Episode 326 - Song sung blue?

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:24Rachel: Hello, and welcome to parkrun adventurers Podcast Episode 3, 2, 6. I am your favourite synth metal host, Rachel, and I am coming to you from Arrernte Country. Wait, what? Why are you turning me down? What's going on? Mel? Ollie?

00:00:41Oliver Spake: Um, okay. Yes, well, and... Synth metal fans aside, and I am Ollie, Ollie Spake, joining from Dharawal Country. And Mel, I trust you're with us too.

00:00:52Melissa Ellis: Yes, I'm here on Wurundjeri Country. Jeez, Ollie, you turn your back for a minute and the kids are getting into your stuff.

00:00:59Oliver Spake: I don't know. All this technology chat in recent pods, the kids being up there, I'm not sure I'm needed anymore. Which is just as well, just as well. I'm very sleepy.

00:01:11Melissa Ellis: There'll be an uproar. You can't walk away. I know you're busy. You're really busy this week, aren't you? We've got to do a real quick recording. I'm lucky we've got ample content.

00:01:23Oliver Spake: Yeah, I think the theme here is contributions from across our community, well and truly. I think we'll probably find it's a similar length pod, just very little me. So yeah, it probably helps with the appearance of busyness, looking busy, but yeah. Yes, we've got a lot to get through, Mel, and yeah, plenty of people to listen to. But look, I'm going to jump straight into it and say I was in a familiar place and I managed to squeeze in a familiar 5K activity on Saturday morning. Not sure I need to elaborate. Your dig's, however, slightly less familiar. So would you care to share with us where you were last parkrun day?

00:02:03Melissa Ellis: Thank you, I will. And a brief report from me this week. Suffice to say that I did adventure to the Sunshine Coast on Saturday on the traditional lands of the Gubbi Gubbi people and spent an enjoyable 24 hours with Mel, Adam and the boys. Activities included stopping to see the big pineapple, skipping on one foot, ice cream making, titanic appreciation and an evening streak around Mel's neighbourhood. On Saturday morning Mel and I headed off to Kawana where we were greeted by a joyful parkrun community buzzing with the excitement of local parkrunner Graham Rose's 80th birthday. There were 214 finishes for event 502, which we walked, stopping only briefly at the lighthouse to admire the view and take photos. Afterwards, there was a lovely spread of fruit, freckles and birthday cake supplied for Graham with the local coffee vans supplying the beverages. I did catch up with Kawana parkrunner John Lindsell, the man behind the parkrun Party song, and recorded a few words with him, which we'll hear shortly. It was lovely to spend time with Mel and the boys, however briefly, and she did supply some blue skies as promised.

00:03:16Oliver Spake: She did.

00:03:16Melissa Ellis: You can see some of my photos in the Office Lady's album tonight, including a picture with John and, of course, a rather oversized pineapple.

00:03:25Oliver Spake: All the highlights, Mel. Yes. Nice to see you on the big trail, that's for sure. But, yeah, particularly nice to hear that you caught up with some very good parkrun company.

00:03:34Melissa Ellis: I was very spoilt. And I did enjoy meeting John. And I have since downloaded the Kawana Pie album. Excellent. And I'm enjoying it, John, if you're listening. Very much so. So, yes, celebrating birthdays at Kawana. But, Ollie, I trust Cathy did have a nice birthday in Sydney.

00:03:54Oliver Spake: Yes, thank you. That is one of the reasons for tiredness is we had another family getaway. So that's why I do need to keep my moaning and groaning to a minimum because it's not all work. It's also getaways. And Cathy did have a lovely time. Thank you. We managed to squeeze in a Sunday morning visit to the aquarium and a Saturday afternoon visit to Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat at the theatre, and left Kathy up in Sydney with her sister to head off to the concert or the music festival. So, yeah, plenty busy. She had a great time. And, yeah, she was surprisingly bushy-tailed today.

00:04:30[background music]

00:04:31Rachel: Very good.

00:04:32Melissa Ellis: All righty. Well, shall we have a little listen to my interview with John?

00:04:36Oliver Spake: Let's.

Interview John Lindsell — Kawana parkrunner and songwriter of the "parkrun Party" song

00:04:46Melissa Ellis: Okay, so I'm here at Kawana parkrun and I've got with me John Lindsell. Good morning, John.

00:04:51John Lindsell: Morning, Mel.

00:04:52Melissa Ellis: Now, I've come here for a specific reason, which is to talk to you about your parkrun Party new release song, which we've played a couple of times on the pod. But I thought I'd start by asking you a bit about your parkrun journey. So would you like to tell us how you came to be doing parkrun?

00:05:08John Lindsell: Well, we moved to the Sunshine Coast from Sydney nine years ago. And as luck would have it, we were in the Aldi line buying our first lot of groceries and And the couple in front of us were wearing athletic gear and we started chatting and they said they'd been to parkrun. And we said, what's parkrun? And the next week we were there. And it's been just a fabulous adventure.

00:05:34Melissa Ellis: So you've got 29 different parkrun events completed across four countries.

00:05:39John Lindsell: Mm-hmm.

00:05:40Melissa Ellis: What are some of your favourite memories from adventuring?

00:05:43John Lindsell: Probably, well, the furthest ones we did were Norway and Sweden. And we were due to run in Russia, in St. Petersburg. But unfortunately, two days before we were due to run there, Our trip schedule was changed, so we never made the St Petersburg parkrun. And in the light of subsequent events with Russia, I'm so disappointed because we knew that the same type of people that we experience here at Kawana would have been there at St. Petersburg, and now it's possible that some of those boys have lost their lives in this crazy war. It's very upsetting to think about, and I think we should have a thought for those Russian parkrunners.

00:06:32Melissa Ellis: Fair point. So you volunteered on 75 occasions in a range of roles at parkrun. What's your favourite volunteer position?

00:06:42John Lindsell: That's a difficult question, really. I've loved all of them. I think it doesn't matter whether you're a Marshal out on the course. Because then you can sing out to everyone with a bit of encouragement. Tell them they've only got 500 metres to go when it's really three kilometres. Or other silly things. I like being Timekeeper. I like doing all the jobs. And it's a feel-good experience that you're enabling this fabulous event to go on.

00:07:16Melissa Ellis: I note that you've finished your stopwatch bingo and palindrome challenges. Do you follow the challenges on the apps or anything like that?

00:07:25John Lindsell: No, I haven't really. I've got a lot of other stuff going on. You do? As you can tell from my voice, I'm not that young anymore. We're retired and we're very fortunate. We have a lot of other things in our lives. We're very, very busy.

00:07:41Melissa Ellis: So you've done a lot of your events at Kawana. You're closing in on your double tonne. Are you aware of that?

00:07:49John Lindsell: I've actually just completed my 250th, Mel.

00:07:52Melissa Ellis: But at Kawana specifically.

00:07:54[crosstalk]

00:07:54John Lindsell: Oh, at Kawana.

00:07:55Melissa Ellis: Yeah, so you're closing in on your double tonne, which is 200 events just at Kawana. I didn't know that. We've heard about this event on the podcast from Mel Erbacher, but we'd love to hear your thoughts on your home event.

00:08:08John Lindsell: Well... Well, it's your home event. We live not far away. It's a beautiful course. It's right on the ocean. It's slightly hilly and at the end there is a rise up to the lighthouse which gives you 360 degree views and in winter you can see the whales migrating. There are sea eagles floating around and we can see the Sunshine Coast hinterland over to the left up there and boats coming in and out of the harbour, the fishing boats. It's just a wonderful location. And you can't take your eyes off it, really. It's just so beautiful. We're very lucky to be here.

00:08:50Melissa Ellis: Are you a fan of the beach section that happens every January?

00:08:53John Lindsell: Oh, I love the beach section.

00:08:56Unidentified speaker: Yeah?

00:08:58John Lindsell: I must be the only one at Kawana that loves the beach section. But what I've figured out is... I can also volunteer for those five weeks and run the course. And it's quite an adventure because one of those weeks we ran, there was an extra high tide and we had water surging over our lower legs and it was quite exciting and everyone was having a good laugh about it and you don't get that at a lot of parkruns, let's face it. Change is good, isn't it? Change is good.

00:09:31Melissa Ellis: So outside of parkrun, you are a successful songwriter with the recently released parkrun Party, one of our favourites. So how long does it take you to develop an idea into a finished song? Have you done this sort of thing before?

00:09:45John Lindsell: I've been doing it for about nine years. I lost my wife to breast cancer and I had a big emotional... change occurred to me and I just was writing a few thoughts about her and I realised that you know there were little rhymes in there and eventually I thought I could do a song about her which I did and then I I was very lucky to contact some people in Nashville in the USA who produce musicians to put it together as a song and it was a very transformative stage. I realised I could do this thing and so leading on from that I've done probably 20 different songs and I've had them all professionally produced in the USA. I do it in Los Angeles now because I've got another group of very good musicians and vocalists a pool of them who I hire to suit each particular song so I don't sing myself because you probably realise my voice is pretty croaky and I've I wouldn't be game to inflict that on anybody.

00:11:08Melissa Ellis: We did realise it sounded like a younger person singing.

00:11:11John Lindsell: Yes, well, and female.

00:11:13Melissa Ellis: Yes.

00:11:14John Lindsell: I hope you realised that.

00:11:15Melissa Ellis: Yes, we did.

00:11:16John Lindsell: In the parkrun song. And that lady, her name's Alice. She and the musicians are members of big touring bands in the USA.

00:11:27Tony: Mm-hmm.

00:11:28John Lindsell: And when these bands finish a tour, they go home. And after about three or four days, these musicians and vocalists are all sick of sitting at home. And they wander off down to the local studios and say, what have you got for us? What can we do? And so this is when I hire them to sing something for me. And it's been very successful and I'm very pleased with the results. It's very professional, the way it's all done. I think you can tell that from the recording of parkrun Party. It's been a very rewarding experience for me too because it came from nowhere. And I've found I'm not that bad at it actually.

00:12:11Melissa Ellis: Well, I love it. It's very catchy and we've played it a couple of times on the pod. We might stick it again at the end in this episode if we've got your permission to do that.

00:12:20John Lindsell: Absolutely. I'm so pleased that people do seem to enjoy it because it's not easy to write a song.

00:12:28Lyndell Murray: Yep.

00:12:28John Lindsell: And with parkrun, I had to be very, very careful with what I wrote. I didn't want to offend anybody. I didn't want to... take advantage of the parkrun name but it's unavoidable when you're writing a song about parkrun but the reason I wanted to do it was because it's been just a wonderful concept parkrun is a wonderful concept it's very rewarding you can participate in it in any way you are comfortable with And you're here this morning now at Kawana and there's a birthday party here for one of our longest term members. He's 80 today and you've seen the atmosphere. You've felt this atmosphere. It's a family. It is fabulous. It is a family. And you saw there were 70 or 80 people here. for the party afterwards. It's funny because the song's called parkrun Party and here we are having one today. Yeah, exactly.

00:13:09[crosstalk]

00:13:25Melissa Ellis: And I noticed everybody just excited to see Mel come back after she stood down a couple of weeks ago as an RD on the team. And everybody was very, like, big smiles to see her back this morning. So, can you tell us, what's the best way that our listeners can get the song and support the production of it? Because you can't buy a CD anymore, so how do we get it? What's the best place to go to?

00:13:49[crosstalk]

00:13:51John Lindsell: Well, you really need to download the song. To hear it, if you go onto YouTube and put in parkrun Party, world's first parkrun song which I've subsequently found out isn't true there was there was one done about four years ago and I didn't know so apologies to that writer um but if you go into into YouTube you can see the video which we made here at Kawana and and the music that goes along with it but you can buy it on itunes and um Amazon Music, the usual places. And I've got to say something here that people don't know. Spotify get a lot of publicity, but Spotify are very, very unfeeling about the artists that produce these things. People don't know this, but Spotify pay about one third of one cent per play. And it's not fair to artists. So I say to people, look, you can download the track for about a dollar, 90 cents or a dollar, and you've got it forever.

00:15:00Rachel: Yep.

00:15:00John Lindsell: Or you can buy the album that is on A Slice of Life by Kawanapai for about $10 and you get 13 songs. And that, to an artist, is a fair return.

00:15:11Melissa Ellis: Yep.

00:15:11John Lindsell: Whereas I feel that Spotify is a very unfair platform.

00:15:16Melissa Ellis: And I think a lot of people wouldn't have that knowledge. Like I certainly didn't know that. So that's good to know. And I'll go and definitely download it.

00:15:24John Lindsell: Yes, thank you.

00:15:25Melissa Ellis: The correct way. But OK, so I wish you all the best with how that goes. Have you got any early indication of how it's doing?

00:15:36John Lindsell: Not yet, only verbally from people. We've had a couple of functions at our house now with 60, 70 people and they're dancing.

00:15:46Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

00:15:46John Lindsell: And I always think that's a pretty good indication of how people feel. So I've got another couple of possible parkrun songs in the... Conceptional? Conceptional, thank you, Mel. Conceptional stage. But, you know, it costs a bit of money to put these things together. So I've got to make sure that it's absolutely right before I commit to recording it. Oh, okay. So there are ideas cooking around. I've been encouraged a bit by the response from people.

00:15:55[crosstalk]

00:16:16[crosstalk]

00:16:18Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's good.

00:16:18John Lindsell: Yeah, it's very nice. It's a lovely feeling to know that people...

00:16:23Melissa Ellis: actually make a make a contact with what you do yeah yeah well thank you now we usually ask our guests to list their top three parkrun events um however could you give us your top three songs that you have written excluding parkrun party okay well I'm I also write about current current affairs I I really can't think of a way to describe this

00:16:50John Lindsell: I've written three songs about the Me Too concept, where women have been disadvantaged by men. I've got a French song called Number Three, Rue de la Lique, which is on the album. I have another one called The Veteran, which I really like. I met a guy in Seattle where my son lives, more or less a vagrant on a park bench. And he was able to tell me a little bit, but he was very mixed up emotionally. And I wrote this song about this guy. It's called The Veteran, which I'm very proud of. And I wrote another one called Fargo, which... It was kind of based on the Fargo TV series where a guy gets mixed up with the wrong crowd and he can't get out.

00:17:43Melissa Ellis: Okay.

00:17:44John Lindsell: So it's quite a dark.

00:17:45Melissa Ellis: Yep.

00:17:46John Lindsell: And I've noticed that through some of my stuff. Some of it's quite dark and that's why parkrun Party is so different for me. Yes. Okay. Which is a happy song. Yeah.

00:17:51[crosstalk]

00:17:55Melissa Ellis: Just on that, were you going for any type of, like, not genre, but sound with that party? Because to me, just listening, like, I'm not from the era, but it sounds very Beach Boys kind of era to me.

00:18:06John Lindsell: Well, as you've seen me now, you know what my era is. But I reckon all the good stuff was done in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Right, OK, so I'm not far off the mark with that. You're not far off the mark.

00:18:13[crosstalk]

00:18:17Melissa Ellis: OK, well, that's great.

00:18:18John Lindsell: I love a bit of rock and roll, so...

00:18:21Melissa Ellis: Well, thank you very much for talking with me today, John. It was lovely to meet you in person and we wish you all the best with your songwriting in the future. Thanks, Mel. And your parkrunning.

00:18:30[background music]

00:18:30John Lindsell: Thanks, Mel. It's been lovely to talk to you. I really do appreciate you doing this and what you do on your podcast.

00:18:36Melissa Ellis: No problem.

00:18:46Oliver Spake: And thank you very much to John and to yourself for the interview there, Mel. It is wonderful that John has given us a different way to enjoy parkrun and to save a part of the event and the community that we love. And, John, we wish you all the very best with your songwriting and music from here. But obviously we'll have to throw this back in at the end of the episode so everyone who hasn't had a chance can have a listen.

00:19:11Melissa Ellis: We will. I just play it on repeat. I love it. It's so catchy and funky.

00:19:16Oliver Spake: Well, that's right. You know where to download it, everyone.

00:19:18Melissa Ellis: That's right. You do.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:19:20Melissa Ellis: Now, Ollie, time to catch up with some roving reports. Now, let's have a listen to the one we held over from last week, which was Lyndell at Brightwater. And we've got David back with us. So we'll have a listen to that now.

00:19:25[background music]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Brightwater parkrun

00:19:39Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell and today for the Channel 5 News crew I am at Brightwater parkrun up on the sunny coast just north of Brisbane in Queensland. Now I recall that Brightwater was a freedom run when Queensland hosted Palm a couple of years ago so some of you may be familiar with the course. Some of you may be familiar with hearing about Brightwater. I've never been here before, so I'm going to go and check it out and have a bit of a run, maybe a bit of a walk. And I'll check in after I have completed the course. Alrighty, I have found the little girl of the day. Her name is Ruby. How are you today? Good. And what's special about today, Ruby? Can you tell me? I've done my 10th parkrun and it's also my birthday. Wow, what a day. Is there a day that has been better than this or is this the best day ever?

00:20:34Ruby: It's the best day ever.

00:20:37Lyndell Murray: Excellent. Now, congratulations on your 10th parkrun today. What do you like most about parkrun?

00:20:45Ruby: I like challenging myself to run faster than the time before. Excellent. And did you do that today?

00:20:53Lyndell Murray: Yes. Wow, that's awesome. Now, I was out on course with you and all the time I could hear your little pattering feet behind me or in front of me. You ran all the way today.

00:21:04Ruby: Yes, and I didn't even walk. Not once? No, I didn't even stop for your drink after the little loop.

00:21:13Lyndell Murray: Wow, you did really well. Congratulations. Now, it's your birthday today. Have you got any special plans for your birthday?

00:21:20Ruby: Well, I have a special plan. It's to have a party and also the day after, I know what one of my presents is going to be. It's one of my neighbours taking me to the gemstones near Aussie World. Oh, wow. So you have a very big weekend ahead of you.

00:21:39Lyndell Murray: Yes. Well, let me not hold you up any further. I'm going to let you go. I've just got one more question. What would you like everybody to know about Brightwater parkrun where you are today? I think it's super fun. Excellent. Thanks so much, Ruby. High five. No! Now, Ruby was just one of the milestones today. There were quite a few. And one of the gentlemen that I spotted at the start line helping everybody to make sure that their milestones were appropriately celebrated was Gary. Now, Gary, it's a special day for you as well.

00:22:17Gary: I'm not sure that it's special, but I achieved 150 volunteers today.

00:22:21Lyndell Murray: I think that's pretty special.

00:22:23Gary: It's not bad. I think the reward's for me rather than to celebrate it out there. But, yeah, it's nice to be able to help the community.

00:22:27[crosstalk]

00:22:33Lyndell Murray: What's your favourite volunteer role?

00:22:36Gary: I don't really have a favourite volunteer role. It doesn't really matter. Maybe barcode scanning would be quite... It's quite fun because you can see everyone come in and enjoy their times.

00:22:47Lyndell Murray: Yep. Excellent. And you've done most of your volunteering here at Brightwater?

00:22:51Gary: All of it, yeah.

00:22:52Lyndell Murray: And it's nearly four, so I'm going to do some maths here. It's about just over 400 and you've done 150. So you have volunteered at at least one third of Brightwater's parkruns.

00:23:03Gary: Yeah, that'd be right.

00:23:05Lyndell Murray: Well, that's incredible. That's absolutely incredible. And you ran today as well. So you run here as well. How many runs have you done?

00:23:12[crosstalk]

00:23:12Gary: About 210 or something like that.

00:23:14Lyndell Murray: Yeah. Excellent. And do you do any other parkruns? Have you got any other stories about other parkruns that you've been to?

00:23:21Gary: No, I've only done about seven and that's usually when we're travelling. But it's nice to look and see what the other events do and what you can bring back to our event to make it even more fun than what it is. I've only done one overseas, which was nice when I was on holidays. Other than that, yeah, home's close and it's nice, yeah.

00:23:42Lyndell Murray: You're a bit more of a passionista than an adventurer.

00:23:45Gary: Yeah, we've got a beautiful community here and it's really good fun and it extends past the Saturday, so it's really nice.

00:23:52Lyndell Murray: That's fantastic. Now, it is a lovely course. Obviously, the thing that sticks out to you is the community here, but the course is lovely too, isn't it?

00:24:00Gary: Yeah, a nice little flat, fast track with mostly shade now. The trees have grown up around the lake and it's got a beautiful view around the lake. Sometimes I wish I could swim straight across and cut off a couple of K, but yeah, it's... everyone says that they enjoy it um and yeah it's just um it copes pretty well with two to three hundred people not too bad yeah

00:24:21Lyndell Murray: Excellent. Yeah, I was runner 210 and there's still plenty more coming, so it is quite a sizeable parkrun here.

00:24:26Gary: All sorts of different people that participate. We've got John in his scooter who has a helper come with him and he's really aiming to beat his PB every week and everyone gets excited for him. So it's, yeah, the same for the really fast ones that go fast, the young kids that are out there achieving like Ruby. Ruby's been... coming in a pram since she was a baby so um to get 10 runs for her today was exciting on her birthday which is even better yeah exactly all right well thank you so much for everything that you've done for Brightwater parkrun thank you for talking to me today and um have a great day thank you

00:25:07Lyndell Murray: Okay, I have found today's Run Director, Claire, and one of the Event Directors, Andrew. Apparently I was just talking to the other Event Director, Gary. He's a very, very shy man, isn't he? He's very introverted, but good on him. Now, thank you for having me here today. How did today go for you, Claire?

00:25:28Claire: It's been wonderful. It's been a nice busy one again, which is great. And lots of milestones. Yes. We're very fortunate here. We always celebrate our milestones really well. We have a famous tunnel of love that we get everyone to run through when they're reaching a milestone, so it's wonderful. Yep. Just describe that for the listeners. How does that work? So we keep track, and that's all Gary. So, again, one of his... Yes. Many talents. Many talents. We're going to call him Humble Gary from now on.

00:25:58[crosstalk]

00:26:02Unidentified speaker: Yep.

00:26:04Claire: He keeps track of all of our runners and when they're hitting milestones and we call them out as part of our run brief each and every week. And then at the end, we get them to line up where we do our run brief and all the runners of the day make a big, huge tunnel towards our start chute and then we get them to run through and we all clap them through and cheer and...

00:26:26Andrew: sing and all those wonderful things it was really lovely to be a part of this morning thank you for doing that it must be a really special feeling for those celebrating milestones definitely I think that's one of brightwater's wonderful it's a jewel in our crown and people come from a way to do those um tunnel of love yeah events so they'll come to Brightwater for their milestones knowing that we'll do that for them and it started probably 2016-17 And one of the ladies here today who was barcode scanning had that idea at our old start line and it stuck and it's become quite well renowned.

00:27:06Lyndell Murray: Fantastic. Now you've done over 400 events here and have you guys been involved from the start?

00:27:12Andrew: No, no. I moved to the coast in 2015 and I think our first run was October 14. And I think I was a Run Director in about a year. So not from the get-go, but there's a few locals that were. Claire's pretty new.

00:27:26Claire: yeah it's pretty new yeah I've been running probably since about 2018 doing parkruns um and a Run Director for over the last 12 to 18 months yeah yeah yeah we we had a few Run Directors just through natural attrition move away um and we had to get Claire and m Renee who are they're new to the team

00:27:51Lyndell Murray: Fantastic.

00:27:52Andrew: And we've just lost Jared and Katie. They relocated back to the UK. So we're on the hunt for another RD.

00:27:57Lyndell Murray: Okay. You heard it here first on the parkrun adventurers. If you're in the local area and ready to put your hand up, come and see. I'm going to tell them to come and see Gary. The big G. Come and see humble Gary, the big G. Yeah. That's it. All right. Now, so you've got different stories with parkrun. How did you get involved to start with and have you, yeah, how's that gone?

00:28:06[crosstalk]

00:28:19Andrew: Well, yeah, I've been a runner since get-go, so I've always been a runner, old school. I was in Tamworth before I moved here, so I started running there at parkrun. It's just a natural thing for me. So as a volunteer, it's just a labour of love for me. I would do it regardless. So that's how I started. I'm just a runner.

00:28:40Lyndell Murray: And how about you, Claire, same, a runner first before you joined parkrun?

00:28:43Claire: Yeah, so I've been a runner for a long time, but it was when I was visiting my parents up in Hervey Bay and mum saw parkrun advertised in the paper and she said, hey, Claire, I think you'd really like this, you should go. So I did. And then I...

00:28:58Lyndell Murray: looked into it I was like oh my god this is everywhere and I've done it every week since so yeah love it fantastic now this podcast is for people who like adventuring to different parkruns have you got any stories of adventuring to different parkruns can either of you name a top three parkruns not including Brightwater top three yeah um I did Albert park in Melbourne in june so it

00:28:59[crosstalk]

00:29:26Andrew: Under pressure to name a top three, I put that one in, but I'd never do that again because my feet thawed out at about 3K, I think. It was so cold, never do that again. I think locally here, Nambour's a good thing to do. Yeah, it's a hard run and scenic and beautiful, pretty place. And I'm from the Hunter Valley, Maitland's my hometown, and Maitland parkrun, although it's not there anymore, was a great little run around the old waterworks on sort of half trail, half... Yeah, hard peat. So that was, yeah, they're three of my runs.

00:29:59Lyndell Murray: And you, Claire, what about Hervey Bay? Does it have a special place in your heart?

00:30:04Claire: Yeah, it was nice. It was warm that day. I remember that clearly. It was great. Yeah, it was a big event as well, which was good. I think probably another local one to here, Maleny, is a really pretty one.

00:30:18[crosstalk]

00:30:18Andrew: Never done that yet.

00:30:18Claire: Yeah, and I'm going to go up to Elliott Heads in a few weeks and try that one. So that's my next tourist one.

00:30:27Lyndell Murray: Fantastic. And lastly, what would you like the listeners of the podcast to know about Brightwater parkrun?

00:30:35Andrew: Yeah, the Tunnel of Love. That's our thing. That's your thing. If you've got a milestone and if you want to come and celebrate it here, we'll make a big deal of it. Just let us know.

00:30:44Lyndell Murray: Wonderful. Excellent. Thank you so much. Thank you for everything that you have done here in this community at Brightwater for parkrun. And thank you for talking to me today. Awesome. Pleasure.

00:30:55Claire: Thank you.

00:30:57Lyndell Murray: Alrighty Mel and Ollie, that is going to be it from me from Brightwater parkrun on the lands of the Gubbi Gubbi peoples on Sunshine Coast. Happy adventuring and I'll see you another time on the parkrun adventurers.

Roving report David Messenger — Newcastle Park parkrun

00:31:10David Messenger: Hello fellow parkrun adventurers, this is David in Western Australia and today I'm challenge chasing to progress the Freyne Club by attending my 186th different parkrun location at Toodyay. one week after their launch. So I wouldn't add to the 154 people that attended. This became the 50th parkrun in WA. This parkrun is called Newcastle Park parkrun. And having lived in Newcastle, New South Wales for over 15 years, I know Newy parkrun well. So what's the situation with the name? Well, apparently in 1850, upstream from the original site of Toodyay, which was subject to flooding, there was a convict settlement that became known as Newcastle in 1860. Then in 1910, reportedly due to ongoing confusion with New South Wales, the largest settlement changed its name to Toodyay, and the original settlement became known as West Toodyay. So there are still many Newcastle-based names, including Newcastle Gaol Museum and the park where this parkrun commences. This isn't the only similar situation in WA, having run at Tamworth parkrun in New South Wales and more recently running at Tamworth Wetlands in WA. This is a two lap course consisting of a bridge crossing, several out and backs and a park loop. But as I haven't run here before, I'll see if I get one of the event team to describe the course after my run. Reportedly it has some pram unfriendly areas but I will need to confirm. There are toilets nearby, a playground, gazebos and other shaded areas and views of the Avon River. There are also multiple cafe and bakery options all within walking distance of the park. Well, Toodyay parkrun just completed. It has some sections of light sand, maybe sort of two metre length, maybe five or six of them. So it will be doable for pram, but just got to push through those regions. And it's also got 72 metres of climb over the run, which I was a bit surprised about, which is why I'm panting. So that's Toodyay. I'll see who I can find to talk to. And I'm here with Tony and Tony tells me he's new to parkrun and he's been brought out into this event just by being in the Toodyay community. So tell me about your introduction to parkrun, Tony.

00:33:34Tony: Yeah, hi, thanks for the opportunity to talk on this, David. I've moved to this town just recently. I'm just in my second year here and I wanted to be involved with the community a bit more and just thought it would be a good way to get into something. And I was walking past with the kids and saw a group of people standing around and looked like they were ready for a run. I thought that's just up my alley and it'd be a good way to mix in, get some sport. I like to run and keep active. So the following week I came down and at the same time met up with this group and they were preparing to do a parkrun in Toodyay. So they were still setting up and planning and going through all the build up stages and getting things right and getting the compliance right to have the parkrun. So I've officially done my second parkrun now.

00:34:25David Messenger: Well, welcome to the family. It's very addictive. I've done 256 today, so once you get the bug, it's hard to get rid of.

00:34:33Tony: Yeah, 256 is a lot, and I guess, yeah, if I'd been in a town that had a parkrun earlier, I probably would have been doing and chalked up a few, but this is only my second one, but it's, yeah, it's good to be able to get out and run with some people that are up and about. It's a great start for the weekend.

00:34:52David Messenger: Yes it certainly is. So thanks for your time Tony. Yes it's a great community thing and I was on their Facebook page so I saw all their organised runs and training and things like that beforehand. So there's an awful lot of coordination that goes into creating an event like this and some of these events take two years to set up so it's a great outcome for your community.

00:35:12Tony: Yeah, yeah, no, it is. And I can see that it'll take a lot of help and support to keep it going. And I'll put my name down next week to fill a job in there somewhere doing something. So, yeah, make sure that we share it around and everyone gets a crack at running.

00:35:29David Messenger: All right. Thanks very much, Tony. Thanks for your time.

00:35:31Tony: Thanks, David.

00:35:33David Messenger: I just had another conversation with Tony and quite a few other people from the parkrun community. It was really good to see how much it's brought the community together. Tony was telling me he didn't know anyone and now he knows like five or six people from the running group and he's joined the local running community and there are people coming from nearby towns just for this event. So it's really bringing the community together and it's a real focus point for the town. And I'm just at breakfast post the parkrun and the cafe I'm sitting in, there's six people at my table and the larger parkrun table I counted had 22 people and they're all happy and smiling and laughing. And so again, it's adding value to the local businesses and bringing in tourists and things like that. So it's adding to the community. And the results just come through on the email. And there were 71 people this week after the 154 people at the launch. So still fairly respectable numbers and lots of happy smiling faces. That's David signing out from WA. Happy adventuring.

00:36:35[background music]

00:36:50Oliver Spake: Thanks very much, Lyndell and David, our roving reporters for this week. Mel, well, and last week, technically, as well.

00:36:58Melissa Ellis: That's right. They're doing a great job for us. Thanks for that, guys. Good to hear from David again.

00:37:02Oliver Spake: Yes, nice to hear what's going on in the West. Is this the point where I mentioned that we may not be visiting Dazza's?

00:37:13Melissa Ellis: Yes. I don't think we've got time for Dazza's this week, Ollie. We're overflowing with content. So, yeah, Dazza's can have a hiatus, I believe.

00:37:22Oliver Spake: That's it. If you haven't seen the pictures, jump online. Thank you, everyone, for joining us at Dazza's. But we have another special feature with another familiar voice who you may just happen to have heard from not that long ago. As we may have mentioned in last week's pod, it was a special milestone, a special blue-shirted milestone for one of our parkrun adventurer community members. I'd say intrepid travellers. And very fortunately, one of the Channel 5 News crew, Lyndell the Legendary, was on hand to catch up with Schultz, who was notching up his 500th. So without further ado, I think it's time we have a listen to Lyndell and Schultz now.

00:37:55[background music]

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Kedron

Talking to Michael Schultz — Kedron parkrunner celebrating his 500th parkrun

00:38:07Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it is Lyndell. I'm coming to you today from Kedron, which stands on the lands of the Turrbal and Yuggera people. I'm here for a very special occasion. There's a 500, it's a blue shirt day today at Kedron. Blue shirt for a friend of the parkrun, Michael Schultz. Now, I've got a bit of background. I'm prepared, parkrun adventurers. I've done some research. Schultzy put a bit of history on his page and I've had a bit more of a look. Not only is it his 500 today, he has already completed 200 different locations and he's got a P index of 11. So he's run 11 times at Kedron, New Farm, Sandgate, Mitchelton, Kelvin Grove, Redcliffe, Gainsborough Greens, South Bank, Chermside, Mansfield, and Zillmere. Now, Schultz, you're an Alphabeteer, you're a pirate, you're a BG, and I suspect you might be a statesman of at least one state. We'll get to that later. You've achieved Groundhog Day and Stopwatch Bingo, and you've done a parkrun on 353 of the 366 available dates. Now, the 5K app shows that you are only, only at 93% on the Fibonacci challenge, but that's because you haven't done event number 610, which actually isn't possible in Australia yet. Not only that, your volunteer ratio is 11%, which is pretty bloody good. So you've volunteered over 60 times and Mel, you'll be happy to know that 16 of these have been at Des Connor Juniors over in Ashgrove here in Brisbane. And he's a bit of an adventurer even in his volunteering. He's done 10 different roles and has volunteered at 10 different locations. How's that sound about right? Is there anything that you'd like, any other accolades or clubs that you'd like to add to that list, Schultzy?

00:40:06Michael Schultz: No, I think you've got them all there. I have done the stopwatch bingo three times and I'm not far off four and five.

00:40:15Lyndell Murray: Don't tell that to Mel. And statesmanship. Are you a current statesman of how many states?

00:40:24Michael Schultz: Just Queensland.

00:40:25Lyndell Murray: Just Queensland. Okay. Well, that is a pretty awesome achievement in itself. Now, Schultzy, let's hear a little bit from you now. You've heard from me about your achievements. Tell me a little bit more about your parkrun journey here. What would you like to talk about first?

00:40:43Michael Schultz: Well, when Main Beach started, I knew about it. But at that time, I didn't think you drove 70k to do a 5k run.

00:40:51Lyndell Murray: How times have changed.

00:40:53Michael Schultz: I've driven 2,500km to Doomadgee to do a run that was cancelled.

00:41:00Lyndell Murray: And what number D was that, second or third one?

00:41:03Michael Schultz: I'm not sure. No. I was going there for Doomadgee, not for the D. Yeah.

00:41:04[crosstalk]

00:41:09Lyndell Murray: All right. And so you've had lots of adventures. You've had a couple of misadventures. What's your favourite parkrun adventuring story that you'd like to share today?

00:41:19Michael Schultz: Favourite parkrun? They've all been good. I... There's been some good trips. I couldn't say one's any better than the other. There's no parkrun that I wouldn't go back to do. There's a few that I don't want to go back to do. The hilly ones. But the ones on the beach are probably the best.

00:41:41Lyndell Murray: And now, so you've been parkrunning for nearly 10 years. It's been part of your life.

00:41:46Michael Schultz: More than 11 years now. It's September 2011.

00:41:51Lyndell Murray: So you weren't at that first parkrun at Main Beach is what I'm hearing.

00:41:55Michael Schultz: No, I wasn't because I didn't think you drove 70km to do a parkrun.

00:42:00Lyndell Murray: So you waited.

00:42:01Michael Schultz: And New Farm was originally due to start the week after anyway.

00:42:04Lyndell Murray: Yes.

00:42:05Michael Schultz: But it got delayed for nearly six months.

00:42:08Lyndell Murray: So New Farm is where it all started. Tell us about that morning when you rocked up to New Farm. What was that like?

00:42:15Michael Schultz: That's so long ago I can't remember. There weren't many of us there, I think, there might have been 42 from memory including Tim Oberg yeah I would never have imagined what parkrun was going to turn out to be from that first day would not have even dreamt of it be like this and and what's it like for you what's parkrun to you Well, at the moment, I'm running so slowly that I virtually can't do any group runs. So parkruns are the only real times I get to run with people. Though generally I find I'm between the runners and the walkers. And I'm almost running with nobody anyway, but at least there's other people. I know there's people behind me still. I'm still not going to be the last to finish every week.

00:42:21[crosstalk]

00:43:06Lyndell Murray: Well, that's the Tail Walker's job anyway. Yeah.

00:43:09Michael Schultz: I might be the Tail Walker permanently soon if I keep getting any slower.

00:43:14Lyndell Murray: And now you are part and parcel of the parkrun community here in Brisbane. Everyone knows Schultzy. What's it meant to you from that perspective, from a connection and friendship perspective?

00:43:24Michael Schultz: I think it's just good to know a lot of people. The more you know, the better. There's a lot of people that know me that I wouldn't have a clue who they are.

00:43:36Lyndell Murray: Well, that's because he's Schultzy. Yeah. And so what's it like when people say, G'day, Schultzy?

00:43:43Michael Schultz: And I think, who's that?

00:43:47Lyndell Murray: Yeah.

00:43:48Michael Schultz: It's always good. I always like to try and say hi to people too.

00:43:51Lyndell Murray: Yeah. You've always had a chat with me. I know that much for sure. Now, you talked a little bit about how you're getting a bit slower and you're walking a lot now and that, you know, it is... What does that mean for you and will parkrun still be part of your life?

00:44:09Michael Schultz: Well, I hope so. I've got a leaky valve in my heart, which is going to require surgery at some stage. At the moment, it's not urgent. It might be years away or it might be months away. Yeah. I'm having another scan in a month's time.

00:44:25Andrew: Yeah.

00:44:26Michael Schultz: But even if there is something serious, it won't be enough to stop me, I don't think. I'll still be able to walk at least. Yeah.

00:44:33Lyndell Murray: And now you've got lots of adventures here and you're part of the community here at Kedron. What would you like the parkrunners to know about Kedron parkrun or the parkruns that you've been to the most frequently?

00:44:47Michael Schultz: Well, Kedron will always be, well, I think it'll always be my home because I live so close. I haven't actually run the parkrun for over four years, but I run on the park. Not as regularly this year, but I've done 124 Freedom Runs here since I did my last parkrun. So I like the path. I like the areas near the beach too. I don't like areas that have got hills.

00:45:17Lyndell Murray: Have you got any... Now, I could put you on the spot and ask you to pick your top three. Would you like to do that?

00:45:25Michael Schultz: Well, is there about 200 that are equal first? No, I like Airlie Beach. I like Cardwell. The ones near the beach are the good ones. Yeah. And the flat ones.

00:45:42Lyndell Murray: And the flat ones. Most of the ones near the beach are flat. Okay. All right. Is there anything else, Schultzy, that you would like to tell the parkrun adventurer listeners? Anyone you'd like to thank? Anyone what you'd like to recognise?

00:45:55Michael Schultz: Just everybody. Just keep parkrunning. Keep going. Volunteer when you can. I'll volunteer on Saturday morning a little bit more now that I've got to 500, but I've been regular junior for the last three months. Definitely going to keep that going.

00:46:15Lyndell Murray: Yeah, well, you've got an 11% volunteer ratio. There's nothing to be sneezed at, Schultzy, particularly for someone who's so avidly adventuring.

00:46:23Michael Schultz: The good thing is I do Brisbane Roadrunners on Sunday morning and I can do 5K there at 6 o'clock and then get the juniors to volunteer after.

00:46:31Lyndell Murray: And what's it like volunteering at juniors?

00:46:32Michael Schultz: It was very hectic last week.

00:46:35Lyndell Murray: Yeah.

00:46:36Michael Schultz: I was one of the Funnel Managers and we had a lot of trouble keeping the kids in line. So many come across the line together. But we handled it.

00:46:46Lyndell Murray: Good on you. Good on you.

00:46:49Michael Schultz: Hopefully juniors keep getting bigger too. And this might be fairly big here today too.

00:46:57Lyndell Murray: Look, I would put money on today being pretty big.

00:47:01Michael Schultz: The record attendance is 417 and they had 376 last week. Yep. And South Bank's been cancelled today, which could draw a few people here.

00:47:12Lyndell Murray: I think maybe your 500 is drawing a few people here, Schultz.

00:47:15[crosstalk]

00:47:15Michael Schultz: Well, it is going to draw a few people here, I know that. It'll be good.

00:47:21Lyndell Murray: Yep.

00:47:21Michael Schultz: Good to see a few people that I haven't seen for a little while. Yep.

00:47:26Lyndell Murray: Alrighty. Well, I might leave it there because they are going to be, you know, we're not far away from parkrun. There's going to be a lot of people here, that will want to have a piece of Schultz today. So I just want to say thank you so much for being just an institution here in the parkrun community. You know, you're always there. You know, any new events, you're always adventuring and always with a smile on your face. And I appreciate that greatly, Schultz. And just the biggest congratulations from me on behalf of all of the parkrun adventurers.

00:47:55[background music]

00:47:58Michael Schultz: Thank you. It's been a good journey.

00:48:10Melissa Ellis: And thank you so much again to Lyndell the Legendary for being on the spot and getting that live response from Schultz out there.

00:48:20Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah.

00:48:21Melissa Ellis: Ollie, I believe he is our seventh homegrown 500th clubber after Brian Peters, Jim Collard, Kay Pham, Carolyn Vandermeer, Colin Chow and Ken Stewart. There may well be more of them. I am no informant, but to the best of my knowledge, That's our list.

00:48:42Oliver Spake: Yes, yes. And, yeah, thank you and well done to everyone else out there supporting and enjoying the festivities with Schultz. The pictures and the videos of the day certainly showed a lot of support and touches of orange and blue out there, which was nice to see.

00:48:59Melissa Ellis: Lots of love for Schultz and we've got some more love for Schultz, haven't we, Ollie?

00:49:04Oliver Spake: Yes, in the absence of Dazza's, really, there's just one decision to be made here and I think we've made it.

the Obi Award — Michael Schultz

00:49:09Melissa Ellis: We have this week's Obi Award goes to Schultzy. No need for a drum roll. There's no envelope. It was a one-man race.

00:49:19Oliver Spake: That's right. So congratulations, Schultz. I hope that you're still celebrating the 500. And Mel, I suppose for us, that means it's time to move on to our next segment, which, well, it's another familiar voice. I'm not sure if I'm comfortable handing over the reins again, but I guess she did a good job at the start. So look, it's time for Club Corner with Rachel.

00:49:45[background music]

Club Corner

00:49:55Rachel: Welcome back, this is Rachel with Club Corner, where we talk about the what and why of parkrun clubs. This week we have a multi-tiered club slash achievement where we focus on the first thing, a parkrun starts. There is a world club slash achievement comprising of the first parkrun to start in each country, the Pioneer parkruns for those countries. These are events with names you know, like Bushy in the UK, Main Beach in Australia, or Lower Hutt in New Zealand. Within a country with defined regions like Australia, we have a pioneer clubs slash achievement for Australia with the first event from each state or territory. And since we love a list, these eight events in launch date order are, Main Beach Queensland, Albert Melbourne Victoria, St Peter's New South Wales, Ginninderra ACT, Claisebrook Cove WA, Launceston Tasmania, Torrens SA, and Darwin in the NT. Note that this was the 47th event to launch in Australia, and was two and a half years after Main Beach. Now, because we love an underdog in Australia, we have a club-slash-achievement for the successor parkruns, which are the second events to open in each state or territory. Another list incoming, again in launch date order. New Farm Queensland, Newy New South Wales, Balyang Sanctuary Victoria, Tuggeranong ACT, Rockingham WA, Mount Gambier SA, Hobart Tasmania, which had a name change since then to be Risdon Brook, Palmerston NT, the 185th event to launch in Australia, and full five years after New Farm. That will do for this week, but this is an area ripe for the plucking. And remember, in parkrun life, all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.

00:51:38Melissa Ellis: And thank you, Rachel, for all the information on Pioneers Clubs and successors. Ollie, I did a count. I've got six events out of the eight in Australia for Pioneers, but only four successors thus far. But when I get over to WA, I will be knocking off Claisebrook Cove.

00:51:59Oliver Spake: Ah, yes, of course.

00:52:00Melissa Ellis: Shouldn't say knocking it off. That's the bad, bad, bad terminology. I'm going to be adding it to my collection.

00:52:06Unidentified speaker: Oh.

Emails

00:52:07Melissa Ellis: But, Ollie, we've got mail. We do.

00:52:09Claire: You've got mail.

00:52:11Melissa Ellis: We heard from Darren DeGroot. I can only assume Darren is putting a sticker on his snazzy challenge card. Classy.

00:52:19Oliver Spake: Classy.

00:52:19Melissa Ellis: He said, whatever. He said, to show my milestones finally, and he sent us a photo, and it was of his grey cap with his 50 and V25 pins.

00:52:31Oliver Spake: Pins, yes.

00:52:32Melissa Ellis: Looking snazzy on his cap they were. So thank you for sharing that, Darren.

00:52:37Oliver Spake: Yeah. And we also heard from Richard Fortune. That's how I'm going to pronounce it.

00:52:43Melissa Ellis: Okay.

00:52:43Oliver Spake: And I apologise, Richard, if I haven't got that right despite your assistance.

00:52:48Melissa Ellis: Well, known lovingly as Richard.

00:52:50Oliver Spake: Richard, yes, yeah. It's actually quite difficult for me to say the name Richard now just because I'm so accustomed to say Richard. So, yeah, I've put all the effort into the first name. But Richard. Yeah, Richard said, hi, Mel and Ollie. Just wanted to give a shout out to the volunteer at the treble bag station at Port Macquarie Runfest this weekend. His name has slipped my mind, but he recognised me and introduced himself as an adventurer. He also suggested that we should get Mel and Ollie up here for this. Anyway, just wanted to thank him here as I know he's a pod listener. Richard. And, yeah, look, great to hear of the volunteer support out there in the field. It does sound like a good event. So, Mel, future event?

00:53:37Melissa Ellis: Mystery volunteer, show yourself.

00:53:41Oliver Spake: Yeah, you could email us next week.

00:53:42Melissa Ellis: Yeah, Port Macquarie Runfest. Sure. I've never been to Port Macquarie.

00:53:45[background music]

00:53:48Oliver Spake: I've been through there twice. Lovely place. So it certainly sounds like it was a nice time and it's a beautiful neck of the woods.

00:53:56Melissa Ellis: It's a tricky time of the year for a big meet-up, though, because it's so close to Palm. You know, if we were going to do something on a larger scale.

00:54:06Oliver Spake: Yeah, it's a weekend that is where it's falling this year.

00:54:12Melissa Ellis: Probably not great timing.

00:54:15Oliver Spake: Yeah, but, hey, we can all dream. But, well, maybe it's time we move swiftly on then before I start making more plans on my wife's birthday. Yeah.

00:54:25Melissa Ellis: Yes, I know what you're going to say.

Consolidated Club Report

00:54:27Oliver Spake: How are things in the Consolidated Club report?

00:54:30Melissa Ellis: Okay, so the report for Saturday the 4th of March 2023 of a total of 395 members. 328 took part on this date at 167 locations. Ollie, we missed the mark again. There was two extra.

00:54:45Oliver Spake: So close.

00:54:46Melissa Ellis: I know. There were adventurers at 21 events in the UK, two in South Africa, two in Poland, and one in Austria and the Netherlands. Locally, we had adventurers at 39 events in New South Wales, 34 in Victoria, 29 in Queensland, 10 in SA, 9 in WA, 7 in ACT. There were five events at the North Island and Tassie and two on the South Island. And that's all I've got to say about that.

the Frond

00:55:18Oliver Spake: Well, I mean, from one blue theme to another blue theme, can you tell us where the largest frond was?

00:55:24Melissa Ellis: The largest frond. Frond. Chico, would you sit down?

00:55:30Oliver Spake: Dude, I'm busy. It's the drum roll. It's the drum tap.

00:55:35Melissa Ellis: was at Kedron with 13 adventurers in attendance for Schultz's celebration and setting an attendance record for Kedron of 438, which is 21 more than their previous record that was set on the 25th of January 2020. Wow. I did my research.

00:55:53Oliver Spake: You did.

00:55:54Melissa Ellis: The adventurers in attendance were David Moss, Irene and Parth, Ryan Stoddart, Erica Leota, Michael Blain, Michael Schultz, of course. Lance and Robin Plain, David Ryan, Pauline and Russell Taylor, and Tracey Wood. And Lyndell, but she's not on the list because she volunteered. Thank you, Laurel.

00:56:10[background music]

00:56:12Oliver Spake: Of course. Yes, thank you for volunteering. Wow, that's a whole lot of fun.

00:56:18Melissa Ellis: Yeah, so 13 is a pretty good number.

00:56:21Oliver Spake: Yes, I think so.

00:56:22Melissa Ellis: I don't know if it takes the record. I think we've had more than that, haven't we?

00:56:25Oliver Spake: In terms of a frond? Well, yes, we have had some large fronds. They do tend to frond towards the events, and this was certainly one of them, though. But I suppose there's a segue in that, Mel, in talking about fronds. We have another frond on the horizon.

00:56:41Melissa Ellis: We do. It's a Jomo frond. And we thought we would give a shout out to this. This is being organised by Lyndell in conjunction with some other adventurers up, well, in the northern New South Wales, Queensland vicinity, I guess you would say. And it is for those adventurers who can't make it over to WA and come and join us at Palm. So there's going to be an event on Saturday the 15th of April, the same day we're going to be at the University of WA on the other side of the planet.

00:57:11Oliver Spake: Country, but yep, yep. Dramatic effect.

00:57:11[crosstalk]

00:57:13Melissa Ellis: May as well be the other side of the planet.

00:57:15Lyndell Murray: It's so far away.

00:57:18Melissa Ellis: But, yes, it is going to be at Varsity Lakes parkrun, obviously at normal parkrun time of 7am. So there is an event that has been created for that. So if you're interested in joining that event, get in touch with Lyndell or you can message us and we'll help you out.

00:57:35Oliver Spake: That's right. So, yeah, it would be wonderful to see more parkrun adventurers meeting up and enjoying their time together. A U and a V, huh?

00:57:45Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

00:57:47Oliver Spake: Yeah. I'm sure there's something smart I could say there, but then I wouldn't be myself.

00:57:52Melissa Ellis: Hope it's not sunny with the UV. LAUGHTER

00:57:56Oliver Spake: Oh, well, just as well I don't have to sing this week or I'd really be terrible.

00:58:05Melissa Ellis: You did the research, Ollie. You can't let us down now.

Dazza's

00:58:08Melissa Ellis: So everybody, there was one post at Dazza's from Bill, Bill Ellis, and he posted his comment in lyrics. Yes. Which I did try to figure out what song it was, but I couldn't figure it out. But you did, Ollie, apparently.

00:58:25Oliver Spake: Well, maybe I should mention shortly how I did. I worked it out, but nonetheless, yes, I did do a bit of research when I saw it on the train there. So I particularly love how it's a song I didn't really know. With an event name, I'm not really great at pronouncing. So this has all the elements of a success. But, hey, why not? I'll give it a go, shall I?

00:58:52Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

00:58:52Oliver Spake: So, to the best of my ability, I believe we have. I ran up Jerrabomberra Mountain where the little breezes blow. I ran up Jerrabomberra Mountain, my face all in a glow. I left my sorrows behind and started running down. I ran back down Jerrabomberra Mountain, trying hard not to fall to the ground. Hmm. I survived Jerrabomberra Mountain all for a J and a prime. Boom, boom.

00:59:23Unidentified speaker: Yay.

00:59:24Oliver Spake: And that's part of the chorus. I keep going because GPT has written me an entire song off the back of that, but I'm going to put us all out of our misery now and say, yeah, thank you.

Sign-off

00:59:35Melissa Ellis: Thanks, Bill. That was awesome. And that leads perfectly into next parkrun Day.

00:59:43Oliver Spake: How did I miss that? Guess what?

00:59:44[crosstalk]

00:59:46Melissa Ellis: I'm going to Jerrabomberra Mountain.

00:59:50Oliver Spake: I'll have to practice. All for a J, well, a J that I'm sure you have and no prime, Mel. Boom, boom.

00:59:57Melissa Ellis: No. No. Js, I've probably got a few of them. I don't know. Yeah. Let me look at my little chart. It'll tell me.

01:00:03[crosstalk]

01:00:05Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. But, yeah, you have an adventure.

01:00:08Melissa Ellis: I've got three Js already. That'll be four.

01:00:10Oliver Spake: Wow. Yeah.

01:00:11Melissa Ellis: Yes, yes, I have an adventure. I am very pumped for this weekend, and I am taking a road trip up to the ACT. Jerrabomberra is an event, a New South Wales event, obviously, so I'll be adding to my New South Wales tally, but I'm also doing something special while I'm up there, and I'm not going to tell you. You can wait till – oh, well, I'll probably tell you, Ollie, but I'm not telling the listeners.

01:00:36Oliver Spake: That's awkward. They can still hear you.

01:00:40Melissa Ellis: They can wait for Dazza's to see what the special thing is that I am doing this Saturday.

01:00:46Oliver Spake: That's fair. I've probably blabbed to half the listeners already anyway. Oh, right. So I'm halfway through the list. Okay. Yeah, that's right.

01:00:52Melissa Ellis: You know, you just don't know, you know. Anyway, what are you doing, Ollie?

01:00:57Oliver Spake: I will be sharing the joys of the Run Director vest with hopefully some interested Run Directors at home at Shellharbour parkrun.

01:01:06Melissa Ellis: You're training.

01:01:07Oliver Spake: Yes, yes, training. Excellent. So I will be volunteering and staying close to home. I have no immediate adventures planned for the next couple of weeks, so adventuring at home, welcoming adventurers to my home event, as I got to do last weekend as well.

01:01:08[crosstalk]

01:01:23Melissa Ellis: And catching up on work.

01:01:24Oliver Spake: And catching up on work and hopefully some quiet weekends coming up. Yes. Yes. No more getaways.

01:01:31Melissa Ellis: Until Palm.

01:01:32Oliver Spake: Until Palm. Yes. Which is coming quickly.

01:01:35Melissa Ellis: And Ollie, I might just mention too, we have had a couple of people make inquiries about their shirts because it has been a few weeks since everybody placed their order. So I thought it might be just worth mentioning that the shirts were made to order. So production didn't start until the orders closed on It was on or around the 19th of February. So they are being made as we speak and hopefully we'll be out sometime late March.

01:02:04Rachel: In the mail, in time for Palm.

01:02:06Oliver Spake: Yes, that's exciting. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to wearing my lovely new blue parkrun Adventure shirt.

01:02:14Melissa Ellis: You'll look snazzy.

01:02:16Oliver Spake: Not classy though.

01:02:17Melissa Ellis: No, just snazzy.

01:02:18Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

01:02:19Oliver Spake: But look, thank you again to all of our contributors this week. It was nice to get a chance to join you all. But yeah, I think a bit of a different pod this week, Mel.

01:02:30Melissa Ellis: Yep.

01:02:31Oliver Spake: Short and sharp. That's right. That's right. So true to that. Let's wrap it up. Mel, I hope you have a fantastic journey and adventure. As always, everyone, you can contact us via Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. But that is it for the week, and we'll see you all next week for more adventures.