— open the full-size coverEpisode 318 - parkrun, if you’re listening
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Episode 318 - parkrun, if you’re listening · 2023-01-11
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Source: https://log.5kadventures.net/transcripts/ep318.html · The Adventurers Log · An independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by parkrun.
Welcome
Oliver Spake: Welcome to episode 318 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. I am Ollie Spake. I am joining once again in the new year this time from Dharawal Country.
Melissa Ellis: And I am Melissa Ellis and me and Bluey are coming to you from Wurundjeri Country. So I do apologise for the very noisy budgerigar in the background, but we're celebrating new year. Happy new year, Ollie.
[other]
Oliver Spake: Happy New Year, Mel. And when you said you were watching your tweets closely, I didn't think that that's what you meant. Yes. Bomb bomb jokes are still around. That's right.
Melissa Ellis: But we should thank the Office Lady for stepping in and recording an episode last week for us. Yes. Sam Summer Series.
Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. Hugely appreciative and hope that that has kept several adventurers company whilst out there on some of those summer fun journeys near and far because there have been some big adventures.
Melissa Ellis: They have. Did you have a good Christmas in your year, Ollie? What have you been up to?
Oliver Spake: I've been close to home. I had a lot of family time over Christmas, which was lovely, and then a week to recover. It was a very social time and had the opportunity to spend Christmas not just with some of the usual sides of the family, but my sister from Melbourne joining and my brother coming down from Sydney with his girls. So, and my cousin from Queensland. So yeah, yeah, lots of catch-ups and some nice time at home to work on a few things and just take a bit of a break from work and everything.
Melissa Ellis: Did you enjoy the deck?
Oliver Spake: I did. I did very much enjoy the deck, particularly when it was sunny. Unfortunately, it was sunny for quite a big proportion of that time. So yeah, much dining on the deck was done.
Melissa Ellis: Because there has been a lot of rain up your way as well. I know we're always talking about the weather, but the Sydney test, wasn't it? I've seen statistics about days lost to rain in Sydney for the tests.
Oliver Spake: That's right. I thought you said statistics there for a second. Yeah, which I thought was a play on words of the test. But, yes, I did see that same statistic which suggested Sydney has a pretty unfortunate track record when it comes to these international five-day test matches in the cricket summer series. And what was it, like 25 days lost at least on the day I looked at it compared to the next worst of nine or something along those lines?
Melissa Ellis: Mm-hmm.
Unidentified speaker: Mm-hmm.
Oliver Spake: Yes.
Melissa Ellis: Lucky you've got a pretty harbour.
Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. When we can see it through the rain clouds. Yeah, yeah. But fortunately, Mel, it wasn't too wet over that period. Excellent. Just at the cricket ground.
[crosstalk]
Melissa Ellis: I'll stop talking over you now.
Oliver Spake: That's all right. New year, new habits, but some will always stay. And my inability to know when to finish a sentence is definitely one of those. What about you? How was Christmas and New Year, Mel?
Melissa Ellis: parkrun wise? Let's go straight to parkrun wise. So I've been really busy. So out of the four parkruns up for grabs over that Christmas, New Year period, I picked up three new events, which I was pretty happy about. And they have been recapped last week by the Office Lady going through Dazza's for us. But just to let you know, I was Christmas Eve. I headed out on an overnight camping trip to Lake Wallace, out in Edenhope with some of my local Victorian parkrun friends, enjoyed that course around, funnily enough, Lake Wallace.
Oliver Spake: Yep.
Melissa Ellis: And I had ran around that lake before, and I can't remember if I mentioned this. Probably might have. Anyway, I had stayed previously in Edenhope and ran around that lake before they created the parkrun. On Christmas Day, I was home at Toolern Creek, shared with none other than Mr. Brendan Peel and the lovely Jodie Maisie. Toolern Creek's course record went off too.
Oliver Spake: Wow.
Melissa Ellis: Yes, on Christmas Day.
Oliver Spake: That's a big one, yes.
Melissa Ellis: That was a bit exciting. Diamond Creek parkrunner and Westerfolds juniors volunteer was out at Toolern Creek ticking off a run there. I'm trying to think of his name. It's escaped my brain. That's really annoying.
Oliver Spake: Thomas. Thomas. Thomas Martin.
Melissa Ellis: Yes. He came over and wiped quite a substantial amount of time off Toolern Creek's course record and ran his first sub-16. So congratulations, Thomas, and he is an adventurer. So that was a bit exciting.
Oliver Spake: And at the creek, wow.
Melissa Ellis: At the creek. Yeah, see, it all happens at the creek. So then New Year, I went over to SA. So I spent a lovely week over there enjoying the weather, the nice hot weather over in McLaren Vale. Ticked, I shouldn't say ticked off all the time. It's not a, it just feels like it's box ticking, but it actually wasn't. I've stayed in McLaren Vale before the parkrun was there. It's a lovely little town. In the wine region, actually, there's lots of vineyards. And the Shiraz Trail parkrun runs alongside the vineyards. And the caravan park that I stayed in is amongst the vineyards. So it's a very lovely little part of South Australia. I enjoyed the New Year's Eve parkrun there with TOC and Jacqui O'Connell and Dawn Branton, another Victorian tourist who was out also sampling South Australian parkruns. Then on New Year's Day, we went to Torrens and I enjoyed a lovely run along the river. Trying to think of the name of the river. Do you know what's the main river that goes through Adelaide?
Oliver Spake: Is it the Torrens River?
Melissa Ellis: It is, isn't it? Oh, my God.
Oliver Spake: I thought you were just being very kind to me.
Melissa Ellis: No, of course it's the Torrens. Oh, my God. Yeah, there you go. That's what we did. Numbers were down at Torrens for a New Year run as well. They usually get big numbers, but I believe there was more New Year's Day runs happening around Adelaide than... has ever been before, which probably accounted for the dropping numbers at Torrens.
Oliver Spake: Yeah. Well, that's wonderful that there were more events for people to enjoy and clearly a spread of people getting out there for New Year's Day then. Not so in some of the other parts. I had understood that there was only one event in the ACT on New Year's Day running. So well done, Team Tharwa Bridge, if I've got my facts straight. But
Melissa Ellis: No, I do believe you're correct.
Oliver Spake: Yeah. Judging by the fact that they were more than four times their attendance of the events the day before, it sounds like it was a big one. Absolutely. But that's some adventure, Mel. It was. Were you tired?
Melissa Ellis: No, no, because I had a nice relaxing week just hanging around, hanging around in the pool, going to the beach. Shh. Just chilling.
Oliver Spake: A nice way to spend it.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah, it was.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah. I would love to take the drive out west of Melbourne and head out that far one day. I keep looking up that. Of course, it's much closer to Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road run in May as well.
Melissa Ellis: I've done that a few times. Imagining that. Have you? Yeah.
Oliver Spake: Oh.
Melissa Ellis: Uh-huh.
Oliver Spake: Yeah. It looks beautiful. It's a brilliant event.
Melissa Ellis: You should. You should do it.
Oliver Spake: I do need something to aim for. Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah. It's very iconic. It's actually come up like in some sort of list of iconic marathons that I've seen before. Beautiful views along that great ocean road.
Oliver Spake: Yeah. It would be a nice way to see it. That's for sure.
Melissa Ellis: And hills. You like hills.
Oliver Spake: I love hills. I absolutely love hills. Oh, well, well done, Mel. That's a busy festive season.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah, my Christmas present was three new events to explore and enjoy and more friends to meet. Yes. But it didn't stop there, Ollie, because we just had another weekend.
Oliver Spake: Yes, yes, more parkrun.
Melissa Ellis: And I turned my little green car around and guess where I went? I went back to South Australia. I hadn't had enough. I thought, no, I've got the time. Why not? I'm not working in January. I've got the whole month off. Yep. My time's my own. I wasn't editing. Well, a little bit of editing for the summer series, but that was really quick. Yep. So I was able to have all my chores done in time for heading back over to South Australia on Friday so I could run at Strathalbyn parkrun.
Oliver Spake: Oh, wow. Wow.
Melissa Ellis: So out in the Adelaide Hills, out Mount Barker territory.
Oliver Spake: Yep, yep.
Melissa Ellis: Lovely little shady double out and back course out there at Strathalbyn. And, yeah, smallish numbers. I think they were around the 50. I ran. So, oh, there's another thing, Ollie. I'm back running. I'm very excited.
Oliver Spake: That's wonderful. How's it feeling?
Melissa Ellis: Good.
Oliver Spake: That's really good.
Melissa Ellis: So my first run back was Shiraz Trail and I hadn't even planned to run. I just took off when they called the start and managed to run the whole thing without stopping, which I was really glad because, you know, I'd had eight weeks off running and I wasn't sure how much fitness I would have lost in eight weeks and whether I'd be capable of keeping up. Like it wasn't a fast pace, but, you know, it's not a race.
Oliver Spake: That's right.
Melissa Ellis: I was just happy to maintain a steady pace and complete that. And then so I ran again at Strathalbyn. Has a little bit of elevation but nothing really drastic. And so the ankle's feeling really good. I actually think the week away in South Australia, away from my staircase at home, probably did it the wrong way.
Oliver Spake: Ah, okay, okay. So does that mean you're off to South Australia again this weekend just to keep away from the staircase? No spoilers.
[laughter]
Unidentified speaker: Ha!
Melissa Ellis: But I will be back in South Australia end of the month. Okay, wow. So South Australia is seeing a lot of me at the moment. But what about you, Ollie? You were mostly, I think you were just all at home.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, just as well one of us is adventuring here. You're making up for the both of us here. I have indeed been at home. Yes, I have been for all except Christmas Day at Shellharbour parkrun in the volunteer ranks. I've taken the opportunity to run direct for Christmas Eve and then New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. It's always a nice time on New Year's Day to run, to welcome everyone in for their, you know, their fresh start to the New Year. And because we always enjoy a lot of visitors, that's been a particular highlight. Got some selfies with some of the visitors from Sweden and Finland. Wow. For the in-laws, try and impress the in-laws. But, you know, people from South Africa, you know, Scotland, England, of course, Ireland. Yeah, all over, all over. I've probably forgotten many.
Melissa Ellis: Hope they signed the guest book. Most of them signed the guest book.
Oliver Spake: Some of them did miss it, but, yeah, we got most of them. It's a pride of place there in our kit, eight and a half years and still going strong, that guest book. It takes a bit of take to hold it together, but nonetheless. But, you know, we had our fastest time on the new course. We had our highest attendance on the new course. We had the fortune of having a guest Run Director on Christmas Day as The Office Lady herself took the reins and brought parkrun to Shellharbour on Christmas Day. And I made the point of jumping up and visiting for the last 20 minutes of that to say hello to people after presents had been unwrapped. And, yeah, some great help from others. So very much a home time and this parkrun day just gone. Once again, I was at home. I just did some barcode scanning.
Melissa Ellis: There's no place like home.
Oliver Spake: There's no place like home. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. But, look, the adventures will come at some point, but it's been nice to lay low. But it seems the Office Lady's been quite busy. Do we have any feedback from the Office Lady's episode or are we casting our minds back to episode 316?
Melissa Ellis: Oh, this goes back even further, doesn't it? This is back to when, well, when did Jo McLean get her Obi?
Oliver Spake: Ah, yes. Oh, well, it was indeed before Christmas. Yeah, that's right. So... Needless to say, because that was a very rusty throw from one thing to the other. Poor Ollie. You'll warm up.
Melissa Ellis: It's okay.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's right. There's plenty of months yet for that. But, yeah, thank you, Joe, who got in touch with a bit of feedback from the last episode and said, Hi, Mel and Ollie. Happy New Year. I'm still in 2022 in the USA. Did Delaware and Raritan Canal parkrun in New Jersey this morning? which was fun, albeit foggy and cold. I wanted to say thanks for the Obi Award before Christmas. We had a lot of fun dressing up before Christmas and ugly shirt a singlet day. I got quite honoured. I hadn't listened to that episode and had friends congratulating me and I didn't know what for. So thanks again. By the way, from ages ago, Mel asked about the virtual Medibank selfie frame. It is a free symbol or addition when you edit your photos in Instagram. I just found it by accident when I searched for parkrun. Have a great 2023. Thanks for the podcast. Your efforts are very much appreciated, as is your feedback. Thank you, Jo.
Melissa Ellis: Excellent. Oh, good. I'm going to go looking for that Insta frame. That's good to know.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, and I hope it's been a nice trip.
Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah, over in the USA. That's pretty exciting. Christmas over there. It's a big trip.
Mel on the spot
Melissa Ellis: But, Ollie, you know what else was exciting? And I was over in, again, in SA. SA has been the place to be.
Oliver Spake: Mel on the spot, yeah.
Melissa Ellis: On the spot I was, not too far from Aldinga Beach, where, as the Office Lady reported last week, and we got out in our socials as quick as I could possibly type, my little fingers could go, Isobel Batt-Doyle broke the women's parkrun world record on New Year's Eve. Yes. So our friends over with me now, they've already had a conversation about it last week, Danny and Nicola, and... Danny did say that he wondered if she'd had a crack at the record. So I reached out to the ED over at Aldinga Beach to see what I could find out from him. His name is John Market... Oh, Molly, how do you say that?
Oliver Spake: I'd say Marquetis, but sorry, John, I haven't checked that.
Melissa Ellis: Thank you. Anyway, this is what John had to say in reply to my question. He said she was paced by her coach and boyfriend Riley Cox, Riley's brother Jacob, and there was a large contingent of runners from her group Run As One run by Riley and Jacob. Izzy had held our female course record since Newsday 2020 at 17 minutes 35 and And in our local Sunday News Corp RAG, she mentions her tradition of record-breaking at parkrun around the New Year events. This also extends to Riley and Jacob, actually, because they dead-heated on New Year's Day in 2021 and set a new male event record of 14.59, which Jacob then beat on New Year's Day 2022 at 14.52. So I've got a good feeling, Ollie, that they are very well aware of course records and they enjoy using their New Year's Day extra events to have a crack.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, and good on them. I look forward to seeing what happens this time next year. No pressure. But, yeah, look, it keeps going, doesn't it?
Melissa Ellis: It does.
Oliver Spake: Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: So I did my best to find out what I could. Thank you.
Oliver Spake: And that was Mel on the spot. But look, speaking of achievements, the heads up came to us and you have checked up on the status of Paul Freyne and obviously building up the number of locations there. He has run his 600th location out of 644 runs, this time at Marecchia in Italy on Saturday just gone, which is just incomprehensible in a very good way from my perspective. 600 locations, yeah.
Melissa Ellis: I did fact check that to make sure. Yes.
Oliver Spake: Thank you, Mel. Good researching and well done, Paul. But yeah, unfortunately, as we know, Mel, there's no milestone tee for a 600th event, is there?
Melissa Ellis: No, but that's a contentious topic, Ollie.
Unidentified speaker: Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: This week it was going off on Twitter when parkrun CEO Russ Jeffery made a stir when he tweeted, feels like it's about time we introduce some new parkrun milestones, fill in some gaps. One for every 50 or 100? What colour should they be? Well, Ollie, these sent the traditionalists in. into meltdown it had 29 retreat it had 29 retweets and 245 responses most of the comments calling for the current milestone shirts to be retained with the possible addition of its 750 and a 1000 lots of controversy but Russ later added really interesting views on this love the passion and discussion I'm only thinking out loud no decision made other than there will be a 1000 so what's your thoughts Ollie what's your thoughts on this well I think that uh
Oliver Spake: There have been a number of individuals out there celebrating their 25th parkrun with a purple shirt. I have been ecstatic to get my green volunteer shirt and get to wear that. I think that there will be a lot of individuals that would welcome more and more milestone shirts. So you're...
Melissa Ellis: I'm pro. You're pro. You're pro.
Oliver Spake: I'm pro.
Melissa Ellis: Give us all the shirts.
Oliver Spake: Yep, change it up. I'm all World Cup, 48 countries, no worries. Sorry, soccer reference slipped into old habits there. Change is good.
Melissa Ellis: Okay. No, that's good to know. So what do you think, every 50? Because people do like the round numbers as well, don't they? People love to celebrate their 200th, their 300th, et cetera, et cetera.
Oliver Spake: Well, that's right, that's right. And it's probably it's now the commercial hat that I have as well that thinks, well, does that mean some of them need to actually cost and does that make it inequitable? So I guess my caveat to being all change is is it sustainable for this initiative, this charity that is there for our people to continue being there for our people?
Melissa Ellis: Do you think it could potentially cost more money to produce more T-shirts? Is that where you're going with that?
Unidentified speaker: Ah.
Oliver Spake: I would wonder if as many people would get the additional shirts. I don't know. Would there be as much demand for a 150 shirt for those that have obviously passed that milestone? Probably not. But then everyone that's reaching it from here on in and going on that journey, yeah, maybe so. So, yeah, raw thoughts, unqualified thoughts. So, yeah, maybe it's not a concern.
Melissa Ellis: I've heard a lot of people say that once they've passed their milestone, they get their new shirt, they've never worn their old one again. Like they've never worn their 50 again. But I have. I pull mine out regularly. Like, you know, there's always a red theme or a friend doing a 50th or an event's 50th event, that you pull out, well, I have those old event tees and wear again. The red one's always good at Christmas time because it's red and it matches in nicely with the colours of Christmas. I often wear the black one because I like to think it's slimming. So I'm quite often happy if I'm feeling like I ate too much the night before, I'll just wear my black one to parkrun. I don't care that it's 100 and I've done more than that. It doesn't bother me. Yeah.
Oliver Spake: I'm with you. I'm with you. Right down to the reason for wearing the black, yeah. The red one, however, I wear that in the colder months because it feels a bit warmer.
Melissa Ellis: And also I just colour coordinate. Like if I'm wearing my running leggings that are the purpley ones, well, I'll wear my volunteer shirt because it matches.
Unidentified speaker: Yep, yep.
Melissa Ellis: So I'm all about the colour coordination and all the colours. And, you know, it looks good to like all the colours of the rainbow and sometimes you can coordinate your tutu if you want.
Oliver Spake: Well, yes, yes.
Melissa Ellis: With a nicely coloured volunteer shirt. But you know what I do think? Now, this is just me adding my two cents in. What I wish they had done, Ollie, I wish all the volunteer shirts in increments, I wish they just had left that with purple. I wish the volunteer 50 and 100 and 250, I wish they just kept them all purple because I just, to me, purple represents the volunteers.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, I hear what you're saying. And having seen, and I haven't done my fact checking, I'm definitely not only in the spot here, having seen the incoming vests, volunteer vests that will be coming out in Australia, not being orange. I know that, you know, formerly we had green, light green, dark green vests. Orange and purple have been synonymous with volunteering for me as well. So, yeah, I certainly share that. What's the word? That linkage. Oh, dear.
Melissa Ellis: And here we are saying change is good. We should embrace change, but don't change the colour of our shirts. We don't like it. Just completely contradicted myself.
Oliver Spake: Well, there we are. I'll admit I have emotional attachment, but change it. It's good. I love new ideas. Bring it on.
Melissa Ellis: No, see, they're going to be red, aren't they?
Oliver Spake: They're going to be red.
Melissa Ellis: Australia's volunteer vests are going to come out with the Velcro, much like the model that we have of our Run Director vests currently.
Oliver Spake: And our parkwalkers.
Melissa Ellis: And they're going to be red. Now, my understanding as to the reason they're going to be red is because that's kind of Medicare's colour and Medicare is our presenting partner and that is why they're going to be red. Now, would that not fit in with in the UK having their pink? And I know that Vitality logo is pink.
Oliver Spake: Yes. Yes. That does certainly make sense in terms of that affiliation. Is that the word I was looking for? I'm not sure. But, yeah, the red will stand out. And I suppose the more milestone tees that we have, milestone shirts, milestone singlets and buffs and so forth, the more likelihood there will be a colour that matches it anyway. So gone are the days where it is, I suppose, unique, even if we've got our red 50 shirt, we've got our red vests and there is a bit of change. Reaching the milestone and celebrating it and finding more ways to celebrate that, I still think it's good.
Melissa Ellis: We better move on.
Oliver Spake: Yes, sorry, we dwell, we dwell. Yeah, well, time to hand to some people that probably have themselves together a bit more than I do at this point, reintroducing myself to parkrun for the year and podcasting. So we've got a couple of roving reports.
Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew
Oliver Spake: In fact, so many that we aren't bringing you all of them this week, but let's have a listen to a few of our roving reports from our parkrun days over the weeks just gone.
Roving report Paul Kitching — Lochiel
Paul Kitching: Well, g'day, parkrun adventurers. It's PK checking in for probably the last time this year, but you're probably not hearing it till the new year, as I am at Lochiel. Well, in the car, about to get out. Lochiel parkrun in Campbelltown, about to do the Christmas Eve parkrun, and I thought I'd just check in with a bit of a roving report, because I do know there are a number of international visitors here today, because they're both mates of mine, actually. But one of them is doing their first parkrun as well, which is great. Anyway, better go and get amongst it. I can see lots of people with some great outfits on, lots of a really good Christmas vibe here happening. Let's go and get amongst it. So I'm now out on the course and I couldn't help myself. I had to stop and say hello to these two legends, Paige and Amelia, because Amelia has her 10 T-shirt on and Paige has her parkrun adventurers t-shirt, ugly Christmas t-shirt on woohoo how you going both oh sorry sorry doggo and they've got a doggo Rosie sorry Rosie also with an I in her name yes awesome they've done Ipswich by the way so they could all get an I but that's another story how you going good thank you awesome you and hello Paige sorry Amelia hello Hey, go on. So, yes, I had to, of course, stop and bore Paige with the story that the P on the back of her top is me. Isn't that what we're meant to do as roving reporters? Not really. Anyway, enough about me. Tell me, so where was your very first parkrun?
Paige: In Hamilton.
Paul Kitching: Oh, yes, Hamilton, you were saying. So Hamilton, Victoria. That's right. So what's the course like there?
Paige: It's pretty flat. It goes around the lake. Nice. So you go turn around and then go back around the lake.
Paul Kitching: Nice.
Paige: That's good. Awesome.
Paul Kitching: And we're at Lochiel today, of course. So this is your new home?
Paige: Yeah, this is our local. Awesome. Although this year we've been travelling around and Janet told us to make sure we come home to Lochiel. Of course. So here we are. Matty Barta. Matty Barta.
Paul Kitching: Nice one, mate. Loving it. That was the legend, Matty Barta. We'll chat with him later. I'm just going to peel off here for a moment to have a wee moment. Can I catch up with you a bit later on? We'll see you in a minute.
Paige: that feels a lot better okay where were we so you were telling me uh page all about I lived in Hamilton yeah and so yeah right and then you of course you had to find exactly and you knew that Janet was going to be here we didn't no I didn't know and the thing that I think moving to the city from the country and growing up in the country is like that sense of community so you knew everybody Love it. Whereas you come to a group here that's about 300 people and you still, you eventually find that core group of about, I don't know, 30 to 50 anyway.
Paul Kitching: Brilliant.
Paige: Which is Janet and Thomas.
Paul Kitching: Yes.
Paige: Grant, Fleming. Yes. You know, there's just a really nice group of people that you see every week, you know.
Paul Kitching: And it's a lovely. They're friendly. Yeah, exactly. And it's a lovely community thing, you know, and that's why we try and encourage people and tell them about it. But it's not until you get here that you actually get it, you know. Yes, I agree. You know, so, no, it's fantastic. I really, really appreciate everything that you do because everyone is part of the community. Everything that we do, wearing T-shirts, you know, finding a parkrun when you move to another state or to another country for some people. And Amelia, how many parkruns have you done?
Unidentified speaker: Twenty-two.
Paul Kitching: 22. Fantastic. So you can get your 25 t-shirt these days, which is exciting. And then your 50, of course. And then, oh gosh, you can keep on going. Anyway, I'm going to catch up with some other crew. Thank you so much for being part of our community and having a chat.
Paige: Thanks so much.
Paul Kitching: Good on you. Thanks. See ya.
Paige: Hold on.
Paul Kitching: Right. So now I am with someone doing their very first parkrun ever. Hello, Lorna.
Lorna: Hi there, Paul. How are you?
Paul Kitching: I'm good, mate. My friend Lorna, I've known for years, has been living in London for... 23 years. 23 years in London.
Lorna: But I think I've heard you talk about parkrun for at least half of those.
Paul Kitching: Indeed. So she's heard me yabbering on and so she's back for Christmas. And I said, why don't we catch up for a walk? And then I said, even better, why don't we catch up for a parkrun? And so, good on you. What do you do? You're registered.
Lorna: I registered. Apparently, it's an amazing app. You should all download it immediately.
Paul Kitching: The 5K app, indeed. 5K app. 5K app.
Lorna: At your nearest app store.
Paul Kitching: Correct. So, yes, of course, I told Lorna that if she was going to come out on Christmas Eve to do parkrun here, why waste it? Because you're going to be going back to London. So where did you register, by the way? What's your home parkrun?
Lorna: Well, I think as much as it was dead easy, I actually registered. This is my local one. Oh, wow. I can change that later because it's so easy to do.
Paul Kitching: What will be your local parkrun, do you reckon?
Lorna: It'll be Finsbury Park in East Lincoln.
Paul Kitching: Nice. Yeah. And, of course, you'll have the envy of all because you'll be able to go and do Bushy, which is the Mecca. So Bushy is where parkrun started, and it's the Mecca. It's basically where people go to bow down to the god that is parkrun.
Lorna: I did not know that.
Paul Kitching: There you go.
Lorna: You learn something new every parkrun.
Paul Kitching: Correct. This is an actual first timer that had not heard of Bushy. I love it.
Lorna: I know. I'm popping my cherry with you today, Paul.
Paul Kitching: You are. You are. Now we're about to pose for the photographer looking absolutely fantastic. So we're just going to pause this for one moment. Yes, we just had to pause to have our photo taken, of course. So that's going to go everywhere. So people will know you've done parkrun now. Amazing. Oh, my God.
Lorna: When I turn up in Islington, they're going to be like, oh, you did it in Adelaide. This is amazing. Well, I wonder if they'll be doing it today because as I left, there was about 20 centimetres of snow.
Paul Kitching: Oh, gosh. Okay. Yeah, well, who knows? I mean, it's a beautiful day today. So you're loving. What are your thoughts on parkrun? I mean, I've yabbered away about it so much.
Lorna: Well, I would call it park social for anyone who's not done it before. It's incredibly friendly and welcoming. And I can say it's not that everyone does already know everyone because I've seen other first-timers being welcoming like I have. Nice. And other people just using the park on bikes. Yeah. Getting a hello and runners who started parkrun before we did today coming through on the track and got applauded through. I know.
Paul Kitching: And so many people dressed up for Christmas Eve.
Lorna: Oh, it was lovely, yes. And we should mention Santa was here today.
Paul Kitching: Oh, Santa was here. Yes, I know. I know, so exciting. One moment, hang on a minute.
Lorna: I'm about to get my first barcode, Paul.
Paul Kitching: Hang on. This is... Loving it. Oh, you are about to get your first barcode. So this is us.
Lorna: This is momentous. This is it. This is live, people.
Paul Kitching: This is live. Alicia, we haven't been over. Thank you, guys. We're going over the line. Thank you so much. I haven't gone over yet. Thank you. Loving it. That is us going over the line. Anyway, Lorna, let's go and get amongst breakfast.
Lorna: Thank you for having me.
Paul Kitching: Thank you for being part of parkrun. Love it, in Boston. So many visitors here today, including the excellent Dan and Billy Bolin. Hello, Dan.
Dan Bolin: Yeah, hi, PK. How are you?
Paul Kitching: Yeah, I'm good, mate. Hello, Billy.
Dan Bolin: Hello.
Paul Kitching: How are you? So, yeah, that accent you may have guessed is from Boston.
Dan Bolin: Well, it was me doing a very bad Boston accent. Sorry to the people of Boston. And sorry to the people of Adelaide and the world.
Paul Kitching: My mate Dan and I, we used to play tennis together against each other and then we gravitated to join the same team. Known each other for years. He's seen me yabbering about parkrun. Finally moved to Boston, reached out to me and said, tell me more. And I said, mate, there's a parkrun just around the corner from your house. And now... Great.
Dan Bolin: Yeah, we do parkrun, Jamaica Pond parkrun in Boston. Nice. It's a bit smaller than the one here. It's about 100 people, but it swirls in numbers when the Boston Marathon's on to about 250 people. And we run around a lake, which is the Jamaica Pond. Nice. And it's a good time for me to do it with my son, who's six years old, and here he is now. Hello, Billy.
Paul Kitching: So how many parkruns have you done, mate?
Unidentified speaker: Seven.
Paul Kitching: Seven, my favourite number, fantastic. So today's your seventh, is it?
Unidentified speaker: Yes. Do you reckon?
Paul Kitching: That's brilliant. How long have you been doing, when did you start doing parkrun?
Unidentified speaker: In June.
Paul Kitching: In June, awesome. And what do you think of your first Australian parkrun?
Unidentified speaker: It was good.
Paul Kitching: Yeah? What was your favourite bit about today's parkrun?
Unidentified speaker: I don't know.
Paul Kitching: You don't know? Maybe. Oh, did we see any koalas? Sometimes we see a koala. Don't know if they're any out there today. We heard two koalas having a special cuddle. Oh, nice. Nice. Good to hear. Do you reckon you'll keep doing parkrun? You're not far from getting your number 10 T-shirt.
Unidentified speaker: Yes, I keep on doing parkruns.
Dan Bolin: That's correct. My favourite is that we saw Santa and he handed out some lollipops. So that was awesome.
Paul Kitching: Well done, parkrun. Yay, good stuff. Well, we're now going to go and thank you for being part of the parkrun community, Dan and Billy. Thank you, mate.
Unidentified speaker: Okay.
Paul Kitching: Yeah, good answer. Well done. Happy holidays, everyone. Happy holidays, everyone. Thank you, mate. And I love that more people are doing parkrun. We're going to go and have some breakfast somewhere. Let's do it. And that'll do it for Christmas Eve parkrun. We've had a wonderful time here at Lochiel. Absolutely loved it. And, yeah, what a beautiful parkrun it is. Just going to say goodbye to Santa. He's having a drink of water here. Just going to say, hang on, let's go and have a quick chat to Santa. Hello, Santa. Thank you so much for coming to parkrun today.
Marino: You're very welcome, and it's very good to see you at Lochiel.
Paul Kitching: Indeed. Thank you. Yeah, I thought we'd better come here for Christmas Eve when we heard that you were coming.
Marino: Well, that's really good, and you're all welcome here, and I hope you all have a jolly fine Christmas.
Paul Kitching: Thank you. There you go. That's awesome. Thank you, Santa. Fantastic. There you go. I thought that would be a nice way to finish the chat. See you later, Leash. Nice to see you. Yes, this is me signing off from another parkrun, doing a bit of a roving report.
Roving report Tony O'Connell — Torrens
Tony O'Connell: Howdy parkrunners, Toc from Inverloch. I'm reporting in from the absolutely gorgeously sunny Torrens parkrun. We're mid-run. I'm running with the 25 minute pace. Would you like to introduce yourself?
Marino: Yes, I'm Marino and this is my home parkrun story.
Tony O'Connell: So Marino, give us a bit of the background first. How did you get into parkrun and how long have you been based at Torrens?
Marino: So I was originally introduced by a friend of mine, and he said, come along one time. I thought, yep, give it a try. And almost coughed my guts up, of course. As you know, I tend to run too quickly on the first shot. But I stuck to it and came back another week and continued from there. I've done 262 parkruns so far. And 252 of those here are the lovely, mighty Torrens.
Tony O'Connell: Awesome. So you obviously love the course. And let's face it, looking at this course so far, what's not to love? I've just got a Marshal up here, so we'll just high-five the Marshal and keep it going. Marshal with clappers, I love that. Well done. So give us a bit of a description of the Torrens course.
Marino: Well, Torrens course, of course, named after the Torrens River. It meanders through the city of Adelaide, goes past the Adelaide Zoo. It has lovely undulating hills in some places to make it a little bit more challenging for some. But overall, it's very green and it feels much cooler on summery days because we have lots of shade here and I invite everyone to come along.
Tony O'Connell: It's a lovely little course, you man draw along the river, there's people everywhere, there's running paths both sides of the river, so it is really a stunning course. We're at the turnaround so, well done Marshall. So, what else can we tell about Torrens? Torrens seems to be a fairly popular park, obviously being CBD in Adelaide, gets a lot of visitors.
Marino: Well, that's right. We ended up kind of getting a bit too big. So they opened up a couple of new ones. In the meantime, we've got a lovely one to the eastern side of Adelaide called Pakapakanthi. And they've opened up a lovely North Adelaide one as well. And we still managed to get three to four hundred people per week. So it is a draw card for sure for anyone who's visiting Adelaide from overseas or interstate.
Tony O'Connell: All right, mate, we're at five minute Ks. I think we might wrap it up there. This is a stunning parkrun. Everyone get on down to Torrens. TOC out.
Roving report Alison Fraser — Warwick Racecourse
Alison Fraser (King): So I'm walking with the parkwalker today, whose name is Debbie Christmas. And I have to say, this was the selling point for me to come here today. So welcome to the pod, Debbie. Thank you. Nice to meet you. Can you please tell me your parkrun story?
Debbie Christmas: Well, some friends of ours who live down in London, we went to visit a couple of years ago and they said, well, while you're down here, why not do this parkrun? I'd never heard of it. And they said, it's very friendly. You can walk it if you want. And so we went and I thought, yeah, this is quite good. Then did it a few more times. And then a friend of mine was starting to get into running. I said, oh, there's this thing at our local park called parkrun. So I've sort of started spreading the word. And it's great. And my friend who I introduced it to, she told me about Park Walk, which I hadn't heard of until a couple of weeks ago, hence volunteering in my very fetching blue tabard today.
Alison Fraser (King): It is very fetching. It goes great with your rid here. Thank you. So your last name's Christmas. It is. How many people make jokes about it? A few. A few. Was the fact that it was Christmas Eve, did that sway you into volunteering today? Actually, no.
Debbie Christmas: It was the fact that I had friends who were visiting the area. My friend now lives in Yorkshire and she was coming down and said, oh, we must meet up. And having introduced her to parkrun, I kind of regret it because she is absolutely hooked. And every time she comes down, we must do parkrun, we must do parkrun. And I think, oh, I've opened a Pandora's box here. But no, it was to come and see them. I haven't ever done one on Christmas Day. Are you doing it tomorrow? No, I'm not going to be here tomorrow, sadly, you're not finding a parkrun near to where you're going to be they aren't doing one on Christmas Day ah shame but definitely one year yeah next year is the year definitely and so is Warwick race course your local it is yes so can you tell the listeners about this course okay so there's um a very nice path footpath inside the racetrack they have horse racing here so when there are races on Sadly, we can't have a parkrun but it's a circular route lovely views across to the town of Warwick Particularly on a day like today when the sun is shining It's an out-and-back route run down a small hill and Because there's a road, we're not officially allowed to cross that. So we then turn, go back up the hill and then back round. We did pass the notorious swimming pool just now. The water feature. The water feature, yes. Yes, it does get a little bit soggy around there when it's been raining. But otherwise, it's a really good surface to walk and run on.
Alison Fraser (King): It looks like it could be potentially a fast course.
Debbie Christmas: I think so, yeah. There's only one small hill. I'm not a fast runner myself, but it's a pretty good one, and um what do you love about parkrun Debbie I think it's just the feeling that everyone is welcome if you are a serious runner you can do it in fact there are some fast people coming back towards us now so you better keep over to the right hand side um but if like me you're not very fit you just want to get a bit of exercise it's fine you can still join in and also You get a little tick in the box if you volunteer. They're always welcoming to volunteers. Yeah, he was really fast.
Alison Fraser (King): Cool. Thank you so much, Debbie. It's been awesome chatting.
Melissa Ellis: Thank you very much to our Channel 5 News crew. We always appreciate your efforts. We had PK coming to us on Christmas Eve from Lochiel, talking to a few of his friends out there. We also had TOC on New Year's Day doing a running roving report with Marino, who was the 25-minute pacer, and, of course, Alison. She was also coming to us on Christmas Eve over in the UK, so she was back home for Christmas, coming to us from Warwick Racecourse. Now, Ollie, the Tail Walker over there was Debbie Christmas. How's that?
Oliver Spake: Wonderful. It's very fitting.
Melissa Ellis: It's very festive. Yes.
Oliver Spake: Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: It was nice to hear from Debbie. So thank you, guys, for your roving reports. And here's to another new year of adventuring.
Oliver Spake: Yes.
Dazza's
Oliver Spake: Those that have kicked it off already at Dazza's have given us plenty of check-ins at Dazza's. So maybe it's time to catch up on some of those. He said, welcome to Dazza's, where the snacks are delicious and the coffee is hot. We are open every weekend to hear about your parkrun adventures. Come on in and tell us about your morning. And one such visitor popping in was Phil Olson over in New Zealand who said, Morning, Dazza. I really feel I can join in today as I have just done my first Southern Hemisphere parkrun at Hamilton Lake, New Zealand. Coffee was appreciated after an early start.
Melissa Ellis: And I did reply to Phil to say he can join any time. He doesn't have to be in the Southern Hemisphere, but I guess time-wise posting in Dazza's is a little easier when you are in our time zone.
Oliver Spake: That's right.
Melissa Ellis: We also heard from Daryl Smith. Who had a milestone as such? Well, Daryl didn't, but you'll hear that. He said, So congratulations, Charlotte. The Smiths do hail from the greater state. Charlotte is one of our juniors at Eynesbury. And, yeah, they had quite the adventure over Christmas and New Year. They were up in Queensland. They must be on their way home now, I'm guessing, as they are rather further down the map at Queanbeyan.
Oliver Spake: Yes. Homestretch if not already there.
Melissa Ellis: Hmm.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, and we also heard from Samantha Roberts, who said, over to Greenbank for their number 200. Started my own little hundreds challenge to work on. And Samantha shared a shot of herself on course.
Melissa Ellis: I'm guessing that her challenge is to do event numbers... on the hundreds, like 100s, 200s, 300s and so forth.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's got to be it. That's got to be it. But we'll have to follow the stats to see. Or Samantha can keep us updated.
Melissa Ellis: But this one was exciting, Ollie. We heard from Jack Corkill and he said, what a morning, Dazza. Claire and I ventured to Burley Griffin parkrun. where we had our first date and now the morning after our wedding. We had a great group of friends join us and managed to complete the course after a few drinks last night. Our first parkrun together and now our first parkrun as a married couple. And we had a lovely photo of Jack, Claire and their friends. Yeah, Burley Griffin celebrating.
Oliver Spake: Very happy days.
Melissa Ellis: And they were holding a sign that said just married, didn't it?
Oliver Spake: Yeah, nice to see them back in, well, some familiar turf back down, well, back down this way. But congratulations, guys.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I was feeling all warm and fuzzy about that one.
Oliver Spake: Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: Next, Ollie, I think this one needs no introduction. Let's hear from the woman herself.
Janet Reid: Greetings from the mothership Lochiel. Oh Dazza, what a week it's been. I'm trying to build a relationship with Freddie, my foam roller, but right now all I want to do is swipe left and end it. I shall persevere. Then I decided to start interval training now that I'm over my injury, but someone opened the oven door here in Adelaide and I nearly roasted. I shall persevere. I know you make a superb ice latte, so I'll have one of those, please, Dazza. I'd also love a hot cross bun, but I shall resist until Easter.
Oliver Spake: And thank you, Janet. Now, Mel, we also heard from Chloe Bravos, who was touristing and said a beautiful day for a pram-free, thanks, Nana, run at South Beach Recreation Reserve parkrun. New to running on sand, so like a numpty, I kept my shoes on. before seeing the regulars running barefoot straight off the beach to the finish line. I'll know for next time. And Chloe shared a selfie and then a shot of Chloe and Mr Bravos in the selfie frame.
Melissa Ellis: Very good, but no cute baby, damn it.
Oliver Spake: No. Thanks, Nana.
Melissa Ellis: Okay, we heard from Louise. Tilia? Tilia. Are we going with Tilia?
Oliver Spake: We're with Tilia.
Melissa Ellis: Anyway, it was her first time. Welcome, Louise. And she said some rain, mud and puddles at Centennial parkrun. And there was a photo of Louise and her friend in the selfie frame. We had a few adventures out at Centennial parkrun.
Oliver Spake: We did indeed. Lovely parkrun spot that one is. And, yeah, well done. Now, over in South Africa, we heard from Johan, Johan Duvenhage, in fact, who said, Hi, Dazza. Hot coffee and a beautiful sunrise at Akkerendam. Akkerendam Nature Reserve parkrun in Calvinia, Northern Cape region, done again. And a little bonus, current holder of the VM 50 to 54 age category record, although that probably won't be for too long. But Johan shared some of what is a bit of a tradition, some stunning landscape shots, three in fact. So check them out if you haven't already.
Melissa Ellis: I'm just looking at the name of that parkrun. Surely there's a way we can Aussie-fy that. Shouldn't it be Acker Nat Rez? Acker Nat Rez, I reckon.
Oliver Spake: Just Ackers.
Melissa Ellis: Ackers, yeah.
Oliver Spake: Ackers.
Melissa Ellis: Where are you going tomorrow? I'm going Ackers. Oh, yeah, not come to. Goodness me, it's getting late. Okay, we also heard over in the UK from Tracy May. She said, first run of 2023 at Cosmeston Lakes, having dropped off our son back at uni following the Christmas break. An undulating course, but fun and muddy. And Tracy shared a photo of herself leaning on the Cosmeston sign. If that's how you say it, it probably isn't because you know where that is, Ollie. It's in Wales. So that's going to be half those letters that I pronounced shouldn't be there.
Oliver Spake: Thank you, Tracy.
Melissa Ellis: She was also wearing her Ugly Christmas Singlet.
Oliver Spake: Keeping it festive. And we also heard from Juliet Colville, who over in the UK as well, was celebrating a milestone. So Juliet said, celebrated my 100th parkrun and 50th volunteer as Tail Walker this morning at Cheadle Hulme parkrun. Possibly the wettest parkrun I've ever done. Yeah. And very muddy shoes there, shared, and a selfie. But congratulations, Juliet, for the double milestone.
Melissa Ellis: She had mud nearly up to her knees. So that was, like, amazing. But I think it's Cheadle Hume. I've got a feeling we've been told that before.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, Cheadle Hume. Cedlehume.
Melissa Ellis: That's a silent L. They trick us, those UK people.
Oliver Spake: Yes.
Melissa Ellis: Always trying to catch us out. Oh, I've got the last one. We heard from Josephine Moon, and she was a first-time visitor to Dazza's as well, and she said, one of the most beautiful parkruns I've done, Elliott Heads Beach. And she shared a shot of, it must be, on the course photo of the tree and the water out there at Elliott Heads Beach. Thanks for joining us, Josephine.
Oliver Spake: A nice outlook. Yeah. So thank you, everyone, for joining us at Dazza's this week.
Melissa Ellis: But the exciting thing is, Ollie.
the Obi Award — Daryl Smith
Oliver Spake: Oh, yes.
Melissa Ellis: For the month of January, what's left of it, and maybe a little bit into February because we've got more than one to award, we've got a prize.
Oliver Spake: We do.
Melissa Ellis: We have a mysterious benefactor who has donated a few of the Office Lady's very own challenge cards. So the winner of the Obi this week is going to receive their very own Office Lady snazzy edition.
Oliver Spake: That's right.
Melissa Ellis: What does she call it? Is it the snazzy?
Oliver Spake: I forget. Well, you've coined it that now. So if not, it's got two titles.
Melissa Ellis: You know what I haven't done? I haven't teed up where the envelope is, so I think it must be still in the office because, you know, it's been Christmas and everything and, you know, the post is slow and stuff.
Oliver Spake: Okay. Do you want me to have a look here?
Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I think you better.
[other]
Oliver Spake: I have not cleaned up all the post-its. I don't know if you can hear them, but I have felt I found the envelope. Oh, dear me. Ah, right. Okay, I will open it. It's nice to get a chance to open it again. Yes. Yeah, it's been a while. But having a look this week, the Obi and the prize goes to... ..Daryl Smith.
Melissa Ellis: Yay, the Travelling Smith family. Hopefully that can go on the fridge and they will enjoy ticking off those challenges. I look forward to hearing all about that. Office Lady can probably send that down to me and I can pass it on. Easy. Easy. Simples. Yes.
Club Corner
Melissa Ellis: that's done what are we up to oh yeah this is exciting Ollie we've got a new segment something new for the New Year exactly we like to change things up here on the parkrun adventurers and in the style of change is good yep yes yes we like change we're all about embracing change and this will keep our previous host happy yes Scotty liked new segments that's right so without further ado welcome to rachel's club corner
[14 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]
Rachel - Club Corner contributor: This pod, we begin a new series about clubs, called Club Corner. There are many clubs in parkrun, but only a few are official, the milestone tees. When parkrun began, they wanted a way to recognise those that regularly participated, so the milestone clubs were instigated. In 5k parkrun, you are eligible for a milestone after completing the requisite number of parkruns. Those milestone numbers are 10. If you are an under 18 aged participant, then 25, 50, 100, 250, and 500 events. The next milestone currently proposed is 1000. Originally volunteers were only recognised at the 25 milestone, and run-slash-walk participants skipped that number, but in 2021 these series were integrated, now both streams of parkrun participants are eligible for all numbers the reward provided was originally clothing in partnership with the sponsors of the day so there were differently branded shirts and hoodies depending on when you achieved the milestone if you are a listener of podcasts you can search the back catalogues of with me now and parkrun show for the UK history of the what when how of the processes and quirks it's quite fascinating The Milestone Club colours are 10 white, 25 purple, 50 red, 100 black, 250 green, and 500 blue. The 1000 colour is still a mystery for the public. For Junior parkrun, HQ implemented wristbands based around distance words, a half marathon, a marathon, and an ultra, these are 11, 21 and 50 Junior parkruns respectively. Junior parkrun also has a 100 milestone which is not a wristband. In parkrun life, all other clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.
Oliver Spake: And thank you very much to Rachel for our new, well, semi-regular segment.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I believe so. She's not going to be weekly, but we'll be hearing more from her. And thanks, Rachel, for explaining the milestone tease. Very topical.
Oliver Spake: Yes, very topical indeed.
Emails
Oliver Spake: Now, Mel, I believe we might have some mail. You've got mail.
Melissa Ellis: We do, Ollie. We heard from our favourite Eman. He sent us a message saying, hi, guys, happy new year. I hope you both had a restful break. Team Vergara spent the last couple of weeks parkrun touring around New South Wales. Rhodes for Christmas Eve, Newy on Christmas Day, Orange for New Year's Eve and Dubbo on New Year's Day. Highlights were the run brief by the RD, Bernadette Bennett at Newy parkrun in the form of a Christmas carol and meeting and running with Lauren Reid in Orange parkrun, previous guest to the podcast and former parkrun Global Women's Record holder. Hope you have a great year ahead and see you at palm23, if not earlier. Amen. Oh, wow.
Oliver Spake: Clearly only Lauren Reid can keep pace with them.
Melissa Ellis: Gosh, yeah. Good to know Lauren's still running out there at Orange parkrun as well.
Oliver Spake: That's right. But no, thank you very much, Eman.
parkrun news bulletin
Oliver Spake: Now, Mel, sorry to stop us there, but we have some breaking news.
Melissa Ellis: Do tell, Ollie, what is the breaking news?
Oliver Spake: The breaking news, the breaking news. Now, we were keeping one eye on things just in case without knowing what the breaking news was, but an announcement in the last hour at time of recording has just been released where parkrun Global has announced the appointment of seven new trustees to the board. And whilst I suppose organisational governance isn't everyone's cup of tea, doesn't get us all up in the morning, It is exciting news with a whole range of individuals and experience listed in the media release, which you can find a link to on the parkrun Facebook and other socials or on their website under the news section. But I suppose to paraphrase some of the key elements, the seven new trustees and It sounds like there has been a very lengthy recruitment process undertaken and the new members will be getting underway over the current quarter, so January through March. I believe that sees some of the existing trustees and boards step away. Interesting to note there, Mel, that parkrun has alluded to the release planned of its ambitious five-year strategy next month. So let's keep our eyes out. Given that kind of experience, it'll be interesting to see what they've got in mind.
Melissa Ellis: Thank you, Ollie. And well done on talking up the boring news. It wasn't at all what we were expecting or hoping for.
Oliver Spake: I love governance almost as much as I love change.
Melissa Ellis: Russ Jeffery, we were expecting an announcement of milestone shirts. He threw a red herring.
Oliver Spake: Well, red, green, black, apricot, purple.
Melissa Ellis: Banana.
Oliver Spake: But, yes, back to the mailbox. We do have more mail, Mel.
Melissa Ellis: Oh, we do. Oh, that's me. We also heard from the Ideas Man who said, Hey, team, I've just listened to the Insantagram episode and loved hearing the last time capsule unpacked. Considering the last two years, I wonder if you should revisit the fill-ins capsule again in December 2023, for 2024 my predictions wish list would be that there would be over 2 000 members of the Adventurers Club that the 2024 palm will be in the greatest state that Ollie will be offered a record deal after his during the 400th episode of the podcast happy New Year Bruce now Bruce thank you but we both know that's not going to happen What, we're not going to get 2,000 members?
Oliver Spake: No, I'm not going to sing in the 400th episode. Why? I'll only sing in the 399th.
Melissa Ellis: Ah, he's dropped the ball there, hasn't he?
Oliver Spake: No, I think he's quite sharp there. But some interesting predictions there, Mel.
Time capsule
Oliver Spake: Is it time? Is it time to start... Packing our own time capsule and adding to Bruce's.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah. So I do think, Ollie, that we should pack another time capsule for the final episode of 2024. You better put it in the calendar so we don't forget. Have you got ideas that you would like to share?
Oliver Spake: Well, I think, firstly, I would like to repack some of the existing time capsule items, such as Alice Springs parkrun, for instance. I can't claim credit for that, but that should go back in because we do want to see that. Now, I suppose, thinking of what our now-named fill-in hosts had predicted as well, parkrun Countries. Do you have any predictions on the parkrun Countries side of things, Mel?
Melissa Ellis: Oh, no, I haven't prepared for that at all.
Oliver Spake: Okay.
Melissa Ellis: Is that sarcasm? No, no, no. I've got something. I'm just waiting. It's nothing about countries though.
Oliver Spake: Okay. Well, I'll go over the countries. Throwing Fiji back in there. South Korea. Let's throw South Korea in there as well. And I want to see Thailand. I have seen references to variations of parkrun. I want to see them brought under the arm and brought into the parkrun world in Thailand. So I'll be very interested to see that one.
Melissa Ellis: Oh, I've got a country. I've got a country.
Oliver Spake: Okay.
Melissa Ellis: Korea.
Oliver Spake: South Korea?
Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah. Let's go with that. Where's Seoul?
Oliver Spake: Yes, Seoul. That's the one I said.
Melissa Ellis: Oh.
Oliver Spake: But yes, we agree. Okay.
Melissa Ellis: Sorry, I wasn't listening. I mean, I was, but yeah.
Oliver Spake: Your turn.
Melissa Ellis: Oh, okay. Well, all righty. So this is my... I don't know if it's a prediction or a wish, okay? So at one point in time, somebody decided that it would be a good idea to add Junior parkrun to parkrun's family, right? So we've got a Junior parkrun for those kids aged 4 to 14. Yep. Here's what I would like to see. I would like to see senior parkrun for the, let's say, over 70s. I would like to see something for our older participants that perhaps 5K is a bit of a push for, something that could be on a shorter distance. That is created specifically for people maybe with mobility issues, that's on a nice flat path, you know, no stairs, maybe, you know, concrete areas.
Oliver Spake: wheelchair friendly zimmer frame friendly dementia friendly with mobility assistance volunteers yes that is my wish parkrun are you listening I I do like that and particularly because as far as I'm concerned as far as I understand the idea of parkrun is being accessible and inclusive for everyone now that might not be in its current form for everyone as we've seen with junior parkrun I think, you know, I struggle to imagine how, you know, other versions of parkrun would exist in some settings. But, I mean, the benefit would be great. Benefit would be fantastic. Good one, Mel.
Melissa Ellis: Absolutely. And, look, there could be people that say, oh, there's lots of over 70s that can still run parkrun. And, of course, there is. There's also lots of 4 to 14-year-olds that can run a 5K parkrun. That does not preclude them from running a 2K juniors.
Oliver Spake: Yes. Yeah, I like that. I very much like that. And I think in terms of accessibility, here's one. In Australia, at least, free travel to parkruns. If you catch public transport, you go into a parkrun and you can show your barcode. You travel for free.
Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's a good one.
Oliver Spake: Public transport, not free airfares. Let's just be clear here.
Unidentified speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Melissa Ellis: Well, you're in a position to influence that, aren't you? I'll just have a word to old mate Dan. Dan will be on to that.
Oliver Spake: Oh, great, great.
Melissa Ellis: Actually, if you can get, what's your Premier's name?
Oliver Spake: Well, at the moment it's Dom.
Melissa Ellis: Dom, yeah, yeah, you get Dom. You have a word in his ear. Get him to have a chat to Dan because they're mates.
Oliver Spake: Oh, well, it would be great to see it become an election issue over here. But this time catch was for two years. So let's see, we can have plenty of premiers in that timeframe. This is politics we're talking about. What else? The app, Mel.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah.
Oliver Spake: The app. Oh. Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: The WebFMS app or the, yeah?
Oliver Spake: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The app that does everything. The app that takes care of photos, bypasses Facebook, delivers photos to everyone, and Let's ignore Facebook, send it out. Let's record our results, process our results, record our incidents, you know, help to recognise when people are making achievements or reaching their achievements on the spot. An app that makes the most of current technology and really helps our volunteers who, yeah, there's a lot of tech out there with the different you know, social media platforms and systems and a system that served us very well in WebFMS. But I want to see the app that does it all.
Melissa Ellis: So you want the app to be the back end for the uploading as well as the event team. So the events main communications to the parkrunners. Yes, yes. When you sign up for your barcode, you download the app, it's official and you can go on and see if your event's doing Christmas Day or if they've cancelled because a tree's fallen on the course and you can look at your parkrun photos and everything and we've got no more Facebook.
Oliver Spake: Yep. Link to Facebook, no problem with that. But, yeah, the recent show of hands I did at Shellharbour before an event convinced that less than 50% put their hands up saying that we follow Shellharbour parkrun on Facebook. Yes, this is a problem.
Melissa Ellis: This is a big problem. Not everybody uses – parkrun relies on Facebook for their comms to participants and not everybody uses Facebook.
Oliver Spake: Yeah, so – An app that has the capability. I don't think you can replace the need to use some of these mediums and email, but I think the solution could be great. And certainly to work around what WebFMS has done historically and replace that.
Melissa Ellis: It's funny that email has never really become obsolete. We still rely on email. It's been around a long time.
Oliver Spake: That's right.
Melissa Ellis: You know what else would be good? You know how in emergencies the emergency services can send like a text to your phone to tell you if there's – wouldn't that be good if your parkrun was cancelled if you could get a text direct to your phone to say such and such? You know, it could just go out to the local area. Yep. Did these parkruns cancel today?
Oliver Spake: That's right, that's right. And you can opt in, opt out, respect people's privacy, of course, but to have that capability just to make it easier for our volunteers. And the other feature that I did want to describe with that is the inbuilt selfie frame, you know, all in milestone frames. So, you know, the app has the ability to take a photo and it just places that frame around you just to make sure that it's there when you are celebrating.
Melissa Ellis: I actually brought that up when we first went into the pandemic. Oh, yes.
Oliver Spake: I'm probably copying your idea.
Melissa Ellis: No, no, no, no, not at all. I don't even remember if I told you that. But that was something I would have liked when we were all running around our streets doing our own parkruns. Yeah. I may have reached out to somebody I knew who worked for parkrun and said, You know what we need? We needed like an Insta frame that says parkrun and you can just put it over your photo, you know, because that still would have given the parkrun, what are they, our supporters, that still would have given them, you know, Why have I lost all my words today? Advertising.
Oliver Spake: Yes.
Melissa Ellis: Because the frame would still have the parkrun supporters on it. It could have just been virtual. It could have just overlaid over people's photos. Would have been perfect. Anyway. Yeah. It'll come. Medibank's already done it. Yes. Anyway, so, yeah.
Oliver Spake: What about you, Mel? Any others?
Melissa Ellis: No, that was my big one. Senior parkrun.
Oliver Spake: I love it. Dementia-friendly.
Melissa Ellis: I love it.
Oliver Spake: So, look, I was very tempted to throw in, you know, a parkrun rainbow milestone shirt, things like that, but I think I'll leave it there. I'll save that. I think the milestone shirts sound like they're well and truly being catered for.
Melissa Ellis: Yeah, don't talk about the war.
Oliver Spake: Last question for the time capsule. How many parkruns will there be in Australia?
Melissa Ellis: Oh, two years. Okay. No clue. What did Mel and Scott project? Was it 500?
Oliver Spake: That's awkward.
Melissa Ellis: I should have checked.
Oliver Spake: It was 500. So, yeah, we got up to, what was it, close to 450 thereabouts. So, hey, let's go with that rate. Let's go with 625. That's specific. 625. Okay.
Melissa Ellis: Can we just have more closer to the Victorian border, please? More southern New South Wales events and eastern South Australian events. That would be great. Thank you.
Oliver Spake: Excellent. You just want a new event for a Palm 2024, don't you?
Melissa Ellis: Yeah, just outside the Victorian borders.
Oliver Spake: Yes. All right. So let's pack the time capsule.
Melissa Ellis: All right. Yep. Screw the lid on, stuff it in the back cupboard.
Oliver Spake: Yep. To be opened up in just under two years. But Mel, there's still a lot going on.
Consolidated Club Report
Oliver Spake: Consolidated club report time.
Melissa Ellis: I'm just getting out the pen. I'm going to write 2024. Ah, yep. 2024.
Oliver Spake: Right.
Melissa Ellis: Consolidated Club Report time, Ollie. Yes, for last Saturday, the 7th of January, 2023, with Chico coming into the room. Thank you, Chico. Of a total of 364 members, 308 took part at 180 locations. Now, there was adventurers at 22 events in the UK, three in South Africa, two in the USA, and one in Malaysia. Locally, we had adventurers at...
[other]
Oliver Spake: Yes.
Melissa Ellis: 40 in New South Wales. 39 in Victoria. Missed it by that much. 36 in Queensland. So numbers were up this week, Ollie.
Oliver Spake: Well and truly.
Melissa Ellis: 13 in, I was going to say South Africa, 13 in South Australia, 8 in WA. ACT and the North Island had adventurers at five events and Tassie and the South Island had adventurers at three events.
the Frond — Tie — Sandon Point parkrun (NSW) and Gatton parkrun (QLD), seven adventurers each
Melissa Ellis: The largest frond was a tie this week with seven adventurers at Sandon Point in New South Wales and seven adventurers in Gatton in Queensland. Hang on, is Gatton in Queensland?
Oliver Spake: I believe so.
Melissa Ellis: Okay. All right. Why do I think it's in New South Wales?
Oliver Spake: Well, it's in southern Queensland, but then so is Brisbane. Lockyer Valley, I think. Okay. That area sort of west of Brisbane.
Melissa Ellis: Galston. That's why I'm thinking of Galston.
Oliver Spake: Okay. Yes. Right.
Melissa Ellis: Yes. No worries. All right. So that's it.
Oliver Spake: Yeah. Well done, everyone. Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: Nice, short, consolidated club report. Well done to New South Wales.
Sign-off
Oliver Spake: Thank you, Mel. Well done, everyone, especially New South Wales. Yeah. Mel, what's coming up?
Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"
Oliver Spake: What's happening? Next parkrun Day days.
Melissa Ellis: Eynesbury Heritage Trail junior parkrun is celebrating their second birthday. Happy birthday. We've got cake coming and we're very excited. So hopefully we can have a nice turnout. We've already filled our roster and it's only Monday. That's a big thing for us.
Oliver Spake: Wow, everyone wants cake.
Melissa Ellis: Everybody wants the cake. Lovely volunteer Janelle has offered to bake a cake for us, so we're very pleased about that. And hopefully we've got nice weather. Hopefully not too hot and melty for cakes.
Oliver Spake: Yes, I think there is some respite coming for you, at the weekend at least.
Melissa Ellis: Because the puddle's dry. We have dried out considerably our sloshy course that spent most of spring and the first month of summer underwater.
Oliver Spake: Yeah. Oh, look, the dry and the wet, it's certainly the tale of our country, isn't it?
Melissa Ellis: I love a sunburned country.
Oliver Spake: That's right. And our thoughts go out to our WA parkrunners and hope that you are all safe with floods over there. Oh, goodness.
Melissa Ellis: That's La Nina for you.
Oliver Spake: Yep. So that'll be quite exciting. And it's a mystery as to where you're going. Yeah.
Melissa Ellis: It is a mystery.
Oliver Spake: Okay.
Melissa Ellis: Fair bet that I'm going to tourist if I can manage it. And I'm looking at travelling north up the Hume. So let's see how that turns out.
Oliver Spake: Okay. Well, safe travels.
Melissa Ellis: Thank you. What about you? Oh, I remember.
Oliver Spake: I may not be parkrunning. It remains to be seen. My daughter and her boyfriend are moving and we have a moving van booked for 8am, which might have been feasible if we were in Queensland or even Tasmania. No, probably Queensland. But yes, so maybe no parkrun for me.
Melissa Ellis: Oh, well, you can live vicariously through me. Hmm.
Oliver Spake: That's right. So no pressure, Mel, but travel safe and have a nice parkrun day.
Melissa Ellis: Thank you. Absolutely will. Now, who's doing the outro? Me. As always, you can contact us via Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. We are also on Twitter and Insta. That's it for another week, and we will see you all next week for more adventures.
Unidentified speaker: Bye.