Episode 357 - Stop watch

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:24Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 357 of the parkrun adventurers podcast, a podcast about life. If your life is all about parkrun, I am Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country.

00:00:37Oliver Spake: I am Ollie Spake and I am joining once again from Dharawal Country.

00:00:41Melissa Ellis: And is it getting very festive where you are, Ollie, with the upcoming Halloween? It's not Halloween yet, it's tomorrow, but the surrounding houses in my neck of the woods are looking decidedly spooky. Yeah.

00:00:57Oliver Spake: Look, it's coming out, but my observation is it's a little sluggish compared to years gone by. I think that initial excitement of everyone being able to get out and get around the streets in the last year or two has worn off, or maybe it was just a really hot day and people haven't gotten out and spent time doing that. They were staying inside the air conditioning. But it is approaching. It is approaching, and... Yes, my children keep reassuring me that there's good reason to have sweets before Halloween. So, yes, it's becoming a frequent conversation.

00:01:37Melissa Ellis: I'm not prepared. I must go buy sweets. I am not prepared. Yeah. Those poor kids coming to my door are going to be getting pretzels at the moment if I don't get organised.

00:01:39[crosstalk]

00:01:49Oliver Spake: I do remember when I were a lad, much younger and living in a smallish town and I remember a trick-or-treater coming past which was just such a novelty, such a rarity. I was at home by myself. I think I must have been in high school and I had no sweets but I ran upstairs, found a muesli bar and handed it over and they were so appreciative because, yeah, no one was doing it. Aww. It was a yogurt-topped one, though.

00:02:22Melissa Ellis: Wow. Yeah. Yeah, we never had those in our pantry.

00:02:26Oliver Spake: Oh, no.

00:02:27Melissa Ellis: I would have been happy with that. Yeah. We tended to get super-doopers when I was a kid because we did trick-or-treat when I was a kid. Oh, right.

00:02:32[crosstalk]

00:02:35Kelly Hodges: Back then, further back than you.

00:02:39Melissa Ellis: But, yeah, we went around trick-or-treating. Mostly got icy poles from memory, which is unusual for Melbourne in October, but there you go.

00:02:48Oliver Spake: Yeah, yeah. Well, I suppose Melbourne does have its unique days, so maybe for a quarter of a day you do have a hot day. So rude. Look, I just hope you appreciate the effort with the pronunciations.

00:03:05Melissa Ellis: But, Mel.

00:03:05[crosstalk]

00:03:07Oliver Spake: Yes.

00:03:07Melissa Ellis: You're saying it so good, just like a local. I'm not even picking up.

00:03:11Oliver Spake: That's right. Again. Yeah. But you are right. Halloween has struck. I did put out a rather belated call to a Halloween parkrun. For the parkrun day, just go on because, yep, you guessed it, location Shellharbour, role Run Director and attire, black dress. I was indeed decked out for Halloween and one of the very few. But I took treats and many parkrunners partook in said treats. Just go back to the words I know. And, yes, I rolled out the same Halloween costume I've been wearing for a good eight years, I think, which is the Scream mask and black cloak, which was a little sweaty and a little slobber covered within five minutes. So it was just me in what looked like a black dress wearing

00:04:12Melissa Ellis: Oh, I thought you might have been a witch and you might have been able to utilise your new eyeliner.

00:04:16Oliver Spake: That would have worked. Well, I was thinking about the eyeliner and thinking, well, it could have been a good backup plan there. But no, never mind. There will be other opportunities, I am sure of it. But... Nonetheless, it was a nice parkrun day and it was a good opportunity to convince Ava to come and volunteer in her brand new volunteer Junior 10 outfit, which she turned into sort of a ghost outfit, and Hannah to come and volunteer and mum to parkrun. Isn't it nice when your mum dresses up when not many other people do? It felt like a supportive birthday party really. Mum gets behind me.

00:05:02Melissa Ellis: Maybe next year you need to give your community a little bit more notice, Ollie.

00:05:06Oliver Spake: A bit more, yeah. Well, I have taken on board that particular experience and I have put out the confirmation that I will be run directing on New Year's Day morning just to give people a bit more advance notice as well as advertising some of our pre-Christmas dress-ups and I hope Ugly Christmas Singlet or Shirt Day.

00:05:26Melissa Ellis: Oh, yes. Yeah. Fast approaching. It is. As is Christmas. Lordy, lordy.

00:05:29[crosstalk]

00:05:33Oliver Spake: Yeah. But you know what, Mel? I'm completely failing us because you said the word fast and it has just occurred to me we do need to be fast today. We're on a bit of a time limit.

00:05:44Melissa Ellis: Yeah. We're on the clock. We've got 33 minutes left to go.

00:05:48Oliver Spake: Yes. Yes. So, look, I'm sure that's enough from me. How was your parkrun day experience, Mel?

00:05:56Melissa Ellis: Oh, well, this week I travelled to Sydney to get good at GreenWay parkrun on the lands of the Dharug people. This decision involved some strategy as I was also in town to visit some dirty cheaters who were taking part in the Bondi to Manly Ultra as a relay team. The Cheetah team consisted of friend of the pod, Paul Rainbow, occasional Polish pronunciation support person, Dorota Asino, super speedy Damon Lynch, and our new regular co-host, Simon Mackley. Hashtag, what was the elevation gain? The Bondi to Manly event was a Saturday event, so we were up super early to head to Bondi to see off Paul on leg one, after which I parted with the support crew and ubered my way to Haberfield. There were a few pleasant surprises at GreenWay and the first was that when I arrived, I recognised where I was. Feeling confused, I searched Strava to discover I'd visited the course in 2022 for a freedom walk. The second surprise was the mini-frond comprising of Sue Smith, Chris Horowitz, Catherine O'Connor, Lee Cabarita, that's her poor name, and Bianca Tautz. Thirdly was the unexpected bagpiper before the briefing. It turned out I wasn't the only tourist deciding GreenWay was a good choice and there were a large group of GPs visiting also. I did grab an interview with the piper, so I'll leave the explanation for him. The atmosphere, however, was buzzing and I very much enjoyed a run chat with Lee and a Zoomie photo on the course, which, contrary to my mistaken interpretation of Ollie's comment last week, is a very flat double out and back run on footpath adjacent to the Hawthorne Canal. But why is it called GreenWay, Mel? I'm glad you asked, Ollie. The event takes its name from the environmental and active travel corridor that links the Cooks River at Earlwood with the Parramatta River at Iron Cove, which is branded GreenWay, all one word, with a capital G and a capital W. It was event number 239 and there were 318 participants with a very friendly event team of 16 guided by RD Zoe. I do need to apologise to Sue Smith as I had forgotten that I'd met her previously when I visited North Sydney and I'm usually pretty good with faces so I'm really sorry about that, Sue. After the event, I jumped onto the light rail to make my way to Milsons Point to rejoin the Cheetah Cheer Squad for the remainder of the day, which may or may not have involved post-event margaritas. Derota. Hmm. Hmm. But, Ollie, it's probably a good time to listen to my interview with Nathan, so let's have a little listen to that now.

00:09:05[background music]

00:09:15[the recording continues here — the words are not reproduced]

Interview Nathan — General practitioner from Mareeba, Far North Queensland, and bagpiper; in Sydney for…

00:09:21Melissa Ellis: Okay, I'm at the finish line of GreenWay parkrun and I've found a bagpiper. So I'd like to introduce you to Nathan. Good morning, Nathan.

00:09:30Nathan: Good morning.

00:09:31Melissa Ellis: Now, Nathan, what brings you to be at GreenWay parkrun this morning playing bagpipes?

00:09:35Nathan: Yeah, so, well, I'm actually in Sydney for the WONCA Conference, which is the World Organisation of Family Physicians, also known as General Practitioners. And so there's a group of us that are passionate about parkrun and even prescribe parkrun to our patients at times. And so we felt like it would be a good thing for us to show a bit of solidarity as GPs, for our support for parkrun and so a bunch of us have turned up at parkrun this morning and I thought I'd bring my bagpipes since I played them last night at our gala dinner.

00:10:10Melissa Ellis: fabulous how long have you been playing bagpipes for?

00:10:12Nathan: Yeah so I've been playing bagpipes for 30 years now and so that kind of got started because my family went for a holiday to Scotland when I was 12 years old and my dad had a love for bagpipes and so he bought a set of bagpipes to kind of maybe hang up on the wall when we got home and we got back to Cairns and discovered that there was a pipe band in town and so I went along and I've been learning ever since learning well I started learning 30 years ago there's been pauses in there but I still enjoy playing bagpipes sounded pretty good I hear a lot of bagpiping with the military so I think you did very well thank you

00:10:56Melissa Ellis: So, okay, so the GP's here today. How did you pick GreenWay? Is it the closest to the conference?

00:11:01Nathan: It's not actually the closest, but it was the most easy for most of us to get here because the other parkrun don't think it has public transport to it. So you'd either have to Uber or something, whereas here we could just catch the light rail from just outside the exhibition centre and find ourselves here within a short period of time. So that's the reason that we picked GreenWay.

00:11:23Melissa Ellis: That's a good tip for adventurers, being that we're an adventurers podcast. So please tell us a bit more about your parkrun history. So what makes you so passionate about it for GPs?

00:11:25[crosstalk]

00:11:34Nathan: Yeah, so I'll start with the last half of that first. Why are we so passionate about parkrun as GPs? I mean, I guess maybe people think that our job is to prescribe people medications. But I would like to think that our role is to try and keep people off medications or not prescribe them unless they're needed. I only prescribe medications if I think they're needed and so we do know that exercise and eating healthy are probably the two best things that you can do for your health and prevention is always better than cure, aim in life is to do myself out of a job I do not I do not want to be doing general practice till the day that I die and if I can get my patients healthier through parkrun which doesn't cost anything and happens every morning every Saturday morning across the globe then then I'll do that so so that kind of answers the question of why we're passionate about parkrun How long I've been doing parkrun, I have to actually think about this, probably six years, five or six years it's been running in Cairns, and I work in Mareeba, which is nearly an hour's drive away. They have been running a parkrun in Atherton, and I can't remember how long. Actually, it must be longer than that. I'd have to actually look at it. Okay. So they do have a parkrun in Atherton, which is 45 minutes from where I am, so... it's only an hour and a half drive it only means two and a half hours away from my family on a Saturday morning uh which actually consequently means I don't actually get there as often as I would like uh so but I am actually looking to start a parkrun in Mareeba which is 45 minutes west of Cairns so keep an ear out you might hear about parkrun Mareeba sometime next year

00:13:33Melissa Ellis: And get in touch with Nath if you want to help him set up a parkrun in Mareeba. So we've got a lot of listeners in Queensland, so that could, yeah, passionate parkrunners. Now, so when you were away on conference, you obviously look for parkruns as well?

00:13:36[crosstalk]

00:13:47Nathan: Yes. All holidays? Yeah, we went to a parkrun in Melbourne last year, and I wore a Santa suit.

00:13:54Melissa Ellis: Did you go to Albert?

00:13:54[crosstalk]

00:13:55Nathan: I think it was Albert. That's the one that's kind of like... Yeah, everybody goes there. Yeah, it's a nice... I actually did a... It was my fastest run for the year.

00:14:03Melissa Ellis: One loop around the lake.

00:14:04Nathan: In a Santa seat.

00:14:05Melissa Ellis: Yeah, nice work.

00:14:06Nathan: Yeah, so... Maybe the secret's the Santa seat.

00:14:10Melissa Ellis: And, of course, as a GP, you'd be very familiar with how well parkrunning is for mental health.

00:14:16Nathan: Yes, yes. I'm extremely, extremely passionate about mental health. I try not to get choked up about this, um my mentor sorry my mentor's name is Dr Mark Bestman, right, and in Mareeba he is a very famous GP yep and um Yes, he'd been in the town, I don't know, 30 years or something. His kids grew up there. His wife was one of the help with the practice managing. He taught students and registrars and obviously taught me to become a general practitioner. But he did have a long battle with mental health. But because of that, he was the guru of mental health. And I actually remember when I first met Mark, he said, life is like a bar stool. So a bar stool, if it's only got one leg on it, isn't very good at standing up. So you need to build as many legs as you can on that bar stool. And if your leg is your work and something goes on with your work, then, you know, then that's an issue. If you're, you know, I don't know, whatever your other legs might be, but the more legs you've got on, you know, I'm a runner. I can run or I'm a walker. I can walk. Or whatever it is that makes you go, all right, I can keep going because I can do this. The more of those you've got on that bar stool, the better it will stand up. So that was my first memory of Mark. And Mark also had a smile that would light up a room, but he did suffer from periods of depression. And in one of those periods of depression, he sadly chose that he couldn't go on anymore. So Vale Mark Bessman and so consequently I am quite passionate about mental health given that he was my mentor and I've taken over really in his position at Mareeba Medical Clinic and we've actually started well not myself there's a board that runs Mareeba Medical Clinic, a not-for-profit organisation, and one of their passions, or one of their arms of the Mareeba and Family Communities healthcare organisation is the black cockatoo So you've probably heard of the Black Dog Institute. So the black cockatoo is actually quite common in Mareeba and it's actually our emblem that goes along with Mareeba Medical Clinic. And so we thought it would be fitting In honour of Mark Bessman and of the emblem of Mareeba Medical Clinic and, you know, I guess a well-known bird in the area is to call it the Black Cockatoo Foundation. So the aim of that is to raise funds and then the funds are used to train people in the community. to help out with mental health issues. And, yeah, if you want to donate to the Black Cockatoo Foundation...

00:17:42[crosstalk]

00:17:43Unidentified speaker: Yes, give a shout-out, for sure.

00:17:44Nathan: You're welcome.

00:17:45Unidentified speaker: Of course.

00:17:46Nathan: I don't actually know how to do it, but we're always open to people donating to the Black Cockatoo Foundation.

00:17:52[crosstalk]

00:17:52Melissa Ellis: I'm sure it's something you could Google.

00:17:54Nathan: Yeah, you could Google it. Maybe we could put a link to it in the podcast. Yeah, we can do that. Yeah, for sure. That'd be good. And so... Yeah, so money's raised helps to grow resilience in our community so that if someone in the community that's the guru of mental health passes away, all the people that are cared for by that guru of mental health aren't left with nothing.

00:17:58[crosstalk]

00:18:20Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

00:18:21Nathan: And so, you know, and so I guess, you know, my next step as part of this, and it is the Black Cockatoo Foundation, you know, to be honest, I thought, do I want to start a parkrun? And I was like, no, I cannot start a parkrun on my own. And so a couple of the members of the board were like, no, we need to do this. And so...

00:18:41Melissa Ellis: Well, it's going to give back to the community, isn't it? It will. It will be a figurehead, a central point of support for the community.

00:18:41[crosstalk]

00:18:50Nathan: And so running is, for mental health, running is one and a half times more beneficial than antidepressants for the treatment of depression.

00:19:00Melissa Ellis: So... And it's a negative risk factor for dementia. I know that.

00:19:06Nathan: Yes, true. And so many other things. So many benefits.

00:19:09[crosstalk]

00:19:09Melissa Ellis: As is volunteering. Not just the actual physical.

00:19:11Nathan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. How long is your podcast?

00:19:12Melissa Ellis: No, no. It's all right. I'm in charge.

00:19:14Nathan: Apologies for the long podcast. If your listeners there, you're like expecting a short podcast.

00:19:20Melissa Ellis: They know that Mel's in charge of the editing. That's okay. I hope you like Collingwood. Never mind. That's another story. True. But, no, thank you, Nathan. It was really nice to speak to you. Thank you for coming along with your bagpipes to GreenWay. It was a lovely touch, and I hope the conference goes really well.

00:19:28[crosstalk]

00:19:35Nathan: Can I just tell you one more thing quickly? Just a funny story. So, I don't know if any of your listeners have heard of Mount Bartle Frere, but it's the highest... mountain in Queensland uh at 1622 metres not a really tall mountain but it's a big mountain nonetheless I once took my bagpipes to the top of that mountain and I was playing them and and a scotsman popped up and he said oh thank goodness I thought I was hallucinating so do some exercise it's good for your mental health all right thanks so much it was lovely to meet you all the best thank you

00:20:10[background music]

00:20:13Unidentified speaker: Thank you for watching!

00:20:19Melissa Ellis: And that was great meeting Nathan out there at GreenWay, Ollie. I can confirm that GreenWay is very accessible by the light rail. It is literally around the corner, even closer than what it seemed when I looked at the map because I did catch it back to the city afterwards. Now, also on Nathan's reference to the Black Cockatoo Foundation, we've had a really good look. I got the Office Lady to double check as well. We aren't able to find... a link to any website for the Black Cockatoo Foundation. So we might have to say if anybody from those GPs is listening to the podcast and you have any further information, please get in touch with us and we'll make sure we add it.

00:21:02Kelly Hodges: Yeah.

00:21:03Melissa Ellis: But, Ollie, it was my first experience with Nippers. I'm being from down south. I've never had any involvement or I had much understanding of what Nippers was and I really enjoyed seeing the kids running around. I thought maybe you could enlighten us more and for the listeners because I'm guessing it's a very Australian thing.

00:21:26Oliver Spake: I mean, that's a good thing to ponder. I'm not sure if it is uniquely Australian. It certainly is characteristic of many Australian coastline areas, us having so many beaches that there are ever so many surf clubs. And, yeah, I think they're just fantastic in having the Nippers programs. I mean, I've got to come at this with the caveat that, none of my children nor myself have done nippers. Um, so I'm a complete fraud in this respect, but, um, I've had a lot of extended family and friends that have been a part of it. And, and of course, you know, I'm sure there are several friends of the pod who, uh, uh, are very closely affiliated with nippers, um, with, you know, many of the different activities that, uh, our parkrun adventurer family undertake. But, um, Yes, for any of our less familiar listeners, Nippers, as the name might suggest, it's for the kids. So children, I think generally from five-ish to the early teens, and it's a program often on a Sunday morning where – The kids gather in their groups and go through a range of activities and lessons, which takes them on a pathway to be more confident and comfortable to enjoy the beach in a safe environment. And that's particularly important with so many of our beaches being surf beaches, not quite like in the bay down there in Melbourne.

00:23:00Melissa Ellis: Yeah, so I was on a steep learning curve.

00:23:03Oliver Spake: Yeah, it's a fantastic spirit. I know I've always loved coming back from a Sunday run or running past during a Sunday run and, yeah, and seeing the many, many swarms of kids with their swimming caps and their sunproof shirts and whatnot out there. So, yeah, I should really get the kids involved, shouldn't I? No, look, and Mel, yeah, thank you very much for bringing us the GreenWay experience and, of course, a lot more from Nathan.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:23:37Oliver Spake: But in the spirit of keeping things fast, I think it's time to move on to another location that actually I believe has a very strong Nippers presence and a surf club, that being Kawana, for a bit of a special event which Lyndell the Legendary will bring us.

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Kawana parkrun

00:24:03Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it is Lyndell and today I have ventured north from Brisbane up to the traditional lands of the Kabi Kabi people and I am at Kawana parkrun, which is one of the first parkruns around. I don't know, I don't know. You know me, I haven't done my research so, but I'm going to say... You know, it's been around for 11 years. It's their birthday. I've come for cake. I've succeeded at that, had my cake. And now I am talking to Kelly and Graham, who are OG Kawana parkrunners. How are you guys today?

00:24:36[crosstalk]

00:24:36Graham: Well, thank you. Very well. Very well.

Talking to Graham — Original ('OG') Kawana parkrunner - first finisher, first to 50 and first to 100 there,…

00:24:39Lyndell Murray: All right. Now, Graham, I'm going to start with you because at the run briefing this morning, you were acknowledged as being one of the OG runners here at Kawana. What was that like?

00:24:49Graham: Oh, well... I'm quite used to being first here, first to do 100, first to do 50 runs with a friend of mine, Pat, who was here on the second day. So I've been up front many times. So you're a bit of a local here, a bit of a fixture? I would say so. I've done most of my runs here as well.

00:25:09[crosstalk]

00:25:13Lyndell Murray: Excellent. So we would call you a passionista. So Ollie, a man after your heart here being very passionate about his home parkrun at Kawana. So tell me about Kawana parkrun. What makes it special?

00:25:27Graham: Well, the people. I didn't have, I wasn't here long in Queensland when I come here and I didn't know anyone at all. I didn't know any of the first people at all. And so now I've got a whole lot of friends. All your parkrun friends, they're the best kind. They are the best kind. They really are. So, yes, I've got a little running group now and all the parkrunners have joined different groups. How wonderful. We run together on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays. Every day's a ronde. All sorts of things, yeah.

00:26:07[crosstalk]

00:26:10Lyndell Murray: Fantastic, fantastic. So Kawana parkrun, you have run here a lot. You've done all your milestones. What are we up to? What run is it for you today, Graham?

00:26:21Graham: I'm up to 486.

00:26:27Lyndell Murray: So not far off that blue shirt milestone. We're aiming for that.

00:26:29[crosstalk]

00:26:33Graham: I've got to keep standing for that. Yeah.

00:26:37Lyndell Murray: Will there be cake again at Kawana for your 500th run?

00:26:39Graham: I hope so.

00:26:43Lyndell Murray: Yes, yes, yes. That's brilliant. And this is a lovely spot here, isn't it?

00:26:47Graham: And it's the best parkrun around that I know of.

00:26:50Lyndell Murray: Yep, yep, yep. Look, I always say that Kawana has probably the best view in parkrun.

00:26:57Graham: When you run up the top of the lighthouse there, it certainly is. Yep. Yes. Absolutely beautiful. You can have a little stop and look at the whales too, if you wanted.

00:26:59[crosstalk]

00:27:05Lyndell Murray: I didn't spot any today, but it is always a beautiful view that I always take a moment and just take a picture.

00:27:10[crosstalk]

00:27:10Graham: You've got to slow up up there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:27:13Lyndell Murray: Yeah.

Talking to Kelly Hodges — Co-founder of Kawana parkrun

00:27:13Lyndell Murray: All right. Now, Kelly, you were involved right from the beginning here at Kawana parkrun. Yes, I was. And what was that like starting up Kawana? Why did you pick this location? How did it all come about?

00:27:25Kelly Hodges: Oh, well, when we first started, we looked at a few different spots. And so we actually looked at Moffat Beach. But over there, you've got road crossings. And so when we came to Kawana, the whole way along, there's no road crossings. And it's so, so beautiful. So... Once we found it, we couldn't go back. And so, yeah.

00:27:46Lyndell Murray: Yep, yep, yep. And this parkway is a bit different because you actually walk from the meeting place for 500 metres to the start. And there's a story with it. No, there's a story behind that. Please tell me the story. What's the story?

00:27:58[crosstalk]

00:28:04Kelly Hodges: Well, you said at the start you hadn't done your research and I guess I hadn't done mine either. And so I sent everyone off on their first run on the first day and yeah, everyone came back having timed it on their phones and their smartwatches and whatever. And the run was actually five and a half kilometres. And so everyone... That's because of that hill up to the lighthouse it fell on more. And so after that we had to get one of the runners who had a little rolly, what are those rolly things called? The measuring wheels, yeah. And we had to actually properly measure the course and then the second week when everyone came back it was bang on five kilometres. And so that's why everyone does the 500 metre walk now. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

00:28:54Lyndell Murray: Because shortening it and not getting to that loop around the lighthouse would just be a tragedy.

00:28:58Kelly Hodges: Oh, yeah.

00:28:59Lyndell Murray: Absolute crime. You can't do that. No, no, no. It's perfect. Yeah. And I love it. I think it's brilliant. I am quite happy to walk 500 to start to get that view.

00:29:00[crosstalk]

00:29:09Kelly Hodges: And then you get to have a chat to friends. Some people use it as a warm-up. It's lovely. Yeah. Perfect.

00:29:13[crosstalk]

00:29:16Lyndell Murray: All right. Well, is there anything else that you would like the listeners of the parkrun adventurers podcast to know about Kawana parkrun?

00:29:25Graham: Well, we were the first on the coast, weren't we?

00:29:27Kelly Hodges: We were the first on the coast. I'm trying to remember what we were in Australia because we were in the early days.

00:29:33[crosstalk]

00:29:33Graham: This is what I'm thinking, but I don't know. I didn't do my research. Well, we're certainly the first on the coast.

00:29:40Kelly Hodges: Yes, I want to say in Australia we're number 13 or so. We're very early.

00:29:46[crosstalk]

00:29:47Lyndell Murray: I would have thought it would have been probably one of the top 20 or certainly first 50.

00:29:53Kelly Hodges: Yes, yes. But, yeah, in regards to Kawana parkrun, like Graeme said, I think that the people here are the best. They're just amazing people. We're very biased, but it's such a beautiful group of people. You look at everyone hanging back for a chat. Yeah.

00:30:04[crosstalk]

00:30:09Graham: They've all finished their run so long ago. Yes.

00:30:12Lyndell Murray: Well, I was told that I didn't have to rush to meet you to find you at the end. That's right. Because you'd be here for a chat. You'll be here.

00:30:17[crosstalk]

00:30:19Graham: I'll be here till the end.

00:30:22Kelly Hodges: And there's a Kawana parkrun wedding coming up in two weeks' time where they met at Kawana parkrun and now they're getting married. Yes. So, yeah, Kawana parkrun has got it all.

00:30:28[crosstalk]

00:30:34Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:30:35Lyndell Murray: That is brilliant. All right, well, I'll wrap it up there. Thank you so much for talking to me and thank you both for everything that you've done for parkrun and for Kawana parkrun here on the Sunshine Coast.

00:30:44Graham: Yeah, thanks for joining. Thank you. Thank you.

Talking to Ian and Rebecca — Event Director, Kawana parkrun; Run Director on the day, Kawana parkrun

00:30:50Lyndell Murray: Alrighty, now I have tracked down Ian, the Event Director here at Kawana, and Rebecca, today's Run Director. How was your day today?

00:30:59Rebecca: It was wonderful. Windy, a little bit wet, but beautiful always.

00:31:04Ian: It's always good here.

00:31:05Rebecca: Good until you rip your shirt.

00:31:07Lyndell Murray: No, no, no, it's not rain. It's just bird poo. Oh, no, it's meant to be good luck, bird poo.

00:31:12Ian: Yeah, only if it lands on your head.

00:31:14Lyndell Murray: Oh, all right. I did not know that. Okay, anyway, we digress. Moving swiftly on. Today at Kawana, 11 years in the making. Rebecca, in your briefing, you had some well-prepared stats. Yes. How many parkrunners? How many kilometres?

00:31:33Rebecca: Over to you. All right. So since we started the Kawana parkrun in 2012, the finish line here has been crossed 82,583 times by 15,233 people. And of that, there have been 11,120 PBs. It's pretty impressive.

00:31:56Lyndell Murray: Yeah, it is. It's great. It's great. And Kawana is a beautiful course and it's been going for 11 years. What about you, Rebecca? How did you get involved in parkrun?

00:32:05Rebecca: I first got involved in parkrun when... I lived in Brisbane. I used to start going to the Sandgate parkrun and then the Chermside parkrun started up. And then after a little while, we moved up here and my husband used to surf up here and we saw lots of people running and I said, is this a parkrun? And so I was like, yes. I'm home again. Yeah, and we just came, and it's such a beautiful community.

00:32:37Lyndell Murray: Everyone's so encouraging and supportive, and, yeah, I very, very much love this group of people. It's wonderful. Look, I've heard from Graham and Kelly about how awesome the community here is, and that's in part due partly to you and Ian.

00:32:51Rebecca: You've done a great job. It's a bit of organised chaos here at Kawana. Oh, sorry. It was Joss's 250th run today, so there's a bit of a celebration for him going on as well. Fantastic.

00:33:05Ian: We get lots of photos. Everybody likes photos. It's more important than results.

00:33:09Lyndell Murray: Yes, indeed.

00:33:11Ian: Well, yes. Yes, it is. I do. I get emails saying, where are the photos today? Sooner than I get emails saying, where are the results?

00:33:19Lyndell Murray: Yeah, how funny, how terrific. All right, now this podcast is for parkrun adventurers, people who like to go to different parkruns. What would you like them to know about Kawana parkrun?

00:33:31Ian: It's the best, simply, simply.

00:33:33Rebecca: It's beautiful. The whole course is along the beach. We go up around the water tower. You can see views over Mooloolaba and back down to the beautiful Kawana Surf Club where it really is a really special, beautiful...

00:33:50Ian: The views are stunning and there's often whales out there and if you don't want to get a PB you can stop and take plenty of photos of the marine wildlife it's just phenomenal and then five weeks out of the year we actually run on the beach as well so if the week before Christmas and the four weeks after every year we'll run the first slum to actually on the beach so a lot of the locals disappear because they don't like running on the beach but a lot of tourists come in because they do want to run on the beach for a change

00:34:19Lyndell Murray: indeed I have done that course before it's tough but it is pretty nice yeah it's nice to get your feet wet a bit of sand between your toes yeah indeed now Ian you're a bit of an adventurer I understand I'm gonna put you on the spot here and ask you whether you can name a top three parkruns not including your home here at Kawana because we've already talked about how amazing it is um

00:34:44Ian: That's a difficult one because I've done quite a few. I've done quite a few in the UK as well when I go back there on holidays. I always try to do a different one. Over here, I'm partial to Nambour because it's so tough. I love it. And there's a friendly emu, of course, which most people get a chance to see, coffee uh that's probably my second most favourite one in this area overseas uh that there's there's heaps I've done Bushy Park and that that's really nice but I wouldn't say it's one of my favourites and it's difficult to pick a favourite simply because I usually do them once and and don't go back to them but um you're dodging me here and come on Yeah, you know, it's going to be hard to pin me down because there's quite a few that are really nice. Have you got any here? I'm going to stick to the local ones. I like Maleny up on the hill there. That's pretty good. And Golden Beach is good too because it's very similar to this one. Not quite as hilly, but it's very similar to this one. So they're probably my favourite ones in the area. I'm going to suggest those because I've done all those several times.

00:35:50Lyndell Murray: This is all good. Look, the Sunshine Coast is a wonderful place for parkrun. There's plenty of beauties up here. Nambour is one of my favourites and I actually really like it here too at Kawana. So, all right, is there anything else that you would like the parkrun adventurers to know about Kawana parkrun? I think we've already covered this. Did we cover this already?

00:36:08Rebecca: I think just come and visit, come and try us out. It really is beautiful, it's special. It's a wonderful community. Yeah, give it a go because it's...

00:36:21Ian: This one's special. I mean, look, it's half past eight now. Look how many people are still here drinking coffee and chatting. It's nice. It's handy here because we've got a coffee van that can just pull up right next to the finish line, which you miss at other parkruns when the coffee facility is closed.

00:36:40Lyndell Murray: a distance away here we're lucky and this is why everyone's here till nine ten o'clock sometimes just chatting and drinking coffee it's just a beautiful Saturday morning just a great way to spend your Saturday mornings and a great team of people too oh there goes my dog okay thank you so much for talking to me thank you for everything that you've done for this community here and for parkrun and um that's me out checking out now for the channel 5 news crew on the parkrun adventures

00:37:16Melissa Ellis: And thank you to Lyndell the Legendary, bringing us all the news at Kawana's 11th birthday, one of our more favourite parkrun events with its connection to our former host Mel Erbacher, Ollie.

00:37:31Oliver Spake: That's right. It's a very special parkrun spot, that one. Let's say one of the best, for sure. And whilst...

Dazza's

00:37:39Oliver Spake: In the interest of time, we won't be ducking into Dazza's this week. What I will mention is Lyndell did share a wonderful picture of her own Count von Count socks in Dazza's. So if you haven't seen them, please check them out. And also I guess the brief mention on the Dazza's front is well done to the Halloween dress-ups out there. You put me to shame.

00:38:05Melissa Ellis: How was the Count von Count relevant to the Kawana anniversary?

00:38:11Oliver Spake: Ah, because their socks, that's the dress-up socks, the Legs 11 theme.

00:38:18Melissa Ellis: Aha, clever.

00:38:21Oliver Spake: Yeah, so they are some pretty wicked-looking socks, I must say.

00:38:25Melissa Ellis: So Kawana becoming... What is it, the independence birthday?

00:38:31Oliver Spake: That's right. Yes, yes. Free to run by itself now or walk if it wishes. Yeah. But, Mel, interest of time. I know I keep saying it.

Consolidated Club Report

00:38:43Oliver Spake: So we have a bit of a numbers update in the Consolidated Club report.

00:38:48Melissa Ellis: The adventurers Consolidated Club report for Saturday, the 28th of October, 2023, of a total of 491 members, 382 took part on this date in seven countries across 188 locations. In the UK, there were adventurers at 25 events. There were three events in the USA, two in South Africa, and one each in Denmark and Ireland. Locally, we had adventurers at 42 events in New South Wales, 38 events in Queensland, Kingsland, 34 events in Victoria, 12 in WA, 11 in SA. ACT and Tassie had six, five on the North Island and two on the South Island. Wow. We have some adventurer PBs.

00:39:38Oliver Spake: We do.

00:39:39Melissa Ellis: Go ahead.

00:39:40Oliver Spake: Oh, yeah, thank you. I was hoping you'd let me read some of these out. Thank you. Congratulations to Natalie Wilson. Barcode number 2937613. Ran a PB at Rooty Hill in 24 minutes and 38 seconds. And we had Louise Murphy, A4558187. Ran a PB at Warren County Armco, 2417. Would you like third now?

00:40:09Melissa Ellis: And Gemma Kiaski, a 682163, ran a PB at Harmony Boulevard at 32 minutes 40. So well done to all those people for doing their very best.

00:40:22Oliver Spake: Yes, very much so. And, of course, if you'd like us to track these events, you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile. If you need any help, please get in touch and you'll help us reach a very, very round magical number very shortly. Yes. Who could it be?

00:40:40Melissa Ellis: I think it's going to happen in the next week or two that we're going to hit our blue shirt of adventurers.

00:40:47Oliver Spake: Yes, yeah, very fitting given the adventurous shirt is blue. Oh, true. Yeah, we would have dreamt that up. So, yeah.

00:40:55Unidentified speaker: Mm-hmm.

00:40:55Oliver Spake: Very exciting. So stay tuned.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:40:58Oliver Spake: Other exciting news, Mel, we have a couple of launches, and one of them was in Australia. So Goulburn River Trail parkrun in Seymour, Victoria, launched. And if I may, the course description has it as a flat out-and-back course running on a mix of gravel trail and boardwalk alongside the Goulburn River. And they had 92 participants participating. for their first event with 18 of whom doing their very first parkrun.

00:41:27Melissa Ellis: I'm glad you didn't read my typo, Ollie, and say it was a balk walk.

00:41:35Oliver Spake: Couldn't help myself there.

00:41:39Melissa Ellis: Now, we also had another launch in the UK and it was in Wales called Riverside Walk. This event starts and finishes under the Hay River Bridge and it follows a hardcore footpath, not any old footpath, but a hardcore one for one kilometre, which is the old Hay to Brecon railway line. Then it does two clockwise laps around the Warren, which is a grassy river meadow beside the River Wye, returning to the start on the railway line footpath. Now, this event is not suitable for double buggies due to narrow sections, of course, and the recommendation is to contact the team for more advice. They had 28 participants for event number one and five completing their first ever parkrun, including... the first finisher. My voice has gone all croaky all of a sudden. What's going on? I keep trying to clear it. Oh, well.

00:42:36Oliver Spake: No. And welcome to the parkrun family, Goulburn River Trail and Riverside Walk. Some good ones.

00:42:45Graham: And I suppose that flicks our focus to what's coming up, Mel.

00:42:53Oliver Spake: And like, in case you didn't notice, our distinct lack of news, we don't have a lot on our radar today.

International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day

00:43:01Oliver Spake: I know that we are counting down to the special days like International Ugly Christmas Singlet or Shirt Day on the 16th of December and very much excited about receiving some uglies once they are distributed in the coming weeks, Mel.

00:43:16Melissa Ellis: Shouldn't be too much longer. They must be coming soon. I'm very excited. I've bought budgie earrings, Ollie. Yes.

00:43:25Oliver Spake: Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah.

00:43:27Melissa Ellis: One of our listeners, I think, shared a A post of a local earring distributor that had budgie earrings. So Martine and I paired up to get ourselves one green and one blue budgie so we could have matchy-matchy with our Venturer's Ugly Christmas Singlet budgie tops.

00:43:49Oliver Spake: I love it. Love it. Well, yeah, looking forward to the 16th of December and I hope other dates as well, other parkrun days out there where you can budgie it up.

00:44:00Melissa Ellis: And I've also seen a Santa run. I'm sure there's going to be a variety club in Victoria. I'm not sure if it's everywhere around the country, but there's going to be another Santa run. I was eyeing that off. You join that event and you get a free shirt.

Sign-off

00:44:16Oliver Spake: Well, yes, we have an inaugural Santa run on the 17th of December, just down the road from a certain parkrun close to me. So I'm looking forward to that one. Very much so. But yeah, look, aside from that, Mel, there are more weeks and more parkruns to look forward to. And what's on your agenda?

00:44:40Melissa Ellis: Well, I'm going to stay in my home state, give it a bit of love this week, I think, Ollie. If nothing else, just to catch up on some housework at home, really, really boring, but there's certain chores that just don't get done otherwise. So I'm going to stay local and I'm going to go and check out this new launch at Goulburn River Trail. Excellent. Well, I'm not going to the launch. I'm going to week two.

00:45:03Oliver Spake: You are, yes, yes, that's right. No, well, I look forward to hearing about that one and I will look forward, as always, to living vicariously through yourself and the other adventurers because I will be at home next parkrun day. I've forgotten what I'm doing. I think I'm run directing. Yeah, and then I'm not even parkrunning the week after, so I don't know if they'll even let me back in the office.

00:45:31Melissa Ellis: We might have to lock the doors, take away your swipe pass, change the code. Goodness me. I wonder how the informants are doing. Maybe they need to come back.

00:45:40Oliver Spake: Maybe I'll see them out at sea. A little pop-up parkrun and see if they show up on their deck chairs. They might be on a cruise. Yeah, that's right. But, yes, it has been nice. It's been rare for me to have two episodes in a row. So thank you again for having me, Mel. Thank you.

00:45:44[crosstalk]

00:45:57Melissa Ellis: Thanks for coming back on our five-week month of October.

00:46:01Oliver Spake: That's right. That's right. We'll see if the listeners have worked out the rhythm and who will be on next week. But, yeah, I think that's the episode. That's the clock. So, as always, everyone, you can contact us via parkrun adventurers on Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. As I said, that's it for another week, and we'll see you all next week for more adventures.

00:46:37Unidentified speaker: Self-destruct sequence activated.