Episode 360 - gggrrriverside

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:26Simon Mackley: 360 of the parkrun adventurers podcast, a podcast about life if your life is all about parkrun. I'm Simon Mackley and I'm joining you from Quandamooka Country.

00:00:37Melissa Ellis: And I'm Melissa Ellis and I'm joining from Wurundjeri Country. Hi Simon, good to catch you again. It's been a couple of weeks since I saw you at Bondi to Manly.

00:00:48Simon Mackley: Indeed, we had a great weekend, oh yeah, great weekend that weekend.

00:00:52Melissa Ellis: A cheetah weekend.

00:00:54Simon Mackley: Have you all recovered? My legs are feeling a lot better now than they did after that, yes.

00:01:00Melissa Ellis: But, yeah, I'm feeling much better. And I trust you were safely back up in Queensland, not still down in New South Wales?

00:01:13Simon Mackley: Not still down in New South Wales. I got home safely. I didn't get on the flight that I was expected to get on, but I did end up getting home. So that's all right. The joys.

00:01:24Melissa Ellis: Oh, I did wonder about that. Yes.

00:01:27Simon Mackley: I wasn't at the airport when you got there.

00:01:29Melissa Ellis: No, I know. And I didn't get to see you after Nippers because you'd already, and I just apparently missed you by five minutes.

00:01:36Simon Mackley: I know. Mr. Rainbow picked me up and yeah, it was very close apparently.

00:01:44Melissa Ellis: Never mind about that. But, Simon, we have to correct a little error I made last week. Oh, I was just a bit vague in my (not)parkrun stats affirmations, would you say?

00:01:57Simon Mackley: Sure, let's call it that. So, yeah, I know that you said that, yeah, you said something around that it was the largest not parkrun amount ever. Yeah. In my defence, I was a bit vague. Yes, you were vague. You were vague and I misunderstood what you were saying. So I realise now that you were talking about the most parkrun adventurers that have done a (not)parkrun. But it did send me down a little bit of a rabbit hole to see when was the last time we had, you know, what was the highest amount of Aussies doing not parkruns. So the previous week was 124. the last time that that was beaten was six months prior. So the 9th of May had 125. And then this year, let's say, the 31st of January had the highest with 159. So I couldn't actually go back through my emails from when Notting parkrun originally started, but 159 was quite a good outcome earlier in the year.

00:03:06Melissa Ellis: Very good. So apologies to everybody for being a bit vague. I obviously hadn't done enough homework. I knew one of the figures in my results was the largest to date, but I just didn't realise what it was. But thank you for the clarification. But what about this last Saturday, Simon? Did you have an adventure?

00:03:29Simon Mackley: I did not have an adventure. I was at the very closest parkrun to me, which is Redland Bay, which is only two and a half k's away from my house. And there were a few adventurers there. So I put in the Friday post that I was going to be at Redland Bay. And then a few people like Roberta Winters and Lyndell Murray changed their plans and decided they were going to come to Redland Bay as well. A frond. A frond indeed. A small frond, but a frond indeed. Okay. So, yeah, Redland Bay, it was event number 298. There were 154 participants, either running or walking, plus 15 volunteers. So it's run on the lands of the Quandamooka people as well. It starts with two anti-clockwise laps around an AFL oval and then kicks out onto a path that runs along the foreshore, along Moreton Bay, and then turns around at a, at a golf course after a few lumps here and there. And, and then comes back and starts almost where you, sorry, finishes almost where you start. So yeah, it was a, How about you, Mel? Where did you get to?

00:04:47Melissa Ellis: Well, as mentioned last week, I returned to Karkarook parkrun in Heatherton on the lands of the Bunurong people. It's 19 kilometres southeast of Melbourne and Karkarook Park is a wetland reserve built around a 15 hectare artificial lake created by sand mining between 1997 and 2001. The name Karkarook means sandy place and is affectionately known to the locals as Karky Parky. I was in the area due to a social function the night before, which led me to be staying at my auntie's house in nearby Cheltenham. Now, despite knowing I had friends running at numerous parkruns across Melbourne, I deliberately earmarked Karkarook, hoping my auntie would offer to accompany me... come Saturday. And I was indeed rewarded early Saturday morning when she inquired as to whether I'd be walking or running at parkrun. I quickly declared I would walk if she was interested in joining me and we were off just like that for the short drive to parkrun before she could reconsider. As luck would have it, Chris Ruse was back home with his son Nathan after having been away celebrating his 250th the week before. It was Chris's 150th occasion running at Karkarook and his community celebrated him accordingly. It was my second visit to the park after having attended the inaugural back in November of 2016, so seven years ago, and the event has had a course change in that time and is now two anti-clockwise laps of the perimeter of the park. Previously, the course ran the opposite direction, and I believe there is some conjecture over which way is the fastest. It was event number 299. So, Simon, I've just realised that Redland Bay and Karkarook are practically twins. Practically. There was 306 walkers and runners taking part, including Aunty Julie, for her second ever parkrun. After the event, I did speak to the RD, Sherelle Fernando, and ED, Andrew Compson, tipped off on my attendance by Chris, I think, although I didn't record any audio. I also had my brand-new Ugly Christmas Singlet on, the budgie edition, which was spotted by an eagle-eyed Ugly Christmas Singlet enthusiast, and my little car was also creating a stir in the car park. As mentioned earlier, I did walk the event, cheered on by lots of happy and enthusiastic marshals. Aunty is quite the walker, so we got around the course in 48.17. After the event, I hung around a little while to chat before heading home across town, feeling hopeful that Aunty may return now that she knows just how close and friendly her local parkrun is.

00:07:25Simon Mackley: So I take it she's been elsewhere if she didn't know where her closest parkrun was.

00:07:30Melissa Ellis: Yes, she has. Back in whenever it was that Grand Ridge Rail Trail Mirboo North launched, which is a few years back, because I think it was when I was just a brand new roving reporter. On the Channel 5 News crew. I seem to remember meeting Tony there, proudly displaying my Channel 5 News crew pass. So it must – yeah, anyway, it was a while ago, but Aunty Holiday is up in Mirboo North, so she happened to be there the weekend of that launch and she also attended that event. Nice. But I don't think she had any idea that Karkarook was in existence or so close. Okay. Okay.

00:08:11Simon Mackley: So she's two from two. She's an adventurer already.

00:08:14Melissa Ellis: Correct. Oh, I should hack her profile and add the Adventurers Club, shouldn't I? Indeed. I had to bring her up on the 5K app because she didn't remember her barcode. But I wasn't going to let her get away with not recording it.

00:08:30Simon Mackley: Exactly. And quite swift as a walker. That time's pretty good.

00:08:34Melissa Ellis: I know, 100%. She is a fast walker. There was no problem there at all. Yeah.

00:08:43Simon Mackley: and discussion. Yes. So we had a comment from Stephen Walsh on episode 359's post. He said, thanks for the shout out in the podcast this week. I was listening in my car and you mentioned Bolton parkrun and the Frond of Three that was discussed on the Facebook post last week. I actually laughed out loud at hearing my name. I'm hoping you enjoy hearing your name again today, Stephen. I feel like fame had come my way for about three seconds, then looked around the traffic to see if I was being seen. Nobody recognised me though. Keep up the good work. Currently stuck on 70 different venues due to the cost of petrol and the time I'd be away from home on a Saturday to get to my NENDY. Although I do appreciate that here in England, our parkruns are a lot closer together than you guys in Australia. I salute your commitment to being a tourist with some of the trips that you have to undertake to tick off another unique event.

00:09:39Melissa Ellis: Wow, very good. And 70 different events. That's a nice effort. So well done on that, Stephen. And thanks for writing in. Now, we also have a public service announcement. Simon, the elves have been... Busy with a buy swap sell post over on the Ugly Christmas Singlet and shirt page. So I thought I would draw the adventurers attention to it. Now the post reads, pre-owned new and used ugly Christmas tops. Here's something new. Looking for a past design that you missed and don't mind getting it secondhand? Have some ugly Christmas apparel you would like to move on to a new home? This thread is for you. Use the comments section to let others know if you are in search of or want to sell ugly Christmas tops. Please be sure to include the relevant size, style, design details, as well as condition of the goods. Please also include a photo of the item if you have a top you are listing to sell. So I thought that our adventurers might be interested in to know about this Simon being that there's many people that weren't around back in the early days when the singlets first came out there might be people out there that have sizes that no longer fit or indeed never fit and may have been too big so do pop over to the Ugly Christmas Singlet and shirt page and find the post if you are interested in doing a bit of wheeling and dealing Such a good idea, and it's saving the environment as well. You might have also bought your husband one who's never worn it. Oh, right. When the original koala team one came out, I bought my daughter one in a child's size, and then she got big and didn't fit anymore. I actually passed that on a couple of years ago to a friend who had a little girl of similar, well, of an age that it would fit.

00:11:32Rachel: Yeah.

00:11:33Melissa Ellis: Posted it on and I know that they were very super excited to be new owners of the quality shirt. So there you go.

00:11:41Simon Mackley: Good one to have as well.

00:11:43Melissa Ellis: It is. It absolutely is. And you could just buy it now too because the second opening of the Ugly Christmas Singleton Shirts has been available. So I don't know if people are aware of that too. We forgot to mention it last week and I'm – I'm not exactly sure when it's closing, but it might be still open a day or two after this comes to air, if you're still lucky for the current ones. Excellent.

00:12:09Simon Mackley: We had something else posted. Well, I was tagged in something yesterday by Peter Pohlman from a post that Charlie Pierce put up, which was about Phoenix Park parkrun in South Africa. So it's returned. Interesting, not interesting. Let's see. So after 192 weeks or three years, eight months and four days, Phoenix Park parkrun restarted. So this then took me down a rabbit hole to see if there was an Australian one that had had such a long time. So Stones Corner, which isn't far from me in Brisbane, it was on hold and it actually coincidentally was started on the same day. Sorry, it was on hold from the same day that Phoenix Park stopped and Although Stones Corner only returned after 109 weeks, I say only. And so, yeah, that was the longest Aussie parkrun that had been on hold. But that is nowhere near the longest parkrun in general that's been on hold. That honour is being held by Tramore Valley in Ireland, who had 338 weeks without a parkrun. So that's almost six and a half years that they were in hiatus. So good on them for coming back as well.

00:13:27Melissa Ellis: Wow. Six and a half years.

00:13:30Simon Mackley: Yeah.

00:13:31Melissa Ellis: Gosh, that's a long time. But so, Simon, I've got a question. Well, Jindabyne parkrun in New South Wales, they had their course damaged by the flood of Lake Jindabyne. Yeah. And they created a secondary course. Yeah. Which ran for a while, and then that stopped, and then they're coming back next weekend.

00:13:57Simon Mackley: Okay. So does that count? It probably does, but maybe because it hasn't restarted yet.

00:14:04Melissa Ellis: Oh, rightio.

00:14:05Simon Mackley: Because they would have been more than 109 weeks. So, yeah, that list is definitely parkruns that have stopped and restarted. So if Jindabyne hasn't actually restarted yet, then, yeah, it'll – It will properly pip Stones Corner because 109 weeks is only just over two years.

00:14:24Melissa Ellis: Interesting. Well, thank you very much, Charlie Pearce, and thank you very much, Peter Pohlman.

00:14:28Simon Mackley: Indeed. Thanks for giving me the homework, Peter.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:14:33Simon Mackley: So, Mel, I think it's time that we throw to some roving reports from TOC and Lyndell.

00:14:35[background music]

00:14:37Melissa Ellis: What do you think? I think that's a very good idea. Let's have a listen now.

Roving report Tony O'Connell — Goulburn River Trail

00:14:51Tony O'Connell: Howdy parkrunners, TOC from Inverloch. Today we've ventured up the Hume Highway to one of Victoria's newest events at Seymour. It's the Goulburn River Rail Trail. We have an absolutely stunning sunny day. The galahs are out and the trees all around are shrieking. We've had kookaburras singing to us this morning and having a bit of a laugh. We've actually come up here today. It's our son Dano's 50th different event, so he gets his Cowell today. Well done, Dano. Let's get out and have a bit of a walk or a run and we'll see how we go. Howdy parkrunners, TOC from Inverloch and we're down here at the amazingly sunny Seymour for Goulburn River Trail parkrun.

Talking to Peter — Run Director and Event Director, Goulburn River Trail parkrun (Seymour, Victoria)

00:15:35Tony O'Connell: I'm with Peter who was the RD today and Pete you're the ED as well. Give us a bit of a history of the parkrun at Seymour and Goulburn River Trail parkrun.

00:15:45Peter: Yeah, thank you. We've been here for four weeks now. We've had a very long and daunting process to get it up and running. We started back in May, but due to the river flooding and other little complications, we finally, we're here. We were up and running and as I said, week four, we've had a good turnout. We've had about all up now, probably just under 400 participants for the four weeks.

00:16:08Tony O'Connell: Yeah, we welcome a lot of people from Melbourne, especially. Peter, it's a stunning course. You run along the Goulburn River. I can understand why you had some flooding issues. The river is up a bit at the moment, but it's a stunning course along the river with the gums, the old bridge. You've got a whole heap of highlights along the course. Great to see. So give us a bit of a description of your course.

00:16:27Peter: Yeah, it's an all-terrain course. It's an up-and-back course, 2.5. And, yeah, you follow the river as it snakes along up to the 2.5 turnaround point. And, yeah, it's got a winery on the left-hand side as you go under what we call the old Goulburn River Bridge, appropriately named for the Goulburn River Trail. That used to be our one and only link to the highway before the bypass come through. But, yeah, it's a scenic route. It's flat, a couple of little gullies up near the 2.5 turnaround point, and then you return. And, yeah, totally different scenery on the return visit looking at the river.

00:17:02Tony O'Connell: It is. It's gorgeous. You've got a bit of a fork in the river there that you can get a look up. A lot of campers on the other side of the river. I just found it really cool. You've got, like, seats. You've got a seat every 100 metres along the river. There's so many seats on this course.

00:17:16Peter: Yeah, well, the council put that in, and that's the thing about it. Council... Many, many years ago we made this course. It is a forgotten treasure. We would hope one day that it gets improved, resurfaced, whatever. But, yeah, the seats have been there for a long time. Some of them have been dedicated for certain people over the years. There's one up there called Lens Shed One. But, yeah, look, you know, and that gives opportunity for people if you want to sit down and just absorb it, sit down and enjoy the river, the views, and continue with your parkrun.

00:17:48Tony O'Connell: And top tourist trip at the moment might be, don't forget the AeroGuard.

00:17:53Peter: Yeah, at the moment, yeah, it was funny, week one and two, we didn't really notice them that bad, but week three and four, they are around. Not on the course while you're running and walking, but when you're standing around waiting for the briefing and all that, yeah, they are. So it is a bit of an AeroGuard thing. I did bring a can today, so a lot of people did use it because we ended up doing the polka dance last week.

00:18:13Tony O'Connell: All right, I think we might head off and get coffee. I think you've... You look like you popped a calf or something on the start line today. That didn't look and it didn't sound too good. No, no. You could hear it across the crowd.

00:18:22[crosstalk]

00:18:25Peter: Yeah, something I've never had before. So, yeah, it's a bit painful, but I'll go home and get a bit of ice and someone suggested compression, so I have to go to the doctor and have a look at it, see if it's a calf muscle. I don't think it's a Achilles, but something I've never had, but I'll put that down as that's just another notch of being old. Yeah.

00:18:46Tony O'Connell: Look, it's been an amazing course. It's beautiful out there. As I said, the river gums along the banks of the river are just stunning.

00:18:52Peter: The kookaburras singing you along, cheering you as you go along. So a lot of them are out today as well.

00:18:57Tony O'Connell: There were kookaburras last night. There were maggies out warbling. It's got a bit of everything. No one got swooped? There were kangaroos last night out on the course.

00:19:04Peter: Yeah, up at the winery there. Yeah, that's their hole. We've never had any issues with the kangaroos there, and they disappear after a while. But no, no, it's a really nice, relaxing course, and for everybody out there who hasn't done G for Goulburn River Trail parkrun, we'll see you very soon.

00:19:22Tony O'Connell: Well, thank you and congratulations on getting a successful event up and running.

00:19:26Peter: No, thank you. And we can only do it with the help of the volunteers. They're our champions. And, of course, again, we've got a lot of support from people outside of Seymour at the moment. But we look forward to seeing you one day and enjoying our course.

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Redland Bay

00:19:41Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell and today I am coming to you for the Channel 5 News crew from the Quandamooka people. I've ventured south of Brisbane, southeast of Brisbane City to Redland Bay regional area, to Redland Bay parkrun. Now, if you have been paying attention, you may recognise that First Nations acknowledgement of the Quandamooka people. It's the acknowledgement that our very own Simon Mackley gives every time he is on the pod. That is right. I'm in his backyard, and that is why I am at Redland Bay. I am searching for a friend. There was a bit of chatter about Redland Bay in the Friday Post. There should be a few adventurers here, so I'll try and track them down, try and see what the vibe is here, and I'll be back to you after the run.

Talking to Greg — Redland Bay parkrunner celebrating his 100th different event (Cow Club)

00:20:33Lyndell Murray: Alrighty, now there were several milestones here today at Redland Bay, but my favourite one, which is an unofficial one, is Greg, who is doing his Cowellell Club, his hundredth different event today at Redland Bay. How did it go today?

00:20:49Greg: Oh, it was great. Two of my old friends from parkrun came all the way down here from the north side, and yeah, we had a great walk together.

00:20:59Lyndell Murray: Excellent. You've got your Hawaiian lei on, so it's all colourful here. Yes, yes.

00:21:03Greg: That's to show that it's a party milestone.

00:21:06Lyndell Murray: Yeah. Perfect. Now, 100 different events, that takes a bit of commitment. What is your best story from the 100 different events that you've done? How have you done this?

00:21:17Greg: Okay, well, when I started parkrun, there were less than 10 parkruns in Australia. And I never would have even dreamed of doing 100 different ones. But my best story is probably in 2012 when I got married. My wife didn't actually know too much about parkrun and she didn't cotton on to the fact that I planned our honeymoon to go to Melbourne and stay near Albert Park. Yes. And then we went and visited Perth and stayed near Claisebrook Cove. Excellent. And she had no idea that that was purely so that we could do parkruns together and not out of some desire to take her to exotic places on the honeymoon.

00:21:49[crosstalk]

00:22:01Lyndell Murray: Excellent planning. Now, dare I ask, she's still your wife, right?

00:22:06Greg: Yes, she was here today. And she only signed up to parkrun to do my volunteering for me so that I could focus on my running. And she's now done 130 parkruns and over 60 volunteers. So she's managed to get sucked into it as well.

00:22:23Lyndell Murray: Sucked into a cup. That's a bit of an overstatement. She's seen the light.

00:22:27Greg: Yeah, that's probably a better way of looking at it. And I'm sure the rest of my family, who have also all been enveloped into the loving parkrun family, would say the same thing.

00:22:38Lyndell Murray: All right, now, 100 different events. I'm going to put you on the spot here. I want you to name your top three parkruns that doesn't include your home parkruns.

00:22:50Greg: Okay, so that makes it a bit harder because my favourite is Zillmere.

00:22:54Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:22:54Greg: No matter what, it reminds me of my childhood. It's a school cross-country event and it's not just the only Z, it is actually the best parkrun in Australia, but I can't say that one.

00:23:05Lyndell Murray: I don't mind Zillmere myself. It's close to where I live. I actually really love Zillmere.

00:23:11Greg: Yeah, so, look, it is on the spot. But one that I did recently that was small, friendly, flat, fast and nice location was Beaufort Lake outside Ballarat in Victoria. Really enjoyed that one. What would be another really enjoyable one? Ask me another question.

00:23:34Lyndell Murray: All right, so I guess what's the furthest you've travelled to go to a parkrun?

00:23:40Greg: So that's pretty easy because I don't normally, I don't travel just for parkrun, but I needed an E when we were staying at Ballarat, so I went to Eastern Gardens at Geelong. That was about 100km. And I've never deliberately travelled further than that for parkrun, but I always plan my travel around parkruns. Yes. Yeah.

00:24:01Lyndell Murray: I understand what you're saying. I do the same, I think, yeah.

00:24:05Greg: So I will say, and I'm not just saying this for you, I love Bunyaville as well. It's actually the closest parkrun to my home. I've only done it, I think, 15 times in 12 years. But it's, yeah, it's just, it's challenging. It's small again. It's friendly. And people do remember you, even if you only attend once a year. People do recognise you and know who you are. So that would be in my top ones as well. And it's really hard. Cooks River is pretty good down in Sydney. Again, that's probably one that I like. It's a fast course. It's flat, fast, open, and there's great coffee at the finish line. It's probably a good reason for that to be in the top three as well.

00:24:53Lyndell Murray: It's a pretty good list. All right. Now, I'm not sure what else to ask. What would you like the parkrun adventurers to know about the rest of your story? How did you get involved in parkrun?

00:25:04Greg: So... It's going to get me emotional. Michael Schultz actually got me into parkrun. Yeah, right. Before parkrun, a running club here in Brisbane used to do a thing called the Beachside Five, which was a 5K run once a month at Shorncliffe Pier, which is now part of the Sandgate parkrun. And I used to go each month, and it was a small group of... mostly serious runners who were trying to do a time trial it was the same idea as parkrun but obviously not marketed as well as parkrun and um yeah one month and it must have been um a March of 2012 Chelsea told me about this thing that was that New Farm called parkrun so the next Saturday and it was on every week so you didn't have to wait a month to get your 5k pics So yeah, I turned up the next week. I was lucky enough to finish first and that is always a motivator. And I was in my mid-forties at the time, so I certainly didn't expect to finish first. And then it became a bit of a thing. I started, oh, well, there's... Yeah, as I said, my next two were the two I did on my honeymoon in Melbourne and in Perth. Yeah, and then it just, back in those days, people who are new to parkrun might not realise parkrun used to encourage you to go to inaugural events because they wanted to show support for the new events that started. So I reckon the first 10 parkruns that started in Queensland, I was at event number one.

00:26:44Unidentified speaker: Yep.

00:26:45Greg: And so I got to 15. And there used to be a tally, you know, most parkruns attended. And it used to only go up to 15. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I got to 15 pretty quickly just going to every new parkrun in Brisbane. Then they stopped that. And as I said, I've just made sure that if I'm travelling, I find a parkrun. And I've recently spent three weeks in Canberra. I did Jerrabomberra, Umbagong. And something else. I can't even remember what the third one was. Oh, Wagi Bridge. So I did three new parkruns I hadn't done before. And, yeah, got to meet people, got to do the Wagi Bridge with my niece who lives in Canberra. And we did it on preliminary final day in our Collingwood jumpers. Wow.

00:27:32Lyndell Murray: I didn't know you were one of them. I wouldn't have interviewed you if you knew you were a magpie supporter.

00:27:36Greg: Yeah, so, you know, it was just lovely, parkrun is just such a great way to meet people, such a great way to get around. I've lived in Brisbane 25 years. I've never been to Redland Bay, so here I am.

00:27:49Lyndell Murray: Brilliant. All right, well... I'm going to wrap it up there. Thank you so much.

00:27:56Greg: Thank you for talking to me.

00:27:56Lyndell Murray: For talking to me. Well done on your cow. And I will see you at Zillmere, I'm sure, sometime soon. Thank you. Alrighty.

Talking to Harrison — Redland Bay parkrunner, top-10 finisher and PB on the day

00:28:07Lyndell Murray: Now, I have found top 10 finisher, Harrison. Harrison, how are you today? Good, thank you. Good. And how old are you?

00:28:14Harrison: [age removed]. And I hear that you did a PB. Yes, I got 23 minutes or maybe 22.59 or 23.01. And I came... Top 10th and I was very happy about it. Top 10, baby.

00:28:31Lyndell Murray: High five. Yeah. Woohoo. I'm sure you're very happy. Now, do you run here at Redland Bay all the time?

00:28:39Harrison: Most of the time. Sometimes I run at different places too.

00:28:43Lyndell Murray: Okay. Do you remember any of the places that you've been other times? No, not really. No, that's okay. You're only nine. I understand. Okay. No, you've just got other things to put in your memory. Yeah. Now, 23 minutes around there, that's pretty fast.

00:29:05Harrison: Yeah, it sure is.

00:29:06Lyndell Murray: And you're only nine. Yeah. So you have to run with somebody.

00:29:11Harrison: Yes. I run with my adults, not my parents or my family or anything. Is that because they're too slow? Yeah, yeah, a lot. I know a lot of people around here and the people I run with is Laney, Eric, Rob and the other three older kids. I know a lot of people.

00:29:37Lyndell Murray: I bet you do. Now, some of the kids, I think I know who you mean, the older kids. They flew past me. They're pretty fast, hey? Yes. All right, now, what is the secret to running fast at Redland Bay parkrun?

00:29:51Harrison: Well, keep a steady beat and, like, do well breathing and, like, just pump your arms and pump your legs and try not to stop. And think about trying to get a PB.

00:30:06Lyndell Murray: Yep, so you really think about getting a PB? Yes. Now, and what is the best thing about running?

00:30:15Harrison: Well, everything really. I like everything about running.

00:30:19Lyndell Murray: Yep, that's a good answer. And what's the best thing about parkrun?

00:30:25Harrison: Meeting new people, friends, and just running and enjoying things. And running faster than your mum and dad.

00:30:33Lyndell Murray: Yeah, totally. All right. Well, well done, Harrison. Thank you very much for talking to me today. And keep on parkrunning. Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you. When's your next PB going to be? Next week. Yeah! Woo-hoo! Alrighty, so before I wrap up today from Redland Bay, I didn't get to interview the Run Director or Event Director today. So for those of you who are wondering, I will provide a bit of a course description. Redland Bay is two laps around a cricket oval before heading out onto a walkway and boardwalk along Moreton Bay. And the boardwalk is actually really lovely. There's some little stretches. through some rainforest. And if you take the time just after the turnaround at the top of the hill near the golf course, you do actually get a really lovely view across Moreton Bay from there. So that's the course recce. And instead of thanking the RD at my interview, I will thank them now to the team at Redland Bay, including Tony, who is a regular listener of the podcast and a parkrun adventurer. The second order of business is just a throwback to my little chat with Harrison and just the acknowledgement that he gave to the adults and older kids that run with him every week. And I just thought I'd maybe just do a bit of a shout out for anyone who does take that responsibility from time to time, whether it's to... give an adult a parent a break from their own child or whether it's to help nurture a young up-and-coming runner like Harrison well done you thank you thank you for your service And then finally, how nice was it to hear just a little bit of acknowledgement for our friend Schultzy, friend of the podcast and one of the legends of, well, I was going to say South East Queensland parkrun, but parkrun in general. Nice to hear him acknowledged today as well. Alrighty, that is Lyndell out from Redland Bay parkrun.

00:32:40[background music]

00:32:56Melissa Ellis: And two really good reports coming out this week, Simon. And yeah, one of them, well, with Lyndell, I thought I would say just as from a mother's point of view, 100% on board with her words about giving a thanks to those people who choose to run with juniors. And yeah, from the perspective, I guess, of... being allowed to run occasionally unencumbered by your under 11 is a nice thing. That sounds bad, doesn't it? But you know what I mean.

00:33:31Simon Mackley: Oh, no, I definitely, yeah, I totally agree with it. I know some of the guys that do actually run with Harrison. Sorry, I know of them from seeing them at Redland Bay. So, it's, yeah, I mean, it is really nice to see, yeah, people giving parents a bit of a break because they probably don't get that break during the week. Yeah, that's right. So,

00:33:53Melissa Ellis: And did you like the music?

00:33:56Simon Mackley: Oh, again. Couldn't let that go through to the keeper, could I? Oh, exactly. I mean, when I saw that he was wearing a magpie's hat, I was like, oh, no.

00:34:08Unidentified speaker: Anyway.

00:34:11Simon Mackley: Anyway. And, yeah, it was really nice to hear Lyndell acknowledging and Greg as well acknowledging Schultzy. Yeah, and we're sending our adventurer love to him and hoping for a very speedy recovery.

Dazza's

00:34:24Melissa Ellis: Now, Simon, on to Dazza's. This week Dazza said it's the 46th Saturday of 2023. How many parkruns have you done so far this year? Just some of the many comments were. And the first one's yours.

00:34:40Simon Mackley: It is. So we heard from Natalie Soper. So she said, Wrocław parkrun for the number three of four parkruns I'm doing in Poland. Lovely out and back course on a flood bank. Surprisingly, I'm at 29 parkruns this year, despite my 15-week hiatus while travelling in non-parkrun countries. Fun fact, parkrun Poland is supposed to have phased out their selfie frames, but I'm pleased that Polish parkruns continue to bring them along with them, sorry, along with the purple sign. And there was a picture of Natalie in the selfie frame with some very unpronounceable words on it, which I'm not even going to try.

00:35:20Melissa Ellis: And it says Love parkrun in Polish, no doubt. It does, I'm sure. Now, we also heard from Richard, 46 out of 46 participations with 43 runs and 16 volunteers, including stepping up to RD twice so far, second Auckland parkrun this morning at Owairaka. And Richard shared a picture of the Owairaka Park sign.

00:35:47Simon Mackley: And then we heard from Helen Patricia. So she was also in New Zealand. So she said, had a fun time as parkwalker at Cambridge New Zealand parkrun. Chatted to the lovely Alison. It was raining, so I wore a bin bag with Kiwis on it. What a lovely course. Great breakfast after. 32 volleys, 47 parkruns. I volunteer at juniors despite having no kiddos. And she sent a collection of pictures, but my favourite was definitely the one of Helen and Alison park walking.

00:36:18Melissa Ellis: Oh, and yes, shout out to those people with no kiddos who do support Junior parkrun. We appreciate you. Indeed. We also heard from Heather Hunter, guesstimating, I've done about 30 run walks this year, plus a bit of volunteering. Today, I handed out tokens at the launch of Dhunggaarr Reserve parkrun, well over 12 months work, from the event team to get to this point it was a wonderful morning with everything going smoothly and approximately 20 people doing their first ever parkrun and Heather shared a picture of herself with a hawks fan in the selfie frame by the Manning river it's nice to have another afl club represented in the photos this week then we heard from Jackie Hancock

00:37:04Simon Mackley: So she said, parkrun slash jog today. Dressed as a butterfly for our 350th. Oh, and I did the briefing like an airline safety briefing. 36 parkruns for me this year. Missed a few after I fell off my bike and damaged myself and a couple of volleys too. And there was a picture of Jackie posing in her butterfly cape, including antennae on her head. So she must have just hatched from the chrysalis.

00:37:30Melissa Ellis: Are you just being a bit clever with knowing all those fancy terms, Mr Mackley?

00:37:36Unidentified speaker: No.

00:37:40Melissa Ellis: Right, and we might hear a little bit more about that briefing a bit later on. But we heard also from Stephen Cox, 30-odd so far this year plus 20-odd volley credits. Today, a visit to Two Rivers Wines parkrun, awesome parkrun, entire course around a vineyard. And Stephen shared a photo in the selfie frame with the backdrop of the vines. So that's getting a lot of love, that new parkrun up there at Two Rivers Wines.

00:38:10Simon Mackley: It is indeed, because it's one of, yeah, I mean, it's one of the newer ones, apart from Dhunggaarr. Yeah, and aren't our adventurers good volunteers, Simon? They are indeed. Yeah, that came across a lot in the comments, in those more than 200 comments this week. So that's, yeah, it's very good to see.

the Obi Award — Stephen Cox

00:38:29Melissa Ellis: It is. Now, I think you should have the results of the Obi test. So would you like to make the announcement? Yeah, you should. It's generally, yeah, it's not my job.

00:38:42Simon Mackley: I'm trying to remember who we chose because this might be a little bit of a peek behind the curtain, but this is not the only night we've been recording.

00:38:52Melissa Ellis: Oh, yes, we were supposed to mention that and I forgot. Yes, we are having some teething issues with Riverside, aren't we, Simon? On Monday night we recorded our intro twice and then had to pause and record the rest on Wednesday night, which is today, now. Indeed. So that may explain a later than normal release, although editing fairies will do their very best.

00:39:21Unidentified speaker: Yes.

00:39:24Simon Mackley: And the Obi goes to Stephen Cox.

00:39:38Melissa Ellis: With a brilliant shot there, yes, indeed, in front of that fabulous parkrun. And I need to try to get there one day. That's on my list. That's like Tony mentioned the other week about having a destination list. I think I need to start that destination list. Indeed. Do you have some of those, Simon, ones that you just want to go to just because you think it looks like a cool place?

00:40:01Simon Mackley: Oh, yeah, definitely. I have quite a list of them and I updated them again the other day because I'm trying to get through some of the Brisbane ones that aren't sort of close to me anymore. But yeah, there's definitely some interstate that I would love to be able to go to. Brilliant. Okay, moving on to what's next?

Club Corner

00:40:18Simon Mackley: Moving on, we have heard from Rachel. So let's throw to Rachel now.

00:40:25[background music]

00:40:36Rachel: 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 the history of the greatest sportsball team of all time, wearing black and white. The Collingwood Football Club was born out of the worst slums in Melbourne, yet grew to be arguably the most famous football club in the country. It was founded on a sustained and passionate grassroots campaign in the late 1880s for the suburb of Collingwood to have a senior football club bearing its own name, local residents community and business leaders and politicians all hoped that having their own football club could help bring a measure of pride to a downtrodden suburb after more than two years of community struggle the collingwood football club was finally approved for admission to the Victorian football association in September 1891 and played its first game in may of 1892 can I stop now Mel your boot is hurting my throat seriously though my actual topic this week is juniors specifically parkrun juniors Mel has spoken about this previously, so I am not going to Rachel explain her. Instead I will recite the liturgy according to parkrun Global as it is very clear. Junior parkrun is a series of 2K runs for children held in areas of open space around the UK, Ireland and Australia. They are open to all, free, and are safe and easy to take part in. The courses are marshalled so that juniors will be in sight of at least one Marshal at all times. Children should be aged 4 and over to take part and can register at Junior parkrun performance until the day before their 15th birthday, parkrun is a running, jogging, and or walking event. No matter how fast or slow you are we are just delighted to see you taking part. Whilst more competitive children can use Junior parkruns to test themselves against their own time, and against others. Participation should ultimately be for fun, And we urge all parents slash guardians slash volunteers not to put children under undue pressure to perform. Equally, we don't mind if you drop out. You can always come back and try again another day. This last point is much like our podcast. We don't mind if you listen every week or only sometimes. Winky face. Are there things you would like to learn? Feel free to give Mel or Simon a hoi. And remember, in parkrun life, all non-Milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.

00:42:50Melissa Ellis: And thank you very much to Rachel being a bit cheeky there, saying that I was having her under duress. But another mention for Collingwood. So, yes, a black and white theme again this week. Yay!

00:43:02Simon Mackley: Oh, when will this end?

00:43:04Melissa Ellis: Yeah, you've got another, how many months of it until the next one? 11, maybe. Or maybe it's only 10.

Emails

00:43:16Melissa Ellis: Anyway, we have some emails, Simon.

00:43:19Simon Mackley: You've got mail. Indeed we do. So the first one we've got is actually from Tanya Bailey. So she said, hi, guys. Thought I would send a photo of our run briefing written by Jackie Hancock, as mentioned earlier, very cleverly written. Our theme today was wings for our 350th parkrun. Love your work, Tanya Bailey. And she shared a photo of the run briefing Because of the length of it, we aren't going to read it out, but we will share it in the post when this goes out.

00:43:50Melissa Ellis: We will. We will ask The Office Lady to add it in the comments and we will remember to tell her we've asked her to do that. But we should say that this was at Pegasus. I don't think either of those mentioned at all the event that it was at. It was Pegasus parkrun's 350th.

00:44:10Simon Mackley: We should have assumed that, though, because it's always... Jackie and Tanya coming from Pegasus. It is. Well, we know that.

00:44:16Melissa Ellis: We do. But maybe the listeners don't remember, Simon. Sure. We've got to be professional. Anyway, we also heard this week from Eman. We hadn't heard from Eman for a while and he said hi, Mel, Ollie, Simon and TOC. He's covering all bases there, isn't he? Christine, Gino and I were happy to be back for an adventure in Melbourne this weekend, meeting up with a few local adventurers at Kirkdale Reserve parkrun. Jodie, Craig, Rebecca and I were joined by a couple of Melton City runners, who I previously met at Toolern Creek parkrun here's a photo from the morning looking forward to hosting palm next year guys should be a great weekend Eman and Eman did send a photo of the crew out there at Kirkdale Reserve and uh yeah it was great to hear from him again I couldn't get there sadly this week so sorry to miss you on this visit Eman

00:45:07Simon Mackley: It's been a while since we've heard from him.

Consolidated Club Report

00:45:10Melissa Ellis: But Simon, the Consolidated Club Report for Saturday, the 18th of November, 2023. Of a total of 509 members, 407 took part on this date in eight countries across 209 locations. In the UK, there were adventurers at 31 events, three in South Africa, two in the US and one each in the Netherlands, Poland and Singapore. Locally, we had adventurers at 47 events in New South Wales, 43 events in Queensland, 33 in the Great Estate, 13 in SA, 11 in WA, the North Island and Tassie had eight. There were four in the ACT, two on the South Island and one in the Northern Territory.

the Frond — International: Stuart, Tamsin and Morglin Smith (Southampton). Local: John Graham, Lee Secuzo, Amanda O'Reilly, Xintang Huang, Dano O'Connell, Joe Richards, Joe Stingo, Jackie, TOC, Mel Fletcher and Chantel Hosking (Goulburn River Trail)

00:45:57Simon Mackley: Internationally, we had three people at Southampton with our largest frond. So that was Stuart, Tamsin and Morglin Smith.

00:46:08Melissa Ellis: And locally, the largest frond was out at Goulburn River Trail, Seymour, where Tony was, and that was John Graham, Lee Secuzo, Amanda O'Reilly, Xintang Huang, Dano O'Connell, Joe Richards, Joe Stingo, Jacqui and TOC, Mel Fletcher, and Chantel Hosking. That's a huge frond of 11.

00:46:30Simon Mackley: It was. Very big. We have adventure milestones as well. So Sophie Nicholson, A6932009, ran her 10th milestone. Alice Hedges, a 2195334, ran her 50th. We had Rex Gream, a 69240963, ran 100th. And Heidi McGrath, Leah Morley and Kay Anthony ran their 250th milestone.

00:47:07Melissa Ellis: Hooray. Congratulations to all the adventurers. And we also had a PB. It was Sheila Sharma, 4881930, who ran a PB at the entrance of 26 minutes and 8 seconds. Good on you, Sheila. Nice one. And remember, if you would like us to track these achievements, you can at the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your official parkrun profile.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:47:33Simon Mackley: But Simon, there were some launches. There were some launches and Heather Hunter has already shared one of them with us. But that was Dungar Reserve in Harrington, which is along the Manning River, sort of east of Taree. So they had 81 finishes. 18 of those were doing their very first parkrun. So that was a nice big amount. So it's an out and back course along, as I said, the Manning River. It's about 335 kilometres northwest of Sydney, from the coast, sorry, to the coast from Taree.

00:48:08Melissa Ellis: Wow. Okay. So you know that part of town? Have you been there before?

00:48:13Simon Mackley: Not really. I mean, I've driven through Taree on the way to or from Sydney, but yeah, no, I definitely haven't gone to the coast from that sort of area. Yeah.

00:48:22Melissa Ellis: Okay. We also had Aronica's Nursery, which is in Barberton, South Africa, which is about 360km east of Joburg. There were 62 finishes, of which seven did the very first parkrun. This event is two laps on a mixture of grass, sand and trail.

00:48:44Simon Mackley: And then the third one that launched last weekend is Zuurfontein, also in South Africa, in Orange Free State, which is about 98 kilometres from Bloemfontein as the crow flies. So they were a bigger launch with 374 finishes. 14 of those were first timers. It's an out and back route along the Zuurfontein parking area and around the perimeter of all the baseball and cricket fields.

00:49:13Melissa Ellis: They're getting a few new events over there in South Africa. So hopefully we got the pronunciations a bit closer this week, Johan.

00:49:22Simon Mackley: Indeed. We try our best. We say it as we see it, right?

00:49:26Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Yeah, maybe I should be asking our South African correspondents to do more audio for me. We haven't had their voices for a little while.

Sign-off

00:49:38Simon Mackley: Yeah. So Mel, I think that might be it for the week. Where are you going next parkrun day?

00:49:45Melissa Ellis: Ooh, I've had a last minute change of plans in the last seven days. So where I was going to be heading is now not where I'm going. And I'm going to WA. Very excited. Yay. I'm going to, yes, to 2J. Yay. Which is Newcastle Park, parkrun. Shimming, all flights go ahead, of course, which you never know. And I recover from the red eye. And yeah, so that'll be fun. And I get to hang out with me mates and catch up over there with Sarah from the West Side. Yeah. And Matt, of course. Haven't forgotten you, Matt. Always nice to see you too. Yeah. So that's going to be exciting. It's a big adventure. It is. It is. I love WA. It's my new favourite place to go. Oh, excellent.

00:50:37Simon Mackley: And what about you, Simon? I'm heading off to Rocks Riverside. Okay. So that'll be the third time I've been there and I'm catching up with some of the Event Directors of the events that I look after here in Brisbane. So I don't know how many of them are turning up, but I've invited all the EDs and all the RDs from those events.

00:50:58Melissa Ellis: Is that something that parkrun asks you to do in your role as an ambassador, to have regular little catch-ups like that? Oh, yes. Or is that just you?

00:51:11Simon Mackley: No, it's not just me. I used to do it when I was in Sydney as well. But no, I guess it's something that we all do in different ways. Like we're always talking to our events and that sort of thing at some stage. Sometimes it's a couple of times a week. Sometimes it's not for a couple of weeks. So yeah, I mean, I know that some of the events that I look after, they love adventuring around. So yeah, so it's a good excuse to go to an event that and a lot of them haven't been to recently.

00:51:41Melissa Ellis: Ah, that's good. And then it encourages them to tour and maybe get tips from other events on how to handle situations or how to do things differently.

00:51:53Simon Mackley: Exactly. And Rocks is sort of one of the bigger ones in Brisbane as well, like nowhere near as big as New Farm and South Bank, but it gets a few hundred people and, yeah, I mean, it's been around for quite a while as well. I'd say it's probably one of the very early ones in Brisbane.

00:52:09Melissa Ellis: So, yeah, I think they might have celebrated their 11th. this year. Okay. Oh, and by the way, going back to our intro where I noticed that Redland Bay and Karkarook were on very similar event numbers. Yes. I did check out when they launched and Redland Bay, so there was about a year difference in between their launches.

00:52:33Simon Mackley: Oh, of course, because Queensland came back a lot earlier and From COVID.

00:52:40Melissa Ellis: Yes, and we had lots of lockdowns.

00:52:42Simon Mackley: Yeah, and I know Redland Bay normally does all the special ones as well, so they pretty much always do Christmas Day, New Year's Day, that sort of thing. But wow.

00:52:52Melissa Ellis: Yeah, so a good example about how events that might have launched at the same time can get out of sync with their event numbers or get into sync when they did not launch at the same time. Correct, yeah. That's very interesting. Good homework. I know. I'm all over it.

00:53:10Simon Mackley: You are all over it.

00:53:12Melissa Ellis: But thank you again, Simon, for joining me this week. If you haven't figured it out, Adventurers, Simon joins me on the third Monday of every month. And it's been an interrupted recording, as we've previously mentioned. It has indeed.

00:53:29Simon Mackley: So... As always, you can contact us via parkrun adventurers on Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another week. We will see you all next time for more adventures.

00:53:40[outro theme playing]

00:54:39Unidentified speaker: Oh,