Episode 354 - It’sa Mario

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:24Oliver Spake: Welcome to episode 354 of the parkrun adventurers podcast, a podcast about life if your life is all about parkrun. I'm Ollie Spake and I'm joining from Dharawal Country.

00:00:37Melissa Ellis: And I'm Melissa Ellis and I'm joining from Wurundjeri Country. And welcome back, Ollie, and happy birthday for last week.

00:00:45Oliver Spake: thank you very much Mel thank you thank you to you and talk for the shout out thank you everyone um as of as things currently stand I haven't had a chance to say thank you to everyone but um really bowled over by all of the kind lovely messages for my birthday uh which was really just another parkrun day and Ollie you got a moustache for your birthday yeah how kind was that lucky me Yeah, whoops.

00:01:12Melissa Ellis: That gave me a little shock when I saw that.

00:01:16Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:01:17Melissa Ellis: Luigi.

00:01:18Oliver Spake: Yeah, well, Mario, according to the kids. I won't try the accent, but needless to say, it was meant to be a joke. It pretty much still is a joke, but it sticks.

00:01:32Melissa Ellis: I like it. It's growing on me.

00:01:34Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:01:35Melissa Ellis: At first I kind of went, what the hell?

00:01:38Oliver Spake: Yeah. It was interesting because it's been a weekend full of birthdays and yesterday, which was Sunday, was in fact my mother-in-law's birthday. We're both Librans and we went to this refurbished lodge at a nearby place called Jamboree and it's amongst the woods and it's been done up. It's really quite fancy in places. It's got a bit of a bar with, if anyone's seen the White Lotus, it's got that kind of... I don't know the right terminology for the style. I haven't seen the white lotus. Where's Cathy when I need her? Well, it's good fun. But getting off track there a little, it's got a very, I'd say, you know, 70s feel to it. So, yeah. Yeah, yeah, with the moustache and the yellow and brown shirt. It didn't go unnoticed when I was placed next to one of my mother-in-law's friends who, of course, he also has a moustache. It is very 70s. Yeah, so...

00:02:50Melissa Ellis: Good for you for being brave. Yes, I've got a moustache. And we did share a photo of you with your wonderful birthday cake on the Consolidated Club Report this week. If anybody wants to have a little look of Ollie and his moustache.

00:03:03Oliver Spake: Yeah, and what a cake. Still kind of finishing the cake. It's awesome. Did you get to bring it home? Was there leftovers? No. Yeah, how cool is that?

00:03:11Melissa Ellis: Nice. It looked pretty spesh. Yeah. She's a pretty good baker, that Bec Bailey. But do you want to give us a recap of the morning?

00:03:11[crosstalk]

00:03:19Oliver Spake: I suppose I should. So surprise, surprise, I spent parkrun Day just gone, you know, International parkrun Day, parkrun's 19th birthday and my... 40th. Hooray.

00:03:31Unidentified speaker: 40th.

00:03:33Oliver Spake: 40th birthday at Shellharbour parkrun. And it was a lovely one. I was also fortunate to be able to begin the day with a bit of women's Super League. So that's the women's kick yay over in England, watching a couple of the Matildas playing for Arsenal there. Before I headed, well, I was given a few presents. That was a nice treat. And My eldest daughter and her partner who were staying over the night before very quickly abducted Ava and took her off to parkrun. So I didn't even have to worry about her after the Shellharbour event team crew, Brendan and Em in this case, had shown up the day before and collected all the gear. So I had nothing to do. Perfect. I'd planned to go and set up the course. Of course you did. I'd be there nice and early. But I just rocked up and, yeah, yeah, understated me, was greeted with some inflatable 40 balloons and cards and all sorts of paraphernalia. And, yes, some baked goods, treats, snacks, and not just from Bec, but yes, Bec, the biker-baker Bailey, outdid herself with an amazing chocolate cake covered with chocolate and filled with chocolate.

00:04:56Melissa Ellis: That's usually how chocolate cakes roll.

00:04:59Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. This one just rolled a bit more. But, yeah, Bec was Run Director, so it didn't end there, and I was – fortunate enough to have all 202 odd participants sing me happy birthday and take a big zoomy shot together and I'm sure that many of those poor folk that had just shown up for their 5k walk or run had no idea whatsoever what was going on but good on them for getting into the spirit of things but um Yeah, hugely appreciative to my wonderful event team and Shellharbour community who kept it all a secret and showed up with a Zoomie photo collage. I have not seen that many pictures of me in the one spot and clearly I've Zoomied quite a bit because there seem to be a lot of photos of that.

00:05:58Melissa Ellis: So the collage was just you doing all the Zoomies? Yeah.

00:06:02Oliver Spake: Just met. Well, there were other people. You're in it, Mel. You're there. Yes.

00:06:06Unidentified speaker: Am I?

00:06:07Melissa Ellis: How come I haven't seen this on social media?

00:06:09Oliver Spake: Ah, right. Well, it's there. It's somewhere there. To be honest, I'm still sifting through because I'm not quite up to speed with my social media at the moment.

00:06:18Melissa Ellis: Okay. I've got a job for the Office Lady. Okay.

00:06:25Oliver Spake: But, yes, yeah, so those behind it and, yeah, my darling daughter, Hannah, had many, many leftover photos of me that she kindly donated to me for my birthday doing Zoomies. Yeah. And a card. So people wrote on the card as well. But the fun didn't end there, Mel. I did have the opportunity to parkrun. So I completed the parkrun course. It felt harder than ever. And I was a very proud dad also, because I had Ava and Hannah both barcode scanning and they had lined up their volunteer milestones. So Ava was doing her junior 10 volunteer milestone and Hannah her 50th volunteer milestone, both on the same day and very conveniently on my birthday.

00:07:18Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's clever. Good girls. Well done.

00:07:23Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, naturally I had to order them both Milestone shirts when we went for coffee afterwards. But, yes, thank you very much, everyone, for everything. And thank you, Mel, for my Collingwood socks as well, my Magpie socks and my big Tassie Devil coin. Got some new treasured items. They went straight to the pool room. The socks did take a detour. As noted, I did wear them to parkrun Day prior to the one just gone.

00:07:52Melissa Ellis: Hooray. And obviously it worked. You're welcome. You're welcome that Collingwood won.

00:07:53[crosstalk]

00:07:57Oliver Spake: By the way, do we have our regular theme music back?

00:08:03Melissa Ellis: You'll just have to wait till the edit.

00:08:04Oliver Spake: Yes. Yeah. But look, there's my day and naturally the entire show, birthday and weekend was spent with family and a nice run on Sunday morning on a bit of Saddleback Mountain as well. So lots of favourite things.

00:08:23Melissa Ellis: Oh, sweet. And you haven't even had the office party yet. No, that's right.

00:08:28Oliver Spake: That's right. I've seen the streamers, so great job. Great job. I particularly like the one that's made entirely out of post-its, which must be tox now because I put mine away. Yeah.

00:08:42Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's good. Yes.

00:08:45Oliver Spake: Yes. So that was my excitement, Mel, a lot of excitement. And where I noted I began the day with football, I got to end it with football. My A-League men's team, Sydney FC, went and won the cup on my birthday as well. So they beat a team from Queensland. It seems to be the going trend. And, yeah, yeah, a good day. Yeah.

00:09:08Melissa Ellis: I like how you're trying to slide the soccer back in, Ollie. It's just, you know, it's too soon. We're still talking about AFL. We just care about Collingwood.

00:09:15Oliver Spake: Yeah, we do care about Collingwood. But you know what else we care about, Mel? Speedy times in what is obviously a state that is very good to you.

00:09:29Melissa Ellis: Oh, I didn't think of that. You want to hear about my weekend?

00:09:34Oliver Spake: Yes, please.

00:09:35Melissa Ellis: Okay. Well, Martine and I, yes, Martine, we're getting around a lot lately. We've travelled to Parameter, aka Parramatta, on the traditional lands of the Darug people. And as you may remember from last week's episode, it was event 501 with 338 participants. And we were joined by Chris Fraser, who kindly hosted and chauffeured us, and Andrew Blanda, who popped in for a Frond in his racy Adventurers Coloured Hyundai i30N. Luckily, after some ordinary weather during the week, the morning was reasonably mild and the sky was blue, giving me the courage I needed for my PB attempt. Now, I don't usually let myself get too carried away with times, but I've been dancing around so close to that 30-minute mark that the lure of the achievement and perhaps wanting to impress someone was sparing me on. So I did a couple of things I don't usually do. I left my phone in the car. Yeah, no mid-run photos this week, and I shed the jacket before I began. Now, 338 is a decent number to navigate, and had I had the opportunity to self-seed properly, I may have found myself rather further back in the pack. But as we walked to the flags and the RD called start, I was off before I knew I was perhaps further forward than I should have been. What? Parameter parkrun is essentially a double out and back. There is a small rise at the approach to the turnaround at one end, which rewards you with a giddy downhill. I agreed with Martine when she said it felt like a short 5k, it really did I'm a big fan of the configuration for most of the run you're running alongside the parameter river so anyone who like me enjoys running by water will be impressed with the sights also aside from a small grass finish the course is entirely on wide pavement contributing to the reputation it has for being a fast course sadly we were not able to catch up with Lee Cabarita that on the morning, but we're sending you a great big hug, Lee. Perhaps I can see you on my next visit. The large numbers meant for a very festive vibe and I did notice many people just happy to mill around the finish area, seemingly in no hurry to leave. Eventually we headed off to Cafe 47 for coffees and milkshakes. Oh, and maybe you're wondering about my time. Well, I did break 30 minutes and it was my fastest time since January 2020 at Kerang Regional. Got to be happy with that.

00:12:11Oliver Spake: Yes. Wow.

00:12:14Melissa Ellis: I did it.

00:12:18Oliver Spake: You smashed it, Mel. Yeah, there was no dancing around 30 minutes. I'm pretty sure you... Oh, yeah, I took a minute off my time. You sliced it up.

00:12:25[crosstalk]

00:12:29Melissa Ellis: So it just actually really does reflect on how I probably don't warm up properly or really try very hard in the first kilometre, take too many photos and shouldn't be trying to wriggle out of my jacket.

00:12:41Oliver Spake: And I don't know about you, but I also tend to run a little faster after being transported in Chris's boot. You did travel in the boot too, didn't you? Or was that just me?

00:12:56Melissa Ellis: No, I got the front seat. That's just you. Oh, dear. No, it was a really good weekend and, well, it wasn't a weekend. It was a really good overnight trip and catching up with Chris, of course, and Andrew Blanda who joined us for the milkshakes coffee and, yeah, no, it was fun. It was a really good weekend. And, yes, New South Wales is being very kind to me with my runs at the moment. I'm spending a lot of time in your state. I'm actually thinking you guys need to come down and visit me more often.

00:13:32Oliver Spake: Well, it's such a great state up here, you know. But it was a pleasure to have you in the state, Mel, and well done, well done. Very speedy time.

00:13:45Melissa Ellis: Thank you.

00:13:46Oliver Spake: But in news and discussion, Mel, we've had a bit of a tip-off of a funny little coincidence. Two individuals over there in the UK running the same time in subsequent positions. Is that the right note?

00:14:02Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Subsequent? Sequential.

00:14:02[crosstalk]

00:14:05Oliver Spake: Sequential, yeah. Sequential positions. Yeah, positions 195, 196, both occupied by James White, right? or perhaps I should say each occupied by James White and supposedly no relation to one another. But congratulations, James White and James White.

00:14:25Melissa Ellis: I know, quite astounding, isn't it? When I first saw this share, I assumed it might have been a father-son because often, you know, they will share a name if it's a junior, James White Jr., for example. But no, apparently not. Apparently these two individuals are completely unknown to each other. So... What are the chances?

00:14:49Oliver Spake: Quite low, I believe. So, yeah, do share with us any more interesting coincidences out there that you notice, anyone.

00:14:58Melissa Ellis: What's it called when you do the same time at?

00:15:02Oliver Spake: In subsequent weeks? Yeah. Sequential weeks? Yeah, there's me stumbling again.

00:15:03[crosstalk]

00:15:06Melissa Ellis: That's the groundhog day. Yeah, that's it. It's kind of a weird twist on groundhog day, isn't it? Yes. It's like happened on the same day.

00:15:16Oliver Spake: Yeah, it's double day.

00:15:18[crosstalk]

00:15:18Melissa Ellis: It's like do-do-do-do-do-do-do.

00:15:19Oliver Spake: Yeah, evil twin, yeah.

00:15:21Melissa Ellis: Hmm.

00:15:22Oliver Spake: Which one's the evil one?

00:15:24Melissa Ellis: Yes. Anyway, now on to me. I would also like to acknowledge, Ollie, that TOC's arbitrary comment about our recent Batemans Bay trip was mentioned on With Me Now this week. Yes. And if I do realise it's arbitrary, Danny... But round numbers, they're just nice to celebrate. And, of course, we listen to our With Me Now friends every week. And, actually, I particularly liked the conversation Danny and Nicola had this week about Junior parkrun, being as I am, of course, an ED of one of Australia's five junior events. I do echo their views on the difficulty in spreading the word of Junior parkrun in the wider community. This is something we struggle with at Eynesbury, being that we are the smallest of the five events in Australia. I know parkrun was supportive of me in launching the event in Melbourne's outer west to target an area where physical activity is perhaps not as prevalent in the broader community. But we 100% find that the challenge is really in getting the parents to bring the kids rather than the kids' willingness to participate. My personal opinion is that our target demographic is It's not the kids already doing soccer, footy, netball or Little Aths. Those kids are already active in community sports. We want to reach the kids who aren't participating in regular outdoor activity, the kids who aren't picked first for the sports teams, the kids who are always on their devices and could benefit from fresh air and non-competitive activity. They're the kids we want to engage. They're the kids with the most to gain and they're the kids we need to reach. I have letterbox dropped the local area with flyers. I have asked local schools to put notices in their newsletters. I've pinned flyers to community notice boards and I've had them added to council websites. I have done as much as I can as an ED, as a volunteer, and I just wish that parkrun in Australia could support us a little more on their socials to help us because I don't know what else I can do and I believe in Junior parkrun so passionately. And I want it to succeed.

00:17:35Oliver Spake: Yeah, I certainly don't have the involvement. I've still not been to a junior parkrun, shamefully. But yeah, I have to agree with you, Mel. It's something that it would be great to see another level of support And maybe it's not even parkrun Australia. Maybe it's sponsorship and partnership or something. But, yeah, a lot does fall to our volunteers and they are wonderful volunteers. And don't get me wrong, parkrun Australia are also wonderful and supportive in so many ways. But, yeah, it could make a difference.

00:18:15Melissa Ellis: Well, juniors don't have sponsors, so whether that factors into it. And as we have been made aware, parkrun in Australia is under review. Junior parkrun, I should say, in Australia is under review. There's a feasibility study happening. As an ED, I don't know what that means. I don't know if that means, you know, that we could have the pin pulled on us. Up or down.

00:18:43Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:18:45Melissa Ellis: At the moment, there's a halt on any expansion of Junior parkrun in Australia until they complete their feasibility study. So what if they decide it's not feasible? Where does that leave us? You know, how can we continue to try to promote and grow our event if we don't know we've got a future? Yeah. So we're in a little bit of a hard situation. Oh, look, the other events around Australia are very successful and are doing very well. We are a small event in a different demographic, so we face different challenges to those other events. Yeah. But our team is very passionate about bringing Junior parkrun to the community, so we don't want to lose it.

00:19:28Oliver Spake: No, no, and understandably so. I mean, my hope always with anything like a feasibility study is that it helps us understand. It helps us understand what are some of the things that, as you've alluded to, with the other junior parkruns in Australia, that do make them successful, demographics and location, absolutely, and what are the unique characteristics of places like Eynesbury and what would help them succeed as well as so many others. So, yeah, my hope is that it gives a greater depth of understanding to people to be able to take a considered approach rather than, yeah, arbitrarily up or down and make a call. But, yeah, I take solace in the fact that, you know, the huge amount of support that has come from the community around your local junior parkrun or your community junior parkrun, I should say, and many of the others have made such a huge difference already. So, you know, this wouldn't be here, this wouldn't be possible without those volunteers and, you know, without the support and standing up from parkrun.

00:20:45Melissa Ellis: Ollie, you can put a junior event in the middle of a very active community and it will succeed. Do you know what I mean? Yes. Like when you're trying to get activity in an area that doesn't have that demographic, there's the challenge.

00:20:50[crosstalk]

00:21:01Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:21:02Melissa Ellis: So we're on the back foot, I guess, to start with. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what the answer is. I just know we're doing all we can.

00:21:12Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:21:13Melissa Ellis: Anyway, no, but it was good to listen to Danny and Nick Nick talking about it and understanding that over there in the U.K., They've got some very similar thoughts to what we've got over here about the awareness of Junior parkrun in the greater community.

00:21:32Oliver Spake: Well said. Well, let's watch this space.

00:21:34Melissa Ellis: Yes, together we can make change. But anyway, Ollie, we should probably move on.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:21:41Melissa Ellis: We've spoken long enough and we've got a roving report this week. Caveman Cam has popped up and he is coming to us from abroad. So let's have a listen to Caveman Cam.

00:21:45[background music]

Roving report Caveman Cam — Mensola parkrun

00:22:01Caveman Cam - roving reporter: G'day everyone, it's Caveman Cam from WA and I find myself on a wee bit of an adventure today. I'm at Mensola parkrun in Florence, in Italy. How fun is that? Oh, it is event number 114 for this parkrun that usually attracts about 20 to 30 people. But today, I think the Australian contingent doubled that. We've had a really fantastic turnout. Let's go have a chat to the Run Director, see what this parkrun's all about.

Talking to Riccardo — Run Director, Mensola parkrun (Florence, Italy)

00:22:33Caveman Cam - roving reporter: All right, everyone, I'm here with Riccardo. Hi, Riccardo. Hi. Hi. So you're the Run Director today.

00:22:37Riccardo - Run Director, Mensola parkrun (Florence, Italy): How was today's event? It's a good event. It's nice. We have a lot of people, a lot of Australians, so we are happy today to have all the people here now. Oh, that's fantastic. So can you tell me a little bit about Mensola parkrun? We started in July, two years ago, so July 2021, after the COVID. We supposed to start with COVID but it wasn't possible for this reason. We have some, for the first time you understand that Susie, that is our Event Director, was here alone and found one guy that's done to fund the North Mansell parkrun. So we are happy today that have so many people that is managed. The first time only one people, today is quite 50, so it's a huge job in these two years.

00:23:33Caveman Cam - roving reporter: Now, my most important question is, where is the coffee? Because parkrunners love coffee. Well, in Australia we do. Hopefully in Italy you do as well. Where's the coffee?

00:23:37[crosstalk]

00:23:42Riccardo - Run Director, Mensola parkrun (Florence, Italy): Yes. We have some coffees nearby, so it's about 1500m walking, you can go, just follow the road, so it's just coffee, one left and one right, you can grab coffee, cappuccino, pastries as you want, but here we are found for fruit, we are named for Fruit parkrun.

00:24:04Caveman Cam - roving reporter: Fruit parkrun, I love it. Well, thank you so much for putting on a wonderful event, Ricardo. And maybe one day I'll see you back here. Or you can come visit me in Australia. Yeah, why not? Absolutely. I'll see you around. Bye. Bye-bye. Thank you.

00:24:17Susie - founder and Event Director, Mensola parkrun (Florence, Italy): I'm impressed.

Talking to Susie — Founder and Event Director, Mensola parkrun (Florence, Italy)

00:24:17Caveman Cam - roving reporter: All right. I'm here with Susie. Now, Susie, Ricardo said you started this parkrun. Is that right? Yes, I did. Oh, so what was that like all in your lonesome?

00:24:25Susie - founder and Event Director, Mensola parkrun (Florence, Italy): It was, well, when I started it, it was pre, I started planning it in 2019. So I thought it was quite easy, but then suddenly it wasn't anymore.

00:24:34Caveman Cam - roving reporter: Then suddenly COVID, yes.

00:24:35Susie - founder and Event Director, Mensola parkrun (Florence, Italy): Yeah, but the reason we did it, we had another parkrun on the other side of Florence, but right on the other side of Florence. And I wanted to open one on this side of Florence. So I went through all the motions. It's not that difficult. It's really not that difficult. And I had a core team, which is normally the hardest part. So putting together the core team was really easy. But then we had our start date for May 2020 and that's when it all went really badly pear-shaped.

00:24:57Caveman Cam - roving reporter: Yes. But since then you've started up and you've got an absolutely stunning location.

00:25:02Susie - founder and Event Director, Mensola parkrun (Florence, Italy): I know, we're lucky. It's a new park and it was finished in 2019. It's actually not a park. It's overflow for a river that comes down there called the Mensola or for back up from the Arnos. If you look at these, they're actually water collection basins.

00:25:15Caveman Cam - roving reporter: I had a look as I was running over the bridge, yeah. Oh, does it flood?

00:25:19Susie - founder and Event Director, Mensola parkrun (Florence, Italy): It's never rained since. Oh, wow. That doesn't help. It has never rained since. One day. Okay, well, thanks for putting together a beautiful parkrun.

00:25:20[crosstalk]

00:25:27[crosstalk]

00:25:30Caveman Cam - roving reporter: I thoroughly enjoyed it. And if you ever come round to Australia, look us up. Where are you? Oh, I'm in WA, in Tamworth Wetlands parkrun. Okay. So, yeah, come along, say hi.

00:25:41Susie - founder and Event Director, Mensola parkrun (Florence, Italy): Wetlands?

00:25:42Caveman Cam - roving reporter: Yeah, we run around a swamp.

00:25:44Susie - founder and Event Director, Mensola parkrun (Florence, Italy): We need that now. Not the mosquitoes. You keep the mosquitoes. They're okay.

00:25:48Caveman Cam - roving reporter: You just got to worry about the kangaroos and the geogites.

00:25:50Susie - founder and Event Director, Mensola parkrun (Florence, Italy): Okay. All right. Thanks so much for coming.

00:25:54Caveman Cam - roving reporter: All right. Thank you so much. I'll see you. Right. I found more Australians. We bloody pop up everywhere.

Talking to Australian parkrun tourists at Mensola — Visiting parkrunners from Melbourne

00:26:00Caveman Cam - roving reporter: I'm here with... Mia.

00:26:02Unidentified speaker: Tony. Bec.

00:26:04Caveman Cam - roving reporter: Leland. All right, everyone, whose names I cannot remember. I'll have to play that back. How was parkrun today?

00:26:10Unidentified speaker: Hot and dry. Very beautiful. Yeah, it was awesome.

00:26:14Caveman Cam - roving reporter: Loved it. Beautiful.

00:26:15Unidentified speaker: I'm so bad now.

00:26:16Caveman Cam - roving reporter: Oh, come on. It was lovely. It was lovely. It's fine. Now, I've chatted to them. They reckon coffee is like 1,500 metres that way. That's not terribly good, is it? Must be an Italian thing, not having coffee right next to parkrun.

00:26:30Unidentified speaker: Nothing's like Melbourne coffee anyway.

00:26:32Caveman Cam - roving reporter: Oh, yeah, yeah, whatever. So what are we up to? Where's the next parkrun for everyone after this?

00:26:38Susie - founder and Event Director, Mensola parkrun (Florence, Italy): Back home.

00:26:39Caveman Cam - roving reporter: Back home?

00:26:39Susie - founder and Event Director, Mensola parkrun (Florence, Italy): Home.

00:26:41Caveman Cam - roving reporter: No place like home. Well, gang, it's been lovely. And maybe we'll bump into each other some other day. If you're ever in Australia and in WA, look us up at Tamworth Wetlands parkrun. And I'll catch yous around.

00:26:50[crosstalk]

00:26:52Unidentified speaker: Bye. Thanks. See ya.

Birthday messages for Ollie from Shellharbour parkrun — Oliver Spake (40th birthday)

00:26:54Caveman Cam - roving reporter: See ya.

00:26:55Bec Bailey - Run Director at Shellharbour parkrun on the day: Good morning, everyone. Back here. I'm at Shellharbour, run directing for today. It's Ollie's birthday. He's just finished his run. He's having a look at the cake. And I'm going to run around real quick and have a word to a couple people who are here to wish him a big happy birthday.

00:27:12Unidentified speaker: Happy birthday, Dad. Happy birthday. Happy birthday.

00:27:19Unidentified speaker: Happy birthday Ollie, I hope you have a great day. From your friends Brendan M plus over to Brendan.

00:27:25Unidentified speaker: Happy birthday Ollie, hope you have a wonderful day. Thank you for everything you've done for Shellharbour parkrun and parkrun itself. All the best.

00:27:34Ollie's mother: Okay, 40 years ago, Hornsby. Got to hang the washing up first. Waters are broken. Get driven up the hill to the hospital. Whole day later, let's get the anaesthetist off the golf course. 7.30pm, he was born. Cute as a button. I was told he was a girl, but I woke up hours later to find I had a boy. No name fix. Unknown spake. Happy birthday, Ollie.

00:28:07Unidentified speaker: Ollie, well done mate. 40 years old and lots of parkruns. So grateful mate for all that you do for this community and looking forward to the next 40 years. Hope you're just as ugly back then as you are now. Thanks buddy.

00:28:25Bec Bailey - Run Director at Shellharbour parkrun on the day: Happy birthday Ollie from everyone here at Shellharbour. Thanks for everything you do. Hope you enjoy the cake. Hope you had a great run and you're amazing. Thanks Ollie.

00:28:30[background music]

00:28:42Oliver Spake: And grazie, Cam. Ciao, Cam. Reporting from Mensola in beautiful Florence in Italy. And it was lovely to hear of Cam there. Chatting with Ricardo, the RD, and Susie. And also some Aussies, some Aussie tourists. [Italian: "And thank you, Cam. Goodbye/hello, Cam."]

00:29:02Melissa Ellis: Where are they hailing from, Ollie? Or should I say Luigi? Melbourne.

00:29:07Oliver Spake: Melbourne.

00:29:09Melissa Ellis: Melbourne.

00:29:10Oliver Spake: Melbourne.

00:29:11Melissa Ellis: Melbourne.

00:29:12Oliver Spake: That's right.

00:29:14Melissa Ellis: Goodness. One day you'll say it right.

00:29:17Oliver Spake: I will. I will one day, but not today.

Emails

00:29:20Oliver Spake: But moving on, Mel, we have mail. You've got mail. And we have some correspondence from Brett Bailey, and I think you may have instigated this, Mel. Sorry, not sorry. Sorry. Brett says, hi, team. Nice pod, Mel and TOC. We were a bit late listening this week, sitting in the spa on Sunday evening post-Bathurst.

00:29:45Riccardo - Run Director, Mensola parkrun (Florence, Italy): Hmm.

00:29:46Oliver Spake: Who won again? Go Kiwi. Anyway, we were disturbed to hear Mel infer we missed parkrun last week due to overindulging. Yeah. In fact, yeah, we were called in, helped marshal in a new road relay nearby, which doubled as the New Zealand Road Relay Champs. We had to meet at our assigned position at 8.30am, so sadly we were unable to attend parkrun. Brunner was highly disappointed. A great pod and love the work by our wonderful daughter, Rebecca, aka Bec, baker extraordinaire. She never baked cakes like that when she was at home.

00:30:26Melissa Ellis: They never do.

00:30:29Oliver Spake: Sadly, we won't make palm24 next year, but we are planning a visit to the West Island at Christmas with the full quadruple Bailey shot in attendance. Bec has planned a couple of New Zealand – Freudian slip there – That's not going to be edited out, is it? No. Bec has planned a couple of New South Wales parkruns for us then. We also have another visit booked for the Gold Coast early June. Love your work, Brett.

00:31:00Melissa Ellis: Oh, yay.

00:31:01Oliver Spake: So all cleared up?

00:31:02Melissa Ellis: Yes.

00:31:03Oliver Spake: Yes, no overindulging. No.

00:31:07Melissa Ellis: I was kidding.

00:31:09Oliver Spake: It was a joke. And yes, yes, the reference there. So Shane van Gisbergen with back-to-back Bathurst crown.

00:31:20Melissa Ellis: Doesn't sound like a very Kiwi name.

00:31:23Oliver Spake: Well, yeah, so he and Richie Stanaway. I was otherwise occupied, so I didn't get to see the key parts there. But, yes, a Kiwi pairing taking out the race. I believe some of the crew were in attendance, however.

00:31:39Melissa Ellis: I should say we had our very own Office Lady, Sam Schroder, and her Luke on the scene at Bathurst.

00:31:47Oliver Spake: That's right, scouting for the punish.

00:31:49Melissa Ellis: Yeah, we should have had her doing reports or something. Didn't think of that, did we? Could have got pit reports.

00:31:55Oliver Spake: Yeah.

00:31:56Melissa Ellis: Next year. Yeah.

00:31:58Oliver Spake: Or a couple of weeks' time. Yep.

00:32:00Melissa Ellis: Oh, true, true, true.

00:32:01Oliver Spake: Ah, but, Mel, that was it for our emails. And we'll keep it a bit light this week because I haven't done my homework. And it's a busy week.

Dazza's

00:32:13Oliver Spake: So we will skip Dazza's. My apologies, Dazza, and to everyone that did attend. But thank you once again, everyone, for your lovely messages and helping me enjoy vicariously, all of your parkrun adventures in Dazza's.

Consolidated Club Report

00:32:28Oliver Spake: We're going to skip on to the Consolidated Club report though, Mel, because I'd like to know how we're doing.

00:32:34Melissa Ellis: Of course you would. The adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Saturday the 7th of October 2023. Of a total of 477 members, 378 took part on this date in 12 countries across 196 locations. In the UK, there were adventurers at 27 events, three in Italy and South Africa, two in Germany and the USA, and one each in Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland and Singapore, locally we had adventurers at 40 events in New South Wales, 38 events in Victoria, 37 events in Queensland, 14 in South Australia, nine in WA, five in the ACT, the North Island and Tassie had four, the South Island had two and there was one in the Northern Territory.

00:33:32Oliver Spake: I like that little tip of the hat to New South Wales being a speedy New South Wales in honour of your speed record at New South Wales there, Mel.

00:33:40Unidentified speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:33:41Oliver Spake: And internationally, we also had four adventurers at Fountains Abbey, which included Helen and Andy Rutter, Amanda Murray-Hunt and William Bodson. And I guess it's also on me to... To mention that the Scarboroughs were also all in attendance, four adventurers there in Germany at... Yeah, where were they? Rubbenbruchsee.

00:34:12Melissa Ellis: Oh, good work, Ollie.

00:34:14Oliver Spake: I didn't look that up, so my apologies. Where's Ralph when you need him?

the Frond — Shellharbour parkrun (10 adventurers); South Toowoomba parkrun (7 adventurers)

00:34:18Melissa Ellis: Now, locally, Ollie, our largest fronds, we had 10 adventurers at Shlaba, but we also had seven at South Toowoomba. They were Roger and Barbara Luther, Catherine and Ian Greenstreet, Russell and Pauline Taylor, and Denise Orton.

00:34:35[background music]

00:34:37Oliver Spake: I just see some representation there, everyone. Some PBs. So congratulations to some adventurer PBs, achievers out there, which included Adrian Heawood, 653 1170, running a PB at Beaufort Lake, 2515. Very fast. And Kay Anthony, 302 7444, ran a PB at Lake Wallace. Also very fast, 19.09. And thirdly, Matt Hopcraft, 6'9", 1'9", double 3'2", ran a PB at Pakenham, 23.09. Lightning fast.

Adventurer milestones — Sally Gutierrez, Blake Wells and Tony Everingham (100th parkrun each)Adventurers Club

00:35:18Melissa Ellis: And we've got another new statistic for our listeners this week, Ollie, and it is adventurer milestones drawn from those in our Adventurers Club. The following people ran milestones. Sally Gutierrez, 6907248, ran her 100th milestone. Blake Wells, 2178118, ran his 100th milestone, and Tony Everingham, 688-7398, ran his 100th milestone. So a triple hundredth there, Ollie?

00:35:54Oliver Spake: That's right, triple hundred. And just as a side note, Bec, that's where he was.

00:36:01Melissa Ellis: What? What? Who were you missing, Tony or Blake?

00:36:06Oliver Spake: No, Blake. Blake is a Shellharbour regular who wasn't there when we called out his 100th milestone on Saturday. He was in Albury, I believe. So congratulations, Blake.

00:36:17Melissa Ellis: And remember, if you would like us to track these achievements, you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile. Now, I was looking up some more statistics, Ollie, earlier today, and I counted that Australia... What is statistic, Mel? Gee, I don't know. It might highlight something, you know. So, so far this year in Australia, there's been 21 new events. Now, Victoria... tops the leaderboard with seven of those 21 new events. There's been four this year in WA and also four in Queensland. South Australia has had three and there's been one each in Tasmania, ACT and New South Wales. So I don't know if this is huge growth this year, Ollie. This doesn't feel like a great number for being in October.

00:37:17Oliver Spake: It's not a large number, is it?

00:37:19Melissa Ellis: No.

00:37:21Oliver Spake: No.

00:37:21Melissa Ellis: I mean, growth is good.

00:37:23Oliver Spake: Oh, absolutely. So is sustenance. But yeah, it's not a large number. And I think we've grown accustomed. Obviously, pandemic times notwithstanding, we've grown accustomed to growth. So it'll be interesting to see where it does go from here.

00:37:44Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Well, I also did note that this year there has been three new events launched in New Zealand and four in Japan. So that's covering our part of the planet.

00:37:57Oliver Spake: Yes. My mind is ticking through all these different theories about the number relativities, but I will move on. Otherwise, I will tie myself in bundles.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:38:08Oliver Spake: We did have a launch, though, in the parkrun world, Mel. Mm-hmm. Thonock Lane Farm parkrun in Gainsborough in Lincolnshire in the UK launched at the weekend. So two laps around farm fields taking place on a working farm which In this case, it means no dogs allowed and not suitable for buggies. But congrats to the 99 participants at the event with one person running their first parkrun.

00:38:43Melissa Ellis: That's also perhaps unusual. So that one event coming in on International parkrun Birthday won for the whole world. That's interesting. Yeah. But anyway, moving on, looking forward, we heard today that the adventurers shirts, the last batch that we just offered recently, they were dispatched today, Ollie. So Adventurers who ordered those can expect delivery within a week in Australia. And if you are one of the people overseas that did place an order, hopefully within two to three weeks you should be receiving yours.

Sign-off

00:39:24Oliver Spake: Excellent, excellent. I know a few people that are looking out for those. I'm not sure what else we have to look forward to on that list, Mel. I know the punish is coming up, so we'll stay tuned. And I believe I won't be speaking to you on the pod until I see you there in real life. So I do look forward to that. But there are some parkrun days to attend to prior to that. So may I ask what you have in store this coming parkrun day?

00:39:55Melissa Ellis: Yes, I will be venturing to the Mornington Peninsula.

00:40:02Oliver Spake: Oh, that one. Yes. Yes.

00:40:06Melissa Ellis: Yes, so it is, of course, finally my eldest daughter's wedding on Friday. So I will attempt to get this podcast edited and released in time for my departure. down to the peninsula to enjoy the festivities of my daughter's wedding. It is on Friday, so I will remain overnight in location and get up and enjoy a beach parkrun at Rosebud.

00:40:33Oliver Spake: Sounds divine. What a way to enjoy it. And congratulations to your daughter.

00:40:38Melissa Ellis: Thank you.

00:40:40Oliver Spake: To you, to everyone. I hope it's a wonderful, wonderful special day.

00:40:44Melissa Ellis: I get to read a speech. Lucky I've had all this experience writing notes for the pod.

00:40:52Oliver Spake: That's right. We're all just here to help you practice for the big day this week. No pressure.

00:40:57Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and my sister's going to join me, my sister Cassie, who has... Ah, excellent. Done a few parkruns over the years and attended a few of my different milestones. She is also going to be in attendance at the wedding and has promised that she will pack her runners and her barcode and join me on... Saturday morning at Rosebud parkrun if I promise to go in the water afterwards. So, okay, looks like I'm having a dip after my run.

00:41:29Oliver Spake: That sounds like a good day, yeah.

00:41:31Melissa Ellis: But what about you, Ollie? Where will you be? Will you be back at Schlauer?

00:41:35Oliver Spake: I will be back at Schlaba. I am expecting to be volunteering in some capacity. It also happens to be someone else's birthday this weekend, so I will stay close to home and make sure that that's at least acknowledged and prepare for my next adventure, which is coming up the week after.

00:41:58Melissa Ellis: Great. All right. Well, you have a good week. Enjoy your home parkrun. But as always, everyone, you can contact us via parkrun adventurers on Facebook 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.

00:42:10[outro theme playing]

00:42:27Outro music - the Collingwood club song: Side by side they stick together to uphold the Magpie's name. See the barricades shouting as all barricades should. Oh, the premiership's a cakewalk for the good old Collingwood.