Episode 334 - parkrun Voyager

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:24Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 334 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country.

00:00:32Oliver Spake: And my name is Ollie Spake and I'm joining again after a week off from Dharawal Country.

00:00:38Melissa Ellis: Welcome back, Ollie.

00:00:40Oliver Spake: Thank you, Mel.

00:00:40Melissa Ellis: I hope you enjoyed your break.

00:00:42Oliver Spake: Yeah, look, it didn't feel like a huge break, but it was a break from the pod. It was almost a break from parkrun and it was very nice, but a huge thank you, of course, to yourself and to Simon Mackley for keeping everything going in parkrun adventurers land.

00:00:59Melissa Ellis: You're very welcome. But do you have much excitement to report back to us?

00:01:04Unidentified speaker: No.

00:01:05Oliver Spake: Lots of excitement, a swather of excitement. The, I think... The starting point of it all, I'm pretty sure there was a run in there. There was a half marathon with lots of people at Run Shellharbour, which was great fun and a lot of soreness that came afterwards. But thank you to those kind people that had taken me on a good training run in Perth a few weeks prior. But, yeah, probably more to the point was Zali's birthday, Mum's birthday, the wedding anniversary, Mother's Day, and, of course, Eurovision. So... I've forgotten how many cakes we've eaten for Zali's birthday. There have been too many. We only had one broken arm at the birthday party. Wasn't one of my children, but you kind of feel guilty when one of the other kids goes home injured. And what else can I say? Zali's room resembles Hogwarts now. So it was a bit of work, but mission accomplished.

00:01:45[background music]

00:02:01Melissa Ellis: Brilliant. Well done. And congratulations on your result. I was sent the results by a mutual friend and it looks like you had a good hit out at your half marathon.

00:02:13Oliver Spake: Yeah, I was obviously ecstatic to have... Yeah, to have run at a pace that I wasn't expecting to be able to. As I say, I definitely felt the pain afterwards for days to come, but it was worth it. It was such a high to be out there afterwards cheering people across the line and catching up with other people that had absolutely flown as well. Yeah, a real buzz.

00:02:38Melissa Ellis: Was there any dressed up participants? No.

00:02:42Oliver Spake: No six or seven kilo stars this time. No, our star man, Ralph, was running sans galactical object and a bit more serious and backing up a few weeks after Boston was rather impressive in there. And, yeah, a huge shout out to the volunteers as well. Karen was out there with a quality helper. We had a few adventurers volunteering, didn't we? That's right, yeah, yeah. And mum was out there too, so a lot of fun. And I am sorry that I missed you while you were in my neck of the woods in Dharawal Country here, Mel. Yeah, shame we couldn't rope you into that one. But I'm glad, as I heard on last week's pod, I'm glad you had a nice time.

00:03:28Melissa Ellis: Absolutely, I did.

00:03:30Oliver Spake: And look, yeah, I did get a parkrun as well, despite the best efforts of all of my other arrangements to keep me away. But it was two local parkruns, as in two parkruns at Shellharbour. And yeah, I got to help out parkrun day before the one just gone. And the one just gone, I got to have a bit of a jog. I was expecting to shadow Ava while she was barcode scanning, but she was supervised by another very helpful friend. Thank you, Bec, and by the time I had finished, Ava was absolutely owning barcode scanning once again as part of our Shellharbour 400th event, Kids Take Over. So that's also very much an exciting time, and I don't think we've done it, strictly speaking, every 50 or 100 like we used to as our tradition, but it was a great opportunity to fulfil most of the roles in the roster with our juniors.

00:04:31Melissa Ellis: Excellent. I saw a pretty good cake too, I do believe, provided by said Bailey Schott.

00:04:37Oliver Spake: That's right. But Mel, what about your parkrun day?

00:04:41Melissa Ellis: Oh, well, thank you for asking, Ollie. As hoped last week, I travelled locally to Tallangatta Station parkrun on the lands of the Dhudhuroa people. Tallangatta is in northeast Victoria, as I mentioned the other week, and the four-hour travel time meant an overnight stay in nearby Wodonga. Zoe joined me again for the trip and I spent Friday evening introducing her to Eurovision Semi-Final 1 on replay. It was event three at Tallangatta Station with 65 in attendance, supported by 10 volunteers. The course was a stunning out-and-back trail, having only slight elevation of 23 metres with a general downhill to the turnaround. There were some very picturesque views of the Mitta arm of Lake Hume, horses in the paddocks and mountains rising above the clouds. Plus, although the new event is yet to receive their selfie frame, there is a very convenient station sign to pose with, which I also used for the Consolidated Club Report photo on Sunday. Now, the one thing I do want to mention is that Zoe actually took part. And I must give credit where credit is due, as it was Abby's mum who coaxed her out of the car, much to everybody's excitement, to complete her Cowell. Now, also thanks to Parth who walked with her and provided me with some lovely photos to mark the occasion. So his last 5k parkrun had been back in January when she walked Goolwa while on our holiday and prior to that had been Wyndham Vale in February of 22. So as you can see, they are few and far between. But that's completely okay as I don't force her to parkrun and she does attend juniors quite regularly. I am also quite pleased to report that I surprised myself with my time again and while I am still away off my best times, it is nice to be regaining some form of fitness, no doubt attributed in part to my recent weight loss, otherwise known as the marriage breakup diet. Afterwards, we walked a short distance to the recommended cafe, the Green Galah, to enjoy our post-parkrun faff and much thanks to the lovely staff who made us feel very welcome. If you visit the area, please drop into the Green Galah. Their Facebook page states, Did you know we are more than just a cafe? We are part of a group that provides hospitality training and a day program for local young adults with disability. We have a range of programs that teach life skills such as cooking, cleaning, gardening, mosaic making and car maintenance. And I will add that I was very happy with the variety of the menu and enjoyed a vegetable salad which they happily heated up for me. All in all, a very enjoyable visit and start to the Mother's Day slash Eurovision final weekend.

00:07:23Oliver Spake: Well done and congratulations, Zoe.

00:07:25Melissa Ellis: Yes, very proud mum. I was unexpectedly proud. So, yes, was very taken aback. But I must say, Ollie, I did receive feedback after last week's episode. Georgina Devine said, FYI, Mel, that Talangata is pronounced Talangata, not Talangata. Although I'm late listening, you might have already visited there and found out. So thank you, Georgina. It was discussed at brunch when I received a message from Adrian Hillyer informing me the same, and I appreciated the correction because if you don't know, you don't know.

00:08:02Oliver Spake: That's right. That's the beauty of our community is we learn a lot. We put it out there and that's how we learn.

00:08:09Melissa Ellis: But I did get up to a bit of mischief while you were gone, Ollie. Oh, really? I'm not sure if you're up to date or across the swether wars.

00:08:19Oliver Spake: Look, I might have detected a disruption or two. Yes. What have I done? What have you done?

00:08:27Melissa Ellis: Well, there's been some discussion and people claiming that swather isn't a real word. So I thought I would ask Rachel. So, hey, Rachel, how do words actually get their meaning?

00:08:39Rachel - Club Corner contributor: That's a great question, Mel. Neologisms can become popular through memetics, through mass media, the internet and word of mouth. including academic discourse in many fields renowned for their use of distinctive jargon and often become accepted parts of the language.

00:08:54Melissa Ellis: Well, there you go, Ollie. There it is from the horse's mouth.

00:08:57Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. It's hard to argue with Rachel. And, well, I suppose that sets a bit of a task, one that we've clearly already embarked upon now. And look, I think let's keep it going. I think the word made a lot of sense to me, despite the fact that it really, as a collective noun, bears no resemblance maybe to its true definition. But... I think it works.

00:09:27Melissa Ellis: Who else could we ask?

00:09:29Oliver Spake: Well, glad you asked because when I'm in need now and maybe when Rachel is a little preoccupied, I sometimes turn to another resource, one that I was a little... sceptical about at first, but chat GPTs turned out to be quite useful. So I did ask chat GPT and ask it for a bit of a proposal. And what it responded to me with was a bit of a paper entitled Swather as a collective noun. A Proposal for Linguistic Innovation. And look, Mella won't keep us, but there is a bit of an abstract and it says, this paper aims to propose the adoption and recognition of swatha as a collective noun for a group of people or things, drawing inspiration from the inherent versatility and creativity of language We argue that introducing new collective nouns can enrich linguistic expression and facilitate effective communication. By examining the etymology, semantic implications, and usage patterns of swather, we present a compelling case for its inclusion in the lexicon. We explore the potential benefits of embracing linguistic innovation and advocate for the acceptance of swather." as a valuable addition to the English language. So look, that paper's available if anyone would like to review it. I'm not sure who has maybe a tendency to explore words in such depth, but if anyone's got that level of interest in the English language, then I'm happy to share.

00:10:57Melissa Ellis: Oh, wow. We're building a really good case. It's a strong case. Perhaps it's time to change the subject.

00:11:05Oliver Spake: I think so. I think so.

00:11:07Melissa Ellis: So in response to Rusty's coronation challenge last week, we also had some feedback from both the Office Lady and Heather Hunter, who both pointed out that as William is the Prince of Wales, that Prince of Wales, aka Pow parkrun, would also be a good addition to that challenge. I don't even know why I didn't think of it.

00:11:30Oliver Spake: Yeah. Well, it's fairly fresh news, I can understand, but that's a good suggestion. Yeah, wholeheartedly agree. And well, I would say it's right up there with a coronation, would you say? A triple Cowell? There was a bit of celebration, Mel.

00:11:46Melissa Ellis: Prince Peel. Prince Peel. At Cyril Curtain Reserve, we want to congratulate Brendan on his 300th unique event out there. And he draws a crowd, the great man. There was also other adventurers in attendance. And Brendan was also completing his five times pirate challenge. I guess not a surprise for a man who's done so many different events. And he also filled in Wilson Index number 67, taking his Windex to 97. So he's got decent Windex there too. Ollie that's absolutely right and uh just because I did have some local friends there hi em and Brendan I'm glad you made it oh yes yes yes more about that later when we discuss fronds okay but this um next section is all for you Ollie for me yes for me the eurovision recap

00:12:40Oliver Spake: Oh, I thought maybe I might not be the only Eurovision lover on the pod this week.

00:12:45Melissa Ellis: Oh, guilty pleasure. I am a convert to synth metal. Yes. And I'm secretly in love with Voyager.

00:12:53Oliver Spake: Oh, there's no secret about it, Mel. Aren't they fantastic?

00:12:56[crosstalk]

00:12:57Melissa Ellis: Oh, my gosh.

00:12:58Oliver Spake: They're fantastic.

00:12:59Melissa Ellis: They're absolutely amazing and I've been listening to their song and I want to go to their concert if anybody wants to get tickets and take me to their concert. Oh, my gosh.

00:13:06Oliver Spake: Been seeing the updates.

00:13:08Melissa Ellis: They're all sold out.

00:13:09Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:13:09Melissa Ellis: Melbourne's all sold out.

00:13:11Oliver Spake: They will come back. They will come back.

00:13:12Melissa Ellis: But, yes, it was my first year, my first introduction to Eurovision, and I've thoroughly enjoyed it, although I need to get better. I think this is a learned and acquired skill, and next year I will definitely listen more to the songs prior to the semifinals. But I think I did pretty well. And, you know, being across all the acts, I do love Poland's song Solo by Blanka. Yep. It's my new anthem. And I'm also quite impressed with her voguing, if I'm not mistaken, her voguing in her routine.

00:13:48Oliver Spake: Yeah, that's certainly one of the favourites of the girls here. But I suppose, yeah, credit where credit's due, I was a very, very late-to-the-party listener for Eurovision songs this year. I think that shows my level of disorganisation, where previously we've had a great lead-in. But as I was saying, credit where credit's due to... A couple of people that I think were very much on the pulse and helped build the excitement. So thank you very much to those people. But Mel, I mean, you've mentioned a few acts. Are they your favourites?

00:14:22Melissa Ellis: Yes, I would say so. The one that won, I wasn't a fan of. I'm not a Loreen fan.

00:14:30Oliver Spake: Yeah, look, it's been interesting to... I mean, I was working today. I did have a lot of meetings, but wherever I could, even just playing it in the background, the different songs, even the ones that were unsuccessful in the semis, they've all grown on me. So... Yeah, there are some that just do not leave the head. And yeah, Loreen's song has stuck for me well and truly. There you go. Amongst many.

00:14:55Melissa Ellis: But I did see that you dressed up as is your tradition, although I was slightly disappointed. I don't recall the one that I thought you would have represented better. I think it was the guy with the man bun.

00:15:09Oliver Spake: Well, that's because in my family, my brother-in-law can actually sport a very impressive man bun and had a bit of a poncho that did justice.

00:15:22Melissa Ellis: Right.

00:15:23Oliver Spake: Did justice the look very well. So, yes, yeah, he and his wife both dressed up there. And I'm actually struggling to remember which act that was.

00:15:35Melissa Ellis: It was a country, I think a country that I didn't even recognise.

00:15:39Oliver Spake: Oh, Moldova. It was Moldova, wasn't it? Yes, of course. Loved them last year. But, yes, the family dress up. It was a bit of a late decision to still stick with Zali's request, but because it was somehow another birthday party for Zali, even though we'd had 17 and it was also Mother's Day, but Zali insisted we all dress up. So, yeah, we did have... We had Moldova represented. Cathy and her sister both unwittingly dressed up as I really should have cross-checked this, Czechia. Oh, yeah. As two of the girls from the Czechia act. Ava, of course, you know, did her best to represent as many as possible, but there was a definite unicorn reference there and some teeth just because, you know, Finland. LAUGHTER My eldest, Hannah, who's actually become buddies with Montaigne, would you believe it, after Montaigne represented Australia in Eurovision, stuck to Montaigne. So, yeah, she broke the years. Her partner, James, came as one of the guys from the Eurovision movie who wanted Ja Ja Ding Dong. And Zali was half of the Austrian act, Teya and Salena, who the hell is Edgar. So, yeah.

00:16:56Melissa Ellis: Very good, very good.

00:16:58Oliver Spake: But, yeah, the parents-in-law, my Finnish stepmother did come with the fluoro green arms, as in the shoulder pads, and my father-in-law came as one of the backup dancers to the Croatian act.

00:17:12Melissa Ellis: Oh, they're not – they weren't the weird guys –

00:17:15Oliver Spake: Yes, the very same.

00:17:17Melissa Ellis: Oh, okay. Enough said. All right, just quickly, Ollie.

00:17:21Oliver Spake: We're out of time.

00:17:22Melissa Ellis: Because we're ticking down to our time thing. But when do you have this family party? Because it wouldn't have been 5am on Sunday morning.

00:17:30Oliver Spake: No, we got up to watch it at 5am and then the family came over at 11 and we watched it all again.

00:17:35Melissa Ellis: Oh, on like SBS Demand or something? Well, it wasn't actually up.

00:17:39Oliver Spake: So we just played the YouTube clips.

00:17:42Melissa Ellis: Oh, okay.

00:17:43Oliver Spake: Excellent. So yeah, highly recommend it, Mel. Highly recommend dressing up. I'm not sure my costume was really worth it, but it was otherwise a lot of fun.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:17:52Melissa Ellis: Ollie, throw to the roving reports, please.

00:17:55[background music]

00:17:55Oliver Spake: As you said, it's time and it's time to continue a bit of our catch up for our roving reports. So we have a swather of roving reports for us to catch up on. So let's have a listen.

Roving report Tony O'Connell — Caffarella parkrun

00:18:10Tony O'Connell: Howdy parkrunners, it's TOC from Inverloch and I've travelled halfway across the world. I'm in Rome today and I've come to the stunning Caffarella parkrun. It's a beautiful parkrun. It's got a little bit damp here at the end of the parkrun but we had sun for most of the parkrun and I've got a couple of the locals here to have a quick chat to today and describe the course.

Talking to Daniele — volunteer and interpreter, Caffarella parkrun, Rome

00:18:30Tony O'Connell: Can you tell me what your name is?

00:18:32Daniele: Hello, my name is Daniele. I come from Rome and I'm a helper of our leader Marcello.

00:18:38Tony O'Connell: And Marcello has been the Run Director today. He's done a great job on the run brief. We had a run brief in two languages, which is the first time I've ever experienced listening to a run brief in one language and then having it in a second language. That was fantastic. Give us a little bit of a description of the course out here.

00:18:58Daniele: Now I'm talking in Italian, sorry. I will translate to my leader. He asked me to give a little description of the race, how it went, how it didn't go, how the race was organised. Today? Yes. Today's run.

00:19:13Tony O'Connell: Today or in general? Just in general, the course description, where we go, what we say on the course.

00:19:19Daniele: In general, if you write the course, the route, the park, the setting. Okay.

00:19:19[crosstalk]

Talking to Marcello — Run Director, Caffarella parkrun, Rome

00:19:25Marcello: We are in a very big park. It's an archaeological park. It's very huge. It's around 4,000 hectares. 400,000 square metres.

00:19:30Daniele: Our adventure began five years ago with only a few people.

00:19:34[20 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:19:54Marcello: So after five years, we are still here.

00:19:56Daniele: And thanks to all our fantastic volunteers, every week we can organise this run.

00:20:14Marcello: It's not easy to sacrifice, I mean, with a rabbit here. It's not easy to spend all our Saturday morning here, but it's really fun. It's really fun and it pays us a lot. For many years he tries to make this park international. And this parkrun is a very beautiful project that realises his dream. It means to internationalize the park.

00:20:29[crosstalk]

00:20:59[16 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:21:15Marcello: Because I've been volunteering in the park for 25 years.

00:21:22Daniele: He's a 25 years volunteers into the park, but just for this, not for parkrun.

00:21:27Marcello: And we want to make this park famous for Italians and foreigners. And I hope, we hope that we are doing this in a good way. But at the end, the important thing is the volunteers.

00:21:56Daniele: The heart of all this is the volunteers.

00:21:59Tony O'Connell: The volunteers. And one of the things I love, like looking at the Caffarella Facebook page, is you always have videos and things, and it's very welcoming, it's very nice.

00:22:12Daniele: He said he saw some videos on the Caffarella website and he saw that the atmosphere is very beautiful.

00:22:20Tony O'Connell: He said he saw the monuments, he saw the Roman ruins.

00:22:24[crosstalk]

00:22:39Marcello: This location, there is a lot of archaeology, history, nature, animals. Cows? Into the road, because we stay here. And far, one kilometre, two kilometres from the Piazza Venezia.

00:23:01Daniele: We are almost in the centre of Rome because the real centre is maybe one or two kilometres far from here. So the Colosseum, if you go one kilometre, you see the Colosseum there. And here we are actually into the city.

00:23:20Marcello: For this park we have fought for 40 years.

00:23:26Daniele: From 40 years we are fighting to make this part as you can see it now like this. Before it was full of trash. You know what I mean? It was full of... It's the first parkrun, he has done many as you can see

00:23:42[19 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:24:02Daniele: Well, actually this is strange also for us. It's not normal also for us. The cow is not normal.

00:24:11[crosstalk]

00:24:20[crosstalk]

00:24:20Marcello: So this is not an every week. The sheep, yes. The cow, not normal.

00:24:24Daniele: Maybe you can see the sheep. You can see also the rabbits and dogs, but not cows. You've been lucky. You've been lucky.

00:24:36Tony O'Connell: But you have kangaroos. Yes, kangaroos. And I've done a parkrun with an emu on the course. I found it pretty amazing too when I looked at the crowd that was here. And there was people from Australia, there's people from South Africa, from the UK. I think we had some Dutch people here. Yeah. South Africans?

00:24:54[crosstalk]

00:24:55Daniele: No, he's from Australia.

00:24:57Tony O'Connell: So, very international crowd. Yeah, very. And you brought them to your park to experience the really good things in your park, which is a really great thing to do. Well done.

00:25:05[crosstalk]

00:25:06Daniele: We stay to work.

00:25:12Marcello: But we can be better than this.

00:25:19Daniele: We are running.

00:25:21Tony O'Connell: We always learn. Yeah, cool. Thank you. Cheers. All right, we'll wrap it up there. Thank you very much for your time. Thanks for the parkrun. Thanks to the volunteers. I've really enjoyed the day. Well done, guys. Thank you to you. Thanks for your presence here and for everything.

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Brisbane Valley Rail Trail parkrun

00:25:37Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it is Lyndell and today I'm coming to you from the traditional lands of the Wakka Wakka and Jinibara peoples. I'm in Blackbutt at the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail Blackbutt parkrun.

Talking to Andrea — Event Director and Run Director, Brisbane Valley Rail Trail parkrun (Blackbutt, QLD)

00:25:51Lyndell Murray: I think I've got that right. Andrea, Event Director and today's Run Director, is that correct?

00:25:56Andrea: It is, or just call it the BVRT parkrun.

00:25:59Lyndell Murray: Yes, now the BVRT is a bit of a tourist attraction in this area. We had a lot of tourists today at parkrun. Is that how it is every week here?

00:26:09Andrea: I would say we're 50-50 minimum visitors to locals each week.

00:26:16Lyndell Murray: Yeah, and that's because people come for the trail a lot of the times. There's an event here tomorrow. The R&R Rail Trail Duathlon event is on tomorrow, and I know there's a whole bunch of people here for that today. So people come to the area just what for?

00:26:31Andrea: Well, we've got the low numbers, so we've got that that brings in visitors. People come for the bakery. They might be heading up to the Bunya Mountains. So there's always something in the area that draws the visitors out this way.

00:26:45Lyndell Murray: You've used a key word there, bakery. More on that later. Sweet 16 event number today.

00:26:51Andrea: Yes. Yeah. Very, very exciting. 16 and going strong.

00:26:56Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:26:57Andrea: Excellent.

00:26:57Lyndell Murray: Now you said that it's small numbers and 50-50 locals and tourists. How are your volunteer community here?

00:27:06Andrea: Sometimes we can struggle as many do, but we have this amazing core volunteers that always step up and make sure it happened because they want it to happen for the community. Yeah, that's great. So you're getting a bit of community support. It's a beautiful trail. Would you like to tell the listeners about your course here? So it's on the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail. We're up the northern end of it. It goes two and a half k's down towards the Linville direction and two and a half k's back. Gentle incline. You know, it's dirt track. You might be lucky to see a kangaroo along the way, etc. And it's just, it's beautiful. It's a very enjoyable trail.

00:27:45Lyndell Murray: And now one of the other little traditions you've got here, there's been a couple of bells ringing this morning. Tell me about that.

00:27:51Andrea: Yeah, no, that's our PB bell. So, you know, if you get a PB on the trail, we have this beautiful golden bell that you can ring to celebrate your achievement. Fantastic.

00:28:02Lyndell Murray: Is there anything else, Andrea, that you would like to tell the listeners about your event here?

00:28:08Andrea: It's worth visiting. If you haven't done it, come back. I promise you'll do it once and you'll be back for more. If it's not for the run, it's for the bakery. Absolutely. And the company. Awesome people out here that love to meet new people. Wonderful.

00:28:22Lyndell Murray: Now, just a little bit more on you. What's your story with parkrun?

00:28:26Andrea: What's your history? Well, I have two homes. I live out here and I live in Samford as well. I am very big on bringing things to the community and increasing physical activity in everyone. So myself and Tonya teamed up and got parkrun happening out here. It's one of the best things we have done for the community. I just love to provide physical activities for everyone, whether it's walking, running, kids, the dogs, all ages. I just love to bring people together.

00:29:00Lyndell Murray: That's wonderful. I did notice when I came in that you had walkers before joggers and runners on your sign. Welcome walkers, welcome joggers. So clearly it is about bringing people together and just getting people involved, walking, running, whatever it is that you'd like to do at parkrun, volunteering as well.

00:29:17Andrea: Yeah, we are definitely here for everyone and we celebrate everyone. Come and visit.

00:29:23Lyndell Murray: Wonderful. Thank you so much, Andrea and Tonya, as well, your Co-Event Director, I presume that is. Thank you so much, Andrea, for everything that you've done for the community here in Blackbutt and for parkrun in the South Burnett. Thank you, and thanks for coming to visit.

Roving report Dashcam

Talking to Christine — parkrunner, home event Bargara (from Bundaberg, QLD)

00:29:40Unidentified speaker: Hi everyone, I'm here with Christine. And Christine, where are you from?

00:29:43Christine: I'm actually from Bundaberg, but Bargara is my home parkrun along the coast.

00:29:49Unidentified speaker: Oh, and you've brought a very special friend with you today. Who's that?

00:29:52Christine: This is Myrtle the Turtle. Myrtle the Turtle represents our area because Mon Repos is well known for all the turtles that come in the beaches. That's why we've got Myrtle the Turtle.

00:30:03Unidentified speaker: And Myrtle the Turtle is going to do an Australian tour or something?

00:30:07Christine: Yes, she goes everywhere. Anytime anyone from our home parkrun goes away, they take Myrtle with them and she gets her photo taken and she's been all around the country and she's even been to New Zealand.

00:30:18Unidentified speaker: Ah, well, she's in good company. I hear there's a troll that likes to go on adventures and now we've got a turtle, Myrtle, a turtle from Bundaberg. Fantastic.

00:30:26Christine: It's excellent and everybody recognises her wherever we go.

00:30:29Unidentified speaker: So where's Myrtle off to next week?

00:30:33Christine: Next week we're off down to...

00:30:35Unidentified speaker: Thanks, Daddy.

00:30:36Christine: Albany.

00:30:37Unidentified speaker: Albany, Mount Clarence. Ah, you'll love it down there. Lots of turtles in the freezing cold ocean.

00:30:42Christine: Oh, yes. We're going to be freezing yet again.

00:30:45Unidentified speaker: Oh, okay. Well, have fun. And thanks for coming along today and hope to see you around. Thank you very much. And nice to meet you. You too.

Roving report Alison Fraser (King) — Wolford Wood parkrun

00:30:53Alison Fraser (King): Good morning, adventurers. It's Alison here reporting in for the Channel 5 News crew. And today I've come to Wolford Wood parkrun, which is in the UK. And it's very muddy today. But today is an awesome celebration, not just for the coronation of King Charles.

Talking to Andy Airey — UK parkrun tourist, 101st person to complete a Freyne (250 different events)

00:31:10Alison Fraser (King): It is a Freyne event for the guest I have with me here, Andy Airey. So welcome to the podcast, Andy.

00:31:16Andy Airey: Hi, and welcome to Gloucestershire, I think.

00:31:19Alison Fraser (King): I think technically Wolford Wood is Worcestershire.

00:31:22Andy Airey: Yeah, although they were saying on the way around it was Gloucestershire and they've got some Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs there.

00:31:27Alison Fraser (King): Those pigs were pretty cool.

00:31:28Andy Airey: They were pretty cool pigs.

00:31:30Alison Fraser (King): Yeah. So tell us about your Freyne, Andy.

00:31:33Andy Airey: Well, today I wore a Dalmatian outfit, which I borrowed off a friend called Stu Wilkie, who's currently doing a 200-mile ultra back and forwards over the Severn Bridge, so he's not using it. It's a bit warm, and I believe I'm the 101st person, or joint 101st person, to do a Freyne, which is 250 different events. And it's getting hard now to find some ones that are a bit closer that I haven't done.

00:31:59Alison Fraser (King): Well, that's where you need to go on a very long adventure, maybe to Australia and add some more events to the ones you've already done there.

00:32:07Andy Airey: Yeah, I think we've done eight in Australia and one in New Zealand with their lovely Queenstown with Chris Seymour. We went there to finish our fourth and fifth alphabets in December. We did a few Ys and a few Qs. And then next week I finish my sixth alphabet at Nonsuch University, in London and my wife Deb she'll be finished in a sixth alphabet probably at somewhere in London with an o we hope in about October that's pretty awesome um one thing we like to do on this podcast is pick a top three so do you have a top three of your 250 parkruns oh I suppose um I love Tamar Lakes down in Devon was a lovely one lapper around the lake on a sunny morning with a little cheeky incline that was fantastic there's one Trentham Gardens which a beautiful manicured Gardens up near Stoke area northwest of England and possibly possibly a lot was a really miserable horrible day I went down to help Kevin Jones celebrate his 500th run and he's a bit of a tourist um down at The Great Field which is king charles's model village at poundbury and it's a lovely lovely three lapper fairly flat but it was such a lovely location designed for parkrun awesome well congratulations on your Freyne thanks um we all let people back into the minibus to uh to join you to take the drive home back of the is it Airey Airways yeah we've got about 250 people on a little our Facebook group called Airey Airways they organise tourist trips helping people to get alphabets and other things so we've got uh 25 here today next week there's 64 of us going to Nonsuch Then we've got trips to Norway. We've just come back from Finland. We've done 10 trips to Poland. And on this side of the world, it's quite easy to get more countries and more different trips. And quite cheap. We flew to Ireland last week for the parkrun World Tourist Meetup, and it was 40 quid return.

00:34:20[background music]

00:34:21Alison Fraser (King): Bargain.

00:34:21Andy Airey: Quite cheap on Ryanair.

00:34:22Alison Fraser (King): Yeah. Cool. Well, I look forward to seeing more of your adventures.

00:34:26Andy Airey: Yeah.

00:34:26Alison Fraser (King): Thanks a lot.

00:34:36Melissa Ellis: And thank you to this week's swather of roving reports. We heard from TOC in Rome on his European vacation. And the other ones were a couple of weeks old, Ollie, or from the previous week, Lyndell out there at Brisbane Valley Rail Trail. And Dashcam, we don't know where he was. He forgot to tell us. But nevertheless, we appreciate you bringing us the news from Myrtle the Turtle. And Alison, obviously celebrating Andy Airey's Freyne out there the other week at Wolford Wood, Ollie.

00:35:10Oliver Spake: Very nice work. And thank you to everyone for providing all our roving reports. We've been playing catch up and we hope to be up to date very, very soon. But I have been enjoying listening to all of the parkrun events going on. And I'm going to continue that.

Emails

00:35:27Oliver Spake: We've got some mail too, Mel. You've got mail.

00:35:30Melissa Ellis: We do. This one came to us through private message rather than email. But nevertheless, it is still mail. Now, this came from Sarah Jefferson. Now, back in episode 331, we brought you some stats from Hampton Oval's 100th event, which included five official wheelbarrow runs. At the time, we mused about what a wheelbarrow run was. And, well, Sarah from the West Side has come through with the goods, reaching out to Hampton Oval parkrunner James Robson, Broughton for this explanation.

00:36:04Oliver Spake: So he said, I was working and running ultra marathons in Perth and became a single parent of my two daughters that were one and five years old at the time. I had to quit my job so I bought a sailboat, the Salty Jocks, and moved on board. I strapped my youngest in a car seat that I bolted into the cockpit and I learned to sail. I The three of us left Fremantle in April 2022 and have sailed around 1,800 nautical miles up and around the WA coast. We've sailed calm seas, huge storms, and spent cyclone season between Montez and Dampier. I desperately wanted to get back to training and knew a running pram wouldn't hold both kids for the kilometres I wanted to do. So I got hold of a wheelbarrow and started racking up kilometres. Pretty soon, everyone in town was looking at us. So I decided to raise $1,000 for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. That escalated and we ended up on Channel 7 Sunrise all over the news and raised $11,000 instead. I ran 500 kilometres in the month of October, pushing the girls in the wheelbarrow, timing my runs so I could make parkrun every week. I've now since pushed the girls nearly 1,000 kilometres in the same barrow and have towed it behind my boat all the way back to Exmouth and am currently still running most days. The plan is to keep sailing and start another fundraiser for conservation and see how far we can take it. I've also made a lot of videos I've put on YouTube that are doing really well, which are mostly sailing and some of the challenges we faced. And I'm actually about to post a longer form video of the whole 500 kilometres RFDS fundraiser in Dampier. And that was, of course, the Royal Flying Doctor Service. But wow.

00:37:59Melissa Ellis: That's pretty amazing, Ollie. And if you'd like to follow James's journey, you can find him on YouTube. And he is at the Salty Jocks Adventure Company.

00:38:09Rachel - Club Corner contributor: Yeah. So I'm pretty sure if you just put that in the search engine, you'll find him.

00:38:13Melissa Ellis: I had a little look myself. I do believe that they travelled up to view the eclipse recently as well.

00:38:20Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:38:21Melissa Ellis: So thank you. Thanks, Sarah. Thanks for bringing us that update.

Dazza's

00:38:25Melissa Ellis: That's right.

00:38:26Oliver Spake: And, of course, we are still running on a Dazza's light, but we do have some highlights from Dazza's, don't we, Mel?

00:38:32Melissa Ellis: We do. So we heard from Cherie Cottle, who was at UWA, and she especially took a photo of the koi pond for me. So thank you very much for that, Cherie.

00:38:45Oliver Spake: Good work. Now, a Viking appeared with Paul Whelan competing his 71st location at Karoola Park with two events left to complete the region of runners.

00:38:57Melissa Ellis: Well done. A Viking indeed. Now, Claire. Can you say Claire's name for me, Olly Claire?

00:39:06Oliver Spake: Winozik. That's it. I knew you could say it. Winozik, yeah.

00:39:10Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Anyway, Claire missed her stopwatch bingo by two seconds at Wynyard Woodland. Claire, I feel your pain.

00:39:18Oliver Spake: However, Calum Burrell completed his compass challenge at Henley Wood parkrun in Oswestry in Shropshire.

00:39:26Melissa Ellis: Well done, Calum. And get well soon to Anne Fry who had emergency appendectomy but still provided volunteer coordination behind the scenes to her local parkrun. Thank you for volunteering, Anne. Yes, get well soon.

00:39:45Oliver Spake: Wow. Look, still, as we can see, plenty going on around the woods.

Club Corner

00:39:51Oliver Spake: But Mel, is it time we throw to Rachel for a bit more of a club corner? Yes, let's do that.

00:40:00[background music]

00:40:10Rachel - Club Corner contributor: This is Rachel with Club Corner, where we talk about the what and why of parkrun clubs, and I am coming to you from Arrernte Country. Wilson Index. No, not related to the volleyball. People like to collect things, whether it's courses, letters, times, roles or events, and people like to group these things into clubs, hence this series called Club Corner, or they collect them into indexes. An index is an indicator or measure of something. The Wilson Index is the accumulation of event numbers based on the event week. So a launched event is a 1, and then their next event is a 2, this continues, so on and so forth, ad infinitum. And a person's Wilson Index is their contiguous accumulated event numbers, to labour the example if I turned up to a new event for the first five weeks then had a week off and then came back in week seven my Wilson index would be five because I missed event number six the event numbers you collect do not need to be in order so you can go back and fill in numbers later I could go to any event having their 5th event and fill in my number 5 gap. There is a variation of this, called a, floating Wilson index. Where it's the longest streak of event numbers without a gap, but starting from any number. Not just starting at 1. So, if I just discovered parkrun, hashtag not a cult. And my local event has been going for 200 events, and I attend event numbers 201 through 205. My, Wilson index, is 0, because I haven't been to an event number one. My floating Wilson index, however, is five, as I have been to five consecutively numbered events. There are all manner of spin-off challenges, achievements using event numbers, which are quite niche and, in some circles, quite popular. These specific number chasers need to be mindful of the impact that spikes in attendance may have on an event. And remember, in parkrun life, all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.

00:42:06Melissa Ellis: And thanks to Rachel who brought us all the information about the Wilson Index, aka Windex. Now, I happen to know I'm still on 10 because I need 11, 13, 14, 16, 18 just to get to 20. However, my floating Wilson is 30. So, yeah, not great in those stakes. But what about you, Ollie?

00:42:29Oliver Spake: Well, yeah, like you, I don't compare too well with many of the others. Mel, it's 10.

00:42:36Melissa Ellis: Oh, we're on the same.

00:42:38Oliver Spake: We are. We are. And would you like to know my floating, Wilson? Yes, do tell. It's 30.

00:42:46Melissa Ellis: Oh, are you kidding me?

00:42:47Oliver Spake: Nope.

00:42:48[crosstalk]

00:42:48Melissa Ellis: Serious? Oh, there you go.

00:42:49Oliver Spake: There we are. However, yes, I am. Freaky. I need 11, 12, 15, 19, and then 20.

00:42:58Melissa Ellis: Ah. So the moral of that story is we need to meet for event 11, Ollie.

00:43:04Oliver Spake: That's right. Yeah.

00:43:07Melissa Ellis: Well, I don't really have a throw for that.

Consolidated Club Report

00:43:09Melissa Ellis: That's all right. But anyway, let me tell you about the adventurers Consolidated Club Report, Ollie, for Saturday the 13th of May 2023. Of a total of 421 members, 325 took part on this date at 175 locations. There were 26 events in the UK, three in South Africa. USA and Italy had two. Ireland and the Netherlands had one. But locally, we had adventurers at 39 events in New South Wales, 35 events in Queensland, and 32 events in Victoria. WA and South Australia had nine. Tasmania and the North Island had five. ACT had four. And the South Island had one.

00:43:50Oliver Spake: That was nice and clear, wasn't it?

the Frond — Shellharbour passionistas (frond of 11)

00:43:53Oliver Spake: And what about the largest frond, Mel? Let's keep the fun going.

00:44:00Melissa Ellis: There was a frond of passionistas at Shellharbour. There was 11 there. We won't name them. They're the same every week. Good on you, Shellharbour passionistas. But there was eight out at Tallangatta Station, Ollie, with Andrew Reynolds, Andrew Johnston, me and Zoe, Renee Jackson, Irene Parth-Bomacanti and Martine Barrot. And also special mention to Cyril Curtain Reserve for parkrun, aforementioned Frond Gathering in honour of Brendan Peel, with Errol Poole, Brendan Peel, Adrian Homburg, Emma Brendan Scholarly, Roberta Winters and Matthew Billow Billington, who achieved his pirate challenge.

00:44:43Oliver Spake: Congratulations, Billow, as well. What fun. Now, let's gloss over that little blue set of stats there and shout out to the Fronds that we haven't called out because, of course, coming up this week is National Volunteer Week in Australia. And as many of you will have seen, I am sure, on the parkrun Australia socials, parkrun Australia is, per the theme, celebrating the changemakers, you know, the people that... really make it all possible. You know, the vital support of millions of volunteers across the country that provide to our communities and make a lot of our events and even our support services possible. And yeah, in the parkrun world, that's a lot of you. So thank you everyone for your contribution and thank you for being the changemakers.

00:45:35Melissa Ellis: Well said, Ollie.

00:45:36Oliver Spake: And it's not all about volunteering, but it certainly is a lot of fun. And it's been nice to see a few new vollies discover that in the last week. It always gives me a buzz. But I do look forward to a bit of a run at some stage too, like I got to at the weekend. But, Mel, there are a few runs on the horizon, also a few events that have popped up lately. So what are some of those?

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:46:00Melissa Ellis: Well, we had another launch in Victoria, Ollie, so I think that makes us outright second place now.

00:46:11Oliver Spake: I was trying to escape that.

00:46:15Melissa Ellis: So out my way, only half an hour from where I live, Dixon Field joined the parkrun family located in the, you would call it, country hamlet, I would say, of Gisborne. 164 people attended the launch. I will bring you more information on the course when I visit in the coming weeks. But also there was a surprise out in South Australia. Now Narooma Wetlands launched previously the event team that was in charge of Murray Bridge parkrun and on their website they had the following announcement. It's been six months, 21 days or 29 weeks or 203 days or 4,872 hours since our last event but we are back holding parkrun events in the rural city of Murray Bridge. Mother Nature certainly showed up for our Mother's Day themed launch and graced us with some perfect weather. 56 people ran, walked, jogged our course and all achieved a PB. Daniel was the first to cross the line and holds the course record with a time of 18.49. He was closely followed in by Matthew. It was great to see so many familiar faces, lots of visitors, and awesome to see the Tailem Bend Football Club lads out for a run on their bye week. So, Ollie, this obviously, Murray Bridge parkrun, since the terrible floods that we had earlier in the year, has been on pause but has... Got a new location now. My understanding is word on the street. They do hope to eventually return to their original course, but this is getting the local community back together for the time being. Being even.

00:47:57Oliver Spake: Which is wonderful news. Congratulations and well done to the team behind that. That's very exciting. Now, in other news, it's almost that time of year. It's getting close to winter. It's getting close to the shortest day. And you seem to be hitting form at the right time, Mel. So are you planning a bit of an appearance at the longest run this year?

00:48:19Melissa Ellis: Well, I wasn't, but I might have to try to schedule some sort of involvement in Ollie. Certainly not up to running 5Ks at all the events as I used to, but you know what? You don't actually have to do the whole 5Ks to enjoy the day. You could just turn up and walk a K out and a K back and just be... part of the fun in Victoria on the 11th of june is the weekend that we're celebrating our longest runs and this year we are having three we've got our regular event out in gippsland we've got the Western suburbs but we've got a new one that's popped up northeast and um that's been put together by billow so jump on to the longest run Australia page if you want to find out more about those events But what about north of Victoria or the rest of the country, Ollie? What have you found out?

00:49:14Oliver Spake: North and west. Well, I'd say we've got indications. So, as you say, jump onto the longest run, Australia, for the latest indications and declarations of... Well, of what will no doubt be a lot of fun, but up on the sunny coast where they do things a bit extra long up there, they often do eight. Sunday the 18th is looking like being the date for the eight, maybe seven on the sunny coast. In Adelaide, Sunday the 25th, so closer to the shortest day itself. Brisbane Northside, Sunday the 18th. Sydney as yet, unconfirmed. And Sydney's south coast, an indication of Sunday the 25th.

00:49:58Melissa Ellis: Okay. Well, that's a bit of a spread of weekends, allowing for intrepid tourists to complete a swather.

Sign-off

00:50:09Oliver Spake: That's right, a swether of a swether. But I suppose a bit closer to our current date, Mel, do you have any plans for this parkrun day? Will you be heading to Dixon?

00:50:23Melissa Ellis: Well, look, I'm not committed to it. I have been touting Dixon for this weekend. There's a really good chance I could go elsewhere. So, yeah, this week I'm afraid I'm not declaring my hand just yet.

00:50:39Oliver Spake: Okay.

00:50:39[crosstalk]

00:50:40Melissa Ellis: What about you?

00:50:41Oliver Spake: Mysterious. I'll be less mysterious. I run directing at home. So I will be at Shellharbour before I take two weeks of absence. So, yeah.

00:50:51Melissa Ellis: Oh.

00:50:52Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:50:52Melissa Ellis: Okay.

00:50:52Oliver Spake: Looking forward to that. But, yeah, I've got a couple of weeks on the road after that. So...

00:50:58Melissa Ellis: Will they be parkrun in inclusive weeks on the road?

00:51:04Oliver Spake: I certainly hope so. I certainly hope so. Close to home, well, yeah, I guess we've got more pods to talk about that. But, yeah, close to home one week and close to someone else's home the other week. So, yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Excellent. That's right. But, yeah, now all the celebrations are done. Hopefully a bit of physical activity wouldn't go astray.

00:51:24Melissa Ellis: Beautiful. Okay. Wow. It was lovely to catch up with you again. Nice to be back.

00:51:30Oliver Spake: Thank you very much, Mel. And completely remiss of me not to have asked and to have said, I hope you had a happy Mother's Day because of course, time recording, that was yesterday.

00:51:41Melissa Ellis: Yes, it was. I did catch up with, well, three of my children. Three out of five ain't too bad. Yes. Olivia was in the air flying home from Italy and I had caught up with Madeline the week previous. So, yeah, Sarah and Jake came out to visit me yesterday and, yeah, just had a nice relaxing afternoon and I saw my own mum on Saturday.

00:52:06Oliver Spake: Lovely.

00:52:07Melissa Ellis: Hmm.

00:52:07Oliver Spake: No, very glad to hear. Thank you. Yeah. But Mel, I suppose that's it. Thank you. And thank you to Rachel for supporting my case to amend the dictionary. And as always, everyone, you can contact us via Facebook or the other socials or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That is it for another week. And we'll see you all next week for more adventures.

00:52:25[outro theme playing]

00:52:32Melissa Ellis: I haven't given up on Twitter yet.

00:53:42Unidentified speaker: All right, I've found more adventurers. Now, who are you and where are you from?

Interview Chloe — parkrunner from Perth, interviewed at UWA parkrun

00:53:46Chloe: I'm Chloe. I'm from Perth.

00:53:49Unidentified speaker: Okay.

00:53:49Chloe: It's not very exciting.

00:53:51Unidentified speaker: Small world.

Interview Liz — parkrunner from Goulburn, NSW, interviewed at UWA parkrun

00:53:51Chloe: Yep. I'm Melissa, Liz, and I'm from Goulburn.

00:53:55Unidentified speaker: Ah, cool. Okay. So, did you have to travel very far today?

00:54:00Chloe: Oh, I travelled about 40 minutes. So, yeah, it's not like it's next door's parkrun, but we have been here before.

00:54:06Unidentified speaker: Okay. And Liz, how have you travelled today?

00:54:10Lyndell Murray: About a five hour flight from Canberra Airport. She beats me. It's a long way.

00:54:18Unidentified speaker: That's true. How are you enjoying UWA parkrun? Is it your first time here?

00:54:23Chloe: Second for me, and it is beautiful. I'm glad the weather has cleared up for our second lap. The rain on the first lap wasn't as fun. But yeah, we've spotted some koi, and we'll see the peacocks soon. So, yeah, it's lovely. Excellent. It's beautiful, yes. I like it a lot. Thanks.

00:54:39Unidentified speaker: Excellent. Looking forward to Palm. Ever been to one before?

00:54:43Chloe: I've never been to one. Liz, you haven't either. You said no.

00:54:45[crosstalk]

00:54:45Lyndell Murray: No, this is my first time.

00:54:48Chloe: Me too. Yeah, it's great seeing everyone. Yeah, it's going to be great. Yeah, awesome being able to put faces to names as well.

00:54:55Unidentified speaker: Oh, absolutely. I've been meeting everyone and going, who are you again?

00:54:59Chloe: We need name badges, yeah.

00:55:01Unidentified speaker: Luckily, I brought the GoPro so I can just go back and go, oh, that's who you are.

00:55:04Chloe: Excellent.

00:55:04Unidentified speaker: All right, gang, well, I'm going to catch you later at coffee. I'll see you.

00:55:07Chloe: See you then. Bye.