor am I, nor am I, but very apt. Thank you. Thank you. It's nice to get the touch of the real thing in there. And over in South Africa, we heard from the newest member of the Channel 5 News Crew, Johan Duvenhage, who said, they don't know my name, but boy, do they make me feel welcome. Doing early morning nottie and pre-event course recce at... Now... I probably would have butchered this, but thank you to Johan for sharing some pronunciation, which I'm still going to try very hard to get right. Is it schlo schlo we?

00:32:56Melissa Ellis: I believe so.

00:32:57Oliver Spake: parkrunner. Just in case you thought Bruce was exaggerating. And the reference there is to some of the description of the wildlife language, out around, well, around the park there. And Johan shared a number of photos there of some gorgeous shots around the course and of all the animals.

00:33:19Melissa Ellis: We also heard from Pauline Taylor, touristing as well. We drove four hours west to the pretty town of Goondiwindi parkrun. Did I say that right, Goondiwindi?

00:33:29Oliver Spake: That's my understanding, yes.

00:33:31Melissa Ellis: We set off yesterday so we could look around the town in daylight. The jacaranda trees are in full bloom, which is awesome. We really enjoyed this parkrun. You walk along the levee bank, which is built beside the McIntyre River. Very friendly volunteers. It was my 90th event today. And Pauline shared a photo of her and her friends in the selfie frame. Now, was it her and her friends? It doesn't tell me who was in the selfie frame, Ollie.

00:33:59Oliver Spake: No, it doesn't. It doesn't. But it was a lovely photo. I particularly liked the tree in the background.

00:34:04Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's right.

00:34:05Oliver Spake: Yes, okay. And Pauline, of course, yes. Yes.

00:34:09Melissa Ellis: And I'm assuming that was 90th unique event.

00:34:13Oliver Spake: That's my belief as well. I haven't checked the stats though, but congratulations, Pauline. That's impressive. We also heard mail from Irene Bommakanti, who was attending a little bit of a frond and said, made a last minute trip to Brisbane to check out our new house. Tracey in a Tutu picked me up from my accommodation along with fellow adventurer, Chris Fraser. Thank you. Thanks for having us, Chermside parkrun. Great facilities, great course, great weather, and a hilarious RD. And Irene shared a photo of, well, it was a selfie frame containing Chris plus Irene and Tracey.

00:34:47Melissa Ellis: And we also heard from Matthew Billenting. Billenting? Billington. And we also heard from Matthew Billenting. Oh.

00:34:58Oliver Spake: Billo.

00:35:02Melissa Ellis: And we also heard from Matthew Billington, who was touristing. One Zoomie coming to you from Ginninderra parkrun in the ACT. And Billo was Zooming in a park walk T-shirt on course. Ginninderra, one of my faves in the ACT.

00:35:18Oliver Spake: Yes, yes. And we heard from Carmel who was touristing, and she said, Touristing to Bundaberg parkrun, Queensland. My tourist adventure started on Friday. I caught the Brisbane to Rockhampton Tilt Train, detraining at Bundaberg. Spent the night at Alexandra Park Motor Inn, about 500 metres from the train station, Saturday. Set off 1.2km to Bundaberg parkrun, a three-lap course in the shape of a whale. One side runs around the Burnett River. Was a bit worried when the RD said she checked the tide as I am not a swimmer. All good. Very friendly and supportive volunteers. I then had to step it out to motel and then up to the train station to catch the 1005 tilt train back down the line. Relaxing way to get to and from a parkrun. And Carmel shared a photo of herself in the selfie frame in a Run Down Under shirt at Bundy.

00:36:18Melissa Ellis: And we heard from Karen McKeon, touristing. And she said, pretty awesome morning and shared a photo of herself in the selfie frame at Frank Keenan Reserve parkrun.

00:36:29Oliver Spake: Now, across the seas, we heard from Helen Rutter. And she said... at my home parkrun for the first time since Christmas. I haven't run it since before lockdown and didn't run it officially today either, but it was great to be there. My heart is there. And Helen shared photos, including from a Freedom parkrun and a walk to the Marshal Spot and the Marshal Spot and Brekkie. And the parkrun reference there is Dalby Forest.

00:36:59Melissa Ellis: And last but not least, we heard from Marg Prowse, who's got an achievement. She said, I ran my 100th run at Ballarat parkrun out of my 163 runs. Lucky to get it in as next week is their last week before they move to their new location. Well done, Marg. She's got her, what is it, a one tonne? Tonne? I always forget the name of that.

00:37:20Oliver Spake: I always thought it was a Passionista.

00:37:22Melissa Ellis: No, no, no, when you do 100 runs at your home, it's like... At the home, yeah, yeah. It's like a ton and something, can I always forget what it's called? Anyway, she shared her stats showing her 100 at Ballarat and yes, Ballarat is relocating very soon, very soon to a brand new course.

00:37:39Oliver Spake: Yes, very exciting and... Yeah, how fortunate and fitting to fit in that nice round number there.

00:37:46Melissa Ellis: Yeah, phew.

00:37:47Oliver Spake: Well done.

00:37:48Melissa Ellis: Imagine if she had ended on 99.

00:37:50Oliver Spake: Well.

00:37:50Melissa Ellis: She would have had to just settle for an ice cream.

00:37:53Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. There's an upside. There's a silver lining in every sense. But, Mel, I don't have the envelope this week.

00:38:02Melissa Ellis: No, you don't, Ollie.

00:38:05Oliver Spake: I don't.

00:38:05Melissa Ellis: Because we've got a special guest who's got the envelope this week.

00:38:09Oliver Spake: Yes. So, without keeping anyone in suspense for any longer, it's time to throw to our special guest to reveal the Obi winner.

the Obi Award — Helen Reeves

00:38:19Em: Hello, Mel and Ollie. This week's winner of the Obi Award is... Let me open it. Helen Reeves, congratulations to you, Helen.

00:38:49Melissa Ellis: And thank you very much to our special guest, Obi Award announcer this week, none other than the fabulous Em Scholarie. Yes.

00:38:58Oliver Spake: Didn't she do a good job, Ollie? Oh, she does. She does a fantastic job. Did it this time and never lets us down. So thank you, Em.

00:39:06Melissa Ellis: Congratulations, Helen. Absolutely. Lovely photo of three generations of Reeves out there at Traralgon. So shout out to Traralgon.

00:39:16Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's right.

00:39:17Melissa Ellis: I wonder if the envelope's going to end up like Elf on a Shelf, Ollie. Every week it's just pop up somewhere different.

00:39:24Oliver Spake: Probably a bit safer than amongst my clutter. Let's be honest.

00:39:29Melissa Ellis: Interesting. Anyway. Moving along.

Consolidated Club Report

00:39:33Oliver Spake: I think it's time to catch up on the Consolidated Club Report.

00:39:36Melissa Ellis: I think you're right. So the adventurers Consolidated Club Report for the 5th of November 2022 had a total of 327 members, 268 of which took part at 139 locations. There were adventurers in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, South Africa, USA and the Netherlands. And you can see a breakdown of all of the events on our Facebook post, including a link to the report.

the Frond

00:40:08Melissa Ellis: Now, the largest frond, Ollie, was in New South Wales.

00:40:12Alison Fraser (King): Would you like to guess where it was?

00:40:14Oliver Spake: I think I know where it was.

00:40:17Melissa Ellis: It was at Shellharbour where nine adventurers who were housemate Lance, Bec Bailey, Blake Wells, Gordon Turner, the Office Lady and Luke, Roberta Winters, Sue Keane and Paddy Oshimo were in attendance. Well, of course, they were running. There were more there doing the volunteering. That's true. We also had seven adventurers out at South Bank in Queensland and another seven at the Ponds in New South Wales and six out at Kirkdale Reserve in Victoria. Wow. We had locally Victoria back on top with 34 events, Queensland and New South Wales tying on 27 events, South Australia came in third with nine, seven in WA, six on the North Island, three in ACT, and two on the South Island, Ollie. And that's all my stats from the Consolidated Club Report.

00:41:07Oliver Spake: Thank you very much, Mel. I appreciate that and some great representation with a couple of the news crew popping up at St Frans there.

00:41:15Melissa Ellis: And I think Heather Morgan got the hint from last week.

00:41:18Oliver Spake: Wonderful. I mean, you were very subtle.

00:41:20Melissa Ellis: I know.

Sign-off

00:41:21Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I do subtle so well.

00:41:22Oliver Spake: That's right. Like a milestone shirt. So, Mel, looking forward, what's happening? What's on the horizon?

00:41:31Melissa Ellis: On the horizon. Well, I am catching a flight on Friday. That's what's on the horizon.

00:41:36Oliver Spake: That's very exciting.

00:41:37Melissa Ellis: I'm heading north. I am going to go up and visit our very own quiz master, Simon Mackley, and attend Calamvale's eighth birthday. So very much looking forward to that. I have to put on my thinking cap for a costume that I can fit in my carry-on. Yeah, eight.

00:41:56Oliver Spake: Oh, okay. Yes, yeah. Excellent.

00:41:59Melissa Ellis: Yeah, what about you, Ollie? What are you doing next week?

00:42:03Oliver Spake: Well, it's my last stint at home before I actually go on an adventure away from home. So I'll be volunteering at home this week. I haven't decided what role, just whatever needs filling.

00:42:13Melissa Ellis: That's nice. Everybody knows your name.

00:42:16Oliver Spake: That's exactly right.

00:42:17Melissa Ellis: And everybody's glad you came.

00:42:19Oliver Spake: Well... Sometimes. But yeah, I'm still dragging myself up and down the mountain nearby and have a few jobs to do that I'm desperately trying to squeeze in.

00:42:29Melissa Ellis: I'm pretty sure you should be tapering by now. I think you're doing this all wrong. Well...

00:42:35Oliver Spake: Yeah, yesterday was meant to be the peak effort in the preparation, the very short extra stint of dedicated warm-up. So we'll see. There's been plenty of walking because I've been trying to get the elevation. But look, I'm going to make it up the mountain. That's all that counts. It'll be the experience.

00:42:53Melissa Ellis: What's the kilometres again? It's around the half marathon distance?

00:42:57Oliver Spake: Yeah, it's a half, yeah.

00:42:58Melissa Ellis: Okay, yeah. So I got my facts checked after me telling you all about Two Bays last week, and I think I referred to it as being 26 kilometres.

00:43:07Oliver Spake: Oh, yes.

00:43:08Melissa Ellis: It's actually 28, but, you know, give or take a bit of GST. So I think that would be a really good follow-up event for you. You need to sign yourself up for Two Bays. I think it's...

00:43:18Oliver Spake: In January. Yeah. Yeah, January. I've just Googled it as you spoke, Mel.

00:43:23Melissa Ellis: There you go.

00:43:23Oliver Spake: Apologies if you heard the typing in the background.

00:43:25Melissa Ellis: I always hear the typing.

00:43:28Oliver Spake: Yes, yes. We will see. I think I'll have to go pretty quiet in terms of events after this because there's a lot on the horizon outside of parkrun life between a bit of home reno and a holiday coming up and a little round ball World Cup as well. So... I'm gonna be resting when I can you're always busy you're so busy I mean that's a good thing yeah yeah building a deck yes we're trying anyway good good but not as exciting as your flight and trip this weekend it would be lovely I'm sure to catch up with the quiz master I do wish you safe travels Mel and a fantastic parkrun as part of the birthday celebration thank you but I think that's all we have this week so as always everyone you can contact us if you would like via Facebook or our email which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com that is it for another week and we'll see you all next week for more adventures.

End audio snippetlistener sign-off

00:45:34guest: Hi Mel and Ollie. This weekend I went to parkrun in Yarrawonga. It was cool because we got to go kayaking after. Then on Sunday we went to juniors and I came 10th place. And I want to congratulate Ollie. 250 volunteers is pretty good, but not as good as my 25. Bye adventurers, stay safe.