Episode 317 - The Office Lady Option

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Welcome

00:00:24Sam Schroder: Hello and welcome to the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Sam Schroder, but you might know me as The Office Lady, and I'm recording this episode on Bundjalung Country. In episode 316, Mel and Ollie told us they'd be taking a week or two off, and I can confirm that they decided to go with the two-week option, giving them both a chance to recharge their batteries, ready for a full year of awesome podcast content in 2023. But, while they're relaxing, they ask me to look after Level 2 with a view, and not to just sit in the comfy chair, but to actually put together a bit of a summer-lite version of the pod for your listening pleasure. Mel, Ollie and I all hope you enjoy this special holidays episode. It was a fortuitous invitation as well because I am in fact on holidays right now, currently staying in a motel in Tweed Heads and having spent the last week on a road trip with Luke, which has included a lot of parkrun adventuring. The fun started with a run for me and a walk for Luke at Shellharbour parkrun on Christmas Eve. We both headed back there again on Christmas Day where I popped on the Run Director's vest and Luke had his first go of handing out finish tokens. While he was a bit nervous, I can tell you those tokens were in excellent hands. Very early on Boxing Day morning, we hopped into our car and headed north.

Roving report Sam Schroder — Coffs Harbour

00:01:54Sam Schroder: We were in Karuah for breakfast and Coffs Harbour for lunch, where we stopped to do a freedom walk of the beautiful parkrun course there. It's an out-and-back course with some shady bushland and some open path at the marina, all on concrete or asphalt. There is a perfect protected lagoon at the start finish. So we'll definitely be back for a summer Saturday and a post parkrun swim. Our first stop on the road trip was two nights in Maclean.

Roving report Sam Schroder — Yamba

00:02:26Sam Schroder: While we were there, we drove over to Yamba and we did a Freedom Walk of the parkrun course there, which is another beautiful course beside the water. This one is a two-lap course, mostly on a concrete path, but with a few hundred metres on grass. And again, we'd be very happy to return on a Saturday. We left Maclean on the 28th and we headed to Buderim on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

Roving report Sam Schroder — Brightwater

00:02:51Sam Schroder: A quick check of the parkrun map after we were settled told us that Brightwater was our NENDY. So we drove to the start finish and had a lovely sunset walk around this concrete path loop course around Brightwater Lake. The next day we explored Caloundra, which is a place where I lived for a couple of years as a child. It sure has changed a bit since then.

Roving report Sam Schroder — Golden Beach

00:03:16Sam Schroder: Luke chilled in the car while I had a sweaty run on the Golden Beach parkrun course. This is the spot for the zippy runners. It's a pretty much dead flat, out and back course, mostly concrete, but with a short section on boardwalk, which I loved. It's another one beside the water, this time the Pumicestone Passage.

Roving report Sam Schroder — Chermside

00:03:38Sam Schroder: On the 30th, we relocated again, this time to Brisbane, and it was a very short stroll from our apartment to the Chermside parkrun course, which we walked as the sun set and day became night. Not always the smartest idea on an unlit and unmarked bikeway. Whoops, thanks goodness for phone torches. Chermside is on the Downfall Creek bikeway, all on concrete, with a couple of cute little bridges to cross. I do love a bridge.

Roving report Sam Schroder — the Ipswich Queensland event

00:04:10Sam Schroder: Finally, it was Saturday again and we headed to the Ipswich Queensland event to collect our letter I. We had read the course description and if we're honest, we weren't expecting very much. Loops and out and backs inside a park doesn't look all that appealing on a screen, but this parkrun is an absolutely hidden gem. It is hilly. They're not undulations. These are genuine hills. On concrete paths, you go up, you come down, you go up further, you zoom down a decent downhill, you turn around here and you turn around there and you do it all twice. Most of the course is visible from most of the course, which I found genuinely delightful as a back of the packer. I'm not going to lie to you, I was pretty pleased with my pace on the Ipswich course because of how tough I found it. But about half an hour before I was done, Izzi Batt-Doyle was already having a drink and a lie down after breaking the parkrun female record over at Aldinga Beach parkrun in South Australia with an astonishing 15 minutes and 25 seconds. Izzi is the current 3,000 metre champion of South Australia. She ran 10,000 metres at the Commonwealth Games in August last year. That's last year, 2022, in case you're still in cheese and pudding mode and didn't realise, it's 2023 now. She also ran the 5,000 metres at the Olympics in 2021. Shout out to my mate Bonkers, I mean Michael Gentle, for those stats, by the way. I did also find out, thanks to Athletics Weekly, that Izzi's best 5,000 metres on track is 15 minutes and 14 seconds and she's a two-hour, 28-minute marathon runner, which, in case you weren't sure, is really, really fast. Speaking of stats, courtesy of a man named Colin Phillips in the parkrun Stats Geek group, I have a very cool statistic about the gap between the New Year's Eve parkrun events across the world and those the next day on New Year's Day. According to Colin, event teams in North America were encouraged by email to get cracking on the New Year's Eve results so that the tech people at parkrun headquarters could do their behind-the-scenes magic ahead of the first results of 2023. Now, Colin acknowledged in his post that this was a reasonable request and he decided he was curious enough to do some digging about exactly how big this gap was. Turns out it's very likely that the last person to finish a parkrun in 2022 was the Tail Walker at Mundy parkrun in, uh-oh, where's Ollie when I need him? I think it's pronounced Coquitlam in British Columbia in Canada in a time of one hour, 10 minutes and 33 seconds. Meanwhile, over at Gisborne parkrun in New Zealand, they were just setting up. And just one hour, four minutes and 16 seconds after that Tail Walker finished in Canada, the first finisher at Gisborne crossed the finish line in a kind of astonishing time of 14 minutes and 49 seconds. For goodness sake. According to Colin, it won't be possible for parkruns across two years to be that close together again for another 11 years. He even surmised that if there was a parkrun in Hawaii by then, it could be possible for the last person to finish parkrun in 2033 to arrive after the first finisher of 2034. That's wild. And another really cool statistic from New Year's Eve and New Year's Day is Sally Gucci at San Remo and Phil Gore over in Western Australia, who both ran Groundhog Day for the Saturday and Sunday events. I wonder how many people around the world manage those Groundhog Day figures in such close proximity. I wonder if it's ever been done before. interesting. And so to New Year's Day.

Roving report Sam Schroder — Zillmere

00:08:34Sam Schroder: For Luke and I this meant a short drive to Zillmere where we were met by the lovely Lyndell who was filling the Timekeeper role. I donned the parkwalker vest and Luke and I enjoyed a lovely walk of the course chatting to two really lovely local ladies who were passionate about their home event. The course is all grass and I can imagine it would present quite a challenge in rainy weather. Two laps of what looks like a twisty turning course is actually a really logical case of keeping the boundaries to your right at all times. One of those rare parkruns where the run briefing includes an instruction to stay right instead of staying left. After parkrun, Lyndell, Luke and I went to a local cafe and enjoyed a lovely long park faff session before Lyndell headed off for a run home. From there, Luke and I headed back to the Zillmere course where we did it all again. Having come so far to collect the Z for our alphabet, Then my luck at finding the opportunity to volunteer was still available just a few days before the event, which meant I had the Z for my volunteer alphabet as well. Well, we couldn't resist completing a freedom walk as well so we could have a Z in our freedom alphabet. Believe it or not, we still have three more stops, six more freedom walks or runs, and one more proper parkrun to complete before we head home. By the time we're finished, we aim to have completed 14 parkruns in 14 days. But my goodness, that is more than enough about our adventuring. Let's have a look at yours.

Dazza's

00:10:09Sam Schroder: Dazza opened at special times over the festive season, allowing everyone time to share their adventures across Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day for two of our adventurers who were in Poland, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. And what a lot of lovely posts we got. Thank you to everyone who takes the time week in, week out to share in Dazza's. We really love reading all of your comments and seeing all of your lovely pictures. The more you share, the more content I have to put together for the albums on Monday nights, which, by the way, will be back on the 9th of January. Let's start with our consistent contributors to Dazza's, the Bailey Shots, who are back together again over the Christmas period in New Zealand. Brett, Tanya and Bec have shared lots of lovely pics over the two weekends. Bec told us after the first big weekend... Merry Christmas, Dazza and adventurers. On Saturday, I went to Broad Park parkrun, a one-loop course with a slight incline in the middle. On Sunday, Christmas Day, I joined the other Baileys out at Pegasus, where I welcomed first-timers with my course shirt, otherwise known as my costume from palm22. I then had Brunner duties and we ran around the course. Back home for Christmas lunch, a catch up with some family I have not seen in three years. Now, just a side note here, since Bec mentioned costumes and Palm, plans for palm23 are well underway and Mel and Ollie will be sharing lots of details about all the events that will be happening over in Perth in April. One announcement that I know a lot of listeners are looking forward to is the theme for the Saturday night Palm party. Stay tuned for that announcement very soon. I'm also putting the finishing touches to what I hope will be a very exciting merchandise announcement for Palm as well this month. Stay tuned. M. Nico popped into Dazza's as well to say hi. She said, last week we wore blue at Kirra parkrun for my colleagues, so I cracked out the Ugly Christmas Singlet on Christmas Eve instead. M is referring to the tragic loss of two police officers on duty prior to Christmas and we all at the parkrun adventurers podcast want to say thank you to M and to all serving police officers for the selfless and sometimes dangerous work that you do. We appreciate you. Claire Stutchbury and Jack Corkhill were at it again with some extreme touristing. Claire wrote, Merry Christmas. We kicked off with a very early 2.45am start and a longish drive to Casino for Queen Elizabeth parkrun on Saturday, stayed in Lismore and woke up at a reasonable hour on Christmas to do Lismore parkrun. Both great communities to celebrate with. And what about our podcast hosts? Ollie was RD at Shellharbour on Christmas Eve and had a rare morning off on Christmas morning to spend time with his family. Meanwhile, Mel popped into Dazza's to say, I enjoyed an overnighter to Lake Wallace on Saturday, while Sunday morning was spent with friends at Toolern Creek. Now, over the New Year's weekend, we had lots more lovely visitors to Dazza's. Carmel Roll had a big adventure. She said, And on New Year's Day, I went out to Bargara parkrun before heading back to Bundaberg to catch the southbound tilt train back. I met so many wonderful people over the weekend. Andrea Booth popped in and said, the past 10 days have been a great opportunity to explore some extra parkruns. I ran at Ovens River Trail in Myrtleford and Rosebud, as well as volunteering as photographer at Dawson Recreation Reserve, all three in Victoria. Now, I think this is where Mel would say something about the greatest state or whatever, but Mel's not here, so we can skip that bit. Although, speaking of Mel, she wasn't in Victoria over New Year's. She had a big adventure in South Australia instead, where she joined the O'Connells for some parkrunning fun. Jacqui popped into Dazza's to say, over in South Australia, another two new events, Saturday at Shiraz Trail and Sunday at Torrens. A great weekend parkrunning with friends and meeting more of the parkrun family. A chocolate milkshake, please, Dazza. It has been hot over here. And TOC said, visiting South Australia, did two with Jacqui and Mel and caught up with the wine drinkers at the mothership for post-Parky faff. Now, listeners, I have to say, I've heard of the mothership that is Lochiel Park faff that's gone on well into the afternoon. I can just imagine the fun TOC, Jacqui and Mel had with Janet and her gang. Michael Sharp shared some amazing photos from the Beaches, including a hilarious shot of him doing a handstand in a wave with his face completely underwater. Oops, I don't think that's quite how the parkwalker is supposed to do it, Michael. If you'd like to see all of the contributions to the Dazza posts, I highly recommend checking them out on our Facebook page.

Consolidated Club Report

00:15:50Sam Schroder: We also had a couple of special abridged versions of the Consolidated Club Report over the festive season. On Saturday the 24th of December, 289 of our club members took part at 150 locations. There were 19 events in the UK, two in South Africa, one in Ireland and one in Singapore. Locally, we had 33 events in Victoria, 30 in New South Wales, 29 in Queensland, 10 in Western Australia, 7 in South Australia, 5 in Tasmania, 4 in the ACT and 3 on the South Island.

the Frond

00:16:33Sam Schroder: The largest fronds on Christmas Eve were at Shellharbour and The Ponds. Hey, I was at Shellharbour! On Sunday 25th of December, 251 members took part in 114 locations. There were 18 events in the UK. Locally, there were adventurers at 24 events in Victoria, 22 in Queensland, 20 in New South Wales, 8 in South Australia, 7 in Western Australia and five in Tasmania, five on the North Island, three on the South Island and two in the ACT. The largest fronds were at the Ponds and Lewis Park Reserve. On Monday 26 December, there were two adventurers at two events in Poland. On Saturday 31 December, 298 adventurers took part at 165 locations. There were 17 events in the UK, two in South Africa, two in the USA, two in Singapore and one in Ireland. Locally, there were 38 events in Victoria, 34 in New South Wales, 27 in Queensland, 14 in South Australia. It looks like Mel and a crowd of adventuring Victorians have boosted those numbers. 10 in Western Australia, 6 in the ACT, 5 on the North Island and 2 on the South Island. The largest fronds were at Ginninderra in the ACT, Scribbly Gums Conservation in Queensland and the Ponds again in New South Wales. On Sunday the 1st of January 2023, 275 parkrun Adventurers Club members took part across 130 locations. There were 17 events in the UK, three in South Africa, one in Germany, one in Ireland, one in Singapore and one in the USA. Locally, there were 30 Victorian events, 25 in New South Wales, 23 in Queensland, nine in South Australia, six in Western Australia, five in Tasmania, four on the North Island, three on the South Island and just the one event, which was the only one running in the ACT. The largest frond, was it Jerrabomberra? I've forgotten what the pronunciation rule is. Don't edit this out, boss. Jerrabomberra, I think that's correct. Making this episode for you and for Mel and Ollie so they could take a break has been so much fun. Hopefully it wasn't too dull to just listen to me waffling on all this time. In case it has been, good news.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:19:30Sam Schroder: I sent out a little invitation to the Channel 5 News crew to say hello to you all. I asked them to let us know what their parkrun resolutions or goals were for 2023. Let's have a listen to what they had to say.

00:19:53Alison Fraser (King): Kia ora adventurers, it's Alison here and my main 2023 parkrun goal is to complete Couch to 5k and be able to run an entire parkrun again. My other goals which are a little bit more arbitrary are to increase my p-index from five to seven and to complete a university challenge of running all four parkruns around the world that start with the word university and I will complete that at palm which I am so looking forward to can't wait to parkrun with lots of awesome people this year see ya [Te Reo Māori: "Hello / be well, adventurers"]

00:20:31Tracey Wood: Hello parkrunners, it's Tracey in a Tutu here. Have I got any goals for 2023? Absolutely no. No, no, I don't. I did have goals in 2020, but look how that turned out. So this year, I guess you could call it a goal. I just intend to keep going to parkrun every week, having fun, meeting people, chatting to people, enjoying parkrun and just doing what I keep doing. That's about it. Not exciting, but I love it and it makes me happy. Have a good day, folks.

00:21:06Lyndell Murray: Take care. Bye. G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell here and today I'm coming to you from the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people at home in Brisbane. Now, during 2023, I should be on track to reach my 250 event milestone and also my 50 volunteer milestone and hopefully also join the Cowell Club, but I've got a few other plans as well. I'm also hoping that I can increase my P-Index to 10. And by the end of 2023, I'm also hoping to have volunteered at least once at each of my P-Index events. Now, sounds like a lot. On paper, it's... Sounds great. I don't know whether it's actually achieved them all. I do not know at this point whether there's enough parkrun days in the calendar to get this done. But look, what I'm hoping is that it will at least help me to plan a few adventures and also guide me when I'm making those very last minute plans on parkrun Eve on Friday night, figuring out where I'm going to go. Hopefully it will provide a bit of structure and guidance to me. Happy 2023, everybody.

00:22:16Tony O'Connell: Howdy, parkrunners. Toc from Inverloch. I hope everyone's had a really safe and enjoyable new year. My parkrun goals for the year are to get to a parkrun every week and try to either volunteer or run or walk every week. And my big, hairy, ambitious goal is to get to 10 new countries this year on a big trip that we've got planned. Stay safe, everyone. Have a great year at parkrun. Cheers. Toc.

00:22:43Paul Kitching: G'day legends, PK here reporting in from South Australia. First up, thanks Mel and Ollie for keeping this fine podcast alive and a shout out to my fellow roving reporters for the marvellous reports we send through sharing the ever-growing number of parkrun courses with the ever-growing parkrun world. So what are my 2023 parkrun resolutions or goals? Well, definitely doing more parkruns in 2023 now that there's no more Saturday morning sport in our house, hurrah. And that interconnects with two things, getting back on track towards my PB, not that I'll make it back down to the 24 minutes this year, but at least knocking two minutes off my current average. So aiming for... I suppose sub 28 by the end of the year, if I can. And the other interconnect thingy-me-bob with doing more parkruns is, of course, doing more roving reports. I do promise. Happy New Year to you all. PK signing off. Cheers.

00:23:40Unidentified speaker: Happy New Year, Mel and Ollie, and all the adventurers, wherever you might be. David currently in Adelaide. And my goals for this year are fairly simple. I'd like to participate in an event every weekend. I'm hopefully getting close to completing the Date Bingo Challenge. I think another six, seven... eight or nine years, and that should be done. And the other one, for those who don't know it, there's a chart that's produced by Charlie Pierce. You can find it on the parkrun Stats Geek group, where you compare the number of runs to the number of different events that you've done. And if you take a look at that chart, you'll understand this. I'd like to remain as a dot on that chart. So there you have it, fairly simple. Main thing of course, and hopefully everyone else is doing this, just trying to get out there and enjoying the parkrun events and all the people there. All the best.

00:24:31Mark Scarborough: Hello parkrun adventurers. This is Mark from the Channel 5 News crew and wishing you all a very happy new year for 2023. And just a little recording for you now to talk about what my parkrun goals are for 2023. I'm hoping to get my parkrun times back down under the sub 25 minutes, and if I can get that at the undulating Wagi Bridge parkrun course I'd be happy with that as well. Also looking to get my 250 parkruns completed in this year and looking to complete some overseas parkruns. One of the other goals that I did have for this year was to complete the Compass Challenge. In 2020 and 21 we completed the northernmost, the southernmost and the westernmost parkruns, just leaving the easternmost parkrun left to go. However, westernmost parkrun has now changed so we're gonna have to probably look to do the easternmost parkrun sometime soon and then uh look if we can get back over to Western Australia again that's mark reporting in for the channel 5 news group happy 2023 adventurers my hope for us all is to parkrun walk volunteer to our hearts content for the whole of this year and continue to find health fun and friendship along the way

00:25:45Unidentified speaker: For this year, I do have a few parkrun goals, apart from maintaining a complete set of events in the regions close to my heart. That's Namibia, Eswatini, the Free State, the Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape. I'd really like to get that elusive Q for the alphabet challenge. It's been in the waiting for more than three years. Then I'd love to run a parkrun in the four remaining of these 22 South African regions I've not visited. And I think it would really be awesome to complete the original and South African compass challenges. Anything more than that will just be a bonus. Happy parkrunning.

00:26:21Sarah Jefferson: Happy 2023, adventurers. It's Sarah here from the West Side, although I'm currently on the east side, ticking off four of the Victorian parkruns. So, some goals for 2023. Alphabeteer status. I've only got the O to go. Second goal, I'd like to conduct some interviews at parkruns starting with different letters of the alphabet, eventually making my way from A to Z. Third goal, stopwatch bingo. I only have the five second increment to go. It's taken me 248 parkruns currently. Let's see if 2023 is the year. I'd like to tick off three new countries for parkrun. And my fifth one, my super exciting goal is showcase the beauty of the West Coast to many of adventurers. Really excited about everybody joining for Palm in 2023. It truly is magnificent over here. Have a great year, guys, and happy goal setting. Over and out.

Sign-off

00:27:19Sam Schroder: Those are some seriously interesting and exciting plans our news crew have for 2023. Personally, Luke and I have made some goals as well. We plan on spending one weekend a month doing non-participation volunteer roles. We're especially keen to give some volleys a break who might be the ones to put their hands up without fail every week and forego a run. We also plan to visit 20 new events. I finished the year on 70 locations from 133 parkruns and Luke has been to 65 locations from 109 parkruns. We're certainly hoping to boost those numbers. And in April at Palm, I will be joining the Peel Club. Luke's going to need to visit the Northern Territory to join me in that club at some point in the future. Before I wrap up and say my goodbyes, I just need to ask, have you seen our Christmas gift to you on the Facebook page? Have you already downloaded it, printed it, stuck it on your fridge, ticked things off? Or are you keen for a special Office Lady edition printed on coloured card complete with a sheet of logo stickers for marking off the challenges as you complete them? Remember, you can enjoy this gift from us absolutely free, but if you would like to buy the Office Lady Special, orders close on Sunday night, the 8th of January, so don't miss out. Comment on the post where the gift is shared or email us at theparkrunadventurers at gmail.com email address to receive a message from me with all of the ordering details. I really hope you've enjoyed this summer lite episode of the parkrun adventurers podcast. As usual, you can reach us via our Facebook, Instagram or Twitter pages or by emailing us at parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. Wherever you're parkrunning this weekend, have fun.

00:29:10[outro theme playing]