— open the full-size coverEpisode 314 - Records & Legends
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Episode 314 - Records & Legends · 2022-12-07
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Source: https://log.5kadventures.net/transcripts/ep314.html · The Adventurers Log · An independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by parkrun.
Welcome
Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 314 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country.
Simon Mackley: And I'm Simon Mackley coming to you from Quandamooka Country.
Melissa Ellis: Welcome Simon. Thank you for filling in today for Ollie.
Simon Mackley: No problem. I'm glad to be back so soon. It's good to be here.
Melissa Ellis: I know. You're lucky I've invited you back after you broke me.
Simon Mackley: How is your foot?
Melissa Ellis: Yeah, it's okay. It's okay. I'm out of the boot. Oh, good. Okay. Nice. Yeah.
Simon Mackley: And how did you go on Saturday?
Melissa Ellis: Well, last Saturday I stayed somewhat local and I returned to Puckapunyal parkrun on Taungurung Country. For event 52, I took the opportunity to take friends Irene and Parth to the closed military event, which was my fourth visit and the first time I have volunteered there. Due to my ankle injury, I was happy to tail walk and I was accompanied again by Parth. Hashtag pathwalk. This week, as I said, without the moon boot. There were only 10 finishers on the day with the weather quite warm and Irene bagged a third place while Parth was second male finisher. Afterwards, we unsuccessfully toured the base in search of emus before heading into Seymour for brunch at the brewer's table. So to give you some context, the military base is very well known for having wandering emus. And we had reports from other parkrunners on the morning that there was, well, not really a family because it's the male emus that look after the chicks, but there is a very well-known group with the male having 18 chicks wandering around. Wow. Wow. How cute would have that been? So, yeah, we did a cruise around, but we couldn't find any emus. They were all hiding.
Simon Mackley: Maybe they're all in Nambour.
Melissa Ellis: But the previous two times I've been up there, we've spotted emus on course. They just weren't there this week. Oh, that's a shame. It is. Anyway, it was quite pleasant. It's been very warm in Victoria this weekend. We had our warmest day since January.
Simon Mackley: Wow. Okay. Summer's really hit.
Melissa Ellis: Well, it did for a day, and today it was back to 15.
Simon Mackley: Fair enough, eh?
Melissa Ellis: That's Melbourne for you. But what about you, Simon? Where were you on Saturday?
Simon Mackley: So I went to Minnippi parkrun for the first time. It was their event number 426, and it's on the land of the Yugara people. It's a lovely course. It's mostly shaded. It's sort of an out and then two times around a lake, sort of a lollipop style, and then back to the start line again. Yeah, really good community activities. Uh, lots of prams, lots of kids running, obviously some fast ones. There was parkwalkers. There was, yeah, there was everything. And there was a lot of uglies there, which was interesting to see.
Melissa Ellis: Which was the preference of uglies? Was it OG reimagined or was it gingerbread? It was gingerbread.
Simon Mackley: There was some prancing reindeers when I first arrived in their gingerbreads. Most of them were volunteers. So we won't see them in the Consolidated Club report, I don't think.
Melissa Ellis: No, but I think you did mention to me off air that the RD is an adventurer.
Simon Mackley: Definitely. So Jenny Reedman was the RD on the day and I think she was mentioned last week.
Melissa Ellis: Excellent. So how many were out there?
Simon Mackley: Oh, you've put me on the spot. I will have to look at that. I should have looked that up. I'm going to say between 200 and 300. Nice.
Melissa Ellis: Okay.
Simon Mackley: And new event for you? New event for me. So I'm slowly ticking off the ones... Closest to me, I still have, my NENDY is still Underwood, which I'm doing in two weeks' time with some of the other ambassadors from South East Queensland.
Melissa Ellis: Fantastic. So ticking off the alphabet challenge as well.
Simon Mackley: Yes, I don't have a U and, yeah, so that's going to take me within, I think, five of finishing.
Melissa Ellis: Nice. We need a J up here. Oh, you'll have to come to visit me for that. Exactly. Still event ambassadoring up there in Queensland?
Simon Mackley: Yes, I've got five events and I've got one that's launching soon. So prospect that we finally got some sign off on Thursday night. So to be advised.
Melissa Ellis: Fabulous. Is Minipi one of your events?
Simon Mackley: No, it's not. So I've got Calamvale, which you came to when I broke you. Pallara, which is very close to it as well. Forest Lake, Rocks Riverside and Yarrabilba.
Melissa Ellis: Ah, very good. Have you been able to get to all them yet or who's left to visit?
Simon Mackley: I've only got Forest Lake to go and, yeah, and they're probably the ones I talk to the most as well. So, yeah.
Melissa Ellis: Well, feedback from last week's episode, I thought it might be poignant to announce that Australia is out of the kick-yay World Cup. Yeah. Unfortunately, they had a 2-1 loss, I believe. They did. Was it Monday morning or Sunday morning? Sunday morning. Yeah. They lost to Argentina.
Unidentified speaker: They did very well.
Melissa Ellis: But they did. And you know what? I really noticed with everything that was on social media, the fans weren't disappointed. They were just so proud of the team, everybody was just so proud of the team that was so nice to see exactly they put up a good fight in the group stages and to get through to the 16 is is amazing yeah it's a best result I believe isn't it for I think so yeah Australian kicker would know that he's not here he'll have to sit at home and listen and cringe to us not knowing all the stats and yell at the speaker There's been so much going on, Simon. It's been a very busy week in the running world.
Simon Mackley: It has been eventful. There is a lot that has happened over this last weekend. There's a new global parkrun female record, which was set 1537 at Long Eaton parkrun in the UK by Samantha Harrison. So I'll tell you a bit about her. Okay. According to Runners World, she's a British distance runner. who had a breakthrough year this year. I mean, that goes without saying. She's just taken the record. She came sixth at the European Champs in Munich in the 10,000 metres. She also competed in the 10,000 metres at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham only a couple of months ago. And from her own Twitter account, the way she described it was, parkrun session this morning followed by some reps to finish. Managed to break the national record whilst doing it. which was a nice surprise. It was fun to take part and use a parkrun as part of my hard training session. I think it goes without saying that was a hard training session, but it was interesting. She thinks she's only taken the national record, but I can see that both Tom Williams and Russ Jeffries have told her that she's actually taken the global record.
Melissa Ellis: I know, followed by some reps.
Simon Mackley: Exactly. I can't believe she went on and finished a hard training session. The other thing I noticed as well is that Long Eaton isn't exactly a flat out and back course. There is a lot of twists and turns, like a right and then an immediate left. And there's a lot of twisting and turning on that course around some ovals and things. So it's an amazing effort. So yeah, that's phenomenal.
Melissa Ellis: That is really impressive. So well done, Samantha.
Simon Mackley: Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: Hopefully we see her back again.
Simon Mackley: Once Sinead takes it or someone else.
Melissa Ellis: A bit of competition, healthy competition. Yeah. But also, Simon, there was so much happening. So there was another record broken over here in Oz. Steve Moneghetti ran the fastest ever 5,000 metres in in the 60 and over age category he ran 15 52 now I've reached out to a few people this week or today to try to find out what the parkrun age category record is for 60 to 64 couldn't figure it out It's not easily accessible information, but in any case, if it's potentially a world record, we're going to accept that. If he turns up at parkrun next week and has a crack, he might take the age category record as well. But the Canberra Times posted today saying, distance running legend Steve Moneghetti has run the fastest ever 5,000 metres in the 60 and over category and is now waiting to see if the athlete's governing body acknowledges it as the new world record. Competing at an event in Collingwood in Melbourne, Moneghetti completed the course in 15 minutes and 52 seconds, three seconds faster than the previous world's best. He is now awaiting confirmation that the event will be officially recognised as a sanctioned event to confirm the record as his. And Mona said, He said, We'll go through the process now. The event was run by Athletics Victoria, but the track was only six lanes and didn't have electronic timing, but I'll submit it and see. It's still a 400 metre track and normal race over five kilometres, so we'll see what they say. So we shall sit and await that determination, but maybe Mona will turn up at pow oh yeah wouldn't that be cool because Ballarat parkrun previously was where he frequented yeah which has now moved to pow so do you think the prince of Wales course is conducive to a new record it's flat okay yeah it's sort of a double out and back so you know there's a I've got faith.
Simon Mackley: Yeah, I was just actually looking. So the record we were just talking about with Samantha Harrison at 15.37, with Mona being 60, he was only 15 seconds slower.
Unidentified speaker: I know.
Simon Mackley: God bless him. That shows how fast he was. And he's a Victorian, can I just say he's Victorian? Yes, okay. Okay. Interestingly, the Australian male marathon record also went to a Victorian over the weekend in Brett Robinson.
Melissa Ellis: Greatest state.
Simon Mackley: I'll let you have that. So Athletics Australia said that Brett Robinson has broken Rob de Castella's 36-year-old Australian marathon record, running a valiant 2.07.31 at the Fukuoka International Marathon.
Melissa Ellis: I'm glad you got that.
Simon Mackley: 31-year-old smashed 20 seconds off the record and set a new personal best by more than two minutes, averaging 301 per kilometre. Oh, stop it. That is unbelievably quick, isn't it?
Melissa Ellis: What? How come I've never heard of Brett Robinson before?
Simon Mackley: I don't know. I mean, I've heard Robbo talk about him a couple of times and, yeah, I've heard him on other podcasts or being mentioned on other podcasts. Other podcasts do exist.
Melissa Ellis: So I had a bit of a look today and I couldn't actually establish beyond reasonable doubt if he has ran a parkrun. There are a few Brett Robinsons in Victoria that have ran parkruns, but I don't know enough about him to be able to establish if he is one of those.
Simon Mackley: Sure.
Melissa Ellis: But at 31 years, he is surely just coming into his own for marathon running.
Simon Mackley: Yeah, exactly. But yeah, to break Rob de Castella's record, 36 years old. 36 years! That just shows how good Deek was in his day.
Melissa Ellis: Oh yeah, true that. But he wasn't the only Australian, or should I say Victorian, Australian To break an Australian record on Saturday, Simon, because Sinead Diver also ran an Australian female marathon record and Athletics Australia said a second Australian road record has tumbled in just a matter of hours with Tokyo Olympian and Commonwealth Games representative Sinead Diver shattering the Australian women's marathon record by more than a minute at the Valencia Trinidad Alfonso Marathon. That's a bit easier to say than it is. In an historical day for Australian distance running, Diver put on a gutsy performance to finish 12th and demolish Benita Willis' long-standing 16-year-old record clocking to 21.34. Diver's Run not only makes her the fastest Australian female over that distance, but in lowering her previous personal best of 2.24.11 by almost three minutes, shows that there is much more to come for the Irish-born 45-year-old. She's from Victoria too. I know, but she's Irish origin.
Simon Mackley: That's irrelevant. With a name like Sinead.
Melissa Ellis: But she lives here. And she is a Maribyrnong parkrunner. Excellent.
Simon Mackley: She looked amazing in the Commonwealth Games marathon. And yeah, I mean, I know that Jess took it out. But, yeah, all three Aussies did us proud over there.
Melissa Ellis: They absolutely did. And, yeah, Sinead was in that group. Yeah. So well done to Sinead, topping off a big weekend for Australian athletics.
Simon Mackley: Yeah. But talking about Australian athletics, we've got another piece of news. So Ron Clarke, AO MBE, has been elevated to legend status. Apparently he was born in Melbourne.
Unidentified speaker: Yeah.
Simon Mackley: Champion distance runner Ron Clarke AO MBE has been elevated to legend status in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. Clarke broke 17 official world records in his career, including 12 in an extraordinary 44-day tour in Europe in 1965. And he held every world record from two miles to the one-hour run. Two significant performances stand out in his career. The first in 1965 in London. when he became the first man to run three miles in under 13 minutes. Then four days later in Oslo, taking 36.2 seconds off the 10,000 metre world record. He was also, at 19 years old, chosen by Melbourne Olympic officials to light the cauldron at the 1956 Games. Clarke competed in three Commonwealth Games and won a total of four silver medals. He represented Australia in two Olympic Games. In Tokyo, he was ninth in the 5,000 metres. He won bronze in the 10,000 metres and was eighth in the marathon. In Mexico City, he finished sixth in the 10,000 metres and fifth in the 5,000 metres. Most interestingly for parkrun, he was the mayor of the Gold Coast from 2004 to 2012, and he attended the main beach parkrun launch, although his result is listed as unknown. I believe he forgot his barcode. Yeah, one job wrong. One job wrong. Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: Wow.
Simon Mackley: So a lot of news there, a lot of news going on.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah, he's got a very distinguished and, you know, amazing career and it's great that he's been elevated to legend status. So along with Warnie, Shane Warnie. Okay, Victorian. Also a Victorian. Imagine that. Just proving that we are the sports capital of Australia and the greatest state.
Simon Mackley: Fair enough.
Melissa Ellis: I'm going to get hate mail.
Simon Mackley: You are going to get hate mail.
Melissa Ellis: It's not my fault. All these people were Victorian.
Simon Mackley: They've been practicing a lot over COVID.
Melissa Ellis: But, yeah, everybody, you know, bar Brett, we can't say he isn't a parkrunner, but, yeah, everybody there with a link to parkrun. Exactly. A nice wrap up.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew
Roving report Tracey Wood — Surfers Paradise parkrun
Simon Mackley: So while we're talking about the Gold Coast, we may as well throw to Tracey, who was at Surfers Paradise parkrun.
Tracey Wood: Good morning grandads, gentlefolk and grommets. I've grabbed the cosies, I've waxed up the surfboard and I've headed to Surfers Paradise. Where am I? I'm on the Gold Coast in Queensland. We've had a bit of rain come through but it's looking pretty good. A little bit of wind around but otherwise lovely conditions. We're in Surfers Paradise, right? Well, it's in the heart of the Gold Coast, and it's actually not near a beach, but we are near a little lagoon, where if you hear a bit of splashing, the nippers are on in the background and going through their drills. All right, I've found the... Found the start of parkrun. It's at the Home of the Arts at Surfers Paradise. There's a little bit of a crowd forming here, but we're anticipating most of the folk to be at either Main Beach getting their 555 or either at Kirra parkrun because they're down here for the Gold Coast 50 Run Festival. Okay, pretty exciting stuff. Let's go see who I can talk to. All right, folks, I've grabbed a local, a lovely lady by the name of Natalie. How are you, Natalie? Very well, thank you. That's good. Now, you've got the orange vest on this morning. What are you doing?
Natalie: I'm volunteering. I'm doing, I think, barcode scanning today. So, yeah, I try and do my three times a year. Oh, good on you. Yeah, so I think I'm up to about... Yeah, 28 volunteers. Yeah, fantastic. Now, how long have you been coming to Surfers? Probably about a year, yeah. But I was at Main Beach before that, and I've done 270 parkruns. Oh, well done.
Tracey Wood: And apparently the party was last weekend.
Natalie: Yes, we had the seventh anniversary here. So, yes, it was very colourful. I think, yeah, rainbow theme. Oh, how lovely.
Tracey Wood: All righty. Now, I have to ask you something. It's Surfers Paradise, but where's the beach?
Natalie: We've got the lake here. It's a bit of a beach, so you can go swimming afterwards if it's too hot.
Tracey Wood: All right. Now, for our listeners, could you describe the course for me?
Natalie: Oh, surface. It's right behind HOTA, which is the Home of the Arts theatre precinct, and we've got... It starts near the lake here, and then we sort of do two laps, and, yeah, it's a nice sort of flat surface, except for there's a bridge that you go over twice. It goes over to Chevron Island, and... Yeah, but it's a nice, nice, yeah, lots of trees and grass and, yeah.
Tracey Wood: Now, when Natalie says island, don't think of a nice little Pacific island out in the middle of somewhere with palm trees. All right, it's a residential type island. It is a residential, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Natalie: It's sort of separate to Surfers Paradise, so, but it's considered part of Surfers, but they call it Chevron Island, and that's where a lot of people go and have coffee afterwards. Oh, noted. Oh, good to know. Thank you.
Tracey Wood: It's on tip. Excellent.
Natalie: Excellent. All right, thank you for that, Natalie. Let's move on.
Tracey Wood: Okay, here I am out on Surfers Paradise course and I'm walking with Liam this morning. Good morning, Liam. How are you?
Liam: Good, thank you. How are you?
Tracey Wood: Good, good. How's it all going with you today?
Liam: Yeah, fantastic. Doing parkrun.
Tracey Wood: Now, you were saying before this is your third, is that right?
Liam: It's my third at Surfers Paradise.
Tracey Wood: And why do you keep coming back to parkrun?
Liam: It's just such a great event. Family friendly and you get to do it in Surfers Paradise. The views are fantastic no matter which way you look. So that's fantastic. It's a free event and lots of people to meet and mingle.
Tracey Wood: And would you be able to share your goals with the listeners?
Liam: My goals are just to get as fit as I can again. I used to be very fit and I want to be fit again.
Tracey Wood: And did you have a time or time frame or time period or time that you wanted to achieve to do parkrun in?
Liam: I do want to get back to running in under 30 minutes. But until then, I'm just happy to keep participating and just get fitter each week and get as fit as I can over a period of time. Yeah, excellent.
Tracey Wood: All right. Thanks for chatting with me, Liam.
Liam: Thank you.
Tracey Wood: Okay, I've now finished Surfers Paradise parkrun. I've found the lovely Davina, who is the Run Director today. How are you, Davina?
Davina: I'm very well, thank you. How are you? Did you enjoy it? Yes, it's lovely, isn't it? It is.
Tracey Wood: It's a very pretty little course.
Davina: It is. How did it all go today? No, really good today. Smaller numbers, which is great for us. I was a bit worried about the rain, but no, it was fine. And how long have you been run directing here? The whole seven years. So I actually started the events seven years ago in one week.
Tracey Wood: Well done you. So how many volunteer credits have you got?
Davina: I think I'm up around the 160 now.
Tracey Wood: Good for you. Now the next question is, how many parkruns have you done?
Davina: So I participated in, I think, 350-something. Well done. That's awesome. So in combined, I think I'm around nearly close to the 500.
Tracey Wood: Yeah. Good for you. Yes. Well, I'm going to head off and search for breakfast.
Davina: Thank you for having us today. No worries. Come any time.
Tracey Wood: Cheers. Thank you. Okay, Tracey in a Tutu signing off from Surfers Paradise parkrun with Nick who's found the parkrun Puff of the Week. Is that right? Yep, parkrun Puff of the Week. Excellent. And is that a page or is that just your personal?
Alison Fraser (King): No, it's just a personal chat group.
Tracey Wood: I like that, parkrun Puff of the Week. Why don't we have that? Okay. Have a good week, everyone. See you later. Bye. Bye.
Melissa Ellis: Thank you very much to Tracey for bringing us that roving report from Surfers Paradise. I have not done that event. Simon, have you had the good fortune of visiting Surfers Paradise?
Simon Mackley: Not yet, but I hear some pretty good things about it.
Melissa Ellis: Another one for the list.
Simon Mackley: Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: But we have had some more comms coming to us this week from Jenny Blow, who was at the Achilles Melbourne Takeover at Kirkdale Reserve last weekend, Simon, and she said... With International Day of People with Disability falling on parkrun Day, Achilles Melbourne partnered with Kirkdale Reserve parkrun to organise a takeover with a difference. Every single volunteer role was filled by a person with a disability. As Run Director for the day, I made it clear that the purpose of this takeover was not to inspire people. People with disabilities doing everyday things like running parkrun should not be and is not inspirational. People with disabilities doing everyday things should be the norm and by being parkrun volunteers this was shown. People with disabilities are capable and should be included, parkrun is a great example of this as people of all abilities are always welcome to walk, run or volunteer. Achilles Melbourne want to thank all the volunteers with disabilities and all the volunteers who assisted or guided some of their volunteers. Also, a huge thanks to the team at Kirkdale Reserve for making this happen. From the very start, they never once said the word can't and only saw ways to make it possible. As an extra win for the day, the attendance record at Kirkdale Reserve parkrun was broken. And Simon, I looked this up. Kirkdale Reserve had 127 volunteers. parkrunners beating their 123 from event two. Sounds like an amazing day.
Simon Mackley: I mean, is Kirkdale quite a new one?
Melissa Ellis: Yes, pretty new, reasonably new down here in the greatest state. Now, if you're thinking that you know the name of Jenny Blow, who is parkrunner A6358908, You would be right. Jenny was interviewed in episode 252 after the 2020 Summer Paralympics. She played for the Aussie Belles in goalball, and she has completed 18 parkruns at nine locations, plus her volunteer. That's some pretty good stats.
Simon Mackley: Mm-hmm. Every second parkrun at a different location.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I know. That's pretty good. And there's some, from my memory, when I looked her up, there's a few countries in there as well.
Simon Mackley: Oh, wow.
Melissa Ellis: Okay. Yeah, not just in Victoria. She's been all around. So thanks, Jenny. Thank you for bringing us that, firstly, for tipping us off about the takeover at Kirkdale Reserve and then for providing us with a bit of a recap.
Dazza's
Melissa Ellis: Well, we can roll into Dazza's.
Simon Mackley: So at Dazza's this week, he said, today is the International Day of People with Disability, a day to increase awareness, understanding and acceptance of people with disability. This year's theme aligns perfectly with the parkrun ethos of providing a free and welcoming community event every Saturday morning. Come on in, place your order and tell us how your morning went. So first up, we have Matthew Billington. He said, howdy Dazza. This is a very important day to me. I wear a representation of my disability on my arm every day. It's fair to say people with disabilities are achievers in their own right as they have to learn other abilities to fit into this world we live. The best part about parkrun is that it is all inclusive. Thanks for celebrating today. My parkrun journey took me south from home, up at 4 a.m., then a 300-kilometre drive to tick off Highlands parkrun, which happened to be a prime number, with 4-3-1, then some breakfast before driving home. A perfect day with the sun shining, this event represents my 12th straight tourist streaking event with over 6,750 kilometres driven to tick them off my list. And that tattoo he has on his arm is very, very colourful and impressive.
Melissa Ellis: Yes, it is, and it is a picture of puzzle pieces, which I do believe represents autism. And good work, Billo. You are getting around. Sure is. The next one is the post with the most likes, and it came from Oliver Spake. Who? Who? Oh, no, I don't know who he is. Some guy who hasn't got a beard. Anyway, he said, Hi, Dazza's crew had a wonderful time celebrating Hannah hitting her 50 parkrun milestone at Hamilton Island parkrun with Cathy and a few more of the extended family floating around the course. The soft sand was sensational and hard. While it was great fun to join the volley team and get to meet plenty of the other visitors. And Ollie posted a photo of himself without his beard with Hannah, Kathy and another member of the family with a reverse flag. What the?
Simon Mackley: Oh, no. One job. One job indeed. Next one we have is Bec Bailey. So she had an achievement. She said, I'm an alphabeteer, travel to Orange to collect my final letter and tick off my big goal for 2022. Although the map is an interesting one, the course is super easy to follow with the help of the amazing volleys and chalk arrows out and about today. Thank you adventurers for introducing me to challenges and taking me on this journey. I've loved all the places it's taken me and the people I've met. Bring on 2023 and a new challenge. There was a photo of Bec in the orange selfie frame.
Melissa Ellis: We also heard from Caro Vos. She was on theme. She was VI guiding. She said, VI Guide at Woy Woy parkrun this morning. Perfect weather for it. And Caro posted a self of herself. Even she posted a selfie of herself. Well, a selfie is, oh my God. Oh. You clapped. That's a fine.
[other]
Simon Mackley: I did clap.
Melissa Ellis: There is a selfie of Caro by the water in her Achilles top. I think it is. Anyway, it's yellow and it looks like it's one. Yep, fair enough.
Simon Mackley: They're unmistakable. So next one we've got Tracy Leiper. She says, I started a month of ugly celebrations with friends whilst getting a 555 at Main Beach. And I made it to the end of the 5K without getting rolled into the bushes and mugged for my top and skirt. So there was a picture of Tracy and her friends with very nicely placed flags. And there was also other adventurers at Main Beach on the day.
Melissa Ellis: It was very popular at Main Beach. And I did reach out and ask Tracy where she got her skirt from because it looks like it would match my runners and my visor. Very nicely. Nice. Next, Abby's mum, none other than Renee Jackson, was touristing and she said, a quick trip for us to visit Gardiners Creek parkrun. Some unrest from the smaller ones of our party with comments such as, do I have to run? What is wrong with people? Why can't we parkrun in the afternoon and not so early? And my favourite, how far is this parkrun? five kilometres it feels so much longer sausage rolls and lollies for morning tea and a coffee for me I promise it wasn't me that made the comment about it being too early and all was good in the world again and there was a picture of Renee Andrew with James Abby and Hannah and the parkrun flag so keeping on theme we have Ian Shaw
Simon Mackley: So he said, my uglies arrived in the post yesterday, so took the opportunity at Jindabyne Sport and Recreation parkrun to debut the Gingerbread Man version. Also got me, finally, the number 31 that I've been tracking down for my Wilson Index progress. The Wagi Bridge parkrun course is often a route I'll use in the workplace to give children living with autism a sensory walk-break. 15 years plus working with ASD individuals has provided and seen many rewarding experiences where students often raise my awareness of their unique and special skills. So it was a picture of Ian at Jindy with his ugly gingerbread shirt. It's been very popular, that shirt.
Melissa Ellis: Now, coming to us with something new was Lee Cabarita. That's her porn name. She said, Sally, Bianca and I stayed local today at Parramatta. We were lucky to meet a couple of adventurers in the wild thanks to some ugly singlets, yet to manage to sign Bianca up to the adventurers, resulting in smaller frond results. Mocha almond latte and skim latte at Hungry Boys before heading off to throw axes, which was a ton of fun. Have a great weekend, adventurers. And there was a pic of Leigh, Sally and Bianca in the selfie frame and then a pic of Leigh with a mystery adventurer in an Ugly Christmas Singlet. Now, I really think, Simon, we need to know more about throwing axes.
Simon Mackley: I know that it is quite popular in Sydney. I don't know how it is down there in Victoria, but yeah, it was something that was certainly becoming quite prominent as a team building thing.
Melissa Ellis: I can't say I've ever heard of it.
Simon Mackley: Oh, okay. It's the new escape room kind of thing in Sydney, that's for sure. Okay. So next we heard from Andrew Turner. He said,
[21 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]
Simon Mackley: And everything ran like clockwork with a brand new attendance record. And there was a picture of Andrew guiding my helmet.
Melissa Ellis: And coming to us with a challenge this week was Michael Blain, who said, had a great morning at Robelle Domain parkrun. Got my cow, a Fibonacci, a Zumi, and saw an ugly shirt in the wild. There's a lagoon swimming pool nearby. A lovely run. And we had a photo there of Michael, a parkrun photo of Michael on course. So next we heard from Louise Minty from WA.
Simon Mackley: I had a great run at Homestead, but the real highlight of my parkrun day was a message from my friend saying she'd gone to her local run this morning after we'd persuaded her to do her first parkrun with us at South Beach last weekend. Love sharing the parkrun love.
Melissa Ellis: Oh, I love to hear people going to their second parkrun, Simon. Exactly. It's a big achievement. She did that all by herself too without her friends. True, yeah. Now coming to us from the UK, Helen Rutter, who said... Not my photo. Park faff after Pontypridd Token Sorting in a lovely cafe. Got a good time considering my dodgy ITB, 66% age grade. The ED told the cafe owner we were from up north, so he gave me some Welsh cakes. And the not my photo from Helen was a picture of the cafe and everybody there enjoying, I'm assuming, Welsh cakes. And... I need to look up Welsh cake, Simon, because I do actually have Welsh heritage and I feel I need to know more.
Simon Mackley: There you go. I was going to ask you what a Welsh cake was.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah, no, I don't know. I was too busy researching all the Australian records that fell this week to be able to research Welsh cakes.
Simon Mackley: And last one we have is from Anne Fry. She said, small ugly frond at Nantu Wama. So there was a selfie of Anne with Errol and his sons in three different years of ugly shirts.
the Obi Award — Andrew Turner
Simon Mackley: Yes.
Melissa Ellis: Now, Simon, do you know where the Obi envelope possibly has landed this week?
Simon Mackley: I'm guessing it's landed on a beach, maybe at one of Sydney's prettiest parkruns. I don't know. We might have to wait. Let's listen and see where it might turn up.
Dorota: Oh wow, look what I found on the beach at beautiful Mosman parkrun. It looks like the Obi envelope. Look at this. I wonder who the winner is this week. The winner is... It's Andrew Turner.
[music]
Melissa Ellis: And congratulations, Andrew Turner, and thank you for volunteering.
Simon Mackley: Yeah, that's amazing. Well done, Andrew.
Melissa Ellis: And thank you, Dorota.
Simon Mackley: Oh, yeah, of course. All the way from my favourite Sydney parkrun and the most beautiful one in Sydney, I believe.
Melissa Ellis: But we've got a few stats to recap, from this last week, Simon. Firstly, Elise Scarborough. She ran her 100th parkrun out at Wagi Bridge on her 13th birthday. Didn't realise Elise was the same age as Zoe. Well done, Elise.
Simon Mackley: We also had ABC Breakfast presenter Lisa Miller. She ran her 100th parkrun at Albert Melbourne, and it looked like she brought quite a few of the ABC team with her.
Melissa Ellis: Oh, well done. She's a great ambassador for parkrun. She sure is. And Martine Barrot ran her 250th and ticked off her Cowell out at the same parkrun, Albert Melbourne, this last Saturday.
Simon Mackley: Wow, that's synchronous. We also had Karen Hurrell. She did her arbitrary 200th at Penistone parkrun, which I believe is in the UK. Yes, I believe so, seeing as Karen's from the UK.
Melissa Ellis: Sure. Now, Claire Stutchbury, she celebrated her 150th different event at Ballina Coast. So that would be a Cowell and a half.
Simon Mackley: And then we had Jonathan Morgan, who got his SA Volunteer Statesman. So he said he celebrated becoming a South Australian volunteer statesman today. After becoming a South Australian statesman for the first time in February 2021, I thought it'd be great to revisit every event and any new ones to volunteer. I'd volunteered at home, but not at other events. My volunteer statesman journey started a month later in March 2021 as a Tail Walker at Largs Bay and finished today as Timekeeper at Mawson Lakes. Volunteering is a great way of meeting people from different event teams and to visit lots of different places. I found it very rewarding and good for both physical and mental health, so I highly recommend it to everyone. He included some fun facts and stats. So he's travelled 12,952 kilometres to 47 different events across South Australia, including one flight, three ferries and six overnight stays. He'd volunteered on 134 different days. He has done 21 unique volunteer roles, and he's volunteered 25 times at Junior parkrun, so he can definitely be part of that club.
Melissa Ellis: Oh, hashtag I volunteered at Juniors. Yeah. Wow, he just won my heart. Well done, Jonathan. Very impressive volunteerism, and thank you.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew
Roving report Alison Fraser — Hamilton Park parkrun
Melissa Ellis: Now, Simon, time to listen to another roving report. This time we've got Alison. She's out at Hamilton Park in New Zealand. So let's have a listen to Alison.
Alison Fraser (King): Kia ora koutou adventurers, it's Alison here reporting in today from Hamilton Park parkrun. This is one of New Zealand's newest parkruns from this year. It's in the South Island town of Gore, not in Hamilton. So if you are thinking about doing Hamilton Park parkrun, you want to be flying to the South Island. If you want to do Hamilton Lake parkrun, you want to be on the North Island. So I've come along today to finally get to this one, which I was hoping to get to early run in the year, had a little bit of a mishap there, but anyway, I've made it and I'm going to do the parkrun and then come back to you with some more audio. All right, so I've walked, tail walked Hamilton Park parkrun and I'm here at the finish with Event Director and today's Run Director, Bridget McLeod. Welcome to the podcast, Bridget. Thank you, Alison. Happy to be here. So Hamilton Park parkrun, you had this in the works for quite a while before it started. Yes. [Te Reo Māori: "Hello / greetings to you all, adventurers"]
Bridget McLeod: Can you tell us a bit of the story? Well, we just thought it was a great initiative. We love gore, my husband and I, and we just knew that it would add another extra thing to our community. Started getting everything organised, you know, walking around trying to get the exact 5k loop, etc, etc. And then we had the floods in February 2020. So I started mid-2019 and then February 2020 we had the big floods, so my whole park got flooded. And then... We had COVID, we had lockdown and so end of 2021 we finally had the park open again and it was beautiful, the restructuring of the pathways was beautiful and we had our two trial runs and then we went into the level three lockdown and so all parkruns are on hold again and so we finally got going probably just shy of two years after starting the process. February of this year yes yeah and this parkrun I was one of the Tail Walkers I got token 26 so it's a real intimate parkrun yes I call it a boutique experience yeah over winter over winter we get to you know 12 to 15 people so I can run it on a pretty skeleton crew in terms of volunteers sometimes and then yeah over the summer months we're getting between 20 and 30 so it's nice Yeah, so it's a good place to come if people are after a low position token. Yes, a lot of people go for that number one token. We do have Adam who does it in 1606. If he's here, you've got to work for it though.
Alison Fraser (King): Yeah, it was a great diverse community this morning.
Bridget McLeod: Yeah, no, we have lovely community members. young kids helping from the intermediate and younger and then we have some older people that come in and just love to walk around and catch up with everybody each weekend.
Alison Fraser (King): Had you done parkrun before you decided that Gore needed a parkrun?
Bridget McLeod: I had done one parkrun in 2012 at Cornwall Park and I just thought this is great like you can just turn up and it gets timed and it's free like so many of these events are not free if you want to bring you if you've got a family of five and you've got even to pay a five dollar entry that's a lot of money each week to an event like that so it's just nice that it was free and so yeah at this point I think I've done three parkruns in total but I volunteered about 43 times Oh we need people like you there Bridget. I love it, I do love it.
Alison Fraser (King): Now if someone is coming to Gore for the first time, maybe even from a different part of New Zealand, what would you recommend that they do?
Bridget McLeod: So many things in Gore to do. We have some awesome restaurants and cafes. Well, I think we do. We have an amazing MLT centre. So we've got a beautiful swimming pool with the spa. It's just been upgraded. We've got ice skating. We have an amazing art gallery here, which people may not realise we have that here. And then there's the museum with all the kind of moonshine, whiskey history of the area, the Hokonui Hills. Yeah. And isn't Gore known for its country music? Yes, we do have the country music festival and I think that's around Queen's birthday weekend. So it's June. June for our Aussies. Yep. Yeah, come on over for some country music.
Alison Fraser (King): Absolutely. Do a parkrun at the same time. Yes. Yeah, well, I've thoroughly enjoyed it. It's been a while trying to get down to this one. I think I originally booked flights for October last year. Yep, when we're meant to start and then I booked flights for April and then I had my broken ankle so I'm glad to have finally made it because it's been beautiful by the river so it's a double lollipop course yes for those listening and as I saw is it the lupins beautiful flowers
Bridget McLeod: Yes, lupins. There were beautiful daffodils as spring, as we came out of that cold, cold winter, we had beautiful daffodils along the river and it was just, yeah, it was really beautiful.
Alison Fraser (King): Yeah, cows and sheep on the other side, so you feel like you're in the country. Yeah, lots of green space. Cool. Thanks so much, Bridget, and yeah, let's go off to the cafe. Absolutely. And that's a wrap from Hamilton Park parkrun. Please don't confuse it with Hamilton Lake parkrun or Hamilton Island parkrun or Hamilton parkrun. Maybe that should be a challenge for parkrun adventurers out there. I had an awesome time hanging out with the Invercargill Event Director, Liz Henry, such an amazing host. We talked about parkrun the entire weekend, came up with heaps of ideas and And can't wait for next Saturday. So have a great week, Adventurers.
[14 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]
Simon Mackley: What a great roving report we just had from Alison at Hamilton Park, not to be confused with all the other Hamiltons in parkrun world, which is in Gore on the South Island of New Zealand. And I can only imagine that it's gorgeous.
Melissa Ellis: I see what you did there.
Emails
Melissa Ellis: Yeah. But Simon, I think we've got mail this week.
Simon Mackley: You've got mail. So we heard from Michael Blain. He was one of a lot of people who shared this week, the best Spotify list of top podcasts was parkrun adventurers to show that we were at the top. So Michael said, Hi Mel and Ollie. So I opened my Spotify today and they've provided the 2022 stats. Proud to have parkrun adventurers as my number one podcast. You could make a post about this or a survey in Facebook. Keep up the great work, Michael Blain.
Melissa Ellis: Awesome. It's great to know that people are listening to us on Spotify and that we're up there on their favourite podcast, Simon.
Simon Mackley: Yeah, I can honestly say I've never listened to it on Spotify.
Melissa Ellis: No, I haven't either. That's probably why I didn't get one of those Spotify emails because I was wondering why I didn't.
Consolidated Club Report
Melissa Ellis: So what's on the Consolidated Club report this week, Mel? Oh, I'm glad you asked, Simon. So the adventurers Consolidated Club report for the 3rd of December 2022 had a total of 339 members of which 284 took part individually, at 139 locations in the UK. We had 21 events in South Africa. We had two events and there was one event each at USA, Germany, Ireland and Singapore. Locally, we had adventurers at 32 events in Victoria, 28 events in New South Wales, 22 events in Queensland, eight in South Australia, seven in ACT, five in Western Australia, four in Tassie, and three on the North Island and the South Island.
the Frond
Melissa Ellis: Now, the largest frond this week was out at Main Beach. They had eight adventurers, being Leonie Butler, Linda Coombes, M Nicholson, Ray Belinda and Pauline Taylor. I don't know where Russell was. Jessica Williams and Tracy Leiper. So well done out there to Main Beach for event 555. And runner-up this week was Shellharbour. With seven. Oh, so close. So close. But, gosh, moving straight along, I don't know. What have we got to look forward in the next week, Simon?
Sign-off
Simon Mackley: Maybe some more of the kick ball. Kick yay. Kick yay.
Melissa Ellis: Sorry, kick yay. Yeah, but it's over now.
Simon Mackley: That's it.
Melissa Ellis: Australia's not in it anymore. We don't care anymore.
Simon Mackley: It's still a World Cup.
Melissa Ellis: Maybe. What about the tennis or the cricket? How are we doing there?
Simon Mackley: Oh, I don't know.
Melissa Ellis: Didn't we just win something in the cricket, didn't we? I don't know. So, Simon, tell me where you're going to parkrun next week.
Simon Mackley: So, this weekend, I'm probably going to be on the Gold Coast and doing one of the events that I've not done before. So, I've got a few that I've already done on the southern end. So, yeah, I'm not sure which one I'll do. What about you?
Melissa Ellis: Well, this isn't going very well either. I'm not really sure either. I am going to jump in the car and go on a really long drive. I haven't done this for, I don't know, a month or so. So I think I'm due a long drive. Might head north and maybe in the vicinity of Goulburn. Oh, Melissa Currie, maybe I might see you if you're going to be home. Hmm.
Simon Mackley: Is there a new event up that way or just a new one for you?
Melissa Ellis: Oh, no, just new for me. Okay. I haven't been to Goulburn. Not saying that's where I'm going. No promises.
Simon Mackley: If it's gold, but it's the zipper, isn't it?
Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I think so. Yeah. But see, that's probably my NENDY, Simon.
Simon Mackley: Oh, right. Yes, I can imagine. Until a new one starts up soon, right?
Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah. There might be a launch this week in Victoria. Just saying.
Simon Mackley: Oh. Okay. Well, I think that might be it, Mel. As always, you can contact us via Facebook or on our email, which is parkrunadventurers@gmail.com. That's it for another week. We'll see you all next week for more adventures.
[music]
Unidentified speaker: Hi Mel and Ollie. This weekend we went to Junior's. Of course. I walked with Zoe and I came number ninth. We also went to a parkrun on Saturday at Gardiners Creek and I came 284th in front of Mum and Hannah. Ollie, I saw you shaved off your beard. Now I think you should grow a mullet. Bye adventurers, stay safe.