Episode 324 - Radio prA

Welcome

00:00:23Oliver Spake: Welcome to episode 324 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. I am Ollie Spake and I am joining from Dharawal Country.

00:00:33Melissa Ellis: And I am Melissa Ellis and I'm on Wurundjeri Country.

00:00:36Oliver Spake: Welcome back, Mel, from last week.

00:00:41Melissa Ellis: Thank you, Ollie. Thank you. How was your Pride Day? Did you have a good Saturday? A colourful Saturday? An inclusive Saturday? Yeah.

00:00:52Oliver Spake: It was, it was and well I like to think it was and I hope everyone felt that it was and I really enjoyed the number of parkrunners that embraced the colourful theme as I got the opportunity to run direct at Shellharbour on Saturday and yeah really you know hopefully embrace the theme of the week. And I was also pretty happy with the fact that, I mean, given Cathy being away on Friday night, it was kind of fait accompli, but the girls came. So it made it a little easier to convince them, knowing that we could all dress up. We didn't manage to use all the different rainbow paraphernalia that we had accumulated, but... the extra flag that we'd gotten, the outfit. I got a chance to use the colourful mohawk from our 80s party last year and just be as colourful as possible. So a lot of good fun. Hannah and James came and volunteered as well, and we even had a rainbow bird. So thank you, Darwin. And, of course... everyone else on the team that made it a wonderful morning.

00:02:06Melissa Ellis: That sounds fun. I actually, I was busy. I worked all weekend, Ollie, so I didn't get my usual amount of time to look at social media. So I have to go and look up your Mohawk photo.

00:02:18Oliver Spake: Ah, yes, yeah.

00:02:19Melissa Ellis: Did you put the eyeliner on?

00:02:21Oliver Spake: Didn't put the eyeliner on, but I found some face paint and I tried to revisit the old parkrun colourful logo on the face that I had from our first birthday. It was just like a... Nice way to remember that because I still seem to use that in a lot of places as my profile picture at work and whatnot.

00:02:38Melissa Ellis: Yes, I've seen that. I'm sure you've got that as a Strava profile or something.

00:02:43Oliver Spake: Ah, yeah, I knew it must be somewhere. Yeah, a great crowd. We had a couple of visitors. It was sunny. It was warm. There was coffee involved. Yeah, a really nice time. Thanks, Mel. And yeah, it was over like that.

00:02:57Melissa Ellis: As that day often is all too soon, we are looking forward again to next week. But for a moment, let's look back.

parkrun adventure challengelistener challenge

00:03:04Melissa Ellis: Yes. Let's look back on last week's discussion where we were talking about all the big things and we had some suggestions from last week's published post for some more ideas. Now, Jonathan Morgan came up with the Big Galah, Ollie. The Big Galah is close to Yeldulknie Weir, Yeldulknie Weir Trail even. Well, close might be relative to... Yeah, I think that's right, but that...

00:03:33Oliver Spake: Hey, closest for sure.

00:03:35Melissa Ellis: Yep. And we had a nomination from Johan. I think he might have given us a few. But the one that I liked the most that I'm going to talk about is the big red post box. Right. This is in one of our favourite parkruns. Oh, wait. Akkerendam. Akkerendam. Akkerendam Nature Reserve. Old Acre. I don't know how far away it is. It's hard to get good help.

00:03:58Oliver Spake: Well, we had the suggestion. Just kidding. Yeah, we had the suggestion.

00:04:02Melissa Ellis: So they've gone on the list. They've gone on the list for the consideration for the final cut.

00:04:09Oliver Spake: It's a growing list.

00:04:11Melissa Ellis: but also had a message, Ollie. We had a message from Karen Gore.

00:04:15Oliver Spake: Yes, we did. And Karen in the message said, Hi Mel, just listened to the podcast today and yes, we would like to do a parkrun in Gore. We have been there, but long before parkrun. The young boy standing next to Karen is Phil when he was six and off to great Yarmouth tomorrow.

00:04:36Melissa Ellis: Oh, I love that. I love an old family photo. And so the photo that Karen sent us also in the message was of the big trout, the one that Brett Bailey told us about last week in the proximity of the Gore parkrun.

00:04:51Rachel - Club Corner contributor: So yeah, a little six-year-old Phil standing in front of the big trout on the family holiday.

00:04:56Melissa Ellis: I wonder if they had an RV holiday. That

00:05:01Oliver Spake: I'm not sure. Would everyone appreciate that reference, Mel, or do you need to give a bit of background?

00:05:06Melissa Ellis: No, nobody commented on my photo of the RV. I'm in a huff that nobody knows the reference.

00:05:12Oliver Spake: Okay. I didn't know it.

00:05:16Melissa Ellis: And nobody even commented. How can nobody have watched that movie RV from maybe the early 2000s with Robin Williams? Anyway, if you haven't figured it out yet, go back and look. Work it out. Come back to me. Yeah. But, Ollie, I reckon that's it. That's it. Nice, sharp, sharp intro this week.

00:05:35Oliver Spake: Absolutely.

00:05:35Melissa Ellis: So without further ado, let's throw to PK and Lyndell with their roving reports.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Paul Kitching — Stebonheath

00:05:49Paul Kitching: Good morning, parkrun adventurers. It's PK checking in for another roving report, for the news crew coming to you from South Australia from a parkrun that I haven't done. I believe it's been talked about on the pod before. Shout out to my fellow roving reporter, Greta. Thank you. But I think that was early days. Now, I don't even know what number parkrun this is for this event, but the event is Stebonheath. That's S-T-E-B-O-N-H-E-A-T-H for those playing at home who need an S. And it is out north of Adelaide, out Davoren Park. which is a great part of the world. Really nice open, where the event is, an open park area. It must be like Stebonheath Reserve or park. And as you can hear, the cockies are going off. Oh, my God, so many cockies. As you can hear in the background, they are loving it. Great course, out and back and then out and back around a lake. Really nice course, got my first sub 30 for this year so I'm pretty stoked came in at number 27 which I'm also stoked about because I love the number seven anyway I'm gonna go and chat to some legends who are here at Stebonheath let's do it okay then I said I'd chat to a legend and I found one this is Tammy who has got a marvellous volunteer t-shirt on I believe uh you volunteered a few times here Tammy

00:06:36[other]

00:07:13Tammy: Yes, I've made it to over 25 volunteerings now. I'm working my way towards the 50.

00:07:19Paul Kitching: Congratulations. Today you did three roles, I think you said.

00:07:22Tammy: Yeah, I look after, I store and bring the equipment. I help do the course check and I've been barcode scanning today as well.

00:07:32Paul Kitching: Fantastic. Why do you love coming to parkrun?

00:07:37Tammy: I love parkrun because I started coming when my doctor suggested it to me just over 12 months ago now and I was feeling a bit isolated staying at home when I was working sometimes and I My mental health wasn't great at the time and my doctor suggested it so I came along and I met an amazing group of people who just really genuinely want you to be the best you can be. No pressure to go fast because I was really scared that after two hours I'd still be doing 5K. I did it in just over an hour, so that was encouraging, and everybody's encouraged me the whole way, and I actually have only missed one week since I started.

00:08:21Paul Kitching: Whoa, well done.

00:08:22Tammy: Yeah, and that was just purely because I was too sick to get out of bed. I've come every day. I walked quite a lot at first but then I had an accident and hurt myself and had to stop walking so I just kicked up the volunteering so that I didn't lose my momentum of getting up for an 8 o'clock start every Saturday. And I have come all through winter and I just love it and I can't imagine sleeping through it. I hated ringing and saying I couldn't come that one day, and everybody asks where you are and what you're doing and people checking up on each other and that sort of thing and just so encouraging, so positive. And since I've been doing parkrun, my mental health is 100 times better now. I actually haven't had any major issues with my mental health since I've been doing it. It's been fantastic.

00:09:14Paul Kitching: That is so good to hear. You've pretty much summed up parkrun as what parkrun is all about. Community, certainly mental health is such a great supporter and and social prescribing by doctors is just, you know, great. That is fantastic to hear that we know that it's happening. Well, we hear it's happening, but it's great to hear it firsthand. That is fantastic. Great numbers for you guys here today, about 70 or so, you reckon, which is great. A few tourists. The cockies are out, which is nice.

00:09:43Tammy: Yes, we get quite a lot. Because we're on a wetlands, we get quite a lot of birds. And even earlier today, I don't know if he's still there, but I saw a pelican.

00:09:51Paul Kitching: Oh, no way.

00:09:52Tammy: First time seeing a pelican.

00:09:54Paul Kitching: That's impressive. Well, fantastic.

00:09:56Tammy: And we get lots of lovely dogs that are really well behaved. Yeah, they are. And that's really good. And lots of kids as well that really enjoy the park.

00:10:05Paul Kitching: They sure do. I'm actually going to go and chat to one in a minute that's celebrating a bit of a milestone, a bit of a personal milestone. Good on you, Tammy. Thank you so much.

00:10:13Tammy: No worries. Thanks. Good on you.

00:10:15Paul Kitching: Thank you, mate. Cheers. Good on you, Tammy. Okay, I'm now with a legend who has done a milestone. Actually, I call him number three, but what's your real name?

00:10:25Finn: Finn.

00:10:25Paul Kitching: Why do I call you number three?

00:10:26Finn: Because that's my third parkrun.

00:10:28Paul Kitching: Third parkrun. Woo-hoo. When Christine, was it Christine or Christina, did the welcome, she said, okay, any milestones? And Finn shot up his hand and said, yep, it's my... Third. I love it, mate. Good on you. Why do you come to parkrun?

00:10:45Finn: My mum forces me to.

00:10:48Paul Kitching: That's a great, honest answer. But do you enjoy it?

00:10:51Finn: Sort of.

00:10:52Paul Kitching: Sort of. Good on you, mate. Do you get to have breakfast or anything special afterwards?

00:10:55Finn: We're getting ice cream, pancakes and syrup.

00:10:58Paul Kitching: Oh, awesome. What flavour syrup?

00:11:00Finn: I don't know.

00:11:00Paul Kitching: You don't care? Awesome work, Finn. Congratulations on your third parkrun. Keep doing more. You can wait towards your tenth. Well done.

00:11:07Finn: Thank you.

00:11:08Paul Kitching: Well done, buddy. G'day. Are you Finn's mum?

00:11:12Finn: I am Finn's mum.

00:11:13Paul Kitching: Excellent. We just spoke to Finn. G'day. Sorry, this is Nicky.

00:11:16Nicky: Hi.

00:11:17Paul Kitching: Nicky, you're part of the event crew here?

00:11:20Nicky: I am the Event Director at Stebonheath. There you go. The boss.

00:11:23Paul Kitching: The boss. I love it. Fantastic. Well, you'll be pleased to know that when I asked your son why he comes to parkrun, he said because you force him to.

00:11:31Nicky: Yes, I do. Otherwise he would sit and play video games all week. So that's the deal. Now he's allowed to have his video games for the rest of the weekend. I love it.

00:11:39Paul Kitching: What does parkrun mean to you?

00:11:41Nicky: I love parkrun. It means community. It means just that positive spirit. Everybody gets together. It is such an encouraging, inclusive and supportive environment. And it does so much for everybody's physical and mental health. Absolutely. I just would not be without it.

00:11:56Paul Kitching: I love it. Yeah, absolutely, 100%. I just interviewed Tammy and she told me pretty much what you just said, you know, her journey.

00:12:03Nicky: Yeah, she has a beautiful story. And there's so many of us that are like that here.

00:12:07Paul Kitching: Fantastic.

00:12:08Nicky: And I think, yeah, just running in general, parkrun's a really good gateway drug, I call it.

00:12:12Paul Kitching: Happy days. All good on you. I'm going to go and find some breakfast somewhere nearby, maybe some syrup, pancakes, you reckon, or are you going to eat it all thin? Will you leave me some?

00:12:21Finn: No.

00:12:21Paul Kitching: Okay.

00:12:23Finn: Thank you, Nikki.

00:12:24Paul Kitching: Thank you. There you go. So that is a little snapshot of Stebonheath parkrun here in South Australia. Let's go and find some breakfast. Yeah, happy parkrunning to all you legends out there. PK signing off.

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Railway Park

00:12:38Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell and today I am coming to you for the Channel 5 News crew from Railway Park parkrun. It is in Proston in Queensland, regional Queensland. It's probably what 250km northwest of Brisbane. It is on the traditional lands of the Wakka Wakka people. I'm led to believe it's quite a small parkrun. I'm looking forward to it. It should be good. Let me just go and check in, see what's happening, and I'll have a chat after the run. Okay, I am here with Anita. Anita is Railway Park parkrun in Proston's Run Director today and also the Event Director. Thanks for having me today, Anita. No worries, no worries. What's today been like for you? It's a small event here. Is it big numbers, normal numbers, a few visitors today too?

00:13:31Anita: Yeah, so probably pretty average numbers but a lot of visitors today. Yeah, we don't have too many locals so mostly visitors, yeah.

00:13:41Lyndell Murray: Great. And so as a small parkrun in a regional town in Queensland, what does parkrun bring to Proston?

00:13:49Anita: So I guess not only like the visitors and the like economic economy that that brings for the town, but also our locals just love coming for a chat really. Like it doesn't matter if you've got a job or you're just going to walk and Yeah, our locals really love just the social outing, the mental health, you know, the improvement of mental health that that brings.

00:14:14Lyndell Murray: Yeah, it seems like people know each other and, you know, say g'day to each other out on the trail. So it seems that that is the case. Yeah, definitely.

00:14:21Anita: Very friendly.

00:14:23Lyndell Murray: And when I drove into town, parkrun is written up on your local chalkboard out the front. Yes. So it's a local fixture. Weekly gathering. Yeah. Fantastic. And how did you get involved in parkrun yourself, Anita?

00:14:37Anita: So at the time we were looking at the things, what we could do to bring a bit more people you know, tourism to the town. And I guess in a small town, lots of people are in different groups. So it was suggested to us, Wondai had one. So Wondai suggested that that might be a good idea for us. And so that's how we started.

00:15:00Lyndell Murray: And was there a running community in town before that? Not at all.

00:15:04Anita: Not at all. And even now, most of our locals walk. We don't have many run, but they, yeah, they just like coming for walks. Have a chat.

00:15:13Lyndell Murray: Have a chat. Yeah. So it's delivered that benefit, you think. People come in and have a chat, get to know each other.

00:15:18Anita: Yeah, definitely, definitely.

00:15:20Lyndell Murray: More the mental health sort of side, yeah. And so you said that you've had lots of visitors. Are there some places from far away that people have come to Proston?

00:15:30Anita: um like in general yeah we've had people from Tasmania um we've had someone from Germany so yeah they do come from from far and wide and so people come in there the grey nomads all that kind of stuff yeah yeah yeah yeah fantastic and now your course here um is a two and a bit lap course

00:15:54Lyndell Murray: And the main trail, I'm imagining, is on an old rail trail? Correct, it is. And so is that part of the history here in the town?

00:16:01Anita: Yeah, definitely. Yeah, so it's always sort of been a bit of a walking track, I guess, but quite underutilised before we had parkruns. So, yeah.

00:16:12Lyndell Murray: Excellent. And is there anything else that you would like the listeners of the podcast to know about your town or your parkruns?

00:16:19Anita: I don't think so, but it is our centenary of the railway in September, so hopefully we can get a big parkrun crowd for that weekend. Awesome.

00:16:30Lyndell Murray: Yeah. Great. Well, thank you so much for having me today and thanks for talking to me on the podcast. No worries. Okay, I've caught up with another local, Fiona. Thanks for talking to me today, Fiona. How was your run today?

00:16:44Fiona: Yeah, pretty good. I was meant to, according to my coaching plan, I was meant to take it real easy today, but it's just so hard when there's other people, you know, running. I thought, no, I'm going to just, you know, sort of go at a steady pace and, yeah, I went much quicker. But I quite enjoyed it. I don't like the long, slow runs, runs at all I much prefer a bit of pace yeah now parkrun in proston you're avid parkrun it sounds like you're training for something though uh for the wandai running festival coming up in uh june the end of june I think it is so I'll be doing the 10k trail race on the Saturday afternoon and then the um the 10k on the rail trail which is bitumen the on the Sunday morning so Yeah, that should be a lot of fun, I think. Yeah. I think that's their fifth year of doing the Wondai run, the festival.

00:17:40Lyndell Murray: Okay. And so big goals in running. Is that how you came to parkrun? Have you been a runner for a while? Yeah.

00:17:47Fiona: No, I used to run everywhere when I was a kid. But, you know, sort of as I got older, I always had trouble like keeping weight on. So, you know, I thought if I run, I'm just going to, you know, get too skinny. So, you know, I didn't do it. But I've since found that I have a gluten intolerance thing. So that was the reason why when the rest of the family were, you know, sort of, getting really fat on, you know, sort of basically salads and, you know, really low-fat things. I was, you know, always skinny and had to be sent to the shop with $5 to get biscuits and things like that, not to eat in front of them. But, yeah, once I went gluten-free, I stopped, you know, losing weight and, yeah, running became a thing again, you know. Oh, fantastic. You know, got rid of that worry of getting too skinny. Being unhealthy. Yeah.

00:18:38Lyndell Murray: Yeah. Yeah. Well, you do seem very healthy and it's a very healthy little parkrun here in Proston. What's your involvement with the parkrun here?

00:18:47Fiona: I usually do the course check, the pre-course check each morning. I walk the dog anyway, so, yep, I do that. Every now and then I'll be Run Director when either Anita or Cathy can't do it or, you know, one of the other ladies sometimes does it as well. But I'd much rather run, so, yeah. LAUGHTER Yeah, but that's the main things I do, either the run directing or the course check. Occasionally the other jobs, but they seem to be the main two.

00:19:06[laughter]

00:19:18Lyndell Murray: All important, you've got your 50 volunteers shirt on today, so volunteering is obviously something that you're really proud of.

00:19:24Fiona: Yep, it is. And we're very lucky here with volunteers. You know, we very rarely have trouble, you know, sort of getting them. It was only like Christmas and New Year that we struggle. And so, you know, we cancelled the Christmas one this year and we were lucky that the Wondai team, you know, sort of came over for New Year and did it for the Saturday before New Year, which was really good of them. Yeah, it was great. Yeah.

00:19:49Lyndell Murray: Wondai is also another lovely parkrun in the area, again on the rail trail. So the rail trail is part of the history here in the town.

00:19:57Fiona: Do you know much about the history? Linda would be the person to talk to about that, but we do actually have a centenary this year, the centenary of the rail coming to Proston. Obviously the train's gone now, but we've still got the rail trail. I'm leaving all the history stuff up to everyone else.

00:20:15Lyndell Murray: Good idea. Now, you've been parkrunning for a little while. Have you done many other parkruns around the Traps?

00:20:21Fiona: No, not many at all. I did Sandgate because my sister lives at Sandgate. When Wondai started, I did some there and I've done a couple of tourist ones, but no, it's mainly Proston that I do.

00:20:35Lyndell Murray: And do you have any highlights from your adventures in other, any particular favourites that you've done without including Proston? Yeah.

00:20:44Fiona: Well, probably my favourites are at Proston and my favourite here wasn't one where I actually ran, but it was during the floods. This trail here is really hardy. So, you know, we've never had to cancel because of the, you know, the track being, you know, too poor. But, you know, the roads might have been closed around the place coming here. It was election day and it was absolutely bucketing down and we ended up with just one runner, and he was he was from out of town he was just so enthusiastic he was a bit concerned that we you know wouldn't go ahead with just one but we did and yep he ran it and he came back oh he's happy as larry he had mud splattered all up his back but yeah poor little Tail Walker I mean he lapped her but she only did the one lap she wasn't going to stay out there and you know do two laps herself but no that was my favourite just you know seeing how happy he was in the You know, the pouring rain. The pouring rain. Yeah, it was the wettest it's been here, I think. And yeah, we still had a parkrun. Excellent. He got his parkrun in, so that's fantastic.

00:21:52Lyndell Murray: You get a lot of visitors here to Proston.

00:21:54Fiona: Yeah, we get a few. Probably, you know, sort of... um usually we have at least one there's been a few when we haven't and um yeah that's another great thing is you know because it's only a small little group um you know we don't usually have many you know we get quite a few people who get their first firsts and yeah that's always a you know a big thing the people are just so proud to you know finally get that number one tag so yeah that's good as well we usually get a photo of them you know with the frame and they're number one so yeah that's really good I like seeing that as well yeah yeah

00:22:28Lyndell Murray: Well, fantastic. What a lovely little event you have here. Thank you so much for talking to me today. Thank you for everything that you've done for parkrun. Is there anything else that you'd like the listeners to know about Proston and the parkrun here at Railway Park?

00:22:42Fiona: It's nearly always on, even if you don't see our volunteer roster all full up or anything on Facebook. It's very rare that we're not on, so you can be pretty confident getting in the car and coming up here.

00:22:55Lyndell Murray: great well thank you and thanks again for everything that you've done for parkrun you're welcome thank you all righty before I go I'm going to answer the question that you've all been asking what is the big thing in proston there is no big thing in proston so proston Railway Park parkrun is not one we'll be adding to the list for the adventurers at large challenge and with that I'll leave it with that and I'll speak to you again another time on the parkrun adventurers

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:23:31Oliver Spake: And thank you very much to PK and Lyndell there. Mel, I have to admit, I haven't been to too many rural parkruns. I would be probably wanting or desiring a different balance there. It'd be nice to get out to the country a bit more and enjoy. I mean, Queensland ones would be nice in particular, but yeah, to go exploring a bit. You're a little more experienced in the rural parkrun side of things.

00:24:00Melissa Ellis: Yes. I like a good long country drive. Yes.

00:24:05Oliver Spake: And, yes, some good inspiration there. I don't know whether to thank PK, Finn or Finn's mum, but... But, I mean, I didn't add in the intro, we actually got Ava barcode scanning on Saturday, which was great because, you know, she was a whiz and seemed to really enjoy it. So I think I might actually have the motivation to get her along. Getting her up is the other challenge.

Dazza's

00:24:30Oliver Spake: But, Finn, that's the inspiration. Thank you.

00:24:35Melissa Ellis: Doing his third parkrun. Good on him. Yeah. His third milestone.

00:24:40Oliver Spake: Yes. Yes. But good to hear from Around the parkrun Traps. We have a bit more from Around the parkrun Traps at Dazza's, where Dazza this week said, Welcome to Dazza's, Cafe to the Stars, the listeners, and our social media followers. Come on in and place your order and fill us in on how your parkrun morning unfolded.

00:25:00Melissa Ellis: And first in the door this week, we heard from Val Warwick, who was at home, and she said, Who needs stars when I have a view like this for marshalling volunteering? Bells Parade parkrun. Mind you, the stars were reflected in the river while an aurora was happening two nights this week. I am kicking myself that I didn't go out to shoot photos this time.

00:25:21Oliver Spake: Oh, wow.

00:25:22Melissa Ellis: And a lovely photo of the river. I think from Bells Parade parkrun. And, Ollie, the aurora's been going off in Tassie. I don't know if it's just this time of year.

00:25:36Oliver Spake: Not that I know of. I really don't know. I really don't know. But, Val, I think we're both kicking ourselves. We're not there shooting it either.

00:25:43Melissa Ellis: Absolutely, because it's one of my dreams to see the southern lights and see the an aurora. So I really need to plan a trip down to Tassie. I don't think you can know when these auroras are going to happen. That's the only problem. Is it to do with solar flares, something like that? Is it something that comes off into the atmosphere that creates the phenomenon?

00:26:07Oliver Spake: I'm ashamed to say that I can't recall. It is something that, you know, under certain conditions is a little more likely and certainly the moon phase is a factor as well. But I need to read up on it. And I'm ashamed to say I don't know whether I've seen it.

00:26:25Melissa Ellis: Well, I just need to do a Bells Parade parkrun adventure with an Aurora. Can I just put that on my shopping list?

00:26:33Oliver Spake: Yep. But elsewhere in the parkrun world, we heard from Sam Schroder in a very well-liked post saying, Pride frond at Husky for us this morning. And we had the squadron.

00:26:47Melissa Ellis: We absolutely did. A finish line zoomie in formation, Ollie, with Michael Gentle, Luke, Patio Shimo, Roberta and Sam.

00:26:56Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:26:57Melissa Ellis: How impressive. Very impressive. Yes. But we also heard from David Bravos. He was touristing and he said wife and usual poster Chloe was absent from herself when booking a weekend somewhere that doesn't have a parkrun. Lucy and I took the opportunity to venture out of the city, having a good view of the aligned stars at our farm stay last night and walking the lovely Manjimup parkrun this morning. Chloe replied, David Bravos, I enjoyed my first Saturday sleep in in a long time. And we had a photo of David and that cute little Lucy. Can't wait to meet that cute little Lucy when we go over to WA.

00:27:39Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:27:39Melissa Ellis: If that's not too creepy.

00:27:42Oliver Spake: No, it's sweet. It's absolutely sweet. Well done, two-thirds of Team Bravos. Well done, all three of you, actually. But... Yeah, nice photo for two of you. We also heard, Mel, from Caro, Caro Vos, who was reporting in on a big thing and said, checking out the big sundial at Singleton parkrun today. Hot one. So can I have an iced latte? And Caro shared a photo of the sundial, which, I mean, to me, looks a bit like a Klingon blade, but that's a pretty cool sundial.

00:28:15Melissa Ellis: Yeah, it was. And well done on Caro getting on theme and getting out there and finding something big.

00:28:20Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:28:21Melissa Ellis: We also heard from Lee Cabarita.

00:28:24Oliver Spake: That's her poor name.

00:28:26Melissa Ellis: And she was touristing and she said, hey, Dazza, have missed you. Sally Bianca and I are closing in on the Rayfarers Challenge. Sal and I were at East Richmond today. Aeroplane emoji. We missed the start but caught up soon enough. On completion, we headed to Richmond Markets and indulged in a mocha and almond latte while Bianca was at Penrith. We'll all become Rayfarers next week at Rouse Hill. Have a great weekend. Love you. Bye. And we had a photo from Lee with Lee and Sally in the selfie frame.

00:28:59Oliver Spake: Now, we also heard from Jan Yates. And thank you, Jan, for popping into Dazza's. And she said, trying my first zoomie visiting the Terrace parkrun this morning. And shared a photo of herself in the rundown under singlet doing a zoomie on course. A very fine zoomie. Well done, Jan.

00:29:18Melissa Ellis: I wonder if that gets Jan her sticker on her snazzy challenge card.

00:29:22Oliver Spake: Classy. Classy, Mel.

00:29:25Melissa Ellis: It's always going to be snazzy to me, Oliver. Next we heard from Lynne Ann, and she came to us with a big thing. She said, while we are on the subject of big things, Koonoomoo has the big strawberry, and this is about eight kilometres from Cobram parkrun in Victoria. And Lynne shared a photo of the big strawberry. Thank you for sharing that, Lynne. And I think I did mention it in last week's pod. I didn't mention Koonoomoo. Koonoomoo, though, because I didn't know that bit.

00:29:56Oliver Spake: Oh, but yeah, that's another one that I get to see. So thank you very much. Now, over in South Africa, Mel, we heard from Johan, who reported in and said... The weather gave a bit of a break and I made it to Clarens parkrun in South Africa, where today they used a new route for the first time. It remains challenging and now climbs to an elevation of 1,912 metres, which incidentally is the year the town was founded. Then off to a neighbouring town to do some training for a new event team. And Johan's pictures and posts went on to comment on the stunning surroundings and beautifully green after the abundant rain of the past few months. And if you haven't already, check out the pictures. So Johan with the event and elevation sign and the scenery shots, plus a shot of him with RD Bastian. And when I first read that, Mel, I thought that that was a new taker for the Elevation Challenge. That would be something else in terms of vert. But obviously, the parkrun itself doesn't climb that high. No.

00:31:05Melissa Ellis: No, but what a coincidence that it's 912 metres of elevation and it was founded in 1912.

00:31:12Oliver Spake: They timed that well.

00:31:13Melissa Ellis: Weird. Next we heard from Claire Winizik.

00:31:22Oliver Spake: Sorry, Claire. I was going to try and say that one. Yeah.

00:31:26Melissa Ellis: She doesn't mind. She's from the UK and she said, Maryport Prom parkrun, fastest time this year. I wasn't supposed to be doing any parkrun, but my New Zealand cruise got cancelled. And we've got a photo of Claire with the event sign. and a video of the nearby water. But, oh, what a shame about your New Zealand cruise. They are not having any luck over there, Ollie, with their weather in New Zealand.

00:31:50Oliver Spake: Absolutely right. Yeah, yeah, that water outlook from the video is a bit different to the cruise balcony, but hopefully you get another opportunity. And, Mel, we heard from someone who was at home, Stephen Jackson, who popped in and said apologies for the late reporting and for missing the big week, but the past week or two have been busy with setting up the World Cross Country here in Bathurst, the first time in Australia and only second time for the World Cross Country in the Southern Hemisphere. As a result, the weekend just gone has been huge in Bathurst, mirroring the esteemed presence of the Brendan Peel and team at Bathurst parkrun for the first time. Jen and I have been busy with organising the World Cross Country with world record holders Sebastian Coe, Dick, and a plethora of Olympic and world champions. Driven by the World Cross Country, our Bathurst parkrun added huge numbers to our local stats. 273 first timers, 511 finishers. Old record, a measly 332. That was us. Typically, we have four or five under 20 minutes, but this edition soared the 10th finisher in 16 minutes, 25th in 1701, 45th in 18 minutes, 74th in 1902, and 96th was the Magic 2.00 mark. Wow. We had heard rumours that the World Cross Country athletes were going to use our parkrun as warm-up, and so it was, with their support staff joining in. Jen and I had to race off once logistics and finish tokens for over 500 were sorted as we were racing in the World Masters Cross Country Mixed Relay an hour later. Wow. But we did run parkrun first. But unfortunately, we missed the opportunity for a coffee with parkrun Royalty. Next time. That's an optimistic sign off to that comment there, Stephen. I look forward to next time that being in Bathurst, but that sounds humongous. And Stephen, shared the photos of he and Jen in their Aussie gear and medals, plus a photo of Stephen with Seb Coe and Tamsin Lewis-Ingram.

00:34:23Melissa Ellis: Wow.

00:34:24Oliver Spake: So, wow.

00:34:26Melissa Ellis: I know. That's all I can say. What a big day at Bathurst. I'll say.

00:34:30Oliver Spake: Yeah. Well done, everyone. Well done, Team Bathurst. That would have been quite the surge in participation for everyone involved. And I can just imagine how much of a buzz it must have been.

00:34:43Melissa Ellis: It would have been. And thank you very much to Stephen for sneaking in the door late at Dazza's to let us know.

00:34:49Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:34:50Melissa Ellis: But, Ollie.

the Obi Award — Sam Schroder

00:34:51Melissa Ellis: Yes. Now it's time to award an Obi. Have you got the envelope? Have I?

00:34:59Oliver Spake: Uh, I can't find it here, Mel. Sorry, um... What? No. Oh. Um, let me have a look.

00:35:08Rachel - Club Corner contributor: This is Big Sister. Now just pretend that I said that in Big Brother style. LOL jokes it's Rachel, and I have the envelope. This week's Obi goes to somebody who is very hardworking and often underappreciated by her bosses. Sam Schroder. Congratulations to the Office Lady for all the effort that no one sees behind the scenes. Rachel sees everything. Oh, is that it? Don't I get to do anything else?

00:35:44Melissa Ellis: Oh, well, that's awkward, Ollie. But thank you, Rachel, and we fully endorse your decision this week.

00:35:52Oliver Spake: I mean, I'm not sure if we get a say in it. I think we bow down to the machines.

00:35:56Melissa Ellis: It's getting scary, Ollie. Is it like Skynet? Like, I don't know.

00:36:02Oliver Spake: You think the day is coming? Hmm.

00:36:04Melissa Ellis: There's probably this big giant countdown up there somewhere that we're not aware of.

00:36:08Oliver Spake: Well, that's right.

00:36:09Melissa Ellis: But thank you, Rachel. And now it's also time to throw to Rachel.

00:36:14[music]

00:36:14Oliver Spake: Guess who's boss here.

Club Corner

00:36:29Rachel - Club Corner contributor: welcome back this is Rachel on radio pra with Bonnie tyler singing her latest hit 99 red balloons huh winky face welcome back this is Rachel with club corner where we talk about the what and why of parkrun clubs would you like to listen to me blather on about letters or numbers well since you can't reply I will assume that you'd like more information about letters I told you about Alphabeteers and I told you about namely well there are many more uses for the starting letters of event names These clubs are quite fun, and include some of my favourite clubs. In no particular order, here are some of these letter-based clubs. The, Five Ks, club where one completes five events starting with the letter K. The, Queen Bs, club where one completes all the events starting with the letter B in Queensland. The, Pirate Club, where one phonetically completes the pirate phrase, seven Cs and an R. Becoming a, BG, where one collects three Bs and three Gs. And who can forget, Old McDonald, because the song goes E-I-E-I-O. These clubs slash achievements do not need to be completed in a specific order like the original Namely Challenge, so they are quite fun to collect, but that also means that you need to track them more diligently. Luckily there are many contemporary options for tracking achievements, from hard copy files, onto Excel, through to online tools like 5K, or using Running Challenges, or Running Achievements, etc. Are you a keen participant of spelling things or collecting letters with your parkruns? And remember, in parkrun life, all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.

00:38:08Oliver Spake: Thank you once again, Rachel.

00:38:10Melissa Ellis: Moonlighting is radio PRA, which I assume is parkrun adventurers Radio.

00:38:17Oliver Spake: Well, unless it's parkrun Australia, but I think parkrun adventurers, yeah.

00:38:20Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

00:38:22Oliver Spake: We'll see. Yeah.

00:38:23Melissa Ellis: Maybe she'll be taking over parkrun Australia next, once she conquers us.

00:38:27Oliver Spake: That's right. We didn't put that in the time capsule, did we?

00:38:31Melissa Ellis: No. No.

00:38:32Oliver Spake: Yes, we completely missed the rise of the AI.

00:38:35Melissa Ellis: Never mind. Never mind. But...

Emails

00:38:38Oliver Spake: You've got mail. We've got mail. So, thank you very much to Calum Burrell. Mel, shall I read it out? Please. So, Calum wrote to us, and in his email, he said, Hi there, Mel, Ollie, and the Office Lady. I'm intrigued with the prospective Adventurers at Large parkrun Challenge. I can think of... think of at least three events that fit in with the challenge as having points of interest that are oversized versions of things. In the UK the ones that I've been to are number one Sutton Manor where the main feature is a giant head sculpture named The Dream. Number two Trentham Gardens where the There is a giant chair in the gardens. And number three, Northwich.

00:39:30Melissa Ellis: Norwich?

00:39:31Oliver Spake: Where there is a giant... Sorry. Is it Norwich? I don't know. I thought that one was Northwich.

00:39:38Melissa Ellis: Okay.

00:39:38Oliver Spake: But that's all right. Calum, we might need another email from you.

00:39:43Melissa Ellis: Ignore me. Ignore me. I'll edit myself out.

00:39:46Oliver Spake: Oh, no. Where there is a giant bicycle sculpture... Beyond that, I'm scratching my head for others in the UK, so would like to hear about others in the UK and beyond. A great podcast, as always, keep up the great work. Calum Burrell, A461587. Thanks, Calum.

00:40:06Melissa Ellis: Excellent. Big things in the UK, big things in South Africa. Geoff, we're looking at you. Where's our big USA thing? You would think the USA would be the... The biggest of all the big things, wouldn't you?

00:40:21Oliver Spake: Well, there would be some big things there. That's right. That's right.

00:40:25Fiona: I presume, at least.

00:40:26Oliver Spake: But, yeah, keep it coming. And, yeah, as Calum said, we would love to hear about others. So thank you, team.

Consolidated Club Report

00:40:35Oliver Spake: Mel, is it time, though, to catch up on the Consolidated Club Report?

00:40:39Melissa Ellis: It is. Now, apologies I didn't get this posted on Sunday like I usually do, but time restraints with working the weekend meant that I just didn't have the time to throw it together. I have got a brief overview for you, though. The adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Sunday, the 18th of February, 2023, of a total of 900. That's a bit hopeful. Of a total of 393 members, 325 took part on this date at 176 locations. There were 25 in the UK, two in South Africa, two in the USA, and one each in Singapore and Denmark. Locally, we had adventures at 37 events in Victoria, 36 events in Queensland, and 31 events in New South Wales. WA had 10, South Australia had 9, ACT had 7. There were 6 on the North Island, Tassie had 5, and the South Island had 4. It's like round the grounds in the footy, isn't it?

00:41:47Oliver Spake: It is. It is. It is. The state of things. Yep.

00:41:51Melissa Ellis: State of the nation. Ooh, that's a blast from the past. Yes. Yeah. Maybe we need to do that one time. Maybe we need to get somebody from every state and territory to call in with some point of information from this state. Ooh, leave it with me.

the Frond — Maitland parkrun

00:42:06Melissa Ellis: But Largest Frond, you ask, Ollie. Let me tell you. Very quietly. This weekend, the Largest Frond was out at Maitland parkrun. Who had eight adventurers? They were Lorraine Collison, Michelle Fyfe, Kathy Mudge, Lisa Thomas, Susan Mitchell, Susan and Dexter Roddick, and Sally Gutierrez. Gutierrez. I think that's right. So that's that. Very good. There were some good Fronds happening around on all the Pride events.

Sign-off

00:42:36Oliver Spake: It's all right. A very friendly weekend. It was fun. It was a lot of fun. And that's it. I'm sure next weekend will be fun. Next parkrun day will be a lot of fun too. So where is it going to take you, Mel?

00:42:49Melissa Ellis: Another car trip. I have got my clutch adjusted yet again and I'm very hopeful that I can take my little car west over the border into south. I was going to say South Africa. That would be too far west. South Australia. Yes, to Maria Creek Reserve. Wonderful. To check out South Australia's newest event.

00:43:12Oliver Spake: Wow. Oh, well, safe travels. I trust the weather will be nice for you.

00:43:18Melissa Ellis: I hope so. I think it's going to be a hot one down here in Victoria, so I think there's probably a good chance it'll also be hot in South Australia. But, Ollie. Tell me about your adventures or travels or weekend.

00:43:32Oliver Spake: Yes. Well, I suppose any and all of the aforementioned. I will be on the annual extended family getaway to Lake Conjola, so an hour and a half south of here, down on the south coast of New South Wales. And... a little way from nearby parkruns, including the cancelled as of, well, for that particular weekend, Huskisson parkrun. So I guess I'm heading south because it's a rather crammed agenda for the family. And I'm going to have to duck it down to Batemans Bay parkrun once again and enjoy that one.

00:44:10Melissa Ellis: Excellent. Well, You have a good time there and, yeah, great that you get to travel again.

00:44:16Oliver Spake: Yeah, I was just trying to work out how many times I've been there, but I don't know, a couple of times.

00:44:23Melissa Ellis: You don't have a spreadsheet for these things? You call yourself an adventurer?

00:44:27Oliver Spake: I've got Post-its.

00:44:28Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's... Well, we'll ask... Actually, hey, Rachel, how many... How many times has Ollie done Batemans Bay?

00:44:41Rachel - Club Corner contributor: Ollie has run at Batemans Bay on three occasions.

00:44:45Oliver Spake: It is my equal third most visited parkrun. I haven't done many repeats.

00:44:51Melissa Ellis: So what's your P index, three?

00:44:53Oliver Spake: That's correct.

00:44:54Melissa Ellis: Ah, okay.

00:44:55Oliver Spake: Yes. Yeah. So next year, this time next year, assuming I'm getting off to Huskisson or if I've been to Sandon Point in the meantime, it'll get up to four. Right. Slow progress, Mel.

00:45:10Melissa Ellis: Can't rush these things.

00:45:11Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:45:12Melissa Ellis: And we've got forever to do parkrun. Ollie, there's no rush. It's not a race.

00:45:17Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:45:17Melissa Ellis: But that's it for our short and punchy podcast this week. How do you like that, short and punchy?

00:45:24Oliver Spake: Not that it was a race, but yeah.

00:45:27Melissa Ellis: This is all just for me to give me a bit of an easier week after my busy weekend in editing. But as always, you can contact us via Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another week. We will see you all next week for more adventures.