Episode 316 - InSantagram

Welcome

00:00:26Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 316, the Christmas party episode. My name is Melissa Ellis and I'm on Wurundjeri land.

00:00:35Oliver Spake: And I am Ollie Spake. Almost forgot my surname there. Wow. I've hit the eggnog a bit too early tonight, but I am joining from Dharawal Country. Wow. Mel. Did I throw you? You're not awake, are you?

00:00:49Melissa Ellis: I know why you're tired. You can't trick me. You've been up all night watching the kick yay final.

00:00:55Oliver Spake: I have, yes. Yeah, there were a few too many kicks and a few too many yays, if there's such a thing.

00:01:02Melissa Ellis: What time did you get up for that?

00:01:05Oliver Spake: I arose at 1.30, which would have been fine, except I got to bed just after 11. Olly. And then the match wrapped up by about 5. You stayed up. Got a bit of a nap after that.

00:01:18Unidentified speaker: Right.

00:01:19Oliver Spake: Zali was determined to join me, so I did carry her downstairs at her request, and she promptly slept through the entire match.

00:01:28Melissa Ellis: And yet, once again, Australia lost to the World Cup winners, Argentina.

00:01:34Oliver Spake: That's right. You've done your research. Well done, Mel. I love it. Yeah, I think we can boast a pretty good track record. There were two very impressive teams out there and just an amazing final from a football fan's perspective. Ground ball, yes. And, yes, Australia did happen to only lose to the outgoing and incoming world champions Australia, and also the Golden Boot and Golden Ball and Golden Glove winners, which I could explain, but this is a parkrun podcast and it's our Christmas episode, so we'll leave that for the football fans. And just say, Mel, how are you? How was your parkrun day and how was your Ugly Christmas Singlet or Shirt Day?

00:02:20Melissa Ellis: Well, hang on before we get to there.

00:02:22Oliver Spake: Okay. Yes.

00:02:23Melissa Ellis: It's our Christmas party. So we've got to be festive. So let's pull a bonbon. Are you ready?

00:02:27Oliver Spake: Okay. Yes, I am ready.

00:02:29Melissa Ellis: For the office Christmas party. Where's the little thing? We've got to do. All right.

00:02:32Oliver Spake: Okay. I'll grab this end.

00:02:34Melissa Ellis: Yeah, you get that end. All right. Okay. Ready?

00:02:36Oliver Spake: Okay.

00:02:40[other]

00:02:40Melissa Ellis: That was loud.

00:02:41Oliver Spake: That was very loud. I don't think the eardrums were ready for that. You won. I did. I did, which is good because I always like the hats. They always rip, so I always need a new one. But shall I read the joke, Mel? Yes, please. Because we do have some bonbon jokes. We do have a few more coming up later in the pod because we want to make this festive. We want to make this fun. It'll keep me awake. And I would love to start and kick it off.

00:03:05Melissa Ellis: I'll just put on my Christmas tree hat that I just have here sitting here next to me.

00:03:09Oliver Spake: We do both have to be festive. That's right. Okay. All right. Are you ready for the joke? I am. What would you call an elf who has just won the lottery?

00:03:19Melissa Ellis: Oh, I don't know. What would you call an elf that has just won the lottery?

00:03:23Oliver Spake: Wealthy.

00:03:27Melissa Ellis: Oh, you've got to love it. What was your toy? Did you get a toy in the bonbon?

00:03:31Oliver Spake: My toy? Yes, miniature deck of cards. Oh, an old favourite. It was fantastic for my 90-degree bent thumbs, yes.

00:03:43Melissa Ellis: Well, there you go. Okay, on to parkrun Day Just Gone. I've got to recap. I wrote it down again because I really, honestly, I do terrible when I make it up off the cuff. So as I alluded to last week, I had a secret destination on Saturday, which was Peppertree parkrun on Wadawurrung Land. I had to be across town in the afternoon and had been considering where I'd go when I discovered that E.D. Adrian at Peppertree was celebrating his 100th volunteer. So Adrian is very supportive of us at Juniors and volunteers frequently. So I decided to head over there and surprise him. It was my fourth visit to Peppertree and on this occasion I was joined by adventurer Craig Ryan. So he had a big week. He was with you the previous week, Ollie, and this week he was with me.

00:04:34Oliver Spake: He picked up the set, yes.

00:04:35Melissa Ellis: Yes. He even kindly picked me up and chauffeured me to the event. Conditions were perfect with a lovely mild morning for the 35 participants and 10 volunteers. I walked the course because I'm still unable to run due to my dodgy ankle. And I spent time chatting with Tail Walker Kev, Adrian, who was park walking, and Craig when he returned on course after his run. We had a frond of four with myself, Adrian, Kev, Craig, and Donna Markwick, and afterwards enjoyed a coffee at the nearby Lola Cafe. So that's it. That wraps it up. That was quick.

00:05:12Oliver Spake: That was quick. But look, congratulations to Adrian for the 100th folly. Thank you for volunteering. And well done, Craig. What an adventurer.

00:05:21Melissa Ellis: Oh, yes.

00:05:23Oliver Spake: Yes, what an adventurer.

00:05:24Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

00:05:25Oliver Spake: But how is the foot, Mel?

00:05:27Melissa Ellis: It's just annoying. Did I say this the other week? I can't remember. I might have told Simon. Yeah. It's just stupid things that I can't do. Like I can go up my staircase quite fine, but coming down my staircase is problematic.

00:05:40Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:05:41Melissa Ellis: I'm sure there's ligament damage in there too because I'm still sort of limping a little bit and driving the manual kind of is uncomfortable. If I'm in stop-start traffic, oh, so I'm just having a big sook.

00:05:54Oliver Spake: Understandably.

00:05:55Melissa Ellis: But I'm thinking some nice holiday at the beach over Christmas and a lot of beach walking will be good for it.

00:06:01Oliver Spake: Yeah. Oh, I hope that the weather is fine, sunny and very, very pleasant for your beach walks.

00:06:08Melissa Ellis: Well, the Christmas forecast was pretty much released today. I saw it, references to it today. So it's looking pretty good in the southern part of Australia. I didn't look up Oh, yeah, I did, actually. I saw, I think, Sydney looking at around 30 degrees on Christmas Day at this stage.

00:06:28Oliver Spake: Yeah, that forecast is kind of just slowly bumping up a little bit, so that'll be kind of nice.

00:06:34Melissa Ellis: Yeah, it would be. Not too hot.

00:06:35Oliver Spake: It's not always assured, yeah.

00:06:37Melissa Ellis: No, it isn't, no. It's early days yet, so, yeah, Victoria's looking like a... roughly a 27 degree Christmas day and hopefully that continues, that a bit of fine weather continues on at least for a week so we can have our time off without thunderstorms and floods.

00:06:54Oliver Spake: That's right. As much as I love a good summer or Christmas storm, yeah, to have just smack bang in the middle of some ideal weather, wow, that would be incredible.

00:07:04Melissa Ellis: Now, what about your... Oh, my parkrun day.

00:07:07Oliver Spake: It was, well, it was at home. It was... Another day of volunteering at Shellharbour parkrun where I had the opportunity to run direct once again. And it was, yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was great to see the tinsel out and about with the whole menagerie of Ugly Christmas Singlets and shirts and a few improvisations as well. We had buffs. I found a new way to wear my buffs too.

00:07:35Melissa Ellis: I was going to say that. Yeah. What were you doing? You had them on your legs.

00:07:40Oliver Spake: Well, yeah, there's only so many places you can put a buff on, so I was trying to be creative there and sort of wear them as, I don't know, shorts, underwear. Weirdo. Yes. Slightly disturbing when I was performing the Run Director's briefing and higher than the crowd and one of them slides down my leg. Yeah. I think people hopefully appreciated the festivities.

00:08:10Unidentified speaker: Take it off. Take it off.

00:08:14Oliver Spake: But it was somewhat wintry, actually. It wasn't nice weather at all, which sounds like a bit of a complaint, but I have been more accustomed to the warmer weather in recent weeks. So we had a bit of wind. We had some spray, not quite rain at some point, glimpses of sunshine. But nonetheless, a good 150, 160 parkrunners and volunteers joined us. And it has been nice because we have had a few new volunteers as well. So getting a big kick from that. And looking forward to doing it all again next week.

00:08:46Melissa Ellis: I have to give a bit of a mention to Chris Fraser. He was on the camera being the volunteer photographer and he got some great photos. That's a good position for a volunteer photographer. Well, maybe not capturing people as they try to run up that terrible hill, but the view was a great view of the coastline and a few of the photos showing the island and mystics off in the distance. Yeah.

00:09:12Oliver Spake: Yes, yes. You know your local geography. I'm very impressed, Mel. But I do agree. And, I mean, what's everyone's thoughts on photos and photo locations? Are there some locations and positions on course that are just unacceptable? Because I love a good uphill photo. Yeah. You know, parkrun's about all kinds of experiences and uphill is a great part of parkrun.

00:09:37Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, I think capturing the vibe or the best features of an event is always a good idea, isn't it? So being that you are a coastal parkrun, having some beach in the background.

00:09:50Oliver Spake: In the background, yes.

00:09:51Melissa Ellis: Is very representative for people who have come to visit.

00:09:56Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's true.

00:09:57Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

00:09:58Oliver Spake: Yes, so plenty of fun, but there were plenty of other parkruns going on. And in our feedback from the last episode, or I suppose recapping something we did touch on in the last episode, there were two parkruns in particular that went on on Ugly Christmas Singlet or Shirt Day, Cooks River and Panania. Yeah.

00:10:20Melissa Ellis: Absolutely. So that was good news to hear. They did end up receiving their fee waiver, try and say that three times fast, with the support from Active Canterbury Bankstown. Now, this was mentioned in both their social media posts and I'm thinking to myself, what on earth is Active Canterbury Bankstown and how did they support? Well, it turns out they are a division of the local council that has initiatives for... you know, free active activities in the local area. So they must have reached out to that division of the council and said, hey, you know, we come under your guidelines. How about helping us out? And help them out. They did.

00:11:01Oliver Spake: Great to see. Yes. And Again, I'm not wanting to recap too much from last week, but hopefully we'll see more of that now. Hopefully we'll see more of these great connections being formed. parkrun really has set a good bar for councils and other bodies to get on board and make more of these events available.

00:11:23Melissa Ellis: Yes, but Ollie, have you just added something to the show notes?

International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day

00:11:26Oliver Spake: I have, I have, because I feel like I haven't touched on it. And I know we mentioned it was Ugly Christmas Singlet or Shirt Day, and we have been mentioning it from time to time. And we have mentioned that it's not actually us behind it, even though we do promote it quite heavily, because it it is wonderful to see everyone really getting into the spirit and you know yes there's more being mentioned but I just wanted to you know get on the front foot and say a huge thank you to the elves behind Ugly Christmas Singlet or Shirt Day there's a lot of effort that goes into that and we appreciate that absolutely do so thank you but Mel

Time capsule predictions

00:12:03Oliver Spake: Another thing we discussed in last week's episode was the time capsule. And for those that may not be long-time listeners, our former co-hosts, now I guess favourably known as the fill-ins... Not the parents, but the fill-ins. Back in episode 215, which was a bit of a tearjerker because that's the episode when we bid farewell to Mel Erbacher called Bon Bon Voyage. Mel and Scotty hosted and they filled a bit of a time capsule. Now, we talked about it briefly last week, and I think that they did fill it with a few things that were actually more predictions. But I have had a note here to remind me that two years from when they filled it out, we were to look at that and give a bit of an update on how accurate were those predictions.

00:12:56Melissa Ellis: So, shall I go on?

00:12:58Unidentified speaker: Yes.

00:12:59Melissa Ellis: So, the first prediction was for new parkrun locations and the prediction was for parkruns in Switzerland, Fiji and the International Space Station.

00:13:12Oliver Spake: And maybe with varying degrees of confidence, but nonetheless, our update. Mel... No. That prediction was not accurate. Not only is there no zero-gravity parkrun, which, again, that hill photo wouldn't be an issue there, but to the best of my ability, Austria is the only country who has joined since 2020, who joined in, I think it was August 2021, when Hellbrunn parkrun joined the family. I'm very honest. It took me two years. I finally got there. Yes. So there's one prediction that wasn't quite right.

00:13:53Melissa Ellis: Now, the next prediction was that parkrun would become part of the public psyche. And so the person on the street test, maybe you can embellish that if you've recently listened back, Ollie.

00:14:06Oliver Spake: So the idea that, well, if you walk up to someone that maybe isn't a part of the friends group that does go to parkrun, Mel, and say, oh, I went to parkrun at the weekend, do they all know what we're talking about?

00:14:20Unidentified speaker: Oh, yeah.

00:14:21Oliver Spake: And I think the example was I went to a music festival at the weekend or I went to the shops. Does the person on the street know what you're talking about when you say I went to parkrun?

00:14:32Melissa Ellis: No, they still don't.

00:14:34Oliver Spake: Not quite, not quite. But interestingly enough, just this afternoon I was in a meeting at work where, unprompted by me, yes, people do know that, you know, I am a parkrunner, but unprompted by me, someone started talking about wanting to get back to parkrun with their daughter. So I think we're getting there. But no. No.

00:14:55Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Trying to explain to my doctors how I broke my ankle at parkrun. Yeah, there was a lot of explaining going on.

00:15:05Oliver Spake: They're not prescribing parkrun?

00:15:06Melissa Ellis: No, they should be, shouldn't they?

00:15:08Oliver Spake: No, but no. But prediction number three was that I guess parkrun's social recognition or how it's known by those that do know it is less about it being a running event, or a walking event, and more about a bit of a social movement with a running trend, or a running problem, I think was the terminology used. And how do you feel that is, Mel? Do you think parkrun currently is known still as an event where people are active and come together, or come together and are active?

00:15:45Melissa Ellis: I think there's still issues with the name Run and, you know, the big push with the park walk in October was to address that and I think it helped.

00:15:57Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:15:57Melissa Ellis: I know it was also to raise awareness that you can walk at parkrun because I think there's still an overarching, I don't know, hang up because of the name, that it's an activity that requires somebody to run. So... Yeah, I don't know. I mean, we know that it's a social movement, but I don't know that the general public knows that yet.

00:16:18Oliver Spake: Yeah, and I suppose it's a bit entwined with the last one as well. And there are clearly a lot of efforts being undertaken around a lot of the promotional videos of different stories and what people find in the parkrun experience, that are going towards you know recognising that and helping people recognise that but I tend to agree with you and you know even just parkrun day just gone you know had the discussion about the fact that run is in the name so I'm not sure there is a word that could replace that and be all inclusive though no probably not

00:16:55Melissa Ellis: But the more people that start doing it and join the cult, then, you know, the more – if everybody had one person in their family that did it, then everybody would know that it's social.

00:17:07Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. So there's a way. There's a way. And maybe the answer is in the fourth prediction, the fourth and last prediction that was there, and it was about growth. So the prediction was by this time there would be 500 events in Australia and specifically including more in the Northern Territory and a parkrun in Alice Springs.

00:17:27Melissa Ellis: Right. Well, the update is we've got 436 events. So we didn't get to 500, but we're getting there. We're getting closer. But nothing new in the NT.

00:17:40Oliver Spake: Nothing new in the NT. No, no, nothing in Alice Springs certainly as a part of that. And, I mean, needless to say, you go back two years and we did have a few more unexpected disruptions to our world. But needless to say, there are a lot more coming on board bit by bit and maybe in another two years, Mel.

00:18:02Melissa Ellis: We do have one in Coober Pedy now. I mean, that's pretty remote central Australia, isn't it?

00:18:08Oliver Spake: That's certainly remote. I know it's in South Australia, but it's... Yeah, we're getting closer. Yeah. I might need the informant to give me a bit of a geography challenge in that respect, but work out whether that's in fact closer or closer to Perth. But nonetheless, so that's the time capsule. Some bold predictions, some understandable ones. And I don't know about you, Mel, but if we're filling a time capsule ourselves, I'm not quite sure what we're going to put in it yet.

00:18:39Melissa Ellis: No, so let's stick to predictions.

00:18:41Oliver Spake: Okay, okay.

00:18:43Melissa Ellis: Should we stick to predictions? So go on to, you know, what we think parkrun will look like in another two years' time. Only, Ollie, I need a little bit more time to think about it. It's Christmas and I've got a lot on my mind, buying presents and all this kind of thing, buying food and cooking and getting ready for holidays. So I'm thinking the holiday period would be a good time for reflection and to come up with some good predictions. What do you think?

00:19:08Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah. And I mean, do we want to crowdsource this? Do we want other people's predictions as well? So everyone's going to have this reflection time. They could email us their predictions and we'll have our own, but we can fill the time capsule when we come back from a holiday.

00:19:25Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I think that's a good plan.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:19:27Melissa Ellis: Okay. But in other news, we have a new parkrun. We do. There was a launch.

00:19:32Oliver Spake: Yes. Where was it? It was in Baxter. Baxter Park, I should say. I'm already confused. I've read the notes. I'm already confused. Would you please clear it up?

00:19:43Melissa Ellis: Okay. So it was in WA, Ollie. It is the new Western Compass Point in Australia. It has taken Marina off the map and instilled itself as the most Western parkrun in Australia. It is in Baxter Park, but it is 4,200 kilometres from a town called Baxter, so don't get confused. It is actually in Carnarvon. Yeah. Now, I don't know where that is, ever been to WA and I actually haven't pulled up a map yet to have a look at it but I'm hoping there's a chance I can get there when I visit next year.

00:20:19Oliver Spake: Oh I see yes yes I see where you're going with this I haven't planned that so well.

00:20:25Melissa Ellis: It's probably far from Perth.

00:20:28Oliver Spake: Yes, if you're talking westernmost, you have a bit of a hike ahead of you, Mel. Oh, well, that's okay. Yep.

00:20:35Melissa Ellis: I'll just have to have another trip. But anyway, yes, event number one, and we hope that it went well for them, and we look forward to hearing more about Baxter parkrun when our roving reporters get a chance to visit.

00:20:50Oliver Spake: When they make the 900-kilometre trip from Perth.

00:20:53Melissa Ellis: Oh, is it how far it is?

00:20:54Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:20:55Melissa Ellis: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:20:57Oliver Spake: But welcome to the family, Baxter.

00:20:59Melissa Ellis: Another B.

00:21:00Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:21:01Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Sorry, interrupted again.

00:21:03Oliver Spake: No, that's okay. Well, look, I was going to acknowledge we have been talking for a while and we do have some roving reports from some of the excitement from the weekend. And there might be a little joke in there somewhere as well in the spirit of our bonbon jokes. So perhaps, Mel, it's time to have a listen to our roving reports.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Sarah Jefferson — Dawesville parkrun

00:21:28Sarah Jefferson: Good morning, parkrun adventurers. It's Sarah checking in for Channel 5 News crew, checking out Dawesville parkrun, event number 369. And this morning I'm here with Jamie, the Run Director. Morning, Jamie.

00:21:40Jamie: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

00:21:42Sarah Jefferson: Jamie, can you tell us a little bit about Dawesville parkrun and why it's so special to you?

00:21:46Jamie: The Dawesville parkrun is special to me because we get about 50, 60, maybe up to 80 people here. It's not too big, it's just on the water, it's a beautiful run and probably the best people I've ever met in my life to be honest. So yeah, it's quite life-changing about two years ago and it's just a great way to start the weekend.

00:22:07Sarah Jefferson: Awesome. Sounds like you've found your tribe.

00:22:10Jamie: Yeah, I've definitely found my tribe, starting out at Rockingham, where there's 250 people. It's a bit overwhelming. And coming down here, and Rockingham's a wonderful parkrun, but then coming down to here, where there's probably about 30 people sometimes, it's a bit different. But yeah, everyone's really friendly and great to get along with.

00:22:30Sarah Jefferson: Were you already a runner before parkrun or did parkrun put you on that journey?

00:22:34Jamie: No, parkrun definitely put me on that journey and it's got me on to other things. People in parkrun, they're in a running club as well. So that's just led to all these different things. It's like this chain reaction. When you start parkrun, it can lead to all these wonderful other things.

00:22:50Sarah Jefferson: Fabulous. The power of community, hey?

00:22:51Jamie: Yeah, absolutely.

00:22:53Sarah Jefferson: Now, this parkrun runs along the estuary. Can you tell me a little bit about the course? Because it's actually quite flat and it's a beautiful course.

00:23:00Jamie: Yeah, it is flat. It's great if you're not that keen on hills. And it's beautiful as you're running out along the estuary for two and a half kilometres. Pretty straightforward and then straight back. So yeah, it is a really nice run along there.

00:23:16Sarah Jefferson: I can see on your website that your volunteer roster is pretty much full for weeks on end. I did have a look a few weeks before coming down to see if I could help out. What's the secret to finding so many volleys?

00:23:29Jamie: It's a tricky one to answer. I think we've just got some really good people down here and I think we bang on about it a bit. We do say every week when we do our speech before the parkrun starts, we say, look, parkrun doesn't happen without the volunteers and people get that and people are fantastic. If you're going to rock up to parkrun regularly, everyone kind of understands that eventually you have to put your name down or else parkrun simply doesn't happen.

00:23:59Sarah Jefferson: Yep, and we all love it and we all want it to continue.

00:24:02Jamie: Yeah, absolutely.

00:24:03Sarah Jefferson: Now, for the listeners, if you are heading over to Western Australia next year in April for the meet-up, Dawesville's about 90km or so from Perth CBD. There's an estuary, there's beaches. At the moment, there's Christmas lights all through the canal that you can go and check out on a boat. The Giants, have you checked out any of the big Giants? I think it's made from recycled timber all throughout parts of Mandurah.

00:24:25Jamie: Yep. Personally, I haven't seen them, but a lot of the people down here have been to see them. They will tell you all about them. They are obsessed with them. They don't just go and see them once. They go and see them over and over again. It is a craze going on down here at the moment.

00:24:38Sarah Jefferson: Oh, awesome. I'm very excited. And there's thrombites as well, right? It's thrombites down at Lake Clifton, I think, living organisms in the lake or something.

00:24:48Jamie: Yeah, I'm not too sure about that one, but yeah. Yeah.

00:24:52Sarah Jefferson: So if you're coming over to Western Australia next year and you want a day or two out of Perth, I would highly recommend checking out Dawesville parkrun and the surrounds. Thank you, Jamie, for your time and thanks for volunteering.

00:25:04Jamie: Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.

00:25:07Sarah Jefferson: All right, I'm here with four, including myself, parkrun adventurers. Who's excited for Christmas?

00:25:14Unidentified speaker: Yay!

00:25:15Sarah Jefferson: And who doesn't like a good bonbon joke? Who's ready?

00:25:19Unidentified speaker: I love a bonbon joke.

00:25:21Sarah Jefferson: All right, strap yourself in. Who is Santa's favourite singer?

00:25:26Johan Duvenhage: Mrs Claus.

00:25:27Sarah Jefferson: No, but that is sweet.

00:25:29Oliver Spake: Mariah Carey.

00:25:32Sarah Jefferson: Ooh, could be, but it's not Santa. Elvis Presley. Elf is Presley. Hi everyone. So I'm checking in after completing some of my research. So I will correct myself and say they are actually called thrombolites and they are microorganisms that are often too small for the human eye to see and they actually resemble the earliest forms of life on Earth. So they live in an environment and that they are able to precipitate calcium carbonate from waters and as they photosynthesise. So they actually form a mineralised structure that is a thrombolite. So you can actually walk out onto this jetty, have a little look down. You actually can't go into the water, obviously, to protect them, but they do represent some of the earliest forms of life on Earth, which is pretty exciting down in Mandurah. So come on down and check it out. Over and out.

Roving report Mark Scarborough — Mount Ainslie parkrun

00:26:21Mark Scarborough: Hello parkrun adventurers, this is Mark reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew and I haven't adventured too far, I'm still in Canberra. We've actually come to Mount Ainslie parkrun, the only trail run in the ACT, but we do have another trail run just across the border in Jerrabomberra, if you're ever in the area and like your trail runs. But yeah, Mount Ainslie parkrun, out and back course, the foot of Mount Ainslie, quite an undulating course and beautiful area in Canberra. Today, joined by another member of the Channel 5 News crew, Lyndell, welcome.

00:26:54Lyndell Murray: Thank you, Mark. So great to be here and fabulous to finally meet you after all this time.

00:26:59Mark Scarborough: Yeah, it is good to meet and understand that you had your good little adventure just south of Canberra recently. Tell us about that.

00:27:07Lyndell Murray: Oh, yeah, on Thursday I completed the Ultra Trail Kosciuszko 50k event under very trying conditions. So first time I've ever had snow falling on me at the start line. And as you can tell from my voice, I'm a bit croaky. I've had a bit of a cold. So it was a bit of a tricky event to get through, but I finished. And, yeah, I had a really great adventure. The trails out there are just beautiful. So I enjoyed my day as best as I could.

00:27:35Mark Scarborough: Well done. And what did you think of Mount Ainslie parkrun?

00:27:38Lyndell Murray: It was great. It's so nice. You're so lucky to have such a beautiful trail right in the centre of Canberra and lots of other trails coming off it. So probably lots of things to explore up there. But Mount Ainslie parkrun's a lovely little parkrun. Not too big a parkrun as well. So it seemed like a pretty friendly kind of vibe as well. So, yeah, I loved it.

00:27:57Mark Scarborough: Yeah, the volunteers were supported by one of the local running clubs today, which was good to see. And one of the things I like about that Mount Ainslie nature reserve, I was saying to you before, was that there's a good walk. So if you ever come to Canberra Tourist, there's a good walk from the back of the War Memorial that goes straight up Mount Ainslie and you get some fantastic views of Canberra from the top of Mount Ainslie. So you did the drive yesterday up there, giving your legs a bit of a rest from the cosy. What did you think of the view from Mount Ainslie?

00:28:26Lyndell Murray: Absolutely spectacular. Yeah, you could just see everything. And the signposts up there to tell you what you're looking at and how the city was sort of designed and built as well was really informative. So, yeah, it was definitely worth, well, the drive. Didn't walk, so, yeah, worth the drive.

00:28:42Mark Scarborough: So it's a pretty good walk. You can also do a bit of a run up there. It's about 2.2 kilometres up and then obviously 2.2 coming back down. But beautiful views at sunset and also sunrise. So, yeah, good. Now, congratulations. Peel Club status. Well done.

00:29:00Lyndell Murray: Yeah, thanks, Mark. Yeah, it's been a long time coming. I thought I might get there in 2020, but, of course, lots of things didn't happen in 2020. But, yeah, Peel Club today. Yeah, pretty awesome.

00:29:12Mark Scarborough: So let's go through it. Peel Club is running in all states and territories within Australia. You've only done the one parkrun in the ACT, so Mount Ainslie would have to be up there. And I think, you know, if you come back, you'll do Wagyu Bridge and it'll be number one.

00:29:25Lyndell Murray: Of course, yes, yes.

00:29:28Mark Scarborough: So let's go to the Northern Territory. Where did you run in Northern Territory?

00:29:31Lyndell Murray: Darwin parkrun, just in August this year. So yeah, nice parkrun along the waterfront there. Traveled up with my friend Catherine, who's also with me here today. So yeah, good little parkrun adventurer there with me.

00:29:44Mark Scarborough: How many have you done in Tasmania?

00:29:48Lyndell Murray: Oh, one in Tasmania, the bittersweet story of my life. I did my Q in Tasmania at Queen's Domain, but I travel to Devonport quite regularly each year to officiate at a triathlon that happens right next to parkrun on a Saturday. So I've watched Devonport parkrun plenty of times, never done it. Yeah, so Queen's Domain is the parkrun that I've done in Tasmania.

00:30:16Mark Scarborough: Alright, and what about South Australia?

00:30:19Lyndell Murray: South Australia. I've done a couple there. The first one I did was Mount Gambier. Absolutely beautiful. Pretty tough. It's quite hilly at Mount Gambier. But the Blue Lake is just absolutely stunning. So, yeah. And then, of course, for Palm at... Where did we go for Palm? The place that you guys all know we went to. That one as well. Went there. That was excellent too.

00:30:40Mark Scarborough: Was it Mount Barker? Mount Barker.

00:30:41Lyndell Murray: That was the one. Yeah, with PK. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah. And that was a nice parkrun as well. Obviously, catching up with friends for the pod.

00:30:49Mark Scarborough: And what about in South Australia?

00:30:52Lyndell Murray: That was South Australia. Oh, sorry.

00:30:53Mark Scarborough: Let's go to Western Australia. So you've only done the one in Western Australia?

00:30:56Lyndell Murray: One in Western Australia, Geographe Bay in Busselton. Very flat parkrun, beautiful. Yeah, Busselton's a lovely part of the world.

00:31:04Mark Scarborough: Oh, it is, isn't it? I could be tempted to move there. Yes. Very tempted to move there. And Nicole and I did a Freedom Run at Busselton. Yep, yeah so it was a good good one um all right and you've probably done a handful in Queensland yeah just so yeah all right so just not you can't name your home parkrun yep what's your favourite in Queensland oh favourite in Queensland somewhat more this I knew you were going to ask me this and I should have thought about it a

00:31:36Lyndell Murray: I've got some fun stories from my parkrun adventuring in Queensland. Actually, the hidden gem, I'm going to give a shout out to Berrinba parkrun, which is a bit of a hidden gem. It's just in one of the southern suburbs of Brisbane. But from memory, I think it's just one big loop around a parkland and a lake. And you don't expect that when you go to Browns Plains in the south suburbs of Brisbane. So I'll give a shout out to Berrinba as a hidden gem in Queensland.

00:32:09Mark Scarborough: And New South Wales, what's your favourite there?

00:32:11Lyndell Murray: um I have only done one in New South Wales as well I think and that was The Beaches again for the parkrun adventurers meet up a few years ago um got my feet wet at The Beaches and um yeah I had a ball there too yeah yeah no that's that's that's all let me say that's all the states oh there's that's the other one that little state Victoria yeah Victoria Victoria yeah have you done any you would have done one there what's have you got any favourite set Victoria, I did Hamilton parkrun, which is a small country town in the west of Victoria. So my in-laws live over near Mount Gambier, which is why I'd done Mount Gambier parkrun in South Australia. And once when we travelled, we usually fly down to Melbourne and drive across Australia. to visit my in-laws. And so I convinced my husband to stop at Hamilton so I could get a Victorian parkrun on the way over. And that was really nice. That was such a friendly little parkrun. They came straight up to me because they knew that I wasn't from their town and said, hi, where are you visiting from? So again, really friendly and around a lake as well in Hamilton. That was a beautiful little spot as well.

00:33:22Mark Scarborough: Yeah, good. Yeah. Well, congratulations again. Peel status done. Any other challenges that you're eyeing off next?

00:33:29Lyndell Murray: Not really. I don't know what's next. Just keep parkrunning, I guess, and keep finding new places. Probably the Cowell's the next one. I think I'm on 87 different parkruns, so just a few more to get to the Cowell.

00:33:43Mark Scarborough: Yeah, wow. That's huge. All right. Awesome. Well, good to see you.

00:33:47Lyndell Murray: Thank you, Mark. Thank you for talking to me. Pleasure. And thanks so much for coming to meet me here as well to say g'day. Really appreciate it.

00:33:54Mark Scarborough: Yeah, pleasure. All right. Well, that's Mark reporting out for the Channel 5 News crew. Talk to you next time.

00:34:06Melissa Ellis: Thank you very much to our two roving reports. Firstly, Sarah coming to us from Dawesville parkrun, speaking to Jamie the RD, throwing us a bonbon joke and some extra bonus research on thrombolites. Something I did not know. But, Ollie, we have to congratulate Sarah and her partner, Matt. Do you know why?

00:34:28Oliver Spake: Why? Oh, congratulations, guys. That's wonderful news.

00:34:35Melissa Ellis: Hooray. Sarah let me know just a few days ago that she got engaged on Cottesloe Beach. Of course. Yes. So a West Side engagement. Very exciting.

00:34:49Oliver Spake: Yes. Very happy news. Very happy news indeed.

00:34:53Melissa Ellis: Now, we also had Marvellous Mark, who met up with Lyndell the Legendary out there at Mount Ainslie parkrun on Saturday. Lyndell coming back to parkrun after a big week, doing the UTA Ultra Trail Kosciuszko 50. So, wow.

00:35:10Oliver Spake: Yes, wow. I've seen a few photos and videos of some of those who have taken part. Wow.

00:35:18Melissa Ellis: But she was achieving Peel Club status at Mount Ainslie, so another celebration. Yes, congratulations. Wow again. A little bit of cheat coming from Marvellous Mark. Yeah, wasn't it good? Referring to that little state.

00:35:35Tracey Wood: I saw what you did.

00:35:37Melissa Ellis: Goodness me. I'm making us a target. Everybody knows it wasn't me that started the Greater State thing. They know that, right? I'm just taking the storyline on. I'm just a continuation of a storyline. Scott started all this.

00:35:50Oliver Spake: Well, to use a football term, if you've got the ball, they're playing the ball, so you're the target. Ah, well. Yes, it is fun. It is fun indeed.

Dazza's

00:36:03Oliver Spake: Ah, and look, continuing the parkrun day fun, I think it's probably time for Dazza's. So getting in on the spirit at Dazza's this week, he said, show us your uglies. Welcome to Dazza's where ugly is the new black. How was your morning?

00:36:20Melissa Ellis: And we heard first off, and she was exactly the first post at Dazza's, it was Bec Bailey coming to us from New Zealand. She had the most likes, Ollie. And she said, this parkrunner dressed in a pretty ugly shirt along with a pretty ugly buff strategically folded. She completed her look with a purple tutu, pink socks and pink shoes with a purple buff wearing puppy at her side for Pegasus parkrun's 300th event where it was a P theme. The pic was a properly positioned parkrun flag and a pretty ugly pink and purple parkrunner with her purple runs with a barcode buff wearing pooch Brunner. That's an alliteration.

00:37:01Oliver Spake: After that, Mel, you need to go and have a pint.

00:37:03Melissa Ellis: She continues, last time I ran with Brunner was Christmas 2019. It's been three years. And there was a photo of Bec and Brunner in front of the Pegasus parkrun flag. It was indeed.

00:37:17Oliver Spake: Ah, well, also popping in and doing a bit of volunteering was Jo McLean, who said, volunteering at the ponds this morning, lots of uglies out there and heaps of festive smiles. And Jo shared a photo of herself with a group of people, two in the Emu Vintage Ugly 2020 and one in last year's, and also a younger one in a Santa suit. So nice combo.

00:37:43Melissa Ellis: It is. Now, coming to us with a milestone was Tracy Jensen. She said, no ugly Christmas top, but celebrated my 50th volunteer and scored a PB too. Another great parkrun morning at Portland parkrun. And Tracy had a photo of herself with the RD holding a 50 sign. So nice work on your 50th volley and the PB.

00:38:06Oliver Spake: Yes, nice way to celebrate. Congrats. Now, Mel, we also heard from Belinda Taylor, who was recording a bit of an achievement and said, my ugly shirt was mostly hidden by the volley vest at St Lucia today. Celebrated Janice becoming a Queensland States lady and signing up to the Adventurers Club, so double milestone. Pictured is Janice with guide dog Keegan, Bob and Amy, who are all regulars at Juniors. And, yeah, certainly as Belinda said, the photo there including the gang and Belinda in the retro ugly. And also a note that Janice did finish tokens and course set up with Belinda. Janice does tokens with the help of the Funnel Manager lining up the kids in front of her.

00:38:52Melissa Ellis: And I probably should add to that note, Ollie, Janice volunteers at juniors as well. So that was where she did the finish tokens after St Lucia at Des Connor juniors. She's a regular volley out there. Yeah. And it's good because it also teaches the kids that they can't pat Keegan when he has his harness on and is working hard. So volunteering and learning. Got to love that.

00:39:16Oliver Spake: Absolutely.

00:39:17Melissa Ellis: Now, we also heard from Lisa Atkinson, who was touristing, parkrunning with my dad at Fodder Forest in Queensland. And she added, and here we are as part of a tinsel at Fodder Forest. So there was a couple of photos that Lisa shared with us. Lisa in her reimagined ugly outfit. And her dad wearing last year's version. And then the tinsel, which was five people wearing their shirts, two of last year's reimagined and two emus. That was the fluffy version.

00:39:49Oliver Spake: Yeah, what variety we've got now.

00:39:52Melissa Ellis: We do. We've got a whole spectrum. Oh, that's a good term, a spectrum of tinsels.

00:39:59Oliver Spake: I like that. Now... With a bit of a nottie, Johan joined us and said, no parkrun today as it is my yearly trail run pilgrimage at Beskutfontein. I apologise for that pronunciation, Johan. Beskutfontein Trails, but always in my parkrun shirt. My ugly is still in safe custody, but with you all in spirit.

00:40:25Melissa Ellis: It is.

00:40:26Oliver Spake: It's in my bottom drawer. Very safe custody there. And Johan's photo there was a selfie in the parkrun apricot shirt. And the second shot, of course, post-trail run.

00:40:38Melissa Ellis: Well done. Yes. Good work, Johan. I hope you're all healed up by now.

00:40:43Tracey Wood: He had a few bruises and cuts.

00:40:46Melissa Ellis: Yeah. But we also heard from Jen Arney. Ollie, she was at home and she said, not ugly at Bathurst parkrun today. We had a wedding. Our Tail Walkers were married by a parkrunner who is a celebrant straight after they'd finished parkrun. Beautiful. And Jen shared a link, which was actually a video of the bride and groom Tail Walkers coming in at the end and preparing for their little wedding ceremony.

00:41:12Oliver Spake: Yeah. What a way to do it.

00:41:14Melissa Ellis: I don't know. It's pretty dedicated, isn't it? And we're hearing about this more and more. And you know what? I'm going off tangent here, but we were talking about this at Juniors the other day because we've got a couple, many of you would know, very well-known Victorian tourists who have gotten together. So they're a lovely little couple that met through parkrun. And I believe there's also a couple out at Wyndham Vale, another couple that have met the same way. And lots of people are meeting these days at parkrun. And I like that. It's like the natural way to meet somebody, not online, tinder or you know not that there's anything wrong with that not that there's anything wrong with that it's just I guess happening naturally social and natural yeah yeah yeah like in the past you might have met at a dance you know back in the day when people did such things or a nightclub I think I met my first husband at a nightclub oh yeah that's probably oversharing no not at all we're all friends here and then I bought Paul on ebay

00:42:22Oliver Spake: Bought? Did you say bought? Yes.

00:42:28Unidentified speaker: Okay.

00:42:30Melissa Ellis: Anyway, moving swiftly on, there was a photo of the bridal couple at the document signing table, at the document signing table even, with a parkrun flag in shot and some additional pics of the happy couple in their volly vests. Wow. So, yeah, thanks for sharing that with us, Jen, and we wish them all the best. I believe it's Wayne and Belinda Cole.

00:42:50Oliver Spake: Yeah, congratulations, Wayne and Belinda. Well done to the Bathurst parkrun family. And I think for that reason, I mean, we were just celebrating an engagement just before, not necessarily at parkrun, but again, through the parkrun world. Maybe we were wrong about one of those predictions. Maybe it is more of a social movement that just happens to have a bit of a running problem. But I digress. Back to the touristing, Mel. Lynette also popped in, Lynette Anne, and said, doing our Christmas ugly at Castlemaine parkrun with new friend Pam and fellow adventurer Sarah L. With parkrun, you make friends everywhere. Many comments on the gingerbread tee. And she shared a photo of, well, Lynn in ginger, Pam in retro, and Sarah in the purple parkrun shirt.

00:43:41Melissa Ellis: Ah, more people making new friends.

00:43:43Oliver Spake: That's right. That's pretty good.

00:43:45Melissa Ellis: We also heard from Tamsin Smith coming to us from the UK. She said it was a bit nippy at Weymouth parkrun, so our uglies were barely on show. Time for a hot chocolate to warm up. And the photo shows they're rugged up, but I think they're all in ginger uglies.

00:44:02Oliver Spake: gingers that's a nice little terminology gingerbread man the gingers I think that's acceptable yeah I look um and uh yeah shout out to our friends in the northern hemisphere who are shivering through a particularly cold part of the year so we hope you are all well and staying cozy another one of those was in the us of a Geoff Glaab popped in and said oh I wanted to try and chant or sing this, but I'll just read it. Sorry, Mel, and sorry, Jeff.

00:44:32Melissa Ellis: No, no, no, sing, sing, sing.

00:44:36Oliver Spake: I can't do the singing, but it is U-G-L-Y in the U-S-A. That was terrible. Please forgive me, Jeff. But a cold, cold morning at Joe Creason, but the sun broke through to highlight my ugly singlet in all its glory. Merry Christmas to the wonderful adventurer community and enjoy your break, Mel and Ollie. And Jeff's photo there shared his wonderful appearance in the retro ugly with a cute dog too.

00:45:05Melissa Ellis: I feel like I should know his dog's name, but I can't think.

00:45:08Oliver Spake: Yeah, I should too. That's all right. That's all right. I think I do, but I'm too shy to say. So I will do my research.

00:45:17Unidentified speaker: Okay.

00:45:18Melissa Ellis: Well, we also heard from Parth Bommakanti saying, who was at Junior parkrun. Parth and Irene have just moved. They've moved away from the Greater State, so we won't hold that against them. They've joined the Des Connor Junior parkrun team, and Parth said brunch after Des Connor Junior parkrun with the team, surprisingly. She had a photo, a group shot. taken at the cafe afterwards. So there was lots of uglies there too.

00:45:46Oliver Spake: There sure was.

00:45:47Melissa Ellis: So that wraps up Dazza's, Ollie, as we quickly scoot back to our show notes tab.

00:45:57Oliver Spake: That's right. See, it makes it easier when we outsource the Obi awarding now, doesn't it?

the Obi Award — Jo McLean

00:46:01Melissa Ellis: Yeah, so before we throw to who is awarding the envelope this week, we should thank Calum Burrell from last week. The envelope turned up over there at Burnage parkrun. And now, where's it headed to, Ollie? It's made its way from England.

00:46:18Oliver Spake: Far south. Far, far south. To South Africa. To the Channel 5 News crews, Johan, who is, we're reliably informed, has safe custody of the envelope. So it's time to throw to Johan.

00:46:40Johan Duvenhage: I just need to take a breather before I cross the river again. This trail run at Beskutfontein is hectic. I wonder what's that? That's interesting. It looks like a rubber ducky and an Ugly Christmas Singlet. Let me get closer a bit. Whoops! That was a bit too close. Let me swim closer and see what it is. Oei, a ganade! There's something on the rubber duckie's back. It's an envelope saying open this for the last Obi of the year. Let me try that without drowning or smudging the ink. Alright, I've got it. And the Obi goes to Jo McLean in her Ugly Christmas Singlet and that awesome Christmas headgear. Congratulations.

00:47:28Melissa Ellis: Thank you very much, Johan, for being this week's Obi awarder. Is that the right word? Presenter? Presenter. And well done, Jo. Congratulations on being very festive out there at the ponds and volunteering.

00:47:43Oliver Spake: Yes. Thank you for volunteering.

00:47:45Melissa Ellis: Now, Ollie, did you figure out the name of Jeff's dog? Have you got that? Did you work it out in there?

00:47:50Oliver Spake: I did. And it's very convenient me saying that it's the name I thought. But yeah, Pepper. It was on the tip of my tongue. But yes, Pepper is the name. And the listeners will just have to trust me that I knew that. But look, we are having a Christmas party and we do like to celebrate in traditional Adventurers podcast tradition.

00:48:14Melissa Ellis: Traditional tradition.

00:48:19Oliver Spake: Really put a lot of effort into scripting this week's show notes. Nonetheless, we've got some bonbon jokes, not just from our Channel 5 news crew, Mel, but from some of our listeners as well. So look, we'll see if we can recognise some of the names in there.

Bonbon jokes

00:48:34Oliver Spake: But to kick us off, we'll throw to Greg and let's have a listen to some of our bonbon jokes.

00:48:46Greg: Hi, it's Greg here. Here's my Christmas bonbon joke. What did one wall say to the other wall? Meet you in the corner. Merry Christmas, Mel, Ollie and all the listeners.

00:48:59Tracey Wood: Hey team, what do you give a Christmas tree with bad breath? You give it ornaments. Oh dear. Anyway, from my family to yours, all the very best for Christmas and the new year. Have a good one. See you next year. Cheers from Tracy and her tutu. Bye.

00:49:17Johan Duvenhage: Good morning Goeiemorgen parkrun adventurers. It's Johan checking in from the Karua where we are ducking and diving some extreme weather. Thank you for your support during the year and a heartfelt appreciation to each and everyone for their contributions to the park but especially to Mel and Ollie for all the hard work they put into it. Talking about extreme weather, did you hear that Santa forgot to check the weather before his Christmas parkrun? Just before leaving he asked Mrs Claus, what's the weather going to be like? Reindeer, she replied. Have a wonderful festive season.

00:49:50Unidentified speaker: Are we there yet? No. I'm bored.

00:49:58Unidentified speaker: I spy with my little eye, something beginning here.

00:50:01Unidentified speaker: I've got a joke for you. Righto. Did you hear about the statistician who was scared of negative numbers?

00:50:09Unidentified speaker: The statistician who was scared of negative numbers.

00:50:12Unidentified speaker: Yeah, he would stop at nothing to avoid them.

00:50:15Unidentified speaker: Huh?

00:50:17Unidentified speaker: Stop at nothing. Nothing. Zero? Avoid negatives?

00:50:22Unidentified speaker: But that would poison the stats.

00:50:24Unidentified speaker: Oh my god, it's a joke. Okay, here's one a bit simpler for you. Why do giraffes have such long necks?

00:50:32Unidentified speaker: Well, to reach the high branches.

00:50:34Unidentified speaker: No, because their feet stink.

00:50:37Unidentified speaker: Really? Another fun fact. A giraffe pretty much always stands up. They even sleep standing up. And they sleep a maximum of two hours.

00:50:48Unidentified speaker: Oh my god! You're the life of the party.

00:51:01Melissa Ellis: And we'd like to thank very much the people who sent in their bonbon jokes that we could all have a little giggle at. And it's the best part of Christmas, isn't it? Let's be honest, Ollie.

00:51:11Oliver Spake: Yes, I do love the jokes. They get funnier every year.

Emails

00:51:14Melissa Ellis: But we also have mail.

00:51:17Oliver Spake: You've got mail. Yes.

00:51:19Melissa Ellis: So we heard from Lee Cabarita, that's her porn name, last week's Obi recipient. And she said, hi, you two. You had me in stitches today whilst listening to this week's pod. Thanks for awarding me the Obi. I'll have to try and explain that to my runnatives. Runnatives? Runnatives. Sally and Bianca. You're correct in the origin of the porn name being your first pet and street name, which would technically make me Samantha Cabarita, which sounds more like a stripper name. Laughy emoji. Here's a laugh. My first pet as a newlywed in my new home, et cetera, was a kitten that I called sexy. Imagine how we looked to our new neighbours whistling out for our missing baby puss. Oops, sexy come here baby sexy so technically my adult porn name would be sexy Cabarita that's just too hot to handle so I reined it back I've got an idea for your time capsule the presenters purchased barcodes examples shoe or key tags or milestone tees if it's a tangible capsule or the stories of earliest barcodes in Australia now that they're in the millions As previously mentioned, I'm a bit technically challenged, but we'll try to work out how to do an audio file and send you a bonbon joke. Have a sal-u-sel-a, say that word, Ollie. Salubrious. Have a salubrious week. Lee Cabarita, O-A-W, and in brackets, Obi award winner.

00:52:50Oliver Spake: Thank you, Lee. Yeah, I'm glad you landed where you landed. Nice balance.

00:52:57Melissa Ellis: But it isn't a tangible time capsule.

00:52:59Oliver Spake: I mean, we can always do that too, but that would be a bit of homework.

00:53:04Melissa Ellis: We could have one at Palm. Oh, we could. This is my mind going ahead before my mouth catches up. We could have some sort of container and everybody who comes to Palm could put something in the time capsule and then we could bury it on the beach.

00:53:21Oliver Spake: But who will go and find it?

00:53:26Melissa Ellis: I didn't say I had all the answers.

00:53:27Oliver Spake: Okay. All right. All right. Well, all right. Moving on. We do have more mail. We have an email also from Michael Gentle who said, Hi, Mel and Ollie. The 62nd running of the prestigious Zatopek 10 Elite Championship races was held on Thursday the 15th December at Melbourne's Lakeside Stadium.

00:53:50Melissa Ellis: The greatest state.

00:53:53Oliver Spake: Headlined by the Australian 10,000 metre championships, this event draws some of the biggest names in Australian athletics every year. The women's 10,000 metre championship was won by Leanne Pompeani, a 1344709 current course record holder at Tuggeranong parkrun. In 32 minutes, and 20.35 seconds. Second place was claimed by Olympian Isobel Batt-Doyle, A, 5202916. And third place went to Olympian Rose Davies, A, 324000. Current course record holder at Kirra parkrun. The men's 10,000 metre championship was won by Olympian Jack Rayner in 28 minutes, 46.3 seconds, followed by Andre Waring, a 1-0-8-9-2-2-2 current course record holder at both Churchill and Warringal Parklands parkrun. And third place went to Jack Bruce. In the under-20 women's 3,000-metre race, Victorian athlete Amy Bunnage, a 6-1-1-5-1-4-1. Current course record at Shellharbour, parkrun, set a new Australian record of nine minutes and 0.6 seconds for three kilometres. So yeah, huge shout out there and thank you Michael for the stats. I'll continue with the email in a second but a huge shout out there to our course record holder Amy. I do believe she's run just one parkrun in her parkrun time so far.

00:55:35Melissa Ellis: And that was the one where she took the course record. That's right.

00:55:38Oliver Spake: That's right, from our Olympian. But I digress. Our Olympian that got married yesterday, by the way. Oh. So Jess Hull of Shellharbour parkrun and the Australian Olympic team did get married to her now husband, Daniel Jolliffe. So congratulations, Jess, because I'm sure she doesn't listen to our podcast anymore. Michael also went on to say, and you'll like this bit, Mel, re the greater state. I agree with all of Mel's compelling arguments to Ollie on the podcast in supporting of Victoria being the greater state. Ollie's counterclaim that Shellharbour parkrun is in New South Wales is a fine argument against these claims. However, how can Victoria lay any claim to being the greater state when Palm has never been there? With two palms to date, New South Wales must truly be the greatest state. Game on, Mel. Best wishes, Michael Gentle, A425328.

00:56:34Melissa Ellis: Well, well, well.

00:56:37Oliver Spake: Them's fighting words.

00:56:41Melissa Ellis: Michael, honey, I've just got one thing to say, and I'm surprised it hasn't occurred to you already, but as with many things, it's always wise to save the best to last.

00:56:54[laughter]

00:56:54Oliver Spake: LAUGHTER So currently, Western Australia is the greatest state.

00:57:00Melissa Ellis: I rest my case.

00:57:01[laughter]

00:57:01Unidentified speaker: LAUGHTER

00:57:04Oliver Spake: Oh, well, thank you for your emails, podcast family. Mel, can you tell us a bit more about the podcast family that got out and about in the Consolidated Club report?

Consolidated Club Report

00:57:15Melissa Ellis: Okie dokie. The adventurers on the 17th of December, 2022. were out at 144 locations. We had a total of 349 members and 279 of them took part. There was adventurers at 18 events in the UK, two events in South Africa, two in the USA, one in Italy and one in Austria. Locally, we had adventurers at 32 events in the Greater State, 31 events in Queensland and 25 events in New South Wales. South Australia had nine events. There was adventurers at seven in West Australia, six on the North Island, five in the ACT, three down in Tassie and two on the South Island.

the Frond — Shellharbour parkrun

00:58:04Melissa Ellis: Now the largest frond was at Shellharbour. You can do a little cheer, I'll let you.

00:58:11[applause]

00:58:11Sarah Jefferson: Oliver, are you still there?

00:58:12Oliver Spake: I am. That was me clapping. It must have muffled me.

00:58:16Melissa Ellis: Oh, okay. I didn't hear clapping. Anyway, Gordon and Julie Turner, Gaillyn Cooper, Michael Gentle, Karen Hamilton, Paddy Oshimo and Sue Keane. I'm assuming Darwin was there as well?

00:58:27Oliver Spake: Darwin was not. Darwin was not. Young Kayleigh was there celebrating her junior 10 and her birthday party day. Sign her up. Helen was replaced by Kayleigh. Rightio.

00:58:40Melissa Ellis: Fair enough. So there you go. That is the largest frond. I think that the two of the junior parkrun events probably took out the honours for the fronding because I know we had, I'm pretty sure we had about 11 parkrun adventurers volunteering at Eynesbury on Sunday and there was also a fair chunk at Des Connor Park.

00:59:02Oliver Spake: Yes, that there was.

00:59:04Melissa Ellis: Our adventurers are very good junior supporters. So thank you. Thank you.

00:59:07Oliver Spake: Yeah, thank you, team. Well, it has been a big one. There is a bit to come. And look, as we've said, we're not around next week. So probably have to make sure we get all the announcements well and truly covered, Mel. And there's a very special announcement that we need to address first.

00:59:25Melissa Ellis: There is. So we will be posting a special Christmas present for all our listeners. Surprise! It will be on our Facebook page. And anybody who doesn't have Facebook is welcome to email us a request and we can reply with the gift. That's for you, Eman. So it is a 2023 challenge card. So you can look forward to that next week.

00:59:50Oliver Spake: That's right. Hopefully that'll keep everyone busy in their festive season, doing a bit of planning around their challenges.

Sign-off

00:59:57Melissa Ellis: But Ollie, looking forward to next Saturday, are you at home?

01:00:02Oliver Spake: Am I at home? I am indeed. I will be, I'll be run directing once again on Christmas Eve. And at this point in time, I'll be absent on Christmas Day, absent from parkrun, that is.

01:00:15Melissa Ellis: Having a nice rest with the family, opening presents, enjoying family time.

01:00:20Oliver Spake: Yeah, generally speaking, that's the plan. Often the kids are up nice and early, the presents are unwrapped and they're ready to go back to bed after breakfast by parkrun o'clock. So look, there's always a possibility before we kick off to the Christmas festivities. But yeah, likely I'll be inside.

01:00:38Melissa Ellis: What about you? I'm going on a road trip.

01:00:42Oliver Spake: Ah.

01:00:43Melissa Ellis: I'm going on a road trip. On Saturday, I am going to jump in my little car and head west to Edenhope and join Victoria's newest parkrun at Lake Wallace. I'm going to camp, take in my tent, spend the night in the caravan park. And, yeah, just a quick overnight trip. It's only about four hours from home. Yep. So I've been really lucky. Most of the parkrun launches since I've moved to the west have been out west. That's very convenient. It is. It's been very convenient. So, yes, that will keep me busy Friday night and Saturday and then I'll come back, and prepare for Christmas Day where I will just go local. So I've got family coming for lunch at my place, a couple of the kids coming over with their partners. So I'll just duck quickly off to Toolern Creek. I believe there will be quite a few other adventurers there as well. So it'll still be a very fun morning, very fun, great English. Oh, well.

01:01:42Oliver Spake: That's all right. We're not traditionally great at our English on this podcast. We're not.

01:01:48Melissa Ellis: That's why we've got the Office Lady.

01:01:50Oliver Spake: That's right.

01:01:51Melissa Ellis: Have we ever given her a shout out for how clever she is? I don't think we've ever said it on the pod.

01:01:56Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

01:01:57Melissa Ellis: Would our listeners be aware that she is a teacher by profession, namely in the English.

01:02:06Oliver Spake: Syllabus.

01:02:07Melissa Ellis: Yeah, well, yes.

01:02:08Oliver Spake: Faculty, faculty.

01:02:09Melissa Ellis: Faculty, yeah, that's the word I was, yeah. I was thinking genre and I knew that was wrong. But, yeah, she has just rewritten the English syllabus for New South Wales and it's gone live. So she's pretty special and pretty clever Office Lady.

01:02:24Oliver Spake: She's very patient with us. I do wonder if she was just sat there screaming back at the headphones or the speakers.

01:02:34Melissa Ellis: She's got a God status for our Facebook page and she can just duck in there. We don't even know. She just goes in there and cleans it all up, puts in all the apostrophes, removes the ones that aren't supposed to be there.

01:02:44Oliver Spake: That's right.

01:02:45Melissa Ellis: So we should say a big thank you to our Office Lady because, you know, it's an office party.

01:02:50Oliver Spake: And look, in the spirit of thanks and Christmas wishes, let's extend that to our whole community, obviously to our Channel 5 News crew, to everyone behind the scenes with the podcast that's helped out through the course of the year, from our art director to our fill-ins to our wonderful stand-in co-hosts and to our informant, who is always dear to our hearts. No matter which beach they're showing up on, to our Channel 2 News crew. Abby. Abby, of course. And look, just everyone for coming along for the ride for another year. I know that it has been a big year, Mel. It has been a very big year. And I am looking forward to a bit of a rest, but I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's adventures out there, catching up in the New Year and hearing about some of those adventures and celebrating them once again. But yeah, we'll have to give some thought to the new year's resolutions. I don't think I've got any. Have you got an email?

01:03:54Melissa Ellis: I forgot what I said. More adventures, definitely. Yeah. Yeah, I've got a couple events earmarked that I wouldn't mind to head to. I'm not going to divulge anything publicly.

01:04:09Unidentified speaker: Okay.

01:04:10Melissa Ellis: Because if I don't get it, like this year, I didn't achieve my resolution from the start of the year.

01:04:16Oliver Spake: Resolution's there to be broken.

01:04:19Melissa Ellis: But I could just rehash it. So at the start of the year, I chose to aspire to do a tourism trip where I could attend a rodeo. Did you say rodeo or rodeo? I don't even know. But that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to go country and go to a rodeo. And do a parkrun associated with that. So I wasn't able. I did find one that was in a close proximity to an event I haven't yet done. But then when I contacted them, they actually cancelled the rodeo.

01:04:50Oliver Spake: All right. There's a goal there.

01:04:53Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

01:04:53Oliver Spake: If it works out.

01:04:54Melissa Ellis: So maybe I'll have another crack at that.

01:04:56Oliver Spake: Yeah.

01:04:57Melissa Ellis: And yourself, Ollie? Myself?

01:04:59Oliver Spake: Well, you did remind me off air that I had made some plans for next year. And next year is, of course, the year of the Women's World Cup. So, I can't wait. And if I find an excuse to get to New Zealand for a weekend, a New Zealand parkrun is definitely on the agenda because I will be attending a whole lot of matches, Matilda's matches and others. So, I do hope to squeeze in some parkruns there. So, Yeah, so more general park-run tourism. I have had a bigger year of tourism that I'm accustomed to, so I need a bit of a break, but hoping I can scrounge a few more adventures in, particularly as I revisit some of the events and adventures I've enjoyed this year.

01:05:40Melissa Ellis: That sounds good. Sounds good to me.

01:05:42Oliver Spake: It does, and I want to spur Cathy on because she's primed for a PB again, so we'll have to go to a PB-favourable course somewhere.

01:05:50Melissa Ellis: Well...

01:05:53Oliver Spake: What else? Do you have any more bonbon jokes, Mel?

01:05:55Melissa Ellis: Oh, hang on. I'm just checking in my bonbon.

01:06:01Oliver Spake: I do.

01:06:03Melissa Ellis: It's a real legit one too.

01:06:04Oliver Spake: Oh. What, the other one wasn't?

01:06:08Melissa Ellis: Oh, no, no. I mean, I literally pulled it out of a bonbon right then.

01:06:14Oliver Spake: It sounded like you did. Great sound effects.

01:06:17Melissa Ellis: How do we know what Father Christmas has for dinner? I don't know. He posts it on InSantagram.

01:06:23Oliver Spake: Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. I like that one.

01:06:29Melissa Ellis: I've never heard that one before.

01:06:30Oliver Spake: No, nor have I. It's very modern.

01:06:33Melissa Ellis: It is.

01:06:35Oliver Spake: Well, unless you want me to get into the Harry Potter bonbon jokes, which is probably a little niche, I'll save them for Zali. Okay. I think that's it for the podcast. I think that's it for the year. So, Mel, thank you again very much for another year of podcasting and I hope you and everyone has a very happy and safe and merry Christmas and New Year. As always, everyone, you can contact us via Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. And like I say, that's it for another week. And we will see you all next year for more adventures.

01:07:16Melissa Ellis: Stay safe.

01:08:26Unidentified speaker: Hi, everyone, and I've got a Christmas joke for you. What do you sing on a snowman's birthday? Freeze a jolly good fellow. That's a Christmas birthday song for a snowman. Bye, adventurers. Stay safe. Merry Christmas.