Episode 339 - West Side Story

Welcome

00:00:23Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 339 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country.

00:00:32Sarah Jefferson: And I am Sarah Jefferson coming to you from Whadjuk Country. Hello, Sarah Jefferson. Hi, Mel. Thanks for having me. Thank you for being here and stepping in tonight for Ollie. What a pleasure. I'm surprised to be asked. Big shoes to fill. Hopefully I can fill them okay. Okay.

00:00:52Melissa Ellis: I'm sure you will. You're an old hand at roving reporting now.

00:00:55Sarah Jefferson: Oh, I think a little one minute or two minutes here and there after the adrenaline of parkrun could be a little bit different, but I will do my best.

00:01:05Melissa Ellis: Well, we really appreciate it. And I thought that it might be a good opportunity for the listeners to learn a little bit more about Sarah from the West Side. So Maybe you'd like to tell us, I don't know, what do you do during the week as your day to day?

00:01:21Sarah Jefferson: So my day job is basically bossing children around. I am a primary school teacher. This year I am teaching grade five and I do think that I have the best job in the world, even though it is a little bit tricky at times. This is my 12th year, teaching and I started off teaching on the northern beaches where I got into to parkrun and then obviously I've continued my journey with parkrun as I moved over to Western Australia so I did move over to Western Australia seven years ago now still torn between I guess the east side and the West Side but I do really enjoy living over here my partner Matt was FIFO over here in the mines and I think he's been in the mines now for about 10 years. So we did do distance for a couple of years and thankfully not over COVID. I can't imagine that would have been pretty tricky. But yeah, I guess that's a little bit about me. I guess I did also have a bit of an affiliation with the Dirty Cheetahs and still do a little bit. Got into that with Paul Rainbow, another parkrun adventurer.

00:02:32Melissa Ellis: Yeah, so we had a connection there, didn't we? You also, well, you haven't met Simon Mackley, have you?

00:02:37Sarah Jefferson: I haven't met Simon in person, but I do feel like I know Simon well.

00:02:42Melissa Ellis: We have lots of mutual friends, that's for sure. Fabulous. Did you notice how good my Polish was in last week's pod? I don't know if you picked it up. I only bring that up because Dorota is Dirty Cheetah. Yes. And she also happens to be Polish. Oh, did she compliment you? No, no, she coached me. Oh, perfect. She got a hurried message, Dorota, how do I pronounce this? And I just wanted her to say it and I would just edit her into the pod and she encouraged me to try.

00:03:14Sarah Jefferson: Well, that's good. That's good to learn new things, Mel. Never know when that can come in handy.

00:03:20Melissa Ellis: That's exactly right. Ah, all righty. So what about your parkrun day, Sarah? What did you get up to on Saturday?

00:03:29Sarah Jefferson: All right. So this Saturday I was Run Director down at Cottesloe parkrun. We had the weather gods on our side, which was good. We had a beautiful calm morning. There was lots of beach down at Cottesloe, but it was a little bit fresh. I had a swather of friends turn up to help me volunteer, which always makes chasing volleys really easy. Conveniently, though, or inconveniently, the council had actually put a pile of mulch on our path down to the beach as I was doing the event course check. So it always keeps you on your toes setting up. And also doing the briefing the first time, Mel, I had no first timers, no tourists and no milestones. So that was a first. Oh. And we had a quick field of runners this week. We had 64 finishes. The Tail Walker came in at 53.35, but the last runner to come through was actually 37 minutes 25, which is quite quick for our course, given that you've got a K or so on the beach. Then after that, headed down with my friends to check out the Orange Box Cafe and settle in for some park faff afterwards and had probably about four different groups of parkrun friends all come together, which is, you know, something I really love. But, you know, it's really great about parkrun that everyone can sort of chat even if they haven't met before. So that was my parkrun day. How did you go this Saturday?

00:04:56Melissa Ellis: Well, on Saturday I was at event six of Narooma Wetlands parkrun in South Australia on the land of the Ngarrindjeri people. I hope I said that correctly. You can hear more about the Narooma Wetlands parkrun from PK's roving report back in episode 335. This was a solo overnight road trip for me and after a challenging week, I was happy to be out on the open road, catching up on a range of my podcasts and looking forward to the excitement of exploring a new parkrun course. The location of this event was easy to locate with a parkrun pin drop at the Long Island Reserve and I was pleased to arrive in time to capture the tail end of the sunrise and snap a few photos of that magical time of morning. There were 52 finishes, which has been pretty standard since event one, with numbers ranging between the 52 to 68 so far. As was mentioned by PK, the course is a three-lapper out and back on a compacted gravel path with gentle undulation and runs alongside the Narooma Wetland beside the Murray River. If you know the area, the new course is downstream from the original Murray Bridge course with a turnaround point just short of the Janch Road. Janch, Jants, not quite sure how to pronounce that word. It was a chilly morning, so I elected to run with both my tracksuit top and puffer vest. Ooh. So I was layered up, although I quickly warmed up and was grateful for the strategically placed container for discarded clothing as I completed each out and back. They had three marshals on course, one at the turnaround, one not far from the start line, which I think was near a gate from memory, and one that they call the rock marshal, who directs runners safely either side of a large rock that splits the path about two thirds of the way along. Although chilly, it was a sunny morning and I enjoyed my run without pushing myself, having a lovely chat with RD Wendy at the end, who also happily obliged me with a selfie frame photo. And I also caught up with adventurer Julie Doolin, who I'd met earlier this year at Thorndon Junior. So hello to Julie, who was also parkwalker on the morning. Yeah, very busy day, I guess, or a few hours.

00:07:10Sarah Jefferson: Yeah.

00:07:12Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I do try to cram everything into my weekend. And there was no brunch? Didn't hear any mention? No, I actually turned around and drove straight home after refueling up my car. So no, no brunch. Sadly. Sounds like a very busy, busy weekend.

parkrun news bulletin

00:07:32Sarah Jefferson: But what else has been happening around parkrun this week? So in parkrun news this week, Sandgate hosted their Speed Week. We've also received this message from Russell Johnson. Mel and Ollie, Sandgate parkrun got big participation numbers and went crazy fast again with a record 712 finishes on Saturday. Record attendance increased by 106 people. 11 runners went sub 15 minutes. Another 32 more runners went sub-16 minutes. And another 35 more runners went sub-17 minutes. Wow. Course Marshals experience windburn. And this is from Russell Johnson, parkrun Adventuring. Thanks for that, Russ.

00:08:19Melissa Ellis: Gosh, and we had... Another adventurer there. I don't know if Russ was there. Was he at Sandgate? Hmm, I'm not sure. But Eman was.

00:08:30Sarah Jefferson: So Eman, congratulations on your all-time PB. He came in 73rd with a time of 16.51. Very impressive, Eman.

00:08:43Melissa Ellis: It was. So his previous best was 17 flat and that was this year. So it was only, hmm. I got a feeling within the last month or two. But, Sarah, 233 sub-20 runners. That's crazy.

00:08:59Sarah Jefferson: Crazy. I can't even imagine. Cannot imagine. Sounds like a bit of a nightmare if you Run Director. But I'm sure they were set up for that, hoping they were set up for that.

00:09:11Melissa Ellis: I believe they're very well seeded from what I read and what Eman had described to me the previous weekend when I saw him. They take extra care with their seeding at the start line. Of course, yep. To make sure that it flows as good as possible.

00:09:25Sarah Jefferson: And Eman, impressive in terms of, you know, training for, for all of us who have trained for a marathon before, it's a totally different training to sprint training. So impressive that he's been able to do, you know, a marathon time. a legendary marathon time recently and also kept up his speed. Very impressive. It is.

00:09:45Melissa Ellis: And I think that, you know, there's always a lot of focus in the parkrun comms for the people who choose to walk and, you know, and totally understandably too, but we don't very often give kudos to the people that can do it really quickly and we should. Yeah.

00:10:04Sarah Jefferson: 100% we should. We just wish that, well, I just wish that I could go a little bit faster and have my times increase. But definitely, definitely well done, Eman. But there's more news in WA, Sarah? There is some more news in WA. So congratulations, Dan Baldwin, who has regained his WA statesmanship. So heading up to Baxter, Baxter parkrun to tick off the Western Compass Point. So I believe we're back up to 11 statesmen, Mel, in Western Australia.

00:10:38Melissa Ellis: Very good. Hey, I think that's more than New South Wales. I could be wrong.

00:10:43Sarah Jefferson: I could be wrong.

00:10:44Melissa Ellis: But, you know, you might want to brag about it if it is just a hot tip. You won't be bragging about that. I'll look that up. Thanks for the tip. All right, you look that up while I talk about the next bit. So this week, the event management system, otherwise known as EMS, was announced to the world and described as a mobile optimized results processing and volunteering management system, allowing results to be processed within seconds of the event finishing and management of volunteers performed anywhere. So this replaces the old WebFMS system, created a long time ago before parkrun was even on my radar so for a full history of the journey from the very first event to the release of ems you can read the news item from the 13th of june on the parkrun Australia website which I assume was released in all countries in a similar time frame We have been using EMS for a few months at Eynesbury Juniors and it is super easy and intuitive to use and avoids a lot of the old problems related to trying to navigate web FMS on your phone. So I do acknowledge that we're primarily an adventuring podcast, Sarah, but I thought it's still newsworthy both for our current listeners and to market in the passing of time for historical purposes. So have you used it yet at Cottesloe?

00:12:06Sarah Jefferson: I personally haven't used it, but I think one of the other Run Directors had mentioned using it, and because I haven't actually been run directing since about February this year, I actually need to – have a little look at that and play with that myself. So I haven't at this stage.

00:12:21Melissa Ellis: Okay. Well, it's really easy to use. So I encourage you to do so. But WebFMS, the old version still works as well, as you probably found out, if that's what you used on the weekend. That is what I used on the weekend.

00:12:34Sarah Jefferson: And I have some more homework to do, clearly.

00:12:38Melissa Ellis: You know what? I did delay my run. My Run Directors at juniors were using it for weeks before I attempted it. I just kept... Sticking to the familiar, the old familiar way because I didn't feel like my brain could cope with trying to navigate anything new. But they put my arm behind my back and said, come on, Mel.

00:12:59Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, all right. Well, you might be the push for me, Mel, as well then. I'm used to setting the homework. Remember, I'm not used to getting the homework and doing it. My job's to set it.

00:13:08Melissa Ellis: Okay, well, there you go. Sarah's homework for this week. Thanks, teacher, Mel.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:13:15Sarah Jefferson: All right, and on that note, we might throw to some roving reports, Mel, and see what people have been up to this week.

Roving report Paul Kitching — Parkindula Reserve

00:13:30Paul Kitching: G'day parkrun adventurers, this is PK checking in with another roving report from Mount Barker, but get this, not from the Mount Barker course, for two reasons, which I'll get to. One, I'm at Parkindula, which is the second and very brand new parkrun course up in Mount Barker, in the Bluestone area, not far from the original, and this opened up. This is the seventh week, so seven weeks ago, which we were always planning to come to anyway, but then the original Mount Barker had to be cancelled this week as there is a sinkhole that is growing and growing close to the path, and so the council have had to close it, and we're hoping it's going to be fixed again soon, but anyway, until then, Parkindula is the closest, so Today I did the first time as a welcome, and it was a bumper one because we had lots of people who couldn't do Mount Barker here. Anyway, it's a bit windy up here, so apologies if there is a bit of a wind tunnel when I'm chatting. Hopefully you can hear me okay. And let's go and have a chat to some of the legends here at Parkindula.

Talking to Grant — Mount Barker parkrun regular, 98 parkruns, heading to the UK

00:14:33Paul Kitching: I'm now with a regular from Mount Barker who I saw running past me and I thought about it. I was having a chat with him about what he's up to and he's about to go on a bit of a parkrun tour as well as a sports tour. Anyway, g'day Grant. How are you, mate?

00:14:47Unidentified speaker: Yeah, good, thank you.

00:14:48Paul Kitching: Good to see you. Tell me, you're off to the UK. What parkruns are you planning to do over there?

00:14:54Grant: My chance today was my 98th and so next week I'll do 99 and then for my 100th we might be about 40 minutes away from Bushy's. Oh, magnificent. The Mecca. If it all works out.

00:15:08Paul Kitching: Oh, mate. Yeah, I caught a, when I did Bushy, I think I caught a cab, a train or a bus, whatever, and... And a cab. Anyway, I'd do whatever you could do to get there. You know what it is. You know what people are like. Apologies for the wind, if there's a bit of a wind tunnel. As I said, it's a bit windy up here. You're looking forward to your trip? Oh, absolutely, yeah. Fantastic, mate. You're going to see a bit of cricket as well? Yeah, heading leave might be our trip. Nice, mate. Nice.

00:15:36Grant: The clinic looks...

00:15:38Paul Kitching: Yeah, a bit of a sleep in and it will help you getting there as well. What do you think of Parkindula today? Have you done it before?

00:15:43Grant: No, first time. I like the course, I don't like the wind.

00:15:46Paul Kitching: It is a bit crazy windy, so it's probably good that there's wind in this chat because it is insane up here today. But dry, which is nice. And a bit of an undulation, that hill, not too bad. No, didn't you? Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah. So at least the wind was behind us going uphill. It was. What does parkrun mean to you?

00:16:04Grant: Oh, it's just a, yeah, a chance to get out on a Saturday morning and get some good exercise. Love it. Just gets me out of bed early. I like it.

00:16:12Paul Kitching: Well done, mate. I'm going to go and chat to Mignon, I reckon, and have a chat to her. Good on you, mate. Thanks so much, Grant. Enjoy your trip.

00:16:17Grant: All right, thanks, PK.

00:16:18Paul Kitching: Good on you, mate.

Talking to Mignon — Co-Event Director, Parkindula Reserve parkrun (Mount Barker, SA)

00:16:20Paul Kitching: I am now with one of the co-EDs. Is that your correct title, I believe, Mignon?

00:16:24Mignon: That is the correct title.

00:16:26Paul Kitching: Awesome. This is the amazing Min Mignon, who was one of the Run Directors at Mount Barker and now the other Mount Barker, the only Mount Barker, of course, at the moment. Mate, how's it going? Why is there a new parkrun here?

00:16:42Mignon: Well, usually when we get over 250 regular parkrunners, they like to spread it out a little bit. And we had the opportunity where Pete, who was the developer in this area, provided us with a ready-built parkrun course.

00:16:58Paul Kitching: That's not a guy called Pete. Not a guy called Pete. Well, there could be a guy called Pete.

00:17:01Mignon: Matthew and Owen. Matthew and Owen. Shout out to Matthew and Owen. And they have supported us by...

00:17:09Paul Kitching: donating the startup cost and also um producing a ready-made ready-made run what a great with a hill I may yeah and I love the hill I love the fact that it's flat then and then a bit of an undulation and then you're back um I kind of think the end feels worse oh yeah forget about that one um that's a great course and it's great to see it well supported uh what does parkrun mean to you

00:17:28Mignon: Well, I love parkrunning. I love coming out and meeting new people and seeing people enjoying the hill and enjoying the rain and enjoying the... Yeah, you've had everything, haven't you, in the last few weeks?

00:17:39Paul Kitching: Yes, we've had everything. Oh, my gosh.

00:17:41Mignon: And we do tell people if they volunteer that they can... They can get a free run the next week.

00:17:47Paul Kitching: That's right, exactly. I love it. I love your enthusiasm. I'll let you get back to your very important job. Thank you. Well done, Min.

00:17:52Mignon: Thank you. Thank you.

00:17:54Paul Kitching: Good stuff.

Talking to Dan Boland — visiting parkrunner from Boston, USA (home event Jamaica Pond parkrun); Adelaide-raised

00:17:55Paul Kitching: That is it. Apart from one last commentary from an international visitor, Dan Boland. How are you, mate?

00:18:01Dan Boland: Very well. Look, hello to everyone at Jamaica Pond in Boston doing their parkrun.

00:18:06Paul Kitching: today good on you run fast run hard well done yes Dan is an Adelaide boy but now based in Boston and usually doing Jamaica Pond and he's here on a bit of an apricots on tour event with me and Dan in our parkrun merch I'm loving it. If you need to get the J for your alphabet, come see me in Boston. You heard it here first. Good stuff. That's enough. Let's go and find some coffee. Another awesome parkrun. And good times here at Parkindula. A bit windy, but so be it. That's PK signing off.

Roving report Tony O'Connell — Malahide Castle Junior parkrun

00:18:42Tony O'Connell: Howdy parkrunners, it's TOC from Inverloch and reporting in after yesterday's weather fail where parkrun was cancelled across the two events in Ireland that we tried to attend. The last one was cancelled at five minutes before the start on the start line due to flooding on the course.

Talking to Andrea — Event Director and Run Director, Malahide Castle Junior parkrun, Ireland

00:18:59Tony O'Connell: It's Sunday now and to get our weekly parkrun fixed we've come along to Malahide Junior parkrun and we're here with Andrea, the Event Director and Run Director and Andrea, welcome to the parkrun adventurers podcast.

00:19:13Andrea: Thank you. It's lovely to meet you.

00:19:16Tony O'Connell: Andrea, today I think was event 118. Can you give us a little bit of a background on Malahide Junior parkrun?

00:19:24Andrea: Sure, absolutely. So Malahide Castle Junior parkrun started in June 2019. So it's actually our anniversary next week. And there's been an adult parkrun here in Malahide Castle for years. In fact, it was the first adult parkrun in Ireland. So it was missing a junior parkrun here in the area. The nearest one was in Swords. So yeah, there was an interest. I went around some of the primary schools and I got a lot of interest from the kiddos in the area and there was a nice core team available as well. There was lots of parkrunners in the community that were interested in setting up an event for kids on Sunday mornings. So yeah, we set it up in 2019 and we had a really amazing inaugural event with 325 children aged four to 14. And since then, the numbers have gone down a little bit, but we have a steady group of children that come regularly, and then every week we have a couple of first-timers as well, which is fantastic. So there's a lovely park-run culture in Malahide, and we're just really privileged to be able to host one for kids now as well as adults.

00:20:35Tony O'Connell: I think today we had 80 finishes, a lot of smiling faces out there, a lot of kids bouncing around, particularly when they come over the finish line. I love watching the expressions on the faces when they realise that they've got it done. One of the highlights of Junior parkrun is the family involvement and the kids that are back out there.

00:20:56Andrea: Yeah, in fact, I felt a really good atmosphere out there today as well, Tony. It's lovely weather today and our numbers were increased today because a lot of the summer activities have stopped now because, of course, in Ireland it's summertime now, June, July and August. So many of the kids are free now on Sunday mornings, whereas... beforehand or during school term they might have been doing you know hockey or gaelic football or hurling or something like that so our numbers are up now for the summer which is fantastic and there's a great atmosphere today loved seeing the kids coming across the line and of course they smile for the photos they loved seeing themselves on our Facebook page and on social media as well so we get lots of smiles from the kiddos for the camera every week as well

00:21:38Tony O'Connell: And just give us a quick description of your course.

00:21:41Andrea: So our current course is two and a half laps of a field called Lady's Acre. And it's beautiful because we don't need a huge amount of marshals on it. The kids are in sight throughout the whole course. So the parents can stand anywhere they like on the route, and they can see their kids the whole way around, which is fantastic. It is two and a half laps, and sometimes for the little small ones, the four-year-olds can get a little bit confused. So we often have somebody standing near the finish funnel just to guide the kids along and let them know what number lap they're on. But apart from that, it's great. And yeah, we get lots of, I do find that a lot of our kids are on the younger side. So maybe age four to 10. We've very few older kids. So I'm going to try and recruit a few older ones, I think age 10 to 14 over the summer months, even get them involved in a bit of volunteering as well.

00:22:36Tony O'Connell: Okay, well, we might wrap it up there. Look, it was a fantastic day. It was really great to get our parkrun fixed for the week. And I really thank you for giving us the opportunity. A couple of Aussies come over to volunteer. It was great fun. Well done.

00:22:47Andrea: No worries, as they say. And thank you, Tony, for doing the warm-up. It was brilliant. And thank you, Jacqui, for being our Tail Walker. I really appreciate it. Hope to see you again sometime.

00:22:54Unidentified speaker: Cheers.

00:22:54Andrea: Cheers.

00:23:03Melissa Ellis: And good to hear from PK out at Parkindula Reserve and TOC over there at Juniors. Good for Juniors to get a bit of a shout-out. But sad news for TOC and Jacqui missing out on their Irish? No. Irish. Irish. Yes. Is it? Yeah. Ireland. Yes. Irish? Yeah. That's right.

00:23:20Sarah Jefferson: parkrun on Saturday. Very disappointing. And I was a bit confused, Mel, because I thought, surely it's beautiful and sunny over there in the Northern Hemisphere right now from all of the photos that we've been seeing. So I was a bit confused as to why parkruns will be cancelled.

00:23:37Melissa Ellis: It was sunny above the clouds in Ireland, sadly. Yeah.

00:23:42Sarah Jefferson: Very disappointing. But as you said, great that they still managed to get to juniors. Yes.

00:23:47Melissa Ellis: And I noticed that they've got selfie frames over there in the UK and sponsors for juniors. See, we don't have that here. We're not allowed to have selfie frames in Australia for juniors. Interesting. And juniors have no sponsorship, nothing on our flags.

00:24:03Sarah Jefferson: I didn't know that because I haven't managed to get to juniors yet. But yeah, interesting.

Emails

00:24:07Sarah Jefferson: But moving on right along, Sarah, we've got mail.

00:24:11Melissa Ellis: You've got mail.

00:24:12Sarah Jefferson: We do have mail, Mel. And we've got mail from Calum Burrell. It says, hi, Mel, Ollie, the Office Lady and Rachel.

00:24:22Melissa Ellis: And Sarah.

00:24:23Sarah Jefferson: And Sarah for this week. Thanks, Mel. Following on from Rachel's focus point about the P index and V index, something that can be fun to track, the number of X times you have volunteered at X locations. Maybe could be called the VP index. This was partly inspired by my good wife, Lindsay, doing her 10th volunteering stint at Bramhall parkrun today. Although it didn't directly affect her VP index today, in theory, Lindsay could aim for a long-term goal of a VP index of 10, much like others do with their P index. Lindsay's current VP index is six. In other words, she has done six volunteering locations six times or more. My count is three. The great thing with the VP index, which particularly may interest Mel, is that you can include the volunteering at juniors for this index. I've included a montage of mine and Lindsay's stats from the 5K app and highlighted the instances that count towards the VP index. Hope you find this fun and useful. As always, many thanks for the fun and engaging podcast that you guys put together for us parkrun adventuring crazies. Hashtag not a cult. Thanks, Calum, for that mail. I'll have to do some research, Mel, on mine. I'm not sure if you have a chance to look up yours and what that could entail.

00:25:49Melissa Ellis: Well, I am interested in the fact that juniors can be included. The only problem is we've only got five juniors in the whole of Australia. So that's a little bit restrictive. I've been to, what have I been to? Four of the five juniors in Australia. So which one is the one you need to head to next? Bellevue. Bellevue, okay. Bellevue Juniors up in Queensland is the one that I am yet to visit. Okay. But in any case, I've only been to Thorndon and Des Connor once, so my VP index won't be very high. No. But I couldn't. Yeah, see, I have volunteered at 5K parkruns a few times. So, yeah, something to look up, Sarah, definitely.

00:26:34Sarah Jefferson: Yes, and Calum, I know that Mel does like adventuring, so I think that's a good thing for Mel to have a little look at and she could be interested, I think. Do you like a little bit of a challenge in anything for an adventure, Mel?

00:26:46Melissa Ellis: Yeah, maybe in the UK, hey? Ooh. Mmm. Now you're talking. Now you're talking. But, Sarah, we also heard from Chris Gore. Chris said, hi, Mel, Ollie and the Office Lady. She's getting a lot of mentions now. She's part of the team. Just a quick note about our longest run here in Perth last Sunday, the longest run Perth went off well we had around 30 to 40 people participate in our runs throughout the day with about 15 doing all seven parkruns it was a cool 16 degree day but it was mostly fine only the odd drop of rain that seemed to catch the walkers out on the course We began the day at Shipwreck, then moved on to Champion Lakes, Pioneer and Homestead before having a leisurely lunch break. Then we headed to Canning River, Shelley, which was quite windy, but at least we had the tailwind for the return leg and we finished at Bibra Lake. We ended the day with a meal and refreshments at a nearby pub. Can't wait till June 2024 for the next one. Cheers, Chris.

00:27:47Sarah Jefferson: Interesting. South of the river. So being a Perth girl myself, I guess I'll claim that now, Mel, we have this clear divide with the north and south of the river. So all of those parkruns were south of the river. So interesting. Okay. I'm not sure what happened with the north of the river, but... You know what that means, Sarah?

00:28:03Melissa Ellis: Next year there needs to be two. Yes, that's right.

00:28:06Sarah Jefferson: That's right. So no pressure on that. But I know in other states you've got different parts of the state doing the longest run. So something I might need to chat to Chris about.

00:28:15Melissa Ellis: Yep, sounds like a plan.

00:28:17Sarah Jefferson: Have you ever done a longest run, Sarah? No, Mel, sadly I haven't. Unfortunately or fortunately for me, I have planned lots of adventures on those weekends and I think that in the last maybe four or five years I've actually been away for every single weekend. And as much as I was excited to head off to Singapore last weekend or the weekend before last, I did happen to realise it was the same weekend as the longest run. So is it normally planned on the long weekend over Easter? Or is that just a coincidence?

00:28:49Melissa Ellis: In Victoria it is. We always have ours on the King's Birthday long weekend. Okay. And I think some of that is because we do get quite large numbers and everybody appreciates the Monday rest day before they have to hobble back to work after doing seven parkruns.

00:29:05Sarah Jefferson: Makes sense. So for us, our long weekend was the weekend before.

00:29:09Melissa Ellis: Ah.

00:29:09Sarah Jefferson: And it was WA Day, so we have King's Birthday weekend, later in September. Oh, okay. So maybe we need to look at adding it to our long weekend because that makes sense to rest those legs.

00:29:23Melissa Ellis: There you go.

Dazza's

00:29:23Melissa Ellis: All righty. Well, next we have our Dazza's recap. Now, I didn't have time to put it together this week, sadly. I was a little bit busy and I'm really sorry, but I chose going on a walk over preparing the Dazza's recap. But lucky for us, we've got an Office Lady and she generously volunteered to put it together for us. So let's have a listen.

00:29:48Sam Schroder: Hi adventurers, it's the Office Lady. Now we know that there are 25 letters of the alphabet available at parkruns around the world. This week, 20 of those letters were represented in Dazza's. So I'm going to give you the summary in parkrun alphabetical order. Baxter parkrun was the base for Dan Baldwin who completed his WA statesmanship, joined the Aussie Compass Club and picked up the number one token. Bibra Lake was the base for Karen and Chris Gore, who both volunteered this week. Bramhall parkrun welcomed Calum and Lindsay Burrell, Phil Corker and their friends Mike, Maggie and Avalano. Brisbane Valley Rail Trail was the choice for Carmel Roll. Charters Towers Airport welcomed Ian and Lydia Knox. And Chipping Norton was a great choice for Julia and Glenn Turner. Cottesloe parkrun came alive with Sarah Jefferson at the helm in the RD vest. Denton Dene was delighted to have Claire Vaynerchuk. Foster found Margie Lewis in attendance. And Gloucester District was glad to see Karen, Ralph and Kaylee all rugged up against the cold. Hamilton Lake was the home of a new post-injury PB for Alison King. Kamay came to the party, welcoming Cherie Cottle and her hubby. Kilmore Racecourse Walking Track parkrun had a frond of eight, with Chantelle Hosking and Carolyn McRae visiting us in Dazza's, and Lakeview loved having Jan Yates and Aby Ebbin in attendance. Lochiel was the location for Janet Reid to lament the loss of a legend family, the Dingers. Louis Trichardt parkrun was lucky to meet Johan Duvenhage. And Malahide Castle Junior parkrun managed to put smiles back on the O'Connells' faces after cancellations spoiled their fun on Saturday. Maribyrnong was the place for Andrew Turner to manage to score the number one token. Meadowbrook meant a meet-up for Patricia Smith and Tracy Leiper. Mount Ainslie was the mission for Martine Barrot and Andrew Johnston. And Mount Gambier made Heather Patzell feel most welcome. Mundy Regional hosted Val the Volunteer and Steve the Mountain Goat. Myponga Reservoir made Jonathan Morgan welcome. Narooma Wetlands was the final destination for the Boss Lady's road trip. And Orange welcomed Catherine Pirotta. A quite chilly Queenstown was the course of choice for Helen and Stephen Davis. Parkville was pleased to see Chloe and David Bravos. Pegasus Party Time included Tanya and Brett Bailey and Jackie Hancock. And Point Hut Pond was pleased to see Bernadette and David Bennett. Redcliffe parkrun was where Karina Campbell and her partner ran. Rooty Hill really liked having Fiona Hinchliffe Park walking the course. San Remo got a thorough pre-course check thanks to Richard, and Sewerby saw Helen Rutter and her hubby meet up with friends. Shellharbour saw the usual crowd of passionistas, but also welcomed visitors Jodie Maisie and Brendan Peel. St Peters saw Linda Coombes striding around. Tallangatta Station was where Chris Fraser collected a token and consumed a 4.5 star sausage roll. The Beaches was the base for Sonja and Peter Pohlman. And the Ponds played host to a posse of passionistas, including our Wicked Witch of the West, Jo McLean. Tokoinranta in Finland welcomed Dawn Branton. Toolern Creek was the target for Emma Songselin and she had a bonus parkrun on Sunday at Eynesbury Heritage Trail Juniors. Torbay Velopark parkrun was Christine Imbert's choice. Victory Heights was the place to go for Catherine Greenstreet and her husband, and the pics there were taken by Charmaine Grobbler, who was the volley photographer. Warszawa-Żoliborz welcomed Renata Koch, who also wore a volley vest. Whalan Reserve welcomed Claire and Jack Corkhill. And Woodlands Historic Park parkrun was Plan B for Marg Prowse. And if my cryptic clue-solving skills are improving... And I think our friend Steve's bike was there as well. Yackandandah Rail Trail was privileged to have Matthew Billow Billington in the RD vest and Zillmere was zipped around by Vicky and John Smith. So Adventurers, your challenge for this week is to see if you can get to a parkrun starting with the letter A, E, J, I or U. Happy adventuring.

00:33:50Melissa Ellis: And thank you very much, Sam, for putting together that for us this week. I'm getting good feedback. Everybody's liking the new Dazza's recap.

00:33:57Sarah Jefferson: So, yeah, it's going along well. I personally am loving it, Mel. Not that we have favourites. As we know, we don't have favourite children. However, that is one of the parts of the podcast that rates highly on, I guess, yeah, throughout the pod that I really enjoy. Thanks. So thank you for putting the time into that. Highly enjoyable.

00:34:15Melissa Ellis: You're welcome.

Club Corner

00:34:17Sarah Jefferson: And on that note, we might throw to Rachel at Club Corner.

00:34:21[14 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:34:34Rachel: 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. Today I'm going to talk about streaking, the tourist kind of streak that is. Hence, this week is more of a challenge rather than a club. Streaking at parkrun is when you continue something for X times, so harking back to Club Corner number 11 with the Wilson Index. If you attend the first five events of a parkrun, so numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, you have a Wilson Index of 5. For a tourist streak, the base version of it, i.e. the version that is publicly available and able to be verified slash checked, the base version is where you do not repeat an attendance at a parkrun for x times. So if you attend 10 different events without repeat, then you will have a tourist streak of 10. Be aware that on some tracking apps you can include your volunteering, so that will be considered in your streak count when checking for repeats. The classic way to do your tourist streak is to visit other places and volunteer at home. Smiley face. The hardcore version of the tourist streak is to never repeat a parkrun. So, with the base version, you could do five different events, then repeat those five again, in the same order, and still have a tourist streak of five. Then as soon as you added a sixth, your tourist streak would be six. The hardcore streakers only count the first time that they go anywhere. But that is a personal list and not public information. And remember, in parkrun life, all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.

00:36:05Melissa Ellis: And another good report from Rachel. Tourist streaks, very timely. I'm on a tourist streak, Sarah. You're always on a tourist streak, Mel. Never at home, always on a tourist streak. Well, my current streak is 30 without repeating events. So the last 30 events weren't all brand new ones. I have got a couple of repeats in there. Still pretty impressive.

00:36:28Sarah Jefferson: As is explained by Rachel. What about yours, Sarah? So my longest tourist streak is 13. So not the 30, but still got a three, 13. So, yeah, now that I've done most of the events close to home in WA, I'm not sure that I'll ever get up to the 30. But, yeah, well done to you. Very impressive.

00:36:52Melissa Ellis: Thanks.

Consolidated Club Report

00:36:53Melissa Ellis: Now let's have a look at some other figures here, with this week's Consolidated Club Report for Saturday, the 17th of June, 2023. Of a total of 432 members, 348 took part on this date at 182 locations. We had 31 events in the UK, South Africa, USA and Ireland had two. Finland, Italy, Norway and Poland had one. And locally, we had adventurers at 37 events in Queensland, 36 events in Victoria, 36 events in New South Wales, nine events in South Australia, eight events on the North Island, six in the ACT, five over on the West Side, two on the South Island and one each in Tassie and the Northern Territory.

the Frond — Kilmore Racecourse Walking Track

00:37:45Melissa Ellis: Our largest frond this week was at Kilmore Racecourse Walking Track who had eight adventurers, Brian Manekis, Irene and Parth Bommakanti, Carolyn McRae, Wendy Beckhouse, Chantelle Hosking and Cheryl Smit. There was also seven adventurers at Shellharbour, seven at Beaufort Lake, in Victoria and seven

00:38:09Sarah Jefferson: at speed week in Sandgate and I do apologise I think there was somebody at my door Mel I'm sure you won't point this out however how many adventurers were there in Victoria again this week and how many were in New South Wales again Mel I'll just leave that there They're tied. You're not allowed to get cheeky. What's going on with you? Hey, I'm on the West Side. We're at five. Beep our numbers over here. There is a tie.

00:38:42Melissa Ellis: You know what? I've got to make a declaration. I've been wondering what on earth has been going on with Victoria's numbers and I figured it out. All our adventurers in Victoria have been in Europe doing all these extra events. We've got TOC and Jacqui. We've had Helen and Steve. We've had Heather Morgan. They've all been in Europe. Well, I'm going to stick up for Ollie here.

00:39:06Sarah Jefferson: Now, now there, Mel. We're 36 and 36. So we'll just go with the stats that we've got. Come home, TOC.

00:39:12Melissa Ellis: It's time to come home.

00:39:16Sarah Jefferson: TOC looks like he doesn't want to come home. He looks like he's having the best time. TOC and Jacqui. Except when parkruns are cancelled.

00:39:24Melissa Ellis: Poor TOC. Don't talk about the wall. Okay, what were we going to talk about next? So... Oh, I know. My costume quandary for City to Surf, Sarah, was resolved this week when I received a message from Brendan Scholarly pointing out that a world record attempt is taking place at this year's event. Now, Sarah, I believe you know a little bit about this.

00:39:49Sarah Jefferson: I do, Mel. When I lived in Sydney on the northern beaches, I ran with this amazing running group called the Beauty of Exercise. They go by the name of Bexy. Just so happens that two of the ladies who are organising this world record attempt actually are part of that group. So I've managed to reach out and Sarah has actually filled us in a little bit about the Guinness World Record attempt and what it means to her and I guess how the idea actually came about.

00:40:16Melissa Ellis: So let's have a listen to that now.

Interview Sarah Foley — co-organiser of the Wonder Woman Guinness World Record attempt at the 2023 City to…

00:40:26Sarah Foley: Hi parkrun adventurers, I'm Sarah Foley and I'm excited to hear you're all keen to jump on board with us to set a Guinness World Record at this year's City to Surf. So we are looking for over 250 people who are up for a bit of a laugh to dress as Wonder Woman and gather at the start of this year's event. So you'll take part in a world record attempt for the largest group of people dressed as Wonder Woman in one gathering. So we were inspired by this fun idea whilst we were running the London Marathon this year. We saw a group of ladies running together for charity, dressed as Wonder Woman, and thought, wouldn't it be a good idea if we could get our whole running group to run dressed as Wonder Woman in the city to surf? So our idea then got legs, so to speak, and then it kind of evolved into something a bit more meaningful. So we saw Wonder Woman as being symbolic of strong people that through their lives as either mums or caregivers to the kids or to parents, working full-time, often sort of shielding something, either a mental health condition or maybe something difficult or even just going through an individual health battle. So it's a celebration and coming together of a group of strong Wonder Women. So I'm Sarah, I'm a mother of two, I work full-time and I am living with a brain tumour. So the day after the City to Surf this year, I will begin my treatment as my tumour has decided to start growing back. So along with my running group friend, Caroline, we decided to use the world record attempt to draw attention to both brain cancer and to strong people that have chosen to join us and partner with us as we try to raise some funds for Cure Brain Cancer, who are our partner charity for this event. So we hope to fundraise, create some media attention to the cause and at the same time set a world record. You don't need to be a runner. You can walk, you can talk, you can run, laugh, sing along the way, just like we did in the London Marathon this year and we had a great time. And, you know, we just thought maybe come and enjoy the atmosphere of the city to surf whilst dressed as Wonder Woman, really perfect for the parkrun community who also come together to run and walk and support each other whilst improving, you know, their wellbeing. So we do recognise that brain cancer and tumours and daily hurdles and battles can often be quite invisible, something that people hide, but we really want to celebrate how strong people can do hard things and yet have fun on this journey together. So you don't have to run in the City to Surf as the record is for the gathering, although we'd really love everyone to take part in the whole event. So again, it is a celebration and a coming together. City to Surf is like a carnival. You know, the music, the vibe, it's such a perfect fit for a fun event. So, yes, we would love you to take part. And for more details, you can email me on wonderwomanworldrecord at gmail.com. Thank you.

00:43:54Melissa Ellis: And I'd like to thank Sarah very much for taking the time to send us that audio. And I'm very excited about joining them. Now, this did mean that I had to unsubscribe myself from the adventurer Pod group in the City to Surf Teams event. I did feel a little bit conflicted doing that, but I also feel that I am supporting a really good cause by joining the Wonder Woman team for City to Surf. And I've got my costume organised. I already had a Wonder Woman costume. Of course you did, Mel. In my bag of tricks. Of course. So, yeah, I'm really excited about joining in this world record attempt. Can we tempt you over from the West Side?

00:44:36Sarah Jefferson: Oh, I'll have to look up flights that weekend. If there were any chance, it would be a very, very quick visit. I have actually competed in the City to Surf a few times. Never say never when there is an adventure event tempted but um at this stage I will be supporting you all from afar particularly with this world record attempt just go on to ebay and order a costume just in case because you know they never go astray you never know when you might need it true male full disclosure I secretly have a wonder woman costume already here as well this is why we're friends women do There's a Wonder Woman within all of us or in our closet. Oh, that's hilarious. Excellent. So that wouldn't be the issue. It would just be maybe the flights and the flight times. Yeah. But we'll see. But great cause, very supportive of the cause, and I loved that they came up with the idea of, while running the London Marathon. I think that's amazing.

00:45:22[laughter]

00:45:43Melissa Ellis: Well done, ladies. And thank you for reaching out and getting that audio for us too. We're very happy to support the cause and, yeah, so it's for the brain cancer, isn't it?

00:45:51Sarah Jefferson: It is. Brain cancer should cure brain cancer. Yeah. So if you haven't, if you don't have a Wonder Woman costume in your closet like Mel and I do, be sure to purchase that soon. I wonder if... Is Ollie doing City to Surf? I feel like he is.

00:46:09Melissa Ellis: I can't get him to wear a mullet. I'm not going to get him into a Wonder Woman costume.

00:46:13Sarah Jefferson: Oh, I was thinking the tights under a Wonder Woman costume would go down a treat, right?

00:46:18Melissa Ellis: He said he was never wearing them again, but he does like the brain cancer cause because he ran for Carrie's beanies for brain cancer when he did Point to Pinnacle last year.

00:46:31Sarah Jefferson: So I feel like this could be the thing that could twist his arm, Mel. It's for a good cause, Ollie. It's a good cause. Good luck with that.

Statesmen update

00:46:41Melissa Ellis: Now, did you want to mention something earlier about statesman numbers?

00:46:48Sarah Jefferson: So I have just done a little bit of research and I've had a little look at the current statesman ladder. So first we've got SA still leading with 34. Western Australia, second. 15 statesmen currently. New South Wales, seven. Queensland, seven. Victoria, one, Mel. I guess the positive of that one, Mel, is it means that you guys are getting lots of new events and that you've got lots of places to check out in your home state. So that is certainly a positive and I'm sure those numbers will creep up once everyone returns from Europe.

Sign-off

00:47:32Melissa Ellis: Is this where I say we're in our defence? We just had a triple launch. And all our states people haven't had an opportunity yet to get to them all, including me. But that's a nice segue, Sarah, because this week, this coming Saturday, I'm heading out to Maroondah Dam parkrun in Healesville. to regain my statesmanship. Very exciting. Yeah. So I could have done it last week, but I decided to hold off an extra week so that I would have Zoe with me so that we can go out to the Healesville Sanctuary after the parkrun. So I will report all about that next week when I recap my parkrun day. What about you, Sarah? Have you got something exciting to say?

00:48:18Sarah Jefferson: So, channeling the co-host, Ollie, I'll be staying home next week and RDing at Cottesloe. This is rare that this happens. But just in honour of Ollie, yes, I'm on an adventurers podcast talking about being at home once again. So I'll be down at Cottesloe hoping they've moved the mulch from our course and that they've put it in the garden and it's ready to go. So I'll be staying at home next week, Mel, before I do Jet Set the couple of weeks after that, which will be exciting.

00:48:51[laughter]

00:48:51Melissa Ellis: Thank you for the laugh. It's this fake curse.

00:48:57Sarah Jefferson: But your adventure sounds amazing and I shall live vicariously through you.

00:49:01Melissa Ellis: Thank you so much for joining me tonight, Sarah. It's been great to catch up with you and get all the lowdown over there on the West Side. But adventurers, as always, you can contact us via Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That is it for another week. We'll see you all next week for more adventures.

00:50:18Unidentified speaker: Bye.